Gramma.

I am close with my Gramma.
She fell yesterday.
Had stitches on her head (I think) and they had to rebreak her arm to set it.
Today they found out that she DID break her pelvis.
They are worried about pneumonia setting in because she can't get up, and managing pain right now.
I wish I could be there.
Going to a womens retreat at church instead.
Thanks for your prayers.

Praying.

So I go to the Crisis Center at least once a week when I am in town. I have started going for a short time on Sunday to do a Bible study with whoever is interested. I bring my guitar and/or something for the kids to eat or do and love on them. It is really fun because I don't have to be in charge of them and enforce any rules. It is kinda like being an auntie or grandparent - all the love and not responsible for the discipline. Perfect. Things have been going well lately, but as I drove in last night I prayed and asked for a significant conversation. It just seemed like it had been a while since I had had a real heart to heart conversation with a kid, and that is fine, but it is nice to be able to really connect with them, too. Boy, did God hear and answer that prayer (or maybe he had me pray it so I was ready for what he had me up for!) One of the girls who is great and works hard on making good decisions was worked up about a meeting she was supposed to have with a potential placement. She was determined that she was going to walk in and tell them she wasn't interested. I volunteered to go with her if she wanted and so I tried to help out by asking questions that would help her make a good decision. (Like if this was a group home or foster home, what a regular day would look like, who else is in their home...) Turns out that she was really excited by the end of the interview and felt a connection with the "mom." And she is 13 (which I didn't realize how young she was - I wouldn't have known what to ask at that age and would have been scared, too!) Then one of the guys who has been there for a LONG time (they are only supposed to be there 30 days and he has been there for months and months) says he needs to talk to me. Turns out he sits down and starts asking me serious questions about what I believe and why. He has been coming to my Bible Study and was heavily involved with a Jehovah's Witness group before, so he is very familiar with the Bible. He was asking all sorts of great questions about the church, the Bible, why I trust Jesus (see my Memorial box post if you haven't read it - I shared that story and a couple of others with him), about sexuality and sin... It was a great conversation, right in the middle of everything else going on. He even went and got one of the Bibles I had given him, and another kid came up and asked if he could read this kid's Bible - and this kid told him he could just have it. "Beccy has stacks of Bibles, she can just get me another one." He is hoping to get permission to go to church on Sundays and is planning on reading the Bible now that he has finished a different book. I left smiling about these kids and answered prayer. I never know what to expect when I show up, and I love being there. It is a privilege and joy being with them!

Conversations.

We have been having a lot of conversations about adoption in our home lately. We don't feel like it is time quite yet, but we are talking and praying. I talk to Seth and Gavin about how some kids don't have Mommies and Daddies - I want them to be ready to share us when the time comes. They have really been getting into it. Seth wants 5 brothers. Gavin wants a baby sister. Seth changed his order yesterday to five brothers and 2 sisters. I ended up having a funny conversation with him yesterday.

Seth climbed up on my lap and asked if we could bring our new baby home in 2 weeks. I laughed and explained to him that we needed to fill out a bunch of paperwork and get approved as a good familly before we could bring anybody home to our family. He kept asking questions, so I sent him up to talk to daddy. I heard him telling daddy that we have to fill out a bunch of papers so we can adopt. Then he comes back into the room and tells me that we have to start filling out papers tomorrow! :o)! I would love to, baby, but we have to wait till God says "go!" In the meantime we are waiting and praying and having lots of fun and interesting conversations.

Memorial Box Monday

There is a blog I follow that does this. Andrew like the idea of starting a Memorial Box, and we have one started, but I haven't been looking for things to put in it - it is pretty bare. SOOO... I have decided to do one post a week (as often as I can) and start adding to the box as we go along. If anybody reads this blog and doesn't know why Jesus is so important to me and why I long to follow after the heart of God so much, maybe these stories of how God has met me/us over the years and built my faith will help you to understand why I can't walk away - even when being obedient is the last thing on my wish list. :o)!
Here is the link to Linn's page who started all this:
http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com

We have a small piece of paper in our box. The story does not start with the paper, though. It starts with me being a very fearful teenager trying to figure out where God wanted me to go to college. Mom and Dad had 2 kids in college and 2 more on the way and could help some, but that was all. The college I wanted to go to was in beautiful northeast Georgia, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, and it was a private college (think $$$$). I knew I might want to do some sort of ministry when I graduated. My parents challenged me to graduate debt free so that I could do whatever God called me to do. I was worried about it. My Wise Mommy encouraged me to lay everything before God like Gideon did. So I got my college acceptance letter. Laid it before me, got on my knees and prayed. I ended up going to this college 9 hours away from home. I worked 60+ hours a week on breaks and volunteered at my church. During the school year I worked 2 and 3 jobs, took a full load of classes, and did student ministries (which were awesome growing experiences for me!). And a number of semesters it wasn't enough. I would still be short with weeks to go - sometimes thousands of dollars. That would mean I couldn't sit for exams and I would be STRESSED!!!! I didn't know where the money could possibly come from. Then I would realize I couldn't change things and I would drop out and pay off my bill if that was God's will for me - I would trust Him, no matter what the outcome was. EVERY semester I sat for exams. I had the most left to pay off at the end of my last semester. I was even using graduation money to pay down my bill so I could graduate. Then I got a letter from the Comptroller (who also happened to be the treasurer at my local church, and knew that 10% of my paycheck went to my tithe and the other 90% went directly on my bill, and this might have something to do with what happened - this is a shameless plug for God honoring tithing - it isn't a easy thing, once went for 2 months with $.07 to my name and didn't get to do some fun things my peers did, but NO REGRETS! thanks for teaching me to tithe from when i was little, Mom and Dad!) who made sure I got a couple of different scholarships. When I went in to pay my last bill I kept that little receipt that showed a $0 balance. God caused nearly $50K to pass through my hands in 4 years so I could graduate debt free!!! I was free to go and do whatever it was that he called me to do with no strings attached. Whenever we worry about money or God's provision I am reminded of what I learned about money in college. Sometimes God asks us to step out in faith and obey and trust him, and THEN he provides. The safest best place I can be, no matter how hard or crazy it seems to be there, is the center of God's will for my life.

IT IS TIME...

....TO GO SHOPPING!!!

For those of you who love the jewelry I make, feel free to check out this site:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7117667

This year I made some jewelry and Water for Christmas is selling it, along with LOTS of other great stuff, for ... you guessed it - WATER! So a Mommy on the other side of the world doesn't have to watch her child get sick or raped from lack of a clean water source near to home.

Pretty please consider shopping for yourself and your loved ones this fall so that others may live with clean water. For more information check out Water4christmas.com. Thanks, guys!!!

I just checked out the site and noticed that some of my pieces are already gone, so you better hurry! :o)!

Pausing after Day 2.

We need leaves on our tree, a sky, a lake, install the house - THANK YOU, DADDY!, and then for all the fun details. Today I painted a tree and climbed up into the attic to help locate the stud for hanging the hammock chair (so I knew where to paint my branch). I found out that there is a thin piece of siding with sunlight shining through on the front of the house - not even a wall. No wonder the front rooms are always so cold! We may be having someone come out and see how we can make our old home more energy efficient. Tonight we went to see the talent show at CSI - fun! The kids did a great job of performing for everyone. We got to eat dinner with them and share some yummy treats, including hot cider. Yum. We saved our activities and will be painting pumkins on Wednesday night. Tomorrow I will be going to Bible study with whatever kids are interested. Tomorrow evening we may start working on the boys' room again, since we are busy next weekend and I would like to get it done before the end of the month. It is a lot more fun already, even if it isn't finished yet!

Midnight

The Boys' Room.

After a year and a half, I am finally getting around to painting the boys' bedroom. I promised them airplanes, but I have been planning this for a long time. This is the corner you see coming up the stairs. It is the beginning of their playhouse. I still have to brick the fireplace and paint the scene in the window. Then there will be bright green rolling hills circling the room, trees (one of which at least will go up onto the ceiling and have the hammock chair hanging from it), a train, a lake with a boat in it, and of course some airplanes flying around. I am thinking about putting in the Red Baron's plane because it is pretty cool looking. I have some really cool accessories that I have collected to add as well. Stay posted!

School This Week

O Week!
We read about owls and otters. We learned about opposites. We matched upper and lower case letters (Seth mostly, but Gavin could do a few of them.) We did mazes and traced letters and did dot-to-dot puzzles. We learned how to play checkers. Seth learned how to load the dishwasher. Mommy learned about the orphan trains and Uganda. We saw marionettes perform Aesop's Fables at the library and played with puppets. It has been a pretty laid back week as far as school goes. Mommy has been doing lots of homework on homeschooling and is gathering information and planning. And now we are taking a break to paint the boys' bedroom! Hopefully we can get the bulk of it done by tomorrow afternoon. Then we will be taking a break and going as a family to see a talent show and having a harvest party with Mommy's big kids down at the crisis center. That promises to be a LOT of fun!!!!!

Quick Trip

Original plan: camp out with Aunt Missy and Uncle Isai. Modified plan: drive all the way up to MN to spend the weekend with them and Aunt Angie and cousins at the cabin, and get to see Great Gramma Seidel also.
I enjoyed taking pictures of the kids, and then my camera died, so we don't have too many adult shots (at least not ones they would want showing up here!) We had a great weekend. So much fun at the cabin! It was really great to see Gramma at Aunt Lorraine's house - it has been almost a year since I last saw her. The boys were great - I think double teaming them with zero tolerence is finally getting them whipped back into shape, and they are such fun kids!!! I got a long soak in the tub reading a book while Andrew watched the Vikings actually win for once last night - bonus for both of us. Andrew was awesome to drive both ways, and we rewarded him with dinner at Cracker Barrel tonight. I even got to play a glockenspiel and accordian tonight in the gift shop (and I want them for my instrument collection!!!!!!) Great weekend. Now to get caught up on all that stuff that didn't get done while we were galavanting all over the country - like laundry, organizing all our school stuff, and painting the boys' bedroom...
Here are the beautiful children (and one self-portrait thrown into the mix):
Seth. Gavin - lovin' him some baby!

Wesley - easygoing. knows what he wants. i swear he said "i want mommy" and he is only 3 months old!?!

Bradyn. he looooooves to run. good thing we had a seth to wear him out with!

self-portrait.

All the boys riding together (and gavin avoiding the camera!)

Moo's Cookie Monster Birthday Party!

We made Moo paper airplanes as "gifts" and flew them off of the balcony at the cabin. Here is the airplane factory:

Oops! Not supposed to land up here!

Moo taking a turn.

And lots of cookies!!!!! (Seth said he ate 7, he couldn't sit still the rest of the day, so I believe him!) Thanks, Aunt Missy for making cookies with the boys!!! They had such a great time with you guys up at the cabin.

And a rousing game of feed Cookie the cookies (notice Gavin helping monkey place his)!

Moo getting ready for his turn:

Fun was had by all, and now Moo Moo Noo Noo Piggy (at least that was his name over the weekend suddenly) is now 3.

Good Day/Bad Day

So yesterday we had a non-productive good day. We stayed home and reinforced boundaries and had a great day. I thought we had turned a corner...
...until Gavin woke up before it was time to wake up and started screaming at me from the oter room. And turned the light on while Seth was still sleeping. And ran away from me when I tried to get him dressed and dumped half of the cheerios trying to pour himself a new bowl (with me yelling stop and trying to get to him in time unsuccessfully.) So we had time out and got through the attitude - so I thought - and put him to work cleaning up the mess he had accidentally made. Seth gets dressed and I send him to help brother finish cleaning up the cheerios. I shower and get out. I hear no fighting, no nothing... Uh Oh!!! Every surface of the kitchen is covered in cheerios, water has been poured into dishes of cheerios and on the floor. Two stuffed animals are soaked and dirty. Boys? Hiding in the basement behind the treadmill. Mommy yelled. Mommy put the boys in time-out and has to spank someone with the initial G. to get him to stay there. We are supposed to be walking out the door, and our friends are arriving. I didn't beat my children, but it most certainly was not my finest hour. :o) I definately am thinking of more creative ways to discipline. I think I will be able to laugh about it by tomorrow. And since all the cheerios are gone the boys will be very hungry for breakfast tomorrow.

On a better note we had a fun field trip with friends to the music store to learn about the different kinds of instruments. We even got a trumpet demonstration and to try some different percussion instruments! Then I took my boys and Dae'Vonn out for lunch since the kitchen was out of commission. I think Gavin is having a terrible twos day, and the rest of us are surviving him. Now to get ready for a short MN trip...

Beds Bunked. New Light Fixture Installed.

Imagine Andrew's surprise to come into the room and find Gavin climbing into bed (the ladder was not attached at the time) - tumbling over the end of the bed. I believe we have monkeys in our house!

Introducing....

...Apple. We now have a family fish! Here are my boys with their fishy faces!

Fireside Photoshoot.

It has been cold and rainy and overcast for weeks. I took these pictures when I started having fires in my fireplace to combat the crazy weather. I decided to get a cute picture of the boys since they coordinated that day. They were NOT very cooperative. Here is the best of the bunch and I took a LOT of photos. :o)! This is "sit next to each other." How did we get such stubborn kids?????!!!!!

Classic - Seth in shoes and socks, Gavin barefoot.

I love my boys! They sure crack me up, though. So much for a cute photo shoot!

Football.

The Vikings game was on. My boys were watching it. Somehow I got into a conversation about football with Seth.
"Mommy, will you play for the Vikings with me?"
"Do you mean cheer for the Vikings? Because girls can't play for the Vikings, only men can."
"Oh, you mean girls can only play for the Packers?"
Daddy laughing really hard.

Nice, Seth. Nice. (Daddy got hit, btw!)

Family Night

We started working on the boys' bedroom today and forgot we had plans to meet our friends for family night. We are so glad they called and reminded us!!!! We had a great night of pizza buffet (yummy - salad bar and everything!) and games and rides. Gavin rode his first roller coaster with Mommy (he was sooooo nervous about halfway through the ride, but said he had a great time afterwards!) The boys went bowling, played some arcade games, rode some little car/truck rides, and the biggest hit for all of us was going on the go-karts. We even had our picture taken since Mommy didn't bring her camera along:

We are definately going to have to go again sometime!

SNOW DAY!

Today we had 3-4 inches of snow. Right on top of my flowers, the green grass, the green leaves on the trees. I had a clothes swap to go to. I was praying for a new winter coat for Seth because he has grown so much. And out of the 4 items in his size was a winter coat - Columbia none the less. So thankful for God's provision. Got home to find Seth waiting for me in the yard with a 9" snowball - I so did not get out of the car! We had a nice family lunch out and picked up the new member of our family - you will have to wait to find out till tomorrow when I post pictures. :o)! We got started on the boys bedroom finally. Beds bunked, check. New light fixture that doesn't short out all the time, check. Wallpaper strip down, painted, etc. - not yet, but an awesome plan is in the works. Stay tuned for some kid bedroom fun! Tomorrow I am doing a bible study at the crisis center for the first time. Please pray for God to be able to use me and that time in the lives of these kids. Please. Thanks everybody!

Love him!

I am reading my Bible. Gavin is napping. Seth comes up to me. "Excuse me, Mommy."
"Yes, Seth?"
"Moo's birthday is next week. He wants to have a Cookie Monster party."
"Ok, Seth."
"He is going to be three on his birthday." (side note: Seth has the only male cow ever.) :o)!
"Is he going to have cookies for his party?"
"No, he wants to have a Cookie Monster cake."

I think tomorrow we are going to be planning his party for next week. Cookies. Party games appropriate for a cow having a Cookie Monster party for his third birthday. And presents. That last one could get interesting. Stay tuned...

BUSY.

Trying to get stuff done around here. The basement. School. Projects. :o)!

He is HOME!

And we are happy!

Turnaround.

After naptime I forced the boys and myself to get going despite them not wanting to get off my lap or stop being crabby. We dropped of pumpkins for my big kids and gave some hugs. Then we went to meet baby Brooklyn - such a cutie with little chubby cheeks and so content! The boys were really excited about the second visit. Then we came home and had apples from the orchard, fresh bread with honey and butter, sugar snap peas and started a fire in the fireplace and turned on some music. We had a lovely evening and worked on Seth's Cubbies lesson for the week in front of the fire. Lots of love and kisses, and lots of volunteer help dragging in sticks and wood for the fire. A little bit of drama at bedtime, but not bad. Seth is sleeping under his bed tonight (with something under him so he doesn't get too cold). Yay! I think we are going to make it! :o)!

The Saga Continues...

The boys have been challenging with Daddy being gone. Gavin is screaming and crying at the least provocation and doing poorly with potty training despite wanting to wear big boy underwear and not pull ups. Seth is acting out vengefully towards his brother. Last night we were doing pretty well, and I was reading books to them before bed when I got the call that my friend Corine's kids were on the way over for the night (she was headed to the hospital to have her baby!!) I had gotten Gavin plastic undies to put on over his underwear so he could go to bed without a pull up, prayed with all the kids and had them in bed quietly. After it was quiet for quite a while I went downstairs to switch the laundry. I someone get out of bed, but wasn't sure which one it was. When they heard me coming I heard two sets of footsteps running for the boys room, including "crinkle crinkle crinkle" from Gavin's plastic pants. Seth had trouble going to sleep. Twice I had to evict him from under his bed (he pulls it out from the wall and crawls behind to sleep on the floor - only it is too cold and he wakes up in the night cold and uncomfortable and I can't get him out because he is too far under.) This morning we got the call that baby Brooklyn arrived safely after and emergency c-section and the girls got picked up to go meet their baby sister - Brooklyn, 9lbs. 2 oz, 20 3/4" long. Gavin decided he didn't like me telling him no banana or more juice and decided to dump his cereal. I warned him not to do it or there would be conesequences, so he did it anyway. I told him to pick up every cheerio or he would get a spanking for each one he refused to pick up, even ones he smooshed so he didn't have to pick them up. I finished with putting lunch in the crockpot and turned around to discover that Seth had gone and gotten the "spanking spoon" and was intentionally grinding up cheerios so brother could get spankings!!! Gavin did get them all picked up with much screaming and protest. Seth keeps hitting his brother. Mommy is glad it is Sunday morning and is considering sleeping on a pew during Sunday school because she is so tired. :o)! Thanks for praying for me!

We miss Daddy!

The boys have a tough time when Daddy is gone. Some days they take it out on Mommy, or each other. Today seemed to be an each other day. The boys were playing in the back yard while I did some work around the house. I could hear and see them out the windows, but when I came back from an errand I had a feeling I should go out and check on them. I couldn't see or hear them, which confirmed that something was up. Gavin was trapped inside the shed screaming his poor little head off in the dark, and Seth was hiding behind the shed! (And this after taking a foam sword to his brother earlier...) It was just one of those days where they couldn't settle in and do well with each other for any length of time. Andrew got to call home for a bit and while I was on the phone with him I noticed Seth starting to crawl under the dining table (which had chairs on it turned upside down.) I told him to stop as I saw him bumping one of the chairs. He didn't obey and ended up knocking the chair off the table onto himself. He started crying for Daddy, and so I said, "He is on the phone, go talk to him!" I was glad for him that he could be comforted by Daddy AND was willing to talk to him on the phone. He was so cute I had to take a picture: A lot of people do Thankful Tuesday/Thursday posts. Today I am thankful for the CARS video and a great tv/dvd to keep the boys occupied for a few hours. I am thankful for a telephone to talk to my husband when he is gone. I am thankful for a computer to post lots of pictures for him. I am thankful for books to read and learn from. I am thankful for our snug home to keep us safe and warm as the weather turns cold. I am thankful for chocolate. I am thankful for my electronic slaves that help me keep up with the dreaded housework - the laundry machines, the dishwasher, and my floor robot - the one and only Master Pancake!

Orchard visit with Cousins.

We visited an orchard in Iowa to pick some apples and have a picnic lunch. First we split up, one adult per kid, to pick some apples. I had Gavin and we had fun climbing trees and getting a variety of apples. The other kids mostly went for quantitiy. :o)! Here is one of my pictures of Gavin in the tree: He was such a big boy carrying his own apple bag!

Seth had a fantastic day and was enjoying mugging for the camera for once:

The whole apple pickin' crew:

They had a great little playground for the kids to play on. Lots of Seth pictures and a few of Gavin, Ben and Katie. :o)!

It was really great getting to spend time with Rachel, Craig, Ben and Katie. They are traveling home soon, and it will probably be another 2 years before we get to see them again. I really appreciate Andrew letting me spend as much time with them as we could!