my girls ( pic.s)

My 2 sweet girls so far! ( I am hoping for more) Big sister Sarah with baby Anna!! They are quite the pair!

Anna is almost 7 months. She, in the last couple weeks has mad great changes. Sitting indepently and almmost crawling. She can pull her self around god and pretty quick too. Now we have to watch whats on the floor! Everything goes in her mouth at this stage.

So sweet girls!! And they are so lucky to have 3 big brothers to look out for them.

I thank my Lord for these sweet blessings!!

( Sorry you have to turn your headd for this one.) Three yr. old Sarah looking chicky!

I absolutly love my girls!! And i do hope God sees fit to bless us with more. I hope and pray and strive to be every bit the Mom He wants me to be for them.

This is our school (pic.s)

Books is the way we learn!! And its never to early to start reading! Enjoying the pile of books are Samuel, 5, Sarah, 3, and Anna, 6 1/2 months.

Samuel goofing off for the pictuer!!

Nathan hard at work at his desk!! My oldest at age10 in grade 5.

Clayton in grade 2 and Samuel in K. They work at the kitchen table so i can help them.

My favorite magazine

I just had to do another short post to share with you all my very most favorite magazine!!

The Above Rubies !!

Haven't heard of the magazine? Then you need to go to www.aboverubies.org. And there you can find out all about it. You can get on the mailing list for it there as well. Its by donation only.

The magazine usually comes 4 times a year. That is not often enough for me, but their so packed full with goodies that it usually holds me over till the next one! lol Its so full of encouragement for moms of littles and for homeschooling and so.


Haven't been to an Above Rubies retreat? If not you really ought to check one. Go on-line to find listings of retreats in your area. I have been to 3. Love them so much!!


p.s. I guess the boys have adjusted to this cooler morning because they have traded their fire for the swimming pool!! But then it has warmed up to 84F now.

Have a blessed day!!! Mae

lovely morning in Texas!

I'd have to say this is one of the most lovely and perfect mornings here in a long time!!
When i got up at at 6:30 it was reading 63F with 74 percent humidity!!
Feeels so great after 100 degreees temps!!! I feel like i have so much energy!! I feel like running and jumping around like a child!!!

But my kids are complaing that its cold! I can't believe it. But there out side enjoying it now. But thats probabaly because they got a little fire going!!
Weathere like this makes me want to go camping. I love getting up in the tent on a cool morning. Sitting around the camp fire, and sipping a hot cup a coffee! Yep, anin't nothing like it!!

Its 72F now, but still feel so lovely!

Well i need to get off and get on with my mroning here. Got laundry going, got the breakfast dishes washed, and the kids just got me 2 older hens to pluck and clean. One will be for dumplins for supper and the other goes in the freezer!! Nathan is plucking the one now.

Thank you Lord for the great day!!

P.s I have just took some very cute pic.s of the girls, and of the boys doing school. I will share them here soon.

time , priorities, and i don't do it all!

I almost lost thought on what I was trying to get at in my last post! In the last couple days I tryed to regather my thoughts on this. Here's what i cam up with.

If your struggling with feeling like you need to "do it all" but you just can't, then don't!! :)
There, how do you like that for some great words of wisdom!!!

There seems like theres always pressure around us as parents. Theres so much out there to offer our kids, and they're all very good things ( or I am sure most is). But you just can't "do it all" and still keep your sanity, aleast I can't. So you make your priorities for your family and relax!

And I don't do it all! I keep up with the kids school, house work, cooking, shopping and so on. Thats about it!! We do like to meet with our local home school group on weekly park days which I work in with my shopping day. A new thing for us is volunteering at our local nursing home for an hour or so once a week. The kids love that!!

One of my top priorities is that we all have family evening meals together and that we read together before bed-time. ( I usually read a story or two out of a "good" book we are currently reading, and in the children's Bible book)

Oh something I failed to add in last post is that moms don't do everything all by them selves. For one thing there's wonderful hubby's helps with little ones , running errands, and running children to activities. And there's the older children that help out tremendously!!

What does God think of all that moms and families try to cram into their days and lifes? Well I wouldn't know. Every family has to answer that one on their own I guess.

I do think we need to be careful that we don't get caught up to much in the cares of this world, that we loose fouces of the reason we are here. We are here as servants of God, to live our lives pleasing to God, and to reach others for Him. Remember also that its no longer, "I that liveth, but God that lives in us". ( sorry I can not think of the Bible reverence for that at the moment)


Well it seems I again have lost my thought here!! Sorry! I will think on it it some and if I come up with somthing good I will share it, but if not I won't!! :)

time , priorities, and doing it all

Have you ever wished for more hours in a day?
I have countless times!!
Some days there just seems there so much to do and not enough hours to do it. It happens so often to me.
But God only created 24 hour days. So i guess he must of felt that was all the time we needed to get every thing done. So if more hours in a day is not the answer, then I would guess that we must be trying to do more than we should in a day.

This kind of goes with my last post of moms and their many roles they play. Just keeping up with basic duties of mom keep most running all day.

Theres homeschooling, cooking, house cleaning, keeping the laundry done, grocery shopping, keeping doctor and dentist appointments, tending little ones. That in its self is a full time job!! Actually enough to keep 2 or 3 going full time in my opinion!!

But that's not even all we moms do. Then there's sports, music lessons, swim lessons, boy scouts, dance lessons, karate lessons , co-op, volunteering, play-dates, and home school park days to keep up with!!

But your not done yet mom, theres more pulling your time. Theres e-mailing, face-booking, blogging, bills to pay,, ect..

Overwhelmed yet?

But were still not done ! We have left off the most inportian thing that you can possible accomplish in a day!

Family devotions, and morning and evening at that!!

But there's just no way one mom can possible keep up with all of that. She either is going to be stretched so very thin that shes going crazy or something is going to get the slack. Thats just the way it is. ( And so sadly it seems that family devotions are the first to go)

So then i guess thats where priorities come in at. Every family has to set their own priorities for their family. What means the very most to them. And fouces on those things and let other things go.

Now back to where I started on this. Its my thinking we may be trying to cram in to much into our days, and into our lives and kids lives. It could just be that God did not even intend us to live as we do, and do all the things we do.

But there's pressure all around us , for us to accomplish as much as we possible can, and that our children can experience everything they possible can. And that all of this will give them better advantage in life.
But what does God think?

Anyway it seems I have to much for one post so I will continue on this subject in later posts. That will give me time to regather my thoughts! :)

In the mean time I would love to hear from others on this.
I would love to hear how you handle it all.

Encouraging moms

Just had a few thoughts on mind about this I wanted to share . I think it came because i have just recently received a few negative words again concerning my parenting. It hurts when it happens.

I'm thinking come on can't you find a whole lot of things to compliment me on, or encouraging or up-lift? What about all the many things I do right? Why the few little things i fail in?
Why is that our short comings and faults are so easy for others to see? And why do they with out fail feel its their place to tell us?

So instead I think us moms need a whole lot more encouragement!!! A whole lot more pointing out all the areas that we are good in, and maybe that encouragement will flow over into the areas we are not. A whole lot more uplifting!! And i guess a tactful way to say the things we may not always want to hear.

We all got very full plates, and wear many hats. We may be stay-at-homes, but we are teachers, chefs, house keepers, keeping a well stocked pantry, coaches, secretaries, disciplinaries, and of course still a mom and a wife. We are stretched very thin at times. No wonder there may be an area that we are weak or low in. ( I believe we do need to be careful though that we do not over stretch our selves unnecessarily or add unneeded things to our plate)

So we need the encouragement and best of all the prayers of others to keep us going strong and flourishing as mom! We moms need to encourage and compliment each other.

And let us not forget our own moms! Now that we are a mom ourselves its easier to see all that she did for us! And also why she did what she did , and why she had the rules she did and so on. She needs our thanks, and our words," Well done mom" ," I am proud of what you did for me".
I challenge you to give encouraging words and compliments to a fellow mom this week. She will be happy for it!