Kids Say......

I've been stuck lately by how blessed I am with my children. I've heard some say that kids are 'on loan' from God, like a library book. He trusts us with these treasures and expects them back in good shape! I am completely humbled when I think about that.
So anyway, I've been meaning to post about some of the funny things that come out of my Precious Treasures mouths.

Essy:I was walking past the kids while they were eating lunch one day and she was talking with her brothers (primarily Sam). I heard her say "Well, when I get married I'm gonna kiss my Honey, like, TWENTY times in one day!" I wonder what that conversation was about?

Sam:He noticed that I had a small (I mean smaller than a 3x5 card) piece of paper with how to be healthy. At the top of this paper I wrote weight loss. Sam and I had had a conversation about loosing weight the day before. (He wanted to eat special k for breakfast because he was concerned he needed to loose weight. I was immediately convicted by God and realized I had been to vocal about my desire to shed a few lb's. I reassured him that he was perfectly shaped and didn't need to loose any weight. He then went on to say that no one in our house needed to loose weight.) Okay, so sorry for the long explanation! So he asked me why I had a paper on how to loose weight......I said that I was just trying to be healthy. Then he responded "Yea. Cause you're enough." Meaning that I didn't need to loose weight. Cutie!

Zach:He told me last night that he's gonna marry me. I didn't mention to him that that was illegal and GROSS. I figure by the time he's twelve, he won't want to marry me anymore. I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts!

Joey:Now this is hard to explain. Joe says things I just don't expect. Like, instead of using too ( ex. I would like one too please) he'll use 'as well' in it's place. (ex. I would like one as well please.) I just don't expect it! And it's HOW he says it. He uses LOTS of hand gestures and facial expressions.

I have a couple post it's in our file box of silly things I catch the kids saying. I'm hoping to make a great scrap book page with them someday.I have yet to scrap our honeymoon nearly 10 years ago :) so it'll probably be 10 years from now that I finally use them!

Quick Thanks

I am so thankful for you all for praying and helping us this past week. I was reminded at what Godly friendship looks like. My heart is overflowing with humility and gratitude. You guys ROCK!

Remember the Third Option?

This morning Ben and I got 'down and dirty' with our preparations to move. We ended up with a list of 24 things to accomplish ranging form touch up painting to laying tile. All to be done in two weeks. My attitude lately has been "JUST DO IT!", and I try to complete whatever the task is with a smile. While we were talking, Ben threw out some different options, but each one we realised wouldn't work for logistics reasons.

So we start to tackle the list. I, with the help of the kids, start taking down hand made art work and Ben starts in on the concrete preparation. We were all working for about an hour and I passed by Ben. He said "I've thought of another option and I don't think we'll have to move......ever, unless we want to." He goes on to explain to me some details and then we discuss the nitty gritty.

He's RIGHT! We won't have to move and we'll still be able to save to start our business. We won't even need to live in a rental for 1-2 years. We can stay right here!

When my heart first heard, I was looking for a catch or problem with the idea. But after talking and thinking, peace seeped through my entire body. I seriously felt like I had just woken up from a wonderful, happy-dream, all night sleep.

There is still some things that we have to work through, but this option (#3 :-) we think will actually happen faster than the one we were preparing for!
YEA GOD! YEA WISE HUSBAND!

I would cry if I wasn't smiling so big.

P.S. I just thought to add that there is nothing illegal going on or anything against God's Word. Just didn't want to paint any bad pictures!

Forgotten Flowers

My Monday wasn't great, as posted previously, and my Tuesday was packed with errands. That is a typical Tuesday for us......full of errands! Well, I had just dropped of the kids at my Mom's (she'd made the kids a fab. treasure hunt....coming soon to a post near you) and come in the back door, when something caught my eye and floored me. My admirable Husband had gift waiting for me. A dozen, red, long stemmed roses and a card awaited me on the kitchen counter. What a man!

Family Photos

These photos bring a smile to my face and sparkle to my heart! We were blessed to have a photo shoot with an awesome photographer that is just starting up his business. He and his wife spent 2.5 hours with us (on location) and the total amount of photos we received were in the hundreds and the price was soooo within our budget. Neat Christian couple. You can find more info at http://www.joshmckenney.com/.

Down to One

As I type, I'm reflecting on my day thus far. Crying, alot of crying. I'm in a time of what seems like there too much to bear. X amount of stuff to get done and not as much time needed to complete the project.
We made the decision to be moved before Christmas. We need our house sold before we can move. Before that we need to fix things in our house before we can put it up for sale. All the while trying to home school and pack......let the crying commence.
So, I've started the process of bare bones scheduling. No frills. No excitement (I don't need that at the moment anyway!) And I'd cut out sleeping and eating if there was a way.....okay, that was a joke.
I do want to thank all for the offers to pray and help. Trust me, I'll call you when I need you!

Thanks God that I have Your word and dear friends to encourage me. That is the silver lining in my cloudy day!
2 Thessalonians 3:16 "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way."
Philippians 1:6 "....being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ."
Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. AND the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

And Then There Were Two

We might be moving sooner than we thought. ALOT sooner than we thought. Like in one month!
Without going into all the dreaded details.....Ben talked with our mortgage companies Thursday. We learned some new info that could require that we move, and pronto!
So, here are our options; 1-We get what we need from the mortgage co.'s and can stay until February (I LOVE this one:) 2-We don't get what we need and have to record the sale of the yard and our house on the same day. The 'yard sale' (did you get it.....yard sale.....he, he, he!) will be ready to go to title in as little as 25 days.
As I was e-mailing a friend this morning, I was listing our options. In my brain I thought there were three options. As I sat typing away, the realization hit me that we only have two. Only Two. Two options. For some reason I hadn't realised the seriousness of our situation until then. Only two options? Really?
The last option would mean that we fix all the things that need fixing in the house and get it up for sale in two weeks. We probably have about a month and a half of things to fix. Oh yea, and we'd need to find a rental. Oh yea, and pack. Ugh.
I just keep thinking the scripture "My grace if sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness." To me this means that all I need to survive is God's grace. And when I feel weak or like I've come up short or like I've got too much on my already full plate, He is my completion. Another word for perfect is complete. I am complete when His strength is at work in me, or rather when I allow His strength to work in me. This passage honestly makes me want to leave this area and cry (all the kids are surrounding me and I wouldn't want to worry them). God is so good. He has known this was going to happen and he knows how it will end.
Now this last part is hard. My good friend Anna gave me a wonderful piece of advice (love you Anna and thanks:). Do not, under any circumstances, offer help to anyone. We joked that I have to get up in the morning and look in the mirror and say 'No!" over and over and over. *chuckling* Normally I don't have a problem saying no, but since our situation changed fast, my helping heart hadn't caught up to reality quite yet. All that to say that I might be asking for help in this season, instead of offering it. I'm not one of those women who after a c-section to quadruplets, tornado devastating her house, her kids starting school and going through family problems says "Oh. Thanks for the offer to help, but I'm fine. No worries here!" (I tried to figure the most traumatic things possible and combine then into one lady, this person is no body I know.)
I wish I could just hit fast forward until this one month is over. Oh yea, His grace is sufficient......His strength........

Satisfyingly Painful

We're done! It took Ben 5.5 hours. I worked for 4.5. Oy! Those rolls of lawn are much heavier than they look. We estimated each at 40-50 pounds. Ben literally touched all 230 rolls and I only 100. We are sore! Ben would load up 8 rolls on the wheel barrow(320-400 lbs) and I 3-4 rolls (min.120, max 250 Lbs). Right now it is hard for me to make a fist. Who needs sleeping pills? All you have to do is install a 330 square yard lawn and it's sure to put you to bed early and sleeping soundly.
When we were done, I called the kids and they squealed and ran on the new grass. Es said she had been waiting to lay on it. Oh, the kids did soooo great! They watched a couple movies and were just plain gracious to one another! Ben and I praised them up one side and down the other.
I just keep having these nagging thoughts.......Maybe we should have bought a different kind of grass???? Lets just roll it all back up and exchange it for a different variety. Ha, ha, ha..... I crack myself up! The lawn and I had a conversation. I told it we'd never replace it if it stayed nice and green and full. That was my side anyway.
More photos will be posted as we accomplish more.

Glorious Green

Our lawn was delivered at 8.25, sharp, this morning. Thanks JB Lawns. YEA!
Posts of the installation of our lawn soon coming.

Vacation Food and the Back Yard

This post has been stuck in the camera and my brain for almost a week now. The above is what Ben and I ate for our last 'snack' of vacation! I lost all the weight two days after returning to normal :)

This one is before.

This one is after*it's a different area than pictured above......

Ben is completely remodeling our back yard. For those who didn't know, we sold our 7.4 thousand square foot front yard this spring. We knew we'd be loosing our main outside play area so we decided to make the back yard usable. The lawn was all uneven and the ungrassed areas were really high maintenance.

Ben is such a hard worker and is massively persistent. In one day he moved 68 wheelbarrow loads of dirt from the side of the house to the far back yard. I don't estimate well at all, but I would think it's about 80 yards one way. I helped when I could and only with the shoveling of the dirt, he was a gentleman and didn't want me to hurt myself while using the wheelbarrow (I probably would have too!)

I've tried to post these with oldest first, but this site isn't complementing me or cooperating with me today:)

This one is after.

This is before.

Our instant lawn will be delivered Thursday. We will have to wait to break it in until sometime mid September. Ahhhhh! Can't wait. Ben thinks the best combination for relaxing is bbq (it will be more fun in our new back yard), beer and a book.....I say bbq, a margarita and the kids in BED! Y'all know I love my kids:)

School and Such

We really started school yesterday. I started the kids (and myself) with the routine two weeks ago, but then we had a week off because Ben had a vacation from work. I'm not sure if that hiatus help or hurt us as far as our routine goes.
It was hard to get up this morning. Maybe tonight I'll get to bed before 11 and this in turn will help when my alarm starts buzzing at 4.40 tomorrow morning. Is there such a thing as a night owl and morning person all wrapped up in one? I'm it if there is such a thing. I am primarily an a.m. person, but I've been burning the candle from both ends the last few days.
Today was the best school day EVER! God brought something to my mind today. I've been pushing the kids to be done with school before lunch time, but with all the distractions and questions I needed to answer, we were not making the noon time budget. Why noon? Because that was our time frame last year. Weeeeell, our work this year is more complex and there is defiantly more study time needed. It just came to me, we can work after lunch too......DUH! Such a better day today. The kids were, for the most part, in good spirits and I wasn't constantly asking God for patience.
We also decided yesterday to stay in our currant house until February......down with capital gains taxes! It might push our time line out a little but we feel in our hearts this is what God wants for us.