Germs

On Tuesday I got a text from Monica saying that Brennan had the scoots all afternoon and he was ticked that he got a poop squirt in his favorite underwear. Wednesday I got a text saying he had now acquired a fever and was vomiting.

Wednesday afternoon, Wil got this text message from Monica:
Brennan wants to talk to you about germs. He had a temp. of 103.5 today. I was telling him how his body fights germs and he said, "Papaw probably knows all about that. I'll talk to him when he gets home."
That evening, when Wil got home, he went to see Brennan. Brennan asked, "Papaw, how does my body fight germs?" Wil explained white blood cells and that they go around looking for the germs and eat them.

Tonight we were together for Thanksgiving but Brennan was in bed most of the evening. He hasn't had much of a fever anymore but he also hasn't eaten diddly since Tuesday evening.

Vit. C

Both Brennan and Sawyer have had runny noses this past week and for the last two weeks Brennan had been asking me if I had brought Vitamin C's home for him yet. Yesterday I finally remembered and took it over to him after I got home from work. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw I had the Vitamin C's for him. You would have thought I had brought him a new toy. Sawyer came running and wanted me to hold him which always makes one feel loved! As I was leaving, Brennan calls out.. "Grandma Kathy"....yes Brennan.... Thank You for the Vit. C's! You just can't help but love em!!!

Hats off to mothers

Every time that I spend the whole day with my grandchildren I have a new admiration for Mothers. It's always so much fun but it makes one tired.

Some of the fun things- Brennan saying,"Grandma can we just snuggle 1st before I get dressed for preschool" (who would ever say no to that?)

-Hearing Sawyer trying to say Grandma and lots of other words. He is a pretty big Papaw fan right now. Maybe he reminds him of his daddy since he is a daddy's boy.
He also likes to get into everything and keeps you busy. He gets so excited when he see's his big brother and always has a hug for him. He also loves to tackle Brennan and I've been amazed what Brennan allows him to do. However once big brother has had enough, his gentleness and kindness quickly disappears.

We are all going to AZ for Christmas and I am really looking forward to seeing what Sawyer will do when he sees Isaiah. He just loved Isaiah this summer and he will still go up to his picture and say his name with a grin on his face.

Sisters

My sisters Carol and Ann left for a get away vacation in Florida last week. Carol has been real faithful in daily sending me photo text messages. I think she is trying to make me jealous.
This picture of Carol came after they spent the day at Epcot. She said they were sooo tired. I guess I was supposed to pity them. Ha Ha

This picture she sent me along with the sound of the ocean. Ok, now she is making me jealous!

I realize that these are hard to see since they were phone pictures, but here they are shuffling with our parents.

King of the Mountain

Brennan and Sawyer have so much fun in this room being creative with the pillows from an older couch. Last Saturday afternoon, Brennan was at our house bowling on the Wii. He got a bit too aggressive and hit himself in the head.
I had to put in this picture for Isaiah. Brennan is playing the game boy that used to belong to Isaiah and it really reminded me of Isaiah.
Sawyer is starting to take a real interest in books.
This picture is for Melissa to see the view from Matt's house to ours, now that the leaves are almost gone. A rather drab day.
The only nice tree we have.

memory lane

I'm here at Matt and Monica's house and since Sawyer isn't going down for his nap as smooth as usual it has taken me down memory lane. Normally I give Sawyer his bottle and when it's all, I lay him in bed with his pacifier and he is soon asleep. Not so this morning. After 30 minutes of talking to himself, I went in to see what was going on and as soon as I opened the door, I smelled what the problem was. In the process of changing him, his liquid plumbing worked as well! After I had him all cleaned up, I held him for a while and the temptation was to hold him until he went asleep. I know that always makes it harder on his mommy later so I put him in bed. He burst out in this angry cry and I walked out feeling bad. Less than a minute later he was talking and within 5 minutes, he was sleeping.

Let me just say, having your children go to sleep on their own is such a blessing. I am also aware that getting them to that, isn't easy. It wasn't something that I ever achieved very well with my children.

A lot of people have heard me tell the story of my battle with Matt after Melissa was born. At a younger age, I always rocked him until he went to sleep and then trying to lay him down without him waking up was the next challenge. When Melissa came along, I was still laying down with him until he went to sleep. I was challenged at parenting class to have him fall asleep on his own. Normally when I would try to do that, he would fuss and cry then I would give in. Dah!

On a Monday after parenting class was fresh in my mind, I was determined to be strong and do what I should have done a year earlier. I read him a story as I held him then put him to bed with instructions for him not to get up until he had slept. He had other ideas and going to sleep on his own was not one of them. He screamed, cried and kept getting out of bed while I was trying to feed Melissa. We lived in a small house so his room was just up the stairs from the living room. Soon he started throwing objects down the stairs while yelling words that no young child should be using. I had gone upstairs numerous times trying to comfort him and yet being firm. After this went on for what seemed like forever, I called our parenting class teacher and said if I need to follow through with this, I need someone to pray for me. I was at my wits end. My strong willed child was on the verge of winning the battle. By this time my little Matt was screaming and crying and since I was living next door to my in laws(Great Grandma Barbara)I told Matt that I was taking Melissa next door and I'd be right back. I took Melissa to Grandma's, handed her off and said I'd be back soon and ran back to my house. As I entered the house, it was quiet. I stood at the bottom of the stairway and listened. All I could hear was sniffles. The stairs were squeaky and so I was afraid to go up. I waited about 5 minutes then crept upstairs. There he was sound asleep on his hunches, butt up in the air and his body was still shaking with sniffles in his sleep. Oh, my poor little boy. If only I had taught him much younger! I was dreading bedtime that night but when it came time to sleep, he informed me that we didn't need to lay down with him anymore. Sigh......

Even now, when my grandchildren cry in their beds, I find myself needing to get as far away from their crying as possible.

Support Group

Is there anyone out there that looks after your parents on a regular basis? Sometimes I feel weary in well doing. Actually it's a lot like being a Dairy Farmer! I loved farming but I didn't enjoy being tied down and doing some of the messy things that went with farming.

For those of you that don't know, we live next door to my husband's parents and look after their needs on an almost daily basis. Mother can no longer comb her own hair, no longer cooks or cleans and gets around with a walker. Wil gets her daily medications ready and helps them a lot with medical questions and they just enjoy talking to him. The main thing I do, is comb Mother's hair, odd jobs and mostly try to cheer her up. The cheering her up is my most challenging job at times. My daily routine takes me over to their place as soon as I come home from work. Mother never seems to understand what my hurry is and doesn't seems to remember that my house doesn't clean itself. Today she asked if I can't just sit for a while. Forget the fact that it's Saturday and I had just spent the morning at my job. I guess I may as well sit because I normally don't feel like working anyway by the time I get home. She does however sit all day and see's everything in her own house that needs to be done.

Did I sign up for this job? No. Oh, wait-I guess I did, when we moved next door years ago.

Wil's sister Mary comes out weekly to wash Mother's hair and every other week she also cleans the house. Along with her visit she takes care of numerous other things. Then there is a sister Sue who lives in Kansas who comes out for a week at a time, whenever she can to give us a break.

What I'm trying to say is that sometimes I get weary in well doing. Sometimes I do my duties grudgingly. It's those times that I struggle with guilt. Wil has been gone the last 2 days, so it all falls on me. Last night I ran over after work and mother was all alone. Dad had gone to town and was going to be gone several hours. I asked what she planned to eat and she thought she may open a can of celery soup.(not my idea of a meal) I went home and got some soup I had made the night before and got her fed.

As I was leaving, she took a hold of my hand and with grateful eyes, full of love she thanked me. Once again, I was reminded that this my lot in life right now and most of the time, I'm happy to to be able to serve them. I'm reminded once again of all the things they did for us when they were younger and healthier.
Whenever possible I take my grandchildren along over because it seems to cheer them up. Today Matt brought Sawyer and Brennan over while I was there.
These are cell phone pictures but I think you can see what I mean.

Bran Muffins

Yesterday Brennan spent most of the day with me since it was high time to catch up on some wii playing.
In the afternoon I had made some bran muffins, a recipe that I got from my niece, Yolanda. Brennan wanted to try one and so I gave him permission, knowing that they were quite healthy and that he probably would not like it. Before I knew it he had it all eaten and told me how good it was. Later on that evening we were out to eat at a restaurant when he said, "Mommy I have to go potty." I was sitting close to him and saw the urgent look on his face. I quickly picked him up and headed for the potty. Without going into the details, we will just say that the bran worked quite well and fast on him! When he was done, he said, "Grandma it was fun pooping here. We need to come here again sometime."

I also purchased tickets today for all of us to go to AZ for Christmas. I told Brennan right after I had them purchased and he was quite excited. When Wil came home he said, "Papaw did you know that we are all going to AZ for Christmas! We are going to see Uncle Maury, Auntie Melissa and my cousin Isaiah and the dogs and we are going in a plane. Later on in the evening he had a conversation with Auntie Melissa.

Sawyer-13mo

Sawyer is such a busy body and is much happier if he can have a remote or and old cell phone in his hand. He is used to rough play with his brother but the tears come when he is told, "no". His Daddy is quite pleased that Sawyer appears to be a "Daddy's boy". His personality is really starting to show which is always fun.

Neighbor

They wanted their picture taken as I was leaving on Saturday and I just love this picture of Joanna with the messy hair.

Applesauce in Beachyville

Last evening Wil, myself and Matt went over to our Amish neighbors to cut up apples in preparation for making applesauce. Last year I had wanted to put up a couple bushels for Matt and Monica and decided it would be fun to do it with the neighbors. This year we decided to do a total of 3 bushels for Matt's and 2 for us and I think we may have started a tradition. They have the set up and we have the man power. I must say that they have the children power!
Wil started out sorting the apples and the children and I washed them all.

And then the schnitzing(as they call it) began. We cut up apples and put them in black trash bags, working until bedtime.

Velma, who you don't see in any of the pictures, but who is our production manager and the mother of 5, was planning to start the 1st cooker at 6:AM and I said I'd be there at 7:AM.
Oops. No alarm set and I woke up at 7:00. I got over there around 7:30, the same time as Matt. So much for breakfast. Wil brought me coffee before he left for breakfast at the Essenhaus with his former OR co-workers. I decided that apples would be my breakfast and that I just wouldn't think about his feast that he would devour.

After breakfast Wil spent the rest of the day helping. We had quite the operation going.

Note our modern way of cranking the Victoria Strainer. We re-charged Batteries throughout the day. I told them I didn't think that was very Amish! It sure beat the sore arms from cranking. However, in spite of the modern way of cranking it was still work.

Monica explaining to Brennan and Sawyer what was happening. It was also Monica's first time doing applesauce.

We didn't add any sugar to our sauce, only pure vanilla and a 3/4 cup of water to each kettle of apples. Thick and Yum.

This gives you a glimpse of our finished project. We canned 272 quarts today!
Tonight my hands hurt, hurt, hurt. My back and toes are sore from being on my feet 11 hours.
In spite of all that, it feels like such an accomplishment and so rewarding.