Last Pictures

These were the last of the pictures from Friday. The final step was grouting everything. I wanted to take pictures of the final project, but the camera died. ;0( Everything seems to work on it, except you can't see the picture on the little screen. My beloved said that the same thing had happened to him when he was in Peru, and that it just came back on its own. So hopefully the same thing will happen again. I hope every had a great weekend. There are a few things I wanted to share, but I have to get this house in order first. My house needs some serious TLC. You can tell we were working outside all of last week by looking at the inside of my house. lol Once I get the house together I will also comment on some of your very encouraging and inspiring comments. I humbly thank you for each and every one of them. I also want to welcome a few new readers that I have. Thank you for visiting.

Update On Screened In Patio

Okay, as you can see, the frame is up, and I started to cut the tile. I did most of the cuts and was just checking my measurements.
Then I had to scrub all that green stuff growing on the concrete.(Do you see it to the right of me?) I SO wanted to just lay the tile on top, BUT, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.... Ecclesiastes 9:10 wouldn't let me. ;0)


Do you see my cool measuring tool? Do you think I can patent it? ;0) Nothing like some good old fashioned paper and marker. lol

Do you think this is why it's called a wet saw??
We had to stop for some play time. This is my bug child. Anything that creeps, crawls, and climbs, he wants to investigate. Here he is searching and searching. My poor plant got smooshed, moved, stepped on,and gently guided. All right, the last one is what I would have wanted him to have done.



But sure enough, he caught it.

He then decided the gecko and buffo toad should be friends.

Once I explained Isaiah 11:6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them" is to happen in heaven, and that the toad will probably eat the gecco, he understood.
I'm sure the gecko was very happy he understood. lol

Well, I am off to go grout the tile now. We should be finished by later this afternoon. I will take some pictures of the finished product, as I am sure you are bored with all this work. ;0)

Work, Work, Work

I won't be on much today, we will be working on the screened patio outside. Our goal is to finish it by today. We have a family coming over this Sabbath after church. A couple and their three little girls. So just between them and us, there will be 7 children in the house. We were thinking of maybe eating outside on the patio. It's not very large, but we should fit okay. My beloved will be putting up the door today, and I will finish tiling the floor. Today is the hard part, cutting the tile. I couldn't cut the tile until the frame for the screen was up. I will try to take a picture of the finished product. If you have time, please pray for my safety while I use the wet saw. This was me yesterday. I don't know what happened to my bun. I look like Olive Oil from Popeye. Am I dating myself? Does anyone remember them?

Look at the audience I have, both boys and the two dogs.
Look at that, you can even tile floor in a skirt. lol ;0)

Food For Thought

Last night I had a dream. I will give you the reader's digest version. I had a dream that I was in some water. There was a pier, me in the middle, and my family was on a little inflatable boat on the other side of me. I saw an alligator, and I told my family, help me, there is an alligator. I can't swim(my dad threw me in the water when little, and I got scared and never learned) I somehow made it to the pier. When I turned around to look at my family, I only saw the children, and they were looking down at the water. My beloved had jumped into the water to help me, and never resurfaced. At that point I forced myself to wake up. the Lord bought to my mind the verse, 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
This morning as I was driving to the supermarket I was meditating on that verse when I happen to come upon two little ducklings in the middle of the street. The mother duck was on the sidewalk with the rest of her ducklings. She looked at the two in the middle of the street picking at something, and she put her head in the grass and started to forage. That was it, she didn't call them, she didn't help them, nothing. The Lord impressed me that I need to make sure I am not like that mother duck foraging on the side of the street, while my little ducklings are in the middle of the street unprotected. I need to protect them from the roaring lion looking to devour them. I need to protect them in every sense; physcially, emotionally, spiritually, etc. These are His children. He paid for them with His blood. They are on loan to me to raise for Him. I don't know about you, but when someone lends me something, I am sure to take extra good care of it. I need to make sure that at the end time I hear the words, ...Well done, good and faithful servant...Matthew 25:23

Works For Me Wednesday

Okay, you are probably going to think I have completely lost it. As my beloved will tell you, I love gadgets. I think the ones I buy though are pretty useful. This is my flip fold. It helps fold your laundry really quick, and really neat. Here are some pictures that explain it a little better. It's supposed to help with towels and pants, etc., but we hang up our pants, and the towels are easy to begin with. Using the flipfold to fold the shirts makes the dresser drawer a lot neater, and you actually have a lot more space. I know you can probably fold your shirts like this without the flip fold, but it's so much faster. Since my children help me fold the laundry, no matter who is folding, it always comes out the same. Maybe I'm still traumatized because my mom would dump the contents of my drawer out to be redone if things weren't folded correctly when I was younger. lol ;0)

These are my shirts before I flip fold them.

These are my shirts after flip fold. ;0)

This is the website to the people who invented it. Flip Fold I hope this helps someone. For more Works For Me Wednesday, visit Rocks In My Dryer

Going To Work/ Good-bye/ Youngest To Oldest

For more Wordless Wednesdays visit 5 Minutes For Mom

Tackle It Tuesday

These are my Tackle It Tuesday Projects. I worked in my kitchen today. I only did two cabinets and my pantry closet. This is what happens when I am in a rush trying to look for something. URGH!! This only confirms in my head that I need to get that complete food inventory going that I mentioned in a previous post (don't have time to look for it, ;0) ) I even found some hot chocolate envelopes from when my father-in-law visited OVER a year ago. I was able to toss a few things.

Before


After

Before

After

This is my tiny pantry. Everything needs to be in tupperware, if not it's as good as garbage. We get these little critters called weevils down here. They break through cardboard, bags, etc.

After

Nothing fancy today, but it felt good. For more Tackle It Tuesday posts, visit 5 Minutes For Mom

Directions For Flip Flop Cake

Mrs. Jessica wanted to see the article, so here is. Enjoy.
After I scanned all the parts of the article, I realized there was a website. lol Oh well. Here it is However on that website I didn't see any pictures. The good thing is that they have two templates, one for full size flip flops, like the ones I did, and then they have a mini flip flop for a single serving.

Pictures of Tea Party

This was how I set up the table. I'm not sure if I set it up right, but it worked out. I didn't have pretty girly napkins, so the only ones I had, had bugs on them, lol. I'm not sure how bugs and tea go together. lol I found the placemats and little tea spoons at the dollar store, which was good.

More pictures

All tea etiquette went out the window. You gotta love the linking of the finger.





This is when they were coming out of the room. Brit got so excited she forgot to put a shirt under her dress. lol


I was able to find some healthy frosting and sprinkles at the health food store. YAY!! I wanted something girly, so I was happy with the flip flop sandals. I found lots of pretty tea type invitations. But since I was short on time, I just did something quick.

Last Set Of Pictures

Our Tea Party

YAY!! We finally had our tea party. I had mentioned in this post about having a tea party with the girls. My beloved took the boys out fishing, and the girls and I had a great time. Not because they were gone, lol, but you know what I mean. I went to Walmart early yesterday morning to buy some toiletries, etc., and as I passed the ladies section they had these hats and scarves on clearance. I instantly thought about our tea party. I was able to get the hats and scarves for $3 respectively. I wasn't sure if we would have time for it today, because we finally got around to trying to finish screening in the patio(so we can have our worship and eat out there without the mosquitos attacking us). In order for it to happen, my beloved would have to take the boys out. Both sets of batteries on the drill died, so my beloved thought it was the perfect time. I had about 45 minutes to make up some invitations and get everything ready. The girls were in their room, Kayla was reading Britney a story about Elizabeth Blackwell. I'm not sure if Kayla was sitting on her and making her listen or if Britney was enjoying it. lol ;0) Anyway, I handed them the invitations with the hats, scarves, and 2 pairs of my heels. lol I walked out the room without saying a word. I told them not to come out until I called them. I tried downloading the pictures to blogger, but it was giving me a hard time, so here is the link to some of them. Our Tea Party (Blogger stopped acting up and I was able to add them here, so no need to look at the link. ;0)) I added comments to the bottom of the pictures. Feel free to leave comments on the pictures as well. If you want to read the comments, just enlarge the first picture, and then hit next. The comments will be on the lower left side. If you do the slideshow, it will go too fast to read them.

Two New Readers

I wanted to welcome two new readers. I recently read two comments here by two dear-to-my-heart people. One of them was my beloved. lol He snuck on here and left me a comment when I was doing something. He's good at being sneaky. He had left me this comment before he left on the missionary trip and didn't tell me. It was a bittersweet surprise when I found it, but he was already gone. You gotta love the snakeskin part. lol
And the other is a wonderful Christian woman who allowed the Lord to use her and her husband to share the Lord with my beloved and I when we were 19 years old. She ended up being my maid of honor at our wedding, and her beloved was my beloved's best man. She has been a wonderful Christian example to my family and I. I miss her so much, as we don't live in the same state. I literally laughed out loud when she wrote our husbands should get together sometime. I love you both *waving frantically and blowing kisses*

To My Anonymous Reader

Lol for some reason blogger more than quadrupled every message you left me. It said I had 60 something comments from an anonymous reader. YIKES!! I got nervous. lol Anyway, I wanted to thank you for all the compliments. If you need help with your blog, feel free to contact me. I wasn't sure if you'd come back to where you commented, so it was easier to post my answer here.

Feeling Guilty?

While at church last week my beloved accidentally invited a couple and their daughter over for lunch after church tomorrow. How can he invite them over accidentally, you ask? lol The couple had been having marital problems, and praise the Lord, they are working on it. My beloved was happy to see them at church and said, I hope to see you next week. And she said, oh, we'll be there. She meant our house. lol But not a problem. Even though we had no plans to invite them over for this Sabbath, apparently the Lord did. ;0) I don't believe in coincidences. Anyway, my point of this post is, my beloved is working from home today and he said, "oh, I will help you clean up and cook for tomorrow, etc. Am I the only one? When I see my beloved loading the dishwasher or picking up toys, etc., I feel guilty. I feel like I didn't do my job properly. I have told him this before, and he says I shouldn't feel this way, that we are a team, and that he's here to help me. So am I a fool for feeling this way?
I must say, I do appreciate his help. ;0)

How Do We Testify?

I was wondering if any of you lovely ladies would have any ideas on how to testify to people who are well off financially? I know they are people, just like anyone else, but...I don't know, it seems a little harder. At first we(our family) thought about just putting tracts on the doors or in mailboxes, etc. but we found out this is a nonsoliciting zone. It is against the law to do that. We know our lives are living testimonies. And I know that that alone makes a huge difference. I think since we have four children, especially here, where everyone has 2.5 kids, people tend to "look" at us more. lol Either that or we're really funny looking. lol ;0) Anyway, they see us doing things as a family, and people come up to us and say hello, make comments etc. I pray that they see Jesus in us. However, we would like to do a little more. We want them to "know" Jesus. I'm not saying that none of them don't already know Him. I feel like south Florida is VERY vain. The women are into themselves, and the men are into their cars and all the little toys that they can collect, boats, etc. I hope I don't sound like I am being judgemental, I'm just trying to paint a picture, so that you know what we are up against. When my beloved and Kayla went to Peru on the missionary trip (two different links), the areas that they visited were VERY poor. They visited people that had nothing except a bed in a little room. The entire little community shared one bathroom. (I tried posting pictures of this, but blogger wouldn't let me) I will try again later.) It was very easy to tell them, "Jesus loves you. Do you want Bible studies, etc." Everyone was very accepting of the message my beloved and the group were sharing. How do we do that here? Any ideas? We feel the burden of witnessing, but are at a loss as to how to go about it.

It Warmed My Heart

Let brotherly love continue. Hebrews 13:1

Elijah was napping, and I saw Micah(3) grab his baseball glove and bat. He was headed in Kayla's direction. I knew he was going to ask her to play. Sure enough, he said, "Kayla, can you play baseball with me?" He sounded so cute. I was in the kitchen. I closed my eyes, because I was scared of what her answer would be. You see, when Elijah takes his nap, she finds that her best time to have her "free time" because there are no little hands to mess up her paper dolls, etc. Thankfully, she said, "yes." They headed out to the yard, and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. So like the Bible says, "Let brother love continue. Hebrews 13:1"

My Alone Time

My beloved was saying that because of the nature of my day, maybe I should do some things on my own to have some quiet personal time. So I went for a bike ride. I had never done that alone. We normally do everything as a family. Anyway, I got dressed, and I decided I would take $10 with me, just in case. As I left, it was already 90 degrees, and it was around noon. The sun was beaming on me. I had only been gone about two minutes when I realized I was REALLY thirsty. I decided, ah, I have money on me, I will ride all the way to Jamba Juice (my FAVORITE smoothie place) It's about 4 miles from my home, so it would be an 8 mile trip total. I exited the gate from the community we live in, and I got onto the main street. As I start riding through there, I see what I thought were leaves blowing across the sidewalk. I didn't have my glasses on. I realized these weren't leaves, they were lizards.
Oh my!! Anyone who knows me knows that I cannot kill anything, except mosquitos. For some strange reason they decide to run across the bike just as I am passing them. I don't understand. They are right next to the grass on the right side of me, and they decide to run across to the grass on the left side of me. I had to slam my brakes every few seconds. I almost ate the sidewalk like 10 times from trying not to run over these little critters. There is no other route to take, even if I didn't go to get my smoothie. If I turn to the left, the only thing there are all different gated communities, and if I crossed the street to the other side, there is a golf course and country club. Anyway, I get to Jamba Juice, I drink my well deserved Pina Colada smoothie, which I couldn't even enjoy, just thinking about having to deal with those lizards on the way home. I start my trek back home. Sure enough now they decide to go from the left of me to the right. I deal with the lizards for about two miles, and then I decided to enter our community through the back gate instead of the one I came out from. I riding along and I feel something light hit my face. I kept going, and I felt more. I start looking at the sidewalk while I am riding to avoid whatever it is and I realized my clothes are covered in little gnats.


That's what I was feeling on my head. I kept having to look up every once in a while to make sure I was riding okay, and not unexpectedly crossing the street. Every time I looked up, they would go in my nose, my mouth(which I promptly closed) my ears, my hair, EVERYWHERE!! By the time I got home I was completely covered in them. It looked like someone covered me in chocolate sprinkles. I would have had my family take a picture of me, but I couldn't stand leaving them on me. ;0) I tell my beloved I rode to Jamba Juice and bought myself one, etc., and he starts laughing. He says, wow, you burned 300 calories riding bike and you gained 900 calories drinking your Jamba. ;0) Alone time, who the heck wants that. Give me my crayon wall writing, book shelf emptying children. Anytime of day!!

Works For Me Wednesday

Hey there. I just wanted to share something that works for my family and I. As I have mentioned before, I do about 4 hours of therapy with Britney, then I homeschool Kayla, and then I have our boys underfoot. They are 3 and 2 right now. In order to cram everything in one day, I have to prepare as much as possible the night before, or in the morning. I have found these great lunchboxes for my children. I know, I know, I am home with them, why put their food in lunchboxes. lol Well, one reason is that it is fun for them. They love the little compartments. I normally put a little snack or surprise in one of them, like yogurt, granola, sliced almonds, etc. They have never eaten junk food, so for them, this is grand. lol ;0) It's a lot easier when lunch time rolls around for me to just put four little lunch boxes on the table, and let them start eating. It comes with a little fork and spoon, and also a water bottle. I have taken pictures of other meals, but I might have removed them from my computer. There is a wonderful website that has LOTS of neat pictures in these lunch boxes that are very inspiring, well at least for me. She is vegan, like we are. You can check her out at Vegan Lunch Box . I got the lunch boxes from Laptop Lunches . They come in a lead free vinyl case and then the little compartments are in a plastic lunch box that go into the main case. It also comes with a fork and spoon that fit inside the box, and water bottle. I love ours. It came with a recipe book as well. I know it sounds confusing, but on their website they have great pictures which I didn't have time to take of ours. Here are some pictures of our veggie chicken fajitas. I just put whatever veggies we have on hand with the veggie chicken, and then wrap them up in the flour tortilla.



I know there is link for Works For Me Wednesday, when I find it I will add it on. I found it, but it's not letting me add the header. You can find more Works For Me Wednesday over at Rocks In My Dryer

Blogging Time

Okay, now that my ear is feeling better, I don't have an excuse to sit down in front of computer. When my ear would hurt before, my balance was thrown off, and I had to sit for a little while. Now that the tube is in my ear, and all seems well, I need to get back on schedule. Britney gets evaluated(because of the seizures she once had, I do therapy with her instead of regular school), again on Sept 1st, so my schedule will change again when that happens. For now, looking at my current schedule, I only have 15 minutes of blog time. I know the final decision is on me, but I was just wondering what you think I should do. What would you do? Would you spend your 15 minutes reading others' blogs or would you spend the 15 minutes writing on your own? Or should I split it, 7 minutes reading others and 7 minutes writing on mine? There are very spiritual uplifting blogs that I know help me when I read them. If you don't mind sharing with me what you would do, that would be great. You can leave me your answer in the comment box, or you can vote in the little poll on the right side. The only reason I did the poll is because I know I have some readers that only lurk(lurking sounds so creepy. I don't mean it in a bad way. I lurk on some blogs as well ;0)) and don't comment. So for those of you that lurk, you can still let me know without sharing who you are. Thanks.

Tackle It Tuesday

I know this is a little late, but I had a long day today. My beloved worked from home, and I also went on a bike ride, etc. I will post about it tomorrow. As I have mentioned before, I sew in my closet. lol I don't having a sewing room, and I don't want my sewing things to take over another section of the house, like the dining room or our bedroom, etc., so I opted for putting a table in our walk in closet. I knew that if I had to set it up every time I wanted to sew, I would never end up sewing. So this has been working out for me pretty good. The only thing is, that the table in the closet seems to be a catch all for all things, as you can see; diapers, my purse, etc. This is my before.

And this is my after.

To participate in Tackle It Tuesday, go over to Five Minutes For Mom

Part 3 Of How We Met (by my Beloved)

Up until now I had been fooling around with my template, adding things, etc. I got stuck when I wanted to separate the columns and change center color background to make it look like it was overlapping the main background. Janet came to the rescue. She did a wonderful job. I love the amount of faith Janet has. She is a single, stay at home, homeschooling mom who works from home doing web design, in order to be home with her girls. Amen. So I was showing my beloved the things Janet did on my blog, and he realized he never finished his version of how we met.

I know it's been a while, so here is Part 1 and Part 2

So my good friend Corey decides to help out my cause and play wing man. He apparently knew a girl or two in that school, so there was a possibility, that perhaps, I could get an introduction. We get to the school a little over an hour before they let out and decided to grab some pizza while we wait. Upon leaving the pizza place, school was let out. Fortunately, it appeared that they were all let out from one entrance. Unfortunately, it was like looking at zebras in Africa. About 1,000 girls coming at you at once, all in the same uniforms. Needless to say, I did not see her. I got on the train to begin the trek home and saw my wife’s bus companion, Sandy, who was alone. I realized then that perhaps Shereen did not attend school that day. I was frustrated by the course of events, and how long everything was taking. The fact that I had finally built up the courage and now she was not around. I decided that today, had to be THE day. On the bus ride home, right before getting off, I asked Sandy where was her normal companion on the bus. Sandy responded, “Shereen?” (BTW – I heard “Sharice?”) and now I finally had a name (a wrong one, but nonetheless, a name). I asked Sandy if she would pass along my phone number to Sharice so that she would call me. Well, the weekend of January 5th was a long weekend for me. I fully expected to receive a call from her that weekend. Much to my dismay, disappointment, shock (fill in whichever word you find to be appropriate) Shereen (or Sharice as I was calling her back then) never called. Monday came and I had made the decision to move on. I did not understand how I could have misread the signals. It just so happens that on January 8th, I did end up seeing her on the bus ride home. It was kind of weird, as for the first time, I was not nervous. I remember seeing her and making eye contact and holding the look with her for that extra second and offering that “Hey / Hello” nod. I remember her looking back kindly, but distinctly remember there wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling on my part or in her look. I recall sitting on that bus, thinking, maybe I should try one last time. I decided against it and thought, if it was meant to be at some point one of us will say something. If my memory serves me correct, I actually skipped my normal bus stop and stayed on for an extra one (or two). As I got up to get off, I looked in her direction. As I waited at the top of the stairwell, I remember hearing a slight commotion off to my right (in Shereen’s direction) and then Sandy came up to me, asking for my number again. Apparently, she, “lost it.” I looked at Shereen and asked her, “are you going to call this time?” Not in a cocky or arrogant manner but just joking around. A happier young man could not be found in all the earth, galaxies, and universe at that moment in time. She called me from her job that afternoon and we spoke briefly. She gave me her phone number and I remember asking when would be a good time to call her. She said between 8pm and 9pm. At 8:45pm (although I was home well before this time, I didn't want to seem desperate) I made the call. Our conversation has not ended since that time and will continue throughout eternity.Sorry for the delay in writing this last post. I hope you folks enjoyed this last installment. Shereen, I love you more +1.
(In my defense, the reason I didn't call is because earlier that week, a young man who went to my beloved's school told me, you see the guy who just got off the bus, he likes you. I asked him, what's his name, and he told me. So when Sandy gave me the paper with the telephone number on it, it said Junior, which wasn't the name the friend told me. I thought it was some weirdo on the bus wanting me to call him. So on Monday when Sandy and I were on the bus together, she told me, hey, there is the guy that gave me the number. I was ecstatic to see that Junior and my beloved were one in the same.)

Current Crochet Projects

I wanted to share some small crocheted projects I'm working on while waiting in the doctor's office, or in the car while my beloved drives, etc. One is a little washclothfor my beloved. He likes to use the homemade ones. The other is a pair of slippers for Britney. They look a little square in the toe area, lol, but they are my first pair. I've only been crocheting for a few months. They are supposed to be like a pair of Mary Janes. Here is the link to the pattern, and a picture of the real way they should look. ;0) Mary Janes

Our Sabbath Afternoon

We had a lot of fun on Sabbath with our guest after church. We ate, fellowshipped, and played Bible Pictionary. After we started playing we remembered that the husband (we invited a couple over) is an architect, so he drew so nice. It was easy for all of us to quickly guess. lol ;0) If you look at the picture of me drawing, I had to chuckle. You could still see Kayla's drawing, which I had guessed, was of Sarah in a tent, laughing, when the three Visitors told her she would have a child. We were in the girls' room, that's why there is a dollhouse behind us. lol

Elijah's Birth Day Pictures

This was the student midwife giving Elijah a check up.





This is the student midwife again, weighing Elijah. This reminds me of how they weigh the little animals in the wild on those animal Planet shows. lol ;0)

This is Micah holding Elijah just a couple of hours after he was born.

Since we have hospital pictures of our other three children in their hospital bassinet, we didn't want to miss out on a picture for Elijah. Well, since he was born in this bathtub, that's where we put him for his "hospital" picture. lol :0)

Happy Birthday Elijah

Two years ago today I gave birth to my youngest son. YAY!! It was an awesome experience. I saw God's hand on the entire situation. Even though this was my fourth child, his birth was different from the other three children. You see, he was born at home, under water, in my bathtub. I have mentioned before that we don't have family over here. And the two friends that I would even consider leaving my children with, had moved away. One moved to TN, and the other to MD. I originally had my younger brother, who was 18 at the time , going to stay with my three children just while my beloved was with me for the labor, and my beloved would be back quickly to care for them. All of my labors had been quick, so we were comfortable with that. It just so happens that he had to go back to NY before I gave birth. So then we tried my beloved's brother. He flew down to be with us, and he had to go back home for an interview to be a teacher. His first job since graduating with a teaching degree. I told my beloved, "I will just have to give birth to this baby at home. " I was just joking. We laughed. Hee, hee, ha, ha!! But then, reality hit. We had no one to stay with the children. My youngest at the time was only 20 months, and wouldn't really just stay with "someone from church." It worried me that he would be screaming his head off while I was giving birth. So I started thinking of my little joke about giving birth at home. I had given birth to Britney and Micah naturally, without pain medication, so I knew I could deal with the pain. I called our insurance company, and they covered midwives. I found a midwife, and she said she would work with our insurance to get a home birth paid for. I had prayed that if it was the Lord's will, He would allow everything to work out with the insurance. If it wasn't His will, for Him to please close all the doors to possibly having a home birth. All along I was keeping my beloved informed of all this new found information. He thought I was insane, but at the same time, he trusted me to gather all the information and make a wise decision.
Okay, everything was set to give it a go at home. We still realized it would be nice if we had someone at least in the house with the children while my beloved was with me in our room. But alas, no one we felt comfortable with. We prayed that the Lord would just help us. Micah, my youngest son at the time would wake up at 7:00 in the morning like clockwork. It just so happens that the day before I went into labor, he didn't take his nap. I struggled with the Lord, "why did you allow him to skip his nap, I am tired. I have a lot of cleaning to do, blah, blah, blah. I felt the Lord tell me, "it's okay, I'm in control." I had no idea what that meant. I went into labor that night. When I saw that I hadn't given birth yet, and I saw the sun starting to rise, I started to worry, because I knew the children would be up soon. (since it was all natural, the midwife didn't break my bag of waters, so it took longer than normal) Strangely enough 7:00 came and went, and Micah didn't wake up. I gave birth to Elijah at 9:00, and Micah woke up at exactly 9:05. Amen. I felt the Lord tell me, "you see, the reason I didn't allow him to take his nap yesterday, is because I needed him to sleep in this morning." It all worked out so perfectly. My beloved asked me if he could bring the children in, and I agreed. So they were able to see their little brother, literally 2 minutes after coming out of my womb, cuddling on top of me in the bathtub. After he was weighed and examined, etc. my beloved went into the kitchen and whipped up some pancakes for me, the children, the midwife, and her student, which I agreed could participate. (She needed to attend one last birth to graduate.) The Lord really is in control of EVERYTHING. He cares about all the little details. We need not worry, He will take care of us. I will add some pictures later on today. I am typing this on my beloved's work laptop, and my pictures are on our desktop.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I wanted to say hello. I've been pretty busy today. We invited a couple over for lunch tomorrow after church. So I am trying to get the house nice and tidy. Then I had to spot paint certain areas. A certain little boy, who shall remain nameless, (hint, hint, he will be 2 on Sunday) went a little crayon happy on the walls while I was scrubbing the toilet. URGH!! I had him wipe some first, even though it didn't come out, and then I spot painted it. Well, off I go to finish cleaning up. I still have to sweep and mop the floor. Oh, oh. My beloved had a 5:40 appointment here in the same city we live in. So he trying to hurry and get out of here. He pulled his shoes out of the closet, and said, "do you know where I can get a quick pair of socks?" I almost choked because I couldn't get it out fast enough. "I MATCHED ALL THE SOCKS. THERE IS NO MORE SOCK BAG." lol ;0) YAY!! YIPPEE!! WOOHOO!! HIP HIP HORRAY!! For those of you who think I have lost it, just check on this post . lol I hope everyone is doing well.

Old Fashioned Hairstyles

Now with the summer months here upon us, I just wanted to share a site that my daughters' and I like to visit. They have lots of nice old-fashioned hairstyles. They have directions on how to make these specific styles in In Timely Fashion . My daughters get such a kick when I do some of these on them. These are not pictures of us by the way, these are from the website.

Poems by Kayla

My beloved has written me some beautiful poems over the years. His father writes poetry. When my beloved's grandmother passed away, her family found a notebook full of poetry, and it's in the process of being published. I was wondering if anyone knows if poetry is heriditary. I would like to get my daughter a book so that she can learn the different styles of poetry, etc. The first poem she wrote like in 5 minutes for her English lesson. The second she wrote yesterday on a whim. It took her like 15 minutes or so. I want to encourage her, but I don't know how, aside from buying her a book.

Winter Goes and Spring Has Come(age 7)
Now winter has gone with the snow-covered trees
and lazy daisy snowflakes and buried leaves.
Now spring has come with its flowered-covered trees
in white and yellow, all so still and all so mellow.

Spring(10yr. 1 month)
The spring is sweet and mellow
Where flowers grow in every shade of red, orange, purple, blue and yellow.
The sunsets are beautiful as they cast for their rich sunlight with glimmering gold and shimmering silver, and diving purple and orange.
In the meadows the larks and song sparrows give forth their sweet songs that are like music to one's ears.
The rippling brook, with it's clear beautiful waters rushing by.
The meadows hold many beautiful things and wonders within, many varieties of things which gold and silver cannot measure to.
The deer feed in the large pastures where there are a pretty sea of flowers; marigolds, violets, and lilies. Ocean blue flowers rule the vast meadows.
By the ocean, the waves dash and break among the rocks sending spray of water across the foamy pebbles, rocks, and stones.
The now fading sunlight sends beautiful reflections across the ocean waters.
While the day fades into the past, the memories that are made will last forever be in our mind.

Testing

Hi, sorry, I'm just testing out a wider center column. I can't seem to get the words spread out. I know it's a margin issue. So don't mind me. Just ignore this post. lol ;0)

Update On First Time Obedience

I wanted to update on how the first time obedience week is going. It is not easy, my friends. lol It has been going really well. It just requires a lot of constistency on my part. I don't want you to think my children are little monsters. They are actually pretty well behaved. Probably thanks to my husband who has been requiring first time obedience from the beginning from them. lol. Anyway, I feel like I am cheating because I found out a new little trick. Well, it's new to me.
Every morning I wake up between 5 and 5:30 to have my personal quiet time with the Lord. Once everyone is up and running we have family worship, where we all sing, pray, memorize verses or read, etc. However, if I don't get my personal worship in, I feel like my day doesn't go as smooth. I don't feel "connected" to Him. Even though we have family worship, if I miss my personal time with Him, my day doesn't feel right. So, I decided that my children need their personal quiet time with the Lord. Kayla, my oldest, has been having personal worship for quite a while now, but I didn't require it of the others. Britney is reading beautifully now, so I don't know why I haven't started her sooner. And then the boys, even though they are 3 and 2(on Sunday), they can have their own personal worship. There are plenty of things that can be done for them. They can listen to some Bible children's songs, or some books on tape that go through the Fruit of the Spirit, etc. For the songs or books on tape, I give them some pictures from their Bible coloring book, to keep their hands busy. If I don't have anything prepared, I can read something to them, and just make sure I personalize it for them. I have lots of other ideas for this, but that's not the purpose of this post. lol My point is that I need to connect them to the Lord. They need to do that first thing in the morning.

For example the boys learned about Samuel this morning for their personal worship. During the day, Micah was playing with some blocks. I asked him to please put them away once he was done. He started to do it, but I can see his eyes were a little furrowed. He was still obeying, but he was doing the whole, you're asking me to stand up, I'm standing up, but inside I'm sitting down. I quickly mentioned how he is my helper the way Samuel was Eli's helper. And I started to sing "Samuel is a helper, etc." That child's face lit up so quickly. It was amazing.
At one point my beloved was on the phone when I was speaking to Micah about something, and I mentioned Samuel again, and even though I normally don't raise my voice to my children, my husband was able to tell the difference from when I asked him to do something today, as opposed to when I normally as them to do something. He actually told me I sounded beautiful. He said it warmed his heart.
Another secret is that when I ask them to do something, I am quietly praying inside my head for the Lord to touch their little hearts to obey. Can you tell I hate confrontation. lol ;0)
So my secret is that I need to make sure my children are connected to Him first thing in the morning. And it's not a matter of just connecting them in the morning, it's a matter of making sure the connection is there all day long, by mentioning Him or little stories, etc., througout the day.
I hope that this post is able to help someone the way it has helped me out so far this week.
Blessings.

My Wreath

Okay, ladies, I need your expertise. The raffia is driving me up the wall. It just doesn't look right to me. Do I take it out, change it, or what?(you can click to enlarge it) I put it on the left door, since we don't really use that door. I figured if I put it on the right one, I'd be sweeping moss off the floor every day every time we opened or closed the door. I'm going to make this my summer wreath. I'd eventually like to do one for all the seasons, even though we don't really go through all the seasons like those of you in the north do. Thank you Mrs. Wilt and Tammy for the inspiration. I wanted to have it done before my beloved got home, so I made it just in time. He gets here tomorrow YAY!!

Backyard plants

The red flowers are in the front, and then the other three are in the backyard. Since I moved the fern to the backyard, it was grown beautifully. Maybe it's from all the humidity outside. I'm not too sure if the gardenias below will blossom. It's looking kind of pitiful. lol I think those are weeds growing in the pot. AHHH!!! How did that happen?

Flowers In Front Of House

These are the plants and flowers I planted when my beloved and Kayla were in Peru to surprise them. They were a lot smaller when I planted them. They are so much more inexpensive when you buy them small and let them grow at home. ;0) It's only been about 8 weeks, and they are growing pretty good. When looking at all these pictures, I realized all the weeds popping up here and there. YIKES!!

For My Beloved's Homecoming Tomorrow

This is my Wordless Wednesday post.

Tackle It Tuesday

YAY!! I got the banner to work. I know this is probably really embarassing, but my Tackle It Tuesday project was the dreaded sock bag. For some reason I'm not good with matching up socks as they come out the dryer. I quickly fold up the load of laundry, and the socks would get tossed in this bag. My poor beloved has never complained, but I know he will be very happy to not have to search for socks anymore..

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

To join Tackle It Tuesday, go over to Five Minutes For Mom

First Time Obedience

That is what I will be working on with my children this week. I have still been thinking about that song that I posted about a week or so ago. There is a sentence that talks about Abraham,
So there he stood upon that hill
Abraham with knife in hand was poised to kill
But God in all his sovereignty had bigger plans
And just in time, You brought a lamb
'Cause You were there,You were there
In the midst of the unclear
You were there, you were there always
You were there when obedience
Seemed to not make sense
You were there, You were always there
You were always there

So lately I have been thinking about how my children need to obey me implicitly, even when it doesn't seem to make sense. Even when they don't want to, they need to. If I say, "don't run with that stick in your hand," then they need to stop, not tell me, "but mom, blah, blah, blah." Whatever the case is.
My beloved and I joke around in private, not in front of the children. I tell him that he goes from 0 to 10. I know there aren't 10 gears in a car, but that's how I described it to him. He will tell the children something once, if they don't listen, there is a consequence. If he says drink your juice at the table, and then get up and decide to walk to their room with the drink, then it gets taken away. No ifs, ands, or buts. I on the other hand, will say, "what did mommy tell you, you need to go sit down." They sit down. If they get up again, I will say, "you need to stay seated," etc. So my beloved says I stay stuck on zero. He says I never even make it to first gear. So I have come to the realization that I am in error. If I want them to obey the Lord, then they need to start with me. They need to obey me even when it is going against "self."
When my oldest was 6 years old I attended a parenting seminar in church. The speaker gave us some questions to answer at home and return the following day. One of the questions was to ask my children what they love about mom and dad. Kayla said she loved that I take care of her, I make her clothes, her food, etc. And when I asked what she loved about her dad, she said, "the fact that he disciplines me." That blew me away. The Lord has brought that to my memory today. I need to properly discipline my children. They need it. They crave bounderies. Please keep me in prayer, if you can. I need help from on high. I am a big ole softy, and it pains me to be strict. I guess I associate strict with mean, and I know that is not the case. I need to be firm, and I can be loving at the same time.
I want my children to obey the Lord, even when it doesn't seem to make sense. Not only do I want them to obey, but I want them to do it happily. If I tell them stand up, I don't want them to stand up, but inwardly they are still sitting. Does that make sense?
Today was my first day of testing out first time obedience, and it went WONDERFULLY. If it works again tomorrow, I will post tomorrow evening on how I (He, the Lord) got it to work SO QUICKLY.

A Question Answered

Chrissy said/asked: As for the dresses, I have decided that as I don't sew, it is time for me to learn! My MIL has offered to loan me her machine and give me some tips. I plan on making dresses for my girls as well...any advice for a beginner?


Chrissy, I'm not sure I have great advice, so take it for what it's worth. I sort of did it backwards. The first pattern I attempted to do was a pretty hard one, in that it had buttons, sleeves, and it was a tie back dress.. I had no one around me that I knew how to sew (or so I thought) I was a little overwhelmed in the beginning looking at all the steps in the pattern. When you start, only look at one step at a time. Sometimes I would read it and read it again, and I still wouldn't understand. ;0) I guess I was a little dense. There were times when I would just have to put it away and come back to it, and then it would just click. I did get stuck when I got to the neck and sleeves, and I found out someone from my church knew how to sew. She showed me how to do the sleeves and neck, and I never forgot. She told me it was good that I started with something hard, like that everything else will be easy. lol She promptly moved away after that first sewing lesson, so I am happy I had picked a hard one. If you have access to your MIL all the time, then by all means start off slowly and with something easy, but if not, just jump in with both feet and get one or two good lessons. You can always frog it (rip it, rip it, lol, corny, I know) if it doesn't come out right. This was my first dress. Sorry it's wrinkled and dirty, it was in the hamper. ;0) It's been passed from my oldest to my youngest daughter, and it's still going strong. I know the buttons don't match, but those are the only buttons my "sewing teacher" had on hand. lol She also embroidered the little flower there on the side. Keep us updated on your sewing adventure. It's lots of fun once you get started.

My Beloved's Surprise

I took this picture last night as I was packing my beloved's bag for his trip. The fishing rod case fit PERFECT in his bag. I put all of his clothes on top neatly folded, and he had no idea, UNTIL he went through airport security. lol Yep, airport security. They put it through the little x-ray scanner, and they opened up his bag. Apparently, large nail clippers are considered a weapon. I didn't know that. In the fishing case I had put his fishing nail clippers (no, he doesn't trim the fishes fins) but that's what he uses to cut the fishing line when he threads it through the rod. I bought it for him for Father's Day. Remember the other day I mentioned how I bought him a few things for his trip? One of them was a nice manly toiletry bag. Normally he tells me to just dump all of his razors, toothpaste, etc. on the side pocket. So I bought him a little bag, and all sorts of little travel size goodies. The security guard saw the nail clippers though the x-ray machine, opened up his bag, and the first thing they opened up was the toiletry bag. They asked him, "what's in here?" Having never seen it before, he said, "deodarant??" He didn't want to say he had no idea, and raise all these alarms, that he doesn't know what's in his bag. The guy looked at him, kind of annoyed, being that my beloved said it with a question. lol. Then he kept searching for those nail clippers. He got to the bottom black case, and said, "What's this? My beloved said he had no idea what to say, then thankfully he saw the "ugly stick" logo on the black case, and having rememered seeing an ad for it in a magazine, yelled out, "a fishing rod, a fishing rod." lol He was so happy to have known what it was, and not have gotten arrested. lol Poor man. lol Anyway, to make a long story short, they couldn't put everything back in the way I packed it, so my beloved had to carry it separate, and he was about to go iron his wrinkled clothes while we spoke this evening. He called me right after it happened, while I was driving back from the airport, and he said, "an ugly stick, huh?" ;0) He was very happy with it. He has already put it together and taken it apart. He said he can't wait to go fishing. Last night while we were laying in bed he mentioned it again, "I wish I could go fishing while I'm up there." I almost exploded and told him. So although it wasn't a total surprise, it was a surprise none the less. lol ;0)

My Mansion

Hey there. I just wanted to share something that I just found out on Friday. I have mentioned before that I live in a gated community, and that it's a little(very) snooty here(how I can't hang laundry in my yard, etc.) On Friday morning my beloved worked out, and then he was going to go for his usual 3-4 mile run. Since he is leaving Sunday morning, he has been wanting to spend these last few days doing everything together as a family. He asked us if we wanted to go with him on his run. Britney and I rode bike, Kayla on her rollerblades, and my beloved pushed the boys in a double jogging stroller. In our community it's broken up into sections. Let's say, just for examples sake, one section is the apples, one the pears, and the other the oranges, etc. So as I was riding, I noticed we passed the "apple" section, where there are multi million dollar homes, and the street leading into that section have these HUGE, grand palm trees. They are spectacular. Then we passed the "pear" section, and the homes there are worth about a million or so, and they have nice large palm trees. Anyway, I didn't think too much about it. We kept riding. We had a nice time. Then we got to our section, and I just burst out laughing. I never realized it, but look at the trees leading into and in our section.
I can't wait until we are in our mansions in heaven, and the tree we have in front of our house doesn't mean anything. We can have whatever tree we want in front of our homes. Where we aren't living in sections. I will be ecstatic just to be in heaven. The Lord can give me a hut with a bush in front of my house, and I'd be content, as long as I could see His heavenly, merciful face every day.

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:2

Percy

Mrs. B, Toby and Percy seem to be kindred spirits. This was taken 6 days ago. I found it so funny. Then when I saw Toby, I laughed even more.

Mix Of Things

Thank you so much for all the well wishes and warm thoughts. Thankfully I feel better. Things still sound a little tunnel-like, but I'm not in too much pain. It's annoying at this point, more than an anything. It just feels like I have something in my ear that shouldn't be there. Alas, I will survive. ;0)

On a stinky note, my beloved leaves on a business trip Sunday morning, and will not return until Thursday evening. URGH!!! I went out this morning and bought him a few surprises to put in his bag. I bought him a travel fishing rod. It comes apart into four pieces, in a neat little black case. During his trip he will have one day where only his engineers have to work, and he has off. So I know he has mentioned how he would love to fish over there, but had no way of taking a rod. YAY!! I'm so excited. Since I am the one who packs his bag, he won't know until he gets over there and unpacks. WOOHOO!!

While I was out this morning I purchased the items to make a wreath. I was inspired by Mrs. Wilt's instructions, which seem easy enough. The only thing I also purchased was some little daises to put on as well. And then earlier today I visited Tammy's blog , and she made one with flowers. It came out so beautiful. Very delicate and romantic.

I have a hard time functioning in the evening without my beloved. So I have my sewing machine ready to go. The girls picked out some of their favorite fabrics from my stash. We have the patterns set aside, and are ready to start washing, cutting, and sewing. I would like to be able to make them 5 dresses each. Like that it's like they have a little "uniform" to wear throughout the week. A different dress for Monday, Tuesday, etc. This should help cut down the clutter in their closets, it will make washing clothes easier, etc. We'll see. I hope everyone is doing well. Off I go. I need to make our Friday evening bread.

My Ear Appointment

Jessica and Mona, thank you for asking. My appointment was yesterday. The doctor put the tube in my ear quickly. It hurt a lot. I have given birth to four children, three of them naturally, without pain medication, and I would dare to say this hurt just as much. He was done quickly, like in 15 minutes. However, he quickly sat me up as well, and I think that was a huge mistake. I started gagging, I got REALLY hot, and dizzy. I had another doctor come stand at the doorway and tell my doctor that I looked really green. Then everyone jumped up and started getting me things, icepacks for my forehead and neck, water to drink, etc. They reclined my chair back again(which helped). They took my blood pressure, which had dropped really low. They didn't let me leave til my blood pressure reached at least 90. I was going to call my beloved to come pick me up, but I remember the car I had, had the boys' carseats. So I just waited a while, and drove home nice and easy. My ear doesn't feel too good. It sounds as if everyone is talking through a toilet paper tube. And it feels like I have a toilet paper tube in my ear. URGH!! Oh well. I'm just praying I get used to it, so that I can function properly.

Wordless Wednesday

If you read my Tackle-it-Tuesday post yesterday, you would see why this is a perfect Wednesday Wordless post. URGH!!! Yes, this was taken this morning.


This one speaks for itself. Yes, this is the same child!! He will be 2 in a couple of weeks.

For more Wordless Wednesdays, go visit Janice Great fun.

Hodge Podge

There are a few comments that I never got to respond to, and it's probably too late, so I figured it was easier to answer here, and also do a few updates on old posts.

As for the wheat berries growing from my sink we didn't have to take the plumbing apart. I just carefully pulled them out, making sure I pulled out the root and all. The water seems to be going down okay. This morning there were two more blades, so I've just been doing that unless another problem arises.

I wanted to mention how much I love my family. They really do care for all the little stages of lunacy I go through. I mentioned in this post a few weeks ago how I wanted to start a tradition of making cinnamon rolls or something baked to start our Sabbath off. That first week I made cinnamon rolls, the second week I made all sorts of bread,
and then this Sabbath would have been our third week. Friday afternoon I was in a lot of pain from my ear, and I had to lay down for a little bit, which is very rare for me. I called the doctor and they called a priscription in for me. My beloved went with our sons to pick it up. While he was there he called Kayla, my oldest, to see if we had some store bought cinnamon bread at home that we can eat for the evening. Kayla said no, but that she had already started making something. My sweet daughter made some oatmeal pecan cookies. I didn't know anyone of this was going on. I had fallen asleep. So when I awoke, we all enjoyed some homemade cookies as we entered the Sabbath hours.

My garage , thankfully has stayed decent. Since I cleaned it up a bit, my beloved has worked out in their five out of seven days of the week. I'm so happy the Lord impressed on my heart to clean it up.

My beloved promised to finish up part three of the story. It was end of quarter for him at work, so he had been really busy ending the month of June. And he has really been helping me out, being that my ear has been hurting me.

Thank you so much for all your comments and suggestions. They mean a lot to me. It's nice to have some sort of fellowship, even if it is through the computer. ;0)

Tackle-It-Tuesday.

I know it's a holiday, but I am addicted to doing Tackle-It-Tuesday. Today I picked my boys' closet. This is the before.




Here is the after. I got a little OC with the clothes on the hangers. I put all shirts on blue hangers, pants on green ones, and clothes waiting to be grown into, on red. It's annoying me that in the picture the books on the bottom shelf are leaning towards the right. URGH!! I almost retook the picture. lol ;0)


While I cleaned out the boys' closet, I realized all the puzzle pieces were all over the place. So, here are all the puzzles, and the bag of puzzle pieces. I must admit, we all got involved, even my beloved. So we played with the puzzles for a while.

I am making this a Tackle-It-Tuesday PLUS, lol. I went back and rechecked the drawers I did last Tuesday. So next week when I do something, I will check on the closet and the drawers quickly, just so that I can try to keep up with it a little, so it doesn't get out of hand. What do you think?

For more Tackle-It-Tuesday posters, or to join in, go visit Janice It's a great inspiration. If anyone has a minute, can you tell me how to get the tackle-it-Tuesday little graphic on my post?

Happy 4th of July

Happy Independence Day to all. I hope everyone enjoys their day today with their family and friends. Please don't forget to say a prayer for safety for all the children or adults who might get injured with fireworks today.

10 Most Embarrassing Things

Mrs. Blythe, over at Seeking His Glory created a meme, to humble us all. lol Here is my 10 embarrassing things.

1. I have crusty feet. ( I asked my beloved to help me list 10 things, and before I was even done with the sentence, he mentioned my feet. I think it's time I give myself a pedicure, huh? lol)
2. I don't know how to swim.(My dad threw me in the water when I was little, and I was nervous to even learn while growing up. )
3. I am obsessive compulsive about buying and having enough of something. ( I bought every color of DMC floss, and have never stitched a stitch. I have tons of yarn, and have only crocheted one bag and 6 washcloths. I have tons of fabric, and have only sewed about 8 dresses for my dd's)
4. I sneak junk food into the house. ( My children have never eaten junk food or candy, and I love it. URGH!! This is something I am struggling with stopping.)
5. The fact that I didn't know I was supposed to clean my baseboards until a year or so ago.(I NEVER saw my mom clean them. She must have done them while I was in school. They never looked dirty to me.)
6. The fact that I feel like I am going to poop on myself while I teach Sabbath School, from my nerves. (I'm a Nervous Nelly.)
7. I don't match socks, and my poor husband has to go sock surfing every morning.(He never complains. I think I will do this for my tackle-it-tuesday job tomorrow)
8.The fact that I was never proposed to by my beloved. (We just always knew that we would get married as soon as I finished school. I graduated, and we just set the date.)
9. I live in a gated community, and the security guards call me to ask me if they can let so and so come in. I have been known to say yes, and then run around like a mad woman putting dirty dishes in my bathtub, hoping the person gets lost getting from the gate to my house.(Horrible I know. So if you ever come visit me, don't look in my bathtub.)
10. The fact that I have more than 10 embarassing things that I can list. lol

Today's Attempt

Okay, here I go. I'm getting obsessive compulsive about something esle now. I have decided to try and take an inventory of every food item in my kitchen. Every Sunday I make my menu for the week, and then I make my grocery list out of that menu. Then I go to my kitchen and cross anything off of the grocery list that we already have. I already have 4 weeks worth of menus, so the menu making should stop soon. Hopefully I can just pull out the entire month's worth of meals, including the premade grocery list. Now I am hoping that I can always have a list on hand, of everything we already have. I would like to be able to see, at-a-glance, what we are running low on, etc. I'm not sure how I will work it out. Do we cross things off as we finish them? I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to do it. I know I definitely need to make a list of everything we have in the fridge and the pantry closet. My pantry closet is tiny, see . It's hard with it being so small, being that we are a family of 6. We're hoping to eventually move our washer and dryer into the garage, and turn the laundry closet into a nice pantry closet. I'm not sure how much it cost to get a laundry hook up in the garage, so we'll see. Okay, back to my original post. If anyone has ever done anything like this, and if you have any type of advice, please pipe up. Or even if you've never done this, and you think of something that might work, please let me know. I can use any help I can get.

Question about Skirts/Dresses Only

Hello. I hope everyone is doing well. I was just wondering, for those of you ladies that only wear skirts or dresses, what do you do to ride bike for example? Or rollerblade? We try to do everything as a family. It means a lot to all of us, if we ALL go bike riding, or ALL rollerblading, not just mom and dad supervising the children do those activities. So I was just curious what those women who only wear skirts or dresses do for those types of activities. Do you just make an exception? If it's a loose skirt, won't it get caught in the chain or wheel or something? I always look like I have a scowl on my face when taking pictures outside. It's the sun, I promise. I really was happy. ;0)