A Day at the Zoo

Thinking about the title of this post, I realized that just about any day around here is a day at the zoo.....between laundry, dishes, meals, diapers, red mud, baseball and 4 wild little monkeys, it certainly feels like a zoo!  However, this weekend we spent an afternoon at the real zoo.  It had been 4 years since I had last taken the kids to the Birmingham zoo....just 3 weeks before Matthew was born!

Of course, we began the day at the ballpark (surprise, surprise) with an 8am practice.  The kids and I then drove down to Birmingham to meet Daddy (who had been working the previous 24 hours) and enjoy lunch at one of our favorite non-local restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory.  After filling up on lots of great food and packing a few pieces of cheesecake into the cooler to bring home with us, we headed to the zoo.  Of course, we ended up taking the long way to the zoo because even though between the two of us, we lived in Birmingham for 9 years (and for 2 of those years Ezra drove an ambulance all over the city), we still took the wrong exit followed by a missed turn, but we did make it to the zoo by 2pm.  And even though I was concerned we might not have enough time to see everything, we saw all the exhibits and let kids play in the splash pad for about 20 minutes and were ready to head home by 4:30.  We had specifically chosen Memorial Day weekend to take advantage of the free military family admission offered this weekend.

My little monkeys....in the monkey house.

I wanna see too!

The elephant was actually "dancing" to African music.

And quite possibly the best part of the zoo.....

This little man was happy to be out of the stroller (and maybe there was a Daddy behind him tickling his legs).

Despite the heat, we had a great time and it was wonderful to be able to spend the day as a family.  The kids did awesome and it was a wonderful day!  I had 2 little ones sleeping the entire way home.  Maybe one day I will learn to go to the zoo when it is less than 90 degrees and I'm not pregnant.....However, my recent track record doesn't look too promising!

Homecoming

Yesterday was a very special homecoming for our family.  As noted in my previous post, this past month has been very busy for us.  Added on top of that, my husband has been deployed overseas for the past 4 weeks.  He was scheduled to leave at 6am in Birmingham on Thursday, April 28th, leaving me and the kids at home without power, just 12 hours after the tornadoes finished passing through our area.

He returned home yesterday morning (with a nice tan, I might add).  This was his first deployment in about a year and a half, as well as the first deployment that the kids really knew what was going on and why daddy was gone for so long.  They enjoyed getting to send him emails occasionally and receiving his individual emails addressed to them specifically.  We planned a nice welcome home dinner for him last night and the kids also decided to give him a "proper" American welcome.

Getting ready.....T-minus 10 minutes

The subject has been spotted!

Welcome Home!

And what do you do when your husband arrives home after being gone for a month???  Well, you put him to work, of course!

I might have planned a special dinner, but he had to cook it!  :)

We had family join us for steak & shrimp along with plenty of fixin's and finished the evening off with banana splits.  I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, who loves us dearly, serves and protects us and proudly serves our country!  It is wonderful to have him home with us again!

Yes, I know.....

I am officially a blogging slacker!  Or is it a slacking blogger?  There are many things that I could have blogged about, and many things that I even thought about blogging, but the process of actually sitting down, typing, proofreading, finding and editing pictures just hasn't happened. 


Lots has happened around here since my last post.  I will briefly summarize a few things worth mentioning, however some may be repeats of recent Facebook "status updates," so bear with me.

• Easter....We celebrated Easter as usual with local family and our normal church service.  I decided to keep Charlie in the service with us than leaving him in the nursery in order to allow all the ladies to attend the church service as well.  Let's just say that keeping a one year old quiet for an hour is a challenge....especially when he is missing his morning nap.  We were, however, blessed to be able to celebrate Christ's Resurrection as a complete family, as opposed to previous years when Ezra has been out of town.  

• April 27, 2011....A date many of us will remember for years to come.  A series of powerful tornadoes ripped through Alabama and other southern states, leaving death and destruction in its path.  Several of these storms passed through north Alabama while Eli, Maggie and Matthew were visiting their great-grandmother in the hospital, resulting in several trips out to the hallway while weathering the storm.  I am so thankful that while they were in Decatur, Ezra was in Huntsville, and I was at home with Charlie, the Lord kept us safe and brought us all home together by the late afternoon.  Again, we were truly blessed that there was no direct hit in our area, although areas just a few miles away had significant damage.  We did, however, lose power for four days (along with the rest of north Alabama) due to a problem that TVA encountered during the storm.  It was strange having beautiful weather outside for three days, yet no power.  We made the best of it, though, having family cookouts, making good use of our new gas stove, playing outside most of the day, and the kids went camping one night.  I was also thankful that my husband decided about three years ago that we needed a generator out here on the farm for situations just like this or ice storms, etc (as rare as they may be).  We were able to keep our refrigerator and large freezer cold while rotating the generator between our house and my in-laws house, saving 2 whole steers worth of beef as well as keeping milk cold for Charlie.  I thank God that we were protected during these dangerous storms, and prayers go out to those who lost everything they owned, as well as loved ones.
• Saying good-bye to Granny Cricket....Ezra's grandmother was put in intensive-care about a week before Easter and was later transitioned to Hospice Care.  She spent her last days in a private hospital room surrounded by her daughters and extended family, before passing away May 2nd.  I was blessed to have known Granny Cricket for the nine years that I knew her and to give her four of her great-grandchildren whom she so dearly loved and loved to spoil with treats.  She was a wonderful lady who lived independently with a sound mind up until this last hospitalization and raised a wonderful family that I am proud to be a part of.  Granny's death was the first close experience with death that my children have any memory of and it created many good conversations and life lessons about our spiritual journey with Christ to share with them during a difficult time.

• Baseball, baseball, baseball....The past 3 months have been a brand new experience for us!  This is Eli's first year to play on a baseball team and he absolutely loves it!  It is all he talks about!  He was chosen to play his desired position of shortstop and has played well all season.  His team had many victories, including most recently, winning their Division title for the 7/8 year old league.  Although the regular season is over, we are not finished.....tournaments begin soon.  

• Ultrasound....The long-awaited, half-way marker of the pregnancy, arrived this week.  I had my 20 week ultrasound and confirmed that we will be the proud parents of our 4th little BOY!  While the general consensus was that Maggie needed a little sister to help even things out, we are all just delighted to welcome this little one into our family.  He does not yet have a name, as I was waiting until we knew for sure that we would need another boy name before starting that conversation. 

Welcome to family, little man!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the way, the picture above represents my first scanned and subsequently uploaded document, completed without any technical assistance!

• We've finished Kindergarten and 2nd grade!  Another successful (I hope!) year of school behind us.  Maggie is reading simple words and stories and doing simple addition.  Eli is reading very fluently, including road signs, advertisements, packing materials, etc.  It is amazing to watch his world open up before his eyes as he can read and interact with it.  He was also introduced to addition and subtraction with borrowing/carrying and basic multiplication and division.  His spelling has improved, although it is still his greatest academic struggle, and he has just recently discovered the world of email, but it is easier for him to dictate messages for me to type right now, as his typing skills are lacking....something to work on in 3rd grade.  :)  I already have next year's curriculum, including K4 for Matthew, and I am overwhelmed with the thought of having 3 in school with a toddler moving around and adding our newest addition in September!  Lord, be my Strength!

Well, that should have us caught up for now!  I have a few recipes that I want to share soon, but that requires that I actually cook them and take pictures (because I know y'all just want to see pictures!)....maybe one day.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

About a week ago, I mentioned to my husband that I had found some frozen chicken breasts in the freezer that I did not know we had.  (It pays to clean out the freezer!)  I asked if there were any chicken dishes that he wanted me to cook, and the first words out of his mouth were "chicken enchiladas."

I panicked...there's a reason I haven't made enchiladas in over two years.  Every time I make enchiladas I've used a different recipe.  I know chicken enchiladas are usually cooked in a white chile sauce, but my first exposure to them was in a red sauce and they were really good.  I've since lost that recipe, although I know the basics, and in the past I have searched recipes and tried white sauces as well.  Basically, I don't have a standard enchilada recipe (and some can be quite time consuming), so you never know what you're going to get or how it's going to turn out.   

So, I had the basics...chicken, flour tortillas, and cheese.  I just had to figure out how to mix it all together.  I really couldn't decide whether to go with a white or red sauce, so I decided to do both, with the help of Old El Paso.

I cut two chicken breasts into bite size pieces and then sauteed them in butter, with some garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper and onions.  When the chicken was cooked, I added about 1/2 can of the green chile sauce (I was conservative with it, not wanting it to overpower the chicken.  I could have used the whole can), about a cup (two handfuls) of cheddar cheese and some chopped cilantro and mixed it all together, until the cheese melted.  Monterey Jack or a Cheddar/Jack combo would work too.  You could probably add some sour cream in this step as well, but you won't find that at this house!

I then added about a 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture to the middle of a flour tortilla and rolled it up, placing seam side down in a casserole dish.  It made 10 enchiladas, which was plenty for us for dinner as well as my husband's lunch the next day.  I used 3 corn tortillas and 7 flour tortillas to compare the two, but found that the corn tortillas cracked easily when trying to fold them.

I topped the enchiladas with the red enchilada sauce as well as more cheddar cheese and then baked in a 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes (until Ezra got home).  I served them with homemade guacamole and salsa. 

Overall, my husband and I liked them very much, and this was much easier than making a white sauce from scratch.  My three big kids weren't so thrilled, but they did eat the chicken filling without complaint (in order to get an after-dinner treat), as well as chips, salsa, and guacamole.  Charlie, however, ate every bite....chicken, tortilla, salsa, & guacamole.....He's my kind of kid.  :)  Maybe now that I have the recipe documented, I'll be able to serve this favorite of my husband's more often than every 2 years. 

One.

One year.  It's amazing what can happen in just one short year.

We have gone from this....

To this....

It's hard to believe that we waited on the Lord's timing for a year before discovering the joy of new life that he had blessed us with.  And now, that sweet baby boy is a year old, and it seems to have happened oh so fast.

At one year, Charlie is

• Drinking whole milk.  He never flinched between the transition from breastmilk to formula or between formula and milk.  Easy as pie.
• Continuing to sleep 11-12 hours at night
• Continuing to take 2 naps a day
• Eating more table food.  I can't remember the last time he ate baby food.  He eats a little of everything that we eat, excluding steak.  Some of his favorites include crackers, eggs, chili, and hot dogs.
• Scooting/crawling.  It seems like in just the past week each new day has brought new adventures for Charlie.  He has gone from rotating in a circle on the floor, to pushing backwards, to pulling himself forward on his belly, army style.  He can also scoot short distances sitting up, similar to his big sister's method.  He's not quite up to speed with his bigger siblings, and that's one thing Mama is thankful for.
• Pulling himself to a sitting position.  I've never actually witnessed this accomplishment, but for 3 days in a row, when I have gone to get him up from a nap, he has been sitting up in bed.  Once he even had his hands holding onto the crib rails and pulled up on his knees.  It won't be long.
• Saying "Da Da" and "Ma Ma"
• Continuing to dislike bathtime.  
• Enjoying being outside and is often content to sit in the stroller and watch his big brother practice baseball.  Yet when we are actually at the ballpark watching a game, he becomes bored in the stroller very quickly unless he has snacks.
• Loved so much by his family.  He is often the center of attention and his bigger siblings often share bites of their meals/snacks with him, and he is often hauled down the hallway by his big sister to her bedroom to play "house."

It is such a blessing to have this little man in our lives.  He is a happy baby and his smile melts my heart.  Thank you Lord for our sweet Charlie!

How does your garden grow?

It's the middle of April, and that means one thing here on the farm....Planting Season!

Of course, the middle of April also brings to mind other important events such as the tax season deadline, and more importantly, the upcoming birthday of my youngest son.....more on that soon.

Usually in March (or sometimes February) with our first glimpse of warm, spring weather, I get excited and start making a "garden plan" including what seeds/plants to buy and how much as well as sitting down with my engineering husband to draw out the garden plan and where to plant everything.  I might even go ahead and buy the seeds to have at the house, but we know to wait patiently for about another month before planting because we have been known to get a mid-April frost (and we've lost garden plants in the past due to it).

Well, this year was a little different.  It might have something to do with the busyness of life involved with 4 little ones at home, a 5th one on the way, homeschooling, and new to us this year, baseball.  I had hardly given the garden a moment's thought and suddenly it's the middle of April!  Yes, I noticed that my father-in-law had plowed the garden and that he had already planted onions and tomatoes in his own garden, but I still thought we had plenty of time.  Then I looked at my husband's upcoming work schedule and my oldest son's upcoming baseball schedule....and I panicked!  I was looking at 2 available weekends to get the garden planted....one of which involved both my mother-in-law and baby's birthday celebrations and the other involved my husband working part of the weekend, a baseball game, Easter Egg Hunt and Easter Sunday/lunch.  After Easter weekend there would be no available weekends for my husband to be able to help until the end of May. 

So, instead of planning and discussing the garden for weeks, I called my husband at work one morning and quickly discussed what seeds to buy before heading out to the co-op that afternoon.  We (and by "we" I mean "he") then spent Saturday and Sunday evenings preparing the soil.  With the strong chance of rain later this afternoon, we wanted to at least get the corn in the ground before the rain.  That left me and my father-in-law and 6 children (2 of them were my nieces) with the task of planting 2lbs of corn seed.  He decided at 6:20 this morning that he was ready to start and was in our backyard, calling us on the phone to wake us up let us know he was ready.  After pulling 4 sleepy heads out of bed and finding a quick breakfast to stuff into them as they headed outside (peanut butter and jelly counts, right?), we began. 

The bare, empty garden

The morning went something like this....
1.  Father-in-law measures 30" from edge of garden and then hammers in two stakes with a string tied between them to mark the row.

2.  My 13 year old niece and I each start at one end of the row hoeing a trench 3 inches deep. 


3.  My 7 and 5 year olds start dropping corn seeds into the trench 4-6 inches apart (we hope) while I follow behind filling in gaps as necessary and separating clumps of seeds that all fell in one place.

4.  My father-in-law walks behind us, using his feet to cover over the seeds and trench with loose soil.

5.  We measure 30" over to start a new row and move the stakes/string to begin the process again.

Repeat 10 times.

Hard at work

If you look carefully, you can see the seeds

His official job.....staying out of trouble

Good help is hard to find....so we birth 'em and start 'em young

You do taste-test your soil first, right?

Less than three hours later, we were finished.  11 rows, 100ft long each, planted in silver queen corn. 

Next up....squash, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkin, and okra.

Things I've found in the washing machine....

Living out in the country, and raising a large number of small children, I really shouldn't be surprised to find "surprises" for me in the laundry, but I still laugh (most of the time) when something unusual makes it through the spin cycle.

We have had the usual suspects...
Rocks
Grass
Pennies
Nickels
Dimes

And we have had the messier...
Diapers
Pull-ups
crayons
pens
worms (no, they did not survive)

And we have had the more unusual....
Pistachios
Puzzle pieces
Shoes

And my all-time favorite....
Ski goggles

The goggles made it all the way through the dryer before being discovered and appeared to suffer no catastrophic injuries.

Of course, my husband keeps telling me that if I would check pockets before loading the laundry, I could avoid most of these.  But do I really want to reach my hand into a pocket to pull out a worm?