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.

Give Thanks to the Lord!

Today, David and I were talking about how many specific prayers that we have seen God answer in rather unexpected ways since we have moved to Irvine!  We were praying for friends, for our house to sell and for a good church home.

Friends

One of David's colleagues from the past emailed him and told him we should look up his friend, who is a professor in the philosophy department here.  We thought there is no way we would have anything in common with someone with a background in philosophy, but David emailed.  While we were still in the process of coordinating a time to meet up, we ended up "meeting" at the park!  AND, we have so much in common because they are Christians and have three children about the same ages as ours!

Obviously, we needed to find a new pediatrician for the children after we moved, but where to start?  I received a list of references in a binder of information prepared by my midwives.  So, I looked through the list and started to narrow it down based upon which doctors would accept our insurance.  Then, I checked out the websites and selected one.  As we were leaving from Matthew and Jonathan's eighteen month check up, a woman entered with four children.  The oldest, a little girl about Mary's age, walked in completely engrossed in The Story of the World Volume 1.  I got to talking with the mom.  Quickly realizing that the girls had quite a bit in common, we talked about getting together, and David gave her his card, so that she could contact us.  I thought I would never hear from her, but she actually contacted me and we did get together.  She is also a Christian who homeschools and has four children, two girls and two boys!  (Side note: we also found out our new pediatrician is a Christian, too!)

Our House

We left New Orleans with our house still on the market and one prospective buyer.  Then, said buyer was laid off in the most recent round of cuts at UNO.  Bye, bye, buyer!  We kept on praying and asking God to provide a buyer for our home.  Now, God has provided the perfect buyer for our home.  The buyer signed off on the inspections with no amendments to the contract, and the appraisal came back at our exact sale price!  So, it looks like the sale IS going through with closing anticipated on the 24th, a week and a half after we close on our new home.

A Church

David did quite a bit of work in compiling a list of churches for us to attend in our church search.  He attended one of those churches with the girls (the boys were ill), but it was kind of far away.  Then, one day, David was at UCI "working" outside.  He overheard two guys sharing the gospel with a student, so he asked them what church they went to.  We have been prayerfully attending Berean Community Church ever since.  

We give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.  His love endures forever!

Orange County Great Park

Today, I met a friend and her four kids at Orange County Great Park for a fun outing!  (Oddly enough, we met at the doctor's office.  I saw her daughter reading The Story of the World Volume 1 and we got to talking.  They are also Christians and have four children, two girls and two boys, just like us!)  Orange County Great Park was formerly a marine base and is being made into, you guessed it, a Great Big Park.  Among the highlights that our children enjoyed today were the carousel, the Great Park balloon and a big playground with automatic misters.  The kids were happy and mom was happy, too, because everything was FREE!  We plan to return sometime in the future, but I will bring David along.  My arms are really tired after lugging the boys around on and off of the carousel and the balloon!

My pictures aren't that great, but they're okay considering I had one boy in the bjorn and one in my arms while clicking away. 

Mary's second ride on the carousel!

 Maggie's second ride on the carousel!

We went up high in this big orange balloon!  I would have taken some pictures of the views, but I couldn't quite manage it while holding two toddlers!

The kids enjoyed playing on this wacky bike rack!

S'mores with Nana and Papa

Recently, Nana and Papa drove all the way from Redding to visit us in Irvine! I think they are really tired right now.  They came over and spent the morning with the boys at the park while I did school with the girls.  Then, they spent the afternoons with the girls while the boys napped.  They were staying in a really nice hotel with a full kitchen, so they invited us all over for a gourmet meal followed by some special entertainment! 

Shrimp and tri-tip seasoned with a special home-made rub and grilled to perfection! 

A beautiful salad complimented with the best TJ's dressing.  (The potatoes were also beautiful, but they somehow got overlooked in the photos!)

After dinner, we went out to the firepit for scrumptious s'mores!

Jonathan, of course, can find trouble in any setting.  He had a blast rearranging the pool furniture!

Matthew was a big fan of the s'mores.  We all were, but feeding Matthew s'mores was my charge, so most of the photos were of his gracious eating habits!

Such a happy little guy!

Poor Papa was left alone roasting just one more marshmallow!  He does look like he is enjoying himself!