The Adventures of the Reese's Pieces Gang

Yesterday Nathan, who is 6 years old, and I went into town to run some errands. We drove past a field that had been recently manured. He took a deep breath and said, "Ahhhh! Mama, do you you like that smell? I love that smell cause I'm a country boy!"

I laughed and laughed! Hope you will too!!

Have a great day!

What happens when you take a very long heavy duty piece of used twine, tie a brick to it and swing it around.........................

It hits you in the HEAD!!

Guess which boy in the Reese House did this just a little while ago?

Caleb!!!

This occurred while I was outside hanging laundry. I lectured the boys on why they shouldn't swing these bricks, rocks, bones, and chains around! Broken windows was my main concern.

A few moments after finishing my lecture Caleb walked away from the house and proceeded to get his twine with a brick on it swinging around his head. It flopped and conked him in the back of the head. Caleb started to wince, cry, took a couple steps forward, did a little loop then landed on the ground... OUT COLD!! Yep... he passed out for about 10-20 seconds.

I got him in to the house and applied ice. He was groggy for about 30 minutes but coherent. Phil checked it out and his pupil dilation was good (he only has one pupil)... so no hospital run for us.

He has a nice bump, a head ache, and probably a mild concussion.

BOYS!!!!!!

A brief recollection of some of the funny moments with the kids lately:

Nathan has Wednesday's off each week. This Wednesday after the snow storm, Nathan decided to head out and play in the snow... a bit confused..... He had rubber boots on instead of snow boots, winter coat, snow pants, and a bad-mitten racket with birdie in his hand. I told him bad-mitten was for spring, not snowy days... he said, "That's alright mommy... it'll be spring soon, I just want to practice!"

Last night on our way to church, just after he ate SIX hot dogs Thomas says: "Mom I'm hungry!" Several of us in the vehicle commented "You are a bottomless pit!" Philip starts crying...... "No, I'm the bottomless pit so he can't be!" Tee Hee!

We were leaving church last night after a LONG choir/Easter program practice when one of the children mentioned that Thomas took Pastors brief case outside. We figured out that Thomas did not take it back into the church. Phil turned around to head back to the church so we could tell Pastor where it was. I commented that it looked as if Pastor was frantically looking for something as we were leaving the building. It turns out Thomas was playing "Padington Bear" with Pastors "suitcase". Thankfully our Pastor has a good sense of humor and understands Thomas's quirky ways! Thomas was yelling out the door to Pastor "Sorry about that!!!" While Phil and I had a good laugh!

Hope those brought a smile to your face!

Why should a family like ours try to raise our own meat, veggies, and sweets (honey & maple syrup)? One reason we want a self-sufficient farm is so that we can teach our children the value in working hard as an individual and as a family. Every once in a while.... they actually get it and participate with enthusiasm. This springs start of our syrup season has been a time when I have been so proud of the kids and how hard they are working WITH us. Phil and the kids have been going out to tap trees over the past few days. All of us have worked on gathering and cleaning over 70 4-5 gallon buckets to catch the sap. Today will start the harvest! I hope to use this time as an example to the kids of how fun it really is to have great attitudes and work together to get the job done!

Sorry, we don't sell our syrup, it is just for our family use. Each year we have people ask if we will sell some but we have never gathered enough for our own use let alone have extra to sell. Hopefully this year we'll get enough for the year for our family! We use about 10 gallons a year. I know that sounds like a lot but we try to avoid using sugar as much as possible, that is why we have honey bees and why we harvest maple sap. Phil and the kids have tapped over 50 trees and hope to have close to 70 tapped by the time they are done.

Today is the first day the sap should really be flowing. So I expect we will be cooking down our first batch tomorrow. I always look forward to the sugaring season and I'm always glad when it is over! :-) Thankfully it usually only lasts a few weeks, so we push though it so we can enjoy our syrup year round!

Tuesday morning the snow was whipping while the three littles: Thomas, Philip, and Nathan, stood waiting for the bus. They waited about 15 minutes when Nathan came back to the house where Phil was shoveling out the drive. Phil encouraged him to go back down to the bus stop when Nathan said, "But daddy, there is a really bad storm over there but not here." He pointed to the mail boxes with great expression while explaining the morning weather to his daddy. Phil laughed and so did I when he told me later that morning. It is much nicer by the house because the house and barn help to block the wind.

Anyway, the boys waited a total of 30 minutes when I called the school. They told me that our bus was running behind about 35 minutes. So I made them stay out there. Another 15 minutes passed, during which time I sent Elizabeth out with a blanket and she huddled about the boys covering them with a blanket.... it was very cute inspite of how horrible it was for them to be waiting in the yucky weather. I called the bus company this time. They said it would be another 15 minutes or so until the bus made it to our place. I called the boys in and gave them hot cocoa. We waited for the bus to top the hill before sending the boys running down to the mailboxes where they catch the bus. The cocoa made the 45 minute chilly wait seem to go away for them. They were so excited they got cocoa and told their teachers so. I don't think they even mentioned that their toes and faces were about frozen off, because the cocoa made it all better. Ahhhh the life of a child! :-)

Hi All!!

I know it has been FOREVER since I've blogged. I now have internet 24/7 so hope to get back to it. It will take a week or two to get y'all caught up on the happenings of the gang and Promise Land Farm.

For now, we are doing well. Sam is recovering from two hip surgeries that he has had over the past 2 1/2 weeks. I'll do a blog later with the entire Sam hip story. Elizabeth is getting to be quite the pianist and is starting a heritage turkey business. Caleb is a feisty fifth grader and our chief wood splitter. Thomas is progressing in school and enjoys therapy peer plays each week. Philip is learning to read and spell, and is a ball of energy. Nathan is writing very well and getting to be so tall... he's not my baby anymore. :-(

Phil is enjoying his work with Dynamic Campus. The challenge of running the help desk efficiently keeps him on his toes. He is also very busy as a Deacon, sound man, song leader and Sunday school teacher at church.

Me... I've learned to run our milk system and help Elizabeth milk each day now. I enjoy teaching 10 piano students, playing the piano for church and until recently teaching Sunday school. Home schooling Eliza, Sam and Caleb keep my mornings and early afternoons very full. Managing the farm, animals, preparing for the garden, and helping our customers fills the spare minutes of my day.

I look forward to sharing all that has been happening here over the next several days.

This week was the first that I allowed the littles to ride the bus to school in the morning. I was concerned that being on the bus for 30-40 minutes in the morning would be a struggle for him. Thankfully, I was wrong. Thomas has done a great job. He even rode all by himself on Wednesday because Philip still wasn't well enough to attend and Nathan doesn't go to school on Wednesday.

Elizabeth, Sam, Caleb and I did home school each day this week. None of them have all their subjects but we consistently worked on the ones they do have. I am really liking Spelling Power. The kids are really having fun with spelling this year and I know this systematic way of doing spelling will help Elizabeth and Sam to catch up to their appropriate grade levels while it is challenging enough for Caleb so he isn't bored.

Elizabeth got to go to a sewing class on Thursday. One of the missionary builders at our church taught all the girls at our church how to do some basic stitches by hand and on the machine. She also gave them a history lesson that included quilting before teaching them how to do a nine patch quilt. Elizabeth really enjoyed the day with her friends from church learning to quilt and sew!

Philip ended up missing two days of school this week because he was still too weak and tired. He still isn't back up to his old energy level. If he hadn't just had a mono test three weeks ago I'd be taking him to the doctor for a mono test. Especially since this is the second time he was sick in 3 weeks.

We are going on our first field trip tomorrow to Ledgeview Nature Center, about 2 miles down the road. They are having a "Health & Harvest Day". It will count as health and probably science for the kids. Plus they were able to color a picture which they will submit for a free ice cream while we are there. Phil will be gone to a men's retreat, so it will just be the kids and I. I'm sure it will be and adventure!

School has begun again. The three littles started at New Holstein Elementary last week and overall had a very good week. Thomas, who is in grade 2, is adjusting well to being in the classroom again and is excited to try ridding the bus this week. We have his IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting on Tuesday at school to outline the areas that we will target this year with his behaviors, therapy (speech & Occupational Therapy) and education at school. Philip is in kindergarten and having a great time! Nathan and I went to his class for a shortened day on Thursday, then on Friday he went by himself and rode the bus home. He loved it!! He will be getting evaluated for speech which will allow him to receive speech therapy soon.

The older kids and I took the first week to get used to our new spelling program. We are using Spelling Power which allows each child to be at their own level, while progressing as quickly as they master the current word list. They are all doing great and are really enjoying it! We also did their math testing so I could verify which level each child is at while getting a good picture of their strength and weaknesses in Math. We ended the week by hanging a bulletin board, white board and classroom clock. The kids also wrote a Journal entry about their first week of school. This next week we will add a couple more subjects for each child, depending on what curriculum's have arrived by then. We are still waiting for all our school materials to arrive.

This year they each have their own crates to hold their school materials, and they have their own "space". Elizabeth uses the table, Caleb the school desk, and Sam, the old computer desk. They really like having their own "desks" this year! Within the next couple weeks we will start them on Piano too. I want them each to have a foundation in music and piano is the best way to attain that. Once they each have a good understanding of music theory and the treble and base clef notes then we will look at getting them each an additional instrument to learn.

This year's schooling will be a lot more structured than last year and I am enjoying the change. The kids seem to be really liking having a guided lesson for each subject too. We are using Alpha Omega Life Packs for science, history, and language arts this year. I'm sure it will be another year of learning what works and what doesn't!

I think I've posted about some of the health problems that Philip has been having. When we lived in Pembine and he was in 4K he missed one week a month because he'd end up being sick, running a fever, swollen glands and tonsils, and just feeling miserable.

Since moving his boughts with illness had become less and less. He started only getting sick every other month, then every three, etc. He was sick in November then was in very good health until 3 weeks ago. That is why when his neck remained swollen when he wasn't sick we got concerned. Exactly three weeks ago he spiked a fever and was in bed for 2 days. Yesterday it started again. He spiked a fever and spent yesterday in bed and he is already in bed again today, after going out to watching milking and visit the puppy. Thankfully these last two incidences seem to be much shorter than before. They only seem to last a couple days instead of an entire week.

Phil and I are trying to figure out what is lacking in his body that will help his immune system to fight off these little bugs. What is not balanced??

The biopsy of the growth in his neck came back fine, no cancer cells or abnormal cells of any kind. The ultra sound showed several growths between 1 & 2 centimeters in size on his neck. He sees the specialist again on the 28th. Until then we'll just make him comfortable when he runs the fever and pray for wisdom as to how to help this little boy gain full health again!

We've been blessed by friends who have given us apples this month. First our land lord came over with a bushel of apples that made 6 quarts of sauce. Yesterday we received a bunch more from another friend. Today we made 25 quarts of apple sauce from those. Sam and Elizabeth were big helpers today. It took us most of the day to make the sauce and they did most of the quartering of the apples while I was making bread, having Thomas's weekly team meeting, and cooking the apples. It was definitely a team effort!

Caleb had a check up today with his doctor at Children's hospital. The doctor said his eye looks great. He will see Dr. Connor again in a year.

Since my last entry our lives have been busy working the garden, preparing for school, and enjoying the summer with an occasional chase the pigs and/or goats day. Yes, our fencing issues and naughty livestock still cause trauma at least once a week. We are raising 40 more meat chickens and my new laying hens are growing nicely. They are even starting to make friends with some of my current laying flock.

We've started to sell off our goats. So far we've sold 2 milkers and 1 yearling. We'd like to sell 2-3 more adult goats and the 2 female kids before winter if possible. We only have 2 goats left that we are milking and they are yielding 1 ½ gallons of milk a day. We keep what we use and give the rest to our pigs. We are selling most of the goats because most of us don't like the goat cheese and only 3 in the family like goat milk.

I don't think that I've blogged since we got our 5 feeder pigs. They look like little Wilbers, and they are very naughty! We kept them in the barn at first because they were too little to be out with pinky. After a month of barn life their stall and our barn STUNK. So we decided to try them out in the pig pen, so we could clean out their stall. They did fine for about a week then they got adventurous and decided to start exploring the farm, yard, and road. So, Pork, Chop, Bacon, and Sausage are all in the pen in the barn while Hamy is still living with Pinky. Hamy doesn't try to escape when he is alone, but if we put the others back in the big pen they five of them explore the property.

We may be “renting” a nice jersey cow from our Amish Neighbors starting soon. They have a Jersey that they don't need right now but in the spring they need the milk from it to feed their beef calves. They are just giving all the extra milk to their pigs. I had mentioned to Sarah that I was working on selling the goat herd so I could get a nice Jersey cow. She told me that they might have one they'd sell. However after talking with her husband she told me that they still need the cow in the spring but would let us use her for now so we could have some cow milk. The details have to be worked out and haven't been discussed by the men yet. This may be a great opportunity for us to see if we are ready to get a cow. And mmmmmmm I can just taste the cheese, cream, butter, sour cream, cream cheese, etc that the wonderful milk would make!

Lately I've been shopping for school books for the kids on ebay. So far everything I've gotten adds up to a savings of 50%. I only shop late in the evening so it doesn't cut into my family and farm responsibilities.

Philip celebrated his 6th birthday this past week. We had a fun party just with our family and lots of water balloons. Philip is seeing an ENT for a lump in his neck. He just had a biopsy on Aug 20. We will find out the results next week. The doctor doesn't think it is anything major but will be watching it closely over the next several months even if the biopsy comes back negative.

Thomas, Philip, and Nathan are excited about going to New Holstein School this fall. We are working with the school to get Thomas's special needs cared for properly. Their back packs are loaded with school supplies which they get to drop off at school on the 31st while seeing their classroom and meeting their teachers.

Elizabeth, Samuel, and Caleb are looking forward to another year home schooling and so am I!

The biggest highlight for the kids this past month was the visit from Grandma & Grandpa Conover. We had only a couple short days with them but enjoyed our time immensely. We took a day's vacation away from the farm to swim at Blue Harbor Resort Water Park. My mom loved the slides..... I on the other hand HATED them. The kids were all wrinkles and red eyed after their day in the water. It was so much fun! Thanks Uncle Jack & Aunt Jane for the tickets!!!

To read about the activity in our garden lately please check out our garden blog. I just updated it with several back dated entries.

It has been a busy spring here on the “farm”. I will provide and update on all that has been happening in several posts that will arrive over the next few days. If I try to put it all in one post it would take way too long to write and read! :-)

This post will focus on the kids.

I'll start with Elizabeth's end of the year science project. She decided to incubate duck, turkey and chick eggs in a real incubator. She had to get up in the night and turn eggs, watch the temperature and moisture levels and record her data. She ended up with over 40 turkey's hatching. No, that is not a typo, we had 40 turkey chicks. We sold 9 of them when they were about 2 weeks old. One was crushed during feeding, the door slammed down on the poor little thing. So we still have 30 turkeys that we will be raising for butchering the end of November. We've decided not to do more meat chickens since we will have plenty of turkey for the freezer this winter and our first batch of meat bird raising hasn't gone that great. I'm sure we will give some of the turkeys away but I plant to keep at least 20 for us.

Elizabeth is enjoying working in the garden, helping me make cheese from our goats milk, and learning to make bread. She is a dreamer and says often how she hopes to have her own “farm” someday with a cow (she doesn't like the goat milk), vegetable and fruit gardens, and fruit trees. A girl after my own heart! :-) Of course we've talked about her being open to where ever and whatever God has for her in the future.

The kids have officially finished school and we are doing some occasional journal entries to practice writing and spelling. I'll probably do a summer review book with each of them starting in July. I need to get back into a schedule that will force the kids to read each day too, but until the gardens are all in we have put those things on hold.

Speaking of gardens. The big kids are putting in anywhere from 1 ½ hours to 3 hours a day Monday through Friday in the garden. They are working on earning a Wii Sport & Fit for their '09 – '10 school year. I work with them usually, some days I have to be in the house doing other chores. They have already put in over 150 hours toward their Wii.

Thomas has started on supplements again under the direction of Doctor Brown at the ARCH center. We took him for his first appointment in May where the doctor spent three hours with us helping us start setting some goals for his treatment plan. First on the docket is getting him back on the correct dosages of supplements. Thomas is not very excited about this, however, his health is improving even though we only have introduced about 7 of the 20 he'll eventually be on. The biggest improvement is in his bowels. Thomas usually only poops about 2 times a week. We are almost to the point where he is having a stool once a day. The other improvement is that his sleep is improving. He is falling to sleep a little faster and seems to be resting longer. These are some important first steps toward healing his tummy.

Philip is having some problems with an unexplained swollen gland. With chiropractic treatment it is improving. We tried antibiotics and they didn't effect it. Other than that Philip is spending his days playing in the creek looking for frogs. Usually Nathan is tagging along on the frog hunts.

We have just learned that Nathan has an ear that is completely blocked with wax. We will be trying some home wax removal things, if they don't work I'll have to take him to an Ear specialist to get it removed. Nathan is quite delayed with his speech, he is even worse than Philip was. So after doing some research on our local school we have decided to enroll the younger three in New Holstein Elementary for the fall. They seem to be ready to meet Thomas's needs and they have a GREAT speech pathologist!! I am impressed with the school layout and enjoyed meeting with the principle and CESA Autism Specialist.

As for Samuel and Caleb they are trying to learn how to be diligent workers here on the farm while enjoying many hours of building forts, playing in the creek, climbing trees, riding bikes and much more. Pray for us and them as we try to teach them how to be disciplined diligent young men.

Pray for us as we seek to raise these kids to have a heart for the Lord and others!

April was a busy month. We finished up our syrup season making just over 6 gallons of syrup. A GREAT first year! That will save us $240 on syrup this year.

We've spent a lot of time working on getting the gardens ready and still have a lot of work to do. You can visit our garden blog to read more about it.

Phil and the kids have been busy mucking out the barn. We welcomed 26 little meat birds mid April. We lost a couple in the first days then 3 more to a rat when we moved them to the barn. So we had to move them into the brooding box in the barn to protect them from our resident Templeton... EWE!!! We hope to have them outside grazing within the next couple weeks so they will have a full month on grass before butchering.

Four of our goats will be kidding any day. Phil is working on getting their new solar powered electric netting up so they can start grazing every day. We tried getting Pinky bread but the boar and his girls didn't like her so we aren't sure if she was actually bread or not since she only made it 5 days with the herd before we had to bring her home. We will butcher her this fall since getting her bread is going to be a challenge each year. We hope to find a few feeder pigs in May to raise for fall butchering too. If she is successfully bread then we will raise her piglets for early spring butchering.

Elizabeth's incubation experiment failed so the pig enjoyed many rotten duck eggs. Elizabeth still wants to incubate so we have borrowed an incubator from a friend and are trying to incubate turkey eggs and more duck eggs. We'll know if any of them were fertile starting May 14th, the date the first tray should be hatching. The kids excitedly told me that we have a chicken that appears to be broody, so they put 6-8 eggs under her. If she stays on them we'll see little chicks peeking out in 21 days. Spring time on the farm is full of fun and new life!

Nathan celebrated his fourth birthday on the 26th. It is hard to believe that my baby is 4 years old already. He was very excited to get a “shoot a bow and arrow” as he calls it for his birthday. The boy seems to always have a gun or bow and arrow in his hand trying to hunt for some exotic animal. :-)

We kicked the cats out of the basement about a week ago and of course I now have mice in my kitchen... YUCK!!!! Speaking of mice I'll end with Thomas's mouse story.

Two weeks ago we got home from church and Thomas saw one of the cats outside. He walked up to it and noticed that it had caught a mouse. He took the mouse..... which was still alive mind you.... away from the cat and brought it inside to show me. He was all excited and wanted to keep the mouse. Of course I bravely yelled for Phil and he guided Thomas outside to free the mouse. Thomas proceeded to talk about the mouse all night saying that he wanted a mouse for a pet. Phil told him he couldn't have a wild mouse but that the pet store had mice. I then said that mice are not ever welcome in this house as pets or not!!! When Phil was tucking Thomas into bed Thomas told Phil and he had KISSED the mouse... EWE!!! I was glad that Thomas hadn't kissed me goodnight!

I have to post a funny story about two of our children who were trapped in the garden today. Thankfully spring is arriving here in South Eastern Wisconsin which makes for a muddy garden. My youngest two children decided to wander into the garden, I'm not sure why, but they were quickly sucked into the mud! I glanced out my kitchen window to see Nathan (almost 4 years old) trying to take a step. His upper body kept moving while his feet were firmly stuck in the mud. He fell face first and was quite upset. Philip (5 years old) saw his brother in distress and tried using a stick to free his feet. Thankfully, Phil was on his way outside so while I was laughing I asked Phil to go rescue the kids from the garden.. In the meantime the struggle for freedom continued. Philip moved to another part of the garden which caused him to get stuck and step right out of his rubber boot. All the while Nathan was still crying because he couldn't get his feet loose. He'd lean his body forward and spring back because his feet were firmly in the mud. I only wish I would've thought to grab the camera.

The boys came to the house with mud completely covering their rubber boots, the front part of their pants, hands, coats, etc. I only wish the outside hose was thawed so I could've hosed them down before bringing them in for a bath!

I guess my hopes of getting in the garden soon are a little premature... I don't want to get sucked into the mud and I'm quite sure my children wouldn't come to the rescue! :-)

I'm not doing a very good job blogging in this new year. I've composed many blogs in my head that have never made it onto the computer for various reasons. February flew by with a few colds, more dead chickens, and lots of school. We are pushing to complete the majority of our school work by the end of March because we have gardens to plant and fences to put up. Once that is done we will resume "school" by doing a summer review book for each of the kids.

Our chicken flock has gone from 70 to less than 40. Some of the hens have finally started to lay again and we are averaging 10 eggs a day. We've ordered 25 meat birds which will arrive in April and be butchered in July. Twenty five new hens will also be added to the farm in May.

The goats are looking pregnant which is a good sign. They aren't due until the end of April. A couple of them are getting quite large, so they might be carrying triplets.

Elizabeth has decided to try to incubate duck eggs. We will know in a few days if the eggs are fertile or not. She did the research and has a little home made incubator in her room. We had one female and 2 males survive the dog and mink attacks. We hope that the female will eventually get the motherly urge, so if our attempts to incubate fail, we will still have some little ducklings sometime this spring. We have also discovered that we have one goose. A goose egg was found in the barn two days ago. Only time will tell if we have a pair that will mate or two geese.

Phil and I have been researching Maple Sugaring and will tap 12 trees this weekend to start the process of making our own Maple syrup. This year is supposed to be a good year for the sap run, so we hope to make a gallon or two for our first sugaring season. I'm sure it will be quite an adventure!

We are very excited that over the next 15 days 10 are supposed to be at or above 40 degrees. That is perfect maple sugaring weather.... and it will allow all the snow to melt so we can start to clear the upper garden and plan the lower with some early spring food (spinach, peas, lettuce, kale, etc.). I'll be starting many of my garden plants over the next week in the living room.

The boys have been enjoying "hunting" on these warmer days. They dress up with their swords, archery items, and shields, and head out to walk along the creek in hopes of spotting animals. Nathan and Philip love trotting after Sam on these adventures.

Caleb has new glasses and can now see out of both his eyes, PRAISE THE LORD! Samuel will be getting his new glasses next week and I get to have an appointment for contacts next week too! YEAH!! I haven't had contacts since Phil lost his job at NBBC, over 3 years ago. I'm looking forward to getting to wear sunglasses this summer while I work in the garden.

We hope you are all enjoying the coming of spring in your neck of the woods! For me Spring is a reminder of the New Life we have in Christ. It also causes me to be so thankful that God never gives up on me, He forgives me of my sin when I confess it and allows me to start fresh and clean in my efforts to serve and please Him.

I have to tell another story about a conversation that I had with Philip today. This afternoon we went to our Chiropractor. While I was getting adjusted I told Sam to remind me to talk with our friend Mr. Turba about getting Pinky bread to his boar. Our plans were to stop by the Turba's on the way home from town. As we were driving there, Philip, who overheard our conversation said to me, “Mommy, we already ate Stinky Bread and it was good!!” I told him that we ate Stinky ham, pork chops, and sausage but that there wasn't such a thing as “Stinky Bread”. I then explained to him that when we say we are going to get Pinky bread it means that we are going to let Pinky be a mommy. Then he asked me if baby pigs like to eat pig slop. I told him that they only have their mommy pigs milk at first but that they would eventually like pig slop. He said, “Oh, so they get sweet goat milk when they are babies.” I had to try to explain to him that Pinky would have a special piggy milk when the pigs were born and the baby pigs would really like it! He finally seemed satisfied and stopped asking questions. Nothing like teaching the birds and the bees pig style to a 5 year old!

It has been such a blessing to read your comments. Blogging is a fun way of journaling our family happenings and my little hobbies. I'm glad that others enjoy keeping up with our family by reading my entries.

Today I spent the afternoon traveling with Thomas to his bi-monthly Therapy review. I am so thankful that Thomas has been able to receive the Wisconsin Autism Waiver which pays for 35 hours a week of in home one on one therapy. If we had to pay out of pocket for these services it would run us $40,000 - $70,000 per year. God is good!

Thomas has made significant progress in his first two years on the program. Some of his big area's of improvement are: language, social interaction, basic learning skills, reading, writing, emotions, and compliance. He has gone from a 18 month old rating in most of these areas to a 3 1/2 - 5 year old level as of March 2008. I'm guessing that this year he will be between a 5-6 yr old in all areas. Thomas will be 8 in May so he is still behind his peers but he is really improving. Thomas has a lot of "quirks" that are unique to him and the autism disability, but even these have decreased.

The other day Phil and I were at WalMart and I purposely went to the checkout line of a "handicapped" clerk. She is usually very chatty, yet as a mother of a child who is challenged it is very evident to me that she is not what most people would call, "normal". I shared with Phil afterwards that I enjoy going to her isle when I'm at WalMart and talking with her. The average consumer would be irritated with her conversation. I look at her and smile thinking that it would be such a blessing if my Thomas were able to have a job some day. It would be such a blessing if others would accept Thomas for who he is now and when he is grown. It would be a blessing to see him independent and caring for himself. I know that the many hours that Thomas' therapists spend with him weekly are helping him to grow and develop into a functional person.

So, why is Thomas at the forefront of my thoughts today? Well, besides spending 3+ hours alone with him today, I learned that some things with his program might be changing. Pray with us that the transitions will go well and that Thomas will thrive in spite of them. I am still hopeful that they won't make the changes that they are contemplating, but it seems after today that they are inevitable and it is just a matter of time until they occur.

I'll end this blog with a funny scene from our shopping excursion today. Thomas and I went to Woodmans, a large reasonable priced grocery store in Green Bay, before his appointment. I needed to buy honey and while I was trying to compare prices he was trying to stop EVERYONE, quoting lines from the "Bee Movie". He was shouting and grabbing at people quoting the lines from the movie when the bee sees all the honey for sale at the grocery store and is outraged. As I was trying to shush him, I laughed and realized.... who cares what people think! At least he was quoting the movie at an appropriate time and place! :-) If there had been children down the isle they probably would've recognized that he was quoting a movie and smiled at his actions. Adults however, roll their eyes and glare and this mom who cannot handle her "bratty child." Oh well......

February 1, 2009
Praises

It has been a couple months since my last post. I'm just curious..... did you miss me? I've often wondered how many friends and family members actually read my blog. If you've missed hearing about our family adventures leave a comment or email me and let me know.

There are many things that need some updating but I thought I'd start the year with some praises.

1.We found out this past week that I do not have a chronic blood clot in my leg any more. We have been praying that the Lord would do a miracle and allow both clots to dissolve and Praise the Lord He chose to heal my leg and remove both clots. I will no longer need to be on rat poison and according to the blood labs I do not have the genetic tendency for clotting. We praise the Lord for these specific answers to prayer!
2.We have a new dog. Some friends of ours needed to find a new home for their year old Great Dane, Nina. Phil and the boys met Nina and we decided to adopt her. She is very BIG and very mild mannered. The previous owners did a WONDERFUL job training her. She is starting to enjoy our family and show signs of settling in. She is black with a little white patch on her chest. Her back is about up to my hips. She looks like a black lab on stilts! :-)
3.We successfully butchered Stinky with the help of some friends just after Christmas. We've been enjoying pork chops, sausage, and ham. When the slicer comes in we will be able to slice the bacon. Our summer sausage is sitting in the freezer for 30 days to make sure all possible bacteria is dead.
4.We are all in good health.
5.School is going well. Elizabeth has become quite independent and usually gets her schoolwork done very quickly, which allows her to fill her “extra” time with reading and art. Caleb is needing some extra challenging, and Samuel is plugging along. Philip is wanting to learn to read and write. Thomas is doing great with his sight words and short vowel phonics words. He will start journaling this week. We are thankful that he is in his third year of ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy. He receives 30-35 hours of one on one instruction from his therapists. Nathan enjoys coloring and cuddling up to Nina.
6.Phil is enjoying his work with Dynamic Campus Solutions. We are thankful that for the time his job is not in any danger of cut backs or lay-offs. I got to meet his co-workers at his companies Christmas party which was held at the Whistling Straights Golf Course Clubhouse. The PGA Championship tournament will be held at this course in 2010, 2015, & 2020.
7.Spring is coming! Yes, I can feel it in my bones! :-) The seeds for the garden have been ordered, potatoes will be ordered in March, and I am anxiously waiting for the snow to soak into the earth so we can begin working on this years planting.
I'll end this post with another of Philip's funny moments. Philip is starting to show more interest in spiritual things. The other night he was having a talk with Phil about Heaven, sin, and hell. He was very curious about why when people are naughty they have to go to the “hotel”. The poor boy must have his ears clogged again... he mistook the word hell for hotel. Out of the mouths of babes! :-) We are so thankful that God's word says, “Suffer the little children to come unto me....” This is our prayer for each of our children that they will come to know the Lord personally and choose to serve Him with their lives.

Philip lost his first tooth tonight at dinner. He was eating applesauce and reached in his mouth to pick out what he thought was a piece of food and he pulled out a tooth! He is VERY excited about his "tooth fairy". We tried to explain to him that it is a tooth and that the tooth fairy will visit him tonight and leave him some money. He kept getting confused. He put the tooth under my pillow and checked it frequently, notifying us that it was still there and the tooth fairy hadn't come yet. When he went up to bed he took the tooth with him to put under his pillow. :-)

I'll try adding a picture tomorrow because the internet isn't cooperating right now! :-(

Yes, that is right we are in one of the many areas across the US that are receiving a bit of snow. I laugh as I think about us have 70 degree weather on Mon & Tuesday and an inch of snow today. Only in the Mid-West!
It is a perfect start to the day since we are heading out at 10 to go to the church for Christmas Program practice. Samuel has one of the lead roles in the play. Elizabeth, Caleb, Philip, and I all have small parts. Yesterday I was approached by the program leader and asked to play the piano for the program because the woman who was lined up to play is no longer able to. I'm so excited! It has been so much fun getting back to the piano after 8 years of hardly touching the keyboard. Yesterday before our chiropractor appointment Sam & I stopped by the church so I could practice for an hour. I probably could've sat there for three hours if I had the time. I'm trying to prepare some simple offertories for when I'm scheduled to play for church services while reviewing some scales, chords, and technique books that I used years ago in an effort to get my hands to start working properly again. I'm also reviewing a classical book that I started in College to help build my skills further.

I am loving teaching piano again and am praying that the Lord would provide a piano for our family so that I can not only teach our children but be able to offer lessons, a couple each day, to those in the community. My three students seem to really be enjoying lessons more and more as I discover their true level of play and am able to get them into books that are appropriate for them. Two of my students have had 4 years of lessons but only went through the primer level then jumped to books that are really really hard. We have decided to scale them back into a “normal” level and start a strong emphasis on theory, note, chord, and scale studies. The girls seem to be really excited about it and so am I! I'm anxious to get Elizabeth going again so she can also catch up for two years of stagnancy in her playing. Our greatest challenge is finding time to get to the church to practice since we don't have a piano of our own.

When I began piano at the age of 6 I had the best piano teacher. Mrs. Irene Lowe was my teacher all the way through 6th grade. I know that Mrs. Lowe always wanted to see me teaching piano some day. She was an amazingly talented musician who taught such a well rounded piano program. It is my desire to follow her style of teaching with my children and with all of my students. Because of the way she taught I was able to learn a wood wind and brass instrument in high school along with playing various percussion instruments. I'm not sure if Mrs. Lowe is still alive, but I am thankful for her godly example as a teacher and mother. She taught piano in her home because she has a son with Downs Syndrome. I know my mom saw her a few years ago at Shepherds Home in WI. When he moved into Shepherds they moved to Wisconsin to live in the same area in order to stay close to him. If I remember correctly, even those in her lessons who were not “church goers” had to learn how to hymn play as a part of their lesson. I see that as a great way to share the gospel with others. I pray that I will faithfully use what Mrs. Lowe taught me to help prepare others for church ministry, as well as to simply share her love for piano.