and yes…my sweet son will probably look at this picture when I show him and crack up that he left an ‘m’ out of Mommy. He was rushing around doing this just before we left…I knew he was up to something just wasn’t sure what. Sneaky thing!!

(I can more understand the love of my heavenly father because of the amazing love of my earthly father!)

So I keep seeing this video on Facebook with this father smoking his cigarette, cussing, and supposedly ‘disciplining’ his child in regard to a mean post she posted on her Facebook about her parents.  If you are my friend on Facebook and you posted the video…I’m not talking directly to you….I had quite a few friends post it.

So hard for me to believe that my MaryKyle is TWELVE today!!  It’s tradition that her bedroom door be decorated so she could emerge this morning as a TWELVE year old!!  Mommy was having to do that late because MK had a tough time falling asleep last night.  First, last night she and a friend put on a delightful violin concert for us and we served desserts…which meant chocolate…which for MK means it’s tough to go to sleep (she’s not crazed just awake) , and then her brother had been telling her how much she’d LOVE her b’day present.  Which of course just tortured her.  So she was pretty pumped up and excited!!

(modeling her kindle coat and hat – over her PJ’s)

She did LOVE her Kindle!!  We had it preloaded with stuff like Austen, Dickens, and Shakespere.  Some of her favorites!!  She’s a total bookworm this daughter of ours just like her Aunts!  It’s a win win since Amazon has the classics free for Kindle!!!  Yay!!  She’s so pumped about having so many books at her fingertips.  I wasn’t so sure about Kindles and losing the beauty of a paper book and flipping pages.  But this child reads through books like I eat Junior Mints. We just can’t keep enough books in the house for her.

Next year at this time we’ll have a teenager, but that’s okay. As freaky as that sounds, I’m honored to be her mother and I am really enjoying watching her become a young lady.

When MK and JM were little we were always hearing comments in regards to their friendship like “enjoy it while it lasts before long they’ll be ready to kill each other, etc” But we’ve yet to see that happen.  These two love and appreciate each other.  They are close friends.  Yes they argue.  But not tons.  Even when they do, they maintain their friendship. In fact they get really sad when they are with friends who complain about their sibling/s. That doesn’t make sense to them and they talk about how much they are missing out on “if they only realized how great it is!”    Now Jeremiah has entered the picture…and our hearts melt even more.  They simply ADORE him.  Change diapers, pick him up when he’s sad, Love on him tons.  Today he had to get shots and they gave him tons of kisses as he and I left the house (Daddy was at home with the big kids so they could complete their schoolwork) and we were greeted as soon as the car was heard in the driveway brother and sister ready with kisses and love.   We pray for our kid’s relationship. Have from the time John Mark was born.  And we give God the praise and the glory for building such an amazing friendship among them.  We just could not be more thankful!!  It’s an absolute joy to watch them interact!

Today I learned of the loss of my wonderful Crohn’s Dr.

As my husband said it would be excessively hard for anyone to understand how sad this makes us.  How it changes things for me.  She knew me.  She knew my intestines.  I knew her practices, how she would treat me; that she wouldn’t pump meds into me without it being necessary, that she would not let me be on pain meds indefinitely…because she wouldn’t make me live with the pain without finding treatment.  I knew I could email her with any issues and I would get a prompt response.  I knew that if I went in to see her for an appt and didn’t take my kids I’d get fussed at and get the 3rd degree on what was going on in their lives.  We had sons together.  Mine by birth, her’s by heart….she went on a trip overseas, went to make a donation at an orphanage and walked out with a beautiful baby boy. With no idea what to feed him, how to transport him, etc.  I loved her stories, she loved to ask me for advice and ideas, etc.  We loved our kids and to talk about them!!  I loved this woman.  I loved the life she provided for me.  She was my advocate.  She let me be an active part in my treatments, she made sure MY voice was heard…

She thought outside the box.  When I’d worked through every medication available in the US to no avail at one point in my battle, she knew  of a drug that the FDA hadn’t gotten to market yet and put me in touch with a pharmacy in Canada that had it.

Then, when I was past all drug options and needed surgery, the surgeon she wanted to oversee my surgery did not want to take on my complicated case.  She persisted.  She would only consider 3 surgeons in the country to perform my surgery and he was her top choice and she would not give up.  Eventually, with her constant prodding, he conceded to meet with my husband and me and thankfully then agreed to take my case.   I’m so thankful because he was close to home and the others would not have been.  She knew what my kids do for me and not having them close would have been horrid.

You don’t realize what a blessing a Dr that truly listens to you and knows you and has your entire case history in her files (and brain) is…til you don’t have that.  Knowing that I don’t have her at the end of my email is devastating to me.  Because I’ve been so healthy for so long now our contact has been minimal the last 5-6 years.  My last email exchange was 2 years ago and she was out on leave.  I had an appt with her, but wasn’t sure I could make it til she was back so I’d asked her advice in case and actually told her in that email exchange how much I appreciated her & I asked her recommendation of someone, just in case I couldn’t wait.  I was so thank ful to see that this morning. To know that I’d told her how awesome she is.  Even though I know I did a few months after that when I did see her (I was able to make it til my appt) when she was back from her leave.  I always did.

I feel like I owe her my health.  My ability to be what I am now.  To be the Mommy I am, the wife I am, to be a foster Mommy, to travel to Honduras, to eat.  Yes that’s right, even to eat.  Most that know me now that didn’t know me then don’t realize how I know what a blessing just putting solid food in my mouth is.  But I do.  And I give thanks to God for providing me a wonderful, gifted, caring Dr like Dr Sitaraman that helped me  see the blessings in my life that I took so for granted.

I don’t talk about my Crohn’s disease very much.  Not because it bothers me to, not at all, only because I never want it to define who I am.  It didn’t at my sickest and it will not going forward.  God blessed me when he brought Dr Sitaraman into my life.  He knew we were a good match, that she would not want it to define me as much as I was adamant that it wouldn’t.  He knew she would fight for my body’s health not just to be able to document my case, but because she cared about ME!!  I wish I could thank her one more time……I hope she knew how much of a difference she made in the LIVES of so many!!

18 bags of marshmallows later (I can’t remember how many boxes of Rice Krispies), and now you can see the groom’s cake I made a couple of weeks ago. So totally fun and one cake I’d be willing to do over and over. I know I know I’m still in need of Disney info updating, but keeping up with everyone’s schedules around here seems to be a full time job the last couple of weeks since we’ve been home from “Mouseland.”

Hopefully later today I’ll be able to type it up!

 yes…if you’ve never been you need an itinerary or you might miss something.  Doesn’t mean you have to be completely anal about it, but if you walk in without a plan you’ll be kicking yourself later and no I’m by far NOT a type “A” personality …many call me a ‘type Z’ because I’m SOOO not an itinerary type girl like EVER…except now for Disney (my sister would have been so proud!!).  So here’s some parts of our plan because a lot of people have asked.  First off we booked just through Disney and because it was an off season week we got our meal plan for ‘free’ (is anything REALLY free?) because we were staying at a Disney resort BUT we found that deal one night, & it was gone the next day.  Hubby called Disney (always call to see if they can offer you any better than online) but they couldn’t offer us that deal, he then did a live chat online with a Disney person and they sent him the link for that deal so we could still get it!!  YAY!!! Our plan consisted of 1 snack, one counter service (aka fast-food) and one table service (finer dining requiring reservations, cloth napkins, more than one fork…and no plastic…) meal a day.  You get that for each night you book at the hotel.  We had 3 nights booked with 4 days of park tickets so we had 3 days of meal plan. And let me tell you we had NO trouble making that stretch to 4 days of food.  None!  Oh my the amount of food is insane!  Plus snacks can be huge if you play it right too!!  One thing Disney does NOT do is scrimp on the portion sizes!!!   So here’s the start of our Mousey fun….

Monday:  Drive to Orlando stay at a Hampton Inn and Suites 4 miles from the park (have I ever mentioned how much I love trips with my family.  We have never owned a car DVD player and we don’t take loads of toys.  Books & books on “tape” for all of us to listen to yes, but other than that it’s just chatting, singing and hanging out…and I LOVE it!!  We’ve done that since they were born and I truly am so thankful.  I just adore the time.  My favorite…listening to my kids playing together using their wild imaginations just hanging out together Oh my…the joy it brings to their Daddy and me!!! We just look at each other from our seats up front and grin from ear to ear!)  Took us about 12 hours with the baby, and stopping for meals (we chose to do places like Olive Garden for meals instead of fast food to give everyone good breaks. Mainly the baby!)

Tuesday:   Wake up, enjoy a big continental b’fast at the Hampton Inn (they even have Mickey Waffles!!)

• arrive at our resort on Disney property around 8am and finish the check-in process (you can start it online before  you leave home) and find our room is actually already ready for us.   We chose to stay at the All Star Music Resort. After looking at all of the nicer resorts and being tempted by things like overlooking the safari area of Animal Kingdom, etc we decided to go with the All Star Music because they had 2 room/2 bathroom suites.  I’ll tell you more about that later.  But we were pleased with our decision and the kids loved it!  Plus we had our own TV, etc to watch after the kids were sound asleep in our own room (with a DOOR!!)

• Hop on the resort bus to Magic Kingdom.  We planned to bus to Magic Kingdom even due to the mixed reviews of the speed of the buses because even if it was slow, the parking lot at Magic Kingdom is far away so it’s fastest to just ride the bus there. But, no problem, the bus was waiting on us and we hopped right on and off we went to begin our fun!

• We were thrilled to learn that most all the rides in Magic Kingdom were baby friendly.  We were also pleasantly surprised that we didn’t have to wait for hardly ANY rides.  First off the crowds were ‘light’ (remember we went an off week…the joys of homeschooling!).  Second we were baffled why everyone wasn’t using the fast pass option. It was a breeze.  So here’s what we would do.  Because we had a baby Hubby would go get a fast pass.  He and the big kids would use the fast pass to ride a ride and as they got in line they’d ask for a rider switch pass.  They’d ride the ride and then, because we have a baby, the kids would then come back to me I’d pass the baby to hubby and then the kids and I would ride the ride, walking through the fast pass line again.  Disney does the rider switch for anyone with a child too small to ride so that each parent can experience the rides without standing in any long lines a couple of times.  Our kids LOVED the perk of going with a baby brother because it meant riding a ride twice just walking right up between the fast pass and the rider switch pass!!  RULE OF THUMB…FASTPASS PEOPLE!!  FAST PASS..it’s easy as can be and makes no sense whatsoever not to!!

• Ride lots of rides (longest ride wait the entire trip was here at Magic Kingdom for Splash Mountain…17 min and that included a long walk to get to the ride turnstiles, etc)

• Eat lunch at Cosmic Rays:  We used 3 counter service meals (doh…should have just used 2).  We got 3 half chicken and rib plates.  It was TONS of food, kids nor I could eat it all, had to throw some away!!  The drink that comes with the meal is plenty large enough for my kids to share!!  PLENTY!!  The Light Pomegranate Lemonade was a hit by the way for a drink. Yum!!  Anyway the plate is half a rotisserie chicken, a small rack of ribs, and mashed potatoes and green beans.  Then we got sugar free mango gelato for dessert (It was quite yummy!!!).  There is a big island for sides that has lettuce, sauteed onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, bbq sauce, honey mustard, etc.  My kids both love to just eat lettuce so I got them some of that for a side too (no dressing they find dressing gross)

• After a day of fun we headed back to the hotel around 7pm to get cleaned up for our dinner reservations

• Dinner reservations at Kona at the Polynesian Resort (we’d really wanted them for Ohana, but you must decide to go to Disney long before a month before to get reservations there…plan ahead if you want somewhere like that…but I’m type Z and really didn’t care and we’d just decided on a whim to head to Disney afterall).  I got the Shrimp and Scallops, Hubby got the Ginger Crusted Ribeye and the kids got Pan-Asian noodles with shrimp that they shared & were PLENTY filled up (as in neither fully finished theirs)!!! We all really enjoyed our dinners!!  For Dessert the kids got the “Kona Cone” (OH MY!) and hubby and I shared the Kilauea torte (fair) and the Chocolate banana Creme Brulee (YUM!!)
• Back to the hotel to CRASH (no energy or time to swim tonight)

The other day for our tea party the kids requested a cobbler my Mom had made when they were spending the night at her house recently.  They kept exclaiming that it was “DELICIOUS!”  So I had to try it of course!

After hubby’s first bite he declared it “The best cobbler I’ve ever had!”  Which is saying a lot since we love cobblers of all kinds and recipes around here, but it is SOOO good!!  And even better this recipe only makes a small cobbler.  Yes that’s good…good for the hips and tummy still in ‘recovery mode’ from pregnancy!

The Berry BEST Blueberry Cobbler

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1 teaspoon melted butter
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

 Preparation:In a saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch, stir in water. Bring to a boil; stirring constantly, boil for 1 minute. Add blueberries. Pour blueberry mixture into a lightly buttered 1 1/2-quart baking dish or 9-inch pie plate. Sprinkle with cinnamon and drizzle with 1 teaspoon melted butter.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Pour milk and 3 tablespoons melted butter into a measuring cup; add to flour mixture all at once. Stir just until mixture is moistened and forms a ball. Drop spoonfuls onto the blueberries. Bake at 425° for 25 to 30 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Serves 6.

please excuse the vicious very yellow toned pictures…ick!  Poor camera had yellow tone overload.

It was back to school tea party evening at our house last night.

On the Menu all by request

(in other words it doesn’t all ‘go’ together, but who cares?):

Ham and Cheese Quiche
Blue Berry Scones w/lemon curd
Fresh Fruit
Coffee/tea/water

Fresh blueberry cobbler with vanilla yogurt

And then this morning….it was back to school!  I’d be singing the Grease lyrics except we go to CC  so instead I have all sorts of songs about Columbus, infinitives, the Scientific Method, etc stuck in my head.  Pretty sure I might burst into song in my sleep tonight.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,” Colossians 3:23

Come on now homeschoolers you KNOW you have stuff you bought, you thought looked awesome but you never made time for. If you don’t…well…quite frankly I don’t believe you. I’m pretty sure I’m a book and curriculum NUT. I’m getting better (Hello my name is Rachel and I’m a curriculum/supplement addict),but my resolve still weakens now and then (just perhaps in smaller dollar amounts). But I’ve found that I don’t feel so guilty if we don’t touch something if I
A) buy it used or
B) pass it on to bless someone else when I realize it’s just sitting around.
Used book sales are a homeschoolers dreamland. Oh I just get gleeful thinking about it. My sister is blessed…(or is it cursed…hmmm) to have an amazing library used book sale once a month in her town with lots of libraries worth of books sent in for it. OH MY!!
Did you just get jealous too…I know I know!
But see those encyclopedias? I do benefit.
And out of the picture are some A-MAZING Art history books and Science reference books that my fab-u-lous brother in law picked up for us at their sale too!! Yep it has perks to have ‘people’ with ‘connections’ to such a sale!! Meaning that they HAVE such a sale, because in my town we barely have what I can call a real library so having a big library sale…yeah, not so much.

let’s pause for a small pity party…………….

okay now moving on

I am blessed with a WONDERFUL homeschool group that holds a huge used curriculum, book, etc sale every year. Went to that for the first time this past May and oh oh OH so exciting. I’m surprised there wasn’t a triage corner for those of us that just got so excited and overwhelmed we nearly hyperventilated! Books, tapes, instruments, books, manipulatives, books, games, books…..LOTS!! So fun!! Can you beat getting an entire year’s Math curriculum (tests, workbook, textbook, etc etc) for Twenty Smackeroos??!! well actually, had I gotten there earlier I could have because that was one of the higher priced sets…oh yeah it’s true (did you just hyperventilate a little too). And did I mention a FREE section where people just wanted to bless others so I got lots of fun reference books from that – no I didn’t just throw myself on the free tables and yell “MINE! I call it all!!” I do have SOME will power. I only smacked around and did tug-of-war with one little curly headed blonde bow headed girl…hmmm do you wonder if I’m joking. So maybe I didn’t.

So check out your area. And if you don’t have such things, maybe you can help get it started (or ask your sister she might have it and be withholding information from you)! Look around and see what’s on your shelves, in some boxes, shoved under beds, in the back of your closets (admit it you know you’ve got it…we all do) that you aren’t using and let it bless someone else!! I’ve been blessed by someone doing this for me. It was like Christmas!! Have you? What’s your greatest used book find yet? What would be a “YEEEE HAAAWWWWW” find for you? You know, that you’d be willing to fling yourself wildly over to claim if you found used for a fraction of the cost?

As I start my school year this year my hope is that I won’t hoard, that I will swallow hard and let some stuff go because what might be collecting dust on my shelf might just be that item someone else might just wildly fling themselves on and quite frankly that would be lots of fun to see!!