Random Springtime Fun

I love it when they play quietly together!

Some mud fun!

Elijah being his normal nasty self having to taste and touch everything with his tongue.

I Wanna Go To Heaven, But I Don’t Wanna Go Tonight

Here’s a conversation I had with the boys after Bible story time before bed the other night.

Me: Boys, do you understand how to get to heaven?

(I got vague, noncommittal answers)

Me: Do you know about heaven and hell?

Josiah: I want to go to hell.

Me: What?! Why?!  Hell is a really bad place.

Josiah: I mean, I don’t want to get hurt, I just want to see it.  I don’t want to stay.

(I’m feeling a bit relieved, but still disturbed.)

Me: Well, do you want to go to heaven?

Josiah: No.

Me: Why? Don’t you want to eat yummy foods all day, live in a beautiful place, and sing praises to God all the time?  (Yes, I shamelessly used Josiah’s love of food to pique his interest.)

Josiah: Yes!  I want to eat all day, but I don’t want to go to heaven.  Not now.

(Awhile back, after a series of conversations, I realized Josiah doesn’t want to go to heaven because every time someone dies that’s where we say they went and he doesn't want to die.  We are still trying to figure out how to work through that one.)

Elijah: I want to sing!  Can I take my ticketar? (AKA guitar)

(My little music man.  All this time he’s been messing around on the bed, not seeming to listen.)

Josiah: Elijah!  You can’t take your ticketar there!  You can’t take anything, but I bet they have lots of ticketars there!

Elijah: Yay!  I can play a ticketar!  (Goes back to wiggling around and seemingly not paying attention.)

The conversation veered too far off course for me to salvage it after this.  I wrapped it up with a quick summary about salvation which I find very difficult to explain on a preschool level.  Hopefully they’ll pick it up from multiple, consistent exposures and they don’t put too much weight on my feeble explanations.  I’ll just trust that God will speak to them and make sense of me.

A Good Year Flyby

Usually we see deer, gopher tortoises, snakes, armadillos, other various wildlife, the occasional horse, and even a bull once from our view in the front yard, but the other day we watched something new go by.  It was a first for the boys and they watched it in awe.

Five Months Of Sweet Smiles!

This is very late, but I wrote it on time.  I had to round up pictures…again.

What a charmer!

This fifth month has flown by!  I can’t believe we’ve come this far already, but we’ve loved having out little man around.  Joshua is the sweetest, smiley little guy and he’s come a long way in one short month.  He’s developing new abilities, singing like an angel, and improving sleep habits as a result of dealing with some medical issues.

This pretty much sums up this month’s mini photo shoot.  Oh well.

The biggest news of the month is that Joshua is back to taking nice long naps!  Yay!  It makes such a huge difference and I think I’m regaining my sanity.  After attempting to trouble shoot a little more, I took him with me to Josiah’s five year appointment with Dr. Worthington (we LOVE her), despite having had him examined previously by a different provider, and she found reason to go ahead and treat him for reflux.  The medicine has taken him from a poorly napping baby who skips meals and/or eats small meals and is often fussy, to a happy, sleeping, well-fed baby.  Ironically, he had gained a good amount of weight at that appointment, but when I took him back today for a recheck he’d barely gained weight despite his much improved appetite.  However, every other parameter had improved, so we’re calling it a success and keeping an eye on him.  I won’t claim that his sleeping is perfect because he seems to have developed some poor night time habits (or maybe teething?), but things are so much better.

Joshua’s physical changes include that he can now suck his toes – I love this stage!  Last month he’d just found them, but this month they made it to his mouth.  Also, while he has been occasionally rolling over both ways for awhile, now he is a rolly poly.  He’s also taken to “singing” quite loudly.  He’s so noisy, but we love it and can’t help but laugh.

Joshua graduated to some of his seats that allow him to sit upright and he loves it!  The exersaucer makes him purely happy!

Our little man is also getting more hair.  There’s not much there, but it’s coming in slowly but surely.  It appears to be auburn, but it’s hard to say.  It occurred to me the other day that subconsciously I assume that while the color may vary, the texture will be similar to his brothers’ hair, but it could be curly or stand up on end!  :)  It’s so fun to watch babies grow and become their own little selves, both in appearances and personality.

Joshua is constantly getting compliments on being a happy, smiley baby and he deserves it because he is!  One person, in particular, is smitten by him and interacts with him almost constantly to get laughs.  That person is Josiah.  They adore one another.  I love to watch them and even better, it is so nice to be able to ask Josiah to entertain Joshua when he’s fussy and I’m busy and to be able to trust him to do it well.

I don’t have one with Josiah this month, but these two are starting to form a similar bond as Elijah learns how to interact appropriately.

Well, in one more month Joshua will have seen half of a year.  The time is just passing us by, but I’m going to savor it as much as I can.  Joshua is so precious to us and we each love snuggling him.  Other than getting spit up on, he’s a real joy to love on :) 

He’s looking hard into the future and thinking it won’t be long before he joins his brother there in the background.

Jolishua

That’s what I’m going to start calling all of my boys so that I’m never completely wrong :)

He Has Risen!

This Easter was kind of nice in the fact that it was the first one that Josiah really seemed to get the whole point of it and could tell us the story from Good Friday till Easter Sunday.  I guess he could probably do this with some prompting before, but it seemed to be a bigger deal to him this year.

Our festivities were hectic as always, yet enjoyable.  Josiah started celebrating at school on Friday with his own little party and Easter Egg hunt.  He told us that he tripped on a root and fell, spilling out the eggs from his basket.  He said he almost cried because the other kids took his eggs.  I felt bad for him, but thankfully Calista gave him some of hers.  She’s a friendly little girl.  I asked him what he’d do if he saw someone spill their eggs in the hunts we would have in the coming weekend and he said he’d help them pick them up and give them back because he’d remember how he felt.  I hope that’s true!

I attempt to not totally stuff the kids’ baskets with candy since they get plenty from other sources, too, so I usually do a dollar store run for fun little toys.  They were a hit!

Saturday, after we gave the boys their Easter baskets and finally got ourselves packed up, we headed to Jacob’s cousin, Laura Lee’s, house where we had a nice meal and a hunt.  Then headed to his parents house where the boys of course got another Easter basket. 

Happy Cousins!

We didn’t quite make the Sunrise Service the next morning, but we did make it in time for the breakfast served afterwards :)  Next came my family reunion at Gram’s house where we had the usual feast and big egg hunt. 

Our masterpieces!

What a cute group!

Here, I think I’m telling him that he shouldn’t take the time to open up every plastic egg or else he won’t find many!  It was no use.  He couldn’t wait.

One of my favorite people holding one of my sweeties.  Life is precious.

We did something a little bit special this year.  Gram got to thinking about how our younger generations either haven’t or don’t often experience eating “Swamp Cabbage” which used to be a part of every Florida Cracker get together, so she decided a demonstration was in order.  She had my dad cut down several cabbage palms in advance and my Aunt Martha cooked them, then she wanted to cut one down in her yard to show the kids what it actually was.  Well, no one brought a chain saw and the only available axe was too small for the job, so while all the other men said no way, Jacob, true to his nature, said he’d do it. 

Watchin’ Daddy work.

Elijah’s “cheese” smile.

Josiah loves to wear this explorer get up everywhere he goes.  He’s an adventurer at heart.

Jesse tried to give Jacob some moral support.

Lot’s of advisors.

Trimming it up.  Almost done.

One of the two matriarchs and the finished product.

Aunt Martha (Gram’s sister) wrote her memories and a recipe to go along with her cooked swamp cabbage.  The “Mama and Daddy” referred to here are my Great Grandparents who I have fond memories of.  They were pretty poor when they were raising Gram and Aunt Martha, but they knew how to survive and often speak fondly of their past.  Here’s what she wrote:

Living in the woods wasn’t all bad.  We had Mama, Daddy, each other, and usually a pet or two.  There were fun times as well as work times.  There were times we would have a picnic or all of us would go fishing and cook the fish and the rest of the meal there.  Those would really be the best times.

Mama would take some pots, a cast iron skillet, some grits, coffee, salt, and corn meal.  Of course we would take plates and our eating utensils.  There were no paper plates or plastic stuff.  There was also lard that Mama had rendered from the last hog butchering.  Also, there was fresh milk if we had it, or evaporated milk.

Mama and Daddy had cane poles and Daddy had a rod and reel he would take with an artificial bait.  It was a plug that looked like a frog and he caught a lot of big bass with that.

Daddy would make us a fishing pole out of a cabbage stalk and white string he had saved from the feed bags.  Everything was saved for a future use.  He would put a small hook on for us and a little stick for a float.  Sometimes a safety pin was used for a hook.  The bait was usually a green frog found in an air plant or some worms dug before we left home.  At times we also used salt pork rinds and a fish maw. 

After we had caught some fish and had about enough for the meal, Daddy would take the axe and go cut one or two swamp cabbage.  The best ones were from a cabbage palm about half grown or about 8-10 feet tall.  Mama would butcher them by peeling off the layers and cutting the bitter part off the end.

We would have a fire and some salt pork, a pretty good portion would be put in a pot to fry.  When it was brown and a lot of the grease was cooked out of it, the swamp cabbage was put in and enough creek water to just cover the cabbage.  Then it was allowed to cook slow.  When it was about done and the water cooked down, some milk was put in.

While the cabbage was cooking, the grits were also put on in some creek water to cook for a long time and stirred frequently.  They had to cook a long time cause they weren’t like the nice quick grits we have today.

When all of the this was about done, the iron skillet would be put on the fire with a good amount of lard in it to get really hot to cook the fish quickly.  Some of the fish would be really small and if they were fried crisp we could eat the bones too.  Children learned early on to eat fish with bones and not to swallow them.  The fish were cleaned, salted, and rolled in corn meal to fry.  If we had an egg and some onion, hush puppies would be made and fried in the fish grease.  When all was cooked, a lot of the grease was poured out of the pan, some water added to the cornmeal sediment in the pan and we had sawmill gravy for the grits.

That was the best kind of feast.  It would be made even better if another family or two could join us.

Swamp cabbage was a staple at all the dinners and fish fries and every Sunday there was a dinner on the ground and church.  It would be cooked in a  big wash pot and the fish would be fried in another big wash pot.  At those times the women would bring in all manner of other dishes and desserts.  A good time would be had by all.

Daddy was fond of telling about cutting a cabbage with a pocket knife one time when he was hungry.  I don’t know how true this was, but he enjoyed telling it.

And here’s the recipe:

Swamp cabbage is the heart of the sabal palm.  When the heart is used for food, the tree dies.  It’s fruit is used for food for squirrels, raccoons, and birds.  The meat of the heart that we eat is sweet and has a good flavor.  It can be said that the swamp cabbage is a renewable resource because of the number of sprouts under the trees all the time.

Swamp cabbage – amount will vary according to the number of people. 

Salt pork - a good amount to season the amount of cabbage you have.

Water to cover.  Add more when necessary

Salt to taste

Fry the salt pork till brown and the fat is rendered.  Add the cabbage, water, and salt and bring to a boil.  Turn the heat down and simmer till tender.  May need to add small amounts of water from time to time.

Just before serving, add a small amount of milk.

I love my family history.  I hope I do it justice in teaching it to my kids.

Party’s over, time to clean up:

And that’s how we roll…