A Day for Zachary

My son is three. It is a weird feeling to see him at three and know that the time has drifted so quickly by, but it has and we are here. Zachary's day was an exceptional day! He started out with his birthday breakfast. Matthew has taken our kids for birthday breakfasts since the older girls were about three. So this was Zach's first birthday breakfast. After going to McDonalds and "puking" up his eggs which apparently were gross and he spit them everywhere he and Matthew went to the fire station. Here is the pictoral of their trip.

After the visit to the fire station he came home for birthday pizza and baking with mom. We made his cake and then we had a very nice birthday dinner in the evening with the family and our friend Joe who also happened to be Matthew's coworker for the evening. Here are some more pics :)

Then last week we did an official birthday party for him with the grandparents and a couple of aunts. We also had pizza that night. It was super fun to see him love his cake (you will soon see why!) and to enjoy all his gifts. He got all types of boy stuff! Which is good since not only is he a boy but stands in need of boy things.

Now he moves on into his fourth year. We hope and pray that he will grow tender to the gospel and that he will become more obedient but not less fun ;)

When the rain of your soul threatens to drown you

Whining starts. Tempers flare. Ugliness... The gray sky screams of captivity. Captivity in my home. Captivity to my thoughts. Captivity to my temper. Lighting flashing, thunder growling, rain threatens. How do I make something beautiful out of such a mess! To restore my house to grace and dignity. To find peace. "Humility. Softly whispered to my heart...be humble. Be gentle. Be tenderhearted. DAUGHTER! be like Me...." Tears flow and I realize yet again my need for my Savior. My need for forgiveness as I raise these tender ones. As I either bring them to the sun and water their souls with that which promotes the life giving nurture of the King or I shade them in my anger, frustration, and irritation and leave them dry allowing my feelings of the day to overshadow everything as I with hold the thing that their souls so desperately need, Grace. That unmerrited favor, that life giving hope. Oh how I do not want to leave them dry and parched for love, for tenderness, for peace and joy! Tears flow like the rain and I find myself kneeling before the young and asking them for the forgiveness that I am so undeserving of but crave and earnestly seek. Then yet again, like multiple times before a child leads as restoration is given freely and lovingly and my soul is released from the ugliness of being in the wrong. Isn't this just like our Lord? To show us through relationship that we stand in need of Him? To show us that no matter how great and mighty we feel we are that there is someone else that needs to be elevated and ministered to? I am humbled as I think on this thought and the Holy Spirit gives my spirit this verse as He ministers to me... Romans 12:1 "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think ; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith ; 7 if service, in his serving ; or he who teaches, in his teaching ; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation ; he who gives, with liberality ; he who leads, with diligence ; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." Reflection: How am I as a parent teaching my child to be part of the body of Christ? How am I showing them the humility and grace and fiathfulness of God with my actions? Their gifts and abilities are not necessarily the same as mine, so how am I encouraging them to use their specific gifts with diligence...am I showing mercy and cheerfulness in my tasks? My soul sighs deeply...the weight of responsibility feels overwhelming! and yet there is this: Psalm 31:3 "For You are my rock and my fortress ; For Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me."

Eye doctor

About a month ago during safety class at our lighthouse homeschool group Andrea's class had an eye doctor come and give a talk and show the kids what an eye appointment was like and why they were important. It was brought to our attention that Andrea had a hard time seeing far away. She had never mentioned anything so I was sort of taken aback today when the eye doctor that we saw said that she was very near sighted. I actually cried because I felt that she had missed out on so much beauty in life. After the doctor comforted me by telling me that there was no harm done and that her world would now become so much more detailed and exciting to her, we went through the fun task of finding frames! There was so much laughter that I am not sure if we were appreciated much but we made something that could have been a bummer into an adventure. I really hope that she loves her new glasses and that she has fun showing them off to her friends. Kids can be cruel so I made sure that they were pretty and made her feel pretty. I remember being about her age and a daughter of one of my mom's best friends had glasses and braces. I was SOOOO jealous and wanted both super bad. Looking back I know now that it was not those items that made Katie cool it was the fact that she was confident in the fact that she was loved. As and adult with kids that need braces and glasses I see now the benefit in teaching the girls same confidence. To teach them that they are loved and that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. Just as my mother taught me over and over and over again. Today could have been very difficult but hopefully we have been able to bring an anticipation to Andrea, not only for her to see better but to also know that she is loved...always loved.

Vacation to Abby and Alex' house, part 1

On the morning of March 19th we planned to leave bright and early for our trip. I had packed all the bags and gotten everything set out that I could think of. We had three sick kids at the time and I was wondering whether we should be going at all. Matthew ended up having a very rough night at work and had to sleep so by the time he woke and we had things ready to go we were pretty worried about Kayla and Zachary's health. They both had high fevers and seemed to be coughing really bady. Our plans changed as plans often do. We took the kids to the Prompt care on West main only to be told that the wait was a minimum of 2.5 hours if no one else came in with a worse problem and to try the other urgent care in our network. So we called them and while it was twice the copay to go the time for being seen was considerably less. We were in and out of the building in about an hour and a half. Not bad in my opinion. The kids lungs were fine and they gave them some more tylenol and motrin and called it good. Feeling relieved for the children but discouraged about the day that was quickly closing we left for our trip and drove as long as we could before we were overtaken by sleepiness. We stopped about 4am at a little motel and all piled into one room. Poor Z slept on the floor in a sleeping bag (I know it grossed me out too!) and the girls all piled into one bed while Matthew and I and the baby slept in the other. It worked out well enough because we woke later that morning, felt much better and got back on our way about 9am. We arrived to Abby and Alex's house just before dinner. We thought we would be later but forgot that they live in a different time zone haha! It was wonderful to see her and the boys and to finally see her home and just get aquainted with her life as an adult woman. We really enjoyed seeing how established and comfortable she was in her space. After having a nice dinner and enjoying a good visit we headed off to bed. It was a sweet set up too! We had our own half bath and the room was large enough that with a little creativity everyone had somewhere soft to sleep. The next day was stormy and yet we didn't mind after so many hours in the van. It was nice to just sleep in (atleast we felt like we were sleeping in really well with that hour difference lol) and lounge about visiting and drinking coffee...ok I drank coffee and we all visited. Their church was cancelled that evening because of the storms and so we ended up hanging out. Zachary had a fever for the first few days of the trip and alot of cough syrup was given at night. I ended up sick but thankfully I was not nearly as bad off as the kids when they were at their worst.

On Thursday, I believe it was, we went to the Zoo. It was a very nice one! We were able to see so many animals that we had never seen before at the many different places we have been through the years. We all had our favorites mine was the bird that looked like it had a giant candycorn on it's head! hahaha!

Friday, we went to the USS KIDD and walked through the ship and enjoyed the bits of history in the museum. I didn't get a chance to look as much as I would have liked because at that point I was miserable with head congestion and Z was being wild (shocker haha!) anyways, Zachary enjoyed the ship and the big guns and the cots in the sleeping quarters. It was pretty neat but tight and all I could think of was how miserable it must be to be on there with a bunch of other people for months on end...some more pics? :)

It is probably a little wrong to take pics of babies with guns but I did...they were very excited about them. Mostly I think because they don't think about guns shooting people and don't really understand...for me it was a sad and bittersweet type of experience to walk through and see all the deadly weapons. The favorite parts by far were the cots and the kitchens and bathrooms for some reason LOL! We loved being able to explore those areas.

Somehow I missed Matthew and Kayla getting in to try them out. I did have to laugh when Matthew said he could sleep in one easy. That man can sleep just about anywhere if he needs to. LOL! I on the other hand do not sleep well normally if I am not in my own element.

OK the rest of the trip will have to be written about in the next post...

Eight is great!

Our sweet baby Kayla turned 8 in February. She is growing so fast and yet she is still such a little girl. We are so pleased with the blessing of her life in our home. She is our tender heart and clown. Last year she gave her life to Jesus and since then we have been so amazed at the way that the Holy Spirit is working in her life. We should not be suprised because God has promised to do that good work in us when we accept Him into our lives and choose to live for Him but it still blows me away each time I hear her pray or ask her questions about scripture that she knows the heart of what is being talked about even if she doesn't understand all the messy sinful deception of people stuff. She is always using crazy accents and making us laugh in abundance...:) she is so precious!


So the cake...GRACIOUS! that thing was so hard even though it seemed so easy when I watched the video instructions. As you can see it is sloppy looking at spots and the funny part is that when Kayla woke up in the morning after I spent many hours getting it ready after they were sleeping she walked into the kitchen and says "WOW! MOM IS AWESOME! She even put in a drawbrigde!" Laying in bed listening I was very perplexed as there was NO bridge but found when I went out that the layers of the cookies had seperated and were indeed a drawbridge making me the coolest mom ever hahahaha!

Baby K is one!

This is a post all about our dear little Kendra. She turned one the week of Christmas, so feeling a little overwhelmed at that time I didn't get around to writing anything about just her. Kendra has got to be our "sweetest" baby. Not to say the others weren't sweet but this little girl of ours has donned the knick name "sweet pea" like as in Popey and OliveOil's sweet pea. She has just got this quiet little demeanor and it is just precious. She obviously favors Matthew a little bit more than me though I know I am loved so no worries on my part. LOL! Kendra's birthday falls at such a weird time of the year because of Christmas so her party was sort of last minute and we were blessed to have many family members come and share it with her. She obviously loved her cake

Next year we hope to be more organized and possibly get some Aunts and Uncles there :) Christmas birthdays have to have some advantage right? Why not be that more family is around to enjoy it with you. Happy first Birthday baby!

sleep?

So I am lying in bed...just lying here while everyone else sleeps. Why? Because my mind is racing and my heart feels heavy and I think I should have skipped that last cup of coffee I had

before dinner. Thought this sign was funny. :)


So my mind is full of my day...really the whole weekend. Do you ever feel like that? Some things from my marriage, some parenting skills I need desperate help with, and then there was church. Just filled with thoughts and feelings and praying seemed to only add more things to my mental overload....

Ok well knowing me I will probably delete this tomorrow but it felt good to do something instead of thinking so hard lol