My Children and the Giant Popcorn!

I just had to share my kids lunch time conversation. I gave them popcorn to go along with their hot dogs today. Somehow they got into a discussion over "what if..." The question this time was "What if you had a giant popcorn the size of the whole house?" They discussed several possibilities as to whether or not they would share. Then they decided they could each have their own giant popcorn. So they commenced to discussing how they would eat it. First you would have to start from the bottom and let it fall as you eat it. Then they had a brilliant idea...A Popcorn House! So they were all satisfied discussing how they would eat rooms in their popcorn house. Aren't children fun! They come up with the most interesting ideas. It reminded me of a book I read before of Dave and the Giant Peach. It's a story of a boy that finds a giant peach and the adventures he and his friends go on.

We got our truck out of the shop yesterday. It seems to be running well. Scott is glad to have his work truck back. The man at the auto place told him of something to check on our van. We're getting to know the mechanic and secretary pretty well now. They have been good to us and trying to help us out the best they can. But I now know that there are 3 fuel pumps on our van, 2 inside the tank and 1 outside. If the problem is the outside one it won't be as hard to replace. We'll have to check that out. Still thinking a bicycle built for 6 is a good option. Scott is starting to talk about getting us a car dolly eventually.

On the ministrial side Scott has 3 possible preaching appointments lined up for February. He tries to be fair to all the churches involved. He schedules them in the order they call and then considers them individually. Pretty much the first church that calls him, if he feels it is the Lord's will he will accept their call and call the other churches lined up after that to let them know. He in turn offers to fill in for the already scheduled Sundays if those churches want him too. So far though we hadn't had to go through all that yet. A lot of churches seem to prefer to hear several preachers in view of call before selecting one. So we just keep setting appointments and figure the right church will give Scott a call when the time is right.

We have our Midweek Bible studies tonight. So better go for now and get the children all ready for church. I'll try to write more later. :)

A Windy Day

The wind has sure been blowing hard today. It's amazing to see such large trees swaying in the invisible wind. It almost looks as if the trees are dancing.

I think we should be getting our truck out of the shop today if they got the problem fixed, that is. And if they don't find anything else wrong with it. As soon as we get it back, I'll be able to use my parents truck, and Scott will have his work truck. Then it will be a matter of finding out what is wrong with the van.

We have a preaching appointment this Sunday. Scott will be preaching in view of a call. He is still thinking on the new job possibilities but also doesn't want to start a new job just to say, "Oh, Sorry I just got called to a church." So he has talked to his present employer about training in order to get a raise. His boss sounds favorable toward that end and Scott plans to work hard and see if he can earn a raise. With his present job he knows he can have weekends off for preaching, other jobs may not be so flexible. So we'll see. Since churches have been contacting us again, we may just hold tight and see what God might have in store for us.

It's easy to get discouraged and near sighted but I know God has something that He wants us to do. We just have to hold tight and wait for his timing.


Psa 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Car Troubles Again!

It seems to be an ongoing thing with our vehicles. Every month seems like at least of our two vehicles wind up in the shop. If not both at some point. Scott and are also joking whenever something goes wrong with one of our vehicles that it's going to cost at least $200. So here we are with our truck in the shop and our van needing to go as soon as we get our truck out. Hopefully our van will be an easy fix. Eventually with all these repairs we'll have new vehicles.
At least all of the parts will be new. The '80s weren't that long ago our vehicles should be in their prime.

Last night we were heading to our church from the Spanish Bible Study. We were maybe half way when our van just stalled out. Thankfully we were able to coast to the side of the road where Scott tried to crank our van up again. It sounded like something was blocking the fuel somewhere. The sun was about to set, so we decided to get out and just walk the few miles to our church and then maybe someone would be able to give us a ride from church. Thankfully we had a stroller in our 15 passenger van and some warm clothes to put on everyone. The main unspoken concern on both Scott's and my mind in walking was getting all 4 of our children through any dogs that might come out barking. We had only started walking a few feet when a young man stopped and offered to help us out. He had to get his mother's Quad Cab pickup and me and the kids had to share seat belts but we made it home and my husband was able to have a wonderful talk with him. He was a youth minister of a nearby church of another denomination. He just happened to be passing us when he stopped to help us.

Right after he dropped us off at our house, we had restroom breaks for the kids and then we all got into my parents pickup truck which we have been borrowing until we get our other truck back. After loading everyone into the truck (yes, two of our children had to share a seat belt again) we went back to the van with a fairly decent but not perfect tow strap.

I was sort of dreading the long drive down oil roads hauling the van behind the truck but I knew it had to be done. Scott and I have pulled so many vehicles that broke down on us that it no longer phases me as much to hear that it is time to pull another one. Thankfully we were able to pull our 1 ton, 15 passenger van and didn't even break the strap once. I breathed a prayer of thanks to God for helping us again with another towing.

When we finally made it home, Scott came to my driver side window and told me, "Wow, Stacie you're getting good at this!" I responded with a smile, "I guess practice makes perfect." I just wouldn't mind not having to practice as much. I now know when to go slower and when to speed up and how to keep the rope between the vehicles tight or it will snap. That snap is not a pleasant experience. Especially when the strap keeps getting shorter and shorter every time it breaks and we have to tie a new knot in it.

Well, we made it home with out a hitch! :) And now we will just wait patiently for our next step.

Scott is already starting to look for another job with better pay. We have been using up too many of his hard earned pay checks on vehicles. But I told him that I know that God has something in store for us and when we look back on this day it will seem like such a small thing that happened a long time ago. He still is looking for a church to pastor but so far God hasn't brought us to the right one. So until he finds the right church he is planning to also seek another secular job.

I just know God has a plan for us. All these problems are just building us up for something to come. One thing I do know is that when things get better, we'll really enjoy them even more because of the trials we go through today. So we just have to keep hanging onto God's promise to provide for our needs and keep praying for his help.

I like to end my blogs with a related Bible verse when I have time so here is the Bible verse for today.


Psa 34:6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

Psa 34:17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

We had a pretty good day so far today. Yesterday after I had written we went to a Spanish ministry. I really need to improve my Spanish by quite a bit. The missionary needed Scott to read a letter he had written in English to see if it sounds right, so we will be going over to another location that this minister has a ministry to help him with his letter and see how there services are on Sunday afternoons. I'm not sure if we will stay at that church for the English services tonight or go to our services tonight. I guess we'll see. It's easy to get too many irons in the fire. There is so many directions that we can feel pulled toward.

Yesterday I had my sights a little too high as far as what we are able physically and financially able to accomplish in a short time. I try to rush things and then it is no longer done well. It's just done fast.

Scott and I have talked about what we would like to accomplish in the future. We want to teach the children skills that they can use when they are grown whether or not they choose to go to college. We want them to have a broad range of possibilities as far as carreers are concerned.

Scott would love to build and sell musical instruments. That has been a dream of his for a long time. I would love to see him pastoring and building instruments in his freetime. I told him that his building instruments will dedfinitely save us money.

I want to complete my education in Institute for Children's Literature and start publishing things for magazines. It won't be long and we'll see these goals accomplished especially if we slow down and watch what God wants for us.

Well, time to go to the Spanish Ministry. I'll have more to write later. Keep smiling!

No New Pictures

Ok, I know that in my last post earlier today, I said I would put up pictures of the days accomplishments. I was kind of hoping for more to be accomplished. The wood was too wet. So Scott and the kids just cleared some of the trees and came back to the house around lunch time. Scott was good and wore out. I wish I could have helped more but he said there wasn't much to do until the boards dry to build the floor joices. So we wait. I'm hoping that maybe more will be done next week. But there is more rain in the forecast for our area. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. In the mean time I'll try to wait patiently.

I'm sure looking forward to having a home of our own. I don't know what God has in store for our future, but I kind of hope it includes a home soon. Ok, I guess I have a lot of work to go on being patient and waiting. Which maybe why God has us here for now. I do know that once we finally have our own home, I'll be so happy and will appreciate it even more. So I don't know why the wood has to be so wet today, but I'm sure there is a reason.

We are also still waiting to hear from churches that want my husband to come in view of a call. We have one appointment in February. So I don't know if the Lord has a church for my husband or if we will build this house first. It's times like this that I would like to see into the future at what it is to plan for.

In the mean time I suppose I'll just wait and try to keep working on our present living quarters until the Lord provides us a more comfortable arrangement. Hopefully I'll post a little more encouraging news next time. Please keep praying for us and that God will provide us a home that we can really call our own. I'll just keep on smiling knowing that eventually God will answer our prayers.

Php 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Building a House

Today, Scott and our older children are at the house site working on our new home. This picture was just taken this morning. I'll be going down there shortly as well. We plan to set up our tent for the kids to play in while we are working. Hopefully the weather will stay nice. Here is the picture. That's our 3 oldest children standing by a pile of bricks. I'll try to write more later and add another picture of what we accomplished today.

Psa 127:1 Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Homeschool

Today has been a good day, as most days are. Today, I got up and got the kids their breakfast. I am amazed at how big Jonathan is getting. He is one big baby! I may have to give him rice cereal earlier than I did my other 3. He just seems to need to eat more often. The pediatrician had told me at Jonathan's 2 month visit that he would be ready for some rice cereal at 4 months of age. I waited until 6 months on the other children. I'll probably wait and ask the Doctor again at Jonathan's 4 month visit. Right now he nurses every two hours during the day time. At least he does sleep through the night. However I feel like I'm always feeding him in the day time.

The kids have been working hard on their homeschool lessons. I started them on knew readers yesterday. I found some wonderful readers at a Bible Book Store. They are really good readers for a good price. The workbooks were a good price as well and will be easy for me to upgrade each child to the next level when they finish. All I will have to buy is the workbooks for each of them but those are only $2.25. So that is not a bad price. I started Joshua on the 2nd grade reader and Ruth on the 1st grade reader. Technically they should probably further along than that but I wanted to start them off simply. This way we get through all the workbooks in that grade level and then by the next grade level they will be familiar with the format of this set of lessons. So when Joshua completes Grade 2, he will go into grade 3 and Ruth will go into Grade 2 and use his hard cover books and I will only have to buy the workbooks for her.

For math I found some reproducible workbooks. I like those for I will be able to reuse the lessons for each of the kids. When Hannah and Jonathan get bigger they will be able to use all these lessons as well. Right now Hannah has an Alphabet workbook that we found at the same bookstore. So far she has learned the letters "Aa" and "Bb". I'm trying to teach her the letter names and the sounds they make. The hard part is keeping her serious and keeping her brother and sister from laughing at her when she makes a mistake. She likes them laughing at her and so she will make mistakes on purpose just to make them laugh.

Jonathan has gotten to where he can chew on some of his toys. Here is a picture of him chewing on his Butterfly toy that he got for Christmas. He was so cute I had to take pictures of him. So I will include them on this post. Even Jonathan is learning. I guess we are all learning something new all the time.

I'm sorry this post isn't very neatly and probably has a lot of typos. Joshua and Ruth are finishing up there lessons for the day and Jonathan and Hannah are napping. I want to take advantage of this quiet time while I have it. I'll write more later.

Team Work

I am finally able to stop and blog a little bit. I have a hard time finding a "good" time to blog. So I'll just try to pop in and blog as best I can when I am able and the computer isn't tied up.

Yesterday, the kids and I worked a bit on our living quarters. I swept all the toys, clothes, trash, papers, etc. into a pile in their room and had them picking it up. I would love to be organized like a family I saw a website for that has 11 children. I like to glean tidbits of information from those families so that I might can incorporate a little bit of organization into our daily routines. I have quite a ways to go before I'm that organized, but maybe before I have 11 children I'll have it figured out. Until then we just have a massive clean up the bedroom of too many toys. It gets better though because they wind up breaking their toys and those get thrown away, so that makes less to pick up for next time.

While they were working on their room, I had my own challenge of clothing. There is 6 of us and a lot of clothes. So I spent the time they were working on their floor to work on sorting clothes. Winter clothes, summer clothes, church clothes, play clothes, outgrown clothes, torn clothes, for 6 people can be a bit daunting sometimes. Then on top of it being daunting I put the job off and it really becomes a disorganized mess. So that was the task I worked on yesterday and still have more to go on it. I have found though that when the children and I work together on tasks they get done pretty well. There are a few jobs that the kids wind up being "too much" help and slow me down, but if I get them on the right task then the job gets done easily and quickly.

A good example of team work was our moving a t.v. yesterday. We have a big t.v. that my brother had given us before he had moved to France. The t.v. was on our floor because we didn't have anywhere else to put it. We had been given a rolling t.v. stand and it was in the children's room. Hannah helped me roll it into our dining/ family/ bed room. Ruth helped hold the cart from rolling so that Joshua and I could lift this incredibly heavy t.v. Joshua held the back of the t.v. while I lifted the front. We had to lift it about two or three feet in order to get it on the cart. It didn't take long and we were real happy to be able to surprise Scott when he got home, instead of having to wait until he got home from work to pick it up for us. I was real proud of our team work. I couldn't lift it by myself so with the little bit of extra help, we were able to get it done.


Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
(Ecc 4:9-12)

It's amazing what we can accomplish when we all work together. Time to get back to work. Just wanted to share my thought for today. :)

District Ladies Auxiliary

Today, I woke up after hitting the snooze a couple of times and had to hit the ground running pretty much. After giving the kids their breakfast I had to get them and myself ready for the Ladies Auxiliary meeting that was going on at a church near us. It was pretty neat going back to the church I grew up in. A lot has changed and yet quite a few things remain the same. It was a good meeting and I enjoyed hearing my Aunt play a special on her harpsichord. I didn't even know she could play anything besides the piano. She is a wonderful piano player and played for the song service today. Next quarter our church will be hosting the meeting. There was only two of us ladies there from our church and so it felt a little awkward offering to host without knowing if everyone else would mind or not. So I went ahead and said we would go ahead and host it. I'll let the rest of the ladies know tomorrow at church. I wanted to sing a special but got there a little late to tell anyone. I was going to play my Ukulele and sing "Amazing Grace" and "He Looked Beyond my Fault" as a medley. It is really pretty together. I wish I had gotten there early enough to sing it. But there is always next time.

At the meeting we got to see a presentation by a man that had spent 3 months in Australia with his family helping a church over there. I think they are planning to go back there. It was a really good presentation.

Well, I guess that is all that has happened so far today. As soon as I get off the computer I plan to mail my next assignment to The Institute of Children's Literature. I have finally completed Assignment 3 and will be mailing it in to my instructor. I am glad that I am taking this writing course. I love to write and hope to see my work in magazines and maybe even a book written by the time I'm done with this course.

We had lunch at the Auxiliary meeting so I do not have to get the kids lunch fixed. However I do need to get them to work on their lessons. I also need to buy stamps sometime and I would like to get some laundry done before Scott gets home. I'll try to keep up my posts as often as I can. I may miss some days but seeing my dad writing a twice a day post has me wanting to try to keep mine going more regularly. It's good practice for my writing as well.

Must go for now. I'll try to write again tomorrow or later on this week.

Much needed Update

It's been a few months since I've written. Jonathan has now entered our lives and Scott and I have agreed we can't imagine life without him. He is only two months old but he adds so much to our family life. I mean homeschool lessons wouldn't be the same without the occasional "Isn't that right Jonathan?" He just loves it when any of us talk to him. He usually returns a big smile in response.
He also loves the attention of his doting brother and sisters at least until he gets a little overwhelmed by them. Then they all say, "Oh, Oh! We're making him mad!" then they run away from him. He usually calms down again when I pick him up.
I'm getting fairly proficient at typing one handed as well, being as the only time I really get to get on the computer is while I'm holding him.
Scott and I are very proud of our children. Every time I bring all four of them to Jonathan's doctor's appointment I receive compliments on how well behaved they are. The doctor told me that it is very unusual to have a room with that many children that quiet.

We are still waiting for a church to call Scott as pastor. We have been to several churches in view of a call but none have called as of yet. He is not the only preacher waiting for churches to call. We have friends who we go to church with on Wedneday's and we ask them, "Have y'all heard from ___ church yet?"
And they say "No. How about y'all? Have y'all heard from the church y'all went to?"
"Not yet."
So many churches say that they are praying for God to call more men to preach and yet there are men called by God waiting for churches to accept them. I don't know what these churches are looking for. My husband has preached some really good sermons and has the salvation message in each one. He answers all their questions honestly and makes sure everyone understands the answers. He has even stated he is willing to take a part time while pastoring if needed. But he still has yet to hear from anyone. I think these churches should hear a man at least twice before assuming he's not the one for their church. I don't know though. Someone suggested that it could be Scott's beard causing churches not to call him. That seems rather petty to me though. I personally like his beard and I don't think it should matter as long as he keeps it neatly trimmed.
Scott said that a lot of churches are looking for Saul when they should be looking for a shepherd. The other preachers in our church seem to agree. I'm tired of church politics. It's almost like preachers have to run for office in order to preach.
Anyway until God sends us to the church he wants us to be at we will continue to do our best where we're at. I'll continue to fulfill my purpose taking care and teaching our children and Scott will continue to work hard at his construction job and continue to organize materials for the house he intends to build for us. We will also do our best to help with any local ministries we are able to help.

Well, I must go for now I need to buy some more homeschool supplies. It's amazing how fast pencils disappear when it's time for writing lessons. Until next time!