We had some outside fun on Saturday. Stu and I got new sprinklers from Home Depot. The kids wanted to play in them...ALL the kids! They had fun and the dog (Jack Russell Terrier named Chipper) even had a good time! Here's Eden waiting for me to feed her. So cute!

Babies!

Congratulations go out to 2 of my friends. Misty had baby Simon on Friday, May 4th. He weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces. What a beautiful baby! He has 2 older brothers and 2 older sisters. Also, Stephanie had a 3rd baby girl early morning on May 5th. Her name is Elizabeth. She weighed 10 pounds, 10 ounces! Congratulations ladies! God has truly blessed your families! Now go get some sleep before those babies decide it's party time.

Psalm 128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

Some pictures

Pearly Whites

Okay, so I'm excited. I wake up this morning and nurse Eden. I checked in her mouth to see if there were any teeth and behold, she has one just coming in on the bottom left! She will be so cute! I'm sure the other one is not far behind. Eden is 7 1/2 months old now. I think she is ready for food...we'll try again with her. She kept puking up baby food, so I took a break for awhile. Oh, Stu just reminded me that Max lost his first tooth this week. It was his bottom left, too! Symmetry! Have a great Friday!

Life goes on

Okay, as a mother of 6 I am having a hard time keeping up with everything! School is almost out...we're wrapping up our year. We've been busy concentrating on studies. I have 2 birthday parties to throw this month. Celeste is turning 16 and Jamie is turning 13. Two big ones! I feel like there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. Nursing the baby is time to relax, but I miss out on doing other stuff. With the price of gas going up I see us staying home more. My suburban only gets 13mpg. Ack! The price of a large family seems to go up. It's mostly in the gas and food that it's hitting us right now. It's all so depressing. And Jamie and Celeste will be gone for the summer soon...

My thoughts are out of order and jumbled today. Sorry about that!

This and that

I finally have a few minutes... Unfortunately, I have just come down with a bad cold, sore throat, achiness, etc. Since I am nursing, I can't take decongestants. Ugh! My hubby just took Jamie to Scouts and the younger boys ran along, too. Baby is asleep in her swing. I'm thinking I should probably become horizontal for a few minutes, but wanted to write some lines as I have been noticably absent lately. I'm good for pictures!

Dan won his baseball game on Saturday. The score was 11-5 and he got 3 runs. One of them was a home run, so he got the "game ball." He was so excited. Now they go into tournament play. I hope that doesn't last too long. The schedule as been crazy.

I have a few prayer requests: Please pray for Dan. He is "acting up" lately. It is like he is vibrating, can't keep his hands to himself, says unkind things, is very selfish, etc. It is really wearing on me. We are trying to make sure he doesn't get too much sugar or things with additives. Stu needs prayer for work. We haven't had a closing since last summer. I am very overwhelmed and so is he. Condos are selling and we have many under contract, but they need to be completed and are behind schedule. We need financial blessing! I am feeling discouraged in a lot of areas right now. Please pray for me to persevere and trust God. I haven't been able to sit through a message at church since the baby was born and I'm feeling like I'm in a spiritual valley. Not sure what else to say because there's so much... thanks!

A kid again...

Max has a blast skating for the 1st time!
Nancy takes a break to feed Eden...interesting!
Celeste with one of her best friends, Brandon

What fun last night! Our church rented out the local skating rink and I took 5 of the kids. (Dan had a baseball game and Stu was coaching.) I wasn't planning on skating and neither was Max, but we both had a real good time! I posted a few pictures. This was Max's first time and he was like a kamikaze skater--falling forward through space. I'm a little sore today, but not too much worse for wear.

Also, I took Celeste in to take the College Placement Test today. I about had an anxiety attack when I left her at the testing center on the campus to move the car. She's SO grown up now. Praise God, she's so smart, she passed into all college courses. We will hear in late May whether she's been accepted into the Dual Enrollment program. Thus starts a new phase in our lives here.

Heart of FL Air Show

Stu took Dan and Max to the Air Show yesterday. Also, their little friend, Ben, went along. They had a wonderful time looking at the airplanes and talking to pilots. My big brother, Ed, was there with Gainesville Police's helicopter. Ed is a Captain with GPD and, on a personal note, he is a helicopter pilot. He has his commercial license and is a certified instructor. Cool!

Little Road Trip

On Friday, Celeste and Jamie performed at the Lake City Relay for Life with Mimetime. Mimetime is a group of kids from our church that does Mime and some signing to Christian music. I drove up with Celeste, Jamie, Eden, Tommy, Lettie (a good friend from church), Isaac (mimer and her son), and Katie (Lettie's daughter). We had a good time! All of the Mimes and company went to Moe's for dinner afterwards with everyone. YUM!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. They include my Dad and StepMom (Pipa and Mima). Also, there is my younger brother, Jamie. We hadn't seen him in over a year--3 years for Celeste and Jamie. It was a crazy weekend and I was exhausted when we got home. It's a challenge to travel with 6 kids--but mostly the baby and the toddler wore us out! In addition, it was Dan's 8th birthday on Easter Sunday. I can't believe it's been that long. He's getting so big!

Mini vacation

We're in Sarasota for the weekend. I've taken lots of cute pictures, so I will be posting them when I get home. Right now the kids are outside playing yard darts with their Pipa. My brother, Jamie, is coming in later this afternoon. I haven't seen him since December 2005. Celeste and Jamie haven't seen him in about 3 years. We're excited!!

Put to the Test

Today is testing day. FL law for home schoolers requires that they turn in either a yearly standardized test or be evaluated by a certified teacher. We like to do the test. (I couldn't find an evaluator who would give me valuable feedback, so I gave up!) Anyway, Celeste, Jamie, and Dan are testing today and tomorrow all morning. Please pray for a good outcome! I hope I do well--it is a reflection on how well home school has gone this year. Usually my kids test many grade levels ahead. I'm hoping that continues! Meanwhile, I have to go get a shower before the rest of the younger crew gets up. Bye!

Gators Win 2nd NCAA Championship in a Row!

GO GATORS!!

84-75

GatorZone

Big kids come home tonight

Hi all! It's been a busy week here without Celeste and Jamie. I have gotten a lot more organized and we're functioning rather well without them, BUT they fly in tonight late. All of us can't wait to see them. Celeste is feeling under the weather. I think she has a bad cold/flu. Please pray for her. Jamie, Celeste, and Dan all have testing on Thursday and Friday, so I am hoping all are well at that time. 2 days! Then we're all going to Sarasota to visit my parents for Easter. It should be a great time! We haven't been down since last May. We like to go to the beach in May. Hope to do it again this year, too!

In other news, I've been using the cloth diapers on Eden. I think I finally figured out how to get the smells out of them with my very hard water and high efficiency (silly) washer. I am using baking soda in the wash and vinegar in the rinse. BTW, don't buy a Fisher & Paykel washing machine. They don't get your clothes clean. I may be purchasing something else here soon. I ordered more Chinese Prefolds (rainbow short) from Green Mountain Diapers. I also got some toddler diapers to try on Tommy. We'll see how that goes. I hope to get him potty trained one of these days. I am looking forward to my order arriving tomorrow. I also LOVE Motherease products. They have the absolute best covers. No leaks ever!

On the mend...

Tommy is doing better today. This is considering he only ate 1 cracker yesterday and had about one half a cup of milk. (Which he tossed up overnight in his crib...eww!) I know I shouldn't give him milk on an upset tummy, but it was the only thing he would drink and I figured that was better than nothing. At least my hubby cleaned it up, yeah!

I awoke with a migraine this morning and Tommy was still recovering, so we had another day at home. It was a very hard day for me. Stu has been gone the past two nights until midnight. I REALLY miss Celeste and Jamie. I need to call them to see what they've been up to. Stu is on his way home from a meeting in Daytona Beach. It's late, so I worry. Praying that God gives him safe travel in that little car. Thanks for stopping by! May God bless you today!

Please pray for my Tommy who is 2 1/2 years old. He has a fever (102+), the shakes, is c/o his ear hurting, and he threw up on my bed earlier (yuck!). He was up in the middle of the night, too. He won't eat or drink anything. Eden seems a bit better today. Just a little cough and no fever. Jamie and Celeste are in STL and Stu is gone until 10PM. Great first day alone with the littles! I shall persevere...and do lots of laundry!

The friendly skies

I may not be posting much this week. My two oldest children, Celeste and Jamie, are flying out to see their Dad in St. Louis for a week. They leave tomorrow. We have LOTS on the agenda today. Stu will be taking them to the airport in Orlando. It's 2 1/2 hours to the airport and back--plus wait time. It's a long day, so I'm staying home with the younger bunch. Dan has a baseball game, too! Last night Celeste tells me she needs a new suitcase. We duct taped hers together for the last trip, but the TSA people removed it. Nothing like last minute! She's going to try to fit in my weekender. Oh the joys of travelling! (We don't do it too much with such a large brood. I haven't been on an airplane since 1994--I love to fly, though!) We are going to visit my parents for Easter in Sarasota. I really miss the beach and the smell of the salt water! Okay if this post seems scatterbrained, it is! That's how I feel today...

Celeste got her hair cut today. It is very pretty. Yes, the curls are natural. Something about this picture reminds me of Eden. Maybe it's her eyes. My cute girls!

I added a new recipe, so check it out!!

6 months and counting

Eden is 6 months old today! (And it is the first day of spring, yay!) I took her for her check-up and was pleasantly surprised that her weight was okay. Eden weighs 14 lbs., 12 oz. (40%) and is 26 inches long (50%). I will probably start her slowly on some more solid foods. She stopped sleeping through the night a couple weeks ago. I think she may be hungry!

We are so busy today. I had Eden's check-up, Celeste has a hair cut, I'm taking dinner to someone from church (almost forgot!), and Dan has baseball practice this evening. I have barely seen my hubby this week. It's crazy.

Celeste is in taking pictures of Eden. I guess I'm going to post one with this post. (She took 13 pics of her!) I'm sure you've seen SO many and know what she looks like. I'll try to get some up of the other kids, too! I have a cute one of Tommy in a baseball cap. Have a super Wednesday! I'm off to nurse the baby before I take 'leste in for her hair cut...

A Clean Slate

Ahhh, it's Monday again! (As I sit here still in my pajamas.) I was telling the lady at the place I go exercise that Monday is a clean slate. It's a do-over from last week. You can always make a fresh start on Monday. It's like when we go to Jesus for forgiveness of our sin...He wipes away the offense and gives us grace. Monday is grace to go on. Yay! So it's not too bad that I haven't had a shower. I have made whole wheat banana pancakes for my family, done 2 loads of laundry, home schooled my 2nd grader, and fed the baby twice. It's a start!

Danny won his baseball game on Saturday 5-4! I was not able to go because it was quite cold and breezy. It was best to keep little Eden home out of that. He has a double header this Saturday. I hope to make part of that. Tommy has a birthday party to go to, so I'll have to leave early. We have such a busy week planned. I won't go into all the details, but I've never been so busy in all my life! Jamie and Celeste leave for St. Louis next week for spring break. It will be quiet while they're gone. I think I need the break from all the activities.

We're covering the book of James at church. It's my favorite book in the bible, pretty much. (I love Isaiah, too!) So why don't you read in James this week...

Yummy!

Eden had her first food today! My milk supply seems low and she doesn't seem to be getting enough--her weight gain is slow--please pray for us in this area! My friend, Kristy, suggested I mix momma milk with rice cereal. She loved it! Check out her pictures in my flickr badge to the right.

The Real Deal

Dan had his first baseball game on Saturday and here are a couple photos of the fun! They lost, but we all had a great time!

Little League

And so it begins, after years of waiting (on Dan's part), the first season of little league baseball. No T ball here, just the real thing. Practice began last Friday night. I made it to the 2nd practice and there's already a game on Saturday. Hey, the kids don't even know all the rules yet! The last picture is of a couple members of our pep squad, Jamie and Max! This latest installment of America's pasttime has truly made our schedule crazy, but I know one 7-year old boy that couldn't be happier...

A little report

Baby Eden found her tongue today! It is so cute how she sticks it out all over the place. I wasn't able to get the best picture, but I'll try to post one. Also, she decided biting mommy while nursing was fun today on several occasions. I tried to "get her attention," but she just thinks it's all fun and games. Any ideas? She did fine during her nighttime nursing, though. PTL!

**Update--Eden has done better over the past couple of days and is rarely biting. I'm glad because nothing that I have tried has made her stop!

I added a recipe blog in my sidebar! I put up white chicken chili first. We had it tonight!

Ultimate Blog Party

Hi everyone! I am participating in the Ultimate Blog Party. It's hosted by 5 minutes for Mom--go check them out! If you're new to my site, you can scroll down and catch a slide show of my family that I posted around Valentine's Day. Here are a few things about me:

~I have been married to Stu for a little over 9 years. We've been together 10. Stu is a broker/developer for Coldwell Banker. Need a home?
~I have 6 children. My two oldest are from my previous marriage. My girls are the bookends currently.
~I homeschool my 4 oldest children.
~I attend a Sovereign Grace Church and love it!
~My husband and I are currently promoting a nutritional beverage that can change your life!
~I love to scrapbook and take pictures. I am a Creative Memories consultant. You can now order directly from my webpage and have items shipped to your door from CM!
~I love to read, go to the beach, play games with my kids, hang out with the youth from the church. I used to scuba dive...miss that!
~One secret about me: I really don't like thunderstorms/lightning--especially at night.
~I am passionate about home schooling my children. God directs my steps daily. It's not always pretty, but there will be an eternal reward!
Be sure to scroll down to the end of the page and read the poem my daughter wrote for me!
Please leave a comment. I would love to visit your blogs, too!

Hi all! We've been dealing with a bunch of little sickies over the past 7-10 days. I currently have 2 boys on antibiotics and the baby woke up with what looks like pink eye. Some of my other children have had it. Hopefully, all will be well soon! It's mostly annoying stuff like ear infections and pink eye. Oh, and Celeste has laryngitis--that hasn't been too bad, ha ha! I took Max to the doc yesterday and he hadn't been in for a sick visit since March of 2004. We have some rockin' immune systems around here! Eden is sooo cute! We all just love her...see picture!

Eden Joy is 5 months old!

Today little miss Eden is 5 months old! I can't believe it! And she is still nursing. What a blessing that has been. She is very quick to roll both ways...which she demonstrated while I was trying to get her dressed for bed this evening. (See above.) I took Tommy to the doctor today and he has a right ear infection and pink eye. He's on antibiotics for the first time in 1 1/2 years. All else is normal. Just doing loads of laundry right now and trying to clean up. I made a yummy dinner this evening from my Momys cookbook. It's called Easy Sanchos. I will post some recipes, soon. We had white chicken chili last night and it rocked!

Around home

Everyone seems to be doing better today, except Tommy's eyes are quite something. He seems to have a bad cold. If his eyes don't look better by Thursday, then it's off to see Dr. Kathy. The kids were hanging out watching Thomas the Tank Engine with Dad this evening. Check out that tan/sunburn Stuart has. It's from driving the Porsche Boxter that is being raffled for charity. Enjoy the cute picture! Oh, also, for some reason, my boys were enjoying wearing empty kleenex boxes on their heads this afternoon!

We've had a bunch of sickies around here over the weekend. Jamie and Tommy had high fevers, sore throats, cold symptoms. Jamie spent Friday in the wee morning hours throwing up--for some reason. I have been very tired and a bit nauseated. I go to the doc to check out my elevated thyroid on Tuesday. Maybe that's what's going on. Please pray that Eden doesn't get any of it. Hopefully, nursing will help her keep her immunity up.

Today we're taking the day off from formal schooling. Although, Celeste is working on Spanish I and Algebra II. Jamie will do a FLVS assignment and Dan is doing 2 math worksheets. Still it's a lazy day. No Boy Scouts tonight. I need to go to the grocery store and I'd like to work out today. I'm still not feeling that great, but it's been almost a week since I exercised. Not going to lose weight that way! Kids are bickering, so I need to go.... yes, this goes on in my house, unfortunately.

Welcome baby Karson!!

Karson Thomas was born to our friends Josh & Kristy this morning. He weighed 8 pounds, 14 ounces and joins his big brother, Kaleb, and big sister, Emma. I went to see him and he is SO CUTE!! What a wonderful blessing!

Even though yesterday was Valentine's, I really like this!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Make video montages at onetruemedia.com

I made this little movie for my hubby for Valentine's. Enjoy!

Jamie had Court of Honor at Boy Scouts last night. He earned two merit badges. He received dentistry and athletics. He is currently almost finished with 1st class rank. Also, here is a cute pic of Eden smiling! She is 4 1/2 months old now. I love her right now and wish she'd stay this way for awhile!

Where are my socks?

This question was posed to me recently by my husband. He was getting ready to go to an open house and didn't have what he needed--namely socks. We have done so much laundry around here and his didn't get done. He needed jeans, too. This made me realize that I should really be watching out for his needs. He is supposed to be my first priority. After all, he was here before the kids. (At least 4 of them!) It is so hard as a mother of 6 children to fit it all in. I am just praying that God will lead me to remember what Stu needs and supply it. I am praying for His grace because right now running everything is quite overwhelming. God gave me my husband as the perfect companion. Do something thoughtful. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day!

Hop on over to this blog and read Amy's post about Choices. Maybe all this pursuit of the world for "something" is not where most of us should be headed. I need to keep this in mind when I want things "just so" around here. God only made 24 hours in a day for a reason. On that note, it's my 6 hours to sleep...wink!

Encouragement

I received this encouragement from one of the momys today and I thought it was too good not to share it:

Psalm 1
1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

As you can see the words in boldfaced above, whatsoever God's people do, if they are meditating on His law they prosper. But we are human and we look at things with human eyes. Thus we must live by faith and not by sight as our forefather Abraham did. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" says Romans 14:23. If we don't have the faith we must ask God to give it to us by His grace.

Blessings,
Karen

Thank you, Karen! I will be praying over these verses this week. I am praying that as I raise my children I will do it in a righteous manner and it will prosper. May you have a prosperous home, too!

In which we see a few butterflies...

Wow, we've been busy bees this week. First of all, I got a large portion of my hair cut off on Wednesday! I wanted to have "fun" hair, so one of the sweet young ladies from church (who's a hair stylist) cut my hair. Above should be a picture of me with baby Eden. Second, Max's 6th birthday was on the 1st, so we took him to the butterfly garden at UF (again). We got some wonderful pictures and enjoyed ourselves. Third, on Friday I got to work-out with a friend and go to a scrapbook crop. I joined a local place that is similar to a Curves and even though I hate to exercise it's not too bad. I'm more interested in the results! Today we visited with Stu's parents while he had an open house. (He has another one tomorrow.) Also, I finally opened my Nutrimill. WOOT! That thing is awesome. My old Ktec grinder can't hold a candle to it. I LOVE IT! I made banana bread tonight. I am making homemade pancakes in the morning again...with fresh ground flour. Have a super Sunday!