a sweet week

Some notes from this week:

On Monday West poured out a bottle of expensive liquid cod liver oil on our dinning table. Not thinking clearly and trying to stop it from running onto the floor I grabbed a kitchen towel to mop it up. I then threw the towel in the washing machine and forgot about it. The next day I did a load of laundry which included both of Shane's good work pants. When that load finished in the dryer our house smelled reeked of cod liver oil. Poor Shane had to wear those pants to work and I think the towels and other things in that load of laundry are ruined forever.

Last week our local one screen movie theater had a fire in the concession area. There is a fancy chocolate shop next door to the theater and because of the fire and the smoke that could have damaged the taste of the chocolates, the Chocolate Box made a quiet announcement that on Friday beginning at noon they would be giving away the chocolates. My two girls were there at 10 minutes till noon (with their aunt Sasa) and brought home a bag of dark chocolate covered Twinkies, salted caramels, milk chocolate truffles, chocolate covered marshmallows and chocolate coconut bars. Needless to say I did not stick to my no sugar diet that day. It was pure heaven and worth every calorie!

Shane has been working very hard in the yard putting in deer fencing all the way around and building new beds. Our lettuce is going crazy and we have leeks, beats and lots of flowers coming up. We had sun on Sunday and since then it has been nothing but rain all week.

The girls and I are really enjoying reading The Burgess Bird Book for Children each afternoon, a fictional story told from the perspective of Peter Rabbit that introduces kids to birds and their patterns, as part of our nature study. They also love The Nature Connection, a nature workbook.

We've been visiting a new church and are really enjoying the people there. We're praying about where the Lord wants us and for wisdom and direction about church.

Last week we ran out of paper towels and oatmeal - not such a big deal, but because I've pretty much used up our grocery budget we were going to have to wait until next month to buy more. I was a little bummed because the kids eat oatmeal 3 or 4 times a week and with a busy toddler and a baby that constantly spits up, paper towels are a must. Then on Friday, some friends rang the doorbell and when I opened the door they were standing on our porch with three or four big boxes of groceries including a huge Costco size bag of oatmeal and a box of paper towels! These friends had no idea that we needed these items, yet here they were with them. Apparently some older people had gone to Costco and brought a load of groceries to church and asked them to share them with people from the church. My friend said she'd prayed the night before about what to give to what people and the fact that she brought us two items that we really needed was such a God thing. He cares about even the smallest things in our lives. What a powerful message that gave to our girls that day.

We've been potty training West and so far I must say it's been much, much easier than the girls were. They were both almost 3 1/2  before they were potty trained and West just turned two. I never would have even begun potty training him so early based on my previous experience with the girls, but I recently read something about how you have a small window of time right when they understand and recognize that they are going to the bathroom. If you can potty train them during this window you'll have better chances of success. If you wait you'll be more likely to cause potty fear and other issues. Since in the last month West has stopped and told me several times when he was wetting his diaper I figured this was the window and I should at least get out the potty and try. The first day he wet his underwear most of the time, second day he was peeing in the potty, third day he was going in the potty every time and by the end of the first week he was even peeing in public toilets when we went out. He's also been dry every night and during naps. I'm not totally getting my hopes up yet because you never know, but the fact that we haven't used a diaper with him in a week makes me so happy!

Those are my journal notes from this week. More coming soon about a new bike, goals met and raw foods.