I always love it when my mom calls and invites me to dinner. I mean, who wouldn’t? Going home always refreshes me and I believe it’s mostly due to the atmosphere of the place.
And an invitation from Grandpa to go hunting??
From one hard-head to another, let the truth be spoken. :)
Meanwhile I enjoyed an afternoon alone at the library and my um, favorite burnt out store. Check out some new recommended reading to be placed on my sidebar.
Friday, is that really you???
God Bless!
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. (from Ps. 24)
After we had a little Lego Dragon Fun (this guy amazes me with his various Lego creations)…
And, of course, no Hot September day would be complete without a little mud, ok..a lotta mud…
After building a frog a home….
There’s always dogs tousling about…
It was then, I got on with my Fall Fix…
There.
Now if the temperatures can only slow down to meet my criteria. :) I know it has to be coming…. right??
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. (from Ps. 24)
PRAISE THE LORD for HE is GREATLY to be PRAISED!!
1I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
After a action-packed weekend of having a yard sale (Fri & Sat) and church-going, I had a lot of catching up to do today and I can say I did get mostly everything done (thanks to school finishing at 12 today).
Lots of messies.
Even though I would label the messes in the bad category, I am thankful to have a family who can make a, er, mess. :)
The Good….
A tray of fruit for breakfast…
Time to wash all of the bedding since a new season is here (yay!)
A 3 yr old who likes mama to push him in the four-wheeler that does not work…whew.
An after-school block playing…(yes, they play right in front of the front door)
Horse-play on the comforter-less bed
A little evening wagon ride
…and an attempt at tree climbing…
numerous bike rides throughout the day (have I mentioned that my oldest THREE can ride without training wheels??? EVEN the just-turned-3-yr-old)
Now I have two to push?? Oh well, you’re both too cute to resist!
Some pretty purple-berried bush sightings on the way in the house…
getting ready for night-night…
..or not.
Daddy reads the Word.
Fresh sheets/blankets make for a cozy night!
Good Night! :)
I am having a lovely morning here in my Haven in the country. My Ella went back to sleep early this morning and I had a wonderful time reading my Bible and praying out on my front porch. The Cares of life & Evils of this world just seem so far away when I am out on my front porch, listening to God, hearing His nature, and hearing the quietness, all simultaneously. Ah.
I am currently reading in the book of Genesis and I truly believe it is my favorite book. I very much enjoy the wonderfully true stories of God’s provisions, his wrath and incredible mercies, the deaths and births, promises coming true at the right time—it’s just all wonderful. This morning I read the story of Isaac and Rebekah and what a glorious story it is. There are so many things (for lack of a better word) one could pick out of this story to apply (ah..applications..that’s my word) to one’s life. Complete trust in God is what I gleaned from this story. The servant completely trusted his master, Abraham, enough to complete the seemingly strange task he had set for him to do. The servant trusted God to send the woman that was providentially designated for him to take back to Canaan. Rebekah trusted the servant enough to even water his camels (think about how we would feel today, in our flesh—“what a weirdo! He wants me to water his camels, too? He must be a pervert”). Laban trusted Rebekah enough to come to get the servant to take him home. The whole family trusted the servant enough to allow Rebekah to go with them (even if, understandably so, they didn’t want her to leave right away). And Rebekah trusted again enough to be willing to leave right away. Isaac trusted God to be willing to receive what God had in store for him. It is all goes back to being the result of Abraham’s complete trust in God (see Romans 4:3). I want to be like Abraham’s servant and be willing to be obedient to my master, no matter how unusual the request. I want to be like Rebekah and be trusting in God from the small things (i.e. watering the camels) to the large things (muy grande—marriage).
In my prayer time, I felt impressed to pray for myself (how unusual…) from my head to my feet. I wish I had time to share with you my prayer, but I have household duties awaiting me, somewhat too patiently, I might add. But, for my head, I prayed that God would help me to wear the Helmet of Salvation today and to also be in submission to Him as my head and to my husband as my head. For my feet, I prayed that He would shod them with the preparation of the gospel of peace and also lead me in the ways I should go. I also prayed that my feet would walk on Holy ground today as I go about my duties.
And if I pray in sincerity, God will always be faithful to reveal something in my life on which I need to work. Today was the ever present job of putting God first. He spoke to me on what that means for me. It was wonderful. I hope to share with you at a later time.
On to other more ‘carnal’, albeit important things, my first ever piano recital turned out great! I hope to maybe have some pictures downloaded or perhaps even a video clip of the recital in the very near future. Everyone did great, I sweated profusely under my arms, and only said, “you know”, about 27 times while talking. So there you have it. :) I’ll share more later, Lord willing.
I would love to see some of my blog readers share what your ‘to do’ list looks like. Today, my list looks like the following:
*Read Bible
*Pray
*Blog
*Begin Breakfast
*Spend 10 minutes in each room that is not in the main portion of our house.
*Spend 15 minutes in each room that is in the main portion of our house.
(Did I ever mention how much I love my timer?)
*Wash towels & washcloths.
*Get all laundry put up.
*Get some flowers planted.
*Play with my littles (Nana has the ‘eldests’ today).
What does your day look like?
As for now, I’ve got the cutest-ever two year old in my lap, who desperately needs dry clothes (somebody forgot to put on him a diaper before bed). Add to list above, *Wash sheets.
Have a great day!
Although it is now Sunday, and we are all resting:
I wanted to share my great Simple Saturday that my family and I had yesterday. First off, Tornado Warnings/Watches were out practically all day long and it was very stormy. Usually, the weather will set my mood. Isn’t that the way it goes? I was so thankful for the rain (gardening, anyone?) that I did not let the storm invade my mind and ruin my good mood (weird how those 2 words indeed, do not rhyme).
I got the house clean fast (which is rare), we ate a big breakfast and just hung out while the rains fell. Don’t you just love to hang out with your family? :)
After noon, we decided to go up to my in laws to visit and maybe play some board games. I love to hang out with my in laws just as much as my own family and I’m thankful for that. We played Clue and Scrabble and ate and snacked and held babies and ate again and, well, it was just as if it had been a holiday. Fun, fun!
You see, if it had been sunny, we would’ve been busy outside doing this and that and we wouldn’t have had the pleasure of enjoying each other’s company.
So, sometimes Storms are a good thing.
And that was my Simple, albeit, Stormy, Saturday.
PS. Don’t forget to sign up for my Giveaway! Even if you don’t have a blog, sign in as anonymous and give me your Email or tell me who you are and I’ll enter you. I will leave the giveaway up until Wednesday, 10 pm.
If you didn't ready my Morning post, please scroll down and read it below this post...it will make things a lot less confusing!
Sorry for the delay….let’s get back to my day! :)
Kids start school at 12pm. I start my oldest daughter in Kindergarten today as she is now 5 years old. She does really well and is super excited!
In the near future I hope to do a Home School Day post…. Here Erin is doing a shapes worksheet (coloring the shapes that have equal sides) and Emory is doing his Bible Study that he does on Monday. You can’t see Evan, but I think he was playing with Play-Doh.
Around 12:15, I put a chicken in the Crock Pot to thaw and cook for tonight’s unknown supper. I’ll think of something between now and then (I ended up using it to make Chicken Salad Sandwiches for the following day’s lunch).
I am beginning to feel the weak trembles (as my Grandmother use to say) from the empty calorie Honey Bun I ate for Breakfast, so I snack on pecans. I start lunch which consisted of leftover Vegetable Venison Soup and Garlic Toast.
Very yummy and satisfying. I have the picky-est daughter in the world, so she just had toast. Sometimes we will make her eat 2 or 3 bites during our supper meal, but for lunch she can eat fruit or something else healthy instead. I don’t give her a bag of chips or a hot dog while we eat healthy. :)
At 12:30, the Living Room now looks like this:
My motto for this picture is, “We’re not trying to have a clean house, just a lot of fun.” :)
Ella awakes at 12:55 and I feed her somewhere between 1-2pm. (The details start to get sketchy here…)
At 2pm, I read Evan a Max and Ruby story (notice my nice posture and Ella’s hunger for paper pages)
and it is time for his nap. He goes to sleep instantly.
At 3, Ella is back down for her late afternoon nap. The laundry now looks like this (sorry so dark):
I am still washing clothes…lots of cleaning/straightening is still to be done!
Emory is still working on schoolwork at 3:23. He is very distracted today. Not misbehaving, but just very distracted. My husband says that is just how he was. For example, Emory’s chore (I skipped posting about chores somehow) was to sweep their bedroom. It takes him about 10 minutes because he finds sweeping at the light fixture and ceiling fan more entertaining. Distracted.
Erin is supposed to be napping at this time, but we still haven’t done her reading (I’m just starting to teach her to read).
At 3:30, Erin is down for her nap after finishing reading. She is still not thrilled about learning—maybe she was sleepy?
I had a small break here to myself while Emory did his outside chores (his daddy assigns him a different outside job to do daily). Today it was picking up some sticks that had fallen by the house.
While he was outside and the others asleep, I worked on the Living Room and did more laundry.
At 4:00 Emory and I do his Language and History. He learned about the articles, a, an, and the. In History, he learned about Chinese calligraphy/pictograms and how they were the first to write this way.
At this time, my dear husband called to ask if we wanted to eat at the new Mexican restaurant in town. He had received a gift cert from the Home School Asso. at where he spoke.
We were delighted. Sorry, Mr. Chicken, you can wait until tomorrow. :)
Ella is awake at 4:15 and at 4:45 Emory is finally finished with school with the exception of reading. Here he is reading his current favorite books, the Hardy Boys. Check out where his foot is and who might or might not be chewing on his toes…
After this, things become a blur…. I get fixed up a bit, get the kids up and we go eat Mexican.
My husband has to practice with his singing group for an upcoming singing, so the kids and I come back home (he takes the oldest son with him). I let the kids watch a DVD or either play the computer (I don’t remember).
Bath times follow soon after and I start putting away the clothes that now look like this:
The kids are in bed by about 9:30 and I finish picking up—still not tidy as I would like, but at 10:00, I take my bath and got to bed, resisting the temptation to blog about my day. :)
Well, ladies, I had to choose Monday for the day I will showcase. Most Mondays, here, are probably similar at your house. Just another manic, frantic, madhouse, laundry-killing, getting-back-in-the-mode Monday.
The day started out early. Very early. 4:14 to be exact. Rocking the baby. Laying her down. Three times to be exact. Her waking up all three times. A zillion thanks to my dear husband for getting up and rocking her with his magic touch. Oh, did I mention the rocking took a solid hour? So, by now, it is well into my prayer time/devotions. I get into the Living Room with my hot cinnamon/apple spice tea (oh, and a, urm…honey bun leftover from some junk food snacks purchased after Sun night church), get into Exodus chapters 10-13 and really enjoy what I’m reading. It is very chilly in the living room, so for my prayer time, I bring up a chair by the heater and begin dozing…uh…I mean, praying. I fall asleep so many times (I promise, it’s not like this always…:) that finally I tell the Lord that I will get back to Him during my many rocking sessions (which make for some great prayer times, btw) and snuggle on the couch (could it have been the honey bun?). I set my timer for 40 minutes and awaken when my dear hardworking, breakfast-deserving, husband comes in the living room, ready to head to work. 7:40. Yipes. I see him off, reluctantly, as usual (I tell him daily, “Just stay home, please?). And thus my day begins!
These messes greet me this morning…
Getting the weekend outta the house, yk?
Youngest son is the first one awake. He even beats Ella. I wonder why? :) She has a reason to sleep in! I put on Smile of a child TV on for him to watch, but he comes in the kitchen to watch me instead. I don’t mind. :) Notice he still has on his Sun Night church clothes. Tell me I’m not the only one who does that occasionally. Whew. Thanks.
I start a load of towels and washcloths and then begin unloading the dishwasher.
I cook breakfast, which will be toast from this bread made the previous night, and
this…
While breakfast is cooking, I make a quick call to my honey to ask where the checkbook is so I can make the van payment.
At 8:30, oldest son is up and we have breakfast. I started getting the kids up at 8am, but I usually allow them 30 or so minutes. My oldest daughter had had a rough time going to sleep the previous night, so I allowed her until almost 9 to sleep in.
By this time, I have had a few slight discipline issues with youngest son (2.5 yr old) so I’m thinking this is a ‘testing’ day. :) He is very sweet and respectful, but he likes to sneak in a disobedience. For example, if I told him yesterday that I don’t want him standing on the counters, then he will try it the next day to see if I remember. :)
We have our ‘gummies’ and whole food vitamins and some other things as we all have sinus issues going on…
At 9, everyone is up and it’s time to nurse the baby. My oldest daughter doesn’t care much for breakfast, so she chooses not to eat. They sit on the couch with me while I feed the baby and we read our daily Proverbs. Then, they choose another book for me to read. Today it is a book from the Sesame Street Treasury about “Oscar’s Bad Dream”. :)
Oldest son has kitchen duty with me (each day the kids take turns), so he clears the table and sweeps under the table.
At this time, I reboot the laundry, folding as I go. My first batch of clothes folded looks like this:
Ella plays good during this time. She is really a good baby until she is sleepy. She lets ya know when it’s time to rock. :) I make my bed, pick up in the room while Ella plays on the bed. I get dressed and since I’m including every detail with the exception of our bathroom habits (lol), I’ll tell you what I wore. I had a long sleeved brown T-shirt and a straight khaki skirt. It is very cool today. I keep on my house shoes. In fact, here is a pic of Ella and I after I dress her and me:
And, no, I don’t usually fix my hair unless I have to go somewhere. In case you thought it was fixed.
The kids make their beds (my helping the 5 yr old and making the 2 yr olds) and clean their sections (we divide the room into 3 parts and they have to keep their part clean)
I’m not really sure what the kids have been doing during this time, but I think they were just playing imaginary games, you know with their toys and such. They didn’t start school until 12:00, so they were playing during the late morning hours (couldn’t go outside…too cold). Oh yeah, Evan was getting into his sister’s lipgloss. He had it everywhere!
What the living room looks like now:
Get Ella back to sleep for late morning nap around 11:15.
I reload the dishwasher and start it back. I also clear off the counters, wipe them, and sweep. Then I turn off the light in the kitchen (I absolutely love to do this…anyone else?), stand back and admire it being clean. For 30 minutes, maybe. It is 11:45.
My hardworking man comes by to get the computer for a presentation he is presenting to our Homeschool Asso. Chapter on the Parental Rights Amendment. Very proud of him for his speaking out for our parental rights. I didn’t go to the meeting because I just really didn’t want to. It was cold…I just wanted to be home. I don’t go to every one, just about every 3 mtgs. Anyway, we are always glad to have Daddy come by!
Well, that’s all for my morning. Come back to read about my afternoon! :)
