a little bit of spring

I love flowers. If I had lots of extra time I would play outside in the yard all day. Maybe in heaven God will let me play with the flowers and gardens.

In the meantime, I do a little bit here and there in our yard. When we first moved in (3 1/2 yrs ago) one or two little clumps of daffodils popped up in late winter/early spring. Every year since then, I've tried to plant more bulbs. I really like having random flowers growing in the woods. We've had such warm winters the past two years that they have actually started blooming in January.

I've also recruited a really cute yard boy. He's a five year old named Will. He loves to help dig holes and plant bulbs and flowers with me. The girls think they want to help, but about 15 mins later they declare they're done. Will will stay out there for an hour or more until we get the job done. He also really likes to trim bushes and trees :) Just give the boy a pair of garden clippers and he's really happy.

When I look at our yellow blooms, I enjoy them even more because I think about planting them with my boy. 

7 months old

James and Elizabeth are 7 months old (well, a little over 7 1/2 months old...I'm behind on these things!)

They are both such a delight. They are eating baby food 2-3 times per day and attempting to drink out of sippy cups. The love the fruits and veggies, except peas and green beans aren't their favorites. They also like the baby yogurt. They still drink 6-8oz bottles 3-4 times per day and I alternate which one I nurse each night (while daddy gives the other one a bottle). Sadly, I think our nursing days are about over. I'll try to keep the bedtime nursing as long as possible, but that may only be another month or so.

 They are both learning to sit up on their own. Elizabeth is pretty steady. James is too wiggly to stay still long enough to do it. He is starting to crawl. He can move his legs and then throws himself forward, kinda like an inchworm. He can also scoot backwards and pretty much figure out a way to get where he wants to go.

Elizabeth still isn't showing much interest in moving. She will occasionally roll over, maybe once every other day. She can push herself up on her arms while she's on her tummy but isn't quite to a crawling position yet. We did her BabyNet evaluation and start with her Early Interventionist tomorrow. I'm so thankful that a wonderful young lady from our church is going to be her EI. We also have in a referral for an evaluation from the physical therapist. Hopefully they'll be able to show us some ways to encourage these motor skills.

We've been battling the colds/runny noses for the past month. Last week Elizabeth had a virus as well and ran a high fever, up to 104, for a few days. It was a little scary for her fever to be so high and for her to be so lethargic, but thankfully she recovered pretty quickly.

They both are "talking" to us--lots of coos and babbles and sounds. They also have started holding up their arms if they want you to pick them up. If one of them is fussing and I pick up one baby, the other one will also start fussing to be picked up. They pay attention to each other for sure!

It's a lot of fun to have two babies!  A lot of work too, but definitely a lot of fun! Sometimes it still catches me by surprise that we have twins. 

Even though I feel crazy and busy sometimes, I also have to remind myself to savor it. I know that these are days I'll look back on so fondly when they're grown.

Happy 7 months, sweet babies!

The four hour snow

On Saturday it snowed!! For a brief few hours, snowflakes fell and everything was wintry white. The kids and jay were so excited and ran out to play.

Mimi and I had planned to go to the mall for a few mins around 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon. It started snowing at 1:45. They played outside until about 2:15 and decided that they still wanted to go with us to the mall. It was snowing pretty hard so I told them it would most likely still be snowing when we were done. We came out of the mall around 4pm and the sun was shining!! Some of the snow was already melting. And they were mad at me!! It was apparently my fault that it was no longer snowing. They still played in the snow for another hour after we got home, but I don't think they will want to go anywhere else the next time it snows.

It was pretty while it lasted. That's my kind of snow--pretty to look at for a few hours and then the sun comes back :)

Valentine's Love

Valentine's Day is probably my least favorite holiday. I'm all for love, but it seems silly to put extra emphasis on people declaring their love on this one day. I know--I'm a valentine Scrooge! But I'm pretty sure my family already knows I love them.

For the first time in the 14 years that jay and I have been together, I got him a valentines card. Actually 2 cards. I even drew a red heart on one. I'm getting sappy.

I got the big kids valentines surprises--a hair bow and shirt for anna, bracelet and skirt for catherine, socks and fleece vest for will (all good clearance buys from Gymboree). I made them a special valentines breakfast--chocolate chip pancakes with whip cream and powdered sugar hearts and strawberries on red and white polka dot plates. That's very festive for me at 6am.

Anna decided she wanted to pull out her pink Christmas tree and decorate it for valentines. So Will, Anna, and I spent about an hour drawing, cutting, and writing on our hearts for our valentines tree. That's about as crafty I get, people.

My favorite valentines thing for this week is our memory verse: 1 John 4:10 "this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Now THAT is love. That I will celebrate!

Missions Conference

Our church just hosted our annual Missions Conference this past weekend. This is always such a time of encouragement and hope to see how God is working around the world. Our church supports over 50 missionaries, and each year about 20-25 of them attend our conference. It is amazing to hear their testimonies and stories of how God is working and how they are serving.

This year we heard from a family with three young children who are living Uganda. They are building a children's library, serving as a doctor at the medical clinic, running a support group for families with sickle cell anemia, and building lasting relationships in that village. (Check out their blog www.steadfastjoy.blogspot.com for more.) We heard from a computer engineer who works to translate the Bible into new languages and serve missionaries in the field. We heard from people planting churches in Costa Rica, India, Columbia SC, Belgium, and Turkey. We had veteran missionaries who have been serving for the past 20 years, and new missionaries who are still raising support so they can go to Africa. We had missionaries from Kazakhstan, Japan, Greenville, Puerto Rico, and more.  I love how it all makes the world feel both very big and very small.

We were also challenged about how to do missions right here. One of my passions for this is through our church's Orphan Care ministry. James 1:27 commands us all to care for the widow and the orphan. There are many ways to fulfill this mission. Think about the gifts and talents God has given you and how you can best serve.

• Can you help mentor a family through the new DSS program Family Friends? 
• Can you host children for 4 to 6 weeks through Safe Families during a time of crisis? 
• Are you willing to be foster parents? 
• Do you have a desire to adopt? 
• Can you spend a few Saturdays each year serving at Miracle Hill Children's Home?
•  Can you donate cleaning supplies and household goods to the Children's Home? 
• Can you donate clothes or furniture to families in need?
•  Can you make a financial donation to a missionary, Reece's Rainbow, Bethany Christian Service, Miracle Hill, the church's Faith missionary offering?
• Will you pray? Above all else, pray. 

Our God is faithful, loving, and compassionate to all He has made. He loved us enough to send us His Son, Jesus. He desires to be in a relationship with us and bring us into his kingdom. How can we not tell others this great news? What is God asking you to do?

It's a lot of children...sort of

Most of the time it seems normal that we have five children. But every now and then it catches me by surprise. Like the other day--I walked into the bathroom and Anna had lined up all 5 of their stools side by side so she could do the name puzzles. Seeing all 5 beside each other in a row made it seem like a lot, which made me think about 2 realizations I've come to now that we have what most people consider a large family.

1. It was hard when we only had one or two children. I have friends and family who sometimes comment on how they shouldn't feel like what they're doing is difficult because they only have one or two kids. But we thought it was hard when we only had one or two!

I remember especially thinking it was difficult to learn to divide my attention and time when we had our second. When you have one or two children, they expect you to be the one to play with then constantly. And that's a difficult job! With multiple siblings, some of that is spread out and mommy isn't the sole entertainer.

When you only have one or two children, it's also easy for the entire schedule to be based off their needs or wants, making it feel like you're constantly accommodating the child. That's natural because they're the only one; its logical to base the schedule off of them. With more children in the home, the schedule has to be a little more flexible to accommodate everyone.

Having your first baby turns your life upside down. Our life schedule has been in kid mode for 7 years now, so adding more children to that schedule is not as disruptive as it was when we had one or two. There's definitely a learning curve with first children and as first time parents. Some things are easier now that we've done them a few times. When we had our first, I could not have imagined having 5 children. God grew our family gradually to get to this point; we didn't jump into 5 children.

2. I've discovered what I call the "group mentality" of large families. When people see our family, they see a large group of children. It seems overwhelming to think of a group of kids.

But I rarely see them as a big group. I see them individually with their personalities, needs, quirks, likes and dislikes. I see them as unique people and can't imagine our family without one of them. Occasionally the group mentality does occur, mainly at meal times, bed times, and getting in the car. And those are the times it seems most overwhelming. During those times I have to remind myself to focus on one child at a time, see what he/she individually needs, and keep going. I catch myself thinking with the group mentality when I see other large families still, and I try to remind myself that that is not how their family sees them.

I am not saying we have it all figured out and that it's not crazy sometimes. There are definitely moments (sometimes hours) that I feel like I need at least three if myself to get through. But it's not as out of control as I would have imagined.

Exciting times in the bathroom

I spent one hour cleaning grout in the bathroom tiles in the kids' upstairs bathroom yesterday. I'm pretty sure it hasn't had a good clean since our house was built in 1986. I'm also pretty sure that no one else who lives in our house will even notice my labor of love, so I felt the need to document it.


I saw on Pinterest a grout cleaning method of using baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, so I tried that and it worked pretty well. It may have worked better if I had a new bottle of hydrogen peroxide. I think mine is really old. I also used some bleach cleaner on really stained places. And a lot of scrubbing with an old toothbrush. Woohoo! One bathroom down, two more to go (another day....)

There are many things like that when you're a mom. Small tasks that no one else will notice or appreciate. That's okay. Do it as unto The Lord. Be faithful in the small things too.

Mimi's birthday celebration

Mimi's birthday is in a few days, so we surprised her this past Saturday with a few special events. Jay took her out to a nice lunch at an Italian restaurant, just the two of them. I think that's pretty special and I hope my boys want to do that with me when they're grown!

When they got back from lunch, Catherine and Will asked Mimi two very important questions. 1. Who is your favorite pig? 2. Who is your favorite spider? Wilbur and Charlotte, of course. Mimi lives Charlotte's Web. It's one of her favorite stories. So we took her to the children's theater production that afternoon. It was great! We all really enjoyed it.

When we came out if the play, it was snowing!! It never snows around here without people discussing the possibility of it for days. But on Saturday, the snow fell for about 30 minutes. Nothing was sticking, but it looked a little like a snow globe for a few minutes. We enjoyed some special treats at a little cafe and watched the snow.

What a fun way to celebrate a birthday. We are so very thankful to have Mimi and Poppop live here now. They are an incredible blessing to us. Happy birthday Mimi!