Mondays

Mondays are always busy, and today was no exception. On days like these I go for a quick and painless breakfast like milkshake. Blend, pour, drink, done. EXCEPT for.....when I get up to answer the door and Levi spills his entire cup all over the table. That was all I had made so I give him my cup and start to mop up the mess, and what does he do but spill that one all over the floor. Seriously?

It took an entire roll of paper towels to get it up and then I still had to mop and wipe it down with a rag. (I don't own enough towels to try to clean it with a regular ones. haha) Forget milkshake for Levi, he got a glass of milk and a peanut butter sandwich. ( He did manage to not spill the milk.)

Then on to my Bible study with Scilla. I'm loving it more all the time.

Follow that up with some very fast cleaning. Cause I had gotten a call from a very special friend that they would be stopping by for a visit! Super excited! The kids did a good job helping with clean-up...as long as I kept them away from the books. hahaha. They were excited to see their friends too.

Then I got to kick back and just visit. It's funny...Brit and I were talking about how different things are in the real life of everyday compared to the false impressions we give off when we are at church or when company comes over. At those times we are the smiling patient Mommy who sits and cuddles her babies and has a spotless house and clean, well-dressed children, with food ready to serve at a moments notice. When we all know the "real" scenario looks more like..."Isaac, you pick that up right now and if everything is done you sit on the couch and DON'T MOVE". "Everybody, we are eating our leftover pizza in the kitchen so we don't mess anything up...and Kyla, is that your third or fourth clean outfit today?"

Yep...'fraid so. =)

Anyway, all in all it was a great day!!! Thank you, Ben, Brit and babies for coming to see us!

Gotta scoot and go change my bed from where Ky wet it in nap...yeah that was probably the fifth change.

Morning devotions (and evening meditations)

I know that by starting out with this it will seem that I am always consistent in having my morning devotions. I also realize that I only post ever once in a while so people aren't getting the whole picture. In reality, this is the first morning in a while that I 've gotten up early enough to read and blog before the day starts.

Be that as it may, it was such a blessing (as always) that I wanted to share a bit. I'm reading in Psalms, Ch 25 - 28 today, and I'm so blessed by the constant reminder of the Lord's willingness to hear us and bless us and guide us. The older I get the more I can identify with David, his desire to serve the Lord and have the Lord's leading, his failing, his love for the Lord in spite of inconsistencies, his fears and triumphs. He records the whole scope of human emotion in the Psalms. And it speaks to my heart so much because it echoes my heart cry.

Ps. 28: 6,7

" Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him."

The reminder, you know, of how much He does help me and answers my prayers...and also the question...How much have I praised Him publicly for all that He does for me? My children hear my prayers for help....do they also see the evidence of Him working in my life, do they hear the praise for answered prayer?

This is once again my prayer...Instead of voicing my frustrations with some unmet goal, let me praise the Lord for what has been done. My heart has been helped, now let my mouth give testimony to that.

Before I close I have to tell something about last night that is a little testimony ...

We had Julia's 15 th birthday party last night and had a houseful, even Peepaw and Meemaw and Aunt Sha got to come for it. Most of the crowd had left by 9:30, but as usual, we had some guests until after 11 and of course by then my kids are tired and hyper. I had been telling them to clean up and get p.j.s on while I was still chatting, but I hadn't taken any steps to enforce that other than repeating myself. (Probably a mistake, but it is so disruptive to a conversation to run in the other room and spank 6 kids and come back and try to remember what I was saying.=)) Anyway, after I waved the last people off, I went back in and some of them were still running and jumping off the bunkbeds, etc. And there was abundant evidence in the other room that it was not picked up and many things had been played with besides toys. ( This has been a trend lately anyway, any time we have company. Definitely not a first offense, and we have already discussed this many times.) Needless to say, it got to me. So I lined everyone up and "gave them their due". (Trust me, everyone was guilty.) And sent them to bed. I usually follow all this up with a guilt-inducing lecture on "obeying right away, not wrecking the house, yada, yada, yada..." And I was on the verge of doing it again but ( I know it was the Lord) I just felt that little nudge that it wasn't the right thing to do. I had corrected the problem, now move on. Try to restore fellowship instead of letting them go to sleep thinking I'm still mad. So instead, we had prayer together, and after I hugged and kissed each one, instead of a parting reminder, I suggested "Hank the Cowdog". Can you hear the screams of delight? One chapter of that and it was lights out. Of course they begged for more, but it had done it's job. Fellowship restored.

All that to say, the Lord cares about even the little things and I'm so thankful for His guidance and "reminders".

Ok, I gotta scoot. Ya'll have a good day!

So thankful

I'm just laying here (yes, I'm aware of the time) waiting to skype with Ed before I go to sleep, and I'm just counting my blessings. Usually I tend to lay here and obsess about everything I didn't get done today, but "in everything give thanks", so I'm trying to start a new habit.

I was just thinking about the Bible study Priscilla and I have every Monday and what a blessing it has been. We've been reading through the book of 1 Samuel and then just discussing the things that we notice (or even at times other topics ;-), and we've also been memorizing the 1 ch of 1 Peter. We have about 5 verses left to finish the chapter, and even though we are always lamenting that we don't work on it as consistently as we intend to, we are doing more than we would otherwise. So that's very exciting and one of the reasons I'm thankful. I'm also very thankful for my sis...we've become very close over the past couple years and she is such a blessing to me. (This does not in anyway exclude any other family member(s), but she is just the one I was thinking of right now.) Love ya Scilla!

I was able to get some laundry this evening...I'm trying not to focus on what I didn't get done only what I did... 2 of the beds have cleans sheets and the bathroom and kitchen are mostly clean.

Oh, oh,...just remembered a huge happy. Asher now has a play yard and has been playing happily in it all day. We were able to get it on sale at Walmart last night (while I was on a hot date with my hubby;-) and I'm so thankful for it. He has gotten so mobile that I just wasn't feeling safe with him in the floor anymore. And it rolls...very convenient.

The aforementioned date was alot of fun. I always value uninterrupted time alone with Ed. (It's my best thing, as the kids would say.)

Also looking forward to tomorrow's services. You know, now that I'm writing it I realize that most of the time I don't take the time to "look forward" to the services until I'm actually in church and enjoying it. It's usually such a marathon of...washing hair, and bathing kids, and laying out clothes, and "oh, does everyone have clean underwear?" and " WHERE did that other shoe go?", etc. Speaking of which, I'm also thankful that everyone does have clean underwear and I did actually manage to find matches for everyone's shoes for tomorrow. Don't laugh, that is not to be underestimated!

Anyway, I need to get off here for now. I got me some skyping to do! (thankful for that too!)

Yep, it's 31

I can hardly believe that I'm writing this. Last year was scary turning 30, but I could deal with it because I told myself that it' s just past 29. But now... now I'm "in my 30's"! How did that happen? I had to go put on makeup this morning to convince myself that I don't look a day over 20 (Ok, at least 25?).

So maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic... but it is surprising how time sneaks up on you.

My baby. MY oldest child turned 10 on Saturday. I can remember when he was newborn sitting and rocking him and thinking, "I wonder what he will be like at 10?" and then thinking, well I know it will go by fast but I'm just going to enjoy this moment. Well, it has gone fast. I don't feel a day older than I did then, unless you count that I now need naps more often. lol.

I'm so thankful for all the blessings the Lord has showered on me. I have been truly blessed by having the most patient and understanding and loving man ever as my husband; the 7 sweetest, most ornery, most creative, most imaginative, most loving, most forgiving children; and the greatest family and friends I could ever ask for. (Ok now I'm reminding myself of Miss America..." I want to thank my family and friends....") Seriously though, it makes me so much more aware of my responsibilities. I have so many things I would love to see happen in this next year of mine. Top of the list being that I grow closer to my Lord.

I won't lie, it's been a bit of a tough year this past year...for personal reasons. But I trust I can learn from some of the stuff I've gone through. Reading that, I realize that it sounds worse than I mean for it to. But you know how it is, you go through growing pains as a Christian even after you are all done with them as an individual. And the Lord has been showing me areas in my life that I need to improve on and take control of better.

Well, enough introspection for now...

But now you know how to pray for me in this next year if you should happen to wonder. Pray that I am more yielded to the Lord and His working. More sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and more of a testimony of His love and AMAZING GRACE!