*Sigh*

Hey, there!! I just wanted to say a quick hello. I miss you all greatly. I didn't think it would be this hard to stay away. ;0)

Wardrobe Refashion Pledge

About two weeks ago I joined Wardrobe Refashion. Basically, I joined for 2 months, and I took a pledge.
The Pledge
I, Shereen, pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. Signed Shereen.
I put a copy of my pledge on my left side column, with a cute button. Just in case anyone wants to look into it, their blog is Wardrobe Refashion I am also doing the compact until April, so that means no spending again, aside from food. My beloved and I were very inspired the last time we did it, so we're giving it a go again. I will post whatever projects I sew up, and keep a running total of any money spent. Hopefully none!!

Boys Behavior During Britney's Appointment

For those of you that prayed for us, or asked how everything went for Britney's appointment, I wanted to say that it went wonderful. My beloved's friend loan us a portable DVD player, just in case I needed it for the boys, as an emergency plan. Thankfully, I did not have to take it out. ;0) YAY!! My beloved didn't make the earlier flight, so I was alone for the entire thing. I went fully prepared. I took some play dough, books, etc. Thankfully, the lesson this month from the boys' Sabbath school class was on how Jesus was obedient. Luke 2:51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. When I reminded them how they needed to be good boys, Elijah said, just like Jesus, right? I said yes, with a huge smile on my face. He then proceeded to sing his memory verse. (to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)
Jesus was obedient,
Obedient, obedient,
Jesus was obedient.
Luke 2:51
*sigh* It so warmed my heart, and I felt like the Lord was literally telling me everything was going to be okay. Kayla helped me out tremendously by reading to them and playing with them quietly. They got a little antsy when they saw I was almost done, during the last 15 minutes. I then pulled out some baby carrots that I bought in little bags, and they were thrilled with that. That's a huge treat to them. Their own little individualized bags. lol My deprived children. lol They normally only see big bags. Anyway, I couldn't have asked for them to behave any better. Thanks for your prayers.

Some Blogging Changes

Due to some changes in Britney's therapy program, my blogging time will have to change for the next four months. By change I mean I will have to cut it way back. I was going to take a four month blogging hiatus until Britney's next eval, which is in May, but my beloved said maybe I should try blogging/updating at least once a week. I must obey, right. ;0) lol Seriously, he likes to see me blog, but obviously he left it up to me. I am going to try it out his way. So if you have any immediate questions or prayer requests, feel free to email me personally. If you have any questions or post request, feel free to leave them on here throughout the week. My "plan" is to write up a decent sized post/update or a few smaller ones on Saturday night or Sunday, and post it Monday mornings. We'll see how that goes. ;0)

We started Britney's new program today, and there were a few new activities. Here she is doing some log rolls. I put a blanket on the floor, being that the floor is so hard. ;0)

She seems to be fooling around with her eyes, so in order to keep her looking straight, we have some activities to do with these "goggles." We were playing catch. She had a hard time in the beginning.

We had to do it for 10 minutes, so I tried different ways of catching. I pulled out some old plastic bowls. Like I said, it took her a while to get the hang of it.

She caught on pretty quickly. ;0)

Answering A Few Questions

QUESTION: I also enjoyed hearing your husband's story of how it took months to finally speak to you. What a romantic adventure! :) Did you notice him on the bus all that time?

ANSWER: Yes, I did notice him all that time. ;0) But I would never let him see me looking at him. He said every time he looked at me, he would just see my hair moving, from me just having turned my face from looking at him. ;0)

QUESTION:I remembered that you called it the Sabboth. Is it okay if I ask what kind of church you go to on Saturday? I have Jewish friends who go to a Saturday congregation for Jews who are believers in Christ, and they go on Saturday and call it Sabboth of course too. ;)

ANSWER: Sure it is okay to ask. ;0) I am Seventh Day Adventist, which simply means I observe the 7th day Sabbath, and Adventist means I'm waiting for our Lord's soon return.

QUESTION:One more question-I am not sure if you mentioned this and I missed it, but I would really like to know more about the therapy you do for Britney. I am trying to learn all I can do to help my 4 year old, and right now he goes to therapy an hour at a time away from home, and I do things I am learning at home. But I really like the idea of your therapy that can be done completely at home. He does so much better when I am the therapist, but I still have so much to learn.

ANSWER: The type of therapy I do with Britney is called neurodevelopmental therapy. We had tried conventional therapy with Britney; speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and she didn't really respond to them at all. It got to the point that the speech therapist we were seeing I think was getting frustrated, and turned off the lights in the room and turned on a robot, just to see if she could get Britney to say something. URGH!!! That one thing alone set her back so much. She then became absolutely terrified of any loud noise; blender, juicer, etc. That was the last straw for us. We were at a loss as far as what to do. It really was an answer to prayer when I found out about this type of "home therapy." It was very easy for us to agree to it, because I was already homeschooling Kayla, and knew that I would do the same for Britney, I just didn't know how to go about it. We see a neurodevelopmentalist(ND) every 4 months. The first evaluation was a thorough evaluation which lasted about 5 hours. It would have been a lot shorter, but it was the last appointment of the day, and my beloved was asking lots of questions, and we were just so impressed that it took longer. Britney came out of that initial evaluation reading some words for the first time ever. When we walked out of that first meeting, I had a plan of attack, so to speak. The ND gave me a list of activities that I was to do with Britney at home for the next 4 months until the next eval. I do fill out and send reports every month to the ND, just as an update as to how Britney is doing with those specific activities. We have been doing this type of therapy for exactly 2 years. She is now reading above her grade level, and is improving in all other areas little by little. Since she is getting a little older, and her comprehension is picking up, she now has some academics thrown in there. When I say academics, it's about 15 minutes of math a day, and about 10 minutes of reading a day. Right now her therapy consists of about 4 1/2 hours a day, Monday through Friday. An hour of that alone is just reading to her. I didn't tell anyone from church that I had started this type of therapy with her at home, and sure enough, I had a couple of people come up to me and tell me how different Britney was acting, and that they saw a really big improvement. A lot of her sensory issues disappeared. This is the link to the ND's. There are different ND's throughout the USA. Oh, and it's also a lot cheaper than all the co pays I was paying on a weekly basis. I saved on gas and time as well. ;0) No more having to take her out to a therapist, and then sit there and wait. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask. I hope that helps.

P.S. If you can, please pray for us today, Britney's appointment is at 2:00. My beloved will be trying to catch at 1:00 flight and at least try to get to me by 3:00, so that I would only have the boys with me for an hour. They told me they are going to behave very good, and they won't run around. lol We'll see!! ;0) They really are very good boys. I think it would be hard for any litte boy aged 2 or 4 to sit for so long, and on top of that quietly. It's me, and I get a little antsy after a while. ;0)

My Spiritual Life

Earlier this week, I mentioned in this post that I wanted to post about how a mom of young children can keep her spiritual life thriving while raising children. I wish I had a magical answer.
I can only share what I do. I only read my Bible in the morning. If there are any books that I would like to read about parenting, my role as a wife, etc., I leave that for the evening. For the most part, I am pooped at the end of the day, and it's not long before the book is resting on my nose. ;0) So to make sure that the Bible is read on a daily basis, it has to be done in the morning.
All throughout the day, whenever I have a moment, while I am cooking, picking up, etc. I will put a tape or CD to listen to. Some of the topics of the CD's are Steps to Higher Ground, The Work That Lies Nearest, Keeper of the Home, etc. These are two of my favorite ministries. Restoration International and Empowered Living Ministries . You can view many of the titles on their website. They also have some samples messages to listen to for free on their website. I have tried listening to the Bible on tape while doing other things, but it seems to go in one ear and out the other. I can't seem to grasp it while trying to cook, clean, or deal with the children. Maybe it's the voice, and I need to try another one. Many a time I have found the children listening to whatever I have on. They laugh at the appropriate times or ask a question about it; so it serves double for myself and the children. Another time that I try to listen to something is in the car. I try to fill any available time with the things of the Lord, and it does help out tremendously. I don't listen to secular music or read secular books (aside from the Anne of Green Gables books I am reading with Kayla) lol It helps to fill every aspect of my life, everything that goes into my being, be connected to the Lord somehow. I always think of this verse. Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Obviously, it's the Lord, but I feel that doing this helps me feel connected to Him throughout the day even when things get hectic.
I hope some of you are able to share what you do to keep your spiritual life thriving while raising young children, or what you did when your children were younger. I haven't added the Mr. Linky because I didn't want to embarrass myself just in case no one else participates. lol As soon as someone does, I will put it up, and then you can link your blog to this post. If you don't have a blog, but still want to participate, just email it to me and I can post it for you. My email address is on my right column. EDITED TO ADD: Ann has so sweetly participated!!

Finished Quilt

I never got a chance to share the quilt that I finally finished for a family friend's granddaughter. I wanted her to have it for her 1st birthday, but the family was traveling, so I didn't want to mail it out to an empty house. ;0) As you can see, it's Sunbonnet Sue in different poses.

Here she is building a sand castle.

Walking her dog.

I like the little purse in this one.

Pulling her dolly in a wagon.

Having tea.

Some ice cream.

This is the book that I got the poses from.
I hope she enjoys it. ;0) Now that this is done, I can sew freely. Every time I would sit to sew, I had this quilt in the back of my head, knowing it wasn't completed. It feels so good to have it done.

Rejoicing ALWAYS II

During my first few weeks of blogging I wrote this post about rejoicing always; it has to do with Elijah peeing on our new floor, and what I found to rejoice in. This morning as I was sweeping the floor, I remembered that post and questioned what there was to rejoice about in all of us getting sick. I couldn't think of anything, and just resigned myself to having to think about it some more throughout the day. I was determined to find something. Sure enough, it hit me a couple of hours later. Being that everyone has been sick, I gave the girls off from school and therapy. Since everyone has been moping around, I took advantage and dragged my body up and started cleaning like a nut. I was lovingly reminded by Kayla that if Dad was home, I would not be doing that because he wouldn't have let me. ;0) Aside from that, everything went smoothly. It went so nice that one of the first things my beloved said when he got home was, "wow, the house looks great." It makes my day go so much nicer when I look around and everything is done; laundry is caught up, floor is spotless, no dishes in the sink or dishwasher. YIPPEE!! So I am rejoicing today in such a clean house, and on top of that, how wonderful it is to see the children enjoying their time off. ;0)

Britney doesn't realize it, but using the Knifty Knitter still counts for strengthening those fingers. lol Even Micah got involved.

Kayla was the one who started the Knifty Knitter frenzy.



I couldn't leave Elijah out, who as you can tell is feeling much better today. ;0)

So if you are going through a trial, take some time out and try to find something to rejoice in. If you want to share, please do.

Our Meanie Cat Being Not So Mean...

Even the cats know when the children aren't feeling well. ;0)

I will post later on today. I used all my free time last night booking my beloved's flights, hotels, and car rentals. He's already gone. I don't think I will ever get used to this. I guess that's a good thing, huh?

Our Spiritual Life While Raising Children

I recently exchanged emails with a friend from church. She mentioned how since she has had children, she feels her spiritual life is sometimes fading away. I don't know about you, but I can so relate to this. I started thinking, wouldn't it be great if we could all share with each other what we do to maintain our spiritual lives fresh, vibrant, and thriving while raising our young children, keeping house, and looking good for our beloved. lol This would count even if you work outside the home, which adds another dimension to it. I know many of you do Tackle it Tuesday today and Works for me Wednesday tomorrow, so I figured I would give you a heads up on this, and add a Mr. Linky to my blog on Thursday. I know I don't have too many readers, so please considering sharing with others. I know most of you blog to get your thoughts together, but I thought it would be great if we could help each other out with this. Even if we only get 5 responses, that's 5 different ways that someone can choose from to help get their spiritual life back on track. So don't forget to come back on Thursday and add the link to your post.

Thanks/Another Prayer Request

Thank you so much ladies for all your well wishes and prayers. I'm happy to see that you all got a good laugh with that picture. I'm seriously trying to figure something similar to that out. Thankfully, some of us are already feeling better. Elijah's sickness only lasted about 3 hours with a slight fever, and he's perfectly fine now. Micah had a fever, and upchucked once. His sickness lasted 6 hours, but he's perfectly fine now. They are both running around like nothing ever happened. It's kind of weird how short everything was. Well, I guess not weird, more like an answer to prayer. My beloved bounced back only after one day as well. I seem to be the sickest one. I have a head cold; headache, sinuses bothering me, etc. I know I'm not supposed to be on the computer when the children are awake, but Kayla is reading to the boys, and I'm waiting on a confirmation number for a bill I just paid. ;0) Being that you all so sweetly prayed for me yesterday, I was wondering if you could slide another prayer in for me. This Friday is Britney's re-evaluation for the therapy I do with her. (I haven't forgotten I owe some answers to some of your questions on this) Normally my beloved stays with the rest of the children and I go alone with Britney. My beloved leaves to Tampa tomorrow, and then he is off to Jacksonville on Thursday and Friday. So it looks like we will all be going to Britney's appointment. My beloved offered to cancel his meeting, but it's a huge meeting, and I couldn't do that to him. Even if he didn't go, the meeting would go on without him, and that would not be good. The meeting is concerning this deal . Britney's appointment lasts about 2 hours, give or take 5 minutes. The boys would have to stay relatively still and quiet, as Britney gets visually distracted very easily.
Well, that confirmation number came in, I better get moving. Britney is asking to do therapy activities. I was planning on giving her the day off, but I guess she's too used to her schedule. ;0)

BLAH!!!!!

All six of us are sick. ;0( I haven't gotten sick in about 3 years, and this really, really stinks.

One of these toilet paper things would come in handy right about now.

I'll try to write more later, if not definitely tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a great day in the Lord.

Micah & Elijah Funny

Being that I did a Kayla and Britney funny, I might as well do one for the boys. ;0)
ELIJAH: Micah look, a bug in the toilet.
MICAH: It's an ant. Look, it's swimming.
ELIJAH: I have to use the bathroom.(As he's about to flush)
MICAH: Wait, wait. It's climbing out.
ELIJAH: (His hand on the handle, ready to flush at a moment's notice)
MICAH: Not yet, wait until he gets out the water.
(One second after the ant gets out of the water)
MICAH: He's out now. Okay, flush.
lol My children got a hands on lesson on how and where the water comes from to flush the toilet.
(As they walk out of the bathroom)
ELIJAH: It's okay Micah, he's going with the rest of his family.

I tried responding to comments last night, but blogger was down. Since I don't do therapy and school with the girls today, I will try to get to it when the boys have their bathes. You ladies wrote such good comments. Thanks!!

Kayla & Britney Funny

I know there is a Friday Funny meme around there somewhere. My beloved and I had a good laugh. After sewing each for one day, Kayla and Britney have decided that they no longer want to be a vet or a teacher. Kayla asked me if she could open her own fabric/sewing shop when she got older, and Britney asked me if she could be Joanne, from Joanne's Fabrics. ;0) lol

A Nice Surprise

How this touched my heart.

Yesterday evening I went to pray with the boys in their room and get them ready for bed. I cuddled with them for a bit. When I came out, I was going to start unloading the dishwasher, only to find that Kayla had already unloaded it, and left me a little note. ;0)

Britney Sewing Part 1 ;0)

I realized that I sometimes shortchange Britney, because I think she's not ready. I realized that I can teach her the same things I teach Kayla, just with a little more supervision. ;0) Part of Britney's therapy activities include 1/2 an hour of trying to strengthen her fingers. We do things like beads, using the hole puncher, coloring, etc. I figured that tracing, cutting, pinning, and sewing would be great for her fingers. YAY!! I was right. If you click to enlarge, you can see how wobbly her tracing is. I think this will continue to be a great activity for her, plus, she will end up with a finished product when she is done.


I think this will help with a few things, patience for one. She started going a little too fast and started tracing the next size. ;0)

She got a little better with it towards the end. She was so happy.

Here she is cutting out her pattern.

She picked her own fabric, and then started cutting away.

These pictures were from yesterday. Today she will start the pinning and sewing process. I think she was happy to see that she can do pretty much everything Kayla can. I need to ask the Lord to help me see that she is capable of lot more than I think. I know I have a few comments and questions to respond to. I will try to get to them this evening while my beloved is working out.

Book Meme

Chrissy over at Winter Past tagged me for a book meme.
The Page 123 Meme
1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, look down to the 5th sentence.
3. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Include the title and the author's name.
5. Tag 3 People.

Okay, here it goes:
I love bright red drinks, don't you? They taste twice as good as any other color.
The orchard, with its great sweeping boughs that bent to the ground with fruit, proved so delightful that the little girls spent most of the afternoon in it, sitting in a grassy corner where the frost had spared the green and the mellow autumn sunshine lingered warmly, eating apples and talking as hard as they could.
As you all know, I am reading Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Kayla is so excited that I am reading this. Every morning she will ask me what I am up to, and then recounts everything I just read. lol I tag whoever wants to do this quick meme. No thinking involved.

Library Cards

On Sunday my beloved and I split the children up. We do mostly everything as a family, but we have been trying to spend some one on one time with the children. Well, 2 on 1 time. lol I took the girls out to eat lunch, and my beloved took the boys out to the library to get their library cards for the first time. I don't know why, but library cards to me are a big deal. ;0) Silly, I know. I felt like they just got their license or something. I hope that the Lord comes before I have to deal with that. lol Apparently my beloved found it exciting too; he got his own as well.




We are off to the library to return some books and go get some new ones. You'd be surprised how many books I go through during the boys daily reading time. ;0)

Update on Books

I wanted to thank MilehiMama , Jenny , and Eileen for taking the time to write out such nice long detailed comments. ;0) You all are too sweet. I completely understand where you all are coming from. I want Kayla to be a well rounded individual with an amazing love for Christ. I have always said that I would never take something away from our children if I couldn't replace it with something similar or better, in my eyes. For instance, my children have never eaten junk food. They have never put a piece of candy in their mouth. However, I do make them healthy desserts and snacks in its place. They have been offered candy(the boys at the barber shop, etc.), and they have no desire to even try it. My children don't just go out and play with the neighborhood children unsupervised. My substitute is that we have family time every evening. We get together to play whatever they want, whether it's freeze tag, blocks, etc. At the same time, we are bonding their hearts to ours.
I try to do the same thing with books. There are so many wonderful books out their for them to choose from. I don't expect Kayla to only read the Bible. I want her to learn different styles of writing, etc., but at the same time I want to make sure that I'm not taking away her taste for the Bible.
Just yesterday morning, as we were driving to Whole Foods, Kayla said, "it's so hard to stay pure in this age we are living in." My eyes got kind of wide, and I said, "why do you say that?" She said, "even at the supermarket they have such distasteful magazines on the right side, so you go to turn your eyes to the left side, and there is a stack of horrible movies. I'm sure if they could, they would put something on the ceiling and on the floor, so that no matter where you turn, you'll see something." Then she continued on to say, " You know, that's why I like to order books from Keepers of the Home. They said they won't sell anything that they can't hand over for Jesus to read." After she said that, I realized that she is pretty good when it comes to discerning certain things for herself. I'm happy that we've given her the room to grow and decide for herself what is good and what is not. With that said, I will admit that I am enjoying myself greatly with Anne of Green Gables. Believe it or not, she reminds me of Kayla with the amount of talking she does. lol ;0)

Job 13:23

I came across this verse during my morning personal worship, and it stood out. This is my prayer for myself today. Anyone else joining me in asking the Lord to show us where we are sinning? Please share.

Job 13:23 How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

Reading Taste Buds

A few months ago I mentioned that Kayla had started to read Anne of Green Gables. There are 8 or 9 books to the set. I had wanted to read them with her, because she seemed so intrigued by them. I figured it would be a nice small way to bond. HA!! She read all 9 books within 2 1/2 weeks. Yes, she does having morning worship, school, chores, etc. She used all of her free time, and quiet evening time reading them. My beloved and I decided that I should still read them. Even though she finished them a long time ago, she still talks about them a lot. Now, I don't know if this has ever happened to anyone, but I don't read any secular books, novels, etc. I stick to my Bible, parenting books, books that help me with my role as a wife, and books that help enlighten the Bible. I picked up Anne of Green Gables, and I couldn't believe it, but I struggled for the first 3 or 4 pages. Yeah, I read the words, but I was having a hard time sticking to it. I had to read and reread the same sentence to get a grasp of what was being said. It just seemed like everything was so long winded and SUPER descriptive. lol It had been so long since I read a regular book, that I forgot how to take it all in. ;0)
You know, that's the only thing I was going to post about, was my struggle to read a regular book. Suddenly a light bulb went off. My beloved and I are really careful with what we allow our children to read. Kayla enjoys history books, etc., so it has never been a problem. We try to stick to "real life" books; history, biographies, etc. Kayla also enjoys anything old fashioned, so she has read Little Women, An Old Fashioned Girl, Rose In Bloom, and books similar to those. We buy all of our books from Grace and Truth, and they filter everything pretty good. However, if I had a hard time going from the Bible and "Christian books" to a book like Anne of Green Gables, I wonder if reading books like Anne of Green Gables, etc. would make it hard for her to go from those books to enjoying the Bible; without finding it sort of nondescript and to the point. Don't get me wrong, Kayla knows her Bible really good. She has an incredible memory. When my beloved and I have a question about lineage or someone's name, Kayla always has the answer. ;0) If I had to make an analogy, I would compare it to eating sweets and rich foods(Anne of Green Gables for example), so that when it was time to eat healthy foods and veggies(the Bible), the veggies would taste sort of plain. I was just wondering if anyone has experienced anything like this. You see, blogging is good for something, it helped me sort out my thoughts. lol

My Lists

I wanted to update my decluttering list that I have to the left. I was able to declutter the master bedroom yesterday. It really wasn't that bad. The worse area was my sewing table, and everything underneath. The closet took me a separate day, because that is where I have my fabric , yarn, and crafting things. ;0) All I have left is the kitchen and the laundry closet. YAY!!
I also added another section to my left column. I made a list of the sewing projects that I have in mind to make. I linked to a picture of the pattern. Hopefully it will motivate me. I will cross off as I go.

Micah and Elijah Singing

I was trying to enjoy my beloved as much as I could this weekend, so I didn't get a chance to write up my post for today beforehand. Since I am online now quickly while I book my beloved's flight, hotel room, and car rental, I figured I would quickly say hi. lol Yes, you read that right, I am booking his travel. Again!! ;0( He's at work now, and has to go straight from work to the airpot. The good news is that he gets back tomorrow night. He then leaves Friday back to Jacksonville, but not for work. They asked him to preach over there a couple of months ago. He said yes, but we didn't know he'd be traveling so much at this time. Anyway, since I don't have time to do a complete post until this evening, I figured I would share something with you. I was copying some pictures and videos to a CD the other day, and I came across this video. I took it a while ago when I recorded the boys singing "Power In The Blood." Here they are singing the books of the Old Testament. The part that makes me laugh is that when they get to the book of Micah, Elijah had a revelation that Micah's name is a book in the Bible. He says, "Micah, that's you," and points to him. lol ;0) You have to play twice in order for it to start.

My New Apron

Yippee!! My first apron. I was able to quickly put this together today in between preparing for the Sabbath and getting the children in "Daddy is coming home" mode. After thinking about some of the posts I had written, and wanting to have a special dinner for him when he got home, I thought it would have been nice to serve him in a pretty new apron. It sewed up really fast. I was surprised. Gotta go, the children are ready to take their bathes early, before my beloved gets home.

A First Date Funny

Thinking about the post I wrote yesterday about dating, and being that today makes 17 years that my beloved and I went on our first date, it reminded me of something kind of funny. When we first met, my beloved was 16, and would sometimes get $20 a week as an allowance. However, those $20 were for lunch for that week. That Friday that we went out for the first time, he begged him parents for another $20, which back then was a big deal. My beloved came to my house that evening to pick me up, he met my parents and off we went. We took a taxicab to the movie theater, and my beloved paid for it. It was about $4. He then paid for our movie tickets to see the movie, which was about $6 each. That alone totaled $16. He needed the remaining $4 to pay for the taxicab back home. This boy had the guts to ask me if I wanted something to eat, like popcorn, a drink etc. He didn't tell me until years later when we were reminiscing. He said he knew my character even though we had only spoken on the phone for a few days. He knew that I was too shy, and I would have said, "no thank you." I wonder what he would have done if I said sure, get me some soda, goobers and popcorn. lol I should have known something was up when the taxi driver got lost, and when the meter hit $4, my beloved told the cab driver, "that's okay, just let us out here." We then proceeded to walk to the nearest bus stop to take the bus home. Mind you, it was super cold, snow all over the ground, and about 11:30 at night. I was shivering so bad while we waited for that bus that only comes once every so often at that time of night. Even with all of that, I got home at exactly 12:00 and felt like Cinderella. I was on cloud 9. ;0)

Hobbies

One thing that I think is a nice part of my marriage is that both my beloved and I take an interest in what the other one likes to do. Up until a few years ago, neither one of us had any hobbies; I think we were both in the throws of parenting, work, etc. Recently I have taken to quilting, sewing, and crocheting; and he has taken to fishing.
He has always had a love of dogs and learning the ins and outs of breeding. Even when we are working on our hobbies, we are normally in the same room or near each other. The reason I have my sewing table in our bedroom is so that we can be together when I sew and at least talk. While I sew he will normally ask me questions, "why are you doing that?" "Why does that step matter?" If you were to ask him, he can tell you what a four patch is or stippling or applique. ;0) I know more breeds of dogs than I probably should. ;0)
When he goes fishing in our yard, he will ask me to keep him company. Believe it or not, when he catches a fish, if he can't get the fish off the hook, he will quickly have me come over to do it, because I do it faster. lol I now know all about what lures are good for certain fish, and the different types of knots and rods. ;0) I think this also goes back to being able to talk about anything. If I didn't know anything about fishing or dogs, and he if didn't know anything about sewing or crocheting, we wouldn't be able to go to the other and share when something exciting happened.
It really might not be interesting in the beginning, but believe it or not, the more you learn about it, the more interesting it will become. If a hobby is a big part of your beloved's life, take the time to learn a little more about it. I'm sure it will put a smile on his face. I know my face lights up when he asks me questions or uses a term that I know I have mentioned to him before.

Date Night... At Home

lol Some of you may think that date night doesn't count if you are home. ;0) Oh, but I beg to differ. I have mentioned before that I don't have any family here, and some of the friends that I have made here have either moved to different states, or have young children of their own to care for. ;0) One thing I am very, very consistent with in our home is bedtime of our children. The boys are in bed by 6:30, and the girls by 7:30. During the summer, once daylight savings time changes, the boys will be in bed by 7:30, and the girls by 8:30. I will say that they are all up bright and early, but that's fine with me. As much as I love my children, I look forward to that quiet evening time that I have with my beloved on a daily basis. It gives us time to unwind from the day together, catch up on anything that we want to share with each other, and just have fun. I do try and "shut everything else down" by this time. Trust me, if I don't shut down, my beloved will shut me down. He really looks forward to this time as well.
Even though we have quiet time every evening, there are days that we have date night. We have done lots of different things for date night. My beloved has picked up food from the local Italian restaurant, and we set up a nice picnic in our bedroom, we have worked on our marriage workbooks (I will explain this on another post), maybe just have a nice dessert together, we have a marriage game that I ordered from CBD (Christian Book Distributors) that's pretty fun, etc. Of course it would be nice to go out to eat somewhere, but this is just a season in our lives. We will have more than enough time to go out alone in the years to come;0) So if you have little ones that you rather not leave in the care of someone else, just light some candles, and set up your own little "restaurant" at home. By the way, I will being setting up "restaurant" tomorrow when my beloved gets home. I wanted to make up a menu. Does anyone have a snazzy little name to put on the cover of the menu? Feel free to leave it in my comments area or email me your idea for naming my "restaurant" ;0) Thanks

Decluttering Garage Update

I know that the garage wasn't listed on my decluttering list there to the left. I didn't list it because I thought it would be too massive of a job. lol During the summer I wrote this post and the reason why I wanted to declutter the garage. This picture was taken during the summer, it was pretty much what the garage looked like before I started. Here was an after picture that I took during the summer after working on it for a few hours. If you notice in the back right hand side, there are some boxes there. We thought we were going to move about a year ago, and I packed our entire house up. We learned that the Lord's answer to that prayer was to wait. ;0) So instead of unpacking everything, I started to go through all the boxes and declutter them. If we had lived without the contents for a couple of months, then they probably weren't that important.. There were originally about 60 boxes. During the summer I got it down to about 22 boxes. Yesterday when I went into the garage to get some of the pictures that I scanned for my uniform post, I got into decluttering mode again.

I am so, so happy. Here is my after picture. I got those 22 boxes down to 10 boxes. Our house is pretty much empty right now, as we are in prayer again to move. If the Lord gives us the go ahead this time, all I have to pack are our clothes, dishes, computer, sewing things, and these boxes in the garage. I only got half the garage in the picture. I had to crop a certain little someone out who came bursting into the garage half dressed. We were getting ready for bathtime ;0) I can't wait for my beloved to see. YIPPEE!! He has been the one saying, "can't we just get some big black garbage bags and dump it all?" (sorry it's so close, but it was evening, and I couldn't open up the garage door to step back because of the mosquitos.)
We're off for an orthodontist appointment this morning and to run some errands. I would like to make a special dinner for my beloved tomorrow evening when he gets home, so I also have to make a trip to the supermarket and the health food store. I will publish the rest of my posts in the early afternoon.

Q & A On Uniform Picture

QUESTION: What a wonderful story of love, and such a happy ending. It is a good day to remember. Do you have a picture of yourself in your school uniform?

ANSWER: Okay, here it goes. Sorry, I had to crop this one, as there were other people in the picture. This was my uniform. I had the option of wearing this burgandy sweater or a blue blazer type jacket.


I had to laugh when I saw this one, because back then I guess I thought the uniform itself was pretty dorky, so here I was trying to dress it up with a black turtleneck and I remember I had on little black socks and black Reeboks. I had my hair up in a ponytail, it was about shoulder length.

This was about a year after my beloved and I met. This was at a school dance at my school, so we were 17 here.

This is pretty much what I looked when I met my beloved, except my hair was more natural. These curls were blow dried into place. ;0) That day he saw me on the bus, it had been raining, and my hair was just curly and all over the place.

And this was my beloved about a week after we met. Sorry all the pictures are a little grainy, I had to scan them. This one is cropped funny, it was from a key chain I had.



Thanks for asking about a picture. I had fun looking through old pictures and reminiscing.
I did find these pictures while I was looking for my uniform picture, and of course still feeling all mushy about babies, they made me laugh. This was about 11 years ago, and I was 4 or 5 months pregnant with Kayla here.

Praying Together

Praying together is one thing that I absolutely love to do. I will say that my beloved and I don't pray together anywher near as much as we should. I know I mentioned before that this year I would like my entire family to focus on their prayer life. I'm hoping to start praying with my beloved on a daily basis. My beloved is a night owl, and I am a morning person. He rather pray, read, study, etc. in the evening and sleep in a little; where I rather go to sleep early and wake up early to do my studies, etc. Just yesterday morning Kayla asked me, "Mom, have you noticed that when dad is away we wake up earlier, and a lot of things get done really early in the morning? Why is that?" (we were preparing breakfast and all getting ready to eat, and it was still pretty dark out, the sun wasn't completely up yet) I said "yep, I know why. Daddy likes to cuddle." We both got such a laugh out of that. But it's true, when my beloved is home, I end up cuddling longer than I should, all the children somehow end up in our bed. The boys start wrestling with him. I must admit that I can't blame them, he does make it lots of fun. lol Sorry, I got sidetracked there. ;0)
Okay, back to praying. I can't really explain the feeling I get when we pray together. There is a certain amount of closeness we both feel afterwards. I can't think of anything to biblically back this up, except knowing that the Lord is with us there. Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. If you aren't comfortable praying out loud in front of someone, maybe you can just hold hands and pray silently until you let the Lord help you with that. We have knelt down side by side and we have sat with our legs crossed(Indian style, or meditation style) holding hands. For some reason when we sit like this, our forheads end up together. You can share prayer requests beforehand if you'd like.
Do any of you lovely ladies pray with your beloved's on a regular basis? If you do, maybe you can better explain the feeling that you get after praying together ;0)

Q & A On Striking

QUESTION:Um...I'm impressed with your decluttering list you have going. Maybe you can let me know how you do that cross off thingy.
ANSWER: Hi, there. All you have to do is go into your template, wherever you want your list, etc. to appear, and type in the letters li surrounded by <> then type in strike, surrounded by <> then type whatever word or words you want to strike out. After the word you have chosen, you write /strike surrounded by <>
If you want to write the word without the strike, type in li surrounded by <>, write your word, and then at the end of the word, type in /li surrounded by <> I hope this helps you. I tried writing you an example, but blogger looks at is as html, and it comes up like this:

Prepare Chorepacks for children

Organize Family Binder

Make Kayla's Binder

If anyone wants me to email you the example, just email me.

Teaching Kayla to Sew

I waited long enough. Kayla is aready 10, and has been asking for a while. I wanted to thank Ms. Elizabeth Joy , who recently shared pictures of her daughter's first sewing experience, which got me motivated.
Here she is tracing out her pattern. Since Kayla and Britney are two different sizes, instead of buying two patterns, we trace it, so that the original pattern stays in tact. Thank you, Christina ;0) Also these little weights save so much time, no pinning for us.



After tracing, she then cut out the pattern.

Next was the fun part. Picking out some fabric. She searched high....

And low....



Ahhh... she found one.

She layed out the fabric, but it was just too tempting. We had the boys trying to see if they could jump from one side to the other without touching it. Micah would make it over, but Elijah couldn't.

Needless to say, we had to roll up the excess fabric. Here she is cutting out her fabric.

Now, on to the pinning.

Finally, time to sew.

She did really good, and her stitches came out pretty straight. I put a piece of painters tape on my machine so that she had some way of guiding her fabric.

Time to turn it inside out.

Sliding elastic through the casing. As you can see from the change of clothes to pajamas, she did a little here and there, in between other things.

TaDa..........YAY!! The only thing left to do is hem up the bottom. Since it was cut on the bias, it has to hang overnight.

She has now asked if she can sew one skirt a day for the rest of the week. She really likes wearing skirts or dresses all the time. My beloved teases her and says that if we left it up to her, she'd wear a wedding dress to the park. Yes, she has asked for me to make her one. lol ;0)

Humility Talks

Continuing along the lines of talking, one thing my beloved and I have done a few times is to have what I have coined as humility talks. lol ;0) This all started because my beloved and I were discussing how sad it is to see so many people either getting divorced, or just generally in an unhappy marriage. My beloved mentioned how it just seems like one spouse focuses on the one thing that they feel the other spouse is lacking in, and it becomes the focus. We both came to the conclusion that we need to be everything for each other. (obviously, our Lord is the only one who could be everything to us) we meant from a spousal point of view. We need fulfill each other spiritually, physically, emotionally, and *blush, blush* s*xually. I then asked my beloved if there were any things that he would like for me to change, whether it's something that I do that he would rather I didn't, or something that I didn't do, that he would rather I did. Of course, in the beginning it was kind of funny, and he said, no, that everything was perfect. HA!! After some prodding, he was able to get one measely thing out. He would like for me to start exercising consistently because he knows it will help me to release stress, I will physically feel better, and have more energy. Now, I easily could have taken that to mean, "oh, he thinks I'm fat and out of shape," (lol) but I didn't. I took it for what he said, and I believed him. Even if I didn't believe him, that wasn't the purpose of the talk, it was to really listen to what he believes I am lacking in.
Then it was my turn. Before I started, he said, "I already know." He then started to say a couple of things, all of which were exactly what I was going to say. ;0) He took all the fun out of it.
All jokes aside, it really helped us to see how we each looked at each other. I suggest you only try this if you both have thick skin. lol My beloved has a lighthearted way of doing everything, and I guess being together so long, we don't easily get offended. We have since had more of these "humility talks" and with time and comfort, he has been able to find more things than me just needing to exercise. ;0) But I really do love it, because it gives me a little window into knowing how I can be everything to my beloved. I know that he won't go around thinking, "wow, I wish Shereen were more like that," because he could just easily tell me, "I wish you did this more," etc.
p.s. I haven't had a chance to respond to comments, but I promise I will tonnight. I might be partially biased, but I think I have the best readers every. You all really hit on some good points that I am hoping to share for tomorrow. I spent last night writing up all these posts, and I didn't get a chance to respond. When the boys take a bath, being that it's right next to the computer, maybe I can squeeze some responses in. I have a few more posts written for today that I will send later on.

Helping Our Beloveds

I was going to link this as a Tackle It Tuesday over at 5 Minutes For Mom but then I felt bad because I never get a chance to visit other tacklers who leave me comments. So instead of using it as a tackle it Tuesday, I decided to use it as part of my marriage week. One thing that I try to do to help out my beloved, is to do things around the house that would normally be considered "his job." In reality, they are simple things a woman can easily do. The reason I do this is because my beloved works hard. When he is home, I rather he spend all his free time with the children or me ;0) instead of doing a "honey do" list. Don't get me wrong, he does do a lot around the house, but I hope that I am able to lighten that load just a little bit.
In the beginning I will say that I didn't think I could accomplish some of these "types" of jobs. If you think things through, it really is very simple. The door to the laundry closet kept coming off the track. We continued to hammer the track back into shape, then we would put the closet back up. After the door almost fell on Elijah, I finally decided enough is enough, we needed a new track. I took the old track off.

I made new holes in the new track, to match where the holes were already drilled into the wall from the old track.

I screwed the new track in. YAY!! Now on to the next side.

For some reason this side seemed a little more difficult.

URGH!!! It took some elbow grease, but it came out okay.

This is some of the old hardware. Yucky, I know.

Waala!! YAY!! All that is left is to paint the doors now.

I did this while he was at the retreat, so he hasn't seen it yet. I know I'm silly, but I get all excited when I do things like this, because he really appreciates it.

Reading Together

I have a few minutes, as all four children are playing "hospital." When they are all four playing, I try to let them be. lol

I wanted to share something else that my beloved and I do during our anniversary, either our wedding anniversary or our anniversary week from when we met. We always have such a nice time reading either Song of Solomon or 1 Corinthians 13 . When we read Song of Solomon, we take turns reading. He reads the part of King Solomon, and I read the parts of the Shulamite woman. ;0) I will say the first time we did this, we were 19, and we giggled for half of it.
1Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.
2Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them.
3Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks.
4Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men.
5Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
To this day, my beloved will come out of no where and say, your neck is like tower, and we both can't help but laugh. But with time, we have learned to appreciate the way that Solomon and the Shulamite spoke to each other. It really is beautiful.

Who says the Bible doesn't have a little bit of everything for everyone.
Song Of Solomon 3:1 This will be me this week. ;0)
1By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.

An Elijah Funny

A little history behind our cat. She was very mean from when she was a kitten. I had a telephone repair man refuse to come into my house because of the way she growled at him. Yes, I said growled. The rest of our pets have a healthy respect for her. If she is drinking water, our big boxers patiently wait for her to finish before they attempt to approach the water bowl. Our Boxers have a tiny piece of their nose missing from when they "tried" to be the pack leader in our home. Our Cocker spaniel has a piece of ear missing when she tried the same thing. The children have learned how to pet her, and when to leave her alone. She is 13 years old now, and has mellowed out a lot. But the little scenario below did make me laugh.

Elijah(2) walked up to my sewing table. He saw Alexis (our cat) on the table. He stooped down below the table and popped up. He stooped down below the table and popped up. He stooped down below the table and pooped up. He looked at her square in the eye. And said, "Hmph!! I'm bigger than you." lol

Open Communication In Our Marriage

Being that it is my anniversary week, and my beloved is gone until Friday, I figured I would torture you all. I am going to try and make this marriage week here on my blog. I will blog about other things as well, but at least one post a day about marriage.
I remember I was speaking to two friends of mine from church, and I didn't realize it, but I started every sentence with, "my beloved and I were talking about....." or "I was telling my beloved the very same thing about..." And one friend said, "I have never in my entire life met two people who talk as much as you and your beloved do." She was in the middle of a divorce, and said, "maybe that is what went wrong. If I ever remarry, I will have to remember that." When I got home, I told my beloved, ;0) and he said that he doesn't think it's the norm, the way we talk. He said the majority of his friends, coworkers, etc. don't really speak to their wives either.
I had another friend who had a pretty bad marriage at the time (she is now divorced as well) but I remember telling her, "but why don't you just tell him how you feel? or why don't you ask him what can you do to make it better?" And it was a foreign concept to her. She said, "no, we don't really talk like that." That absolutely blew me away. I didn't realize that not all couples have open lines of communication. I sometimes wonder if it's us as women who aren't making ourselves readily available to listen, or if some men just don't like to open up.
I know my beloved ended our "how we met story" by saying "I made the call. Our conversation has not ended since that time and will continue throughout eternity." We spoke on the phone from Monday through Friday, and we went on our first date that Friday. We went to the movies, and we literally talked throughout the entire movie. Maybe for us it just clicked, and it was naturally easy. I don't know. If it doesn't come natural for you, I would encourage you to make yourself "listener friendly." Ask questions when your beloved is telling you something, look interested (I'm not saying this in a phony way, but sometimes we might not notice that even though we are listening, our facial expressions may show differently), and be slow to speak . I'm not sharing this with you because I have "arrived in my marriage", but because I know it has made my marriage so enjoyable because of it.
There is no topic that we can't discuss. From our conversations, I know what deals he is working on at work. I know the details to each deal, the amount of each deal, etc. I know his coworkers' names, and a little about each one. It's great to know what is going on with him spiritually, emotionally, physically etc. The reason I think it helps to know what is going on with him at work, is that if something stressful is going on and he calls me to vent, I know exactly where he is coming from, or why that particular situation is bothering him. I know if I had a stressful day, the last person I would vent to would be someone who had no idea about my children. I think it goes both ways.
Anyway, sorry for rambling, I just wanted to share one thing in our marriage that I really cherish. Feel free to share something that really "works" for you in your marriage. If you do, please let me know so I can link to it for others to read.

Sunday Ramblings

Hey there. I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far. I am in "get the house ready for daddy" mode. ;0) Even though I know he will only be here for the evening, I would like the house to be spotless. All my little helpers have full bellies and are ready to clean. We will take a break around 11:00 and either go for a bike ride or go to the park, as a little reward for helping out.
The strangest thing happened to me yesterday at church. There is a mother(hi, Cathy, waving enthusiastically*) in my class with a 10 week(I think) old son. He was a preemie, and he's so cute. I normally don't ask mother's to hold their newborns, so I was just admiring him from a tiny distance, and she handed him over to me. I have not held a baby since Elijah was born. Oooooooh, it felt so incredible. It felt so good that I started crying. ;~0 I literally had to wipe tears away. Why? I don't know. My beloved and I aren't trying to have more children, we are of the mindset that if it happens, it happens. I told my beloved I guess it's a good thing he was away this weekend. lol ;0)
Cathy, the mother has informed me that she has been reading my blog. I recently emailed her and didn't realize my blog link was on the bottom. lol I was so embarrassed. I must have turned 5 shades of red. No one from church or my family, except my beloved and my sister knows I have a blog. ;0) After I got over the initial embarrassment, I am very happy to have Cathy as a reader. Feel free to comment, Cathy. ;0) So you are officially welcomed.
Do you all share your blog with your family and friends? I think the reason I don't share with family, etc., is that I am pretty quiet in real life, and I don't think I would dare open up and write the way I do if I knew they were all reading. My beloved reads my blog, and I always tell me to please let me know if I am not coming across the way I am in real life. I don't want to portray someone I am not. He promised me he would, but he said so far, it's all me. ;0)
There really was no purpose to this post, as you can tell from the rambling. I guess I am just missing my beloved, and don't know what to do. By the way, the retreat is going very well. Thankfully when my beloved is away, he calls and IM's me a lot. ;0) Not only is he the speaker for the weekend, but he also turned into the cook. He's been cooking for 10 young teenage boys(that alone is scary) and another adult.
Well, I will be back later to respond to all of your lovely comments. I need to respond to comments from children's sleeping habits to present. I'm off to clean and get my beloved's suits, shirts, etc. ready for his business trip this week. Have a great day in the Lord.

Anniversary Week

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post earlier. My beloved just left for a youth retreat for young men. He is the speaker for the entire weekend. We tried spending as much time together as we could before he had to go. ;0( He gets back Sunday evening and has to leave for Tampa, Jacksonville until Friday. So for all intents and purposes, he will be gone for a week, with a pit stop here Sunday night until Monday morning. What really stinks about that is that today starts our 17th anniversary week from when we met. We call it our anniversary week because I start counting from when we started talking on the phone and developing a relationship. He counts it from when we went out on our first date. Well, today makes 17 years that he went in search of my uniform (I went to an all girl Catholic high school). All the neighboring schools had different uniforms. He didn't know what school I went to. lol Anyway, if you want to read the story in my beloved's words, I copied the links to the posts he wrote a few months back for our wedding anniversary.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Well, I will post more as time permits. I am flying solo for the next week, so I am sure I will have lots of time. ;0) I would like to get a lot of sewing done as well. My beloved requested some matching pajamas for him and the boys. ;0) For some reason I get giddy when he asks for things like that, because it means he likes the way I sew. lol Silly, I know. ;0)

Theme For 2007

Acts 9:6And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.




I know lots of people out there are setting up their resolutions or goals, whatever you feel comfortable calling it. ;0) Me, I would like to have a recurring theme for this new year, a daily, moment by moment recurring theme. Just part of the verse I wrote above would make my life SO much easier. ;0) If I could learn to consistently ask the Lord those eight simple words written above, I will be a happy woman. As the verse shows, the Lord answered Saul, and told him where to go. We sometimes think, oh, the Lord doesn't speak to us now a days. Oh, but He does. We serve an unchanging God. Hebrews 13:8 tells us "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." If He spoke to Saul, who was a sinner just like me, and told him which way to go, He will surely tell me where to go. The Lord telling me where to go is the easy part. The hard part will be whether or not I listen. ;0) I have a few other goals, but for now, everything pretty much falls under "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do."



If you would like to read other's goals, then go on over and visit Laurel Wreath

Q & A On Children Sleeping Together

QUESTION:I have a question you might have some insight into since your boys live in the same room. I have just 2 boys, barely 2 and 4 years old. The oldest one has sensory problems and wakes several times a night needing comfort. On occasions when we sleep together (on a trip or when he is sick for example) he sleeps through the night though. He and his brother want to share a bed, and I have already thought about how good it would be and big bro might sleep through the night. He doesn't know how to put himself to sleep when he wakes in the night, but if we are beside him, he feels comfort and doesn't get up. I get lots of advice (from non-believers) who say I need to make him be tough and grow up and not be so dependent. But I *feel* like this would be good for him to get sleep, bond with his brother (who adores him), and have that sweet comfort. I could also put them in the same room in separate beds, but I believe it will work best if they share a bed. If you have insight I would enjoy hearing it.

ANSWER: Okay, please take this for what it's worth, which probably isn't much. lol I can only share what we have gone through in our home. I will share with you what I have done with our two "sets" First the girls, and then the boys. As you know, Britney also had a lot of sensory problems, along with some other things going on as well. She slept in our bed because it was just easier. She would wake up a lot at night, and had no idea how to go back to sleep on her own without rubbing my face. She slept with us in our bed until she was 2 1/2, (that's when I stopped breastfeeding her. Back then she didn't seem so big, but now that I think about it, Elijah is 2 1/2, and I couldn't imagine still breastfeeding him. lol Maybe it's because she was still very baby like, not speaking, and was more like a 8 month old developmentally) At 2 1/2 she was moved to her own bed, but would end up crawling into our bed when she woke up at night until she was 3 1/2. Then I got pregnant with Micah. I realized we had to get her to stay in her own bed, so we put her to sleep on a bed with Kayla. It worked out perfect. She was able to find the same comfort with Kayla that she found with me. I think she just needed another body next to her. lol We then bought them separate beds and had them pushed up next to each other, and with time we have separated the beds without a problem. When Kayla went on a missionary trip with my beloved back in April, it was the first time that Britney would have to sleep alone. I will admit that I was a little nervous about it, wondering if we made the right decision, wondering if we made her too dependent on Kayla, etc. That first night it took her a while to fall asleep, but she did fine. During those two weeks she had no problem at all going to sleep in her own room, by herself with the door closed and light off. ;0)
For the boys, they sleep in the same room, but on separate beds. We originally had them on one full sized bed, but they move around too much and were waking each other up. ;0) They are very, very close. They wake up in the morning, and the first thing they do is hug each other as if they haven't seen each other in weeks. ;0) I say, pray about it, seek your beloved's advice, and do what you feel is best. You can't go by what other people say, because you know your child better than they do.
All of my children slept with us the entire first year of their life. I exclusively breastfed all of them, and it was just easier. At a year(except Brit) they got kicked out to their own bed, in their own room without any problems. (they were kicked out with love, they never cried, etc.. lol) Everyone, including my mother, family, church members, told me I was spoiling them, that they would never sleep in their own rooms, etc. ;0)

Micah's Book

I know in yesterday's post I mentioned how Micah really enjoys cutting pictures out. For the last few days he has been cutting and just putting them up on the refrigerator with a magnet. Yesterday morning I quickly make a little book for him. I just took a file folder and cut it in half. I also cut some copy paper in half.



I punched holes in both.

I tied two little pieces of yarn through the holes.

YAY!!

He was so happy with his little book. He started cutting and gluing right away.

He likes anything that has to do with fishing. Here he had just glued a picture of a fishing lure.

Then he was off to copy some more pictures. He has gotten the hang of the copier all on his own. ;0) I love the way he has the book propped up by his head, and the little hand waiting so patiently. He put his hand in that position as soon as he hit "color start." lol

Once he was done with his masterpiece, dad helped him with his cover. He told my beloved what he wanted the title to be.

He was so excited with his little book. My beloved also drew a picture of a pike, which happens to be the fish of choice this week. It seems like he is fascinated by a new fish every week.

This all happened before 8:30 in the morning. lol ;0) They wake up at 6:00, and they are ready to get going with their day!!

So now I know that I can make up a new activity box with some premade books, some copies of pictures, scissors, and glue. ;0)

Activity Boxes

I wrote this post a while ago, and I mentioned some activity boxes that I made for the boys. I use these activity boxes when I need some time to complete Britney's therapy. They are pretty active boys, so they mostly do a lot of physical things. I have gotten a few request to write about the activity boxes a little more, so here it is. I know this post should have been written a long time ago. Sorry ;0)
You can click to enlarge the pictures. The activity box on the left is just some construction paper and scissors. That one is actually more of Elijah's(2) than Micah.(4) Elijah is still having too much fun with cutting to care that he's just cutting paper. Micah is more into cutting pictures out. So for Micah's, I made copies of some fish, sharks, etc (which he really really likes) and a pair of scissors for him to cut the pictures out.
The activity box on the right is just a little booklet that has a number on the top, and then I drew some little circles for him to place the stickers on. This is more to develop fine motor skills with peeling and sticking the stickers on the circles, than math. If you are someone who wants to teach your child math, then you would just put the number on the top without the circles and let them figure it out.

The container on the left is just paper and some small bottles of finger paint. The container on the right has, starting from the bottom up, a small white towel, a black piece of construction paper, and a piece of construction paper with a picture drawn on it. I suppose you could photocopy a picture on. Then with a toothpick, the child can poke holes along the picture, through the two papers(the black and white one) the towel allows it to poke through.

My beloved drew out that little fish. lol

Here are the layers. When the child is done, you can take out the black piece of paper, and they will have made a nice impression of the picture on top.

Here are some pieces of foam, different colors of construction paper, and some glue. I pretty much left it up to them to see what they would do.

They ended up matching the foam pieces to the different colors of paper, which was nice. ;0)

This is a sheet of paper from those Crayola mess free coloring pads that comes with the mess free markers. These work out pretty good when they go through the "writing on the walls stage." Micah is over that, Elijah is still in the throws of it. Funny how my girls never went through it. Hmmm....

I have a few more containers, one of them is full of colored rice. My cat whacked my hand when I reached for the last two containers. (She's sleeping in our closet, lol) She's a meanie. Another one has different kinds of dried beans, glue, and some paper, etc. You know your child better than anyone. You know what they like, and what will keep them happy. Maybe a box with special little cars, etc. that are only used for that time period.
In the link in the beginning of this post to my previous post, there are some links on making activities bags for your children out of 1 gallon size ziplocks.
I hope that explains it a little better.

;0( My beloved goes back to work today. It stinks. It makes me want to cry. I got so used to having him home for the last two weeks. Today I also go back to my "no computer while the children are awake" schedule. I hope you all have a great day.

Happy In The Lord

"If you're happy in the Lord, tell your face." ;0)

Last week my family and I attended a concert by Wintley Phipps at our church. He was speaking in between songs, and he mentioned the statement I wrote above. It's so true. Our face needs to show how happy we are to have the Lord in our lives. It was my first time hearing him in person. He has an amazing voice. That's him to the right of President Bush.










I was looking around to find a picture or story on him, and I found a few. Here is a snippet of one article."Like a rainbow whose arc can link disparate territories, Phipps found common cause with both Democrats and Republicans at the highest levels of the political food chain. He has done this without violating the fundamental beliefs of his faith. In the early 1980s Phipps turned down an invitation to audition for the Temptations. He also turned down an invitation to tour with Diana Ross because he had promised God, at the age of 16, that he would sing only to His glory." You can read a full story about him here

Here is a link if you want to hear him sing Amazing Grace. The first couple of seconds are kind of beaty, but then he starts humming some of it. I believe he also has a CD on spirituals with some gospel music. It actually bought tears to my eyes. He then starts to sing it. He has an amazing voice.