Simple Treasures

VBS Is Right Around The Corner

2014-05-19T04:48:00.001-07:00

Vacation Bible School is the next big thing on our calendar! I love VBS! There's a mountain of work to do in order to be ready for it in three weeks, but we have a lot of volunteers at church this year and everyone is excited and full of ideas. We'll be getting flyers printed up this year and passing them out at the Fourth of July parade. Our small local grocery store also bags flyer with peoples groceries. Also, one of our ladies at church says she knows the lady who works at the desk at the library. She says she can get the lady to stick our VBS flyers in every book she checks out! Don't you just love small towns?? :) With all these ideas along with the children who are friends and family of folks at church, we may have a huge VBS this year! A little scary, but exciting as well. I believe our theme will be The Grand Scheme...It's Out Of This World! We'll have outer space decor and the lessons will be about creation, Jesus coming to die, and the second coming. We have three days to work with and Andy wants to get across the big picture of God creating the world, man sinning, and Christ coming to redeem them back. I think it'll be good. I'm doing props and crafts. The church basement wall and ceiling will be encased in black trash bags!!!! Rocket ships, astronauts, and of course dozens of planets and stars will have to be made and drawn. And WHEN do I have time to do all that??? Oh well, it'll happen somehow. :). I'm excited!

Our Tenth Anniversary

2014-05-13T11:01:00.002-07:00

I feel like number ten is a mile marker in our marriage. It seems like just yesterday that Andy and I met for the first time and now, ten years have passed! Andy and I were engaged after just 6 weeks of knowing each other and married within the next few months. I was one of those girls who would ask, "How do you know he's the right one?" I was always given the answer, "You JUST KNOW." That always frustrated me because I wanted an explaination, an example. And no one could seem to give me one. It was always, "You'll know when it happens." Well, I determined that I would wait til it did and then take good notice of it so that I would be the very first on earth to be able to explain to all those other questioning girls out there just how I knew! Well.....I can't. When Mr. Right came along, somewhere in my heart, I knew without a doubt he was the one, even before I fell in love with him. In fact, I fought it, hoping it wasn't true because I didn't want to marry him! :) But, it turned out to be the best decision of my life. I couldn't ask for a better husband. Andy has been so patient with me over the past ten years. I truly don't deserve him. He has loved me through good times and bad and has walked with God and remained faithful in hardship. I'm the luckiest girl alive!
Andy wanted to make our tenth anniversary very special. He started the celebration three days early by giving me a gift and a special card each morning. On the first, he gave me a small bottle of perfume, the kind I wore when we were first married. The second day, he carried in my 34 string Regency Celtic harp!!! It's needed a few repairs so I've not played it in over two years! I was so happy to see it again! I've put new strings on it and am trying to get it tuned. It'll take several tunings before the strings will be stretched enough to hold. It's the most beautiful instrument in the world, I think!
The next morning, I looked outside and saw a lawn swing! Oh, I've been wanting a swing forever!!!! Andy said it was a good desire for a mother to want to take time out of her busy schedule to sit and watch her children play. We spent the evening doing just that!! There is a constant breeze here, and sitting there on my swing in the cool spring evenings seems to gently blow the stress and cares of the day away, leaving me feeling refreshed. I just love my swing!!!
Day four, last Friday, we drove to Indianpolis and went to the Harrison House. It's Benjamin Harrison's mansion. (One of those not-so-famous presidents). I wish I could post pictures! The place was beautiful with all the antique furniture, wall paper, and other decor of the period. The staircases going between floors were curved and beautifully carved. They had a dress there that belonged to Mrs. Harrison. She was tiny!!! Her waist couldn't have been more than 15-18 inches around!!!! We had a wonderful time.
After leaving the mansion, we got a shake, then drove to Muncie. It took us about an hour with all the traffic. We stopped to visit Andy's grandmother, then went to eat supper at our favorite Chinese restaurant. They've got THE BEST hibachi grill!!! We had a wonderful day! and a beautiful tenth anniversary! I'm so blessed to be married to a man like Andy.
We had a good day at church yesterday. We had the Lords Supper during the evening service and what a sweet time it was. Andy had all our people move up and sit in the first few rows for the service, a new thing for our church, and it really made it special and feel more personal.
Monday morning and I'm back to painting. I'm almost done with Christians room, finally! With three little ones in the house, it makes it difficult to stick with anything for longer than a few minutes at a time. But the end is in sight now!!!
Christian is doing good and changing by the day it seems! He's grown out of the toddler stage and is full swing into the little boy stage. He thinks he's much older than he is and acts it most of the time. I have to catch myself many times and remind myself that this big boy in a little boys body is still only three. He's very smart and trying to hold him back from things he's sure he can handle is getting harder and harder! He just can't understand why he can't use his daddy's drills and tools or mow the grass by himself. He'd do it too, if we let him. :). He wants so badly to grow up and be like his daddy. He already knows what vehicle he's going to buy, talks about what his first house is going to look like (he's even got a maid), he's going to have fields and combines and tractors, of course, and a wife with ten kids who are are all going to sleep downstairs in his big house while he sleeps upstairs! Oh, he's got his life planned out already!
Audra is changing too. I don't know if it's because she's a girl, or if it's because she's so little, but I still think of her as my "baby girl" even though she's now two years old. And she's all girl at that! Anything from a fly buzzi her head to a worm on the ground will make her shriek! I don't encourage this, nor do I know where she got it. :) I guess I won't have to worry about her dragging in every little critter she finds outside. I had to tell Christian to leave his pet earth worm outside yesterday. At least it's just a worm and not a snake!!! But it'll come!
Wesley is cutting four more teeth and letting the rest of us know it! Oh, he's been miserable! Six and a half months old and already six teeth! I've finally got him on a bottle and formula as of this past week and so far I've only had to treat his rash twice. So that tells me that something in my diet was bothering him and causing a bad reaction. He still had very dry skin, but the red ichy rash seems to be going away. It's been a long battle, since January, and though I still don't know what is causing it, I do know it's not just a skin condition on his part but rather something that he was getting from me. Now that he's on formula, the rash has disappeared. This will make it easy as I begin to introduce foods to him one at a time. It may take awhile, but we'll catch it eventually. At least for now, we won't have to keep him on the creams constantly.
I forgot to mention that Andy also got me six grape vines!! That was my fit for day four. :). We planted them yesterday evenin and oh! I can hardly wait to get fresh grapes again!
Well, back to my painting...

Beautiful Days.

2014-05-05T15:40:00.001-07:00

Oh, we've been having such beautiful weather! Spring is my favorite season! Everything is so new and fresh. To me, one of the first signs of spring is the first sound of grass being mown. I love the smell of mown grass! Waking up to the sound of birds singing, and looking out my window at the waves of yellow dandilions popping up all over the fields. How could you not love spring?
We've been SO busy! Andy had to rip out the shower surround in one of the bathrooms in our new home and replace it with a new one. Along with that came ripping out some old dry wall and leaky pipes. So he's been doing the mudding and when that is done, I can start painting.
Speaking of painting! Audra's rooms is almost done! I did that in a light lavender with white trim. It really helped to update the room with that awful green carpet! I'm workin on the boys room now doing it in a pale yellow with white trim. It's a huge job and I'm the worst a cutting in!
Audra also had a birthday a couple weeks ago. It's hard to believe she's two already! She's still so tiny though and I believe Wesley is going to catch up to her soon! We had the church over for a cookout roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. Actually, there was more food there than I can list. :). It was a fun day!
Andy and I will be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary next week. It seems like just yesterday that we were married, and now, looking back over the past ten years, I see lots of memories, some good and some bad. But in all, it's been a good ten years and Gods hand has been there all the way. Andy has something special planned for this anniversary but is keeping it a secret from me this time. :). Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to it!
We cannot get Internet at our new house, which is why I haven't been around much in the blogging world for the past few weeks. I really don't have much time for it right now anyway. But, until I can get to the library, I won't be able to post pictures. I'm blogging from my phone now, but with no Internet, I hesitate to use up a lot of data putting pictures on here.
Well, that's about it for now. Until next time!

What a crazy two weeks!

2014-04-22T20:49:00.001-07:00

I'm back, but not as often as I'd like to be, seeing as how I do not have Internet at our new house. I'm posting from my phone, which uses a lot of data, so I have to be careful! If I can ever get away by myself (doesn't happen very often!), I'll take my computer to the library and update with pictures. And boy, do I have a passel of them! I can't post pictures on 3G. And if this post ends rather abruptly, for some reason, it is not my fault!!! :). Sometimes, if I scroll to the top of the page to correct a mistake, etc, my phone sometimes won't let me scroll back to the bottom where I left off to resume typing. VERY frustrating! So at least you know that I'm not doing it on purpose. :). This post is already stuck, so it's going to end funny. I'll just have to post another soon and pick up where I left off. I had to insert this little paragraph in here wherever I could. :)
We LOVE our new home! The kids have played outside constantly and come in exhausted at night, and covered with dirt. My heart sang with joy when I saw Christian running barefoot through the grass to find corn cobs in the corn field. Tractors driving past on our little-traveled road, cardinals singing on my window sill in the mornings, horses neighing in the pastures near us, and a view that would make your heart soar! Ah! We're finally home in the country! There's no greater place to raise our children! And on the cool mornings, I turn the kids loose in the basement and smile as I listen to them work off their energy with squeals of delight. Yes, this place is truly an answer to prayer!
Audra turns two today. She's finally changing from baby to little girl, although she's still terribly small. Her six month old baby brother weighs one pound less then she at a solid 19 lbs. He's going to pass her up soon! We're having a cookout on Saturday and are having the church folks over. I'm feeding about 40+ people and will have our new home opened up for viewing, so it's been a mad rush to get boxes unpacked and things put away in their rightful places. I've been working from dawn til late into the night unpacking, sorting, and carrying boxes to the basement! Our trash pile is massive and our yard sale/thrift store mountain is also steadily growing.

God has been doing so much for us lately! It seems like every time we've turned around, God has been answering prayers! First, the closing on this house went so smoothly, then God gave us a mower a couple days ago right when we began to need one. Then, I took Wesley to the doctor last week for his allergy appointment and they checked him for twelve different allergies. All of them came back negative. The doctor really didn't have a good answer to what was going on with Wesley except that he probably just had very sensitive skin. He didn't know why he'd thrown up with that oat cereal. I really didn't know what to do when I left there. He has to start eating solids so I bought him some wheat cereal and prayed that he'd be able to keep it down. I've been feeding it to him for two days now and he's not thrown up one time! He's loving it! The rash still comes and goes but we're praying God will take care of that as well. I believe He healed Wesley twice over now, first with whatever was going on when he had the meningitis scare and now this allergy thing to food. Twice now, the doctors have had no explaination for the negative tests. Especially the meningitis. Maybe he didn't have it and it was just some rare virus like they suggested. But then again, maybe it wasn't. We do serve a mighty big God! Wesley is eating food now with no problem so far. Another miracle!

We're Finally Moving!

2014-04-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

Just a short post! We will be moving into our new home this weekend, starting tomorrow afternoon. We'll be closing on the house at 1:00pm tomorrow! I'm not sure who's more excited, Andy and I, or the kids. :). Christian is dead set on getting a "swing with a board and rope", Audra can't wait for a big yard, and I can't wait to breath in some quiet, country air. No trucks, no people hollering next door, no engines revving at 11:00 at night, no dogs barking, no trains going through twice a night. (Actually, I don't really mind the trains. They do have a nice mid west, small town feel. But they are loud at night. Especially a certain engineer who thinks it's his job to wake the entire town at 5:00 am. No kidding, he lays on his horn, (or is it a whistle? It's LOUD anyhow) the entire stretch through town! I love going outside during the day and hearing them rumble through town, but at night? Different story. :))). You can still hear the trains at our new home, but they are off in the distance, too far to hear at night while in the house.

I've been spending the last few days packing. I've lived in 18 different houses in my lifetime and I do hope this move will be the last. I'm actually so used to moving, I'm not sure I'd know how to act living in the same house for longer than my record length of a five years residency. :). People talk about living in one place their entire lives, born there, raised there, growing old there, and dying there. It really blows my mind! I simply can't imagine that. I would like to put down some roots somewhere and raise our children there in one home. But things happen and life gets in the way, or God's plans move us around here and there, and we pull up stakes and pitch our tent someplace else. Well, the Bible does say we're pilgrims and strangers here. But maybe, we can stay in this tent longer than five years?? :). Hey, I've had a LOT of practice packing! I never forget my toothbrush anymore. :). You'd be surprised what all I can fit in an overnight bag! :). I've mastered the technique!
I will post pictures soon of the new house. Feel free to comment on my green carpet.... Kelly green carpet? Yikes! Who would do such a thing?! :)

Short update on Wesley. He is doing so much better. He hasn't run a fever since Wednesday morning and is most back to his old self. The diarrhea is hanging on and he's still a little sleepy, but there is still no more fluid buildup. It looks like whatever this was, it's just about run it's course. Praise The Lord!

God Answers Prayer

2014-04-08T21:15:00.001-07:00

   What a weekend! Many of you have heard about it and have been praying for us, for which we are very, very thankful! I want to tell you about it....
   For several days, I'd noticed that Wesley's soft spot, or fontanelle, on the top of his head seemed to be fuller than normal. At first I didn't really think much about it and figured it would go down on its own. But then, last Friday night, he woke up around 2am crying and didn't want to go back to sleep. Saturday morning, I noticed that he was running a slight fever and continued to be fussy, the latter being VERY abnormal for him. Wesley is probably the happiest baby I've ever seen! He never cries unless he's hungry or dirty. So when he insisted on being held and continued to fuss up into the night, not sleeping very well, I became worried. I also saw that his fontanelle was bulging even more and was becoming firm. Wesley would also start crying if I gently pressed on it. After finally getting him to sleep at around 10 Saturday night, I got online and researched his symptoms. Every site I found all said the same thing, "Swollen fontanelle, fever...GET TO THE ER IMMEDIATELY! There were three things that would most likely be the cause of it, Meningitis, Hydrocephalus, and one other, all three very serious and life threatening. We both began to worry and finally decided it was better to play it safe than sorry. So I woke Wesley up again, and headed to a hospital about 10 minutes away. The doctor looked at him, then left to confer with a couple other doctors. Finally, he returned and told me to keep an eye on him until Monday morning. If anything changed by then, I was to take him to his pediatrician. I left feeling only slightly relieved. By the time I got home, it was 3 am Sunday morning. Wesley woke at 7am crying as if in pain. His fever was also steadily getting higher, and his soft spot was noticeably getting bigger. When looking at him straight on, the top of his head bulged up abnormally. I was scared! Andy and I both wanted a second opinion. And fast! Andy called a fellow at church to fill in for him, then called a friend to come get the kids, and we loaded Wesley up and drove to Indianapolis, a little over an hour away to Riley Children's Hospital. As soon as we got there and told the nurse his symptoms, she went out and told a doctor. Very soon after, the doctor came in, did a quick examination, and asked a zillion questions, which we repeated again and again to many other doctors during the next couple of hours. The first doctor got a concerned look in his eye and said, "I'll be honest with you, there's only a few things that cause a bulging fontanelle, and all of them are bad. This doesn't look good. I can't give you much hope on this right now." Andy and I had heard those dreaded words before. The whole world came to a sudden, crashing halt as the news sunk in. Our baby was in serious trouble and it was very likely he wouldn't come home. If he did, he wouldn't be the same. The pressure on his brain would cause serious trouble. If we got him to the hospital fast enough to catch the infection before it did too much damage to the brain, we had a chance. But how long did it take before the damage would be done? Had we gotten here soon enough? As the doctor left us to order a CT scan, the tears began to fall. The flashbacks came flooding back. There we were again, in another hospital room, in the NICU, crying babies and children in the pods next to us, holding our baby and being told he had a serious, life threatening problem. Yes, we'd been through this before. I had thought I had remembered the pain, the agony of hearing those words, but can never get used to it. I held Wesley tight in arms and kissed his bulging head as the tears dampened his soft hair. I heard Andy whisper, "I don't know if we can do this again..."   The agony tore our hearts out, the wondering how long we had with him, how bad it was, and would he ever be the same if he survived this. It is not an easy thing. Its a blow that hits you in the pit of the stomach and leaves you sick and weak. Andy and I are nobody special, but we had gone through this before, and we saw God's hand working in Rebekah's life and death. We had experienced the peace that God gives in the midst of the storm and knew without a doubt that His ways are better than ours. As hard as it was losing Rebekah, if we had to do it again, we would have given her back to God a second time as we did the first. And this very thought was racing though our minds as we digested this news for the second time. With tears streaming down our faces, we gave our son to God to do with as He willed, and braced ourselves for the worst. His ways are best, NO MATTER WHAT. God has a reason for everything He does, and its for our good and His glory. I had a calm within my heart, and the peace that is only found in Jesus Christ flooded my very soul! I knew that no matter what happened, God would walk with us. He promised never to leave us or forsake us, and we had tried and proven this promise to be true with Rebekah. We were holding onto it for all we were worth. Its only by His strength you can make it through something like this!
    Wesley got a CT scan done on his head, and some fluid drawn from his spine for testing for meningitis. It would take 24 hours before we would know anything from the spinal tests, though. Wesley was top priority on the NICU floor and the doctors were racing the clock to find something definite so that they could start pumping antibiotics into him. They were pretty confident it was meningitis, and finally decided to give him the antibiotics anyway, even before the test results came back. Andy walked out of the room once and saw several doctors huddled over a computer screen quietly discussing Wesley's condition. Three nurses tried to get an IV started in him, but couldn't find a vein in his chubby little arms and legs. They even used and ultrasound to help guide the needle and still failed to get a vein. Poor Wesley learned very quickly that the cold alcohol swabs meant pain shortly thereafter and he would begin howling before the needle ever met skin! He also quickly learned that anyone wearing white was a mortal enemy and was given a wary evil eye as he watched every move they made when they entered the room. He soon decided the safest place was in mama's arms and refused to let me put him down. So I spent all day Sunday and all that night sitting upright in a chair holding him while he fitfully slept. I didn't mind. As I sat there through the long night hours, I remembered another time five years ago doing the very same thing. Not for just one night, but six long, bone weary nights watching a vigil over my dying infant. I wouldn't sleep. I couldn't. I wanted to be there when she died. I wasn't going to miss it. So I sat and waited and prayed and wept through the night hours. I would do it again. Five years later, I sat and I waited for news, and I prayed and wept. And I hugged my baby boy close, loving him in a way you can only do when you think you might lose him. They suddenly become so precious and you do whatever you have to to be there for them, to comfort them, to shield them from their pain. So I sat and rocked him late into the night.
   After many tests, the doctor came in and told us that with each hour that passed, our chances that he did not have meningitis were getting better. So far, nothing had shown up in the spinal cultures. One by one the blood tests also came back negative. By morning, the news came that meningitis was ruled out, as were the other two life threatening illnesses. The doctors concluded that Wesley had some strange virus that caused a fluid build up on his brain. The pressure had begun giving him headaches, and that, on top of the fevers and flu like symptoms, well, no wonder he was so miserable. The doctor said it was very rare that babies have the fluid build up for basically no reason, but they wanted to see him back in a month to check on him to see if the fluid was staying at a normal level. When they drew the fluid from Wesley's spine for testing, the pressure in his head eased and his soft spot returned to normal with is slight pulsing indention.
   They went ahead and updated Wesley's vaccinations, and said we could take him home. The virus would last anywhere from 5 to 10 days, but that he should be fine after it ran its course.
   Our hearts were filled to bursting! It was if our baby had been snatched back from the grave in a way. The doctors really didn't have much of an answer as to why it all happened the way it did. For Wesley to fool every doctor on the floor, and then nothing to show up in the tests? Just makes you wonder....
   I like to think that perhaps God heard some prayers going up for our family and decided to answer and give us back our baby boy. Our children in truth belong to God. He entrusted them to us for raising, sort of like a loan from Heaven. I think He likes it when we give them back to Him. He chose to take Rebekah back. And He chose to let us keep Wesley for awhile longer. Oh how I praise him for answered prayers!   How I thank Him for my children! When you lose them, they become so so precious! Sometimes we tend to forget that they truly are gifts from God. We get frustrated with them, get weary of constantly breaking up fights, or those numerous bedtimes excuses they can dream up! But a little jolt like the one we experienced this past weekend will make even that 10 trip up the stairs with a drink of water, or a forgotten teddy bear seem a little more special. You may even smile as you watch them snuggle back down into their blankets with a contented sigh. You might just be a little more patient when you kiss an imaginary boo boo for the umpteenth time, or wipe another stinky bottom. Yes, they are precious! And I am guilty of taking my children for granted as well. Two of those jolts in one lifetime is enough, though, and I hope that I have learned my lesson! I can't take too many more of them! Whew!
   We are home now, and even though Wesley is still pretty miserable with the virus, the fever, and vaccinations, I think we'll make it just fine. He's sleeping a lot, but is terribly happy to be home and away from all those terrible people in white jackets! He visibly relaxed as soon as we walked in the door yesterday. He was smiling through red, droopy eyes at everyone who looked at him, and even played for a little while on the floor. He hardly even fussed when I put him down in his bed. Yes, he's happy to be home.... and so am I.

   We thank every one of you for your prayers! Prayer can truly move the hand of God!!!   He is so good to us!

Safe In The Arms Of Jesus

2014-04-01T11:40:00.002-07:00

   Yesterday morning, my tiny unborn nephew was carried by the angels to the arms of his Heavenly Father. My sister, at four months along, miscarried her tiny infant. She was able to hold her baby for awhile after he was born, and his picture is engraved forever on her mind. She and BJ have named their little son Sean Jeffery Cormier and are longing for the day they will see him again in Heaven. Jessica is doing okay and is resting and trying to recover from the miscarriage. Please pray for the Cormier family as they face the coming days, the painful memories, and their precious loss. Folks sometimes tend to make light of a miscarriage saying, "At least you didn't carry full term.". I've heard people say things like, "She needs to get over it. It was just a miscarriage."   While I agree that you need to get up, dust yourself off and move on with life, that you can't dwell forever on the child that was lost, at the same time, the pain is VERY real whether the baby was barely formed or whether he was nine months brand new. A mother becomes attached to her child from the first moment he begins to grow within her. She begins to plan, to dream, to fall desperately in love. And when that little life is torn from her in an instant, it is devastating no matter how or when it happens. I hurt for those who make light of a miscarriage almost as much as I hurt for the mother of the lost child. You can never really understand the love of a mother until you've had a child of your own. That overwhelming love that would make you lay down your own life in an instant for your child, even a tiny unborn infant. A powerful love that makes you want to shield your baby from the pain and struggles of life. Its a love that tears your heart out, makes you sick to your stomach when you have to watch your child struggle and hurt. And when your child is taken from you in an instant, a big piece of your heart goes with him. You are never the same afterwards. You understand death. You understand the pain of losing someone you love dearly. You understand how fragile life really is. You now realize that you are not invincible. This actually happened to you, and could possibly happen again. There is the fear of "will I have to go through this again with another child? Another pregnancy?" There are the heart wrenching, agonizing sobs in the dark night hours that no one but God ever sees. The pleas for grace and mercy as you face the days ahead. Many times, we have no idea what someone is going through. You don't see the pain beneath the smile that a mother will wear in public. The pain that will last for months after her child is gone from her. The pain of burying her dreams at the grave site along with the body of her tiny child. And if this is not enough, your body itself won't let you forget the loss. Have you ever heard of Phantom Pains when someone gets a limb amputated? I found out that that phenomenon is VERY real. I experienced phantom kicks for about 3 months after Rebekah died. They were very real, and very strong kicks as if I still carried a 7-9 month old baby! The pain of loss hits hard every time the mother hears a baby cry. And she reacts to those cries and feelings for months until her body has healed. Its not just your mind screaming out the loss of the child, but also your body. In other words, it just takes time, and LOTS of it! So, please, have patience with those grieving mothers, even when you see their tears months down the road. They can't hide them all the time. Some days are worst then others. My own birthday, the day Rebekah died, is still hard for me and its been five years. Time eventually heals the raw wounds, but the memories will last forever! And sometimes, memories will still bring tears with them.
   But in the midst of all this pain, and the memories is the amazing grace, peace, and mercy of a loving Heavenly Father who knows very much what its like to see a son suffer. He knows of the pain more than anyone else in this world. His love and amazing peace is like a warm cloak that wraps you up and keeps you safe from the storm that rages within your heart, mind, and body. The joy of His presence makes your heart bubble up within you to the point that you feel like you will explode! That joy makes you rejoice while you hold the body of your child, knowing that he is truly safe in the arms of God and that you simply hold an empty shell. The peace of God that floods your very soul will give you the strength to walk away from the grave, dust yourself off, and move on with a smile. And yes, you must move on. You cannot dwell on the one you lost. You must give your child to God, trust His will, and continue to live your life for His glory. You cannot dwell on the past and what you don't have. It will ruin you! God's will is perfect, no matter what happens. He knows, and he loves you more than you'll ever know. His touch is loving and gentle, even when it hurts. He does care and He will support you and carry you every step of the way, if you let Him.
   My sister and her family are strong, and they will survive this tragedy. Her spirit is sweet in spite of her loss, and her trust in God is unmovable. But, still, please pray for her and her family. The tears will still fall when no one is around and its at those times when she will need to feel the prayers of the family of God. It was those prayers that kept Andy and I going five years ago, and the strength of those prayers were felt for months after our own baby's death. So now, I ask you to pray for my sister as she faces the loss of her baby boy.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me..."

So, so true!!!

Audra

2014-03-27T08:48:00.000-07:00

Last night, a few minutes before church started, I was coming out the bathroom when I heard a scream from outside, and behind the door. I quickly looked back there and saw Audra with her fingers stuck in the crack on the hinge side. As I opened the bathroom door, it had crushed her tiny fingers and didn't let up until I closed it behind me. One look at her ring finger and I knew it was broken! A sharp piece of white was poking through the skin of her finger halfway between the first knuckle and the end. Her tiny finger had that sickening, abnormal dented look on both sides of it. I grabbed up my diaper bag, Wesley, and Audra and drove to the hospital. A friend from church also rode with me, which was a huge blessing seeing as how she took care of Wesley while I was with Audra. The doctor took one look at her finger and said it looked like it was crushed, and ordered and X-ray. Audra did SO well. She'd quit crying but was still holding her little hands together as drove to the hospital, babying her finger. She insisted on walking instead of being carried down the halls, and marched along beside me with her head held high, saying hi to all the nurses as she passed, and didn't even flinch as the giant X-ray machine loomed over her tiny hand. She quickly won the hearts of every one of the nurses! :) One nurse said that she's never had a two yr old behave so well! I was so proud of her! (Now, if I can only figure out why she was so brave with a broken finger, but acts like the sky is falling when her brother bumps her???) The X-ray showed that her finger was indeed fractured, but the bones had not separated. The hard piece of white fragment was actually her finger nail protruding through the skin. I didn't realize the nail was hard that deep into the skin. I guess you learn something new every day. :) Since there were no bone splinters and the break was clean, there was nothing the doctor could do for her. Audra sure is babying that finger though. This morning it was swollen and purple, but she's playing like normal. Every now and then I hear her howl in pain as her finger gets bumped in some way or another. But life goes on. :) She may lose the nail, but I hope it won't be a permanent loss.

The picture doesn't really do her finger justice. The underneath side is pretty swollen.

As for Wesley, the dermatologist is referring him to see an allergist at the children's hospital in Indianapolis. The allergists there are supposed to be really, really good, so hopefully we'll know something definite about his allergy within the next couple weeks. I've spent the morning on the phone trying to get him an appointment.

It looks like we could close on our house in the next two or three weeks. I'm so excited!!! We still have to get the test results for the septic inspection, but so far everything else has passed. I'm now faced with the massive job of getting our home packed up and ready to move! Where do you start??? As usual, I plan on "thinning down" on our belongings before the move. I am determined that nothing extra is going to pass the threshold of our new home!!!

We have some good missionary friends who've been through our home many times, the Cleghorn family. Though most of their children are much older than mine, Christian admires them immensely! The Cleghorns could be classified as his heroes. You can't go wrong having missionaries be your kids heroes! The other day Christian was looking through a book and saw a picture of a Texas Longhorn . He ran to me and asked, "Mama, is that a Cleghorn?" :)

A Day At The Park

2014-03-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

Its VERY rare that Andy takes a day off and we go somewhere as a family. Not because he doesn't want to, but simply because he can't. He's so busy with church work and there is always something that needs to be done, people to call, or visits to make. But yesterday was so nice, and he decided to take a break and take the family somewhere to enjoy the beautiful 65' weather!!! We packed a picnic bag and the kids up and drove to the park. We have the most wonderful "old fashioned" park about a 10 min drive away. Its got the old metal playground toys that I used to enjoy when I was a kid. The big plastic play places are okay, but there's nothing like the tall metal slides, the old, rough board see-saws, and paint chipped merry-go-rounds. I spread and old quilt on the grass, gave the kids a baggie full of snacks, and turned them loose. They had a blast! I held my breath when Christian climbed to the top of the very tall metal slide without a hesitation. (Did my mom do the same when it was me at his age?) Andy and I got to sit and talk and enjoy the kids together for an afternoon. I cherish those times! Life gets so consuming at times, and its good to just slow down a little and enjoy the blessing that God's given us.

I'm taking Wesley to the dermatologist tomorrow. We're still battling this rash, and now he's developed some new symptoms. Every time I feed him solids, he throws up violently and repeatedly. Last Wednesday, I fed him some cereal with apples, and two hours later he threw up four times in the space of a half hour. Once he turned blue and I had to flip him over and pound on his back before he threw up again and his color returned. He was wore out and slept most of the day. He was fine until Saturday when I fed him cereal with pears. Two hours later, he began violently throwing up again. I did some research online and found a certain allergy/syndrome that matches the symptoms he has, including the rash. I think its all connected. Some of the big trigger foods are rice, oat, wheat, and barley baby cereals, and cows milk and sometimes soy. I already suspected he had an allergy to cows milk because every time I drink a glass of it, he breaks out within the next several hours. The article I was reading says that the symptoms are milder when the trigger foods are passed from the mother than when they are received directly into the baby's system in the form of solid food. That would explain the rash, and then the more severe symptoms of vomiting a couple hours after eating solids. And every trigger food has a different reaction time! The rash always shows up about a day after the milk gets in Wesley's system. And the cereal causes the vomiting almost exactly two hours after eating it. Some trigger foods can have a delayed reaction of 4, 8, 12 hours etc before the vomiting starts. All his symptoms match this allergy. The article said that many babies will outgrow it by the time they are three, but some will continue to struggle for years with the trigger foods. Its a rare condition, and can be serious due to the severe vomiting, which can cause dehydration and shock in infants. This probably explained Wesley turning blue during his third round of vomiting. I'm going to talk to the dermatologist tomorrow and see if we can't get referred to another allergist to see if this is indeed what Wesley has. It could be a long road for him as we try to find what exactly he is allergic to. One thing going for us though is that since he's just now starting out on food, we can start from scratch as we introduce one new thing at a time, whereas if he were an older child, it would be very difficult finding the trigger foods if he already had so much of it already in his system. For now, I just have to watch what food I eat, and slowly introduce solids to Wesley very slowly and try to avoid the reactions as best as we can.

No, he wasn't posing. :)

How did children survive on such "dangerous" toys??? :) Hey, these old paint-chipped, metal slides were WONDERFUL! Christian was more afraid of plastic, covered tunnel slide!

I remember when I was in first grade at a little school in Ohio, our recess was at the same time as the high school student's. We used to love it when the big boys pushed us little kids on the merry-go-rounds!

Remember the thrill of feeling like you were going to fly off at any minute?? :)


An awful picture, but oh well. I never boasted on being photogenic. :) Its for Mom. She's very forgiving... :) My excuse...it was a windy day, selfies do not compliment me, and the background was all wrong....

Christian has never met a stranger. He and this little fellow became playmates within seconds of saying, "Hi". (Did they even say that?)

Ok, he won't need a ball glove when he plays catch in the back yard....

Loading up after a fun day at the park

This and That...

2014-03-22T06:53:00.000-07:00

One of the prayers at the top of my list is that my children get saved young and grow to serve God all their lives. It seems that God is working on Christian's little three year old heart. He's been asking lots of questions about God, Heaven and Hell, Jesus dying on the cross, salvation, and where people go when they die, etc, and then thinks about it for awhile after we answer those questions. Many times, he'll stop and ask us a question right in the middle of some activity or childish game he's playing. Yesterday, I was rocking Wesley in the living room while Christian and Audra played. Christian climbed into the back of his big dump truck and sat on his knees, bowed his head and prayed, "Lord, please save me and Audra." Then he looked up at me and asked, "Does it take a long time for God to save you after you pray?" I wanted to cry! Such a sweet, innocent question, but one that was so sincere. I don't think he fully understands just yet, but he's close. God is working on his little heart and I long for the day when the "lights" of understanding come on and he accepts Christ into his heart. He's only three and we are not pushing him into a prayer, but at the same time, we are answering his questions and encouraging him in that direction. He asks almost every night for the "story about Jesus dying on the cross" at bedtime. It won't be long!

Playing at the neighborhood playground

Rice Krispy Treats with an Healthy Twist

3 Tbls butter melted
1 16 oz. Jet Puffed Mini Marshmallows
6 C. Rice Krispies cereal
1/4 C. milled flax
1/2 C. sunflower seeds
3/4 C. quick cooking oats.

* Melt butter in a large bowl. Add the marshmallows and cook in microwave for about a min and a half. Stir thoroughly, then add the remaining ingredients. Scoop out into a buttered 9" square dish, and press down with buttered hands.

"What is truth?"

2014-03-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

I've recently been doing a study on "truth" and have been so encouraged by it! There are so many verses in the Bible about "truth", how we need to walk with it, hide it in our hearts, rejoice in it, love in truth, etc. "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." (3 John 4) has become my daily prayer. I pray that God will build a hedge around my children and that they will grow up "walking in truth". But just what do these verses mean? Like Pilate, I asked myself, "What is truth?"
Well, obviously, the Word of God is truth (Psalms. 119:142, "...thy law is truth.") The Bible says we are to hide this Word in our hearts so that we might not sin against the Lord. We are to memorize it, study it, search the scriptures, saturate ourselves with it. No one can destroy His Word. People have tried to get rid of the Bible and have failed. Psalms 100:5 says, "his truth endureth to all generations." This "truth" will also lead us. (Psalms 43:3, "O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me".) The Word is also a light to guide our path.

   But what about "Rejoice in truth" (1 Corinthians 13:6), "Love in truth" (1 John 3:18), "the Truth will set you free" (John 8:32)?   How do you rejoice in truth, love in truth, etc?   Well, not only is the Word of God truth, but also God Himself is Truth! (John 1:1 "The Word was with God, and the Word WAS God.") There are many verses that talk about "the God of truth", or the truth being "in Jesus", (Ephesians 4:21 "... as the truth is in Jesus".) And one that covers it all, John 14:6 says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life..."
   So the Word is truth. We ought to memorize it, hide it in our hearts, study it, love it. But also the Lord Jesus Christ himself is truth. John 8:32 says, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." If you know Christ, he'll make you free! Free from what? Well, most importantly, we are free from Hell and an eternal death. That one is automatic when we accept Him into our hearts. But he'll also make you free from many other things as well. Some of which we choose to stay in bondage to. Things like anger, bitterness, fear, sorrow, confusion, hurt, etc. So many Christian are confused, not knowing which direction to go, how to handle certain situations, or wonder why God would let bad things happen to them. They wallow in sorrow, and fear, and hurt. They become stagnant in their Christian walk. They dwell on the past, or things that people said to them in anger or spite. Some Christians are simply confused as to what God wants them to do, where He wants them to go. They are constantly trying new things hoping that its the "right thing" that God is pleased with.   This is bondage! The Bible says that "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." So why then do we struggle so much with discouragement, insecurities, and confusion?
   Perhaps because there is a shortage of the Truth in our hearts. I find that when I slack off on my Bible reading, I begin to have problems with these things. When my walk with God is not what it should be, I struggle more. Simply because I'm trying to do it all on my own without the guiding light of truth to lead me.
   So, my prayer that my children will walk in truth? That not only means that I need to teach them the scriptures, but I also need to teach them how to walk with the Truth itself, the Lord Jesus Christ. It needs to be on the inside and the outside! So many Christian know a lot of Bible, but their walk with God is lacking. The two need to go hand in hand. When we have the scriptures filling our hearts and minds, and we are cultivating our love for the Lord, we will then automatically love others as He loves them. We will rejoice in truth because the Bible says that "...in His presence is fullness of joy". And we will truly be free!   Oh the peace that Jesus gives!
   So what is truth? Truth was standing right in front of Pilate and yet he missed it. How often have we had the truth at our finger tips and we continue to struggle along living an absolutely miserable existence of our own choosing simply because we won't reach out and take it. How many Bibles does the average Christian have in their house? I own several myself! And yet, many times those Bibles are the biggest dust collectors of most homes today. God has given us the truth, and yet we search every place but there for our answers. Its so simple! This is the answer so many search for! If we will only reach out and take this truth into our hearts. Oh the peace, joy, and freedom we can experience!

   We had a great time in TN last week! Andy really enjoyed the Pastor's School at Cornerstone Baptist Church, and I had fun hitting the local thrift store and even a yard sale. Imagine a yard sale in the middle of March! Ok, I've been in the north too long. :) Its still cold up here! It was nice seeing family again!   The kids did great on the trip home, and even Wesley endured the 7 hour trip with hardly any fussing.

Audra looks so comfortable!

We'd taken the kids shoes off in the van and when we got home, I told Christian to stay off the grass so that he wouldn't get his socks cold and wet. He ran to the house by way of the side walk, dropped off his load of stuffed animals, blanket, and a few other treasures from the long car ride. As I rounded the garage with my own armload of things, I noticed Christian playing with this snow shovel IN THE GRASS. I knew his shoes were buried somewhere in the van, and as I opened my mouth to scold him for disobeying, I noticed that his feet had suddenly grown drastically! My reprimand turned into giggles as Andy came around the corner of the garage and saw his nice shiny dress shoes out there in that wet muddy grass. Leave it to a 3 yr. old to come up with a safe way around the rules. :) Hey, he WAS wearing shoes! And his socks were dry as crackers, so everything was okay, right? :)

Another healthy kid friendly recipe! :)

Applesauce Muffins
1 1/2 C. flour
1 C. quick cooking oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 C. applesauce
1/2 C. buttermilk
1/2 C. squash puree
1/2 C. firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 C. oil
1 egg

Topping:
2/3 C. quick cooking oats
1/4 C. firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbls butter, softened

*Combine flour, oats, baking powder and soda, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, combine applesauce with the milk, squash puree, sugar, oil, and egg. Add the flour mixture slowly and stir until just moistened. Batter will be lumpy. Divide batter evenly into greased muffin cups. Combine all the topping ingredients in a small bowl, and sprinkle on top of muffins. Place muffin pan into a 375' oven for about 20 min or til muffins spring back when touched. Turn muffins out onto rack to cool.

Our House in the Country!

2014-03-12T13:43:00.001-07:00

   Our offer on the house in the country has been accepted! We had to do a little bit of painting around the windows in order for the house to pass the inspection, so yesterday we spent the day over there doing that and thoroughly enjoying the 65' weather! What a beautiful day!!! And today its windy and snowing again! I think God gave us a special day yesterday so that we could get the painting done and the inspections in progress. We'll be in TN the rest of this week, and if we hadn't been able to get that work done, it would have put off the house inspection until sometime next week. Instead, the Realtors will try to get it done within the next couple days. The kids absolute LOVE the place! The yard is big and beautiful, with lots of trees, some flat land in the sun for a huge garden, and a perfect hill for sledding! The house is actually sitting on a hill and the view around it is stunning with fields, rolling hills, pastures, and even some "mountains" in the distance. Its somewhat breezy up there on that hill, but the trees help block a lot of it. I'm sure we'll greatly appreciate that breeze in the heat of summer! Andy ran the hose out back for about three hours yesterday to test the water in the well. It never did slack off in the least, so I guess the well has a good supply of water. Hopefully, it'll pass the inspection as well!
   The house has three bedrooms, with possibly a fourth, two full baths, a kitchen, dining room, "sun" room, living room, LOTS of closets, full basement, and a huge garage. There's also a 20 by 40 ish barn and a small garden shed. It was built in the 70's and is in great condition. The lady who lived there before was super super neat and clean, and you can find evidence all over the place of her caring touch. The carpet is original, and you can't even tell where a piece of furniture was sitting! There are no matted or slightly dirty "paths" on it through the house, and no discoloration or fading at all. In fact, it looks brand new. Only draw back....its green. Oh, not just ANY green....but bright Kelly green!!!   I've been trying to figure out just how in the world I'm going to match ANYTHING with it from furniture to pictures on the wall! Google images, here I come!!! Its the best carpet they ever made, and time has proven that, but why for goodness sake, did that lady pick GREEN!   My decorating skills will definitely be put to a serious test! My ever practical husband..."Why would we want to tear it out? It'll last us a lifetime."   Uh, yeah.... Makes sense....   Good ol' practical sense. BUT ITS BRIGHT GREEN! Oh well. We can always look on the bright (did I say bright?) side. It'll be a great conversation piece, ice breaker, you name it! Green carpet can be rather handy when you think about it. We all have had really awkward company moments when you are scrambling, searching the past, tearing your brain apart trying to come up with something interesting to say to some terribly shy or quiet visitor. (Or has this only happened to me???) "Hey, how do you like my green carpet?", "Did you bring sunglasses? Good! You'll need them before I can let you in.", "They say the grass is always greener on the 'inside'", "Yeah, we love grass. We decided to grow a little extra in the house.", Yep, great conversation piece. Never fail ice breaker.   Now, how many of you want to come on over just to see my beautiful carpet? :) Hey, maybe we'll have constant company due to our colorful floor covering. Blessing in disguise? :)
   In all seriousness, I can live with the carpet. We've decided that we can live with just about anything in order to see our children grow up in the country, playing outside, getting dirty, climbing trees, planting a garden, riding their bikes, sitting outside on the back porch counting the stars under an endless evening sky, roasting marshmallows by a fire. The things you just can't do in town. Oh, how I've missed the country life! As I watched the kids run and play all day long yesterday, I caught Andy's eye and knew we were thinking the same thing. There's no amount of money, time, hardship, or struggle that would keep us from giving this wonderful life to our children. They will be better for it. Its worth a little hard work and sacrifice in order to see them enjoy the simple country life. I thank God for letting us have the opportunity to buy this house. I pray that it will pass all the inspections and that we can be moved in very soon!!!   The well especially needs to pass.
   Our Revival went very well. Bro. Buster Kinsey did an outstanding job! Bro. Schleckty had a huge selection of magnetic scripture signs to choose from, and our people bought many of them. I'm looking forward to seeing them on cars, doors, refrigerators, etc. :) I got a few with our new home in mind. :)
   We're heading to TN early tomorrow morning before dawn. It'll take us about 7-8 hours to get there. I sure hope Wesley does good on the trip! Andy is looking forward to going to the Pastor School at Cornerstone Baptist Church on Thursday and Friday. And I am hoping to visit a thrift store or two. :) Maybe I can find something green to match my carpet....but we won't go there again.

View from the side of the house

View from the side of the house.

Back yard

I love the concrete bench under that big tree!

Pardon my make shift windbreak. :)

Taking a break

Audra had some thick mud in her dump truck, and as she drove past, I heard her say to no one in particular, "Mud Exciting!" :)

Playing with her "exciting" mud. :) She amazingly kept her clothes clean, well, that is until Christian soaked her with the hose.

Secret Ingredient!

2014-03-08T14:31:00.001-08:00

   I've recently begun a quest to getting my family to eating healthy. We've hit the picky stage with the kids, and to be honest, I really don't know what encouraged it. I always make my kids try everything on their plates. I think Audra was born with a sweet tooth though! Around here, desserts are a special treat, and candy is limited to maybe one a day, and we hardly ever have Kool-Aid or soft drinks in the house. So, we are actually well on our way to having a healthy eating style, but I also realize we can improve in some areas. A friend of mine recently gave me the most wonderful book called Deceptively Delicious. Its a cookbook written by a doctor who got tired of the constant battle at the table, trying to get her three children to eat their veggies. She began "hiding" them in food her children liked...and it worked! Soon, she had her kids eating everything from squash to beets cleverly hidden in the most unlikely foods such as brownies and chicken nuggets! And her family never knew the difference.
   After Andy began talking about changing our eating habits, I sat down and read the cookbook and poured over the recipes. How in the world can you hide a vegetable in a dessert? Or even in a main dish to where a smart husband can't detect it? Sometimes, I wonder if my two and three yr olds have built in veggie detectors.
   I decided to give it a try and see for myself.   I pulled out my Magic Bullet and have been giving it a workout for the past couple days making batch after batch of puree. So far I've done peas, squash, sweet potato, apples, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, and bananas. I plan on doing pears, green beans, cantaloupe, pineapple, beets, and peaches. I have started Wesley on solids, and have always made my own baby food in the past, so now is the perfect time to set some aside for him as well. I have a food saver machine and have been packaging the purees in half cup portions.
   Tonight, I decided to put my family to the test. I told the kids I was going to make them a special treat after supper. When Andy saw me pull a small veggie puree pack from the freezer, I could see the uncertainty in his eyes. My first attempt was milk shakes. I HAD to try it because it seemed too crazy! How can you possibly hide a veggie in a milk shake. I figured if I could fool the family with this one, the main dishes would be a breeze.
   I blended up the ingredients in my Bullet and gave Christian and Audra their cups. I watched in amazement as they gulped down that shake without hardly a breath of air! I poured me a small amount and tasted it. I couldn't believe it! It was wonderful! Andy looked quite skeptical as I handed him a glass. The kids hung on me like ants on honey begging for more, and I knew I'd passed the test when Andy's eyebrows shot up and he said, "Wow, that's amazingly good! Can I have another glass!" The secret ingredient? Sweet Potato! Hey, give it a try and see for yourself!
   I also made a chocolate cake today with beets and milled flax in it. You wouldn't have known it! It tasted no different than a regular cake. So my quest begins!

For those out there who are brave enough to try them, here's the recipes.

Chocolate Milk Shake
1 1/4 C. milk
1/2 C. pureed sweet potatoe
2 Tbls. chocolate syrup
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
   *Blend thoroughly in Magic Bullet or blender.

Unbeetable Chocolate Cake
1 Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake mix
1 C. pureed beets (I used canned beets)
1-2 Tbls milled flax seed.

   *Make cake mix according to package directions. Add the beets and flax seed. Pour batter into a prepared bundt pan and bake for about 30 mins or til cake springs back.   I drizzled mine with a cream cheese glaze icing and chopped pecans.

   Its actually fun trying to find ways of hiding these veggies in our daily meals. After making that milk shake, I realized that my two toddlers just downed a half cup of sweet potatoes without a single complaint!    (Thanks, Kathy!!! :)

    Last night was the first night of our Revival. Bro. Buster Kinsey did an outstanding job! I was in and out with the kids (Wesley is beginning to chatter, Christian had to make an emergency trip to the bathroom, Audra likes a change of scenery and doesn't like sitting with someone else when I have to take one of the other children out so she insists on following me out... So most of the time, if one has to go out, I'm followed by the whole clan. People don't really realize how hard it is taking care of more than one child in church by yourself when your husband happens to be the preacher. :) When you're holding one, the other two seem to know that your arms are busy and that you can't do anything about their squirming. AH! But, that's all beside the point. :) This is a stage that will pass eventually, and someday I will be the one sitting there "remembering those days" as I see a young mother herd her gaggle of ducklings repeatedly out the double doors. :) I always tell Christian to "walk beside me quietly". Well, sometimes he takes that to extremes and creeps along at a snails pace trying ever so hard not to make a sound as he tip toes back to our pew. One day, he was doing this WAY TOO SLOW tip toeing, concentrating so hard on being quiet, that he ran smack into the back of a pew with a resounding THUMP! Well, so much for being quiet! Everyone turned to look at the four of us...me precariously holding Wesley, while trying to rub the knot off a disoriented Christian's head and trying to steer him in the right direction with my free hand and frantically whispering commands at a lagging and terribly distracted Audra who is notorious for flying off to La La Land at the drop of the hat. So, this is our routine at church these days. Oh, I've learned to have great patience with moms with small children! Especially when their husband is the preacher or missionary presenting his ministry!
   ANYWAY, :) From the bits and pieces I heard of the service last night, Bro. Buster did a wonderful job. He will be preaching again tonight and again on Sunday. Bro. Steve Schleckty presented his scripture sign ministry as well last night and I believe he'll be preaching one of the services on Sunday, too. Today, I had the wonderful privilege of having Bro. Buster's family along with two families from the church over to our house for lunch today, 13 people in all. I made two pans of lasagna, two homemade pizzas, garlic bread, a salad, and two desserts. I love feeding a crowd! The more people in the house, the merrier. :) We had a great time visiting. Tomorrow, the preachers and their families will come for lunch again, along with another family from church.
   We had our offer on the house in the country accepted!!! So, it looks like we'll be moving soon, depending on the inspections on the house, well, septic, etc. I'm so excited!
   We are also making a trip to TN next week, Thurs-Sat. for the Pastor's School at Cornerstone Baptist Church. The kids and I will stay with family while Andy stays at the church and enjoys the fellowship with other the preachers. We're all looking forward to the trip. (I think... :) Its always fun traveling a long distance with children. Though, I must add, Christian and Audra have always done VERY well in the car. Wesley hasn't had a chance to try anything longer than an hour or two, so we'll see how that goes. :) He normally enjoys the ride as much as the older two.
   Well, I need to go get the kids dressed for church! I've had a terribly busy week, and it looks like another one's in the forecast. :)

Wesley enjoying a warm day outside. It was actually his FIRST, come to think of it. :)

We had a couple days this past week in the low 50's. I took the kids outside to play and Audra ran up to me giggling and said, "Excising! Outside! FUN!" Her hand on her face was so girly!

You'd think after the winter we had, these two would play with anything but ice! This big chunk took forever to melt and the kids had fun chipping away on it. Amazingly they didn't get wet. A complete miracle!

Its Been Awhile!

2014-03-03T09:12:00.001-08:00

   We've had a pretty busy week, and I've not had time to blog lately. Last Tuesday was our Ladies Meeting at church so I spent two days getting ready for that. One of our ladies gave her testimony. Her sweet spirit in the midst of trial has been a blessing!
   This weekend is our Revival. Bro. Buster Kinsey will be our main speaker, and Bro. Steve Schleckty will also be here presenting his scripture sign ministry. Both of these men are a real blessing and we are looking forward to having them here! I will be feeding everyone on Saturday and Sunday and am looking forward to a house full of activity. (I think :). Bro. Buster will be bringing his family so Christian and Audra will have three little playmates to keep them entertained.
   We made an offer on a house in the country last week. The lady countered, and we placed another...and our final offer. We haven't heard yet if the owner will take it. It seems as if she's trying to get way more out of the house than its worth and she's not moving on the price much. We are beginning to doubt that we'll get the place, but we'll see. It needs quite a bit of work, and she doesn't seem to realize that. But its her place and she's got the right to ask however much she wants. We just won't be her buyers if that's the case. Hopefully we'll hear something today or tomorrow.
   A couple days last week got into the upper 40's. Oh it was so nice!!! You could almost smell spring in the air! I took the kids on a ride in their little red wagon. We walked down to CVS and I let them pick out a toy, then we stopped at the local grocery store for a couple small things, and then we played in the gazebo in the town square next to the courthouse for a while. Christian wanted to climb on the giant cannon out front, but I wondered if some folks would frown on that, so we moved on. :) It was a good day, and we all enjoyed getting out into some "warm" sunshine. I hear that this winter has been the hardest around here in almost 25 years. Supposedly we are within an inch or so of passing the record snowfall in one winter! And we'll be getting that inch and more before this winter is over, if we haven't already! A couple more inches of snow fell during church yesterday morning and then again in the evening. They are saying we're going to get hit with a few more storms this month as well. I hope this weekend during the revival isn't' too bad.

The Ladies Meeting

Wesley chews on EVERYTHING these days. He recently discovered chewable socks!

Christian begged to help me do laundry. So I taught him how to fold towels.

Not a bad job for a three yr old's first try!

Playing Church

Christian Preaching:)

Spring is in the Air!

2014-02-22T07:58:00.000-08:00

   Its been in the 40's the past couple days! Oh, its been wonderful! It doesn't even feel cold anymore! :) Today is so bright and sunny and most of the snow is melted off. I looked out the window this morning and thought it must be at least in the 60's! An early spring morning. But when I opened the door, I discovered my eyes were playing tricks on me. Its still cold out there. But, the birds are singing, and to me, that's the first sign of Spring! It makes me want to run outside and take a deep breath of cool Spring air. There's a certain clean smell in Spring. Everything is brand new and so fresh. I love Spring! Its right around the corner!
   I had to do some shopping yesterday and took the kids with me. We've all had a bad case of cabin fever lately and I knew the kids needed to work off some energy. But just what do you do in the middle of winter, when you live in town? There's nothing to do! So I gave in and did the only thing I could think of. I actually took the kids to MacDonalds. I have this thing with MacDonalds. Their food is lousy and the only way they can get people in there to eat it is to build Play Places for the kids. I can't remember the last time I ate there. I avoid MacDonalds. I'd rather not eat than eat there. (ok, personal opinion. :) But, WHAT DO YOU DO WITH TWO TODDLERS WHO NEED SOME EXERCISE, and the only place to go is that big wonderful Play Place at the local MacDonalds?? So, while we were in town, I broke down and dragged myself in there. What a mother won't do for her children!!! :) The kids were so excited they could hardly eat. I didn't force them. The kids played for a little over an hour and by the time we left, Christian had made friends with just about every little boy there! Probably couldn't tell me a single name though if I asked. I love it how children can play all day with another child and never get their name. :) The kids wore themselves out and Audra just about fell asleep in the shopping cart at Walmart afterwards. It was a good day, and we all enjoyed getting out. It always takes so much longer to get anything done when you have to haul two toddlers and an infant in a car seat every where you go, but when they are not with me, I find that I miss their chatter and constant questions.
   Andy submitted the paperwork to get a loan on a house in the country. We're waiting to hear from the agent handling it. It looks like we'll be able to get a real good loan! Next step...hope that the seller will take our offer! I pray we can be in a house before time to plant a garden!
   I've started Wesley on some fruit. He's got to take an herb to help with this rash problem of his, but the stuff absolutely tastes horrible! I gave him a drop of it the other day and he about came off the floor. So I tasted it and its got a terrible bitter, sour taste way worst than lemon juice. So I figured I'd better dilute it somehow with some sweet fruit or we'd never get him to take that. I couldn't blame him. So last night I mixed some with some apple sauce. It was Wesley's first taste of anything like that, and the faces he was making had me in stitches. :) But everytime I took the spoon away, he'd look longingly at the bowl and his arms would flail wildly until I gave him another spoonful. The funny face again, then the flailing arms. The applesauce hid the herb perfectly, so now I've got a plan that's a keeper for getting it down him twice a day. :) I'm also supposed to give him chicken broth, and I haven't figured out how we're going to manage that. He won't take a bottle, and a dropper is way too slow. (I tried that yesterday). Maybe I'll mix some into that fruit along with the herb. :) Add a little cereal and that'll probably do the trick.
   Tuesday is our Ladies Meeting at church. One of our ladies will be giving her testimony and I'm looking forward to it! Her family has been through a lot this past year and yet she's had such a sweet spirit through it all.   She's been such a blessing to me! I think the trials have made her and her husband stronger. I'm looking forward to her testimony. We're having a finger food "potluck", and I need to sit down and figure out what I'm going to make. I also need to dig out some decorations and figure out how I'm going to decorate the basement of the church where we'll eat.
   We're all dealing with colds right now.   My constant companion these days is a box of tissue. I've actually got those and rolls of toilet paper placed strategically around the house for easy grabbing when I see a runny nose. It seems all I do these days is wipe noses. But, what are mom's for, right? :)

Audra loves playing with her box of bows. She's all girl when it comes to frills, pretty dresses, and bows in her hair.

uh....ok, she's real limber.

Love the face!

But this one is even sweeter. :)

Kissable cheeks!

Apple Jacks for supper?

Bologna Men

2014-02-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to come up with new ideas to make Christian's schooling exciting. He's so eager to learn and loves school immensely. Still, it takes a lot to keep even him occupied for longer than 10 minutes at a time. I ran across a link today that is a huge help! Its got everything on there from crafts and games for learning the alphabet and number, to chore charts you can custom make and print off. I spent a good part of this morning browsing the site and getting great ideas, some I was able to print off, and some I will draw and design myself. Here's the link for those home schooling moms who run out of ideas like me. :)

http://www.dltk-teach.com/

My kids have hit the picky stage when it comes to food. Oh I dreaded it, but I knew we'd get to this point someday. I got so tired of fighting them every meal and telling them to sit there and eat their food! I got tired of unfinished plates sitting on the counter waiting to be reheated later when they came in wanting a snack. I mean, granted. Everyone gets sick of PB&J or grilled cheese eventually. So I decided to try something new. I went to the store and bought some bologna (BIG TIME YUCK!), but, spurred on by a childhood memory of Andy's, I actually gave good money for the stuff, along with some different kinds of fruits, and healthy snacks that I never yet tried on the kids. Today, for lunch, I became Master Kid Food Chef! (Add that one to my list of Mom Titles from my last post. :) We had Bologna Men for lunch! The kids stood on a chair and watched while I put the little fellows together. And what do you know!!! They actually ate them! And the fruit and healthy food that made up their little bologna faces. Christian insisted that they needed cheeks, so he proceeded to smear squirt cheese at the edges of his little man's mouth. :) A little time, effort, and excitement put into their lunches made all the difference. By request of Christian, we're doing bologna tractors tomorrow. Yikes! :) Does he think mom is a bologna art expert already??? I've only had one try at the stuff so far. I tasted everything today on their plates EXCEPT the bologna. Just couldn't bring myself to do it. :)

Another Wesley Update...

2014-02-19T07:31:00.000-08:00

I took Wesley to an allergist/natural herbal doctor yesterday. He found that Wesley has a protein deficiency. He said he see this a lot in big, stock baby and toddler boys especially. Their big, growing bodies need more protein than they get from milk, baby food, or toddler foods, but they can't get larger helpings of it because their bodies aren't equipped to handle it yet. In other words, Wesley needs a T-bone steak, :) , but his body isn't developed enough to chew it or digest it. So the doc told me to make some chicken broth, strain it real thoroughly, and feed it to him in a bottle. He also put Wesley on Phosphorus to help break down the protein in the broth and make it easier to digest. A protein deficiency can cause skin rashes that look and act like eczema. So the doc is treating this deficiency first to see if the rash clears up. Wesley also has a few other allergies, especially to things like dust, mold, grasses, and a few different kinds fruits and foods, but the doc things its the protein deficiency that's the main problem. I'm taking Wesley back in a month and if he still has the rash, the doc will try something else. At least we have some more direction. I can't wait to get this thing licked!

Mother's Titles

2014-02-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

1.   Master & PhD in Patience
2.   Familial Law Enforcer
3.   Non-TV Activity Coordinator
4.   English Language Educator
5.   Playground Medic
6.   President of Waste Management
7.   Fast Food Chef
8.   Tantrum & Meltdown Negotiator
9. Search & Rescue: Small Plastic Pieces Unit
10. Chief Monster Hunter
11. College Application Advisor
12. Doll Doctor
13. Archaeologist Specializing in Under Bed and Inside Closet Digs
14. Backyard Safety Commissioner
15. Toy Repair Specialist
16. Art Critic
17. Philanthropist for Little People's Arts & Music
18. Anger Management Specialist
19. Toddler Tantrum Wrestling Champ
20. Play Date Social Secretary
21. CEO, Department of Make Believe
22. Manners Expert
23. Personal Shopper
24. Fashion Stylist & Consultant
25. Professor, Imagination Studies
26. Sleep Scientist (work mostly night shifts)
27. Teen Anger Psychoanalyst
28. Captain, Soccer Mom Cheerleader Squad
29. Dental Hygienist
30. Tooth Brushing Instructor
31. Keeper of Top Secret Secrets
32. Personal Chauffeur & Expert Driver
33. Hairstylist (specializing in pigtails and wiggly clients)
34. Birthday Party Planner
35. President of (Insert Your Kid's Name Here) Fan Club

Fun With My Camera

2014-02-17T09:08:00.001-08:00

Here's a few pictures I took last week.

Playing with Not-So-Little Brother.

Playing "stare down" before church Sunday morning. :)

I love this picture. Andy is doing Christian's devotions and telling him about Jesus dying on the cross for him. Christian was all ears.

The First of Six Chalk Drawings

2014-02-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

   Last night, Andy did the first of six chalk drawings for this year. He'll be doing one every other month on Sunday evenings. He's been telling stories on Sunday nights of great Christians and Missionaries, which has been so interesting! So far, he's told the stories of Fanny Crosby, Adoniram Judson, and John Bunyan. Last nights story was of John Newton, the author of the hymn, Amazing Grace. What a rough life that man lived, from a wild, murdering young man who got "pressed" onto a ship in the British navy, to a slave trader, and eventually a preacher and song writer. Its amazing what God can do with a life given to Him. Andy drew a picture of a ship on stormy seas, and the black light picture was a cross. I know Andy's a little out of practice, but still, he did a wonderful job. The service was a good one and we had a lot of visitors. One young family has been coming on Sundays. The husband is saved, but the wife is not. She has been against anything to do with church for several years, but this year, she made a resolution to start going. She loves our church! Please pray for her salvation. Her name is Kolby. Their two children, a boy and a girl, LOVE Andy's Sunday school class and ran up to him last night at church telling him how much they missed class that morning, having not been able to make it for some reason. Pray that this family will continue to get in. Our ladies meeting is next Tuesday and Kolby said she wanted to come and will be bringing her daughter. She's all smiles, which is a switch from when they first started coming last month.
   Some of Andy's family also came down for the chalk drawing. It was good seeing them again! We had pizza at our house afterwards. Thanks again, Edi and Nathan! :)
   Tomorrow, I'm taking Wesley to an allergist. Hopefully he'll be able to pinpoint what's causing Wesley's rash. All three of the kids are battling runny noses and coughs right now. Not too bad yet, and I pray it'll stay that way. Sick kids are NO fun! I can't wait for this weather to move on and take all the bugs with it!
   Andy's tuning a piano at the church of a preacher friend today, and may tune our church piano if he gets home in time. He's been staying busy these days! He's been rushing to finish his Samurai, or at least get the engine parts cleaned and put together and on the frame. He's been getting some paperwork together so that he can try to get a loan on a house. He's decided to go ahead and try an make an offer on a place about 7 miles out of town. Its a three bedroom, two bath, with big garage and a full basement, and a good size shed, and a smaller tool shed next to it. The house sits on about three acres surrounded by fields and horse pasture.   We're going to go forward with this and see what happens. I pray that the owners will take the offer and we can get moved in before Spring and planting season. I'd love to have a garden this year, especially since Wesley will be eating solids soon. I want to grow most of it myself. Spending another long summer in town really doesn't thrill me! :) Please pray that, if this place is right for us, that it'll all go smoothly. We want God's will on this. Buying a house is no little decision.
   Andy surprised me last weekend with a dozen roses and a box of chocolates for Valentines Day! Not that he never does anything like that. :) He NEVER forgets a special date. Its just been a few years since he was able to get flowers. There has always been something else that we needed, and we learned that flowers were a luxury. Oh, I'm like every other girl out there, I love flowers and chocolates! But life sometimes gets in the way of little luxuries like that and you learn to live without them. That is okay. We learned to make our dates special in other ways that were less pricey, and we also learned to enjoy those simple ways. Looking back, I wouldn't trade those days for anything. They taught us a lot about being grateful for what we had. We would save up our loose change, and when we had a few dollars worth, we'd head out early Saturday morning and hit every yard sale we could find to hunt down a good deal that we could try to sale online and double our money. It was a good time! Simple ways will draw you closer to your husband and family in ways that the wealthy know nothing about. Oh, it got hard at times trying to stretch those few dollars to make ends meet, but God provided our "needs" every time. It was the "wants" that got put on the back burner for awhile. Like flowers and chocolates. Luxuries. So, when Andy walked in last Friday carrying those beautiful red roses and a big box of Russell Stover chocolates, I almost cried. It was so sweet, and so special. A lot of memories came flooding back. Memories that drew us close.

My kitchen becomes Grand Central Station when I'm cooking. I finally had to make a rule that no toys where allowed in my "cooking corner" of the kitchen. The kids LOVE being in there with me. I normally have a preaching CD playing while I'm working and the kids will drag their bedding in there and find themselves a spot to either play toys or read books. I don't really mind stepping over them, as long as their are out of my work space. It tears them up if I tell them to "go play". I was changing Wesley one day in my room, and when I finished I noticed how quiet it was in the house. That is always worrisome when you have two little ones who are supposed to be playing somewhere! As I climbed the stairs to see what they were getting into, I heard a mans voice and thought that Andy had come home without me knowing it. When I peeked into Christian's room, I realized it was not Andy's voice I was hearing, but Bro. Ron Ralph's on a CD. Christian had gotten my kitchen CD player and taken it up to his room and he and Audra were playing on the floor, quiet as ever, listening to Bro. Ron tell them to get right with God. :) Christian gets all excited when he recognizes a Bible character in the preaching! :) So no, I don't mind the kids camping out on my kitchen floor while I work. They are listening to the preaching and that is worth a little inconvenience on my part.

A VERY Long and Cold Winter!

2014-02-17T07:45:00.001-08:00

This has been a long, long winter, and oh so cold! I am SO looking forward to Spring! I went to Richmond a couple days ago to do some shopping. My last stop was Walmart, and when I went in, it had just started snowing. When I came out about 30 min later, it had snowed at least an inch. I started home behind a line of vehicles going no more than 20 miles an hour. The road was covered in slush and ice. By the time I finally got back to Liberty, another inch had fallen. I tried to go out to pick up Christian and Audra from their babysitter, but as I headed out on the country roads I was sliding around so much, I decided to go back home and let Andy go get them. He took a different route than I did and later told me he just about got stuck more than a couple times. Our van does amazingly well in snow and ice, but still, it can only handle so much. Especially on hills. I'm a chicken when it comes to hills and ice! It continued to snow late into the evening. When it finally quite, I went outside into our back yard, free of drifts, and stuck a ruler in the snow. A whopping 9 inches!!! There hasn't been enough time between snowfalls for the previous snow to melt off, so its just been adding up. I hear we're going to get more nasty weather tonight. Oh, its been a LONG winter!

Our back yard.

Picture Post for Family

2014-02-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

Wesley's favorite position. He can only go this direction though. :)

Ok, I DIDN'T dress him! This was his doing! :) Who cares what you look like at bedtime. :) He normally does good at matching his day time clothes, but PJ's are a different story. :)

Teething? Absolutely! He's already got two on the bottom!!! He's really rushing babyhood!

Brotherly Love

And wearing 6-9 month clothes!

My happy little fellow.

Wesley Update...

2014-02-12T08:02:00.001-08:00

I took Wesley for a follow up visit to the dermatologist yesterday. Although his rash is much better, I still feel like I'm barely keeping it under control. If I miss a dose of his creams, the blotchy redness reappears in places and he also gets real dry again. Small under-the-skin blistery bumps have popped up on the bottoms and sides of his feet as well, even though he's still on his creams. I've been off of dairy for about a week now, and last Sunday morning I drank a small glass to see if it affected Wesley. By nightfall, I noticed the redness on his chest and face and that was also when the bumps on his feet appeared. The dermatologist told me to start weaning him off of the creams a little at a time and replacing them as needed with plain Vaseline for the dryness. She said he may just have super dry skin and always need moisturizers. While sitting at the doctor I noticed that Wesley's lips had cracked and begun bleeding. That don't normally happen on a three month old baby. But as for the rash and red bumps, I still plan on taking him to see an allergist. I want to know for sure whether or not he has an allergy that is contributing to all this, not just the dry skin problem.

Andy's Sunday School Class

2014-02-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

Andy combined the teen and children's Sunday School classes and is teaching them together. They are all on the same level Bible knowledge wise so they can learn as one group instead of two separate units. Andy is making the teens his "assistants", letting them help with the decorating of the classroom, any props we make for lessons, and also giving them jobs in class as the needs arise. Hopefully, by keeping them busy, they will become more involved and more excited about their class. Andy plans to build the Sunday School and make it as bombastic and exciting as possible, so that the kids can't WAIT for the next weeks class! Hopefully they will begin to bring their little friends as well and add to the class that way. Its been several years since Andy taught children, other than VBS and occasional children's events. He is thoroughly enjoying himself and is throwing himself into the class more than he ever did as a teacher! I will be joining him in the class soon, and am looking forward to working together! We LOVE working with children, but now that we have three little ones, I'm a little tied up with them. For now, my job is props and art work, which I thoroughly enjoy! Last week, we built a "cabin" for story time in class. Andy went to several carpet stores and collected about 45 empty cardboard rolls and screwed them together to build the wall. I sewed curtains for the window and doorway, and built a chimney out of a refrigerator box. (If you ever need giant boxes, hhgregg usually has a good supply readily available, whereas Lowes and other appliance stores crush them as soon as they get off the truck, unless you call several days early and ask them to reserve them.) Andy put his homemade electric campfire in the fireplace for a finished affect. Atmosphere makes SUCH a difference! :) I still need to add some wall decor on the inside of the classroom, but here's a picture of what we have now. The kids LOVE it!!

Story Time Cabin

We're also working on getting the main classroom set up and decorated. Andy's got a lot of ideas for the class, including a snowflake competition that he hopes to let the adults vote on to see who's snowflake is the best! It would be good for kids and adults. Also, we're thinking of writing a class newsletter so that the adults and parents can stay in touch with what we're doing in class, and what the kids are learning.

Some of the teens came over and helped us with the decorating.

I still need to add some more Be's...

I know, the clock is off center. I didn't have a ruler with me! :) I straightened it out later. :)

Christian's Sunday School teacher told me last week that during their class, they couldn't help but hear the goings-on in Andy's class. At one point, Andy had all the kids cheering and working off some energy. :) Christian told his teacher, "My Daddy is something else..."

Christian's shovel...

2014-02-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

Christian begged and begged to go out and shovel snow the other day with his new snow shovel. I finally gave in and we bundled up and went to work on our sidewalks clearing 6+ inches of snow. I didn't realize what a job I'd bitten off. Shoveling snow is hard! That stuff is heavy!!! But it felt so so good to get out and do something active outdoors! Its been waaaaayyy too cold to go out lately, but yesterday it was a whopping 28'. It actually felt warm compared to the single digits we've been "enjoying" lately. :) When we got back into the house, Christian hung his shovel high out of reach on the wall in his school corner of the living room. He had had enough of Audra walking away with it every time he set it down. So he simply fixed the problem... :)

And a very special congratulations to my sister, Jessica, who is expecting their third baby!!!