The Oldest Child

Today is Keira's 8th Birthday...and if anyone in this world loves their birthday...it's Keira. She thinks about it year round and we have even had to make a rule that she isn't allowed to talk about it until March 25th each year (Janessa's birthday is March 24th) But...by the time we got to today, we had already had 3 celebrations so it was a little bit anti-climactic.

Last Sunday we celebrated a dual party with my cousin's daughter, MJ, at my Grandma's house...and...no excuses...I didn't take a single picture! Whoops!

Thursday night, we brought a treat to dance class to share...though she had landed wrong on her foot and was icing it when I got there with the cupcakes....but she absolutely loves her dance friends and teachers so she could not imagine not celebrating with them.

Friday evening, we invited a bunch of girlfriends over for a pajama party....NOT A SLEEPOVER! I don't think that a slumber party will ever happen in my home but we tried to squeeze all of the slumber party fun into 3.5 hours and then send everyone home to sleep in their own beds! We made our own pizza's, painted nails, decorated pillow cases, had cake of course and Keira received some special and throughtful gifts from her friends. What a sweet group of girls that we know from all different places!

It kind of works out for Keira that her bithday usually falls on or around Memorial Day weekend because it really ends up making several more opportunites to celebrate than other kids might have. Parties that I don't have to plan, might I add! Saturday we went to the annual picnic at Tom's sister's house. Lot's of fun! It also happened to be Grandma McMillan's 94th Birthday so I made them each a cake and we celebrated with her and Keira together.  Everything was all set up outside and then a storm rolled in a made it more of an indoor picnic. We all enjoyed ourselves anyways and the kids eventually went out in the HOT, HUMID weather and did water balloons and sprayed each other with the hose.

After the picnic, we got to go and celebrate a friend of the family's first birthday. Happy Birthday Cody!

Whew!

So, today rolled around and we peeled ourselves out of bed so Keira could quickly open some gifts from Daddy and Mommy, fed the kiddos, threw them in the car to be at church for rehersals at 8:00am (ok...we really got there at 8:15)...and can I just say that I love our church family so much....I will try to post more on that later this week but no promises.

After church, we ate a quick lunch at home, grabbed our swim stuff and headed to my Aunt's lake house for the day on Cayuga Lake for another annual Memorial Day picnic....we pulled in there at the same time as a huge storm. All of us (and there are a LOT of us) piled in the house and made the best of it. The storm finally let up after a couple of hours and the kids ended up swimming! The water had to have been freezing but they LOVED it! What wonderful memories they will have of swimming with their cousins in the freezing water.

So, happy birthday Keira. We love you. We are so proud of the girl you are. You care deeply about people, hurt for them, love them, and (most of the time) make sure everyone feels included. You work hard to do your best at things and make us so proud. I love watching how you care for your baby sister and the looks she gives you when you play with her. You are adored by many and most of all Jesus loves you. You are an amzing gift...thank you for making me a mommy eight years ago.

Now, we are tired. Time for some rest. Staying home on the actual memorial day. My house looks like the cupboards threw up.

Good night.

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To be Disciplined

As I have been reading everyones hopes and resolutions for 2016, I have been asking the Lord to show me what He wants me to focus on this year.

I don't really do resolutions. For me, resolutions have always been something that I started January 1st and by the middle of January, I failed.

I don't want a resolution. I want a focus.

So, as I prayed, and thought, and thought, and prayed a little more, it came to me.

Discipline.

It is something I have truly lacked in my life, despite my deisre to be a disciplined person. Hence, my resolutions always failing, ha ha.

I have always admired when others were able to really stick to their goals, sometimes, seemingly wtihout it even being hard for them. (Though, I know that is likely not true.)

I have great ideas. Purposes for doing things. I am a fantastic list maker. I can look around my house and tell you exactly what needs to be done and how to do it. This quote really says how I feel.

I have the dream....just not the discipline.

First and foremost, I want to be disciplined in not only my household "duties" but in my spiritual walk with God. With my kids. With homeschooling. With exercising. With loving people around me. With following through on what I know needs to get done.

Funny story: Last week, I was praying for my two oldest girls at their bedtime. I prayed something about helping us to be more disciplined. The next night, as I was driving Keira, my  seven (and-a-half) year old home from dance class, she says, "Mom, why did you pray last night that we would be punished?" It took me a minute to figure out what she meant and then I just laughed out loud.  It was a bit hard to explain.

But, isnt' it so true that discipline is really what keeps us from needing "punishment"? Even as adults. I truly don't believe that God punishes us. I definitely feel that anything bad in our life comes from Satan himself, but we do get "punished" by our own consequences when we are not disciplined in certain areas of our life.

Discpline....so important.

I can't fail at this by mid January because this is a focus. It's not a diet. It's not a program. I hope for it to be the focus of my life this year and the rest of my life!

What's your "thing" this year?

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Homeschool Success

As a homeschool mom, I often hear, "I don't know how you do it." or "You are supermom". I assure you, I am not. There are a lot of things that get thrown to the side to accomplish the bare minimum. What I do accomplish, I can only do because of God's grace and the fact that He called me to this. As the mom's often talk about in my homeschool co-op, there are certainly many days where I have, what we call, "Yellow Bus Envy". It is hard. I am not going to tell you that it isn't.

But today is one of those days that I am reminded of a few of the reasons that I love this "job". Libby was able to read 4 sentences as part of her school work (she's in Kindergarten). I got to experience this with her. God used ME to teach her that.

When she finished reading, she looked at me with watery eyes and said, "It almost made me cry because I am so happy I can read." For a five year old to be able to say that and feel that is amazing to me.

They are all such different personalities, these kids of mine. While Keira fights me to do the bare minimum of schoolwork because she wants to do something else, Libby asks for more work every day. In this picture she is squeezing as many numbers onto a line as she can rather than writing each number 5 times like she needed to. (She asked if she could write them more). Too funny!

My heart is full. I have experienced this before with Keira and she is a fantastic reader (though she doens't like it) but I am so fulfilled today knowing that my kids are learning. They are giggling together all day long. They are in their jammies still at 2pm. They have learned so much today and spent time playing dolls and legos and pretend and a few rounds of musical chairs.

I write this not to boast but so that I can look back and remember that there are good days amidst the hard ones. Even at 8 months pregnant with a fifth child, high blood pressure, swollen feet and more medical bills than we anticipated, I find joy in my child's success.

Tomorrow, when I feel like I should be sticking one or all of them on the bus, I will try to remember today and that there will be more days like today in my future.

Despite the days when we bicker and fight all day about what needs to get done, I wouldn't trade this for anything.

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Feeling Settled

Today I woke up feeling settled.

This is strange considering we moved yesterday.

And even stranger considering what the house currently looks like....boxes everywhere...furniture in the wrong rooms...piles of random stuff....old curtains that are not ours hanging on the windows still. Seriously...here are some pictures:

But yet, I do feel settled in a way. Content.

This is the 8th home Tom and I have lived in together...and we celebrate our 8 year anniversary in just a few weeks.


But we bought this one.

Sidenote: How does anyone move with family and a church family around? Between the help we had moving heavy things...setting up beds, cleaning, watching our kids....and so much more...I am just not quite sure how anyone can possibly do these things alone! Thank you Jesus for the people in our lives!

We could live here forever. I am not crazy enough to say that we definitely will because you never know where God will lead us but still, just knowing that it is ours and we can stay makes it so different.

I can unpack one box at a time and PUT IT AWAY! I am not trying to think of how I can store things in a way that will be easy to move them next year. I can take my time trying to figure out where exactly I want things because there is no rush to make it feel like home....

....it is home and in many ways, I already feel settled....not organized...but settled.

There is NOTHING wrong with renting...especially in the area where we live in NY where the Taxes are ridiculously high. God had an amazing plan for us in renting for the last 8 years that allowed Tom to get his degree without us having to fix house problems or take care of a lawn and each step and job and place we have lived has led us to this point. We feel very clear on that and that this is the home that God has for us now.

So....I feel settled. Settled in God's grace. Settled in contentment. I pray that I can keep that feeling and knowing that God's plan is ALWAYS better than mine.

I heard this song on the radio this morning and the chorus describes how I feel....and the first verse really describes how I have been feeling without realizing how much I longed to feel settled. Today is Day One of the rest of my life....Day One of the BEST of my life.

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