We have landed

We arrived safely in the Queen City around 4:30. The girls were so happy to see Grandma and Grandpa. Becca didn't even cry. They were such good girls for the trip. And were very happy to get out of the van. I'm trying to decide whether the girls and I will stay longer, or go home with Trevor on Tuesday. Only time will tell. I've been having stomach pains. Although I have a good idea what they're from, I still feel like I need to talk to my doctor. And no, I'm not prego!

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll have some stories to tell after this weekend!

13 new members to the family

At least! I have been clearing out the fish tank. I felt done with it. It's so much work to keep it clean and I've been doing it all by myself, so I started sending the fish to the ocean. All drains lead to the ocean. I thought I had cleared them all out. I was sitting, and glanced at the tank with 2 in of water in it and saw I missed a fish. How could that happen? Oh well, I will get him later, I figured. Today, I peaked in to see if he was still swimming (the eat the algae) and he was swimming away. Along with at least 13 baby fish! WOW! We've never had baby fish before. I could hardly believe they were there. It's supposed to be pretty hard to breed fish. They need the right conditions to breed, and aparently, our tank was it. Pretty cool. So, now I filled up the fish tank and am prepared to take care of my new babies. I hope they all live. I saw one that died only a little while ago, already. Since there are so few babies, I bet the other fish had been eating them. Oh well, that is life.

No witty title today

I'm sitting here wondering why no one is blogging.. so maybe I should. Yesterday was Trevor's birthday. I dressed up the girls and decorated the basement. When he got home we hid behind the couch and jumped out when he came down the stairs. I asked him and he said he really was surprise. Pretty cool! The girls loved it. But, Brooklyn was upset that his friends didn't come. She said a few times that she wanted there to be more people. Trevor wanted just us and the girls to spend time together, so that's what we did. But Brooklyn thinks a surprise party needs more people, I guess. Pretty cute.

I'm trying to get laundry and cleaning done. Trevor's parents are coming for dinner tomorrow night and then we're leaving for the weekend, so there's lots of packing to be done. I haven't even started yet. Mostly because I'm not sure what needs to be packed in where. Trevor is trying to catch a ride back with friends so that the girls and I can stay a little longer. And if it works, I'll have to pack his stuff separately. So, we'll see what happens. And yes, I'm thinking about travelling back with all 3 girls by myself. I don't think the driving will be the problem. They're all very good travellers. It's the stopping to go the the bathroom and eating that won't be much fun. But, as long as I stay calm, and try not to rush, it will be fine too. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Alright. Girls are in need of attention.

Spare the Rod...

Here's a great devotional on the importance of discipline.

Cute!

Our girls really enjoy Mickey Mouse and Goofy shows. They're old, and not always politically correct, but I watched them and I tured out ok. The technology is old. They have old style cars, telephones, radios, and cameras. This is what my children take away from that.

Brooklyn was walking around, with her DIGITAL camera and pretending it was a POLAROID!!! Can you believe it? She would take a picture of me and hand me the polaroid. Then, she'd move on, take a picture of daddy and hand it to him. So funny.

We always laugh when Grandma takes a picture of Brooklyn and Brooklyn askes to see it. Grandma still has a snapmaster, and apparently, Brooklyn wishes she had a polaroid. Too funny!

Whom shall I fear?

Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?

This, That and The Other Thing

I've got a lot on my mind today, so maybe it will all come out, and maybe not. I never do know until I'm done posting.

First of all, I have two babies in my life right now. My baby parsley! And my baby grass! Both has finally started sprouting and I'm so excited! I bought a little bag of italian parsley seeds that came with dirt and everything. And you could plant it right in the bag it came in. So I did that, and they finally started sprouting a few days ago and now almost all of the seeds have sprouted. And the grass has finally started coming up. I research some and found out that it can take anywhere from 5-30 days for grass seeds to sprout, depending on the type of grass. It looked like fescue, the type that grows in the shade, comes up as one of the first, so that's where I started looking. In the shade. So exciting!

Also, did you hear about the fact that the liberals are trying to make it a criminal offense for a parent, or caregiver to spank a child. What?!? Do they have any idea what this will do? Look at the consequences of taking God out of schools? Now they're going to take away our God given right to discipline our children as we see fit?
Proverbs 13:24 says He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines diligently and punishes him early.
Do they think a nice "time out" is going to make kids listen? I will say that taking away a toy or privilage does work, but only at a certain age. When the Brooklyn doesn't listen, she responds very well to taking away a toy for a time. But Samantha couldn't care less. It also has to do with her will. Samantha has a very strong will and will fight the whole way along. While Brooklyn is a people pleaser. Samantha responds much more to spanking.

Well, I'm off to read Green Eggs and Ham to Brooklyn. It has a lot of nice memories for me as well. I remember getting my Green Eggs and Ham book when I was little. We were at my aunties house, and I think it was a gift from them. It also had a cassette tape that read the book to you. And now it's one of Brooklyn's favorites. So cool.

Bible Verse

This is Samantha's first Bible verse.

Blessed are those who hear the word of the Lord and obey it. Luke 11:28

The cool thing about the girls memorizing verses, is that I learn them too!

Xeriscape

I have been trying to think of a solution for our front yard. Most of you know this, but we have two large evergreens that don't allow grass to grown underneath them. So, I was thinking about putting some plants under them. But an even better idea is to xeriscape the whole front. We are seeding the back with grass so the girls will have somewhere to play. But to save time, energy and water, I think we should xeriscape the whole front? I know that it can easily be made ugly, but I think with enough research and time we can do it beautifully. So far I've found a few websites with lots of great ideas, and I'd really like to go pick up a book especially for planting in our region. So, I'll have to get out there and take a before picture, since we're planning on doing the sidewalk first. Can't wait for that!!

I'm not... any more

This is Samantha's new saying. She says it all the time and places whatever she wants in the blank, whether it fits or not.

"I'm not playing any more"
"I'm not yes Mommy any more"
"I'm not Bible verse any more"

It's pretty cute. Most of the time there's other syllables in there that I don't reconginze. But that's the jist of it.

Praise You in this Storm

I had this image in my mind while I was trying to fall asleep. I feel like I'm in a boat. Each hive that appears on the girls is like a huge wave threatening to toss me overboard. I call out to God to save me, "Lord, save me". He replies, "You of little faith, why are you so afriad?" So far, he hasn't taken my storm. I know He has a reason, but I don't understand. It reminds me of the first few lines of Praise You In This Storm, by Casting Crowns.

I was sure by now, that You would have reached down, and wiped our tears away, stepped in and saved the day. But once again, I say amen and it's still raining. As the thunder rolls, I barely hear You whisper through the rain, "I'm with you". And as Your mercy falls I raise my hands and praise the God who gives, and takes away.

Right now, I can feel God's peace. I know He is with me. But when I'm in the midst of my storms, which is my fear of the girls' allergies, I have a hard time seeing past them to God's safety. I try every day to give them to God. I know that I have to do it everyday. It's not just a one time dedication. For me, it's everyday. I know that God works for the good who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I know that every breath I take is a gift. My days are already numbered. The life of my girls is already set out before them, I just have to pray that they will follow God and submit their lives to Him. It's so hard for me to take my focus off of their allergies, but as I type this, I see that I have to do just that. They are in God's hands. All I can do is pray for them and teach them by showing them how to live for Him. Teach them His ways. When I was getting up early, and praying for them, especially for their health and healing, I didn't worry about it all day. I would give it to Him in the morning and be free of it. I started again today. So, as I continue to pray and give my girls to God everyday, I know that I will be free of that fear. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drive out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

So, if there's anything I need, it's prayer. I've been having a hard time getting up before the girls and spending time with God. I did it today, but I don't know if I will have the strength tomorrow. I also need to get to sleep earlier, so that I'm not so tired in the morning. Something that I really know what God is that I had a horrible sleep last night, and at 8 when I woke up, I was able to get up. God gave me the strength. I have no doubt about that. Also, pray for my faith. That it would remain strong and that God would really work in me, especially when I take the time to seek Him.

I'm done

Here's the cake. I didn't do jello at all, but all icing. I used brown sugar for the sandtraps, which apparently were a big hit, and tasted good too. I used blue gel for the water hazzard. The trees are spearmint leave candies with pretzels in them. The flag I bought as a cake decorating set. Let me just say, that it was a big hit and everyone loved it.

Now, if you want to continue thinking my cake was perfect, you should stop reading now, because I have a few things I need to share. First off, it was fairly simple compaired to a Dora cake with 10,000 colours. Also, I used diposible bags to make clean up easier. So, I started with the fairway, then the green. Then the sandtraps and water hazzard. Then, at 2:00 I looked in my box for my grass/hair tip and couldn't find it. It wasn't there. I turned the house upside down looking for it. It was AWOL. I had one option. Trevor had a dentist appointment at 2:30. We got the girls dressed for the party, I dropped him at the dentist and then flew all the girls to Michaels in SC so I could get my tip, fly back home and quickly finished the cake, which I'll talk about in a minute, and then get all the girls back in the car and pick up Trevor, with the cake on the seat, and then go to his parents house for supper. I cried on the way there. I was just done! And not ready to be social.

The cake decorating didn't go as planned. First of all, I used canned icing and it was way softer than I'm used to, and didn't do what I wanted. It was good for spreading and making flat, but for piping the grass, it really sucked. I had to do it absolutely perfect so that all of the blades wouldn't form together. I was really frustrated, since I was doing this quickly with 3 hungry little girls around me, and had to quickly get it done since Trevor was done his appointment and I had to go pick him up. Not a fun time for Mommy. Second, the pretzels were really hard to get into the leaves. They kept breaking on me and just frustrated me more. Oh well, there's not much I can do to fix what went wrong, other than to make sure I have everything I need before I start. Which I thought I had, but didn't. Not like I've done in the past. So, next will be Becca's birthday cake. I wonder what I should do for that??

So Excited!!

My Mother-in-law just asked me to do a Father's Day cake for a family get-together on Saturday! I'm so excited!! She asked me to do this cake.

The green is jello but there was a comment on there that said if you didn't have the jello just right it would sink right into the cake. So, I'm going to do it in icing. The trees are pretzels and fruit roll up, as is the flag. They used extra cake for the sand trap.. but it's a hill?? Sand traps aren't hills?? Are they?? Anyway, there was another comment that said they used light brown sugar for a sand trap, so I'll try that, and dig it out, not make a hill. So, very cool! I'm so excited!!!

New Favorite

I have a new favorite store! It's called Education Station. I know, but it's way more exciting than it sounds. I walked in there and thought I was in paradise! They have educational games and workbooks, toys, pencils, crafty things, posters!! It was amazing! I could have spent hours in there. I love it so much that I had to make up a reason just to go back.. that very same day. That's right, I went twice yesterday.

Dad pointed out that it's probably just like the one I used to go to by my gymnastics. And it is! I remember that place, and used to love it. Maybe not as much as I do now... but WOW! Now I know I was born to each. Not other peoples kids, but my own. I'm so excited about getting our curriculum for next year and extra stuff. I hope Samantha and Rebecca like workbooks as much as Brooklyn. Brooklyn is very much a people pleaser, so that helps. Samantha is not. Which is ok, because she's special in her own way! And who knows about Rebecca yet. I'm very excited to find out.

Everyone Poops

While the title of my blog today may be a bit graphic, it's actually the title of Samantha's favorite book. I call it a miracle book. I first got it when Brooklyn was doing really well going #1 in the potty, but just wouldn't go #2 in the potty. She would wait until she was in bed, and then go in her pull up. I bought this book to try and it and the next time, and every time, except one, she has gone #2 in the potty. It was amazing!! Now, we're trying it on Samantha. For the longest time, Samantha had no interested in going potty, or even sitting on it. So, I let her wait. I was having a baby and had enough to do. Now, she's probably past the prime time, but this is what we have to deal with. Samantha now like's to sit on the potty, but doesn't connect it with going potty. But, her favorite book to read while sitting there is Everyone Poops, so I hoping that it will click. I tried just putting her in panties and putting her on the potty when she went, but that was very upsetting to her. I am thinking about trying it again since it's been a while since I had tired that.. but I'm just not sure. I'm trying to pray about it and hopefully it will come soon. So, if you feel drawn to do so, please pray for her and I regarding this.

Mastered by Feelings

We had an amazing sermon yesterday. You can listen to it here. I wish I could have been blogging right then when I was listening to it.. but now will have to do. So many things struck me and I just felt like he was speaking directly to me and my life.

One thing he talked about was being mastered by your feelings. If you feel tired or hungry or whatever and you're constantly giving into those feelings, then you are mastered by them and you believe in your heart that they have to be satisfied. That is me to a degree. I know that I'm not like that way all the time, but lately, I've been trying to get up before the girls to spend time praying and reading my bible, and it hasn't been happening as much as I would like. I am totally mastered by the feeling of being tired.

Another thing he talked about was living in the now. Don't worry about tomorrow, and don't let the sins of the past, that you've been forgiven of, rule your feelings.

Also, he said that we can't fill our minds with whatever we want all week, and then expect God to remove it. On this, I'm much better than I used to be. But there are still some areas that I could probably cleanse. I've learned that it's important to guard my eyes and ears.

I'm planning on started his series from the beginning again because I've missed a few weeks... but it really is a great series. I suggest you listen to it.