Show Us Your Life: Mom Of Boys

Mother Karen has seven sons, seven sons has Mother Karen...

Welcome to you who are visiting from Kelly's Korner!  I am Karen and I am mom to 10 living children total! Seven which happen to be boys!

Today Kelly is having a link up on Mom's of Boys. I think I qualify since I have seven! I just happen to have three girls as well!

Let me introduce you to my sons.

Jeremy is our oldest at 25

Jeremy recently visiting with my Mom

Tim is second at 23. He has been married to Naomi since January 2010.

Tim and Naomi

Josh comes in 3rd at 20. He just recently got engaged to Jillian. A June 2013 Wedding is planned.

Josh and Jillian on Easter 2012

So you can see, my three oldest are boys! Next came two girls. Rebekah and Victoria.

Matthew is next in line at 14.

Matthew on Easter 2012

Up next is Samuel at 12.

Samuel on Easter 2012

After Samuel we had a little break from boys and had another girl, Anna.

Then came Luke who is now 8.

Luke on Easter 2012

And Coming in last, but most definitely not least is Micah at age 6!

Micah on Easter 2012

Being a mom to boys can be challenging, but it is also a joy! It is fun to see life from their perspective. It is also so sweet how much they love their Mom! I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world!

 

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!

 

What have I been up to?

Is it really February 8th?  It is so hard to believe that Christmas was almost a month and a half ago. At least our Christmas decorations are finally down. The Hubby took a scarce opportunity and got the outdoor decorations down. We have had a lot of snow and or ice, so when everything would melt and dry up we were too busy doing something else and never got it done.

Time just seems to keep marching on and I am trying my hardest just to keep up! Most of the time I feel like the World is spinning by so fast and I am just holding on for dear life!

I have come here often and wanted to write something. The words have just not been coming to me. I have been a bit busy with some things that really have been a bit stressful.

One thing that has occupied my time and caused me stress is I had to work on paperwork for Rebekah to apply to college. We also had to work on Scholarship Applications as well. I have been wanting to kick myself because I did not keep up with all the paperwork like I should have for her schoolwork, so I had to kick it into high gear to get all caught up! Our next child to graduate from high school after Rebekah is Victoria. Victoria is currently a freshmen, so I will work hard to keep up with all of her stuff!

Rebekah is planning on going to the local University and study Nursing. I am so proud of her and I believe she will make a wonderful nurse! She is so loving and caring and I think she will be very compassionate with her patients.

Josh is also working on going to College next year, so we have been working on his stuff as well! He wants to go to a Christian College that is rather expensive, so God will have to provide the way! Josh is quite passionate about it, so I pray that it works out!

Mike and I do not have the money to send our kids to College. They all have had to work and pay their own way! I am so proud of each of them as they have worked usually a full time schedule and have taken a full course load as well. Please pray that God will provide for Josh and Rebekah to go to College!

One thing I have been doing in my "spare" time is crocheting. I learned how to crochet when I was a kid, but I just recently picked it up again. I mostly know how to make hats and scarves.  I have been making hats and scarves for several of my kids. When I finish with all of the requests, I hope to learn how to make something different. I have really enjoyed crocheting and it seems to be a stress reliever for me.

This is Rebekah modeling my first completed hat and scarf combination.

I have 2 or 3 post sitting in draft mode that I want to share with you soon. They are a bit late, but better late than never, right?

 

Birthdays, Birthdays, And More Birthdays!

I am so far behind on posting about the Birthdays around here. So, I decided to put them all together in one big post.

We could pretty much have a birthday a month around here except for, four of my boys were all born in November. Faith's actual due date was in November also.

 I still have a cake for each birthday, but it is getting to be a bit much.  I have usually let each child pick out their own cake from a bakery like Walmart, but the older they get, the more they want me to bake something special.

I will start with Jeremy. His birthday is in August, but we did not get to celebrate then.  We were actually traveling to Virginia for my sister-in-law's funeral on his birthday. I told him we would make up for it sometime. Well, it took longer than expected because, between his schedule and mine, it was hard to coordinate. I finally said let's do this! I found an evening he did not have to work and planned to have his Birthday dinner and a cake. It just happened to be early November!

Jeremy requested Lasagna for dinner and a Blueberry Pound cake for his cake. I haven't made homemade lasagna for many years until we were visiting my Mom in September. My two oldest son's were not there, so they wanted me to make it again.

So, the day arrived and I worked on making the cake and making lasagna. I had the children help me clean up so we could celebrate that evening. Well, when Jeremy came home from work , he was feeling pretty sick, so he went straight to bed. When it was time for dinner, he came up and laid on the couch. He was shivering and he had a fever. He could not eat anything, he felt so bad.  So we had Jeremy's dinner and cake without him. It was a few more days before he could eat, so we saved some cake for him. I felt so bad for him!



Jeremy's Blueberry Pound cake

 Here is a picture of Jeremy from his Birthday last year. I believe this is the most recent picture I have of him.

  September:

Anna's 9th Birthday




 October:



Luke's 7th Birthday






Here are our November Birthdays:



Matthew's 13th Birthday

Timothy's 22nd Birthday (Banana Cake)

Sammy's 11th Birthday (Chocolate Mint Layer Cake)

Josh's 19th Birthday (Better Than Anything Cake)

We are done with all the Birthdays for the year except the most important one, Jesus!

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 

Oh Happy Day!

The past few days have been amazing. It has been getting warmer and the Sun has been shining! Oh how I love the sunshine! Today it is suppose to be Sunny and the high of 66! I am thrilled. Spring must be coming soon!

Some of the children have been doing their schoolwork outside. They just can't get enough of this weather either! They have been working hard at getting everything done so that they can spend the rest of the day outside playing. This is a win-win situation for all of us!

You would think it was Summer here with these kids wearing shorts and sandals and some are even barefoot!  Even as I am typing this, the clouds are moving in. There is a chance of rain tomorrow and by the weekend it is suppose to be a bit cooler! It was fun while it lasted, but Spring can't be too far away!

This morning I took my son Josh to get his braces off. He was more than ready! We have been through  a lot with Josh and his braces. They actually removed his braces several months ago. After seeing his teeth with the braces off I was not happy with the results.  They ended up putting the top braces back on. This ortho kept saying just a few more weeks. He kept wanting to schedule the removal of the braces but I kept seeing something I thought needed to be fixed. He always agreed with me and told me I had a good eye. Well, he is the orthodontist so why doesn't he have a good eye?  Josh does not seem to even care. Well after spending that much money, I care a lot!

 Josh Before:

Josh After:

Josh  does not often cooperate with getting his picture taken, so this is the best I have!

Nothing really new here. I am better now, but just can't quite seem to shake this run down feeling. I am hoping that getting some sunshine will help that a bit.

Lately it seems as though I feel like I am going backwards on my journey of grief after losing Faith. I miss her so much and have been reliving the painful memories. The times like when we learned of her hypoplastic left heart, the night we found out there was no heartbeat, and the day she was born.  It can be truly painful remembering these times. God has been faithful to carry us through, to bring us comfort and healing. I lean on Him now as I am going through this phase of grieving. I know He will see me through and I look forward to being on the other side.

I have participated in Walking With You hosted by Kelly Gerken from Sufficient Grace Ministries for a while. Right now they are going through the Threads of Hope, Pieces of Joy Bible Study.  I am reading along with them and reading each of their posts. I am struggling to find the time to put my thoughts together to post each week on this study. I have found it helpful though to read the study and the other ladies posts. If you are a Mother that has lost a baby to miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death I encourage you to read along. You can download this study for free from the link above. The Walking With You posts can be found here.

Have an Awesome Day!

 

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.