Got a little behind.....

Sorry to all of you who share our life happenings through my blog. I am woefully behind. I am so sorry! I love that you come and let me share with you through the media and technology so easily accessible to me. It makes us seem closer to those we love and care about!!!

I haven't got Bekah's pictures posted yet. I will try to do that tonight before I head off to bed. Her party was a great deal of fun and she was extremely pleased which made everything so worth it! Gabrielle and I stayed up WAY too late the night before making fairy princess wings for all the little girls who were coming. Bekah is very into the story of Thumbelina right now and thinks it is great that she grows up and gets WINGS :)

We had ConfiDance for the month and it all went very well. We are getting ready for our annual big shindig -- Medieval themed this year. Leadership rescheduled it for June 5th for which I am SOOOO extra super extremely grateful. I have not TOUCHED our costumes for over a month. I started well but am not doing well now -- six still to do!!!! I am grateful for the extra month -- now if I can just be organized and not wait until the week before :) My cousin Fara was super instrumental in helping me organize a menu and the wording for our invitations. I have them finished and sent to the leadership for approval and to be delegated to the appropriate ladies that are covering the food, decorating, etc. I still have to finish up some responsibilities in my position as caller like the dance cards, schedule of dances, call cards that I need to reprint (they are starting to fall apart) and of course my family's costumes but I can breathe now at least --- it is coming together.......... Our next dance is May 8 (the day before Mother's Day!) and I am hoping to teach two new pieces to our dance family :)

Judah turned SIX on tax day!! I can't believe he is growing so quickly and he gets sharper and smarter on a daily basis which I must admit is SCARY :) For his birthday we had our pastor's family (he has three boys) and Mark's family and one of Judah's friends come over for pizza, pop, cake, the works AND Judah's biggest request for his birthday this year was pinata which I finally found after calling stores all over town. They must be a hot item right now - everybody was sold out and I waited too long to even TRY to fathom putting one together myself. It was a very fun day!

We also got to know our pastor's family just a little better; they are some of those kind of people that the more you get to be around them the more fabulous they are!!! We are so blessed!!!!

The boys had their Boy Scout Spring Court of Honor. Josiah and Elijah both were promoted which was great. Elijah helped to MC the evening; he is really growing in his skills and abilities in front of people. I was so proud of him! I will try to post some of those pictures as well.

Josiah and I got working with his hives. We hadn't done too much with them yet this spring and they needed their annual clean-up, etc. We were bummed to find some mold in one of the hive's lower frames and the bees in that hive were unusually aggressive. Tim, Josiah and I all got stung -- mine was minor and very typical aside from the fact that the bees were so aggressive. Tim and Josiah got stung in the face -- Tim right above his left eye and Josiah in the middle of his left cheek. They both had swelling and Josiah's was pretty severe which concerned me. I teased Tim that he looked like Tim Allen in Christmas with the Kranks after he got his botox injections. Josiah I couldn't tease at all. It wasn't bad Friday night but when he woke up Saturday morning he looked like he had a baseball in his cheek and by Sunday morning his eye was completely swollen shut. It was a severe reaction. The doctor was unalarmed however (yes, I called her on the weekend I was worried!) and I felt MUCH better after talking to a veteran beekeeper that came up from Polson for clinics. We bought most of our equipment from him. He was gracious enough to look at our frames and make sure I wasn't missing anything as far as disease, etc., answer my questions and assure me that facial stings often react very strongly and Josiah would recover :)

We ordered another package of bees and Josiah is hoping to split his strong hive this spring giving him FOUR to maintain, harvest, etc. I was concerned that his reaction would scare him and he would recoil from working with the bees. I was wrong. He was completely unpulsed and was out working with Tim and I Monday afternoon to give them their spring meds, etc. Since I know beekeepers in the area have had foulbrood last season we treated preventively for that. Foulbrood is I would say a beekeepers worst nightmare and state regulations here require that the keeper burn EVERYTHING and start over. HUNDREDS of dollars wasted not to mention the time invested in building those strong, great hives that produce a lot of honey. It takes the first year generally just to build up their winter supply and build the hive comb, etc. Tim and I didn't want to see Josiah lose so much so we decided we could treat it offensively to be safe. We also found a GREAT natural treatment for mites (which will kill a hive) that uses essential oils in sugar water. It also promotes the queen to lay more eggs and has all kinds of benefits for the hive in general. So we did both those this spring for the first time. Since we don't have "bloom" yet everything the bees get whether from their gathering flights or from the sugar syrup we feed them this time of year goes into replenishing their boxes. We don't put our honey supers on for a few more weeks when the blooms really get going. I checked all this out carefully to make sure I was keeping our honey as natural and pure as I could. I feel good about our plan and am anxious to get back in the hives next week to see how the ladies are doing :) Josiah's bees come to Polson May 7 and we have to drive over and pick them up (about an hour and a half). He is excited to get more hives going and I am excited for the potential of more honey. Home-grown honey is just really remarkable -- you will have to taste some when you visit; it is too good to just explain in words!!!

Josiah's face is back to normal finally --- it took until Tuesday night I would say before it was totally back to normal. He made me promise I won't post pictures -- if he relents I will put up a couple but I wouldn't count on it. He was pretty embarrassed and unfortunately his BSA ceremony was when his face was still pretty bad. He had to even give a speech to candidate for patrol leader that night. POOR GUY!!!

We just finished week two of preschool for Bekah. We made her wait until after she turned four to start. She is totally jazzed to be learning and to add to the fun my friend Natalie is allowing her daughter to learn with us!!! It is going well and I am excited to see how the girls do in the next weeks as our pace picks up!!! Having Joy with us helps me be more accountable too!!! We start every morning at 10 am!!!! We are taking a trip to a sheep farm to check out their lambs next week which will be fun. We didn't get to do that with the boys when they were studying sheep because I started Zachy and Judah in the fall with this curriculum. It cracks me up that Judah who had his birthday off of school CHOSE to do school with the girls! That has been one of my biggest challenges is keeping Judah on task; he thinks it would be a lot more fun to repeat his K4 class then keeping working on his K5 material. He told me this morning he doesn't understand why everybody can't just learn all the same things at the same time :) Oh to be six again!!!!

Tim, Gabrielle, Elijah and JOSIAH (he gets to participate this year - HURRAY!!) are at their first competitive shooting match in Butte for the weekend. Elijah and Gabrielle reloaded and did fairly well. They made a mistake which cost them in time and brass and TOTALLY bummed them out but they managed to get done what they needed to. Some of our military here in MT are coming this weekend to work with the shooters. It is a GREAT experience for them! They just called a little bit ago to wish me goodnight!

Zachy has his friend over and I am thoroughly enjoying listening to them talk and laugh together downstairs. I am blessed that Zachy has found a few really good friends. That blesses me tremendously!!!

One of Judah's favorite presents was a pup tent and he is camped out with Bekah IN MY ROOM!!!! He has been wanting to try it out so badly but sleeping in my room is not something he wanted to bypass with Tim gone so he is doing both! He cracks me up!!!

Koliah is growing so fast - if I blink he is bigger! He is doing well but still is struggling with sensitive stomach and a tooth that needs to break through. Last night he slept pretty good for the first time in a couple of weeks. I so desperately needed that!!!! My brain was starting to rebel :) He isn't crawling yet but is pulling himself around short distances and BUSY all the time!!! It won't be long and then won't I be in trouble?!?!?!? Our pastor is going to dedicate him for us on Mother's Day this year -- isn't that cool!?!?! I think that will be especially special! It is such a wonderful thing to have a church family that we want to share this special milestone with. We have definitely been adopted by a myriad of grandmas, grandpas, brothers and sisters. We are blessed!!!!

Gabrielle and I finished up our garden order and have it submitted. We are registering for farmer's market with a few others - sharing a table for the summer. I am excited and nervous. I hope that it will be a great entrepreneurial experience for Gabrielle and I and that it will benefit our family. We'll see......... I will try to keep you posted :)

We got a batch of spring chicks -- I only bought six but I ended up with 20. They had some bantys that needed to go somewhere and I took them. That insanity gene struck again :) I need to get a few more new layers. We had to put down some of our older ones :( Also have to get some turkeys but none came in this week -- maybe next week!!! Baby chicks have the most marvelous cheeping --- I do love the beautiful sounds of spring!!!

Yesterday, Tim got to take Zachy to his work as part of the "Take your son/daughter to work" campaign. The organizer did a GREAT job this year and had events at the capitol including a chance for the kids to see "law" in action. Zachy got to pretend to be an attorney for the state representing a faux animal control issue. They also got to go in a military chopper (grounded of course), see presentations by the military, local law enforcement, and numerous other activities. Zachy had a great day even though he had to start his day at 4:40 AM with Timmer. Great memories and a good time together.

Throw into the mix school, a small group study at church, the youth study for the kids, a speech class for the oldest two, Ladies' study on Tuesdays, church, school, animal responsibilities, building projects, yard projects and a few numerous other things and you have a good overview of our craziness. It is all so good though -- as crazy as this season in our lives really is....... the kid's are learning so much; we are building relationships; we are growing in our walk with Christ and in our skills and abilities. God is very good.

For me personally, aside from being airheaded (which I am blaming on a lack of sleep) I am keeping busy and striving to put on the mind of Christ. The study we are doing has been so good and VERY challenging for me. This week has been one filled with opportunities to be anxious and upset; I am glad to be learning how to (as Nancy Missler states it) "put off the junk and put on the mind of Christ". I have been missing my family a lot and it has been more intense for my Grandma in the last few days probably because spring reminds me SO much of her. The Lord is so gentle and so kind though --- my friend Natalie brought me THE most BEAUTIFUL geranium for no reason and a wonderful lady from church is blessing me with raspberry plants from her garden, bulbs and two rose bushes!!!! I am so grateful that the Lord spoke to their heart and that they listened....... He used their obedience to touch a need in my heart they didn't know about. The body of Christ in action -- it is SUCH a phenomenal thing!!!!! It took the sting away a little for me today and I am dreaming of a much prettier yard next year if the Lord tarries His coming that long :)

I need to close for the night -- guess I will try to post pictures tomorrow. It is quite late and the caffeine is wearing off :) May your weekend be mightily blessed!!!!