Miss Hannah Joy Turns 3!!!!

Our first little girl is now officially a whopping three years old! Despite a fever that tried very hard to keep her down during her birthday party, she got a reprieve long enough to enjoy a little cake (compliments of Daddy, who is the best cake decorator in the world-atleast in OUR world!!!) and a few presents. Happy Birthday, sweet girl! We love you so very much and are so delighted that the Lord chose to bless our family with YOU!!!!

Quote of the Day

Found on the front page of http://www.msn.com/ this morning:
"...and in this world at this time large families are selfish choices that are everybody's business and everybody's problem" ~Mary Wells, quoted from an article titled: When is a Big Family Too Big?
By some people's standards (though admittedly not mine!), 4 children constitutes a large family. According to Mary Wells, my 'large family' is a selfish choice that is everybody's business and everybody's problem.

Dear Mary Wells (and cohorts),
May you come to know the truth, that children are a gift from the Lord, that blessed is the man whose quiver is FULL of them! May you come to realize that, as seen on a bumper sticker on my friend's car, children are the earth's greatest natural resource.
Most Sincerely,
A Blessed Mother of Four who Hopes and Prays for MANY More

Sacrifice

A must read: What a Mother Must Sacrifice.

Lessons on Pride

The kids and I have been studying pride lately, with the help of Doorposts' For Instruction in Righteousness. It has been so very good to see what God's word says about pride. Today, Noah made the very true observation that almost every sin can be tracked back to pride. He said that in fact, pride was the very thing that made Satan fall and he is, of course, right. Good stuff, I'm tellin' you!!! Anyway, occassionally, when you combine the Word of God and young minds, its a bit of an interesting mix. This morning was a perfect example. One of the verses we studied this morning was so very relevant to sibling squabbles and I really wanted to concentrate on that. Proverbs 28:25 says, "He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat." I asked the kids what this verse meant, really hoping for a light bulb moment. Instead, this is the answer I got from my Kaleb, asked with a wide-eyed wonder and surprise: "If you trust in the Lord, you will get fat????????" Oh, dear!!! I had some explaining to do!!!!!!

Summer Fun!

This girl is such a natural momma! Even the way she holds her babies, so tenderly and sweetly... I am so enjoying her pretend play, aka "practice" right now!

Gently and carefully washing her baby in the make shift kiddie pool.

What a peculiar bunch, these kidlets are. Goggles, helmit, thumbs, the whole ball of wax!

Sarah Gracie-Goo, aka Goose, enjoying the swings. I'm serious! Hand over the spoon, I'm going to eat her right up!!!!!!

A Joyful Mother

"He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a JOYFUL mother of children. Praise ye the Lord!"

Psalm 113:9

Did you catch that? "He maketh the barren woman...to be a JOYFUL mother...". Who made the woman to be joyful mother? Did she drum up her own joy? Did she find it somewhere? Oh, she must have CHOSEN to be a joyful mother. Wrong! If we can muster up our own joy, if we can read all the right books, listen to all the right people, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and 'put on a happy face' and make ourselves lovely, joyful mothers, guess who gets the glory? We do! Nope, that's not how God does things. HE is the one who makes us joyful mothers! Are you lacking joy today? Turn your face to Jesus, ask Him to make you a joyful mother, rejoice in what He's given you (there's where we get to make our choice) and then give all glory to Him when you find yourself being a joyful mother! "He maketh..." so give Him the glory!

Gallivanting

I'm still here, just a bit winded from summer's fun! Sadly, I have no photographic proof of our gallivanting (as my mother would call it) due to forgetting to charge the battery in our camera!!!! Naughty, naughty event-recorder! I'll do better next time, okay? We enjoyed a lovely camping trip with some dear friends from our former church back in Newberg. The rain beat on our tents and campers during the night but was fairly kind during the day. Lots of bike riding, fort building and s'mores. As the others headed home, we continued on and camped two more nights at Fort Canby along the Washington coast. The boys really enjoyed exploring the military buildings left over from WWII. We also poked around Fort Colombia just south of Fort Canby, which was a preserved settlement with some military bunkers and such as well. Lots of great learning, all in the name of vacation! I love homeschooling! One of MY favorite parts of the trip was the couple camped near us whose Subaru had the "COEXIST" bumper sticker on it. Surely you've seen this bumper sticker, with all the religious symbols on it, including the cross. Ironically, I find that often the people who are most likely to have this bumper sticker on their cars are also the least likely to tolerate Christians and their conservative beliefs. But alas, I digress. What I really appreciated about this couple and their bumper sticker was that it reminded me to 'coexist' even when this man belched at a very shocking decibel every minute or two. Coexist, Ericka, coexist! I wonder what the religious symbol is for "burps like a sailor"?

Fun Was Had by All

We have returned from our venturings and have spent the last few days recovering and preparing for our next outing: a yearly camping trip with several other families that will be happening this weekend. We had such fun last weekend. The boys came back tired but so excited about their trip. The weather was beautiful for them and they really did have a wonderful time. When asked how their trip was, Kaleb said it was great until they had to come home!

The girls and I had a terrific time with my dear friend and her family, as well. Such a relaxing, enjoyable few days, visiting, delighting in her children, and spending some nice time with my two daughters. Sarah decided while down there that walking was definitely the way to get around these days and she has since pretty much mastered it. She's so cute with her hands up in the air, belly leading the way, little bare feet slapping the floor softly. I really could just eat her up! And Hannah was just thrilled to have some older girls to come along side. My friend's oldest daughter loves to bake and she would don Miss Hannah with an apron, scoot a kitchen stool up beside her, put a few chocolate chips in her apron pocket and hand her a spoon for stirring. Hannah was absolutely delighted!!!! Our camera went with the guys but my friend took some wonderful pictures. Be looking for those here in the next day or two!

Have a marvelous day, rich with the Lord's heart-changing presence. Enjoy His gifts today for He is truly good!

Adventuring

Well, the girls and I are headed out this morning on a little trip down to Oregon to visit a dear friend and her family. We'll be back in a few days. I'm sure fun will be had by all. The guys will be tending to their own adventure complete with backpacks, freeze-dried food and decomposing toilet paper. Their return will bring with it lots of stories and tired muscles. And they will be happy. Have a great weekend!