Sleeping Sierra

Sierra has slept through the night four nights in a row! If you have been praying, thanks! I feel so much better after four nights of uninterrupted sleep! She is happier too!

My laundry woes

Why do I have to buy my children socks every month? I cannot keep the socks in pairs. I always have about 20 single socks in my drawers. They never seem to come out of the dryer together!? WHY?

I can't stand it. The socks are winning, I am losing. The socks are 23,000 and I'm 0. Is there are better way?

I've read about clipping them together before the wash, I can never seem to do that. If I am not organized enough to find them together, I am obviously not organized enough to clip them together BEFORE going into the hamper.

I've read about marking the socks with a dot on the toe a separate color for each family member. That's all fine and good, I would still have five missing red dot socks for Peter, three missing orange dot socks for me, 27 missing yellow dot socks for Weston, and 56 missing green dot socks for Sierra. This won't help me. I need a fool proof system.

The socks are simply gone. They are not in our house, car, or yard. They are just missing. HMM?

Emergency Room

We spent the afternoon at the ER yesterday. We were working in the yard, when Sierra decided to put a fox tail weed in her ear. Oh the joy of two year olds!!!

We couldn't remove it and so we took her to the ER. She was screaming so much and really making a fuss so we were seen right away. They took us back there and the nurse unceremoniously pulled it out of her ear. Sierra continued crying. This nurse tried to take her vitals and insisted on a heart rate monitor on the finger.... Sierra was so angry at that point, there was no way the nurse got a pulse!

Then the doctor tried to look in her ear. She was flailing so much I couldn't hold her. A large male nurse came and held her so the doctor could check her ear. She still had little pieces of the weed in her ear. So we went to the ear washing station. They took large amounts of warm water and put it into her ear with a syringe- for 30 minutes. She was screaming and screaming, at this point I think she was mostly angry and wanted everyone to leave her alone. The male nurses patience was growing thin. I could see him getting annoyed with her screaming. He finally said, "Medicate her!"
Another nurse came and gave her Tylenol and Codine. I was instructed to lie down with her and keep the ear that had the weed in it facing down towards the bed. The nice nurse came and covered us with a warm blanket, because we were soaked at that point. Then Sierra fell into a snoring, exhausted sleep.

I held her and didn't dare move while she slept, it was the first silence we had heard for sometime. While she slept there was another patient in our room behind the curtain, having a delicate procedure done next door. I felt for the poor man, he knew I was there (though he couldn't see me) and he was being asked all manner of personal questions. All the while Sierra snored!

Then the nurses came in to continue the ear washing this time with peroxide. This time the large male nurse swaddled her tightly in a sheet and continued the ear treatment. Finally the sliver of fox tail came out and we were done. Only then did Sierra smile.

We received no doting comments about what a doll she was on this trip.... :0) She had been screaming for about an hour and a half!!! Everyone just looked relieved that she was OK AND that she was going HOME!

wrapping it up!

We are wrapping up our final travel weekend. From now on Peter may travel overnight, but the children and I will hunker down at home and for that I am thankful.

We had a wonderful dessert meeting last night with close friends and that was a great time. We discussed ministry, our life and prayed for Mongolia as well. We have such a great support base and prayer warriors. One woman last night told me how she prayed for us so diligently while undergoing her radiation treatments. She was so joyful as she told us, that is makes me so grateful, again, for all the people that care for us though prayer and financial gifts. It is amazing how faithful people have been to us and to the Lord. We are amazed and brought to tears regularly as we look at our monthly report and realize how many people truly sacrifice for the Lord.

We are looking forward to the last few months of our time in America and will hopefully slow ourselves down to focus on resting up for the next two-three year term in Mongolia. There is a lot to process through, pray through, discuss and needed rest so that we can go back to Mongolia well rested.

It will be a real trick if that works out since there are so many great opportunities while we are here! So we'll make that rest part of our goals and things to do list. Wouldn't that be great if the to do list said, "Rest all day!" But it is a priority for all of us in this busy world! It seems things run at such a fast pace!

We are so happy because there is a chuch group going to Suhkbataar next month and they are willing to bring some luggage for us. I will send ahead homeschool supplies and the children's new winter clothes. That is so great. We have eight 50 pound suitcases to pack, but that space and weight will go so quickly!

Home from camping.
The highlights-
renting a motor home... the first RV camping we've done.
arriving at Carpentaria.
our campsite literally on the beach
walking on the beach with the kids
watching weston drag a gigantic piece of kelp!
watching sierra get freaked out every time the waves rushed towards her
tar on the feet
the kids walking the grandma and auntie megan's dogs
watching weston move enormous rocks ALL day
watching weston and sierra dig a huge hole ALL day
eating out with family
riding bikes to town
watching the pelicans dive
sitting around the fire and reading a western! (i know i'm corny to love the wild west!)

FUN week!

Snakes

Weston and Peter walked out yesterday and the delicious smell of BBQ steaks greeted them. Weston said, "What is that great smell?" Peter answered BBQ steaks.

Weston replied, "OK great next week when we go camping, I want to barbecue snakes!"

Ha ha!

Radio Silence

I really am a terrible blogger... sorry. We have been queit busy recently. Some friends flew in from Asia and we had some time with them last week. It was great to reconnect.

Sierra is still not sleeping, the problem is actually worsening, any suggestions? Not sure what to do, she seems to be done sleeping about five hours after going to bed. She is up and ready for play time after that. In the morning she is very happy and smiley!? I am not! What to do?

Weston is doing good in school! He is learning to write and is very interested in reading and letters. I am so thankful for these new developments. I was getting worried about homeschooling him without natural interest from him.

I ordered all his curriculum for next year! What a big undertaking to try to think through all of his needs for next year and buy everything now. I decided to go with Sonlight. It is a literature based program that seems wonderful. I will be reading aloud ALOT next year. I am trying to imagine how I will do that and take care of Sierra and the housework! I think we'll be eating more sandwiches, I'll have to keep that breadmaker moving.

It is a big job to think about educating my children. I feel that I have to be so much more than what I am to give them all the experiences they need. It seems crazy that it will be on my shoulders to be teacher and mommy and maid and cook and gardener and, and, and.... The great thing about a regular school experience is the variety of teachers and people that a student comes in contact with and how that grows a person into what they become. I feel that I need to shape up my own life to be a model to theirs.

I guess that has always been true since the day they were born though. I guess God knew that I would be their teacher and mommy. Perhaps he made Weston and Sierra to perfectly handle that situation and flourish under it! I think I will work on shaping up, just in case.

I started this weekend by reading a great book called Organize Yourself! I have grown a bit in this area as my mother can verify, but feel there is so much more to do. I feel like that being organized is a huge part of schooling.

I also just bought a book called, Get Out of That Pit. Its title was so real and the reviews so wonderful I put it in my virtual cart on amazon.com and purchased it on accident along with Weston's school books. It arrived first, as if calling out to be noticed. It is about calling to God from the pit and is based on Psalm 130. When I went to church on Sunday, Grant taught on Psalm 130. I think that maybe God is trying to tell me something. Interesting!