With All My Heart

Eva's Biggest Loser Year: Week 6

2012-02-17T13:32:00.001-05:00

Life is such a roller coaster sometimes. You are going along getting in your workout, recording your food, anticipating weight loss and then suddenly, zoom.... the bottom falls out. Now you are having kidney stone surgery and interviewing for jobs and life just gets crazy busy with things interferring with your workouts and eating plans. Last week I gave myself immunity, so that is why you won't see a weekly report for week 5.

As for Week 6 it was Valentines week and I feel that over all I did pretty well. I didn't lose any more, but at leat I maintained. I also used greater self-control at the two dinners out and a candy filled kid's party! I was very pleased with that. Doing what is good for the long term success, instead of immediate satisfaction, is my definition of self-control. I thank God for helping me to keep my head and do what I need to do instead of what I want. The one area this past week where I didn't keep my goal was in exercise. I was very unmotivated when I had time, which wasn't very often.

But we enjoyed visits with Mamaw in Culpeper (and all the Atkins crew) and a visit with the Lillydell Short crew! Those were time well spent and I don't regret them.

On Thursdays I have been going to the healthy eating/cooking class and we weigh in there as well, so I think I will postpone these updates until Friday from now on. This way I will only be weighing in once a week. Ironically our class last night was actually about exercise. The instructors wanted to take a night to focus on this side of healthy living. We all felt really motivated and challenged to try some of the exercises and equipment they demonstrated.

So for our first day of the new week, Rose and I added strength training with weights. We want to eventually get the stretch bands, but this was already handy at home so we used it. I am so proud of Rose. She is really doing great! Since neither of us lost last week, we are both looking forward to a loss for next week. Today, I tried to walk my first mile in 15 minutes. I don't have a stop watch but it looked like it was a bit over 15 but less than 16 min. I was very pleased. I was even able to jog part of the mile, and my foot didn't hurt! WooHoo! That feels so good. I can't tell you how thankful I am for two good feet and knees and legs! I really liked lapping all those walkers that used to lap me as I was recovering from the broken ankle! LOL

So this coming week's goals are

drink 80 oz of water each day
record food daily to stay within nutrition goals
walk/run 1 15min. mile; bike 5 mi.; and walk 2 mi in 25 min.or less
go to bed at no later than 11:30PM and get up at 6:30AM

Thanks dear family and friends who have been keeping me in your prayers. There is a reason this is my biggest loser YEAR. It is going to take that long at least and I appreciate those who are there to encourage me for the long haul! :)

I have some success stories that the people want to remain anonymous, but congrats to two of my dearest friends who have lost 10 pounds in the last two to three weeks. Keep going ladies! I love you!

To my B.L. partners - time to let me know how you did this week, ladies! I have been praying for you!

With All My Heart~

Motherhood and Adoption

2012-02-15T02:32:00.000-05:00

Nearly 4 years ago I was given a wonderful gift by God, my husband, a dear friend (Memaw), and a very confused young girl. I was offered the blessing of being a mother to our 4th daughter. Those early weeks when it was more talk than action, were hard. I was so anxious to love and take care of this precious baby girl. I knew the years ahead would be different for her than my other girls. I knew that one day she may find me not to be enough of a mommy for her. But I was willing to take that risk. I, we all, needed her and she needed our family!

I knew one day she would begin to ask questions. Why is my skin different from my sisters? Why don't you have any pictures or video of me in your tummy, Mommy? Why can't we watch my birthday video like we have of my sisters? We decided to wait until these questions came from her naturally. We waited and waited.

While we waited we have, at times, talked about her being adopted in her presence. Alpheus has used the story for an illustration many times in sermons. We have had people at church, at family gatherings, at homeschool gatherings, at Wal-mart, and so on ask in front of her if she was "ours." I have always answered with joy about her being adopted. However I did ask the girls not to discuss this topic with her, but to let her come to us. I realized the other day that as she is nearly five and sharp as a tack, she may begin to take more notice to these moments when it is mentioned. I didn't want her to "find out" she is adopted on the playground when she over hears her older sisters explaining why she doesn't look like them. So I took the plunge and talked with her about it.

I would love to know what she was really thinking. I asked her, "Lydia, when were you in Mommy's tummy." "Before I was born?" she responded with a funny questioning look as if to say, didn't you know that Mommy. Then I explained that she had never been in my tummy, but she had certainly been born in my heart, even before I knew she was going to be mine. One of her first questions was what was her real birthday. Isn't that funny? I don't know if she thought we changed it or if she meant the day she was born in my heart. She also wanted to know if that lady had any more children. So we talked and I answered her questions as best I could. She didn't ask much, but she listened to all I had to say very intently.

Then I told her how I was adopted too. I explained that God had adopted me as his daughter because He loved me and wanted me to come and live with Him in heaven one day. And that even now He lives in me and helps me in all I do. I told her that God gave her to me (us) and that I loved her so dearly. I cried a lot and she kept patting me and telling me she loved me. It makes me cry now to think of it. :)

I know that there will be more questions in the future. I am counting on God to lead me as we go, as I know He has led us so far. I look forward to celebrating Lydia's 5th birthday soon, but I also look forward to finally celebrating her adoption day on November 5th of this year!

Lydia dancing for us! :)

With All My Heart~

Atkins Homeschool, Term 3

2012-02-13T01:51:00.001-05:00

We are two-thirds finished with our school year as of this week! It is amazing how quickly it seems to go and also how much we accomplish by the end of the the term.

We have a week off and then we will begin our last term of 12 weeks. We are going to visit family and play lots of Mexican Train this week! We also have a Valentines party at church planned. The kids are going to enjoy sweets and a movie. This is one we bought for the girls for Christmas and it is really cute and a powerful message at the same time!

We are also going to hit the gym each day! It has been more miss than hit lately since it has actually been cold and still trying to get my energy back. Feeling so much better each day so I am thankful!

So when we start back this is what is coming up in school! (Don't worry, if looking at school plans is not your thing, just scroll down for the last picture of the cutie pies! ;)

Y6
Bible - Finish Hinds Feet on High Places
            Daniel 1-6; Esther 1-9; Nehemiah 1-13
Geography - Canada and Mexico (Rod and Staff)
History - Story of the Romans by H.A. Gruerber
                Julius Caesar by John Abbot (librivox)
Biography - Along Came Galileo
Literature - Cleopatra VII
                   Black Ships Before Troy
                   The Bronze Bow
                   Poetry and Shakespear
Science - Light, Electricity, and Plants
Spelling/Vocabulary - Wordly Wise Book 5
Grammar - Rod and Staff English
Math - Saxon 76
Spanish - Salsa; workbooks, Poco y poco
Greek - Basic Greek Workbook by Jim Found ( baby steps)
Art Study - Leonardo DaVinci
Composer Study - Felix Mendelsshon
Piano Lessons

Y3
Bible - Finish The Hard Boiled Egg and other devotional stories
            Daniel 1-6; Esther 1-9; Nehemiah 1-13
Geography - Canada and Mexico (Rod and Staff)
History - This Country of Ours by H.E.Marshall
                Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall
Biography - DaVinci and Michelangelo
Literature - Little House in the Big Woods by L.I. Wilder
                   Wheel on the School by Meindert De Jong
                   The Heroes (Theseus)
                   American Tall Tale (Pecos Bill, John Henry, Paul Bunyan)
Science - Light, Electricity, and Plants
Spelling/Vocabulary - Wordly Wise Book 4
Math - Rod & Staff 4
Spanish - Salsa; workbooks, Poco y poco
Greek - Basic Greek Workbook by Jim Found ( baby steps)
Art Study - Leonardo DaVinci
Composer Study - Felix Mendelsshon
Piano Lessons

Mary and Lydia "sleeping" in their beds. We have a new arrangement. They sleep on the far bed as you see here. That way one doesn't have to crawl over the other to get out. And they enjoy just sitting on the open bed. This is only temporary though because for Lydia's 5th birthday she gets to move to the top bunk. Well, as soon as Daddy can build a better safety rail for this rambunctious girl! I think that Hannah and Sarah will be doing something similar when this becomes their room in a couple of weeks.

Playing frisbee with Daddy. Look at the windup on that throw! :)

I think they were having fun!

We take our throws seriously around here!

Once they let Minnie out to play, the girls were left in the dust. Minnie is much better at catching a frisbee! Look at that little doggy go! :)

Well, here is one place Minnie couldn't retrieve the frisbee. I don't know who tossed it up there, but all the girls had fun climbing the ladder to sit on top of the shed for a minute! :)

Lydia loved it. She was crying thinking she wouldn't get a chance. She really has no fear. Yikes!

All these girls definitely got their climbing gene from Daddy!

Now this one definitely shares the same gene as me. She was nervous about going up the ladder, but she overcame and went up anyway. Then she came down and felt bad because she didn't actually get up on the roof.

Here she is sitting at the very top! She was so proud of herself. Then came time to come down. That was hard. That first step back around the ladder is a doozy! LOL

Here are the girls celebrating Valentines a little early on their Daddy Date night. They love their Daddy and the fun they have with him. The other day Lydia thought Memaw and I were going to the gym and leaving the girls here. She said, "Hurry up and leave." When Memaw asked her why, she said that she wanted to have some fun with Daddy. :)

With All My Heart~

Sew Much Fun!

2012-02-04T21:47:00.000-05:00

Hannah spending time with one of her favorite friends while enjoying her newest hobby!

The other day I was out of the house for several hours and Hannah decided to sew a pillow by herself. She sewed half of the long blue pillow and then ran out of thread on the machine. She wasn't sure how to rethread and Memaw was a little anxious of her working without me near by. So she sewed the rest by hand. When I came home she proudly showed her pillow to me. Then she explained that she wanted to sew on some embellishments the next day.

Another view of Marshall enjoying the fun. He sat there for the longest time!

I explained to Hannah that next time she would want to put those things on first before sewing and stuffing the pillow, but that she could still work with a stitch that would show. Hannah decided to cut out some flower shaped material and leaf shaped material to add to her pillow.

She was really enjoying working on her pillow!

However, it gets tiring and she got restless and didn't finish that day. I was afraid that she might not finish it, but last Sunday a dear friend from church came over for the afternoon. They quickly decided to work on this together.

Here are the girls after they finished. My camera has decided to go on permanent strike so I really appreciate that Alpheus was at least able to get a picture of the finished project! I just wish I could have taken some as they worked. It was very sweet! Also the next day she helped Sarah to work on her own pillow. ( I will show it when she is finished.)

So here is the pillow's place of honor on her bed along with her first little pillow and a favorite teddy bear. I am just so glad to see her pursuing these interests.

Now we are making plans to restart our Polishing Cornerstones Bible study partnered with our Home Economics class.

(If only their teacher can get well!)

With All My Heart~

Eva's Biggest Loser Year: Week 4

2012-01-31T08:53:00.000-05:00

Goals for Week 4

Drink at least 80 oz of water/clear liquids per day. Record food and keep calories @ 1,200.
This week is crazy with doctor's appointments, 2 nursing home music sessions, and a birthday party for my mom, so I am not making an exercise goal except to do it as possible.
Go to bed by 11PM each night.
Lose 3 lbs. I am hoping to lose the 2 I gained plus at least 1 more.

This has been one of the those weeks. I did drink at least 70 oz for the first 4 days of the week. As for the rest, it was around 50. I also didn't keep my food calories. I really need to enter it on the website before I eat it. I always think, "Oh, I will enter this in a few minutes. Several hours later I am having a hard time remembering what I ate, or regetting eating something unplanned. Bed time has also been hard. I am such a night person. I have been able to sleep in though so I have gotten at least 7hours sleep. So are you wondering how I did on the scale?

I met my goal! Woohoo! I lost the 2 I had gained and 1 more! I know this seems kind of trivial to celebrate, but I am looking at the big picture. Even if I gain 2 and lose 3 every other week, in a year I will have lost 26 pounds! LOL I haven't lost that much in several years. Also I know that many weeks I will do better than that.

One of my down falls with eating has been emotional eating. I want to eat when I am happy or something particulary nice is happening, and I want to eat when life is stressful or sad. Learning to control those urges and pray, read my Bible, play piano or just talk about the emotions with someone are some of the ways I break the snacking habit.

This week has been one of those weeks. My mom had a birthday party on Friday and we had a wonderful day celebrating with her. I did pretty well curbing my appetite, but I was sure glad I didn't bring home any of that butterfinger cake. I would have continued a party of one!

Then on Saturday I get a notice in the mail about substituting for the local schools. We have been seeking God over our finances and feel that now is the time for me to go back to work outside the home in order to get out of our debt, but it has been stressful waiting for all the events to unfold. Now I have a list of items I have to complete and more forms to fill out and the stress of it makes me want to calm myself with food.

Typing here or writing in my journal helps me get a better grip on those urges, but I can't always write when I have the urge to eat. I find that at least thinking about writing this down helps me fight those urges. Praying has also been so helpful. I know that it sounds cliche but God does want me to remember to lean on His strength for all things. The girls and I are reading Hinds Feet on High Places, by Hannah Hurnard. One of the parts that resonates with me is how long Much-Afraid suffers from her fears and those trying to lead her away from the Good Shepherd before she finally calls on him. She knows He will come immediately. She has called on Him before, but she always waits longer than she should to call him. She begins to be plagued with her doubts and fears. I relate to that. When I am tempted to eat or skip exercise, I often try to rationalize it. Really, I just need to immediately seek God's help in prayer. I am too weak. I fail to easily. I need the One who is so much greater than I am.

So my goals for Week 5:

Pray every time I have the urge to eat. Ask for guidance and help. Pray for help to mortify my fleshly desires. Pray for peace to enjoy that which is good for me. Food is not bad. Eating to take away fear or even to make the joyful feelings of a celebration last longer is wrong. My peace and joy must come from God. Anything else is just false, won't last, and has terrible side effects!
Write down my food before eating.
Drink 80-96 oz of clear liquids.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2012-01-27T01:03:00.000-05:00

From the time I can remember, I have wanted to be a mom. I attribute this to the fact that I have a great one! I wish I could go back in time and see all the things she did for me. I know I would see lots of love and sacrifice. I wish I could see her giving me baths and reading to me. Or hear her telling me no or encouraging me to try harder. I wish I could see her pray for me and check on me after I was alseep. They say if you have had a happy childhood you don't remember it as well. I will have to accept that as why I can't remember more of the special things Mom did for me.

I am thankful for the mother she has been to me since my youth and adulthood. She has been so helpful; such a source of guidance and encouragement. I thank God for each memory we make now and the many ways I have for recording them.

Maybe in Heaven, when we know all things, I will be able to remember everything from my childhood. I like to think that. But even if I don't, I am so thankful to know that we will be together forever.

Until then, Mom, I am storing up these times in my computer and my memory. I love you Mommy! Happy Birthday! Praying your day and coming year are filled with God's peace and joy!

With All My Heart~

Art Day with Homeschool Advantages

2012-01-26T16:11:00.001-05:00

I love art days! I still find it very theraputic to color pictures with my children. I also love watching my girls create their own art pieces. I never was very crafty as a child. I laugh at what I used to think were good drawings from my childhood. My children have far exceeded me! I think there are some basic reasons why, and they are directly related to homeschooling.

Variety is the spice of art class!
First of all, my only experience, other than coloring at home, was all done at school. School projects tend to be cookie cutter projects where everyone uses the same materials and ends up with a product very similar to everyone elses. This kind of art is not bad, and even in homeschool I tend to teach this way myself. I am just saying that at school students were not allowed much room for personal preferences.

We have an "art dresser" where a multitude of art supplies, from pastels, paints, play dough, foam, tissue paper, glitter, yarn and so on are stored. The girls know that during free time they are allowed to use these materials as long as they stay at the school table and clean up their own mess. So many days I will find various art pieces in stages of process. This allows the children to practice using different mediums and their imaginations.

Non-judgmental appreciation of anyone's work!
I don't think that teachers in school intended for anyone's work to be ridiculed, but kids are kids. Unless it is made very clear and enforced children naturally compare to find the "best" one. This leaves the rest of us who aren't very crafty to feel deflated when we look at the other people's work and hear unkind comments. This then leads to less effort in the future, for we have now learned that we are not very artistic. I have tried to teach the girls that art comes in many different forms and shouldn't really be compared. We relate it to food tastes. Just because Daddy hates peas doesn't mean that the girls should not like peas, and just because Mommy loves peas doesn't mean all the girls have to love them too. We can each share our personal tastes. We have studied a variety of paintings by famous artists. I have shared with the girls that I don't care for Jackson Pollock, but obviously many people did. I like more realistic paintings, but can still appreciate a Van Gogh or Monet. So the girls are learning to enjoy art more for the experience than attaining some level of praise. This has made art less scary for those who are sensitive to criticism. And really, who isn't?

Opportunity increases interest!
I remember the few art projects that we did in elementary and middle school. I remember them because they were very rare. It is understandable, if you have 20 students! I look at the mess we create in twenty short minutes with just 4 little girls! Art is messy and time consuming and this significantly decreases its likelihood of being done in a school setting. At home we have more time for clean up. Also we can postpone clean up if we want to leave a project out for a few days. This is not typically possible in a school setting because you either have other subjects that must be covered in the area so you have to clean up, or you have other kids coming in and it would be to chaotic to leave out every classes' works in progress.

Now I certainly hope you aren't looking for some master pieces of art here as I share our creations from today's art time. I am not claiming that homeschool art makes master pieces. Only that each of my girls reaches a higher level of creativity and happiness than I ever did in art class. I am so glad to share this time with them and see their creativity. Hannah, being the oldest and most naturally inclined to all things artsy, is a natural leader in our art class. The younger girls often look to her work for inspiration and technique. But they also go out on their own as you will see by the samples today.

We are using an Evan-Moor art book that my dear friend, Maralena, gave me years ago.

We have done it each year in Kindergarten so this is our third time using it. The big girls don't have to participate but they always do. Hannah even said today, "Mom, I feel like I am back in elementary school again!" This from a 6th grader who has always schooled at home! LOL For two weeks we have been studying the habits and characterisitics of caterpillars. Last week Lydia drew a caterpillar in her art/nature journal.

Here is one of all the girls and their creations after we had cleaned up! :)

Here is Hannah's creation.

Hannah added the legs holding the leaf to her caterpillar. We used an egg carton cut apart for the bodies. The girls had pipe cleaners, pom poms, markers, googly eyes and glitter among their selection for decorating.

Here is Sarah's creation.

Sarah was the first to cut the pipe cleaners into small little spikes for the body of her caterpillar. We had the book out for inspiration and there are many caterpillars with spikes on their bodies. There is even one that appears to be furry with fake spidery legs as one of its defenses!

Here is Mary's creation.

I love the big pom-pom tail on this one! So cute! I didn't really see one like this in the book, but isn't it great that she used her imagination and had fun! She used markers to color along the side which you can't really see here. I love the pipe cleaner smile! :) Mary had used a popsicle and piece of paper to make a sign to be held by the caterpillar. It said, "I love caterpillars!" I am not sure why she didn't want it in the picture though.

Lydia made this one especially for Memaw!

Lydia loved the pom pom idea and I tried to show the little pom poms she put between the body joints! She used quite a bit of silver glitter, but it isn't showing up well in my photo. She also loved to tell me about using patterns in her design.

I wish I had pictures of the caterpillars from years past. I have learned so much about letting them do their own work and giving them more materials for working! But they were still cute to me then!:)

Now you may be thinking, "Wait, these all look the same to me." Yes, they are all made with similar materials, but only because the girls tended to copy from each others good ideas. The point is to give them the most options and then let them do what they like.

So if you homeschool and art isn't part of your week, because you were like me and didn't think art was your thing: Give it a try this way! Your kids will thank you for it!

If your children go to another place for school, even if they have art classes: Provide the material and time for kids to explore at home too. Your kids will thank you for it!

With All My Heart~

2012-01-24T16:14:00.003-05:00

Eva's Biggest Loser Year: Week 3

Goals for Week 3:

Drink more water and measure it for an average of 40 oz. per day.
Walk 2.5mi each day and bike 5 mi on 2 of the 4 days.
Go to bed by 11PM each night.
Lose 3lbs.

I did well on the first two goals. I also made it to bed by 12AM at the latest. However, I certainly did not make the 3lb loss. As a matter of fact, I gained 2 pounds this week. That really stinks. I don't know if it was from the medicine from the kidney stones or not. I hope so. I didn't even eat for nearly 24 hours and have been trying to eat less all week. I didn't take the time to record it though.

Goals for Week 4:
Drink at least 80 oz of water/clear liquids per day. Record food and keep calories @ 1,200.
This week is crazy with doctor's appointments, 2 nursing home music sessions, and a birthday party for my mom, so I am not making an exercise goal except to do it as possible.
Go to bed by 11PM each night.
Lose 3 lbs. I am hoping to lose the 2 I gained plus at least 1 more.

I appreciate your prayers for me. I know stress can make you gain weight or at least not lose it. I am just trying to remember that this is only 1 week out of a entire year. It will get better!

Congrats to Leah for losing 2 pounds this week! I haven't heard from partner 3 and 4 this week! Let me know how you are doing ladies and I will update your ticker! :)

With All My Heart~

Free Time Activity

2012-01-21T10:41:00.001-05:00

One of the blessings of being home altogether for most of the time is to do fun things together. One of my fondest memories of childhood is playing games with my mom and siblings or playing in the lake or yard with my family. As a stay home family we get to do this more often.

Our favorite game right now is Blockus! Rose bought this for the whole family at Christmas and we love it!

Here is Hannah working on her first sewing lesson. She was experimenting with the stitch width and length and turning corners. She is excited because her Aunt Lorilyn is sharing a sewing video with her.

Here is the first doll pillow she made.

Sarah working with her science kit. We were doing step 1 of an experiment and discovered that we had to wait 24 hours to do part 2. That was a bummer! Finally getting to part 2 today! Btw, Sarah is going to save up to buy cooler safety glasses, but I think she adorable!

Alpheus was playing guitar and the cat took advantage of this opportunity to nestle in the guitar case! Notice Alpheus large pile of thick books by the bed! We love books around here, especially old, thick books written by dead guys! :) That is a joke for all the Puritan book lovers!

Mary making a dalmation doggy from the craft box. This girl loves animals!

Lydia is not pictured, but this was her free time activity one day. She asked for a Minnie look-a-like Webkinz fo Christmas. She borrowed a fancy doll dress to make her Minnie look like the actual Minnie dressed in pink for the day! ;) Can you tell Minnie was a reluctant model! ;) She was a good girl even if she did make a face.

This is how the pets of the house spend their free time! Minnie loves to get as close to the wood stove as she can, even if it means lying on wood chips and the dust pan! LOL Marshall loves to lie under the clothes drying racks.

I'll sum it up to say that Memaw was probably cooking or cleaning during this free time because she just loves that kitchen. Of course she might also be watching a video on netflix! I think we are finally getting our money's worth out of that subscription! I was probably blogging or helping the girls as needed! :)

So thankful for our free time to do fun things together!

With All My Heart~

Eva's Biggest Loser Year: Week 2

2012-01-16T21:50:00.000-05:00

My motivations for this week are God, my family and friends encouraging me, and a special little encouragement from my baby girl, Lydia. She brought me a note on a hello kitty paper that Memaw wrote as she dictated it. This is what it said:

Welcome

to Biggest Loser!

You can get your hair fixed.

To get your hair fixed

you have to go the room

with the door with the castle on it, Eva

Lydia

She said I could turn it in whenever I was ready! I told her Makeover week is usually week 12 or so! :)

Goal: Average of 1,100 calories per day
Tuesday = 1503
Wednesday = 1161
Thursday= 1258
Friday= 1544
Saturday= 1423
Sunday= 1466
Monday=1455
Average per day = 1,401

I feel better about this after I read an article on finding your Active Metabolic Rate. An average of 1300 calories per day should result in 2lbs. lost a week, at least. I am happy with this for this week. I am setting my goal for next week at 1300 and want to be more consistent.

I also did better with exercising this week. I am able to walk longer and faster and I even biked 5 miles one day when I had already walked 2mi. This is what I was hoping to do after I got my cast off! I am so thankful that God has helped me to heal and get better day.

So I was very pleased when I lost 3 pounds this week!

Goals for Week 3:
Drink more water and measure it for an average of 40 oz. per day.
Walk 2.5mi each day and bike 5 mi on 2 of the 4 days.
Go to bed by 11PM each night.
Lose 3lbs.

Telling the Story of Jesus

2012-01-14T23:08:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of one of our "God book" shelves. When the girls were little we made a rule that on Sundays we would focus our reading or video time on godly books and movies. I use to tell them, "Let's read one of these books. It is God's day, so we will read a God book." That has stuck! We call these picture books God books because they are all about Him or living like Him! We have added chapter books and devotionals to our bookshelves as the kids have gotten older in order to strengthen our children's understanding of the Bible and the gospel message.

Yes, we are book junkies! ;)

This past week friends asked me for a book recommendation. They wanted to give their 5yo niece a book about Jesus. They were looking for a fairly simply written book that presented the gospel without watering it down. So I began rummaging through our shelves and found many different options. I thought I might share these on the blog for anyone interested.

Make your plan!
Before making a selection, it is important to think about what the reading setting will be. If you are going to be reading to multiple ages (such as in family worship) then you may want a more difficult book that will speak to the oldest, but can still be helpful to the youngest. When we had the first 3 girls they were all within three years of each other. Once they were all above age 3 it was pretty easy to find a book that they could all relate too. Then God gave us our baby girl. She is four years younger than the youngest "older girl." There is eight years between the baby and the oldest "older girl" so it can be hard to find one that challenges Hannah and still helps Lydia. I keep reminding myself that we will repeat many of these books for Lydia so I try do not feel too bad for her. So what we try to do is have a varitey for our children. Some days we read short stories with a godly moral. Other times we read a biography for the older ones. Also a few nights a week we read right out of the Bible.

Choose the best style!
How often you read will also influence what type of book you pick. We do family worship at least 3 times a week. We usually read a biography one night, a short story another night and then the Bible then next night or two. We also sing 3 songs before reading and end with prayer, if you were wondering. If you are looking for something to read off and on when you get a chance before bed, you may consider a short story book where it won't matter if it has been two weeks since you read it. If you are more interested in a book to be read in one sitting, then you would probably want a picture book. Your child may request it often or you may make a habit of reading it every month or so.

Do it together!
I generally don't recommend finding a book the child can read to themselves for a couple of reasons. For one, it is sometimes hard for parents to determine a reading level. You may think because the book has primary looking pictures that it is appropriate for a child to try to read. Even though it may have fairly small words, the syntax (word arrangement) may be too difficult for a young child to read with comprehension. Second, and more importantly, we are instructed in the Bible to be directly involved in our children's learning about God. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9) If your child has a question you will be there to answer it. As you see your child living through out the day you can remind them of the things you have been reading.

So here is the short list! ;)

My favorite picture book is from John MacArthur. It is lovely and very gospel oriented! It would definitely need to be read to the child(ren) by an adult, but it could be finished in one sitting. There is a Kindle edition, but I would really miss holding the book with my child. If you buy the hard back then they can flip through the pictures and enjoy that on their own.

Allegory is another wonderful way to teach children truths in a form that will keep their attention. RC Sproul, Sr. has written this book which we also love! Our girls often select this book to read during quiet time even though they have read it before. You can also buy the audio book if you don't have a lot of time to read it yourself. You could listen to it together in the car possibly.

My last favorite picture book for teaching about the gospel is this large paperback book. The pages are glossy but the pictures are black and white. I love the lessons taught in this book. My only critique is that the little girl asks some pretty deep questions. They sound more like questions from a youth or adult, but my girls didn't seem to be bothered by that when we read it. It uses allegory also to help the child understand the grace, mercy and ways of God.

If you are able to do family worship at least once a week, I recommend this chapter book. There are 35 chapters in this book, but each is only a couple of pages. There are no pictures, but if your child enjoys being read to it is easy to imagine the story and characters. When you visit the link, you will see that the author is a mother who wrote these to illustrate Biblical truths for her young daughter. Our big girls all love this book. Actually we will be reading it with Lydia starting next week.

My last recommendation is for an audio book that we have listened to at least 5 times through in the last 4 years since we bought it!

We have several versions of this wonderful book. We have the very abridged children's book that is barely recognized as this story; we have the modern language version in comic drawing style that goes with our Pilgrim's Progress board game. Then we also have a slightly abridged version for adults still with much of the original language. By far, we all prefer this version. We have listened to it just before bed for story time. We have listened to it during the 15 minute drive on the way to church. Sometimes the girls ask to borrow it and listen to it for an hour or so. Again the allegoric style is very appealing and leads to some great discussions.

If you are still reading, thanks for staying with me. I hope this is helpful to someone. It has been great for me to look back at some of these books that we need to read again with our girls!

With All My Heart~

Tearing Down the High Places

2012-01-10T20:35:00.001-05:00

In our homeschool Bible class we have been studying the two kingdoms of Israel before captivity and exile. It is like watching a movie where the person is in danger and instead of doing the smart thing, they walk right into the pitch dark basement with a bat for defense. You wish you could stop them. You might even scream out to try because you already know the danger they are in and how this scenario will play out!

2 Kings 15:1-5
15 In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah became king. 2 He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. 3 He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. 4 Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. NASU

Did you hear us scream? We just want to say to the king, "Go all the way. Obey God completely! Tear down those high places! Stop allowing the people to sacrifice (this was typically children) and burn incense to false gods!"
Every once in a while we do read the happy ending. This week we are studying one of the godly kings of Judah. (Israel, the northern tribes, had NONE, ever!) Anyway, it was so nice to hear that again there was a godly king over Judah. It makes you look forward to a happier chapter.

2 Kings 18:1-6
Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. 6 For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.
NASU

Now, do you hear us cheering? We were so pleased to see a godly leader and we could hardly wait to read how God blesses Judah through him. For the first 14 years there is great blessing. Then the trouble begins. The Assyrian king starts trouble. He takes over the fortified cities of Judah and then requires great tributes (payments) from Hezekiah. Things don't seem to be going so well for Hezekiah, but Hezekiah again does the right thing!

2 Kings 19:14-19
14 Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, "O Lord, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 " Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 17 "Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. 19 "Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, OLord, are God." NASU
Did our cheering stop? No way! Read this!

2 Kings 19:35-37
35 Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh.
NASU
So now you might think all was good for Hezekiah. Nope! He becomes deathly ill. Again, we cheer as he does the right thing again by going straight to prayer!

2 Kings 20:3-4
3 " Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
NASU
God then graciously gives him 15 more years of life and promises to protect his city during that time as well.

As we were reading this, it made me appreciate many things about God and His faithfulness. But it also made me want to be like Hezekiah and tear down the high places of sin. You know, the sins that are hard for others to get to, that few people (except probably your closest family) will see. But God sees them. No place is too high, or too low, or too dark, even the sins that are mostly in our heart.

Help me, God, to tear down the high places of hidden sin in my heart and to obey your precious words, and to go to you in prayer when the enemy is at my door and I am weak and I am sin-sick. May my legacy to my children be that I was a godly mom!

With All My Heart~

Eva's Biggest Loser Year: Week 1

2012-01-10T09:52:00.000-05:00

I had some specific goals for this week.
* No soda at home.
* 50% of my plate at church dinner would be vegetables
* Exercise at least 4 days of the week.
* Spend more time standing and walking around during the day.

So how did I do?
* I only had 12 oz one day while we were out running errands.
*I did eat small servings of everything that wasn't vegetable and I had a large salad.
I also only ate half servings of dessert, though I did have two types.
* Walked 1.8 miles on Tuesday and Wednesday, pool on Thursday, and walked 2 mi on Monday
* I made at least twice as many trips up the stairs per day and am trying to do more housework and standing during school time as well.
* I lost 5 lbs. this week !!!

My sister-in-law, Leah, is working on things with me. She has agreed to a weight loss tracking ticker on my sidebar. Maybe she will let me put an update picture with it in a month or so! Also working on some others to join me! If you want to be a part of my Biggest Loser Circle just let me know your stats and I will be happy to celebrate with you!

Next week I plan to record what I eat and the calories. My goal is an average of 1,100 calories per day.
http://www.sparkpeople.com
This is where I can record and calculate certain factors. This should result in at least a 2 pound loss this week. Hoping I can burn more off since I am getting better with my walking. On Tuesday when I walked it took me an hour to limp around the track for 1.8 miles. Monday I did the whole 2 mi. in 50 minutes. Hoping to go longer this week!

Thanks for reading my blog to help hold me accountable. If you want to leave a message for me here I would appreciate the encouragement! I thank God and all my family and friends for helping me!

With All My Heart~

Milestones

2012-01-06T23:26:00.000-05:00

When you have children you often measure time by months, years and milestones. As the baby of the family, Lydia is always striving to reach those goals as soon as possible. She loves to do whatever her big sisters do, and she has the added advantage (or disadvantage) of a lack of fear. Most of the time it is wonderful that she is so eager to try new and difficult things. One goal she has had her sights on is to learn to swim well enough to ride the slide at our local pool.

Let me just say that I feel a bit scared to ride this slide. It must look gigantic to her! But is she scared away from her goal? No. She sees her sisters do it and we have told her she can too, as soon as she swims well enough to pop back up and paddle over to our waiting arms. She has been practicing with Memaw and has met the required distance. So now we were just waiting for a day with Daddy!

Here is Lydia another day practicing her jumping

You know milestones must be reached with family around to help celebrate! So today, January 5, two months before her 5th birthday, she accomplished her goal. As we all watched, she placed her trust in our faith in her and Daddy's waiting arms! When she popped up, we all cheered! Her first ride was a bit scary. I forgot to remind her to stay in a sitting position. She got turned over on her belly coming feet first down. She was brave though, and gave it another shot. She went a total of 6 times. She wanted to go more, and she will on future PE visits! :)

At bedtime, when she was giving Daddy a good night kiss, they were playing a little guessing game they sometimes play. Daddy pretends not to recognize her and guesses who she is with funny little clues. Lydia, anticipating where the conversation was going, decided to give Daddy some clues. He said, "Now, who is this again?" And Lydia replied, "I am 4. I am Lydia. I went down the slide!"

Four hours later and she is recognizing that this event helps to identify who she is! This was a big deal for her. She was proud. So were we, and very amused! :)

So yes, I am the only member of the family who hasn't ridden the slide! Oh wait, neither has Memaw! Stay posted. Maybe we will be as brave as Lydia one day.

With All My Heart~

2012 Changes

2012-01-03T02:23:00.001-05:00

Each new year I always look forward to changes. I like change. I regularly move furniture around because I enjoy change. One of my favorite parts of the year is putting away the past school books and getting out the new ones! I always have goals and desires for change in the New Year.

One that I always set for myself is to walk more faithfully in the ways of God. I desire to read my Bible more faithfully, to spend more time in prayer, to do more work for the kingdom of God, to learn more scriptures and doctrine. I never quite reach my desired walk though. Why not? Sin. Oh to be in the eternal presence of God and absence of sin! I look forward to that. Until then, I will continue to try to mortify my laziness and lack of desire to strive for the things of God! Practically speaking, we have a goal to read through the Old Testament as a family. Personally, I want to spend my first 15 minutes in prayer and scripture memorization. There are other goals on my list, but this is an example of some of the ways I want to walk closer to God in 2012!

Another goal I seem to have every year is to lose weight. I think there were two years of my life since high school where I didn't list this as a goal. I really need to work off at least 80 pounds. Oh, it hurts to type that. But I know that I need prayers of family and friends so I share this with you! I will be posting my weight loss every Tuesday. I will also post about my nutrition for the week and exercise goals that I meet. I really need to have a Biggest Loser year! I hope some of you will help hold me accountable and encourage me. So look for a post next week on this!

Starting picture

Another change that we are seeking God for guidance and direction is in our finances. We want a Biggest Loser year for our debt! We are praying to become better stewards of what God provides and also to work more diligently to pay off the debts we owe. Again, your prayers would be greatly appreciated! One goal I have this month is to record what we spend for groceries with a goal of $100 per week and to not eat out AT ALL. I will let you know how we all do on this one! Another way we are changing things in order to pay down our debt is for me to go back to teaching in the public school. This was a difficult decision because I really enjoy spending my days teaching and learning with our girls. They are going to be doing many subjects without me if I get a job again. We are thankful that Memaw Rose is here to help us with this. I can leave the girls at home with their work and she will assist in making sure they stay on task and complete the work. I am thankful the girls are older now and can do so much on their own. They are excited about helping the family reach the goal of no debt by doing their part during school!

Just a few pictures from a visit to the park! Happy Hannah!

Sweet Sarah enjoying the new playground equipment!

Mary, Memaw and Lydia!

Here is a better, well at least closer, view of Mary! :)

So by the grace of God and some hard work I pray I will see many changes for the better in 2012. I thank God for each day and another opportunity to serve Him in all that I do!

With All My Heart~

Our "Snowball" Fight

2011-12-24T16:13:00.002-05:00

Christmas Activity #3 Completed! (If you are wondering where Memaw Rose was during the fun, she suddenly had to go to Kroger's for some grocery shopping. Hmmmm! ;) Of course I can't really say much. I chose to operate the camera!

Well running the video didn't keep me totally safe!

Christmas Activity List #11: Daddy's Special Dinner

2011-12-23T14:39:00.000-05:00

Before Alpheus and I were married, during his bachelor years, Alpheus found a love for cooking. On our first official date he grilled shish kabobs and other delights on Skyland drive. It was raining and I was sitting in his truck while he cooked over the open flame holding an umbrella over his head. Thankfully on that 4th of July, the sun reappeared and we enjoyed our hike and the view of the fireworks from Red Oak Mountain. It may have been our first official date, but I had learned two very important things. #1 This man would go through a lot of trouble to please me. #2 His culinary skills were greater than mine!

During our first 4 years of marriage he did much of the cooking! In recent years, I have been working on my skills and teaching the girls. Then this past year, Memaw Rose moved in and has taken care of the cooking since then! But when we made our Christmas activity list, Alpheus wanted to do a special dinner for all of us.

He did all the shopping and cooking. Rose and I napped and relaxed while he made a delicious dinner for us! Pork roast wrapped in bacon, with a parmesan/garlic/apple topping, seasoned red potatoes, broccoli with cheese, shrimp and a fancy salad!

That is sparkling white grape juice in our glasses. The girls loved the fancy shaped cups which were actually plastic! :)

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention the humongous yeast rolls with butter!

But he didn't stop with dinner. He also made the best parfait I have ever tasted! The cream part is made from marshmallow cream and cream cheese. He layered it with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries!

Thank you DH/Daddy for a wonderful dinner!

Christmas Gatherings

2011-12-21T01:20:00.001-05:00

One of the most enjoyable parts of Christmas for me is getting together with my family. I remember as a young girl, when my older brothers and sister would be living on their own in various states and how lonely my twin brother and I would be at times. But usually everyone would come back to Mom and Dad's for the Christmas Eve/Morning sleep over and Christmas party. I have very fond memories of sleeping on mattresses on the floor of rooms at the Lakehouse when trying to close off some rooms and save on the fire place heat. We would talk and sing in the night hours until we finally all drifted off. I think I know many Christmas hymns by heart from these sing-a-longs! Then when my brother and sister-in-law had the first grandchildren of the family it added a completely new side of Christmas for us all. I am so thankful we have the year of the puppy on video and many other special Christmas memories.

Grandmom with Sarah's gift to her. We missed getting the Christmas tree Hannah got her, and also Granddad with his traditional gifts of raisinets and a Christmas mug.

Every once in a while we would even have a holiday spent with extended family. I loved being with my aunts,uncles, cousins, and grandmoms (my granddad's had already passed away before I have any memory of them)! Such wonderful times to hear my parents reminisce of their childhood days and to see them with their siblings teasing and loving each other. I was raised in a very happy and God-fearing family, so these times are blessed memories.

Grandmom Short and Memaw Rose enjoying a chat.

I am so thankful to be doing the same with my children. I remember the first Christmas Alpheus and I were married. We celebrated with Dan and Lorilyn, but it felt really strange not being with our parents. I am sure we were there a few days before, but for some reason (maybe Christmas was on a Sunday and we couldn't stay?) we were in the parsonage the first year. I think I would have been really sad if I hadn't had at least one sibling there! The next three years were full of babies and my parents living with us or near by. Then we moved to Florida. During the 7 years that we lived in FL we sometimes had family down for Christmas. Sometimes we came back up to VA. Sometimes we just celebrated with our church family. But in each case, our children were blessed to spend time with people who loved God and them and remembering wonderful times together.

Sarah getting a picture of me with Mary and her new dolly. She has gotten 4 just like this one in her eight years of life. We keep putting the "all loved up" ones away for memories!

As my children get older I wonder what they will remember about our family gatherings and what makes them the most happy. I would ask them now, but they are asleep. Maybe I will post their answers later. On Monday, everyone who could, traveled to my parents' home to visit and let the children open the presents from Grandmom and Granddad. As usual there was lots of delicious food! There was also a lot of teasing and talking as we tried to play Mexican Train. I sat by my nephew Ben, who was featured on a recent post! :) It was so wonderful to spend more time with him and everyone. My girls enjoyed playing with their cousins, talking with various family members and guessing at what might be wrapped up under the bear trees! ;) The only thing we didn't do this year was sing any Christmas hymns. Sharon even made fruit cake for my parents. (Yes, we have nominated her for an award!) It was a wonderful time!

Lydia with her doctor kit. She was so thrilled. She doctored innocent bystanders all day today!

Keeping with the medical theme (sort of), Lydia was just as tickled with the Buzz operation game.

When we finally all gathered in the living room to watch the presents being opened, the girls were so excited and happy. But what really makes them happy isn't the toys, but the love they feel from these people who care about them all year round! I know that years after they have forgotten what the toys were they will remember the grandparents, aunts and uncles that loved them.

What doll loving girl doesn't also want a spyware set! :)

Sarah holding her own copy of Kung Fu Panda 2. She also received a lovely pink heart watch.

Ariana sporting her new Alvin the Chipmunks hat! So pretty!

Hannah (with Memaw helping) holding up her new long awaited for art supplies!

Lydia was so excited to play her new games that she could hardly wait until after breakfast. We all sat down to play the first time. This was a new twist on an old classic with doctor and specialist cards and money for retrieving the endangering organs. We had loads of fun, especially Daddy who won!

Last night as I walked passed the older girls room out of the corner of my eye I noticed a strange shape in the room. Hannah had set up her easel and was all prepared to paint as soon as she woke up. This was painted before breakfast at 9AM! :)

We really missed having Ed, Traci, Brandon, Logan, Kamryn, Jacob, and Aaron and Bryce at our get together this year! (Though I hear someone is turning 50 and we will be seeing Aaron and Bryce at that party in a week! :) )

I pray, dear friends, that you are able to spend this Christmas with family. Whether you have blood relatives or in-Christ's-blood relatives ~ enjoy being with ones you love!

With All My Heart~

My Cup Runneth Over!

2011-12-18T20:37:00.001-05:00

Thursday~

We went to Grandmom and Granddad Short's house for our annual Christmas cookie party! It was great! We made the cookies the day before and then packed them up for travel. We (I can say "we" because I handed ingredients, LOL) also made fudge!

This was a regular treat in my childhood home and it is funny how just certain sounds and smells bring back such wonderful memories. Lorilyn and I both noticed the tap-tap-tap sound when Mom had stirred the fudge and was then getting the excess off her spoon. In that moment, it was like I was 8 years old again waiting for the fudge to be ready! :)

Lorilyn was present, just not photographed! :)

We enjoyed rootbeer or cherry coke floats with our treats too! It was a delicious compliment! The girls had not had a float before and they really enjoyed them! After dinner we headed off to see my nephew, Ben, in the Christmas band concert. Isn't he handsome?! So hard to believe he is graduating! (My other nephew, Brandon, is also a senior and shares the same Short good looks!)

We really enjoyed the concert though I would have liked more Christmas music! Lydia is now enamored with flutes and Mary wants a trumpet even more! :)

Friday~

It was so nice to have Daddy home! He headed off to study at the church and we cleaned house before heading out to the pool. Oh how we have missed the swimming, sliding, jumping and splashing! (It is so frustrating to pay a membership and not have time/ability to go!) Since Mary's eye is all healed and I am feeling more mobile, it was nice to go back! That night the girls were blessed by a visit from Aunt Leah! She brought a Christmas surprise including chocolate chip cookies, craft kit, and Kung Fu Panda 2! She even left her copy of the movie so the parents could watch it when we came home! ;) We were playing at Due South for the evening. It was a great night of gospel bluegrass and bluegrass Christmas! We met some people from Eastern VA, Vermont, Ontario, and even South Africa! That was really neat!

Saturday~

The girls spent the morning playing Poptropica! This is an online game they love, but it takes so long to play that I don't usually let them play except on vacations. They were very excited! It is too hard for Ldyia to play so I signed her in to a new site she had never played called Kabongo. She loved this! It is also free and educational. We then spent the afternoon watching The Sound of Music. My family was sweet enought to put up with my signing along! :)

Sunday~

Sundays are the best day of the week! Together with my whole family and our closest friends to worship God and to encourage each other in faithfulness and holiness! This time of year it is also special because of the children's Christmas program and our church family dinner. Since I broke my ankle in early November, the program was quite short, but very sweet! One of the things my girls loved to do at our former church was to play in the bell choir. Memaw Rose ordered a set of bells and all of the girls really loved it!

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FEMMJFNU

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FEMM9CNU

After dinner we all enjoyed some delicious food and warm fellowship!

I gave Sarah the camera and she snapped a few shots for the blog.

Oh, I forgot to tell her no picutres of me! LOL

Then our church did the annual "pounding" of the pastor and family. This was a tradition started years before we came and we are so blessed by their giving. They abundantly gave to fill our pantry to the brim! It is even more special because we know it is motivated by great love for God and His servants.

Here is the table loaded down with the goodies! There were even treats for our doggie! :)

As usual, I am so moved by God's gracious love and care for me and my family. We have been blessed to be a part of three wonderful churches and feel great love during and even after we were called elsewhere to serve. It reminds me that in Heaven we will really be united in Christ as His precious Bride.

With All My Heart~

Baking Christmas Cookies

2011-12-14T15:53:00.002-05:00

One of the things I have very little patience for is cookie decorating! I don't mind making cookies if it means we throw the ingredients together, slap it on the sheet, and bake it for 10 min or so. If it requires making icing, coloring icing, fluting icing and teaching all this to others, I am not there yet. Maybe it is something you get when you become a grandmother!

Memaw was the leader of today's Christmas fun and without her we would not have accomplished nearly as much. She made the icing from scratch and she showed the girls how to make the fluting bags. (Btw, if I am using an incorrect term, please forgive the decorataing novice!) She bought the cookie dough. Next year I think I will contribute by making the dough from scratch since that is what I enjoy! :)

Hannah reshaping a few cookies after tranfer to the sheet. Unfortunately we couldn't find the cutters we had last year.

Mary taking our cutters etc. to the sink!

Almost time to bake and decorate!

Whoops! We made ours a little big and too many on the pan!

Super Memaw showing the girls how to make the icing bag from wax paper. Then we made nine colors with our food coloring.

Here are some of the finished ones. Top left is Mary's giant snow man. She meant to put them together but we didn' realize how much it would spread! :) It is upside down, but the white with blue is Hannah's igloo shaped cookie. The bottom middle was supposed to be a wrapped present. Come on now, use your imagination! LOL

We had a few sprinkles too!

Here is a better veiw of Hannah's igloo.

Here is the baked Christmas tree. It lost some of its shape when baked, but Hannah did a good job decorating it to give you the idea!

Mary's bell. I love it!

Messy but great fun!

With All My Heart~

Birthday 11 for Sarah!

2011-12-13T16:56:00.001-05:00

Sarah's day of celebration started quite early! She asked for an alarm clock for her birthday which she recieved at the party last week. Last night she thought she set it for 8:30, but somehow it was 6:30AM when it went off!

At 8:30 when they actually got up Memaw treated her to her favorite breakfast - pancakes! We also had the special treat of hot chocolate to drink. Then Sarah wanted to watch a movie which had been lost for a while -The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. An appropriate movie for our lazy day!

Sarah made pizza rolls (canned biscuit dough, pepperoni, and cheese) which they dip in pizza sauce for lunch. We have done many variations of this pizza bread. We have used homemade french loaf bread dough, tortillas, and canned biscuits. You just can't go wrong either way. I prefer grilled chicken, mushrooms, peppers and onions in mine! Mmmmm!

After lunch we made personal pinatas for each girl. We used the easy method with brown lunch bags. I put the candy in the bag and then folded down the top and stapled it to keep it a surprise. Sarah wanted hers to look like a party hat.

Sarah preparing the fringe for her pinata.

Some of our supplies!

The stuffed bags. Don't really know why the cup was there. LOL Mary was taking these pictures.

Lydia wanted hers to look like an igloo.

Mary working on her fox!

Lydia with her igloo. Can you see the "door" we tried to put on?

Mary with her fox. I love that the fox has white legs!

Sarah wearing her party hat pinata! :)

Hannah, giving her horse a ride. I didn't get a great shot of the very cute face, but I love the bow on the tail! :)

At dinner we enjoyed tacos which is another favorite of Sarah's. I also coudn't let a birthday go by without some kind of treat. InAShoe had a recipe for Cheater's Fudge. I am no fudge maker but I thought I could handle this.

The recipe only called for chocolate chips, sweet condensed milk, and vanilla. My mom always added peanut butter to our chocolate fudge (per Baldwin family recipe) and so I added some of that too. The recipe only said to heat until melted.

Sarah thinks it tasted pretty good out of the pan!

She also had first dipping rights into the fudge that was still to soft. :( I guess next time I need to cook it longer. It did taste good but definitely not the texture of fudge.

Enjoying the party favors from the pinatas. I have no pictures of us actually hitting the pinatas because I just couldn't see destroying them yet. We cut a small slit in the bottom. Who knows, we might fill them up again for Christmas! ;)

We love you so much, Sarah Noel.

We are praying your 11th year is full of blessings!

With All My Heart~

Advent Atkins style

2011-12-11T21:30:00.000-05:00

Did you know that there is nothing in the Bible about celebrating Christmas? Christians are commanded to be baptised and to remember Christ through the Lord's Supper or Communion as some call it. I certainly don't think it is a sin to celebrate Christmas, but I do think if you are a Christian you must guard your heart carefully.

We are not to have any other gods before the true God. We are not to make graven images to worship. We are not to take the Lord's name in vain. Sometimes I wonder if at Christmas many people break those commandments in the way they choose to celebrate. If Christmas is more about looking good in the eyes of man for the gifts we give, or the way we decorate, or even good deeds we do, instead of being amazed and awed that the all powerful God sent His Son way from the holiest and happiest realm, to come and live as a humble man of dust, then I fear we are breaking those commands. I am not saying that gifts are wrong. I am not saying that decorations are evil (though some may be pretty tacky LOL). I am not saying it is wrong to do good deeds for the needy.

But what is truly our motivation? Do we give to the canned food drive because we feel guilty? Do we get more excited about looking at the tree or wrapping the presents than we do about reading our Bible or praying to God? Are we really thinking about Christ's birth when we wish others a Merry Christmas?

Again, I know this is not a commandment in the Bible, but there is a commandment that applies.

1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV) So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

A few years ago I was convicted of these things in my heart. We actually didn't put up a tree at all! I gave away all my Christmas village pieces. We got rid of all Christmas movies that weren't the actual story of Christ's birth. I needed to do that. I needed to repent of worshipping the traditions of Christmas instead of Christ himself. It was hard. I missed those traditions. Christmas didn't seem as special without those things. That is how I knew I had been in sin! God worked on my heart in many ways the year after that and I grew in awe of Him and all the things that He did, does, and is!

When we began to add back some of the traditions that ensnared my heart before, I was afraid. I didn't want to be a pagan worshipper. I didn't want to tempt myself with idols. Praise God, I realized that it wasn't a temptation anymore.

Now I love to put up the tree because I am spending time with my family and talking of the greatest gift God ever gave anyone! I redeem this time by using decorations that remind us of things of God. We spend more time listening to Christmas music that sings of the real Reason for the Season! We do activities that remind us of that too.

One of the new things we added to our family traditions is an advent wreath. If you aren't familiar with it, here is a good sight for information and suggestions: History of Advent Some years we have done it at home as part of family worship. This year we did it as part of Sunday School. The girls also made an advent book. This is to remind them of the verses of promise and the gifts of the season!

Each girl decorated the front of the book. Some of these may be given as a Christmas remembrance to a relative, so if you see these again in real life, act surprised! (hint, hint) :)

Mary, Sarah and Hannah working on the front page design. Hannah was already finished. (see below)

We had some pretty glitter letters, card stock and Christmas ribbon at the church to tie together each week's page! I found the pages at ministry-to-children.com if you are interested in some coloring pages about advent.

I am so thankful that the memories our girls have of Christmas will center around Jesus' birth.

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On another note, one of the girls favorite memories about Christmas and winter time is sleeping (I call it that with tongue in cheek!) in the living room. These impromptu slumber parties usually occur on the nights that it is really cold (24 tonight) and we are conserving electricity by only using the fireplace. We shut off their doors and pile them all in the living room.

The room prepared!

Little one didn't make it. Looks like she will be taking Daddy's empty spot tonight!

In the "quiet" hour before lights out, they are talking, reading, playing guitar and just enjoying being sisters!

With All My Heart~

Stay tuned - holiday activities interrupted by life ...

2011-12-10T20:41:00.001-05:00

... and death. A dear member of our church died this past week. We rejoice that she is with God in heaven but we mourn with her family who will miss her so dearly! Please say a prayer for the Duncan and Altizer families!

For those who may be checking and looking for something here I will post a picture of my messy family room (disguised as a laundry room) with a cute little girl ready for bed! :)

Daddy will also be out of town next week so the "snowball fight" will be put off!

Parade Fun

2011-12-10T05:17:00.001-05:00

I have many special memories of Christmas parades. As a middle schooler I did my share of marching in freezing temperatures! In recent years we have been in the local parade with a float from our church. Other years we have just been spectators. Last year was the Great Parade Marathon when our church had a float in the Blacksburg parade.

Alpheus reading the Bible story (recorded his voice on mp3) as the children gathered around the fireplace.

Our shepherds, angels, Mary and Joseph

It was nearly all uphill and moved double the speed of a regular parade. My job was to "walk" beside the float handing out candycanes. (It is against the rules to throw candy from the float.) I remained two floats behind during the whole parade because it was uphill and double time. Did I mention that I kept getting hit by the candy being thrown from the float two spaces behind ours? Despite all that, I was happy to be a representative of the real reason for Christmas!

This year we chose to be spectators again! Bob and Debbie joined us down town for the fun! After getting dinner at Pizza Inn, we parked closer to main street and staked out our place.

Sarah, Bob, Debbie, Rose, Eva, and Hannah
Lydia and Mary

Now Daddy is the picture too! :)

*Alpheus and I both opted to keep our gloves on and let our enthusiastic apprentice photographer, Hannah freeze her fingers, I mean, practice her skills!
Remember you can click on the photo to see it enlarged.

For three of us, the bands are our favorite part! There were three but only this one played a holiday tune. Here is the Christiansburg High School Marching Band. They sounded great!

Here was the Auburn band. They stopped right infront of us and Mary enjoyed gazing at her favorite instrument, the trumpet. (Shouts out to you, Uncle Ed.) Lydia's favorite was right behind. She got so excited to see the quads being played so close to her.

There were plenty of cars, trucks, semi-s, tractors, and motorcycles dressed up for the occasion!

We don't listen to this station, but the girls liked the costume.

We have to include the picture of some of our favorite people, the Due South BBQ restaurant. We play there once a month and just love the staff and regular customers! I think the red nose is a tribute to Rudolph. It is usually pink.

We all thought this was pretty clever. The girls laughed and shrieked over the antlered motorcycles. This was a motorized Santa too.

Of course we were really hoping for some floats that showed the real reason for Christmas! This first one wasn't a float exactly but it did get the point across! :)

Here was our favorite Christian float. It recieved great cheers from the whole crowd as it passed by!

Here was another good one, but we missed getting the best view of it! So thankful for the Christian witness!

Close to the end of the parade it was getting backed up and it just so happened that the horse section stopped infront of us for several minutes. Long enough for us to have a conversation with the owner of the rescue farm for horses and for some of the riders to show a few tricks. We were just enthralled by looking at them especially all decked out for the parade! Mary could only have been happier if she had been riding on one in the parade! ;)

Hannah noticed the fancy footwear on this one!

This pair was by far the most impressive horses in the parade. They were huge! We were just amazed at how big and pretty they were and we loved the wagon they pulled behind them!

After these were dozens of fire and rescue vehicles. The girls loved waving at the families inside! We all had a great time.

With All My Heart~

Not just a few days off!

2011-12-09T15:45:00.001-05:00

As my girls get older and I see the days of their departure and starting their own families approaching in the distance, I am more mindful of how we spend our time together. When they were all little, I just wanted to make it through the day without having to pull out the carpet cleaner and actually having had a shower that day before dinner!

As they aged into children who could entertain themselves and even clean up after themselves (see above), I relished the time to actually do something other than get in the shower. Sadly, I developed the bad habit of being side by side doing our own thing. This year I really want to spend our vacation time doing things with the girls. Things I normally say, "Well, maybe tomorrow." or "Too messy!"

I had the inspired idea, that on the last day of school, we would make a list of things we all want to do together. We actually started talking about it Wednesday so we could be thinking of things. We didn't list activities such as watch movies or play computer because we already do so much of that. We have been thinking about things we don't normally do that would be fun and mostly free!

As Hannah was decorating the list for us, I realized how much this idea means to the girls. Hannah said, "Mom, this will be so much fun doing things with you every day. I am really looking forward to it." This from a girl who spends nearly every day here at the house with me and most of the hours actually in my presence. How could this seem to be so special to her? Because I am choosing to spend my free time doing things with her, not just beside her! So even though it seems that it would just be enough to let the kids do their own thing for the next few weeks, they really want to do things with us instead.

What a blessing! This is certainly not typical for kids today or at least that is the way the family is portrayed in most movies and sitcoms. Is it really just that our kids are strange? Or is it that our kids have been raised to know that God put them in our family for a reason? We believe that God wants families to be happy and to spend time together learning, growing, and having fun, not rolling their eyes and whining about having to be together. We are also planning to do things that will be a blessing to others during this time off.  Families can serve together too!

So how does your family spend time off? Do you have suggestions for activities for us? I plan to post pictures of the daily activity. It will be fun to have a record for reminiscing!
Day 1  Tonight we are off to see the Christmas parade with friends! :)

Coming up in the near future: Baking sugar cookies, Mock snowball fight with socks behind our "snow forts", partner scrabble, and making Christmas cards to give out with cookies to the neighbors.

With All My Heart~

Hannah's 12th Birthday

2011-12-08T11:14:00.001-05:00

On the girls' birthdays we try to do everything (within reason) that the person would like to do. First of all, Hannah wanted to have the day off from school. No problem since I have a lot of pull with her teacher and principal! LOL

We started the morning with getting up late and having biscuits and gravy with hot chocolate for breakfast. (missed getting a picture) Then Hannah requested family worship this morning. We sang two of her favorite hymns before reading scripture and praying. Now that is a great way to start a birthday! As I recall, there was a lot of praying going on the day she was born! :)

Sarah and Hannah will be sharing their birthday party, as usual, and they wanted to make and decorate their own cake. So Wednesday night they made the cake and this morning they decorated it.

Hannah cracking the eggs.

Sarah greasing the pan.

Hannah, Sarah, and Mary getting the candy ready.

Icing is on!

Best Friends! I always tease that they are as close as I will get to having twins. I am so thankful that all my girls love each other, but these two are definitely close in many ways. It is hard to see, but they have m&m's around the edges and those are candycane hershey kisses and sprinkles on top.

Here is Hannah with the traditional Happy Birthday banner hung across her door. She also rummaged through the birthday box and found one last balloon.

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After lunch, we went to Granddad and Grandmom Short's house for the birthday party!

We have celebrated most of their birthdays with their cousin, Ariana. She always makes special cards and finds the perfect gift!

Ariana knew Hannah would love this island-themed calendar!

I have a feeling Sarah will be painting this pretty rose suncatcher tomorrow in her free time!

Two happy birthday girls!

They were so please with many thoughtful gifts and some birthday money as well. I know Hannah is saving up for her own camera. Sarah is still exploring her options. :)

The rest of the day was spent playing the Wii and enjoying time spent with family. The adults of course played Mexican train! ;) Here is a picture of all of us squeezed into the kitchen! It was actually nice and cozy. :)

With All My Heart~

Handling Disappointments

2011-12-06T10:21:00.001-05:00

Last night at bedtime, Lydia and I were reading in her Bible story book about Joseph and the jealousy of his brothers. Then we talked about how we can sometimes feel jealous when we see others being blessed with gifts and cards. (It is birthday season for her two oldest sisters.)

Then Lydia said, "Mom, do you know what really disappoints me?"

After I stopped giggling over her grown up speech I asked, "What?"

"At the dentist office yesterday, I was very good and all I got was a toothbrush and toothpaste." LOL Our dentist office used to give out toys and she would be with us and see the girls get them. Oh the disappointments that a nearly-5 year old ponders! :)

So we talked about the things she could be thankful for at the dentist office. Being with Memaw (who took her so I could do school with the big girls.) and going shopping with her after. Memaw buying her popcorn chicken for a treat. Best of all, no cavities!

After all this counting her blessings she was feeling much less disappointed!

With All My Heart~

Catching Up...

2011-12-04T22:36:00.001-05:00

* I hope my good blogger friend, justgottalaugh, doesn't mind if I borrow her outline for a quick update post! I thought this might be a great way to catch up since it has nearly been a month since I posted.

What I'm Learning: Still working on learning to play piano. A dear pianist at our former church bought me an electric piano with weighted keys and a full keyboard. I already know how to read music from choir and playing clarinet. I just need to teach my brain to read two staffs at once. That is the hard part!

What I'm Reading: When I was immobile for over a week, I read about 10 books. I really enjoyed that time. Now I am back to mostly trying to keep up with the girls' school readings and lesson planning. Right now I am enjoying The Story of the Greeks and Animal Farm. These are two I have never read before. Some of the Greek stories have led to some great discussions of the Bible and man's depravity so this has been really enjoyable. I don't have a final opinion yet of the Wells novel yet. So far I have to say I am not that impressed with the allegory, but maybe I am not familiar enough with the details of life during postWWII Europe/Asia.

To What I'm Listening : Christmas music of course! Also bells are ringing at my house regularly as we are practicing for our church Christmas program with the children! Also, Lydia is reading and I am loving the sound of that! Btw, if any of you regular readers remember that she has struggled since she began talking to be understandable, she has really come along this last year. Nearly all her pronunciatons are correct now except for her L-blends and R-blends. That is a praise!

What I'm Eating: Well for the first two weeks after breaking my ankle, I ate whatever my dear Rose brought down to me! She was my personal Jenny Craig and I lost 5 pounds! Now that I can walk the stairs and have been celebrating Thanksgiving and my birthday, I have indulged of course! This Monday it is back to the ELF diet! :) I can't wait until I can get back to the gym and the pool!

What I'm doing for a Workout: Walking anywhere is my work out right now. Standing for any length of time to do anything is a workout as well.

To What I'm Looking Forward: Other than Christmas, we have our oldest daughter turning 12 on the 8th and daughter #2 turning 11 on the 13th! Also, we are all excited that this is the final week of school before our Christmas/winter break. We will be off from the 10th of December until the 8th of January!!! We will have completed 18 weeks which is half the year!

What I'm Laughing About: My children and husband help me to laugh daily, but nothing specific comes to mind just now.

What I'm Thankful For: God blessed me with 40 wonderful years of life already. I have the husband of my dreams and 4 beautiful girls. My extended family, church family and friends have truly blessed me all my life. I have the privilege to stay home and teach and learn with my own children. Just some examples of God's mercy and grace in my life!

What's been working for us: Memaw Rose gave the girls her old laptop. Kind of funny because my DH bought it, then gave it to a friend, who then gave it to his son, who then gave it to Memaw Rose, who now lives with us, and gave it to the girls when I gave her mine (because she needed wifi built in and I didn't really use it, and it was also DH's old one). Did you catch the irony in all of that? Anyway, it is old enough to run the girls favorite CD game: Carmen Sandiego Think! They love this quiz game and I love hearing them celebrate when they know the answer because of something we studied recently in school. Over Thanksgiving they answered questions on constellations, music, art, history, etc from just this year's lessons! It is also something they can all play together. I love to see them huddled around working together to answer the questions or break the codes.

What I'm Praying About: For the family of a dear lady in our church who is leaving this earthly body tonight (more than likely). Praying for her family to be drawn to God which is her greatest desire and final wish! For God to use DH, our family and our church for His Glory! Thank you for praying with me! :)

With All My Heart~

Evidence Not Seen

2011-11-12T16:55:00.000-05:00

Since I did this:

I have had lots of time for this:

I really have enjoyed the reading time and not feeling guilty for so much "me" time. When DH went to a pastor's conference in October, he brought back to me a wonderful gift. He asked one of the bookstore ladies to recommend a book for his wife. The dear lady recommended Evidence Not Seen, an autobiographical account of the 4 years American missionary, Darlene Diebler Rose was one of the captives in a Japanese prison camp in New Guinea.

The girls and I have been studying WWII and this was a wonderful perspective of some of the hardships for the neighbors of Japan as they invaded and tortured much like the Nazis were doing. The book does describe some pretty disgusting and heartbreaking events that were hard to read, but her faith in God and trusting Him through everything was so encouraging.

Be prepared with tissues! If you are feeling like you have greater trials than you can bear, read this book. It has definitely helped me keep perspective through my very small trial.

With All My Heart~

If You Give a Girl A Camera . . .

2011-10-26T08:18:00.000-04:00

. . . then she will need to dress up her dolly.

If she is going to dress up her dolly, she will need a brush for her hair. So she will go to her sister's room and ask to borrow the brush.

Her sister will offer to lend her a brush, but first she will want to take a picture or two of herself. So she will need the brush first. :)

Sister will admire her new glasses as she takes some pictures. Then she will want to take more pictures because it is hard to stop at just one!

In the living room, she will find some more people for her pictures. She will do all sorts of silly things to get the people to smile for the camera. When Mama Rita, in the middle, is holding her "baby" it will remind the girl of her dolly.

Then the girl will want to go back to her room and take more pictures of her dolly, and her other favorite friends like her horse.

So she and her dolly will ride horses together. She will explore wide valleys and climb steep mountains in search of just the right next outfit for this photo day!

So if you give a girl a camera . . .

you will have lots of pictures of your girl and the many people and things she loves.

Weekly Wrap-up

2011-10-25T01:20:00.001-04:00

We are wrapping up the first 12 weeks of school which is our first term! It is hard to believe that we are 1/3 through this year already! We are looking forward to a fall break next week while Papa Jim and Mama Rita are here, and of course Memaw will be back.

I am putting away the literature books we finished this term and the girls are already asking what we will be reading next term. Over our 7 years of homeschooling we have complete five lapbooks. One was on Little House in the Big Woods and today Lydia found them on the shelf. She spent hours looking at them. Then the girls looked at all of them: Dinosaurs, Art Appreciation, George Washington's World History, and a Bible Memory verse one. Two of these we did before I was a CMer and three we have done after. It is evident to see which ones were kit directed and which ones were child-directed. I think they can both be useful, but I especially appreciate a more laid-back approach now. As the get older I can give them options and let them determine their own preference for how to organize, record, and share the information they are learning. Mary and Lydia are already looking forward to doing the LHitBW lapbook since Mary will be reading it to Lydia in term 3 this year. So Mary's narrations will mostly be drawings, comparisons, and written narrations based on each chapter as she completes it. I imagine it will be very different from the kit lapbook she made 3 years ago. I am still pondering if I should have Hannah and Sarah chose a literature selection for a lapbook also.

Earlier this month our church band played at Sinkland Farms in Christiansburg. It was on a Sunday afternoon and it was a beautiful day to sing praises to God and let the girls enjoy some fall fun. Memaw was so kind and took the girls around to the activities while we played in the barn area. The girls loved it.

Here are the girls, plus their friend Cheyenne putting on some cute masks - well except for that silly daughter who picked up the witch mask. Yuck! The rest are so cute, I just had to show the picture.

Cheyenne and Mary looking at some vendors wares.

Hannah likes the colorful clown!

Sarah trying her hand at milking the cow. Not much to show for it. LOL

Isn't she just adorable! She seems to be taking it so seriously!

Having a great time!

They were actually very tired here. The long and confusing maze had worn them out! They were also able to pet some farm animals, watch a pumpkin catapult and ride the hayride around the pumpkin patch.

Last but not least, we recorded the instructions for growing a GIANT pumpkin. This is Hannah's goal for next year! :) We shall see.

Sorry no pictures of the band, but we did have a great time!

On the same day, a dear sweet sister from our former church in FL called to wish DH a Happy Pastor's Appreciation Day and two of our church members here blessed him with a very sweet gift. We are so thankful for the love of God, our church family (past and present) and our many blessings!

With all my heart ~

Eva

Thirteen Years of Blessings Remembered

2011-10-10T02:23:00.000-04:00

Cliff note version: Thank you DH for the best 13 years of my life! You have given me your heart, your time, four girls, and so much love. Looking forward to the next 13!

Long version: Mostly written for myself and posterity! LOL But please keep reading if you'd like. Please forgive my repeated thankfulness. I am thankful, really thankful! :)

1998: Married October 10th at the church where we met when DH came to be the pastor. It was a wonderful year of learning more about him (and myself) as we joined our hearts and homes. Began to see the tremendous blessings and responsibilities of being a pastor's wife.

1999: Found out in April we were to be parents. By July we had the mini-van and by September the baby room was nearly ready. We enjoyed our last few months (including our 1st Anniversary) savoring the quiet and loving the thoughts of baby noises coming soon. Hannah joined our little family in December during all the 2K scare. So thankful that every thing was fine and we had lots of canned food for the rest of the year! LOL DH was proving to be a wonderful and caring father as well as husband.

2000: Found out in April that we were to be parents again! A whirlwind of a year as I learned to be a wife, pastor's wife (because of course I was still learning), mom and pregnant mom! LOL Our December baby #2, Sarah, was another pink princess blessing! I realized that each year we were married I felt like time had flown by but also that it should have been longer that we had loved each other. Doesn't that sound weird, but I just felt like we had loved each other so much longer than two years! :)

2001: Moved to the home of my dreams in January or February (can't quite remember, blame lost brain cells from 2 pregnancies... babies are worth it!) It was a large house and still had plenty of room when my parents, sister, BIL, and their dear baby moved in for a few months. Life was blessed with two beautiful girls and a husband who grew to love me more each day. I didn't believe I could be happier except for one thing....my heart was aching to stay home. I began praying each day for God to speak to DH about me staying home sooner than our plan. God answered in a month when Alpheus and I took a walk, and he shared that he wanted me to be home full time! God was preparing us for an even bigger change. We were moving to Florida! By October we were 800 miles away from that dream home and our extended family, but we were just as happy!

2002: By the end of February God had done some miracle work, and we were in our home right across the street from our new church. The people were wonderful and God was teaching us so much about faith, trust, Providence, and contentment. In late July we found out we were expecting another baby! This time by November we knew that God was again blessing us with a girl. The first two were so excited and thrilled by the changes and preparation for their new baby sister. DH was continuing to do all he could to bless our family and worked so hard for us and the church. God was also working in us to draw us to a closer walk with Him and a clearer understanding of His word. This time of sanctification was hard at times but so joyous as well!

2003: As the birth of our 3rd girl drew near so did plans for DH's mom to move to Florida in the house next door. What a wonderful blessing we had in living beside her for 5 years! In March we had the best delivery followed by the worst case of jaundice for our little doll! The bigger girls had suffered from it as well, but Mary had the most severe case, staying in the hospital a week. We felt very blessed when God pulled her through that! By April we were happily adjusting to being outnumbered and fitting three car seats in our four door truck! My life was filled with sippy cups and preschool activities and growing as a wife. God gave me a patient husband who blessed me by making the most of it as I learned to do many new things. 5th year anniversary celebration in Tallahassee, FL. I coudn't find any pictures though.

2004: God had blessed our church and the new building was coming along. DH spent many days in physical and spiritual labor and again our walk with God was challenged and blessed. We met dear friends from a neighboring county who ended up moving in the lot behind us. We felt our spirits made kindred by God. We will always be thankful for God's Providence in bringing them to our lives! I was beginning to be serious in preparation for homeschooling and God provided all I needed in materials and mentors.

2005: Continuing to grow in the Lord and be blessed doing full time ministry and full time homeschooling. Our days were so happy that I have a hard time remembering anything distinctly difficult. It was a precious time of growing in the Lord and our love for each other. I remember that this was the year that DH made me the most special meal while I was waiting at his mom's house next door. I was delighted to see the flowers, balloons, candy, and a delicious meal for our 7th anniversary.

2006: This was a hard year for me emotionally. I wanted more children and felt my lack of trust and faith in God had ruined this for our future. I begged and pleaded with God to heal me and to give us more children. DH showed such tender love for me and prayed with me for this miracle. I was learning more about the great sacrifice it is to be a loving wife and mother. I was learning that I had to give more of myself than I wanted. It was hard work to be a good mother 24/7. I begged God to make me content with His plans. He blessed me with so much. On our 8th anniversary DH made me the biggest card he had ever made! (He used all the tape that he could find at the church along with 64 pieces of paper for an 8 by 8 card!)

It was such a testimony to how our love had grown for each other. We had determined at the beginnning of our married life that we would only build each other up with our words and we would forget what had been forgiven. We were tested many times by each other, but God was honoring our hopes and dreams for our marriage. We celebrated this year by going to the Melting Pot and then to see Facing the Giants which had just opened that weekend.

2007: In March, DH and I both visited a dear friend's daughter who had just given birth to a baby. We didn't realize how significant this would be later in the year. It was another blessed year of growth in our house. We were delighted with how much our three girls were learning and doing. DH built them a great big fort in the back yard for Christmas and we enjoyed making many delightful memories with picnics, trips to the beach, cookouts and so on. Our 9th anniversary was another special evening at home reflecting on God's blessings in our family and church. All the year, our dear friend had been bringing her granddaughter to church and then our house each Sunday afternoon she would spend with us until it was time for evening church. God was blending our hearts because He knew that soon He would blend our families.

2008: By January I began to see hope for the answer to that prayer in 2006. Through God directed events that precious baby was being offered to us through adoption. There was a heart breaking period at one point, where the biological mom changed her mind before she had signed any papers. We trusted that God does all things well and we waited for His moving. Ten days later the baby was back with us and the papers had been signed. God had worked another miracle life into our lives. Many people asked, "Why didn't you adopt a boy?" but God knew who we needed and who needed us! :) We began the homestudy process and by November 5th Lydia was officially ours. In the meantime, God had also called us to another great change. We were to move back to Virginia. Trust and obey was our theme song for the next several months! So our 10th anniversary was spent back in VA at my alma mater's football game and seeing Fire Proof at the theater! My precious DH always goes out of his way to do what I want on our anniversary!

2009: The time since we had moved back to VA was beginning to take a toll on my DH. We knew we had obeyed God's direction, but it was hard to leave all our dear friends in FL, a full time minister's job and our home. But God always provides in the right time and the right way. By February God had given us a church family and ministry as well as a home. By the middle of the year, DH was experiencing a serious medical issue with his heart. Surgery was helpful, but he has still been dealing with the after affects of this condition. We were so thankful for God's providence again during this time! This was the first time I had felt like I might have to raise our children without DH and I am thankful that was not God's plan, but I know that He would strengthen me in whatever He asks of me. We also began to play music with a few people from church which has turned into a great time of fellowship and praise to the Lord, along with an opportunity to spread the gospel. Our 11th anniversary was a delicious dinner with new friends from our church who also have their anniversary a week after ours.

2010: We continued to feel the love of God being poured out on us through our new church family and friends. We also were experiencing trials as part of our growth. God is always gracious to see us through. This was a blessed year for us as parents as we saw God working in the heart of one of our daughters for salvation. We were also blessed by visits from Florida family and friends. We are so thankful that our church families continue to love and pray for us even after God calls us away. We regularly pray for them as well and I can better understand how Paul felt about all the churches that he ministered to.

2011: This year has been just like the others in so many ways. God is constantly showing us how to be better for each other and our girls. He is also teaching us to humble ourselves and trust Him fully. We have learned that God's work is hard and painful and demolishes our pride, but also tender and joyful and precious. With several tradgedies in the lives of people we knew, we try each day to better appreciate each other for our strengths and to ignore the little things that really mean nothing in the long run. On this 13th year I have learned to stop wishing for the future and really enjoy remembering the past and living in the moments here and now. I guess that is why I have chronicled here these life changing moments. For me to relive and appreciate. One day for our girls to read and to try to share the ups and downs. For our anniversary this year we went to see another Sherwood Pictures movie. It is convenient how they always release them at the end of September! LOL Courageous was a wonderful video that reminded me of just the things I have been feeling lately.

from Hannah

Take the time to do the small things for your husband. You don't know if you will have tomorrow to do anything for him.

from Sarah

Don't waste time worrying, fretting or fussing over little things that bother you. You don't know if you will have tomorrow to apologize.

from Mary

Take the time to enjoy the little joys that are so important to your children. They may seem trivial to you, but the time is more important than the event. You don't know if you will get a second chance to dance with them, or listen to what they want to do during their free time, or wear the flower chains, or listen to the Bob book for the 3rd time!

from Lydia (We are taking an anniversary boat ride.) :)

Most of all, study the word of God. It is the only source of truth and strength. He gave you your husband and family. He knows just what you need.

Thank you God for giving me just what I needed 13 years ago!

With all my heart~

Proverbs 31:15

2011-10-06T14:41:00.000-04:00

I loathe to admit this, but I hate to get up early, much less while it is still dark out! I have often thought of these convicting words in the scriptural prescription of a godly wife and mother.

Proverbs 31:15

She rises also while it is still night
And gives food to her household
And portions to her maidens. NASU

I enjoy staying up late. I relish the quiet time with all the girls in bed and I can catch up on work or reading without interruption. However, sometimes I am so absorbed in my activity that I stay up too late. That makes for a grumpy wife, mommy and teacher the next day.

The other day I was listening to my girls describe being homeschooled to a friend from church. Basically the only complaint was that sometimes mommy got angry if they didn't get the problem right. OUCH! Yes, earlier that day I was very irritable and sinned in my reaction to their work. Yes, I could try to justify myself by mentioning that the problem was one they had done many times before, or that I had just showed her how to do it again, or that their attitude was pouty and disrespectful, but the fact remained of my sin. I usually do ask for forgiveness fairly quickly because I hate that I do it. I never yelled at my public school children. I want to treat my own girls with just as much respect and patience. So I determined last night to set my alarm for 7 and get up so I won't start the day rushed and feeling behind.

It was so hard to get out of bed. The alarm clock is in the school room (to help us keep our lessons 30 min. or shorter per subject) which is next door to our bedroom so I had to get out of bed to turn it off. Turning back to my bed, I fought the temptation to tip-toe back in and slip between the sheets of peaceful slumber! Then God reminded me about the reason I was getting up early. I need that time to talk to Him, to read something edifying, and to start the day knowing that I have plenty of time.

So we had a wonderful school day today! The girls did their part to have all morning chores and breakfast finished before 8:30AM, too! Everyone clipped right along through their work and we had some great discussions as well. By lunch time only one girl had one assignment left to finish. I am so thankful and inspired again to obey and learn from God's Word! I know that it will not be easy again in the morning, but it will be worth it.

I pray that one day when my girls describe me and how I led our days, that it will be more like Proverbs 31 and NOT the description I heard in the van this past week!

With All My Heart~
Eva

Time Well Spent

2011-09-23T23:59:00.000-04:00

I had this crazy notion that if I quit my job I would have time to do all the things I wanted to do. Since being home for nearly ten years now, I have learned that what I want to do is always going to require more time than I have. I used to think I would be a better housekeeper or cook when I had time to be home. That is not entirely true. I have found that the things I enjoy doing the most usually get accomplished, but that list does not cover all that I want to do. You see, my wants also include things I know I should be doing, but don't really enjoy doing. For example, I have "wanted" to clean out the fridge and mop the kitchen floor all week, but I don't really enjoy doing those things. I would much rather sit for 5 hours planning next weeks kindergarten lessons for Lydia. Not that it should take the five hours I spent, but because I enjoy it, I like to look at every possibility available from my shelf as well as online. And if you have done any research into free online preschool, you know there is a ton, and lots of it is really cute. :) So the point is that I put off what I want, but don't really like to do, and do much more than I should of what I like to do usually doing it for longer than really necessary or profitable.

I have to say though, that sometimes I have NO regrets for overspending my time on the things I really do love to do and are good and profitable things. I could never spend too much time reading about God in His Word and the stories of others who serve Him. That is why it doesn't bother me that we spend much more time on the Bible during the week than any other subject. I am reading two biographies of missionaries to the girls, as well as three chapters of the Bible per week, plus the family worship lessons from Daddy at least twice a week, in addition to the Sunday morning, Sunday night (this is new) and Wednesday night lessons. I tease the girls that they love Bible lessons the most because there are not tests or grades, but I pray that they love it best because it is the best thing they could be learning!

Another way I could never spend too much time is in being with my family. Somedays I may get tired of being asked the same questions at least four times, or saying the same reminders, but if I remember that these days are fleeting, and try to enjoy them, I am renewed in my love to serve my husband and our children. And having Memaw live with us has made it even more possible for me to enjoy time with my husband and children. DH was out of town this week working and so we all really wanted to have some family time. After we finished school and Daddy finished his sermon, we spent the rest of our Friday doing things together that we enjoy. Memaw, the girls and Minnie joined me on a mile walk around our neighborhood. This was a fun time to talk about the sights and creation of God. It was precious to see my two oldest girls holding hands and sharing the ear phones of an MP3 as they walked. I love that they are close. And little Lydia pushing Memaw up the hill (well, hopefully she was helping) was a cute memory. I need to take a camera on our next walk! Mary walked with me, learning how to train a dog to heel. After a delicious dinner of hamburgers and home made fries (oh my, heavenly) we cleaned the kitchen together. Now this is a normal part of life, but seemed especially sweet because we had DH back home serenading us with the guitar while we finished! :) This was of course a prelude to the music of family worship. I am teaching Mary how to sing alto and Hannah read the scripture for us tonight! Next on the agenda for family night was teaching Memaw how to play Yahtzee! There was much celebration as Memaw, Mary and Lydia rolled yahtzees. We wrapped up our evening with specialty ice cream cones and watching "Where the Red Fern Grows" (part 2). Other than Mary wanting to strangle me for making her cry again, it was a wonderful 7 hours spent enjoying each other.

And so, with many other blessings of the week, I feel this night has been time well spent. I thank God for nights like these!

With All My Heart~

Lots of Time

2011-09-16T01:06:00.000-04:00

Usually, I feel like I have no time. Or at least little time to complete all that I need to do. For the last several days I have been spending a great deal of time with my mom in the hospital. Thankfully she is doing well. We have had lots of time to talk. It has been time uninterrupted by my four girls or schedules. I am thankful for this time. I hate that Mom has to be in the hospital but I am thankful for these moments to talk and to do things for her. She has done so much for me all my life. She spent 2 years of her life taking care of my first two girls while DH and I worked. I could never repay her for all she has done for me. So I am feeling very blessed to be with her. I may only be turning off a pesky alarm, helping her to reach the things she needs, keeping her clean, or listening to her talk. Or I type notes to friends on facebook and update my blog! (Did you notice the new title and look?) It is all time well spent.

I am so thankful for Memaw and DH, as they do what I would normally do at home. I really appreciate DH's understanding that I need to be here for my mom. It has also given me time to think about my life and how blessed I really am. I will be turning 40 this coming birthday and I have had a happy life. I look back and see so many ways God has blessed me and I am amazed. And then I remember that this life, that seems to be so much time, is only a vapor. That really is mind boggling! It is the next life, the eternal life, that will be lots of time. No end to the time! And all eternal time will be spent in total joy and happiness. What a time to look forward to for those who love God!

With all my heart~

Week 6 update

2011-09-14T01:14:00.000-04:00

Well, time has gone by so quickly. We had a small break in the schedule but have had some really wonderful learning in the last several weeks. The girls in 6th grade have been surprising me with their ability to do their work more independently. I can remember a couple of years ago when I had to read everything with/to them and now they are reading most of their books on their own. I still have them read aloud to me at times, or I read to them, just because I love to learn with them! I have also seen an increase in their ability to focus on their written work. Sarah used to be so distractable during any kind of writing. Now she is learning to ignore some of the other noise around and get it done in a timely fashion. On the other hand, Hannah has learned to slow down a bit and do it better instead of faster! We have continued to find our study of WWII to be so interesting. I am only able to give them a tenth of what I have been learning because they are still so young. I look forward to a few years from now when we will revisit it with a more complete view.

Mary is enjoying 3rd grade and also growing in her independence though we still read nearly everything together, but she is doing more reading as I do more listening. We are fully immersed now in multiplication and division facts and I am anxiously awaiting the moment when it finally makes sense to her! It seems that my girls each have a time of sort of knowing these math functions, but they struggle and confuse them. We are working slowly and I know she will master them like her sisters when she is ready.

We also went back to the pool for the first time since we went out of town in August. The girls loved it especially when they met a homeschool family that was very friendly. I was actually shopping while Memaw swam with the girls, but evidently the mom, Gwen, and her family used to live on the same street as our church. She had one of our band's cds (she heard us play at Due South) and was somewhat familiar with our family. We are looking forward to a play date with them in a couple of weeks. They are traveling for a week. The oldest daughter is Hannah's age and she promised to send a postcard from there.

So here are some highlights of school.

Bible - We are loving this book! http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Adelina-Ancient-Christian-Bravery/dp/1934554332 My girls cry for more every time I stop reading. My girls are used to the older English language since we have read books like this since they were little and use NKJ or NASU Bibles, but still, if the reader can understand the reading they can make it understandable for young children.

History - Mary is enthralled with learning about the Kings and Queens of England. I love this period because we get to study several who were protestant and how they helped the cause of reformation! Mary kept repeating a rhyme we both just learned about King Henry VIII's wives: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. She loved looking at the portraits and learning a bit about each wife. Needless to say there has been a revival in her appreciation for all things princess between the book for Bible and these history stories.

Science - We finished our unit on the weather and are enjoying our new unit on animals. Lots of the animals that we saw at the aquarium in Gaitlinburg are coming up in our discussions! :)

Math - The big girls just learned about negative numbers and plotting points on a four quadrant graph. I love math! They are nearly finished with Saxon 65 and next week will start Saxon 76.

Art - we finished studying our artist for the term and will now be doing some drawing lessons again.

Music - we are listening to Aaron Copeland and are enjoying his compositions. The girls are also practicing the piano regularly and asking for more help to read the notes in the hymnal. Sarah is trying to learn to sing alto with me! :)

Foreign Language - Spanish continues to be a favorite! In the store today, Lydia was singing the hello song as she rode up and down the aisles! Greek and Latin are also going along nicely!

Literature - Hannah and Sarah (Mary listened in too) finished Where the Red Fern Grows and we all cried through the end. I waited about a week and then offered to show them the movie on Netflix. We all cried again! Mary begged to skip the movie when she is in year 6. She thinks she can handle reading the book again though. Now the girls are reading Snow Treasure (set in Norway in WWII) and Sarah said it is one of the most exciting books we have read! I think she will also like Number the Stars when she reads it! Mary has been listening to Men of Iron by Howard Pyle and loves it. This seems like such a boys book with all the talk of fighting and learning to be a knight, but Pyle does such a wonderful job of showing the relationships between the boys that all my girls have loved it! Yes, more on the castles and princes theme! :)

Handicrafts - For the princess room the younger girls worked on making knots and placing beads on yarn. The object was to make a bead curtain to dress up the doorway of their princess room. In the next few weeks we hope to do some sewing to adorn the room. The bigger girls have a rainforest/ tropical theme and continue to paint, cut and hang all sorts of decorations. They are also working on some plastic canvas projects for Christmas. Never to early to start on Christmas! ;)

It has been a blessed several weeks. Looking foward to the next three!

Week 1-3

2011-08-11T01:11:00.000-04:00

I want to try to document a little more about our school activities and studies. Again, this will be fun to look back at and it helps me notice what the girls found really important and interesting.

All Grades
Bible - We are reading through 1 Kings. The girls have learned about King Solomon and his gift of wisdom. We have also been noticing the out pouring of blessing and prosperity that God granted him. We were talking about all the blessings that we have especially compared to other nations and are trying to pray more for the poor and needy. We have been amazed at the detailed description of the Temple and how grand it all was. We are also reading God's Smuggler as a read aloud during family worship and are enjoying it so far. It has been hard to read some of the sufferings of this man during WWII and afterwards when he served in a war for Holland and loss the use of one of his legs, but we rejoice as he is learning to seek after God. Can't wait so see how he becomes a smuggler for God???? LOL

Foreign Language - We are still loving the Salsa videos and we are also using another curriculum I found on sale. It has songs for learning phrases and vocabulary. This week we have been learning the names of many of our favorite foods. Also, Lydia got a free book from the library and she chose one teaching Spanish. Greek and Latin are going along fine too.

Science - We are studing weather and climate right now. The girls love to watch Storm Stories or any weather videos on tornadoes and such. We found a really neat video on a storm chaser who has slowed down the photography of lightning and were amazed at what we saw. When the naked eye sees lightning we think it is coming down, but we are actually seeing the return strike. Check out the video here: http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/406-discovery-wonders-of-weather-lightning-phenomena-video.htm
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/science/earth-sci/climate-weather-sci.html Here is another one that is really good especially starting at 5:00min in showing the initial and the return stroke!
We are using the Rod and Staff book to lead our study and I am so thankful to use a science curriculum which always reminds us of God and His Word in our study of His world!

Artist - We are studying Norman Rockwell this term (12 weeks) and the girls are really enjoying the autobiography with so many of his pictures. Hannah has been trying her hand at drawing more sketches of people and the younger girls are detectives studying all the interesting details of the paintings.

Music - We are listening to the music of Aaron Copeland and really enjoyed Appalachian Spring. The girls are also making more time for piano practice. I am trying to sit down at least once a week and work with them on technique and skills, but they are spending lots of time playing the songs. Hannah and Sarah are really catching on with reading the notes.

Spelling/Vocabulary - The girls are still using the Wordly Wise books. On the first day they copy the words and definitions. On the second day, they write the words in sentences to show meaning. On the third day they play games with the words on a sight called Spelling City. The fourth day is a crossword quiz. Test day is the final day of the week and they right the words and definitions.

Typing - The girls are using an online free program to learn to type! So far they are enjoying it. Hopefully soon they will be able to email or type paragraphs for their typing practice!

History - Mary is enjoying reading about Marco Polo and finding the places on the map. We are also beginning US history this week!
Hannah and Sarah studied FDR today and we all learned many interesting facts. I had been talking to them about our economy and the great depression of the 30's last week. We were talking about the deficit of America and how it may lead us to have another Great Depression. I didn't realize that the American government had never had a deficit until the second term of FDR after the GD was over. Also he was the one who started Social Security which obviously wasn't such a great idea afterall! I was amazed to find out that at one time the taxes on anyone making $50,000 or more were 75%. I drew a pie chart to show how much would go to the government and how much the person could keep. My girls both were amazed at this robbery!

Math - Hannah and Sarah are continuing on in Saxon 65. We have ten more lessons to go before we start Saxon 76. We have a DVD for that so I will be interested to see how that goes.
Mary is finishing up various 2nd grade math sheets I had in various workbooks. She is still working on learning her multiplication facts. Slowly, but surely!

Literature - The girls are enjoying some great stories right now. Mary is reading Caddie Woodlawn, which is very similar to the Little House books. She is also listening to Men of Iron by Howard Pyle. I am pleased she is enjoying it as well. Hannah and Sarah are reading about Aristides, a Greek leader and will start reading Shakespear's The Merchant of Venice (in story form) next week. They also beg for our nightly installment of Where the Red Fern Grows, which is a childhood favorite of mine. They could read it themselves but they beg me to do it, and I don't mind because I love that book! :) I earned our copy by using Swagbucks and cashing in for a Amazon gift card! I love getting school books for free! ;)

Lydia is enjoying studying with us as much as possible. She also loves her Starfall program and playing games with Memaw. She is really loving checkers right now! She has not pushed to do lots of writing lately so I am letting her slow down a bit. It has been wonderful to see all she is learning just being around us during school.

Well, I will try to make this more interesting in future posts with samples of work hopefully. :)

New School Year 2011-2012

2011-07-29T00:08:00.001-04:00

This year has many changes for us in school. Of course each girl has gone up one grade level in work. Hannah and Sarah are now in 6th grade, Mary is in 3rd and Lydia is doing PreK. We also have a new teacher with us. Memaw moved in with us in June and we are looking forward to her expertise and help in many ways. We also have a new room for school. Since Memaw moved in we gave her our room upstairs, DH and I are now in the room downstairs, and the school room has been pushed out into the family room.

You see in the header picture the girls on the first day of the new school year. They were so excited to start. I am thankful for that. We had only been off for a little over a month but they were ready to get back to a normal routine. I was too. It is nice too that they still remember the last several spelling words they did, the last math concepts they were learning and just our basic routines. With the oldest two moving to 6th grade we are now doing more writing in school. They are excited about the new challenge of essays and written narrations and so on. I am also glad to be using some of the materials I taught so many years ago when I was the 6th grade writing teacher at a Rapphannock County Public Schools! Looking through my old lessons and the children's papers (samples that I kept) and the collection of stories I wrote as examples while teaching was a pleasant walk down memory lane. I look at the year books and I wonder about those children and how they are. Some I see on Facebook but so many I will never know how their lives have turned out. I am so thankful to be able to teach my own children and continue with them each year.

Another curriculum goal I have for the girls is to go deeper in our study of Spanish, Greek and beginning Latin. Studying Greek and Latin are more for learning the roots of English, but it has been very interesting too! In Spanish I want to give them a good foundation in vocabulary this year so that when we begin to study the grammar and usage, the words will be there already. Plus the Spanish videos we watch (Salsa) are lots of fun.! The girls are using more of the words in everyday conversation.

In History we are studying WWI to modern day which is full of important events and people. For Mary in 3rd we are doing the colonization of the New World and the travels of Marco Polo to the Orient. I am using my sister's Rod and Staff books for our science and grammar this year and the girls are enjoying those! I will try to post a little of what we are learning here for a better record of our year. We always like looking back through the notebooks of last year on the first day of the new year. So I was thinking that maybe we would read through the posts this year and see what we thought was most memorable.

We are only in the first week of school so Memaw is still getting her feet wet as an assistant teacher. She joins us at Bible time and I hope she is finding it enjoyable. She has also enjoyed reading to Lydia, listening to Mary read aloud, playing math games, or listening to the girls as they play their songs on the piano. She is also being dragged along in our study of Spanish as the girls practice their vocabulary and sayings on her! :) She is helpd me tremendously by getting lunch ready for us. It is so nice to come up stairs and lunch is all ready to eat. She would do every bit of the house work, but I am trying to continue the use of our chore charts. I have to admit that the carpet under our dining room table and the kitchen counters and sinks are clean on a more consistent basis since her blessed arrival! We pray we are blessing her as she is us.

Here are a few pictures of our new school room set up for the year. I am sure the arrangements will change mid-year because 1) I have that disease, I mean gift, and 2) once the fireplace is up and going some change will be necessary.

Each One A Unique Blessing

2011-03-10T02:23:00.003-05:00

Today is our third daughter's birthday! Happy 8th Birthday, Mary Faye! It amazes me that God can make children from the same two parents and they can each be unique! Being third many times people compare Mary to her other sisters, but Mary has shown from day one that she would fill her own special place in our family!

Aunt Angie holding Mary just a few days old! Cousin Eric has Sarah and Mamaw Atkins has Hannah.

Missed getting year 2004 picture but here is Mary in 2005 at the age of nearly 3.

Here we are painting a computer dest Daddy made. Do you see how short Mary's hair is? She climed up on the desk in the school room to get the scissors and cut her own hair. Had to shorten it all up! I am always telling her she needs to channel her love for cutting hair and arranging hair and become a beautician!

This is a video of the girls singing Jesus Loves Me. Poor quality but soooooo sweet! (I am not sure why it is on their twice but I am afraid I'll lose both if I try to delete one.)

At Fanning Springs for Mary's birthday celebration in 2007!

Here is Mary posing with a present at her party in 2008!

Again we were very busy in 2009 but here she is riding her bike in 2010!

In October 2010 we vacationed in Florida with our church family and dear Sonia gave the girls a special surprise! Mary has always loved horses so she was so thrilled this day!

Here Mary was given the camera to take some pictures. You can see she has learned from Hannah and is taking some creative poses!

Say Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

More silliness!

These girls are big buddies, current roommates and happy playmates!

Dear Mary, we love you so much and are so thankful God gave us another girl! We pray that you will have your new heart from Jesus very soon! Love, Mommy and Daddy

Happy 4th Birthday, Lydia!

2011-03-01T02:01:00.003-05:00

My Baby Girl is growing up too fast!!! I cannot believe Lydia is turning 4 today! It seems just the other day she was signing for the bottle and climbing up on the changing table for her diaper change. Yes, my earliest memories for this one are a bit different since she came to us at nearly one year old. However Alpheus did hold her the day she was born and I also took this picture and held her on day two. We never dreamed at that time that this precious little baby was going to be ours one day!

We were able to see Lydia nearly every week of her first year when she came to church with Memaw Rose. They would come to our house after church and visit and relax until time for evening church. We held and rocked and fed and played with the precious baby girl! Then one day the Lord opened the hearts and doors for her to be ours. What a privelege to have another daughter! The big girls were so excited!

This one is at about 9 months. She was crawling and walking everywhere and we were just beginning to sense what God might have in store for us!

After her 1st birthday she was already anxious to be like the big girls and "do school."

Lydia has always loved to cuddle with a doll or stuffed animal. I saw this one night and just had to get a picture of it!

Here we are at one of our favorite parks in Gainesville, FL. They didn't have baby swings so Daddy provided a safe spot to ride! :)

Lydia loved the bright colors of our flowers in Florida!

This girl is a ball of energy and loved the trampoline. Now that she is big enough to really hurt herself, I am afraid to let our little FEARLESS ball of energy near one!

So you may wonder how she managed to be allowed on this trampoline with no net!!!! Mommy was sick and Daddy was supervising. Lydia LOVED it!

Mommy's choice of exercise for the girls! Lydia and Hannah at the pool taking a break.

It has been wonderful seeing her grow up! We are praying for you and love you so dearly!

Love, Mommy And Daddy

Pay for Education instead of a System

2011-02-15T16:29:00.001-05:00

This month I have been thinking a lot about being frugal and wise managers of the resources (time, money and skills) God has given us. A fellow homeschool mom mentioned a fact on facebook about how much money she had saved the taxpayers by home educating. Here is what I determined when crunching our numbers.

Where we lived for the first three years of school (2 chiildren) it was 10,000 per child. So that means Here in VA (also 3 years for 3 children) it is 14,000 per child so we have already saved taxpayers $186,000. The first year we spent around $800 on curriculum. The next 5 years we have never spent more than $500 (Counting yearly internet bill). So we spent approximately $3300 for15 years of school total for all children). AND my children were excited today because we have finally gotten to the 16th president in history so they could study Abraham Lincoln. LOL

What I mean is that our girls still enjoy learning even though we don't spend a great deal of money on it. I am sure if we had more money I would spend more because I love books and educational field trips to historical and scientific sites. However, since my husband is the pastor of a small church, it generally means having a modest salary, though the other benefits often out-weigh a large salary!

What ends up happening in the public school system is you pay for the system more than the education. You pay for busing, and food programs, and tutoring special needs, and many other expenses that the average student just doesn't need. If their parent drives them to school, they pack their lunch and they don't need special tutoring, then they could be educated for so much less. Paying for insurance in schools is another big expense as well as tenure to keep the best teachers. Again the homeschooler doesn't have either of these expenses.

This is why I wish that homeschoolers would at least get a small stipend from the state or federal government for saving this money! I could do so much more with just 3% of the 15,000 the county would have paid which equals $450. It is really kind of funny to compare my homeschooling budget with our food budget.

Food and household supplies $600 per month.
Education $50 per month ( for 10 months)

I must say that I am very thankful for AmblesideOnline.com which is a curricula that was developed by other homeschool moms to keep costs free or extremely affordable. The education is excellent! Thank the Lord for these moms who do not seek to be rich from the gems they have discovered!

Now off to prepare for tonight's dinner and tomorrow's school! :) Blessings, Eva

Valentines: A Twist and a Strange Discovery

2011-02-14T23:46:00.002-05:00

So this year for Valentines Alpheus spent the day coughing, sleeping, coughing, taking medicine, freezing, coughing, sweating, and more coughing interrupted by a doctor's visit for some medicine and our family valentines celebration.

Here are the girls coming in for the reveal. We had planned to have a frugal valentines and just buy steaks and shrimp for a wonderful dinner and enjoy the day at the pool together. Since Alpheus was feeling so poorly and couldn't do anything to make a special day of it, he sent me out to buy some more traditional gifts.

(Lydia with the ladybug/hearts socks Mary bought for her and the rest from Dad and Mom.)

That was the twist to this year! In all 12 years of our marriage I have never bought the valentines gifts. Early on I did buy a card for Alpheus, but now we just tell each other without paying $5 for a card we feel to guilty to ever throw away. LOL Actaully each girl had bought one gift for another sister and then I completed the gifts with balloons, a dozen roses divided between us, and of course candy.

(Lydia bought Mary a bag of chocolates!)

Poor Mary was also not feeling well so she didin't enjoy this as much as she has in the past, but she did her best to hang out with us. I didn't get a shot of any of us at dinner, but Mary was able to join us for dinner and loved the steak and sweet potato!

(Hannah bought Sarah one large chocolate heart!)

(Sarah knew Hannah would love animal themed chocolates!)

(Alpheus and I shared a ballon and our favorite chocolates - caramel and dark chocolate Ghirardelli.)

I enjoyed writing personal valentines on the balloons! One side says Eva loves and the other says Alpheus loves... On the girls I wrote I Love You and signed Mommy on one side and Daddy on the other. I really like this idea and will probably repeat it!

My wonderful husband grilled the shrimp, steaks, and sweet potatoes for us even though he was still feeling pretty pitiful. I made a pasta salad, cut some raw veggies for the girls to dip, and cheddar garlic biscuits. Mmmmmmmm!

So what was the strange discovery? We discovered an easy way to keep the cat downstairs without resorting to shutting the door- helium balloons! The cat refuses to come upstairs since I brought in the balloons. LOL I put him in the cage when I was bringing them in. Then I carried them upstairs, let the cat out and didn't really think about it again. I was afraid he would want to play with the ribbon at the end of each balloon, since he loves string of any kind. A few hours later the girls showed me how they would carry him up and by the time he could see them on the table he was clawing their arms to get away. Slightly painful but soooo funny! Has anyone else had this issue with a cat? So I may invest in a weekly balloon to keep the cat downstairs! I wonder if he will get over it after time. Very strange!

I am thankful for my family and the love we have for each other. It is truly a blessing from God.

Happy Valentines, DH! I love you!

Frugal February; Great Giveaway

2011-02-08T23:44:00.000-05:00

Well, I read somewhere in the blogging world about a family that tries for the whole month of February to not spend. They stock up on food and supplies for a few months before and then make an effort to not spend anything other than bills and gas which they limit as much as possible. They do this to remind them all about how much we can live without and with how little many people around the world live.

I remember thinking that is a noble act and I was impressed. I didn't realize that we would be facing a Frugal February ourselves! You see my husband has not had any work as a carpenter since before Christmas. He has also been plagued with knee injuries so he really can't do much if he had the work. This has placed us to be very conscious of our dependence upon God's providence all the time. You see, we knew things were going to be tight, but we were hoping to have our tax return by mid February. Didn't happen, and yes it is Uncle Sam's fault that our e-file was rejected and we now have to wait for snail mail and hope things go through. Again, it is another reminder that we should always remember to trust in God and not chariots and horses!

So anyway, we are saving money this month by using up the food in our pantry and freezer. Yes, it may mean that I am eating green beans more often than I would like, but it really is a good thing to force us to be thankful for what we have. Even in this frugal month, we are going to live like kings compared to so many around the world.

We are also continuing to save money as much as possible by keeping the electric bill down. Though we have been going quickly through that great store of firewood my hunky wood chuck stock piled, we still have enough to get through the winter!

We are also still using our drying racks for our clothes too, despite the best efforts of our 3 year old to break them! I love using drying racks for several reasons. I love not using the dryer because it is so out of sight I forget about it. The clothes racks are right in the middle of our family room so I won't forget about it. I also love that it gives the girls a taste of what it was like to do laundry before we had such electric servants. (Not that I am planning on giving up my washing machine at any time!) Another benefit is they make a great barrier between the children watching TV in the family room near the roaring stove. There is a lot less whining about how hot the room is when the clothes racks are full! The cat would add that he loves them because they make great hiding places. Thankfully, he has not been tempted to climb them!

So I was looking at one of my favorite blogs, http://inashoe.com/ and I saw she was hosting a give away of a really nice clothes drying rack! This thing is top of the line. Great height and volume and sturdy enough for her large family so I am sure it would be great for my family of 6. And talk about frugal - free giveaway is very frugal! I can afford that this month. LOL So go on over to her site and check it out and buy one if you are enjoying Fast spending February or enter this giveaway with me!

What are some ways you are saving money right now? I am open to suggestions! Blessings, Eva

Christmas Memories

2010-12-23T00:34:00.001-05:00

One of my fondest memories of Christmas are the plays that we put on at our small church. I can remember that the first solo I ever sang for a Christmas play was the second verse of Away in a Manger. My girls have known that song since birth because I have always loved that hymn and sing it at bedtime year round. I have been privileged to direct and assist with many Christmas plays as a young adult and pastor's wife. It has been even more sweet seeing my own children participate in these. I am so thankful for video and good friends who will take video for me to watch of the play later! This past Sunday our church kids did a wonderful job portraying the birth of the Savior! We were so proud of them! Here are some pictures.

The angels singing Away in a Manger as Mary and Joseph enter.

The shepherds have found the baby.

King Herod and a priest discussing the star and the promised Messiah.

After the play we caught a better picture of Mary (Sarah) and Joseph (Trevor).

Lydia was not in the play, but she couldn't resist coming up during picture time. You can see she is taking pictures. This was her job since she couldn't be in the play. Haven't looked at those yet. Don't ask me what Mary was doing??? I will say this, about a minute after this she squeezed the bulb so tightly it broke in her hand. Thankfully the plastic pieces didn't cut her. (Mary, Cheyenne and River)

Hannah posing again with Issiac.

Our shepherds who did a great job! Ariana, Destiny, Kavon, and Kimber.

I pray that these will become special Christmas memories for these precious children!

Double the Blessing

2010-12-13T03:54:00.000-05:00

Ten years ago today God blessed us with our second baby girl. Hannah was just a few days over 1 when Sarah joined us. We didn't know until she was born if we were having a boy or girl. We were a bit surprised when it was another girl, but not disappointed. Who could be disappointed when handed such a precious and sweet baby? Sarah looked so much like her sister at birth, and many people still ask if they are twins. I tease that they are as close as I can get to having twins! Our doctor was actually a bit upset that we had them so close together and we had some complications at the beginning of the pregnancy, but God spared her and we were so thankful.

Sarah is a quiet and thoughtful girl. We tease her for being inevitably the last one to finish anything: eating, getting ready to go somewhere, and such, but she is the first to think of a kind thing to say or do. She loves to show her affection for others and is an encourager and faithful friend. She loves to sing and read and write. She is also our little fish in the water. She sinks like a rock, so she learned first to swim under water!

Sarah is a thinker and pays such close attention to the words of others. I think that is why God opened her heart to His Word at such an early age. "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 We are so thankful that Sarah has repented and trusts Jesus as her Savior! We look forward to discipling her in the years to come.

Though more serious in general she is not unknown to be a bit silly too!

She may be the last to finish but she does her best!

Baptism day!

Opening an early birthday present.

Sarah is often taking pictures, but at this party Todd caught a quick picture of our shutterbug.

Helping her baby sister at the bowling alley!

We love you Sarah and look forward to all of God's plans for your future!

Happy Birthday from Mommy and Daddy!

Becoming a Mother

2010-12-08T03:14:00.007-05:00

Eleven years ago today God gave me one of the greatest desires of my heart. He gave me a child. I thought I became a mother that day, but now, years later, I realize that my role as a mother is constantly changing because my children are constantly growing and changing. Being a mother of a young lady is very different than one of a baby. Hannah is on the brink of childhood and adulthood. I am right there with her trying to hang on, but not as tightly; to help, but not as much. I am learning to lead by example more than by holding her hand. We have come a long way since that first moment when I held her tiny body and wondered at the precious gift God had given to me. I am not finished with my responsibilities as her mother, but I am learning to see her more as Hannah, her own person, and not my baby Hannah.

I love that she still enjoys childhood games and toys. She still enjoys playing with dolls and pretending to be the mommy. As you can see in the photo in my header, she carries her favorite doll nearly everywhere she goes, if we let her!

She is a wonderful big sister in many ways and such a helper to me too. I love being her teacher too and seeing her make connections and deductions on her own! She is very creative; she loves to draw and make up stories. She will make things from any items she can lay her hands on and she loves to be active!

Here are a few photos she took of herself recently which will show the playful and dramatic side she has!

Teach her to be so silly with my camera! :)

Happy 11th Birthday Hannah! We love you! Praying for you to have the greatest gift: a new heart!
Love, Mommy and Daddy

My Favorite Season is Here!

2010-10-28T23:15:00.000-04:00

In the picture above you see the girls with their cousin Ariana (back, left side). We were visiting at Ariana's house where also Grandmom and Granddad Short live. The girls had spent the night so that Alpheus and I could have our home to ourselves to celebrate 12 years of married bliss! <3 Yes Alpheus and I were married in my favorite season. I just love the trees changing colors and the cool weather that isn't freezing, but is nippy enough to wear long sleeves and enjoy hot chocolate!

Another reason that I love fall is celebrating the blessings of God in the harvest. I love the fruits and veggies that are coming in just now. Apples are my favorite and though I don't like pumpkin as a food, I enjoy this colorful fruit as decoration. We also enjoy studying about the Pilgrims in November and remembering their faith as they traveled to a new land. We love chasing leaves as they fall or just walking on them. This year we won't have as many to rake since we cut down so many trees in our yard, but we have plenty blowing over from the neighbors yard to make a pile for the girls to play. I love having a warm fire at night and we hope to have a fire pit this fall to burn some of the bark from our trees just to enjoy marshamallows and hotdogs "on an open fire."

Another thing we love about this time of year is celebrating Reformation Day! We have been teaching the girls the history of the church since the time of apostles. It is so interesting to see how God kept His Word spreading to the uttermost parts of the earth and the transformation of the Holy Spirit on the lives of people from hundreds of years ago, especially to the time of Huss, Luther, Zwingli, Tyndale, Calvin, and others. What a precious gift these men gave to us to have the Bible in our own language, to be free to all to understand and follow, instead of being kept to only a few learned men. To think that most people for many years had no idea what the Bible actually said. What a lesson to us to take our freedom of reading God's Word seriously! May God reform and revive America by His Word this year. This is what we celebrate on October 31 for on that day in 1517 Martin Luther wrote 95 Theses of objections which is seen as the official beginning of the Protestant Reformation! Some time we plan to use this program to teach about the Reformation. http://www.doorposts.com/details.aspx?id=46

This year we enjoyed traveling back to Florida for a week. The girls always looked forward to the church's fall festival and so we try to go back around that time of year! The week was filled with so much fun and fellowship, that even though it was HOT and not at all like FALL, it was a true blessing. I will post more pictures as I can to record the blessings of that week.

Until then, may you have a happy fall celebration!

Homeschool Lesson Today: Perseverance with a side of PE

2010-10-08T16:42:00.001-04:00

Here is Mary happily riding her bike with training wheels. On the right is Sarah struggling to persevere as she learns to ride without them. This is actually her second time learning. How can that be? Well her first time was late last fall and sad to say, we hadn't gone since. There is no where near our home to ride and so we must hook up the trailer to Mater (Daddy's work truck) and I have to take the passengers in the van, so it is a two parent operation. We are going to be more diligent in getting Sarah the practice she needs to keep her skills this time.

It hurts me when my kids struggle to learn things, and in this area I feel particularly helpless. For those who may not know, I never learned to ride a two-wheeler myself. Similar situation - our home for most of my life was not conducive to beginning riders, especially if they were timid. If you enjoying learning to ride by the roll yourself down this grassy hill method, then you, like my twin brother, would have learned at my house. I didn't. Anyhow, I leave these lessons to my darling husband and he is a very good teacher, thankfully.

Today was hard for Sarah though. She was struggling. She had moments of tears and frustration and wanting to quit. But Daddy and I team tagged, giving encouragement and helpful hints, and just waiting patiently while she fought to rule her fear and try again. In the end she did persevere. In these last shots you will see much smiling and happiness. Her perseverance paid off! Our perseverance as her guides and teachers paid off. It would have seemed easier to let her just wait until she was "ready" and not push her to try again, but I know that is only a temporary pause before the task must be faced again. It was a good lesson for everyone. Mary saw that once Sarah faced her fear she was able to accomplish her goal. Mary also saw that when it is her turn, Mommy and Daddy will do all we can to help her not give up!

Sarah trying again!

Looking more relaxed and starting to like it!

Daddy giving Mary a ride

Lydia's turn now - hold on girl!

Sarah is picking up speed and has come over to join us because she is not so scared now.

Lydia was having a ball and giggling!

Loved watching all the girls having fun!

Daddy coming around again with Lydia!

Getting ready for the high five!

High Five! So glad I got the shot! :)

This girl gets an A today! :)

Keep smiling girl - you're next! :)

Daddy coming down the hill with Lydia - she giggled and laughed the entire way!

Once you have learned how to ride, the Virginia hills can be fun!

Btw, I rode a three wheeler when I wasn't taking pictures. Lydia rode in the basket in the back!

Dads and Homeschooling

2010-10-07T22:46:00.003-04:00

I have many favorite blog sites I visit, but I must admit that homeschooling mothers with four or more children interest me most. I am sure it is because I can relate to many of them. A few months ago, 2 of my favorite blog ladies joined with two others to give a multi-SAHM prespective on life in large homeschooling families. I love these Thursday posts. Today's post was on how fathers lead/participate in homeschooling. Here's a link to one post and you can find the other three from there if you desire. http://www.smockityfrocks.com/2010/10/4-moms-discuss-husbands-and-homeschooling.html

I am so thankful God gave Alpheus and I both the desire and vision for homeschooling our children. We have been united in this since we were preparing the nursery for Hannah's birth! Since I was a middle school teacher before marrying, Alpheus was quick to trust that I was prepared for this in many ways. However teaching your own children starting at birth is very different from public school and we both had much to learn. Most importantly we both learned that God had equipped us for this in many ways. By leaning on God's Word we were going to be able to do this, even when I dreaded teaching them to read or do basic math facts. Alpheus' support in each phase of this journey has been so crucial and a blessing!

Financially he has sacrificed to make sure I can stay home with the girls. It is one of the most important reasons we can homeschool. He carries on his shoulders the burden of finances so that we can be daily with our girls training them in God's Word and the many other lessons of life that are important. This has sometimes been a great leap of faith for him as God leads us into less financially secure callings. I am thankful that Alpheus perseveres and God always sees us through with His wonderful provision as a reward for Alpheus' commitment!

In the early years, Alpheus was always anxious to look at the day's work and praise the efforts. He has also acted as father/principal to encourage our girls to have good attitudes and work ethic on difficult days; and even carrying out discipline if he was available. Being a united team as parents is so important to creating an atmosphere that is positive and gives the children definite boundaries.

As the girls mature, Alpheus has made more suggestions on curriculum, especially on Bible instruction. During family worship times in the evenings he will discuss with them what we are studying in Bible class. This is wonderful accountability and review for the most important lessons we are teaching in our home! He is also supportive and encouraging for all subjects we are doing. The girls love to tell Daddy when they get a good math grade or show Daddy the picture from art class or narrate for him the main events from the history story. Currently they are all memorizing scripture for Bible class at church and a poem for the term. They are so excited about "performing" the poem for Alpheus during exam week! This term we are using a book Alpheus bought the girls for Christmas last year about dinosaurs. Whenever I say it is time for science the girls get so excited and can hardly wait to finish the term to make their lap books and dinosaur egg models. They know it will be something they can share with Daddy.

I am so thankful for all that Alpheus does to lead us on this homeschooling journey!

Our principal swimming with us on the first day of PE for this year!

Quick catch up!

2010-10-05T23:16:00.003-04:00

Alpheus and Eva

Sarah, Mary, Lydia, Hannah

Wow, I can hardly believe that I haven't posted here since March. The year is just flying by! Things are about the same but small changes have been really good!

For my husband, the church is continuing to grow slowly but in God's time we are sure. God has given us precious church family and though the months of late have had their share of difficulties, they have also been sweet times of leaning on God and His Word for all our problems and questions! Alpheus is still doing side construction work, but as work has dropped off and the temperature too, we are hoping he can give more time now to the church.

I am still homeschooling and loving it! The girls are getting so independent and their material more to my personal taste. I love learning or relearning all over with them! I have recently had an increase in children in my classes at church which is so rewarding too! The biggest change for me is having a pool memebership!! Yes, thank you darling husband! I may not be losing weight as fast as I hoped, nor going as often as I should, but it is wonderful when I do get to go!

The girls of course are loving that too! Hannah is nearly 11 and getting so tall! She is probably not tall for her age, but she is getting close to me, so I imagine she will make it at least a few inches more than me! Hannah's drawing is continuing to get better and I hope to help her get some lessons in the spring. For now, she is enjoying watching Bob Ross on PBS and teaching herself. She is also excited about taking sewing lessons soon. She mostly wants to sew doll clothes! I think it is precious that she still wants to play with dolls!

Sarah is approaching 10 and becoming quite the reader and writer. She takes wonderful notes during church time and enjoys helping me write lists for school or home needs. She is very sweet to her baby sister who is her roommate. She is also developing and excellent memory and loves to memorize poems and Bible verses! She is the word lover like her mother! She also loves to memorize songs and sing them all the time. It is a blessing to hear her singing hymns when she is playing.

Mary is half way between 7 and 8. She is doing great in school and still enjoys playing with Lydia whenever she is not doing chores or school work! She is my snuggle bug at this age. She enjoys that she is still small enough to sit on Mama's lap! She may be the shortest one and reminds me a lot of me! She is also growing in leaps and bounds with her writing skills and has learned to spell quite a few difficult words! She and Sarah are the fish! They love to be under the water as much as above it when we go to the pool. She also loves to braid hair and has learned to do her own. I keep telling her she has to learn so she can cut all of our hair for us!

Lydia is between 3 and 4 and learning so much each day. Her speech has always been delayed but has been getting much better recently. Several people at church have commented that her speech is much more plain now. Yes, I am doing much less interpreting! LOL She is learning to dress herself and brush her hair (at least four in the front lol) and loves to play with anything she can get her hands on. She entertains herself very well for the most part. I guess that is because she has so much time on her own while we do school. She is doing preschool activities about twice a week and without real lessons has learned to count to 12 and recognize 1-10 and about half the letters of the alphabet. She also loves swimming and any kind of running and jumping off of things especially!

I feel very blessed to have my family and I thank God each day for their love and presence in my life!

2010-03-20T00:10:00.006-04:00

A trip to the Biltmore estate! Here we are at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. This trip was a treat given to us by Lorilyn and Dan. They recieved coupons for guests as a perk of their yearly membership. I have always wanted to see the Biltmore so I was thrilled to go. We only took Sarah and Hannah. I have promised Mary to take her when she is 10 and will do so for Lydia.

Lorilyn and Dan

Ariana excited to go! Holding her new Webkinz too!

Sweet Sarah

Happy Hannah! This girl loves to stage pictures of her doing something! :)

The Gatehouse

They don't allow any interior photography.

My wonderful hubby waiting with Hannah for Sarah and Mommy to come out of the building. It took us about an hour longer because we listened to every part of the headphone tour and stopped to look as well. I could have gone twice as slow if Sarah had not been there.

The working farm portion of the estate has been set up as a display now of the tools and equipment they used on Biltmore.

Cute little play area they had set up near the video about the farm.

They still had some animals for petting too! Here Ariana and Dan are checking out one of the chickens roaming around.

This is a long-haired goat who bared his teeth when Alpheus got close to him. The overseer said he had never seen the goat make that face before. Too funny!

Sarah playing queen of the hill. The overseer said that the goats sometimes climb up there too, but they must have thought Sarah was too strong for them! LOL

A beautiful day making beautiful memories!

2010-03-19T23:55:00.002-04:00

Valentines Day! My darling husband spoiled us all as usuall. He bought us all flowers and a stuffed animal. He is so wonderful and every day I thank God for our love and our family. He is so good to his girls! He also brought home Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner. Yum!

Believe it or not I do have other shirts. It just seems like I am always wearing this one! ;) Nearly 12 wonderful years with this wonderful man! Thanks Hannah for taking the picture! :)

Christmas 2009

2010-03-19T23:37:00.003-04:00

Okay, I have been procrastinating too long. Just going to post some pics! The first one is our little Christmas play at church. Very humble and so was Jesus birth! The second picture is of some of the church gifts. Each year they traditionally "pound the pastor." Our pantry was bursting with all the wonderful food and they also had gifts for the girls too. Very precious show of brotherly love to us. We have always been so blessed with churches like this! The next few pictures are from Christmas morning. I had a severe tooth ache so not much was caught in photos. We did video more. Sarah and Mary recieved an electric guitar by request. Hannah recieved violin lessons as her big gift. Lydia's favorite gift were her princess snow boots! The girls also got 2 of those hamsters that were so popular this year. (Thanks Lorilyn for finding them! ) We were very blessed this year in so many different ways. We are all thankful!

A New Christmas Look for a Family Heirloom

2009-12-22T20:06:00.007-05:00

John Newton Baldwin, also known as Papaw Baldwin, built this rocking chair.

He was born in the late 1800's. My mom remembers this rocker sitting on his porch for many a year. She can remember him sitting in it. I just love that thought as I sit and rock. I don't remember the chair being particularly special to me growing up; probably because I was too young to appreciate the fact that my Great Grandfather had built it. However, as a young adult, its many charms grew on me.

When my mom gave me the privilege of owning it, I was determined to one day get it reupholstered. When we moved to Florida in 2001 we had to put everything in storage. One arm was damaged at that time. We duct taped it together and I continued to rock my babies in it and think about the wonderful ancestors who had made my life possible. It had been upholstered in a red patterned fabric, but through the years it had been torn in the seat and the back rest was frayed and worn. We folded a blanket for the hole in the seat and covered the chair with another blanket and loved it still.

Then one day in FL I determined to at least tear off the worn fabric and quite nasty filling and find the bones of the beautiful chair. I was so pleased to see the wood and told Alpheus that I would rather just reupholster the seat. I love to see the wood. It sat in FL waiting for months and then we moved back to VA. Then it sat up in my mother's attic again waiting to be remembered. My wonderful husband decided that this would be the perfect Christmas gift for me. He knows me so well and loves me so much.

So after a visit to the Chair Doctor in Cambria, VA and a staining from my darling, I can enjoy the rocker again! Here I am (please pardon my appearance as I was unprepared for a photo; the girls are in their coats because we had just come back from town) with my other early Christmas gift. Our old video camera died the other day.

So here I am with two material gifts I do treasure, but not as much as I treasure the eternal Father who made it all possible or the family that makes it special. I also treasured telling the girls why a chair made Mommy cry with joy. One day they will understand. For now they will rock in the chair their great, great grandfather built.

PS Any Baldwin family who would like to add specific dates about Papaw or the chair, please feel free to leave a comment! :)

Merry Early Christmas!

Blossom (Edited 2 weeks later: Oops, he's Marshall!)

2009-12-18T11:10:00.006-05:00

We wanted to get the girls a pet for Christmas. At first we were planning to do a hamster, but the more I read about them the less appealing they became. I want a pet I am going to enjoy if I have to clean up after them anyway. We decided to get a kitten.

This was his first night at our house. We ended up getting him the last day of November so he was an early gift. He is part Siamese and part mixture, with some mackerel tabby coloring. He is nearly solid orange except his legs have stripes and the typical mackerel M on his forehead. The tips of his ears and tail are darker like the Siamese.

He loves to climb! He is really doing it now. I am trying to keep him off the furniture except the girls small chairs and the a foot stool. The first week he stayed downstairs, but by the second week he was venturing up the stairs and now goes anywhere he wants. He seems to love it under Hannah's or Lydia's beds the most. Marshall sleeps in the basement at night though. He has also started to climb the Christmas tree. Yikes! Hopefully we can keep him contained until that comes down.

Here he is stretched out infront of the warm fireplace.

Lydia with her lego tower.

Mary with her two front teeth missing.

Sarah with her crazy teeth. Braces for sure for this girl!

Hannah enjoying computer time.

So all but two of these pictures were taken by the girls. They are loving to take photos now!

A big snow storm is heading our way, so I guess I had better get off here and finish laundry. We will probably keep power because our lines are underground, but you never know! :) Here's our pile of wood for the next few days. Alpheus teased that he is glad to get some use out of the treadmill. LOL

Have a blessed day! Eva

Nine Is So Fine!

2009-12-14T09:46:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was our second beautiful girl's birthday! Sarah wasn't due until the 28th of December but since Hannah was rather large for me the doctors decided I better go a bit early. She was going to be induced on the 19th, but a huge snowstorm was being predicted. I was already nearly four centimeters when I went in for my last checkup on the 13th. My nurse midwife asked if I had been having contractions. I had early that morning but they had stopped. She told me to work some up because she was sending me to the hospital to be induced that day. She didn't want me 30 minutes from the hospital in a snowstorm. We were so unprepared (both bags were still at home in the nursery), but we were very excited too! My worst fear is that they would make me go home becuase I wasn't contracting at that time. We told the nurse that we had been sent by Sharon, that I was nearly four centimeters and that I had been having contractions that morning so she led us back to an empty room. She was asking questions about due dates and scheduled induction dates and just as they were putting the monitor around my belly she asked exactly what time was my last contraction. I hestitated not wanting to lie, but hating to admit that it had been three hourse since the last one. Suddenly she interrupted my confession by saying, "Oh I see you are having one now." I was never so happy to be having a contraction! :) Sarah's birth was much like Hannah's except I only pushed for about an hour before we were able to use the vacuum to help me finish. We didn't know if Sarah was a boy or a girl. Of course we were hoping for a boy since we had a girl, but God knew what we needed. We were both so thrilled when the doctor said, 'She's another beautiful girl!" Sarah was 7 lbs. 7 oz and 20 3/4". We had a much easier time since I knew more about what I was doing. However she developed jaundice as Hannah had but worse. She had to be hospitalized at just 7 days old. Thankfully it was only for two days and then she was on the road to recovery! Hannah was thrilled with the new baby sister we brought home to her and we were so thankful for our precious girls!

Sarah is generally the quiet one. Ready to comfort and encourage her sisters most of the time! Her name means Princess and she loves to be our princess.

But she isn't afraid of working or getting a little dirty either!

Her favorite toys are dolls and stuffed animals. She also loves to help take care of her younger sisters! I see her as a great babysitter one day!

Our Sweet Sarah

This was in Florida when she was 5 or so. She still loves basketball!

Here is the only picture I have of her so young on computer. She is being held by her cousin Eric who had come with his mom to visit Mary when she was born. Sarah is 2 here.

We love you Sarah Noel!

Birthday Bowling

2009-12-09T00:22:00.007-05:00

We have always enjoyed doing something special on our girls' birthdays. We decided to celebrate Hannah and Sarah's birthday with bowling. Since Sarah's day is on Sunday we decided to go during the week on Hannah's day. It was nice because there were only a few other people there while we bowled. We invited Grandmom, Grandad, Dan, Lorilyn and Ariana to join us. Since they homeschool too and work overnight the early day plans suited them. The girls were very excited to share this with their best friend Ari!

Hannah ready to bowl!

Sarah saying hi before her turn.

Ariana showing off her ball before bowling.

Lydia holding a ball for 5 seconds. She is too little to bowl but she had fun watching!

Mary was very excited to bowl. This is only her second time doing it!

Ariana got her cousins each a webkinz horse. I think Hannah named the pinto Saddle. Sarah named her pink and white horse Milkshake.

Grandmom gave them sweet cards with birthday money.

Grandmom with all her grandgirls except Kamryn who is in KY.

After bowling three games we were all tired and hungry so we headed to Cici's for some pizza. We like the one in FL better, but it was good. Btw, Sarah moved herself out of the pic at the last minute.

Can you tell they had Cartoon network on the TV. It was 35 feet away and they were still riveted.

Our happy Lydia!

Mary sporting the pizza facial.

Later that day Hannah helped make her cake. She mixed it and I did the icing. Then she came to put on candles and decorations. She wanted to ice it too, but I was too tired for that. LOL

Hannah was very pleased with her new necklace, watch and I-Dog!

Sarah opted to open her gifts today instead of waiting until Sunday. She knows I am bad about buying the same thing because I know they will both want it, so I think that is why she did it. One year we should make Hannah wait until Sarah's day! Sarah also received a necklace and and I-Dog and by request a set of cap pistols.

So after playing cowgirls and trying on different pendants with their necklaces they went to sleep listening to Christmas music on their I-Dogs. I just hope we can afford the batteries! :)

Her first decade

2009-12-08T02:02:00.004-05:00

Hannah at age 3. She was enjoying a tea party with her dolls.

This was Mommy (with Mary in my tummy), Hannah, Sarah, Daddy and Mamaw.

Hannah loved to build and she still does today!

Ten years seems such a long time. Today, however, it feels as if it just flew by! My first baby girl is beginning her second decade of living. I remember how nervous and excited we were for her to be born. My parents were staying with us and from Thanksgiving on we passed all free time playing Mexican train and thinking about the baby coming so soon. We were scheduled to have an induction because the baby (we didn't know the gender) was already pretty large. The labor was pretty easy considering. The epidural worked wonderfully and other than pushing for 2.75 hours, trying the vacuum twice, and then using forceps, the birth was a wonderful experience. I remember Alpheus quoting scripture and whispering endearments to encourage me. I remember the joy when the baby was out and they said she was a girl - the first granddaughter on my side of the family. She was 8lbs. and 9 oz. and nearly 22 inches long born at 8:21PM. She was an angel the first night and a screaming terror the second night. On the third night we were home and she was on the bottle. She slept wonderfully at 4 hour stretches. I however had to watch her nearly all night. I just knew she was going to stop breathing if I didn't watch her. We didn't have a bassinet to put by our bed, so I made her sleep in the stroller all night so she could be right by the bed. She scared me a second time by sleeping 8.5 hours the day before she was a month old. She said Daddy first for a week at 5 months and then didn't talk again until she was nearly 8 months. She was walking by her first birthday and showing her interest in drawing at an early age. She has always been a cheerful girl who loves to laugh and be silly! She is a great big sister and a big help to me now as she has grown. I am so thankful God gave her to us. I look forward to the next 10 years. I know there will be many challenges as there were in the first 10, but I trust God to work in her life and to guide us as we guide her to be ready for adulthood.

We love you Hannah!