comings and goings with eye glasses, diaper bags and beans

I have missed Malachi and Sopheak this last week while they have been in Florida!! Naomi said, "It feels like Malachi moved out again and Sopheak went back to Cambodia" and right now she's right. We all miss them!!! I go to Tulsa and pick them up tomorrow after noon. We are ALL ready!!!! I hope they had a totally awesome time at Disney World. THANK YOU HANNAH PALMER AND FAMILY FOR BRINGING THEM OUT AND CARING FOR MY KIDDOS SO LOVINGLY AND GENEROUSLY!!!!
Our old eye care insurance plan was pretty good, except for the choice of eye docs; our new plan is a bit pricier, but THAT IS FINE WITH ME!!!! Our choice of doctors is much broader, we have LOCAL OPTIONS and this week was eye check -up week. I knew I needed a new prescription and knew Jael did too, "thought " that Isaiah was next to get glasses, and I was leaning toward Rachel following right on Isaiah's heels. I was right. Jael's eyes are much worse than a year ago, alarmingly so...to the point that even with correction she may not be able to pass the eye exam when she goes for her drivers license next spring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not prepared for that, neither was the doctor. He ran several extra tests to assess WHY her vision is so poor. Upshot is that probably where her optic nerve attaches to her brain there is a weak or faulty attachment. We will be praying over this for sure! She plans to be a large animal veterinarian and no one I know is going to choose a poor sighted doctor to do surgery on their livestock!!! Isaiah got his new glasses today , Rachel's will be in shortly. Thankfully, Isaac, Leah, Noah and Naomi had perfect checkups and thankfully our insurance covers as much as it does as well as it does!!! The kids' glasses were far less costly than I expected, as were my own progressive bifocal lenses (whew!!!) I'd know if Malachi needed new glasses this year or not, but the glitch with the insurance is that despite Malachi definitely being listed on our policy, the vision carrier doesn't have him listed. ( Found that out when he went last week, taking time off work, and was told that he is not covered. Four phone calls and 3 emails later with our HR rep, and I was told and emailed that he was on the list, the problem had been fixed. NOT SO even today when the clinic clerk told me they were still denying him. MORE calls to HR for help...............)Hope its fixed by his next appointment on Tuesday!! I bet Esther has a perfect eye exam.
After getting the overly tight thumb screw off my new sewing machine so I could change the needle Hannah broke the other night, tonight I finished ripping apart the diaper bag she bought for Charlie, cut up an old BDU Marine uniform ( "camo" for the lay reader) and recovered all the flaps and pockets of the beige bag with military fabric, and added the name and US MARINE tags from Jon's uniform as well. That was some thick sewing but I am so pleased with how it turned out!! I think Hannah will like it too when she sees it at her baby shower on Saturday. I'm not done crocheting her baby-camo colored cargo net -looking afghan for Baby Charlie's room yet, but JUST GET ME ON A PLANE TO LIBERIA AND IT WILL BE!!!!!! They simply didn't keep me waiting long enough at the doctor last week when Isaac and Jael both injured ankles, or at the eye doc either, for me to get any real work done!!! LOL!
When it got cold and rainy last night and knocked out the power and inter net for the night, and the moring was still cold and gray I thought it would be cold all day so I planned a big pot of barley soup with home baked bread for dinner. HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Poor Daddy Charlie ended up in a sweat over dinner. We don't usually do hot soups on hot summer days, but it was a request by several of the children that I do barley soup and bread. NOT A CRUMB of bread was left, they practically "rock,paper, scissored" over the last slice. It was delicious nonetheless and adding some fresh diced squash to the veggie mix in the soup didn't hurt it at all!
FINALLY started to harvest green beans today. The Mamma of Calico Acres ate almost all the beans, raw, and they were really yummy! Guess we'll need to harvest a lot more tomorrow if there will be beans to go with the last home grown ham for Sunday dinner. I can be assured that I will have an abundance of squash and zuchinni ifthe beans are not enough.
I love this farm life, love to create, love to nurture our children, love what God had in mind for my once-upon-a -time Big City girl life.