Kim 365

This afternoon we got out of the city for some fresh country air. A trip to the farm was in order. I wasn’t sure how my city crew would fare. Not to fear! They had an amazing time!

Markus was giving the chickens a run for their money. All the kids were. Check out their delighted faces!

And that, my friends, is a free range chicken.

A trip into the chicken coop to see where our eggs come from.

Markus was so proud to have picked an egg.

Such a beautiful bird.

The poults (baby turkeys – had to google that one!) are only 10 days old. The kids were a little apprehensive at first, but after petting one they were eager to get into the pen and get a closer look.

Markus made himself busy picking these tiny birds up and moving them around, and giving them a higher view.

He would have stayed for hours more if I’d have let him.

City kids. This country-raised girl never thought she’d have a brood of city kids under her wing. I think there’s a lot of country hiding under their shells though.

Given the fact that our kids are all still so little, I often forget the fact that I can’t protect them and save them from all the pain and hurt in this world. Of course I don’t want to shelter them in the sense that they are naive and have no idea of the struggles and suffering around them. No, I want them to be deeply sympathetic to others’ hurts, I want them to love deeply as they have been loved deeply by God. I just wish they didn’t have to feel pain and hurt for themselves.

Of course that’s impossible.

Still, I hate having to console my beautiful daughter when her friends exclude her. Her precious face, cast in a shadow of sadness. In that moment I am transported back to my childhood, drying my own tears because my friends cruelly abandoned me. It is so hard to quietly comfort and console her, rather than stand up like a mama bear and fight. It is a battle I cannot win. I can only pray that she can learn to love when she is not shown love. To forgive rather than harbor bitterness. And pray that I can do the same.

Oh Lord, I have so much to learn.

I had a vague memory of seeing Mary Poppins once when I was a kid, and when Clay told the boys about Mary flying around with an umbrella, they were pretty excited to see what it was all about. So yesterday we had a family movie night with Mary Poppins. It of course had some tunes that were recognizable, and had moments of entertainment. I just couldn’t shake how irritating she was. Does anyone else find her irritating? “Just as I thought: Mary Poppins, perfect in almost every way.”

Are there any hardcore Mary Poppins fans out there? What do you love about the movie? What am I missing?!

We used to always make pizza on Fridays. I don’t know how we departed from that, but I’d like to make it a more regular thing again. Homemade pizza is so easy, and so delicious no matter what you put on it.

Tonight we used naan bread for the crust, topped with olive oil, thinly sliced tomatoes, green peppers, onions, chicken, cheddar and goat cheeses. Yum!

These brothers sure have a lot of fun together. Wyatt has recently discovered that he can pick Deacon up and carry him around, which results in delight on both their parts. Another perk is that the big boys want to walk with their baby brother, saving me the back-breaking work of walking with a wobbly 10 month old.

A fourth baby isn’t nearly as much work as the first.

Anyone out there using the Square Foot Gardening method? We’re planning on building our garden boxes this weekend, then hopefully will mix soil the week after, and plant soon after that. I’m excited about this idea, which claims you can grow tons of produce in a fraction of the space that regular row gardening requires. That’s good news for my little backyard. I’ll try to keep you posted.

No time to blog.
Must. Keep. Reading.

I finished The Hunger Games a few weeks ago, and have been waiting for the next two books to come into the library. I lucked out and found them on the Hot Titles rack when I was there yesterday – these are books that you can’t place holds on, and you only get them for a one week borrow time. Not to worry. I plowed through Catching Fire in the last two days, so I’m off to start Mockingjay.

I made my own mosquito repellant today. This makes me sound very resourceful, but I am learning that resourcefulness is actually sometimes a mask that lazy people wear.

I am freaked out by DEET. I don’t want that junk on me or my kids for any extended period of time. On top of that, all the bug spray available in stores smells horrendous. Clay’s asthma kicks into high-gear when he smells the stuff, and it gives us both headaches. There is one we found last year that sort of passes the smell test, which only means it bugs us less than everything else, but it was by no means nice to use.

So when you add up all the time I would spend trying to find a spray that isn’t completely disgusting, and the literal headache I would have after smelling all those bug sprays, making my own bug repellant was actually the simple option. It took me all of two minutes. Can you drive to the store, choose a product, pay for it, and drive home in that amount of time?

I got the recipe here.
And here’s how I did it:
In a spray bottle, fill it halfway with witch hazel.
Add boiled water that has been cooled, almost to the top.
Add essential oils. The original recipe has quite a few that are recommended, and I chose three that were a pretty safe bet, given our scentsitivites. Lemongrass, peppermint, and tea tree. 50 drops total.
That’s it!

Now, I hope it works.

How is Wyatt so naturally cool? Seriously. How many people do you know that can pull of 90’s neon shades with such ease?

These beauties were found in one of the garage sale boxes, straight from 1992. Those were the days. Right?

What a day!

Alright, in case my posts the last few days have been a little cryptic, allow me to unpack what has transpired here over the past 10 days.

It started with me trying to motivate my children to part with some of their toys. The stash in the basement was more than I was comfortable with. “Hey guys, do you want to sell some toys at a garage sale?” This was met with much enthusiasm.

When I told Clay, he suggested we donate some of the money made from the sale to our friends who are in the process of adopting from overseas. He asked the kids how much they wanted to give. “All of it!” was the triumphant reply. Our kids got really ruthless with their toys and books, especially Markus. He really grasped the idea that the more we could sell, the more money we could give to his friends to bring their new sibling home. If it weren’t for Wyatt and Bailey reining him in, there might not be much left in our house!

I sent out a request to pretty much everyone I know, asking if they were spring cleaning and had anything around their house they were planning on donating, to bring it to our garage rather than to Value Village. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if Jesus just packed our garage to overflowing? The more, the better!”

Donations started pouring in. Our garage was absolutely packed with stuff that people gave to us to sell! This was far more than I had anticipated. This was far more than my control freak self was comfortable with. I like things manageable, I like to know I’ve got it covered. And this whole garage sale thing just was totally out of my control. I had to surrender it to the Lord. I had to have faith that since he had brought it to us, he would bring people to buy it. I cried out with the man in the gospel of Mark, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

I am so blessed. I can’t believe I got to be a part of this! When I consider the amount of money that it takes to bring a child home, I feel helpless. Who am I? A stay at home mother. I am not rolling in cash. I am no Scrooge McDuck. I have no means of coming up with a significant amount of money when I can barely balance the household budget. A single income family is rich in love, not padded bank accounts.

Here’s my attempt at a quick economics lesson.
There’s your money.
There’s other people’s money.
If you need more money, go get some from other people.

All the money is this world is ultimately God’s money. He’ll do with it what he pleases. And this weekend it pleased him to use some of that money to help bring a child home to his family.

Our gospel community group from church all got involved. They helped organize stuff, helped run the sale with us, brought us food while I was in the garage bartering like someone’s life depended on it – because it really did! My sister and father-in-law both took a turn with looking after the kids. Friends came and set up shop with a lemonade stand.

And people came.
People bought.
A few people who didn’t even want to buy anything slipped me a $5 bill because they knew it was going to a worthy cause.

Money was added to the ransom that will be paid for a child’s redemption. Thank you, Jesus!