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Y'all, we've been sick. And sick, and sick some more.

Just when we thought we were kicking the bug, Fred tested positive for flu...and passed it right along to My Girl and Little Lad. The rest of us are feeling much better, thankfully, but our family isn't out of the woods yet.

We've spent the last two weeks quarantined.

Watching movies, reading books, playing games...

building replicas of Our Small Town...

playing more games...

and MORE games...

drawing...

painting...

and FINALLY I was able to leave the house with friends (and sisters!) yesterday!

While I wouldn't repeat the sicknesses, given the choice, it really was special to have so much uninterrupted, quantity and quality time with the kids. I don't think we've ever played so many games or read so many stories in succession!

pox party

Oh, yes, I absolutely did. We had a mini-Pox Party last week, complete with shared suckers, bowls of M&Ms, playdough, and Twister. I share my germs, by request. Don't judge me. ;)
I missed getting pictures of several families... there were quite a few more little kids running around. We may be quarantined from "the rest of the world" but there are plenty of folks who still want to party with us, and plenty who've already had it and don't mind my kids' germs. :)

Plus you can see my newly painted peachy wall and white tree. Love it.


The pox boys.
Yes, there's a card game falling out of my LittleLad's pants. What can I say?


You can see that it didn't slow them down much.
Dash hams it up for the camera, barely missing the perfect bicep pose.


It looks like My ArtistGirl may miss the pox...again. We'll take her in this week for a blood test to see if she's immune. If not, it's booster time. Sorry, honeychild.

Fine Print: I'm not taking opinions on this. We do what works for our family, and you do what works for yours. If you don't have something nice to say, then don't say anything at all. When it comes to my family, I rarely take unsolicited advice. ;)

Recovering. In Pictures.

My Mouth: On my birthday, just yesterday, the pain was too great to eat my favorite things: pies, poppyseed muffins, banana bread. So they are all waiting for me to recover.
I had the afflicted, infected wisdom tooth removed this morning. So forgive me if this post is weird, written by a drugged-up woman.

Our Town: this may go down as the 1000-year flood. There were water rescues, flooded homes, closed roads, and bridges washed away. We're fine, but others are not. Our town and the surrounding ones will take awhile to recover.

My "Baby": Still the only one with pox, he's getting a lot of cuddling. And screen time. All the rain, all the spots leads to many movies.Plus I was too distracted by pain to plan hands-on activities. Oh, well. Sometimes movie marathons are the only way to get through it.

My Garden: most things survived the storms. Lettuce, potatoes, beans are doing great, coming up everywhere. My peonies, thankfully, had not yet bloomed, and therefore were not destroyed by the hail and high winds & waters.

We're all in recovery mode. Waiting, watching, praying...thankful that we are recovering.

Update in pictures

Awesome photo shoot with my dear hilarious friend Amber and her family:
Lovin' those dirty knees

Two days later, the youngest of my four broke out in chicken pox:

Once-a-life illness, and I'm trying to make it memorable. We're eating spotted foods (think watermelon, yogurt with blueberries, etc) and wearing spotted clothes.

This week we'll have a Pox Party.

And last night, tornado watch & then warnings, severe storms, sirens going off and on, kids in and out of the hallway, covered by a mattress... finally outside to behold the sky.

My Jedi obviously scared the storm away.

And the crazy beautiful sunset clouds last night.

Today's agenda, while the storms rage on:

Craft, Paint, Read, watch family movies, and spend time in prayer.

This day is heavy with hope, anticipation, sadness, longing...

On Easter, Jesus defeated death

and saved us.

just swimmy

Okay, so I'm tired. My body is playing silly tricks on me, with all the lightheadedness and whatnot. My energy level is up and down, crazy-high and then pass-out low. I mean, really? This is ridiculous. And, no, I haven't gone to the doctor. Go ahead and tell me that I should. I know. But I'm busy, you see. Too many activities planned, places to go, school to teach. Who has time to spend half the day at the clinic? Then again, when I stand up and almost fall over, maybe it's time to get some blood work done? I need to bring my NatureMan in tomorrow anyway for a once-over, after a rough-and-tumble knees-hitting-chest accident, involving his brothers and Daddy. Males.

I'm tired. And I can't do the things I want tonight; I'm all lightheaded and whatnot. I want to make guacamole and then eat chips with it. The extra salt should help with the super low blood pressure... and I just like guacamole, so any excuse is good enough to eat it. But I don't want to stand up to make it. Ugh. Kitchen floor, here I come.

...and, by the way, I did jump on the trampoline, totally clean my house, and go grocery shopping today (energy-high).... just started getting ill (energy-low) again on the way home.

So, if you'd be so inclined, pray that when I do go in, it'll be a minor little thing, like simply Hypotension...and they'll tell me to eat more chips.

Sputter, sputter, sniff, sniff

I'm Back.

Breathing. Or trying to. I'm congested and my voice is gone. Phooey. Do you have any idea how hard it is to call four kids to the table with no voice? I've resorted to whistling.

It's been -weeks- since I posted. What a slacker.

Here's "what's up," in wonderfully random order.

~Craft Workshop~

The boys, making slime at our homeschool Christmas craft workshop. The whole thing was great!! Kids made homemade hot chocolate packets, sock dolls, marshmallow blowers, bath scrubs, rag dolls, etc etc. Very well done.

Kids with their friends, after the workshop. We had some face painting fun! I let each of the kids decide how their make-up and/or face paint would be designed.

~Knitting~

Fred's grandma taught me how when we were over there last time. I got pretty excited about it, and Fred went out and bought me a loom set and yarn the next day. That night I knit this hat, while we watched a movie.

I have such good-looking little models.

~In-Laws~

These pictures were taken at Fred's uncle's house. Of course.
At my parents house, you'll see the kids drawing, watching animal documentaries, and playing chess. At my in-laws', they are more likely to be riding four-wheelers, playing football, watching TV, or climbing inside furnaces. The best of both worlds, I guess. ;-)

~My own "little" family~

Pics of the fam that my sis took here in town, before our Thanksgiving meal at Mom and Dad's. Thanks, Julie.
No, my Nature Man does not own a white dress shirt. And, no, the Artist is not wearing red fluffy slippers. Those are the ruffles at the end of her pants.

~Last Day of Co-op Classes~

The kids loved all of their co-op classes this semester. We're excited to be participating in even more classes next semester.

~Hats~
(yes, it does get its own category!)

I've been a hat-making machine in the evenings. The kids help me design them, and I whip 'em up. Can you guess what my nieces and nephews are getting for Christmas?

Another beautiful model child.
I'll say what my Dad always said to us,
"I'm so blessed to have children that are not only intelligent but also very beautiful."

Lovely face, Nature Man. Just lovely.


~Discovery Zone Field Trip~

Examining and Identifying rocks and shells.

The Artist and my Mom looking through books. So nice to have my folks nearby. They often attend our field trips with us. :-)

Studying about Arkansas rivers.

~Kiddy Nature Walk and Pinecone Glittering~

First, the nature walk to gather necessary supplies! We left when Dash fell in the water. Brrr...

Check out the awesome humongous leaf that Little Lad is holding, above.

Dash went a little glitter-crazy.

~Birthday Bash and Game Night with friends~

Good food, fun people, hilarious games. Great times!

Now you're pretty much caught up on the "good stuff." We've had some challenges, sickness, vehicle problems, and other "unpleasants." Just so you know. Because we aren't perfect. Life has challenges. All in all, I see good things happening. We are SO blessed, and we know it.