Lachpach Pics

2009-11-11T16:32:00.002-05:00

and today just gets better and better. We ran to check out a health foods place I had heard about and it is the best Healthy Foods Grocery I've ever been in. It is called the Mustard Seed and I am in LOVE. I was soooo giddy going thru it today. Tons and tons of gorgeous organic produce. Awesome supplements and other groceries. A fresh butcher that had great looking meats and fish. Seriously, I'm soooooooooo stinking happy!

Then, I came home and all of the kids went down for naps!!!!! Hannah is still adjusting to the time change and has been taking a morning nap and it is about to kill me! No rest or breaks at all is more than this Mama can handle for days on end.

Finally, I've got a big ole pot of chicken and veggies bubblin away to make some chicken and dumplings for dinner. I am on a mission to make meals we love from our childhood but healthy. This one has kale, celery, carrots, onions and chicken. I'll pull the chicken out and dice it up, then cream the veggies to make a creamy broth then add the dumplings and chicken back in. I CAN'T wait, I was drooling while I made it.

2009-11-11T13:19:00.002-05:00

A little unsettled. We got an email from our HOA here today that said a man in a blue car has been going to kids waiting for the buses in the morning and yelling at them to get in the car. This has been happening for 2 weeks. Ick. I worry about Joshua at times. He is sooo social, and will talk to anyone, anytime. Anyone have good suggestions for a book on how to talk to your kids about safety stuff like this?

In other news, we are having the best day. I was just sitting thinking that this is how I would like all days to go. We got up and got the kids their baths and then breakfast. Joshua fed Hannah her breakfast while I did some computer work. Then, Hannah went down for a nap and the big kids and I got school done. Leah even asked to play some alphabet games and she is finally learning some of her letters. Joshua is doing phenomenal in school, no surprise there. Then, we made banana walnut pancakes together and had a tasty lunch. Now we are off to run some errands and enjoy the beautiful weather we are enjoying!

2009-11-10T18:52:00.003-05:00

I have a headache and no idea why. Hannah is sleeping ok, not thru the night but ok. I've been eating good, drinking my water....must be hormones. Blech. AND I don't have a book to read right now, which is what I"d like to do, curl up and read a book. I've been reading Cindy Woodsmall's Amish books lately. They aren't anything jump up and down about but the stories are fun to dive into. She isn't as good a writer as Beverly Lewis. She is more personal stories and sagas kind of writing with a little Amish life thrown in, where as Beverly Lewis is more Amish lifestyle with personal sagas included. I like Lewis better. That being said, I am still going to finish the Sisters of the Quilt series and then get back to what I prefer to read, nonfiction. I recently reread 5 Love Languages, still highly recommend that book. I also read two books with Joshua that we really loved and I would like to find for our home library. One was A Tree is Nice and the other was A Little Boy Named Babaji, really loved the Babaji story.

We our enjoying some unseasonally warm temps here right now. It is nice as I know what is coming this year. I know we will also enjoy the snowy times too, but they last so long. I'm trying to get the kids outside as much as possible, and am researching vitamin D supplements.

2009-11-08T15:23:00.000-05:00

What a great weekend. We have been blessed amazing summerlike weather this weekend. It has been in the 60's yesterday, today and tomorrow will be too. Sunny and BEAUTIFUL!!!!! So, we are out enjoying it! I think a zoo trip is in store tomorrow.

2009-11-06T09:18:00.005-05:00

8 Wonderful Years in September.

All of us on our 8th anniversary in September.

This is my first time ever, organised junk drawer. Is this inspiring or what?

Bad hair night for AWANAS.

This is our cutie little blond curly haired blue eyed girl.

2009-11-05T09:14:00.001-05:00

We had our first snow yesterday. It snowed off and on all morning. No sticking. The kids went out to catch flakes on their tongues.

2009-11-03T10:51:00.002-05:00

Don't forget to vote today, lots of people have given their lives for you right to vote! If you are in Ohio, please vote no on 2!

It is sunny but cool here today. We had a really heavy frost yesterday morning. Snow is forcasted for Thursday. It is November now, so I am ok with it snowing. Reminds me that I still need to order snow boots for the kids though...oopss. We've looked at alot of the cheaper snow boots around but none of them look like they would be waterproof and my kids would have frozen feet in about 10 seconds. They love playing in the snow, and so we are going to spend the money to get them boots that will keep their feet warm in the snow. Joshua actually begged to go play in the frost yesterday, lol! He ran to me first thing in the morning and said "Mommy, Mommy, look outside there is white stuff!!!!" He was sooo excited. Hated to break it to him that it wasn't snow and they weren't going out to play in it.

Hannah is either gearing up for a huge growth spurt or getting sick. The last two days she has nursed constantly. She climbs up in my lap and signs eat while pulling on my shirt and saying night night, lol! She may not be talking fully but the girl can get her point across. She also screams APPLE at the top of her lungs any time anyone has ANY kind of food. It is hysterical. She'll frantically sign more and eat and please trying to get some food. You'd think she was starving to death. She ate more chicken pot pie than Leah at dinner last night.

Happy Reformation Day!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-10-31T22:23:00.002-04:00

On Oct 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door in Wittenburg, thus unknowingly beginning the Reformation. This is what we celebrate today. We avoid the American celebration of death and the occult and choose to enjoy a dinner out for breakfast as a family. In Texas, we had lots of friends from our church join us. In Ohio, thus far, it is just us enjoying Bob Evans! Yum!!!

So, Happy Reformation Day Ya'll!

2009-10-30T13:43:00.003-04:00

We've had a lovely week. Spent time at the Akron zoo and two days tromping thru the woods at the Rocky River Reservation. We saw deer up close on both days, crawled around in tree roots of fallen trees, got pounded by falling acorns and were in awe of the beauty of God's creation in the Fall season. We finished up our creation study in school and now go onto 26 fun filled lessons surrounding the letters of teh alphabet. Each letter is paired with a math, reading, bible, science and I think geography lesson for a week. Next week will be sponsored by the letter "S"! ;-)

Today we go vote. Please, if you live in Ohio, vote NO on issue 2. I've never read a more poorly written and less thought out piece of legislation. It makes me mad actually. There is no reason that this issue should remotely be linked with any kind of constitutional amendment. And even if this were to try to pass as simple legislation, it is rediculous. There are no standards addressed at all and no over sight by anyone, or the option of oversight to ever be established or possible. Basically, it comes down to big agri business wanting to set up this committee that can run rampant over the farmers and therefore the people of Ohio. Don't give away your power! VOTE NO ON ISSUE #2.

And in case you are wondering, we will voting NO on #1 and #3 as well. We aren't in Cuyahoga Co anymore so we won't have the option of #5 and #6, but we would be voting no on 5 and yes on 6, if anyone cares.

2009-10-26T20:43:00.002-04:00

We had a good weekend....but I! had a great weekend!!!! I read a book on Saturday, and it wasn't a child's book and I did it all by myself! Robert got up with the kids at 9 and headed downstairs. I curled up with an Amish fiction novel and read in bed and ignored screams and bangs and fits until noon!!!! I got up, made everyone lunch. Got them all down for naps and went right back to bed to read until 5. Got up, showered and went out to a yummy Mexican dinner with my family. It was the best day I've had in FOREVER!!!! I told Robert that I need a reading day once a month. Hiding in bed with a book has been my escape/reboot mechanism since I was small enough to read...which I think started at 4 for me. The book was ok, not the best I"ve read by far or worst, but that wasn't the point!!! I'm refreshed!

Today was sunny and 60 degrees, so even though we got to be late and Hannah was up every 45 minutes last night and Leah has a cough and Hannah a cold....we went to the zoo. I knew what it would mean for this afternoons nap scenario and evening/night routines and we still went....and it was lovely. We visited the Akron zoo for the first time. We live much closer to Akron than Cleveland now. It was a nice little zoo. We can't wait to go back and show Daddy, and for Daddy to take the kids thru the snake building. Mommy don't play snakes! We still squeezed school in after dinner. And now, I'm off to bed.

Friday Kid Update

2009-10-23T14:23:00.002-04:00

Yes, I haven't forgotten.....just been tired and settling. Without further ado.

Joshua- Loves school. I wish his teacher could school him as much as he wanted me too. If that were the case, he'd graduate by age 10, I'm sure of it. Of course, that is one of many reasons we are homeschooling. So our childrens education will truly educate and grow them, instead of just being floated thru a system like we were. Robert and I often wonder how much more we could have learned and done had we been given any opportunity other than mundane school boredom. Anyway, Joshua is loving school. This morning he told me "I love math" I can't wait for his Daddy to get home and hear that. He'll cry..... no really, he will. Math is Robert's passion, he can do calculus in his head. I think Joshua may have the same knack. We could easily finish the kindergarten math books I got him in a week, if I let him, but I'm not. This year is more about us learning how to do school together than him learning any concepts. He pretty much has most all K concepts down.

He is growing like a weed. I think he is growing so fast sometimes that his mind and body can't keep up. He goes thru regular periods of being crazily clumsy. Thankfully other people have seen him just walking along and fall flat out on his face...other wise people might question his bumps and bruises. He is really funny though because he always immediately jumps and says real fast and loud "I'm ok!" I think his mind has days it can't keep up either. Every once in a while, he'll just not be him. He won't listen, has no regard for us or other authority, is mean to his sisters, and just kind of quiet. I really think it's his way of just shutting down some to process and then he's good again.

Leah- Is still so flamboyant and crazy. She's starting to try and be sneaky, which is funny since she's 3 and has no skill at it whatsoever. She too has had a huge growth spurt. She shot right through her 3t's and is a solid 4t now. Good thing I was slow on the winter clothes shopping or we would have been in trouble in the wrong size. She has her own room now and really seems to be thriving. I think she likes her quiet alone time in the mornings before I get everyone up. She gets up and gets dressed....which is always an amusing costume of sorts, and then plays with her babies and kitchen. I really think it has helped her calm down a bit. She does need more focused training from us though. She is kind the brat right now, but that is totally our lack of training. We are working on it.

Hannah- Now this girl has taken off! She is eating table food almost full time, although she still nurses 8-12 day too. She's putting on weight and BUSY. She's crawling for real. For a few days, she would hold our fingers and walk with us, but now if we try to do that she promptly plants her bottom. I think she figured out we were going to less carrying time with Mommy and she quickly put the brakes on that. She talks up a storm. She says NO NO, constantly...but only in car...to Leah! lol! She also knows alot of signs and can and will quickly put her siblings in there place. They love her so much though. She calls them both Bubba, which cracks everyone but Leah up, although she has come to terms with it now. We HAVE to work on her sleep. Up until 9 months, she was a great sleeper....for a Lachney baby, but then we traveled to Texas and back and then D.C. and we've been unsettled since and her sleeping is awful.....and I'm about to collapse becasue of it. Time to break out Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child again. Poor Tooty doesn't know what is coming! But we'll all be happier once we get thru it.

2009-10-22T16:48:00.003-04:00

Things are on the up and up here already. A relief for sure. I'm not a big believer in all of the crazy media hype that stirs our country/world into hysteria every year or so over some new virus that is going to kill the entire world. But, having little ones and knowing that small children in our area have died from swine flu, does make me pause. We still handled this the way we always do any "sick" episode....meaning,we don't wait until we are sick to care for ourselves.

I always try to keep us in healthy habits to give our bodies strength for life, including virus's and bacteria. So, we just got everyone really going on the Ningxia Red, diffuser going full time, lots of oils on our bodies, homeopathic remedies and we got chiropractic adjustments. Everyone woke up fever free and well today. I think we are all a little tired but otherwise we are fine. I'm grateful to God for bringing us on a path of natural healing. I think it is sad that americans, christian and not, put more trust in doctors than our God who loves us and CREATED us. He designed our bodies with systems to fight, but sadly most people just want to run and take a pill to stop those annoying symptoms. He also gave us many things in His creation to help our bodies when they are taxed and stressed. He is a mighty God!

Oink Oink

2009-10-21T09:28:00.002-04:00

Well, some kind of flu has entered out house. I'm not guessing whether it is of the porcine variety or not, but it is here either way. I think Hannah has had it a day or two. She's had very very swollen lymph nodes and been really cranky and clingy, but really, how much can you get from a baby about their symptoms. I've felt really ick the last two days with a headache and general run down feeling, but I'm a Mom that is woken up every 45 minutes to 2 hours all night every night....so I assumed that was my issue. But then last night, Joshua says he feels funny. I assumed he was just tired from not taking his nap that afternoon. Then within 15 minutes, he spikes a high fever. So, I'm pretty sure we have a flu of some sort. Robert ran to Walmart and got 4 boxes of Ossillococcinum (OSC) for us. Thankfully they weren't sold out. I've heard of multiple schools being closed in our area this and last week for swine flu, so I was worried. Thankfully for us, most people run to their ped and not for natural remedies...silly people. Anyway, keep us in your prayers. I'm staying on top of everybody with oils and remedies now so hopefully it will be short lived and mild.

Beatles-esque Bible Books Song

2009-10-17T10:18:00.002-04:00

Wanted to post this so I can find it later.

SNOW

2009-10-15T13:15:00.002-04:00

Snow is forecasted for Saturday, October 17th. I keep refreshing weather.com to see if they made a mistake. :-(

2009-10-13T20:51:00.003-04:00

Too many blog posts running thru my head, so I'm giving ya bullets instead.

- First, B is doing better. He had 5 stints put in, in two separate operations. All went well and he flew home as planned two days after the second procedure....not against a few suggestions from the doctor and family members. He has a follow up with his cardiologist in Houston this Thursday, so we'll have a better report then. He is feeling well though. He'd be feeling better if LSU was winning. His heart monitor was going crazy during the LSU game, lol!

-Nanny flew home today after 5 crazily busy weeks here with us. It was a nice visit although we didn't get to have near as much fun as we wanted. I would say we will next time, but since we will be moving again next year, and I will be begging her to come help again then...well..who knows. She did get to see the leaves start to change and we ooh'd and aah'd about that together. It really is a sight to see. It was nice having her around. The kids LOVED having Nanny always ready to read a book or color a picture. And I didn't mind the help with the laundry either. ;-)

-It is fall here and that means a million different festivals and such. We love doing stuff like that together as a family. Last weekend we hit the local little Rennaisance Faire. It was fun and had more stuff than last year when we took Sarah V. But, this weekend I think we are going to hide and rest. We've been going at Mach 1 without a break since mid August when we decided to move. We've also had company that entire time, and so I think Saturday will be a pajama family day here. We are tired.

- Robert has joined an over 30 soccer league. He's THRILLED to be playing soccer again. He's played his entire life until the last 10 years. His first game was good but COLD for us on the sideline. I'm new to this soccer Mom status, so I am learning the ropes. The second week, I remembered the jogging stroller and water for us all. But didn't dress us near warm enough or bring blankets. I'd say this week that I'd be ready, but.... last week, Robert got taken out by the other team and has a badly badly sprained ankle. I'm really pushing the oils and remedies thru and it is healing remarkably but it will be a game day call on whether he'll play or not. Since they are forecasting 40 for a high with rain...I'm guessing not. ;-)

-We are starting school this week. Although, I was reviewing our curriculums intro lesson which is 10 days long and realized that it is SOOOO below Joshua. So he'll listen along and then go onto his higher level phonics and math work and I'll teach Leah kindergarten. Might as well get her started if I'm doing the work already. Today we worked on composers and classical pieces.

-I'm doing good. I need to finish getting this house into shape so I can find my happy place.....impossible for me to do in unorganised clutter. I need to start exercising again since winter is quickly coming, but we'll see when I get that into the routine. My headaches are still around, sadly. But there is a doctor in Columbus I might try to start seeing in the spring, when the snow melts and I have a car to drive again.

- FINALLY! PRAISE GOD, our house in Texas closes on THIS FRIDAY!!!! I thought it would be bittersweet, but honestly it is just a relief. It will be one month shy of 7 years since we bought it. It was a great house for us to get started in, but man am I ready to have another house of our own.

2009-10-02T20:09:00.001-04:00

Please pray for my father in law, B Lachney. They flew in to visit us yesterday and this morning Robert and Sue had to take him from the Pro Football Hall of Fame to a hospital for chest pains. He's had a heart cath and we're waiting to see what next.

2009-09-28T15:11:00.002-04:00

Everyone's napping and I desperately need to be unpacking and organising/cleaning...so I think I'll update real quick. We are moved in and getting settled. I have most of our stuff unpacked and somewhat ordered although I will be doing some major organising once all of our company is gone. Mom only has 2 weeks left here. It was been soooo nice having her here to help with the kids during the move and catch up on alot of my much neglected sewing projects. We've even fit in a few sightseeing jaunts, including our first ever school field trip today. We went to a local farm and the farmer gave us a tour. We got to all pick pumpkins out of the patch and apples from the orchard. Feed the pigs, learn about beehives and their honey making. Joshua and Leah both asked very good questions about the bees, dispite my nervousness of them being silly and distracting. Overall it was a good little tour. It felt good to be around other homeschoolers again and got me in the schooling frame of mind, which is good since we will be starting our year as soon as everyone leaves. Robert's family comes in on Thursday. We are going to do Amish country (a must for every visitor here), the ProFootball Hall of Fame (I'm giddy about this one), the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame (I'm sad I"ll miss this one since the kids have a doctors appt that day), dinner on Lake Eerie, Robert's first soccer game and other shopping and eating. Gonna be exhausting but fun. Hope you guys are all doing good. Shoot me an email if anything big is going on in your lives, I'm only checking email right now. I've popped on Facebook for about 2 seconds once or twice but that has been about it.

2009-09-23T09:22:00.001-04:00

We are moved in. Busy unpacking and getting "home" reestablished. My children are in desperate need of routine.

2009-09-15T08:54:00.002-04:00

Celebrating 8 years of marital bliss today. We've been so blessed by our Lord. He brought us together 8 years ago. We met in Feb of 2001. Robert came to know Christ in April, then quickly got permission to court me from our pastor. By my birthday in May, we knew we would be getting married. Sept 11, 2001 shook our world and then 4 days later we began a wonderful walk TOGETHER with our Lord. It really has been all blessings since. Only by His grace and love are we where we are today. We acknowledge and are grateful for that. Happy Anniversary Sweetie, I love you forever and ever.

Happy Birthday Joshua!

2009-09-13T15:02:00.003-04:00

Today is my sweet baby boys 5th birthday. Five years and three states ago, I became a Mommy and Joshua brought joy into our world. He is a really great kid. He has a heart of gold, even on his arnery days. He loves loves loves his Mommy and still will stop almost anything to snuggle up with Robert or I. He thinks Leah is a pretty cool playmate and Hannah is his joy. He is quite proud that he can now carry her around, since he is a big 5 year old after all, dontcha know. This morning he ran in to our bedroom and snuggled up as Robert and I sang happy birthday to him. Then he quickly got up and jumped super high, so we could notice how much higher he can jump, not that he's 5 years old. He's reading really well. He'd really really being doing well if his mother would hurry up and teach him more phonics rules. He loves playing outside in the dirt with sticks and rocks...and sometimes balls. He would sit and listen to books being read to him for days on end. He likes limits and having them reinforced when needed, keeps him a content boy. We are having our first, not at home birthday party since our house is now 80% packed up, including the entire kitchen. I even had to BUY a birthday cake, I hope it is tolerable. We are going to Bounce City and having a good fun jumpy party for him. I know he'll be blown away by it. I can't believe that it's been five years. We are blessed to have sweet Joshua Robert in our lives.

We love DAVE RAMSEY!

2009-09-09T22:05:00.001-04:00

Ok, we have taught his class, and are successful with his program. We love him.

In case you haven't jumped on the Dave Ramsey Debt-free Bandwagon yet, now's a great time to check him out. He's giving away baby step #1!

2009-09-08T09:48:00.002-04:00

Real quick catch up....before I dive back into boxes and packing and then head to the airport to pick up Nanny.

Hannah turned one year old on Friday. This year has flown by! She has been my easiest baby by far. I think alot of that is because I didn't have major surgery to deliver her. (insert my long rants about idiots that schedule Csections here) I feel kind of bad. We didn't do anything for her birthday at all. We had decided to go visit friend in DC for labor day weekend and so I was getting us packed and loaded and then we were driving the rest of the day. I hate that I don't have a picture of her eating her first birthday muffin that I always make the kids. I think I might make them later this week, and do a little family party then, just for the picture, lol. I just don't want her to later ask me why she doesn't have a picture like Joshua and Leah. Right now, I think she's ok with it. ;-)

We had a wonderful weekend in DC. We visited Pooka (Harris), Aunt Cake (Kate) and Jojo (Jonah) and Sammy the dog. They are foodies, like us and so we ate alot and loved every minute of it. I took my grain mill and Pooka made some fresh pasta for us. Cake made some fresh calzones also. It was lovely. They live in a beautiful planned community in Virginia. We walked all over, down to the farmers market, to the playground, so fun. We also drove into DC and went to the national zoo. It was nice but got crazy crowded in the afternoon. Cake and I got pedicures. The whole weekend was so nice and laid back and relaxing. Just what we needed before this next month of craziness. We can't wait to go back and do the DC touring. It was exciting just driving over the Potomac and seeing the Washington and Lincoln monument from the car. I can't wait to really go explore our nations capitol.

Awesome

2009-09-03T10:26:00.000-04:00

2009-09-01T10:14:00.002-04:00

We finally got and accepted an offer on our house in Texas. 14 short months was all it took on the market. Actually, it was less than 2 months since we listed with our new agents. If anyone in the Houston area needs to buy or sell a home, I CAN NOT recommend Ronnie and Cathy Matthews any higher. They have been amazing!! Seriously, they've been actually WORKING to sell our house, instead of just listing it and waiting. We have been impressed over and over by them. And now, we have a much better idea of how to sell a house the next time we need to. We are grateful to the Lord for leading us to them and for His perfect timing for our sell, even if it isn't the timing we would have planned. May His will be done in this sell and in our buying of our next home! He blessed us sooo amazingly in that, our first home. All three of our children were conceived there, along with babies for three other families, including the birth of a sweet baby boy there just yesterday! We thought about listing feritility blessings as part of our sellers disclosure, lol!