wooden crafts (pic.s)

The boys were gaven wooden craft sets recently . Here is Clayton making his. Lots of little pieces.

Here are the finished products!! A lion, a monkey, and a lobster. Alot of work but they were so happy with thier accomplishment.

I like the lobster! They could have painted them, but haven't yet.

Here are Natahn and Clayton proadly showing thier work!!!

Here is Nathan working on his.

summer goals

I know the summer is half way over ( although it doesn't feel like it here Texas :), but I still have a bunch of goals i would like too accomplish.



Decluutter - This is my biggest goal. I want to major declutter, down size on number of things that just seemed to find there way under foot constanly! And organize. Early in the summer we built some really good shelevs in the kids room and that has helped so much in organizing thier toys, story books, and school books. But theres still many other areas that could use a good dose of declutter and and organizing. Lkie for instance, don't step foot in my room!! :)



Daily Excerise - This is really a major one too! I feel i have gotten so lazy in the excerise department, and gotten so fat around the belly department!!! So need to do somthing serisouly! I had hope that walking around in my garden would do the trick, but it don't seem too. :)

And this heat has not made me feel like walking down our road. I have though a few times recently went for a 2 mile bike ride. So i am hoping to keep that up atleast everyone other night.
I don't know how that is for working down a belly though!?
My goal is to iether walk or bike aleast a mile daily.


Daily Bible Reading- another biggy on my list!! Actually this one is at the very top!! I have been so neglectful in this area. I have beeen reading to the children in thier bible book daily, either morning or eveing. But my own reading has not been happening at all. I would like very much do be reading daily, but it sure takes effort and seems really like you just have to set time aside for that, or it don't happen. Maybe I will plan on getting up at 6:oo, while the house is still nice and quite, and read. Then chores , commputer time, and get breakfast.



Planning Menus- This is one of my very low points. Like very low, like most of the time i do not know what we are going to eat for that meal till just an hour or two before hand!! :)
So that means it has to be somthing quick, beacuse i don't have much time left to work with!
And also very often i will start a meal say like speghiti and then find i do not have any noooles!!
I know that would not happen if i had planned ahead.

I would so love to beable to plan a menu for a week, aleast just suppers, and then shop and having everything i need for those meals. So i will defianlly work hard on that goal.

Going Off Caffine- Actaully it would be going off coffee biengs that is the only form of caffine i have. I don't do any soda drinks.
and I don't even mean going off coffee 100% but just cutting back. I have did very well on that so far already. Both my husband and I descided to cut back on coffee and even missed 2 whole weeks this past month! But now we are just having some on the weekends.
No really reason for cutting back coffe except just felt it wasn't somthing that was best for our bodies on regular baises and was somthing we could certainly live with out. Actually we were both feeling rather tired and sluggish with drinking a few cups of coffee every day.

So i plan to continue to keep that up. Of course in the summmer with the heat you hardly desire a cup of coffee anyway.


Well thats my goals .
I will update preodiaclally on how i am doing with them.

controlling additueds & reactions

"Mommy he's making me mad!" or, "I only hit him because he mad me mad".

I hear these comments all to often at my house. And it usually comes most often from my middle son.
I know others do have the ability to make us mad. But I feel its alot the persons own fault that they get mad in the first place.
So i often reply back to this comment, " your making your self mad. If you don't want to get mad, then don't get mad!" ( I also tell him to walk off from a sisuation)

Now i know which ever of the brothers that were iritating him was in the wrong, but i also feel he should control how he reacts to what they do.
For we can not control what others say or do to us , we can only control how we let it effect us.

The bothers obviously get some enjoyment out of his reaction, so if he didn't let it bother him, they wouldn't have no fun, and they would quit what ever it was they were doing. ( i also discipline them for that of course)

It seems a very hard thing to do, but i feel its very importian for life to control how we let different things effects us. And to learn that as a child is so much easier I think.

Self control in many areas has been something that has been very impotrian issue to me to teach my children.

The more self control we have the less problems we will run in to in life. And I feel we get that strength only in God. And the stronger we are in the Lord the stronger we are in all areas.

( let me know what you think of this post, and how you handle these kind of sisuations. )

she's three

Some special little girl just turned 3 today!

This day 3 years ago was my very first home birth, and my very first girl!!

I loved that home birth! So far its been my only one, but I certainly would hope for more in the futuer.
Nothing like being in your own home and doing your own thing. Nothing connected to you, no strangers around, no unwanted medications, no needles.
Your own bed, yet you don't have to be stuck in bed.
You can walk around, get in the tub, get on your hand and kneees, anything!!
It certainly was a beutifull experience.
And she was born with less than 5 hours of labour, my fastest yet!


After 3 boys I wondered if I even would have a girl!
And my Mom never gave me much hope. After my 3rd son was born and it was not my girl as i so hope he would be, she saids, " Well you have 3 more boys to go before you have your girl."
Thats the way it was for her. She had 6 boys before having her first girl, then another boy then me!!

But luckily for me my first girl came only after 3 boys, and now I have my second one already too!

Well Sweet birthday girl I am so glad for the 3 wonderful years wev'e had with you so far, and hope for many more.
Your a really joy to us all!!
Praising the Lord He gave us you, Sarah!!

I smile...

I am out shopping and some one sees me with my children around me.
And they ask, " Are these ALL yours?"

I smile, and proadly reply, " Yep there ALL mine." ( but i think to my self, i only have 5, i mean I'm just getting started)


I'm out at another store another time and some one sees me with my crew and comment, " My you must have your hands full!"

I just smile. (Thinking to my self, yes, i have my hands full but not the way they think. My hands are full of God's blesssings, and so very full of Love and joy!!)


Then at yet another place a lady goes, " one, two, three, four, five, oh my gooodness!! I only had 2, and i was pulling my hair out!"

I smile. ( i'm thinking , i guess she must of did somthing wrong, because i still have a good head full of hair!)

Just recently my husband and i were out at a restraunt eating with our children. An elderly came comes by our table, and pauses to enjoy the baby and talks to the others.

Then she looks at my husband and I and saids, " you all are so blessed!"

We look at our children and both smile and say, "yes , we sure are!!"

That was so refreshing to hear that, so different than the normal commments i hear.

And that really makes me SMILE!!

I messed up again

So I did it again.
I was busy this morning running around here getting ready to head out the door. Just came out of the shower , went to put dirty clothes in the babsket in the laundry room.
And there i find in the basket a couple of hubby's shorts that I had told my oldest son to put in the washing machine earlier.

I holler at him , " What are these shorts doing in the basket? I told you to put them in the wash. Now its finished . And that was my last load for the day!"
He responds,"I didn't hear you, I thought i was to put them in the basket."
Then I'm like, "Well if you didn't hear me you shold have ask what I ment."

This conversation was going on with me in the luandry room.
So i come out of there and looked at him.
And there he is sitting in the arm chair looking so sad about his mistake. In his arms is baby Anna.
He was taking care of Anna for me while I was showring and getting ready to go.

Not once did I tell him how wonderful he was to take care of Anna while I showered. Nor did I tell him how thankful I was for him being such a big boy and a big help to me.

No instead I got on to him about what he didn't do, and what he should have done.

Boy I felt bad. There he was sitting there so nice taking care of baby sister.

When i relaized my mistake I told him how bad i felt over how i had just behaved.
I told him he was so special to help me like that. And that sure he made a mistake. But the shorts could wait for another load another day.

I let him know how often both my self and daddy tend to see the things they don't do, or what they should have know to do, or what they did wrong . And over look all the many great things they do do, and the many areas they help in .

I have descided from now on for every negative thing i say I plan to say 2 positive things.

And I plan to encourage more,
affirm more,
compilment more,
smile more,
laugh more,
hug more,
and up lift more!!

More is good, right?!

hot or cold ?

I talked to my mom yesterday who lives in nothern Alberta.

We were talking abut stuff , and then I said, "well its been cooler here this week because of our rainy weather we've had, infact to day feels so nice that that we have spent alot time outside and we didn't even put on the A/C."

She said, " well its been really warm here today".

So then I was curious of what her tempatuer was there. So she goes and checks and cames back to tell me it was 80F.

So then i go and check our temp. And told her it was 79.8F.

We both had to laugh over that. Almost excatly the same temp , yet i thought it was cool and she thought it was hot!

Its all in what your use to. I didn't realy feel cool though, but it was cooler than what it had been here in our part of Texas. And it felt nice.

I always aks my mom the temp there when we talk. This spring when i would ask her, it was usually almost always 20 degrees cooler than ours. And i would so envy that! Because here we hardly got a spring, it went straight to summer.

I read a joke on Texas of our 4 seasons here, and i think it is so true. It said the 4 seasons were, almost summer, summer, still summer, and christmas.
I totoally agree!!