What a 24 hours it has been!  I finally decided NOT to wait around on my husband who obviously has no concept of the pressing deadlines we face around here renovation wise and I decided yesterday was the day to act.  I finally got over my fears enough to let Michael go down and fix the pipe and he did a great job.  There's some more water in there today and we aren't sure if there's another place its leaking, or if it was just the final water that had leaked running down into the one pool.  Its not a lot so we are waiting to see how it goes.

I am totally frustrated with Derk not seeing what I need to accomplish right now and I know his job is stressful and long too, but he doesn't seem to want to let US do anything... just him and we can't have that.  Too little time and too much to do!

So yesterday, after listening to the kids begging me to let them sand the walls that Derk had FINALLY sanded...(it's been a month for crying out loud) I did let them and they did a good job.  I went to the bank in Niverville and came back with things to make burgers for supper.  KD and I, left home as Derk was leaving Winnipeg and we met him halfway then he called me when he got home and we'd just arrived in Winnipeg!  We were going material hunting to make jumpers for the four little girls and a skirt for KD.  WE were there about an hour and I'd already asked Derk to please sand the walls asap so that he could make the burgers closer to the time we'd be back.  Well... we were almost ready to leave and he'd not begun yet!  THEN a friend popped over and when we walked in, we could tell HE wanted one of the boys.  Well it'd be Michael that he wanted and we had determined earlier after MIchael threw a temper tantrum  (yes at 12) that he was NOT going anywhere like that so he wasn't allowed to go.

Its pretty frustrating because I dont' want to be mean and not let Michael go, but now Josh is feeling slighted and also told me that whenever both boys go... Michael is put in charge when Josh was the first one to be going and also is almost 15!  I told him he doesn't HAVE to go but I can see where something is going to have to be said here.  In the car yesterday, KD was telling me how she feels like MIchael has it in for both  her and Josh and they can't figure out why... after hearing what Josh just brought up this morning, I think I DO see what is happening.  Now Michael is talking back to ME too even about playing drums at church and I can't have that. So it's pretty frustrating to say the least. sigh

This morning, KD and Josh were up at 6 am and got the tub ready  for me to have a nice bath.  I was in that by 6:15 and stayed in reading till 815 when Jenaya came needing in.  I told HER to take a quick bath and then it went from there till there's only the older boys and Derk who haven't had their bath yet today!  Not bad!  5 baths done before 10 am!

The oldest two painted KD's room and sanded the dining room before KD went to work.  Now JOsh is just finishing up the primer on the walls in there.  The ceiling too.  It was interesting putting some drywall tape around the fan for a collar and taping it there then putting two garbage bags over the blades but it worked!

It's getting dark outside now, its almost 3 pm and we are supposed to get rain this afternoon.  The littles are in the girls' room singing ABCDEFG.  Michael made grilled cheese and fries for lunch and because I don't like cheese, I have a grilled hamburger bun with fried onions on it.... and fries yummy numkins!

Maybe tonight (or after Derk sees this blog lol) we can talk about pressure and deadlines.  We have three days when one of us or more will be away from the house for at least part of the day or all of it!  They are all saturday's of course...

   Well its saturday night again.  I can STILL hear my kids upstairs goofing off.  The littles cannot sleep in their room.  It smells like the crawlspace so they are upstairs for tonight.  The crawlspace is almost drained now, and soon we will be able to fix the pipe no thanks to the plumber we got in here... I'm NOT impressed with him at all.  He just stood there looking at me.  Didn't help at all and hardly looked at anything.

Derk and I got up and went to sign papers at the bank then headed into the city to pick up paint.  We ended up getting the meat and cereal part of our groceries too and then headed home.  Dropped everything off, and then headed to Altona to get a part for the stove.  Its not in yet so here's hoping it works because we got it based on what the guy said was wrong. 

Tomorrow's church so we have to get this place in some sort of order.  Michael is blatting right now at 11: 25 because he wanted to go outside and I said no sigh...

Derk's FINALLY mudding and taping our dining room walls so I'm excited about that.  Soon I can paint them!  WE didn't get anything else accomplished today but we spent some time together as a family.

Time for bed for me now!

Well somethings have gotten better, other's worse sigh.  Its looking like everything is going to be pretty tight for the next two weeks at least and that's the bad part.  We still haven't seen the plumber here either and so I've released the oldest three kids outside to do yard work.  Michael is mowing the lawn something he's not really had the opportunity to do because it was always Josh's job, but now Josh has graduated to more yard care work instead of mowing and so he's more than happy to give this to Michael.  Joshua is planting my flowers in the front garden box and I'm kind of happy that he is doing it, but also sad because up till now, I had flowers on my windowstill.  Daisies, impatiens, mini yellow roses and something else.... can't remember what it was but now they are all gone!  sigh ... I can't really SEE them from the house either and that's what makes it sad.  Oh well... at least OUTSIDE will look pretty!  Josh has a pumpkin growing in a BABYFOOD JAR!!!!!  Yup that's what I said!  I should take a pic of it and put it on here because it doesn't do anything for a few days and then over night its' twice as big as it was before!

The girls are cleaning their room, the littles are either making messes or else watching out the living room window.  I love the freshly cut grass smell but oh my am I allergic to it.

My hubby was listening to focus on the family to an article by Julie Ann Barnhill and recommended I get her books.  Its rare that he tells me to buy something and I had already listened to part of it online and decided I wanted them.  One is called "She's gonna blow" and its a very good book.  It's been helping me to see myself in areas of my life that I haven't been satisfied in for all of my life so far.  I can also see people in my family in this book and how what they did to me has affected my entire life!  I don't want that for MY kids.  I have told Derk he needs to read this book too although it was written for moms, it applies to anybody. 

Another book I'm reading right now is The Sugar Solution and I'm finding that's also been a great help in changing our diet just enough so that we can lose some of this added weight.

The stench in the house is still really really bad.  I hardly can stand it in certain areas like.... my girls' room and the computer desk ick!  I hope that plumber comes SOON!!!

   Well, I'm TRYING to be thankful for all my problems but its getting quite hard with one son being a trouble starter today and acting extremely lazy.  I'm really getting sick of yelling at him every two minutes.  Used to be that we couldn't get him to read but once he learned, he found a very satisfying habit in reading when he's supposed to be helping out.  We continually have to be on his case or he doesn't do anything sigh....

The plumbing has deteriorated today to the point where we cannot take it anymore and so the plumber is supposed to come over this afternoon.  That means we have to clean out the area where he needs to work.  Its a small hole in our closet floor and the few things we've stored in there had to come out, the piano had to be moved and the two doors awaiting installation but currently serving as a block to that closet behind the piano all had to go too.  Then of course there's the inevitable sweeping that needed to be done.

Josh also had to clean his fish tank today so he's working on that.  He's moving it upstairs to his room now, and its best to do that today while its empty as well.  So much all happening at one time and I'm feeling terrible.  I soud like I dot a code in my node and I hate it very much!

Michael just returned home with the mail.  He's making me soooo upset.  I send him on a bunch of errands that can be all done at the same time because stores are in a row etc, and he comes home between each one for some dumb reason!

Kyla-Dawn is helping and her attitude is much improved over the one she had before youth retreat so that's a great blessing to me.  Especially today when I'm feeling rotten and can't cope with much.

Larissa and Jenaya are helping at times and then not at other times so its frustrating.  Autumn-Rose and Ember are playing and insist on bringing their toys into the very area we are trying to keep cleaned out so the plumber won't have to trip over toys!

Zachary was fussing as we washed his face and hands.  I put cream on him and he snuggled on me afterward.  I asked if he wanted a nap and he said yes so I snuggled him while I began typing and already he's asleep!

ME?  Well... I 'm going nuts.  Found out our van problems are going to cost us about $500 which isn't impressive.  The plumbing issues will cost a pile more and its all adding up to a costly week around here.

Today was payday so that means I'm chained to my puter and desk.  Yesterday I cleaned up my room, organized my desk up there and sorted bills and papers I need to file etc.  I just have the closet to sort which is full of computer equipment, bins of things, anything and everything shoved in there when we moved rooms around last time.  I've not been able to get at it yet.  That's on the plan for this week though.

I'm hoping to paint KD's room, the girls' room and the Living room and dining room this weekend or next week.  Some walls need taping and mudding yet.  It will be sooo nice when that's done so I can get at it!

Well... my break is up and its time to get back to work.

Wow!  What ayouth retreat!  It was awesome that's for sure.  A lot of good came out of it for my teens too and I am very very happy I took them.

One thing was that we decided yesterday that Kyla-Dawn will be allowed to date now.  We decided that our age to date is going to be 17 but because Kyla-Dawn, Joshua and Jenaya's birthdays fall RIGHT after Camptime, they will be allowed to date a bit early.  Not much fun to have to wait till late July and early August when camptime is the first week of July lol.  The other kids won't have that problem.

Well, we are back to the pipes issues again.  Our toilet is plugged up again today.  The tub plugs up all the time and we still have a leaking pipe in our crawlspace which we hope to fix this week.  sigh....

Its been raining all day today and it got so dark in here I could hardly see for awhile!  Everyone is in slow motion around here and Michael and Larissa are not very energetic.

Jenaya fell off the towel bar she was swinging on at church Sunday and ended up with a concussion.  She's got a big egg on the back of her head, was throwing up and everything sigh... KIDS ... she was apparently doing that in the middle of the song service!!!!

We are trying to get on track with housework, laundry and school.  Right now the littles are being bathed and Michael's at the store.  Josh is watching the littles and Kyla-Dawn's doing laundry while Larissa and Jenaya fold laundry.  Josh's fish ran out of food and we fed them lettuce last night

Hello all

We really could use some prayer around here today and until Sunday night.  First of all, my hubby came into town last night and went to the Bigway to get some canned gravy (disgusting) to go with our pork loin dinner because I’d asked Michael to tend the meat and he assured me all was well but a cloud of smoke followed him into the living room so I rushed out in time to save the meat, but obviously there’d be NO gravy.  Derk shut his van off at the store, got the stuff and came back to find NOTHING.  Not a click, a whimper nothing.  It was simply DEAD.  He called me and I got him, we ate, (discovering he’d gotten one can of beef and one of chicken gravy lol) and then we rushed out to vote for our provincial election. 

Once done, we went driving around looking for Doug and found him finally back at home and then the men got Ray and went to look at the van.  It ended up getting towed to a friend’s shop here in town and today we got the news it’s the starter.  Luckily he will do the job with a post-dated cheque because if not, we’d be staying home from youth retreat!  Derk’s had to take my van in today so I’m stranded here, and have soooo much to do.  He’s got a shop van luckily so that’s a big relief.

WE stayed up late listening to the election and so everyone here overslept.  Luckily the fact that MIcahel was still sleeping and wouldn’t get up for me today at all, kept him home today so I actually am thankful for that.  He was absolutely SOAKED yesterday. 

Josh isn’t feeling well, neither is half my kids or husband.  I’m having breathing issues and I think its because of the fumes in this house.  All the rain is helping with the allergies OUTSIDE, but whatever is leaking into the basement or maybe the proper word here is POURING, is causing us tight throats, headaches, feeling yucky all over.  We’ve had the windows open constantly, pumped everything out too but we can’t keep up enough to get it fixed because we don’t have the parts.  We are going to have to pick up the part tonight and then pump it out and go fix it immediately.  I’m very concerned because it will be Michael or Josh who will go down there.  Derk can’t fit through the tiny crawlspace trap door, and is too big to walk down there.  Michael is still short and can stand up.  He also knows  how to fix it thanks to my father showing him when he put the pipes in.

The twins and Zach poured their raisin bran all over the table this morning while Jenaya watched and smeared it everywhere ever so quietly with me sitting around the corner working.  Luckily I caught that one quickly, but there was still a mess and I made Jaya clean it up.

I was working again, Josh was talking with me about the chore charts I am making in order to deal with the new issues that keep coming along... ie, the farm trips etc.  Kyla-Dawn had gone for the mail and Michael to the store when we discovered the twins and Zach were cracking eggs all over the kitchen floor.... 18 of them to be exact!  sigh... then two minutes later, while the kids were still cleaning THAT up, Jenaya who had gotten in major trouble for jumping on the air mattress yesterday, tattled on the twins who were now using it for a slide.  I went in there and discovered Ember had gotten the box of cereal and dumped the remainder of it all over their room!  sigh... eggs..... cereal..... yesterday it was pop.  I'm really getting tired of this.

The room they are sleeping in, isn't their own either because its for the two middle girls.  The littles are going to be sleeping in a little alcove off the living room.  How on earth can I keep them out of the fridge though is a major issue to me every day.  They are SO fast and silent!!! sigh.

Today is NOT going like yesterday that's for sure.  Its almost 1 pm already and we ate breakfast late.  No school going yet either sigh.  I'm working on this chart a bit longer and then chores will be done and we still are having school so if they think we aren't ... HA HA HA  GOOD LUCK

It is amazing how once things are under control how much more time is in the day and how much freedom everyone gets.  The house is back (almost) to its pre-moving in day of the church chairs and equipment.  It was only here 3 weeks, but it sure messed up our lives!

Doug came and got Michael and its pouring buckets.  His car is not working properly and I was worried about them getting stranded during the 20 minute drive to Ste. Elizabeth, so I sent my cell phone with Michael.  I sure do hope he doesn't lose it!!!

Just prior to Doug showing up, I'd decided since I'm following Large Family Logistics reminders and it was read aloud time, I'd do that.  A homeschooling friend whose kids are grown and graduated as of last year, dropped off a box of old children's books and I do mean OLD.  So I grabbed one and had it open ready to go, but the girls had trashed their room.  I told them what I'd been going to do and told them they had 15 minutes to clean up their mess.

I figured they would goof off so I went to the bathroom, hunted up my ICS Accounting course and opened it to study.  Just as I began reading my first page, Jenaya came to tel me their room was clean and her eyes were looking at me so longingly, I put aside the course and went with her to check her room.  They'd done an excellent job and even had poured me a coke and put it in their little fridge!  Well... that sure melted mama's heart and so I went and got the book, lit a candle that is I think... an apple custard one and put it in their room on their window sill after opening their window a bit.  So with fresh air filling the room with the wonderful scent of the candle, I began reading to them as we listened to the rain streaming down outside.  The girls were lying on their air mattress on the floor (their new bunks haven't arrived yet) and Larissa was still cleaning the litter box from the cats.

Suddenly Doug came and we had to stop reading so I could deal with him and Michael leaving.  Once they were gone, I went back to reading and Larissa got to join us.  It was cute seeing the four of them lying on that mattresss listening so intently.

Then Josh went outside to work on tearing down the old yucky shed and haul the pieces to the street because the town clean-up crew had parked their machines by our house and gone to the dump with the truck.  Now, they are back, loading up and its pouring soooooo hard out there poor people!

Our house is tidy, laundry is getting done, KD is upstairs studying and Zach's napping up there with her.  Our entire street is a flood of water at the moment.  I hope all is okay with Michael and Doug out there!  His farm is going to be a mud bath and Michael forgot his rain gear.

I am cooking pork chops and whipped potatoes for supper and I'm getting really hungry now just thinking about it.  Today's Derk's lighter day but he still had 60 stops and had to also unload one of his towns because he has to get home in time to vote tonight for our premier.

Well story time is over, and the junk is gone, kids are inside and its time for me to relax a bit.  I think though that Larissa and Josh need to do more school today since we have the extra time for it.

Its been quite a while since I last wrote in here!  Today for some reason my memory was jogged by an email with a blog listed on it and I decided it was time to update my own!

Let me see what's new.  There is SO much!

Zachary, is 18 months now, talking, walking and getting into soooo much mischief lol.  The problem is... he is SOOOO cute!  He also has recently acquired eczema which doesn't thrill me much at all.  This brings me to another development in our home. Joshua and Michael have been working almost every single day on a friend's farm and then coming home and not taking a bath before going to bed and Michael sleeps with Zach sooooo that could be where his problems lie.  Also, we mistakenly got TIDE with bleach, changed shampoos and something else happened too but I can't recall it right now.  All at the SAME time!

Today it is pouring buckets and last night we had a tornado watch but just got a fairly severe and extremely long (11 pm to 4 am) thunderstorm.

Our pipes have burst in the front half of our crawlspace or rather have come apart.  We have had to pump the crawl space out several times now and we can't get it dry enough to fix it!  We were hoping for tonight but, with all this weather.... its proably going to have water in there anyway! sigh...

We tore out all the ceiling and walls in the dining room and re-drywalled everything now its waiting for tape and mud.  We also installed a light too so that's a bonus!

We painted the one bedroom door mediterranean olive yesterday and then our stairs warm earth to match the kitchen's paint.  It looks SO much better than that cold shiny white paint they had on it when we moved in here.  Hard to believe that its been 3 years already!

Larissa turned 9 on Sunday.  I'm taking the three oldest to youth retreat on Friday and Derk's got to take care of the 5 little ones hee hee.

We are now in our new location on Main Street and had our first service there Sunday.  We've taped and mudded the places that needed patching but haven't painted yet.  We had too much work here to do.

Today, I taught two science classes, one math, KD did her biology on her own and the girls have done their piano so far.  I still want some mroe work out of some of them.  Joshua finished reading the first chapter of Tom Sawyer to me outloud.  HE reads an ebook off the puter screen and I print the pages out and circle missed words so we can work on them in spelling etc.  He was pretty impressed to have finished that first chapter!  So was I!!!!!

Gotta get everyone on track...

It is Friday already?  This week has flown by so fast I hardly know where it went!  Let's see... there was at least one job interview in there, schooling the kids, biblestudy and prayer meeting so I guess it made the week go faster.

Yesterday we had prayermeeting restarting it again after having to stop while I finshed my school so it was different.  It was freezing cold of course and the weathermen say another week of this!  I don't think I can TAKE another week of this!  My eczema on my arms is getting worse, my skin is super dry and everything shocks me because of my three feet of hair and then of course there's the frozen hot water pipes.... that's been a week today already!

Last night the one man who comes to church didn't show for prayermeeting and we didn't really expect he would.  However, he did show up at our house afterwards because apparently he WAS going to come and just got there really late.  He visited with my husband for awhile and then left for home.  We got to bed late and I was embarassed because the floors hadn't been mopped due to no hot water and there were a few other things that embarassed me. sigh... what's it going to take to keep this place looking perfect every second of the day?  Well.... perfect for a house of 10 that is...

Today, we got up and dealt with some laundry, the bedrooms and a few other things.  Everytime we wanted hot water, we lugged it by the bowl full from the laundry room (the actual washer) to the place we needed it.  Takes SO long to accomplish anything that way!

I revamped some schedules I'd done to make them more suitable to the way life has taken us now, and hung up clothes or folded them depending.  I threw some more clothes away today too, another half a garbage bag.  its hard to imagine that although we seem to have NO clothes, we have way too many!  Truth is, the kids are outgrowing them, wearing them out or whatever and sometimes people give us things but we don't like them, they don't fit, aren't modest enough etc and we don't know what to do with them.  I give most of those to MCC but the things I threw out today were just plain worn out.

I want to work on my Accounting yet today too.  Derk is going to be really late getting home today because his van wouldn't start this morning and they ended up taking mine and using one from the shop.  He had his long route today, lots of stops and then the late start.  Always something right?

I've been re-evaluating many things in my life recently.  How much time I spend working, how much preparing school or church work, how much time on the house, how much playtime with the little ones, just everything really.  I've decided that more time needs to be dedicated to the LORD and then the other things will fall into place and that's what I am aiming for this next week.  I have not forgotten the message from BOTT about getting to KNOW the Lord.  Its scary how many people THINK they know HIM because they have received the holyghost etc, lived for him and all of that, but I was trying to explain this to my children when I got back and here's my interpretation of it all.

Its cold out there again today but I think we are becoming used to it or something.  Actually its a bit warmer today (wind-chill is only -40C) and that's a blessing however little it is.

I just got home from dropping off books at the library and we are missing some so guess that means forking out some dough for those sigh... always something but we have changed the way we keep our books as in how long we keep them in the house, how many the kids can get out at one time, where the books are kept, and who can look at them and when.  That is until these little ones either get older and realize the importance of keeping the books good (an ongoing battle right now sigh).  It also should help that some of the renovation issues are solved and so things are getting as shoved around the house from room to room anymore.  At least till spring when we start up again anyway lol, but it shouldn't be as bad.

The menu plan I've made and posted on the fridge has been working quite well with a few modifications but still it was amazing last night when Derk called and said "So are we still having Spaghetti tonight?"  I didn't know and went to the menu to check.  Sure enough it was on the menu and Josh was already preparing the sauce!  I had piano lessons last night.

Tonight is sweet n' sour meatloaf, potatoes and veggies and I can't wait as its one of MY favorite meals although Kyla-Dawn isn't as impressed lol.  Maybe I should make some macaroni and cheese or something to go with it but then again... she should get used to eating things she doesn't like right?  I don't often give in and make a different thing for someone unless its one of those meals like liver and onions which I adore and half the family does not.  THEN its time to make an extra meat dish because we are actually double the size of a regular family but not when its just ONE person!

We are making lunch.  Its neat too because the kids are catching on to the menu deal since I posted it and they will go check whats for whatever meal.

Right now, the kids are putting stickers in a sticker book and all four little girls are working on the living room floor with Michael on that.  Hmmmm what would we say was schoolwork in this?  They are learning to follow instructions, about princesses as that is what the book's about, working together without arguing (well kind of lol) and  sharing.  THen there's art subjects such as placement, colors, and other things I can't even recall right now so I guess it counts

Josh is getting lunch going so there's home-ec, organization skills, and probably other things too in there.

Kyla-Dawn is off working with her dad learning the hard life of a courier, carring heavy boxes up to 100 lbs (hmmm GYM!!!) and doing lots of walking.  She also is being trained to use the scanner, do paper work, organize, polite behaviour to customers, and the list goes on and on.  Work ethics, getting up and to work on time, planning her day after work so she doesn't get behind in music lessons, theory or school work.

ME?  Well..... I did Accounting Part 2 during the past two days finishing my exam and entering my answers online late last night.  I got 95% after missing only one question.  That made me pretty happy.

Today I am working on Accounting Part 3, preparing school for these guys to start after lunch, playing with my little guy, errands, and email and blogging.  I have church work to work on later too and tonight is prayermeeting at 8 pm.

If you IM me and I'm not answering that's probably because I'm not in the room....I try to make me busy if I'm not going to be around to answer but sometimes the kids change that and it looks like i'm here but nopers... I'm not! lol

Well... time to deal with today's mail which wasn't much so that makes things easier.  I've set up a box just for the paper I've ripped up from the mail.  Because we have two boxes (church and home) we get double flyers and so I rip them up and just recycle them but its hard when there's nothing RIGHT THERE in the same room.  The box my camera came in makes a good box for this!  OHHHH that reminds me.... today's recycling day!

talk soon