Hi everyone!

Well summer is upon us.  It isnt too hot quite yet and so the kiddos have been able to go out and play without burning up in 5mins.  Popcycles out on the back porch and "MOM CAN I HAVE ANOTHER REFILL" is called out over and over  again to proclaim their squirt guns are out of water!
I picked up a watermelon the other day too and a whole bag of lemons(which btw are not cheap) but I cant go without lemon in my tea so it was cheaper to buy a bag of them then singles, which were so small and hard. I planted a lemon tree but I dont think we'll still be living here in this house when it is  ready for harvest next season, we'll see.   
We have made many trips to the zoo trying to get  in as many outings as we can before its just too hot. We are hoping we get at least a few more trips in soon. The children just love the outdoors and the Phx. Zoo is so pretty with a park atmosphere with lots of shade trees and a reallly cute tree house with a brook running beneath it. So refreshing for the kiddos to play and run thru after a long walk around the zoo. 

Our little foster babies are doing great and am finally at a place where things are on the up side. They have done so well and have come so far. I can remember our first family devotional with them and it was a challenge fore sure with them wanting to get up and run all over the place and just basically cried and yelled the whole time because they were not used to having any self control at all. Now they are so excited to sit down for bible time! What joy this is! and they do so well. V asks daddy all the time if we are having bible time today! she even talks about it during the day even when we are out and about, shows she is  thinking about it and looking forward to it. Please pray if led with us that God will have His way in their lives. And whatever the outcome we will all be at peace with it.  J is doing so good with his aggression too.  He comes and gives mommy and daddy loves all the time and loves to snuggle, he is this way with all the siblings too! God can indeed change lives, yes even small ones that have not had any training, they are His little ones and what a priveledge it is to serve our Master in this way. I pray any shortcomings we have had that God will create a new heart . He already has in so many areas in our own lives. Its so easy to walk in the f lesh but to yield to the Holy Spirit and desire to listen. Joy and growth comes when we do this, even if it is something that we have to yield to daily, moment by moment.

We went as a family to see Narnia a f ew days after it came out and it was a pleasant time to go as a family.  The little ones even enjoyed it and just closed their eyes at some of the scary parts but really enjoyed being out together. They did real well to mostly to the f act that they ate popcorn for  2 hours straight:)  
Our next adventure is going swimming at the YMCA. I really like ours that we go to. It is only 3 yrs old and has alot of wonderful programs including swimming.  My kiddos are excited about it as they hardly get to swim and I think Ill like it more than just the neighborhood pool. They have a fun slide and a really cute kiddy area to play in too. Hopefully we will be able to do this often.

I pray as summer arrives that each of  you will have a safe and fun summer rejoicing in all the blessings God brings your way! Look around there are so many!!

Sunflowers and butterflies!
love debbie

Well Nathan has been bugging me and telling me my blog is a cold and lonely place! Goodness so much life has happened since my last post. So I will give you all just a small recap of what has been happening.

First back in Nov. 2007 we received our first placement a little four month old baby girl named Gabby. She was such a doll. We had her for 4 short days :( 

Then in Jan. 2008 we received a little  girl 2  and half years old and a little boy 1 and a half. Their initials are V (girl) and J(boy). V just had a birthday last week and J has one coming in June.  They are very cute, but alot of work. I wish I could say its been a picnic but truth is its been quite a ride! The real blessing is that we are sharing the gospel and its been amazing how far they have come.  I dont want to go into details but they are not the same little ones we received back in Jan. they have grown so much. V loves the Lord and has a understanding that I find amazing. J loves to pray too and sing hymns with me and pray.

Our house hold has not been the same since their arrival and they keep me very busy! Hence no blogging as of late. We are also licensed for another baby and we have submitted a request to receive a adoptable baby girl. Sooooo if you are led please pray for us. It looks like we could have V and J for another year or so. I know it will be hard to see them go but we just dont know Gods plan for them right now. Right when you think a case is going one way you get a quick curve thrown in there and the case goes in a different direction.

News on the home front... We are being hit really hard with the gas prices, food going up, and me running into town to take care of my parents. We have decided to put the house up for sale and try to move closer in, but not to much as housing is even more expensive the closer you get to Phx.  I also would like to try and keep our chickens geese  and duck.

Still God is good and meets and goes beyond all our needs!  God continues to heal my mom who had a stroke back in Oct. my dad has been holding his own and that is a great blessing from God since my mom has been down, so hard if both were down at the same time.

All the kiddos are doing great and growing so fast. They have grown in compassion, selflessness, and knowledge of God and His truth.  I thought our house was full of noise but since adding V and J we really know what noise is all about! It has gotten better but when we first received them they screamed for every need whether for a drink, food, or toy it was so crazy. 

We have been enjoying great weather and making as many trips to the zoo as we can before we hit those wonderful triple digits! I will  t ry and get some pics up soon, with Nathans help;)

Well I dont want this to get to lengthy so until I get another moment to reflect (with encouragement from Nathan) I will end for now. May each of you walk in the light of Jesus and His truth! Blessings.

God Bless,
Debbie

Ok! my kids have decided that I need to blog again for it has been quite a while!
Its pretty hard to blog when life gets so busy with extra life!! If you know what I mean.
My mom is back in the hospital again dealing with a severe bloody nose! Complications from being on cumiden totally spelled wrong.  Anywhoo this alway adds extra stress to our days. I do love my mom dearly she just finds being under medical care comforting and then doesnt want to leave the hospital. She does have some medical issues that does need attention but being in the hospital for over a week is a little much for a nose bleed. Praying that they can help her to get this under control so she feels secure to go home. She was wanting the docs to guarentee her she'll never have another nose bleed, thats not going to happen!

Ok enough rambling of my beautiful mother I do love her and feel kind of guilty for being stressed over this!

This summer was a rough one living out in the rual area. We had so many chickens killed by our own dog ! And the monsoon storms out here are pretty wicked with nothing to stop or slow down the wind speed! We had whelping cages flying several times! Pretty amazing since these cages are huge and weigh quite a bit.

We finally have our Suburban back! I cannot tell you how frustrating our truck has been for us! We now have a totally rebuilt truck under the hood! I only wish the extieror would match! Its so falling apart, but for now seat covers will have to do!

Grass! we have finally started growing grass! It looks so green against the dry desert dirt! Its only in the front yard right now and is not quite all done but slowly it will be all covered! We also orderd some trees from Washington and they are do to be here this month! Yay! It will start looking much better with greenery all around.

We didnt get to do much this summer, no swimming, no camping (tents),no real vacation, but we did go to church camp that turned out to be a real blessing!
I wasnt looking to forward to it with all the mess and complications we have had at home with the Suburban and attacks on the chickens and storms and all. But God was so good to bless us with a wonderful time at camp. The speakers Reb and Beverley Bradley. They were so good addressing so many issues, they were so transparent and didnt come across as self righteous, or that hey you do these things and everything should be perfect! I really dont believe it when I hear people speak that they have this perfect homeschooling family! Its a hard job not only to homeschool but deal with all our real family issues. We all have them dont we! Thats why Christ died for us.  Dont get me wrong I love homeschooling my kiddos and wouldnt change it and feel so blessed that we can but it is a hard challenging job. If all we were doing was schooling then life would be so easy or at least less stressful, adding in taking care of the house, children, meals, mininstry ect. it for sure is a load!
We are going to be doing a boot camp approach at our house for a while as we redo our schedule and make it more breathable but in the long run getting more done! Im so tired of trying to do it all everyday! It leaves me feeling as though Im just trying to rush thru things to get it done and not enjoying it along the way. Im getting excited as we re-plan things and make more time allotted for life as that seems to happen so much!

Well I didnt mean to stuff so much in one blog entry! I will try and update much sooner!

Oh yes a great praise! Its Fall! thank the Lord above! I feel the coolness in the air, especially in the evenings, feels so good!

Blessings to all until later!
Debbie

Oh yes special thanks to Zachary for personalizing my blog with a jute box! Hmmm not to sure about the one bluegrass song but hey I do like bluegrass. Thanks Zach!

Im telling ya the weeks are just flying by! Everytime I turn around its a new week!

Its been a challenge to get school work done, go to our foster classes and take care of our animals and all of the other chores that need to be  done. Still God has been so good to bless us !  We have had some 'more' trials come our way but the Lord has been faithful to meet our needs. We blew our engine last week, very scary, but God was good to send a brother in Christ to help us! His name was John, cant forget that because we are going thru the Bible and are now currently in the book of John! He was so sweet to comfort Joah as he was so afraid of getting into his truck, but he reassured Joah that he was a friend of Jesus! Joah was comforted by this and settled right down.

We will be getting the engine rebuilt, until then a brother in Christ has lent us his car! a very nice car:) God once again is so good!

News on our homefront:) I think last I posted I shared how we lost all our hens from one of Springers getting a hold of them, well last week we lost our rooster from what we believe was heat stroke, no shock since it has been around 115 degrees! he had plenty of food/water/shade but I think it was just too HOT! If we had misters I think he would have been fine, we have been misting our animals daily now since then with the hose but.... God has restored all our flock again to an even bigger number! A friend of ours is moving and gave us her flock of already laying hens! I feel so blessed by this. We now have 27 in all. 21hens, 2roosters, 2ducks, and2 geese! She also blessed us with her chicken coop so they are safe from the dogs until we can get an even bigger coop built. We still have six in the kitchen under a light, Ill be glad when they are ready to go out side!!

The look on my little ones faces declares its a miracle as they come running in with eggs in the morning and evening! We are enjoying fresh eggs each day! and yes there is a difference from the store bought for sure! We are enjoying this little hobby farming very much and feel so blessed. Even though we have slowed down a little in the 'book work' of  schooling we are learning so much about all the chicks,ducks and geese, hands on learning and they are all loving it! Me too!;)

Well two more classes to go on our foster classes. We have learned alot and are getting so excited as the time will come soon to recieve our first foster baby! Still quite alot to do at home in getting ready, mainly painting and getting the beds ready! We are thinking and praying for our little ones, Lord bring them safely here into our arms!

Blessings to all!

Debbie

Life can be so busy! with fostercare classes, schooling, and all the home chores there are not to mention taking care of my parents as much as I can things can get pretty crazy! Sometimes I can get to feeling pretty overwhelmed but God has been good to work all things out and bring me Joy in all the hussle and craziness of my days! With getting all the new little creatures it has brought so much joy to my childrens days. And I truly love watching them work and play hard!

I had to laugh the othe day when Joah was taking a bath and Joshua comes in the bathroom with a geese, "mom can I take a bath with Joah and the geese?" What! No Josh we dont take baths with the geese! I love the fact that they are enjoying the chickens, geese and ducks so much. I told Josh that it isnt to often that little boys get to have all those birds and puppies to play with, its a little boys dream to have all those playmates! Im so happy to see them work hard keeping things clean, they come in sweating from the outdoors! This is good, as they really have never had such space to play and do some real fun chores with the animals.  Did ya know you could actually bond with a chicken! ;) Its the cutiest thing to watch the children run around the property with the geese following them everywhere. Im gonna have to get some pics posted!

Thank you Lord that in the midst of our busy lives sometimes hard trials you bless us with Joy! Children are truly a blessing, lets take the time to enjoy them and laugh with them!

Well I got some potatos in the oven that need to be brought out and a salad to make, and a bunch of hungry kiddos!

Blessings,

Debbie

Hi ya'll!

What a challenging week I have had! First off saturday was a disaster day here at home. It started out good with a sell of one of our springers, we then took the last three to a sporting store to sell in front of(really dont like selling dogs like that but we need to sell these last few pups!) anyway while we were gone the mother of the pups got lonely and escaped from her whelping cage and got into my chicken yard! Thats right we found two dead, she broke there necks and left them to die  we couldnt find the other three. Im sure she killed them too and took them else where or some vulture came and ate them. I was in . I actually cried! I had raised these hens from just a few days old and they had about another six weeks to go before they would start laying!! I didint realize you can indeed bond with a chicken

Sometimes I feel as though its just one trial after another. We lost two pups a while back to parvo that was bad enough and then to lose all our chickens, I was ready to give up! My dh was so sweet and new how much I love those chickens and couldnt wait to glean those home grown eggs! He got on the phone right away to see if the feed and stock store was open that evening but they were already closed. I was just going to have to wait, I wasnt looking forward to doing the light box again but here we are again but with a much bigger flock! Im praying that they all will do well and that we will be able to keep my hunting dogs from them. We now have six hens (I bought these with dna testing already done so I know they are hens) 2 of the most cutiest ducks and 2 geese! The geese are so cute! and they follow you where ever you go and just love to cuddle. Pepper our rooster is doing well, Im sure he was watching all the hens get their necks broke by Jubilee our springer and thought Yikes! The dogs will just have to be watched closely and the chicks more secure before we leave to go places.

Ive been also expierencing a severe toothache and Monday had to go in for a emergency extraction! After 12 shots to get my tooth and gums numb the tooth came out like a breeze, thank the Lord! I also on Monday had to take Joshua our 8yr. old to the docs because on Sunday he had something thrown into his eye by one of his friends he was playing with, everything is fine but had to go on eye antibiotics. Just one thing after another kept happening to where I felt my plate was beyond full.

One day at a time! One moment at a time! praying without ceasing can get us thru days, weeks like this! I can thank the Lord that He does carry us thru our circumstances, trials, and just bumps in the road. Life is hard but truly God is good! My pulled tooth is healing well, Josh is getting better and I have a flock of chicks again with a added blessing of the most loveable ducks and geese! I really do enjoy looking out at them and hearing our rooster proclaim the new day! The children are doing good and trying to keep themselves busy indoors, we have hit those wonderful life zapping temps, ya know the ones that make you stop and think why do I live here?! And why do so many people want to move here?! We have not one tree on our property so there is NO shade at all ugh! grass and trees are on the top of my list!! I just wish we could have instant mature trees *sigh*.

We had our foster class Tues. night. It went well, Tom and I both were overly tired but made it  thru. The more we go the more confident I feel that the Lord wants us to do this. We are looking forward to receiving our first placement. We have been praying for this little one and that the Lord would protect her and get her here safely!

I just love to hear my children pray. To hear the prayers of my older children be more inimate with the Lord and dealing with their heart issues or to hear them trust the Lord in a certain area. And to hear my little ones pray over what is concerning them, such sweet prayers as they pray that we should love one another. I especially love to hear how Joah starts out his prayers...."Jesus for God!"  I smile each time I hear him!, yes Joah Jesus is for God!

Well I should end the jabber for today with that and get on to supper before my crew gets home! Have a blessed day, pray and know that God is good, though life can be hard!

Blessings,

Debbie

I hope that I can do a much better job than I have done in the past! My kiddos started their own blogs and have encouraged me once again to get back to my reflections of life;)

So much has happend so Ill have to go back in time a bit little by little but we have moved out into the boonies as I call it far from the inner city. It has been a challenging move but we are enjoying being out and away from town. It has given us some much needed space and our kiddos love being able to have a acre + to play on. We are wanting to start a  hobby farm. We have already gotten a half dozen hens(well Im hoping they are hens lol!) it looks as though they are. And a friend blessed me with a pretty rooster. I so love waking up to his announcement that it is a new day!Yes is can be quite early at times, try 2am We have been breeding springers for around a year but have decided to move on to doing some other fun hobby farm hobbies. Id like to get a couple of goats and some hens and at least one sheep. In time we would love to get a horse. And once we can get a fence up we would like to get a calf and raise it for beef. So lots of new adventures for us.
Probably one huge adventure we have added to our lives is that we are starting to do foster care with the hope of foster adoption. We are attending our classes and working on getting licensed. Our whole family is excited to see the works of the Lord in this! And we cannot wait to have another baby in the house. Still praying that the Lord will fill my womb but I am also content with all the blessings the Lord has produced from my womb. We want to bless a little one with love and a home, a refuge, a place to grow into the person God has created them to be! Lord help us in doing this for we are at your mercy.

Alright I shouldnt try and catch up all in one post I do look forward to reflecting my days again and look forward into looking in to yours!

Blessings,
Debbie

Lets see just where do I start? I guess the best place would be from the beginning!

We have been homeschooling from the very beginning with our children and the number one training of our children has been leading them in a personnal knowledge of Jesus Christ and praying that they would recieve Christ as their personal Savior.

When Nathan our oldest was six years old I was leading him in a daily devotional called ALL ABOUT GOD. It was a fun devotional with a setting of a backyard bible club. It took you thru who the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is. At the end of each lesson it would ask if you if you had Jesus in your heart and if not would you like to ask Him now. Well I did have some wisdom in knowing that Nathan was still very young and would say when you are ready to make this decision you can come to mommy or daddy and let us know. I wanted to make sure that it was the Holy Spirit prompting my child not something mommy was doing.

Well Nathan has always been a child that has wanted to please dad and mom. And when Nathan was six years old he went to his dad and said that he wanted to ask Jesus in his heart. At this time too a close friend of his was getting baptized.

Well Nathan prayed to recieve Christ as his personal Savior that night. Ofcourse us as parents was elated that our son had made the most important decision of his life! But their was a part in my heart that wondered if this was a act he did to please dad and mom. It almost seemed that once Nathan did this that the real battle began! Nathan is a very strong willed child as well. This strong willness increased over the years. I kept telling myself it is a good thing to have a strong will as long as it is used to Gods glory. And so tried to train Nathan up to surrender his strength to the Lord. Nathan new deep in his heart that he really did not understand what he was doing but saw his friend get baptized and new that mommy and daddy was christains and talked alot of giving our hearts over to the Lord. So he prayed to do this, BUT thats all it was, was a prayer. No real repentance of sin,no real desire, hunger,to know God and put Him first in his life. This showed as Nathan grew over the years. Oh Nathan saw his own struggles too, you see as he grew older he pushed away the feelings of really knowing that what he had done was only to please us and as a result started to deceive himself. He believed that he was saved. He had struggle after struggle with his old nature(that he was still living in!)He would say I want to rededicate myself to the Lord, but you cannot rededitcate a relationship that is never there. So the result of that was a self attempt to make himself feel better. It never lasted. Nathan's real battle was that the Lord did not want a rededication but wanted Nathan to come to Him for the first time with a repentful heart and a step of faith into the saving Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Nathan began to live a life full of bitterness. Always finding something to be displeased with. Over the last few years it had gotten really bad. I would and his father would cry out to God to reveal this to Nathan. I would always ask the children to examine their hearts to ask God to test their hearts and see if their was any wrong way in them. Our son started to rebell against our teaching by closing his heart off when we would do devotions. This was taking place in his inner heart. He would still 'try' and act like a christain around other people but the true colors showed when at home. His heart was getting harder and harder, as a mom I was sick to my stomache to see my son deceive himself and see him go thru this battle. Anytime I would say "Nathan, you are not thinking like a person who has Christ in their heart, or are you pleasing the Lord?" He would become even more hardened and go even deeper into allowing himself to live in the flesh. This mostly was a rebellious attitiude if he would ask to do something and I or his father would say no he would make our lives miserable. It even got to the point where I didnt even confront him on issues because it would just make my day unliveable. Nathan's life was starting to defile the home! His siblings would see him act like this and at first was uneasy with it but over time this 'sinweed' was starting to spread and I would find them doing some of the same thing on a much lower scale, none the less I could see how this was spreading like cancer in our home. I would go to Tom and say hun what are we going to do! I did not want to see my family like this. When you have a 15,16or 17yr old doing these things a spanking,timeout,restrictions just dont cut it! This is a spirtitual warefare!! Over the last several years I started crying out to God, Lord what is it going to take? Then fear would fill my heart. Oh Lord what kind of trial will our family have to endure to bring this son around? I prayed and prayed, I finally got to a point that I prayed ok Lord I pray that you protect our family but do what it takes to open the eyes of my son before its to late!

Last year we were at the homeschool convention and S.M. DAVIS was speaking and it was on the birth order. And he was talking how satan wants our first borns! I wept that day because I knew that satan had my son deceived BUT I knew that Jesus was not going to let satan win this battle!!!Because Nathan wasnt living a peaceful or joyful life. The Lord was not going to let Nathan expeirence peace. He was always unhappy about something. Oh he was a enjoyable kid at times when things were going 'good' for him but that became farther and farther apart. Over this last year the battle became really intense, at times I thought how can our family function with this child defiling the home . Lord! when are you going to do something?! I would fall weak with exhasperation! Little did I know that the Lord was indeed working in Nathan's heart. The battle was raging! Nathan started having thoughts that even scared him! I believe the Lord allowed this  to show Nathan just what kind of waters he was treading. My heart breaks to think of some of the things that he spiritually endoured. The Lord was answering my prayer in a way I never thought of. He got down to deep heart issues with Nathan. A few weeks ago Nathan had a vision, he calls this a vision because he was not asleep but just in a state of being that he cannot really say how he was, but for sure not asleep. He was in his room on his bed though. Dream, vision, whatever, God used this expeirence to open my sons eyes and awaken his spirit! Nathan said that God allowed him to visit hell. He said his heart the whole time was pounding as he saw sin in all its power take place. He said there was mountains all around with demons sitting upon them chearing the sin that was taking place. People was committing murder, immoral acts( said he saw a man raping a man) this kind of freaked me out as he shared this as Nathan has never been exposed to that kind of thing like thru watching t.v. ect. But then the Lord quickened my heart that this is what He allowed Nathan to expierence to see the wickedness of sin. Said he saw a lake of lava where people was screaming and crying out. Others were just collasped to the ground mouning and weeping in despair. He saw satan himself sitting on his hell throne with a pleased appearance that he had gotten so many there! Nathan himself said that he was very cold, and the feeling in his heart and soul was unbearable! For he said he was with out the Spirit of God! God was NO WHERE! the absence of God gave him a lost feeling like no other! More than that feeling of Im all alone. Deeper than despair! Nathan awoken with a new fear of God that he had never expiernced before. To back up a little Nathan was also expierencing daily sprititual battles within the mind. Thoughts would pop into his head that he did not want there. For an example we went to Tom's brothers wedding and we had bought them a family bible. Tom asked Nathan to pass the bible to him in the car so that he could write in it and wrap it up. When Nathan passed the bible up to his father a quickened thought popped into his mind  that satan was God, Nathan quickly said NO! I REBUKE that thought and I did not mean that. Then hearing a voice say yes you did, say it for me! Nathan said NO! These kind of thoughts was taking place in Nathan's mind and he was getting really distressed by them. He got where he could not eat, drink or sleep. God was bringing a battle on that Nathan could only win by calling out to God! Back to the night that Nathan had his vision of hell, Nathan realized that night that God was trying to get his attention that he has been deceiving himself over the years and that he needed to call out to Him to repent from all his sin and to ask Jesus to take the wheel. Nathan approached his dad on May 24th, 2006 and shared the battle he had been in, with a trembling body, a humbled and broken heart Nathan went before the Lord and received the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior!!! What Joy has filled our hearts! What peace has filled our home! As Nathan surrended all. We are looking forward to seeing Nathan grow in grace and a closer walk with Jesus! Nathan can truly say No Jesus, No Peace, Know Jesus Know Peace!

As a mom Im excited to share that God keeps his promises! Train up a child the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. The Lord truly has remained faithful, He has showed me that Im responsible for training my children up but its by His power and His alone that will bring my children to repentance.

We are to have child like faith, and so I do believe that their are children that are young like Nathan was and has a understanding of what sin is and that the Holy Spirit leads them in a saving knowledge. One thing for sure, when we pray and entrust our children unto the Lord He will not leave us but will hold our families with his righteous right hand! PRAY,PRAY, PRAY for your children and He will lead them in the way everlasting.

Oh yes! I wanted to tell everyone HAPPY RESURRENTION DAY!

May we glorify, testify, and rejoice in our Lord and Savior! Thank you Jesus for all you have done! What a wonderful Savior we have.

We are going to go to church in the morning and only stay for the first service. Then we will go to my parents and have Easter supper with them my brother and sister-inlaw and their kids. And Dolly will join us as well. Thats the grandmother of the boys  that my brother is adopting. Im sure that my nieces will have their boyfriends there as well so we will have a real crowded cozy feeling their. But thats ok and we rejoice for family and friends, God is good!

Then we will have a fun time watching the older children hide eggs for the younger ones. I always enjoy watching the children out on the porch. What great memories but to sit and watch the children hide Easter eggs and run around in the grass!

May you all have a wonderful day with your loved ones and friends! Love to you all!

I cant believe that the last time I was here I had about 2 hours invested and lost it all! Soooo Ill try once again.

We had a crazy week with me having problems with my ankle. It seem as though everytime I  try to get on track with things something always comes up. I do feel as though we are making progress it just seems to be baby steps. The children I just about done with all their studies and I need to desperately get on the ball and get things orderd for them.

They didnt do alot of extra writing this past year other than their book reports from their litature so I want to have them do some copy writing from scripture this year and reciting. It would be nice to be part of a speech masters again but maybe family will do. Our aunts and uncles love hearing the children do their recital pieces for piano so maybe they will also enjoy hearing them do some scripture reciting.

Its been a hard week in getting things ready for Easter too. I just about have all my shopping done, food, stuff for baskets done but we still have alot of projects to do before tomorrow morning! I love Easter and love the fact that it gives me such a fun way of sharing the gospel with the children. They also look forward to it too, and even the older ones do not grow out of it! Thats what I love about my kids. Most teenagers would not want to participate in coloring Easter Eggs with their siblings but mine love it! Im sure that means that these boys will be doing it with their children side by side loving every minute of it! And I wouldnt want to leave my daughter out! She also loves it and looks forward to it! She is such a little momma to her younger siblings and is a great help to her momma!

Well I should get things rolling around here. Ive got some house cleaning to do before I head out anywhere. Things got a little undone this week with my ankle adventure. Its getting much better by the way, still a little swollen but seems to be healing well.

Ok here's the big test lets see if I can get this to go thru problem free!

Isnt it the little things in life that make it so sweet! I bought a broom at Walmart the other day and just love how it sweeps! Its going to make my job so much easier . Its amazing how we put up with things that long need replacing isnt it. Its like we get used to struggling with things and it becomes the norm. Sometimes I wonder if thats the way I am with my chidlren (not that I want them replaced!) but I mean we get so used to things that are not right and put up with it. Im having problems with first time obiedience with a few of my children, names withheld so as not to cause shamefulness. But Im beginning to realize that some of the reasons Im so tired at the end of a day is because of all the wasted breathe I use in telling the children to do a task over and over again thru out the day!

Gotta take a short break, hubby is home and wants a haircut before he heads to bed, I guess I should display some first time request obedience ;)

Finally! IM in to blog! It took me awhile but like I tell my children take the time to read directions!;).

We had such a busy week with cousin Lori in town and shopping that needed to be done and children to take to the doc! Im really getting tired of running to the docs so much! I hope this is the last of our sickies for this year.

We had a wonderful day going hiking in the Happiaunssa River Preserve, that is totally spelled wrong by the way! It was beautiful and  cool out and had rained the day before so there was this awesome smell of wet leaves, dirt, and trees. The smell reminded me of when I was a child. You know when you are little you are so close to the earth anyway and feel the need to examine everything and totally emerse your body in the leaves! Such a sweet, sweet smell too. The area was surrounded by Aspen trees that were tall with their white trunks and bright green leaves waving in the breeze.

This could have been the 100 acre woods!

I had the funnest time with Joah, we found an old log that was hallow. We both knelt down to look thru it, the child was at play in me and I decided to stretch Joah's imagination a little and said " do you suppose Joah that this could be Pooh Bears home?"  To see his eyes widen with excitiment was just the cutiest thing! We both decided that perhaps he (Pooh) was out looking for a little morsel of something like say HONEY! Yes a little rumbling in the tummy;) We decided that sounded real good and headed off the the picnic area for our own little morsel!

God has so blessed me with my children and I just dont take enough days like that to just become a child with them again and enjoy Gods beautiful creation around us. I do hope to get a family membership to the Phx. Zoo so that we can take in pleasurable days like that maybe on the spur of the moment with out needing to plan and make sure we have the cash ahead of time.

I want my children to see God in everything! I can remember before we moved from Peoria, and lived so close to the mountains that we had a grand view of the awesome sunsets that summer brings. We would almost everynight go out and get an icecream and then park close by and watch the sunset and reflect on the day we had and all that we were thankful for and ask ourselves if we led a life that day that was pleasing to the Lord. I need to keep doing those things not just for my children but for myself. To stop and look up into the majestic sky vew of our Lords handiwork and sing praises to His name nothing but nothing else matters! Its like being right before His Holy Throne *sigh* with how stressful life can be we NEED to do this.

We got some school work done this week but really outside of the academic world we had a wonderful week of family fellowship, took in the awesome and pleasurable creation of our Lords hand and was able to get some yard work done back home too!Overall a really nice week.

Oh my goodness Im a blogger now! Thanks to my best friend Diane:) Thank you so much for setting me up!

Ive had quite a day trying to get caught on the homefront as the last few days we have been so busy with appts. and  errands! Its nice to be able to be at home and get caught up on house work and get the children back into the routine of doing their school work.

It seems as though we are always going to appts. and visiting grandparents and to help them with service opportunities that we need to figure how to slow things down and make sure we are getting our chores and schooling done. Sometimes I feel as though my head is spinning circles. But I know when its all said and done God will be faithful and work all things out to His Glory and Riches.

Gee that felt good! Im looking forward to blogging and taking moments to reflect my days and hopefully be able to look back and see how far we have come, or how far we must go ;)

Thanks again Diane, love you so much and thanks for encouraging me to do this. May the Lord continue to bless us both as we seek to further His Kingdom and to become more like Him in all we do.