Handy Mommy and Famous Sam

Check out Sammy on http://www.teresatomeo.com/. Her front page has a slide show and there's Sammy reading "Noise" which he calls "Nose" LOL. It really wasn't staged! He picked it up and said he wanted to read "Nose".

In the meantime I managed to fix our washing machine. Inspired by my "do it yourself" friends Colleen and Leigh Anne I decided to skip the nasty repairman and order the part myself. With the kids to cheer me on I put in a new pump. It's worked for a few days now so I guess we're in the clear. I do about 5 - 8 loads of laundry/day so one day without a washer is a nightmare. Thanks to grandma we didn't fall too far behind :D

The school year has ended for us (except Brandon). Now we're purging, organizing, and getting ready for next school year. My goal is to really get things cleared out and organized so the daily pick up isn't too tough for any of us. I've been working on that for the past two days. Thank goodness Jesse will be home for the next three days and I'll have his help. My back is killing me!

Well - that's all from the Ekblad's for now. Sammy is determined to break the kid's computer so I'm off to distract him.

God Bless!

Latest Ekblad News

Owen turned 9 years old on May 14! It's really hard to believe. He's getting to be such a "young man" and less of a little boy. His soccer skills have improved considerably since last fall. He's been practicing a lot.

Jackson fell tonight and put his teeth right through his bottem lip. It was a pretty bad cut and had Katie hysterical thinking he was going to need stitches. I don't think they do stitches for lips so we opted not to go to the ER. Incidentally it happened while he was running through the house like a maniac. I've asked him one million times not to run in the house. I wonder if he'll stop now, LOL.

Brandon went on a retreat with the Miles Christi priests this weekend in Brooklyn, MI. http://www.mileschristi.org/ What a wonderful order this is! They do so much for the young men and women in the area as well as programs for older people "like you mommy" (that's what Brandon said, LOL). Brandon ran into an old friend that moved to Grand Rapids a few years ago and that was a blessing. God is so good!!

Well, the rest of the happenings are really a blur. We're running in a billion directions with soccer, guitar, violin, homeschooling activities, and just life in general. We're getting back into the swing of things with Mary Therese hitting her three month mark. I find that I feel more like myself around this time and gain strength from this age on. I'll throw some pictures in and see where they end up.

God Bless your day and thanks for reading!! ~Amy

Kids are bad for the environment

Just an FYI that it has been reported that if you have more than two children it's "bad for the planet". According to this article :http://www.news.com.au/story/0%2C23599%2C21684156-5009760%2C00.html having a third child is bad for the planet. While I fully realize this is one article written by one person it is the general feeling that I've gotten from more than a few people since I've started having more than the "2.5" children allotted us by our society. I find it hard to believe that my seven children who have all been cloth diapered, breastfed, organically fed, homeschooled, and taught to respect the planet as we are called to do by God are worse for the environment than some of the yahoos I see out there. I feel that our house, in general, is pretty planet friendly. I use natural cleaners, there are no chemicals to speak of in our house. We don't fertilize our lawn with chemicals that will eventually get into the water system. We drive a big vehicle, obviously, but fill nearly ever seat. We do not drive things like SUV's and Hummers just because they're an expensive vehicle that makes us look rich. Yes, we live in a new build neighborhood. Something I would not do again if I had to do it over. I did not think it through clearly enough and have paid for it in more than one way.

I have noticed that our neighbors (who have considerably less children than we do) consistantly have more garbage than we do and they rarely, if ever, have the recycle bin put out. Many to most of them have larger houses than we do with less people living in them. They also have the big SUV gas suckers without the necessity (who's off roading around here anyway?). Yet it's families like ours that are targeted by the environmentalists. I've no time to provide a link but I seem to remember a certain political figure putting out a movie about "saving the planet" yet he uses more resources in one year then most of us will use in a lifetime. Another political figure requested a private jet be flown to her for pick up and when it arrived she didn't care for the interior and sent it back. Another jet came and picked her up. HUGE jets for one person? And one person that is forever condemning others for their use of our resources? It's ridiculous! It's enough to get this "crunchy conservative" up in arms! I just don't have time for "up in arms" because I have so many kids, LOL!

I do not think that my kids are "bad for the planet". Jesse and I are *trying* to raise morally sound children that respect others and the world around them. They will, hopefully, bring wonderful things to the world around them. How that can be "bad for the planet" I will never know.