I Still Would Have Chosen You PLUS fundraiser results

I Still Would Have Chosen YOU - By Terri Banish

If before you were born, I could have gone to heaven and saw all the beautiful souls, I still would have chosen you...

If God had told me, "This soul would one day need extra care and needs," I still would have chosen you...

If He had told me, "This soul may make your heart bleed," I still would have chosen you...

If He had told me, "This soul would make you question the depth of your faith," I still would have chosen you...

If He had told me, "This soul would make tears flow from your eyes that could fill a river," I still would have chosen you...

If He had told me, "This soul may one day make you witness overbearing suffering," I still would have chosen you...

If He had told me, "All that you know to be normal would drastically change," I still would have chosen you...

Of course, even though I would have chosen you, I know it was God who chose me for you.

I would have chosen Lilly.  Every time.

My fundraiser in honor of Lilly's 3rd birthday is now over.  We had 11 Thirty-One orders and earned about $140   $153.00!  As soon as I receive it I will send half to SOFT and use the other half to get busy on the next Lilly Memorial Project.  Thank you so much to those that participated!

The standing napper Plus 4-H request

For close to two weeks now, Solomon has been continuing to stand or sit in his crib for his naps.  He will not lay down!  I keep thinking if he gets tired enough, he will.  But he just stands or sits quietly - holding onto the bards - and dozes off and on.  I am praying this phase ends quickly because he's so tired and rather cranky by the end of the day.  I took this little video this morning, of him standing while sleeping.  It took it on the video monitor:

 I have been looking into 4-H clubs as a possible activity for the kids starting this fall.  I don't know a lot about it.  My husband participated in 4-H as a child, but all he remembers is his wining bird feeder entry at the fair and a near drowning experience he had!  If you ever participated in a group - as a member or leader - I would love to hear from you!  What kinds of activities did you do?  What did you like best?  Least?  Please leave a comment or email me.  Thank you!



New goat activity this past Saturday:  learn to trim goat hooves!  It's definitely not as quick as cutting fingernails, and takes two people.  At least for us.  The amazing Mrs. L (the goats owner) can easily do it by herself.

Trim and clean hooves mean healthy hooves/feet for goats!

Finally, as there are just a few days left for our fundraiser, I want to share the last two Thirty One products I have.  The first is the "your way rectangle".  It is a handy box with a clear PVC window on one side.  I have one filled up with books by my nightstand.  (I like to have a bunch of books going at once.)  I've also used them to stack homeschool materials to review.  They're really handy and fold flat for storage!

Finally, I have the "keep-it caddy" which I keep under my desk.  It has my blog idea book, Bible, commonplace book, notebook of books I have read, and scripture journal.  Very handy to grab and tote anywhere I want to go with it.

I've accumulated my Thirty One products through some wonderful sales.  :)

JOIN US FOR OUR FUNDRAISER THROUGH JULY 27TH! I am holding a Thirty One gifts fundraiser this month. All earnings will be split between SOFT and my own Lilly Memorial Project. Go to our party page by clicking https://www.mythirtyone.com/NikkiHuffman/ , click on "My Parties" on the left, and then clicking on "The Lilly Memorial Projects Thirty-One Fundraiser." THANK YOU!

The Lilly Memorial Project - Birthing Center Donation

Here is my "Lilly Memorial Project's" latest donation:

It is going to the Women's Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill, NC today.  This is where I went for my care while pregnant with Lilly and I had incredible support there.  (Hunter and Solomon were born there too!)  Recently I read in their monthly e-newsletter that they were in need of gently used receiving blankets.  So I collected 18 blankets.  Eighteen because Lilly had Trisomy 18.  I also included my current 3 favorite baby books, for their library.  Three because we just recognized Lilly's 3rd birthday. 

The books are:  Making Babies: Fertility, Pregnancy, and Birth the Natural Way by Shoshanna Easling, Super Nutrition for Babies:  The Right Way to Feed Your Baby for Optimal Health by Katerine Erlich and Kelly Genzlinger, and Trim Healthy Mama by Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison.  Inside the front cover of the books, I added a special sticker:

 I recently had another angel mom ask me how I can do these projects when I am grieving.  My answer was that it helps me.  It is healing for me to do things to help others. I always think of this scripture in times like this: 

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." - 1 Corinthians 3-4

When I am gathering things for my Lilly projects, I store them in my "large utility tote" from Thirty One.  It is embroidered with "My Lilly Projects."

Yesterday I had another "hello" from Lilly - a yellow lily flower in her garden:

 

JOIN US FOR OUR FUNDRAISER THROUGH JULY 27TH! I am holding a Thirty One gifts fundraiser this month. All earnings will be split between SOFT and my own Lilly Memorial Project. Go to our party page by clicking https://www.mythirtyone.com/NikkiHuffman/ , click on "My Parties" on the left, and then clicking on "The Lilly Memorial Projects Thirty-One Fundraiser." THANK YOU!

Tabby's new blog: The Goat Chick

Tabby has a new blog!  It is appropriately named "The Goat Chick."  (Get it - she's a girl (chick) who is caring for goats and chickens.)  My husband has been encouraging her to start writing down all the funny/scary/interesting things happening around our farm.  Sort of a town girl learns to be a country girl kind of thing.  Then I had the idea of her doing it by blogging as it's such fun way to journal and add pictures.  Then one day we'd like her to compile her posts into a book.

So check out The Goat Chick!  http://thegoatchick.blogspot.com/  Tabby is a very entertaining writer. Here is her blog header which she designed herself:

LillyBear thought I should share Tabby's purse I got her from Thirty One.  It was Tabby's request for her birthday this year.  The strap was very long for her but she quickly shortened it.  The name of this purse is the "retro metro crossbody." 

JOIN US FOR OUR FUNDRAISER THROUGH JULY 27TH! I am holding a Thirty One gifts fundraiser this month. All earnings will be split between SOFT and my own Lilly Memorial Project. Go to our party page by clicking https://www.mythirtyone.com/NikkiHuffman/ , click on "My Parties" on the left, and then clicking on "The Lilly Memorial Projects Thirty-One Fundraiser." THANK YOU!

Making food for angels, babies, and goats

JOIN US FOR OUR FUNDRAISER THROUGH JULY 27TH! I am holding a Thirty One gifts fundraiser this month. All earnings will be split between SOFT and my own Lilly Memorial Project. Go to our party page by clicking https://www.mythirtyone.com/NikkiHuffman/ , click on "My Parties" on the left, and then clicking on "The Lilly Memorial Projects Thirty-One Fundraiser." THANK YOU!

This is a photo of my "hang-up home organizer" from Thirty-One.  I have it hung in a place where we all walk by many times a day.  Tabby is always asking what is coming up next during our week so this is a good place for me to have our calendar hung so she can check it.  This organizer has many pockets.  Here is what I use mine for.  In the two small pockets I have gift cards in one and library book lists and receipts from checked out books in the other.  In the top right pocket are our weekly chore lists.  (I like the Motivated Moms schedule I download each year.) In the big sideways middle pocket I have a list and greeting cards for the month for birthdays, encouragment cards, remembering angelversarys, etc.  In the bottom left I have coupons in the front pocket and homeschool activity sheets in the back pocket.  On the bottom right I have my grocery shopping list in the back pocket and various papers that I need and am waiting for things on in the front.  As much as I hate it, I am a paper piler.  This organizer has helped give a bunch of my papers a permanent home which I am thankful for!  (It is available in several color options from Thirty-One.)

I wanted to share this neat tip.  When I was making Lilly's angel food cake earlier this month, I realized I did not have a bundt pan.  So I used ramekin dishes inside of round cake pans.  It worked well.

As a cook, I am really good at following a recipe exactly.  I am not very good at changing recipes or making up my own.  Therefore, Solomon and I are really enjoying a book called Top 100 Baby Purees:  100 Quick and Easy Meals for a Healthy and Happy Baby by Annabel Karmel.  Many of the recipes are for combinations of food that I just would never think of.  For example, yesterday I made Solomon chicken with apple and sweet potato mixed in.  He really seemed to like it!

I find incredible satisfaction in making all of Solomon's food.

Today I made "deworming herbal balls" for the goats. LOL - another thing I never knew I would be making one day!  It was pretty sticky - reminded me of the raw food snacks I make.  Only one goat appreciated all my work.  But we got some into all of the goats.

Being around animals on our little farm has made me realize how many old expressions are really true.  I am often amused when I look outside and see that our 24 chickens have divided themselves up into groups, according to their breed.  "Birds of a feather flock together" - illustrated by this group of silkies:

Frank shared an article with me earlier this week from Chick Colson's "Breakpoint Daily".  It is entitled "A Perfect Daughter: Loving a Special Needs Child."  It was about how a little girl with Down Syndrome won her daddy's heart - when he really didn't intend for her to!  And to show the world how precious special needs children were, this dad competed in 321 races together.  (She was in a jogging stroller.)  Why 321?  Because Down Syndrome is also known as Trisomy 21.   The article also had a great quote by Chuck Colson, of what a friend said to him when he learned that Chuck's grandson Max was autistic:

"You have found favor with God because He has given you a person with special needs in your family so you will learn sacrificial love."

That verse makes me think of my Lilly and how much she taught all of us about love!  Yes we were so blessed to have her!

Our rainbow baby has developed a strip of curly-ish hair right down the top middle.  Hunter nicknamed him "Curley-O" which cracks me up (and I have no idea how to spell it!)  Here's Solomon:

I love when I find pictures that Tabby took on my camera.  Here is one of Solomon she took riding in my bike seat:

There's a snake under her boot ...

This morning I was putting Solomon down for his nap and I faintly heard Tabby calling me.  It took me at least 5 minutes to finish up and then go find her.  When I finally found her, she was outside, standing on a ... long black rat snake!  (Thankfully she had her high rubber boots on.)  She asked me to please hurry and kill the snake.  I ran and got my boots on then ran to the woodshed and grabbed a shovel.  Ran back to Tabby and started chopping at the snake.  (The front half of the snake was under a small rubbermaid shed.)  It took several chops with the shovel to cut it open and then the guts spilled out.  Yuck.  Of course the tail area was still wiggling.  Tabby and I moved the shed and the front half of the snake wiggled out.  Chop!  Off came the head.  Then I scooped up the parts and tossed them into the woods.  Tabby was thrilled we had eliminated a rat snake.

I asked her how it came to be that she was standing on a snake!  She said that she was out back and the rooster started making all sorts of racket and attacking something.  She hurried over to see and saw the snake and thought it had it's eye on her little silkie chicken, Taffeta.  The mama hen in Tabby took over and she stomped down on the snake as it tried to get away.  Then she stood there on it until I came out.

Wow.  My girl is so brave!  And I can now say I've killed my first rat snake.  (Bleech.)  The other day the rooster bit the head off a baby snake.  He may be one bossy rooster, but we are liking him!

This evening I told Tabby it was too bad we didn't have a picture for the blog!  She just shook her head and said she did not care for looking at guts.  I'm sure most of you feel the same way.  :)

I'm so encouraged that there have been several orders place for my Thirty One fundraiser!  I wanted to just share quickly about my very favorite Thirty One tote.  It is called the "organizing utility tote."  I use them for files and homeschool things.  The first one I got, embroidered with "My Angel Lilly" has many of my Lilly related files and blog stuff in it:

I found you can keep your contents straight, and the back from tipping over, by using an clear "open top file box" inside it.  I got mine for less than $10 from Staples:

Through Thirty One sales, I've gotten two more of the organizing utility totes.  One has Hunter's homeschool workbooks inside it, and the pockets are stuffed with flashcards, scissors, tape, pens, stopwatch, etc. That one is embroidered with "Aletha Academy," the name of our homeschool.  ("Aletha" is the Greek word for "truth.")  The last tote, embroidered with "Grow In Wisdom" contains all of the character study books and notebooks that the kids and I use for that subject.  (I'll share more about those books soon as I'm very pleased with them.)

I love having the stuff kept together in the totes.  And it's easy to pick them up and take them wherever I need them!  If you're an organizing junkie like me, you'll love this bag.  :)

JOIN US FOR OUR FUNDRAISER THROUGH JULY 27TH! I am holding a Thirty One gifts fundraiser this month. All earnings will be split between SOFT and my own Lilly Memorial Project. Go to our party page by clicking https://www.mythirtyone.com/NikkiHuffman/ , click on "My Parties" on the left, and then clicking on "The Lilly Memorial Projects Thirty-One Fundraiser." THANK YOU!

Taffeta - our little "Trisomy 18" chicken

Wouldn’t you know it - when I announced my Thirty One fundraiser in yesterday’s blogpost, I initially made a mistake in giving out the Thirty One link.  And of course I didn’t catch it until the post was automatically emailed out by Google. :( I did fix it in the post.  Here it is again:
Jump to our party page by clicking https://www.mythirtyone.com/NikkiHuffman/ , click on "My Parties" on the left, and then clicking on "The Lilly Memorial Projects Thirty-One Fundraiser."

Taffeta photos by Tabby.

 I’ve mentioned before that one of our Silkie Bantam chicks is a runt.  Tabby named her Taffeta and  Hunter says she’s so small because she has Trisomy 18 like Lilly did. I greatly enjoy watching the chickens running around our backyard.  But suddenly the other day, I just felt like bursting into tears watching cute little Taffeta trying so hard to keep up with the “big” chicks.  She reminded me of Lilly!  (OK ... the logical part of my brain says “stop!” You are associating a chicken with your daughter because it is almost her birthday and she isn’t here to celebrate it with you and so that is why you’re thinking of her more than usual and wanting to cry at so many things.  Self - logic talk over - let’s just go with this.)

(above) Little Taffeta by a normal sized Delaware chicken.

Taffeta is not much more than half the size of the other chickens, who are all her age.  (Slow growth.  “Failure to thrive?”) She is such a spunky little thing though!  Such a fighter!  (Like our Lilly was a fighter - that how she got the name “Little Firecracker” within a few hours of her birth.)  She has her funny way of running around and tries to keep up with the other chickens.  But some of the other chickens are just plain mean.  They sit on her and pull her feathers out.  (Just like many people in the world don’t think special children are worth it.)  But in spite of the bad treatment, Taffeta seems to be a happy little chick and is very sweet to us.  (Just like Lilly didn’t worry about the world saying she was “incompatible with life” - she was happy and loving.)  Taffeta is very brave too - she even stood up to the rooster when we first brought him here.  And her small size came in handy as she was able to dodge all his pecks by running under him!  (If you’ve read even half of Lilly’s story on this blog - you know she was one brave little girl!  She even won over a number of doctors that initially didn’t have any hope in her.)

As I watched Taffeta, I thought - she just may be the chick that makes me cry when she dies.

My Thirty One gifts fundraiser for SOFT and The Lilly Memorial Project

UPDATE:  Thirty-One link is corrected below.

Today is July 1st!  My home is decked out in red white and blue both to celebrate July 4/Independence Day - and . . . Lilly's 3rd birthday!  Of course Lilly is officially celebrating with Jesus, but our family will be doing things to remember our little angel girl.

Yesterday I "gave" Lilly her birthday present.  I have been buying her a July 4 themed figurine for each birthday.  Here is this year's - a patriotic bear with a firecracker:

Last year I learned about Thirty-One gift products.  As they have a great variety of bags and organizers, I was delighted.  I love useful things!  I've since gotten a collection of their products, obtained through great sales, which I will be sharing throughout this month.

photo:  Thirty One's "organizing utility tote"  - embroidered with "My Angel Lilly" - holds many of my Lilly related and project files

From today, July 1, through Saturday, July 27, I am hosting an online party for Thirty-One.  This party is a fundraiser!  All earnings I receive will be split in half.  Half will be donated to  SOFT (Support Organization for Trisomy), a group that helped us so much during Lilly's life and still are supporting us.  The other half will go for my own Lilly Memorial Project, in which we are reaching out to other angel families, spread trisomy awareness, and do other helpful projects in Lilly's memory.

Please consider ordering something and know that you will get a great product and some of that money will go to excellent causes.  Our Thirty One consultant is Nikki.  Jump to our party page by clicking https://www.mythirtyone.com/NikkiHuffman/ , click on "My Parties" on the left, and then clicking on "The Lilly Memorial Projects Thirty-One Fundraiser."  

For every $31 you spend this month, you can get 31% off any other item.

If you have any questions, email Nikki at: nikkiloves31gifts@gmail.com or email me at:  LittleFirecrackerLilly@gmail.com

If you would like a printed catalog, please just let Nikki or I know.

I will be sharing more about Thirty One products and how I use them in the coming days.  :)