happily random

My spiritual birthday & mommy busyness

It was 18 years ago today that I decided to cross the line of faith and accepted Jesus as my Savior. I can't say that it's been perfect, because I'm not perfect, or that all my problems just vanished. But what I can say is that He has been faithful. He has always been there by my side, through good times & bad. I can't imagine a life without Him to turn to. He is my Hope, my Refuge, my Lord. Thank you Jesus for loving me & taking my sins from me so that I might know you. Praise God!

I just had to share this picture that Rebekah drew at school. Each of her class had to draw a picture detailing part of the Easter story. They were so cute I asked the teacher if I could have them compiled into a book for the whole class. Anyway, this is my daughter's part of the story. She had to draw a part of Maundy Thursday and the taking of bread at communion. In the picture, that is her taking communion, as opposed to the disciples on Maundy Thursday. What cracked me up though this: note the boots! ;) Hee-hee.

The chauffeuring has begun. Saturday I spent most of the day in the car with Rebekah & Samantha. Rebekah had 2 soccer games in the morning, and then birthday party an hour after the game was over. We left the house at 9:30 a.m. & didn't get home until 5 p.m. And that was just for ONE KID. I'm just going to have to bring my laptop & a pillow with me everywhere when they're all doing activities!

I'll leave you with this layout. I did it a couple of weeks ago and just keep forgetting to add it to my blog. Kids are such a hoot!

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31

Happy 1/2 birthday to me!

April 18 is my half birthday. Silly, I know, but I just love birthdays, so I love any reason to celebrate. Has 33 been all I expected it to be? It has gone by faster than I expected, but then the weeks just seem to fly by when you're caring for 4 kids. I remember thinking when I was 16 that I would 26 in the year 2000 and how that seemed SOOOO far away. But now here it is 2007 & I'm 33 1/2. I have 4 kids, a treasure of a husband & a life better than I could have dreamed. It's not what I imagined it would become when I was 16, but there isn't much I would change about. A little less weight perhaps, but I'm working on that one.

Speaking of weight, I started doing Isagenix about 2 weeks ago to start my journey to find  "my" body again. For the last 7 years of pregnancies and nursing babies my body has not been my own & I must say that I haven't taken the best care of it. That's starting to change now. Thus far I have lost 6 lbs. I am determined to find my healthy self again & I'm looking forward to seeing where I am by my whole birthday. ;)

And in closing I just had to share a sweet photo of Lucas & Samantha cuddling together in the rocker. Joel & I sure make some cute kids! ;)

I'm a soccer mom!

It's official. Rebekah had her first 2 soccer games on Saturday. She plays 3-on-3 mixed teams, which works great for her first year playing. She doesn't have the confidence to really get in there and kick at the ball just yet, but she's working on it. She doesn't give up & just keeps trying, which makes me very proud of her. What's most important though is she's having a lot of fun. She always looks forward to practice & always gives her all. Right now she says her favorite position is goalie "because I get to use my hands & no one else does." Guess that says it all! ;)

 

He is risen!

He is risen indeed! Praise God. What a glorious day!

This year I prayed for a clear Easter weekend. Silly, huh? God is definitely in the business of answering prayer, so I asked. And He answered YES! Yesterday was BEA-U-tiful day. Nearly 70 degrees & clear. Thank you God. The reason I prayed for this was that last year it was a dreary, rainy Easter weekend. We had to find Easter Eggs & go to church in the rain. Not fun. But yesteray was fabulous & very uplifting to my spririt.

First thing we did was attend an Easter Egg Hunt hosted by our church. I love that they had it on Saturday as opposed to Easter Sunday. I feel that it allows us to celebrate Easter for what it truly is & leaves the eggs & bunnies to another day. They had 20,000 eggs! Wow! And they had it separated by ages, which meant that Samantha & Tyler didn't get mowed over by older children not paying attention to where they were going. It was the first hunt that Sammy got to participate in & she really got into it, filling her basket to overflowing. Tyler was a great little helper for her, although he did make time to fill his own basket as well. Joel went with the older 2 (hence the lack of pictures of the two of them).

Watch that first step! After the haul, we headed home for a little demolition. Joel torn out the stairs leading up to our house & part of the deck in preparation for our remodel. We're remodeling the stairway, converting our deck that is falling apart with Trex & adding a grand entrance onto the front of the house. All very exciting. Unfortunately we neglected to take a "before" shot but I know I have one somewhere, it's just a matter of finding it. The kids had a great time helping Dad destoy the old deck though. He would tear apart the deck & the kids would carry the wood into the dump trailer. We've had to seal off that entrance as it's our main way to get out of the house. I can just see me forgetting and stepping off 3 1/2 feet to the ground! Yikes!

I did some much needed yardwork while Joel worked on the deck. Are there people out there that actually enjoy doing yardwork? I am not one them. I basically just cleared away all the old, dead growth so the new plants could make their way through. Ugh. I think I just need to cement over the yard. LOL.

I just had to share these two shots before I sign off. Isn't he a handsome little guy? But I must say, his fashion sense is a little bit lacking. :)

He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Matthew 28:6

Easter dresses & microwaves

Another sign of spring: girls in their Easter dresses. I know, it's not quite Easter, but we're not sure if we'll be attending church on Easter, so I wanted the girl to get a chance to wear their dresses. Rebekah was so excited because they were "twins." I must say, they both looked adorable.

Now back to why we might not go to church: our pastor asked us not to. Actually, what he asked if those of us that are believers & have crossed the line of faith not attend church on Sunday. Our church is always busting at the seams on Easter Sunday, so he asked that we attend one of the Friday night or Saturday night services to make room for those that only attend church that one day a year. So we're going to try to make it to an evening service this weekend, if the kids are cooperative. But I wanted to be sure that the girls were able to wear their dresses just in case. :) I guess I could call them "Palm Sunday" dresses.

The kids are on Spring Break this week, so I'm praying for some good weather so they can be OUTSIDE. We had a couple of 55 degree days & one that was 60 degrees last week. I'm longing for sunshine & a bit warmer weather, and I know the kids our too. Rebekah has been dressing like it's warmer; she's wearing a tank top & shorts right now even though it's only 35 degrees outside. I guess if it's not going to be warm, she's going to will it to be warm. LOL.

Last night microwave #3 died. In the last 2 years we have been through three above-the-range microwaves. They just stop working on us. Sears has replaced each one with no hassle, since each time they were under a year old. This one actually lasted the longest: 11 months. We even got a different brand this time, but my goodness, what is with our microwaves? Maybe with 4 kids we just get 10 years worth of usage in one? ;) Luckily this has happened enough that we actually have a spare microwave. I don't think many people have those, do they? We have a $100 countertop microwave that we bought when #2 died to fill in while we were waiting for a part to repair it (which didn't fix the problem, hence we have #3 now). Sears is coming to diagnose the problem on Friday...*sigh*