Mix Of Pictures

Since my ear is acting up really bad, I figured I would just post some pictures for now. ;0) When the pain goes down a bit, I will post a normal post, whatever normal is. lol To the left are the boys in my Sabbath school class, once class was over. We had one little boy linger on with us. ;0)

Here are the boys "playing chess." My beloved bought this chess set in Peru when he went on the missionary trip with Kayla. I believe the chess pieces are the Incas and the Spaniards. Then my beloved joined them. They were so quick to pick up the names of all the pieces. There is our young Boxer, Percy. You will find him wherever my beloved is at.




Here the children were getting ready for church. The girls have the dresses that I made them on. I still can't get used to Britney's collar. I feel like it's going to lift up any minutes and she is going to fly away with it on.
I asked the boys to put their arms around Britney. This is what came out of that. lol Poor Britney looks like she got whiplash from Micah's hand under her chin, and then Elijah looked at her as if she had the cooties, not wanting to touch her. ;0)

For those of you that don't know, back in March I had a really bad migraine for about two weeks. I thought it was the stress of getting ready to fly out to my brother-in-law's wedding with the entire family. It turns out I had an ear infection, and when I got on the airplane, the pressure of flying up so high, it trapped some fluid behind my ear drum. I now have a tube in my ear to help clear up the fluid. It's been a few months since it's been in there, but now it's hurting me again. I'm not sure if the tube might have fallen out. I have an appointment tomorrow at 4:00. I would really appreciate your prayers, if you remember.

Activity Boxes

I recently received this comment, "I would LOVE to see ideas for your activity boxes."

I wanted to say that I firmly believe in not starting school at an early age, especially with boys. This is my personal opinion from things that I have read and learned from two completely different sources; one biblical and one medical, and it just solidified my opinion on it. If anyone wants to know, please feel free to ask. Like I said, this is only my opinion, and one that works great for our family.
Micah recently turned 4, and since we don't do "school" with him yet, I came up with some table type activities for him for when he wants to sit and do "school." I basically try to find activities that will help him with his fine motor skills, etc.
I have some of these activities already set up in the boxes. It makes it a lot easier to pull out a box with everything already set up inside, instead of running around the house trying to gather the materials.
If you look at the third from the bottom box, I have a white little towel with a black piece of construction paper on top. It's held together with some clothes pins. I also have a toothpick inside. He can poke some holes into the construction paper with the toothpick, and a "picture" will appear in white, because of the towel. He really enjoyed that one. Some of the other boxes have finger paint in bottles, but only a very small amount comes out, so as not to make a mess. Another box has some colored rice. I colored the rice with food coloring, and then mixed them together in a container. I bought some measuring cups from the dollar store, so that he can scoop, pour, etc. I also found a little baby pool for a dollar, so that the mess is contained. He can just play with them in the pool, and it makes it a lot easier to clean up. I know there is a book out there called something similar to preschool activities in a bag, which is pretty much the same concept, but you put everything in one gallon size ziplocks. I found my activities to be a little bigger, so I purchased these containers for a little over a dollar. I try to have at least 7 containers set up at all times. In the evenings I just replace that might have run out, etc.
This is the link to the book I mentioned. Prescool Activities in a Bag
For my containers, I got some ideas from here . I hope this helps a little. If you want me to post a list of table time activities that help with fine motor skills, please let me know. I was given the list to help Britney strengthen her fingers, so that she can learn to write.

Our Christmas Gifts

For the last couple of years we have been trying to take the focus of giving gifts to each other, and focus on "THE GIFT" God gave us by sending His Son to be born on earth. We decided to give our children gifts on a different day. Or if you're brave, even after Christmas. We just wanted to separate the two for our children. We wanted them to focus on what Jesus did for us, as opposed to what they were going to get. Another thought is what gift can we give the Lord? Something we know we need to work on on our own characters? On Christmas morning I did give them the homemade song books I mentioned on a previous post, as that was our first Christmas trying this out, and some homemade washcloths, etc. everything was handmade. You'd be surprised. They were so happy with it. We could have left it at that, and they would have been pleased. The first week in January, we stuck all their names in a hat, and then they picked out a name. Whatever sibling they picked, that's who they had to get a gift for. It was so much fun taking them to shop for their sibling. It wasn't anything huge, but the point was that the focus was taken off of them, and the "what am I getting" and it was put on making someone else happy. My children do get gifts like bikes, toys, etc., but we don't want to associate that with Christmas.
These are some of the washcloths I made them.

This year I was thinking of maybe making them some prayer mats. Almost like a table placemat, but a little larger. I would put a piece of batting in between and bind it or do the turn over method. I would want it so that they can put it on the floor by the foot of their beds. Obviously they don't NEED to kneel on it to pray, as there is no power in the mat, it's just a little reminder for them to pray as soon as they get out of bed in the morning and before they climb into bed at night. What do you think? I found some fabric that has some verses on it for the girls. You can click to enlarge it. I think it lists the Beatitudes.

And for the boys I found some nativity fabric.

I was thinking of using this fabric for the back. Or maybe a little bit of it in the front. I wanted a little space to be able to embroider a verse about prayer in the front somehow. I wasn't going to share this until it was done, but figured maybe somone would like to get started on something similar before Christmas. Anyone else have any Christ centered homemade gifts?

p.s. Just in case you were wondering about the compact challenge, I found this in my fabric stash in my closet ;0) I didn't have to go out to buy it. ;0)

Compact/Declutter Challenge Update 2

Yesterday the decluttering portion of my challenge was in my beloved's side of the closet. I wasn't planning on it, but he offered, so it made it easier. You can tell all that was decluttered by the amount of empty hangers we now in the laundry closet. ;0)
These are the clothes that I will post on my local freecycle group. YAY!!









Here is my beloved going through his clothes. He's such a sport to so willingly do this challenge with me.














Now with his side of the closet so empty, I was able to put some of Micah's activity boxes, which normally stay hidden until I take one out for the day, neatly stacked on the shelf. YIPPEE!!











Now for the stinky part. We spent $32 this week on nonfood related items. I know $23 was at Barnes & Nobles, and I don't remember the other $9. We went to Barnes & Nobles when my brother-in-law and his wife were visiting with us. They wanted to buy the children some books. Kayla asked me for An Old Fashioned Girl, aside from the books her uncle bought her. While they were looking around, I found a really good sewing book that explained a lot of great techniques, and also had some explanations on using a serger. As I type this, I realize what a cheesy excuse it was to buy it. ;0( I actually started laughing as I typed up my reason for buying it. lol I feel like a child who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. I have to figure something out to make up for that.

Have I Gone Over The Edge?

Last week our washing machine was leaking water from the bottom. I called Sears they sent someone over who said he fixed it. When I went to wash, it was leaking more than before he "fixed" it. ;0) I called again, and they couldn't send someone out for another week. So finally on Friday someone came over. It turned out we needed a new pump which cost about $300. Thankfully we still had the warranty on it. Micah and Elijah had a great time watching the repairman fix it. Everytime the repairman bent down, Elijah bent down too. lol

Anyway, with the washer not working, I got really backed up with laundry. One thing I am not too thrilled about doing is matching socks. With six of us in the house, the socks add up. Am I going over the edge, or can I have my family saftey pin their socks together before they throw them into the hamper? I know the final decision is up to me, but is this a little too loopy? I asked my beloved, and he thought it was a great idea, but I can never tell with him, because he's just as loopy as I am. ;0) It sure would make it easier. Do you have a better idea for matching socks? Please share.

Part Of Our Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with my beloved's brother and his lovely wife. We ate rather early, around 2:00. I actually ended up cooking so that my beloved and his brother were able to have some time out. He helped me make the veggie loaf before they left (to play touch football) and then I made some mashed potatoes, a veggie roast, some vegetables sauteed in sesame oil, some corn, candied yams and a coconut torte for dessert. After we ate, in order to fight off the sleepiness of being so full we went out to play family tag. ;0) Two little neighbor girls also joined us.

Here you can see my BIL chasing my beloved. We tried to play within our fence and our neighbor's house, in order to keep track of the littles.


My beloved and my sister-in-law catching a breather.(on the right)

I felt so bad for the little girl in the white skirt. Her family was having a big Thanksgiving party at 8:00 that evening, and I guess she was already dressed. By the time we finished playing, that white skirt was grey. Everytime time I looked at her, she was layed out on the floor. I hope she didn't get into trouble.

My beloved having a case of the giggles.

This was the only picture of me. lol Here I am with my arm outstretched trying to catch my brother-in-law. I did get him, by the way, flip flops and all. lol

We got so caught up with them being here, that I forgot to take a lot of pictures. They ended up staying a little later than planned. They were able to enter the Sabbath hours with us(they also observe the Sabbath) which was nice.

It's back to business today. I'm just trying to play catch up with the house now. I have lots of laundry to wash/dry/fold/and put away, and plenty of picking up and cleaning to do. I will do my second update post of the compact in a little while. I will tell you now that I did slip a little. It was harder than I thought with Thanksgiving, and having some company. ;0(

33 Things...

I really hope from the bottom of my heart that everyone had a wonderful day with their families or friends being thankful to the Lord for all of his provisions. I know it is late in the day for this, but in honor of Thanksgiving Day and my beloved's 33rd Birthday today, I wanted to list 33 things that I am thankful to the Lord for about my beloved.

Having a good work ethic
For being a wonderful provider
How you play with the children alot
The smell of your cologne at the end of the day
The shape of your eyes
How you always beat me at any game we play
Our perfect height difference
The fact that you tell me "I love you" at least 15 times a day
How you listen to my ramblings and always look interested
The incredibly silly dances you do to make me laugh
The fact that you are my human encyclopedia
The smell of your deodarant at the end of the day
How you put your sneakers on without untieing them. ;0)
The fact that you are my human calculator
Your sarcasm (Shhhh...)
Your ability to read my mind
The connection we have
Your sense of humor
How we can talk about ANYTHING
How you support me in everything I try
How you workout and exercise for me
How much you help me with "my house duties" ;0)
How you always win when we make a bet
Your faith in me
Your unconditional love
How you always ask me to keep you company no matter what you are doing
What a wonderful example you are to our children
How you take part in my interests
Your complete honesty
When you always say, "it is what it is"
How you still give me butterflies when I see you
How we talk a lot over the phone whenever you are not home
Your big brotherly love for my sister(23) and brother(20)

When I told my beloved what I was going to post about, he started laughing, because he said I wouldn't be able to think of 33 things. ;0) HA! I actually went over and had to delete some.
I will share more about our day tomorrow.

Moving Along

I know a lot of people are taking a blogging hiatus for Thanksgiving, but I'm still here plugging away. ;0) We actually have family coming over from Texas for Thanksgiving for the first time ever. My beloved's brother and his newlywed wife(7 months now, how cute) are spending their Thanksgiving break (he's a math teacher) in Disney with some friends of theirs. So they will be driving down from Orlando to be with us. They will be here Thursday late morning and leaving Friday. :0( It won't be very long, but it will still be very nice.
On top of that, my beloved's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year. Now all the old lady jokes can stop. I turned 33 on Sept. 22, he will turn it now on the 23rd. I get teased every year for that 2 month 1 day window where our ages are off.
We will be making our Thanksgiving menu today and then going out to buy everything. Thankfully my brother-in-law and his wife are also vegetarian, so we don't have to make anything extra. My beloved, strangely enough, really enjoys cooking for days like this. I will make dessert, but aside from that, I sort of just hover around and help cut or stir when he needs me to.
So just in case you won't be around for the next few days, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. If anyone is doing any special crafts of some sort with your family, please do share. We are going to do our Jesse Tree up on a plain wall we have. I was thinking that maybe some of the leaves of our tree could be leaves that we fill out on Thanksgiving for all the wonderful things the Lord has blessed us with this last year. I will use regular brown postal paper for the trunk, and I will be cutting out leaves from all sorts of colored paper. Does it sound corny? ;0)
I will be back later on to post something else. I'm off to go clean the house a bit. I know they won't be looking in my pantry, but I'm off to organize it now. lol ;0)

What Do You Think?

I have been reading my Bible in Chronological order since last week. I would like to be done by January 1st. I have heard a lot of people say that when you try to read it in a short amount of time, you seem to retain more and you see the big picture, so to speak. I wanted to give it a try. As much as I said, I'm just going to read it through, and I will read it again and study any spots that I feel led to later on, I still stopped. lol I got stuck on Genesis 2:8. To say that I have read this verse numerous times is an understatement. The verse is Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. You're probably thinking, what is there to get stuck on. I got stuck with the word "planted." For mostly everything else God created (except for man, which he formed) the Bible says, God said, let there be light, etc. " I thought, "did he really plant the Garden of Eden?" Like did He make holes in the dirt and plant all the beautiful plants, flowers, trees, etc.? Later that evening I shared my thoughts with my beloved. At first he was in awe as well. Then he said, "oh, but sometimes there are Hebrew words that there is no proper translation in English, so they pick the next closest word." I was sort of deflated, because I loved picturing God taking His time planting the Garden of Eden. I checked Bible Gateway and looked at all the other versions of Bibles, (mine was King James) just to see if they had a different word for planted. They didn't. So I checked online to see if I could find the verse in Hebrew, which I did, but then I remembered, I don't know how to read Hebrew. ;0) I then found a website called E-sword It is a wonderful resourse. You have to download it to your computer. Guess what, it has the entire Bible, and it has the origianl Hebrew words. YAY!! This is how the verse looked. On the website, the numbers you see below are a lot smaller, and in blue hyperlinks.
Gen 2:8 And the LORD3068 God430 planted5193 a garden1588 eastward4480, 6924 in Eden;5731 and there8033 he put7760 (853) the man120 whom834 he had formed.3335

I clicked on 5193, next to the word planted, and this is what I found.

H5193
נטע
nâṭa‛
naw-tah'
A primitive root; properly to strike in, that is, fix; specifically to plant (literally or figuratively): - fastened, plant (-er).

So what do you think? Did our God actually take the time to plant the Garden of Eden?
I don't know, after finding this resource, my entire idea of reading quickly through the Bible without stopping to study, seems to be going out the window. ;0) I absolutely love this resource. You download it to your computer, and then you don't even need to be online to use it.

Compact/Declutter Challenge Update 1

Okay, I started the compact challenge that Mrs. Catherine proposed. Some people do it for year, but she said it's okay to try for one month at a time. The goal is to spend no money. Obviously food is an exception. Even with food, you should try to use as much as you already have before you go out and buy more. I won't bore you with this every day, but I will do a weekly update. Since today is the beginning of a new week, I will update on last week, even though I didn't start until Tuesday.
Tuesday - $0.00
Wednesday- $0.00
Thursday- $0.00
Friday- 65.77(on food)


The other part of this challenge that I am doing is to try and declutter as much as possible. This will be a great help for me, especially if the Lord gives us the okay to move. I only worked on a small part of the boys room, and I was able to give away these clothes to someone on Freecycle. A lady came and picked them up on Friday. YAY!! While I had her here, I asked her if she needed some toys. I was going to list them on Freecyle anyway, and she took half of the toys as well. YAY!! I will list the rest of the toys today.


Participating in this challenge has helped change my way of thinking. I have noticed little things, like the children draw on one side of the paper, and then they grab a new paper. lol I have asked them to please start using the other side of the paper as well, unless they use a marker that bleeds through. I have been more careful with making sure all the lights in a room are off if no one is in there. One day I walked into my bedroom, and the bedroom light, the bathroom light and the closet light were all on, and no one was in there. YIKES!! My washer has a shorter wash cycle that I have been using, and I am using cold water for all the clothes, unless it's really dirty. I haven't noticed a difference in the clothes, they look just as clean.

Another placed I saved was with my serger. My beloved bought me a serger about a year ago. After having it about a week, the boys accidentally unthreaded it. I tried and tried and couldn't figure out how to thread it. You have to thread the lower looper, the upper looper, the left needle and then the right needle. I gave in and paid for it to be threaded at a sewing repair shop. After having it home for 2 days, I accidentally unthreaded it. URGH!! It has since sat in a box for the last 5 months. Now that I am sewing on a more consistent basis, I thought it would be nice to have the serger to finish off the hems, etc. and have a more professional look. I told my beloved my desire to have the serger working again, and he said why don't you just take it in, it's not that expensive to have it done. I reminded him of my challenge. ;0) Last night I took the serger out, stared at the manual, stared at the diagram on the machine, and an hour and half and two prayers later, we figured it out. Yes WE, my beloved got involved. What a huge help he was. I had figured out three of the threads, but got stuck with the lower looper. So I save the money I would have paid to have it professionally threaded. YAY!! It really is nice to be a little more aware of the money being spent.
Here was the diagram I had to follow. Do you have a serger? Do you get a lot of use from it? I would love to hear any advise you have for one.












Here is my test piece of fabric. I'm so happy!!

Dessert Bars

Hi, there!! I wanted to share a quick dessert that I posted over on Lindsey's Advent Blog when I was a guest poster, just in case you didn't get a chance to check. You can make these ahead of time and stick it in the fridge until you are ready to bake it. If you want to give it a festive color, you can put raspberry or strawberry jam, instead of the apricot, which I used. The recipe is at the bottom of all the pictures. Enjoy!!

Here are most of the ingredients

I mixed all of the dry ingredients first.

After I added the oil, it sort of turns into a crumble, and I spread it into a 9x13" pan. If it's a little too dry, you can sprinkle a little water once it's in the pan.
I peeled and shredded the apple.

I mixed the shredded apple in a bowl with the all fruit jam and some dried apricots.

I then spread the mixture on top of the crumble
I put more of the crumble on top


I patted it down, and into the oven it went.

Crust:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup oat bran
2 cups quick oats
1 1/4 cup sucanat(this is a healthy version of brown sugar, you can substitute if you want. If you don't want it too sweet, you can put less)
3/4 cup canola oil

Filling:
1 cup fresh,frozen, or dried fruit of choice
1/2 cup all fruit jam (same as whatever fruit you chose in previous step)
1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled and shredded

You need to bake them at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. Allow them to cool and then cut into bars or squares.

How I Became A SAHM Part 2

That evening I shared with my beloved my desire to stay home with Kayla. Bless his heart, he didn't even blink at it. He said okay without a problem. We laugh about it now, because he said when I told him that, he said he felt like throwing up. lol ;0) But you know, he didn't let on at that moment, which means a lot to me. The next day he found out about working overtime, and he starting going in to work at 8:00 a.m., instead of his regular starting time of 11:00 a.m. And instead of getting out at his regular time, he started closing up the warehouse. He put in A LOT of overtime. I will continue with how the Lord blessed my beloved's effort to allow me to be a stay at home mom through his job in a minute. I just wanted to say how hard it was for the first couple of years. I remember days of going into the car and looking in between and under the seats of the car looking for change, so that my beloved could put gas in the car to get to work. The one car we had was stolen when we lived in the Bronx. It was actually stolen on the day we went to my first prenatal doctor's appointment. lol Someone at his job would see me drop him off every morning at work in my parent's car, with Kayla. The Lord must have softened his heart, and this man GAVE us a car for free. Not only one car, but a year later he gave us another car. At this point we moved a little closer to his job. There was a time where the oil that heated up the house where we were renting ran out. He wasn't getting paid for another day. We bundled up the girls in their coats, hats, gloves, etc., and we all slept together. We had a small heater for the room where we slept. The rest of the house had dropped to about 40 degrees. At that point it got colder in the house than outside the house. lol We laugh about it now. But not once did my beloved ever tell me, you need to go back to work. We were as happy as could be. Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't that cold hearted. I saw that my beloved was doing the best he could, and at this point the girls(we had Britney by this time) were getting a little older, and the opportunity for me to edit or scope other court reporter's cases from home arose, and I went for it. It wasn't a lot, but it was some extra income that was coming in. No matter how little money we had we also tithed my beloved's income, meaning we gave 10 percent of his income back to the Lord, plus offering. Not once did we ever go without food. God is so faithful to provide for us, we are the ones that lose faith sometimes.
Okay, back to my beloved's work. With all the overtime my beloved was putting in at the warehouse, his boss, after a short time, promoted him. Within 2 months of me becoming a SAHM, he put in for a marketing position in the same company. Mind you, he worked in the fashion industry before, he had no clue about technology. He is very smart though, and I had complete faith in him learning quickly. Apparently so did the lady interviewing him, because she hired him. What are the chances that she would hire some young kid (we were 23 at the time) from the warehouse, with no marketing or technology experience? Mat. 19:26 ...With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. His salary was a little less than doubled from the warehouse. He worked in the marketing department for about a year, and he put in for a sales position in the same company. Once again, he got hired even though he had no sales experience. At this point his base salary was a little more than doubled from the warehouse, not including any commissions. In this position he worked with other companies, the companies that had the products he was to distribute. One company really liked him and offered him a position. The position was in Massachusetts. We packed up and moved out of New York and moved to New Hampshire. It was on the border of NH and MA. That company promoted him to be an outside sales rep. I won't continue about his salary, but it wasn't long before he made more than what our combined income would have been if I were still working. Amen!! The company got purchased by a very well known technology company. He was once again promoted, and we had the opportunity to move to Georgia or Texas. We chose GA. He was doing a lot of traveling to Florida, he would leave on Sunday evening and return Friday, late afternoon right before the Sabbath. That was worse!! So we thought it made more sense to move to Florida. And we have been here for a little over 5 years.
I really feel the Lord blessed my beloved's effort, and his decision in allowing me to stay home with Kayla. God is so good!! It took a leap of faith on my beloved's part, in thinking that he could provide for us on his income when he worked in the warehouse. He easily could have said, Let's sit down at look at the numbers, and realized, "Shereen, there is no way my income will be enough. It reminds of when the Lord parted the Jordan for Joshua and the Israelites. The feet of the priest went into the water first, before the Lord parted it. They had to have enough faith to step into the water. They didn't wait on dry land for the Lord to part it first. It took a step of faith.
Joshua 3:14-17
14And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people;
15And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,)
16That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.
17And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.
I'm still learning how to step out on faith. I will admit it is hard sometimes. We can't always go by feeling, but by faith.

Blessing/Perfect Timing

I wasn't going to post this picture today, because I was going to save it for my compact challenge, which is coupled together with my effort to declutter our home, in anticipation of moving. I went through the boys clothes a little while ago and made a pile of things to post on my local freecycle group.


I was thinking how I haven't really sewn boys clothing, and I would probably have to go out and buy them a few new things. And guess what? The doorbell rang about two hours later to deliver a box. My sweet sister-in-law (my beloved's oldest sister) sent us some of her boys clothes that no longer fit. She has two that are a year older than mine. What a blessing!! It doesn't look like a lot in that picture, but there are a lot of clothes under there. YAY!!

Q & A On Perler Beads

QUESTION:What is it that they are playing with?
ANSWER: These are called perler beads. I believe they sell them at any craft store. I bought these at Walmart a long time ago. They sell all sort of different plastic shapes. The plastic shape has little nubs on them, and you place the bead, standing up, on the nub.



Kayla did the butterfly for Elijah, and Micah did the fish.

You then iron it. It came with some sort of wax paper that you put on top, and then you iron it, but ours finished. I just used some aluminum foil. then you peel the aluminum foil off, and the beads are stuck on the foil. When I iron it with the foil on, it melts the beads just enough to make them stick together. Then I peeled the foil off the butterfly.



And you're done. Elijah's was done, but it was still a little hot, so he was holding it with the foil.


Micah's fish had cooled down already.


Here is a wonderful website on them. They have incredible 3-D projects for all holidays, etc. Just look under the projects link. It's also great for fine motor skills.

Parenting/Directed Play

When my children misbehave, I take it personal. I look at it as a reflection of my parenting. ;0( I mentioned how they didn't behave to good yesterday, and this morning was starting out in the same fashion. The boys got a hold of Britney's little purse, if you look in the post before this one, when she is reading to Elijah, you can see she has it on her shoulder. While I was making breakfast, Micah pulled the coins on the floor, and Elijah started flinging them across the living room and dining room. I stopped what I was doing and nicely asked them to please stop, which they did without a problem. I told them it was time to pick up the coins. I gave them a container to put them in. Elijah quickly obeyed. Micah was an entirely different story. He told me that Elijah would do it. When I told him he had to help, he had what we call in our house, a melt down. I was at a loss as far as what to do. God is so good in that I reread chapter one from the book that I mentioned here ,just this morning. I was pleading with the Lord to please tell me what to do. I didn't feel like I received an answer. I didn't want to do anything in "self" or anger, which I felt coming out. I told him to sit on a chair in the kitchen. I was still praying inside asking for guidance from the Lord. Elijah came over to show me all the coins he picked up. Britney was also in the kitchen. I asked Brit and Elijah to please come to me. We all held hands and we started praying out loud for Micah. He was just sitting there watching us. He still had a scowl on his face. When we finished praying for him, Elijah went up to him and said, Micah, we prayed for you. The look on his face just completely transformed. He got off the chair, told me he loved me and quickly obeyed what I told him to do. I got three more, " I love you's" within the next 5 minutes. I feel like the Lord impressed me that they need directed play. My girls would find things to play with all on their own. But for some reason, the boys need to be told what to play with. ;0) I took out the perler beads and they picked a shape, and they got to work.

They were so content once they had some direction. AND, I killed two birds with one stone. Because Britney joined in, it was enough to count as her 1/2 an hour of fine motor activity time. YAY!! Please excuse Micah's outfit, he has a fascination with scuba divers. lol ;0)

Grateful For Big Sisters

I was having a rough day yesterday with the boys and their level of activity, to put it nicely. The Lord blessed me with 5 minutes of quiet. Then I wondered why was it so quiet, and this is what I found. This was going on at the same exact time. Kayla was showing Micah some toads on the computer, and Britney was reading Elijah a book. I was so thankful.


I haven't forgotten about Park 2 of how I became a stay at home mom, I just didn't have a lot of time yesterday. Hopefully today I can finish it.

Defendant's Exhibit Sticker/Bandaid

For more Wordless Wed. posts, go visit 5 Minutes For Mom

How I thought my life would turn out, working (that's a Defendant's Exhibit sticker, I used to mark exhibits as a court stenographer, and how it turned out, being a SAHM sticking Bandaids instead. lol ;0)

Goes with my post from here

How I Became A SAHM

I was going to post a Tackle It Tuesday post yesterday, because I was in the garage trying to declutter a little, but I never got around to taking pictures and doing the post. While I was in there, I spotted something on the floor. It will be my Wordless Wednesday post today, and it's what prompted me to write this post. ;0) As you can tell, I don't have a bunch of posts lined up to write about. I really have no clue what I am going to write about on a day to day basis. ;0)

I wanted to share how I became a stay at home mom. Yep, you heard me, I didn't plan it that way. ;0) When I first found out I was pregnant, I told my beloved, "I have something to tell you," and he said, "I have something to tell you too." I went first, I told him we were going to have a baby. Then he told me, "I got fired"(to make a long story short, he followed a command from his bosses boss instead of his boss, and she fired him) Financially we were okay, because I was a court reporter. I worked okay throughout my entire pregnancy about 2 to 3 days a week. We had our babysitter picked out from when I was about 5 months pregnant. She was a very humble, nice Christian woman from our church. She also happened to be my sister's best friend's mother. You see, we lived in the Bronx, in NY. For some reason over there the mentality is different. Back then I didn't realize it, but looking back now, when you saw a woman home and her husband was out working, you were sort of looked at as lazy, or people thought you were on government assistance, etc. It wasn't until we moved out of the Bronx, years later, that I realized that staying home is looked at as a privelage, as something wonderful and beautiful. Anyway, my beloved had a hard time finding work while I was pregnant. (He was majoring in Aviation Administration)He finally got a job about a month before I gave birth. It wasn't a great job, and the only reason he took it is becuase he shook the guys hand at the interview and gave him his word. You see, he was offered a slightly better job about a day or two after, but he gave the first guy his word, and he stuck to it.(Can you tell why I love him SO much. ;0) lol) He was working for a technology distributor in the warehouse. Yep, he was putting boxes together, packing orders that came in. What my beloved brought home in a month, I would have made in 3 or 4 days worth of work, working maybe 2 or 3 hours a day. (I'm not saying that to put him down, I just want to stress it for a reason, you will see why soon). We weren't too worried, we figured we just had to get through the first three months, and then I would be back to work. I gave birth to beautiful, healthy baby girl. I wanted to do everything so perfect for her. I read all the books I could get my hands on. I exclusively breastfed her, etc., We got to the 3 month mark where we had decided it was time for me to go back to work. Our babysitter couldn't wait to get her hands on Kayla. She would see her every Sabbath at church, and she was waiting to be able to watch her. But you see, something happened... I fell head over heals in love with my little munchkin. I was a free lance court reporter, meaning I didn't work for a specific court house. Whenever I wanted to work, I would call into the agency I worked for during the hours of 5 and 6 the night before, and they would tell me, there is a case, deposition or EBT at such and such place at 10:00 a.m. That first day I called in, I had my job set up. I had my breast milk expressed into little baggies for the babysitter to heat up. I had practiced giving Kayla my breastmilk in a bottle the entire week before, to get her used to it. She wasn't too thrilled, but she took it okay. My case started at 10:00, but my beloved didn't start work until 11:00. So he was to drop Kayla off at the babysitter around 10:30. She lived about 2 blocks from us. I left the house around 8:00, I had to take a bus and train to get to the courthouse and get my machine and everything set up. My beloved tried to keep her awake that entire morning. He fed her right before he left the house and made sure she was asleep. I think his goal was to have her sleep the entire time she was there until I got home. My cases usually lasted about an hour or two. So I would get home about 12:30 to 1:00. My beloved dropped her off with tears in his eyes. He literally, had tears coming down. (Did I mention how much I love him) He called the babysitter numerous times throughout those two hours. Everytime he called, she would say, she's still sleeping. ;0) I got out of my EBT and tried rushing home. It felt like the train wasn't coming fast enough, the bus wasn't going fast enough. It was torture. I didn't even want to go home to drop my machine off. It's a huge bag. I went straight to pick Kayla up, and walked the two blocks home with her, my machine, the diaper bag etc. We went through this exact same song and dance for 5 weeks. I only worked TWO days a week for a total of 10 days. It was 10 heartbreaking days. The last day I worked I remember I had a case in Brooklyn and I will never forget it was a man who was saying he was having an asthma attack and refused to get into the ambulance that someone called. According to him the EMT workers threw him down the stairs, beat him, etc. he was now half blind and had numerous injuries. The case was excrutiatingly long. I didn't get out until 5:00. On the train ride home all I could think about was Kayla. I looked down and my entire blouse was soaked. I guess I triggered let down, and I had breast milk just leaking through everything. My parents had picked Kayla up from the sitter when they got out of work, so I just had to go to my parents house (they lived above us) That was it for me. I couldn't do it anymore. I remember thinking I have to tell my beloved that only after 10 working days I didn't want to work anymore. I wanted to stay home with her. But remember, he was still working in the warehouse making very little money, not enough to support us.
Part 2 coming later on today. Sorry it got so long.

Budgeting/Helping Our Beloved's

My monthly bills total 6423.39

Okay, with us thinking about moving, and reading Mrs. Catherine's blog, I have been thinking about how hard my beloved works to make sure we have everything we need. Since I am a stay at home mom who doesn't add any income to our family, I was thinking of ways to help my beloved. At this season in my life, working from home is not an option. I just have too much going on with Britney's therapy, Kayla's school, and keeping the boys in order, etc. ;0) I have been working on our budget and trying to see where I can improve. I know I have blogged about this before, and I think about it for a week, and then I slip back into my old habits. This is an old budget I found in my computer that I had made up.

BILLS:

Tithes

Automobile Expenses:
Gasoline
Insurance
Tolls

Bank Charges
Cellular
Electricity
Home Association
Mortgage
Telephone
Water & Sewer

Food Expenses:
BJ’s
Groceries
Health Food Store

Healthcare:
Dental
Eyecare
Physician

House:
Garden supplies
Home Improvements
Home Repairs/Maintenance

Life Insurance
Entertainment
Misc (for me is Britney's therapy)

I will admit that there are things that I do not consistently take out for, like gardening supplies, etc. Here in Florida, especially where we live, it is an expense; nothing huge, but things like mulch etc. In the community we live in, if it's not kept up to par, we get a letter warning us. If it's not done, we get fined. So I eventually have to buy mulch, but if I didn't budget for it, it would throw my little plan out of whack. So I sort of went through all of our expense with a fine tooth comb. Some things people forget to budget for are haircuts, co payments for doctor's appointments. Even if you take out 5.00 a month, then when the need arises to go to the doctor, you can take the copayments out of there. The same thing with home repairs. Even if we take out just a little a month, if the sprinker head breaks, we have a fund to take it out from. The scary part is, the amount I wrote at the beginning, $6423.39, does not include all those little things. This amount only includes the main monthly bills like tithes/offering, mortgage, electricity, phone, etc. If we move, 1/3 of that automatically goes away, as our mortgage is a big chunk of that. URGH!!
I am going to jump on the bandwagon. Mrs. Catherine has been talking about how some people do something called a compact. They don't spend anything extra for one year. She is starting one month at a time. I asked my beloved, and he is all for it. So we will only be buying food.
1-Any gifts needed will be homemade
2-I will try to make as many clothes as I can for the children. The girls are easy. I know I can make the boys pajamas and shorts, etc.
3- I will start making our soy milk instead of buying it. (I have a soymilk maker sitting in my cabinet, and about 50 pounds of soybeans.)
4- Make all of our bread
5- Open windows instead of turning on AC (Should be easier now, it's only going up to low 80's now.
6- Put laundry to wash on a shorter cycle and use colder water than what I use now
7-I will dilute certain things that the children use (they can't tell the difference)like syrup, juice, etc. also dish handwashing soap, etc.

I know some of you are probably thinking I'm insane, especially since my beloved's income covers all of our bills, BUT, why not try to cut back on our expenses and put that extra money into the principal of our mortgage. We can pay our house off a little sooner. Every time I make an extra $900 payment to the principle of our mortgage, we save $1,500 on interest. So not only am I saving on our bills, but I will be saving money on interst on the house. Our goal is to live as debt free as possible.
Our beloved's have a tough job. I can't even imagine how hard it must be to be the sole provider of a household, especially in our case, the sole provider of 6 people. (earthly provider, I know our Heavenly Father is our MAIN provider. ;0) )I want to try and lighten that load as much as I can. I am offically taking the compact challenge. I will post whatever I spend on a daily basis for one month. Anyone else joining in?

Easy Pattern

I found one of the easiest skirt patterns ever. If anyone is looking to learn to sew, or wanting to teach your daughter to sew, this is it. I am going to teach Kayla with this skirt pattern. It's literally two pieces of fabric, sew two straight lines on each side, and just elastic on top. I made this up in less than an hour, including cutting the paper pattern out, the fabric, etc. I haven't hemmed it up yet, as it was cut on the bias, and it has to hang for 24 hours, I guess to stretch out a little.



I am SO excited with this pattern. Kayla can now cut up and sew up some skirts for herself to be around the house. All I would have to help her with is the elastic and hem. But she will be able to do all the prep work and the main skirt. YAY!! She's been wanting to learn for a while now. This one is for Britney, as Kayla wanted it longer. My beloved made me laugh. He said if it was up to Kayla, it would be dragging on the floor like a bride's train. I guess it's better to have that problem than her wanting it shorter. ;0)

Guest Poster

I am a guest poster over at Lindsey's Advent Blog . Everyone's post seems so nice and calm, and I feel like mine came out so loud with so many pictures. ;0) Some of the things I posted over there I have mentioned on this blog, but the recipe I haven't. At the end of the day I will copy it over here. We can't wait to start our Jesse Tree. Anyone else doing anything to prepare for Christmas, similar to the Jesse Tree. Last year or two years ago we did ours with construction paper and yarn on an empty wall. lol Micah was little, and we didn't want him to mess it up, so we did it high up on the wall.

Heartbreaking

I normally don't post these type of things, but it broke my heart, and I hope it will help someone. We have Micah in a booster seat, and are going to change him back to a car seat. The car seats that go up to 80 pounds are expensive, about $250, but that amount seems so small, compared to what this family has had to pay. A part of the story written by the mother follows. I saw this video and read this story last night. I cried for about an hour and couldn't help but go in and look at Micah while he was sleeping. I ended up cuddling with him and slept with him the entire night on his bed. I can't imagine the pain this mother was/is going through.

You need to hit play twice in order for it to start.




May 29th was a Sunday that started out to be what seemed like a wonderful day. My dad had come up for the weekend to see my play which had wrapped the following evening and I had just gotten rave reviews in, I had just gotten the lead role in a film that was starting the following month, we had just signed a lease on a house we were going to rent that had a huge yard for the kids to play in and we had just sold our old car that we were afraid would be hard to sell. Everything was going our way! I remember that morning doing dishes and commenting on how great everything was, how the kids were getting older and things were just getting so much easier and more fun and how much we were looking forward to the summer starting, the kids were so excited about going to the pool and doing all the summer things they had been looking forward to all year. It had finally warmed up that weekend and we decided since it was a holiday weekend (Memorial Day) and Kevin had Monday off, we would follow my dad back to San Antonio and take the kids to the lake, what a great kick off to summer! We packed up our bathing suits, life jackets and clothes, hopped into the van and took off. We decided to stop at our new house to show it to my dad and then stopped again at a gas station right up the street before starting the long drive. I went inside and got the kids drinks and snacks and brought them back out to the van. I opened Kyle's door and stood there for a while getting the granola bars open and handing the kids their drinks. At that point both the kids had their seatbelts on, I can still picture them so clearly in my mind. I had no idea that would be the last time I would see my son alive. Kevin and I got into the van and we headed off, I got the kids movie started (Sponge Bob) and they were happily eating their snacks and watching a movie. We were driving on Hw. 47 when we came to a flashing yellow light at the intersection of Villa Maria (cross traffic had a HUGE stop sign and a flashing red light) From the corner of my eye I saw a car approaching the intersection at a high speed, too fast to stop at the red light, but by the time I started to say "watch out" it was too late, we were through the intersection and the car had run the red light and broadsided us going aprox. 45 miles an hour. It all happened in a split second but I replay it in my mind in slow motion a hundred times a day. Our van was knocked off the road and into a ditch and started rolling several times. When we finally stopped with the van laying driver's down the first thing both Kevin and I did was whip around to look in the backseat and check on the kids, as I was turning around I heard Kevin saying "Are you guys OK"? As I turned around I saw Katie behind Kevin and felt a sigh of relief, if she was ok I knew Kyle was too, I finally turned all the way around to look behind me at Kyle and all that was there was an empty seat. There are no words to describe the horror and million things that flew threw my mind at that instant. I remember screaming "He's gone, Kyle's gone" and the next thing I knew Kevin had climbed into the back seat and jumped out through Kyle's broken window. I quickly followed out of my broken window and immediately saw my baby boy laying about 30 feet away on the hill. Thankfully my dad was there to get Katie and keep her away from what was to come. I raced to Kyle and when I got to him I almost collapsed, he was laying on his back with blood pouring out of his ears and mouth. I started screaming and crying "NO!" - this just could not be happening, 2 seconds ago he was fine, eating a granola bar and watching SpongeBob...and now he's dead??!! NO!!!!!!!!!! This cannot happen! It was like waking up into the most horrible nightmare. I held his hand and stroked his face and then and lady ran up and said she knew CPR and started working on him. I know CPR, I couldn't believe I didn't think to try it, I guess I was in too much shock to even think. I also knew from the moment I saw him that he had already gone, I felt it in my heart. After what seemed like an eternity the ambulance finally came and they loaded him into the back, I got in the front and Kevin and Katie rode with my dad and followed us. We got to the hospital and they immediately started working on Kyle but took me and Kevin to seperate rooms to get checked out and tried to force us to lay down with neck braces. Both Kevin and I ripped the neck braces off and ran to be with Kyle. They let us stay in the room while they tried to revive him. They worked on him for 30 minutes but could not get a pulse at all. The whole time I just prayed for a miracle, "Please God not my baby boy, PLEASE take me but save him, he is too innocent and has so much future ahead of him" The most dire prayer I have ever prayed went unanswered and I suppose I will never know why, at least not in this lifetime. The doctor looked at me and said "There is nothing more we can do". It was like someone had thrown me into this alternate reality, hell had to come to me on earth. Kevin and I took turns holding him in our arms and then we laid him down on the bed and laid next to him, kissing him and hugging him for hours. Finally the hospital told us we had to leave, up until then it hadn't even occured to me that we would leave him there. How could I just get up and walk away and leave my baby there? I had never even been apart from him for more than a couple hours in his entire life and I'm supposed to walk away and leave him knowing I won't ever see him again. That was one of the hardest moments of my life, I felt like I was accepting it, giving up and abandoning my son. I had to remind myself that I was only leaving his body and that his soul was not in his body anymore, Kyle and everything that made him Kyle was still with us, that was the only hope I could cling to to give me the strength to tell my baby goodbye and walk away.
To read the entire story, you can go here .

Something To Ponder

How would God order my priorities?

*I don't mean the big things, obviously the order would be God first, beloved, children, etc. but I mean how would He prioritize the little things in my/your life?

The Bible In Chronological Order

On Micah's birthday my little sister and her beloved called to wish him a happy birthday. I spoke to my brother in law for a little while and he shared this website with me Blue Letter Bible . It has different Bible reading plans for one year. But they have different options, they have one in chronological order, in the order that the events happened, according to Bible scholars. I found it to be a great resource, not only for myself, but for homeschooling. They have other plans and other resources, so take a peek if you are interested. I haven't thouroughly gone through the site, so please use your judgement when it comes to the other resources on there.

Prayer Request/Moving

Hi all, I have a prayer request. If any of you feel led, can you please keep our desire to move in your prayers. We have been wanting to move for a while now. We have been praying about it and we thought that maybe there was a possibility of us moving to the Jacksonville area, since my beloved has been traveling up there so much. We figured his job would approve it if we asked. We continued to pray, only if it was in the Lord's will, for a door to open up. My beloved found out last week that his boss(who is the owner of the company) wants to expand into Georgia. So my beloved has to put together a business plan for the expansion into Georgia. This week he met with the person in charge of finances, next week they meet again to finalize the numbers. Then he has to present the business plan to his boss. If the owner gives it the thumbs up, then the company would pay for our rent in GA for about 6 months while my beloved gets business going in GA. I guess the nice thing is that we would stay with the house in Florida until we are sure that everything is successfull in GA, and then sell our house. If everything gets approved, we could possibly be moving as early as January 1st. We should have an answer by the third week of November.
Florida is a beautiful place, as far as all the water, palm trees, the weather, etc. But with all that warm weather, you also get a lot of immodesty. The lack of sanctity of marriage, I know is everywhere, but I see it moreso in Florida. I won't get into details, but it's pretty bad. So please pray that only if it is in the Lord's will, that we would be able to move to Georgia. We lived in Georgia before we moved to Florida, when my beloved was at a different company, so we sort of know what to expect. A great bonus is that I will be a little closer to John and Wilma(the couple who gave us the Bible studies) They live in TN. ;0) And another good friend who has three daughters whom all have the same values. YAY!! Sorry for rambling, I'm just a wee bit excited. ;0)
On a sort of side note, with possibly moving in a month and a half, I would love to declutter as much as possible, and really downsize a few things. Mrs. Catherine has been posting some great ideas as far as downsizing our clothes, homes, etc.

Kayla's Dress

This is what I had accomplished yesterday from the dress.

I did the second dress from the right, but with the length of the third from the right. I know they look similar, but if you look closely, the third from the right has like a see thru overlay on top.

This morning I was able to finish, except for the one button in the back. When I was downloading the picture for this post, I noticed it looked like the sleeve on the right side is a lot lower than the left. In FEAR I called her to try it on again. Thankfully, it's just because of the button in the back. When I held the back together where the button goes, that sleeve pulled up. Woo, that would have been pretty bad.

I think the one outfit a week is manageable. The bulk of my prep work is Saturday night, as far as ironing the fabric, cutting the pattern and fabric out, etc. Then throughout the week I can just sew a little here and there. I think I might have shared this before, but remember how I said the dress came out too big at first, and I had to alter it, well, there is a website called Pattern Review and it's exactly that. There are lots and lots of patterns that people have done, and then they put it up after they have tested it out. So last night I put in the pattern number of this dress, and it mentioned how the sizes are a little off. I have to remember to check before I start sewing. ;0) I think it looks little bit like a pajama, because there is no shape to it, but when I look at the picture on the pattern, it looks the same, so I guess it's just the style. My beloved, after telling me that was a good fabric choice when I first picked it, told me he had a sofa with the same print and color when he was younger. What a guy!! ;0) It looks pink from far, but it's really red with flowers. You might be able to see it if you click and enlarge.

Micah's Birthday

Micah's fish cake. Not very fancy, I know, but he enjoyed it. ;0) For our birthday's it is normally just us, being that we don't have family over here, etc. We always enjoy it like that anyway, just us.

See, I told you he liked it. lol

I'm surprised he didn't burn his lip. ;0)

This was one of his gifts.

He was so excited.

I didn't get a picture of him opening it, but he got a Thomas the Train helmet.

Here he is in the full ensemble, helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads.
It doesn't hurt that we have an empty house and you can do a circle around our kitchen. He was able to ride through the family room, breakfast nook, dining room, living room and hallway. The kitchen is in the center of all those rooms. Kind of weird. lol

Thanks to everyone who wished him a Happy Birthday.

My Testimony Part 2

I'm sorry I never got around to typing this up yesterday. The dress I was sewing for Kayla ended up being too big, so I had to alter it. My first time altering a dress. YIKES!! It didn't go too bad, I hope!! I will share pictures in another post.
So my dad said that if I didn't agree to go to the Bible studies, I wouldn't be allowed to see my beloved. When my parents became Christian, they all of a sudden became very strict. I was already 18 at this point. I had an early curfew up until the day before I got married. lol As far as the Bible studies, of course I said, "fine" I couldn't be without my beloved. ;0) There was a couple from church who had agreed to give me the Bible studies. They were about 4 years older than me and were married and lived about 5 minutes away. Their names were John and Wilma.(*waving*) We agreed we would study on Sunday evenings. My beloved and I got our driving permits together and I learned first and I taught him. lol ;0) So on Sunday we spent the day together and it was time for me to drop him off home so I could go on to my first Bible study. We were sitting in front of his building and I started crying. I don't know why, but the tears just starting coming out. My beloved couldn't bear to see me cry, so he said, "come on, I will go with you to the Bible study, but just for today, that's it." I said, "okay." We went to the study, and I will say that my beloved sat there with a pretty bad attitude. He wasn't rude, but you can tell he had no desire to be there and no interest in what they had to say whatsoever. He didn't want to answer any questions, etc. The following Sunday, it was time to drop him off home again so I could go to the studies. Guess what happened? Yep, I started crying again. I can honestly say I did not do this on purpose. I was not of the mentality that I could cry and get whatever I wanted. lol But sure enough, the tears started flowing. He said, "I will go today, but that's it, no more, this is the last time. Even if you cry next week, you are on your own." lol ;0) To make a long story short, my beloved realized that John got all his answers from the Bible. He thought, you know what, I'm going to come up with a question that he can't answer from his Bible, he will be stumped, and that's it. We won't have to come back here ever again. My beloved went home that evening and started reading his Bible so he could come up with some hard questions. **I LOVE YOU!!<---(Husband insert)** I stopped writing this post to iron my beloved's shirt for work, and when I came back, I had a little surprise. lol ) During that week, he couldn't sleep at night, he was just reading and reading his Bible. God is good. All that knowledge was sinking in, even though it was for the wrong reasons. lol ;0) Little did we know, (God is so good) that John had been unemployed for about a year, and while he was unemployed he read his Bible day in and day out. He knew his Bible inside and out. John and Wilma had gotten baptized at the same time my parents did. They had that first love that we read about in the Bible. John was able to answer all of my beloved's questions. My beloved was never able to stump him. Six months later we were baptized, and one month after that we were married. Guess who was my beloved's best man and my maid of honor. Yep!! John and Wilma. To this day, they were the best example we could have had. The Lord had just the right people to guide us in our early Christian walk (even now, lol ) I will say that before I got baptized I still was a little resentful. I didn't want to tell my parents I wanted to get baptized, only because I knew that that was what they wanted. That's bad, I know, but it's the truth. My parents have been Christian for about the last 15 years, and they are happily married. ;0) They do have some health issues. Even when we give our lives to the Lord, we still need to deal with some of the consequences of our sins. My dad really does try to make up for some of that lost time he missed with me. (by treating me like I am still a child ;0), in a protective way) So when Elizabeth Joy asked me "Shereen, I'm curious about your passion for God. Have you always been this way? I would love to know your story, if there is one." No, I haven't always had this passion. The Lord in His wonderful mercy and grace spared my life. Even though I didn't have parents who taught me the difference between dating and courting, he preserved me and kept me pure for my beloved. Even though I had parents who did drink, smoke, do drugs, He kept me from EVER putting a drink or cigarette to my mouth. I never had a desire to try anything. Even though my earthly father was absent for many years, I had the Father of all Fathers looking out for me. If anyone decides to share their testimony, please let us know, I would love to read it.

Wordless Wed.

I know this is supposed to be Wordless, but I didn't want you all to think my beloved went crazy. The boys built a "nest" and daddy "bird" was laying in their nest. He was getting dressed for work yesterday when this happened. lol They were so happy. lol ;0) For more Wordless Wed. go visit www.5minutesformom.com

Happy Birthday to....

Happy Birthday Micah!! He's getting so big. ;0( Can't he stay little forever? This was taken this morning, can you tell he needs a haircut? My beloved is off to go get a haircut with the boys and the girls and I are going to go buy Micah a few things.

Now that I look at this picture, I think I need a haircut. I always like long hair on others, but when mine starts getting longer, I feel like it looks moppy.

Well, off I go. I will be back later on to finish up my testimony. Today is the good part, the part of God's grace. Because I am no more deserving than anyone else, it is by God's grace that I didn't end up who knows where, doing who knows what.

Q & A On My Testimony

QUESTION: Shereen, I'm curious about your passion for God. Have you always been this way? I would love to know your story, if there is one.

ANSWER: That's a pretty loaded question. My story...Hmmm. It's funny, my beloved and I were speaking about this very same thing for the last two days. My beloved can't believe that I turned out as normal as I did. lol ;0) I guess it depends on your definition of normal. ;0) When I read your question this morning, I shared it with my beloved. I then asked him, "How much do I share?" He said, "I think you should share it all." I thought, why not, my life is an open book anyway, why stop now. ;0)
I will say that I love my parents dearly, and I know that they did the best they knew how to, in a life without Christ. The reason I am sharing this is because we serve such a merciful and loving God. I wanted to share how He spared my life even though my upbringing was less than perfect. My parents were married pretty young. My mom was 19 and my dad was 20. They were married on August 22, 1973 and I was born on September 22, 1973. No need to do the math there. ;0) Even though my parents were not Christian, they sent me to Catholic school, which I attended from 1st through 12th grade. My mom would go to church every once in a while, like the holidays, etc. and also to give in those little envelopes the Catholic church gives you, so that they would get a discount on my tuition. I grew up in housing projects in Spanish Harlem in New York City. My dad had a regular 9 to 5 job, but I didn't really see him growing up. You see, my dad also sold drugs on the side. Both of my parents also used what he sold, which was cocaine. The reason I say I didn't see him was because when I would wake up in the morning, he had already left for work. He started at 7 in the morning. When I got home from school, he was out doing his thing. When I went to sleep, he was still out. On the weekends, I was shipped off to my grandmother's house. (my mother's side) I came home on Sunday's with enough time to get ready for school the following day. My mother was a stay at home mom who always made sure I had clean clothes and food to eat, but that's about it. I don't remember very many happy times as a child. I think back, and all I remember is hiding in the bushes with my mother while spying on my dad who was committing adultery, or being sent to my parents' bedroom(it was a one bedroom apartment) while they measured drugs to bag it up. I can not pass by a bic pen to this day, without remembering how every pen cap in my house had white residue on it. When my beloved offers to take the children to the park, I always remember how my dad took me to the park once or twice. He would use that time to meet whatever lady he happened to be with at the time. I had to laugh the other day when Lindsey over at Enjoy the Journey asked about children and allowance. You see, I used to get $20 a DAY for doing the dishes when I was about 8 or 9. I remember my dad being gone for a few days on a drinking or drug binge. As soon as my dad came home, my mom walked out the door, "to get even with him." I was 10 at the time, fully capable of taking care of myself. The problem was that at this time I had a 4 month old sister. I remember being so thankful that she was a good baby. She allowed me to feed and change her without any issues. ;0) I could go on and on, but I won't bore you. The bulk of this happened from as long as I can remember until about the age of 17. When I was 17 a lady in the house across the street from us (we had moved to the Bronx by then) told my parents that the church up the street was giving away free groceries. They only allowed you to get free groceries once, so she wanted to know if my parents would go get some for her. So my parents agreed, and off to the church they went. They had to sign their name and address before they got the groceries. Sure enough a week later they got a knock on the door. It was the pastor of the church. He came to pray with them and offer them Bible studies. The Holy Spirit had been working in my father's heart that week. While at work he heard a clear audible voice tell him, "how long will you deny Me for?" So my parents started the bible studies and gave their lives to the Lord. My mom, even though she claimed to have been Catholic, was just happy to have my father interested in the things of the Lord. At this time I was 17 and had no real interest in what was going on with my parents. I had seen my parents high numerous times throughout my life, and it would just infuriate me to the point that I thought they were idiots. (sorry, being honest here) I was in my own little world with my beloved. I was going to college full time and working part time in the evenings. My beloved is the only one whom I had shared my childhood and life with. Between that and his mother having passed away when we were 16, it's like we were a little old married couple. We even had a joint saving account at that time. lol ;0) Anyway, my parents would try sharing Bible truths with me, and I told them they were wrong. After all, I thought I knew it all. I was the one who went to Catholic school for 12 years, right? ;0) As they were starting out on their Christian walk, I was diagnosed with Lupus. I fully believe that the enemy just wanted to scare them. I think of how Job's wife told him why don't you curse God and die. I'm sure the enemy just wanted them to blame our Heavenly Father and not follow the straight and narrow path. Thankfully the Lord healed me from Lupus. My parents had numerous people from their church offer me Bible studies. I said I was busy, I couldn't, etc. It got to the point where my dad told me that if I didn't attend the Bible studies, I couldn't see my beloved. Could you believe that?!?!
Part 2 to follow soon.
Sorry, I didn't realize how long this has gotten. I will finish the rest either later on today or tomorrow.

Sorry

I typed up the entire first half of my tesitmony. Just as I was getting to the end of part one, I was typing something about the enemy not wanting me to share, and my computer just completely shut down. No child was near me to have accidently done it. ;0( So we are going to sit down to eat lunch, and then I will type it up again. Sorry.

Tackle It Tuesday/Sewing Table

I don't know why, but I seem to be a very messy sewer. Every time I sew, my sewing area and table end up a disaster. I decided to tackle this area today, being that I need to start sewing Kayla something for church on Saturday. This is my before.


Here is my after. I need to wash my tablecloth, someone seems to have gotten toothpaste on it. ;0) I will do that later on today. I'm off to go take Kayla to an orthodontist appointment.
Ms. Elizabeth Joy asked me about my Passion for the Lord. I will type that up when I get back from Kayla's appointment. It might take 2 parts, as it's kind of long. ;0) For more Tackle It Tuesday Posts, go visit 5 Minutes For Mom.com/

An Elijah Funny

During family worship

ME: Okay, let's sing Redeemed.
ELIJAH: Mommy, I want beans.

I think I need to clean that boys ears out. ;0)

Friday's Favorites(Late) ;0)

I was going to post this last Friday, but with all the running around I did looking for something for Kayla to wear, I didn't get a chance. These are some of my favorite parenting books. The reason I like them so much is because it doesn't give you a canned method of parenting. Well, sort of. lol Let me explain. You know how some parenting books promote time outs or spanking, etc., these books share how we should take our children to the Lord every time we need to discipline them. Everytime you need to discipline your child, it will be different, and every child will need to be dealt with differently. And the ONLY way you will know how to properly deal with them is if you take it to the Lord in prayer. Let Him guide you in disciplining your child. While you are trying to discipline your child, silently pray for help. I remember reading Prairie Frog's Blog not to long ago, and she mentioned how her daughter was having a rough time with an attitude. She took out a piece of paper and drew a picture and explained some things, etc., and it helped her out tremendously. Her girls attitudes were quickly changed. I read her post, and I immediately thought, the Holy Spirit prompted her with what she needed to do to turn her daughters' hearts back to her and the Lord. It's not always spanking or time outs that will get you the proper result. Only the Lord knows what will work for that child in that specific instance. Anyway, one book is for ages birth to 4, and the other is ages 5-12. You can find them here .

Catching Up

We had a long day yesterday. My beloved had to teach Sabbath school (the junior/earliteen class) then he had to rush to go change to perform the baptism, and then change again to preach. He's so cute!! He helped me so much in the morning getting everyone ready for church. He heated up our breakfast, (which he made the day before while I was out
looking for a dress for Kayla) Not once did he complain of all he had to do. He literally was on the go from the time he opened his eyes yesterday. I will say he was popped. He was in bed by 6:30 last night. Does anyone find it boring to be without their beloved? I picked up the house a little and quickly followed suit. I was in bed before 8:30. I'm learning to accept his help without feeling so guilty. ;0) It's such a turn on when I see my beloved praying, reading his Bible, and preaching, etc. Please tell me I'm not the only one. It's just nice to see my beloved being being such a wonderful example and a Godly man. I just wanted to run up to the pulpit and give him a big hug while he was preaching. ;0)
By the way, the young man in the picture with my beloved, also turned 16 yesterday. What a wonderful birthday present!!
Well, I have a lot to do today. I guess those couple of days I spent sewing, makes for a messy house. After I pick up a little and do therapy with Britney I am going to try and make it out to see if I can find some nice patterns for her. I have 4 to 5 days to make her an outfit for church. lol ;0)

Sewing/Store Bought Clothes

The reason I have been MIA is because I realized Kayla has been wearing the same two dresses for church, and the thing is, that they are pretty similar in style and color. So I started sewing her a dress yesterday, only to realize that we had cut out the pattern so long ago, that it no longer fits Kayla. YIKES!! (Do you like my sewing companion?) ;0)
I left the house this morning at 6:30 to go to Walmart and then to church, as I had to decorate for tomorrow. We start a new lesson every month, so I had to go decorate. It's the story of the lost sheep. It was fun decorating for that. I forgot to take my camera. Maybe tomorrow I can take some pictures of my pitiful attempt at making it look like a pasture. lol I checked Walmart for something for Kayla to wear, nothing, I checked Old Navy, Target, Gap for Kids, Macy's, NOTHING. I checked a couple of other stores, and I couldn't find a thing. Everything is so...I can't even find the words. They look like they took adult clothes, and decided to shrink them.(Not to mention the PADDED training bras I saw.) I will leave that sentence well enough alone. Everything has unfinished hems or words splatterd across the top, too short, or tight, or....the list goes on. I found a nice short sleeved sweater for her to wear at The Children's Place with the one and only skirt she has. I have to start sewing her some clothes right away. If I can average an outfit a week for a few weeks, she should be okay.
This was the dress last night, I hadn't hemmed it up yet.

Below is Britney with it on. She wants to wear it to church tomorrow, but I don't think it looks too good. It was my first time doing a collar, and only my second time doing sleeves. I normally stick to jumper type dresses. She is ecstatic with it. My beloved said she should wear it, but I don't know. lol I still have to do the buttons.

For those of you that don't sew, where do you buy modest clothes for your daugthers?

Great Add On To Life Skills Post

La Tea Dah, over from Gracious Hospitality added these great sub-categories to my
Life Skills post By the way, she is a Home Ec teacher, so listen up. ;0)

La Tea Dah: Great idea! I love the 'Life Skills' chart for each child! Do you have sub-catagories available under the Life Skills heading? How about these:Life Skills
1. Child Care and Development
2. Foods and Nutrition
3. Clothing and Textiles
4. Housing and Interior Design
5. Family Relationships
6. Consumer Education (Money Management)
Most 'Life Skills' can be listed under these catagories, making it easier for you to chart what is important for each child.

Q & A On TV/Entertaining Sick Children

QUESTIONS: I have two questions for you today. Do you have a TV? And do you have any advice for entertaining a sick two year old without parking him in front of the TV all day?

ANSWER: I'm sorry I took so long to answer this. Your children are probably all better by now. (which is a good thing ;0) ) I do have a TV, but I don't. lol We do have a TV that we kept in the garage, and last year with the horrible hurricane season we had, we brought it in. It is now sitting in a corner in our bedroom, but it's not connected. So if we wanted to see anything on TV, we need to run the cable across the room to connect it. ;0) Every once in a while my beloved will get the itch to watch Animal Planet or National Geographic, but that's pretty much it. I know I have read many articles on the dangers of TV, and I'm not even talking about the content, but the damage it does to the brain, eyes, etc. from the flickering of images, etc. At first we stopped regular TV(by regular TV I mean good shows, like Animal Planet, etc.), and the children only watched some videos we have from Nest Entertainment , which are all stories from the Bible. Even with those, we noticed a huge change in Britney's attitude. For some reason NO tv for her is best. I'm not sure if it's the flickering of the images or what, but she gets very moody when she has seen any TV or even used the computer for any reason. Even 15 minutes of TV throws her for a loop. I have read that when a child is watching TV, their brain is still moving, but their bodies are sedentary, and so when they are done watching TV, it's like the brain and body are off track. Anyway, we had cut TV out anyway, and this information confirmed our decision. Now I just feel like there are so many other things we can be doing instead of watching TV.
As far as entertaining a child when they are sick. Hmmmm.. my children sort of entertain each other. I tried thinking back to when I only had the girls and they were 1 and 3, they are 22 months apart, I mostly read to them. All of my children love books. Even when I am not reading to them, (and they didn't know how to read themselves) they would just look through the pictures. They also loved listening to music. First children's bible songs, and now even regular hymns, etc. I don't see anything wrong with allowing them to see a video or two when they are sick, as long as it's not all day and they aren't just vegetating there. ;0) Anything that they can do quietly, maybe color, play dough, etc. When my children are sick, they manage to still to play and do everything they normally do. Britney is the only one, that when she gets sick, she is layed out. And she doesn't want to do anything except rest. I blame everything on that vaccine. ;0) Okay, I took off rambling there, sorry. lol
If anyone else has anything to do, please do so.

Q & A On Speaking To Children

QUESTION: I'm also wondering what language you use to invite/ask/command your children to help. My two year old already seems to try to get out of tasks, saying "Mama do it." When I ask him to do something. (Not all the time, but enough to worry me- he's only 2!)

ANSWER: Hmm...after reading this question I started paying attention to what I do. To tell you the truth, I do a mix. I know I have read in books that we are to command our children. I have a very hard time not asking, saying please and thank you, etc. It's ingrained in me. ;0) I did notice that I ask Kayla(10) to do things. Can you please do so and so, thank you. For Britney(8) I have to tell her, Britney, you need to...or it's time to.... Because numerous times, when I ask her, Britney, can you do so and so, she will very politely and respectfully say, "no, thank you." And she's not being sassy, but she saw it being posed as a question, and figured she had a choice. lol ;0) For the boys I do a mix as well. If I can tell they are in helping moods I ask, (just to get them in the habit of asking for things themselves, instead of commanding things from each other) If I can see that they are in "self" I will tell them they need to do so and so.
I know I have read that we should have them come help even if they are in the middle of playing with something, just so they can get in the habit of listening and doing things when told, even if goes against self. They can go back to playing when they are finished, but just to get them to learn first time obedience, and to do it cheerfully.
I know your 2 year old is your oldest, so I would advise you to work with him as best as you can, because he will be your role model for your younger daughter.(aside from you) I know you mentioned that he will tell you to do it. I would advise you to tell him to do it, and in the middle of asking him, etc., do a little silent prayer in your head asking for the Lord to soften his heart, and to help him obey. If the Holy Spirit was able to "speak" to John the Baptist when he was yet in the womb, why would he be able to help our children to obey? Luke 1:41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: 44For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
I know I never posted my favorites for last Friday, so I will do it tomorrow, it is one of my favorite parenting books. She mentions some of these things in her book.
Please, if anyone has anything to add to this, feel free to do so.

Catch Up!!

Hey there :0) I hope everyone is having a great day in the Lord. My beloved worked from home this morning and left around noon for a lunch meeting he had. However, 10 minutes after leaving he returned to change his clothes. He happened to see a turtle on the road, he pulled over and picked it up. He put the turtle safely on the other side of the road. The turtle thanked him by peeing on him. lol ;0) So needless to say my day has been wacky. I know I have two questions to answer, I want to respond to some comments, and I also want to finish the post on age appropriate chores. I will try to catch up on everything during little breaks here and there, but if not, I will do it this evening. My beloved has a church meeting this evening to be ordained as an elder. There are three youth getting baptized this Sabbath. We believe in baptism by immersion. This family has requested that my beloved baptize their children. One child is in college and the other two are in high school. He felt very touched. My beloved is an elder and was going to get ordained anyway, but they are doing it sooner than planned so he can perform the baptism. He might have to preach as well. Our pastor has to pick up his wife from the hospital on that same day, she is going in for a double masectomy tomorrow. Please keep her in your prayers, if you feel so led. Thank you.
Well, I better get moving over here, there is lots to catch up on. ;0)

I'm Ready For Work, Mommy!!

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