Monthly Archives: August 2012

The Farm for flowers and food

We woke up on Saturday morning and went out to a farm to buy items for dinner, feed the animals and cut some flowers for the house. This was a small working farm that had vegetables, as well as chickens, cows, sheep and pigs that were raised to provide food. (Of course we didn’t tell the kids this) Faith and Wilson pet some of the animals and then fed them as well. I really enjoy getting outdoors and this was a great place to just walk around and “be”.

As we were waking around the kids noticed two calves in a pen. They were very cute little cows. Faith asked where the babies’ moms were. I was told that the moms were put else where, away from the babies because they would drink the mom’s milk. This made me sad for the calves. Being a mother I couldn’t imagine my baby being taken from me. The calf was taken because she would have drunk all the milk that was to be used to sell and make money. I understand this, but thought, “How sad. The calf is away from its mother, is probably sad, and is now being fed by the farmer instead of its mother. I would rather go without milk than have this happen to every calf on a money-making farm.”. (what does the farmer feed it anyway?) It really reinforced my belief that we humans can get our vitamin D from so many other sources. Milk is not “nature’s perfect food” for humans. It is “nature’s perfect food” for cows. My family already drinks rice milk instead of cows milk. Rice milk has more vitamins in it than cow’s milk and according to “the China Report”, doesn’t cause cancer. After this experience we will continue to drink rice milk instead of cows milk.

On a lighter note…. we went to another farm immediately after and picked the most beautiful flowers. It was only $4.25 for as many flowers as you could fit into a medium sized cup. We took the cup and a pair of scissors into the field and had fun. Will/Pa compared the process of cutting flowers to that of picking out a Christmas tree: can’t be crooked, no bald spots, etc. Yes, I was being picky. There were too many to choose from. My search for perfection paid off! We ended up with a beautiful bouquet of wild flowers.

I have a new favorite flower. It looks like velvet and is very dense and compact. I wish I had taken a picture of the vase that we put together. It was beautiful.

Day two of our trip was a success!

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Faith, Wilson and Pa on the wooden tractor.

Faith is learning to pose…this is one of her favorites!

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Nothing says “farm” like a tire swing that looks like a horse

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Wilson and Faith were showing us their muscles.  Arrrgggghhhh….

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Strasburg Railroad Company Train Ride

Last night we arrived in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania at Tom’s mom’s house. We will be here visiting his family until Monday afternoon. We left yesterday from Roanoke which was fabulous because it was three hours closer than Charlotte. Three hours make a huge difference when you are traveling with three small children.

Today we went to Strausburg to ride the open air, passenger train that is pulled by an old steam engine. The kids had never been on a train before and they loved it. The train ride took us about 20 minutes in one direction and then turned around and took us back. We rode through corn field after corn field of Amish farms. There were Amish families picking the corn, airing out their laundry on clothes lines, plowing their fields with a plow being pulled by an ox, and an Amish woman mowing her grass while the kids played on the swing set. It was surreal. It made me want to become Amish: less bills to pay, no TV, more family time, to bed at dark, no $4 gallon gasoline to worry about, etc. However, I am not a big fan of washing my clothes on a rock, cooking on a wood stove, or gardening. After considering this, I decided that being Amish may not be for me.

The kids loved the train ride. They could hang out the windows of the train and see things that they had never seen before. Faith sat in MaMaw’s lap the whole time and listened to her teach Faith about the things that she saw. It was very cute. Even Miller liked to hang out the window and take it all in. It was a fun, family day.

After the train ride we sat at a picnic table and had lunch. It is always fun to come here to do things that we don’t have in NC. Tomorrow we are going to a farm and Sunday we may go to City Island to play.

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Wilson and Tom

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MaMaw, Faith, Pa and Wilson

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MaMaw and Faith looking out the window

Wet and Wild Water Park

Today the kids and I went to Wet and Wild in Greensboro,NC with my cousin Kendra and her three kids. We super moms went to a water park with six kids under the age of 6. We rocked it! Kendra packed the lunch and we got there just as they were opening so that we could get a spot in the shade. The park was perfect. There was a large splash ground with swings, a mushroom with water falling, and a submarine to climb in. In another area there were three small water slides that the older three kids could do by themselves. Wilson loved the orange curvy water slide. He did it over and over again. There was a mini wave pool as well. My personal favorite was the slide where you sat in a double tube and went down. It was made for kids, but I still really wondered if we were going to flip going around the bend.

Amazingly, we were there for five hours. We took a break for lunch and the. Went right back at it. The babies each had a nap and Kendra and I just kept passing off the baby that was awake so that we could play with the older ones. Great team work!

After the park the kids were so exhausted that the boys slept the whole way to Roanoke while Faith watched a movie on the DVD player with ear phones. It was so peaceful. A beautiful drive and a great day in all.

Tomorrow we head up to PA to visit Tom’s family. A fun filled week

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Miller’s Big Week

Miller had a big week last week. There were so many firsts crammed into one week. First, He began to crawl. I knew this was coming. When babies start to crawl I think it is fun because now I can see where he wants to go and what interests him. Currently, his big interest is in the stereo and the tupperware cabinet. I was amazed that he remembered which one the tupperware is in. He will crawl up to it and pull on the handle.

Next, he pulled himself up in his crib and then on the hearth. The water line just keeps getting higher and higher!

Finally, his two top teeth are coming through. This is going to change the way he looks. My baby is disappearing before my eyes! He hasn’t complained once about his teeth. They are fully through. They will be handy for chewing the food that he insists on feeding to himself. He already has an “I can do it myself” attitude.

He still gets the award for “The Best Baby Ever”! So sweet and cuddly. Faith babysat him in her room while I put Wilson to sleep tonight. I came in to her room and she was jumping on the bed while Miller watched her and laughed. They were having a blast! I love it!

Our week long vacation starts tomorrow. First stop: Greensboro. Then off to Roanoke and then PA. All Aboard!

Tiger World

We went up to China Grove, NC to Tiger World this morning. They have all kinds of tigers, lions, bobcats, bears, and more tigers. My parents were watching Doug’s kids so they all came with as well. I was amazed by the Siberian tigers. They were beautiful and very large. I would not want to run into one of them while walking through the woods.  Most of them were rescues which made me feel better about them being in cages.  We decided that they were probably still pretty happy because all you see them do on National Geographic is lying around and sleeping, just like they were doing at Tiger World.  :)

After we left Tom asked Faith and Wilson what their favorite part was and they said, “the talking parrot” and “the digger”. Lol.  We went to Tiger World and their favorite parts were a bird and a backhoe.  Too funny!  Definitely worth the hour trip in the car with three kids.

It was amusing at one point because each adult was carrying a child….even me!

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Mom and Miller, Shepherd and Dad, and Tom and Faith

 

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The talking birds that the kids fed peanuts

 

Is everyone’s life this crazy?

My life is chaotic at best. I am really struggling with whether or not homeschooling is for me. I tried to do ten minutes of numbers, letters, and reading with Faith the other day. It was next to impossible to teach her anything. Miller was playing in the tupperware cabinet and Wilson was doing something else. I tried again today and Faith was so distracted by what I was doing with Wilson that she wouldn’t line up her numbers. How do people do it?!?!

I did finally figure out a game for them to play with letters. I took the letter cards that I have and hid them around the room. They had to find them and then come back and tell me the letter and the sound. (Wilson found them but he only knows two letters..A and W) Later Faith asked me to do school with her while the two boys were napping. It is great to know that she really enjoys learning.

Because my life is so chaotic and constantly full of dirt and clutter, I have had major anxiety lately. Just thinking about have to clean the house AGAIN makes my blood pressure rise. I decided to pay our sitter to come and help me clean the house yesterday before Tom came home. It was great! We both worked for an hour and were able to sweep, mop, dust and do the bathrooms. That is pretty much all I care about when it comes to cleaning each week. Get the main stuff and be done with it! That eased my anxiety and made me happy to be in my own home….for a day at least.

That was all yesterday.  Today I actually had a very relaxing day today compared to the rest of the week. Tom let me sleep in until 8:00 and then I went to the coffee shop to do my Bible study, read my DIY magazine and have a coffee. It was fantastic. After Miller woke up from his nap I took the kids to the Y so I could workout for 45 minutes. It was long enough to run on the treadmill and enjoy some more “Becca” time. After that I picked up Faith’s friend, Emily, and we went to Squirrel Lake Park. This is a park that they just remodeled this past winter and it is now very fun and very popular. Faith, Wilson and Emily ran around chasing each other and playing in the sandbox. There is also a small lake that they can look at.

Wilson wore his Spiderman costume again today. I seriously think he has had it on every day this week and has slept in it almost every night. He loves it. I let him wear it any where he wants. I wish that we could all dress up like princesses and superheros and go to the store or the playground.

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Emily Berke, Faith and Wilson at Squirrel Lake Park

 

 

Deja Vu!

Faith at William Davie Park when she was 2.5 years old

 

We went to William Davie Park yesterday for a little while. Faith got on the flat swing, looked at me and said, “Take a picture of me. I did this when I was little.” She was right. I have a picture of her doing the exact same thing when she was two and Wilson was Miller’s age. Here are the pictures!  Same girl, just a little more attitude!

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Faith in her new favorite pose! 4.5 years old

 

 

Another deja vu moment occurred today when I dressed Miller in an outfit that Wilson wore a lot when he was a baby. It made me think back to two years ago when Wilson had it on. Then later on today Miller was crawling around in that outfit and playing with the exact same red climbing block that Wilson was playing with when I took some pictures years ago. Check out the similarities!  Can you tell who is who?

 

Wilson

Miller

Miller is the first photo.  Wilson was always a little chunkier than Miller but they look so similar in photos that sometimes we can’t tell who is who….especially when they were infants.