taking a break

 

I have to say...my posts have been few and far between

Odin and I have been cranking out the schooling so I can get done when the other kiddos are done

so not much time for writing, reading books and taking pictures

this is how we roll lately

 

 

me teaching Language Arts

 

 

and Gabe is taking it all in...

Keep praying for Gabe to sleep...he is still getting up every hour and a half and loves the blanket smothered in his face to sleep

which makes this momma very nervous

 

 

loving this life right now

we are so blessed

thank you for following and for the prayers

I love you guys dearly

I will be back the first week of June ...

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all those wonderful mommies out there

I am truly thankful for mine...

She is always there to lend a hand

whatever it may be

getting milk, eggs or butter

or last minute baking ingredients

sewing all of our knee holes until we can no longer wear the pants anymore

switching loads of laundry

serving breakfast, lunch and dinner

pouring milk

brushing hair or teeth
dropping things off at the post office

helping them get dressed or picking out clothes

picking up things on the counters and in the living room

and endless thing

helping me rearrange things in the house for a new look

rummaging with me and the kiddos

schooling Odin when I am gone

bringing them breakfast on Monday mornings

watching them for me when I have to run an errand

playing Uno with them

cleaning

picking up the kiddos from school

giving baths

going to get us ice cream

dropping library books off

 the list can go on and on
We are truly thankful for your serving heart and your unconditional love

I am so thankful to be a mommy...it has always been a dream of mine
what a blessing and love God had in mind when He gifted me my children 
as the best work of faith I will probably ever do

Gabe
6 months

this little man has only tried a few baby foods so far
he doesn't like rice cereal at all
oatmeal a no go
veggies were o k
and fruits were good
they just don't sit very good with his belly yet
he seems to want everything we eat though

so we will wait to try more
he is getting all he needs with his yummy soy formula!
He weighed in at 19lbs
and it seems that he has a large noggin
(95%)

Everyone loves doing things by him
 I like that they still argue over him all the time
I wish that happened during the night now!

 

the kiddos dispise these bibs

they want him naked all the time

 

I told them I don't have enough clothes to be changing him every day because he is sopping wet from drool

 I cannot get enough of those juicy lips!

Odin says to me the other day through some tears....(he was schooling on the floor with Gabe) "our lives would be really different without Gabe,

God really blessed us by him mom"

Sorry I have been so hit or miss lately with this blog..

I have been busy with some appointments, rummaging, schooling and life

trying to catch a nap in there as well.

 

Devotionals
all the kiddos got devotionals for Easter
Olivia had one already but the boys were sad that they didn't get one to do...
they are age appropriate and for boys or girls
they totally rock
they do these every day in the morning usually
 they are meant to be completed in a year and then you move onto the next one
you can get them at www.legacypresskids.com
They are called "God and Me"

 we have been busy getting this house ready for spring
getting out bikes and strollers and working on projects before summer
Thank you so much for all your prayers for Gabe
He has now slept 5 nights in a row and he is only get up 3 times a night
not bad for a 6 month old!
I feel like a new woman!

just coming up for air

(not complaining here...just writing and sharing my heart
and yes I would still love more kiddos)

somehow

it seems like I am constantly under water trying to come up for air and I keep getting pushed down

I know this is a season

and I am the one who usually says that.

BUT 

the baby is still not sleeping although we did have 4 good nights last week

he was only up every 2 hours.

He is back to about every hour and sometimes he even is up for an hour at a time trying to get himself back to sleep

I do miss walking outside to get some fresh air and quiet time

my quiet time now consists of having Dave take Gabe for an hour or two just so I can at least sleep 2 hours.

God never said this was going to be easy
so I continue to lean on him for strength and patience to get me through the days.

I am not a sleeping in kind of person so that puts me

 behind because it takes my precious devotional time away from my kiddos in the morning or just time to hang out and read or write
we end up doing them at night then and it all works out just fine

BUT

Change is happening here and I don't know if I like it or if I am just having a harder time adjusting to it.   
my kiddos are getting older and I have a hard time accepting that.

my days are going faster and I am running out of time to do things that I usually do

trying to pick my priorities here and what is more important.
my to do lists are quite funny

I have been trying to take a nap in the afternoon with the 2 little's which works great.

I seem to be only able to nap for about 20 minutes though.

How does that work when I am so exhausted and can barely keep my eyes open.
I have no idea...
I love these days  and I feel so blessed
I wouldn't change it for the world
love praying over Gabe every time he is up and my head is bobbing
we are so blessed
I know I will never have this time again
this winter was long 
but home school was and is so much fun
I love that Spring is here and there will soon be sand and water all over the floor 
dirt under all their nails
bandaged knees
sunscreen all day long
love being in my jammies all day and schooling Odin
my kiddos think makeup is for Sunday's only!

I realize  the basic everyday things are all about being a mother
 worn out and tired
doing things over and over again 
it actually really matters
you seem to get stronger and stronger
and braver and braver
every day is different

we are still moving forward
loving our kiddos all day
hugging them and kissing them
playing hours upon hours of Uno with them
brushing teeth
playing kickball
bike rides
washing dishes
wiping buts and noses
talking for hours about nothing
tucking them in at night
 I know I will never get this time back
we will have plenty of time to sleep and catch our breath
strength will come on this motherhood journey
and it is beautiful
 

Randomness

 

He's teaching Gabe about ninja training

I cannot get enough of my kiddos lately
and sometimes when I am really tired...everything just seems funnier to me!

Jonah decided to take the bathroom scale to school the other day for show and tell
he said he was going to weigh his teacher 
when he got home later that day he couldn't understand why people didn't want to go on the scale...
i love their innocence

Our spring mantel...
sorry about the bad picture
my nice camera is getting fixed and cleaned
and yes that is Easter thrown in there too..
a few old spray painted frames and cupcake tins and our dear red head doll Sally!

 

 this girl is getting older right before our eyes

Gabe has no idea what she is doing...he is just along for the ride

 we did find out if you have to raise your voice in this house
Gabe will automatically start crying

Love how all of the kiddos love to read and eat at the same time
except for our family dinner time

Thank you for your prayers for Gabe
he has only gotten up 4 times at night for the past 2 nights!
Praising the Lord!

We are off to do some rummaging this morning and schooling on the road
Excited for the weekend
 Dave and the boys are doing some work on the basement since we really haven't touched it since it flooded
Just trying to figure out how to organize everything again! 

Our new family picture of 7
(this was from the night that Dave won an award)

 Have a great weekend!

Reading Marathon

Over a 5 day span the kiddos did a crazy reading marathon

between 3 kids they read 15 chapter books

it was great...but too quiet in the house for me

they seem to do this every once in awhile

they just keep reading book after book

then I noticed the middle 2 seem to be a little bit competitive

and see who can keep reading without stopping.

too much for me....I am one of those readers who can only read for about 30 minutes

otherwise I forget everything I just read

I have terrible comprehension

it's been kind of quiet at our house lately with strep and other various colds going on
 trying to get Gabe to sleep has been the biggest challenge

he is a tough little babe to get down
a lot of work goes into getting  him to close his beautiful blue eyes
nothing like the other kiddos
he likes a lot of movement and blankets in his face,
which I think came from the eating issues we had with him for the first 4 months
he just couldn't figure out what was bothering him and how to go to bed with a hurting belly
 just praying for him to sleep good in his crib

mobile

 so I had an idea to make a
 mobile for Gabe 
and my mom had some time on her hands.
I was thinking something from home with all the hodge podge 
craft things I have
a little bit of fabric, bolts, cupcake liners and pom poms
My mom did a great job putting it together
All the kiddos were jealous about having something in their room

now if we could get him to sleep at night !
Keep praying for him to sleep.
he has another cold.
thank you so much!

"The difference between where you are and where God

wants you to be may be the painful decision you refuse to make"

~Craig Groeschel

frozen  whipped topping

I made some homemade whipped topping to store in the freezer 
it was really easy but messy
Odin was whipping the cream and decided to see what it's like when you pull the blenders up out of the bowl.
A nice white coating all over the cupboards!

the kiddos can now add one whenever they have hot cocoa
We have homemade hot cocoa here all year long.
We cannot get enough of the stuff

                                                               So delicious and fun!

                                                      Keep praying for Gabe to sleep...

Schooling days

serious battles going on here

Jeremiah has a basket of crosses for everyone to color and take to the elderly home

Odin was making a trencher for a history project.
never heard of the things
  A trencher was originally a piece of stale bread, cut into a square shape by a carver, and used as a plate, upon which the food could be placed before being eaten^. At the end of the meal, the trencher could be eaten with sauce.

Then we had a medieval feast.  
they were totally not yummy

this is how we roll....


Odin was done with school so he decided to sort and alphabetize all the movies

Jonah's way of refilling the toilet paper
he just thought they were making the rolls larger now...

We do a lot of popcorn lunches in this house.  That is why it is easier to order it in the #50 bags.

Odin is learning how to write a story for Language Arts right now and he chose to write about
me going into labor with Gabe.

I thought...really of all the topics you could pick

I am changing Gabe on the floor and he comes up and says "mom what are those things called that you had to keep track of like every 5 minutes that hurt really bad?"
"Conclusions" 
He got the C right
then he walks away and says your so beautiful mom
he is going to make a good husband some day...although he wants to home school,while his wife works and he wants two sons named Thor and Loki  
 
Beauty right outside my front door....

baking class

 So just because I was getting a little bored when we are done schooling for the day....
I thought I would add a baking class in there for Odin too

 he has to bake 10 things with me

then another 10 with me by his side ... assisting if needed

then once he does that

 the final test

 to bake another 10 things on his own

he loves it!

basement update

Water is all gone

fans are going

bleaching the floors next and sifting through the yucky boxes

and reorganizing everything

we needed to clean our basement anyways...

Thanks for all the help from everyone!

water

just in case there is ever a dull moment at our house....as I was walking downstairs to get something out of the fridge this morning and

I walked about 5 steps before I realized I was walking in water about an inch to 2 inches deep

I just stood their and looked at it for about 2 minutes

I never had this happen before...

working on that today

Odin and Miah took off their socks and were so excited to splash around in this stuff

life is seriously....funny!

loving our hubbies

My husband rocks!

Going to that conference this past month has really opened my eyes

I am sure we all have been there
when we come home and notice our husbands didn't do this or that
or maybe did it totally different than we would
we start building up all these assumptions in our head and most of the time they are wrong
 I have done that plenty of times over the silliest things that really don't matter

We have to realize as mommies that they will never do things like we would
they are just not made to be moms like we are
God put us in each others lives for a purpose
Dads are designed to let kiddos go and fly
we are made to nurture and protect 
They want our respect
plain and simple
tell them thank you more often 
 I don't need to be thanked for every little thing I do, but men need to know they are appreciated
they are more sensitive that way
the POWER of appreciation goes a long way.....

  Celebrate and love your husband for who he is, instead of who he isn't

way to go on your award last night David
we are so proud of you!


 





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