A Sunday Afternoon

Today was a good day. The children and I went to church and heard a guest pastor speak about spreading the gospel. One Scripture he shared that I loved was,

"Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls, 18Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation!"
- Habakkuk 3:17-19

So, today was a good day. Not an easy day but a good day. This afternoon the children and I spent some time outdoors. Here you can see some of the things that brought me joy today. Little girls in a new wagon; we wore our old one out. Little girls playing pretend birthday party with wildflowers, bubbles, baby chicks, a flower pot that is thriving, a nature loving daughter enjoying tadpoles, Sweet smiles..................Those were things to rejoice in this afternoon.
Tonight was taxing getting everyone fed, cleaned, and ready for bed. But it helps to think about the blessings of the afternoon. Tomorrow we start our yearly swimming lesson sessions. We will go everyday for a couple of weeks and it will be tiring, but the results are always so worth the effort. I am looking forward to seeing my children develop their swimming skills further this year. I also look forward to seeing them getting some really good daily exercise. I am hoping it will wear some of their energy off. :)

She Loves to Give

Recently I have seen Annagrace develop the love of giving. Her older sister, Lauren, is very much that way. It has just been since Christmas, however, that I have noticed Annagrace really thinking about what she can give to others. She gets very concerned if someone in our family is having a birthday and she can't figure out something to give them. She starts looking through her own things to pick something out to give. This morning she put together a gift for Gabriel's birthday and decorated the sack for it to go in. She worked hard on this, and I am so super proud of her.

New Life on the Farm

Recently our daddy brought home something really exciting. New baby chicks!!! We tried very hard to raise chickens last year, but sadly all our best efforts failed. Our poor chicks kept disappearing. We think between maybe the cat and a raccoon we know what happened. This year we are hoping for better results. As far as we know we have them safely concealed in a large dog house. My vision is to produce our own farm fresh eggs, but we will see............

For Her Baby Sister

For Lauren's birthday she received some new sewing patterns. One pattern was of a stuffed rabbit. My talented daughter surprised me by whipping out this adorable bunny for Lilly Faith. She was working on it during room time one afternoon. When she came downstairs she showed it to me and then presented it to Lilly Faith as she was waking up from her nap. I love to see my children love each other. Such sweet moments.

Word Puzzles

Tonight my hubby came home with a present for me. It was something I had waited years for. I finally entered the world of the iPhone! I have had an apple laptop for years and always wanted an iPhone to sync with it. For one reason or another, either the plan we had or some other reason it never made sense for me to get an iPhone. For sometime now we knew I would get one, but we had to wait until our plan made us eligible for a discount on a new phone. Today was the big day! I am excited because it has a super camera in it, and I can sync my pictures to my laptop so easily. I was amazed how fast they appeared on the laptop with no hassle at all. Well, enough about my new phone but after several years of waiting I am super excited.
Tonight my little girls found excitement in putting together word puzzles. I love to see them get excited about something like this. I am a little sad though as I look at these pictures and see how fast my Annagrace is leaving her preschool years. She is five and will be moving on past preschool before very long. It has been fun having my three littles all working together, but Annagrace is showing signs of growing older. She is sandwiched between my older two and my younger two, so sometimes she is running around trying to be older. At other times she is having fun with the younger two. Oh why do they have to grow so fast? Trying to enjoy the moments while they last.........

Recent Activity

We are very busy this spring. When it is not raining we have enjoyed preparing for some gardening. Annagrace was thrilled when I said we could turn an old sand box into her own garden.
As a family we are trying raised garden boxes from Sam's Club this year. Of course the kiddos thought it great fun to jump around in them as we were preparing things. Lauren and Gabriel were able to help assemble them which was nice.
Lilly Faith will entertain herself with anything. She found an old detergent bottle and had so much fun running around with it. Also, my littles are loving picking gobs of wildflowers, but I am having to teach them to distinguish between wild flowers and those bought for planting.
We have had a lot of rain, so things have been busy indoors too. My trio of little girls found it so fun to put Lilly Faith in a oversized bucket and pull her around the other day. I eventually had to rescue her, but it was a cute moment. I am finding that these munchkins don't even need tons of toys. They will find fun in just about anything. So there you have some of our recent happenings around here. :)

Happy Eleventh Birthday, Lauren!

It is really hard to believe, but Lauren turned eleven years old last Friday. Eleven just sounds so old and how could it have been that long already??? I remember eagerly awaiting the birth of my first baby and taking care of her in our small apartment, etc. How has this happened so fast? Well, try as we may we can't slow down the clock. It seems to be moving faster and faster. We had a fun celebration for Lauren with a zebra print theme. I am posting pictures of some of her gifts. The picture of Annagrace and the horse touches my heart. Annagrace sacrificially gave her big sister one of her own toys that she knew that Lauren liked. Also, Lauren received some clothes this year, and she was actually excited about it. :) We have never given her clothes as a gift, but she is getting to that age. My how things are changing. Another thing we did on Lauren's birthday is I let the three oldest children watch the movie Courageous with me during nap time. Lauren had not seen it and really wanted to watch it. If you have not seen that movie by all means it is a must see. Just make sure you have some tissues nearby. It is powerful though. Happy Birthday, Lauren!

Bear Achievement Award

Cub Scouts has been such a great blessing for Gabriel. He recently earned his Bear badge award for the year. Our whole family went to his Blue and Gold banquet to celebrate and see his ceremony. You can see the the paint his Daddy painted his face with during his ceremony, and then at the end he dotted Daddy's nose with white paint. It was a special moment. We are proud of his hard work and all he has learned this year. We love our little Cub Scout.

Keepsakes from Amish Country

I posted about our trip to Lancaster County PA some months back, but I never put up any pictures of some of my keepsakes. We are currently enjoying our last jar of jelly from Amish country. The little shops there are filled with quilted pot holders and other quilted goods. I wish I had pictures of some of the other treasures I bought, but these are all the pictures I have right now. I love so many things about the simplicity of the Amish lifestyle. I have often thought that I would fit in with the Amish very nicely. One aspect I really respect is that their men are men and their women are women. Little girls have generations of predecessors to look to as examples of womanhood. The ladies are not competing with the men but still hold to traditional values for women, and I really like their femininity. Something that saddens me, however, is that many of them do not totally get the Gospel. From my understanding, many of them think that they have to be loyal to the church and follow its rules to gain salvation. I sometimes hear other things that make me think that some of them do get the Gospel. My prayer is that a revival of gospel truth would break out in the hearts of those precious people. They are deeply spiritual and live out christian values but how sad that some of them are trusting in their loyalty to the church rather than the finished work of Christ on their behalf. Salvation is not Jesus plus man's good works. It is not by works but by grace alone that we are saved. Matt and I recently watched a documentary about a young couple that broke away from their church for that very reason. They embraced the Gospel for salvation and wanted to spread that message to others. It was really encouraging. Well, I remain very fascinated with the Amish and know that modern society can learn much by observing their character, their family values, their simplicity and their strong work ethic. These people know that it is a blessing to serve, they recognize the dangers of pride, and they love people. It is a beautiful and refreshing thing to see.

He Giveth More Grace

Here is an old hymn with renewing truth. What an encouraging message for us when we grow weary.

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

Chorus:
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Modesty Starts in the Heart

Great thoughts from C.J. Mahaney.....I loved this.

Keeping them Busy!

Here are some recent teeny tot activities happening at our house. Abbie Joy received the Melissa & Doug puzzle for valentine's, and Annagrace loved a beginner's sewing kit. The girls also enjoyed the alphabet sticker matching activity. I'm always looking for new ideas as this trio of little girls loves for me to keep the activities coming.

Her Daddy's Birthday

Since Lauren just finished a cake decorating class she was very eager to make Daddy's birthday cake last week. We enjoyed yummy carrot cake. She also decorated the dining room for the party. It is nice to have an older daughter to take over some of the party preparations these days.

Final Cakes

As I mentioned in a previous post, Lauren and I just finished a Wilton cake decorating class. Here are our final cakes. Mine is the white and hers is the colored roses. She wrote, "Lauren loves her family." Sweet!