I have been trying very hard the past few months to take my children more places and do more things. Last year, due to pregnancy, I was very limited. We stayed home a LOT! Above, is a picture of Andrew. We went to an Operation Christmas Child party and wrapped
shoe boxes. It was a little stressful when I realized that not one of my four older children were able to do this on their own. I think I had that deer in the headlight look and didn't even know where to start. Some kind people volunteered their teenagers and assigned them to help some of my children. It was great! After wrapping the
shoe boxes we sat down and watched the new Veggie Tale's movie, which was all about sharing and giving our Christmas away. Andrew won a door prize, "a Very Veggie Christmas". We were so thrilled for him! But when I realized that it was the a CD that we already had, he didn't miss a beat and said, "Mom, I could give this to Kenya!" He went over and put it in the Kenya pile! I couldn't believe it! We praised him up and down and told him that he had just given part of his Christmas away and how he was going to be blessed. This picture was taken after he decided to give the CD to Kenya.
I came in the door from getting my hair cut and my two older boys freaked and said, "You have brown hair again! We missed it!" It feels good to have shorter, brown hair again. It was fun being
blonde, but I'm not going to spend $60 every 6 months or so to get it maintained. Now, Lily can't pull my hair quite as hard!
Steve took this shot of Lily. She didn't just start crawling last week, she is now pulling herself up on furniture. Sniff, sniff! She wants to grow up so fast, and I'm not in any hurry for that to happen. I am cherishing every moment with her, since she is probably my last baby.
LastWednesday night, my friend, Margaret, invited us to go see a Christian illusionist at her church. I had no idea what I was walking into. Apparently, it was geared toward middle school aged kids. I took my 11, 9, 6, and 4 year old. I decided that I am officially an old lady. The music was blaring, I couldn't understand any of the words, and I would look around and every other kid was
texting, or had some kind of music device in their ear. It is such a different world since I have been in school. My kids and I felt like foreigners. Not a bad thing. Many of the kids were very rude and it didn't feel like there was much control. The illusionist was a great trooper and even though it was very distracting, several people made decisions for Christ. On the way home, I had a chance to answer questions and the two older boys both told me they are glad that our family is different. They had been complaining lately, that they didn't like how we are different (we make them work and have rules), now they are thanking me for it! Yeah!
Josh had raised his hand at the show and rededicated his life to the Lord. At bedtime, Marcus asked if he could do it, too. I was glad I went after all!
I had Bible study in my home two days ago, when in the middle of the our Beth Moore video, I hear "Mom, come quick, Josh had a stick sticking into his bone!" Oh, great! We run out there and Josh is hysterical. There was a stick about the diameter of about a pea sticking out of his leg. I couldn't tell how far it was in, so I was about to call Steve (was he there? N
ooooo) and ask him if I should try to pull it out or take him to the ER. Margaret looked at me calmly and said, "Aren't you going to just pull it out?" She reached down, covered Josh's eyes and pulled. It took three really good pulls to get it out. Man, it must have hurt! It gave me the
heebie jeebies! He's OK, but now it is infected. We are putting lots of peroxide and
Neosporin on it. He has his last game of soccer today. He doesn't want to miss it, but I really hope he doesn't get kicked in the shin!
Yesterday was an awesome day! I quickly
homeschooled, and then went to tea with my friend, Rachel. We had a great time and chatted for, oh, 2 hours! We had to run home and nurse our babies afterwards! It was just so good to catch up and encourage each other in the Lord.
We also had their whole clan come for dinner. We had slow-cooked
herbed pork roast and
carameled apples for dessert. The kids had so much fun together, and the adults, too! They are a terrific family and our kids get along really well! I'll post pictures later!
So today is soccer, ACTS, and a Harvest Party! Whew! Now I'm supposed to cook, clean, and do laundry in there somewhere, right?
LOL!