10 Things About Me?

I linked my blog up with Lynnette's blog http://lynnettekraft.blogspot.com/

and she wants us to write a list of 10 charming, interesting and fun things about me. I always get such bad anxiety over things like this because I am sooooo boring!!!! I try to think of things and all I can think of is my faults or all of the things I want to do but haven't done yet. Then I get more anxiety because I have so manythings I want to do. Is this depressing? I really, really love my life. I am happier than I have ever been. I just haven't done anything really cool and different.I want to put something on my list like I have toured Ireland on a bike, or I gave birth at home in a kiddie pool, or I make all of our bread from scratch even milling our own wheat!Maybe next year at this time I will have something really cool to put on my list.

Here is my list for now :

1. I have been married for 11 1/2 years and my husband has been a firefighter since before we meet. He is the best dad ever. When we first met he told me he did not want any children. lol.
2. I have 3 children and would like to adopt one or two more.
3. I have given birth without an epidural, with an epidural and have had a Cesarean. I think that is why I did not want to give birth to another child.
4. Our son was born by cesarean because he was breech and had the cord around his neck 3 times and after delivery we found he had a double knot in his cord. He is our miracle baby for sure. (as if all babies are not miracles but I am in awe of this miracle everyday!)
5. I am a labor and delivery nurse.
6. I teach childbirth classes on Monday nights
7. We homeschool our 3 kids.
8. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord
9. I have the best friends ever.
10. This has been the best and worst year of my life. I would not change a thing about any of it! I have never felt God's presence more.

Ummmmm, Ok?

Does this happen at your house?

This is what I found when I looked

in the backyard the other morning.
Conner, in his favorite Spiderman
"tanker tot" pajamas,
giving Jim a haircut!

Ummmmm, ok.

Looks like fun.

Flying airplanes in the house!

The other day I found them together in the backyard.

Conner trimming Jim's hair!

What boys will do when they are left alone together!

Now they are flying airplanes in the house!

I doesn't matter that they are paper.

They are still dangerous.

One hit me in the nose!

Today is back to school day.

Today was back to school day

for most of our friends.

Homeschooling is good in so many ways.

But it is also hard.

It is a lot of work.

It can cause a lot of uncertainty, fear, insecurities and frustrations.

It has made me really have to search my heart.

Psalm 28:7 The LORD is my strength

and my shield;

my heart trusts in him.

Do I really trust Him?

Do I really believe He entrusted Jim and I with our kids?

1 Timothy 6:20-21

Guard what was committed to your trust,

avoiding the profane and idle babblings

and contradictions of what is falsely

called knowledge by professing it some have

strayed concerning the faith.

Ok God, I take on this mission for another year.

So to celebrate another year of homeschooling

we declared today

We are not going back to school today!

We stayed in our pajamas!
We watched Little House on the Prairie.

Actually we watched 2 episodes.

Then we ate lunch in our pajamas with today's Borrow a Kid.

Then we went to the pool and for an hour or

so we were the only ones there.

I realized once we got there that I still had on my house slippers.

How embarrassing.

Conner played with some kids he does not know.

It was fun!

Deuteronomy 6:6-9

(New King James Version)
6 “And these words which

I command you today

shall be in your heart.

7 You shall teach them diligently

to your children,

and shall talk of them when

you sit in your house,

when you walk by the way,

when you lie down,

and when you rise up.

8 You shall bind them as a

sign on your hand,

and they shall be as frontlets

between your eyes.

9 You shall write them on the doorposts

of your house and on your gates.

Family Intergrated Living

One of my favorite blogs to read is

Lynnette Kraft's blog

Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground.

http://lynnettekraft.blogspot.com/

I love her and I love her family.

I am reading her book, In Faithfullness, He Afflicted Me, right now.

I am so inspired that I want to go out- wait, I don't want go anywhere!

I want to stay at home and cuddle up on the couch and crossstitch

and watch Little House on the Praire.

Reading her blog incourages me to not yell at my kids,

have doughnuts on Sunday morning,

celebrate kids' day and just enjoy the small stuff.

She confirms my belief that quanity time is more important than quality time.

I asked permission to quote her and she said yes!

So the following is a quote from Lynnette.

Let's face it, families all around us are falling apart. Friends outside the home are often more important to children than their own siblings. Children often turn to their youth group leaders, pastors and Sunday school teachers rather than their own parents. I can understand this if the family isn't close to the Lord and the child/teen wants to be - they need others to turn to for counsel and advice. But it's happening in Christian homes as well. Parents are giving the important job of raising their children to these leaders. While these leaders may be wonderful, God fearing people, they don't love our children like we do. How can they? But more importantly, they are not the ones who God will hold accountable regarding our children. No, it's not their responsibility, it's ours.

"...And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart. And you shall teach them diligently unto your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up..." Deut. 6:6-9

We feel that we are sacrificing something good for something better. I guess it's kind of like a families choice to live without a tv or without an abundance of toys. There are benefits to having those things for sure, but in living without them those families feel they're making room for things they feel are better. That's the view we have from here. We are giving up perfectly good things for things that we feel are better - eternal relationships

Date night.

Date night at Ruth's Chris!

I will just leave you with the image of deliciousness.

Creme Brulee.

Thank you to the man that blessed us with the gift card. He is not well and could not pay Jim for some yardwork that needed to be done so he blessed us this way instead.

Secret Keeper Girls!

"Don't let anyone look down on you

because you are young,

but set an example for the

believers in speech,

in life, in love, in faith

and in purity."

1 Timothy 4:12

God clearly says that we should not

despise our daughters' youth.

We should encourage them to be an example to

believers in conduct, in faith, and in purity.

This group will help us to teach our

daughters truth about her

beauty and what God thinks about fashion,

but it will also teach her the art of soothing her

emotions in the precious refreshment of the

Spirit of God. The girls even got a hand massage!

In the eyes of those around us, we're either
trashable Styrofoam cups,
everyday old ceramic mugs,
or the priceless china tea cups
in the way we dress,

talk, act, or in the places

we are willing to go.

Key verse:

Isaiah 64:8

We are the clay, you are the potter;

we are all the work of your hand.