Lead me, O Lord...Psalm 5:8

It is certainly a rare morning that I am done with Bible reading AND the house is quiet.  I thought I would share a bit of what I gleaned from my study this morning...

I enjoy taking a whole chapter in the Bible and using my colored pencils (I use the Crayola erasable ones, by the way) to mark/shade/color/draw pictures of the words.  This morning I was studying Psalm 5, which the publishers of my Bible have titled "A morning prayer." It was a pretty straightforward chapter for me.  There was nothing new or surprising until I got to verse 8:

Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.

...because of...
 
Can good come from evil? Yes, if we ask God to draw us closer to Him because of  it.

I don't watch the news, and I can barely stomach more than just reading the headlines on the news websites. There is so much evil in the world today, and I don't think it is a stretch to say that the evil is our enemy.  Ask God to lead us today because of the evil in the world!


*****

In family news...
"Toddler" S is 2 going on 16.
G is trying to learn to read (if only everyone wasn't too busy to teach him!)
S will be graduating from 8th grade this Friday night.
S and Sacagawea will be baptized Saturday afternoon.
J turned 16 last week and can now make some recognizable songs come out of his trumpet.
M is home from college until next week, then he'll return for a summer job working for one of his professors.

Whew. Yes we are too busy, but I hope to check in here more often!

That he understandeth and knoweth me...Jeremiah 9:24

I'm ending my blogging hiatus and I hope I'm back for a while!  There is so much to update on, but I think I'll start with the oldest and spread out the kid updates over the next few weeks.

This little kid is at college.

That picture was taken in the fall of 1995 when we lived in Berrien Springs, Michigan. M has returned there, and is now an official freshman at Andrews University majoring in Engineering. How did he grow up so fast?

I'm not missing him as much as some folks think I should be. Probably because he was gone for 4 months this spring to AFCOE, and I've had no less than 14 phone conversations and 1 Skype session with him since I dropped him off at the airport last Thursday. He's also living with his grandparents near the university, so I'm not worried about him not being taken care of. We spent 18 years training him up in the Lord, and we'll let Him guide M the rest of the way.

He told me today that his final piece of luggage was delivered, so he has some of his Legos with which to study.

Some new thing...Acts 17:24

Still crazy busy. Too crazy. Too busy. We're trying to remedy that situation. I've been recording most of the little things the babies are doing on facebook and not here. I really need to change that since the blog is much easier to find things later.

"Mommy, did you know M used to have TWO lizards????" G had heard this juicy bit of news from S and that was very exciting.

"Yes, G, I knew that." I was tickled that he thought it would be news to me, but then I recalled that the last one had died over six months before G was born. No wonder he doesn't remember them!

M has been gone from home for the last few months. We'll be seeing him this weekend for his last few days of childhood. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with an 18 year old baby.

Seventh month...Leviticus 23:39

I came to make this post and realized I had a few unpublished posts waiting to be "touched up" before I posted them. Obviously that didn't happen, so I published them tonight as-is. Check the previous posts if you want to see what little I had time to write about the past few months.

7 month stats for Baby S...13 1/4 pounds and 25 inches long. Please don't be too hard on this mom of six who neglected to do 6 month stats. Baby S really gets around now with her rolling, scooting, and even some up-on-the-knees crawling. She started eating solid food on Sacagawea's birthday, April 12.

G is talking! He's says "Mama" and "Dad-DEE" and all sorts of other lovely words. He actually has a very broad vocabulary, but it is hard for most people to understand him because he tends to leave off the beginning consonant sounds. I even have him on video calling his baby sister "Eew-ie." That should be worth something someday!

Sacagawea turned 9 years old and three days later M turned 17. Seventeen? Yes. Wow. I'm starting to think I'm getting old. Seventeen. We were in the store yesterday and I heard a song on the loudspeaker. "That's an old song," I told him. "I remember it from when I was a kid."

"So," he replied, "are you saying you're old?" Ummmm...

We're all working to get an actual garden in this year. Lots of seedlings are started and the garden area is tilled.

Going to go to bed now...I've got to sleep while the babies are sleeping!

Small thing...I Chronicles 17:17

4 month stats for Baby S: 11 lbs, 12 ozs. and 23 1/2" long. She rolls easily from front to back and occasionally from back to front. She sleeps all night (usually about 11 hours) in her crib at night. She is such a good little girl.

G went to his very first non-daddy doctor appointment a few weeks ago. His height and weight is consistent with his siblings at his age. I don't remember right now his stats (bad mommy moment), but they were in the 5th percentile. Actually, I think M was off the bottom of the charts at that age. The doctor said we were already doing everything that could be done for G's allergies and eczema, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

I was sick for most of January and I'm still dealing with a lingering case of conjunctivitis. Fortunately it didn't seem to be the contagious type. I'm very slowly starting to feel normal again.

Last weekend we made our very first road trip as a family of 8. Whew! The baby and all the rest did well on the 6 hour trip to visit Weimar College. That is one of many that M is interested in attending in a few years. It turned into a wonderful surprise reunion getting reacquainted with friends and family from all over the country.

S has taken up trench digging. Instead of digging random trenches all over the property, I gave him permission to dig trenches within the garden area. He and J started pulling apart old pallets today to construct a compost bin. After a bit of discussion they started researching worm compost bins. I've offered to donate the Rubbermaid containers if they'll do the rest.

This past week has been unpacking, enjoying the sunshine in our part of the country, and yet another trip to the big city for music lessons for M. The highlight of my week was finding FIVE 100% cotton shirts for The Man at the Goodwill. Not only were they in colors/styles that he will wear, but they all fit. It is the small things that make me happy!

End of the year...Exodus 23:15

No more apologies for not writing more here. When I'm at the computer I usually only have one free hand to type, which doesn't make for effective blogging. The Man has taken Baby S to be changed and put to bed. As soon as she's asleep, I'll put myself to bed, so hopefully this will be a short post!

I suppose it is trite to say that I don't know where this past year has gone...but I'm not even sure what happened to yesterday. Twenty-ten has been a very eventful year for our family. I hope that 2011 brings more time to enjoy the everyday pleasures.

I'll try to give an update since my last post. All of these items are very deserving of their own separate posts, but that's not going to happen...

M: Got the results for the PSAT he took in November.
> > BRAG ALERT < <
He scored in the 99th percentile of juniors who took the test. That was his very first standardized, non-mommy given test. I've always known he was a smart kid, but it is nice to get some valid confirmation of that. I was quite relieved that I haven't totally ruined him academically by homeschooling him.

J: Almost as tall as me now. He's been told he can no longer wear my garden shoes to make quick runs outside since he's been stretching them out.

S: Backyard Ballistics was finally available to be checked out from the library. There are PVC weapons in the entryway and I found two potatoes under his bed when I vacuumed today.

A: The Man made her a loom for Christmas so she's learning the fine art of weaving. She LOVES singing and rocking her baby sister to sleep.

G: Cute, cute, cute. And he knows it. Very smart kid, but he still isn't talking. He got a Candy Land game for Christmas so we could "teach" him his colors. He beat me yesterday. I guess he already knew his colors! He absolutely adores his baby sister. Unfortunately he hasn't learned the difference between sharing a doll with her and whacking her on the head with a doll. "Gentle!"

Baby S: Smiling, giggling, cooing, and sleeping well through the night. She is a very sweet and happy baby. I can't believe that she is quickly outgrowing clothes that were swallowing her up a few short weeks ago. She had her first bite of real food yesterday. She was sitting on my lap next to G's high chair. While my head was turned G stuck his spoon into her mouth. Wild rice soup seems to agree with her!

The Man: Over the course of a few weeks, he replaced some rotten boards on our bridge so we had to drive through our pasture to get to the road. He still has a bit more to do, but it is functional.

The creek started flowing again on Christmas. It has been rather wet the past month. A bit of snow is still on the ground outside and it has been getting down into the teens the past few nights. Brrrr.

I still hear Baby S, but I'm yawning and ready to go to bed anyway. May you have a blessed and happy new year!

Drive...2 Kings 4:24

This week M got to take his official drive test. He passed. He now has his driver's license. I'm not quite sure how that happened since I'm certainly not old enough to be the mother of a...oh, I guess I am. The Man thinks it is exciting because now he can send M to do stuff like get loads of wood by himself.

In case you are wondering, yes, it can still drive on the open road. In fact, it will be M's official vehicle since it was much cheaper to add him to our insurance that way.

Waiting...Proverbs 8:34

I was hoping all the posting I did during the month of July would give me the momentum to keep blogging. Oh, well...I had good intentions!

Baby is growing just fine. Hopefully we will get to meet baby soon. The doctor says any day (hour?) now.

The kids are all doing ok. J and S had sore throats and fevers last week, but seem to be all better now. The Man came down with the sore throat and fever within the past few days and even stayed home from work today (rare occurrence). Tonight he did a strep test which was positive. I'm praying the rest of us stay well.

M is now a few weeks into his junior year of high school. Pre-calculus and Chemistry are the new courses for the year in addition to the standard English, History, PE, Music, and Spanish. He spent a few hours this week with a missionary from Costa Rica to practice his Spanish dialogue and vocabulary. We need to get him over to the local high school soon to sign up for the PSAT coming up next month.

We are still easing into all the subjects for the 3 middle kids. We are trying to work on a routine that enables all the kids to get the varied help from me, the very pregnant mama, while keeping G out of all the "fun" stuff the older kids get to do.

J is in eighth grade this year. S is in fifth grade and claims he loves school more than any of the other kids do. Sacagawea is in 3rd grade and doing very well despite the fact that she has so much more work this year than in years past.

G has tins of cars, animals, blocks, and puzzles that had been in storage. These "new" toys are keeping him quite occupied while the others do their school work.This is the first time we have had a single toddler while trying to full-time homeschool everyone else. It is a new learning adventure for all of us.

Given my most recent blogging history, this is likely to be my last post as a mother of 5! I will try to get pictures up of #6 as soon as possible. They will probably appear over on facebook before here, and we've already promised grandparents that they get a call before info goes on facebook!

I'm trying to decide whether to go to bed now or stay up timing contractions...how's that for a cliff-hanger?

Home...2 Corinthians 5:6

M is home. He had a very uneventful trip home. Yay! We just got home from picking him up at the airport and getting groceries. We stepped out of the van and S exclaimed, "It feels like Indiana!" Yes, it had rained while we were gone and it was very hot, humid, and muggy when we got home. Now that I have my official photographer and my cell phone/camera back, I may be able to post some new pictures soon!

Frogs...Exodus 8:2

I'm missing M. He should be flying home from camp on Sunday. Even though we've sent a few emails to the camp for him, we haven't heard anything from him. That's just what we expected, but it has still been hard! We are glad, though, that no news is probably been good news since we've heard of several campers that were extremely ill. Since we haven't been contacted, he is probably fine. Hopefully his flights home will be a lot more non-eventful than his trip up there!

I've been looking through some of his pictures that he has taken and I thought I'd share these with you. Enjoy!





The End!

Before the camp...Exodus 14:19

M left this morning for camp. This is his very first time away from home without either parent for more than a sleepover at a friend's house.

I was so happy to finally see that M's flight had left the airport that The Man took him to early this morning! They left just after 6 am to get to the airport in plenty of time for his 9:20 am flight. The flight was delayed just over 5 hours! M called from Portland and said that the delay was caused by a malfunction of one of the "triple redundant" parts. It took that long to repair the part and return it to triple redundancy. As long as he made it there safely, I'm not going to complain!

He called again from Portland right before he went to get something to eat for supper. I told him to call again before his next flight took off. He didn't, but since the cell phone was turned off and my online source said the flight actually took off, I just needed to assume that he made it on the flight!

He did make it safely to Spokane. He said he forgot to call until the flight attendant said to turn off the cell phones. Tomorrow he hopes to receive his checked piece of luggage. I hope he's thankful his mother had him pack a change of clothes and his toiletries in his carry-on luggage (at least the other campers can be thankful if he's not)!

I am thankful...

That I insisted on him taking my cell phone with him.

That he was (very) capable of getting his connecting flight changed and notifying the camp staff.

And yes, I was very thankful that we/he had to deal with that before. Even though I was fretting this morning and afternoon thinking about my son dealing with it all on his own, I think our previous experiences helped prepare him for this adventure. Ha. I don't think it really bothered him. Even though I let him know that we had free minutes on our cell plan today and he could call and talk to us any or all of the time he was stuck there at the airport, he didn't call to chat. Of course, I really didn't give him a chance to call us since I called him as soon as I noticed each flight status change online.

I'm sure he will have a great week at camp. If you click on the camp link above, that page will allow you to listen to the nightly programs.

Cell phones, flight trackers, live streaming of meetings...and blogs to share the story. What did we do before technology?

A time to sew...Ecclesiastes 3:7

Nothing new to add to the preservation report today! I started out the morning by having The Man drag some boxes* out of the garage. After riffling through them, I had several possibilities for the projects for the day. M had requested a case in which to carry his tiny Bible. Sacagawea desperately needed something new and summery to wear. I brought my heap of fabric inside and the kids chose their favorites.

Bible Case 1.0 is now completed.
Before it was even finished we had come up with many upgrades we wish to add, so M is going to use it for a few weeks then we'll make another with all the adjustments.
It was done by 11:00 a.m. and then I started on a skirt for Sacagawea. I used this pattern, which I had used a few years ago. After measuring Sacagawea, figuring out the piece dimensions, and cutting out the fabric, the rest went together pretty fast considering all the help I had. I did learn to turn off the sewing machine when I wasn't in direct control of the foot pedal. G found it too fascinating!

The skirt was completed just a bit ago and Sacagawea is currently twirling for M and the camera. G is joining her. He knows how much fun it is to spin oneself dizzy!

*Boxes full of supplies for "someday" when I have the time. I think I finally figured out that I'll never have more time than now!

Sorry this post is late getting up! The pictures were just uploaded this morning (7/14). Hope the pics were worth the wait!

Flower of the field...Psalm 103:15

Here is what M has been working on for his botany project. There are a lot of blank spaces that he'll come back later and fill in, but for now, it is just an online place to store pictures of the flowers and other plants he identifies. He has several more that he just hasn't added to the blog yet, so keep checking back!

Sixteen years old...2 Kings 15:2

I'm so glad it is Friday, but I don't get to wind down yet. Today is M's 16th birthday!

Happy Birthday, M!

I asked what kind of cake he wanted and he replied that he didn't care. I interpreted that as him saying, "I don't care as long as I don't have to make it." You'll be happy to know that I actually made it the other night and the layers are in the freezer. I'll pull them out in a bit and make the frosting so it will be all ready for lunch. He has requested curried rice and veggies.

Tomorrow is the monthly potluck at church at which Sacagawea likes having her birthday cake. This year we are doing M@rtha Stew@rt-inspired butterfly cupcakes. They'll fall somewhere between these and these. Maybe. The comments on MS said to dip the pretzels to keep them from being soggy if made the day before. Yesterday at the grocery store I looked at the bag of pretzels and the bag of melting chocolate. Then I looked at the yogurt-covered pretzels in the bulk bin. Then I looked back at the bag of pretzels and the chocolate. Ha. That was an easy choice for a tired, pregnant woman to make. The bag of pretzels and chocolate were returned to the shelf and we're going with the ready-dipped pretzels. The actual strawberry cupcakes were made and stuck in the freezer a few days ago, so we'll decorate those this afternoon.

Although Sacagawea has put in the order for her cake on Monday, her actual 8th birthday, we'll see how much cake we still have around the house at that point.

And for the geeks out there like me...next Thursday M will be exactly twice as old as Sacagawea. She's catching up with him!

Family...Esther 9:28

Thought I should do a quick update of our family. We've been crazy-busy...really. You probably wouldn't believe half the stuff I could tell you, so I'll just hit the believable items.

G will be 15 months tomorrow. He is continuing to grow and develop as he ought. He's not saying many words except "Hot!" (complete with the spread-legged stance with outstretched arm toward the word stove), "dog," and the sign for "milk." He definitely understands what we say and can follow simple commands. He loves playing with Benjamin and Rachel, the dolls formerly known as Shue and Da, and all of Sacagawea's play dishes. She thinks that G is almost as good as a baby sister since he likes playing with all her stuff.

Sacagawea is my eager learner. She is days ahead and her school work. She is already planning the type of cake she wants for her birthday in April.

S celebrated Gerald's belated-birthday last week. Yep. Crazy stuff around here. He enjoys talking to relatives on the webcam. He is always checking to see who is available for him to call, and trying to do the math to figure out what time it is in their time zone.

J keeps checking the thermometer to tell us how many tenths of a degree the temperature is falling. He is hoping the intermittent snow and rain we're having this morning changes to just snow and we'll get some of that 20-40" of snow that we were promised by the weatherman last week.

M is continuing to improve his driving skills. I'm eager for him to be able to drive without me putting a death grip on the passenger door handle. I'm contemplating how much it would cost for us to have brakes installed on the passenger side of the van, especially since we'll have to do this a few more times after M. Speaking of the van, we are one of those families now. Yes, it is white (most of the time).

We just started another Depression Recovery Seminar at church. Another health series is due to start immediately after that.

That's about it for the believable stuff! Give us a call if you need to know the rest! I will make an effort to update here more often. Since I've gotten out of the daily/weekly habit, it's been hard to discipline myself to jump back in regularly.

Give thanks...Psalm 92:1

"Mommy, is there a way I can cool this up?" inquired Sacagawea last Friday. Apparently the just-made almond milk was too warm for her. I told her that things are cooled down and warmed up.

"But it can be cool up in the mountains," explained M.

"And it can be warm down in the valley, " added J.

I have such helpful boys! They are such quick thinkers...someday I may appreciate it more!

Speaking of appreciation, Sacagawea handed me this note last Friday...

"You aer the best mommy teacher. I Love you."

We will work on spelling later.

Began to make excuse...Luke 14:18

I almost stole my last post title for this one...we have been busy...but four months? Yes, it has been nearly four months since my last post. Dreadful. Terrible. I am ashamed. I am so, so, so sorry. Please forgive me.

I really don't have any good excuses, other than my limited computer time has been spent over on Facebook. Most of that is while I'm feeding G, so I really can't type a blog post. I should be doing something else right now, so I'm just going to give really quick updates. Ready?

G: The sweetest baby. Really. He is so intense, and smart, also. No, I'm not biased a bit. Since I've last posted, he started rolling, crawling, got his 2 bottom teeth, standing on his own, and any day now he will start walking. Whew.

We are still waiting for the remainder of his second round of blood tests we had done for allergy testing. He's had a rash for several months, and after ruling out all other factors, we had the blood testing. It turns out he is allergic to a lot of the things that I eat. So, until he quits using me for his main source of nutrition, I'm not eating: soy, wheat, gluten, oats, eggs, cashews, almonds, and peanuts. That's a small list, but I quickly discovered that those items are in almost everything I (used to) eat.

I can have rice, corn, apples, oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, yeast, and cow's milk (although I'm slightly allergic to that!), and black beans. We just found out today about the black beans and we are still waiting for the results for other beans, seeds, and nuts.

Sacajawea has lost her two front teeth and has them mostly grown back in now. She has taken up crochet and will be happy to make a hat for you if you send her the size of your head. Color and style will be her choice!

S is thrilled that we actually TOLD him to dig in the front yard. We've spent the last 6 years telling him not to dig in the yard since he has 50+ other acres in which to dig! He helped dig out around some pipes that needed replacing. He also got braces in April.

J's mouth is now metal-free (for now), including his retainer, since some other teeth grew in. We'll re-evaluate his situation in six months.

The biggest news of our summer is that J made the decision to be baptized. The Man baptized him in the same pond in which M was baptized on July 11 surrounded by friends and family. It was a very special day as G was dedicated the same day.

M is growing taller. He's still working doing lawn care for the same place he worked last summer. I can't believe he'll be in 10th grade this year. We are in the midst of ordering all of our books for the new school year.

The Dog is now living outside. He got sent to the back porch when I was painting the inside of the house. Since then, G's blood test also showed he was allergic to dogs, so...sorry, Dog!

We're in the middle of Financial Peace University at our church. The county fair starts next week and our church will once again have a booth there.

I really hope to get photos up of our summer, but the battery in my camera is dead right now. Hope you all have had a good summer, thanks for being patient waiting for an update from us!

Busy here and there...I Kings 20:40

As busy as a beaver. That's us! Only 15 minutes into April 9 and I've already learned my "new thing" for the day. I finally had the urge to figure out how to get a picture off my cell phone and on to the computer. This is a picture of Sacagawea examining a beaver fall at the nature center last week. Beavers are such industrious critters. I bet they wouldn't wait until a week before the deadline to start on their taxes. I just finished got ours "done enough" to drop them off at the CPA's tomorrow for review. I still need to round up a few more receipts and verify a few of the numbers. I'm seriously contemplating filing an extension for the very first time. I simply have too many other things to do during the next week.

TomorrowToday is M's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, M!!!) and we are going here after S's ortho appointment. Sunday is Sacagawea's birthday. Monday we go up to the big city for M's music lessons (we were just there today yesterday) and I really don't know what is happening after that. Hmmm.

And then there is this blog which I've been rather neglectful of lately. I've sooo much to update here. Since my tax returns are printing, I think I'll go to bed. Only a few more hours until I need to get up to restart my day!

*If anyone can tell me the trick to get my cell phone's memory card out of the USB adapter, I'd be grateful. It doesn't want to slide out as easily as it slid in.

Happy is he...Psalm 146:5

G is 12 weeks old now and weighs just over 11 pounds. If Mom or Dad is busy, he has 4 older siblings to care for every need...whether it be a clean diaper, a burp, or simply a shoulder upon which to fall asleep.

He even gets daily private concerts. Here he is with M practicing the left hand part of Bach's Invention No. 4 in d minor.
G enjoys the violin also, except he doesn't get held during those concerts.

Give them something to eat...Matthew 14:16

Food has always been important to my family.

When M was 2, he started learning his Bible memory verses each week. Not just learning them to recite to his teacher at church, but actually using them to convey messages to Mom and Dad. Once when he wasn't doing something he was supposed to be doing I gently reminded him of one of his memory verses. "Children, obey your parents." (Ephesians 6:1) M immediately countered with another one of his verses: "God is our...help in trouble!" (Psalm 46:1)

Like most 2 year olds, when he was hungry, he asked for food. One time I agreed with him that it was supper time, but first...he needed a diaper change. But he didn't want the diaper change, he wanted to eat right then. "Jesus replied, 'You give them something to eat.'" (Matthew 14:16) He still got the diaper change first, but we marveled at how well he was applying the Bible to life.

Last year I started putting together a new blog for my recipes, menus, and other food stuff I wished to save for posterity and to share. I even made my first post in January...but then something happened. The last few months I haven't wanted to dwell on thoughts of food. Now that I'm well into the second trimester and I'm starting to regain my appetite, I'm going to try to start posting some more over there. All recipes will be vegetarian, and most will be vegan.

Give them something to eat...

Enjoy!