A Little Of This And That

The Weather has been warm, well actually the last several have been very hot! Also the past couple of days the humidity has seemed very high, although this evening it seems to have gone down a bit. Every year I look forward to Summer, but as I grow older I seem to tolerate the heat less and less. The humidity is even worse.

We will be having our Summer Break here very soon. Most of the children are very near to completion and I couldn't be happier! I do have one son that seems to prefer the year round version of School, especially with his Math. At least he doesn't require much help from me. My husband helps him with Math and I do have to answer questions from time to time, but mostly I have to be around to keep him on schedule! This time next year he should be graduating!

I love flowers so much. For the last few years I have just been buying flowers to put into pots to place on my front porch. I use to buy a whole lot more and fill the beds with them too. Since moving to this house just over four years ago, I am trying to fill the beds in more with perennials. That way it will help save money,time, and effort. A few days ago, I finally got busy and filled all of the pots. Flowers really help to brighten up my day, how about you?





We are trying something new this year. We have never had a vegetable garden at this house before. We had one at a prior house for a few years. We were not too successful at it really, We mostly had cucumbers that survived. We were pretty good at cucumbers, but not at much of anything else. It is a good thing we all like cucumbers a lot. Also take a word of caution from me, never plant miniature pumpkins and cucumbers next to each other! We had orange cucumbers that were strangely shaped!

So, like I said , we are trying something new this year. We are making a square foot garden. If you haven't heard of it,well then go here to learn more about it. We also purchased the book to learn more about it. We are getting a little bit of a late start, but nonetheless we are working on it. Everything should be planted in the next couple of days. Thanks to the hubby for all his hard work. This was kind of my idea, but it required him to help me out quite a bit. I will put up some more pictures when we get it all together. Hopefully this will be successful! I will keep you posted.


You might have noticed my blog is looking a little different. My hubby is helping me with redesigning it. I am still not happy with it, so you will see more changes coming. I am just not sure what those changes are going to be yet. This is probably news to hubby, (so Sweetie, if you are reading this, now you know!)

Some of you might be reading, hoping to hear more about our loss of our Sweet baby Faith. We are just trying to live our lives from day to day. We take it one step at a time. Yes time does heal, but the pain is still there. God gives us Grace for each day. Some days are harder than others.

One night recently I had a dream that I was very upset that I didn't get to dress her. When she was born, I had the option of bathing and dressing her, but I didn't feel comfortable doing so. The nurse dressed her in a beautiful little dress that my doctor had given me. That was the only thing that she ever wore until I had her changed into a different dress for burial, so I wanted to keep that dress. I think I might have had that dream because I have felt a little guilty about not bathing her and dressing her myself. I just didn't think I could do it, and really that's OK. We are all different and handle things differently, so I think I need to give myself a break.

So as you can see, Faith is always on my mind. There are still sometimes when my head hits the pillow at night that the tears start to flow. At least at this point, it is not every night! I really miss her and wish she was here with us, but I trust God knows what he is doing and I long for the day that we will be reunited!

Blessings,

 

Been On A Little Break

It's been over a week since I last posted. Nothing major going on, just taking a little break. I have been reading though, so I have been trying to keep up with everyone.

I had a nice Mother's Day. We went to church and then went out to eat for lunch. My son Tim's Fiance's Mom was in town. She and her other daughter and grandson came to town to help Naomi look for a wedding dress and for bridesmaid dresses. They joined us for lunch on Mother's Day, so it was great having a little more time getting to know them better. After lunch we just spent a leisurely day at home, which I truly enjoy.

It's hard to believe that my son is going to get married. January will be here before we know it, but I will try to enjoy the Spring and Summer as much as possible! I believe Naomi is a great match for Tim. They seem to be made for each other! She is a joy to have around and I look forward to her being my daughter in law, or I would probably like to say daughter in love.

I don't think I have mentioned it here before, but we have a few box turtles as pets. Actually, up until this week, we only had two. We have believed that these two are females. My oldest son has built a habitat in our backyard for them. Well on Tuesday, Jeremy went out to take care of the turtles and found we have a new turtle, a little baby box turtle. We were so surprised!




Jeremy went and researched more on the breeding habits of box turtles and it says that they breed in the Spring and lay their eggs in the Fall. These two females were caught in our backyard last Spring and Summer . So at least one of them was bred before they were caught.

On Saturday we added to our turtle family again. I was on my way with the children to a picnic when we saw a turtle in the middle of the road. Of course I had to stop and retrieve it. My son Matthew jumped out to get it, and then we had to head home to drop it off. Needless to say, we were late for the picnic. Fortunately we were still earlier than most people. When Jeremy came home from work, he confirmed our new turtle is a male. This could get quite interesting!

I am working on getting a stone made for Faith's grave. She was buried in November and I am feeling it is about time. She is buried in Virginia, and we live in Kentucky. My Mom has a man that she has worked with a few times on these sort of things. I actually went and talked to him a few days after we buried her to get some ideas. He sent me a sketch on what we talked about, but it is not exactly what I wanted. I have just put it on the back burner and ignored it. I just can't seem to figure exactly what I want.

I am going to Virginia in July for my Nephew's wedding. I would really love for the Stone to be there when I visit. I am running out of time for that, so I need to get it together. If you have any experience with this and have any helpful hints, please share with me! Also please pray as this is stirring up more emotions right now. I miss that baby girl so much!

Well, that is a small glimpse of what we have been up to lately. I just wanted to let you know I am still here and check in on many of you often. Have a wonderfully Blessed week!

Blessings,

 

Could it Possibly be 25 years?

Recently Mike and I celebrated our Twenty fifth Anniversary. It is really hard to believe that twenty five years have gone by. We have been through a lot together, but God has always gotten us through the difficult times. I am so Thankful that we are committed to each other through thick and thin. It has not always been easy. Really there have been some very difficult times, but God has been so faithful. Also we both are committed to see it through no matter what.


I have grown to love and appreciate Mike more than ever before! He is Mr Steady! Poor guy has had to live with me. I am more of "Go with the Flow " kind of person. He is very organized and keeps a list of his lists! OK, I am probably stretching the truth there just a bit, but maybe you get the idea. Too bad I am not as organized as he is. I have asked him why he hasn't got me organized and his reply was that I wouldn't let him!


So, in those twenty five years I have had 13 pregnancies. Two of those pregnancies resulted in miscarriage and the last one was our Sweet Baby Faith who was Stillborn. We have also dealt with our son having Leukemia and enduring 2 1/2 years of Chemotherapy while we still had to take care of our other 3 young children. We have moved several times and have had to endure job loss twice. Mike's mom and my dad both passed away. My brother died 11 days before our son was diagnosed with Leukemia and 4 days after the birth of our fourth child. We saw God's hand in all of those situations also which made it just a little bit easier.


We have 10 living children ages 22 down to 3. We consider ourselves extremely blessed! We have been blessed with Family, Neighbors, and Church family that we have share our joys and sorrows with. They have been there to help pick up the pieces and see us through the hard times . We have certainly been blessed!


I wish I had pictures to show you of our Wedding, but I do not know how to use the scanner yet. Anyone around that knows how to use it has not had time to help me out. Hopefully in the near future I can share those pictures with you.


On Tuesday night Mike and I went out to dinner. We are hoping on getting away sometime in the near future. Mike also brought me some roses. He usually brings red roses, but this year he decided to do something a little different. He brought me yellow roses with red accents. They are so beautiful and I am enjoying the change.


It is really strange, but I remember when my parent's celebrated their twenty fifth. I was eleven years old and we had a big party. I thought my parents were REALLY OLD! They were 44 years old at the time. Now that is not looking very old at all! My mom is 78 and looks really good for her age. She still does not have much gray hair at all. She has never colored her hair either. Boy, I hope I have her genes.

I think we should celebrate all year long instead of just one day, so I am going to say,

Happy 25th Anniversary to My Dear Hubby!
I Love You with all my Heart!

Blessings,

 

Another Teenager In The House!

Recently my daughter Victoria had her thirteenth Birthday! Wow! I can't believe it! She is our fifth child and second daughter. That means we officially have 3 teenagers in the house right now! Let's just say there is never a dull moment! Of course with 10 children ranging in age from 22 down to 3 in a house, there really could never be a dull moment!

Victoria is a girlie girl. She loves jewelry and makeup (even though she is not allowed to wear it yet). She loves body sprays and perfumes. Whenever we go shopping she cannot resist smelling the perfumes and looking at jewelry.She is finishing up seventh grade this year and she is active in our church. She is in TBQ (Teen Bible Quiz). She is actually away this weekend helping my husband with JBQ(Junior Bible Quiz) at the Regional Tournament in which she graduated from last year.

She is generally quiet, but can stand up for herself! She has a very Sweet Spirit! She loves babies and so far is the only one of my children that would change a diaper without hesitation! She enjoys the younger children and likes to " take care" of them.

We will be celebrating her Birthday tomorrow when everyone is back home together again.

Happy Birthday Victoria! You are growing up way too fast!
We Love You!

Blessings,