What's a Brine?

Raising the "Rhyne Brine". 

That's my blog name but it's much more than a cute rhyme.

[brahyn]  noun, verb, brined, brin·ing.

–noun

1.water saturated or strongly impregnated with salt.

 

And it's all based around this:

 

Matt 5:13-16

    ¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
   ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

 

 

 

I am raising my children to be very salty, much like a brine.  I want them to be so salty that Jesus is all people see when they look at our family.  Granted, if you looked at them at this very second, you would see a very cranky 3 year old whining something at his older brother who is bossing him around because he put the wrong toys in the wrong box.  And a one year old who just trampled through her brother's train track creation, now both boys are upset...  at least the 11 day old babe is sleeping peacefully.  Oy.

So, this salt business is a work in progress.  You have to sit in the brine awhile to get salty right?  

So there you have it, that's whats in our name! :-D

 
 

Look what I got...

Baby #4 arrived early this morning at 3:41am.

Magnolia Joy

June 18th, 2011
8 lb 8 oz
21" long

14.25" head

(my tiniest baby)

Contractions started about midnight and right off the bat were 45 sec long and 3 mins apart. (You are suppose to head to the hospital when contractions are 1 min long and 5 mins apart).  I hoped right in the clawfoot tub, the most relaxing place to labor.

  We had planned another homebirth but labor is a weird thing.  Contractions hurt bad... but in between contraction you feel 100% fine.    I kept telling myself that the contractions would peeter out and didn't end up having Redneck call the midwife until 2 am. 

Turns out my midwife was just finishing up another delivery in Puyallup, about 45 minutes away.  So she wrapped up there and got to our house around 2:35 (she sped, hehehe). Contractions continued to get stronger and finally had to push at about 3:30. 

2 pushes and Magnolia was born at 3:41am.

The 3 other short people that I claim as my own, slept through the entire thing.

My awesome midwife, Ann Olsen, and her daughter (aka assistant) got me all set up in bed, everything cleaned up, baby weighed and checked out, to McDonalds to get us breakfast and back, and were gone by 6am... and my kids still hadn't woke up.  We got about an hour of sleep in before they eventually woke up and the boys were very excited to meet their new lil' sissy "Nolie".  Luella, on the other hand, could care less.  I think she thinks I'm holdimg a doll or something, she hasn't even given her lil' sis a second glance, LOL. 

But all is well in the Rhyne household and my family feels so complete. 

Nolie is nursing great and sleeping a ton!

Living Room Fireplace Reveal

Oh my. How long as it bee since I've blogged??? First my camera went dead, just bought it (Nikon Coolpix) 6 months ago.  THen my computer got a wicked virus and wouldn't let me on the internet.

Now I have a new laptop.... YAY!

So when we first moved in,we had the most dysfunctional living room EVER. The wood stove sat in one corner and took up 1/6 of the (already tiny) living room.  So one day I ripped that out!

Then (since I am a SecondUse.com stalker) I found an older looking gas fireplace for $65.  SOLD

So here is the progression.

 That is the front door (on the left) and the door to the kids room next to it.  The picture is taken sitting in the chair that now reside where the old wood stove was.  The armoire was huge and took up sooo much space.

 Another view, sitting at the desk.  You can see on the right where the wood stove was.

 So Redneck took 2 days off and we ripped out the wall.  Yup, thats the kids room.  (3 kids (and their clothes) in a 8x7 room. Lue sleeps in a crib in there (that was moved during construction)

Then we got it all framed out and wired in.  It was quite complicated actually because I wanted to use EVER nook and cranny to store something or other.

 But there she is NOW... photographed in HORRIBLE lighting.  The wall color is actually this.

Behr "Lightweight Beige" but the lighting make the room look yellow (and using a camera phone since my camera is broken).

 My favorite parts and why it took so long to build (6 weeks total). Behind the tv is a deep nook that is storage for the power and internet router and wireless modem. The mantel flips open (like  mailbox) to store Comcast box and Blu-ray player.  There is a channel behind the tv that goes down to the storage box to bring the cords up and hide them.  And the fireplace sides swing open to hold all the dvds.

 Another view from the desk.  The floor is HIDEOUS, I know.  It will soon be dark wood to match the mantel.

 And just inside the kids' room (that would be the office or den for any normal person) are more built-ins. 

You can see the power outlet and at the very top left, is a 'hole" that connect t the nook behind the tv, for in case the next resident has more components than we do.

So there you have it. And now, Luella can't reach to turn off the tv everytime the boys want to watch Thomas the Train.  Seriously, every time it would come on, she would walk over, push the power off and walk away.  Gotta love it!

And now I sit here.... 39 weeks pregnant and finally REST!! Hahaha, just kidding. Just fixed the garbage disposal and tomorrow will be installing our new dishwasher... Woot Woot!!