Luke :: 6 years

Today my Luke turns 6 years old.

I tend to be pretty reminiscent on birthdays.

I walk around the house saying "6 years ago today we were..."

All. Day. Long.

My family puts up with me.

Bless them. :)

Luke was due on September 25th.

He was born on October 11th.

That's right...

over 2 weeks late!

I was in labor for 25 hours.

He was 9 lbs. 15 oz.

23 in. long

When he was born, literally every nurse/doctor in the room said

"Whoa! That is a big baby!"

It was love at first sight for me.

I wanted a boy so badly.

He was perfect.

At 6 years old...

his favorite color is purple.

He just learned to ride his bike without training wheels.

He is reading like a champ.

His favorite things to do are draw and ride his bike.

He is one of the most quick witted people I know.

He's shy around large groups but quickly comes out of his shell.

Loves to gives hugs.

"Luke" means "Bringer of light"

I pray he lives up to this name.

That he brings the true Light to those who live in darkness.

We LOVE you, Luke!

Our family wouldn't be the same without you!

Field Trip :: Habitat for Humanity Global Village

One thing that is important to John and I is that we teach our children to have a servant's heart. We want to live that out in our community as well as around the world. We want our children to understand that there is a large chunk of the world that doesn't live with the luxuries that we have and as followers of Christ we are to use the gifts He has given us to help others. Since we haven't had the opportunity to go on a family mission trip yet (so excited to do that one day!) we decided to take a short field trip so they could see (somewhat) how others live across the globe.

We have the privilege of living close to the Habitat for Humanity International Headquarters. And they have a global village set up which includes a mock third world village as well as models of all the houses they build in different countries.

They did a fantastic job of making it look realistic.

They also had several signs around that engaged the children to think about what they were seeing.

You could walk in all the buildings and touch, look, and explore.

Then you entered into the habitat houses section. Which they had split up into continents and then countries. After walking through the third world village it was a stark contrast.

At the reception area they handed each of the children a little passport.

In each house there was a stamping station and the children could stamp their passport. My children LOVED this! They would run into each house and search for it. :)

This was one of my favorite houses. So pretty!

Each house had little artifacts that people from that country had sent to be put in the houses. They had Bibles of every language! As well as pictures from various housing projects from that country.

We had a great time.

Speaking of servants heart, check out what this mom decided to do to celebrate her birthday. So inspirational!

What are some ways you and your family serve others? How do you teach your children about other cultures?

Blessings!

Growing...

I've had a lot on my mind lately.

Being a mom of young children is hard.

Most of the time your exhausted.

You feel as though you are being pulled in 5 different directions at once.

You deal with major tantrums and major messes.

But as my children are growing up...

I am starting get a glimpse as to what it will be like to parent older children.

And I see a whole new set of difficulties.

Answering the tough questions.

Training my children in purity and modesty.

Having to let go and let them be independent.

Just to name a few.

I must admit there have been a few times this week I have felt fear creep in.

What if I do something wrong?

What if I am not a good enough example?

What if I don't put enough emphasis on a certain thing?

And then as I began to pray about all these feeling

God helped me realize a few things.

Am I perfect?

No. But He is.

Will my children be sinless little angles?

No. But through the repentance of our sins we grow closer to Him.

Will I fail?

Many times. But I will choose to live by grace and not perfection.

So, while I know I have a few more years to go, I am feeling God's strength to enter this new chapter of life. I am looking forward to the challenges that will come with it because I know He is walking right along with me.

Blessings.

Fall!

Things are changing here in south Georgia...

Which is really unusual for our neck of the woods.

I usually don't have to put away my beloved sandals

until the end of October.

So this whole chilly September thing in bizarre.

Not that I'm complaining.

This is my FAVORITE type of weather.

Slightly overcast with a bit of a chill in the air.

*insert contented sigh here*

We celebrated the first day of fall with a family walk.

There was frolicking...

Leaf throwing...

Even a little family acrobats...

I sure do love spending everyday with this bunch.

How are you enjoying fall? Pumpkin Spice Latte, anyone? Bonfires? Cozy Socks?

A blog you need to read

I love reading blogs. I love reading people's ideas, perspectives, and thoughts. I subscribe to cooking blogs, christian blogs, "mommy" blogs, homeschool blogs, decorating blogs, craft blogs, all topics that are near and dear to my heart.

One blog has consistently stuck out to me over and over again, though. The Doorpost Ministries blog has been encouraging, enlightening, entertaining, and uplifting to me in so many ways. I've been a huge fan of their products (which is a whole other blog post! I LOVE their stuff!) for well over a year now and so when I saw, back in March, that they were starting up a new blog you better believe I subscribed right away! Doorpost is a ministry dedicating to helping parents apply scripture in their homes. An area I can always use good advice in! The things I love is that not only is Pam (the main contributor) so encouraging but her advice is practical and totally do-able. You can tell just by reading her blog that she has a passion for godly homes.

So, if you haven't checked out Doorposts of Your House yet, head on over there, browse around and look through all the wonderful ideas and encouraging words she has to share. I am such a huge fan that I have a nice little button on the right side of my blog you can follow to get there.

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he shall not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

This verse has been both a burden and a joy to my heart. It makes me realize the great responsibility that I have as a parent but also it reminds me that if I am faithful to teach my children God's truth it will be worth it! God has impressed on my heart that now is the time! My children are young and are looking to my husband and I for direction and guidance. May He give us all the grace and strength to be faithful in our calling as parents.

Blessings!

Zinnias

Just outside of our small town we have this really amazing produce shop. It is run by one farm and they have pretty much anything you could want there. Watermelon, peas, squash, and of course, peaches (this is Georgia afterall!) and that is only fraction. They sell hand-painted birdhouses, canned and baked good. They even have a little place where you can buy homemade peach ice cream. It's wonderful. One of my favorite things is that every year they plant a huge field just full of zinnia's and sunflowers. You can come and pick your own for only 10 cents a stem.

Well, me and my flower-loving daughter (Lilly- appropriately named) are taking full advantage of this!

One thing that we didn't take into consideration, this field was mud-dy. We were planning to go all the way to the back corner because nobody ever trudges all the way back there. We got about halfway out there and realized our feet were caked with mud.

We decided to get our flowers from where we were and then sat down under one of the pecan trees and tried to de-mud ourselves before we went tromping into the store to pay.

We didn't do too well.

But we got enough flowers to fill up 2 vases and it only cost us...

$1.60!

And, believe it or not, they were used to the mud. :)

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE having fresh flowers in the house?

Someone you love...again

I wanted to post just a couple more pictures of people I love because I couldn't choose just one! God has blessed me with such an incredible family. I am so thankful each day for all of them. Here are a few favorite photos of my love's from over the past year or so.

Daddy and his helpers.

I love my boys!

I love my girls!

(See what I mean about her growing up too fast..)

He's a keeper

I love this little guy.

He loves to go on bike rides with his dad and sister.

He wants to be a carpenter.

He plays harder and gets dirtier than any little boy I know.

Yep, I'll keep him.

Hey! Hi! Hello!

Sorry for the brief disappearing act the past couple weeks. We took a trip to Kansas to visit my family (which was wonderful!) and what was supposed to be a week and a half trip turned into a 3 week trip thanks to a lovely flu bug. We just got back yesterday and we are all trying to get back into the swing of things around here.

I was going to write a post about all the fun we had in Kansas and include lots of fun photos but come to find out...I didn't really take that many photos! Oops.

We did a lot of this:

The children had a blast with their Uncle...many new toys were brought home.

I met up with some of my college friends and their kiddos.


While we were visiting I handed my camera to one of the budding photographers (who may or may not have been 3 years old) and got lots of pictures like this:


On the way home we drove through the Smoky Mountains. Gorgeous!


I'll spare you any pictures from the week of THE FLU. It wasn't pretty.

We came home to our yard looking like this:


Yikes! Hello, grass. Haven't seen you in a while!

On a better note one of our friends plowed up our garden bed while we were gone!


Yay, for pleasant surprises!


We had a great time! Now it's time to get back to business!

The Front Yard

John has been having fun with iMovie. I thought this was pretty cute. Loving this nice weather we've been having and getting to be outside!!

Enjoy!

Mommy Re-hab (My first time!)

Every Monday, my friend Brooke hosts Bad Mommy Rehab. In a world where it is so easy to compare ourselves to others, to feel guilt, and discouragement this is an opportunity to focus on the positive!

Last night I was having a pretty deep conversation with a friend. Our conversation turned towards the topic of child-training. She was sharing that she came from a family of 6 and that her mom did every ounce of the housework. The children didn't have any chores or were not encouraged to help out. My, how frazzled that mom must have been!!

I am thankful that we are raising our children to have a good work ethic. We are teaching them that we help not because we have to but because we love people and that is what Jesus would want us to do. We are trying to teach them to take the initiative. That if they see something that needs to be done not to just pass it by or wait for someone else to do it but to step in and get the job done. And, of course, we are teaching (trying to!) them to help and serve with a cheerful attitude.

We are hoping to instill a good work ethic that will last their whole life!

I made it!!

I've been nervous for over a week. Why you ask? Early Saturday morning John left on a trip...for 4 days. I was going to be home...alone...with 4 children... 6 and under...for 4 days! Ah! This had never happened before! Granted, I stay home with them every day but John always comes home at night. So if I have had a rather tough day I can say "John, I need some time to myself." and leave. So, I was nervous this weekend I was going to be grumpy and frustrated, the house was going to be a complete disaster, and it was going to be awful for everyone. The thing I was most nervous about? Sunday morning. Oh my! I was SO nervous! I was going to be taking all 4 of my children to church with me, alone! You may not think this is a big deal but, you see, our church isn't like other churches. We don't have children's church or day care. Our children sit with us the whole time. Which I love, but doing it by myself...oh my. Oh, and I forgot to mention that our services are 3 hours long. So, all last week I was nervous about it. John kept assuring me I would be fine. I had little discussions with the children throughout the week about needing to help and being on their best behavior.

And finally Saturday came. I got up early that morning and had an amazing time of prayer. As I was praying the Lord brought to mind Proverbs 31. More specifically the verse that says "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her..." God reminded me that John needs to be able to trust that I can manage things in his absence. This was such a motivation for me! And I am happy to report that this weekend has been wonderful. They were amazing at church on Sunday and we've been having a good time! The house isn't a disaster and, the best news of all, John is coming home a day early! I should have just trusted the Lord in the first place, huh? Lesson learned.

Thanks for checking in!

~A

Ah-mazing!

John and I live about 2 hours south of Atlanta. As a homeschool family I feel very blessed to live so close to a place that has so much to offer educationally speaking. When my parents came to visit back in May we met them in Atlanta and they took us all to the Georgia Aquarium. Did you know that it is the biggest aquarium in the world?? It was so amazingly, breathtakingly beautiful! I could not believe all of the different types of sea life they had. SO many I had never even heard of before. If you are ever in the Atlanta area I would highly recommend you check it out (even though it costs a pretty penny). Here's a few pictures from our day, almost all of them taken by Lilly. She's not a bad little photographer for a 6 year old, if I do say so myself.

This was my favorite of the small displays. Simply because the colors (the photos do it no justice) were so beautiful. T

he background was vivid blue and the jellyfish were bright pink. So pretty. It was also so amazing to watch the jellyfish move.

Beautiful!

One Thursday a month they send divers into one of the big tanks to clean it up and they do a little program where the divers have microphones on and the people can ask them questions while they are diving. We happened to be there that day and it was really fun to see the children interact with the diver! Later, while we were eating lunch he walked by on his lunch break and recognized us (we tend to stick out in a crowd!) and stopped and chatted for a while. Another diver stopped by too and gave each of the children a sharks tooth that he had collected from the bottom of a tank that morning. Cool!

Sea horses!

Turtles!

Kate

was fascinated by the lionfish.

They had an underwater tunnel that ended with this HUGE tank. This was by far my favorite part of the aquarium. I think we went through 3 times! I wish you could see the size of some of these fish/sharks. They have whale sharks, which I had never heard of but are apparently the biggest fish in the world. Like, 41 ft. big. Wow! They were really amazing. They also had giant mantas, hammerhead sharks, and so many other species.

I couldn't resist posting this picture. Poor little Kate was quite a trooper. When we set off that morning she was fine but then throughout the day sometime she developed a fever. We kept hoping she would fall asleep but it wasn't until my dad sat with her for a while while the other children played at the playground that she finally did. He doesn't look like he minded too much. :) Grandpa's got the magic touch!

God is truly a beautiful artist!

Blessings,

~A