Foto Friday

Another picture from my daughter's photography list and I could not resist adding a picture of some sweet "flowers" in our home! (Although sometimes they don't smell as nice as the outdoor type!;)
Have a beautiful, God-filled weekend!

 

 

 

For Now~flashback

I found this in my achives and found it ironic that I am this far along as I type this!
It was a gentle reminder that this little one is in God's hands and I have no need to fear of the coming weeks.
We are His!

Soon this view will be all but a memory! But...
For now, I will look down and continue to watch the miracle of life growing inside of me!

For now, I will enjoy every move, bump and hiccup.

For now, I will savor knowing this baby is in the safest place it will ever be on this earth again.

For now, I will remind myself that never again will I be completely aware of every movement and detail of this little life in the same way I am now.

For now, I wait, dream and anticipate holding this little one in my arms.

For now, I wait on God to bring this little one into this world.

FOREVER... I put this little one's life in my creator's hands! The one who put this little life inside of me and the one who will decide when it is time for my life to be forever changed by my sweet baby's presence on the outside instead of the inside!

Works For Me Wednesday

This is my Works for Me Wednesday entry.

Cleaners can be so expensive from laundry detergent to daily cleaners. I found some great cleaner at the Dollar Tree that costs, drum roll please, $1! There are 3 or 4 different types. Bathroom, kitchen, and multipurpose. I have removed many things off of my walls that would not come off with other cleaners even the infamous magic erasers! Ink, pencil, dried food (no, I do not as a rule leave food on my walls until it is dried, I just sometimes miss the baseboards and doorways!) I buy the multipurpose type because it can be used for anything. The scent is not overwhelming and it does a great job!

Another favorite of mine is Pine Sol. But I find it too concentrated so I dilute it 1/4 Pine Sol to 3/4 water in a spray bottle. It works great and still disinfects well. I use this from anything from our laminate floors, kitchen appliances, to our bathroom surfaces. (The same thing works with bleach! I use this diluted the same way for my bathrooms.)

I also make sure I only use 1/8-1/4 of recommended amount of laundry detergent. This is one way the companies of these products get our money! They, at the very least, tell us to use DOUBLE of what is really needed! I read in a magazine article years ago, that our clothes have so much extra detergent in them that every once in while I have discovered I can go one week without using detergent at all and my clothes still smell fresh and get clean. (I still use spot cleaner if needed on stains!)

My last tip for cleaning is using old bath towels. Instead of throwing them away or even using them in the garage, cut them into appropriate size and sew around the edges and you have great dish rags or dish towels that otherwise can be very costly!

Just some things that work for me!

Needless Pain We Bear

Okay, It has been awhile. Really no excuse just had life and the business of it all creep in and decided something had to give for awhile so blogging was one of those things. There are also times I just can't imagine that anyone really cares what I have to say! :) Here I am, not any less busy in fact maybe more so, but taking the time to share my life again with those who read this.

Have you ever had a week where you cannot believe how many little things can happen and you lay down at night and wonder how or why it has not bothered you as much as it should or it has not even bothered you at all? This past week has been one of those times. I am now sitting back and thinking of all the things that have happened and I really feel "untainted" and untouched. So today, I have asked my self, why? The only answer I can give is the love and holding of my Heavenly Father.
What have these things been you might ask, okay maybe not, but here are some examples. I am 35 weeks pregnant and should be uncomfortable and miserable. I have even tried to force myself to find something to complain about, but have come up with nothing. Am I ready to have a baby, absolutely! Am I anxious to hold this little one? Absolutely! But have I been able to see the joy of helping God with this little miracle instead of finding the negative of the last month? Yes. If you know me, not a common way for me to be. I am not the most patient person in the universe especially when it comes to holding babies! Do my hips ache? Yes! Do I have to go to the bathroom every hour on the hour? YES! Do I have an appetite or do I feel like I want to throw up every time I think of food? I can't even fathom eating an entire meal with out puking! But, through all of that, I am thankful not unhappy. Maybe after the 11th child I am finally to the point of wisdom...although getting up 4 times a night to go the bathroom, at least I CAN go back to sleep! In a short time, sleep will come as a luxury, for awhile anyway! The next thing that happened to me this week was I took 2 of my girls to their music lesson in the same day and found out that NEITHER of them were having a lesson that day! One is in town and the other I drove 30 minutes away! I laughed! Not upset, not even one bit annoyed! I laughed! I know, I know, you are probably thinking why would that bother her? Well, I guess it is because I am very scheduled and using 2 hours away from home that could have been used for something more useful than sitting in a car when I hate driving in the first place, is one of those things that can rub me the wrong way at times! I actually loved having the 2 hours alone with my girls and we had a really good time! Now on to other things. Our car is in great need of new tires. Money, in great need also. We have 2 times in the coming week that my husband or I need to travel. Do I worry? Usually. But not this time. I have realized I am in God's hands and He knows our needs. I did not even look to my husband to "fix" the problem. I know he would if he could! So, I put no pressure on him to get it fixed! I am trusting in my heavenly Father! Through Him, it may be possible to go a thousand more miles when someone else tells us not to go another mile! On to the next dilemma. Last night my husband went to tuck the kids in and came upstairs to inform me that our washing machine is "toast"! Not a great thing in a household that has 4 loads of laundry a day! Missing one day could mean a pile of clothes that the kids could sled down! I said to him, "Well, we will look into it tomorrow." I did not even worry and I slept the whole night without even a care of it! (Well, except for the bathroom trips!) Now, remember, we cannot afford at this point to get new tires for our car, so a new washing machine is not even a thought! Do I wonder what we will do when we have to build a sky lift in a couple days to cross over the mountains of laundry? Yes, it has entered my mind. Do I know that this problem is bigger than me and now matter how much I fret, I have no answer? Yes.

The whole point to this little blog today is not to put myself on this great faith pedestal! Believe me, I lack faith so often and more times than not I try to figure things out BEFORE going to God. So I am dumb-founded at my calm heart and fullness of faith! All I know is for some reason, I have chosen to allow God to work in my situations this week instead of ME trying to write out a plan! I think I am to the point of realizing that without Him, I can do nothing anyway and even if I did, my plan would lack all things compared to the plans God has for me. So, here I sit with my hands in the air in total surrender to Him. Exactly where He wants me to be all the time. If only I would chose that path ALL the time! It reminds me of a hymn I know and love. "Oh what needless pain I bear! All because I do not carry everything to God in prayer!" Let Him carry your burdens today and thank Him for the answers He does have even if it is not in YOUR timing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAR, SWEET HUSBAND!

Today is the day we celebrate the day the man of our home was born! Words cannot express what a glorious day that was for his mother and now we get the joy in sharing in her joy! Little did she know there would be 11 others running around one day from him! What a joy and we are so thankful for the wonderful father he is and what a blessing he is in my life! I know God danced the day he was born! Thank you God for him! We love you sweetheart!

Burpie Hathday to you! (it's a long story! Not a typo!)

 

Spring photograph

My daughter has been out taking spring pictures and I just love to show off what she has done. I love spring! Enjoy today, everyday is a gift from God! How fun that he gave us things to enjoy just because He loves us! May you feel His love today in a special way today!

 

Foto Friday

This was a picture of the beautiful roses my husband brought home for me on Mother's Day weekend. I think the last time I got roses from him was when he was trying to capture my heart when we were dating. Guess what I did with those? Took them to my mom's place of employment! Remember, I said he was TRYING to capture my heart! Short term it did not work, long term, my heart was captured and still is! Have a beautiful God filled weekend!

 

A devotion for the weekend

Places of Spiritual Benefit
These commandments . . . are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7, NIV

Our homes are to be places of moral, spiritual, social, emotional, and physical benefit. If you think that what you do within the privacy of your own home is your own business, think again! God has made it His business, and you and I will experience serious consequences if we refuse to follow His directions for our homes.

Destruction and brokenness are all around us today. It is a brokenness that is directly related to denying our children the benefit of moral, spiritual, emotional, and social instruction. If we do not instruct our children about God and His "Manufacturer's directions" for living, they will develop their own standards and values based on what they feel, what they think, what their friends are doing, and what seems to work-and in one generation we will see the chaos and confusion that result from their "guessing" their way through life. God has given us directions telling us how to live a life that works. If we are to prevent brokenness, our homes should be places of moral and spiritual benefit to those living within them.

Blessings,



Anne Graham Lotz

AnGeL Ministries Website

A day in my life

I love to hear what other homeschooling/stay at home moms do with their day and how and if they schedule things the way I do. SO...I am asking those of you who feel like it, to let me know how you plan your day. I am going to put how MOST of my weekdays go with some variation. Or feel free to just tell me what you did yesterday and how everything worked out. Can't wait to read how people live their day to day lives! Please don't feel like you can't write in if you don't homeschool. I still would love to hear what others do!

5:30am- Time of prayer, and bible reading
7:00am- Shower and dress for the day (I must never skip this because I will NEVER get in the shower if I don't do it at this time!)
7:30am- help get breakfast ready. (We have a buddy system in our home, so usually I get the youngest one his breakfast and everyone else gets their buddies)
8:00am- clean up and make sure buddies get showered and dressed
9:00am- put little one down for nap and prepare for bible time
9:30am- bible time
10:00am- blanket time for little ones and school assignments for older kids
10:45am- Older kids continue with school while I spend time with younger kids
11:45am- I either prepare lunch or one of the older kids organizes it
12:00pm- eat lunch
12:30pm- clean up and free time
1:00pm- naps for little ones and I help older ones with school assignments or this is the time 2x's a week I run errands while one of the older kids babysits while the younger ones are sleeping
3:00pm- free time
4:30pm- prepare dinner
5:30pm- assigned kids set table and we eat dinner!
6:00pm- clean up and jammie time
7:00pm- youngest 2 go to bed and dad goes over assignments with older kids- mom showers ALONE with the door locked :) Yes, I shower 2x's a day! Just a habit I guess! ;)
7:30pm- family time
8:00pm- all kids go to bed with the exception of a couple nights a week when they get to stay up until 9pm YES, even my oldest kids go to bed at this time but they can do school work, read, draw or write as long as they are quiet. This is something my husband and I decided when our first child was born. It is essential for our marriage to connect every night. I strongly recommend this. If you think it is too late, try doing small increments of time at first and explain to your children why it is so important! It is for the benefit of the whole family! A strong marriage is the most important in God's eyes for family unity.
8:00pm- Time with my hubby!
between 9:30 and 10:00pm- I go to bed
Start over again!

Please leave your daily schedule to share with all of us on the comments! I would love to hear from all of you! Have a God-blessed day!

P.S. If you don't have a schedule you follow, that's okay! Just let us know what you did yesterday or another day that you want to write about. This is not about seeing how perfect everybody is! It is just something I thought would be fun!

Works For Me Wednesday

I always have pictures that have been developed and I do not like them sitting around in the packets from the developer. So, immedieately after I recieve them in the mail or pick them up at the store, I put them in inexpensive photo albums. I always look in the clearance isles for photo albums. I have found them anywhere from $1-$5. I try to make it a rule never to spend over $5 unless they come in a pair. I also make sure they hold at least 150 pictures otherwise I would have too many laying around. This is very useful for all you scrapbookers out there who like to keep your pictures organized but don't possibly have the time to sit down everytime you recieve pictures. Just a side note, make sure you do not get any albums that are magnetic! Buy the kind you just slide the pictures in. You can recycle these albums also after you use the pictures in your scrapbooks! Another thing I have done with the many albums I have on hand is use them as last minute gifts. Who does not appreciate a nice photo album for a gift! Just something that Works For Me!

 

A week of deep cleaning!

Today I we cleaned and cleaned some more and still have quite a list to cover. I pray alot when I clean and today was no exception. Sometimes I complain too! ;) I really cannot believe how much dirt and grime can build up! My kitchen is the one place where I try to keep exceptionally clean. So I thought! Until today! My children are all assigned specific jobs in the kitchen and deep cleaning, I guess is one I have left out. Today my 10 year old and myself tackled that! Now it is too clean to cook in! ;) Anyway, as I have been thinking constantly about my list of things I want to accomplish this week, (our school is titled, "The Ups and Downs of Cleaning") Meaning we get our house clean from the ceiling to the floors! That is one of the benefits of homeschooling right? Being creative and being able to do what needs to get done! AS my list keeps growing, I can lose sight of why it is so important to teach my children to keep a clean house. (Not obsessively, just orderly and neat.) It is about working together and realizing we are all in this together. I had to have a moment to change some attitudes at first and it really frustrated me. I wanted them to be excited with their work clothes on begging me to show them what needs to be done next with anticipation in their eyes! Yeah, right! Them, not so much, at first! As the last 2 days have continued, things have changed. They have done a good job and end up laughing about something as they are buried in cleaning. We have actually begun to enjoy the week and look forward to our list tomorrow.

As I have been praying, I have been thinking of my relationship with God and how I like to do all the fun things that come with being a child of God, but watch out when the "yuck" stuff appears! The cleaning out of my heart. The stuff I have let build up and just decided it was not a problem until the conviction comes in full force! I have to then have a little attitude adjustment from Him. Some time alone with the Word of God and prayer deep cleans my heart and unlike my kitchen, where I feel it is too clean to want to use it, this cleansing of my heart encourages me to want to be used for Him! I can then laugh and enjoy His presence again. How fun! Amazing how God speaks to us when we are doing everyday things and we decide to take the time to listen! I guess, now I need to go make dinner in my clean kitchen! ;)

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Okay guys, you want honesty, here it is! Enjoy taking part in my agony of the happenings of the week!

It is not me who had to send my 5 year old outside with a paper towel and bag because he decided to take a dump under our screened in porch! I know we have indoor plumbing and he surely has figured that out!

Two days later it was not my same child that urinated on our screened in porch because his brother told him too.

I did not witness my 14 month old bringing the inside bucket of my potty training sons potty chair up to his mouth like it was a big cup! (I will not even say what was in it. Let your imagination run wild!)

It is not me who just admitted that really gross information. I am too modest for that! Others would then think I don't know what I am doing raising all these boys!

It is not me who DOES wonder how to raise boys! I would surely not expect them to mark their territory! I would not look at them as barbaric! They came from MY womb.

It is not me who had to completely take my 3 and 4 year olds hair (on MOTHER'S DAY)to the scalp because they decided to take a pair of scissors and cut "polka dots" into each others hair.

It is not me who is still alive and as of now, has no heart condition after all the things that have happened to me this week in my life with boys!

No, I still cannot believe I admitted all this stuff! I would never let ANYONE know how disgusting my beauiful cherubs really are!

No, surely my mother will not read this posting! She had only me to clean up after! I NEVER bathed 2 times a day and it is not me who would not wear clothes more than 8 hours on my body because anything longer would mean they would have too many dead skin cells on them! (I DO NOT have a germ phobia!)

Yes, I did clean everything up and use Lysol, mom! :)

God's promise

Here is another unexpected foto for my Foto Friday! We had a storm move through this evening and this was the beautiful remnant over our home. It is a reminder of God's awesomeness! Enjoy! He painted this for you!

 

Works for Me Wednesday

Today is "Works for Me Wednesday". I have a very inexpensive way to remove wallpaper. Get a spray bottle and add about 1/4 cup water to about 2 Cups of fabric softner. Mix well. Spray on the wallpaper you would like to remove and let sit for a few minutes and simple begin pulling away old wallpaer. It's that simple! I used Downy, I am not sure about the generic brands. They are pretty watery to begin with so if you choose to try the off brands, I would not add water. It not only works on regular walls, but it also removed old wallpaper from tile with ease. It leaves the room smelling good too!:) I would make sure you have a drop cloth down if working around carpet. Unless you get fabric softner on the bare wall, there is no need to clean walls except for what you would normally do anyway since the fabric softner sticks to the old wallpaper and not to the wall. Have fun!

"Not Me Monday"

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


Here is my contribution for "Not Me Monday"

I do not have 7 boys! Surely God knows I could NEVER handle that many bodies full of testosterone under MY roof!

It was not me who witnessed everyone fleeing from the park when we showed up in our 15 passenger van because people thought it was the "Shock and Awe" of '09 in our town. I would never have caused others to run for their lives just because MY family was invading! And if that were true, I would never have stayed in my van for a few extra minutes to hideout making sure no-one could see it was ME who was in charge of the WHOLE clan!

It is not me who does not like animals that has 3 hamsters, 10 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs, 1 cat, and a dog residing in our home! I could not handle the mess!

It is not me who just witnessed my 15 month old son putting a dirty wipe in his mouth that feel out of a dirty diaper on the way to the trash! I would have seen that drop! Then I would be inclined to call the poison control center to make sure he would be okay! (After I fainted!)

I did not take my 15 year old son to get his driving permit! I AM NOT old enough to have a child driving! That would mean in the next half of his life, I would be old enough to be a grandma! Nope, not me!

It is not me who let my 10 year old keep 2 caterpillars in her room ALL winter long in a plastic box wtih dirt while they "hibernated". Then I would go to bed every night wondering if they had escaped!

I know I did not find my 8 year old sneaking a fruit snack and handful of crackers to bed one night and he DID not hide the crackers under his pillow! Then there would be crushed crackers all over that would fall down to his brothers bed because they share a bunk bed! And I did not find the cracker crumbs and a fruit snack in his brothers hair in the morning ground into his scalp and stuck to his hair. My dear sweet boy, would not go behind by back like that!

And SURELY I am not pregnant with my 11th child! I am sure God knows that is too big of a responsibility for me! And if that were true, thank goodness He knows that for me that is too big of a responsibility but with Him, all things are possible!

Women of Faith

I spent this weekend with my mom and oldest daughter at a WONDERFUL women's conference called Women of Faith . I have been going each year for the past 11 years and this year was just as incredible as it always is. Some years I have gone, I have had definite issues I have been dealing with and knew God was going to reveal things to me. Other years, I went thinking I had it all together only to find out that there were issues He wanted to bring to the surface. I have learned that there are ALWAYS things I need to have brought into light, it is just at times, I am to preoccupied to really closely listen. Not real cool, huh?! Well, this year, was one of those years I thought I was going to go to listen to God's word and enjoy just being with Him. Which I did! BUT that was not all God had in store for me! We worshipped with Steven Curtis Chapman Friday night and He told of the pain and heartache him and his family has been through this past year after losing there 5 year old daughter. He said he has never understood the sovereignty of God more and never questioned it more. He was so humble. He also sang a song that God used to stir my heart. It is called Heartbeat. First God used it to reassure me of the value of being a mother, hope you enjoy it also. Then He used Sheila Walsh to show me some other things He wanted to remove the veil from my heart and help me overcome. I can't really share quite yet what that consists of because He is still working on me, but I will be sure to share when I am ready and have more answers. I will give a hint, it is about letting go and letting God! Something I struggle with. So through the tears and the laughter, God renewed my spirit and gave me the desire to once again begin another time of cleansing. I strongly advise any woman that has a chance to attend one of these conferences, to take a weekend and DO IT! It is a great time to come together with other women believers and soak in the love of Jesus! I am including a picture of me with Lisa Welchel (formally Blair on the 80's show "Facts of Life". It is a terrible pregnancy picture of me but oh well, I decided to eat my pride! ;) Have a beautiful Christ-filled day and remember, God is never finished with us until we see Him face to face!

 

Happy Anniversary

 

Today, I celebrate the best 16 years of my life! Thank you my dear, sweet, husband for your uncontional love and being such a great father to all of our beautiful arrows! I LOVE YOU SWEETHEART!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Can't wait to see what God has in store for us next!