A picture book of March Happenings

Once Upon a Time....

The End.....for now:)

God has used my Children to bring me to Humility...

In the last 10 day I have been sick twice with two different bugs.  God was very gracious in reminding me how my kids feel when they are sick.  I'm so quick to think selfish thoughts, "Like how long will this last or oh now we can't go here ....Oh how selfish...Then I was blessed with a get well card from Holly...She is so faithful to encourage...She made me a pretty little card and then came back a few minutes later with....

 If you can't read it it says, "Remember to Pray"....God continues to use my children to humble me and remind me of His great love.
     That was a couple days ago.  Now the boys are sick with fevers coughs and bumps...I'm much more loving towards them because of how I felt. 

Pslams 78:38
38 Yet he, being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.

Spring Is Here!!

The kids told me that Spring is here and that they wanted to get wet.  I put the sprinklers on out back and this is what happened...3 muddy kids and a dog....then Silas sunk out behind me and jointed in on the fun. Everyone had a bath and then dinner tonight....It was so much fun to see them just having so much fun with a little thing like water.   It's times like this when you have to seize that moment because kids want more and more as time goes on.  As a mother I have to make sure I'm not feeding into their wants and forgetting to teach them what their needs are. 
     This morning I was blessed to have read this after time in the Word....

Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
by C. H. Spurgeon
Wednesday Morning, March 17

Remember the poor.

Galatians 2:10
Why does God allow so many of his children to be poor? He could make them all rich if he pleased; he could lay bags of gold at their doors; he could send them a large annual income; or he could scatter round their houses abundance of provisions, as once he made the quails lie in heaps round the camp of Israel, and rained bread out of heaven to feed them. There is no necessity that they should be poor, except that he sees it to be best. The cattle upon a thousand hills are his--he could supply them; he could make the richest, the greatest, and the mightiest bring all their power and riches to the feet of his children, for the hearts of all men are in his control. But he does not choose to do so; he allows them to suffer want, he allows them to pine in penury and obscurity. Why is this? There are many reasons: one is, to give us, who are favoured with enough, an opportunity of showing our love to Jesus. We show our love to Christ when we sing of him and when we pray to him; but if there were no sons of need in the world we should lose the sweet privilege of evidencing our love, by ministering in alms-giving to his poorer brethren; he has ordained that thus we should prove that our love standeth not in word only, but in deed and in truth. If we truly love Christ, we shall care for those who are loved by him. Those who are dear to him will be dear to us. Let us then look upon it not as a duty but as a privilege to relieve the poor of the Lord's flock--remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Surely this assurance is sweet enough, and this motive strong enough to lead us to help others with a willing hand and a loving heart--recollecting that all we do for his people is graciously accepted by Christ as done to himself

Jan/ Feb update...Where do I start????

My blog postings have been very slow lately and it seems to pile up like my laundry and some others things. I'll do my best to update everyone on what has been going on....We took Daddy to the airport at the end of January and then I surprised the kids with a trip to the Zoo on our way home.    It was a very cloudy day with a  60% chance of rain so we had umbrellas and extra clothes in-case we got wet.  For school we have been doing a lesson on animals so we read a couple chapters before we headed into the Zoo.  The kids seemed to love the idea that we had the zoo to ourselves, I guess no one else was brave enough to go.  The girls had fun using the maps to show us where to go and identifying where the animals were.  After we where done with everything it started to rain so we headed for cover into the reptile exhibit. On our way out the rain came to a stop and we enjoyed our lunch at the zoo's play area then we headed home.  Right after I put the kids in the car it started to rain again but harder..  I was so thankful that God had the rain wait.  I do love the rain but I'm not one for wanting to take a shower in it.
Pslam 123:3

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Holly cut and colored a  green dragon for Liam to play with.   It's so fun to see Liam enjoying a simple thing like something made from paper or making a coloring book with a dino talk to my chap stick penguin as we waited for Ayla and Holly s basketball game to be over. It's times like these that remind me to be content and to learn it from them.   Many times I want to plan ahead and have something for them in every season.  The Lord is teaching me that it's good to just let things happen.  It's in those times that I learn to be content and not fearful.  I am guilty of preparing out of fear instead of out of wisdom.

 All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.12 I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I applied my heart  to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. Ecc. 1:8-14

  

A couple days ago I was having a hard day and God blessed my heart with the girls journal writings that day.

Ayla wrote: " I love my mom and Dad and brothers and sister too. I love my family because they love me too. I am glad that we can love."  Holly wrote we a thank you note for taking them to the zoo. She had come to me in tears saying that she didn't do her work right because she wrote a thank you note in her journal.  I thanked her for what she had wrote and told her that it was a blessing to me about what she did.  

Matthew 11: 25-30

25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. [7] 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The girls have enjoyed the privilege of playing basketball together.  It's been fun to see them learn something new and see them talk to each other about it.

As I look at these pictures I am so thankful for the work of Christ and how much he has blessed me as a mom.  When Daddy isn't home God is faithful to step right into that spot. He has blessed us with three sets of grandparents that live close and they help out. My heart is filled with joy as I think about these things and treasure his faithfulness.
Now that Daddy has been home for the past couple days and it has been a pure joy. 

I just thought of two funny stories:
One night before be the girls where taking a shower together.  And everyone knows that when you take a shower your voice travels.  Well Ayla said Holly I'm going to go pee in the shower because mommy said that it is okay...it's running down my leg and they giggled...Holly said I have to go poop!!! and Ayla said, "DONT GO POOP IN THE SHOWER IT WONT GO DOWN THE DRAIN!! then they giggled.....To be honest with you, if Ayla wasn't in their Holly would have tried it herself.  In this last week Holly put gum on the bottom of the cats foot.  When I asked her why she said I don't know.  She does some of the silliest things.

Earlier this week before Daddy got home the dryer wouldn't start so I called my parents since they own the house. They tried to call an electrician that they knew but  they didn't answer. So they left it in my hands to find one.  I found one and set up an appointment...while I was on the phone call waiting was beeping...after I hung up I listened to it....it was my Dad saying he found someone...at this point I was pretty frustrated because It was already taken care of.  At the time my parent where at the gym and that's where he got the number from.  I then called my parents house to let them know that I already found someone...before I finished my message my Dad called on the other line and said...guess what!! We called the same person.  Then my Dad went on to say that he had prayed that God would just take care of it quickly because they were leaving for a trip.  With in a second I was filled with so much joy at how big God is and how he uses us. 

Happy 9th Birthday Ayla!!! ( January 23rd)

Happy Birthday Ayla!!! You are so creative and it shows in how you did your own party.  Ayla saw, "Santa Buddies after Christmas and wanted to make it into a party.  She spent the next month talking about games that she was going to do.  Then before her party we sat down together and figured out how it was going to all work out.  This was a great mother and daughter bonding time. As I listened to her  ideas I tried hard to keep quite and allow her to plan all of it.  She seemed to love putting it all together.  As the party came closer we went shopping and she said she wanted to do her own decorations like last year.  I stopped and thought about how this could be a new tradition, and it saves extra money.  A day before her party we all went to work making streamers, coloring dog pictures,  blowing up balloons, and painting a happy birthday sign. This was so fun because it was something we all did together and everyone took a part in it.
 The party with 6 other friends was such a sweet time.  They all watched "Santa Buddies", had pizza and played Ayla homemade games.  It was so fun to watch Ayla blow out the trick candles as everyone got a chance to blow before they went out.  Happy Birthday Ayla!! We all love you!!!

January Happenings

On Christmas Day the kids had fun cutting Daddy's hair with Mommy's supervision. It was fun for the kids but I had to quickly clean up before our company came.  That added some extra pressure on the day but it was joy to see the kids having fun.

January Happenings:

As I look back over the things that happened in January I remember spending lots of time at home watching the kids be creative with their time.  On this day the kids dressed the dog up with their dress up clothes.

And the boys spent their time hiding out in the hall way closet playing hide and go seek with mom and the camera. Liam and Silas seem to be buddies these days.  They spend up to and hour in their room each night talking and laughing with each other after they have been put to bed.  I have also seen Liam put a car in Silas's hand over and over again to get him to play cars with him.  And Silas is so mellow that he just takes it and doesn't seem to mind until he wants to do something else.  Then he just leaves and Liam follows him with that car and continues to put it in his hand and gets so frustrated.  Liam has changed so much in the last couple weeks because he is talking so much more and using larger words.  He catches me by surprise when he throws his opinion in about something that the girls told me about.  If I don't acknowledge that he also said something he says, " I want to talk tttt you!!!"  So I've had to make sure that I give him a turn to talk and teach him patience all at the same time.  Silas has a new found love for Daddy...As you can see in the picture below

Silas was trying to hug Daddy when he was exercising it's so cute to see him bonding with Daddy.  Silas lights up when Daddy enters the room and it make Daddy so happy now that he has a son that is a Daddy's boy.  Liam has always seemed to want mom over Dad. And Silas will go to ether easily.
I have noticed that Liam is a boy version of Ayla and Silas is a boy version of Holly.  Like I said earlier the boys are just growing and showing their personalities more and more.  Silas has his own games that he now likes to start and he can now get snacks out of the cabinet, bring them to me, and then he rubs his head to say please.  It is the sweetest thing to watch.

One day when Liam needed some help finding something to do I brought out the Tinker Toys they got for Christmas.  We end up stopping school early and we all sat down and played together.  The girls where amazed at what I made and they started going to town on their own creations. It's something I need to remember to do more often.

It was time for the girls to get a hair cut and I wanted to save some cash so I did it myself again.  This time I wanted to try and do something different so I watched a u tube video on how to cut layers.  I tried it on Holly first who loves being first in line to get a hair cut. Some other thoughts about Holly just came up...She must change 3-5 times a day with new outfits.  When she has to fold her own laundry she has twice as much to fold and hang up as Ayla and she gets so frustrated with that.  She has come up with some really cute outfits that she created on her own.  It's been fun to see her change and do more of what she like instead of just doing what Ayla wants her to do. ....Now back to the hair cut...You brush all the hair forward into a polly tail and then cut the top off about an inch.  If you want more layers then cut more off.  It worked out well and I even did it on my own hair and saved myself the cost of a hair cut.  You can see the after pictures below.

We enjoyed going out to breakfast as a family one moring.
The girls just love spending time with Daddy

 Silas didn't want to miss his morning nap so he fell asleep in stroller while we ate. ......It's late and I need to get to bed.  I hope to pick up on blogging more regularly in the future.  I am proud to say that I haven't been as consistent because my honey has been home more and I am reading more books in my free time.  The books I'm currently reading beside the Bible are " A Cross Centered Life" and " Just Do Something"