wordless wednesday

It is hard not to comment on this....but, tomorrow is Tell Me Thursday.

Multitude Monday- a day late :)

Just because I am a day late, I am no less grateful...just busy.

0011. Paul Robert, my precious little boy, turns 4 years old today. He is child number 11 and boy number 2! He is tiny, but makes up for it with a GREAT BIG VOICE! He has a precious smile, beautiful blue eyes and this wonderful hair that looks super when it is just a little shaggy. ☺

0012. Books. I am so grateful for books and for a family that loves to read, even when they are supposed to be sleeping, or doing chores, or school. Loving to read is loving to learn. Loving to learn, and ever learning new things is the delight of this homeschool Mom. I'm so blessed!

0013. Our big family kitchen table...a gift to us from a friend's mother. Isn't it amazing how the Lord knows our needs and meets them in creative and different ways. "For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations. " Psalm 100:5

0014. Chef's of the day. At our house our oldest 5 girls take turns being chef of the day, or chef of each meal, depending upon their age, with help of youngers under them. What a joy it is to see them learning to cook new things, and enjoying the gift of blessing others with their hands. Oh, the opportunity and potential of being hospitable, encouraging and blessing our family, friends, neighbors and those who God places in our path with our cooking skills.

0015. feet. Big feet, tiny feet....lots of feet (lots of shoes to trip on if they don't get put away). God has blessed this mom above all she could ask or think with all the wonderful feet in our family...busy feet that scurry through our home from morning until evening.

0016. cloth diapers. Am I the only one that loves cloth diapers? I am pretty sure I am the only one in my family who does ☺. I really love using cloth diapers. I feel like I am doing something good for the baby as well as for creation...and it is wonderful not to have to go buy diapers too. We were blessed by a dear friend who found a whole set of them at a second hand store, many years ago, looking unused.

0017. My dad. I am so exceedingly, abundantly blessed by my wonderful Dad. He is and has always been such a good example of a kind hearted man. In business, I have seen his character being more important than a sale...in his honesty. He would give whatever he has to someone who has a need and goes to great trouble himself to help others. He even let me bring homeless people home for the holiday meals during college. Thanks Dad, I love you so much!

0018. Eighteen...I have one of those. Our first born, our first daughter is 18, almost 19. God knew exactly what go give Doug and I for our first child. She is extremely self-motivated and good at getting her 'list of things to do' done in a day. I hardly had to teach her school because she was always certain it got done and done well. She, like her mom, loves books. Or should I say LOVES books. It is delightful to see her love of learning and reading. She also is a wonderful seamstress and piano teacher. She has been doing custom sewing for 3 years and has a web-site (http://www.doodlescustomsewing.com/).

0019. Creation. As I look out the window and see the sun coming up, I am amazed at the goodness of God to give us these precious views. Precious views that change all through the day. The sounds, smells and sights of the weather as it changes through the seasons. His creation is amazing, but not nearly so amazing as He, our creator, is to me. I am humbled.

0020. Sewing. I love sewing...I have ever since I was 12. One of our birthday traditions is sewing presents for each of our children. For Paul's birthday, I am sewing him flannel pajamas. I usually sew jumpers for the girls, as they grow taller and pick their favorite colors and fabrics (aren't Joann's 50% off coupons grand?). I am also very thankful to have many sewing daughters to help me with my projects. The older daughters and I just took a crazy quilt purse making class and are finishing our creative creations. They have been great fun to make and to see the unique one of a kind color combinations and designs of all in our Keepers at Home class.

~Heather

One Thousand Gifts

If you haven't been to the Holy Experience blog, I highly recommend it....fabulous...encouraging...inspirational.

One Thousand Gifts....a wonderful thought.
God has given me abundantly above and beyond all I could ask or think. I will be listing 1000 gifts from our Heavenly Father each Monday
beginning today.

0001. wonderful, beautiful, darling, handsome, oh-so-very-chubby-light-of-my-life, 8 month (today) old James...my most honest child ☺

0002. being a homeschool mom...I'm so blessed, it is hard to keep socks on.

0003.my wonderful, 15 year old, chef of Monday's in our home, Kate, friend to all creatures, great and small....today's culinary specialty from Kate will be broccoli cheese soup.

0004. God's love for me...and His Holy Spirit which enables me to pass that love on to others, by His grace.

0005. I'm so grateful for spring coming. What a blessing it is to have seasons to enjoy and a change to look forward to. Our God is infinitely wise in giving us this special gift of changing seasons.

0006. God's word...Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105

What an incredible, unspeakable gift.

0007. Chocolate...isn't it grand...so many fabulous forms; hot cocoa, brownies, cookies, frappucinno's, Dove brand dark chocolate promises....you get the idea

0008. It is only fitting that number 8 should be my dear 8 year old Esther...who is daughter number 7. She loves books, books, and more books and has a silly sense of humor.

0009. Princess number nine (Do you remember the king of eight from Sesame Street? If you don't, we found it on a you tube search)

She has the sweetest grin, and loves it when we take her picture. She is 2, and as you can tell from her face, she loves chocolate like her mama. She is usually one step ahead of us...so we make sure we keep a close eye on her.

0010. A smile, a smile, it makes life worthwhile, a smile, precious smile Jesus gives me.

inspired

My dear friend (Trisch, www.homeschoolblogger.com/neveradullmoment), sent me a blog post that absolutely *inspired* me to a higher creative level for my daily lists, to do's, menu's, antidotes, prayer notes, scripture, etc...

So, I set about to get free magazines and begin my own daily planner journal/scrapbook/homemaking journal.

Mary Elizabeth, age 11, my first recruit ☺

Fabulous!
Alaina Josephine, age 10...she especially liked the recipes and food photos.

I looked at our local freecycle and a family was giving away a big brown paper sack full of magazines, Midwest living and good housekeeping. A perfect start.

Upon bringing them home, I dumped the big stack onto our long kitchen table and began digging for that coil bound scrapbook I had from years ago, unused.

With new found journal in hand, I headed to the table to begin my crafting adventure. All my naysayer children, who thought I was crazy to do such a 'time wasting' thing, watched with interest. Before I knew it, I had several children, great and small...gathering glue sticks, scissors, Ziploc bags, and notebooks. Hours went by, snipping, smiling, laughing and exclaiming "oh, won't this be cute".

Upon gluing several treasures into my new book, I found a scrapbook pen and began my first day. Wonderful, how the daily, mundane tasks of life take on new meaning and beauty with creativity and resourcefulness stirred in. I am looking forward to making my to do lists, menus, shopping lists and such with new excitement ☺.

I absolutely adore scrap booking, and this takes it to a more daily level (for our homeschool, we scrapbook every Friday as part of art, math, Bible, history, and english...all the way down to the littlest ones who can-another post for another day). I was thrilled to see my children's enthusiasm to do this as well for their Bible journals, daily journals or five-year journals as a lovely way to record God's hand in their lives and keep precious daily memories. What a wonderful way to build gratefulness, as we see the many ways God provides, leads, blesses, and answers prayer.

What a treasure it would be to have my grandmother, or great grandmothers lists, life moments, menus. Getting a glimpse of history. Hopefully my journal will be a glimpse of history for generations to come, and my girls will enjoy creating their own to look back on as adults.

If you'd like to see where my inspiration came from check out: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2008/03/visual-homemaking-journal.html

Fun with friends!

Hello! this is Mary, (5th child in the family) and I am updating for Mom. On Sunday we went sledding with our friends it was REALLY fun!! Here are some pictures =)



All of us going down =)


Valerie

Alaina

James

Getting ready to go down

Kate

Esther

Ok well thats all for now!!

Love,

mary ♥

Review: Thirsties diaper covers

Review: Thirsties diaper covers

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rose garden

this is Kate again (updating for Mom). here are some pictures pictures of all of us in our matching jumpers, at a rose garden.

all of us =)

a jump pic =)

Kelsey, James (baby), Hannah, Kate,

Emily, Mary, Alaina,

Esther, Natalie, Isaiah,

Paul, and Valerie.

We had alot of fun and the pictures turned out great (I think =))

well I'll try to update again soon!
Kate<3