resolutions and gifts

I’m not really one to make ‘new year’s resolutions’
mostly
‘cause I’m not one to keep them.
But as I was rushing around today
- as usual -
I thought
I just want to be able to be still.
It seems that this year
more so than others
has just been so very busy;
we’ve rushed from one thing to the next
not having time to do things quite the way I’d like.
Always rushing.
Seeing things that need changing
but somehow
not finding the time to figure out a plan to actually make changes.
And always
no matter how much time we spend cleaning
the house is a mess.
Not one of those “oh, I’m sorry the house is a wreck” messes
and one is left wondering where exactly this mess is.
Truly
a mess.
I don’t like living this way.
~
Then I realized
I will be spending several hours a day
in the very near future
being still.
Sitting and nursing our precious new baby.
How good is God?!
Nine months ago
He knew I would be at my breaking point
and so He sent me a gift
to be opened at just the right time.
~

I just love presents!
‘specially soft cute cuddly ones!

you know you're at the vet's

when everyone talks to your

'poor little sick dog'

(who just trashed your house,

necessitating an emergency carpet cleaning.

Poor dog, my eye!)

and no one mentions a word about your

ready-to-pop 8+months-pregnant belly

~

speaking of -

only 3 weeks 'til we get to hold our little sweetie

in our arms.

I can hardly wait!!!!

Look at those cheeks!

my genius husband

Tonight

we were in the middle of another building project

- shelves, this time -

(it's almost sad how proficient we have become at shelf-building)

and Tyler decided to get the soup warming up for dinner.

Slave-driver that I am,

he figured if he waited for me to get it warming

it'd be several hours still before we ate...

I asked he'd turned the burner on good & low.

Didn't want to risk a pot of 'smokey' Turkey Noodle Soup

(with the turkey, this time - sorry guys!)

He said

"I put it on 7."

Seven?!

Eight

is as high as the stove goes!

Needless to say

I flew to the kitchen

where I found

that he had brilliantly

fashioned a double boiler

in which to heat up the soup

risk-free!

In all my years of cooking

it has never once occurred to me

to heat up a thick soup this way.

Pure genius, I tell ya!

ta-da

I finished it!

For my first real quilt,

I'm pretty happy with it.

~

I used this gal's tutorials - which are excellent, I thought!
I figure it took me somewhere between

15 and 17 hours all together.

Never mind how much money....

but I do have a fancy new walking foot for my sewing machine :-)

~

I really had no business working on a baby quilt

when the little girl currently in-house

still needs more diapers

and I have plenty of Christmas prep to keep my busy

but I just couldn't help myself.

I was a bit nervous when I stuck it in the washer

but all the 'experts' had told me

'nobody prewashes anymore'

I went ahead and threw some salt and a color catcher in

for good measure

Now all I need is a snuggly little baby girl to go with it!

well

and a diaper bag.....

God's provision

“I have sort of an odd question.

Is there, by any chance, a metallic primer of some sort

that one could use to make a surface that magnets would stick to?”

I timidly asked the lady at Lowe’s, fully expecting to be laughed at.

I am famous for coming up with a need

for products

that do not exist.

When I told Tyler it would be really neat if there was such a thing,

he agreed it’d be cool

but he certainly didn’t think it existed.
~
We’re making a
- Shhh -

k i t c h e n

for the kids for Christmas.

~
When I had the idea
(I am also famous for coming up with ‘easy’ things for Tyler to do
It’s a compliment, really, I think he can make anything.
It‘s probably not the kind of compliment he appreciates, though…)
I sorta thought we’d begin building several weeks before Christmas.
I had no clue Tyler would be working major overtime
and we’d barely see him
the entire month of December.
~
We started on the kitchen yesterday.
As in
I bought supplies while Tyler was working
and we drew out the pattern on the wood late last night.
Turns out

there is such a thing as a metallic primer that attracts magnets

called - ironically enough - metallic primer.
It’s kinda pricey at $20.77 a quart

but it would be so cool for the kids to play

with alphabet magnets on their fridge… so we splurged on it.
Anyways
Tyler had decided not to go to work today
So we were going to get as much done on the kitchen

as we possibly could.
Which is where God’s provision comes in again

(I consider the fact that metallic primer even exists

to be His provision, too :-)
~
I’ll occasionally hear or read

of God almost miraculously providing for people.

They find insanely good deals.

And I moan, “why not me? my family?”
Well, today, He provided for us.
Beautiful weather.
A sixty degree day, smack in the middle of December,
just so we could work on our little project.
How cool is that??

We commented several times

about what a blessing the nice weather was.
We were all amazed at just how much progress we made.
(granted, we did work all afternoon & evening, but still…)
The icing on the cake came when we finally called it quits.
It was after 7 o'clock.
We were hungry and worn out.
Ordinarily, we might have left our mess for later
but
we knew the weather was going to be turning nasty tomorrow.
As in
nearly freezing
with rain.
So we had to go ahead and clean up everything.
It is, after all, December
and we could expect it to stay cold and yucky indefinitely.
Trips to the shop and burn pile in the dark
seemed preferable to trips in freezing rain....
Tony got dinner on the table for us
and came out to help with the last of the pick-up.
We came in the house
washed hands
and sat down to eat.

We had served up the chili, but hadn’t even prayed yet.
3 minutes max from the time we closed the door.
Tyler said, “Quiet, everyone. Listen”
and so we did.
And we heard
rain.
Tears filled my eyes.
God does provide ‘like that’ for my family!
But He does it in the ways that we need.

We don’t necessarily need 50 cent a pound strawberries

(although we would certainly enjoy them)
But today, we really needed to make a major dent in our project;

Tyler may not have another day off before Christmas.
We could have done it in cold,

but it would have been miserable.

God cared enough to send us one lovely day

- the one day that Tyler could be home -

so that we could make something special for our kids

and He even held off the rain

until we were completely finished for the day.
~
Thank-you Lord, for your provision.

Forgive me for doubting your care.

our preferred method

we call it real life montessori

~

oh and the turtles?

Lily can match up all 12 pairs!

She's quite pleased with herself!

We're pretty pleased

with her

too!

dropped perfectionist

I think we may have another perfectionist on our hands.

~
My doctor wanted to run a strip on the girl this morning
just to make sure things were still looking ok.
The little stinker was all about passing her test!
As soon as they put that belt on she started kicking and rolling
and didn’t stop until they unhooked everything.
Then she went back to her barely mobile self.
Course I can understand her lack of movement,
she’s probably plumb tuckered out
from using up a 2-day quota of moves in all of 30 minutes.
~
I was working on a little Christmas present while on the machine.
After I’d done all I could on it
(yudonknow doya?)
I just prayed and listened to my baby galloping around.
I thought it was rather interesting.
I had lots of Braxton-hicks
(which did not register on the Baby Doppler)
When one would start
Baby’s heart rate would get super fast, then it would slow dramatically
I mean really slow
then
when my uterus relaxed
her heartbeat would return to normal.
It made me realize
-again-
how amazing it is to get to play just a tiny role
in the miracle of new life.
~
Needless to say
Our sweetie aced her test;
When Dr Lukasek looked at her strip
she pronounced it ‘Beautiful!’
That’s one of the many reasons I appreciate her.
I mean
how many doctors would use that adjective?
Certainly no other doc I’ve ever had!
~

Little Bit has also dropped.
We’re talking low
I can spread my hand out below my chest
(and those ladies aren’t quite where they used to be!)
and still barely touch her.
My babies don’t normally drop
quite so early.
Hmmmm
Although I have a hard time thinking this laid back little baby
might decide to show herself early,
we still need to be prepared for the possibility.
We’re definitely grounded to town.
~
Its kind of nice
to have such a good excuse for not being able to go anywhere.

rare sighting

Well,

not so rare

as a brilliant crescent moon and Venus and Jupiter

like we saw last week

and won't appear together

in that configuration again for about 40 years

but

rare, nonetheless.

At least around here.

ugh

The only thing worse

than having a houseful of sick kids

is Momma being sick right along with them.

while 7 1/2 months pregnant.

:-(

At least

it's not a tummy bug!

that would definitely be worse!!

a tiny tip

When your 20 month old is sewing with you

and you give her scraps

and a pin,

you might oughta think twice

about holding pins in your mouth

~

just a thought.....

five

How has it been five years?

This is one of my favorite pictures of Jeremiah's first days.

I suppose it would drive a photographer nuts

but

I am not photographer

I am a mom.

~

We waited so long for this little guy.

I suppose its fitting that he should be the one

with a December birthday.
~

We don't really have much of a story for the day he was born;

that's often how it is with a c-section.

You set the alarm

get up early

hurry to the hospital

so you can wait around a few hours.

They wheel you into a freezing cold room

shoot some stuff in your back

put a slit in your belly

wiggle you around

and pull out a baby.

Then

five short years later,

you have the makings of a fine little man.

~

We had a wonderful day today

just enjoying the birthday boy and the blessing

he is to our family!

His favorite gift was from his big brothers;

supersuits!

And

a chocolate lover like his momma,

the best part of his day was

eating hot fudge cake.

You'd think it would have been

the 2 hours we spent at Chuck e Cheese's

or having his big kids (TJ, Luke & Lana) all here.

Opening presents ranked pretty high,

but the birthday dessert

-well-

it was the icing on the cake

for him!

~

Jeremiah,

you are such a treasure!

You have grown so much these past few months;

Momma & Daddy are so very proud of you!

You are able to change your attitude in the blink of an eye.

Momma still can't do that one!

You have begun to 'take initiative' on a daily basis

(you can't always remember what it's called,

but you choose to look for ways you can help out)

You are such a good big brother to Lily -

just today, she had a bit of sucker around her mouth

and you wondered,

"What is that red on precious Lily's sweet little face?"

What a good protector you are!

Your memory is incredible!

You often amaze us with the things you remember.

And

you love the cold.

Most days, you get dressed in a tank top and shorts.

I'll ask, "don't you need to put on something warmer?"

and you'll say,

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine"

Yep, you sure are!

Oh, and did I mention
your Pop
is your very favoritist person on earth

Thank-you, Lord
for the precious gift you have given us.
Guide us
as we guide him.

~

Happy 5th Birthday, Jeremiah!

home sweet home

It was bittersweet.
We were, after all, finally beginning to realize our dream;
but we’d taken a few steps backwards to do it.
~
We fell in love with our Fort Smith house

the very first time we saw it.
Interestingly enough,
that was a Thanksgiving weekend, too.
We’d looked at several houses in our price range
(what we considered our price-range, not what the bank said it was!)
and they were all junk!
We were getting a bit discouraged.
Our realtor told us he had another one in our price range;
it had just been listed.
It hadn’t even hit the books yet.
We drove by

and it looked really nice from the street.
Tyler said it must be a real dump inside

since was actually priced less than any we’d looked at,
and we shouldn’t waste our time looking.
I rationalized,
“It’s awfully nice on the outside to be a dump on the inside…”
And so we looked.

~
As Providence would have it
the lady who owned the house
didn’t leave like homeowners usually do

when their house is being shown.
Which turned out to be a really good thing!
We reminded her of her family

when they first bought the house over sixty years earlier.
She could picture us in her home
and she liked what she saw.
We’ve always been grateful.
~
But there was always a yearning for
‘the country’.

Land and trees and water for the kids to explore.
Room to grow as much as our food as we possibly could.
(this has proven to be far more difficult than we ever imagined)
Enough space that our kids could build a house on the property

if they wanted to.
~
After years of dreaming
praying
paying off debt
fixing up our beautiful, solid old house
and
adding to the family
we finally decided it was time.
~
Tyler found the place online.
There were no photos of the house
but the land looked pretty good.
He figured we’d be able to add on to the house,

'cause it was rather small.

(less than 1,000 sq ft)
I thought

the fact that there were no pictures of the house was telling…..
Turns out
I was the one who was right
for a change.
~
We drove up on a Sunday in late May after church.
We had a list of several places to look at;
we looked at this place first
and

again,
last.

It was quite unkempt

and the house
(from what we could see)

was absolutely horrible

but the land

had potential.
It was everything we were looking for.
~
When our realtor looked at it with us

He said, “You can bulldoze the house.”
Most of our friends thought that would be a really good idea;
it really was (is!) a dump!
But we figured we could live in for a year…..
~

While I stayed home with little ones,
Tyler and the big kids came out here several times a week
to work to make the place habitable for humans.

All together,
they put in over 1,000 hours of work.
and it still wasn’t even remotely nice!
~
Three years ago
today
with the help of some dear friends
we packed up our beautiful house in Fort Smith

brought all of our ‘stuff’
that we didn’t think we could bear to part with
and began to call this tiny dump of a house
Home.

~
Somewhere between buying the house in July
and moving in in November
we had decided that we would not be living in the house
for just a year
after all.

For years
we had been telling our children to avoid debt.
We calculated with them how much money could be saved
if one would wait a few years,
be diligent with saving
and buy a house with cash.
At first
we justified planning to go into debt to build a new house.
I mean,
we did have a fairly large family
and we were jumping in in the middle of the game,
not just starting out.

But God was dealing with both Tyler & I…

Tyler came to me one day as I was cooking dinner.
I’m sure he was dreading telling me what was on his mind.
“I’ve been thinking.
What would you say if I told you
I thought we should live in the house longer than we planned ?”
He expected a fit, I imagine.
But,
as God has been so faithful to do for us,
He had already been working on my heart.
I'd been wondering how was I going to tell Tyler
that I was pretty sure we weren’t supposed to borrow
to build??
~
The road has been a bit (ok - much -) rockier
(and longer)
than we’d anticipated.
Many of our friends think we are nuts!
It would be so easy to walk into a bank,
get a loan
and begin building.
Instead, we choose to be faithful
to the path
we believe God has laid out for our family.
~
And so
today
we celebrate three years in our 'new' home
(at the same time,
We really hope
that three more years
will find us in our new, new digs!)
~

initiative

Yesterday

Jeremiah came and got me.

"Come to your room, Mom, there's a surprise for you!"

As I walked to the room

(all 10 steps)

I'm thinking

"what have they done now??"

Surprises aren't always pleasant around here...

He leads me to the closet.

I'm thinking

"hey - stay away from there - pretty soon I'll have presents in there!"

then he shows me the door.

The one Lily colored all over last Thursday with red marker.

And it's clean (pretty much)

He excitedly jumped up and down

and told me he'd cleaned it for me and Dad.

Needless to say

he was showered with praise

several times throughout the day

~

just a moment ago

" Mommy, I took initiative!!!

I cleaned the playroom without even being asked!!"

~

thank-you, Jeremiah!

Momma, Daddy and Jesus are so pleased with you!

boys .... are just boys!

Ever since reading the book

Mommy, Teach Me

I've been mildly interested in Montessori.

I certainly don't agree with all the philosophies,

but I think there is some merit in the methods Montessori teaches.

~

It also seems (to me) to be a more girly thing.

Now, my boys love scooping the laundry soap

but

that activity has a purpose.

I don't really think they'd enjoy

scooping rice from one container to another

for no good reason.

Even so,

I've kept my mind open

and am on the lookout for inexpensive preschool activities

that would be in line with some of the Montessori methods.

Today,

I found a dozen cute turtles for a buck twenty-nine.

So I bought two sets;

an inexpensive matching game

which lasted all of 5 minutes

when they went from

'Matching Turtles'
to

'Fighting Ninja Turtles' which just goes to show ya

boys will be boys!

I know...

I am too easily thrilled;
not that that's a bad thing...

~

After months of procrastinating

(for really no good reason

-I was dreading designing the snap template for the resized pattern-

is that dumb or what?!)

I finally started making Pie

a new diaper stash.

She is going to love this one!

I'm pretty tickled with it :-)

~

I tried some new things;

this one took a bit longer to make than most

and cost about a $1 more

but its just so darn cute

I don't mind a bit!

~

note to self:

when you sew on FOE

do it on the outside, not the inside!

gone

Tyler came home with a bag of these the other day

I'd never had them before.
They
are
good!
Nothing like the original Dove dark chocolates
that are best eaten s l ow l y,
just melting in your mouth,
but still delicious.

These need to be chewed
therefore
each piece doesn't last as long
and one is not content with just one chocolate...

They were sitting in the cabinet,
tempting me.
I had to get them out of the house!
So
I did what anybody would do.
I polished 'em off real quick!
~
took care of that problem

scooping laundry soap

still

a favorite job!

guess

who just went peepee

on the potty?!?

~

Ironically enough

just a few minutes ago

I was picking out more diaper fabric and snaps

'cause the poor girl is desperate for bigger diapers!

Now,

I'm wondering

if perhaps I should come up with a training pants pattern

instead...

there's a new band in town

right now

as I type,

Tony

is driving

for the very first time

by himself.

~

You go, Ton'

use your road rage if you have to.

Love you, Bud

~

sniff

perfect ways to start the day

Off the top of my head

there are four perfect ways to greet the day.

Of course,

this has changed over the years....

~

The first

would be snuggling with my hubby

but, that doesn't happen nearly often enough.

~

Not necessarily second in preference,

a steaming (pretty) cup of perfectly doctored

decaf french vanilla coffee, lovingly prepared and delivered

starts the day off pretty nicely, too.

~

Still being in bed

and getting to see that first sleepy smile

when Lily wakes up and sees that I am there.

Oh so sweet!!!

~

And now the newest -

hearing the pitter patter of Lily's bare little feet

(somewhat unsteady

as they support her weight for the first time in hours)

just before seeing her huge smile, wide eyes, and outstretched arms

as she runs to me

after getting out of bed all by herself.

mmmm

God sure knew what He was doing,

starting people off as babies!!

out of a 3 year slump

Once upon a time
in the old house
in a world that seems far far away
I decorated for seasons & holidays.
Not a ton, mind you
but you could look at the entry table
(and in the fall & winter
the stairs - oh, I miss those stairs!)
and know where we were
in the calendar.
Not so since we’ve lived here.
For starters
I’ve never really fallen into a good housekeeping groove
and we’ve been here almost 3 years!
Add to that
it’s a yucky house
and let’s not forget it’s diminutive size….
~
Yesterday
in preparation for our trip over the mountains this weekend
(which should be quite beautiful)
Tyler and I thought we’d stir up

a bit of autumn appreciation in the kids.
Actually, Tyler had the idea - it was my job to implement.
So
I sent the boys out in search of natural treasures

while Lily and I headed to the shop
to find the long neglected box of fall decorations

Nothing fancy
But it does make the place a bit cozier;
and we didn’t spend a cent!

We topped off the day with our annual
after-Halloween-when-the-pumpkins-go-on-sale-for-a-dollar
Dinner in a Shell.
oh, so good!

tickled

I am so tickled with myself!

I don't know why I didn't think of this years ago!

Actually

I probably did

and

then promptly forgot my brilliance.....

I often have great ideas

and when I tell the kids about them

they're like

"Mom, you've already told us this...."

really?!

~

anyways

I had the idea and acted on it

all in the same week.

Roller-ball bottles for Miracle Rub!

Isn't that clever?!

I never minded getting the oil on my hands,

but the bigger kids sure didn't like to.

This'll be a lot more convenient

than

grabbing the baby

sprinkling oil on her feet

rubbing them together

and then rubbing her sweet feeties on yer neck

when you have a sore throat.

~

I'm just swimming with more ideas....

Peppermint for headaches & yucky tummies.

Muscle rub

minus the beeswax, of course.

Some yummy lemon oil

just because.

Oh, the possibilities!

reassurance

Dr’s appointment today.
From now on, they’re every two weeks.
Ugh
But today’s was good.

~
See
Little Bit
isn’t much of a mover & shaker.
At all.
And while I’m not a worrier, by any stretch of the imagination,
I was actually beginning to worry.
I’d do the kick counts;
they rarely added up to 10 in 2 hours.
Not real encouraging.
My babies move
alot
But, then again, this could be my calm baby….
but then again,
10 movements is the minimum I should feel in 2 hours,
so maybe things weren’t quite right.
My belly is growing
so it would seem baby is growing properly.
So why I am I not getting kicked more?
If I’m just not feeling them, why not??
So we did a quick ultrasound to check things out.
Everything looked just great
and Baby passed the test with flying colors.
Looks like we just have us a calm little baby.

~
Oh
and since we were in there…….
and since I was already pretty sure……

isn't she a beaut??

sleepless in the south

You know those 1st trimester

can’t sleep even though you’re exhausted

and can’t even open your eyes nights?
I don’t really miss those nights.

How ‘bout the 3rd trimester

can’t sleep cause you can’t get in a comfortable position

long enough to get to sleep nights;

what with the aching back, sore hips, pelvis spreading

(even though your body no longer can use this amazing function…)

leg cramps, puffy feet, and hands & arms that fall asleep

before you do?

Goodbye second trimester
Hello third

~
Baby,
Momma’s just about ready to meet you!
Actually, Momma is ready now;
but it’s probably best if you stay put for awhile
and work on growing big and strong.
I love you, Pumpkin

unexpected promises

I just got a package!

Now

if I were like my friend Sandy

I would have waited till this evening to open it

but alas

I am not.

I am

me.

So I quickly grabbed my trusty Leatherman pocketknife

and opened the box.

I thought maybe it was going to to be a nutcracker;

the size was about right.

But it was way better than a nutcracker

(especially for nasty black walnuts!)

and if I would've waited till I was all alone to open it,

I would have missed Lily's delighted squeal

at seeing

the

chocolate!

~

Thanks, Mom!

I love you

~

um....

I shared before I saw the note;

sorry.

And to be perfectly honest,

now that they all know I have candy

I'll probably share again.

That's just what moms do.

not quite music

Tyler was 'singing'.

Rather annoyingly, in my opinion.

Of course, to be perfectly fair, it has been a long day

and my nerves and ears were shot hours ago...

I told him he was catterwallerin'.

He disagreeed

and continued his noise.

Lily came in the room

took one concerned look at Papa

and asked,

"You okay?"

they say clothes make the man

Whaddya think??

things are going to change around here

It has been a l o n g day!

Tomorrow will be even longer.
Crackdown!
To be entirely honest,
it should have come months ago
but the whole thing is just overwhelming to me.
1 kid at a time
would be okay.
But both of these little guys???
And their ever-so-observant sister??
(and the big guys aren’t entirely flawless, either….)
Meanwhile
ever so subtly
things grew worse and worse.
Not quite instant obedience.
A few too many questions.
Not outright disrespect
but
disrespect nonetheless.
Lack of discipline.
(on my part just as much, if not more, than theirs. Sigh)
Too much crying and ridiculous carrying on.
Anger.
~
I’ve been trying the mercy route.
It ain’t workin’.
Somehow
even though I was careful to express that I was showing mercy
- lest they think I was just a weenie letting things slide -
(although, again, being perfectly honest, sometimes I was)
they mistook my mercy for _________
Well, I’m not sure what exactly they mistook it for…..
Suffice it to say
There has been a lack of peace & joy in our home
and frankly
I can’t take it any longer.
So

here we are
in boot camp.
Or maybe we should call it
Booty Camp
‘cause I know 2 little guys

who are gonna have real sore ones.
~
Ya’ll pray for us!

was that fun?

"yeah"

"Do you want to do it again?"

"No!"

Not so with Josiah!
"Was that fun?"
"That was much fun!"