The Simple Joys In Life

Having Children is such a Blessing! At times it can be stressful, but they can still bring you great joy! The simple things in life can bring such delight to them and it brightens my day. Things like when you give your child a nice present and they seem to enjoy the empty box more than the present itself.

When Mike and I got married he had a townhouse and owned a toaster oven. He did not have a toaster, but we did receive a toaster as a wedding present. That toaster did not get a lot of use, so somewhere over time, it just sorta disappeared. If we needed to toast something, we just used the toaster oven.

When my parents would visit, my mom would always complain that the toaster oven didn't toast evenly. We were content with the toaster oven and didn't see a need for a toaster. We saw it as just something else taking up space on the kitchen counter!

When we visit my mom, she has a toaster! The kids were always intrigued with this thing. She has a fancy smancey toaster that has 4 slots. This summer when we were visiting, the children got quite a bit of use from this toaster. The thing I enjoyed about it was that they were fixing their own food and fixing it for the younger children as well. I decided that we needed a toaster.

So a couple of weeks ago I bought a toaster. It was the funniest thing when I told the children that I bought a toaster. They were so excited! You would have thought that I bought them each a very expensive present, or something like a new puppy.

Our toaster is not fancy like Grandmas! It only has 2 slots. It gets the job done and I feel more comfortable with the children using the toaster than the toaster oven. Why did it take me so long to get a toaster? Now what can I remove from my Kitchen Counter?



Where we live we see a lot of wildlife. We have seen deer,fox,groundhogs,turtles, wild turkeys, turkey vultures,raccoons,lots of toads,possums, and even skunks(mostly squished on the road! EWW!!!) We also see an over abundance of cows and some horses. These are always so exciting for the children to see and always brings such delight.

My vegetable garden did not do well this year. We did get some sugar snap peas and some cucumbers, but most of the other things did not grow well. I will have to study up some more so that maybe next year it will do better!

I had better luck with the flowers though. The Impatiens around my little Japanese Maple Tree did wonderful! We had to move our Butterfly Bush earlier in the season, and it did not look like it was going to make it. It did come back to life and has attracted many butterflies. This brings joy to me!





So it seems that you don't have to have a lot of money to find joy in life! God's Beautiful World can be a wonderful source of joy! A cheap toaster has brought joy to both my children and myself! Look around and see what can bring you joy!

 

Discouraged But Hoping In The Lord!

Life takes so many twists and turns doesn't it? Without God in my life, I know that I would never make it.

I shared recently that I was dealing with some anger issues over Faith being gone. I wish I could report that everything was better, but it is pretty much the same. I also feel a bit discouraged with some things in my life.

After losing Faith, I have experienced different times that all of a sudden things just seem to get worse. It hits me like a ton of bricks. It just seems to come out of nowhere. Sometimes it last a few days, some times a few weeks.

School starting this year has been difficult. First of all, I really did not want to start, I am always really sad for summer to be over. Some of the children were excited to start and some of them were not quite as excited!

By the end of our first week, one by one, most of the children started coming down with something that resembles the flu. By the weekend, hubby and I were not feeling so well either. Fortunately I seem to have a milder version so I have been able to still function.

Today is the first day for most of the children to be back doing their schoolwork. I guess the beauty of homeschooling is that you can be flexible. I love that I do not have to wake up real early and get the children off to school. I actually enjoy having them all home with me(usually) and I would miss them terribly if I sent them off.

With that being said, I have lost my zeal for homeschooling. I believe we are called to do this and I want the passion back. I know God has called us to do this and I want to do it to the best of my ability for Him. Isn't that how we should approach everything we do?

Right now I am finding it hard to juggle everything that I need to do. I have 10 children ranging in age from 23 down to 4 with 10 unique sets of needs. I have a husband who needs me too. A house that needs to be cleaned and kept up. Meals that need to be fixed and the dishes cleaned. Mountains of laundry that need to be washed on a daily basis. I could go on and on!

I do have the children help with some of this, but somewhere along the way I have failed to continue to train them to do more. I am praying for God to show me how to train them better and how to reshape their attitudes. By the way, Hubby does help out a great deal, so I would never complain about that!

I feel that I need to do a better job at my alone time with the Lord. Right now I actually feel that I need to work overtime on making this happen. I am nothing without Him and I desperately need Him. I am not morning person, and I find it very difficult to get up early. When I do, I hardly know who I am, so it would be very hard for me to understand the scriptures. If I do not get up earlier than the children, then it is very difficult to get it done. They sure like to talk a lot!

This blog has been a great outlet for me and I have met a lot of great ladies here. I appreciate your friendships. Many of you have experienced loss also, so we share a common bond that many others do not understand. I would actually like to be able to post more often, but that seems to be difficult. My family takes priority over everything else, besides the Lord. I am not planning on going anywhere, but if you don't hear from me for awhile, you'll know that I am very busy with my family.

My prayer request would be that first God would heal the anger that I am having. Second, he would renew my passion for homeschooling and give me some new energy. Also that I can train the children better and that I can go to bed earlier and get up earlier and have my alone time with Him, alone! That I can get my priorities straight!

If you are a mom to many could you leave me a comment and share with me how you spend time with the Lord.

I would like to leave you with 2 scriptures that I have shared with you before, but they seem to be the theme of my life! They really minister to me.

Isaiah 40:31 (New International Version)
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (New International Version)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

 

My Trip Back Home

I have been home for over 2 weeks now, but I wanted to share a little about my trip.

I had a nephew who got married on July 10th. My 2 oldest sons were groomsmen, my 7 year old daughter was the flower girl, and my 17 year old son was in charge of the music.

Congratulations Jon and Rachel

The Beautiful Flower Girl

This is what my youngest thought of the Wedding!

Hubby was not able to go due to work, and my 16 year old daughter was going to the TBQ National Competition in St Louis Missouri.The rest of us loaded up into 3 separate vehicles and made our way to Virginia. My son Jeremy brought his girlfriend and my son Tim brought his Fiance. So we still had 12 people to lodge at my Mom's house.

We arrived there on a Wednesday and the Wedding was on Friday.The older boys and their "girls" and my 17 year old son stayed until Sunday and then made their way home. That left me with my 6 youngest children. I ended up staying for two and a half weeks. We usually only get to visit there once, sometimes twice a year, so I wanted to be able to stay for a while.

My Family lives in Virginia, just out of Washington DC. I really wanted to take the children into DC to see some sights, but I came up with too many excuses. For one, it was very hot while we were there and it can be plain miserable walking for hours in the extreme heat and humidity. During the week I didn't have another adult to help me out, so I was a little overwhelmed taking 6 kids sightseeing by myself. Of course during the weekend it would be way too crowded to enjoy anything!

I will definitely have to make it a priority to take them next time we go and I have Mike with me. We have taken some of the kids before, but it had been quite a long time. I am not sure who has been, and who has not at this point.

We did go to a few places of interest in the area. One was Great Falls on the Virginia side. I used to go there as a kid quite a bit. It is a really pretty place, but it even more so when it rains a lot more and the water is higher. They haven't had a lot of rain this year.



We went to National Harbor which is actually in Maryland. The kids enjoyed walking around and seeing the sights. They have a little park there that has this statue thing that is a huge man that is "under" the sand. It is called the awakening. It is like he is buried in the sand and trying to get out. The kids had fun climbing on it.

Most of our gang

One of the legs

A foot

A hand

My beautiful daughter inside the mouth

My mom and my sister with her 2 kids joined us on these trips. My mom and my sister both have to use wheelchairs, so we have to have helpers with getting the wheelchairs in and out of the cars and someone to push both of them. I have a niece who lives with my Mom and she is the sight seeing expert. She is the one who gets us to where we need to go. Too bad she works a full time job! Her younger sister also came along on many of our trips to be a "helper."

I got to meet my new great niece while I was there. She was born in April. She is beautiful and sweet. I enjoyed holding her. I was afraid it would be hard, but it was quite the opposite. It really felt good. I believe that there was some healing that came along with holding her. Her mom (my niece) was born just a couple of weeks before I got married. Wow, time flies!

We also had a shower for my other niece who is expecting in September. She is having a girl also. It was fun to see all the cute stuff that she got for the baby.It was nice to visit with relatives that I rarely get to see.

My children played with my cousin's kids almost every night. They played cops and robbers until about 11pm each night. That was probably the highlight of the trip for my kids. That had a blast and got to stay up really late.

I really didn't want to do much. I was content just sitting and talking with my Mom. Family means a lot to me, and I wish I could live closer and spend more time with them. They will have the opportunity to come visit us in January for my son's Wedding.

Blessings,

 

Linking Up ~ Ten Interesting/Not So Interesting Things About Me

I am linking up with Lynnette Kraft from Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground. She invited us to share ten Interesting things about ourselves so we can get to know each other better.

1) I have been married to my wonderful hubby for 25 years. We were engaged within 4 months of dating. We were married exactly a year after we started dating. We knew we were meant for each other. I totally believe God put us together.

2) I have 10 living children and 3 in heaven. I love children and would love to have more, but that is totally in God's hands since I am 45!

3) I home school my children. My oldest 2 are in college, so this school year I will have 7 in school. Please pray for me!

4) I am originally from Virginia, and I would love to move back some day. My mom and all of my siblings still live there and I would love to be able to spend more time with them. I usually only get to see them once a year, sometimes twice.

5) I love pictures! I like to look at pictures and I like to take them. My hearts desire is to be able to get a really good camera someday and to take a photography class to learn all that I can to know how to take really good pictures.

6) I love flowers! Every Spring I buy too many flowers to plant. I always say I am going to cut back, but I see too many things that I just have to have! I am slowly trying to add perennials so that I will have less to plant each year.

7) I am usually a "go with the flow" kind of person. I am not organized, at least like I want to be. I know I could use more structure in my life, but is very difficult for me. With that said, I have some ideas I want to put into place for this school year! Watch out kids!

8) I am a procrastinator by nature. I seem to work better under pressure. I wish that I would quit putting myself under so much pressure!

9) I am definitely a night owl. I would rather stay up really late and sleep in late! Right now I am trying to work on that. My hubby has to get up early so he has to go to bed a lot earlier. He would prefer for me to go to bed earlier for different reasons, but one being that I will not disturb his sleep when I finally get into bed. I am also trying to work on being on a better schedule in preparation for the new school year.

10) I love the Beach! I would love to spend my summer at the beach. Just laying around in the sun, walking along the shore, riding the waves. My idea summer would be spending everyday at the beach. Unfortunately living in Kentucky, I rarely ever see the beach. Did I mention rarely? My hubby is not a beach person and that is not his idea of having fun. Usually our vacation time is spent visiting relatives.

So there you go! Now you know a little more about me. Head over to Lynnette's to join in on the fun!

Blessings,

 

Flat Stanley

Have you ever heard of a Flat Stanley? Well, I hadn't until recently. A friend from Australia asked if her son could send our family one. Flat Stanley arrived a few days ago and yesterday I took seven of my children out to take pictures with Flat Stanley at several places around town. We are to send the pictures back to David by e-mail and he Journals where Stanley has been. We are to send Flat Stanley on his way to another place for a new adventure.



Here is Flat Stanley before we leave for our visit around town.




Here are the children with Flat Stanley before we leave home.(Flat Stanley is being held by Luke in the middle.)



We stopped at DQ with Flat Stanley. My two oldest sons work here.



Flat Stanley enjoying a Blizzard with us!



And of course a trip to Wal Mart!

These were not our only stops, but as you can see our town is not too exciting. We had a lot of fun getting out with Flat Stanley and the kids got to see sights that were new to them. Later after getting home, there was a story on the news about a Flat Stanley. There was a Flat Stanley in that Airplane that crashed into the Hudson. No worries though, Flat Stanley made it out OK. You can read about it here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29389425/

The kids were so excited to hear about a Flat Stanley on the news since we had just spent an afternoon with Flat Stanley! So if you have never heard of a Flat Stanley, now you have! And David, Flat Stanley says "HI! "

Until next time,

 

About Us Part 1

My name is Karen and I have been married to my dear husband Mike since 1984. We did not set out to have a lot of children, but little by little, God surely changed our hearts. We were going to have the average 2 children, but possibly stretch that to 4. The plan was that I was going to keep working after having children, but that idea was quickly changed .

Our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage at 13 weeks in October 1985. We became pregnant again 2 months later with our first child Jeremy, who was born in 1986. Well, that did it for me, I was in love with my new baby and I loved being a Mommy. There was no way I was going to leave this baby with someone else all day. So, that is when I became a stay at home Mommy. We went on to have a few more children and life was busy.

Timothy was born in 1988 and Joshua in 1991. Six months after Joshua was born I unexpectedly became pregnant again. Quite a surprise, but I still was very excited! The doctor could hardly believe that I could be pregnant again so quickly, especially since I was exclusively nursing. However, I miscarried that pregnancy at nine weeks. We decided to go ahead and try again soon after, and the following month I became pregnant again. Rebekah was born in 1993.

June of 1993 was mixed with great joy with the birth of our first daughter and sorrow with the death of my brother Doug 4 days later. To add to our grief, when Rebekah was 15 days old, our son Timothy was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 4 1/2. Needless to say our world was turned up side down.