Well Hello There!

Yes, it is me, believe it or not!

I cannot believe how long it has been since I have written a real post. I also cannot believe it is now March 8th. Time marches on and it seems to drag me along with it.

Sorry about the lack of post here. I have been reading your blogs, just rarely leave comments. I have really enjoyed the blogging community and hope to get back to it more regularly. I am especially thankful for the support I have received here from so many because of our loss of Faith. Even though it has been over 3 years, she is still fresh on my mind and my guess is that she will always be.

Please pray with me for the ladies on the Pregnancy Prayer List. I have been a little discouraged about the lack of response of people willing to pray. I actually was seriously considering taking it down, but just about that time, I received a few new requests to be added.  I really believe God place this on my heart in the first place, so I am continuing on. I am sorry if you feel I have neglected this, but I want to continue it and be more diligent on keeping it up.

So, on that note, if you are pregnant or know someone who is, please send me an email or leave a comment if you would like to be added. My email address is on the sidebar on the right. Also, if you are on the list, I would love to receive updates on how things are going. Lisa is listed for January and I am sure she has had that baby by now, so I would love an update! Also, could you please leave a comment to let me know that you all are praying for these ladies. I know it would encourage me as well as each of them! Thanks! The names in blue are a link to their blog. Holly actually just made he family blog private so that link is not working, but you can give her a visit by visiting her other blog here.

Update about us:

This school year has brought on some changes for us. Josh is attending a Christian University and lives on Campus. We do not get to see him very much at all and the we miss him a great deal. Rebekah is attending a local University and lives at home. She also works at Chick-fil-A, so she stays extremely busy! We really do not get to see her very much either.

This means we only have 6 at home full time now. Most people would say that is a lot, but since we are down from 10, it is quite strange to me. That is not to say we are not very busy, because we are! Things are just different!

It has been a little strange only having 7 of the children living at home now. The logistics of everyday living has changed quite a bit! Knowing how to cook dinner has been a bit of a challenge too. With the 3 oldest boys not at home, my old way of cooking produces too much food. Tim has been out of the house for over 2 years, but lived fairly close by, so he would eat a lot of our leftovers. He and Naomi recently moved about 40 minutes away, so it is not so convenient for him to come get the leftovers. The younger boys are still a bit picky about their food and do not eat as much and Rebekah is rarely home, so I am learning to adjust.

My youngest is now 6, so there are no more babies around here. That is an adjustment for me as well, but I have also have learned to enjoy the freedom that comes with not having babies to care for. I would, however, would be willing to give up that freedom in a heartbeat if God chose to bless us again! I am looking forward to lots of grandchildren some day!

The hubby has been sick, and this is a first time in a really long time that he had to miss several days of work. I finally took him to the doctor this past Monday, and he has Bronchitis.When I called to make him an appointment,the receptionist fussed at me for waiting so long to make him an appointment. Well, he is a grown man and I cannot make him do anything he does not want to do. Anyway, he seemed like he was starting to get a little better, but over the weekend he ended up getting worse. He seems to be slowly getting better. I hope the antibiotic he is on is the right one for him.

Well, that is all for today. I want to write a couple of posts to catch up on the last few months. I also like to post pictures, but sometimes it seems to take me a really long time to get it all written and edited.

 Let me leave you with a picture of our silly kitty! You know, the one a told you about a few months ago that's not mine! If you don't remember, scroll down and you can see for yourself!

Hope to see you soon!

 

A Little Bit of This And That Plus a Birthday!

I am still alive! Well, at least I think I am! The kids keep us pretty busy and something is always going on! As I look at the calendar, the next few months seem like they will be busier than ever! Blogging could be pretty sporadic!

The past 2 weekends have been JBQ and TBQ State competitions. I am proud to report that our kids did really well. Our JBQ A-League team (which includes Anna and Sammy) was in a 3 way tie for second place. So it ends up that they were 4th in the gold division. That was good enough for them to go on to Regionals! Anna came in 3rd place individually! She is pretty competitive and she has worked really hard! I should also mention her teammate Tyler came in fourth! They did so well, and we are so proud of them!

The B-League team also did really well. It is an all girl team and they came in first place in the silver division. Micah and Luke are in C-League and they did awesome too! They came in first place in the gold division. Luke worked harder at the end, so he answered more questions than he has before! I believe it has help to build his confidence! He got 8th place individually and was so excited to get a trophy!

Our TBQ teams did awesome too! Rebekah's team came in first and Rebekah got First place individually! This is her Senior year, so what a wonderful way to end her TBQ career! She will be going to Regionals next month with her team. Victoria's team came in second place! So Awesome! They too, will be going to Regionals!

Matthew is on the Middle School Team and they came in First in their division. His Team will be going to Regionals as well!

So, as you can see, there are some of the things that are on our upcoming agenda, not to mention the possibility of Anna and Sammy's team, Rebekah's team, and Victoria's team advancing to Nationals! I will also have to be running our kids to practices every week for our Church's Musical. There are actually 2 different musicals for 2 different age groups. I will have 3 kids in one and 4 in the other. Their practices are on different nights, so it will be a lot of transporting going on. The performances are in August with each group having two performances each. I would also like to fit in a trip to Virginia so that I can visit my Mom and the rest of my extended family.

To add to all of that, Rebekah and Josh will be starting College in the Fall. We will have to help them get ready for that and do all the necessary preparations! I personally find having older kids a bit more challenging than the little ones!

Recently Hubby celebrated his Birthday. I made his cake this year. He pretty much said that he would like any cake except chocolate. I scoured through recipes and decided on a Caramel Cake. Looking through so many recipes on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that most of the recipes were of a yellow cake with a Caramel Frosting. So, I decided to cheat just a little!

I used a yellow cake mix and mixed it up according to the directions and then stirred in some melted butterscotch chips. Originally I made a layered cake, but evidently left the cakes in the pans too long or something. When I tried to take them out, they were completely stuck! I had sprayed the pans with PAM, so that was not the problem. In the process of trying to get them out of the pans, one of the layers broke into pieces.

Yeah, so I mixed up 2 cake mixes and stirred in some melted butterscotch chips and poured it into a large pan. I am not sure of the dimensions, but it is a lot bigger than a 13x9 pan. I thought that since it was such a large cake that I probably should double the recipe for the Frosting. Well, in all actuality it probably wasn't needed. The Frosting was sort of like fudge and in the middle it was at least as thick as the cake! It was really yummy and the kids did not complain about too much Frosting! I wish I had taken pictures after it was cut so that you could see how thick the icing was!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Here is the Recipe for the Frosting!


Caramel Frosting From Scratch

2 sticks butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup Pet's Evaporated Milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter and brown sugar and evaporated milk. Cook two minutes over medium heat (no longer than two minutes). Add vanilla. Remove immediately from heat. Add powdered sugar. Beat until smooth.. Will frost a three layer cake!

I found this recipe here along with a cake recipe.

Warning: It will give you a major sugar rush!



Have a Great Weekend Everyone!

 

My New Design and Snapshots Of My Garden

First, let me say a huge Thank You to my dear Hubby for all his hard work on my new design! He is one Amazing Person! I ask him if this can be done and he figures out a way to make it happen.  He is brilliant with the computer! I just wish I had better skills at designing things! We will still be tweaking a bit here and there.

Dear Hubby, Thank You from the bottom of my heart for all your hard work and your patience with me!

I Love You!

Now, on to my garden. I was wanting to take pictures of my garden every week, each week, to see what the difference was. These pictures were taken on Day 10. Now it has been 3 weeks and I have not taken any more pictures.

Please do not make fun of me! :) I am a city girl trying to live like a country girl and I am learning as I go along!

Everything is sprouting up and seem to being doing well so far. I needed to weed out some of the plants when these pictures were taken, but this has since been done. We planted extra seeds on purpose so that something would grow.

Everything was planted from seed except for the green onions, Strawberries, and Lavender. The green onions were planted from onion sets and the Strawberries and Lavender were from plants.

Corn

Another view of the corn.

Cucumbers

Sunflowers

Tomatoes

Green Onions

Lettuce

 I planted Strawberries and Lavender last year and they are supposed to come back year after year.

Strawberries

The Strawberries are a variety that are supposed to produce all Summer long. They seem to be in a rest period right now, but are starting to bloom again.

The Lavender is doing well. I probably need to move it to a flower bed though. It would be nice to have this space for more vegetables.

The hydrangeas are in full bloom. The blooms are a bit small though and they are a variety of colors. I need to look into some kind of plant food for them. I believe I have heard that there is something that helps the color be more even. If you know of anything I can feed them, let me know.

The butterfly bush is literally taking over! It has grown so huge and the blooms are huge too! Please do not tell dear hubby that I really think early next year we need to move this bush, he might think I have lost my mind! Just let that be our little secret! OK?

I really enjoy this bush! It attracts a lot of butterflies!

I do not know what these little beauties are called, but I need to find out! I planted them last year in this barrel and they came back this year looking like this! I need another plant because there is one bare spot because I planted another kind of plant in that spot and it did not come back.

And then there are the flowers that I bought this year that still have not gotten planted! I keep saying hopefully I will do it soon, but that soon never seems to happen. 

Hopefully it will be...........

 

As Per Lynnette's Request

Lynnette asked us to post pictures that represent us. Actually, I do not have a lot of pictures of me. I am usually the one behind the camera. I am one who prefers to do my hair and put on makeup before having my picture taken. Since I do not wear makeup everyday, you will not see a lot of pictures of me here! I do like to take pictures of my kids though, so you will see a lot more of them!

Hubby and I, Twenty-six years ago

Hubby and I about a year ago.

My hair is a little longer now and layered. I am getting sick of it though and I am thinking about cutting it again.

Our Family in January 2010.

 

And of course our sweet baby Faith that will always be in our hearts!

You can go here to see pictures of our dog, fish, and turtles.

 

May Happenings

Sorry I have MIA. It has been quite busy around here, so it has been hard for me to get here very often. Here is a little update on what has been happening in our World.

Our 5th born and 2nd daughter celebrated her 14th Birthday. Victoria is beautiful and very sweet and sensitive. She loves all things girly. She also does not like to have her picture taken. This was the best picture I could get!

Happy Birthday Victoria!

The Hubby and I celebrated our 26th Wedding Anniversary. We have been through a lot together, but I am so grateful that God gave me this wonderful man to be by my side through all the ups and downs.

Twenty-six Years Ago

Taken about a year ago!

Rebekah and Victoria both participate in TBQ (Teen Bible Quiz). I am so proud of all their hard work. Both of their teams went to the Regional Competition. At Regionals, Rebekah's team came in 4th. Victoria's team came in 7th. The top 5 teams are automatically qualified for Nationals. There is a certain number of teams that participate at Nationals. After all the Regional Competitions were over and some teams opted out of going to Nationals, more teams were invited. Victoria's team was one of them. So this year we have two quizzers going to Nationals.

This has been a bit of a challenge especially because the cost of going to Nationals has gone up quite a bit this year. We are hoping to do fundraisers to help offset the cost. If anyone knows of an effective way to raise money please let me know. I don't want to sell useless stuff to make a buck. I know I cannot afford to buy the stuff we all have bought to help someone out. Our group is working on doing a big yard sale and car wash.

I forgot to mention that I was able to travel with the girls to Regionals. This was my first trip with TBQ. I really enjoyed myself and hope that I get more opportunities to travel with them. It was fun being with my girls and also getting to know the others better as well. I believe it was a good break for me to be away from home for a few days. I felt a bit refreshed however exhausted (if that makes any sense) when I returned home.

My garden has been neglected so far this year. I planned on working on it this week. I still hope to get to it, but it is supposed to be hot all week long. High in the 80's. I am not a fan of the heat, but I really need to get things going. I should have made myself get out there when the weather was a bit cooler.

Last week we saw a beautiful rainbow. It was actually a double rainbow, but the second one was a little more faint.  It was raining and the sun was shining at the same time. It was quite interesting, I thought that it made for good conditions for a rainbow. A couple of minutes later Sammy looked out and saw it. Most of us went out to look at  it. It was only sprinkling at the time. Here is a picture. It doesn't do it justice one bit. You have to look closely to see the second one.

The children are working hard at their schoolwork in hopes of being done for the Summer. I too look forward to our Summer break! I think I look forward to it more than they do, but don't tell them that!

I really need to work on decluttering the house and reorganizing all of our school stuff. Sounds like I have a fun Summer planned ahead. It looks like our Summer will be very busy. Our church is doing 2 separate Musicals this year, so I will have 4 children in one for the 7-12 grades and 4 children in the other for K-6 grades. Their rehearsals are on different nights of the week. Yep, I think we are going to be a bit busy.

Well, that's all for now. Have a Happy Tuesday!

 

WalkingWith You ~ Thankful

Walking With You was created by Kelly at The Beauty of Sufficient Grace to help support those who have lost a child. Together we share our stories, helpful information, scriptures, encouraging words, prayer requests, and more.

From Kelly:

This month we are focusing on our gratefulness for the gifts we were given and the ways our lives were changed by the lives of our babies. I know that many people are busy, so this can be as simple or in-depth as you wish. I hope you will link your own post with us, sharing ways that you are thankful. I do think that reflecting on gratefulness is very valuable...especially in the throes of grief. Grief is big and consuming. The simplicity of counting our blessings refocuses a grieving heart from the giants of pain, sorrow, and hopelessness to the hope, comfort, peace, and eventually joy that waits for us on the other side of the valley. The comfort that waits for us in the arms of our Savior.


I have so much to be thankful for! Even in the midst of all the pain there have been so many things to be thankful for.


While we were still expecting Faith we learned that she had Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). All the love and prayers from family , friends, and our church were such a blessings. We were given so much hope about Faith's future. We knew it would be a very rough beginning, but we believed that she would survive. Our world came to a crashing halt to find she had passed away before she was even born! We certainly needed all those prayers more than ever!


Another thing I am thankful for is the medical personnel that was present the day Faith was born. My doctor is the absolute best! She is so loving and caring and she means the world to me. She had tears streaming down her face as she delivered Faith.  It was so comforting that she really cared!


The nurse I had that day was also the best! I know that God arranged for her to be there that day! She was just so good at what she does. She took great care of us and spent extra time with us. It really makes a world of a difference when you have a nurse that is good at what she does and is also so loving and caring.


I am thankful for my loving Savior that has been with me through all of this and has brought comfort to me and is in the process of healing my broken heart. I could not live without Him!  Thank You Lord, for loving me and taking care of me and carrying me along the way when I couldn't take another step!


I am thankful for Faith being a part of my life. Even though the grief I have experienced has been very tough, I am a better person for Faith touching my life. She is a part of me and she will not be forgotten. There is not a day that passes that I have thought of her too many times to count. I miss her so much!


I am thankful for my Husband that has walked beside me through all of this!  He has been there for me and just held me when that is all that he could do. I have been blessed to have had this man in my life for over 26 years.


I am thankful for those that have had the courage to talk about Faith with me. Most people are afraid to bring up her name. It means the world to me to be able to talk about her and to her someone mention her name. She did exist, she is my daughter!


I am thankful for the people that remembered just last week that it was a year ago on October 28th that she was born. Those people sent me notes and cards and it meant the world to me.


I am thankful for the living children I have. They are real blessings!  Even though life can be quite challenging at times, I am thrilled to have each one of them in my life. There is a lot of great joy that comes with having children.


I am thankful for many friends I have made through the blog world and especially the ones that have experienced a similar loss. I am so sorry that any of us have had to become a part of this club, but I am thankful we can share our grief together and just be there to support one another.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his ;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

                                                            Psalm 100

 

Thank You Dear Hubby!

You may have noticed that my blog is looking a little different lately. Hubby and I have been working together on changing the design.

I searched the internet High and Low for free digital scrap booking kits to find what I am looking for. We then get together to discuss the general idea. Hubby does all the technical stuff. HTML just gives me a headache. He gets the design going and we tweak things here and there. After much head banging patience on his part, we finally get it all together. We might still be tweaking it a little bit along the way.

He also made a Blog Button for me. Here it is, isn't  it awesome?



If you would like, you can grab my button from the left sidebar.

Thank You Dear Hubby! You are the best! I appreciate all that you do for me! I Love You!

 

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,

 

Walking With You ~ The Ripples Flow to Our Marriage

Walking With You was created by Kelly at The Beauty of Sufficient Grace to help support those who have lost a child. Together we share our stories, helpful information, scriptures, encouraging words, prayer requests, and more.. This week, we are sharing the impact our loss(es) had on our marriage.

Sorry I missed last week, I was out of town visiting family. Between being pretty busy and spotty Internet service, it was just too difficult to get out.

Mike and I had been married over 24 years when Faith passed away. We have been a through whole lot together. There have been a lot of ups and downs. Our marriage has seemed to have it's ups and downs also. We were Christians when we married, and we have been committed to see things through. Not to say there haven't been a few times in the heat of the moment that I was ready to run. That however is not my heart, just my response when things get really tough. Mike is Mr. Steady and more level headed.

After my first miscarriage I really didn't know how to grieve. I was pretty young, 22 years old. Mike didn't handle it well, and pretty much seemed to ignore it. Mike over the years has felt really bad about this and has apologized way too much. I completely forgive him. I became pregnant two months later and that helped in the healing department even though I was a bit nervous the first half of the pregnancy. This miscarriage was also my very first pregnancy.

My second miscarriage was after I had 3 successful pregnancies. This time it hit me hard. I was a bit older and after experiencing having babies, I think I was more aware of my loss. I also believe that I was grieving for my first loss. I felt like I wanted to withdraw from the world. There was a little tension between Mike and I . It was mostly me though, I just didn't want to deal with it. I must give Mike a great deal of credit here because he was concerned for me and tried very hard to reach out to me. Again I became pregnant quickly so that seemed to help with the healing process.

When we lost Faith we had already been dealing with a great deal of stress. Having 10 living children ranging in age from 22 down to 3 is challenging in itself. Mike and I had thrown ourselves into our children's lives and didn't leave much for ourselves. We were starting to slowly grow apart. We were committed to our family and each other, but we were not as close in our relationship as we had been. The added stress of finding out that Faith had a serious heart condition certainly didn't help. We did however share our Faith in God and we trusted him with Faith's life. We were clinging to God to see us through.

The good news is that since losing Faith, our relationship has grown so much. God has definitely been working in our lives. We both were so brokenhearted that we needed each other. We needed our Heavenly Father in way that we have never experienced before.

I do believe that men and women generally grieve differently. As the mother who carried this child inside of me there is a closeness that is like no other. The Father shares a special bond too, but I believe that they often try to be the strong one, and be the one to try to "fix" the situation.

In the early days I would break out into tears, and Mike would put his arms around me and hold me. Most of the time that is all I needed. He would always ask me if he could do anything. Usually I just wanted him to hold me, sometimes I would want to talk things through. He has been here for me from day one and I am so grateful for him.

It has been over 9 months now since Faith has been gone. Our relationship is growing everyday. We are committed to God and each other, but now we are committed to working on making our relationship grow closer. It is so important to work on. Make it a priority. Yes we still have our share of stress, but we are trusting God in all things.

If I could offer a word of advice to anyone dealing with losing a child or dealing with any hardship really, is to have God on your side. Ask him to help you and give you the strength to do what is required of you. Make your relationship with God your first priority and then your relationship with your spouse next. I really don't know how anyone makes it through the trials of life without God in their life. He has always been there for me even when I have chosen to ignore him. I have to give him all the glory for anything good that has come from my life!

Blessings,

 

Happy Birthday To My Dear Husband

Recently there was a very Special Day at our house, or should I say my hubby had a very Special Birthday! I am not going to elaborate too much about it, but it is a Special milestone in life! Maybe you can guess from the pictures what that milestone is!

Sunday's are always very busy around here so we celebrated in the evening. After church we went out to lunch. When we were done with lunch, hubby and most of the children had to head back to church for JBQ and TBQ practice. I took the two youngest and we headed out to buy some balloons.

Taking a three year old boy and a 5 year old boy out to but balloons is a lot of fun! They enjoyed this a great deal. The lady at the store even gave them their very own balloon , which was so very nice. We also picked up a Happy Birthday banner and some party hats. The boys insisted on party hats! So we headed home to prepare for daddy to return!

The two little boys wanted to wear party hats and hide and surprise daddy when he came home. Mike and the other children didn't get back until about 5:00. Micah, the three year old didn't make until then. He ended up falling asleep. So Luke was left alone to do all the surprising.

Later in the evening we celebrated with a cake. I made him a banana cake which is a favorite of many around here. I also make homemade butter cream frosting which is so much better than coming from a can.


Me with dear hubby and Luke and Micah


Micah with his Daddy


This is Josh and Anna ( definitely two of our most dramatic children! )


Matthew


Jeremy and Leigh, Tim and Naomi, Micah, Anna, and Luke


Here Victoria, Sammy, Rebekah, and Anna

As you can see, our family is a party in itself! All of our children were here along with my oldest son's girlfriend and my second oldest son's fiance. Did I mention I am going to be a mother-in-law in January? We had fun and took lots of pictures.

Mike is not a big Birthday person, mostly I think he doesn't like the attention. I pray that he had a wonderful day! I Love you Honey!

Blessings