I love my kids. They’re crazy, funny, smart, kind, creative, emotional, beautiful, needy, wonderful creatures who are mine. But it needs to be said, (or at least I feel the need to say it) that’s it’s a sacrifice to stay home with them.

 Being a stay at home mom is not a job that I naturally excel at and it’s not one that I thought I would be doing long term. There are days I would rather be 100 other places.

But I stay home with them because I believe that God gave them to me to parent. In these early, young years I think that they need me to teach them everyday, all day, about themselves, the world around them, and how it all works toget
her and relates. More importantly, they need me to teach them about the Great God who made them, loves them, and wants them to believe in Him.

Simply, this just isn’t a job that I can entrust to another. It’s too important. And, like them, it’s mine.

If your kids are anything like mine, they have a few favorite toys and the rest are just a tripping hazard (because they always get pulled out of their spots but rarely actually played with.) The thing is, the rest of those toys are great toys. They’re educational, imaginative, and you wish your kids would use them!

If your kids are also like mine, they have a hard time finding something to play with in a messy room. Ben especially can become frustrated when everything is out of place and there is no order to their room. Most of the time, as soon as i start putting everything away, he finds something good to play with.

I think I found a solution. It works best with pre-school age kids and takes a little bit of set-up and a bunch of follow through.

Hey! How’s it going?  We four Kings here in Louisville are doing just fine. I thought I would write a quick update for you all.

The Christmas season was a fun one for us. Ben, Ellie, and I trotted on down to Texas for two weeks in the beginning of December, sans B.J. (he had to work.) We saw lots of family and the kids had a blast with all of the attention. The rest of the month was quiet, which is normally how I like it.

B.J. has been working a ton. This 100% commission job is tough for our family, but it has been such an obvious opportunity to learn dependence on Jesus. We’re trying and He’s providing.

Ben has been growing like a boy, tall and fast. He like to act like a dinosaur (“RAWWWWRRRRR”) and jump off of EVERYTHING. He’s learning manners and his speech is picking up quickly (New funny words: Gee-gup=grandpa, waagers=water, muk=milk, ludge=love.) He will drive anything he can get in his big puppy dog hands on. And perhaps my favorite Ben thing is his new desire to “nuggle.” He can melt his momma’s heart, that kid. “Lugde you, momma.”

Ellie has been our problem child as of late, and not because she is misbehaving. No, she’s a sweetie. It’s her little head that is causing us trouble. We think she has been having petit mal seizures, which are also known as absence seizures. She had a EEG done this week and we are now being referred to a specialist. The doctors don’t seem too worried and we aren’t either. We are trusting our heavenly Father to take care of our baby, while we try everything we can to care for her.

I am doing well. I know I have been quiet on the blog, and honestly it is because I have had some personal stuff going on since about October. I felt like it was best to stay quiet on the blog front so that the personal stuff didn’t find its way onto the un-erasable blogosphere. I’ve missed writing and resourcing. Hopefully I will find my way back soon.

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment… trust me, this is just a few of the hundreds of good ones from December.

Ben and Ellie checking out the dolphins at the Texas State Aquarium with Mimi.

Ellie showing off for her MawMaw.

Ellie and Ben riding in the back of the truck on the ranch with Deedee.

Ben and the cow checking something out.

Us back at home with B.J., opening presents.

I am just finishing a short biography about Susannah Spurgeon by Charles Ray. Here is a quote from the book:

“I gratefully adore the goodness of our heavenly Father in directing my beloved wife to a work which has been, to her, fruitful in unutterable happiness. That it has cost her more pain than it woul be fitting to reveal is most true; but it has brought her a boundless joy is equally certian. Our gracious Lord ministered to his suffering child in the most effectual manner when he graciously led her to minister to the necessities of his servants. By this means he called her away from he personal griefs, gave tone and concentration to her life, led her to continual dealings with himself, and raised her nearer the center of that region where other than earthly joys and sorrows reign supreme. (…)”

- C. H. Spurgeon (in his preface to Ten Years of My Life)

… led her to continual dealings with himself (God.) God gave Susannah Spurgeon a life work (directing the Book Fund) that would lead her to continual dealings with himself. We can assume that means that her work was not easy and that she continually found her own financial and personal (emotional/physical…) accounts bankrupt. God had not given her everything that she needed to complete her work so that she would continually have “dealings” with God.

Motherhood is that difficult work for me. I find that I am everyday, sometimes by 9am, at the end of my rope. Before the kids even nap I am prone to anger and all I am doing is looking to hurry up the end of the day. But, it is also true that if I will continually deal with God, and ask him to make up for my shortcomings, I am provided everything that I need. I can be peaceful, kind, gentle, patient, and FUN. But only if I will continually deal with God. I think that he designed it this way and I am thankful for a difficult work that will lead me to continual dealings with God, because I might not come otherwise.