A happy ending...

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Galations 6:7

Praise the Lord for justice on His enemies and mercy on His children.

Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees, for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel. Isaiah 44:23

Anti-procrastination challenge

Mrs. Wilt has hosted a challenge to do things that we've been putting off. My plans were to finally organize the bathrooms last weekend, but thanks to my now intimate friend Mr. Stomach Bug, that got put off. However, I can still play because I'd also put off losing five pounds, but said friend helped me get that done in less than twenty-four hours - wahoo! Now, onto those bathrooms...

Happy Robert Burns Day!

Lest we forget that my husband is Scottish and therefore I am half Scottish :), let me just wish everybody, happy haggis eating, blessed imbibing, and rigorous reciting of poetry tonight!

HT: Keziah for reminding me what today is.

34 Years of death

Today is the 34ttfh anniversary of Roe vs. Wade and Carmon has challenged all those who those who are prolife tp take a stand on their blogs. I love a challenge so here is my stance. First of all, I believe abortion is wrong not just because life is a worthy cause, but because God has ordained that life is precious. This is a distinctly Christian moral and is not arbitarily founded.

Noah is FIVE!

Today we celebrated Noah's fifth birthday! He got a Lightening McQueen and Mr. The King cars which he has played with nonstop today. Tonight we'll have dinner out and come home for cake and ice cream. Noah is a great kid who loves all things boyish including, cars, bow and arrows, guns, light sabers, and my personal favorite - cuddling with mom :) He's super sweet and super strong as seen by the car door handle he pulled completely off with his bare hands last week. He also loves helping his dad around the house as seen by the big paint splotch in his hair :) Noah is a great young man and we are so blessed to have him!

Gracie

My oldest is becoming such a young lady! I've been having terrible back pain for the last couple of months. Some days it is worse than others and today was a bit of a bad one. Gracie worked really hard to help me out. She cleaned up underneath the kitchen table and helped me put away dishes. She also surprised me by cleaning her room up. Notice the great detail of the neatly placed shoes, the duck placed atop the pillows, and the book nicely displayed on the bedside table. She made up her little sister's bed too. She also made herself a snack of hot chocolate as you can see by her shirt :) That girl is something!

Homeschooling

Kendra posted this on Preschoolers and Peace. It was so right on! Judging by the comments, I'm not the only one who thought so. I especially liked #2 which explains why I get easily frustrated with cleaning a house which is constantly being messed up again! Just today, I've picked up, or rather made the kids pick up, our wooden puzzles at least five times. Somebody keeps thinking it's fun to carry all the pieces around in a basket like they're cookies or something!

2. Unlike homes where the children are gone for eight straight hours, her home is in a constant state of activity. Her children are not only home, they are home making messes. All day long...

Snow!

I love winter!! We're having an arctic blast today and actually got real snow! The kids went outside for a while jumping up and down and sliding all around. Then they came in with pink cheeks and frozen hands :) We had so much fun snuggling up inside, drinking hot cocoa, and watching movies. What's your favorite thing to do on "iced in" days?

So much to say...

There's been lots of activity these last few weeks around here. We've had a whirlwind of a visit from my in-laws in which Colin and the three oldest visited Galveston, then he and his brother went to St. Louis, we began the kitchen redo, and all of us went to San Antonio for a visit. Oh, and Gracie got her first loose tooth! Tomorrow is back to the old routine for me and the kids and Colin goes back to work after a nice long vacation time. Here are some pics of our fun but crazy times. The first is Gracie wiggling her tooth for you in front of the old cabinets. Pic two is of the newly painted cabinets. We still have to finish putting the doors on, then we're going to tile the counter and backsplash and add a new sink and faucet. The last pic is of course Mercy - I don't think I can blog without showing her off at least once :) What a cutie and four months old already!

Testing, testing, 1,2, 3....

I switched over to Beta Blogger a few weeks ago and haven't been able to log in until now. I think it's working now!

Blankets, dresses, and heroes

Mercy being adorable on a blanket that was knitted for me when I was her age.



















Dresses my mom helped me make this week. I love this corduroy fabric that I got for a great deal at the fabric store - I never find great deals so that is really exciting for me :)















I needn't fear any bad guys with these two around! They are always practicing with their light sabers and Noah's getting really good at twirling his around as if he's been trained by a real Jedi. On the right is Annakin and on the left is Obi Wan Kenobi.

Overheard...

The boys were really rowdy this evening so I tried to calm them by teaching them a sit still game of thumb wrestling:

Mama - See you go like this...One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war.

Noah - Haha, mom. That's good. Umm, how about we just punch each other?...smile...

Ice storm

This is waaayy late but I thought it was good to keep for posterity's sake.

Last week we had our first real cold front come through and we got snow! Okay, it was ice, but the kids didn't know the difference and, let's face it, any cold weather here is really great.

The table is covered in ice!














The slide is iced too?! What will we slide on?















Icicles!!

Three month old

Mercy will be three months on Monday. Yesterday she started arching her back showing the beginnings of wanting to roll over. She's getting so big! I thought it was about time for some pictures. Here's Mercy with her brothers. She's warming up to the exersaucer but still needs watching closely because her head wobbles about and her arms easily get stuck in front of her leaving her face down sucking the toys instead of playing with them.














Here's a closeup.She was giving me this great dimpled grin, but everytime the camera flashed, she'd get scared and, well, what you see is what I got :) Still not bad, but not what I was going for.

Best Ever Pumpkin Bread Recipe

With a title like that, do I really need to explain? :) I got this recipe from my neighbor back in California, and it is without a doubt the best pumpkin bread I've ever had. Whenever I give it away as a present, I am always asked for the recipe, and believe me it's NOT because I'm just such a great cook. Just ask my family! This is a great seasonal dish, but I love it so much I make it year round.

2 cups pumpkin puree
3.5 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup oil
3.5 cups flour (I use whole wheat and it works great)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. each - cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

Mix together the first four ingredientsin a bowl. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, soda, salt, powder, and spices. Then mix together the wet and dry mixtures. Grease and sugar two loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.

Enjoy!

T-shirt dresses

Kelly requested the instructions for the tshirt dresses I made. This really is a simple design and if I can make it work, anybody can! Trust me!

shirt of your choice
1 yard of fabric (for child's dress)
thread
fusible hem tape (optional: I don't use this. I just hem the dress but some people find the fusible hem tape to be easier)

Steps: Determine the waistline on the dress, and cut off the shirt 1/2-inch below that point. Sew a stay stich around the shirt bottom (making sure not to stretch the material). This will keep you shirt from stretching out when you are sewing the skirt on. Measure from the waistline to the middle of the wearer's knee (or however long your want the dress to be) to determine the length of the skirt. The width should be twice the width of shirt bottom. Cut 2 pieces of fabric using the length and width measurements. Sew skirt pieces together on sides (wrong side together). Fold the hem over fusible hem tape and iron it in place (or just sew a regular hem). For the gathered waistband, sew 2 running stitches around the side of the waist of the skirt. Pull the threads to gather the waistband until its circumference matches that of the shirt. Sew the right sides of the skirt and the shirt together using a 1/2-inch seam allowance. I sew over this again for additional strength.

HT: to Heather from MOMYS. These are actually her instructions. I'm not near creative enough to figure this out on my own ;)

Strength

What kind of woman can endure radiation therapy everyday and still keep a smile on her face? What kind of woman can still find the joy when she suffers constant nausea, a painful sore throat, the loss of her hair, not to mention the difficulties associated with finding out you have a brain and spinal tumor? I know I'm not that strong, that's for sure. Please continue to pray for my dear friend, Karen whose faith during this time is inspiring to say the least.

Celebrities

I had the coolest day yesterday! First of all, Colin and I were planning for a normal day of getting chores done when we got a phone call from some of our friends back in California saying they were in the area. You might remember Pastor Dave Bush from Colin's movie Shaky Town. He and his wife Jennifer and their five kids met with us in Hillsboro at a Starbucks while all our kids played in the outdoor patio there. Now if that wasn't random enough for ya, I'm sitting there looking through photos and chatting with Jen and having a great time, when I see a lady pass by that looks really familiar. On a whim I excuse myself and run up to her and say, "Excuse me, I'm EmilyG aren't you KimC?" To which she of all things replies, "Yes, I am. Oh, aren't you the DuchessofFife?" I couldn't believe it! I ran into Life in a Shoe in Hillsboro, and she actually knew who I was! It was such fun. She and her husband and eight kids were so sweet and stayed talking with us for a while. So, in some random Starbucks along the highway, I had coffee with two celebrities! Then we rush from there to our dear friends' 25th wedding celebration/ball - yes there was Victorian dancing there! - and I run into a soon-to-be-celebrity DanaF from Colin's next movie Monstrous Regiment. We get to talking and she starts telling me about a new friend of hers and I immediately say, "You mean TW?! She's been one of my best friends for ten years!" Well after all those wonderful coincidences I was exhausted but so thankful to God for giving me such wonderful gifts this Thanksgiving weekend. I wound up being so encouraged and happy from all the great fellowship. What a generous, loving, and merciful Father to bless me so!

The Blessing of Children follow up

Here is another article by Mr. Wait in regards to adoption of children. As always, it is eloquent and thorough. I've often wondered about adoption being compulsory since the thought of adopting children overwhelmed me in an already fruitful marriage. So, I particularly like this excerpt as a clarification on the subject:

...the concept of adoption is a Biblical idea but it is only explicitly
found in the New Testament. But the only sense that Scripture speaks explicitly
of adoption is the spiritual adoption of believers as the children of God. From
the doctrine of adoption we see that it is by free choice rather than
compulsion. So, perhaps we can say that we are free to adopt children who
otherwise would be outside of the covenant, but we are not required to do
so.

The Blessing of Children

Our good friend Erik Wait has posted a very thoughtful and eloquent article on his website covering the issue of children as blessings. Erik is a friend and was a fellow elder at our church back in California. He was also our neighbor in the duplex which we nicknamed Elder Row. His duplex was closer to the street than ours so he would trap all the Jehovah's Witness' in arguments before they had a chance to get to our door. They would be stumped in their defense of their faith after about two minutes talking with Elder Erik. After he moved in I never worried about being bugged by these persistent visitors :) Erik is very, very well educated in many theological issues as well as he is a savy wine enthusiast. Have a go-see on his site and look around a while.