Striving...

Mike allowed me some time away yesterday afternoon for my "retreat", application of a book study I am doing with a small group of women in our church. It was a sweet time of focusing on the Lord, and a little shopping too. :) Something I read really encouraged me. I want to share
First i was convicted of my sin by the beginning of the Ps that we were to look at from our "homework assignment".
"Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. " Ps 127:1
I had been laboring in vain this past week, striving to love my husband and children and care for my home in my own strength. I of course desired to repent of the sin in my heart.
Then i read this.......
"When i sin, God feels no wrath in His heart against me. His his heart is filled with nothing but love for me, and He longs for me to repent and confess my sins to Him, so that He might show me the gracious and forgiving love that has been in His heart all along. God does not require my confession before He desires to forgive me. In His heart he already has forgiven me; and when i come to Him to confess my sins to Him, He runs to me ( as it were) and is repeatedly embracing and kissing me even before I get the words of my confession out of my mouth! God does see my sins, and He is grieved by my sins. His grief comes partly from the fact that in my moments of sin, I am not receiving the fullness of His love for me. He even sends chastisement into my life; but He does so because He is for me, and he loves me; and he disciplines me for my ultimate good. I don't deserve any of this, even on my best day; but this is my salvation, and herein I stand. Thank you, Jesus"
~From " A Gospel Primer for Christians" by Milton Vincent
There are scripture references for all these statements in the book, so awesome!
I praise God for all the fantastic resources He has given to us, and that he continually uses them to draw me back to Himself.

On my mind........

This past month has been a bit of a whirl-wind as I may have mentioned, but full of good things. My mind has been a bit occupied with some very specific topics.
1. Home-schooling. I started reading "The well-trained mind" about a month ago, what a great resource. What I'm learning there are many great resources/theories/particulars that I need to sort through. My mind feels bombarded with options. So I'm trying to do as much research as I can stand and expand my knowledge base as much as possiable so that I can make wise choices for what roads we take on this adventure. I do realize that there may need to be and can be changes after we head a certain direction, but wow which way to go?
2. Potty-training. Mike started the adventure of potty-training Hosea last night while I was at bible study, which is fine. So naturally I felt compelled to continue today while he was at work. Since we are staying home b/c of sickness, there really is no reason not to, and he seems to have the ability and understanding to handle it. He is doing well considering it has been the first 24 hours, and he's been using a diaper to do his business for the last 2 years and 4 months. We've had some messes here and there, but we've also had some successes which is commendable, and where we focus our attention. He has been very good at confessing his accidents, as I do not feel compelled to watch him the whole time. One early accident he told Mike "i made a bad choice", then another time he got out the toy cleaning supplies and said "mommy I cleaning". We also are planning to night train Shiloh if possible, less progress has been made on this one, but I haven't thrown the towel in yet.
3. O-yeah......I'm going to have a baby. As I've been told happens #3 has been sort of an after thought, which in some ways is good. I don't want to dwell too much on the random discomforts of pregnancy and slight inconveniences, but rather be thankful for the gift that it is. Staying occupied with my other work/tasks/children has allowed just that to happen most of the time. I noticed my count down was under 100 day not to long ago, I just checked it and it says 88 days left, where does the time go? I decided to start sorting and washing a few baby items to get ready, I love the smell of Dreft, it say's "new baby" all over the place.
These are the main topics of consideration, Shiloh still has a very rough sounding cough and requires her inhaler every 4 hours for ease of breathing. Hosea is starting to cough, we will probably need to stay home this weekend, into next week, which is perfect for previous mentioned #1 (potty training).

Hair Cut

Hosea needed a hair cut. His hair is so straight and thick that the moment it is too long (in my opinion) it needs some attention. Last time I decided to take him to wal-mart for a trim after a traumatic/ stressful experience of me cutting his hair this past winter (a little drama). I was dreading doing it myself again, though the results weren't bad all the previous times i did do it. Originally I was planning to buzz him with the clippers, they are way easier and it would be a nice summer do, but the little break(thank you wal-mart) was just what i needed to get my gusto back and get out the shears. I love his little surfer man do.

The end result, not too bad. I may buzz him for his next one, it will buy me more time between cuts with the baby coming this summer.


Ok..... I changed my mind and got the clippers out anyway. He's a sport!
2 cuts for the price of none.


If you want to cut your own kids hair, go to U-Tube and search "How to cut my kids hair" and there is a short but informational video that can assist you.

Strawberry Picking

I was bummed about moving and not being able to pick berries this year like we did in NC. Naturally I was thrilled when I learned they have places to do the same here! We went with some ladies and kids from church one morning last week, and had a great time, and the berries are delicious! I hope to go get some more to freeze in the near future.
Shiloh was a big help this year.

Hosea robbed them blind, where on earth was his mother?

He left no traces of evidence?

Trip to Missouri

Wow, I can't believe this month is over half way through, it has certainly zoomed by for us. I"ll start with telling about our trip to MO. It was nice to see everyone, but it was a short visit given the amount of time we spent in the car. We will check into flight costs next time. One thing that is notable about the Smith family, they know how to have fun and really enjoy one another. So no one got spoiled, loved on, or had any fun at all during our 3 days there.(sarcasm)



With the warm weather we were able to enjoy some squirt gun fights. Hosea had quite the stance, and was a riot to watch.


This is probably the last time all the grandkids will fit in the same bathtub. Since both my brothers wives and I are expectant, there is no way 3 more babies will fit in Mema and Papas' nice big tub.


Shiloh and Kamryn are 15 days different in age. Mema had a little b-day party for them, they got matching princess dresses and microphones, and loved it! I think Hosea enjoyed himself just as much as the girls, if not more.


Blowing out Candles! I think Kamryn did most of the work.


My niece Trystan was another princess in attendance, isn't she beautiful!


Last, but not least, a trip over to the pond for some great outdoor fun and fishing. Four-wheeler rides included.


Papa and Hosea reeling in.


Yeah, Daddy caught one! We all had a turn in catching a fish, the pond is well stocked, so it wasn't a boring outing at all and the kids really enjoyed it!


Thanks for a fun filled trip Mema and Papa!

Little Girl

Our sweet Shiloh girl takes another hit to the lungs. She was having trouble breathing Sunday night, after our December pneumonia, and February viral induced asthma, I felt the freedom to give her the inhaler and see what might come in the night/ morning since it was mostly wheezes and not to the stage of respiratory distress yet. She persisted to have trouble, so Monday we headed to the Dr. and she has bronchitis and an ear infection. Thankfully she is taking it all very well, i think her biggest problem is that she is limited by her inability to breath well, her demeanor and energy level seem unchanged. She has gotten a little frustrated in those times, so we've had more movies than usual to encourage her to rest a little bit. Please pray that I would have patience, I am finding myself growing weary easily and I earnestly desire to serve my family joyfully.

Musings of the week

I haven't taken the time to upload pic's, but that doesn't mean I can't share what we've been up to. The week has been rather full, we kicked it off with strawberry picking with some friend from church. They are huge and delicious, and I hope to go again so I can freeze and stock pile to support our smoothie obsession. So far we've enjoyed a lot of strawberry shortcake, it's been our breakfast the last two days, then of course strawberries straight up, naturally in a smoothie, and for tomorrow... in fruit salad. I had the thought of making a fun dessert or covering them in chocolate, but I make and consume so much sugar and baked goods as it is I should probably keep these delicious berries to satisfy the fruit category of the pyramid. O..... I also made jam the other day, it's safe and sound in the freezer.
I had another OB appt. this week, all seems to be well there. I am definitely feeling huge, as I no longer fit through tight spaces, in fact we have to stagger the vehicles in the driveway so the rear view mirrors are not an obstacle for me. :)
Mike found a lovely activity for us to attend Thursday night. There is a park in pensacola on the water front that has live music every Thur. night. This week it was Jazz, which I love, in high school I played in the Jazz band and had so much fun. They also have a "splash pad", i'd call it several small fountains coming out of the ground. Any way we went there and enjoyed some music and watched the kiddos play in the water, they loved it and so did we. I think we will take a picnic dinner next time.
Today Mike and I have been attempting to hang decorations together, this is a first for us b/c i usually decorate while he's at work, but we decided this time having some man help would be best, and that has been a good learning experience for us so far, and is just showing us one more way that we can "become one" and grow in godliness. No major hiccups yet, but careful communication is seeming to be key. I'm glad to have the help.

Church Picnic

We had our church picnic last Saturday. I had no idea what to expect, nor any idea I should bring the camera, but thankfully some other people did, so I've stolen these pic's from them. There were many games played (egg toss, sack races, wheel barrel races,ect) the winners of each game had a "final challenge" which was a pie eating contest. My proud husband was declared champion of all, good job babe!

Here he is preparing to eat the pie, I decided having a bib on would be best since i did not pack him an extra shirt the only extra cloths I had were size 2T and 4T.

Here he is scarfing, yum yum! Or if you are me and Shiloh you might say "gross".

Here is the proud winner! I handed him the wipes right after this shot was taken.

We all had a blast, the kids are still talking about it. Hosea will randomly say, in reference to bobbing for apples, "mommy apples water, big mess", or "mommy throw egg, i stomped em" in reference to the egg toss. And Shiloh will say "mommy remember when daddy did that silly thing"? Referring to the pie eating contest.

Little worker

I've seen this little guy doing some excavating around the house, there has been more than one sighting. It cracks me up b/c these two toys did not come together, but one of my darling babes decided they should be together to get some work done. I enjoy it when they come up with these things on their own, it's fun to see their little minds at work. This time he was at break in the hallway.

Who loves the mommy?

Sometimes when Hosea wakes up from rest he wants to cuddle, so this day I took the opportunity to enjoy it and put my feet up for a bit, Mike caught us loving on each other. So sweet!

#3 update

Here is #3 resting on the left side looking at us. It was fun getting to see our new little one. Something kind of comical was this little one's long tongue. #3 appeared to be licking it's lips several times, and it's tongue strongly resembles it's father's and also Shiloh's, long. We also got to see the bladder empty, good to know it's working. It is so amazing we are able to see inside, and we are so thrilled to know all parts are accounted for and we both appear to be healthy and growing. We were able to stick to the plan of not finding out the gender, though the ultra-sound tech did label it and included it in our chart, so now the trick will be making sure none of the nurses or Dr.'s spill the beans at check-ups.