A better Sunday

Today has been a nice day. It's about 80 degrees outside and cloudy. The kids have played well together OUTSIDE. Matt's still napping and I am trying to get caught up on my blogging. I love Sundays!

Peach Days!

Here in Hurricane are the apricot and peach orchards for the church. After several hundreds of rows are picked, they let the members go in and glean the fields. Candy and I went on Friday and I picked 5 boxes of peaches. Matt and I cleaned and froze some of them yesterday and tomorrow we will probably can the rest.

Friday night we had Matt's dad over so he could give Talon his present and we had him over for dinner. I wanted to try a new recipe. It is in the Better Homes and Garden cookbook and it is called Basil chicken in a coconut-curry sauce. It turned out fantastic! We adults loved it and so did Talon and Beau, but the other kids didn't so much as touch it. Too bad for them. (The only thing that I added to the recipe was just a little salt to the sauce and we ate it over cooked brown rice.)

Talon's birthday!

August 28th was Talon's 10th birthday! We had Nate and Candy's family and Matt's mom over for a dinner. We grilled kabobs, hamburgers, and hotdogs. I made blueberry muffins and corn muffins instead of having cake. There were a big hit. I found Talon a comforter set for him at JC Penney on clearance. I also got him a really nice marble chess set at a garage sale for $10.

Sunday nap = Safia's disaster

This child pushed me to the edge last Sunday. While Matt and I were taking our Sunday nap (Aug, 24) Safia got into the pantry and got into my grains. She dumped about 2 cups each of buckwheat, millet, and kamut and then about 4 cups of soft white wheat. Then she dumped water on them. I woke up to Jileigh yelling, "Safia! What did you do?!" By the time I got into the kitchen, Jileigh tried to sweep it all together. My reaction will not be recorded in writing. Anyway, I collected it all in a bowl, washed it about 20 times, soaked it over night, drained it, added a little more water, and cooked it. After it cooled, I fed it to the dog in portions over the week. At the very least, it wasn't a total waste. We have given our older children strict instructions that they have to watch THAT CHILD when I can't. (Jileigh actually took these pictures. I was way too upset to even think about it.)

Matt's birthday

Matt had is 37th birthday on Aug 19th. I secretly called the cafeteria manager where he works and let her know that it was his birthday. She enthusiastically said "Thank you for letting me know." Matt came home from work and told me that somehow the cafeteria ladies found out it was his birthday and they made a small cake for him. While he was eating his lunch all the maintenance engineer workers and cafeteria workers came in and very quietly sang, "Happy Birthday" to him.

After work, I sent him to JC Penney to their summer clearance sale with his birthday money to find a pair of shorts. He came home with 3 pairs and a shirt. He got some great deals. That is how I do my birthday shopping! That night we made chicken egg rolls and had the left over cake.

Matt is an incredible person, husband, father, brother, son, employee, friend, you name it! People ask me, "How do you do it?!" I tell I have a great husband who helps me. I could not survive without him.

Beauchene went walk-about

This is so embarrassing to write about, but it's one of those stories that I want to record. Saturday afternoon we were all home and busy. I was making bread. I heard my dog barking like crazy and then there was a knock at my door. It was a couple in our ward that are our home teachers and nearby neighbors. She had Beauchene in her arms and Safia holding her hand. Apparently, Beauchene walked down the 100' driveway and Safia followed him. Our neighbor said that Beau was in the middle of the road, (in only a diaper,) and Safia was on the sidewalk watching him. They happened to be driving home from somewhere and saw them. Not thinking that was right, she walked them back to the house and brought them safely back to their mother's arms. Ugh! That is the first time he had ever walked down the driveway. It happened to be a cloud-covered day so the concrete and rock weren't too hot to tolerate. I am so thankful we were blessed that my little kids were watched over. The thought still haunts me that something bad could have happened to either one of them.

Whole Davidson family pictures

I just received a copy of the photographer's disc, so I decided to include a picture of my WHOLE family including spouses. Only 2 Nephews are missing.

Weaning Beau

My sad day has arrived. Beauchene is weaned. He will be 15 months on Monday. I got down to two nursings a day and then to one. My milk would still fill up and I would have to nurse. So I did some google searching for help. I found a site that sage tea would help to dry up milk. I went to the health food store and bought some rubbed sage, made some tea, and drank it. 24 hours later my milk drastically diminished. My milk let down a little but nothing like before. Wednesday was the last time I nursed him. The hardest time is at night. One night earlier this week, I went into him while he was crying at 3am, and I handed him his sippy cup of milk. He said to me, "No Mom!" and dropped himself back on the bed from a sitting position and whimpered. Broke my heart! This weekend Matt is going into him. This had worked in the past to get my kids to sleep through the night. The wake up and cry for me, but if Dad goes instead, then they learn not to bother waking up. He cried for an hour last night. I love that little guy so much and this is the hardest part of the weaning process, but in the end it is usually worth it. I hope he catches on soon.

11 pm - I fell off the wagon!
So, tonight I was weak. After not nursing for 2 1/2 days he begged to nurse and I gave in. I know that it is counter-productive, but my milk had let down a few more time and I needed him to nurse. Tomorrow I will make some more sage tea.