Adequate seating, missing hours and teeth.

“Mom, can you pull my tooth out? I couldn’t figure out what three times nine was and put my head down and my tooth banged on the table and now look.” Her front tooth was bleeding, hanging by a thread. I told her to bite an apple, that would solve that, but all the apples are gone. She decided to try it with a banana instead. Thinking that’s not quite going to have the same effect. That’s a new one for us. Mathematical frustrations result in lost tooth.

While Liberty’s losing teeth, Charlotte’s gaining hers. She now sports two very sharp bottom teeth and her mood has drastically improved. Momma needed that.

Midwife appointment yesterday. Baby’s heartbeat was loud, strong, and fast. (162 beats per minute. It’ll slow down in the next few months to give a better indication of the boy/girl wives tale – if that’s really true. Boys are supposed to have slower heart beats than girls.) Baby never stopped moving. Robyn warned me to prepare myself now, this one’s going to be a busy one. As opposed to all of my calm, laid-back children, you know. She said she wouldn’t be surprised if it was another boy, given it’s activity. But if it’s really a boy, he would be Sterling’s complete opposite. He would be my one and only calm, laid-back child. What kind of change would that be in this family? Oh, the possibilities (of gray hair…).

We were given a couch yesterday. We have enough seating in the living room for all of us now, no floor required! So cool. Blaine took Sterling and Charlotte with him, and Sterling fell asleep right after they left to go get it. He barely woke up when he was carried into the house. This morning he asked me when he was going to our friends house – he’d anticipated it all day yesterday. I still don’t think he believes me that he was there and home again, asleep the whole time. What a disappointment, poor child.

“Don’t eat the car”

“Spit out the tacky tape.”

“Cats don’t like moldy biscuits. Those are for the chickens. No, you cannot eat the moldy biscuit.”

Just a few things I heard myself saying this morning. Normal, everyday things, you know.

By the way, the banana didn’t work. The tooth is still hanging there. For lunch? Corn chips, peanuts, and/or a rice crispy bar. We’ll get the bugger out one way or the other. I’ve used thread and a doorknob for all the others Liberty’s lost – and end up pulling it out in the end anyhow. Time to mix things up a little.

Oh, yeah…

The homeschool co-op we are a part of has a pamphlet of all the mom’s names/photos, and those photos go into the yearbook. Something apparently happened, those photos have to be taken again for the yearbook, and I thought, “Great! I won’t be pregnant in it this time!” When they took the photos last fall, I was about a month away from my due date with Charlotte. And now… it hit me. I am pregnant. Not so big, hopefully not nearly so fat, but still. And come fall, when they take them for next year? I’ll be a month away from my due date. Oh, yes, the irony. Didn’t I just do this?

I’m still feeling great. My gag reflex is ever-ready and Brady nearly did me in when she got carsick on the way home yesterday, but I’m good. Strangely normal. And 12 weeks along.

Ruby asked me the other day if my glasses were my Sunday glasses. I told her they weren’t, but she informed me she has Sunday glasses. You know, in case we get a sunny Sunday.

We’re getting another goat! “Roanie” and her buckling arrive sometime in the next week. Joining “Blackie” and her buckling, we seem to have a pattern here. Color names, baby bucks, Boer/Nubian crosses… but Roanie produces significantly more than Blackie. We’re on our way to providing our whole family with goats’ milk. Except Blaine, who cringes at the thought. And me, if my gag reflex doesn’t improve. Simply knowing it’s goats’ milk might do me in. But the kids – well, I’m pretty sure if I don’t tell them, they won’t know. Looking forward to the day when they get to try it. It should provide some entertainment. Maybe not quite so funny as apple cider vinegar, but it might be funnier too.

coveted cereal and minor meltdowns

This morning I was outside doing chores when here comes Sterling, plodding up the hill in his one-piece union suit pj’s and his puddle boots. Too cold to be without a coat, he was shivering horribly, trekking up the hill – all to say, “Momma, I want another bowl of ‘Honey Bunches of Boats’ but no one is getting it for me.” I dropped everything, told Goatie to hold on, I’d finish milking as soon as I poured that bowl of cereal… or maybe not. But you have to give it to him for stamina in desiring that second bowl.

The kids didn’t get to bed until 9:50pm tonight. Ruby asked me at that point to turn the light off. Turns out, even Ruby has her limits. And bedtime is far, far less stressful and no one talks after lights out when it’s that late. Then again, the three meltdowns before bedtime might have been an undesirable tradeoff.

Morning musings, mid-coffee. Thoughts aren’t always completely coherent at this point in the morning. Just a warning.

Someone commented, in jest, (I think!) to Blaine that he really ought to figure out what is causing this. Blaine’s response was that someone had told him once to find one thing that you can do well, and stick with it. I cringed – and then I decided perhaps this answer is a good one, especially for those who aren’t saying such things in jest. Because trust me, how the comments fly.

Blaine’s off to Presbytery for a few days. I’m looking around the house wondering what to do first. Decided to start with coffee.

Goat is actually being… nice. She’s making just enough to feed Charlotte, more than she was by half again as much, and heading for my makeshift stanchion when she sees me coming. It’s amazing. She’ll still try to kick on occasion, but a stern word stops her in her tracks. She’s somewhat like some of my more tender-hearted children. Stern words do little for a few of them…

Our wooden stools we use at the kitchen table have seen better days. They were hand-me-downs from my parents, who bought them back about the time I was born – and I’m not sure if they were new then. One is always getting stolen to be used here at the computer. This morning’s loot was the worst one, and when it creaked a bit more than I was comfortable with, Liberty offered to swap it with one of the better ones. And when she picked it up, the leg fell out. Oh dear. Feeling like the sweet girl saved my tush - and my coffee! I think it’s time to invest in some new stools.

“Mom, does time go faster in Texas?” I don’t have a clue where that one came from. Best as I can figure, Eden had just realized that the tv show she was watching last night was encompassing more than the half hour she saw – that days had passed. And you know, tv is live and unscripted, right?

Sterling: “Can you read Santa and the Fox to me?” “You mean Chanticleer and the Fox?” “Yeah. Can you read me that?” Nothing like exposing them to good literature – even if they aren’t quite getting it.

Our entertainment for the afternoon.

Ruby tries something new… and likes–but hates–it.

Dilemmas I’d never dreamed would be life.

How does toothpaste get on the side of the toilet? I always buy white toothpaste – the bright blue stuff does not blend in well and it stains the white bathroom rug. I do not like scrubbing the bathroom walls every day. Now the walls are orange and I’m wondering why I did that. They do not sell orange toothpaste. But on the toilet? It did blend in there, I suppose.

New word banned from use by small children in our home: assume. One of my dear children, ahem, who shall remain nameless, likes to pick up a new word and use it. Nonstop. So, after hearing the word “assume” at the beginning of 90% of said child’s sentences, mostly out of context, it became a banned word. It joins the phrase “Do you know why you…” and others not currently coming to mind. The ban must have worked.

Sterling came inside, panicked because there was a “big huge noise outside”. “I don’t know. I think maybe someone was shooting us.”

Liberty brought home a lump of homemade play dough yesterday. Last night for supper I made split pea soup, and Liberty got a bone in her bowl from the ham bone I’d used. Today she informed me she’d hidden the ham bone in the play dough. Then she promptly took it outside and encouraged all her younger siblings to join her in a treasure hunt through the play dough. Um, ew?

It’s March 2nd. It’s 64 degrees outside, and my children are out in the yard, barefoot, comfortably. (Ok, comfortably temp wise. From the tip-toeing going on out there, I’m thinking they are experiencing some pre-summer tender toes.) It’s beautiful.

A few weeks ago I signed up for the Purex Insiders. Free samples and trying new stuff is always fun. They sent me a little sample of their crystal fabric softener. It smells great - and the clothes coming out of the dresser still smell great. Now, if it would just cover the smell of goat's milk spit after the fact...