Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day

As we celebrate today, Memorial Day, let us revisit the famous quote by John F. Kennedy....

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

As Obama pushes us further and further towards a socialist country where he and people in his office push for taxpayers to fund everything from abortion to healthcare (so musicians and artists can quite their jobs without worry of not having healthcare) we must not forget those words.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Unreal video about Nancy Pelosi

Be sure to hop on over to Ronny Cooksey's blog, over on the left of the screen there, to see Nancy Pelosi encouraging "musicians and artists" to quit their jobs and follow their dream without having to worry about health insurance now that we tax payers can just take care of that for them.

Where are all the godly men for our government??? What can we as Americans do to stop this madness? Pray and Vote!!!

A day in the life

On Sundays there is usually a mad scramble to get ready for church and out the door on time, which for us never seems to be "on time". This past week was no better, in fact, when I woke up and saw that I had 40 minutes to get myself dressed and any little one ready who wasn't already being dressed, dressed and in the van I thought there was no way it was going to happen. Well we did manage to be ready, well all but our oldest ,but in the midst of hurrying to get ready I had to wear an older pair of knee highs that had definitely seen better days. Upon putting on my shoes I couldn't help but wondering just how bad the holes in my knee highs had gotten judging by how very uncomfortable one of my shoes was. I decided to take the time to try to fix it so that I wouldn't be quite so uncomfortable all through church. Well low and behold, the holes weren't any worse than last time I wore those knee highs but I did discover a Playmobile spear in my shoe causing the problems.

Whether you have one child or 8, such can be a day in the life of a mom.

Friday, May 14, 2010

It's Over

Well it is officially over....Dear Hubby's sabbatical that is. It hasn't been too hard of a transition not having him home but the first day was definitely the hardest. He went back to work on my "grocery day", of all days. But I must admit that my bill was less:)

We had a good time while he was off, nothing huge and dramatic like a cruise or a trip to Europe like most people on sabbatical seem to do but we enjoyed lots of family time. My to-do list is still mostly undone but that is okay. It will still be there and waiting when the time comes to get to it.
Some of the things that we did were...hiking, skating, park days, went to Washington state for about 5 days, bowling, celebrated Easter, Mother's Day, and two birthdays, relaxed at home, went to friends homes for meals, dad and B#4 went kayaking, got new goats, tilled the garden several times, took dad to the huge library in Salem...I am sure there was more but that is all that comes to my tired brain right now.



Here is B#3, B#2 pushing B#7 in a stroller and a family friend(in the green shirt) having fun skating.



Dad, all the girls and Jacob went hiking up a big mountain with some other families. Here are the girls with some of their friends riding on a futon in the back of an old school bus. They actually bent the futon frame while going over rough roads. Good thing mom didn't know that they weren't buckled on the ride.

We went for a hike as a family on the way to the coast about 30 minutes or so from home. That was a difficult hike for a few of us!

All in all we are so thankful that DH job allows a two month break from work every seven years. I look forward to the next one but it makes me so sad to realize how old the children will be when that time comes:(

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Don't you know what causes that?

Being parents of 8, going on 9 children, we get alot of unasked for comments. Recently I was in the grocery store with just B#8 when someone whom we have known for years commented on my pregnant state by asking me....Haven't you figured out what causes that? My answer to him was " Yes, the Lord". I guess I kind of expect those comments from strangers but coming from someone that we used to go to church with kind of threw me. So I thought I would do a post on why we do what we do...

First and foremost, we are followers of Jesus Christ and we believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and is still relevant for believers today. Having said that let me share with you some scriptures that sum up what we believe about children....

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord;
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them;
They shall not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Psalm 127:3-5

How many of us would more than welcome gifts and blessings from the Lord if it came in the form of money? But we all know that money does not bring happiness. Many times we hear of people who won the lottery, that it ruined their life or their marriages. Yet the Lord, creator of us all, in whose image we are created, says that children are a gift, a reward! I expect that the Creator of the Universe knows much more than us which of the two(children or money) is truly a blessing and a reward. Now I am not saying that we believe that everyone must have as many children as we have. I am saying that for my husband and I, we have come to believe that we should welcome whatever number of blessings the Lord chooses to entrust us with. Do I have all the faith right this moment to be completely on board with it if the Lord give us 10 or even more??? No, I can't say that. I believe that He gives us the faith for each child as He brings them into our family. One of my favorite hymns is "Trust and Obey". It says...trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.

So that is what we are doing. We are trusting God to provide for each little one He brings us and we obey what we feel the Scriptures are telling us.

I like what King David said in Psalm 37:25-26 : I have been young and now I am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Or his descendants begging bread. All day long he is gracious and lends; And his descendants are a blessing.