The triplets are going rogue!

For the last 8 years, Wes and I have made all decisions for the girls.

What they wear, what they do, what they eat, where they go... it was all decided by us.

Well, maybe mostly me. Wes doesn't really care about what they wear... or what they eat... or what they do. Ok, he helps decide where they go. Sometimes.

Ever since they were little babies, I have matched them. Not because I am a control freak but because it makes it easier for me.

And really, isn't that what it's all about?

Every self-respecting, EXPERIENCED, mother of multiples knows the reasons for this:

1. I can spot them easily in a crowd. And count... 1,2,3. 1,2 uh-oh... where is 3. It's always 3!

2. I know if there is an outfit missing when it comes to laundry. I am in the habit of counting articles of clothing as I put them in the washer. "One purple shirt, two purple shirts... Girls, I am missing a purple shirt." "Here it is mom, I found it in the Lego box." (Don't ask, it just happens!)

3. There is less fighting that way. Nothing to fight over... Oh really, you don't like green? Too bad, the other 2 dresses are green too!

We have a rhythm. We have a flow. We have a pecking order.

UNTIL...

Kennedy decided to cut her hair and McLaine and Andie decided not to.

WHAT? I was in a panic... We can't have 1 with short hair and 2 with long?

The earth will stop spinning on its axis. Time will stand still. This will affect so many lives!!

But as the supportive, non control-freak parent that I am... I simply said "Ok." Although I was secretly hoping the other 2 would change their minds.

I kept suggesting it, encouraging it.

But they didn't.

And now... we have started a downhill spiral.

Everybody is wanting their own voice. They have found independence! AGHHHH!

McLaine has decided she wants to play baseball. Alone.

Kennedy wants to cheer and do a bake sale.

Andie is holding out for basketball. (She found out there is no bowling league in our little town) Phew, did we luck out there!

There is complete pandemonium breaking out in the Seagraves household and I have to stop this train!

I want to go back to when they were little and just wanted "juice pweese".

I want to go back to the matching outfits.

I want to go back to stifling their creativity.

I am afraid... I am very afraid.

Hallway plank-a-poolza

I love wood planked walls.

I love wood planked ceilings.

I love wood planked anything.

They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

There is something about them that speaks to my very soul... casual, informal, cozy, laid-back, imperfect, vintage, cottage-y. (Is that a word?)

I have been pulling inspiration pictures out of magazines and putting them in my little book of "House Ideas" for future use.

Well... the future is here.

Our side door and hallway serve as the main highway in our house. I am tired of tripping over shoes as I walk in the door. The kids are tired of hearing me yell.

I am tired of looking at Rmax insulation and unfinished walls.

And we are all tired of looking for Wesley's cell phone, wallet and car keys!!

So we decided to knock down the wall between our bedroom and hallway and moved it back into the bedroom 18 inches. This will allow us to hang cabinets for storage and build a bench for shoes underneath.

Hopefully ~HOPEFULLY this will make us a little more organized... hopefully.

Goodbye, ugly wall...

Hellooooo, new cabinets!

Madison, future home-builder and/or renovator, helped Wes put in the cabinets. She knows more than most adults about DIY projects. She will never have to buy a $60 door at Home Depot and pay them $243 dollars to have it installed! Our homeschooling math is paying off!

We added 1x4 wood planks to the walls and a stained glass window above the door



Made at least 27 trips to Home Depot



Picked out paint colors from the 684 paint swatches that I collected



and bought Wes some Head and Shoulders shampoo.



Here is a current picture. We still have to add hardware to the cabinets, put another coat of paint on the trim, put down the wood floors and the best part... DECORATE!






I am holding off until I go to Round Top the first weekend in April. I am sure to find a ton of treasures that I can add to my walls.

Like maybe:
a blackboard
paint-chipped shutters
old frames
a vase
some iron hooks
maybe a different entry table that I can put a lamp on

The possibilities are endless....

I will post the final pictures in April.

The house

For those of you who don't know, we are building our house.

If you didn't know this, I wonder how you could have missed it?

You see, I have a tendency to "think" about things... out loud. Over and over. And by "thinking" I mean talking.

And what's worse is that I am NOT a good decision maker so I change my mind ...a lot and then want to talk about my new idea. Wes calls it indecisive and annoying.

I like to think I am just being cautious and methodical!

Either way, I have decided to start including our house projects on this blog for those of you who WANT to know what we are working on.

There are two good reasons for doing this:

One~ I want to give you a "bird's eye" view into our lives. Just in case you ever thought about having 5 children and trying to educate them at home all while building your own house. This blog will forever change your mind and save you a world of trouble.

Two~ I am HOPING this will stop the question that we get every day... ARE YOU FINISHED WITH YOUR HOUSE???? Maybe you will see the pictures and know not to ask for at least 10 years!

Soooo, here is a little history of this adventure thus far...

We bought a little cabin on some property in Coldspring. It was a tiny one bedroom house that we knew we would have to add on to. But we had VISION... We figured we would add on a huge bedroom for the kids and live in it for a year while we decided how we wanted to add on.



We knew we would have to get new flooring and do some "sprucing up" of the place before we moved in. Wes was off for the summer so he went up to get started while the kids and I stayed home.


Wasn't he being so neat and clean with the trash. Don't mind that stove laying out in the yard. Obviously, we were not planning on using that!

I wondered why Wes always wanted to go alone. He said it was too dangerous for the kids but we insisted on going up to see the progress.


"Ummmmm, Honey? There is a HUGE hole in the house. Are you going to fix that?"

Now I knew why he didn't want us coming up there!

Ok, it looks like we are going to do a little more work then we originally thought. Doesn't it always work out that way? Well, maybe we can save the door at least!


Well, let's make that a lot more work then we thought. "Honey? Are you sure we can fix THIS?" Maybe it's just me but in this picture doesn't the roof look a little un-level.

Hey, watch out for my door!!

The floor ended up being rotted out and the electrical was put in by Moses so it needed to be redone. And the plumbing, and the sheetrock and, and, and... So it looks like we are starting over. A fresh slate! (trying to be positive here!)

We went to Home Depot, had lumber delivered and got to work... Wes claimed we would be in by late August. 2 months? Maybe it was possible. Maybe?? I can still hear my brother laughing hysterically when he came down to visit.


We hired some great workers. They worked cheap, all they asked for was Whataburger or McDonald's on the way to work!

Finally, we had what was beginning to look like a house. We missed our August deadline by a LONG shot!

The work never stops. Here we are putting up the Hardy plank. The house is really tall and I don't like heights but when you are trying to save money there is nothing I am not willing to do. Well, except for the time Wes fell off the roof and I saved him from plummeting to his death. Thank God I was holding that rope. There was no way he was leaving me here to finish the house AND raise the children! But that is a story for another day! We did decide to hire a roofer after that. So, I guess we do have some limits!

We moved into the house in March of 2009. It was unfinished. By unfinished I mean, we could walk through the walls. The kids loved it. They felt sorry for their friends who had real walls. They didn't even have to knock on the bathroom door to see if someone was in there... they could just look!

We had all the important things that one needs to live:

We had a roof

we had sub-flooring (which is the flooring under your "nice" flooring)

we had indoor plumbing with a tub and toilets

we had doors and windows

we had electricity

we had each other

and most importantly we had a dream. To work on this house and love each other through the process.

A stove came a month later. Cooking for 7 with a crock pot, grill and an electric skillet got interesting. The first night we used the new stove Madison said, "Mom, it's a blessing to have a stove. There are people out there who never have one!" I hope if nothing else, they learn to appreciate the things that we used to take for granted!

A month after that we had our central air and heat put in. Praise God because it gets really hot in Texas!

We all slept in the downstairs bedroom for the first year. It was like a permanent sleepover. At night we would lay in our beds, all lined up on the wall, and talk. Wes would make animal shadows on the wall and we would laugh and tell stories. We sounded like the Walton's, "Goodnight Madison, Goodnight Jake, Goodnight girls... Goodnight John boy"

The house still isn't finished although we have come a long way. We still work on it (all the time) and God has blessed us tremendously. Home Depot has become our home away from home, I have become quite the nurse from all of Wes' injuries and we are still able to laugh together.

I think we have lived in the chaos for so long we don't know any other way!

I will do more updates on the house in the next few weeks.

For now, pray for us as we continue our journey of craziness.

I am back

I am back...

I took a little break from blogging.

I don't know what happened. I think I got a little busy with Christmas projects and all.

You know Wes and I... we just can't be NoRmAl. Why can't we just go to Toys-R-Us like the millions of other parents out there?

Why can't we just buy toys that require no extra work on our part?

Like stuffed animals. Those are nice, right? You just buy it, stick it in a box and wrap it. Wala~ you are DONE... no batteries, nothing to put together, no little plastic twist ties to cut your fingers on.

Nooooooooooooo, we had to add animals to the farm this year. This was the year of the "gifts that just keep on giving"! I have a manure pile to prove it. They just keep giving and giving.

Madison started all of this. She wanted a horse, not a fish or a hamster... a horse. What 13 year old girl doesn't dream of riding into the sunset on her best friend?

She is such a huge help to us, I just couldn't deny her. Plus, truth be told, this was my childhood dream.

I begged my parents for a horse. When I couldn't have that, I begged for horseback riding lessons. I spent many days riding my pretend horse around my neighborhood with my best friend, Andreea. We were expert riders, we jumped creeks and everything. For the record... my sister, Heather, was given horse back riding lessons after I moved out of the house. ( That reminds me, I need to make another appointment with my therapist)

Anyway, now you can understand why I wanted to give her this gift. I begged Wes, I pleaded, I promised things that I knew I couldn't keep.

We bought a horse. Now... we needed to have a place to keep it. Just so you know, horses don't just hang around the porch like a dog or a cat. You actually have to fence them in. Fencing, I found out, is very expensive!

That started a trend, we then bought a pot-belly pig for Jake and rabbits for the girls. Now we had to have shelter for all these things!

Long story short, we spent most of the Christmas break building fencing and shelters for all the new animals. It was trial and error. Some things worked, some things didn't work... We had animals escaping out of cages and fences everywhere.

Hami, the pig, had to live inside the house for a few days. A pig... in the house! Ey-yi-yi!

The rabbits were inside in a laundry basket... we had to have a funeral for 2 of them on Christmas Day. Long story... don't ask!

And the horse... Oh the horse, we should have named her Houdini... she kept getting out of the fence and wandering over to neighbors. We didn't WANT to but we HAD to turn the electric fence on. Now ~Willow happily resides INSIDE the fence! Animals, like kids, just want us to establish boundaries. She was a quick learner...

So, that should bring you up to date on the farm.

We currently have: 3 dogs, 1 cat, 1 rabbit, 1 horse, 5 chickens and 1 pot-belly pig.

Oh, and we still have all 5 of the kids...we are still working on cages and fencing for them!

Thankful for Chicken Pox

Today is Thanksgiving.

A day to be thankful.

A national holiday celebrated by most.

A day that we reflect on all the blessings in our lives.

For some this is a sad day, for some this is a lonely day ~ but for most... this is a happy-family-filled day.

Many families have to travel quite a ways to spend time with each other so I consider myself lucky that I live so close to my family. Within 45 minutes I can be either be at my sister's or my mom's. We are able to see each other a few times a month and for that I am thankful. If only I could get my brother and his family to move here... now that would be blissful.

That's reason #25 of why I love the Amish... they all live down the lane from each. They don't get married and move away, they don't get transferred by their employers, they don't go off to college and never return home. They don't grow apart like strangers and have to travel to see each other once a year.

They are family, and friends, and a support group for each other. They are a community of like-minded people. They help each other farm and quilt and raise their children. They are there for each other in the good times and the bad. They are a family... related or not.

A "normal" Thanksgiving holiday for us is spent at my mom's house. The table is always beautifully decorated and filled with a ton of yummy food. The house is filled with love and laughter and children. We are blessed with children in our family and for that I am thankful. We remember the funny times from years past, we reminisce about our highs (and our lows) , we share our plans for the future. We enjoy being together.

But... this year will be different. This won't be a "normal" Thanksgiving for us. We won't be going to dinner at my mom's this year because Andie-girl has Chicken Pox!

Poor thing... she is itchy and contagious and feared by all. Everyone is checking their bodies daily for little red spots. We are overreacting to every mosquito bite or scratch on us. It doesn't help that we worked in the yard for 2 days this week and some of us have Poison Ivy!

So I had to cancel our Thanksgiving plans yesterday with my family and start making our own. For some reason, I am not panicked about this or stressed.

We don't have a turkey.

Or a ham.

We will not have a beautifully decorated table with fine linens and china.

We will not have all the normal trimmings of dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, devil eggs, rolls, green bean casserole or pies.

We will not be dressed up in our "church" clothes.

But let me tell you what we will have... we will have each other.

We will have a table set with homemade construction paper decorations.

We will have laughter.

We will have love.

We will have a cornucopia of appetizers to snack on all day long including: a cheese ball with crackers, vegetable dip, summer sausage, cream cheese dip with raspberry chipolte sauce and cocktail sausages.

We will have a relaxing day in our pajamas.

We will have plenty of tubes of itching cream.

We will have a day spent watching home videos of years past and being thankful for all the wonderful memories.

We will have a day full of "Is this chicken pox?" questions.

We will have a campfire in the yard with plenty of marshmallows.

And if I know my children... we will have a show~ an event worthy of Broadway ~ complete with singing, dancing, costumes and a live band. There will be someone on the keyboard, guitar, drums and microphone.

No, this won't be a "normal" traditional Thanksgiving for us but it will be a day full of love and laughter and that is "normal" in our house. And for that... I am truly THANKFUL.

Whose bright idea was this???

I got up early this morning to say goodbye to the triplets.

They have a big sleepover tonight at a friend's house. They were so excited last night they could barely sleep.

Since we live 45 minutes away from Kingwood now and the cost of gas is so high, they got up early to ride with Wes. They are hanging out with Aunt Heather today until Wes gets off work.

Andie-girl has been with Heather for days now... she gets spoiled over there and I think she might be considering moving in. Hopefully, she comes to visit us from time to time.

So that just left me, Madison and Jake... all alone. What should we do with all of our free time?

I know, let's ride our bikes to the library. Madison was all for it. Jake... not so much.

He drank 2 glasses of water and wanted to pack a bag of snacks and water bottles just in case we couldn't make it. He obviously has no perception of time or distance. It's not like we were crossing a desert or anything. The library isn't THAT far away and we only have to climb a few hills.

Finally, we convinced him.

We dragged our bikes out of the shed, aired up all the tires, and off we went.

The weather was amazing. Bright and sunny with a cool breeze blowing by. It was a wonderful day to be outside in the country enjoying the weather. This was my best idea EVER! I would have patted myself on the back if I hadn't been so worried about crashing my bike.

OK, here we go... the first hill. This is the smallest of them all. We walk it all the time so it shouldn't be too bad.

Zoom... there went Jake flying up the hill. He stopped at the top and watched Madison and I peddle up to him. We were huffing and puffing so much, I didn't think we were going to make it. We were only 3/4 of a mile away from our house at this point and I started to get a little worried.

On we went and eventually we got out of our subdivision. We had recovered from the hill and were starting to enjoy our ride again. I was appreciating the scenery and thinking, "Thank you, Lord, for this amazing day. I am so thankful that I am healthy and able to take bike rides with my kids."

We turned on 150 and started up our last hill (or so I thought). We peddled and peddled and peddled and finally made it to the top only to discover that was a small hill compared to the one we were getting ready to climb.

We coasted down the little valley... and started the next climb. We were going along pretty well until I got a cramp in my hip... then my calves... then my thighs. UGH.... I was in a lot of pain. AGHHHHHH, I screamed, as I jumped off my bike.

The beautiful breeze I was thanking God for earlier felt like a tornado pushing against us. Not only were we going up hill but we were going against the wind.

I had to walk and push my bike up the rest of the hill. I was sweating and beat red by the time I made it to the top. What was I thinking? There was no end in sight. The hills went on and on. Each one looking bigger then the one we just climbed. It sure didn't feel this hilly in the car!

Jake was encouraging Madison and I. "Come on guys, we can do it!" I wanted to hook myself up to his bike and make him pull me the rest of the way.

Finally, we made it to the library. I am sure we scared the poor librarians to death when we walked inside huffing and puffing looking for the nearest water fountain. Maybe we should have packed those water bottles.

After drinking and drinking, I finally plopped down into a miniature chair in the kids section and told the kids to hurry up and pick a book. I just realized I had to carry the books back and I didn't want to add too much extra weight to my bag. Not quite the scenario I envisioned earlier of us leisurely looking at books and making our selections.

I checked out the books and walked back out to our bikes ~secretly hoping that someone had stolen them while we were in the library.

No such luck... we climbed on and decided we needed to refuel our bodies at The Hop, a local hamburger restaurant in town. Surely we would have more energy if we could just eat a little something.

We made it to The Hop and ordered fries, cheeseburgers and cokes. Not exactly the best choice for athletes such as ourselves ~ but we were starving. I considered just sitting there for the rest of the day and waiting for Wes to come by but I knew he would never let us live that down!

After inhaling our burgers and sitting in the air conditioning for 30 minutes, we were feeling much better and decided to make a stop at the grocery store for hot dog buns. We planned on cooking hot dogs outside on a campfire tonight and they were light enough to carry home.

We started off towards home, I was dreading the ride. Whose bright idea was this anyway?

I started praying, "Please, Lord, help us get home... Well, let me rephrase that, Lord. Help us make it to our home...not your home. We don't want to be on the news tonight!!

Thankfully, the ride home was mostly downhill. We were coasting down those hills so fast I had visions of crashing my bike and knocking out my two front teeth. I didn't even care at that point, they make implants now that look just like real teeth! I just wanted to get off that bike.

We did it. We made it home. I was never so happy to see my little, unfinished house in all my life. We got off our bikes and our legs were buckling as we walked. I don't know if I will be able to move tomorrow but we did it. I wasn't a quitter!

I walked into the house and stepped over Madison who had collapsed on the floor in front of a floor fan. (At least I wasn't that bad!)

Jake said, "Mom, that was fun. If Cameron brings his bike over tonight when he spends the night, Can we do that again tomorrow?"

Ask your dad... I don't plan on getting out of bed tomorrow... or maybe, EVER!

Gods saves a chicken!

Today started off bad.

Really bad.

Well, I take that back ~ I woke up so it couldn't be THAT bad. But let's just say... it hasn't been one of my best mornings.

It started with a "sad" day yesterday. You know, one of those days where you feel sad all day. It probably had something to do with the argument that Wes and I had the night before over the house. We both had different ideas on how to fix something and we both felt unheard. We argued about money and finishing the house. I know you don't want to hear all the gory details so long story short... he was wrong.

Just kidding, I was wrong and had to apologize. Sometimes, I get impatient and just want the house done and I worry A LOT about where the money will come from. So I guess I was still feeling bad about the argument and just felt sad all day.

So, I woke up this morning with a new attitude and decided to go to the gym before we started school. I gathered all my gym stuff (i-pod, towel, cell phone, water bottle) and walked out the door only to realize that I had left my keys inside and I was now locked out of the house. GREEEEEEEAT!

WHY GOD? I just wanted to go to the gym. Why can't things just be easy?

The kids were all asleep so I had to try and wake them up.

I threw sticks at the upstairs windows.

I screamed.

I pounded on the house.

I gathered and threw another 50 sticks. I was getting a great workout!

I sent out a distress call to Wes at school.

30 minutes later...NOBODY heard me.

I cried... really hard. All the emotions from the past 2 days came out and I just sat in a chair outside and cried. I am talking shoulder-shaking-ugly crying.

Wes called and gave me a little pep talk. I felt better and decided I had better try climbing up the scaffolding in order to get closer to the kids window so they could hear me.

As I climbed up the scaffolding, I had a discussion with God about why he thinks I can handle all these little "problems" that seem to occur at our house. He didn't answer.

I finally get to the top of the 2 story scaffolding and start throwing sticks and yelling. Then I hear this noise coming from the silver air conditioning tubing that we are currently covering on the back of our house. (If you don't know about this, I blogged about it a week or 2 ago.)

I kept thinking, "Michelle, if a rabid squirrel jumps out at you don't fall off the scaffolding!" I poked at the tubing with a stick and it moved again. Then I heard bawk, baawk.

It was a chicken. Phew... at least it's a domestic animal... sort of.

Then my thought process went like this... IS THERE A CHICKEN IN THE A/C TUBING? No, is that even possible? The tubing is connected to the main a/c unit and that goes into the house. Can the chicken get into our house through the air vents? WHAT??????

I call Wes and he ASSURES me that it is impossible. That makes me think that yes, it is entirely possible.

I finally wake up the kids and get inside. I go upstairs and look out of the bathroom window and there is a huge hole in the tubing where the chicken has fallen through. GREEEEEEAT!

How do these things happen to me? I couldn't dream them up if I tried?

I can hear the chicken but the tubing is a few feet under the window and we can barely reach it. We (me and all 5 of the kids) are now standing together in the bathtub calling "cheep, cheep" and shaking a cup of chicken feed. Wes is on the phone telling me not to let the chicken go past the hole and climb further into the tubing and into the house.... the pressure!

I finally get enough courage to put my hand into the hole and pull back the insulation. Guess what? She laid an egg in there. GREEEEAT! Wes then proceeds to tell me to not let the egg fall down the tubes and bust because it will smell up the house when the a/c turns on. Ahhhh, the pressure is mounting!

It is about this time that I start thinking that a full-time job would be nice right about now. It would be a whole lot easier then this mom-teacher-chicken wrangler-gig that I have going on right now.

Finally, the chicken comes to the hole and peeks out. Madison pours a little food into the hole and along the top of the tube and she finally lures her out of the hole. YEAH!

I scream, "Madison, push her off the tubing before she climbs back into the hole!" Madison refuses, "NO Mom! She will plummet to her death!"

"I don't care~ she's lucky I don't eat her tonight!" I grabbed the broom, pushed Madison out of the way and smacked the chicken off the tubing. For the record... my blood pressure was slightly elevated.

Before you report me... she flapped her wings and landed safely 2 stories below.

2 hours had gone by, I was mentally exhausted. Wes calls to say he is on his way home to fix the hole. Good thing, I don't think my nerves can take a repeat episode of this.

After we repaired the hole (and stopped laughing), we could only thank God that I was locked out this morning. Only He could have known that I needed to climb the scaffolding today in order to discover the chicken in the a/c tube.

Only He knew that chicken needed rescuing.

Only He knew the smell of a dead chicken in our a/c vents for the next few months would have pushed me over the edge... right into a straight jacket!

God is amazing. Sometimes, he uses little problems in order to save us from bigger problems.

God really does care about the little things... and the birds of the air.

I will leave you with the lesson God taught me today:

Matthew 6: 25-27

²⁵"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

²⁶"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

²⁷"And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?