Warmth of Fire and of Heart

There is almost nothing better than a nice warm fire rumbling away in the fireplace. Wood heat has the most inviting look, feel, smell and sound. When I was growing up we always had wood heat and I remember laying in front of the fire on the living room floor reading a book or drinking a mug of tea. One of my favorite memories is when Dad had finished building a nice hot fire he would sometimes stretch out on the floor and watch it for a while. Somehow it always made me feel safe when I heard the squeak of the hinges on the fireplace door in the middle of the night and I knew Dad was up adding wood to the fire. One of the first nights after Tim and I got our woodstove last fall I woke to that sound and I thought I was at home (The house I lived in before we got married) and Dad was adding a log to the fire, it wasn't till Tim crawled back in bed that I realized I was not 18 and time had not stood still.

I love my Daddy

Ohhh...here it comes, here it comes, lots of kisses from Daddy.

I like it when Daddy is on diaper duty. He makes way funnier faces than Momma.

James is growing into a little man. Now that he is feeling good its so fun to watch him develop and change. He is getting really strong. He holds his head up when he is on his tummy and props himself up on his forearms, enjoying watching the world around him. He grins a lot and he's pretty free with them too, he already talks to strangers. (I have my work cut out for me)
On Wednesday he had blood drawn for an allergy test. It had to be sent to a specialist so it will take a few days to get the results. For now he is on a formula (Alimentum) for babies with food allergies and protein sensitivities. He is doing great on this stuff, but hopefully after the allergy test results we can get back to breast feeding. I can't help but think that's the way God intended it and if I just persevere it will work yet. If nothing else this whole elimination diet has been a great way to lose the baby weight, only a few lbs to go. Not being able to eat any dairy, eggs, peanuts, and soy really cuts out a lot of foods, but at least I get to eat veggies again.
Last night Mom and I ate at McDonalds and I wanted t eat something other that a salad so I asked what kind of oil their fries were fried in and if their hamburger buns had any dairy, soy, or egg in them. Not one of the employees in the entire establishment could answer my question. You would think that there would be an ingredients list somewhere...maybe even on the packaging. The girl trotted back over to us after speaking with the manager and handed us a pamphlet saying that we could call the # on the front to find out anything we needed to. Fairly frustrated I asked if it was a 24 hr. # and she looked blankly at me and assured me that it was. I think her navy blue visor was velcroed too tight because, no, it was not a 24 hr. #. I'm just glad I don't have a deathly allergy because with all the incompetency in the world I am sure I would be dead.

Happy, Happy Birthday Brudder

Hey Aaron, Have the happiest birthday ever. Go out for desert and get a ridiculously expensive desert wine. :) :Love you When I grow up I want to be just like you.

The Bobbsey Twins

When I was a child I was an avid reader. Now mind you just because I read a lot does not mean it was real brain food, but I was very young. How many of you have read the Bobbsey Twins? My siblings and I LOVED them. We started out reading the Bobbsey Twins and moved on to read Nancy Drew, Aaron of course read The Hardy Boys not Nancy Drew. The Four Leaf Clover Mystery was one of my favorite Bobbsey Twin mysteries; if I remember right there is something about a secret passage in a colonial house that intrigued me. What is it about these books that enthrall children? Maybe it’s the idea that we could be these children in the book. What's more exciting than solving a mystery? It may even make us a little more adult. I mean if Fred, Nan, Flossy, and Freddie can do it I'm sure that I could.

When I was looking for this picture on the internet I found a very interesting article about the writing of the books. It’s amazing how I read seventy-something books and never knew these things. The following is some history on the Bobbsey Twins I found fascinating.

In the first place, there never was a "Laura Lee Hope." The Bobbsey Twins were created in 1904 by Edward Stratemeyer. One of dozens of juvenile series that Stratemeyer created and managed, the Bobbseys, along with Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Tom Swift are among the best known of childrens' book characters. Using the pseudonym "Laura Lee Hope," Legend says that Stratemeyer wrote the first three books himself, then hired ghost writers to write the remaining books, often from outlines he prepared. Newer information tells us that he probably only wrote the first book. Careful reading of the first three will suggest that, as the style in the first book is quite different from the others. (For more details on who really wrote each of the 72 books, see James Keeline's article on the subject.) On Stratemeyer's death in 1930, his daughter Harriet Stratemeyer Adams took over the Stratemeyer Syndicate.

The first series of books written/produced by Stratemeyer was The Rover Boys, written under the pseudonym of Arthur M. Winfield. There were 30 volumes, written between 1899 and 1926. The Bobbsey Twins series was next, and is the oldest "surviving" series, extending to 72 volumes,written between 1904 and 1979. Tom Swift,attributed to Victor Appleton, began in 1910 and there were 40 volumes before the series ended in 1941.(There was also a Tom Swift, Jr. series, by Victor Appleton II.) The Hardy Boys (Franklin W. Dixon, 85 volumes from 1927 to 1985) and Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene, 78 volumes from 1930 to 1985) are the other best-known Stratemeyer books.
This came from:
http://pw2.netcom.com/~drmike99/aboutbobbsey.html


Who knew?

Have Fun!

Have fun this weekend Aaron. You deserve the break. Do you recognise the horse in the pic? Hint: We (you, Kryna, and myself) saw him retire last time we went to the Nationals. Love you tons.

The Pacifier

We have been working very hard to get James to fall in love with his pacifier. No one was more determined in this plan than Grandma R. She kept telling me what a blessing they are and that I would be glad that I had made the effort. James was not convinced and would half heartedly suck on his binky only when it was being held in place by one of his doting caregivers. Since I have been experimenting with formulas recently (its working, so now we know that his "colic" is some sort of food sensitivity. We'll try nursing again soon, I'm not ready to give up) his sucking needs have been grossly unfullfilled. So now it was time to get down and dirty. I went to the store today and bought four differant kinds of pacifiers; this is in addition to the kind he had already tried. I took the pacifiers along with us to visit G&G R. at War Eagle and confered with Mom about which to try first. This was her answer: "Well these are the kind I used with Aaron, and as much as he seems to be like Aaron why don't you start with those." Ok, lets try those. Well what do you know he seems quite satisfied to suck on this paci all on his own. Its just a little scary. Do they have Latin and Greek Little Golden books. Maybe I can get a kiddie version of the Iliad. I might as well get a jump on it. :) Be proud my Brudder, be proud.

Has Anyone Seen My Coat?

Its recently gotten a bit nippy here, enough so to need some sort of jacket or coat. I went to the coat tree to find my winter coat...not there. I trotted off to the closet...not there. Back to the coat tree I went...still not there. I actually (I kid you not) went back to the closet...still no coat(amazingly enough). So now I have looked high and low for this thing and have still not found it. This is the coat I have had since I was fourteen years old. This past winter I decided that I needed to have it dry cleaned, but never did get around to it. Unless I did and that's why I can't find it. It was my favorite coat ever, I planned to wear it till I needed to patch the elbows and then wear it some more. Its black with white stripes in a check pattern, (if that makes any sense) made of wool with toggles instead of buttons, and it has two big square pockets with flaps over the openings. One of the pockets has all the tickets from every movie and concert I have been to while wearig it and the other has the melted remainder of a piece of candy I stored in it a few years back with an earing embeded into it. I told you it needed to be dry cleaned. Anyways it looks like if I don't find it soon I am going to have to start bonding with a new coat. I guess most all things come to an end sooner or later.

The World As It Is

You know I love my house, but sometimes it seems like we are living here.

Today we are having the most beautiful rain...right in the living room. There is almost nothing worse than a leaky roof. How do you find the exact spot its leaking. You have to fix it right away, its not like you can just pretend that you installed a waterfall in the cieling. At least this time its only in one spot and its not pouring in every seam of two rooms. If you have a sound house that stays dry give your family a hug and thank the Lord.

Kicky Time

Its fall and the perfect thing to do in the fall is to bake an apple pie (but please don’t wait for fall). So here I am with my pie roasting in the oven. I am feeling particularly giving today so I am going to share my apple pie recipe with all of you. For those of you who know and love me you know this is a big step for me. I rarely share recipes, which is actually quite unfair because I get them from others all the time. Anyway I think this is the best apple pie ever. Make one and delight in the blessing God gave us in the form of an apple.

7 c. thinly sliced apples (peeled)
2 T. lemon juice
1 c. sugar
¼ c. flour
1 t. cinnamon
¼ t. salt
1/8 t. nutmeg
2 T. butter
2 pie crusts
1 egg yolk beaten

Place apples in large zip-lock. Shake with lemon juice. Mix all dry ingredients. Add to apple mixture & shake. Pour apples into pie crust. Cut butter on top of apples. Cover with second crust. Brush top of pie crust with egg yolk & slit with knife. Bake at 400* for 15 min. reduce heat to 350* bake for 30-45 min.
Sometimes with all of the juice from the apples the bottom crust is just a little underdone so to avoid this I bake it for just a couple of min. before I fill it (do not bake it entirely).

Ok happy baking and happy fall.

Adventures of two young Mommas

Tomorrow Sonja and I are packing up our broods and heading to Branson for some fun. Sonja's husband Frank is out of town for the weekend so she called me with the brilliant plan to get out for a couple of days. With Tim working nights I don't even feel guilty. We are headed to Silver Dollar City (a theme park with lots of rides, shops, etc.) tomorrow, then we are staying over night and hitting the outlets on Friday. Fun, Fun, Fun. I'm such a nerd, I feel like a schoolgirl I am so excited. What can I say, maybe I just have cabin fever from having a colicky baby (who by the way is leaps and bounds better).

This is what we hope does not happen. :)

A Family Afair

Our second family photo.

Four generations.

Who looks the most proud?

James and Great Grandma and Grandpa Altena (Grandma R's parrents).

What a great place to nap.

Its amazing what all happens while you are sleeping.

James the Baptized

There’s so much to blog about and so little time.
Our son was baptized yesterday and everything went off with nary a hitch. He only fussed minimally during the babptism. Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Altena came to watch the baptism and visit the little tyke. If I’m not mistaken I think he may have made a special bond with Great Grandma. He thought he could get used to that napping on her chest business.
After baptism we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa R’s house for dinner and to visit before the evening service. I laid James down for a nap and very shortly a series of squawks and gurgles could be heard from his room. I had decided he was fine and could sort his problem out on his own, but this was not satisfactory to Great Grandma and Grandpa R. The louder James got the more dismayed Great Grandma looked and soon Grandpa R. got up from his spot on the couch, heading for the bedroom he announced, “I’ll just go put his binky back in”. I shook my head and assured him it was not necessary. This decision was not met with enthusiasm. After James’ crying momentarily lapsed I went in to settle him; more to ease the minds of those in the living room than for his benefit. Later that evening Dad comes up to me and says, “Once you decide to let him cry you’ll have to just let him and not give in.” I smiled thinking “I gave into you and Grandma A. not James.”  I love it. It’s a whole other side I’ve never seen in my father. Love you Dad.

This morning James visited his pediatrician. We had a nice long talk about colicky babies and the like. He assured me that if there was a nice thing about colicky babies was that it ends usually at 2 months and if not 2 months then 3. The last three days have been much better any way. He still cries from about 6pm-9:30pm, but this is much better than all day. Tomorrow he has an appointment with a Chiropractor so we’ll see if that helps. I’ve heard that it does wonders, and who wouldn’t need to see one after what they have to go through to get into this world. I’d be crabby too.

A great big congratulations to Frank and Sonja Gregg as well as Ryan and Mandi Butler. Frank and Sonja are expecting their third child in June and Ryan and Mandi are expecting their first child in May. We are proud as punch for you and pray all goes well. You are all very blessed.

For some reason I am not able to upload any pictures right now so I promise that I will try to add some this evening. ToodleDoo

Baptism

Tomorrow our Sweet Baby James is to be baptized. Its exciting and solemn at the same time. What an amazing task is before us. I already realized that we had an imeasurable responsiblity, but tomorrow makes it very real. I pray several times a day that God will help me to be a good mother and help me to raise James unto Him, but its never enough. Children are a huge responsibity, but an unimaginable blessing. I hope the little tiger is feeling well for it. He had a good day today so lets hope tomorrow is too.

Sorry

I had no intention of posting giberish. It looked fine on my computer and I still have no idea what happened. I've tried to fix it several times but its hard for me to tell if it is fixed since mine does not show the problem. I hope this fixes it.

Extravagance

Yesterday Mom took me to get my hair cut, colored, and styled. I was well overdue; it had been almost two years since I had been to a stylist. While I was being pampered she took care of James. Nothing makes you feel more like a woman than getting your hair done. Being pretty may not be important but feeling pretty is. Every woman should feel pretty; I have long been a firm believer that external beauty is a state of mind. So yesterday I was able to sit in a chair and chat about absolutely nothing while I got enough foil weaved through my hair to communicate with those in the space station. The girl who cut it is one of those really sweet local girls. You know the kind, as sweet as honeysuckle but has never been out; by out I mean away to see life other than that of the everyday humdrum of Hometown America. Recently Harrison has been blessed with its very own coffee house, Uncommon Grounds. Mom and I were talking to the stylist about our visit to it and mentioned that it was quite good and even boasted some of the usual conveniences a coffee house should...internet access etc. The only thing we found odd was the crowd sipping the highly caffeinated beverages. We mentioned that they were not your average coffee house crowd. To these observations she replied, "Oh that makes me feel better. I was afraid to go because I thought maybe they would be judging me because I wasn't reading poetry or something. It’s a nice concept that they have internet, but I just really don't know anyone who could just whip out a laptop. Maybe some business people who are traveling through could use it. That would be nice, I'm sure they could use a break." Mom and I grinned and agreed that "yes, we're sure it will be nice for those business people." There's nothing like living in a small town, I love every quaint moment of it.

World Peace (or so it seems)

Things have settled in Babyville remarkably. Saturday night Tim and I packed our bags and headed for the hills (Grandma and Grandpa R's hills to be specific). I had run out of pretty much all sanity. For the next two nights G&G babysat James through the nights only waking me to feed him. Oh sweet sleep. Sunday he seemed to be showing signs of improvement with momentary relapses. Monday he was almost completely back to my Sweet Baby James although he still has fussy time at night before bedtime. His feedings have to be carefully monitored or be gets tummy aches. As a rule scheduled feeding seemed like a bad idea, but after much trial and error this has proved to work best for our tiny tot for the moment. If he eats too much milk at a time or too often his tummy starts to hurt and there is nothing Momma or any other soul can do to help.
Yesterday he smiled as a reaction to another person for the first time. It was a monumentus occasion and his efforts were met by many squeals of delight. Auntie K. even got to see it on Skype. It’s the cutest open mouth grin I've ever seen. Then again I am his Momma so what do you expect? Momma may feed him, Daddy is always there for him, Grandpa communicates with him on levels usually reserved for squirrels, but he smiled first at Grandma.