I'm having an I'm a failure week with Samuel.

If I knew that he'd could survive in the public school I'd send him there today.  LOL

Okay I wouldn't--because I know it would make much worse problems.

I'm just so frustrated.

He just doesn't care.   He doesn't want to learn.  And he doesn't want to try.    And then mommy gets the screaming meanies.  This is NOT what I want.

I'm of two minds. 

One is keep pushing trying to find something that triggers him WANTING to learn.

The other is.  Let him go.  Let him be boy.  And when he sees how the girls are doing so well, he'll start trying on his own.

I'm absolutely torn.

Note to self its April still.  And there is still snow on the foothills--nevermind the ice packed mountains.

Thus.

It is NOT warm enough to go wading in the river.

But did this stop me from trying?

NOOO

And man was it cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good morning

It was a rather productive day yesterday.  And I have the muscles to prove it.  LOL

We gathered up all the branches from the tree we had to take down and after a hour of frustration finally got them burning.   They were rather wet--okay they were still dripping dew off of them.  

We even had a bit of excitement as the fire got hotter then expected and started blowing sparks into a fifteen foot tree that was apparently too close to said fire.   We had to get the hose and douse the tree down, and raked the fire farther away from said tree.    The tree is fine, it didn't burn, it just got sparks in it that tried to burn some of the needles--but they were extremely wet needles.  LOL

I don't think you could start a forest fire here if you poured gas on it right now.  Everything is still liberally covered in mud.  LOL  But we erred on the side of caution--and besides its a beautiful little tree that we'd rather live.

Zeria has been coping with asthma for the last couple days, and not doing so well.  I'm not sure if its bad spring allergys, or a minor cold.  She seems to be much better this morning however, so we shall live.

I just emailed for a box of craft stuff from freecycle.  If the lady responds as a yes, we will run out and pick it up from Neah Bay today.  Otherwise we shall be lazy so and so's and enjoy *gasp* our third day of blue sky and sunshine.  This is a record around here.  LOL  The picture at the bottom is a vista along the drive.  The highway hugs the coast quite literally so each turn in the road gives you something else gorgeous to see.

We finally got sunshine and blue sky today.  It wasn't extremely warm due to some wind, but it was still beautiful.  And we made the most of it.  We headed out to get my morning Dew from the store (a mile away).  We thought we'd just come right back home.  Instead we ended up in Neah Bay.  We stopped at a beach and played for a long time.   Then we drove the rest of the way to Neah Bay just cause we could.  Once we got there we decided it was still too nice to go home so we introduced the kiddos to Cape Flattery.

But first the beach we played on.   The wind made for some splendicious waves.  I climbed out over some rocks to get closer to the waves, and was trying to snap the picture just as the wave came up--completely oblivious to the fact that Ricky joined the picture.  As it is I kinda like it--it looks like he's enjoying them too.  LOL  Ricky btw is our purebred mutt.  We acquired him from one of Rob's coworkers.  They were told he was a cockapoo.  He's not.  We have no idea what he is, although we suspect he has some beagle in him.

Our dogs are becoming increasingly spoiled and sneak in the car whenever possible.    I'm constantly amazed that Achi likes the water.  I've never had a chihuahua with so much spunk.   There usual rather timid little wusses.  But she trapes through tide pools, and has a great time.  LOL  She's posing in this picture with Kaylin and Jamari.  They were busy watching Samuel--who was rather challenging the waves.

He jumped from rock to rock out onto a rock in about knee deep water.   We all thought he was kinda goofy.  But I couldn't protest too much, as I had already gone wading to take pictures of the waves.  LOL   And just for the record the Pacific Ocean around here is FREEEEEEZING!!!

He of course decided not to jump on the way back, and instead jumped into the water--which is when we found out he was a wee bit deeper then he thought he was.  *snigger*  Boys like to get wet.  Actually Rainee was the first one to get wet.  She was climbing on a creek culvert and fell into the creek from about four feet up.  It broke her fall quite nicely, and resulted in a complete change of clothes.    I was glad we were able to mishmash something together, because little did we know the day was just starting.  LOL

After Samuel's adventure we headed back to the van, and headed west.  Cape Flattery is the northwestern tip of the continental U.S.  Its also intensely beautiful.  There are amazing vista's of sea caves in two directions, and Tatoosh Island at the tip of the cape.

Tatoosh Island was originally a summer village for the Makah Indians.  (The cape is on the Neah Bay reservation.)  And then the light house.  The lighthouse is no longer running, but it sure is spectacular.  I've spent several hours online on other days learning about its history.  Fun reading.  Especially as I realized I knew some of the descendants of the original lighthouse keeper. 

My camera was being rather ditzy--its got some little malfunction issues.  And didn't do justice to the sea caves.  This is the best one I have--but it hardly does them  justice.  They are gigantic, and awe inspiring.  I call them pirate caves, cause I can just imagine pirates hiding there booty in there. 

The hike was fairly strenuous--as the trail was extremely rough, and muddy.  It wasn't long mile wise, just nasty climbing up and down wet boardwalk steps, and through big piles of mud where there wasn't boardwalk.  We all were troopers though, and admitted we will come back again, and again.  I've been coming here for a long time after all.

All in all it was a gorgeous day, and I'm glad we had the sun to enjoy it in. 

This weeks photo challenge subject is  The strange, the weird or the funny.   I f igured my little crab picture I took the other day definintely qualifys.

I also thought this qualified.  Looks kinda like alien life to me.    Its seaweed attatched to a small rock (about the size of a quarter)

And for funny, this amuses us each time we drive past it.  Its just wrong.  LOL

Most of the time I take these tests and then don't post them, because their just blah.  But for some reason this one amuses me.

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

I've always kinda resented midnight--laying there awake wishing I could get to sleep and get on with life again. Maybe I should just get up and enjoy it LOL

We have had some neighbours wandering through our fields at night.  This isn't taken in our field, but close by.  The herd has between 45-50.  They are Roosevelt Elk.  So very very cool.  Although our dogs are NOT impressed.

And speaking of wildlife...I rather like the macro on my Kodak camera--is this not the coolest picture?  I was walking across the tideland's yesterday, and this teensy little guy saw me, and immediately tried to defend himself.  NEver mind he's not much bigger then a quarter.

Okay off the wildlife shots, If Jeremiah goes missing he's going to be ONE place.  The "big" puddle.  The one Samuels' been filling so it doesn't get empty.  I couldn't figure out why it never drained, now I know.  But you know its okay, cause its a great baby sitter.  Jer walks over there, sits down and throws rocks in it--by the hour. 

Each day the kids go and wander around our property, and find something new to explore I'm so greatful God gave us this place to live.  It is a wonderful place to raise children. 

I've decided we are going to be done with school book school at the end of April.  We just need a break.  We've been going steady since the end of July. 

We won't be done learning, just done workbooks for awhile.

I have made up reading chart circles for each of the three oldest.  They have 8 catagory's of books to read.  Books that I choose.  Each time they finish 8 of this catogory there will be a special prize. 

I surfed around for list ideas, and after awhile came up with this;

Adventure

Fantasy

Animal

Mystery

Science Fiction

History

Missionary

Your Choice;

They will be required to spend 30 minutes a day at a minimum reading at their pace.  I'm hoping this will start them on actually LOVING books, rather then just doing it cause they have to. 

Four years ago today I grew up.

It was about twenty-five minutes after Rainee Grace was born, and I was told by the doctor she couldn't breathe, she had turned blue, had possible seizures, and they were going to fly her out to Seattle Childrens Hospital.

It was when I was under the throws of stadol, and my husband was busy passed out due to the worst stomache flu he'd had in at least five years.   I was told this twenty-five minutes after I tried to hemorage out, and they had to call an ER doctor up to hold me together until the OB doctor showed.

I was told the nurses would wheel my bed down to the nursery and I could say good-bye.  Rob was passed out.  My mom was busy getting ready to follow her to Seattle so she would be alone as little as possible.  I was truely alone for the first time in my life.  And...my daughter the child I had wanted very badly was dying.

It wasn't a good time.  And was the beginning of a long, scarey road that still has no happy ending.

And yet four years later.  I have this beautiful shining girl.  She has had angels watching over her.  And three days ago she came up to me and said.  "When I am four you will no longer have a three-year-old-girl."   And I wanted to sob.  And yet rejoice.  Because God has allowed me the gift of raining grace for four beautiful, terrifying, and exhausting years.

And you know what she's "almost" healthy.  This is the most healthy she's ever been on her birthday.  Last year she had a double ear infection, the previous two years on her birthday she was sleeping on oxygen.

She's my beautiful angel.  My gift from God.  She's still not healthy.  

She still takes prevacid, atrovent, flovent, and singulair daily.  She still deals with rashes, and she still can't walk for more then 1/4 of a mile without having to stop because she can't breathe well.

But man, she's way better then I ever thought she was.  And she is a true gift. 

Happy Birthday Rainee Grace may you have many many more. 

Good morning

I have a little boy trying to climb up me.  He's cutting his second molar, and isn't too happy about it.  Okay neither are we.

The sun is trying to shine this morning, it would be nice if it won the battle over the clouds.  Its been a gloomy two weeks.

All of our laundry in the last week came out not much better then it went in.  I was getting rather frustrated pulling things out that looked filthy--come to find out some little set of hands bumped the water adjustment to small.  

So there's a lot of laundry to do around here.

Bang head on desk.

I did my averaging of weight this week, and was a teensy bit bummed.  I lost *gasp* one whole pound.  Now the goal is to loose 2.5 pounds, and never more then that.  So I'm happy I didn't gain, and I saw a new weight on the scale (lower) then I've ever seen this morning since the new regime.)   But still wished it had been a bit more exciting LOL.

Ahh well regardless of the scale I feel better eating much lower carb, so I'll focus on that and keep moving forward.  I just wish I liked vegetables more. 

I'm updating this as it got lost, and I'd love to have more people drop in. 

This is going around, drop a comment would ya? 

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want, either good or bad. I promise not to come after you with a spatula either way.

When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.