Elijah's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Elijah's Birthday on Monday. We had a busy day filled with fun and excitement for our little man.

Our day began with going to our homeschool co-op. For those that are not familiar with homeschooling, a co-op is usually made up of homeschool families in an area that meet together and have classes taught by the parents. For instance in our co-op, I volunteered to teach a recorder music class. I teach the beginner level during the first hour class and intermediate during the 3rd hour. The second hour is a p.e. class where the kids have group games for about 45 minutes followed by a 15 minute break and snack time.

Elijah is in the 0-3 year old class. Jonathan is in the 4-6 year old class. Hannah is taking beginner recorder and embroidery. Ruth is taking science and sewing. And Joshua is taking Science and Legos.

This was our first week of co-op and I felt it went well. We meet once a week for 6 weeks.

After co-op ended we went to the store and picked Elijah out some birthday presents. I got him a stick horse from the dollar store and I let him choose the color hat he wanted. I also picked him out a toy gun, since he had been running around the house pretending to ride my broom and pretending to shoot with toy guns he took from his siblings. Now he has the full outfit.


After the store, we stopped by our friends' farm. They live real close to us and we let them know we were coming. The older kids got to bottle feed some of the baby goats. Elijah was still a bit nervous at that point. I had to take this picture of them in the goat pin. I joked that only half the kids in that pin were mine. :-)


We got to see a border collie herd goats. It was really neat to watch him from a distance obey the commands of his trainer, with just the sound of a whistle and the sight of a shephrd's rod. The kids asked lots of questions and learned a lot.

The dog won't mess with any sheep or goat that has a baby. We saw one he had left way out in the field and they took us in their gator to see whether the sheep had given birth recently. Sure enough she had a new baby lamb with her. Then we heard another lamb crying a little ways off and Joshua got to hold the lamb and reunite her with her mother.


Jonathan got to steer the Gator through the pasture. You know that was exciting for a 4 year old.


Then the kids each got to go for a ride on a horse. Hannah had been begging the whole time if they could ride.


Joshua went after Hannah. Then Jonathan rode with Joshua. Jonathan was a bit nervous as you can see by the picture.


After Ruth had a turn Elijah got to ride with her. I was amazed at how calm he was. Before this just the sight of a horse scared him. But after seeing the others ride he was saying, "My turn!" He looked so comfortable in the saddle he might would have fallen asleep if he had ridden much longer.


The kids got to sweep the horse area. They had so much fun that I told our neighbors that they should get themselves a couple of extra brooms and charge admission. :-)


Then came the tractor. Elijah climbed up there all by himself. He was so excited.


The others all got to go for a ride in the bucket. I think they couldn't have had more fun if it had been a Ferris wheel. I was afraid that Elijah would panic so I held him down below. Don't worry, they didn't go anywhere just up and back down. :-) In fact Hannah was in that bucket so good she almost didn't want to come out.


I had to take this picture because Jonathan is petting the dog that he had been terrified of when we first stepped out of the car. The kids also enjoyed playing fetch with her.


At the very end of our visit, I had the kids all get in the back of the gator for one last picture before we left. We had so much fun and learned so much.


Elijah fell asleep before we even left the driveway good. Jonathan was out as soon as he found the recliner. :-) Sure signs that they had a really good time on a farm.

Spring Break with Family

This week has been good. Monday was Scott's first day off for Spring Break. We enjoyed sleeping later than normal and just having an easy Monday. With our normal schedule, every morning has a reason for our alarms to be set. Even Saturdays even though it's not set as early, we still have to make sure we get up in time for karate class. So when Scott gets a day off, we enjoy leaving the alarms off. Which is especially nice when you have to get used to the time change.

Tuesday was park day for our homeschool group. I think this was the first time this school year that Scott was off. He and Joshua brought their Skateboards, Jonathan brought a little bicycle with training wheels, and Hannah had her "heelies". Technically they are not the name brand but they look like regular shoes with hidden wheels inside the soles.

Elijah didn't want to be left out, so he put Daddy's helmet on and commenced to doing tricks.

And he looks so little on that big skateboard. He didn't even fall off. Although it looks like he should while popping a wheelie. :-)

After our time at the park, we went to a mall where we met with another homeschool family that was interested in making new friends. We enjoyed visiting with them and the kids all had a good opportunity to try out their communication skills. :-) It can be hard to get conversations going with other kids without knowing anything about them. But I thought they did very well. The children were all in the same age group. I was especially pleased that our normally shy Ruth had actually started a conversation without any prompting with the other girl her age. I thought back to five years ago and how I worried about Ruth ever making friends. Now she is able to start her own conversations and make new friends.

We had about 45 minutes to wait before karate class began, so we walked around a sports store. There were some kayak's hanging from the wall, which Jonathan was positive were war boats, especially the camouflage one.

The store was close to where the karate class is located, so we arrived at the class early enough for Jonathan to attend the little kids class. Normally we only go to adult class and participate as a family.
.....................
Uh oh, I fell asleep blogging! I guess any "todays" I wrote you can realize was yesterday. I'm just going to publish this blog and write another one to tell about the rest of Spring Break later on.

Working on Organization

This week we have been working hard to get our house organized. We moved Elijah into the smaller bedroom with his brothers. We will be getting him a toddler bed soon and I wanted to get him used to the change of room before we change his bed.

In order to make it all work both the boys' and girls' rooms needed major work. There were clothes all over their floors. This hasn't been a new problem. In fact I've had to go through their clothes fairly often. I decided we needed to go through them again and see if we could get a handle on the problem.



Elijah loves it when I try to organize clothes. Piles of clothes are mountains of fun to him.

We started off with sheets and blankets. I even had them take the sheets off their beds. I put those in piles. Twin size sheets and pillow cases in one pile, baby bed sheets in another pile, towels that somehow got into the mix in another pile and crochet blankets and quilts in yet another pile. I then got a basket and had them put their favorite set of sheets in it. I started that load to wash.

Then I had them pick out their favorite blankets. Once we put the first load in the dryer, we started a load of blankets washing. I had them pick out a second set of sheets each and the rest will be either given away or stored in another location. (If anyone needs sheets let me know soon.) :-) We had sheets and blankets washing all day.

After getting that major work done, I had the kids take a break to work on their lessons.

The next day we started gathering the clothes off their floors. I'm still working on getting that organized. I have to figure out what fits them and what doesn't. I'm automatically throwing away clothes that have holes. I hope to get done with this task before Spring Break next week.



I want to share a couple of cute pictures from the past week or two. In the one above, Elijah had fallen asleep while playing in a small box. I took a quick picture before rescuing him from his cozy quarters and laying him in his bed.



And this next picture, I took after karate class last week. Hannah is wearing her new green belt and Elijah is trying out a black belt that belongs to one of the students in our adult class. Elijah liked the belt so much that he almost wouldn't part with it. :-) Maybe one day, he'll earn one of his own that will fit him a little better.

Now to get back to work organizing. Maybe next week, I'll be able to post pictures of nice, neat rooms.

"One day when you get little..."

This afternoon as we were eating lunch we had a family discussion around the table about fixing cars and how Daddy was teaching Joshua to fix brakes.

Hannah asked, "Daddy, will you teach me to fix cars?"

Scott assured her that when she gets a little bigger he'll teach her. Then Jonathan had the same question. And Scott told him that he'll teach him too.

Then we got to discussing how that when Jonathan is 13, Joshua will be 23.

We started imagining Jonathan calling Joshua up one day,"Hey, Joshua! Can you help me figure out this transmission?"

Joshua might reply,"Sure! I'll stop by right after work."

Then Scott turned it around and said, "I can even see Joshua calling Jonathan one day, and asking him for advice on building a tractor."

The kids found that was a bit of a jump for their imaginations. They were trying to imagine 4 year old Jonathan growing up and giving Joshua advice.

Joshua looked at Jonathan across the table and asked him,"So Jonathan, how would you fix a tractor?"

Jonathan just looked very seriously up at Joshua and with the most grown up air replied, "One day, when you get little, I'll show you how to fix tractors."

We all had a good laugh, even though Jonathan was quite serious.
I explained to the children that they all had their strengths and weaknesses, and that one day when they are older, that even the younger may have things they can teach their older siblings.

There is an interesting lesson that we can learn from Jonathan. Maybe Joshua would need to become figuratively little in order to learn from a brother that is 10 years his junior. It would require him to be humble enough to admit that he doesn't know something that his little brother knows.

Maybe that is part of what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 18:4. "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

We need to be willing to admit that we don't know it all and turn to God for help.

Heavenly Father, help us all be little again.

Two Missing Teeth

Hannah lost her second tooth yesterday. Scott had bought each of the kids candy after karate class on Tuesday. Hannah bit into her candy necklace and her second tooth started to bleed. It was very loose. She was afraid to pull it that night, and I told her that it would be okay to wait until morning.

I had to leave early the next morning for a 3 hour glucose test. I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight. I left before the kids were out of bed and Scott came home after his bus run to take care of them while I was gone.

I made it to my appointment on time. They took my blood and then gave me a red glucose drink. For those who have never had the glucose concoction imagine if you were to make kool-aide but added 3 to 5 times the amount of sugar than is called for on the package.

They tell you that you have 3 to 5 minutes to drink it. Now the trick is you can't throw it up or you have to reschedule. I used to have a harder time with it but now, I find I do best to just chug it down in about 1 minute. It helped that I was extremely thirsty and getting to drink anything was a relief.

Then I was sent to the waiting room to wait an hour. I tried to read a book during that hour but was so tired that I kept falling asleep. They called me back again and took my blood and sent me back in there to wait another hour.

The second hour, I gave up reading all together and used a stool that was in there to prop my feet on and just let myself doze. I didn't care what all the other women might think that came in. The nurse called me in and took the third blood sample.

I decided that I didn't want to sleep during the third hour so I played some solitaire on my tablet. I knew my time was coming when I heard the secretary ordering food for lunch. Finally they called me back for my last sample. Then they let me go.

First thing I wanted to do was eat. I went to a McDonald's and ordered a double quarter pounder value meal. It was good, but as I was eating it I felt extremely shaky. I finished eating and headed home, but I decided to stop at the next McDonald's for 2 apple pies.
One of those was supposed to have been for my sweet husband but something happened and it disappeared. I did make up for it by fixing dessert for supper.

When I got home, Hannah showed me how her tooth was missing. She told me that Daddy pulled it out with pliers. This is the first time that a tooth has been pulled by pliers in our house. I found it extremely funny and had to ask my husband about it. He said that the tooth was just dangling there and she assured him that she wanted him to pull it with the needle nose pliers so he rinsed them off and pulled the tooth right out.

I took the above picture of her with her 2 missing teeth tonight before she got ready for bed. Tonight, I got to join some other mothers for a Mom's Night Out. I enjoyed getting to visit with a few of the other Moms in our homeschool group.

It's getting late now and I should get some sleep. Scott and Hannah will be getting their new belts on Saturday. I'll be posting pictures of that in my next blog. Until next time have a good night's sleep. :-)

Count Your Blessings...

I kept planning to post about the karate belt testing this week, but am only getting that out today. Today after our normal Saturday karate class, we went home, ate lunch and then drove about an hour away to pick up the used van that we paid cash for.


I had to take this picture of what we do to stay debt free. Yes, we bought this used van with our eyes wide open. We knew it had problems and was being sold "as is". But my husband has researched this particular make and model and it shouldn't be too hard to maintain. However we need to at least get it home or to a brake shop. Whichever we can get the brakes to last long enough to get it to. We spent quite a few hours today working on this van in a parking lot less than a mile from where we bought it.

I see potential in this van and see it as a blessing that we were able to pay cash for it, plus have enough money to go to an auto parts store twice and go practically next door from the auto place and buy everyone $1 double cheeseburgers. :-) See I found 3 blessings right there.

Another blessing is that it wasn't raining while my husband was working on it, and we made it to a nice big parking lot that was pretty much empty. Two more blessings right there. That makes 5.

Anyway, you get the idea. :-) It can be hard to find blessings in certain circumstances but God's grace is sufficient. Scott mentioned to me once we were home, how that as he was showering to wash away the grease and dirt, he thought about how blessed we are and how that if we didn't have any problems then we wouldn't appreciate the good times as much.

We finally gave up for the night and left the van behind hoping it will be okay until Tomorrow afternoon. Then we're going to attempt bleeding the brakes again. If nothing else we'll try to find a good brake mechanic to fix it.

I better tell about belt testing now.

Saturday morning, a week ago, my husband, Scott, our daughter, Hannah, and our son Jonathan tested for their next level of belts in karate.

Jonathan is on the little kids' belt system and tested for an orange stripe that was added to his belt. He is really proud of that stripe.


Hannah tested for a green belt and did an excellent job.
She is happy because she will soon be matching me, Joshua, and Ruth.


Scott tested for a brown belt. He also did an excellent job. I didn't get as many pictures of him since I was mostly videoing his part.


Scott's reaching brown belt level is an amazing accomplishment. It not only shows how much hard work and dedication he put forth to achieve that level, but it also shows how long we've been living in this area. Scott has been pastoring the church we're at now for about 4 almost 5 years now. Time sure goes by fast.

We moved into the parsonage when Jonathan was a baby. And while here God has gave us Elijah our 5th blessing and we will soon be welcoming our 6th blessing. And I'm sure God will help us get the van in tip-top shape by that time.

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

Vacation, Potty Training, Lost Tooth... What should I title this blog?

This has actually been a relaxing week despite the busy title. Scott went to a tech conference that lasted the whole week. I decided that taking a break from our normal schedule and visiting my parents would be a great way to help the week go by quickly. I called it an early Spring Break.

I mentioned that I would get a picture of the kids with their build-a-bears. I took this one before getting the kids to bed at my parents' cottage.

I got this picture of Joshua on his new skateboard at my Mema's house. He hadn't been able to ride it until Tuesday. So he was extremely happy to have the free time to ride on the good old oil roads of East Texas.

The kids also enjoyed playing with my cousin's children. It's nice being a close knit family. I had the opportunity to explain first cousins, second cousins, and third cousins to my kids. Hannah still thought it was confusing. :-)

Elijah started going "poo poo" in the potty this week. He has surprised us with his understanding of what he is supposed to be doing on the potty. We haven't gotten super serious with his training yet. We are just letting him try going when he wants to. Serious training will commence when we start using real underwear instead of disposable training pants.

Okay, only 6 minutes left to publish this blog this week. :-) Yes, I'm blogging late again. But let me share this picture of Hannah with a missing tooth.


She has been really proud of that tooth this week. I was impressed that she pulled it herself without a lot of squealing. She's growing up so fast.

A Short Summary of this Week

This week has gone by so fast! I only have one hour to write this blog before I miss posting this week. I only said that my goal this year was to post one blog a week. I didn't say which day. :-)



Monday, I decided to stay home and not go to a homeschool meeting that I could have gone to.

Tuesday, I got up early and took Scott to work so that the kids and I could go to my doctor's appointment that morning. Elisabeth's heart rate was good and the doctor told me that everything looked great on the ultrasound. I was glad to hear everything was fine.

After my doctor's appointment I took the kids to Walmart and bought a few groceries and other items we were needing for the week. Then we had karate class that evening.

Wednesday and Thursday were normal days. Scott, Hannah, and Jonathan will be testing for their next belt level a week from now. Hannah is pretty excited that she will be testing for a green belt which will be matching me, Ruth, and Joshua.

Friday, I took Scott to work again and then came home and after my mornings Bible reading I fell back asleep. It's time for my Glucose screening and I originally planned to get that done on Friday. It doesn't require an appointment since I am only taking the one hour screening. I decided to skip that appointment and after lunch the kids and I went to their Keepers of the Faith meeting. Then we got a tire replaced on the van.

Today, we had a large group of visitors in our karate class. We had a lot of fun. After we left class we went out to eat at our favorite restaurant. The picture above is Elijah enjoying his meal.

Once we finished eating we went to the mall. Scott told the kids that he would let them each buy something for their allowance this month. Ruth got a Build-a-Bear with clothes. Hannah and Jonathangot clothes for their build-a-bears that she had gotten in the mail this week. And Elijah got a build-a-bear puppy. Joshua got a new skateboard. I'll take pictures of them with their new toys tomorrow.

I could write a lot more but I only have about 15 minutes to make my deadline on this post. So I'll try to have a better post tomorrow. :-)

A Surprise Shower!!!

Today was a normal day. We have a regular routine we go through on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The kids and I try to make sure that we get everything done and get all dressed for karate class.

Then Scott gets home, we share some highlights of our day. Then we all get in the car and head to karate class.

We got there in time for the kids to get most of kids class. I helped Elijah put a floor puzzle together and then our Sense I announced that kids' class was going to end a little early today. I didn't think much about it. But after they did their regular closing ceremony, suddenly cake and punch was brought into the room. I wondered whose birthday it was and then found out it was a baby shower for our baby. :-) I was so surprised.



I took a few pictures and had Scott take a couple of pictures of me holding the little outfits for the baby. 



Our Karate Family gave us this cute Pink Gi for Elisabeth.

We didn't get a picture of the cake before it got passed around but I did get pictures of everyone enjoying it. :-)




Hannah was my partner during adult class and I informed her that she had a green mustache from the icing. Oddly enough she didn't seem to mind. :-)





And the other amazing thing was that Scott knew about it for a week or so and didn't even let out a hint about it. That really surprised me! :-)



There was only one sad part, we also found out that a really nice young man was moving. But the reason, I mention this is that our Sensei led our class in prayer for that young man and his family.

I love how family oriented our dojo is and how we all feel like one big family. I also like how our instructor is very open about her faith in Christ and isn't afraid to show it. She even appointed Scott as our dojo chaplain. :-) You don't see that very often in a traditional dojo!

I just want to share one more picture from tonight of Hannah demonstrating a partner stretch that our class did. The partner was to push their backs until they said to stop.



Hannah is pretty proud of how flexible she is. :-) She can do the splits and then lay flat on the floor without any effort.

This was a later blog post this week. I had been trying to decide what subject I wanted to talk about before the week was over. I didn't realize that a subject would spring up on me like this.

Next week there is a lot going on. I won't have to have a surprise to give me something to post about.

(1 Corinthians 10:31) "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

Our Three Day Weekend

After such a busy week, it was nice to enjoy a fun filled weekend.

Saturday, we started the morning with a really good workout during karate class. Then that evening the girls and I enjoyed going out to a Mother/Daughter tea party with friends in our homeschool group.



The girls enjoyed wearing pretty dresses. We were able to bring our own tea cups and enjoyed having fancy tea.
There was a nice area set up where we could have our pictures taken. One of the mothers brought her camera and took our pictures. Afterward I took a picture of Ruth and Hannah all dressed up in the pretty accessories that were there for the girls to wear.




They were so sweet wanting to take a picture together. One of the older girls present mentioned that during next years tea party they will have a little sister to add to their picture.

After the tea party, I took them to Walmart and bought them some hairbands.

While we girls were gone Scott and our sons made home made pizzas and watched a movie. Scott told me that my brother would be proud that after the movie, Scott showed the boys some YouTube footage of Michael Jordan.

Sunday, we had a good time at church and enjoyed visiting with our members after services.

Today, Scott was off for Martin Luther King Jr. day. We took the kids to a skate park where they could enjoy trying out their new skooters and skateboards. Elijah and I took pictures and videos of Scott and the kids trying out all sorts of half pipes and ramps.



We had a really good day. This week should be a little less busy than last week. Tomorrow, we will be back to the normal routine. It's good to take a break every once in a while and enjoy some time together as a family.

It's ....the moment you've all been waiting for!

Mommy's Chubby Cheeks

 It's been a good day! We went to my ultrasound appointment.  I had warned Hannah, last night, that the baby might not be what she wanted.  She told me that she was going to pray real hard that God make the baby a girl.  I told her that God can't change the gender of the baby over night.  She said, "God can!" She was positive.  So I had to change my way of explaining it because she is right, God can do whatever he wants.  So I tried again.

"God knew when this baby was first conceived in my tummy what he wanted this baby to be. So whether this baby is a boy or a girl, God has already decided and we'll be happy with whatever God wants. 

Profile (Daddy's nose?)

Hannah told me, "Well, I'm still going to pray that it's a baby sister." 

She said that she likes having Ruth as a big sister but that she wants a little sister too.  Ruth isn't any fun to dress up and she's tired of dressing up her brothers who are now too old to dress in girly stuff, at least while their big brother is on guard.

I told her that the best thing to pray for now is that the baby will cooperate for us and let us see whether it is a boy or a girl.

Arms Crossed (I think some kind of karate move.)

We arrived at the doctor's office and checked in.  They called me back promptly and the ultrasound was underway.  The ultrasound tech said that everything was measuring well. However you see how the arms are crossed in this picture? Well, the legs were equally crossed.  After she got all the baby's other measurements, we tried to see if we could get the baby to uncross it's legs.

Well, the baby was very modest and it took me turning over from one side to another about 3 or 4 times to finally get the baby to show the label.  

Little Feet

I told Hannah that this baby knew that she wanted to know so badly that it was teasing her. 

One thing that I was amazed at is how much jiggling my belly can take.  Now here I've been worrying about bumpy roads and not jarring too much when exercising.  The ultrasound tech kept jiggling my side and I'm like so that's okay? :-) I guess the baby is pretty well padded.

Anyway, I know that's not what y'all are all waiting to hear. "So get on with it already, Stacie! Was Hannah disappointed? Is she in her room crying right now?"

Hmmm... Maybe I should save the rest of the story for the next blog. 

Okay, Okay! God knew that Hannah would be praying for a sister and decided that he would go ahead and give her what she wanted.  We are expecting a happy healthy baby girl. We are blessed with children that know to pray for the things that are heavy on their hearts.  He didn't have to give her a sister but he was gracious enough to grant her request.  In about 20 more weeks we will get to welcome Elisabeth Rose into our home.

On our way home, I passed the kids back some food and Hannah wanted to say the prayer. I told her to go ahead and she thanked God for letting us have a safe trip, for the food that we are going to eat today, and for letting her have her baby sister.

God is so good!

James 1:2-6 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; (3) Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (4) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (5) If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Busy, busy!

Last week was busy. Scott started back to work and the kids and I got back to our homeschool routine. Between Scott's car breaking down, us hitting a skunk on our way home from karate class, and then a long day on Friday between taking Scott to work, driving to my doctor's appointment, taking the kids to wal-mart and then standing for two hours at Keepers of the Faith, I was worn out by the time I got home.

Scott was such a dear to listen sympathetically to my day's frustrations. I know that all the work that I had on that one day is really nothing compared to the burden he bares daily to provide for me and our children. I am so blessed to have him!

Saturday, we had karate class that morning and afterwards we went to the grocery store and bought some groceries for this week.

Most of the groceries we bought were for the baby shower that I am giving for a church member that is also a friend in our homeschool group. I am hoping that I have a good attendance of the other mothers in our homeschool group as well. I have a tendency to go overboard on preparations and then I wind up very disappointed if no one comes.

This time I am trying to keep an open mind and have a backup plan if no one that was invited comes. I may do like the king in the Bible that calls people from the street to come to the banquet (check out Luke 14:16-24). Okay, maybe I won't go so far as to call strangers to eat with us. Maybe just call our children and husbands to join the party. I must say that is one advantage to having a large family, you always have party participants available.

Wednesday, I have an appointment for an ultrasound, where we hope to find out our baby's gender. The kids are hoping for a girl. Joshua and Ruth said that they wouldn't be disappointed if the baby did turn out to be a boy. Hannah however is determined that this baby has to be a girl. So for her sake, I'm glad that we are finding out early. That way she'll have time to adjust before the baby gets here.

Everyone seems to be curious about the names we've picked. If we have a boy, we plan to name him Joseph Harold. If the baby is a girl, we plan to name her Elisabeth Rose.

We have a pattern to naming our children. For their first names we choose a Bible name, and their middle names are all a family name or a slight variation thereof.

For instance Rose comes from one of Scott's grandmothers whose name was Rosa. The interesting part is that her full name was Rosa Elizabeth.

Even Joseph Harold has extra significance. Harold was not only my husband's grandfather's name, it is also the middle name of my childhood pastor that my father always called his father-in-the- ministry. His first name was Joseph, although he went by Harold.
We would call ours Joseph.

Well, I better quit blogging about my upcoming week and get busy living it. :-) I have a lot to do before I'm finished being ready for the shower. I better get busy.

The Beginning of 2012

Happy New Year! For my first post this year, I wanted to share some pictures of some of the things we did yesterday.



This first picture is Joshua and Ruth working on their computers. We found out about a really great website www.kahnacademy.org. It's a great resource for learning all sorts of subjects. It's free and the kids love learning with it because the lessons are interesting and they receive points and awards that we can keep track of.


Even though she doesn't look like it in this picture, Hannah really does like working in her workbook. The biggest realization she had with yesterday's lessons was that word-find puzzles really aren't as hard as she thought they were. She finished finding all the words today without any help.


And this is the best picture I could get of Jonathan. He loves to be goofy and make funny faces for the camera. I have a hard time getting a serious picture with him. I guess he makes up for Hannah always making serious faces. Now if I could get them to meet somewhere in the middle for pictures. :-)


And Elijah wouldn't stay still for a picture because of the flash, so I chose this picture of him from Christmas.
He spent most of our lesson time tackling Jonathan. Although Elijah did learn a major lesson yesterday.

I cooked pancakes for us to eat on our drive home from karate class. The kids were wanting to have some but I explained that they just had lunch and that I wanted to save the pancakes for later. Elijah kept asking and I told him a very infatic no. I was distracted for a few seconds typing something into my tablet when I looked up and saw that Elijah had stolen the big bowl of pancakes right from under my nose and was helping himself to them. I knew that I had to teach him real quick that what he did was wrong.

It's hard sometimes as a mother to be firm with your children, when they are young and cute. I don't like seeing my children cry, but I learned quite early on that if you allow wrong behavior when they are little, it only gets harder to teach them what is right when they are older. So to help myself teach my child, I imagine him doing the same crime as a teenager and I nip it in the bud while it is fresh on his mind and while he is still young enough to take me seriously.

He did pucker up and cry real tears of repentance because with his punishment, I explained in simple terms exactly what he did wrong. Then I removed the pancakes from his reach. I held him as he thought, in his young mind, about it. A little later he was showing me something he drew on a magna doodle and I smiled and really bragged on how good of a job he did. I could tell by how he approached me that he was making sure that he had been forgiven and that all was well between us.

Children learn so quickly at such a young age. That is why the Bible tells us to raise them up right while they are young.
This going to be a really good year of growth in our family.

This year will also be good in that we'll be getting to find out whether we are having a girl or a boy this month, the baby is due at the end of May, and my brother and his family will be visiting us while on furlough from France. We're going to finally get to have a family picture with my kids and our brand new baby, his 5 kids (one of whom I hand't met in person yet), and my sister's new baby will be in it.

I am so excited to see all the blessings unfold in 2012!

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