Yesterday we visited a local vegetable farm and picked strawberries. It was such fun. Here are a few pictures. We ended up with four buckets just like the one above.

The "big" picture. (Actually, this is only half of the "big" picture. There were several fields. You can see a little more in the next picture.

Here we are. Yes,  believe it or not that is me. A rare find. Better bookmark it. (Ha, ha) From left to right...Bess, me, Ben (in the sling), Aaron, Bethany, and Caleb.

I wish I had this tree in my backyard.

Or Mark learns to relax.

Today we Mark painted the baby’s room. (He wouldn’t let me help.) I’m so proud of him because he did let the children help and he didn’t get stressed at all.

Here are a few pics.

(This room used to be Bethany's room.)

Jesus began to speak against the cities where he had done most of his miracles.  The people there had not turned away from their sins.  So He said, “How terrible it will be for you, Korazin!  How terrible for you, Bethsaida!  Suppose the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon.  They would have turned away from their sins long ago.  They would have put on black clothes.  They would have sat down in ashes.  But I tell you this.  On judgment day it will be easier for Tyre and Sidon than for you (Matthew 11:20-22; NIrV)."

Immediately from Caleb:

Caleb:  I’ve turned away from my sins.

Bethany:  Did KK (one of Caleb’s many nicknames) accept Jesus in his heart? (She worries about this a lot.)

Caleb:  I accepted Him when I was born!

Bethany:  Does he even know what that means?!

Hmmmm…

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father.  You are Lord of heaven and earth.  You have hidden these things from the wise and educated.  But you have shown then to little children (Matthew 11:25).

This morning I’m tired. In fact this whole week I’ve felt out of it. I don’t know what it is. Yes, I know I’m pregnant, but still…I wasn’t tired last week. I was at peace last week. This week I’m not.

The children seem to be in the same funk. I think we feel about like the weather outside looks – gloomy.

Ah Lord, lift us out of this weariness. Fill our hearts and our home with Your peace. Motivate me. Energize me. Fill me up. Turn my eyes away from my curriculum and how tired I am of it…forgive me for not being thankful for it. Help me to see it as a blessing. Dircet my steps.

blessings,                                                                                                      

dani

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for God who promised is faithful. –Hebrews 10:23

Yesterday started at 1:00 a.m.

Caleb came rushing into our room. He said that he felt “funny” and that things were “spinning”. I reached out and touched his forehead.  Sure enough he was burning up. I pulled him into bed and sent Mark out to grab the thermometer, some medicine, and a cool cloth for his head. We prayed over him and a short while later he calmed down and we went back to sleep. Mark went out to sleep on the couch. (Sorry.)

Fast forward. Now it is morning.

Caleb woke up feeling better and with little or no fever (Praise God!) Elisabeth woke up grumpy. Still feeling out of sorts. Aaron and Bethany both seemed much improved. I’m thankful.

Elisabeth is making life very difficult. I spend some time sitting with her and then try to put her down for a nap – twice. No go. Now it is about 11:00 a.m.. We attempt to do a little schoolwork, but after awhile I give up and decide that we simply have to get out of the house. Elisabeth likes to “go, go” and the children seem a little better and I have errands I have to run soooo I call Mark and ask if he wants to meet us for lunch. He says yes. I spend a few minutes finishing up what we are working on then attempt to get everyone presentable. They are all already dressed, but there is hair to be smoothed and shoes to put on. This takes an inordinate amount of time but eventually we all get out the door. We are thirty minutes late.  Luckily, Mark is also running late so everything works out. I try to de-stress as I drive along. I’m praying. Suddenly Aaron screams that Elisabeth isn’t buckled in. In fact she is nearly falling head first out of her car seat. I praise God that I didn’t hit the car in front of me when Aaron screamed. Aaron buckles her in. I wonder what the cars around us think.

We finally arrive at the café. It is packed with business folk. No children in sight. I look at Mark and he asks if we should go someplace else. We decide to tough it out and pray that a table big enough to fit us will appear. God is good. By the time we make it through the serving line a large table comes available.

I am very aware of my children and of how old they are. Does anyone else ever feel this way? I wonder what the other folks are thinking. Then I smile and I wish they would ask. I almost feel sorry for them. The kids are great. We finish our lunch, kiss Daddy goodbye and head out. I drag the children to two different stores. (I really had no choice.) After the first store Aaron is lagging and begging to lie down. I tell him we will speed through the second store which we do because I am afraid that Aaron is either going to puke or pass out. Finally, we head home and I put everyone down for a time of rest and naps. Aaahhh…whew! I can’t believe I actually got the things I needed to done. I’m in a better mood.

Fast forward to today. This morning Elisabeth sees the pacifiers I bought for the new baby. (I had to buy a baby shower gift and couldn’t resist buying something for my new little guy as well - little Eli?) She asks about the pacifiers by pointing at them and saying “baby?” I tell her they are for the new baby. She looks the baby doll in her arms and asks again. They are different from her pacifiers, but she wants them anyway.

I say: No, these Nuks (they are actually AVENT brand but all pacifiers in our house are called Nuks) are for this baby. (I point at my tummy.)

Bess: Oh, baby. Yeah. (She nods, looks at my tummy, pokes it, then tries to pull up my shirt and look. She pats it.) Baby.

I suddenly feel extremely blessed. One of the things we say often to the children is “we have a great family don’t we?” They all respond with “yes!”  The neat thing is Aaron started this saying. I’m praying that they always feel the way they do now…because we really do have a great family. Yes, I really am blessed.

blessings,

dani

From the lips of children and infants You have ordained praise. –Psalm 8:2

Today a friend called and asked if she could come over. I said, “Sure, so long as you don’t mind the fact that all my kids are sick.” She declined. I would have too.

Aaron woke up sick this morning. No surprise. He has some strange variation of whatever (the flu, I think) has been going around our home and spent most of the morning losing the contents of his stomach. 

During a lull, we had our morning bible reading and catechism review, then Bethany, Caleb and I read The Story of Ping and learned a little about Samuel Morse and a few other things. (Math and reading with Bethany; MFW A to Z with Caleb.) Aaron listened from the couch. He had some reading and map work to do, but said his head hurt to much to do anything. He fell asleep shortly before lunch.

On the bright side, the girls seem to be on the mend, Elisabeth took a great morning nap and the weather is beautiful.

                                        Heartwork

God sends children for another purpose than merely to keep up the race-

(it is) to enlarge our hearts, to make us unselfish, and full of kindly sympathies and affections.

                                                      -Mary Howitt

blessings,

dani

Seeing Jesus, [Jarius] fell at His feet and pleaded earnestly with Him, “My little daughter is dying.  Please come and put Your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.”  So Jesus went with him. –Mark 5:22-24

Yesterday I was counting my blessings. It seemed that my girls were on their way to being healthy and that my boys had dodged the “bullet”. Their (the girls) fevers were down. No one was coughing excessively. We had a full day of school. Good naps. The day ran (relatively) smoothly and I once again got everything done.  (Praise God!)

So that was yesterday.  This morning at 5 a.m. I was greeted by Elisabeth (Bess) coughing and crying. Next the others woke up and soon the house was ringing with the unpleasant (painful) sound of many children coughing. All four to be exact.  I can still hear Bethany, Aaron and Elisabeth every few minutes. (Aaron seems a little better. He drank some hot tea…I am a firm believer in the power of hot tea to move congestion.) The boys are still fever free but both girls are once again battling low grade fevers.  Caleb is the healthiest. Needless to say, Elisabeth has been excessively grumpy. 1.  Because she woke up at 5 a.m. and 2. Because she woke up early I put her back to bed at 6 a.m. which meant she slept until approx. 9:30 a.m. which means that her nap schedule is messed up. (Her normal morning nap starts at 9:30 a.m.) Because her nap schedule is off she didn’t go down for her morning nap (she still takes two naps) until 12:30 p.m. so she was awake during school. (Which was just too much fun for all of us. Not!) Which means that in a few minutes I need to get busy and finish up with Aaron and Bethany since my sweet Elisabeth is finally asleep and the house is finally drama free. (Praise God!) Oh dear, she is awake again…more coughs, crying…maybe if I sit here for a few minutes she will go back to sleep. My poor dear. I hate when my children are sick. I’ve been so blessed this past year, because they have all been relatively healthy. Oh, thank You. She is quiet again. Heal her please! And help her to sleep...good and long.

So I guess this morning didn’t run as smoothly as Monday or Tuesday (Sigh) but on the bright side I’m not sick…a huge blessing considering that being pregnant and sick is the worst. Another bright spot is that I’m no longer feeling run down which makes it much easier to deal with sick children and attitudes…and everything else.

Want to have a little fun? Here are a few names we are thinking about.

Ian – Scottish form of John also Irish. Means “God’s gracious gift.”

Jeremiah or Jeremy – Means “Exalted by the Lord.”

Benjamin –  Means “Son of my right hand.”

Isaac – Means “He will laugh.”

Elijah or Eli – Means “Up or light.”

You can vote if you want.

God is good.

blessings,

dani

To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!  -Jude 25

So today we broke out the books again. It was our first day back after two weeks of Christmas holiday. Even with two sick girls (fevers of 103.8 overnight and hacking wet coughs) everything went smoothly. Not what I expected.

I’m thankful. (So thankful.) This morning I thought that I would be writing about how nothing ever works according to plan (my plan?! covered in prayer, but still...) but God surprised me. He gave me a gift. Today has been peaceful and easy. (Thank You!) I’m praying that the rest of the week will continue the same.  

Family worship has been going surprisingly well, too. We’ve almost got it figured out. The kids sit at Dad’s (Mark's) feet as he reads a short verse or scripture passage and then discusses it with them. He is reading through Psalms right now. God is so good…because now the minute Mark picks up the Bible and calls the children Bess is sitting at his feet. (It is really cute.) She still doesn’t sit still for the whole thing, but considering that I haven’t done a single thing towards training her to do so it seems almost miraculous. Beautiful is what it is. God is good. Hope your day went well.

blessings,

dani

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. –Psalm 90:12