Late Night Ramblings

It is 12:03 am, before the time change....and I can't sleep. Pregnancy insomnia maybe? Not sure but while I can't sleep I read. Sometimes that means Scripture, sometimes a fiction book and sometimes it is Pinterest.

Tonight as I couldn't sleep I was searching for Thanksgiving things to do with the kiddos and I ran across a wonderful blog that I wanted to share with you.

In our family we have 6 boys, only one of those boys has left home so that leaves 5 boys. Four of whom are under the age of 7, with lots of energy. So when I found a blog about boys I started reading. Now maybe you are thinking that since the blog is about boys and maybe you don't have boys at home then you have no need to read it. Well THIS particular post is applicable to almost everyone. It was definitely convicting to me and I am planning on printing it out so I can re-read it often to remind myself of what it says.

I have blogged one of my favorite poems before, HERE which talks about my children mirroring my attitudes and behaviors. It is a subject very dear to my heart, I suppose because it is something I struggle so much with. I tend to feel that I am entitled to be grumpy and speak rudely because I am the mom and I have a lot on my plate. But that isn't what Scripture says. As the blog author mentions in her post...

A busy house is not an excuse to talk unkindly to my children.

“There is one who speaks rashly like the thrust of a sword,

But the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

Proverbs 12:18 

“A gentle answer turns away wrath,

But a harsh word stirs up anger.”

Proverbs 15:1 

“Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”

Colossians 4:6 

“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it may give grace to those who hear.”

Ephesians 4:29

Anyway, these are my late night ramblings. I hope that if you read her blog you will be encouraged by it as I was. And if you happen to be the mom of boys, she has lots of great posts on raising boys. Enjoy!

Birthdays!

In a span of 17 days we celebrate 3 birthdays...

 

B#11 turned 1...I think he wants to share his cake with you:)

                                                 I think he preferred the gift bag to the gifts...

 

B#9 turned 4. She was so funny. It cracked her up that we were all singing to her. I honestly don't think she knew what to expect when we kept telling her it was her birthday. She is such a simple, happy little girl that I don't think it even registered with her that birthday equals presents.

 

We bought her a "Stuffie". If you aren't familiar with these, they are stuffed animals with lots of pockets. The mouth unzips, the tongue has a pocket, there is a pocket on the back and all of the feet have little pockets. She is kind of a hoarder, she loves to collect stuff and keep it in her bed so we thought this would be perfect for her. She also loves little animals so we bought her a few and wrapped them up to hide in the pockets.

                                                       I think she was happy with her gifts!

                                        She wanted a purple cake for her birthday so B#4 made her a yummy 4 layer

                                                    purple and pink cake with whipped cream frosting.

And last but not least, B#2 turned 22 on the same day as B#9. I don't have any pictures of her as she is still in MO. But I was so pleased that her host family's mother agreed to make her favorite birthday cake for her as a surprise from us. She always has white cake with Raspberry filling and whipped cream frosting. Tastes just like a Zinger! Yum! If you have never had a Zinger go to the store and buy some! We missed having her here for her birthday but we know that this is life with grown children. And we are so very thankful that she has a godly family who has taken her under their wing.

Ear Tubes

Well we fought it for 2 long years and lots of "ear-rational" behavior but we finally decided that it was time to have tubes put in B#8's ears. We talked about lots of different things...waiting till he grew out of it, taking him off of dairy products, taking him to a naturopath to strengthen his immune system in hopes that he wouldn't get the colds that turn in to an ear infection every time. But in the end we hated seeing him go through his day not hearing everything as well as he could be. So yesterday he had surgery to have tubes put in his ears and you know what....it wasn't the traumatic thing I was so afraid it would be.

He was a little clingy and unsure once he realized that he would have to shed his clothes and wear hospital duds but the hospital staff was amazing. They were super kind and gentle and each person who would be taking care of him in the OR came to the room to talk to us and him. I really think that helped him once he had to leave us. Honestly that was one of the parts I was dreading the most, having to see him leave with someone I didn't know. But they let dad carry him down to the OR doors and he was even able to take "Chewcy", his special blankie in with him. He went to the OR nurse without any problems and they all said how wonderfully he did. No crying, he just looked around at them and then drifted off to sleep.

His recovery has been great, no problems there and most of all, he is hearing great. He is such a strong little guy and hasn't even needed any pain meds.

 

 

 

Oh, Ouch!

I read THIS  post just now and knew I had to blog about it in case someone else struggles with this like I do... I printed it out and will add it to my "mommy" binder where I keep all the articles that I want to keep and reread.

We Could Be a Magic Eraser Commercial

 Little Miss B#9 is somewhat of an artist in our family. Whether that is a tattoo artist or a graffiti artist we aren't real sure...early in the day yesterday she came down stairs with purple permanent marker all over her hands and arms. Then in the afternoon she found a dry erase marker and apparently wasn't sure where the dry erase board ended and the wall began so this was what we all walked into the dining room to see...

 

Praise the Lord for Magic Erasers from Walmart. Cleaning it up took as little time for me as it took her to make the mess and I didn't have to paint the wall. What do you think? Could we pass for a Magic Eraser commercial?

B#8 Turns 4!

                                   He really wanted a baseball cake for his birthday this year.

 He bought this storm trooper with some of his birthday money from family while having a fun shopping and lunch day out with Dad.

                      Four is such a fun age. I suppose most ages are fun though, most of the time.

First Picnic of the Year

 

 

 

We have finally had a couple of really nice days. The kids(and mom) have been outside most of the time. Today they wanted to have a picnic. It was a great day for it.

 

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.

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.

Why Would You Keep Having Children in Such a Scary World

I ran across a great post this morning about why to keep having children in such a scary world and wanted to share it with you guys. I know that our family's choice to have lots of children can be strange to many of you so although this post doesn't answer the question of what we believe it might help you to understand the question about why we still desire children when our country is in such a bad state.

You can find the article HERE.

Day 4? and an Announcement

Well last night didn't go as well as the night before but still pretty good overall. B#10 woke up around 4:30 but didn't seem to want to go back to sleep until around 5:00. So while I am still thankful that he only woke up 1 time instead of 5 I do need to figure out what to do when he seems to think he has slept enough and wants to stay awake for a while. Any suggestions that do not involve letting him cry it out?

And now for our announcement:

 This is a picture of B#11 taken about 8 weeks ago. We haven't really shared it too much while waiting until I was farther along in my pregnancy. Now some of my blog readers have told me that they can always guess when we are going to have a new baby because of my lack of posting. Well I guess I didn't disappoint this time since I just didn't feel up to blogging for quite a while. Now that I am in my second trimester I am feeling much better. We are excited to be blessed with another little one and look forward to July when he or she is due. Dad says he doesn't want us to find out ahead of time what it is and that is going to be so difficult for us girls as we love to sew and shop for new baby before he or she arrives. 

Did I mention He Likes Hats?

A Couple of My Guys

My guys just love their footie jammies so B#8 was thrilled when we brought home some matching jammies for them.

Chocolate chips make everything better!

                                                      He just loves hats....and shoes

The Flowers

On one of the blogs that I read, she posted this poem. It brought tears to my eyes as I read it. I hope that you will read it and enjoy it as much as I did. Go HERE to read it.

Have a wonderful, Jesus loves you day!

Sticky Bun

B#4 likes to do B#9's hair for her everyday. Our favorite hair style that she does is a messy bun, which daddy affectionately calls a "sticky bun".

I survived

Everyone big in our family went on a hike yesterday, leaving mom home with three toddlers. The girls alternated between being sorry for leaving me alone and reminding me that I have done this before. Yeah, about 15 years ago I reminded them. I'm not that young anymore. But things went very well. Here is my day in pictures...

The boys helped me make brownies.

B#8 thought you just plopped the butter in the mix instead of into a different bowl for mom to melt.

Mixing with not too much slinging of mix around.

Apparently you have to lick the spoons every time you make something. Thank goodness the brownies got cooked at a high temp. to take care of the germs B#8 left behind after double dipping his spoon.

Getting into everything while mom tried to clean up the kitchen.

Still getting into everything but they changed spots.

B#7 was such a big helper to me. Here he is dragging our flour bucket back to the pantry for me. It is very heavy.

We managed to make homemade hamburger buns for dinner. Here is B#8 rolling his dough.

And all the while that we three were working, B#9 either slept peacefully or sat in her high chair eating. What a sweet girl she is!

Children and Eternity

Some would gather money

Along the path of life.

Some would gather roses

And rest from earthly strife.

But I would gather children

From among the thorns of sin;

I would seek a golden curl

And a freckled, toothless grin.

For money cannot enter

Into the land of endless day.

And roses that are gathered

Soon will wilt along the way.

But, oh, the laughing children

As I cross the sunset sea,

And the gates swing wide to heaven,

I can take them in with me.

~Anonymous~

I just read an excellent post by Mrs. Fuentes over at "A Wise Woman Builds Her Home" (www.proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com ) about praising our children. I heartily agree and have been trying to do better about this with the toddlers this week but I realized after reading her post that I have not been trying hard enough to praise the older children. So I am agreeing to her Praise Project to purpose to praise my children more, to hold my tongue when a negative comment is on the tip and not to yell. One verse that I have told the children this past week is definitely one that I need to memorize and hide in my heart that I might not sin against HIM, "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Ephesians 4:29

It is so easy to think that my words to my children and the tone of my voice do not qualify as "corrupt" but as I looked it up in the Greek the meaning of the word corrupt is "worthless, bad" so if I am saying things to the children that are not edifying or imparting grace to the hearers then my words are corrupt and not pleasing to the Lord. They will just fall on deaf ears as my children tune me out. Do I like it when people talk to me in a condescending tone? No, I do not. Does being criticised for my actions make me want to change? No it does not. What is my goal for my words? It should be to train and encourage my children to choose God's ways, not the worlds and I think Mrs. Fuentes is right on that the best way to do that is through encouraging and praising our children as we teach and train them.

College?

Now that our oldest daughter has finished High School (at home) we get alot of "what's she going to do now, is she going to college?" questions. As of now she has no plans to go to a formal college for a degree but I can tell you that this is one girl that never stops learning. I think she is way busier now than she was during her homeschool years. Whenever we go to the library there usually is nary a fiction book to be seen in her "bookbag on wheels". Some of the things she has been learning about are herbs and herbal medicine, using herbs for animals, animal husbandry, raising cows and goats, gardening, heirloom seed saving, rabbits, chickens, spinning fiber and knitting. I love that when children love to learn they can branch out into so many different areas as opposed to going to college for just one thing. I really encourage my girls to find areas that can be useful if the Lord leads them into marriage. I can confidently say that the things she is learning and doing will all be very useful to her whether she marries or not. I even find myself going to ask her advice when one of the little ones has an illness to see what herbs she thinks will be beneficial before going to the doctor.

She actually had the priviledge of teaching our pediatrician to spin fiber for several weeks which brought about a relationship where our pediatrician was eager to hear and learn more about using herbal things in her practice.

What will the Lord have for the rest of our children regarding college? We will take it one child at a time. I do see the need for Christians in the workplace. Where would our country be without Christian doctors, lawyers, nurses, EMTs, Paramedics and policemen?

A follow-up to my declutter post

Even an old dog can relearn old tricks...I do love to declutter and get rid of things. But I am relearning that sometimes we(I) can get out of balance. Take my children's toys, for example. When my older four children were little we had the big toy box with all kinds of toys in it. But as we had more children I was inspired by what a friend of mine does. When our children went over there to play out would come one toy bucket at a time with one type of thing in it, such as legos, farm/tractor type toys, duplos etc. I just loved the idea of purging our assortment of toys and organizing things in to types of buckets. We currently have a different bucket for food, legos, duplos, farm animals/tractors, cars, KNEX, Playmobile, Lincoln Logs and wooden train tracks/trains. I do really like that way of storing their toys BUT....

Here is where the old dog relearned an old trick....we recently went to another friends home for dinner and fellowship. While we were there the boys had the best time playing with an assortment of different toys. Now some of that may have been that to them they were "new" toys but it got me to thinking about what my boys do when they play here at home and I realized that although I do love the way we have our toys separated and stored, I don't really have many toys to keep a 23 month old and a 3 year old interested for long. The toys that we have are more suited for children a bit older who are ready to sit for extended periods of time building towns, farms or trains. So I am seeing that I need to rethink our toy situation with our little boys in mind and with the thought that little "Audie" as we call B#9 will soon be in the same stage the boys are in.

I guess for me the lesson is that there needs to be a balance to everything we do. Organizing is great but there are also seasons in life where it is okay to have an assortment of toys for the children for those many times when mom needs to get things done.