Looking For Baby Items?

Have someone in mind you're hoping to bless with some sweet mommy/baby items that are beautiful, high-quality, functional, and support something meaningful?  May I boldly implore you to check out Already Love You?

Already Love You is the Etsy store our friends have opened to help fund their adoption fund.  Is that not a wonderful idea?!?!

I'm anticipating "needing" some things for our Baby #6 come April!

The First-Ever Whitney All-Family Camping Trip - Part 2

(Why I didn't just publish this 2 months ago when I wrote it is a mystery.  I'm not even bothering with trying to edit/find all my errors.  Time goes too quickly!)

So, where did I leave off from our camping story?  Ah!  Yes!  We had an amazing breakfast prepared by my oh so wonderful hubby-bubby of sausage and soaked pancakes.

The video I wanted to share of William cooking in the rain would not upload.  (Blogger and Mac seem to not work well together.  Or maybe it's just me! And, if one of them must go one day, it will not be our Mac!)  Here's the video (using You Tube):



Did you see his hustle?!?!  What good fun in the outdoors and sweet memories!

Day 2 of the trip found waking to wetness all around but enjoying a spectacular breakfast. After breakfast the rain did begin to slow down.  It was still damp so we opted not to attend the program of events we signed up for through ICHE.  We gave the kids the option and they were cool with just hanging around the campsite, playing in the sand area near the beach and exploring.

By the time breakfast ended and the rain stopped, we had to clean up after breakfast.  Camping is WORK... just like home.  But, with Hubby along for the fun, it certainly wasn't terrible.  In fact, it was oddly fun as we ended up with that outdoorsy mentality of, "Hey, everything's dirty, don't worry about getting it too clean!"

Paloma outside the tent after breakfast.
Notice the winter hat.  It was freezing in the early hours!

Once clean up was done it was almost time to get the fire going again or our lunch would not be ready on time.  Work time again!  The menu?  Hot-off-the-grill ham and cheese sandwiches with tomato!

After lunch Daddy took the bigger kids exploring around on some paths while I kicked back and tried to have a quiet time while the 2 little ones took an afternoon nap.  I think I read all of 3 verses and crashed!  I guess I was a little sleepy!

The naps were short so playtime came quick, especially when the bigger kids arrived with Daddy.  The kids played in sand, pulled Autumn in the wagon, dug an enormous pit near our tent, fished, and even enjoyed swinging on the swings.  Oh, the simple things!

We had dinner with the rest of the ICHE campers so it was an easy night.  Of course, we did end our evening with more S'mores!

Because the sleeping on the ground thing was way more painful than I anticipated, I tried to make it a bit easier by folding a blanket underneath us to give us a bit more relief from those annoying acorns.  I had no idea the acorns would be the least of my problems.

Yes, night two was... LONG.  We survived rain but... would I survive my husband turning into a barbarian?  Let me explain.

I was tossing around a lot trying to get comfortable and stay warm after getting up multiple times for kids being scared and Autumn wanting to eat.  Hey, it is like we're at home after all!  Once the kids were totally down though, I began to hear the wild animals.  Wild animals kinds freak me out.  Especially since the first (and last time!) I went camping with my husband and we were attacked by wild raccoons.  Yes, those crazy raccoons kept pawing at our tent!  It was horrible.

William knew my fear of the wild animals so what does he do?  He decides to go out in dark and mark our territory.  Okay.  So, he relieves himself.  I'm thinking he'll come back in the tent any moment.  Well, next thing I know, I hear him let out a small gasp of momentary pain.  Pops fell into the deep pit the kids dug!

Surely he'll come crawling back into the tent any moment, right?  Nope.  I hear him walking all around the tent.  What on earth?  I get nervous.  What will I do if my husband is attacked by a wild animal?  Then I see fire.   A LARGE fire!  So large our tent is now lit.  My husband went CRAZY.  I unzipped the windowed of the tent to peek out and I see a man I did not recognize.  And he stayed out there for a couple of hours!  Finally I whisper to him, "What are you doing?  You've been out there for hours?!"  He had been unaware of how long!

He comes back in and mumbles something about protecting us using fire.  Well, one thing was for certain, no animals came trotting over to our spot anymore!

The rest of our trip was typical.  Kids playing outside and getting filthy.

Fishing.

Sitting around and marveling at God's creation.

Throwing sticks in the fire.

And then, the inevitable final clean-up and pack up time.  (Note to self: have a plan for this as this wasn't as smooth as set up!  Prepare for the kids to have assigned duties.)  Once in the minivan I made our sandwiches and passed out lunch.  Yay!  No having to stop for and buy junk food!

My verdict?  The Whitney All-Family Camping Trip was a tremendous success.  Looking forward to our next one (most likely late Spring 2011).  Anyone up for joining us?

Nine Years... and Counting!

Today my prince and I are celeberating our NINE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!  And though we've been apart for many hours, we are so connected and on the same page.  My oh my I love being married to my man!  Apart from my Savior, there is no one I rather spend my time with than my hubby!

In fact, to quickly share a little story from this morning, we were all enjoying some Breakfast Cake at the dining room table when Saraina asks,

"Mommy, why are you the only one that's brown in our family?"

Just a moment later, Joshua pipes in, "Well, why is Daddy the only white one in our family?"

After a few giggles, Daddy replies, you see, "Before Daddy and Mommy got married, Mommy really liked vanilla ice cream and I really liked coffee.  We thought, we should get married because she looks like coffee and I look like vanilla ice cream!"

Then Kadin asks, "Well, what are we?"

Without a hint of confusion or doubt, Saraina answers him, "We're mocha."

Well, my vanilla ice cream shake, I am so thankful to be married to you!  Happy 108 months of marriage!

Guess What We're Driving?

We went camping a couple weeks ago and barely fit all our stuff.  We came home knowing we would really be needing a full-size van.  (We were chillin' in a 7-passenger minivan.) No more living the mini-life for us!  William was set on finding and buying one before our big trip east for Christmas.  Cool.  We had a few months to find exactly what we needed.

The Lord worked it much sooner than we anticipated!

What we were looking for was simple.  A good price and good mileage.  That's it.  We are no-frills kinda-peeps so the actual look of the van wasn't a big deal.  (Note: there was one red abd white stripe 1977 van on sale for $1000 that I REALLY didn't want to have to drive.  I do struggle with humility still!)  We had a little disagreement on the size of the van.  I was hoping for a 12 (or special-made) 13-passenger van.  William was set on a 15-passenger.  I was a bit reluctant seeing how we'd only be a family of 8.  But, he was certain and I trusted his conviction that we needed the extra space in the back.

The end of the story is we are now the thankful and utterly amazed owners of a REALLY BIG WHITE 15-PASSENGER VAN (aka truck).

Me driving the van to church after almost crying
trying to back it out of the gate and onto the street!

But that's not it!  Can I tell you how incredibly overwhelmed we are by how kind God has been to us?  We started looking on Monday. Craigslist is our style and only from a private owner.  (William refuses to buy from a dealer.)  We found the van on Thursday morning, contacted the owner and set up for William to check it out the next morning before work.  William had a good feeling about this.  Kinda like he did with the Prism (which is still riding sweet for us!).  He came home and we all piled into the minivan to drive to buy this big beast.

The "new van" as the kids call it, is a 2002 Ford 350 XLT.  It was used by a daycare that went out of business (meaning it had regular 6 month checks) and only had 46K miles!  It's truly newer and younger than our other cars!!!!  Is that not incredible?!

And to show you how the Lord continued to bless us and provide, we sold our minivan the next day in less than 24 hours simply by being parked outside our home (like the Jetta!).  When all the numbers are said and done, we really only paid $4200 cash for our sweet, new ride!

Now, if you would all pray that I would learn how to park it parallel to our garage, that would be very kind!

The First-Ever Whitney All-Family Camping Trip - Part 1

We did it.

We went camping.  All of us.  Together.  In a tent.  And we loved it!

We planned.  We practiced setting it up.  We waterproofed our gear.  We made adjustments.  We made stuff.  We compromised.  We made more adjustments.  We packed and loaded it up and left!

Here's one of the practice runs in our wild-looking backyard.

The drive to the site was about 2.5 hours long.  We had lots of screaming and crying.  Unhappy Autumn and Miserable Paloma.  We arrived and had a fairly secluded spot.  Pops mentioned the screaming baby who could possibly keep other campers up at night and I think that really helped!  This was one of those spots that you had to walk to.  Not far, but far enough when you've got to haul your stuff along with 5 kids that can't really pull any weight just yet.

Here's Daddy running with the cart to unload all our stuff.

Setting up our temporary home away from home was a breeze, thanks to Pops' dry runs at home.

People laughed when they saw how big it was but with 2 adults, one pack-n-play, and four kids in sleeping bags, we needed the space!  The kids were so happy to finally arrive!

Sariana

Paloma

Kadin

Joshua

Autumn

Our first meal was italian sausages (for Papa and Mama!) and nitrate free, uncured hot dogs (for the kids) with a side of campside fried potatoes and zucchini (from our garden) with diced onion.  DELICIOUS!!!!  (Since being pregnant, I can't get enough meat/protein!)  And the little leftovers of potatoes and zucchini went right into the fire to minimize trash!  Love it!

One of our compromises was a treat of smores.  You know, all the bad for you stuff, nothing homemade.  This was Joshua favorite part of the trip!  He and Daddy sitting in the dark by the fire after all the others were already in their sleeping bags.  (Oh- in case you're interested, Pops wanted a dessert he could bake/cook in our cast-iron dutch oven but I had a hard time planning for something like that!  Ideas?  Let me know!)

S'more face Saraina

Shocked Joshua intrigued by something.

So, bedtime arrives.  Autumn went down well, the bigger kiddos did okay.  Pops and I laid down and shortly after I heard a rumble.  I quickly say, "Is that thunder?"  It was around 9 or 9:15pm.  We were exhausted but we knew day two of our trip would be a travesty if our junk all over the campsite got wet.  So, out we went and in came all our stuff that shouldn't get wet (like our cast-iron pots and pans).  We had no other tarps to keep the firewood dry so we put the kids plastic square table over it, hoping we'd be able to make breakfast in in the morning.

Autumn somewhere under those warm blankets in her pack-n-play.

Paloma and Saraina and Kadin still snoozing in the early morning.

Joshua just waking up.

Papa and Mama's sleeping section.  No pads or air mattress.  PAINFUL!
Note: bring a rake to clear tent area of acorns and sticks before setting up the tent!

No rain comes.  We wake the bigger kids to have them go potty.  (NOTE:  this the ESSENTIAL for me if I ever go camping, especially being pregnant and needing to use the "facilities" often.)  Pops thought I was out of my mind when I asked him about 2 weeks before our trip to make a potty for me using the 5-gallon empty coconut oil bucket.  I had him cut a large hole in the lid for the potty seat and then doubled plastic bags and secured them to the buscket prior to snapping the lid on.  Voila!  A sturdy, clean, and available potty for us to use when needed!

The potty worked like a charm.  And then we went back to sleep.  And around midnight, the rain came.  And came.  And came.  It got much colder but we were fairly warm until Joshua woke up to tell me his blanket was wet.  Wet?  Pee or rain?  Rain.  Water was collecting under the tarp in certain places.  Out Daddy went to check the tent.  It rained a lot and for HOURS.

Morning comes early in the wild and this morning we woke to wetness all around.  Daddy was up and out of the tent right away.  His mind was on FIRE.  He had to get a fire going and keep it going.  I was thankful I packed rainyday toys, just in case.

Paloma and Autumn played well as Daddy prepared breakfast
and the bigger kids and I played  a matching game.

But then it slowed down and stopped.  And because I was keeping an eye on Autumn and Paloma, Pops had to make breakfast solo, for the most part.  He whipped up my soaked pancakes and some maple syrup breakfast patties (compromise food!) and then... when he was almost finished... it poured down on us.  Back in the tent, except for Daddy cooking still.

Check out this video of Daddy working it in the rain!

(Problem uploading video!  Sorry.)

Here's a picture of crazy Daddy drying off his shirt by the fire.  Later on he tried to do the same thing with his sneakers when he realized they were BURNING!

That was the BEST breakfast!  Because we had to run in the tent, we ended up making a pancake sausage sandwich which was DELICIOUS!!!!  And no need for silverware!

So, we made it through our first night of camping in the rain and God even provided a fire for us the next day as the wood under that little plastic table kept most the wood dry!

More to come... Part 2 to come soon!

Could I Be the First Black Amish Person?

Pops and I watched a documentary last night.  We had been on a kick of watching weird-o documentaries and other things on Netflix that I can't quite describe easily.  But, gardening seemed to take us away from that.

Anyway, the video we *saw* last night was about the Amish.  (Note:  SAW does not mean that I actually saw and heard everything.  I fell asleep countless times as is my family trait from the Tomlinson side.)  My take away... can I be the first black Amish person?

Seriously, laugh all you want, we really have this growing desire to live more like them.  Of course, most of this started from our day trip to that IN Amish farm to pick up our 36 (butchered that morning, raised the right way) Amish chicken.  The family we purchased them from were so incredibly welcoming and generous!  Watching the older 2 girls help their mother sort and bag our chickens was amazing!  They worked efficiently, together, and without grumbling though it was messy work... but oddly not smelly!

Anyway, the video was very interesting.  What most attracts me to their lifestyle is their deliberateness in what they do and (what I view as) their seemingly one track mind.

Though we may not "get" why they live like they do, they are deliberate in why they live like they do.  There is a clear purpose.  And it seems they desire to live how they do to bring God glory.  I so respect that.  It seems like they've gone to ultra extremes to not be conformed to the world but to be closer to the Lord.

The Amish are often thought to be legalistic but I find their lifestyle so freeing!  Probably because sometime between living on Hermitage Avenue in the city and on Stratford Way in Frederick, I Iost any fashion-sense I had.  And I got tired of all the expensive chemicals I had to put in my hair to make my hair seem like it's not Black hair!  Ridiculous!  But, so the norm.  Trust me, since I went au naturale, I walk into a room and it seems my hair proceeds me.  I find eyes drawn to my hair because it's so big and different.  If only I could wear one of those Amish white hats or bonnet thing!

People think the clothes of the Amish are boring, I find them low maintenance and reasonable.  How cool that the dresses the girls wear are pretty much all the same and modest.  No worry about wearing a extra shirt underneath or will someone see something if I bend over.  Urgh.  Give me an Amish dress anytime!  (My birthday is in October!!!)

William's been talking about "getting off the electric grid" for a while.  And, honestly, I'm not sure he's joking!  He has been inquiring about an interracial Amish community.  Not online, obviously.  He seems ready to join.

Last weekend, instead of using our Weber charcoal grill, he got some stones and bricks and made a fire pit!  But, then he gerry-rigged this set-up so that we could grill on the grate of the Weber grill and could still put a big cast iron pot right in the wood underneath!

I made homemade spaghetti sauce (using tomatoes from our garden for the sauce) in the pot and he grilled the best hamburgers on top along with another cast iron pot filled with grilled "fried" potatoes.  We just may be one step closer to getting off the grid after all!

But, he does keep asking me, "So, do you think the Amish use toilet paper?"

I keep assuring him that Cloth Family Wipes are totally easy to use and clean.  If only he'd try...

Being Pregnant

... is kind of normal for me.  But, pregnancy is also such a miracle.  The normal is I generally know what to expect as far as my body goes.  That's also where the miracle shows itself.  Being pregnant, for me, is a season of needing God more but knowing His intimate care even more.

Carrying another life inside you is pretty remarkable.  I marvel that God created women to do that.  Yet it only points to how He carries us perfectly, without incident, and nourishes us with exactly what we need, when we need, in the way we need it!

So, you may think it old hat for someone to be pregnant... again... but it never is.

And for this pregnancy, my hope is that I will NOT once be embarrassed by someone else's look of disgust or disappoval regarding "all our kids."  They... all SIX of my WhitneyKiddos babies... are gifts from God, my Father.  And I know He only gives GOOD and PERFECT gifts!