Announcing Aimee Grace

On Saturday Evening, after 13 hours of labor (about 11 of them with minimal pain) our third daughter was born at 10:33 pm.

We have a child-naming pattern. All of our boys’ names start with B,C,D,E and F (but not in that order).

Sons and One Daughter

Our girls’ start with Ad and An.

3 Daughters.

Now we have an Ai.

Aimee Grace was born with fairly long light brown hair. She is our second smallest, at 7 pounds, 10 ounces.

It’s been almost eleven years since I gave birth to E, our youngest biological child. He just asked if he could change Aimee’s diaper.

Aimee and a ten and a half year old

And it’s been more than five year since we adopted F. But the memories and skills are coming back.

Aimee and a five year old

We feel blessed and amazed that in God’s grace, he would gift us with another life!

By the way, here’s my husband’s post about our new daughter. It has more information.

The Last Nine Months

I’m writing this from a hospital room – for a good reason. I should have told you about this earlier.

Last summer, after thinking I was no longer able to have a baby (since I haven’t been pregnant in seven years), we received the happy news that I was pregnant.

The pregnancy has gone well. In fact, I think this has been was easier than my last few pregnancies. I’ve been much less tired. And my kids are much older. They can help out!

But now I’m at 38 weeks and the doctor was concerned that my blood pressure was too high so we’re inducing today!

Please pray; It’s been almost eleven years since I’ve given birth.

I’ll let you know!

The Death of Our 36-year-old Freezer…Sorry Grandma!

Today we said good-bye to my grandma’s freezer, which we have owned for 15 years.  As we were waiting in front of it for the new freezer to arrive (we get excited about little things!), we wondered how old it really was.  So I told this story…

When I was (I think) seven, my grandma broke both of her arms while ice skating.  (I thought that was cool when I was seven; now I realize it wasn’t.)  As children like to do, I drew a picture of my grandma with both arms in a cast.  That picture hung on my grandma’s freezer for many years.  That’s how I knew the freezer was at least 36 years old.

Then we looked up “Sears Coldspot Freezer” online and learned that Sears only made “Coldspots” from 1928 to 1976.

I was sad to see it go, since it represented so many happy memories of my grandma’s house (and her cooking and baking), but here are some nice things about the new freezer…

 

• The new freezer door closes all the way (and it’s even hard to open)!
• We don’t have to use duct tape to keep the door closed.
• I won’t have to dig out what I want from the freezer.
• I won’t have to work really hard to get something in.
• Our food is going to taste better—and I won’t have to keep throwing away my frozen vegetables.
• It’s going to be less expensive to run.
• It’s clean.
• It’s cold.

I hope my children and grandchildren grow up to have fond memories of our freezer—and the food and holidays and family get-togethers it represents!

Morning Offering

Here’s a morning prayer about time that I read in my new book, and I really like it.  The author, Pat King, got this from a friend of hers, and her friend called it her “Morning Offering.”  For moms (or anybody) with too much to do, this is a keeper!

“Dear Jesus,
I offer to You this day and ask the Holy Spirit to guide my ways at all times.
I ask that time will be used efficiently,
that I will not be so rushed I cannot smile,
that I will be Your tool,
that I will meet people I should meet,
that I will share Your love.
I ask that as I use Your time, You will give me time to accomplish everthing on my list today.”

(From How Do You Find the Time by Pat King)

I still need to post about what happened when I had to fit in more than what I had time for right after reading this the other day!

My Lesson about Simple Homeschooling

I am thankful for other homeschooling moms who blog, as I was greatly helped this evening! 

I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed recently, and while there are probably several reasons, I think a big one is that I am comparing my homeschooling style with other homeschoolers, specifically ones who are doing everything!  (Or at least look like they’re doing everything.)  As a mother of seven who’s trying to homeschool six kids in grades 2-8, I can’t do everything, and there are days when I feel like I am ruining my kids for sure!

So, in desperation, I googled “Simple Homeschooling” and came up with a blog by that name.  It just so happens (thank you, LORD) that her most recent post was about THE secret of successful homeschooling; nurturing relationships. 

Well, that is something I have NOT been doing a stellar job with, as I have been nagging the kids to do their jobs without being told, clean up, put away their stuff, get their school work done, etc., all because I feel like a complete failure.  (So nagging will help, right?)  🙂

Anyway, right after reading this, my eight year old came up to me and said, “We’re all having pudding and watching Little House on the Prairie downstairs.  Could you come and be with us?”  Okay.  Time to test the theory.

I said, “Umm.  Sure.”  (I had been planning on spending this time getting ready for school tomorrow.)

I went downstairs, and the other kids commented, “You’re going to SIT with us?  Oh, good!”  And there was no end of cheerful chatter and discussion that continued even after the show was over.  The kids even suggested we just sit in the living room and talk until Scott got home at 10:00 pm. 

So as it turns out, my kids like me and think I’m the best mom in the world!  I’ll trade that anyday for being the best instructor and administrator, and who knows, maybe they’ll learn more tomorrow because they feel loved and valued by their teacher!

An Anniversary Picnic

I have been married to my beloved for seventeen years, now!  It has gone by so fast!

To celebrate, we went on a “date picnic.”  We picked up some food at Applebee’s, found a nice spot by a lake, and enjoyed the beautiful weather and meaninful conversation.  After a short stroll along the path by the lake, we headed to Barnes & Noble, where we each enjoyed some reading material.  Then home for some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream! 

I love you, Scott, and I hope that seventeen years becomes only a fraction of our entire marriage!  I still want to spend the rest of my life with you!!

School-in-the-Afternoon Update

We did school in the afternoon today, according to my little experiment, and I loved it!  I felt so good to get real work done in the morning, and then really be able to focus on the kids in the afternoon.  And I didn’t even get tired, maybe because doing physical labor in the morning is less stressful than doing school with seven kids!  (Okay, Foster’s too little, but he still needs my attention!)  And it seems like if there are going to be emergencies, they tend to happen in the morning, which can derail my best-laid plans.  (Emergencies like, “Oh, my goodness, I forgot to call ____!”  Or, “That is due today?!  That means I have to do it now!”)  Now, I do have a tendency to like change, so we’ll see if I still like it in a week or month!

Morning Prayer – Fountains and Riches

I read this yesterday; I like the imagery…

• O Holy Spirit…Give me thyself without measure, as an unimpaired fountain, as inexhaustible riches…
• Come as helper, with strength to bless and keep, directing my every step.
• Come as beautifier, bringing order out of confusion, loveliness out of chaos.
• Magnify to me thy glory by being magnified in me, and make me redolent of thy fragrance. 

(From The Valley of Vision)

A Simple Fence Experiment for our Square Foot Garden

On our way to Menards the other day to purchase supplies to make a NEW FENCE around our garden, we saw someone else’s garden; they had little “cubes” of fencing over their 4’x4′ squares.  I liked the idea of not having to mow around and inside a big fence, so we got materials to experiment with making our own little ones.  Here’s how we did it.

 

 

First, we nailed together 4-foot long 1×1’s to make two squares.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, with a lot of help, we nailed the two squares together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used “Deer Block” to wrap the outside; pretty easy with twisty ties. 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is how it turned out!

Prayer for Children: Wednesday

Before leaving for Yellowstone over a week ago, I started posting some of my prayer requests for my children, specifically, my weekly requests for them.  So here’s Wednesday…

• Be protected from the evil one by the covering blood of Jesus
• Learn who the enemy is and resist him victoriously
• Learn to hate sin and love holiness, righteousness and the fear of the Lord
• Have health and safety each day

Also, I got a comment last week from a reader who uses some different prayers; here’s one that I thought fit well with today’s:

• Protection from satan, from the “world”, from their own misconceptions stemming from their sinful nature.  (From Lord Change Me, by Evelyn Christenson)