My dearest Jim,

Today is our anniversary.  We’ve been married now for sixteen years, however we’ve been together for eighteen–literally half our lives.  There is no other person who knows me so well, and no other person I’d rather be with.

Together, we’ve grown as people, as friends, and as lovers.  I look back at our lives and I’m amazed by all that you have given me.

First, you gave me your heart.  Then you gave me your life.  The years passed and our family was blessed as one-by-one, you gave me five beautiful children.  You worked hard to give me the means to stay home with them, to nurture and teach them in the ways that they should go.

As if that wasn’t enough, you continue to give of yourself, and whether it be great or small, I see every one of your sacrifices.

I do not tell you every day how very much I love you or how totally blessed I am that God gave you to me.  It is not often one can say they’ve found the person they want to stand beside for the rest of their life–and mean it.  It’s even more rare to find that person so early in life.

There are times I’m caught off guard by your smile and how very handsome you are.  Sometimes I’m struck by your tenderness which makes me love you all the more.

I never knew there were so many layers and so much depth to love until I married you.  I never knew anyone could ever love me as fiercely as you do, all in, with no reservations or second thoughts.  Before I met you, I believed it was hopeless for me.  I thought the man I dreamed of didn’t exist.

But you did, and I thank God every day for giving me to you.  You are the rock of our family, my very best friend, and the only man who will ever live in my heart.

I love you.  Happy anniversary.

Always,
Rebecca

DH and I were a little “late” doing our Christmas cards this year.  We usually like to get them out by the 15th of December, but this year we were lazy/busy and didn’t get them done in our usual timely manner.  But, since we know friends and family love to have pictures of the kids at least once a year, we knew we had to do them.

My hubby has a nice camera, so we got everything ready and took photos of the kids.  After he put them on an SD card for me, I was on my way to get them processed for our Christmas cards.

I had some grocery shopping to do, as well as some Christmas shopping, and I had to get the photos printed.  This past summer, Walmart just opened a Super Walmart in my neck of the woods.  I love Walmart, and since I could do all three of my errands in one place, I decided to do a one-stop-shop and go to my local Wally’s.

One hour photo was great.  I chose what I wanted and selected my prints.  Did my shopping, got my pictures after an hour and was on my way.  I should have looked at the photos before I left the store.  When I got home, the group shot had the kids’ foreheads chopped.  ACK!!  Are you kidding me?  The pics were perfectly cropped on the SD card, why were they weird in the prints?!

SIGH

This means I have to go back out to Walmart.  And it’s not that close, it’s about 5 miles away.  Okay, well, DH has a prescription to fill and I did want to get some Christmas gifts for the kids while they’re hanging out with Daddy.  So, later that evening, I go back out to Wally’s to get these other errands done — and to have them fix my prints.

Bad idea.  BAAAAD idea.  See, I probably would have gone to Target or Costco to get it done (they’re both closer) BUT, I spent too much $$ on these prints AND I couldn’t find the damn receipt.  *sob*

So I get there, and the lady informs me she can do it in a few minutes.  But while she puts my bad prints aside, someone comes up to the counter with a request to pick up a package at the site-to-store counter, which just so happens to be — wait for it — the one hour photo counter!  Ding ding ding!

So the ONE lady working the one hour photo goes in the back to look for this person’s package.  She’s gone for a good five minutes.  While we’re both waiting, a line begins to form.  The lady comes back, and begins helping all these people in line, who all just happen to be — wait for it — site-to-store customers!  What does that mean?  It means they order something online, and they pick it up at the store.

Apparently, site-to-store trumps reprinting my bitchy prints, because this lady keeps helping everyone in line, supposedly waiting for a break in the insanity.  But none comes.  Person after person is lining up for pick ups at site-to-store, and she disappears time and again for more packages, all the while saying, “I’ll get to you in a moment” or “I’m so sorry, I’ll be right with you.”

LIES, ALL LIES!

After about a 1/2 hour of waiting, I finally just say, I’m going to come back.  She looks relieved, still having a long-ass line to take care of for site-to-store.  I’m rather pissy, because customer service lady told me it would only be maybe 5 minutes to reprint my photos.  So I leave, do my other shopping, and return, only to have the lady tell me she couldn’t print the photos without chopping off the foreheads and she’d have to have her manager do it.  When does the manager come in?

The next day.

I take a deep breath, surpress my inner bitch (because I haven’t eaten yet, and anyone who knows me knows I will bite your head off and chew on your neck if you look at me cross-eyed when I have an empty stomach), and agree to the terms.  ONLY because I have to come back to Walmart the *next* day to pick up another prescription (they didn’t have it in stock) and to return a book I’d bought there previously.  And also because I understood the lady behind the counter wasn’t the brightest light on the tree.

“We’ll call you,” she said.  Lies.  All lies.

So the next day, I decide to call first, and of course, the photos desk doesn’t answer their phone.  I noticed this when the lady had been helping site-to-store the previous evening.  She ignored it.

I’m going in!

I get there, and of course, the prints haven’t yet been reprinted (it’s about 19 hours later, mind), BUT, the manager is IN.  Yay!  She informs me she can include the foreheads, but she’ll have to crop their chests.  UHM…no one effing cares about their chests — DO IT ALREADY!!!

And omg, more site-to-store people.  GO THE EFF AWAY!!!

Boss lady says, “This’ll take 5 minutes, just wait, we’ll be done in a flash.”

Lies.  All lies.

So I’m waiting.  The boss is looking for packages, it seems she’s training a newbie OR this person is a few weeks in, because they had a somewhat deer-in-headlights look about her.  After 10 minutes, boss says, “Sorry, we’ll get to you in a minute”.  After another 15 minutes, she explains, “I’m so sorry, but we had a huge greeting card order to print before I printed yours, and I didn’t know until it came through.”

WHAT?!  So tell me to go shop or something, don’t tell me to stand there and wait because it’ll be “5 minutes”.  But now that I’ve already waited this long, the greeting card order is now finished.  And the boss decides that’s a good time to… leave.  I don’t know where she went, but she left, she might have gone on break, decided to do something else, I don’t know.  But she left my reprints in the hands of deer-in-headlights lady.

I wait another 20 minutes.  And by now I’m right pissed.  With nothing else to do, I take one of their “suggestion box” slips and proceed to write a rant — front and back of the slip — of my saga.  I slammed Walmart for the bad prints for one, for making me wait for two, for lumping site-to-store with one hour photo for three, and telling them I will NEVER order prints from them again OR do the site-to-store option, because I also witnessed THOSE people waiting for 1/2 hour 45 minutes for someone to find their packages in the back.  I told them BOO, VERY BOO, Walmart!!  I even left my phone number.

I will LOVE to talk to someone if they call me.  I doubt they will.

I understand it’s Christmas.  I understand lines will happen.  But my GAWD, Wally, the Customer Service ladies were doing NOTHING at their counter, make THEM do the effing site-to-store!!!  Why does it have to be one hour photo that gets the shaft?!  And if the photo reprints were as easy as chopping a sliver of their chests to get their entire heads, then why didn’t the first lady know how to do that?!

It was an epic FAIL all the way around.  If I were a bitchier lady, I would have been vocal, I would have been ranting — in store — I would have demanded my money back, even though I didn’t have a receipt.  But I’m very non-confrontational, and I do understand when things get busy and hectic.

But I what I expect is some modicum of decorum from ANYONE involved in this debacle to tell me to go shopping — this will take awhile.  Don’t tell me it will be “5 minutes” and then leave for your g’damn lunch break.  Don’t tell me you have everything under control and then proceed to IGNORE me in favor of site-to-store.

Moral of this story folks, because I gotta share this with you so you aren’t stuck in the same FUBARED SNAFU — NEVER get your pictures printed at Walmart, and NEVER do site-to-store.  I told you, Walmart, never again would I utilize you for these two services.  And now, I’ve educated my readers.  Hope you’re pleased with yourself.

~~Becka, who is NOW releasing her inner bitch

There is so much I want to blog about, but I thought I should start with this.  I’ve been MIA recently because my father had a stroke.  He had an inoperable intracerebral hemorrhage deep in his basal ganglia. It was touch and go there for a while, and scared the bejesus out of my sister and myself.  However, he is doing much better now.  He is actually moving from the hospital to a rehab center possibly today or tomorrow.

He’s got a long road to recovery, but he’s in good spirits.  This type of stroke doesn’t kill brain cells, it merely suppresses them from the pressure of the bleed.  But once the blood in his brain is reabsorbed by his body, those cells can regain their function.  He currently has a very weak right arm and the right side of his face doesn’t work very well.  It’s hard for him to talk, so not only does he have physical therapists, he has a speech therapist and occupational therapist as well.  Whew!

I just visited him yesterday, and he was doing much better from when I saw him last on the 1st.  It will take time and he’ll never be back to 100%, but he’ll get some range of motion back.

As you can imagine, I’ve been frantically dealing with everything, from taking care of my dad to juggling the kids and my own family life with DH.  I came home early last week thinking he was on the mend only to turn around two hours later on the same day and race back down to Salem (an hour drive) because he’d taken a turn for the worse.  But thankfully, they were able to stabilize him and he’s much better now.  They are still very aggressive about keeping his blood pressure down as well as his blood sugar.  It’s been quite the roller-coaster.

But I’m very hopeful now, as he’s going into rehab.  He’s no longer at risk for a second stroke, he just needs some therapy to bounce back.

Aside from all that hoopla, I got my second edits for THE FALL OF JERICHO and it’s release date: July 23rd.  Woohoo!  Only thing I don’t have yet is the cover.

However, I DO have the cover for BLACK ANGEL, but I’ll post that in a new post.  It’s glorious!

I’m also about 80 pages away from finishing THE FALCON PRINCE!  I’m so excited.  The Falcon was the one prince I didn’t have a solid plot for, but he’s given me a great story to work with and a way to set up the Spider Prince’s book, which I’m also very anxious to write.  But I was the same way with the Scarab Prince.  Speaking of, I haven’t heard word about my submission on TSP, but my publisher is very busy herself with Canada Day and Independence Day and new releases and just one thing after another.  Patience is a virtue!  But it’s sure not fun!! 

Anyway, that’s my latest.  I’ll post my new cover.  But I wanted to keep everyone up to speed.  I’m back home now, finally, and through the craziness surrounding my dad, DH and I are in the middle of a remodel of our home theater, not to mention DH’s best friend and his son are coming to stay with us tomorrow to attend the wedding of another friend this Saturday.

GACK!  It’s batshit insane these days!  LOL

~~Becka

So this past week, my hubby had a pot-luck at his work.  He had the awesome idea of bringing chicken enchiladas.  But he didn’t want to bring them cold and not warm, nor did he want to make them early in the morning and bring them to work hot as they would still be cold by lunch time.  So he needed a way to keep them warm and/or warm them up.

His brilliant idea was an electric skillet.

But the one we had was old and sad.  It was this little 12″x 12″ deal, that looks like it has seen it’s fair share of world wars.  Most of the “non-stick” coating is scratched off, not to mention it just wasn’t big enough for the shindig at DH’s office.  This thing is literally a dinosaur; a gift from DH’s grandparents on the occasion of our wedding nigh 15 years ago.  It was well used, but now, we needed an upgrade.

I got out of the habit of using an electric skillet because my family is so huge and I didn’t have a big one.  My pans were good enough, as I have a jumbo iron skillet I use all the time.  But, we needed the skillet to do the enchiladas, so off to Target I go.

I found a couple in their selection of bigger skillets, one a $30, the other $60.  Seems a no brainer, right?  Quick giant skillet for a one-time pot-luck, right?  Well, I stood there and weighed my options.  The $30 was indeed the size I needed, but there was some assembly required.  The $60 one was already ready already.  It had rubber feet so it wouldn’t slide on the counter.  And it had a lid that is held down with buckles.  AND a pour spout on one of the corners.

Okay, sold!  Here it was, already nearing 8pm, and we still needed to make the enchiladas!  I don’t want to put together the fricken’ skillet with a screwdriver while browning the chicken.  But it was indeed the pour spout that ultimately sold me.  Browning beef?  No prob, merely lock the lid down and drain.  Awesome Sauce.

So I brought it home, we made the enchiladas, put them in the fridge overnight, DH took the entire skillet to work the next day, plugged it in on 300 degrees an hour before the pot-luck and voila! Perfect hot, melty enchiladas.

That night, it was so easy to clean, just wipe out with a sponge, the non-stick coating is so super-sweet.

So last night, I decided to make frozen burgers for the family.  The thing held 6 big ol’ patties from Costco with no problem, enough to feed everyone without having to do a second batch!

I’m thinking I’m in love with this thing.  It’s definitely the best $60 I’ve spent recently, and I cannot stress how happy I am I didn’t get the less expensive skillet.  With the lovely coating, the lid, the spout and the sheer size of it, this bad boy is now going to be a staple of my kitchen for many years to come.

I love it when you buy something you thought you didn’t really need and it turns into something you can no longer live without. 

Five stars from Becka, for the $60 (Okay, $59.99) 16″ electric skillet by Hamilton Beach.  Well done, guys!

http://www.hamiltonbeach.com/skillets-premiere-cookware-electric-skillet.html

~~Becka

Hey everyone.  If you follow me on Twitter or my fan page on FaceBook, you’ll know I recently had a “four day” weekend (not counting Labor Day) for writing.  DH went to Seattle recently for the PAX convention while I stayed behind with the kidlets and had myself a fun writing weekend.

What am I writing?  RENEGADE!!  This book is filled with so MUCH, that I honestly think it’s the best book I’ve written.  I’ve learned so much over the years with regards to prose, voice, POV, emotion, and showing vs telling that I’m sooo hoping it’s come across in this manuscript.

I stayed up late a couple of times, burning the midnight oil with a pot o’ coffee.  I tried hard to get 100 pages written over my four day weekend, but alas, my final page count was 89 pages and 16,000 words.  I would have loved 100 pages and 20K, but I’ll take what I can get.

Of course, you have to realize, at any given time, I had eight children, and at times, ten children in my house, including two infants.

You see, the “price” for being left behind for the PAX con, is that I was designated baby-sitter.  Not so hard, as I have a few older children who can help me with the youngers.  Throw in there the neighbor kids (who are thankfully very well behaved!) and you’ve got a daycare chock full of DRAMA!

Needless to say, the lion’s share of my writing came after bedtime, which is why I burned the midnight oil until 3am a coupla times.

However, I didn’t have three of the children (including one of the infants) for the entire weekend, only Thursday morning through Friday night.  Then they were passed on to their grandma, who took over for Sat/Sun duties.  However, the drama continued, due to the dire straights of the neighbor kids.

They’re a Mexican family, and in their father’s hometown of Oaxaca (pronounced Wa-haka), each citizen must serve a year of community service.  He did six months of that year awhile ago, and came back to the states for a time.  He has since left to serve the other six months, so they don’t have their father around.  Couple this with their mother traveling to Mexico to be by her dying grandmother’s bedside, you have a bunch of older teens watching younger kids and trying to make a little $$ to get by.  (older teens meaning adults at 17/18 years of age)

They had to work really early in the morning down in McMinville, which is about 50 minutes away from where I live, and is actually where the Spruce Goose is hangared (is that a word?) in the Space and Aviation museum.  Anyway.  They couldn’t take the two younger kids with them, and in their desperation, they asked me to watch them for an evening because they couldn’t be left alone.

These folks make AWESOME Mexican food, so keep in mind, saying yes is somewhat selfishly motivated. LOL

Anyhow, even though the kids I’d been watching for our friends had left, I was still watching the neighbor kids.  It was a rough weekend, not just because I had kids in the house, but because I just wanted to WRITE and at times could not.

DH has said many times he will make it up to me.  I’d just love some kind of vacation FROM the family.  lol  I homeschool my kids and stay home all day.  There’s never really a time I get away, unless it’s for a random movie in the afternoon with girlfriends.  Needless to say, I was indeed a tad jealous of my hubby’s kid-free weekend.

And also because he met all sorts of super-cool celebs in geeky circles.

Anyhow, I did get a good chunk of my book done, and have at least one more love scene and some wrap up to do before I can call it finished.

Anyone keeping score?  How many stories is that now?  Lessee…  It started with BLACK ANGEL.  That flowed into THE FALL OF JERICHO.  Then I finished KINDRED.  Then I wrote HEAVEN SENT.  Now, I’m almost done with RENEGADE.  Five stories in 11 weeks?  That’s a pretty good track record, even if only one of them is a full novel. 

I should be writing the blurb to RENEGADE soon.  I’ll pass it on once I do.

~~Becka

As you may or may not know, if you follow me on Twitter (and why wouldn’t you, may I ask?? http://www.twitter.com/rebeccagoings), I’ve started making homemade baby food for my baby daughter Sophie.

It’s kind of weird I never thought to do this with any of my other five kids.  Perhaps being “older” I now have the perspective of being “wiser” as well, who knows.  In those early days, I longed for ease, and the easy thing was to go grab a jar off the shelf and dig in.  Who wants to be slaving away in the kitchen making baby food all day long?

But as I got older, I’d tried my hand at making jams and canning, which turned out to be quite fun.  After I had Sophie, I wondered if making baby food could be as fun.  So I began to look into it.  Seriously, people, it’s NOT hard, not at all, nor is it really “time consuming.”

In fact, (if you followed me on Twitter you’d know) I’ve started a You Tube vlog, and two of my videos are about how to make baby food.  (Vlog addy: http://www.youtube.com/user/beckabecks – check back, as I’m hoping to get some more vids posted soon.)

Basically, if you have a blender or a food processor and know how to bake potatoes or steam veggies, you can make your own baby food.  It’s so easy because young babies don’t get spices until they’re between 8-10 months old anyhow.  You’re simply cooking the fruit/veggies and pureeing them, then freezing them for later.

Bananas and avocados don’t need any cooking, as they’re soft enough as it is (I know! You can give your kid an avocado. Who knew?? I sure didn’t before I started this endeavor).  If you are leery about cooking veggies, start with these two.  Throw them into your food processor and whirl away.  Now, you do want to puree them for a few minutes to make sure you get all the chunks, as a first foods eater can’t have chunks.  If your baby is older, you don’t have to worry about the chunks so much.

Don’t worry about the avocados and their penchant to turn brown.  They won’t lose their flavor.  If it grosses you out, put only a miniscule amount of lemon or lime juice in it.  Citrus doesn’t agree with baby until they’re older.  A little spritz of the juice won’t hurt, but never feed an infant straight orange or citrus juice without first asking your doctor.  Recommended age for that is around one year old due to the acidity.

Once you’re done with the puree, spoon the mixture into ice cube trays, cover, and freeze for about 24 hours.  If you want to feed the baby immediately, you can refrigerate a portion.  The ice cube trays are genius, because each cup is about an ounce of baby food.  So one or two cubes and you know how much your baby is eating.

The beauty of bananas and avocado is they don’t need any water to puree them, either.

Some other veggies, however, need some water to get that baby food consistency.  Sweet potatoes is one.  Prick ‘em with a fork, cover them in foil, and throw them in the oven for an hour like you would baked potatoes.  When they’re nice and soft, cut them open and spoon out the “meat”, don’t use the skin.  Puree with a little bit of water for about 3 to 5 minutes to get rid of chunks, and repeat with the ice cube trick.  Once they’re frozen, just pop them out of the trays and put them in Ziploc baggies.  Be sure to label what it is and the date, because some foods can look the same as others in your freezer.  You might want to run some hot water over the bottom of the trays and use a spoon to pop out the food.  They’re not as dense as water ice and won’t crack out of the tray easily.

You don’t want to water-bath can or pressure can your baby food, because young infants are more prone to botulism, I’ve learned.  Their guts aren’t developed enough yet to fight off any bad bacterium that may or may not infect your food.  Freezing, therefore, is the best option.

Making the green beans was fun, as I had a bag of frozen beans that could be steamed all at once in the microwave (it was a special steaming bag.)  So, I pulled it from the freezer, threw it in the microwave, cooked it in the bag, then poured the contents into my food processor with a little water and pureed for a few minutes.  Easy peasy.  The beans, however, won’t get to be a fine puree like storebought beans, because Gerber has more of a straining system than we at home have.  So green beans should probably be given to a baby whose used to eating little lumpies.

Pears are easy.  Peal them like potatoes, cut them into chunks and steam on the stove for about five minutes.  Puree & freeze.

Apples, do the same, however, you’ll probably have to steam them for a little longer as they’re not as soft as pears.  You can also bake apples in a dish with some water in it, then puree with some of the reserved baking water.

Making baby food is great in more ways than one.  First of all, you know exactly what you’re giving your baby.  JUST sweet potatoes.  JUST pears.  No preservatives or added flavoring.  Second, it’s cheaper.  Gerber charges between $.50 to $.65 cents for a two ounce jar.  Compare that to my $.06 an ounce for bananas ($.12 for two ounces).  $.11 an ounce for green beans ($.22 for two ounces).  Over time, that adds up.  And two large sweet potatoes makes 30 ounces of food!  Not to mention the fact you’re not making any more trash than you need to.  Sure, you can recycle plastic or glass baby food jars, but it’s less work for all of us if you make your own baby food.  And, your pantry space doesn’t need to be taken over by jars and jars of food–a big issue for me since I’m already hurting for shelf space after a grocery run due to my ginormous family.

All in all, this was the route I decided to go.  Sure, I’m a stay-at-home mom with some “time” on my hands, but anyone can make baby food, even if you take time out of a Sat. or Sun. or even while you’re making dinner for the rest of your family during the week.  A little effort goes a long way.  With minimal effort, my freezer is now full of bananas, pears, sweet potatoes, green beans, avocados, acorn squash and applesauce.  And the cool thing is, if I want to mix and match flavors, the sky’s the limit, really.  Just defrost some different flavors together and mix ‘em up.  Your baby will LOVE it, if my baby is any example.  And the wonderful aromas in your kitchen will only reinforce what a great idea it is to make your own baby food at home.

It’s just gotta taste 1,000,000 times better than that processed store-bought baby food!

~~Becka

(who confesses to having 4 jars of store-bought baby food on the shelf only for when we go out and about and I don’t want to worry about defrosting ice-cube foods in public… )

This past week has been a beautiful week here in Oregon with temperatures in the high 70′s and bright, clear skies.  It’s about this time when we let our cats out, as they’ve had cabin fever all winter and spring.  Our cats usually don’t wander too far from home.  In fact, of our three cats, we only have one who has wanderlust.  Amazingly, though, he hasn’t wandered too far away since the one time he ended up in another neighborhood and some Good Samaritans called us to come get him.  Heh.

Well, the cat still hasn’t wandered far, however, he did happen upon a nest of scrub jays.  I don’t know where it was, although our neighbors say it was in their tree.  But I never saw the nest.  What did happen was a little traumatic, though.  My kitty grabbed one of the baby scrub jays and brought it back into the house.  Alive.

My kids were yelling for me because they heard some screaming chirps and didn’t know what was going on.  I went downstairs only to find the cat toying with a baby bird that didn’t know how to unfurl its own wings yet.  It still had it’s grey feathers, but was just beginning to grow it’s blue ones.

After chasing the cat through the house (because he’d grabbed it again and took off), I picked it up and examined it for wounds.  It wasn’t bleeding, and didn’t cry out when I moved it’s wings or legs, but finding it’s nest and putting it back was pretty much impossible at that point.  I had no idea where it was, and even so, my cat now knew the location.

And to make matters worse, when I went outside to look for the nest, my damn cat scooted by me despite my kicking to keep him in the house.  I suppose juggling an injured bird and the back door is a situation a determined cat can take advantage of.  After searching for the cat and the nest to no avail, he came back a few minutes later – with another baby bird in his mouth, the bastard!

The second little bird was dead, the poor thing. 

After yelling at and smacking my cat, I kept thinking to myself, what am I going to do now with the poor little bird I was holding?  I mean, the thing was pathetic, opening it’s little beak as if I were it’s Mama giving it food.  I scoured the back and front yards for a place to put it where it wouldn’t get found by my dog or cats, but that “place” was not to be found.  I laid it in a crook in a tree just on the other side of our backyard fence, but I still didn’t feel good about it.

Going back inside, I felt more and more guilty just leaving it out there.  Despite it’s injuries, it was going to die anyway, whether by getting found by an animal, or just starving without it’s mother.  As I was doing dishes, that little voice in my head kept on nagging… “Just call the vet! What could it hurt? See what they say.”

FINE!  If it will let me feel better, I’ll call the danged vet.  They suggested I call the Audubon Society, as they don’t take random birds.  I look it up online and give them a call.  Sure, they’ll take the bird!  And I don’t even have to pay a fee or anything – they just ask for donations.

Unfortunately, they’re 15 miles away, and it’s already 3:45pm, people are getting ready to come home from work and I know by the time I get home I’ll have to hurry up and make dinner.  Well, I’ve already wasted most of the afternoon looking for the nest, and I figure I’ve come this far with the little thing, I should get it the help it needs.  And despite the pain in the butt, it’s a good lesson for the kids to learn.

You see, in my mind, I can’t profess to live what I believe if I don’t help out the baby bird.  Sure, some could argue to let nature take its course, but all I could think about was my Bible verses…  “His eye is on the sparrow” and whatnot, meaning, God watches over every creature of His creation and they all are important to Him.  Who am I to decide if that bird should die in my backyard?

So, I pack up all the kids and take a drive to the Wildlife Care Center with the birdy all snug in some crocheted dishtowels.  Once we get there, they take my info and take the bird, dishtowels and all, giving me a number just in case I wanted to check on the little guy later on.

I decided to call them today to see how he was doing.  He survived the weekend, but unfortunately, he died early this morning.    You might think all I did for the little bird was in vain, but I don’t believe that.  I made the decision to help the little guy, and the people at the Audubon Society were more than happy to help him out as well.  But his injuries were too extensive in the long run, and ultimately, it was the Good Lord who decided to take him, not my lack of intervention.

Sure, maybe I did “waste my time” in trying to save a little bird who would have died anyway.  But I taught my kids a valuable lesson; that we should take care of God’s creation, no matter how insignificant (a common scrub jay) they may be.  A life is a life and it’s our responsibility to help out if we can.  Hopefully, they’ll take from this experience to be kind to animals and be good stewards of nature.

Godspeed, little Jay.  May you be flying the skies of Glory!

~~Becka

Wildlife Care Center

503-292-0304

www.audubonportland.org

urbanwildlife@audubonportland.org

I want to blog but have nothing of interest to say.  Therefore, you might be in for a post of random ramblings.

This past weekend, DH and I and a couple of friends painted our house from a hideous green to a more friendly “sandstone” color with bright white trim.  You can see the before/after pics on my hubby’s blog at www.jimgoings.com.  It’s really a dramatic difference and we’ve even been complimented by a few of our neighbors.  It just blended in too well with the two giant trees in our front yard and our house didn’t stand out at all.  Now, it’s more cheerful and cleaner-looking.

After that, since the days have been beautiful here, we decided to take the kids to the beach for a fun day because DH took some days off of work.  We pack up, all excited to go, get there and realize it’s pretty chilly.  Well, it’s still morning, so it will probably heat up in the afternoon.  We get an early lunch and head on down to the beach.  Right as we get on the sand, a fog rolls in, reminiscent of the movie “The Mist” – great flick, btw, watch it in B&W.  Anyhow, we’re literally sitting on the sand and cannot see the buildings behind us, nor can we see the surf in front of us.  It’s like we’re lost in some kind of limbo reality.  We’d see other beach-goers walk off into the mist and we’d chuckle because it was JUST LIKE the movie.  LOL  Every now and again it would clear and you could vaguely make out the waves, but then it would roll in again.

Baby was cranky and cold and the kids made the best of it with their buckets, but they were disappointed at the lack of sunshine.  We packed it in early and left, disappointed that less than a mile or two from the beach the fog lifted and it was a beautiful blue sky.

Yesterday was my oldest daughter’s 10th birthday.  We took her out to dinner and her daddy took her on a shopping spree at Target.  She got some new clothes and two new books to read.  She was very excited.  We’re having a party for her on Sunday.  She’s hoping her best friend will return from Mexico in time to come over, but DH and I are sceptical.  It’s so cute, though, that my daughter’s best friend’s sisters want to hang out with our kids.  They are teenagers, from 15-17, yet they love hanging out with 10, 8, 7, & 6 year olds and frequently take them to the park.  So that’s very sweet of them.

I’ve gained a few pounds.  Boo hiss, I know.  About six pounds.  Yikes!  I really need to get my exercise on.  I took the kids on a walk yesterday to Payless Shoes because Miriam needed new ones and it’s close enough so we walked.  Since the weather has been beautimous lately, I think I’ll be spending more time outdoors.  We shall see if my plans come to fruition.  I’ve been enjoying the fact I no longer have to keep my blood sugar in check with medications.  I want to keep it that way.

Anyways…  That’s all for now!

~~Becka

So yesterday was shopping day.  I packed up all the kids and trekked out to the local Winco.  Normally, this store is packed, but if you go in the middle of the day on a weekday, you’ll encounter minimal crowds.  Anyhow, I’m pushing the cart, and my kids are trailing along behind me, one of them pushing Sophie’s carseat/stroller.  As you can imagine, one mommy + shopping cart + four kids + baby stroller = quite the parade.

In the cereal aisle, my kids reveal they have to go to the bathroom, so three of them go while one stays behind to push the stroller.  When the three come back, the other one leaves to go to the bathroom herself.  While she’s gone, we’re perusing the meat aisle when a woman approaches me.

“Are these all your kids?” she asks (a question I frequently get – I seriously doubt I’d take day care kids out with me shopping, but oh well.  )

“Yes,” I say.

“They’re very well behaved.  I want to congratulate you on that.”

“Thank you,” I say (a compliment DH and I frequently get since we don’t let our kids run amok yelling & screaming.)

She goes on to say, “You’ve really restored my faith in today’s family.”

“Wow,” I say, a little flustered.  “Thank you, they’re good kids.”

“Is today a day off of school or something like that?” she asks.

“Oh no, I homeschool them.”

The lady puts her hand on her chest and swoons (I kid you not lol) and says, “Thank you for that! How wonderful.”

I almost said, “You’re welcome,” but I thought it would be weird to accept thanks for schooling my own children.  Heh.  Therefore, I said, “Well, it was a decision their father and I made before we even had any kids.”

She moved like she wanted to hug me, but held herself back because I’m a total stranger to her.  At this point, my oldest daughter comes back from the bathroom and the lady’s eyes widen.  She says, “You have this one TOO?!?”

“Yup,” I say, “I have five kids!”

“You should be so proud.”

“Oh, I am,” I reply with a giant grin.

“Beautiful family.”

“Thank you so much!”

I’m telling you, folks, it doesn’t take a lot to have good kids these days.  We’ve all seen families in public who have visible problems with keeping their children in line or under control.  It seems this has become the rule rather than the exception.  And how sad is that?  My hubby and I have seriously thought about writing a book on parenting.  Our own skills come from a few sources, so I’m not sure how “fresh” our ideas would be, as we’ve employed others’ ideas.

Most of our knowledge in childrearing comes from two books called “Baby Wise” and “Child Wise”.  If you’re tearing your hair out with regards to your children, you might want to pick those up and give them a read.

Seriously, though, all of our friends are more than happy to babysit our kids if the need arises because they’re such a joy to watch.  Whenever we go into a restaurant, the patrons LITERALLY roll their eyes or sigh and look away because of the sheer numbers of kids tagging along behind us.  When these same people are ready to leave, more often than not they approach our table and comment on how well-behaved our children are.  For us, it’s a normal thing.  We go in, we sit down, we eat.  What’s so hard about that?  Apparently, today’s parents struggle with this.

No, DH and I are not “lucky” five times over.  We hear this so often, it actually makes us kind of angry at times.  It’s not luck, folks.  Anyone’s kids can be good kids.  It just takes commitment on behalf of the parent.  We are NOT lucky.  We’ve worked hard to have good kids.  And it shows.

People look at me and think I’m crazy for wanting to stay home and school my kids all day every day.  Well, when your child isn’t a little hellion, they’re an actual joy to be around!  Sure, we have our share of drama.  They’re still “kids” after all.  Hopefully, we’re teaching them the proper way to deal with these dramas rather than throwing themselves upon the floor of the local Safeway thrashing about like a fish out of water.  LOL

Simone, Levi, Hannah, Miriam

I love my kids.  And the best thing about all this?  My baby Sophie is an ANGEL.  No unnecessary squawking, sleeping through the night, and 1000 watt smiles.  It would seem she’s on the fast track to being another “luck of the draw”. 

Sophie

~~Becka

Recently, my eldest daughter Hannah asked me what my favorite thing was that God has made.  I thought about it for a moment, thinking of mountains, golden sunsets, a starry night sky…  But my final answer was more sentimental.

My family, I answered.

My life has changed drastically from what it was 20 years ago.  Of course, anyone could probably say that, since 20 years is a long time.  True, I was just a kid 20 years ago, but it doesn’t make me any less thankful for the things I have today.  Sitting alone in my room, I would often dream of having a big, happy family.  Despite my teenage angst and depression and doubt it would ever truly happen (as I was one of those girls who never had a boyfriend in school – odd, I know because I’m such a looker *lol*), here I am two decades later with a loving husband, five beautiful children, a large house, two cars that are paid for, and my health, even though I still have to check my blood sugars.

The other day, I thought to myself – when the heck did I grow up?!  I’m an adult – when did that happen?  Even though I’m in my mid-thirties, I often still feel like a kid.  DH and I just celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.  Seems like just yesterday we got married!  Time flies, I suppose.

But yes, my family is my favorite thing God has made.  He’s given me everything I asked Him for as a little girl – a man who adores me, many children to fill my heart, my dream of being a published author, my own house and cars, not to mention many material things that make life easier (or more fun!).

I don’t view God as some Cosmic Santa Claus, but He’s never ceased taking care of me or my family.

Psalm 127:3

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.

So yes, more than sunsets, more than rainbows, more than mountains, clouds, or the smell of fresh coffee (lol), my favorite thing God has made is my family. 

~~Becka