A Flat Tire...

I walked out the door to see Scott pulling the jack out from the shed we have behind the house. We were about to go into town but we had a flat tire. I had the camera planning to take some pictures of the kids at the park but we had to go to a tire place. So instead of taking pictures of the kids at the park, I took a picture of Jonathan "helping" change a flat tire.

There are people in this world that would get upset, if this had happened to them. But we see these things that happen to us as opportunities from God. Maybe the people at the tire place needed to meet Scott. Maybe one of the kids could have been hurt at the park. We may never know what all the purposes are, but God knows and he is taking care of us.

They didn't find the leak in the tire, even after airing it up and testing it with water and soap. Scott thinks that when the air was added to it, it may have closed the leak up for a while. So we may have another flat tire in a few days. Maybe the people at the tire place need another visit.

Life isn't a card game that things just happen to us by chance. God has a reason for everything. He is so good to take care of us. Knowing this makes life worth living. We know we are here for a purpose. Even a flat tire can't stop us from fulfilling His purposes.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
(Romans 8:28)

Tea for Two...

It's amazing how well our children are able to play together. This picture shows Ruth and Jonathan having pretend tea together. They just turned to smile at me while I took their picture but I had gotten this second picture as well showing Jonathan actually pouring the tea into Ruth's cup. It was so cute to watch.

Ruth has been doing a good job helping with Jonathan. Jonathan has been wanting to have a "lesson" also, while Hannah is learning. So Ruth has taken it upon herself to teach Jonathan his numbers.

Joshua and Hannah are doing well with their lessons. Hannah has learned the letter F today. She has been really bragging to everyone about how Joshua is her teacher. She considers it a really special honor that he teaches her. Kind of like she has her own private tutor, that no one else has. It is really sweet and I praise him for how well he works with her.

The only problem Hannah has now is telling Ruth that she's not her teacher. So I explained to Hannah that Ruth is Joshua's assistant. She can teach Hannah things too. There seems to be a misunderstanding with Hannah as to who a teacher is. I've tried to explain to her that anyone that knows something more than someone else can teach what they know. I think she thinks you have to be big to be a teacher. Little does she know how much she teaches Jonathan.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
(Proverbs 22:6)

Shave and a Haircut ... 2 Bits!

I cut Scott's and the kids hair today. No, I didn't get two bits for it. But I did think about it. This picture shows them all after their haircuts.

I started with Hannah's hair. It is hard to get her bangs straight, since she doesn't sit still very well. I used to try keeping a hair band in her hair and I hoped that she would eventually have her hair long enough to stay behind her ears, but the hair band would get lost and her hair wasn't staying out of her face at all. So out came the scissors. It's nice seeing her eyes.

After Hannah's hair cut, I cute Joshua's. His is the easiest hair to cut. I just use the razor with a fairly short guide and shave it all over the same length.

Then I cut Scott's hair. His is the most stressful. He likes his hair a certain way, but he's not sure what that way is. I know that he doesn't want it sticking up anywhere. He has very straight hair and it has specific calic spots. Which makes his hair rather difficult to work with. It turned out pretty good though and he seemed pleased with it. He's definitely pleased with the price, he doesn't complain nearly as much after I cut his hair, than with someone professional that he has to pay.

After Scott's hair, I cut Jonathan's hair. This was his first real haircut. We had tried to cut his hair before while he was asleep but it wasn't a very good one. This time I took him to the bathroom and stood him in front of the bathroom mirror. I showed him the electric hair shaver that I was going to use. I turned it on for him and let him hold it. I wanted him to get used to the sound and not be afraid of it. Then I turned it off and brushed his hair with the comb of the razor. Then I showed it to him again and turned it on for him again. Once he was used to it, he started playing with some of the combs I had set on the counter top. That was when I started cutting his hair. He didn't mind at all. I kept talking real cheerfully with him about how pretty his hair looked. I think hearing me praising his haircut and having seen that the razor wasn't going to hurt him, he wasn't scared and didn't mind.

Scott took Ruth with him to a Mission Rally today. I chose to stay home with the younger two kids and Scott gave Joshua and Ruth the choice to stay with me or to go with him. It was going to be a pretty long evening, since Scott was going early to play some music with another man from the church there. I didn't know what there would be for Hannah and Jonathan to do. They would get bored and 4 hours of trying to keep them out of trouble sounded tiring. Ruth brought her mandolin along. She also brought her book with her in case she got tired of playing and wanted to read. She had a good time.

Our kids are growing up so fast. God has richly blessed me with a wonderful family.

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Jonathan's first Birthday a few days ago. We didn't really do a big party but we had a few friends over and baked a chocolate cake for the occassion. It was Jonathan's first time to have chocolate cake. That is a tradition we have had for each of our children, on their first birthday they get their first taste of chocolate cake. It is also fun for pictures.

The kids and I spent his birthday making a few gifts. Joshua learned how to use the sewing machine. Meanwhile, Ruth wanted to sew her gift by hand. I helped cut out a Zebra shape for Joshua, and helped cut out a circle pillow for Ruth. The circle turned out looking more egg shape but it still turned out well. The material Ruth used for the pillow she made had dinosaurs all over it. The zebra Joshua made was made of black and white striped material. I made a dinosaur out of the same material Ruth used. We decided that the pillow she made could be the dinosaur's egg.

Scott also bought him a toy that has about 5 rings that stack in order over a cone. Our guests gave Jonathan a car that has popping balls inside of it. He really likes pushing it down the hallway. I will post a few pictures that I know everyone is wanting to see. I will try to post a few more later on as well.

Aftermath of Ike

Here is a picture as promised of some of the damage caused by Hurricane Ike. In this picture you can see a tree down, the church's steeple twisted and moved, the power line is down, and there was a stick impressively harpooned into the ground. Yes, those are the trees roots you see. It's amazing how much damage can be done by a hurricane. We have other more detailed pictures of some of the damages but I thought this one made an impressive over all view of the damages.

We stayed with my parents for 2 weeks. When we arrived home we had to find a way to park in our front yard. The entire yard was covered with branches. We came home expecting the power to be out for only a couple of days, it turned out being closer to a week and a half. We were really happy when the electric company finally showed up in our front yard. It's funny how much you appreciate something after you have been without it for awhile. We really appreciate electricity having gone that long without it.

The kids are doing well. We were doing our lessons over at the church during the week that we didn't have electricity. We would go over there for breakfast and then I would get the older involved with a lesson, while I figured out what to do with the younger two. It was fine but it is a lot easier to keep them out of trouble in our own house.

It amazes me how much there was for my 3 year old to displace. I walked into a room to get something and saw a large stack of books where she cleared the bottom two bookshelves that she could reach. I, of course, commanded that she put those back on the shelf neatly. Later I found half the church sign numbers moved and set messily on another table. I told her to put those back and she said, "O.k. I'll put my money back." Then on another occasion she had pulled all the coffee cup holders out of one of the kitchen cabinets and piled them on a table. I first turned it into a lesson for her by having her separate the cups by colors and then count how many cups of each color there were. Then I had her put them back. That was only some of the things she found to unorganized.

Now that we are able to do lessons here again, I feel like I'm able to keep a better eye on all the children. At least, here I know what she could possibly be doing in another room. There aren't as many surprises. I can also keep a better eye on Jonathan this way as well.

I have a lot to do this month. I plan to put some of the things the kids are doing in homeschool next time I write. We've been pretty busy. I'll try to get some pictures of them doing some of their lessons. Until then...

Cause and Effect...

As promised, I'm adding a couple more videos to my blog. I entitled my blog today "Cause and Effect." See if you can figure out why.



I don't know if I will have time to post again before we leave. We will be back home this weekend but we're not sure what the conditions of our home will be. We should have water and phones. However we are not sure if we will have electricity when we get there.

Hopefully we will be able to get any problems repaired. I know that we will have a tree down in our yard. It's a pecan tree and I do not know which one it is. So I'm looking forward to getting back home and seeing first hand what the damages consist of at our house. I'll try to get some pictures and post them as soon as possible.

Baby in a Pot

I had to post this picture of Jonathan in a big pot. This was a pot Scott had bought when Joshua was just a baby. He liked it's size, because you could cook a lot of food in it. It was funny when he bought it, since Joshua was just a baby he joked that he would fit in it. Of course, we would never really cook our children.

Scott and I had a real good discussion on that subject before we were married. He had studied Deuteronomy 28:56-58 in seminary, also 2 Kings 6:28-29. It is funny to look at that conversation that we had 12 years ago. I remember it started when we both saw a teenager steal a cookie from the bakery of the grocery store we both worked at. I was shocked to see him do such a thing in plain sight, and just before I let the words out, Scott said, "Don't say you wouldn't do that." I was even more shocked that he would think, I would be low enough to steal a cookie. That of course got into a big discourse over the fact that I would not steal a cookie. He then told me about the women in the Bible that were so hungry that they ate their own children. I was shocked to even have that brought up, I told him that I would never eat my children. I would give my own fingers and toes rather than eat any of my own children. The funny thing is we both agreed, but we saw things in a different way. He thought I was saying that I wasn't capable of sin. I thought he was saying that I can't say I wouldn't do anything like that. I firmly believed that if you follow the Bible and stay within those guidelines and you will never have to eat your children, because God will provide all your needs. After the strangest argument we have ever had, we both agreed that we were sinners and that we didn't have to eat our children.

Of course, we still have to joke about our first argument, and when he bought that large pot, I just shook my head and reassured Joshua at the time that we would never eat our children. Of course, now Jonathan fits in it and thinks it's the funnest toy around. His brother and sisters all had him in there and were adding toys and pushing him around the carpet like he were in a car. He just loves it. Hannah uses that pot to pretend she is cooking noodles.

I love my family. It's amazing how much, we have all grown these past 12 years. God has really been good to us. I'm glad that he has provided for our every need, spiritual and physical.

Thankyou, Lord for all your blessings, especially my wonderful, precious family.

Tooth Number 3!

Jonathan's 3rd tooth has just come in. It is his top right front incissor. I thought it would come at any time. He had been a bit fussier than usual, and last night he kept whining in his sleep. It was hard for me not worry over him, but since he continued to sleep, I just went back to bed. This morning, he was extra fussy and so I decided to check his teeth. Sure enough it was there peeking through his gums. Ahh!! 3 teeth down and many more to come.

So far I haven't had any trouble nursing him. He has been pretty good about not biting me. Hopefully this will continue now that he has a top tooth. I'm pretty sure his fourth one is real soon to follow. Three teeth with at least 4 more months of nursing to go. I think we can make it.

It's hard to believe he will be a year old in 4 months. This has been a fast year so far. I guess, there has been so much going on that it has just flown by. This will be a busy month as well with Saturdays filling up with activities, Ruth's birthday coming up, and Church Camp. I will try to get in some blogging during it all but if I lag behind this month, I may just be busy. I definitely won't be able to blog during camp. I should be able to blog next week though. So please don't give up on me. :)

Like Mother, Like Son... Ouch, Painful lesson!

My brother and sister would probably remember the stories my dad used to tell of me and my stubborness as a young child. A few days ago, I was reminded of one of these stories through my youngest child.

My father used to tell how mad I would get when they would put me to bed as a baby. He said that one time, I got so mad that I bit myself. Then I was so mad that it hurt, I bit myself again.

Well, my son only bit himself once but it must have been hard enough for him not to want to do it again. The picture above is the perfect tooth marks of his only two teeth in his hand. At first I wasn't sure what had happened to his hand. I saw the sore on it and thought it was too big for a spider. Then after taking a closer look, I realized that the two marks were the exact position of his bottom two teeth. The reason there are not a matching set above is that he only has the bottom two. So I hope he does not do this again when he gets more teeth. Maybe he learned his lesson with one bite, unlike his mother when I was a baby.

A lesson can be learned from this though. It's always good to learn and grow from your experiences good or bad.

I have a lot more deep thoughts but they will have to wait for another blog. I will leave you to ponder on this lesson first. Check back real soon for more Thoughts from Stacie. :)

Ouch! New Tooth!

This evening, I felt Jonathan's first tooth. I actually felt it earlier today but did not think as much of it until I told Scott about it. So he got out a flashlight and spent a good bit trying to get him to show his new tooth. Then with a cheerful excited voice he says, "Ahh!! Jonathan has a new tooth!"

My response, "Oh boy, Jonathan has a new tooth. A bit early don't you think?" Which got us discussing our other children. Joshua didn't have a new tooth until he was right at 1 year old. Ruth was about the same at about 1 year old. Hannah, I thought was early at 9 months old or so. However Jonathan has beat them all with a new tooth at 6 months and 3 weeks old, and yes I still intend to finish nursing him until he is 12 months old. Ahh! I hope this will not be a long 6 months!

Actually, he has been fairly good tempered about it. I would have not known he was getting a tooth if it had not been for all his drooling and my feeling it this afternoon. I'm just not exactly excited about the next 6 months of his tooth scratching me when I feed him. However, I'm sure I'll get used to it after a month or so. I hope.

Anyway, I thought everyone would be excited to hear about his new tooth. I'll definitely get a picture as soon as it's big enough to show when he smiles. Right now you have to actually hold his mouth open to see it. So no pictures yet! But just keep checking back. I'm sure I'll get some before too long!

Cameras, Hiking, Crawling, and Sitting

I bought Joshua, Ruth, and Hannah their first digital cameras. Of course it was the cheapy $12 camera from Wal-mart but I wasn't about to spend more than that until I see that they can take care of these ones. You can't view the picture from the back of the camera like most of the high dollar kind, so we got some crazy pictures at first. As you can see.

This is a picture of Ruth's nose! They hadn't quite figured out that they can't hold the camera too close to what they are taking a picture of.

This is a picture of Joshua's eye.

And Hannah's Mouth!

They were finally getting the hang of it after a while though and actually took some pretty neat pictures.

Ruth was pretty proud of this picture of the 3 of them, which she took with the 10 second timer. She actually did a good job with this one! Sadly it was on the lower resolution but it still is a nice picture!

Thankfully the newness is starting to wear off and they aren't bringing me their cameras every few minutes wanting me to put their pictures on the computer.

We walked 3.6 miles today. It took us about 2 hours to walk it but we had fun and stopped about 3 times for a break. Of course, we also paused a couple of times to look at two dead snakes along the way and a dead bird. We didn't look too close but the kids were fascinated.

Jonathan is starting to hold himself up on his hands and knees! He started that Sunday. We had him on the floor in the living room and he pushed up onto his hands and knees. He did this several times through out the day. At one point I tried to get him to come to me while he was in this position but he kind of look at the floor like he was trying to figure out how to coordinate all of these parts to move. He wound up tumbling forward, but it's a start. I need to get a picture of him. If I can get to a camera in time! I may have to put the kids up to the challenge of getting his picture.

Today, I was changing his diaper. He likes to try to flip over while I'm changing him. I no longer change him on a changing table. It has become easier to change his diaper on my bed. While I was changing his diaper he sat upright! I was trying to hold his diaper on him when all of a sudden he curled his head upward (like he was doing a crunch) then he rocked his shoulder to the side a bit and with a little bit of help from his right arm he sat up! Now how was I suppose to velcro his diaper like that? So I laid him back down and he was so impressed by this new game that he did it again. I don't know if I'll be able to get him to do that for a camera but we'll have to try. He is getting so big so fast. Sunday, we stopped by a store and I tried letting him sit in the front of the cart instead of in his carseat in the basket part of the cart. He sat there just fine! These kids grow up so fast!

I love my children! I'm so glad that God gave me each of them. They each add so much to our family.

Psalm 127:3 "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward."

Waiting

This is a picture of my husband and our son Jonathan waiting at my sister's wedding rehearsal. My husband is making use of his time by reading different mission reports on the bulletin board.

Today was filled with waiting as well. This morning I had to wait on the kids to get their shoes on and change their clothes for Jonathan's doctor's appointment. Then we got out to the van and drove to get the van inspected. So again, more waiting while the man drove the van in a circle. He told me I needed to get my right blinker fixed and needed to replace my windshield wipers before it would pass inspection.

I then drove to Wal-mart to buy wipers. You would think that would be simple and quick. Nope! The little computer thing that tells you what size wipers your vehicle needs was broken. So I had to wait while the lady behind the counter looked it up. She wasn't completely sure which one it was and had to go into another room to ask one of the other workers there. Finally she came back and told me the size I needed to get. I then grabbed the wipers with the lifetime warranty wondering how long the life of my vehicle will be. I decided the little extra cost to buy the wipers with the lifetime warranty was worth it.

Then we were getting close to the time I wanted to be at Jonathan's appointment so we left Wal-mart and went to the Doctor's office. We were there a half hour early, so there was a little wait but it wasn't too bad. Of course the appointment itself seems to take a while. We were called back to the room and waited for the nurse. Then we waited for the other nurse. Then we waited for the Doctor. Then we waited for the first nurse to come back and give Jonathan his shots.

Now all that waiting at the Doctor's office I thought the kids, especially Hannah would drive me crazy. But the nurse came into the room and told me she wanted to compliment me on how nice my children are. She said she was amazed at how well behaved they are. It's nice when someone tells me that because to me they seemed fidgity, but compared to most children that come there they are extremely well behaved. So I thanked her, and she asked me if we homeschool and I told her we did. She was impressed. I'm proud of my kids.

Then after the Doctor's appointment I tried to get the car inspected at another place. More waiting... They gave it an inspection so that they could tell me exactly what it needs and give an estimate on how much it will cost to fix the part that we needed fixed. $320! So I told them I would check around and get back with them if we decided on that. So I then went to our normal Auto repair place. They have gotten used to seeing us there. They are very sweet and feel bad for all of our car troubles. We just drive worn out vehicles. They have always been good to us and tried to give us better prices than we are usually able to find anywhere else. Which is what they did this time. They were able to fix it for $180. Much better! Except they won't be able to get to it until Monday. But that is o.k. We might try one more place that might inspect it with that minor problem, with the understanding of course that we are getting that part fixed.

Anyway, during these visits my son gets a call on my phone from his Grandfather, "Papa". Of course the antenna would disappear in the middle of the conversation. "Mom! It hung up on us!" So my poor son had to learn a lesson in waiting. Later I was able to get him back on the phone with Papa. Then while I was driving we went into another area where the antenna doesn't work. So another lesson in waiting for my son. Sometimes I think a lot of life is about waiting patiently. Now he is looking forward to his hike with Papa. Of course, I'm going to be hearing about it every day. "Is it time yet?" "How many more days?" He will definitely have the calendar down by the time the hike gets here.

There is definitely a lot of waiting in life. My son is young and will have a lot of waiting ahead of him. It is good for him to learn how to wait patiently at his young age. What better way to teach him how to wait patiently than showing him by example. So everytime I wait for something I need to remember my children are watching and make sure that I'm waiting patiently.

Romans 5:3-5 "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

James 1:2-5 "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

And now for everyone to wait patiently until I get another blog written. :)

Jonathan Video

Alright, as previously foretold, I am now uploading the video of Jonathan. I will try to get even more pictures and videos at a later date.

4 Months Old

Jonathan turned 4 months old yesterday. I wanted to post a video I took of him but dial-up would not allow it. So I decided to just post some pictures today. The first one is the only baby picture we have of Scott. I'm not sure how old he is exactly but I'm guessing he is at least 3 months maybe 4 months. I am guessing that age because of how well he is holding his head up. If he were younger, his mom would have been holding him differently. So i think that is about his age. I am also putting on here a picture of Jonathan. I thought it was neat to see their resemblances. I need to get a good baby picture of me on our computer. Sometime I'll try to put pictures of all 6 of us at about the same age. So stay tuned for more pictures.

And as soon as I get batteries in my camera, I'll take a better recent picture of Jonathan. The top picture was taken yesterday and the bottom picture was taken in January. Sadly I didn't take any digital pictures in February. But I do have some film that needs to be developed. So I'll eventually scan those pictures of our Zoo field trip onto our computer. I know everyone will be waiting in anticipation now. So I will definitely blog again soon.