A Baker's Dozen: Daily Life in a Large Family

Happy Sixtieth!

Tucker (4) and Mom (60) blowing out candles.

 

That's a pretty good-lookin' grandma, don't you think? Now you know where I get my youthful looks from.

 

Oh, and here's my dad too.

 

My mom's brother and sister were both able to come help her celebrate. These three were raised in the fifties and sixties by an incredibly brave single mom who worked endlessly to provide for her children.

 

It made them a bit goofy, but we still love them.

 

This is my cousin Brenda and her four handsome boys. Last time we saw each other we were a couple of crazy seventeen year olds. Now we're a couple of crazy thirty-three year olds...with eleven sons between the two of us! Looks like I'm doing more than my share over here...Say hi to John for me.

Thank you Aunt Lonna, Uncle Gary and Aunt Loralyn, Shelly and Hannah, Brenda and sons,  and Sandy, Jean and Braeden. It was a wonderful day, and I hope it was special for you, Mom.

Reflections

Hezekiah, age 5

I've been waiting for a windstorm to blow the leaves off of our trees just so I could capture some beautiful photos with colorful bokeh like this. We're having a bit of an indian summer in these parts, something for which I am oh so thankful. The chilly weather drives me indoors, and I can barely drag myself outside for photos...good thing my Speedlite and I are now friends, otherwise I don't know if I could continue my photography throughout the winter.

I had a few questions about birthdays. We have birthdays for ten months solid in our family (May through February). I consider March and April (our birthday-less months) to be my break for the year. Ironically though, my two brothers' birthdays are in March and April- but they live far, far away (Hi, Neale and David). My birthday is the one in December, so I suppose I could consider than month a break too, if it weren't for that whole Christmas thing going on.

Yes, I get burnt out on birthdays and parties (oops, which I suppose is why Tilly's promised party hasn't materialized yet...and her birthday was in August!) But I want each child to feel special on their day. Some years parties are big, sometimes small. Sometimes they are individual, sometimes combined. Chuck and I feel that each addition to our family is a huge blessing, and love to celebrate and reflect on their life. It's not about a huge party or tons of gifts. It's about the gift they are to our entire family. Each one is treasured for who they are and what they add to our family.

Happy First Day of Fall

We like to celebrate the changing of seasons here in our house. It's a tradition that started off quite accidentally. We have been celebrating the first day of spring for a few years now (2007, 2008, 2009). It has evolved and changed over time. Well, this celebration naturally led to conversations about how to celebrate each first day of the new season.

This year we chose to celebrate fall with candy corn, hot spiced cider, and fresh pumpkin bread. 

What a great way to kick off the new season!

Seven

Today is Mordecai's seventh birthday. How can that be? I remember the sweet rollie-pollie baby he was when I first met him, October 1, 2002. He was four weeks old. He was pudgy, had a little mohawk of black wavy hair, and he was all mine.

Mordecai was a difficult baby. He didn't sleep well or eat well (he had a "disorganized suck"). And since those are the two main occupations of tiny babies, he (and we) had a rough time of it. He spent the two months prior to Jubilee's birth in the sling. He slept with us at night and in my arms during the day. He was loved and adored by every member of our family.

At age two and a half, Mordecai still couldn't talk. He had a few random words (Mama, Dada, kitty, etc). We were told by a speech pathologist that he would never learn to talk without intensive speech therapy. I took him to one session and the woman scared him to death. The environment was too busy, too loud, too bright for toddler with extreme sensory issues. 

At age 2 years and 9 months, he was diagnosed with Static Encephalopathy Alcohol Exposed. A big fancy name that means permanent brain damage due to alcohol exposure. They wanted to put him in school at age 3. School, as in load him onto a bus, drive him 20 minutes away where he would spend his day at a small special needs classroom on a high school campus, then drive  him home at the end of the day. We chose to keep him home. Our doctor (who has know Mordecai as long as we have) has always been of the opinion that he is much better off at home, learning with us, than away at school.

Mordecai has had surgery three times (the first at 19 months). Two of those surgeries were on his hand to repair a birth defect (he was born missing some fingers and toes) and once to remove his tonsils and adenoids.

Mordecai learned to talk, to ride a bike with no training wheels (at age 4), he knows the letters of the alphabet  and their sounds and has a few sight words (including "on" and "off" which he learned from his Gameboy).

Mordecai is sweet, snuggly and charming...along with having a mighty temper. He is Jubilee's best friend and guide to his two little brothers.

Mordecai is an incredible gift from God, chosen especially for our family.

Happy birthday, son.

Seventeen

Keziah turned seventeen years old on Friday....wow. Granted, I've known her for less than two of those years, but it seems like she's always been here. She is such a beautiful girl, inside and out. She's outgoing, happy, a little loud and crazy. She has blended beautifully into our home and family.

Keziah wanted to have a game night for her birthday. Her original list have TWENTY families (not people!) that she wanted to invite. Much to her disappointment I made her pare down her list a bit. In all, we squeezed twenty-seven teens and young adults into our basement. Our house was filled with laughter, games and snacks. A splendid time was had by all. 

Happy Birthday, Tilly

 Tilly loves photography...I've been taking her on all of my newborn shoots for the past six months or so. She's my second set of hands. She used to carry around our old point and shoot digital camera snapping photos, until it bit the dust a few months ago. Tilly has been talking about having her own camera forever.

Back in January, I found we could pick up a decent (but not great) point and shoot for under fifty dollars. Since then I've been scanning ads and comparing prices, planning to surprise her with one for her birthday.

Then during my whole Canon customer service fiasco, Chuck discovered (while surfing he net for cameras) that we could pick up a used Canon Rebel at a very reasonable price. So we had the dilemma. Buy Tilly a cheap point and shoot (with which she would be thrilled) or help her invest in a DSLR, and actually teach her about photography.

I hated to ruin the surprise...for six months I had been envisioning her joy as she opened her birthday present to discover a camera....and yet she would be so limited with a point and shoot. So instead, we gave her the option: we would buy her a point and shoot, or give her fifty dollars toward the Rebel, and she would pay the rest with the money in her bank account (basically birthday money from the years when she was too small to spend it). She didn't have a moment's hesitation, she wanted the Rebel.

So Tilly is the proud new owner of a used Rebel XTI. I am letting her just play with it for a while, then I plan to teach her to shoot in manuel. 

Church Campout 2009

Chuck and Avi

This was our seventh year attending our church campout. As always, there was a little chaos, a hefty amount of work, and plenty of fun and memories for everyone. Click here to see photos from 2007 and 2008. It's so fun to see how much the children (and our family!) have grown.

 

We managed to set a record at the campground, by fitting 22 people into our single family campsite. 

Our church has special arrangements with the campground, where they reserve the entire area for the weekend and the campground allows families to double up. Not only did we double up with Hilary and her family again, but they've aquired three new children since last year's campout. 

Adrienne and Kalina hamming it up.

This is my friend Merriann's baby. Does he not have the world's most beautiful eyes? I'd love to get some good shots of him Merriann (you know- without the Cheeto Puffs).

 

Avi really like her s'more.

These stumps provide hours of fun for the children. They are climbed, attacked, used as forts and hidden behind. Such simple pleasures.

It's been fun to see how camping changes for our family over the years. The first time we went camping was the year Mordecai and Jubilee were babies and Enoch and Kalina were one and two. Let's say there were alot of tears and very little sleep.

Then there was the year Avi and Tucker were babies, Hezekiah was one, and Mordecai and Jubilee were three. Same thing.

And finally, this year, no babies, no toddlers. Everyone slept, no one awoke at the crack of dawn. No diapers to contend with or worrying about babies crawling into the fire.

It's getting better all the time...

First Born Son Turns Twelve

In a shocking turn of events, my firstborn son turned twelve on Monday. Twelve! No longer a little boy, not quite a teenager. 

(I can't call him my oldest son, since Ezra and  Boaz are older, so in this post I am calling him first born, simply because he is the one who introduced me to mothering boys).

I'm one of moms who loves boys...even if I don't go to Boy Scouts with them or play Nerf gun battles, I just love the way God designed boys. I don't always understand them (just as I don't understand frilly girls) but I love 'em.

This year Judah wanted to invite a group of Scouts from his patrol over. They build a fire in our fire pit and roasted hot dogs.

They pitched a tent in our back forty (okay, four, but it seems like forty to adventurous boys) and slept. All alone. This made be slightly nervous, but I couldn't put my finger on what I was worried about. The chances that someone would come down our rural road, walk right past our house, stumble upon this tent and realize there were  boys sleeping in it alone was so unlikely it was ridiculous. And sure, the boys were "alone" but their were seven of them, I'm sure they could have taken down anyone with ill intent. And while bears and cougars have been spotted occasionally in our area, it is also highly improbable that one would attack the boys in their tent. I  suppose it's just that after so many years of watching and "protecting" your children it seems so 

odd to say goodnight and head in the other direction.

Anyway, they all survived, and dare I say, thrived from their night "alone".

In the morning Keziah and Boaz made pancakes for the crew. They boys were great playing together, staging battles, doing boy things (that I probably don't want to know about). They only came in the house for water and bathroom breaks. That's my kind of birthday party.

Happy Birthday Judah!

Solid Rock Family Camp 2009

Here is this year's group of campers. Unfortunately, we didn't think to take a camp photo until just before everyone was leaving. Hence the dirty faces, exhausted children and missing camp shirts. But hey, we got a photo, and everyone's in it (thanks, dad).

We're still recovering over here, but we made it to church this morning anyway (second service). So instead of boring you with every detail, instead I'll bore you the "camp cheer" Hilary and I wrote in literally five minutes while the campers played a game of freeze tag.

Solid Rock Camp Cheer:

I don't know but I've been told

Solid Rock is solid gold.

Packed my bag and packed my tent

off to Solid Rock I went.

Washed my dishes, washed my tray,

Snack Shack opens every day.

Made some crafts and had some fun,

started to sweat out in the sun.

Got no stitches or broken bones,

time to write a letter home.

Around the campfire we did sing,

every team had a song to bring.

Woke up early for eggs in a bag,

played a game of freeze tag.

Time to invent and search the wood,

camping food is really good.

Water fight in the afternoon,

come and grab a water balloon.

Time for dinner and farewell, 

popsicles end it really well.

Just Popping In...

...to let you know we survived day one of camp. I actually wasn't needed down in the tents, so I slept on the floor of  the girls' room. I'm the first one up in here and I just got the coffee going.

So far we've had:

* one shattered glass bowl

* one bee sting

* and several scrapes.

Not bad, not bad.

Yesterday we:

* painted camp shirts

* played telephone, leapfrog and the human knot

* did leather working, made pvc slingshots, beading and hemp necklaces

* we had a camp fire with s'mores

Photos to follow when camp is over.