My Goals for 2013

On our recent car trip, I was able to have some time to contemplate my goals for 2013.  I know it sounds kind of crazy that one can actually contemplate with a van full of kids, but I was able to think more clearly than I can amidst the normal mayhem at home!  Since I set 12 goals for 2012, I first thought that meant I HAD to set 13 goals for 2013.  Then, I realized that soon enough I would be setting so many goals that they would likely be unachievable or not meaningful.  So, this year, I decided to set monthly goals.  Ideally, I will have a post to track my progress, too:)

January--Make a blanket and pillowcase. 
This is actually a project for an orphanage in Kenya organized through our church.  It is way out of my comfort zone, and I would not have decided on my own to take this on!

February--Watch David install ceiling fans.
We already have the holes ready; we just need the actual fans.  I plan to help pick them out, but David is a pro at installing ceiling fans and I'll be more than huge by that time, so I think I'll be his gopher and cheerleader!

March--Birth Baby #5 at home.
Have I mentioned how excited I am to have Baby #5 at home?  I attended a Birth Details Class in November and have a list of materials to assemble for the birth.  Post-birth, I plan on to put school on hold and focus on fattening up the little one!

April--Plan our backyard landscape.
When we moved to our new house in September, the front was already landscaped.  Per our ground lease, we have one year to landscape the back.  We expect to implement the plan over several months, so this goal is just to come up with a plan.

May--Begin teaching the girls how to play the piano.
We pooled the Christmas money together last year and bought a digital piano.  Since then, I have wanted to begin teaching the girls to play.  I finally selected a curriculum (we'll be using Faber and Faber).
 
June--Put together photo albums for 2011 and 2012.
Okay, so we are really far behind in the photo department.  I plan to get us caught up in June!
 
July--Revamp our Christmas devotions.
We do an assortment of special devotions at Christmastime.  I do a daily Advent Jesse Tree devotion with the kids and David does a weekly Advent reading with them.  For one, I am not happy with the particular devotions we have been using to go along with our Jesse Tree, so I want to just write my own.  We would also like to eliminate the overlap between the different devotions and combine them somehow.
 
August--Go through My First Catechism with Mary and Maggie.
I have already gone through this with Mary, but I think Maggie is ready for it now, so I plan to go through it again with both girls.
 
September--Transfer Matthew and Jonathan to toddler beds.
In reality, this will likely be done much sooner than September, but the boys are behind at everything else, so this allows for some delay!

October--Learn to make a new dessert.
Okay, so this is not exactly specific.  I like to bake, but these days, I really need inspiration and motivation to break out and try something new.

November--Complete reading The Valley of Vision.
The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions.  These prayers are really rich in content.  I plan to read one every day or so and complete this book by November.

December--Run a 5K.
This year, David, Mary and Maggie ran the Renegade Santa Race in Irvine.  Although I do not have any hopes of keeping up with David in the 5K, I hope to complete it!

Stay tuned for posts documenting my success/failure at achieving these goals!

Review of My Goals for 2012

Since the end of 2012 is drawing near, I thought it was time that I review the goals I set for 2012 before I set new goals for 2013.  Much to my surprise, I actually completed most of my goals for 2012, in spite of the unanticipated busyness that arose:  David began interviewing for positions elsewhere (a year earlier than planned); we put our New Orleans home on the market; we moved across the country; we moved locally; and I got pregnant with Baby #5.  It's been a very busy year, so I did not achieve all of the goals I set for 2012:( 

1. Craft a mission statement for the Mobley Homeschool.  Completed!
2. Make homemade bath salts and/or soap.  Well, I made zero progress on this and it's just not a priority to me right now.  Maybe someday in the future...
3. Read a book to Matthew and Jonathan every day.  I can't say this happened every day, but I really did try to read to the boys often.
4. Lose enough weight to fit into my non-maternity jeans.  I am considering this goal completed, although I think my non-maternity jeans fit for less than a month before I got pregnant again.
5. Teach Maggie to read.  While she is not a fluent reader, Maggie has made great strides in her reading!  She enjoys reading me bedtime stories:)
6. Read Romans: The Gospel Freedom by P.G. Mathew.  I had to put this book on hold, but I do really hope to finish it soon.
7. Help Mary and Maggie finish memorizing the 25 Scripture passages from our Advent Jesse Tree devotions.  Completed.
8. Read The Valley of Vision by Arthur Bennett.  I AM going to finish this in 2013.
9. Guide Mary in her first big savings goal: getting her ears pierced.  Completed.
10. Teach Mary and Maggie to sign the alphabet.  Completed.
11. Plan some meaningful Easter activities to teach the children about Jesus' death and resurrection.  (I'll welcome any suggestions any of you have!)  This kind of happened really last minute, but we did do some meaningful Easter activities in 2012.
12. Put all of David's summer salary (after tithing 10%) towards paying down the principal on our house.  We did this until we realized we would be moving to California.  We are still committed to living frugally and paying down our mortgage as quickly as we can.

So, that's that.  I am eating my humble pie now and hope to post my new goals for 2013 tomorrow.

What I Learned From Our Trip

We traveled to northern California to visit David's family for Christmas this year.  It was just about a ten-hour drive each way with four kids, one pregnant lady, and David.  This is what I learned on the trip:

1. There are three essentials a mama should never leave at home: a nasal aspirator, an ear thermometer, and children's pain reliever.
2. I have the BEST in-laws in the world!  They made so many accommodations to make our stay at their house comfortable and enjoyable.
3. The GPS is an excellent tool for avoiding LA traffic.  I think next time we will leave later to avoid it altogether!
4. One surefire way to get your kids up by 5 am is to plan to transfer them from bed to their carseats at 5:30 am hoping that they will sleep for the first leg.
5. One of those tools that people use to pick up trash would be really handy for passing snacks and drinks from the front to the very back of the van (or maybe even for poking the ornery child).
6. Driving in a hailstorm is scary and really doesn't help nap-resistant toddlers to fall asleep.
7. A long car trip is a rare opportunity for meaningful conversation and pleasure reading.
8. To gauge how many snacks to bring, figure out how much you think you need and then bring TWICE that amount!
9. All the kids really like traveling in the car (I know, where DID they come from?!)
10. My children need careful supervision around Christmas cookies.   Their tummies seem to say, "Yes, please," but not, "No, thank you!"

Merry Christmas from the Mobleys!

The Bare Essentials!

We really tried to limit ourselves to the bare essentials for our trip.  I guess bare essentials times six and a half is a lot of stuff no matter what.  In addition to the items in the picture, we'll be taking a small ice chest plus the double BOB.  Amazingly, it all fits and we don't have to strap any of the kids to the roof!

The Girls' First White Elephant Gift Exchange

Although there are not many other Christian faculty at the UCI campus, we have been able to connect with a small group of Christian families here.  We meet monthly to share prayer requests and discuss a topic relevant to the application of our faith in the academic community.  While the parents meet, some overqualified babysitters care for the children.  I think there are 16 kids among the seven families involved ranging in age from toddlers to high schoolers!  It's a blessing for the parents and the kids! 

On Sunday evening, we met altogether for a Christmas party.  In addition to a fabulous Mexican fiesta, there were some amazingly beautiful Christmas cookies.  I know I should have taken a picture, but I didn't have my camera and I still own a dumb phone.  The kids took turns whacking a pinata and came home with plenty of candy.  The highlight of the festivities was a White Elephant Gift Exchange.  I actually missed out on this part because I left to put Matthew and Jonathan, who are apparently in nap-rebellion, to bed.  We only brought two gifts for the exchange, since we weren't sure whether Mary and Maggie would enjoy it or not.  Mary, the strategist, worked very hard to obtain this set of Christmas dishes, which were in high demand!  The set consists of four dinner plates, four dessert plates, four bowls, and four mugs.   Maggie did not work nearly as hard as Mary but is equally delighted with her gift, this Christmasy, twirly-whirly, glittery skirt.  Maggie's gift also came with nearly 30 packages of German pudding!  Thanks to Google Translate, we had the first package for dessert tonight!

My Tough Guy

It's official: Matthew is a toughy!  Today, the little guy fell and chipped his tooth, twice.  There was lots of blood, but only a few tears.  Fortunately, David was able to come home from work to decide what to do.  Because of our wacky insurance, he had to take Matthew to a dentist who wouldn't even see him but instead referred him to a pediatric dentist.  Fortunately, we were able to get an appointment very quickly.  The nerve was exposed, so the pediatric dentist recommended extracting the tooth.  (It's a good thing he didn't try to cap it because the tooth was shattered!)  The toughy only cried when they actually began to pull the tooth out.  Clearly, he is over it now and is back to usual cheerful self.  The positive side of the experience is that now it will be a lot easier for others to distinguish between Matthew and Jonathan!

Our Annual Race

On Saturday, Mary, Maggie and David ran in the Renegade Santa Run.  In the past, we have run a Turkey Day Race, but the Thanksgiving race was too far away and didn't fit with our schedule, so we opted for the Santa Run, which was held in Irvine. 

David ran the 5K, but the girls ran the 1/2 mile kids run.  David told me on the way there that he thought he would be slow, since he hasn't been working on speed lately.  Well, he finished seventh in his age group with a time of 21:50!  With zero training, Mary finished fifth out of the girls in her race!  Last year, Maggie couldn't even run a full half-mile.  This year, she ran the entire race!  I am so proud of each of them!  Hopefully, I'll be able to join in on the 5K next year!  (The funny part was that I was the one who needed a nap when we got home!)

Mary and Maggie before the race.
Mary crossing the finish line.	David and Maggie approaching the finish line.
My three runners after the race with their medals.	Two exhausted and content girls!

Thanksgiving with the Morejohns

Well, my husband came through and helped me come up with a solution for posting more pictures to the blog without using more storage space. It seems a bit convoluted and requires me to learn a little bit of html, so please bear with me if it seems like the pictures are slow in coming.

Friends of ours from Davis (Josh and Britta Morejohn) came to visit us for Thanksgiving. Josh and Britta also have four children, so altogether we had children aged seven, six, five, four, three and three toddlers at our house. The children had a lot of fun playing together. They played dress-up and chess, went swimming and tried to beat Josh at soccer (not an easy task). The Morejohns are the type of friends that no matter how much time passes between visits, when we get together, it seems like we just pick up where we left off. David and I were built up in our faith during our time together and are looking forward to meeting up again when we pass through Davis on our way home from visiting family in Redding for Christmas.

Carys pretending to be a butterfly.	Joy playing with dress ups.
Britta and Lena	Josh and Peter during an intense game of Clue.
Most of the kids went to the beach.	Britta and her girls.
Mary and Peter playing in the waves.	Our cautious Maggie jumping off a sand cliff.
Mary, Peter and Joy pretending to be sea turtles.

What We've Been Reading

I have once again fallen behind on what's supposed to be my monthly post on what chapter books we have been reading.  Since my last post, we read the sequel to Caddie Woodlawn, Magical Melons.  I have really enjoyed these stories about Caddie, a high-spirited, tomboyish pioneer girl.  I don't remember learning much about pioneer life in my schooling, but I really enjoy reading about it now with my children.  I like reading about the dynamics of attending school in a one-room schoolhouse.  I like reading about the visits from relatives only known through letters.  I like reading about a time when shopping trips were a rare and special event.


We also read The Secret Garden.  I never read this book as a child, but I so loved reading it to Mary and Maggie.  In case you don't know the plot, this is the story of a little girl, whose parents die in India, and is sent to live with her uncle in England.  The little girl, who was previously spoiled rotten, has to learn to do things for herself and occupies her time in the gardens of her uncle's estate.  She seems to come alive when she finds her way into a locked garden which has been unkempt for years.  In twists and turns that you really must read in the book, she and two friends bring the garden back to life and grow and mature themselves along the way.  Although I heartily recommend this book, there was one chapter with some really weird mystical kind of spirituality.  Even my four-year old and six-year old recognized it as such!  I don't necessarily shy away from such things.  I figure they spark some great conversations!


We also read The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright.  Honestly, I had never before heard of this book or the remaining three volumes that comprise the Melendy Quartet.  We came across it in our writing program, The Complete Writer, and were intrigued.  Simultaneously, we were unable to obtain copies of two books on our reading plan, so we substituted The Saturdays. The Melendy family consists of four children, Mona, Miranda, Rush, and Oliver, who live with their father and nanny in New York.  One Saturday, the children are bored and decide to create a club, the Independent Saturday Afternoon Adventure Club or ISAAC.  They combine their weekly allowance and give it to one member of the club to use towards an adventure of his or her choosing.  Even little Oliver goes off on an adventure all alone.  Each adventure highlights the unique personality of each child and results in a life lesson.  We really enjoyed reading this book and will likely read the remaining books of the quartet in the future. 

True Confessions

Uggghhh!  I ran out of storage space on Blogger, so I can't post any pictures for the time being, in case you are wondering where I have been.  My techy guru husband is working on a work around, so hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures of our Thanksgiving really soon.

Until then, I thought I would share with you some interesting or not so interesting tidbits about myself.  

1. I love to color.  Sometimes, I even color after the kids have gone to bed.
2. The first car I ever owned (actually, I shared it with my sister) was a gas-guzzling 1974 Dodge Dart, affectionately known as The Rocket!  I think these are probably banned from the roadways nowadays.
3. My new favorite show is Call the Midwife, but I don't think I should watch too many episodes before we actually call the midwife (hopefully sometime in March).
4. Since living in New Orleans, Tony's is a main staple of my pantry, just as important as whole wheat flour.  I put it on everything: soups, meat, steamed veges, eggs.
5. Some people read when they can't sleep.  I organize.
6. When I was a little girl, I always took whoopie pies to school to celebrate my birthday.  Recently, I thought I would make them with the girls but was horrified that the filling was made with raw eggs.  It's amazing I'm alive after eating so many of those things!
7. I rarely wear make-up.  In fact, I recently decided it was time to discard the make-up I bought for my wedding day.  We got married in...ahem...2001.
8. Forget pickles and ice cream.  The one craving that I have had with every single pregnancy is fried chicken.  Weird, huh?
9. My favorite food is ice cream, but I try not to buy it because it disappears too quickly.  I seriously lack discipline around ice cream.
10. Public speaking of any sort is not my forte.  Not only do I get the nervous flutteries, but I shake uncontrollably.  It is very embarrassing and something that I really hope I do not pass onto my kids!

 So, now you know just what sort of an odd-ball I am (and if you know my kids, why they are so nutty, too)!
 

 

I Just Stay at Home

Since moving to Irvine, I have had the opportunity to meet many new people.  Upon meeting, conversation seems to naturally progress to the topic of what one does for a living.  When asked what I do, I have repeatedly heard my response: "I just stay at home."  Did you cringe?  I do every single time because of one word: just. 

There are probably many ways one can interpret my response, but I want to discuss two.  Oftentimes, we think of home as the antithesis to work.  Work is the place for, well, work.  Home is the place for rest.  To say, "I just stay at home," could have the meaning, "I do not work." It is easy for me to understand where this idea comes from, having worked in a very demanding job for seven years.  When I came home, I left the work-related stresses behind (or at least I tried to) and enjoyed some peace and quiet.  I'm sure some people I have met could easily picture me lounging around in my PJs with a mocha in one hand, a pleasure book in another, and bon-bons within reach. 

Another way to interpret my response is a comparison of degrees.  "You do something very important and noble in your work.  You save lives.  Me?  I could never do anything like that.  I just stay at home."

Staying at home is hard work.  There are stresses and, sometimes, it seems that there is no safe retreat from them!  With four children six and under, my house is only quiet when everyone is eating or sleeping!  Some days my children repeatedly disobey and do not seem to respond to discipline.  Unlike in the work situation, I cannot and will not ask them to seek a position elsewhere.  Some days, there is conflict after conflict after conflict.  We have difficulty sharing toys, Mama, food, space, pretty much everything.   Even though our reading lesson was on words with ur as in church, my child still sounds out the word "fur" incorrectly and I wonder if she will ever get it.  Probation reports?  We don't have them and if we did, what penalty would there be for not meeting probation?  Often, I feel overwhelmed with the task before me.  I see character that needs molding, but the reality is that my character needs molding, too.  There is no owner's manual that tells me what to say or do to produce the desired effect in my children or what to do when said child malfunctions!

Moreover, I believe from the Scriptures that God places a high value on the teaching and training of our children.  Although our society may not recognize its value as a vocation, God certainly does.  In Deuteronomy 6:6-7, we read, "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and 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."  Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Staying at home with our children is important and noble work.

(Lest anyone misinterpret what I am trying to say, I want to be very, very clear.  I am not trying to say that I think every mom should stay at home or that every mom should homeschool.  I believe that God has a unique and special calling for each of us.  This is what He has called us to at this point in time, but I am not trying to say that I believe He has called you to the same task.) 

True confessions, some days I do stay in my PJs until noon, but that's because at least one of kids was up at the crack of dawn and there was not a moment to take a shower until naptime.  Mornings are usually so busy getting breakfast and brushing teeth and hair and making beds and putting PJs away and starting school and getting second breakfast and then snack and then...sometimes, by the time I remember to drink my tea, it's already cold. 

Being a stay at home, homeschooling mom is not easy, but I will always remember a saying on a poster my dad had in his work-out room: No pain, no gain!  And, since God has called me to this task, I know that He helps me.  When I don't know what to say or do, He guides me.  When I am frustrated, He encourages me.  When I am overwhelmed, He supports me!  In recognition of this, that child-rearing is important to God if not to society, I am adjusting my response from: "I just stay at home, " to: "I stay at home!" 

Give Thanks to the Lord

I think Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday.  It is an annual reminder to me to give thanks to the Lord for the many, many undeserved blessings that I have all because of his mercy and grace to me.  (Plus, I really, really, really love turkey and cranberry sauce!)  This year, I am thankful for the following:

1. Salvation in Jesus Christ--a free and undeserved gift of God!
2. The Bible--God's love letter to His children!
3. My husband, David.  He is my best friend, a faithful husband and loving father. 
4. My daughter Mary. She is a joy to teach because she loves to learn so many different things.  She is also a capable assistant, able to get toothbrushes ready, skidaddle her brothers, fetch things, etc!  I don't know what I would do without her!
5. My daughter Maggie. I love her extra dose of cheerfulness each and every morning.
6. My son Matthew.  He has a persistent drive to figure things out.
7. My son Jonathan. His curiosity is constantly getting him into precarious situations.
8. My sister, Aunt Alicia.  She has taught my girls the importance of accessories, lip gloss, nail polish and fancy dresses!
9. My brother in law, Uncle Luke.  Not only is he the funnest uncle around, but he also takes wonderful photos of my children!
10. River Springs Charter School and the opportunity to homeschool my children!
11. Paying less than $4 a gallon for gas!
12. Berean Community Church: I am so thankful for the pastors who proclaim God's truth, for the Sunday School teachers and nursery workers who teach our children about God and his ways, and for the members who serve one another in love!
13. A one-story house!
14. Being able to walk into another room at night without fear of cockroaches!
15. Hand-me-downs.  To all those who have given us clothes over the years, thank you, thank you and thank you!  You have saved us bundles of money and hours of frustration (did I mention how much I loathe shopping?)!
16. Costco.  I love buying in bulk, and I especially love the two-seater shopping carts!
17. South Coast Midwifery.  I am so excited for the opportunity to birth Baby #5 at home!
18. In-N-Out, the best fast food burger around (and the shakes aren't bad either)! 
19. Our van that theoretically seats eight!
20. My family for tolerating my cooking!
21. Sonic Happy Hour drinks: Coke Zero with Cherry Flavor is the best!
22. Amazon and Free Super-Saver Shipping!
23. My Bob double jogging stroller--the best baby purchase we ever made!  The front wheel swivels or locks; it folds easily; it fits through standard doorframes.
24. A virtually bugless existence in Irvine!  No need for the Therapik here!
25. Read-aloud time with my kids!
26. The local public library, even if they do give me funny looks when I check out about 20 books at a time! 
27. My bread machine--homemade bread each and every morning!
28. When I'm not pregnant, my espresso machine and peppermint creamer!
29. Dark chocolate.
30. Visits from grandparents--a kind of staycation for exhausted parents!

Some Recent Happenings

Lately, I have been in my element, organizing, organizing and organizing.  I promise to post pictures of the house when things are close to presentable.  On a sadder note, our cat, Sarah, died on Saturday.  This year has been a tough one for her with her brother Abey dying and then moving across the country again and then moving to a new house.  She had been showing signs of being sick for a while.  First, she stopped trying to run outside.  Then, she holed up on our bed.  Then, she stopped eating.  I was up all night with her on Friday night because she seemed so miserable.  She moaned and was taking really rapid, shallow breaths.  She took her last breath late on Saturday night and David managed to dig through the hard clay for a proper burial spot in our sideyard.  I have to say it's kind of weird to wake up without a kitty curling up next to our feet.  The girls are coping much better than they did when Abraham died and keep asking about when we will be getting a dog.  NOT FOR A LONG TIME!

In the meantime, we got four tadpoles.  We are studying swimming creatures this year in science. Our science experiment for herps is to see whether a tad will grow more quickly when warmed by a lamp for two hours a day. We ordered the tads from http://www.growafrog.com/.   At first Mary wanted to name them Mary, Margaret, Matthew and Jonathan, but I tried to encourage her to pick gender-neutral names since we can't tell whether they are male or female yet. The new names are Sandy, Dolphiny, Swimmy, and Hopper.  Honestly, I have no idea who is who, but Mary and Maggie seem to.  And, for the record, this is really stretching me actually growing frogs inside my house. I don't think I have touched a frog in my life!  They are really low maintenance taddies.  We just feed them a scoop of food per day and change some of their water once a week.  I think we'll be able to handle this level of responsibility even after the baby is born.  I honestly didn't think about how long the frogs would live, but I have heard from a friend who also bought these for her kids that hers are three years old and still thriving!  


While David was away on a trip recently, the boys got into the diaper covers.  Of course, the girls got in on the action, too.  Mary managed to diaper each of them.  At one point, they even had some on as capes.  The good news is I think this proves that Mary is more than capable to change the baby's diapers!

In the process of moving, the boys also discovered their pillow pets from Grandma Judy.  Grandma Judy brought the boys each a pillow pet and a matching blanket, but I wouldn't let them sleep with them yet.  I still don't.  When I unpacked the box that they were in, the girls really wanted to get them out.  Aunt Alicia, you started the pillow pet craze in our house with Maggie's Dora pillow pet!  Each of the boys have latched on to their pillow pets and think they are the greatest thing ever!  I still won't let them sleep with their pillow pets yet, who are so creatively named Tiger and Doggy, but they are well played with during the daytime.

And, finally, a recent picture of the girls.  Mary now has aspirations to become the first woman president.  Maggie, on the other hand, wants to wear a dress and dance and be a princess! 

Picture Books We Love: James Herriot's Treasury of Inspirational Stories for Children

Since all of our books have been packed up in boxes, we have been relying upon reads from the local library over the past few weeks.  Two weeks ago, I went to the library with a long list of books to supplement our school lessons in history, science and health.  After finding all of those, I picked up about seven books for Maggie to read to me.  (Our long-standing joke is that I have trouble sleeping if she doesn't read me a bed-time story.)  Then, I stared at the bookshelves, looked at my watch, and started to get really upset that I had no plan for enjoyable short-stories to read aloud to Maggie.  UGGHH!  Fearing that I had left David alone with all four children for way too long, I quickly scanned the bookshelves for a book with a thick binding.  James Herriot's Treasury of Inspirational Stories for Children caught my eye immediately, simply because someone hadn't pushed it all the way in.

We loved these stories and plan to read more of James Herriot's books in the future!  This particular book is a beautiful collection of true animal stories encountered by a veterinarian in his practice located in the countryside or Yorkshire.   I don't know if I enjoyed these stories so much simply because they are beautifully unique animal stories or because of the country setting, having been an urban-dweller for all of my life!  Every story depicts a wonderful bond between man and animal, such that will bring tears to the eyes of a pregnant lady with pendulum-ish emotions.  If I had to pick a favorite from the eight stories included, I would choose the one in which a kitten nuzzles up alongside a litter of pigs to nurse, with neither animal concerned that something was amiss.  The Mobley family is looking forward to reading more works by James Herriot!

No Pain, No Gain

First of all, I want to thank you all for reading my crazy, eclectic, inconsistent blog!  Lately, I have had lots of ideas swirling around in my head, but I may be slow in posting because life is pretty busy these days.  Today, we officially sold our house in New Orleans!  Yay!  A huge answer to prayer!  We are moving to our new house on Tuesday.  There are boxes everywhere!  This past week, we attempted to cram two weeks of schoolwork into one, since I expect next week to be busy with moving, shelf lining, grout sealing, unpacking, reorganizing a couple times, and visiting with Nana, Papa, and Uncle Luke!  And, to top it off, I had two doctor's appointments this week and a Home Birth Details Class.  When is my mommy conference???

In the midst of all this busyness, God has been speaking to me about trials, maybe because we aren't going through any right now!  Recently, I saw something on Facebook having to do with fertility issues that some women experience.  The tone of it was that no woman deserves to have a miscarriage or the inability to conceive a child.  This hit a soft spot with me.  Miscarriage?  Been there...twice.  Unable to conceive?  Been there...thrice.  Were those experiences painful?  Yes, definitely!

On the other hand, God used those experiences for my good.  When David and I were struggling with our desire to have a child, God showed me that his purposes for my life were not the same as my purposes.  I was looking for the external things, but God was concerned with my heart and molding me more and more into the image of Christ.  God encouraged me through my pastor to emulate Mary's attitude and say, "I am the Lord's servant."  God's message to me was to serve Him.  Serve Him with children.  Serve Him without children.  Serve Him.  This impacted us so much that we chose to name our first child Mary.  

That experience was hard, but our experience with our boys brought me to even lower points.  Pretty soon after Matthew and Jonathan's birth, Jonathan was admitted into the NICU.  He was having difficulty transitioning from the womb to the outside world.  He needed oxygen, IV fluids, a feeding tube, etc.  It was really painful to see him in the NICU.  His face was swollen; he had tubes everywhere; and he was stationary, not the same little guy that was constantly kicking and pushing at my ribs!  In the beginning, I could not hold him let alone nurse him because he was struggling so much to breathe (and I certainly didn't want to interfere with his care!)  During our stay in the hospital, I was pretty much a fountain of tears.

Matthew, on the other hand, was teeny but healthy.  So we thought.  We took him home but left Jonathan in the NICU.  Matthew's first check-up was somewhat of a horrific experience. We waited for an hour to see the doctor only to find out the doctor wasn't actually in the office.  Once she finally arrived, she was very concerned about Matthew.  Not only was he under four pounds, but he was also yellow!  He was admitted that evening to a separate hospital for jaundice.  We watched them insert a catheter into his teeny body and draw what seemed like too much blood from his body.  Then, the doctor wanted to perform a spinal tap to test for meningitis and asked us to leave the room.  David and I sat alone in the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity.  We felt all alone, but we know without a doubt that we weren't alone.  Our loving Father was with us.  We prayed to Him.  We prayed for Matthew.  We prayed for Jonathan.  We prayed for the doctors at Children's Hospital.  We prayed for the doctors at Touro Hospital.  God was with us during our most difficult hour.  He heard so many prayers lifted up for our boys.  Now, when I look at the boys, I cannot help but be reminded by what an awesome prayer-hearing, loving, almighty God we serve.  Sure, these experiences were painful ones, but I do not regret going through them now because of the eternal lessons that God has taught me.

I am going to end this post with my favorite hymn, which sums up my viewpoint on trials:

Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace,
Over all victorious in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed,
Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest.

Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a share of care,
Not a blast of hurry, touch the spirit there.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed,
Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest.

Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love.
We may trust him fully all for us to do;
They who trust him wholly find him wholly true.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed,
Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest.

Pictures of Our New House

Today, David and I went on a walk-through in our new house!  We will get the keys one week from now.  I tried to multi-task as best I could and listen to Buddy explain all the different features of the house, take pictures to share on this blog, and simultaneously inspect the home for any minor repairs, like painting, cleaning, etc.  Buddy, the customer service representative who conducted the walk-through, told us over and over that our model is his favorite floor plan of this series of houses!  We like it, too:)

This is the front of the house.  The front and corner are already landscaped for us, although we don't know what all the plants are yet!

We have a corner lot!

The kitchen is actually so large that I couldn't get a very good picture of the whole room (this is just one side).  There is a LOT of storage space and a working island and a beautiful gas stove!  I believe that the oven door is sufficiently heavy to be toddler-proof AND there is a control lock on the dishwasher!!!

The floor plan is very open, with the kitchen open to the dining room open to the great room.  In the great room, we have a beautiful cabinet as well as a gas fireplace. 

More beautiful cabinetry--I think this storage area is for linens.

This is the bathroom that the kids and guests will be using.  Some neat features: the light automatically turns off after no motion is detected for 10 minutes AND the fan automatically turns on when it senses the humidity is too high.

This is a glimpse of the master bathroom.

A glimpse of the master bedroom.  There is a ginormous walk-in closet.  Anyone want to go shopping with me???

There are two other bedrooms, which are virtually identical.  We plan to let Mary and Maggie choose which bedroom they would like out of the two on the 15th.

The front door.  Notice there are two peepholes: one for the grown-ups and one for the little people!

The laundry room, which leads to the garage.  Again, lots of storage space and not your regular run-of-the-mill utility sink!

Finally, a two-car garage!!!  One door leads into the laundry room, the other leads to the side yard.

We expected the backyard to be a pile of dirt, but there is an actual patio already!  Plus, there's plenty of sunny spots for the vegetables!

 

What We've Been Reading

Amazingly, we have been keeping on track with our read-aloud plan for the year!  For us, read-aloud time comes in the afternoon--after all our other schoolwork is completed and while the boys are snoozing.  I love curling up on the couch with my girls and getting lost in the pages of a book.  I love when we get to the end of a chapter and they beg, "Read, more, Mama.  More!  PLEASE!"  This school year, we have read three excellent books.


Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is the story of a young girl who is sent from her home to live with her spinster aunts, Jane and Miranda, in the town of Riverboro.  Rebecca has a way of charming everyone she meets with her creativity, imagination and energy.  While we did enjoy the book, it did become difficult for Mary to follow the plot, especially in the later chapters.  I plan to read this wonderful book again when the kids are a few years older.


Who hasn't heard of Peter Pan and Tink and Wendy?  Certainly, I was familiar with the story of Peter and Wendy, but I had never actually read it!  We laughed at the idea of having a dog for a nanny and thoroughly enjoyed flying away with Peter to Neverland.  The girls were riveted during the big fight scenes and may have acted it out one too many times.  I could probably blame the pregnancy hormones for my pendulum-like emotions lately, but I cried reading the last chapter.  If you haven't read the book yourself (really, skip the movies and read the book), I will totally ruin the ending if I go into an explanation for my tears, so please read the book for yourself.  I promise, you won't be disappointed.  One sort of funny thing I want to share is that Mary read this book on her Kindle before I had the chance to read it aloud.  Tink is very cute in Disney's portrayal, but she is really very crude and cruel in the book.  A few times, she calls Peter a "silly ass."  Rather than read it as written, I would just say, "silly," but my Mary, with the amazing memory, would correct me and say, "No, Mama, it says, 'silly ass!'"  We had a discussion about vulgar words!


Most recently, we completed Caddie Woodlawn.  Caddie is a red-haired tomboy running in the woods of Wisconsin in the late 1800s.  Because Caddie's sister Mary died in Wisconsin after the long journey from Boston, Caddie's father requested that Caddie be permitted to run wild with the boys rather than be made into a lady.  Amid the crazy escapades of Caddie and her brothers, Tom and Warren, there are some wonderful life lessons.  I especially enjoyed the chapter "Father Speaks" and even became teary-eyed (again blame the pregnancy hormones!)  We really, really, really enjoyed reading this book and are really excited about the sequel: Magical Melons.