Wordless Wednesday: How the Twins and 3-Year-Old Greet Daddy

I am pleased to list this post @ 5 Minutes For Mom dot com.

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!

We Love Bananas (and Candy)...

This week's "Blog Hop" theme is "Your Favorite Kid Photo". I posted this photo long ago, but, since it's one of my favorites (I love the colors and the underlying teenage angst expression) I'm posting it again. If you haven't joined the Blog Hop, just follow the instructions at the bottom and join in. It's so fun to meet new people who visit your blog!






If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!

Homemaker Monday

Hi Everyone,

Feeling really nauseated right now, so I'm going to put off my post for this evening. Hopefully I'll be able to get to it tomorrow. Here's MckLinky, though, for those of you who have taken the time to prepare your Homemaker Monday post. Thank you!



If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!

Morning Sickness, Fatigue and Having 8 Kids at Home

(Caution: This post could contain more than you cared to know about my bowel function. You've been warned.)

This was the one part of having a tenth child I was not looking forward to. With a large new home to keep clean, 5 school-age kids with tons of activites, a 3-year-old and 17-month-old twins, how was I going to keep up with even the most basic of responsibilies?

For two weeks after I discovered I was pregnant, there was no sign of nausea or fatigue. I actually began to worry that I had miscarried because things were just too easy. However, I wasn't to be disappointed. About 4 days ago, I was immediately struck with intense nausea, even to the degree of being painful. It was almost a relief that it had finally arrived, but I began to become disheartened because of the severity of it. That night, at about 3:00 in the morning, the diarreah struck. This might seem like an inconvenience that is easily dealt with, except for the fact that I sleep with two babies on either side of me. Even though we've graduated to no more middle-of-the-night feedings, they often use me as comfort and love to cuddle up close. As the diarreah struck over and over again, I was constantly having to push off a twin, sometimes waking him up. At one point, I finally had to wake John up and say, "Could you let the baby lean on you? I'm having an emergency!"

This difficult situation lasted for about 24 hours, and was coupled by severe fatigue. I knew I had contracted a stomach flu, but I continued to have deep concerns that this was the beginning of the first-trimester morning sickness/fatigue that would last into the fourth or fifth month, as with the 8 pregnancies before. I couldn't function. I left the kitchen unswept in the evenings, I called on the kids to take turn after turn babysitting the little ones, and the 14-year-old girl had to do all the cooking. I began to wonder if I would be able to do this on my own or if I would have to cave and hire a full-time maid, something to which I was vehemently opposed.

Two days later, I woke up with more energy than I'd had in weeks. The morning sickness was still there, but as long as I ate something as soon as possible after waking up, I was fine. I swept the mess on the floor from the night before and performed all of the tasks I normally accomplish in the morning. The kids did their "jurisdictions" (see THIS post) and everything was back to normal. After about 2 and a half hours after breakfast, the nausea crept up again, but I ate something and immediately felt better.

So this was it, I thought. The severe fatigue and nausea of the previous days were only due to the stomach flu which I discovered was being spread throughout the community, and what I was experiencing now was the normal discomforts of early pregnancy, which for me, is nausea every two hours, cured by eating the right foods, and tiredness.

Even though I felt TONS better than I had with the stomach flu, I decided I needed to come up with a coping strategy. I've decided that in order to stave off morning sickness, I will make a pre-emptive strike. Every two hours, whether I'm nauseated or not, I will put something into my stomach. Otherwise, if I wait til the nausea strikes, I will have to frantically prepare my food in a hunched over position and have to force down the food into an unwilling stomach. This new plan has been working wonders. Today, I never felt more than a tinge of queasiness!

As for tiredness and fatigue, something I can't afford right now, here's how I've decided to conquer that. In the morning, when I have energy, I try to focus on what I need to accomplish for the day and try to finish it before lunch time. At about noon, one of the kids prepares lunch, we feed the babies, bathe them, then I put them and the 3-year-old down for their naps. It is usually close to 2:00 by the time this routine is finished, so it's time for me to eat again. I make lunch and enjoy it while spending some time at the computer, then head to bed with the babies. I usually am able to sleep close to 2 hours during this time, which gives me the energy I need to finish the day, which usually includes staying up until midnight (or in this case, until 1:26 AM) blogging! I hope these tips I've discovered after only 8 pregnancies has been of use to some of you! Thanks for listening!

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!

Enter my Picture Caption Contest for a Chance to Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

I would like all of you who participated in last week's picture caption contest to know how much I appreciated you helping us out with getting this new linky set up. Brent took care of any bugs that may have been causing problems and things are up and running with "Picture Caption Linky" for good now!

Because we had so much fun last week, I decided I would like to do it again this week, and hopefully every week hereafter! As a thanks for helping me out last week and for participating in this and the following picture caption contest next week, I will be randomly drawing one name for a $25 Amazon gift card on July 31st for all who participated this month! All you have to do is enter your caption and you will automatically be placed in the random drawing! That goes for those of you who linked up last week, too!

For now, I have decided that I will not actually choose the funniest or most clever caption as a way of determining the prize winner. We're not all blessed with wit, but we CAN all think of SOMETHING to enter for a random chance to win. What do you think? Fair? That being said, I did say that last week that I would pick a winner for the most clever caption, and the one that made me laugh out loud the hardest was....

"But you said not to go in the pool!" entered by The Chaotic Christensens at http://chaoticchristensens.blogspot.com/ !

Yes, I guess I'm currently enjoying potty humor at this stage of life! Thanks again for all of your contributions and I'm SOOOOO looking forward to your funny ideas this week! Here's your picture!

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!

A Glimpse of One Moment in Time

As I was folding clothes a few days ago, I began listening to the sounds of my children. None of them were within eye-shot, so I started wondering what they all were doing. As I walked toward the sounds of activity, the first thing I saw were the twins playing quietly together with a box of blocks in the entryway...


This scene enchanted me, probably because I had waited for moments like these for so long during the grueling first year, times when they would simply play together and enjoy each other's company without me having to be right by their sides. I wanted to save this moment on film, so I did, then I thought I would catch what every other child was doing at that exact moment in time and save it to the camera as well. Here's what I found...


This is the 9-year-old boy vacuuming fruit flies from off the peaches. His brother is apparently advising him. A few months ago I posted photos of how our family does fruit, depicting bowl after bowl of various produce on our island and a commentator asked how we dealt with fruit flies. Question answered.


This is the 3-year-old boy trying to vacuum the fruit flies as well, but he can't figure out why he isn't having as much success with his attachment as his brother is with his.


Here we have the 14-year-old girl making cabbage soup. We had received three cabbages from some friends earlier that day and she knew it would be wise to use them as soon as possible. She suggested that she make cabbage soup for dinner, I stated that I thought it was a fine idea, she googled a recipe, and here she is carrying out her well thought-out plan.

When it came to finding the 7-year-old girl. It took a while. I looked in her room, the game room, the front yard, the side yard, and finally I found her in the back yard. I called her name, but she couldn't hear me. As I got closer, I heard her singing her heart out to a favorite song on her shuffle while admiring her dad's gardening. It was pretty dang precious.


And here is what I was doing before being distracted by wanting to document a moment in time...


P.S. If you're wondering where the other three children were, the 20-year-old girl lives on her own, and I actually tried to call her to see what she was doing, but couldn't reach her, the 17-year-old boy is in Alaska with his uncle and the 12-year-old boy was in scout camp!

P.P.S. Sorry about the bright window lighting in almost every photo!

I am pleased to list this post @...


Angie hosts "Wordful Wednesday" for those of us who don't like to keep our mouths shut for Wordless Wednesday. It's totally fun!

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!

The-best-chocolate-cake-in-the-world-that-just-happens-to-be-vegan recipe...

(This is a recipe I posted a few months ago, but because this week's "Blog Hop" theme is "Your Favorite Recipe or Dish", I HAD to enter this vegan chocolate cake. People say things like, "Please tell me you brought the vegan chocolate cake to this pot luck," or "You're making your vegan chocolate cake for the Sunday family dinner, right?" This recipe is unbelievable!)

Here is the best-chocolate-cake-in-the-world-that-just-happens-to-be-vegan recipe I promised I would post today. I found it at Instructables.com and I swear, people go on and on about this cake and they really don't even register that it's vegan. When they finally realize that it was made with no eggs or butter, they say, "Oh, then it's healthy, right?" Just to clarify, vegan means no animal products, not this-is-a-health food, because it's not. It's loaded with sugar and oil and white flour and it is one of the most moist and delectable chocolate cakes I have ever tasted. You are going to love this.

Cake Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

Chocolate Glaze

1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp vegan butter spread (or real butter if you're an omni)
2 tbsp soy milk (or regular milk if you're an omni)
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, then grease an 8X8 square pan/dish.

Step 2: Mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt with a whisk, making sure it is really blended together. Add the water, vanilla, oil, and vinegar, and again, mix until it's really well blended. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.

Step 3: Pour the mixture into the pan and place in oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. Cool on a rack completely (about 2 hours).

Step 4: For the glaze, in a small saucepan, bring sugar, butter spread, soy milk, and cocoa to a boil. Stir frequently; then reduce heat to a simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir for another 5 minutes. Don't think you can leave out this step, or the sugar won't dissolve and your glaze with be grainy....and nobody likes grainy glaze, now do they...

Step 5: Add vanilla, stir, and immediately pour onto cake. Glaze dries really quickly, so spread it immediately and add any sprinkles or topping now. Let this cool for an 1 hour, if you can wait that long!

This recipe can be doubled and made into a chocolate layer cake. Here's what that looks like...


Actually, I tripled it, made the chocolate layer cake and then put together 24 cupcakes for the kids at my father-in-law's 74th birthday party. He loves chocolate and I knew he would love this cake. Every last crumb of the cake was gone by the end of the night. Even the cake plate had been rubbed clean of leftover glaze by greedy fingers. Yes, it wasn't easy to throw a layer cake and 24 cupcakes together with the 3 under 3 under foot, but watching everyone enjoy this delight made it well worth the effort! Hope you enjoy this as much as we did!

I am pleased to list this post @ Biblical Womanhood's "Frugal Friday". Check out her blog for TONS for great money-saving tips!
I am also pleased to list this post at...
-Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday",
-5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
-Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
-Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
-Mary's "Tightwad Tuesday",-Kim's "Tasty Tuesday"
-The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday",
-and...







If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the little beauty below... Thank you for your visit!

Homemaker Monday: Corn in it's Husk to Corn on the Dinner Table in 2 Minutes Flat

Welcome to the 50th weekly edition of...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" go to Suzanne over at The Singer Sentinel! Although I don't usually choose recipes that aren't vegan for the featured post, I had to share with you her accomplishments of the day. I was TRULY inspired! I have to tell you that I know this lovely lady in real life and she is probably the second most organized person I know on the face of the planet. She was at the top of the list for many years, until I got remarried and met my husband's mother. She has usurped your position, Suzanne. Sorry. Anyway, Suzanne prepared an unbelievable SEVENTEEN freezer meals in one day! AMAZING! I must be more like her, as I am really going to need lots of freezer meals once the new little one arrives. Thanks for your inspiration, Suz! To see all the wonderful meals she prepared and for her pork chop with lima beans recipe, click HERE. Thanks again, Suzanne! Miss ya!

MINE: My father was a man who loved to find the quickest way to prepare food. Once he had discovered what he considered an ingenius improvement on how "normal" people cook, he would call us all into the kitchen and show us his new technique, his chest puffed up in pride, and insist that we taste the food to prove that it was as good as the former slow method. Here's what I learned from him about cooking corn...

Step 1: Pick or buy ears of corn in their husks, like this...



Step 2: Place an ear in the microwave, like this...


Step 3: Set the microwave to cook it on high for this long...


(If you put more than one corn in the microwave, the average cooking time per ear of corn is about a minute and a half. )

Step 4: Remove corn from microwave and peel back husk, like so....(but be careful. It's hot!)


Step 5: Place on a plate and slather with butter, salt and pepper and consume...


(Make sure you have a napkin handy.)

And, as always, here's the proof it was good...


Enjoy!

OURS: K, totally nauseated right now, so no long thanks or encouragement today. Here's MckLinky...



If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!

My Testimony of Jesus Christ

Testimony Tab:

This is my testimony of Jesus Christ.


I, as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, believe that Jesus Christ was not only an inspirational leader and teacher, but that He was The Only Begotten Son of The Father, born to the virgin Mary. I believe that He was fore-ordained from the beginning of time to be The Savior of all mankind, and were it not for the fact that He payed for all of our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane, we would remain filthy and be denied the opportunity of living with a perfect God in Heaven. How grateful I am to him for the example He set during his soujourn here on Earth and for the suffering He endured for our sakes.

During His time on Earth, Jesus Christ set up His church with His twelve disciples. We can learn about how it was organized in the New Testament. Tragically, however, He, along with all of His disciples were murdered. Paul and others tried to carry on the church the way it was intended, but eventually, it was dissolved and the world went into a self-imposed apostacy.

In the spring of 1820, a 14-year-old boy named Joseph Smith Jr. went to The Bible with a question in his heart. He wondered which of all the churches were right, and when he read James 1:5, which states, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him", he decided to act. Seeking an answer to his burning question, Joseph went into a quiet grove of trees to pray to God, The Father. While he was in the midst of his prayer, he saw a pillar of light, brighter than the noonday sun, and descending from it were God, The Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.


God introduced His Son to Joseph Smith by addressing Joseph and saying, "This is My Beloved Son. Hear him." Joseph Smith was then told that none of the churches were right and that he should join none of them, but that he would do a work among the children of men and restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ that had been taken away so many hundreds of years before. Over the next four years, Joseph Smith received a number of Heavenly visitations and instructions of the things which he should do. One of the things he was told to do was to retrieve a set of gold plates on which scripture was written by prophets long ago on the American continent. Joseph Smith retrieved these plates, and with the help of his wife and a man named Oliver Cowdrey, he translated the writings on these plates into a book called The Book of Mormon, named after the prophet who compiled and abridged the writings during his time on Earth between 300 and 400 A.D.

Since the publication of The Book of Mormon, over 13.5 million people on Earth have been introduced to it's message and have accepted it as the word of God. We 13.5 million people believe in Joseph Smith's vision and that God has restored his original church in this day and age and that it is led by a prophet, like Moses, Abraham or Isaiah, who communes with and speaks for God.

I believe that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the one and only true church on the face of the earth and that mankind can find the ultimate happiness by abiding by its teachings and precepts. I believe that marriage continues after death, through all eternity, and not just "until death do we part", thus enabling families to be "sealed" together forever.

I am so thankful that I have the true gospel in my life and that we have a living prophet who communes with the Savior. I am also grateful that I know God lives and knows the hearts of each and every one of us and can and will guide us in our personal lives if we will but ask of Him and be faithful to His commandments.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

(To learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, click HERE.)

If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!

Can you come quick and help with this experiment?

Hey Guys! I've got a HUGE favor to ask of you! I'm helping out a friend named Brent test-drive a new linky system and was wondering if you could take a look at the following poolside photo and enter in a fitting caption! I need at least 40 (or many more) of you to help with this, so as many of you as can enter in your caption suggestion would be sooooo greatly appreciated! I'll post the winner's name on Homemaker Monday, so you can get lots of visitors to your blog. Here it is and thank you!





If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!

More Fruits of My Husband's Labors (and I'm talking about gardening, Cheryl :) )

I am pleased to list this post @...


If you liked this post and would like to join me here on a regular basis via email or other reader, please...
Subscribe

(You'll be helping to pay for at least one of the nine kid's college tuition.)
OR... bookmark or share this post by clicking the "Add This" button below... Thank you for your visit!