Tag!

I was tagged by Leann a few days ago, so here it is, My fourth photo from my fourth folder!

This picture was taken this time last year and E-pie is doing what he does best, making a mess!!! But he sure is cute:)

Quote of the Week!!

Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910):

“In such a world as this, with such hearts as ours, weakness is wickedness in the long run. Whoever lets himself be shaped and guided by any thing lower than an inflexible will, fixed in obedience to God, will in the end be shaped into a deformity, and guided to wreck and ruin.”

I read this quote yesterday as I was browsing around on the computer and was just wowed!!! I mean how true it is. "weakness is wickedness in the long run." I have a weakness when it comes to reading, I mean I can sit down with a book and read all day, or till I finish the book and most of the time that don't take all day, it can be a really bad habit, I have often found myself picking up the book I'm reading instead of doing my housework, cooking supper, or even listening to my kids, how terrible is that, but I am doing better, I guess what I'm trying to say is that my weakness for reading a good book, became something bad because it got in front of all the other things I needed to be doing.

How often have we let what others say or do affect the way we think or do things, My dad is a preacher, He is very well versed in the bible and I could just sit and listen to him all day, I mean I have learned alot from him over the years, but at some point I had to start learning things on my own, If all the bible I got was from him than would I be able to get from Gods word what He wanted me to have. Learning from my dad, our pastor, or Sunday school teacher is not a bad thing, not at all, but, we don' t need to let them form our thoughts for us. My sister and a few others I know, love to make lists and think that is the only way to get things done and while I agree that it works for them well it just ain' t for me and I shouldn't let those things shape me. Simple little things really, The way I choose to educate my children, we choose to homeschool because we felt it was Gods will for us to, we choose not to allow our children to watch certain things on t.v., not because we are spastic but because we are choosing rather to follow the Lord. I guess what i'm tryin to say is that it should be more important to me to please the Lord than to please man, and I was just really amazed at the simple way this man put it in this quote.

I saw read this and thought how guilty I am of doing those things, letting weaknesses become the norm, let what others say or do affect me and mine. God and His will for me should be the only thing guiding my life. I should live each day doing MY best for Him. What a peaceful life it it to live in His Grace.

Nine things:

Here are nine things I love about being at home with my children:

A Big brother who tell his own version of a story to his little brother and cousin, and getting to be there to hear it. A rip roaring story it was to!!

Getting to see my daughter learn patience with her baby brother, and his love for her hair, You see, he can not have that thumb in His mouth unless hes playing with someones hair, Its like a reflex for him, thumb goes in, hand grabs hair, it just come natural, Now I know she don't look to happy in this picture and it took her a while to get used to the idea that when he couldn't have my hair to play with he wanted hers but now I think she enjoys loving on him and spoiling him rotten almost as much as I do.

Teamwork. The team work of a family is just wonderful to watch, The caring and the love between siblings that shows up just in the nick of time (if you know what I mean) It took them awhile but they finally worked together so that both of them could get on that pony, I am thankful that Mr. Toby was patient with them, it must of been one of his rare good days, he can be a might cantankerous.
Watching little boys learn new skills, and seeing the joy in his face, ,because hes doing something big, and with his own knife, a major milestone in my boy eyes.

Being the very first one to hear about how he pulled his first tooth all by himself.

I love hearing my baby talk, about how hes helping daddy, "cause I big ", so he says, he'll always be my baby.

Seeing her confidence go from this...

...to this. Man, how she has grown in the past year, Still so little, but becoming a wonderful young lady, I'm thankful I get to see it.

The quiet times when they think no one is watching. To me, these are the most precious.

Mischievous grins, Makes me wonder what hes going to do next, as if climbing to the top of the piano(the very same one I fell off of when I was three, and cracked my head on, which ended up needing stitches) , wasn't enough to give me heart attack already.

Everyday is new and exciting in this world of mothering, even those that are trying are special, That's why I love being a mom. You never really have a dull moment, either you are on the brink of pulling your hair out with them or you want to squeeze'em extra tight, either way you just love them with all you got, because without them life just wouldn't be as fun.

Thats just what Moms do!!

If someone had of told me 10 years ago that I would be a stay at home, homeschooling, mother of 3 then I would have laugh till I popped. You see I had these big dreams of becoming an environmentalist not because I want to save trees or anything but because I love agriculture and the land, and nature in all its undisturbed beauty, I almost made it to, I had a government job as a soil conservationist and I was well on my way to fulfilling my dream and then I had kids.

Now I have a task that's way more important than conserving the environment, I am conserving my children, and their future. Oh it sure don't seem that way today as I listen to my nephew (3) and my son(2) scream at each other over a stuffed dog, or while I changed the diaper of my 2 yr old because He refuses to be potty trained, or during the fights I have with my nine year about doing her school work, because we all know that you don't need to learn math when you have more pressing matters to attend to such as barbies. Getting my five year to put on clean clothes is like getting my nine year old to do school, almost impossible. Oh yea and you can't be a cowboy unless you have on a long sleeve buttoned down shirt and if the only one you have is the one you've wore for the last three days well thats just fine He's a cowboy remember. I wonder sometimes if this is what I'm really meant to do, because these days I feel like such a failure at all things. I mean my house is a mess, and when I say mess that is exactly what I mean, like oatmeal stuck in the table, two full baskets of laundry that need folding, more that need putting away and even more that need washing, we won't even discuss my refrigerator, and toys everywhere, and just when I think I am starting to get ahead, someone hits somebody else and the whole shebang goes up in flames, where is the peace thats supposed to be in my home. I think it ran away, really I do, and I don't blame it some times I want to run away to, I'm just being honest here, I think that a some point all moms feel this way, some just aren' t honest enough to admit it.
And then I go sit in my room and cry, because of the lost peace and the disheartening feelings of being an abysmal failure, and just when I think I can't handle it any more, I feel His peace surround me and I remember that I ain't in this battle alone, And lets face it folks sometimes life at home is a battle, but its one that we already have victory over. I take a few deep breaths and call on Him to come to my rescue and to the rescue of my children. I am ready now to face the day, yes it will try my patience, but patience has her perfect work right, the we may be perfect, entire, wanting nothing James 1:3-4, My faith in my ability to mother is made stronger in Him and being a failure, is not an option. So I leave my room and go and find each of my children and I give them a big hug and kiss, because as I take a look around at all that needs doing, I realize that in the great big scheme of things its not alot, so I just sit for a few minutes and listen to all they have to tell me and I realize that I am so glad I'm not an environmentalist, I'm a mom and nothing could be more precious then my children. We just keep going and doing what needs doing, even in the mist of chaos because thats just what moms do!! With a whole heap of help from above, I wouldn't even want to attempt this monumental task without Him!!!!!

My 3 children with their dad(who's halfway asleep).

A Brand New Year!!

There is always some excitement with the beginning of a New Year, it may just be that we can put behind us all the things that happened in the past year, that we can make a new start, try to be better in our work as parents, spouses, friends. I for one don't do any kind of new year resolutions, I'm afraid that I will fail and then that would make me feel bad. But I do like to start new things and do my best to improve on the ones that need fixing.
I have this list in my mind of the things that I know need work and I have made plans to improve on them with the Lords help.
1. My Prayer life. I love to spend time in prayer with the Lord each day, but sometimes that time gets pushed aside or shortened because of to many things going on around me. Shame on me:(
2. Listening. I have this bad habit at times of not really paying attention to what someone is saying to me because I am either working on something, thinking about something else and that is so not good, and it really bugs me.
3. My home. It seems to me that this past year I have let my house become very unorganized and chaotic and that is something that I am already in the process of changing. I know that my Lord is a Lord of order and not of chaos and for this very reason I believe that my home should be the same way, Peace can't be found in chaos and I most definitely want peace in my home, for my children and my husband.
These are just a few of the things that I know I need to improve on and there is no better time to
get started then at the beginning of a brand New Year!!!

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.