Old Year/New Year ponderings

As the year draws to a close many are taking the time to make New Years Resolutions and reflect on the past year.  This past year has brought alot of changes for our family.  We have gone from renting and thinking that the Lord would have us build at SpringMeadows, to being the homeowner of FairOaks.  We have gone from feeling the loss of 2 babies, to expecting the birth of a new one in a short few months. In many ways the Lord has surprised us with His goodness!

Our children are one year older...we are one year older.  Our family has shifted from diapers and car seats, to ipods and algebra.  With H being our youngest and soon to be 5, we will start fresh with the baby stage again.  And this time I have so many helpers.  So many excited big brothers and sisters to greet this little one.  It is far different from when I had so many little ones that all needed their shoes tied and car seats buckled.  But with the baby stages this time, I will have the teenage stages...and all the stages in between.  It is a new experience for us to have boys that are quickly budding into young men, and girls that are beginning to be little ladies.  The conversations change from what is your favorite color, to how will I know the right man to marry?  Instead of frustration over socks not feeling right, there are tears over the realization that Mom and Dad will not always be with you.  Yes, the toddler, itty bitty days are hard...but I am seeing that the teenage days may be just as challenging, but in a different way.  The working with the heart begins to go deep.  The late night talks, long conversations over fears, joys, emotions..I know they are just beginning.  And the joy to see the long labors over their little souls begin to bear fruit.  To see their hearts embracing what they have for so long been taught.  To tremble over their questioning and as a parent to step back and let them make mistakes.  These are weighty things and we feel so inadequate.  But, that is good, for we must lean heavily on the Lord.  It is also amazing to see yourself in your child.  To see them deal with the same things that you had to deal with.  In many ways I have felt as though I am parenting myself, and it gives me such gratefulness to my parents for all the time they took with me.

So as we look to the new year.   There is great anticipation.  A new one joining our brood, Lord willing.  Much hope and excitement.  But, there is also a sense of needing to lean heavily upon Christ as we raise each of these children in such different stages and places in their lives.  To bear the little ones before the Lord, and to guide the older ones as they get closer to spreading their wings.

Our lives are going by quickly and the calender months fly.  It's so easy in our circles to think we must do great things, have the perfect family.  But, as the scripture says "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much."

So my new year's resolution? Simply this.  To lean.  To be faithful in the little things.  To love the Lord more zealousy, to have his love to my soul woo me afresh..to know Him.  To love my husband and children more faithfully and remember that it's the little things in their lives that mean so much...the well timed word of encouragement, the few minutes spent doing what they want to do, the smile that I so often forget to give them.  And in all this for our entire family to be found leaning, leaning on the Everlasting Arms.  "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?"  Song of Solomon 8:5

Happy New Year to each and every one of you! 

Family Pictures

We had a family photo shoot yesterday and a friend of my sister-in-law's took some excellent pictures.  I thought you would enjoy seeing them...

Movie of the Open House

Watery Reflections

A year ago this week, I lost a little child.  A child that never had a chance to see the light of day, but that the Lord has prepared to go straight to glory.  A child that we will never know on this earth, but has joined his 3 other siblings, awaiting us in heaven.  It was a week of enjoyment with the family on vacation, but filled with sorrow and pain as well.  Darkness, depression, and yet clinging to faith the the Lord would change our mourning for joy one day.

A year later, here I am, filled with another life inside me.  This time, he is moving and kicking ever so strong..and the promise of life is there.  Another life, created by the Lord, that we saw playing with his umbilical cord not long ago on the screen.  Every movement is precious, every roll and kick..sweetness.  And I feel blessed to be given another time to bear in the womb. 

The seasons flow and ebb..the trials and the triumphs.  Christ is there, through it all.  When he feels far away, He is still looking through the lattice (Song of Solomon)…weeping our tears with us, keeping them in His precious bottle, comforting and succoring us.  When we have the joys, it is our Savior that is near us then as well.

So the other night, in the warm pool, we watch and join in as our children splash around us.  Hearing the squeals of delight as they play.  I float on the water, enjoying the weightlessness for a few minutes.  I consider how my baby is also floating within.  He floats and I float.  Something very poignant about that.  I do as many handstands and somersaults to encourage this little one to flip.  Having several breech babies, I want to do all I can to nudge this child in the right direction.  I  sufficiently make myself sick from all the turns.  How can it be that I could do them over and over as a child, and now the churning in my stomach from one somersault is overwhelming? I carry my other bigger babies around the pool again.  I feel their arms around my neck and the wet kisses they bestow on me as we motor out into the deep end. Child nestled and swimming within, children beaming and swimming without.  I am a blessed woman.  And as I climb out of the pool, back to gravity, my little peapod, still waits inside..growing daily till it is time to join his siblings splashing and playing.  Thank you, Lord for life.

The Sabbath Day and Snapper Tales

One of my husband's desires is that we would honor the Lord's Day in accordance with the commandment.  But, we do not want the day to be a list of do's and don't for our children.  We are called to have the Sabbath be a delight.  So we seek to fill the day with delight for our little ones.  S is very creative and I am blessed by how he instructs and teaches the children.  He makes the day a pleasure for our children.  Here are a couple of things he has done with them.

*Sabbath Pictographs:
S will teach our children many lessons and biblical principles, simply with a piece of paper and pen!  He will begin to draw something and the children have to guess what it is...each time he draws a bit more of the clue.  It might be the fish with the coin in it, or the tree Zacheus climbed.  Of course, many times the children try to copy his work and create their own works of art.

*Bible Quiz questions:
You name it--S comes up with so many different quizzes for the children.  Tell me the different kinds of oil mentioned in the Bible, Give me all the prophets that have the first letter of "Z"?  Or there is always "Who am I?"

*Bible Charades:  Our favorite was one time when we were playing with Stefanie's brothers and they came out with this huge rod out of one of their eyes, and a pencil eraser out of the other one's eye...to portray "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

*But, I believe one the favorite Lord's Day activities for the children are...Daddy's Sabbath Snapper Tales. Now, if you have never been privy to a snapper tale...you have missed out!  The Snapping Turtle family has all kinds of adventures where each of the little snappets learn lessons taught in the word of God.  Daddy snapper always teaches and trains them, but those little snappers seem to always be into mischief or trouble.  There was the story of "Datsa" and "MineA" who were so very selfish.  There is Shaffer, Slater, Snuffy and many others.  This Snapper family seems to be always learning exactly what our family needs to be pondering and learning at the time.  So if you are ever in the area on the Lord's day..come on by and you just might get to enjoy a "Shhhnappa Tale!"

Encouraging quote

I was reading this today in my Matthew Henry Commentary and was blessed to consider this reminder of how tender we ought to be with one another. Yes, as Christians we may have lots of differences, but if we have a mutual love of Christ, then how receiving we ought to be of one another.  

"Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God."  Romans 15:7

The apostle here returns to his exhortation to Christians. What he says here (v. 7) is to the same purport with the former; but the repetition shows how much the apostle’s heart was upon it. "Receive one another into your affection, into your communion, and into your common conversation, as there is occasion.’’ He had exhorted the strong to receive the weak (ch. 14:1), here, Receive one another; for sometimes the prejudices of the weak Christian make him shy of the strong, as much as the pride of the strong Christian makes him shy of the weak, neither of which ought to be. Let there be a mutual embracing among Christians. Those that have received Christ by faith must receive all Christians by brotherly love; though poor in the world, though persecuted and despised, though it may be matter of reproach and danger to you to receive them, though in the less weighty matters of the law they are of different apprehensions, though there may have been occasion for private piques, yet, laying aside these and the like considerations, receive you one another. Now the reason why Christians must receive one another is taken, as before, from the condescending love of Christ to us: As Christ also received us, to the glory of God. Can there be a more cogent argument? Has Christ been so kind to us, and shall we be so unkind to those that are his? Was he so forward to entertain us, and shall we be backward to entertain our brethren? Christ has received us into the nearest and dearest relations to himself: has received us into his fold, into his family, into the adoption of sons, into a covenant of friendship, yea, into a marriage-covenant with himself; he has received us (though we were strangers and enemies, and had played the prodigal) into fellowship and communion with himself. Those words, to the glory of God, may refer both to Christ’s receiving us, which is our pattern, and to our receiving one another, which is our practice according to that pattern"

A tour of FairOaks

I promised to give ya'll a virtual tour of FairOaks when I could get pictures up.  So here it is!

My bright and cheery kitchen.

This is the "Parlor" when you first enter the front door.

Another view of the Parlor

The "Manly Room" or "Den" is across from the parlor.  The wood stove there is in the process of being installed.  We can hardly wait to get a warm fire going in there!  There are seven fireplaces in the house, but they are all too old to use.  Thus, the wood stove. 

Another view of the manly room from standing inside the parlor.  Still have to get curtains for this room, and eventually an area rug.

And one more view from looking out the dining room side/

Our dining room

Looking from the other side into the kitchen

The Master Bedroom is on the main floor also.

Master Bath

Jacuzzi

The main level foyer--stairs going to second level.

This is up at the top of the stairs.  Children's bathroom is that little door in the middle of the picture.  The door to the right is our "hobbit closet" a big storage closet.  To the left is the Guest Room/Family Room area with another big jacuzzi suite bathroom.  There is a table and couch in there we use for school, plus lots of books, toys and a tv.  I did not get pictures yet of that room or the bathroom up there.

The boys room--this is Dbo's bed.

W's bed and computer station for school

J's bed...as you can see, sometimes the boys room is not the neatest.  :)

This the girl's room...there are bunks on the left side that you cannot see.

The schoolroom--My desk and B's computer station.

Out the door of the schoolroom is a balcony.

Another view of the schoolroom.  J and E work on the computer that is to the right.

  

This is "Ramshackle" our big barn outside.  It has a loft upstairs that S is making into a game room type area.  Down below are stalls for animals, etc.

 

 

 

Ole' Ebenezer our 250 year old Grandpappy tree.

So there you have a tour of the new home the Lord has given us.  It is such a blessing and we pray we will be good stewards of this place, raising the next generation here, and being a blessing to the saints!

Apprenticeship!

                

New Wood Stove!

                  There is lots of excitement, as today they are installing our new wood stove!!

Dis and Dat

Our open house was a smashing success!  The weather outside was miserable, but it made it that much more cozy inside.  There were 79 of us and we enjoyed hot apple cider, rich fellowship and a spread of food!  It was such a delight to be able to host such a fun gathering, and a wonderful initiation for FairOaks! 

Today is recovery day...we took it a bit slower this morning, then worked on some schoolwork and now are relaxing before Daddy gets home.  We had an interesting history class this morning.  Since we are now in the middle (dark) ages, we learned some more about the knights over in England, as well as the Samurai over in Japan.  Did you know that the Samurai were also big into Haiku poems?  So for their writing assignment today, each of them had to write their own Haiku.  Fun!

My brother and sister-in-law are here for awhile.  It was so great to see them yesterday, and tomorrow we are having a big family dinner here and spend the evening with them.  We are looking forward to it.

Then on Friday we leave for our big trip to Arkansas!  We are so excited and ready for the break! 

We have started a special, fun tradition.  We leave and drive halfway, get in plenty early to enjoy and evening of swimming and dinner at Red Lobster!  Then Saturday we will drive the rest of the way to our family.  We are looking forward to a whole week of rest, refreshment and time with S's family. 

As a special surprise, we told the two bigger girls last night that they are going to get to stay at Nona and Papa's for two weeks after we leave!  We will meet Nona and Papa to retrieve them mid January.  This will be a first for them...and they are so excited!  I have been printing out things for them to do light school while they are there.  It is going to be an adventure. We will miss them for sure!  But I know that they will have a great time.

I am doing well with the pregnancy.  Tomorrow I will be 24 weeks! Here is what Baby Gaga has to say about our little 24 week old...


Fetal development in pregnancy week 24:

" This is another big week for your magical growing baby! Just take a look at the checklist for this week: 1) ears: done; 2) fingernails: done; 3) (if you have a boy) testicles: taking their 3-4 day trip from the abdominal wall to the scrotum; and 4) lungs walls: secreting “surfactant”. What’s that? Well, surfactant is sort of what it sounds like: a surface-activated fat whose main purpose is to assist the your baby's little lungs during inflation (as in, filling with air, not getting more expensive). Just in case you’re curious, your submerged baby is still breathing in amniotic fluid, preparing and rehearsing the lungs an oxygen-filled life outside the womb. By the end of this week, your child will be weighing around 2 lbs and 14 inches long. Your cutie-patootie may even be a little more plump, but isn't anywhere near their full baby-fatted cute-self. Most of the “filling out” is coming up in that long awaited (and slightly dreaded?) third trimester. Woo-hoo! Get ready!"

It is so much fun to feel this little one inside so active.  This baby's "womb name" is Obie.  Little Obie is so busy in there, giving me kicks and punches all the time now.  I am learning how to treasure every little movement.  I don't know if it is just the fact that the older I get, I learn how to enjoy each moment more, or the fact that I am aware that my child bearing years are quickly coming to an end, but I truly am relishing these special feelings within.  I just love to feel this precious little one and realize it is a little blessed life inside.  I am really enjoying this stage of pregnancy again and am thankful to the Lord!


Now that we are getting settled with curtains hung, etc.  I hope to put up a tour of FairOaks soon.

Have a wonderful week, everyone!