I have not had a lot of opportunity to wear LucyLillie much, since everyone wants to hold her, but with Isaac and Caleb, I wore them everywhere and all day at home, unless they were nursing.
They were in my carrier when I cooked, when I did laundry, when I gave Creative Memories scrapbooking shows, when we went to church… They were in the Ergo or carrier all the time. Caleb still gets in the Ergo when he is tired. I could always put him into the Ergo when he was a toddler and he would fall asleep.
We did go into town on a walk this evening, though, and I got to wear LucyLillie in my Ergo while I pushed Caleb in the stroller. I love it that they are attached and still able to look around and be a part of life.
It is easy to enter, and if you blog about it, you get extra entries. Here are the rules:
No purchase necessary to enter & win!
Just answer the question below by midnight on July 31, 2008. Winner will be picked at random from all correct entries. Only ONE regular entry per person will be allowed. However, see question #2 to receive BONUS entries!
The winner will be announced by email to all entrants on or before August 10, 2008. Winner will receive an essential babywearing stash from Along for the Ride.
The Essential Babywearing stash includes one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Beco Butterfly, one Zolowear Ring Sling, one Gypsy Mama Wrap and one Hotsling — in whatever colors and patterns you choose.
Wearing my babies has been an advantage in so many situations. with my last two sons, I wore them everywhere and all day at home, unless they were nursing.
They were in my carrier when I cooked, when I did laundry, when I gave Creative Memories scrapbooking shows, when we went to church…
They were in the backpack or carrier all the time.
It is a time-saver and a bonding time, and we love it!
Amanda posted some really great pictures of our trip to Georgia. You should go over and see them after you read this post. heheh!
I was adding my own personal prayer requests to my Keep in Prayer page, and it just turned into a post, so here it is. Please pray for us in this area. It is a big decision and is a part of most of our thoughts throughout the day. Anything we do relates to where we will be moving to.
I have felt for a time that we need to move. About four years ago, I really wanted to move to be closer to our family, and Matt flat out did not want to even think about it. He was under a lot of financial stress and dealing with other church and family issues, and it was not the right timing for him, so I determined to not mention it to him again. And I didn’t. He actually brought it up when LucyLillie was about 2 or 3 weeks old. It had been 80′ the week before she was born, and 2 weeks later, there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground. Being a mailman and having been born and raised in New Mexico, he is not a winter-snow kind-a-guy! He started talking about moving, and inside, I was jumping for joy! I had to have him clarify that he was saying he was ready to move. Well, that was over a year ago, and now, I am still jumping for joy at the thought, but sad and perplexed at when, where and how!
We moved here because we had family close and a better paying job. Now, we don’t see our family much, and the job is transferrable. But, now, we love our homestead. But we miss our family in New Mexico. And, Matt hates working in the winter weather, and we HATE the mosquitoes, which do not allow for our children to play outside most of the summer. However, my grandparents are still alive, and they mean a lot to us and our children, but they are 90 minutes away, and we don’t see them much.
We (and I mean me, but I know we all feel this way) want to live closer to my Mom and sister, and Matt’s parents. We would like to be closer to his parents so we can build a closer relationship with them. We do not particularly want to live in New Mexico, but I don’t know if that means we aren’t supposed to. I long to be within walking - or at least driving- distance from my Mom and Sis and my In-laws. we have lived here for 11 years, in this area, and as much as we have learned and become, I count the years away as losses to our family relationships with our parents and Grandma Dixon, who is now waiting for the Lord’s return to be taken up with Him, and we certainly missed out on knowing her for this time.
Now, we have an addition to finish and other things to spruce up on our house, like floors to finish and windows to replace and drywall to repair. The addition is about 80% done, and just waiting on the heating system, the flooring and finish work, a lot of which we can do. Before we went on vacation, I was having a hard time with the prospects of leaving a house we have not yet lived in as finished and one that 3 of our little babies were born in. When we had been at Aunt Barbara’s for a day, God changed my heart. I sat there, looking around, and a thought came to me. We had already visited and stayed at two other friends’ homes. I thought to myself that we can be content elsewhere. Wherever we live, in whatever home, it will be ours. That was a word from the Lord. I had been lamenting for months about leaving. Now I felt peace.
When I came home, I sat in the same spot on the couch where I could see the same view of the barn (that I adore), the mailbox(that we all worked on putting up as a family) and the garden area, and it all looked different than it ever had. I am content with moving. Now, don’t get me wrong, it will take a whole box of tissues to leave this favored homestead, but, I am ready to go when we do.
I look forward to knowing. That is all. I just want to know. That’s me. but, I’ll wait. That’s not me, but the Lord.
When we were traveling, I realized that some people will never make a big move. They may move around their area, but not the 1500 miles we have moved 3 times we have already and the one more we plan to. It is a huge decision. I am trusting in the Lord, and apparently, the time has not yet come for us to know when and where yet. but, I know I don’t want to move without Him and his plan.
If you want to know about that picture of LucyLillie, go over to Amanda’s now and read her post!
I have been on a journey now for my entire life, and I did not even know it until about five years ago. It has been a journey to become the woman God created me to be. There have been curves in the road, barricades and detours. So many times, I was not even close to the right path, but I know the Lord was watching me and trying to get my attention. I am thankful for His faithfulness and the prayers of many I may never know.
I am blessed today to be on the closest path to fulfilling my purpose that I have ever been on. I am privileged to stay at home and train my children in the Lord and an uncompromising education. I am nowhere near where I should be or could be had I been counting it such a privilege to be a wife and mother since I came to the Lord in 1988.
It is hard to admit that I still struggle daily with being a cooperative and pleasant wife of a very hard-working husband. It is a journey I am still on. I do not know why God deemed it my lot to have these wonderful children, but there is not a time I am not thankful. That sounds impossible, but I always end my thoughts, even after frustrations, with how sweet my child is and how much I truly love him or her. That is only from God, because it has not always been this way!
I asked myself for the first ten years - and sometimes I asked others, “Why did God give me three girls first?”. I am not sure I can yet fully answer that question, but it has been proven many times how blessed I am to have three daughters first in our large family. These girls are such a blessing, a joy, and my best girlfriends. I am honored to be their mother.
As I said, we did not really have an understanding of woman and her design and purpose until about nine years ago. God spoke into our hearts about having children. He showed me in His Word why He gives us children and what happens when He gives us children. We started trusting Him in that, and it changed our lives. Shortly after this new-found understanding, we went through some very difficult trials that caused us to search and be confident in God’s Word alone. The things we learned in the next two years put us further into God’s plan for our lives.
At this time, and each year before, I had no idea what a wife really was. I mean, I understood that I was Matt’s partner as a married woman, but I did not understand my Biblical role, and even moreso, I did not understand what that Biblical role of a woman meant to my husband and children. I’m not sure I do yet. I do, in my brain and my heart, but my flesh is unwilling to let me remember sometimes still. ugh. Needless to say, we have stuck with each other through thick and thin, but not in a God-honoring way many times. Only by God’s grace can I shake the feminist bonds and become the lovely woman God created me to be.
Five years ago, I got a hold of a different homeschooling philosophy through such resources as Educating the Wholehearted Child and The Charlotte Mason Companion. Then, three years ago, I found a few sites that promoted a Biblical life. Sadly, that was all new to me. I had been a Christian for fifteen years, but did not have a clear understanding of denying my rights for His. I started reading my Bible differently, and God put a hunger in me to be a Godly wife. I no longer read it from my perspective, but from God’s. It wasn’t the world’s or the Church’s point of view I saw. I finally saw how different Scriptures I had heard or read over and over related to each other. It was as though I understood a new language. I understood that God has a specific personality and is steady. I can see, in His Word, what God thinks about things. He told us, and it is in there, if we look and listen. The Old Testament became more real to me and more a part of the New Testament than it had ever been.
I found some family resources and heard what I had already heard preached many times, but now it seeped into my spirit, and I soaked it all up. I was ecstatic. I was thrilled to finally ’see’ what the Bible meant. I wanted to learn it all and do it all, because we had lost so much time in the first fifteen years I had known the Lord. On the other hand, my girls hated it. I was so full of zeal for this new-found understanding of womanhood, I didn’t want to wait for them to catch up. There were some deep-seated worldly ideals that we had allowed in, and it took quite the strength and perseverance from all of us to get them out. Slowly, though, things changed in all of our hearts.
I put the family on a schedule that helped us do things we had never done before. We cleaned and cooked and homeschooled in an order that allowed for time for other things. We started doing things that the world no longer holds in high regard. We were so thrilled to learn them and enjoy each other and have something to show for it. We were blessed to make quilts and include it as a part of their learning. We started sewing. We spent time scrapbooking together. We had home births with our sixth and seventh children and welcomed two new sons into the family together as a family affair. We bought two goats and became interested in homesteading. There were still rebellion issues with the girls, but God walked us through them. He kept us close through the anger and hurt and brought us closer than we had ever been. He had a purpose.
When the girls and I started blogging in April 2006, my intention was for them to do weekly assignments for English or Research, but, before I knew it, a monster had been created… or two… or three. To this day I am amazed at how God used blogging to shape their perspectives and cause them to research and write things that I never could have anticipated or assigned. They wanted to blog, and they came up with topics on their own. I was quality control, editor, and their personal confidante in many topics, from the silly daily things to heart-breaking issues to deep Biblical posts.
God has allowed blogging to be a large part of our training our daughters. Having the three of them so close in age has allowed them to play off of each other in their beliefs, thoughts and silliness. They can be each others’ biggest heroes and biggest thorns! But, oh! I can see the love and integrity and compassion and fervor they each share for each other. And for their friends! Real life created many opportunities for reflection and soul-searching, and allows them to do it inwardly and openly at the same time. They have grown from the inside out.
Some days, we talk about the Bible and how it relates to our lives for hours. We revisit Scriptures as we serve dinner and clean or watch the Littles. Out of the blue, we can start a conversation about God or His plan or any number of things in His Word and see how it relates to our lives. Are we doing what God has for us? Are our attitudes or thoughts honoring God? Are we being too harsh or judgmental? All of these questions are open conversations in our home, and God uses them to shape us and open our eyes to His truths. And we are blessed.
I always wanted a boy first. I wanted a boy for three consecutive pregnancies. I could not see the future. I did not know what a blessing girls are. I did not understand what it is to be a woman, to train young women, to teach them how to become women. I did not foresee all of the times we would cook together and laugh and cry and scrapbook. All of the heartaches and tears. The smiles and fears that we overcome with the Word of God. And now, to have two daughters who are almost adults, to watch all of my girls, at ages 18, 17, 14, 8, and 1, just love on each other; it is such an honor. It warms my heart in a way that I know only God could have foreseen.
I do not deserve the unconditional love that my daughters show me on a daily basis. Or that any of my children show me, for that matter. I am not always the best example of gentleness, love or holiness. I do not always start my day off in the Word as I would like to do. We have by no means arrived, nor am I saying that our particular journey is the only way to become who God has created woman to be. I am still so sinful, and I do not feel worthy of so many blessings as God has given me. It is a good thing that neither my goodness nor my sinfulness is the measure by which God gives me His grace. It is a good thing He measures it out much more than any of us deserves.
Learning that truth in the past few years has allowed me to look at the role of a woman, a wife, and a mother differently. It is not self that I should look to apply the blessings in Scriptures to. It is not my perspective that is important. It is God’s. My perspective is important in shaping what I believe, but looking at the Word through His eyes is what I need to do. It is the only way I can show God to my children. It is the only way I can stop stomping my foot and demanding my way over my husband’s or my children’s. It is the only way I can be an example of a woman of God, Help Meet to my husband and lover of my children. I know it is my lifelong journey, and I want to fulfill this purpose. And, we have by no means arrived, nor am I saying that our particular journey is the only way to become who God has created woman to be.
Last year I opened a blog on homesteadblogger entitled Training Daughters, Teaching Wives. My intention was to blog about things we had learned or were learning on this journey we have made in becoming Godly women. We were going to be reading Created To be his HelpMeet together, and I thought we could post about it on there. Though we do not blog on it regularly, the TDTW blog has become a little blog compilation of some of our posts,
Instead of worrying about keeping up the blog, I created the Training Daughters, Teaching Wives blogroll. The TDTW blogroll is for moms training their daughters in the Biblical admonishment of training our daughters in the Word and for women teaching wives in the Titus 2 admonishment for the older to teach the younger. Of course, as we train our daughters, we will begin to teach them about being a Godly wife.
We have many wonderful blogs of on the blogroll already. If you are interested in joining the TDTW blogroll please contact me. Adding the blogroll to your blog will not automatically add you to the blogroll itself! I will contact you with the code after taking a look at your blog. :))
It has been a long week. It was a long drive home last Saturday, and it has been a long week of getting back into being home and catching up from being gone for two weeks. I have been looking over all of the pictures we took, smiling at all of the fun times, sweet memories and wishes of being with family.
Throughout those two weeks, I prayed and depended on God’s protection as we traveled through mountains, and mountains, and mountains, and long flat highways where the speed limit is 80mph(!), and fighting sleepiness in the early morning hours.
I was certain (read: hoping) that we would know where we were going to move to by the time we returned home. Spending time with family and daily seeing the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces just wrenches my heart even now when I look at the pictures! I forgot how much I love wide-open spaces! So, it has still been emotional…
Add to that the recent urgent prayer requests, and I have been taken to where I know God wants me: clinging to Him. I can’t imagine living in this world not knowing God. Not being able to live with the faith that, “I don’t understand it, but I know it is in God’s Hands.”
Then, we went for a little walk last night, just Rachel and the Littles and me. We went into town, where the mosquitoes are not so bad, ’cause they spray. Yeah right. Well, now, LucyLillie has a huge swollen eyelid. A mosquito bite. On her eyelid. I am so glad I can gather our children together, lay our hands on Little LL and pray for her healing.
Verse 3 of this Psalm is especially comforting right now.
3He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
God is our Healer and our Comforter. He is our sustainer. I look at my husband and children differently each time I draw close to Him. Praise His Name.
Psalm 147
1Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
2The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.
3He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
4He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
5Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
6The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.
7Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:
8Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.
9He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.
10He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
11The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
12Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.
I do not like these prayer requests. I will just say it up front. I don’t like to hear about sick and dying children. Here is a request for a new little baby boy. It is also urgent.
“…we were told that Joe has tested positive for Enterovirus.”
I know that God is faithful and hears the prayers of his people.
You can read his dad’s and mom’s posts at Preschoolers and Peace.
Also, please pray for LucyLillie. She got a mosquito bite on her eyelid, and her eye is swollen shut.
I am doing what I can for her, and praying it doesn’t get infected. We are monitoring it, hoping we don’t have to take her in. Praying for her healing!
“The neurosurgeon has decided and we agree that it is time for them to remove the coma medications to let Rachael wake up if she will. It is not possible to assess her brain damage without waking her. It is most likely that this will cause her pressure to spike too high and she won’t survive it. But that is my opinion based on what I know.
But it is time for us and her to know what will happen.”
Also, please pray for LucyLillie. She got a mosquito bite on her eyelid, and her eye is quite swollen.
I am doing what I can for her, and praying it doesn't get infected. We are monitoring it, hoping we don't have to take her in. Praying for her healing!
Saturday Psalm & Praise Reminder Friday, June 27, 2008
I have missed the past two weeks of Saturday Psalm & Praise, due to being on vacation. I wanted to post a reminder today that I will be posting my Saturday Psalm and Praise meme tomorrow.
“What is a meme?” you might ask. A meme, in the sense that we use it for a weekly blog meme, is a set of posts done by different bloggers in the same circle that are similar and based around a predetermined theme. Basically, post a Psalm or Praise song and leave me a link. That way, everyone who comes here and reads my Saturday Psalm & Praise can find yours too, if they want to be more inspired.
If you would like to learn more about my Saturday Psalm & Praise meme, you can look at the first one I did, where I included its purpose and the ‘rules’.
I hope that you will join me tomorrow by posting a favorite worship song or a Psalm and linking to my post. I will have a Mr. Linky on the post, and all I ask is that you direct-link your post on it.
I have had so many friends who tell me they look forward to reading my Saturday P&P each week, even if they don’t participate.
Go on over to her blog and check out the pictures of the Twisted Silver Jewelry she has.
Twisted Silver is premiering three new products this week: Motif earrings, Chichi bracelet, and Pod bracelet. A lucky winner, selected randomly from comments, will receive a pair of the Motif earrings!
Motif Earrings: An intricate curving paisley motif bracketed by brass hand forged angles. Wear your art! $50
She also has 2 coupon codes for you if you don’t want to wait to win and want to dive right in and buy a set!
This contest is open to non-bloggers, just use a valid email address when posting your comment.
Contest is from June 24-28th, so get on over there and leave your comment!!!
Ok, so several of you knew, and many of you probably surmised that we were on vacation for the past two weeks. Yes, we traveled all of 5,000+ miles over the past two weeks, and met and visited four blogger families as well as family in Louisiana and New Mexico that we haven’t seen in years, some up to 17 years!
It was a long trip, and we are happy to be off the road, but I woulda’ stayed if I could have!! I wish we could have stayed in LA longer and visited with Grandpa and Aunts and Uncles, but maybe we will see them again soon! A week was not long enough to stay with my mom and my sister and Adrian, either.
Be looking for updates on all of our blogs of all of our adventures and our 3,000+ photos!!
Josephine and her daughters, Jordan and Sarah, and Sandy and her children. We didn’t get to meet Celeste, but we wish we could have!
Sprittibee and her hubby(unfortunately for only about five minutes) and her little munchkins.
Chickie, Sbees momma
I can’t count Heather, Chickie, Kaden and Morgan as ‘meeting’, since we already got to meet them in April, but it was fun seeing them again!
It was a blessing to meet all of these dear friends. We were humbled and blessed to meet and pray with Josephine's family. If you haven’t met them online yet, please go over and read Josephine’s story. And pray for them. They are a dear family. I am sad right now thinking about leaving them, and I so wish I could just go over right now and sit in her living room with her or weed her garden with her.
Thank you to each and everyone of you, my friends. It was a time we will never forget.
I am bummed I didn’t get to post for Caleb’s Birthday or Matt’s. You can read the birthday tributes here:
Today, June 22nd, is my grandmother’s birthday, mom’s mom. The anniversary of her death was on Friday, the 20th, which was also Matt’s birthday. Times slips by so quickly… don’t waste a moment of it. I need to have that drilled into my head sometimes.
Holy cow! Have we been so busy for the past week! We have so many things to do for the trip, and our grass will surely be a jungle when we get back! There is laundry to prepare, food to eat to clean out the fridge, and still potatoes and onions to plant. Ugh…
I can only imagine what people will think when they see all ten of us packed into the van, piling out at gas stations, into stores and just driving along. It is a lot of planning and work, but any trip is.
Here is some planning info to share and log for future reference:
The scoop on me: Believer for 20 years; married 19 years; 8 children so far, hoping for more; live on a great hobby farm, with 7 goats, 2 dogs and 68 chickens. Oh, and 1 bathroom. That's always fun. :)
The scoop on our homeschool: Bible-first, Living Learning Moments, meaning if it happens, it's a lesson. We learn life! How long have we been homeschooling? Well, our oldest is 18. How much longer do we have to go? Well, our youngest is almost 1. We love it and wouldn't have it any other way.
Jeremiah 6:16
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
Adam walked in the Garden with God. He talked with him. God was his companion. Yet, that did not complete man. God's plan was different. Even as Adam walked with God, God saw a need in his new creation. God met that need with a woman.
Genesis 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Let us turn from the current 'pop-culture-christianity' society we live in and get back to the Word.
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Proverbs 16:9
A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
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*
The Bible *
* is NOT *
* a fiction book *
******************
Keep their hearts. If you don't have their hearts, take note and re-capture their hearts!
Don't let the seeds sown by the ideal of today's youth culture ruin the glorious plans God has for your child.
Satan wants him. Your child is a jewel in Christ's crown, and satan wants him. Train him as such.
You want him more. So does the Lord.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Our School 2007-2008: How We Learn:
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Mom
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*Early morning coffee-time to include:
* Bible Reading
* Prayer: for Husband, children
* Planning
*Reading to Littles
*Time to snuggle
*Computer Time
*Time with older children
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Everyone
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*Love God and Family
*Bible Reading
*Self-discipline
*Proper Manners
*Polished Cornerstones or Plants Grown Up
*Art: sketching, coloring, painting
*Cooking
*Caring for animals
*Arithmetic
*scrapbooking, notebooking
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Teaching the Littles
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*Love God and Family
*Self-discipline
*Proper Manners
*Cooking
*Caring for animals
*Arithmetic
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Fun For Littles
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*Playing Cards - War
*Chalk and chalk board
*modeling clay, a cutting board and a plastic knife
*Counting chocolate chips
*folding laundry - towels are easy
*paper and pencil
*helping to make cookies
*rolling out dough (playing with the flour)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Teaching the Middles
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*Self-discipline
*Cooking and Baking
*Sewing
*Feed and Care of Goats and Chickens
*Mathematics
*Reading Literature
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ High School
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*Daily Bible Study
*Home Economics:Hospitality and the Art of Life
*Writing Essays
*Blogging
*Writing E-books
*Making up unit studies
*Literature: Foreign and American
*Life Skills
*Algebra
*Biology
*American History and Government
*Computer Technology & Web Design
*Reading Homeschool books
*Business Skills
*Spanish
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Deuteronomy 6:1-13
1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
2 That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
1 And God spake all these words, saying,
2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
I have felt for a time that we need to move. About four years ago, I really wanted to move to be closer to our family, and Matt flat out did not want to even think about it. He was under a lot of financial stress and dealing with other church and family issues, and it was not the right timing for him, so I determined to not mention it to him again. And I didn’t. He actually brought it up when LucyLillie was about 2 or 3 weeks old. It had been 80′ the week before she was born, and 2 weeks later, there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground. Being a mailman and having been born and raised in New Mexico, he is not a winter-snow kind-a-guy! He started talking about moving, and inside, I was jumping for joy! I had to have him clarify that he was saying he was ready to move. Well, that was over a year ago, and now, I am still jumping for joy at the thought, but sad and perplexed at when, where and how!
We started doing things that the world no longer holds in high regard. We were so thrilled to learn them and enjoy each other and have something to show for it. We were blessed to make quilts and include it as a part of their learning. We started sewing. We spent time scrapbooking together. We had home births with our sixth and seventh children and welcomed two new sons into the family together as a family affair. We bought two goats and became interested in homesteading. There were still rebellion issues with the girls, but God walked us through them. He kept us close through the anger and hurt and brought us closer than we had ever been. He had a purpose.
