Sunday Scripture

Well, today's isn't Scripture exactly...just something said in the service that stuck with me.

"God is speaking. Are you ready to obey?" Senagalese(Africa)Pastor

Hymn:

Oh How He Love You and Me
He gave His life
What more could He give
Oh how He loves you
Oh how He love me
Oh how He loves you and me.

My Heart is Sad Today

My mommy heart is so sad today for my oldest daughter. Her cow, Maddie, died this morning. It is so very hard to watch your children as their hearts are breaking. She loves all her animals but especially Maddie. Who couldn't love a cow with beautiful, big eyes. Some might say, "You weren't attached to her, you didn't milk her or take care of her". And they would be right. But I am still so sad that she is gone. She was a sweet, precious animal. I suppose it has alot to do with the fact that I love my daughter so therefore I am heartbroken when she is heartbroken. But there is also that pregnant mommy side of me who thinks about this mommy cow who lost her calf and then her life and I am just sad. Pray for B#2, that she would know Jesus peace through this loss and the she would see HIS direction and leading in her life.

Update on My Frugality Challenge

So far for my Frugality challenge to myself, I have spent $88 out of my $100 budget. I have gotten 11 cloth diapers with inserts, a bouncy seat, an infant carseat and a crib bedding set. I recently found some Bumgenius and Flip diapers on Craigslist. Usually brand new these diapers run around $14 each. I emailed a bit with the lady and she ended up coming down to $8 per diaper for me. And even better than that...they were in a town over an hour from us but we have friends who live there and they were willing to pick them up for me and it even worked out for them to drop them off to me at home because they were going to be in the area.

 

 

Then I found this beautiful Pottery Barn crib bumper on Craigslist for only $15. Actually it was the bumper, crib skirt and 2 window valances for $15. Usually Pottery Barn bumper pads go for at least $99 brand new, some even higher. Now lest you think from the very girly-ness of this bumper that we know we are having a girl, you would be wrong. We have no idea what we are having and we aren't planning to find out but I couldn't pass up this beautiful set just in case it is a girl. Besides, if B#1 and his wife have a girl, we could always see if they want it or just resell it.

I stilll have a few things left on my list and with the cloth diapers I may indeed go over but I at least have a goal and a list to work with.

Sunday Scripture

I thought it would be fun to start doing something on Sundays. So I thought I would just choose a verse or two from our Sunday sermon to share...

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. John 17:3


Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace

A Beautiful Day and a Big Box

 It was a beautiful day outside yesterday, a great day to get stuff accomplished.

 

Vacuum out filthy van- Check

Let kids play outside - Check

Clean up tons of styrofoam packing peanuts - Check

 

 

 

 

The kids got a huge box from Mamaw and Papaw. In it was a very heavy metal tractor. Should be sturdy enough to outlast even these rowdy boys.

 

 

The only way to get said tractor out of the box without Daddy here to help us was to basically just dump everything in the box. B#9 thought the packing peanuts were the best. She kept calling it snow.

 

 

 

WOW!

                                                               Let the clean-up begin!

                        You will notice that the boys are strangely absent from the clean up process.

Our Valentines

 

Our Valentines actually has lasted for almost a week now. Last week we started by making heart shaped sugar cookies to mail to B#1 and his wife. Of course we had to make sure we made enough for us to eat too. Then on Sunday, DH and I celebrated our Valentines Day by going to the symphony, which we both thoroughly enjoyed, and then going to dinner. Nothing fancy for us. We just aren't fancy people. We ate at Fuddruckers, which was so yummy! We also gave each other our Valentines Day gifts. As you can see below, we each gave each other "flowers". DH gave me the beautiful peach roses and I gave him "man flowers", candy which I attached little notes to.

 

Then on Tuesday, we decorated the dining room and had a special breakfast with the children and gave them each a small gift from us. Since Dad had to work today, we didn't do too much to celebrate the day. We had strawberries for breakfast, which is a special treat around here, made THESE yummy(kinda healthy) chocolate chip cookie dough truffles and went to the library and park.

They were a hit as you can tell by these messy, happy faces and the missing truffles from the plate.

My Frugality Challenge to Me

I am a pretty practical person. I see really pretty things when I am out and about but I just can't bring myself to buy things just because they are pretty. I always say I am too practical, which isn't necessarily a good thing. But I suppose in the area of baby things, being practical can be a good thing. There are so many neat things that you can buy for a new baby. Gadgets that you didn't even know you needed can be found all over the place. So for me being practical can help me not to go overboard when we are having a new baby. You probably wonder what in the world I would need for this baby since we have already had babies. Surprisingly I have a list that I am working on. Things either wear out or you realize that you need something a little different to help you make your day work smoother. That is where Craigslist comes in handy. I made a comment to DH that I think I can get everything on my list for $100, so I thought I would make that a personal challenge to me. DH works hard to provide for our family and I want to make sure I am doing my part and not spending the money he makes frivolously. I have heard that there is a local Facebook buy, sell, trade page that is supposed to be good too but since I am facebook illiterate I am not sure how you find it.

So here is my list and the progress I have made so far:
An infant car seat- got one for free, had to use some elbow grease to clean it up but it is basically brand new.
A baby bouncy seat- got one off of craigslist for $10
A gender neutral, cream colored crib bumper
A cream changing table pad cover
A cream colored crib sheet
A baby monitor
Cloth diapers and supplies- got started with 6 almost brand new diapers/inserts from craigslist for $25, usually these sell for almost $20 each.

It is kinda fun trying to find good prices. I suppose it is like hunting for men. We all like a challenge. So this is my challenge to myself. Adding in the cloth diapers will definitely make it more challenging. I think they will be the toughest pieces to find. I will let ya know how it goes.

A Skirt

It is very difficult to find modest maternity skirts these days. At least ones that are in my price range, meaning less than $10. I did go to Motherhood a couple of weeks ago but I just couldn't bring myself to pay $25 for the beautiful black skirt I was contemplating. Well, thank you once again Google, I found a tutorial on how to alter a regular skirt into a maternity skirt. I already had a lot of stretchy fabric that I had gotten from our church's Free Room and then I found a wonderful denim skirt at Goodwill for $7.99(still more than I like to pay at Goodwill). Now I am not the seamstress of the family. I leave that bit of fun to my girls but they were busy for one reason or another so I decided to tackle the job. I am quite pleased with the results, although it is still a bit big for now, but that will change soon enough.

I think I am ready to tackle another one. Just gotta do more Goodwill shopping:).

A New Start

We started a new curriculum today. I know, I know, who starts a new curriculum in February??? I have just been feeling like we weren't doing quite enough. I am not one who thinks academics are the most important thing. I would much rather my children be strong in their faith and have good character than to have tons of academics. But neither would I have my children miss out on the fun of learning. So I set out to find a new curriculum in the middle of the school year. I read about Heart of Dakota from Joy at Artful Homemaking. So I set out to read all I could find about it. I read reviews and blogs of people using it. Then I showed it to DH to see what he thought. I so appreciated his answer of trust in my abilities to choose a curriculum that I felt would be good for the children.

Today was our first day and it was definitely more than they are used to doing, but I also felt that they needed more to keep them busy than what they had been doing. They would finish their school work in record time and if I didn't have any extra chores for them they would often start asking for a movie or to do some electronic device if it was too rainy to roller blade or ride bikes. We are starting with Creation in History and using Exploring Creation with Zoology by Jan Fulbright for our Science. We were learning today about animal classification. I am really looking forward to getting into the Science side of it since that is definitely an area that I have always been to lax about.

A symphony!

DH won two tickets from work to see Beethoven's 9th symphony on Sunday! I am so excited. I have never been to a real symphony. I think that will probably count as our Valentine's Day together since it is a big deal and DH has to work on Valentines Day anyway.

Only in our house

Only in our house would you hear..."Mom, there's a carseat in the shower".

And Now for the Announcement

This is my handsome first born and his beautiful wife, whom I have decided to call BW#1 here on the blog. That stands for Blessing #1's wife. Pretty creative, huh? Anyway on with the announcement. We Skyped with them this week where they shared with us that they are expecting a baby!

I must admit that I haven't wrapped my brain around the fact that we will be having our 11th child in July then welcoming our first grandchild in October. While planning on how to update the nursery I am thinking things like, "What do I want my grandma name to be?" and already thinking of ways to make sure we are the grandparents to this baby that we want to be while having a newborn and 9 other children at home. A good friend and I were discussing these things and we came up with the fact that generations ago this was pretty common. Mothers were still having children while their oldest were getting married young and having children. But then along came the thought that we should have 1.7 children(whatever that means) and get right back into the work place.

We are extremely happy for them and look forward to watching them as they grow through this new phase of life together but one thing has come to my mind as I contemplate them sharing their wonderful news with family and friends...The value of life. When you are expecting your first baby, then your second and possibly even your third, you will get all kinds of congratulations. Babies are wonderful, how exciting! But when you are announcing your 5th or 6th or 10th you get anger and rude comments. When did the value of that little life become so much less than the value of a first or second baby?

Just some thoughts of a mama to many and soon-to-be Grandmother.

Can I Just Say "UGH"???

Well I have emerged from the isolation of my bedroom for awhile...this stomach thing kind of took its time getting rolling but in one day it has taken out the last 6 out of 7 people who hadn't gotten it yet. It has been no fun at all and has kept dad jumping from one of us to the other. So far B#2 hasn't gotten it. She is in the dining room drinking some special herbal tea. I think she is out to prove she won't get it.

Come back tomorrow for another announcement...

A Fun Website

Okay, I know I said it might be kinda quite on here for a few days with a stomach bug going through our family but I just had to share this fun website I found on Pinterest. Don't ya just love Pinterest? All is pretty quite around here right now with kiddos playing quietly and dad giving baby a bath so I am just poking around on Pinterest adding stuff to my board.

Auntie M, you might like this one for your little one... http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/letter-of-the-week .

 

I have been working with the boys on learning their letters and now I am so excited to have some fun crafts to go along with it. I especially like the Alligator for A and the butterflies made out of 2x2 gauze squares and bandaids.

A Stomach Bug Has Hit

Well we have dodged the bullet, at least on this wide of a scale, for two years now. But I guess it is just our turn. A stomach bug has hit our home. It started with B#9, then dad, then B#10 and now B#8...Let's hope it gets over with quickly and has some mercy. At least the two youngest are done since they are the hardest when they are sick. So if it is quiet for a few days you will know why.