High Hopes

We are all hung over here this morning from a visit with friends that we had last night.  The kids played in the pool for hours.  Lydia can barely move this morning.  Henry and Jack are spaced out to Little Bear on Noggin, Ben is stil sleeping and Sophia is asleep in our bed.  She was crying early this morning so Darin brought her in with us.  I think she fell back asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.  I stayed with Sophia until Darin left for work.  When I came down, he had finished cleaning the kitchen from last night and since the kids were in the pool all night, our house is still Company-Clean.  I just love that.  It's a rare thing around here these days!  I have become very adept at stepping over the train track and doll house toys in the dark.

Ben was such a big help to me last night.  He's of the age where he prefers to hang out and listen to all the adult chatter rather than play with all the kids.  He helped me wrestle Sophia from the table and everyone's plates and cups.  She was constantly drawn to all that fun.  She has also discovered the water in the toilet bowl.  sigh.  ;-) 

Back when Ben was a little guy I had high hopes brought on by the occaisional teen boys we would run into who were so sweet to him.  They would play with him, have fun conversations with him - you know, just generally be Real People - not Freaky Teens.  I always hoped and prayed that Ben would turn into one of those Real People.  So far, so good.  ;-)  He is such a good big brother to Henry and Sophia.  So SWEET to them and at least once a day Henry will say to Ben, "Ben, let's spend some time together."  And then Ben will wrestle around with Henry and all will be right with the world. 

There really is so much good to look forward to as our kids mature.  I feel as if Darin and I are at the very beginning stages of reaping the harvest of the things we have sown as Ben is coming into his own as a young adult.  Of course we're a long way from done, but I'm starting to get real optimistic.  ;-) 

 

Pregnancy Update

I've decided that I really don't know my husband as well as I thought I did.  I mean, WHO has actually been with me on the other side of the bed?  Who is this stranger that I eat meals with, watch movies late at night and go to Marble Slab with on date nights?????  For a little background...

Lydia wants us to have all the girl's names end in "ia" since that's how she and Sophia's names end.  We didn't do that on purpose.  It just worked out that way.  We really considered it, but after awhile, Darin and I agreed that we didn't want to fence ourselves in with something like that.  So we've been going back and forth over girl names for this baby (because really, I think it IS a girl.  If it's a boy - sorry, Boy! ;-).  For every 100 names I read out to Darin, he might say yes to one of them.  Well.  For a joke, I read out "Beatrice." 

HE LOVES IT.

He wants to name our daughter Beatrice, and I'm left wondering if I really ever knew him.  He's so passive/agressive....we will probably end up calling her Beatrice.  Oh.  More.  He said we could call her "B.D."  I have nothing else to say.  God bless us, every one.

I'm 16 weeks along now.  Next month we will find out if this baby is a boy or girl!  Can't wait for that!

I looked at maternity swim suits today.  Oyve.  They are so low-cut and I'm so VERY modest.  ;-)  It kills me that I never learned to sew, and now am stuck with not enough time to learn to sew. 

When I went for my monthly check-up with my OB, I tried to explain my overwhelming exhaustion to him, but I'm not anemic (the only time I'm not anemic is when I'm pregnant.  Weird) so he basically told me to buck up.  Waaaahhh-ha-haaaaaaaaaa.  I just want to not be so exhausted.

Darin and Ben are off at a birthday party-type deal today.  They are doing an outdoor Ropes Course.  God bless them.  It's 103 today.  I loaded up Lydia, Jack, Henry and Sophia and we went to the grocery store.  What a crazy trip!  It took us two hours, two carts and a stop at the Starbucks there in Target before we made it through. The cutest thing was when Henry, who is 3, asked, "Can I ride on the cart like a fireman?" I let him ride inside the cart like the Captain of all the firemen.  ;-)  While we were making our way through the store, I heard someone say, "She's got four little kids with her here at the grocery store and she's pregnant with another one!"  That just makes me grin from ear to ear and feel so blessed.  I wish more could experience it!

Potty TRAINING???

Last Friday, exactly one week ago, Henry decided that he would no longer wear a diaper.  We were sitting at lunch, and I was looking right at him when I literally saw his lightbulb moment.  His face brightened a bit and he said, "Mama, I'm going to start going potty on the toilet and wear big boy underwear!" 

I wasn't about to waste a minute.  We got right up from the table and went to the bathroom.  He went potty, and we headed up the stairs to my bedroom to get down the storage bin of 2T-3T clothes and we dug out some big boy underwear.  He has been wearing them ever since with not a bit of trouble.  I forgot to put him in a pull-up for his nap on Tuesday, but he woke up dry!  So now he takes his nap without a pull-up.  And this morning, the one week anniversary of his big decision, he showed up in mine and Darin's room with a dry pull-up.  We are amazed.  :-)

With our first three, I pushed potty-training on them and it was a difficult process.  I decided that with Henry, I was going to let him tell me when he was ready, and man, it worked! 

Peace in the house, and less diapers to buy!

Personality

I used to love to take personality tests.  I liked having the things I thought about myself confirmed.  Looking back, I realize it was just a form of self-absorption and a way for me to excuse my character flaws by quoting my test results to anyone who had a problem.

Then God's Word became real to me and I realized that God does not give personality tests.  He gives character-improving tests so that we can resemble Him.  The Fruits of the Spirit are not just a laundry list of what the perfect person looks like, but really, a description of the person that God can teach us to be if we submit to His teaching/rod of correction/leading.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Baby Machine

An acquaintance told me that I am a "Baby Machine."  She said, "You know what I mean." 

Well, I sorta know what she means, but I just can't go all the way with her line of thinking because the LAST thing I feel like these days is a Baby Machine.  I am exhausted and queasy even now, into the Second Trimester.  I'm struggling! 

I'll bet I'm not the only Mom of a large family who struggles during pregnancy.  There's this strange perception of Mom's of large families out there.  We are Baby Machines - pregnancy is easy - and we can really "crank 'em out!" 

First to the "cranking them out" believers.  Labor still hurts, no matter how many children we already have.  Well.  I do have to put a disclaimer in here.  My last labor was literally pain-free.  You can go HERE to read about it.  I mean, it was every woman's dream!  At least it was my dream delivery.  You see, I showed up to be induced, was already dilated to a 4, so went ahead and asked for an epidural right way and got it. 

Ooooo - that leads to another common misperception of Mom's with large families.  We do not all give birth at home, in our bathtubs.  It sounds really groovy and all, but that route is just not for me. 

Back to the Baby Machine/pregnancy is easy for you thing....pregnancy is a marathon for anyone.  I have had great pregnancies.  I might have even felt like a Baby Machine every now and then.  But I have also had difficult pregnancies.  Just like every child is different, so is every pregnancy. 

What it boils down to is that I don't choose to continue to have children because it's easy for me.  I do it because children are a blessing from the Lord.  It's worth it to go through anything that comes up during a pregnancy, knowing that no matter what, my husband and I are being blessed by God with a new life to care for.  Children are not a nuisance, or a drain on my "me-time."  They are interesting, funny, insightful, challenging, they grow my character as I strive to be a good parent, and most of all, a BLESSING from God.  Our culture believes otherwise, but I'm not buyin' it.

P.S. I found that really nice picture frame HERE.

The Duties of Parents #3

Love this next point that J.C. Ryle makes in his sermon on The Duties of Parents.  Very Charlotte Mason-like.  :-)

Hint #3. Train your children with a lasting conviction in your mind, that most of it depends on you. Grace is the strongest of all principles. See what a great change grace effects when it comes into the heart of an old sinner—how it overturns the strongholds of Satan—how it throws down mountains, and fills up valleys—makes crooked things straight—and newly creates the whole man. Truly nothing is impossible for grace.

 Nature, too, is very strong. See how it struggles against the things of the kingdom of God—how it fights against every attempt to be more holy—how it keeps up an unceasing warfare within us to the very last hour of life. Indeed, nature is strong.

But after nature and grace, undoubtedly, there is nothing more powerful than education. Early habits are very important. We are made what we are by training. Our character takes the form of that mold into which our first years are cast. It has been said, that, "Education has a tremendous effect on men's opinions and thinking habits. What children learn in the nursery, will be displayed throughout their lives."—Cecil.We heavily depend on those who bring us up. We get from them a taste and a bias which clings to us most of the days of our lives. We learn the language of our mothers and fathers, and learn to speak it almost without thinking, and unquestionably we catch something of their manners, ways, and mind at the same time. Time will tell, how much we all owe to early impressions, and how many things in us may be traced back to the seeds sown in the days of our infancy, by those who were around us. A very educated Englishman, has gone so far as to say: "That of all the men we meet with, nine out of ten are what they are, good or bad, useful or not, according to their education"—Locke

And all this is one of God's merciful arrangements. He gives your children a mind that will receive impressions like moist clay. He gives them a disposition at the starting-point of life to believe what you tell them, and to take for granted what you advise them, and to trust your word rather than a stranger's. He gives you, in short, a golden opportunity of doing them good. See that you do not neglect such an opportunity. Once you let it slip, it is gone forever.

Beware of that miserable delusion into which some have fallen—that parents can do nothing for their children, that you must leave them alone, wait for grace, and sit still. These parents would like their children to die the death of the righteous person, but they do nothing to help them live a righteous life. They have great hope, but they receive nothing. And the devil rejoices to see such thinking, just as he always does over anything which seems to excuse laziness, or to encourage neglect.

I know that you cannot convert your child. I know that they who are born again are born, not of the will of man, but of God. But I also know that God specifically says, "Train a child in the way he should go," and that He never gave a command to men and women which He would not give them the grace to perform. And I also know that our duty is not to stand still and dispute the command, but to go forward and obey it. It is only when we move out in obedience that God will meet us. The path of obedience is the way in which He gives the blessing. We only have to do as the servants were commanded at the marriage feast in Cana, to fill the water-pots with water, and we may safely leave it to the Lord to turn that water into wine.

Miss Mouth

Sophia.  Give me those Leggos!  Oh my goodness.  How did you fit all those in your mouth? 

Give me ALL the Leggos.  Yes.  That last one. 

She wanted to keep the Leggos.  She's not happy with me.  Awwww, Sophia.  Give me a smile.

There.  That's sort of a smile.  :-)  I'm forgiven. 
Now who left the Leggos out????!!!!!!

She's Hired

I'm kind of excited.  Since Ben is out earning the big bucks with all the yard work stuff this summer, Lydia has gotten the itch to "have a job."  God bless her.  She wants to mow lawns, too.  But she's just about to turn 11, and just doesn't have the stamina for that kind of stuff yet.  Darin and I did not want to discourage her, so we thought about what she could do here at the house that we could pay her weekly for.  After all, *I* need the help!  I don't want to send her off to some other family when I could use a helping hand.  :-)

The three things that I can never keep up with are laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, and doing school with Henry, our 3 year old.  He sees Ben, Lydia and Jack doing school and wants to do it, too, and asks me every day if we can do school together.  I just don't have the extra minutes!  I've done a few lapbooks with him, but find it hard to be consistent.  So here comes Miss Lydia.  We are going to pay her $15 per week to do some schoolwork with him.  Should be less than an  hour each day. 
I do struggle a little bit with the need to do everything myself.  I mean, I want to be the one to do schoolwork with Henry!  But this will be good for Lydia.  She's such a natural with the littles and I know she will do very well with Henry and earn every penny of her salary.  And my time will come. 

Of course I'm making all the plans for Lydia.  With the older three, I used Readywriter for Handwriting Readiness.  But ya know, that costs $$$, so I thought I would do a Google search to see if I could come up with some free printables instead.  I found some printables as well as some good tips on Handwriting Readiness that should be a lot of fun for Henry and Lydia to work on together.  Here are those links:
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/handwriting_readiness.htm

http://www.donnayoung.org/penmanship/redines.htm

http://www.otworks.com/otworks_page.asp?pageID=711
Activities suggestions for working on strength for fine motor skills

http://members.tripod.com/~imaware/fmotor.html
More fine motor activities

The More the Merrier

Gretchen, the woman who interviewed me for the Quiverfull article she was writing for a paper in the Middle East, told me she would let me know when the article was written and posted.  She never did, so I went online tonight to see if I could find it.  I did.  I didn't really like the article.  To me, it's just another instance of someone not "getting it."  Anyway, here ya go....

More the merrier for Christian movement

Gretchen Peters, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: April 26. 2009 10:38PM UAE / April 26. 2009 6:38PM GMT

DENVER // When the author and conservative Christian sage Nancy Campbell advises her followers to “be fruitful and multiply”, she means it.

Mrs Campbell, a mother of six and a grandmother to 34, is a leading light in the Quiverfull community, a growing conservative Christian sect that calls on its adherents to forgo birth control and produce large families.

“Psalm 127 says children are the heritage of the Lord,” she said, quoting the biblical verse that gives the Quiverfull lifestyle its name: “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, are sons born in a man’s youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.”

Mrs Campbell, a New Zealander who lives in Tennessee, believes US society, where the average couple bears just 1.8 children, has strayed far from God’s intended path.

“Contraception and limiting family size has not strengthened the family, which was the strength of our nation,” she said in a telephone interview. “Now I think many people are opening their eyes, opening their hearts and seeing what is right for families.”

READ MORE

Nostalgic

I've just been struck in a big way lately about the variety of ages in our family.  Ben, our oldest, will turn 14 next month.  Contrast that with our 3 and 1 year old who are still taking naps, sitting in my lap to read books and exist to go outside to swing.  I guess the thing that is drawing my attention to our age differences is Ben.  I guess I knew it would happen eventually, but it seems to be happening all of a sudden.  He's "growing up." 

First, he's started doing school on his own.  That was a big deal for me because I really enjoyed all of us learning together.  But the apron strings are still slowly disintegrating because

Second, he will be playing football this fall.  This adds something new to his schedule.  Not just football, but a challenge.  He's going to be tired.  Practices are from 6:30 -8:30 A.M.  We are not morning people.  ;-)  The challenge comes when he has to decide to responsibly take care of his chores and schoolwork in spite of being tired or sore.  This, to me, is another sign of growing up.  I pray that he shows himself equal to the challenge, and

Third, Ben has some summer work mowing lawns, and one job in particular will take him out of the house twice a week from 8-11 A.M.  It's a great opportunity for him with one of our neighbors who just needs someone to work alongside him to get the yardwork done.  This is a great neighbor-man so we're glad for Ben to spend time with him.  The thing about this summer work is that this will make Ben's schedule different from the rest of our schedules.  Even though he has been doing his own studies this past year, he has been doing them at the same time that the rest of us do school.  Now Ben is going to have to rearrange and fit things in differently.  So now, maybe when we're ready to go outside for a little playtime, Ben might have to stay in and finish a science experiment, or math, or something.

Sigh.  It's just weird.  Today was his first day working with our neighbor, and I wasn't the only one wondering what was going on!  Henry, our 3 year old, kept asking, "Where's Ben?"  It was weird not to have him here.  Then when Ben got home, even though we explained where Ben was a thousand times, Henry still asked Ben, "Where WERE you?" 

I couldn't help but think of the little time we have left with Ben here at home!  What will Henry think when Ben leaves to pursue  his own life?  He'll be so young and have many years left here with Darin and me.  What a hard day that will be.  I can just hear Ben now, "Don't cry, Mom!"  ;-)  

Ripe Fruit

A couple of snippets from Spurgeon in his sermon Ripe Fruit:  We always look back at the 1800's as an innocent, better time.  But I see here the same struggles we deal with today in the church.

“What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit." Micah 7:1

The nation of Israel had fallen into so sad and backsliding a condition, that it was not like a vine covered with fruit, but like a vineyard after the whole vintage has been gathered, so that there was not to be found a single cluster. Not one righteous man could be found, not one to be trusted or found faithful to God. The whole state had become like a field that has been closely reaped, in which nothing remains but the stubble; like a vineyard that has been completely stripped, in which there remains no vestige of fruit. The prophet, speaking in the name of Israel, desired the first ripe fruits, but there were none to be had. The lesson of the text, as it stands, would be that good men are the best fruit of a nation, they make it worth while that the nation should exist, they are the salt which preserves it, they are the fruit which adorns it and blesses it. Pray then for our country, that God will continually raise up a righteous seed, a faithful band, who, for his name’s sake, shall be a sweet savor unto God, for whose sake he may bless the whole land. But I mean to apply our text in another connection, and use it as the heading of a discourse upon ripeness in grace. I think we can all use the words of Micah in another sense, and say, “My soul desired the first ripe fruit.” We would not be merely the green blade; we desire to be the full corn in the ear. We would not merely show forth the blossoms of repentance and the young buds of struggling faith; but we would go on to maturity, and bring forth fruit unto perfection, to the honor and praise of Jesus Christ. This morning, then, I speak about ripeness in grace, maturity in the divine life, fruit ready to be gathered. The church wants in these days of flimsiness and timeserving, more decided, thoroughgoing, well-instructed, and confirmed believers.

Many an aged Christian is not an experienced Christian, for all his experience, though it may be the experience of a Christian, may not have been Christian experience of an advanced kind. An old sailor who has never left the river is not an experienced mariner. An old soldier who never saw a battle is no veteran. Remember it is in the kingdom of God very much as it is with God himself, one day may be as a thousand years. God can, as Solomon tells us, give wisdom to the simple, and teach the young man knowledge and discretion. Years with grace will produce greater maturity, but what I want to say is, that years without grace will produce no such maturity. The mere lapse of time will not advance us in the divine life. We do not ripen necessarily because our years fulfill their tale. Grey hairs and great grace are not inseparable companions. Time may be wasted as well as improved, we may be petrified rather than perfected by the flow of years.

Here it may be well to note that there is no reason why a young Christian should not make great advance towards this maturity, even while young. The Lord’s grace is independent of time and age; the Holy Spirit is not limited by youth, nor restrained by fewness of days. Young Samuel may excel aged Eli; a holy babe is riper than a backsliding man. Timothy was more mature than Diotrephes. Jesus can lead you, my youthful brother, to high degrees of fellowship with himself; he can make you to be a blessing even while yet you are young; I pray you aspire to the nearest place to Jesus, and like young John, lie in the Master’s bosom.

Truly, the aged have the help of experience, and in any case they deserve our reverent esteem, but let neither old nor young imagine that the merely natural fact of age has any influence in the spiritual life. God’s work is the same in old and young, and owes nothing to the merely natural vigor of youth, or equally natural prudence of age.

The church needs in these days of flimsiness and timeserving, more decided, thoroughgoing, well-instructed, and confirmed believers. We are assailed by all sorts of new doctrines. The old faith is attacked by so-called reformers, who would reform it all away to ruin. I expect to hear tidings of some new doctrine once a week. So often as the moon changes, some 'prophet' or other is moved to propound a new theory, and believe me, he will contend more valiantly for his novelty than ever he did for the gospel...They may muster a troop of raw recruits, and lead them whither they would, but for confirmed believers they sound their bugles in vain.

Children run after every new toy; any little performance in the street, and the boys are all agog, gaping at it; but their fathers have work to do abroad, and their mothers have other matters at home; your drum and whistle will not draw them out.

For the solidity of the church, for her steadfastness in the faith, for her defense against the constantly recurring attacks of heretics and infidels, and for her permanent advance and the seizing of fresh provinces for Christ, we want not only your young, hot blood, which may God always send to us, for it is of immense service, and we cannot do without it, but we need also the cool, steady, well-disciplined, deeply-experienced. hearts of men who know by experience the truth of God, and hold fast what they have learned in the school of Christ.

May the Lord our God therefore send us many such; they are wanted.

Appley Goodness

The first trimester has followed me into the second trimester and I'm struggling with food. Nothing seems good to me.  But I have settled on an afternoon snack that I can stomach.  An apple with peanut butter and chocolate chips.  MERCY!  It's good.  :-)  Chase it down with a glass of freezing cold milk, and I'm in Heaven!  Now if I could just work out breakfast, lunch and dinner.

You can see Jack giving rabbit ears to the peanut butter.  That boy can't let a picture go by without doing something silly in it.  Kinda like his Mom, I guess.  ;-)

Mama's Kisses

I love having so many different ages in the house.  Our kids our 13, 10, 8, 3 and 1.  We're missing the fun 4-6 age, but that's a whole other story that you can read HERE.

Yesterday our 8 year old came into the house from the backyard pouting and limping.  He came over to the couch and sat down next to me, making little whimpering sounds.  I took the bait.

"What happened?"
"I hurt my knee." I investigated.  It was this little thing, the size of a pinprick. 
"How did you do that?"
"I don't know."  I held in my giggle.
"Do you want me to kiss it?"

And here is where he melted my heart.  He did that thing where he tries to hide his smile but doesn't really succeed because he's so happy he just got what he really wanted.  SWEET!  I kissed his knee and he said, "You don't know.  That really helps me."  Then he got up and went back outside.

OH MY GOODNESS.  That boy knows how to melt his Mama's heart.  :-)