Hospitable Hospitality.

Now that we've settled in to our home and now that the baby has been born, the days have slowed down just a touch and the normalcy of life has taken over. The house has its own ebb and flow and Jake, the children, and I have established our routines. Jake comes home sometime after 6:30 in the evenings and that's just how it's going to be. He puts in twelve and half hour days and if I think for a moment that I'm putting the kids to bed early then I need to think again. I really can't plan to have the meal on the table at 6:30. For one thing, Jake may not be home yet, for another, the man really needs to unwind, kick off his boots and don his poppa clothes. This has us eating between 7 and 7:30 depending on how organized I am..

As a wife and a friend I'm realizing that hospitality is a day to day thing, not just a once in a while ordeal. Being hospitable should be woven in the fabric of my everyday life. Particularly if I call myself a Christian. How I keep the house, fold the clothes, set the table, prepare the meals, put the pillows on the couch, hang the pictures on the wall, treat the guests, love my children, respect my husband... is hospitality.  It's a sweet thing.

Our Lord in heaven is the most hospitable of all. He designed hospitality. In creating the earth and all that fills it up was the first notion of hospitality. Take a look around. Have you ever had your breath taken away by the wonders of creation, the leaves of fall, the chill of winter, the cool of the evening, the warmth of the first sunlight? The Lord has created all things for his glory and our enjoyment. What a blessing to his creatures.

I could never be just like the Lord, but he has given me the ability to see what is beauty, to recreate and decorate.  Making the home the best that it can be is a little bit to that end. Having friends over and blessing them with good food and fun is more of the same. Having dinner flow around my husbands schedule is what I am called to do. I won't always have these times to be busy cleaning, cooking, and warming the home for all the souls that abide here. Now is my time, not tomorrow, not next week, not in a year when friends come again, but here and now, in this moment. I will enjoy it now even though the days are long and my eyes are dark. Even though my body is tired and my head pounds. Yesterday won't come again.

True hospitality is sharing your life and dying to self. This should happen inside and outside of our dear family circles.

Guess who's 6!

It's Libby, that's who. The sweet, dear little thing had a birthday. We had so much fun celebrating her. 

 We ate spaghetti and meatballs, her request of course.

 There were party hats. Benjamin took 4 of them. Go figure.

Hazel came and celebrated too. I think this picture is so sweet. It's one that will bring memories back to us of a sweet day. ;)

 Jackie is lovely and had a beautiful set of gifts for Libby. All of them were handmade and included a marble bag, a quilt, and some homemade play dough. The play dough ended up as a gift from Colby. I'm not sure how that came about. I don't care to know either.

 Samuel was very excited about the party. In the morning, once the decorations went up, the little guy was beaming. Good thing the cake was up high. Otherwise he might get into it..

Smothered under the pink frosting was a yummy, moist devil's food cake. It was fabulous!

 Here's the little beauty. She was so pleased and was the star of the evening.

 Samuel was just too cute to miss the opportunity to snap a picture.

 Jackie and Silas. Sweet babies.

 Louisa Jean, the closest sister in age to sweet Lib, was pleased to celebrate her first baby sister.

Look closely. You'll see the ceiling is sprinkled with sticky frogs and fingers. We had a great time with the party favors. If any of you, who know us well, were to come into our home you'd probably be able to guess that we were celebrating Libby Lee. 

Libby Lee, age 2.

Libby Lee, you are one of my greatest treasures. I can't imagine my life without you little girl! We all enjoy you so very much. Thank you for bringing so much laughter into our home. May you enjoy many more wild birthday parties with us and even more with your own children one day. Happy birthday darling.

Below is a video from Jake's phone of a very small portion of the birthday event. Enjoy.

Two Words.

Benjamin found.

 Cantaloupe skinned.

 Two girls. 

Picking flowers.

 Baby sleeping.

  Teenager lounging.

Weekend friends.

 Clean baby.

Could time go any Faster?

I'm afraid it probably could and it does! Hazel is 3 months old now. She is growing so fast and is so dear. Benjamin describes her as pleasant, Jackie describes her as a cutie-pie, Louisa says she's like a pumpkin pie. She is a dear, like the others before her. We are so thankful for her. She doesn't sleep through the night, I don't mind. She smiles and squeals out loud whenever we prompt her too. She likes laying on her quilt, that makes me glad. We're still working on tummy time.. We just love her so much!

If I could sum up Libby at this point in time; I'd say that she's a spunky little darling. With Libby every day is the best day of her life. She knows how to have a good time and she makes us laugh out loud a lot. She loves school still and I'm glad since it's only her 3rd week.

Blessings all around here. We're making the most of each moment and loving almost every minute of it.
Praise the Lord for these days.

These Days.

We are living a lot! Sounds funny, but much living is happening here. We have been homeschooling, celebrating, dressing up, sinning, confessing, forgiving, celebrating some more, taking pictures, sewing, more homeschooling, exercising our stubborn bodies, waking up earlier than the ancient sun, and sleeping. There's a lot more in there that I didn't mention like changing diapers... You know I've been changing diapers for 14 and 1/2 years. I think I've had 10 days in there where Jake and I have had days away... Oops this wasn't supposed to be a post about dirty diapers, sorry.

Here's Libby. For starters, the little girl has been doing a lot of growing. She's getting so tall, and is so fun. She's an official Kindergartner/First grader this year. I am so glad we didn't push Kindergarten last year because she's really excelling this year and the little work I did with her last year is paying off this year, now that she's ready for real school.

Check her out, rain boots, braids, smiles.

Such a dear, innocent little thing. 

 Silas too, has been changing. He's grown a bit, but has become crazy about cowboys. He calls himself a real cowboy and dresses up as one almost every single day.

Here he is sporting his "Woody" hat, boots, and rope from his poppa.

That's one good looking kid!

Then there's Jackie. She's taking half of her courses online this year. She's studying Logic, the great books, and theology. She loves her classes. She also has begun Algebra and is doing very well.

Such a lovely young lady.

 I mentioned sewing. I had the notion in my heart to build a quilt for Hazel. It was going to be called the, "Eight Squared Quilt." Because Hazel's 8th in a line of children I had decided to build 8 octagons, consisting of 8 different shades. You know, everything 8! As I built the octagons I realized that the baby quilt was going to be the size of a twin size bed quilt. That's not much fun for a little girl to run around with, so I split the quilt in two, creating two different backings. The 8 octagons will be shared between Hazel and her cousin, Katherine. If they're ever together they can sit on their quilts and have a grand cousin tea party.

The two side by side.

This is the back of Katherine's.

 Then there is sweet Louisa and strong Benjamin. There isn't a picture of Benjamin recently. I think that's because I can never seem to find him. Even when it's time for school on some days. Not to worry, tis good to have things to work out, right? Louisa is doing fabulous with school. I've seen a marked improvement just from the summer break. She even mastered a Math addition test that she couldn't come close to mastering last year. Way to go Lou! Now for Benjamin, Louisa told him how she wanted to be a Police Girl when she grows up. Benjamin told her, "You can't do that Louisa, your husband is going to take care of you." Very protective, I love it.

Girls on quilt.

 Then Colby suddenly pops in the post. He's a freshman this year! He's learning that with each year of life comes a bit more responsibility. He's working hard and being pressed hard. He's a fine young man. We are so, so proud of him.

Colby and Hazel.

Don't think it's all perfect and rosy around here. Samuel, of all of the kids, has the most boisterous disobedience problems. It's a sweet kindness of the Lord that we can help him deal with this now, so that he doesn't get away with it and then rebel when he's older. Samuel is so cute, his hair is growing longer. We still haven't cut it yet, so it's pretty gnarly. We love the little boy and we spend a lot of time laughing at him. He does the cutest little antics.

To sum up, we are all sinners living together and that sin comes out in different forms, trust me. As a matter of fact a certain person had a history worksheet to do this week. One question on the assignment said to, "Describe the Barbarians." The person answered on the paper, "They were normal people." After I laughed, I contemplated counting the answer correct for this person, because all normal people are sinful people, and sinful people are capable of barbaric actions. All sin is barbaric and even our good works are filthy rags. In the end, I was concerned the point might be missed. The person was able to come up with the correct barbaric answer. We aren't acting Barbaric around here, don't get the wrong impression, but we are acting like normal people and yet we are fighting the great fight and looking for our Redeemer. Come Lord, quickly.

Katherine Elizabeth Higgins

Congratulations to my brother, Clint and his beautiful wife, Claire! They are celebrating the birth of their second child today.

Katherine Elizabeth Higgins. Once I have a picture, I'll post it here.

Free Music

I recently stumbled across some free music. I have to say that the Reynolds are now Josh Garrels fans. The music is very distinct and simply put; life-filled. There is no other way to describe it. It's great music for driving to, singing along with, cooking to, etc. The man's voice reminds me somewhat of Aaron Neville. I've always thought he had an especially captivating voice and I would confidently put this new found Josh Garrels up there with Aaron.

Click here for the link.