Do you have 33 minutes?

Lame Lyrics form the Late 80's

Sometimes when I'm parenting or just thinking, lyrics from old songs pop into my head. Tonight the lines, "If I could turn back time..." popped into my head. Would I be willing to turn back time? NO WAY! I am convinced that every single joyful moment, every single hurtful moment are all sweet Providences of our Holy God. They shape us and make us into who we are to be or not to be. Don't we learn from those difficult times? Don't we learn from those sweet moments? Have you ever wanted to relive a moment? You know, the moment that was perfect, so fun, so free, so right... with all the right people, the weather, the food, the smells.. oh the smells. Or of course perhaps it's to forget a moment. The moment that crushed your bones and wreaked havoc on your soul. The moment you think you wished never would have happened, but then find that you are better for it?

Through all that is good and all that is bad, I wouldn't turn back time. No, I wouldn't. God has ordained all things and is a lover and care-taker of our souls. He longs to exemplify His mercies to us. To show us that we are His, no matter how dreadful and no matter how good. We are His.

Somehow the faith that I've been given enables me to look to the future and to be excited. All things are for our good if we love God and are called for His purposes.

That is me, I am called.

So, I will not be afraid and I will not be discouraged, but will look forward and trust with great fear, trembling and excited apprehension to what He has in store for me.

Looking forward.

OOOHRA!

Happy 236th Birthday to the United States Marine Corps. As the children, Jake and I were sitting around for bible reading at 5:15 this morning, my husband asked who was thankful for the Marine Corps. Not a lot of happy responses. This kind of shocked me. The Marine Corps has been a very good living for us. I mean there we are sitting on leather couches with a fire going, cuddled under blankets with soft pillows and longing for our warm beds... You get the picture. God has used the Marine Corps as His source of worldly provision for us. We are thankful for the Corps. Despite the politics of a worldly, godless, institution which now promotes and protects homosexuality as a safety among its members, it could be worse. That sounds really bad, but it's true. Anyway, we are thankful for work and provision and will faithfully serve in a manner which pleases God until the end of our required time.

OOHRAH!

In celebration of the Corps we will be doing 236 pushups tonight. Divided among 6 people that's only 39.33 apiece.

Benjamin aged 4, wanting to be like poppa.

All Knit Up.

Before I was pregnant with Hazel and during my pregnancy with her I spent a lot of time knitting. I knit like crazy for others. The church where we attended had mounds of pregnancies taking place which meant mounds of showers. How delightful! I knit up sweaters and I know I posted about it here on the bloggy. By the time Hazel was getting close to her grand arrival I was a bit burned out from the sweater pattern that I had labored over for everyone else. I also had begun a sweater for myself, the first one ever. So, I didn't want to pick up another project at that time. What a blessing to have a mom who knits. Mom kept seeing the sweaters show up on the bloggy here and hassled me to send her the pattern. She only hassled because I'm forgetful ;). She knit up this sweet purple sweater for the little miss in the same pattern I knit for everyone else. Now that the cold weather is here, I'm delighted to put little Haze in it. She looks so good in purple!

Hazel love, you look so good in purple, I think it's your color!

All in a Days Work?

The following update isn't from one day's work, but it is the work of several days past, present, and eventually future. The life around here is very much hurricane-like. You have the fabulous sunny days, the dark cloud days which signal something is brewing, the wicked storm itself, the eye of the storm or the seemingly everything is fine part of it, and then of course the tail end of the storm which could last longer than its' beginnings. Then the rains stop, the winds cease, the messes are tidied up and behold the sun is out again and the days are lovely. So here's a small glimpse of what's been going on:

Colby Brett has been plugging away hard at school. He's involved in a Co-op for Biology and it has been wonderful. I fretted big time last Spring over what we were going to do about Biology come Fall. Biology isn't a class to be self-paced through. It requires in depth discussion and teaching as well as some foreknowledge of the subject. Obviously I know that God is the Creator of all things and all life stems from Him. Without Him there would still be the empty, void, nothingness. The question is how to teach that in scientific terms. When we arrived here in VA the only Co-op that was highly recommended had filled its' Biology class. That left me feeling a bit stranded. I decided I would somehow fill in my day with another class and teach Biology. Colby and I would learn it together and have a good time doing so. Then into my lap fell the hand of Providence. It is always sweet when that happens. We had an email in our inbox about a Biology Coop being taught by a woman with her college degree in the subject. For $50 plus supplies Colby was in. What a sweet answer to our needs. The funny thing is, I hadn't been praying for a co-op, I had given up and there the gift was in my inbox!

Colby at a local pond drawing observations.

Hazel has outgrown her bassinet, so we needed our crib back from Samuel. In order for this to happen we needed a bed for Samuel. In order for that to happen we had to go shopping. I brought Libby along as my test subject to see if there would be enough head clearance for Samuel to sit up. Indeed there was, so we purchased the below bunk bed. Hazel got her crib and the littles have bunk beds in their room now.

Hello there Libby.

 Speaking of Libby... She informed me yesterday that she wants a new mother. One that speaks Spanish.

Then there's big Ben. Check out the Cowboy jersey. Go Boys! He's been trying his hand in the kitchen and can now successfully make Macaroni and Cheese and

Bake Cookies!

His are the chocolate chips in the front of the picture. They were from a nestle package which came with a pizza.
(I know what you're thinking, Frozen pizza, Frozen cookie dough? You betcha!)

 My mom came for a visit. She is so dear! We took her back to the airport yesterday. That's where some of my kids think she lives. Salt wishes he could go live with her. Sorry Salt, your curse is to spend forever with our wild family.

Woof

 Okay, look at the picture below. Need I say more? Look at those crazy eyes and that wild hair. I had scheduled a date to cut his hair off. It was going to be October 28th. Obviously that day has come and gone. I will try to better at the next scheduled time.

Sammy T., you are a crazy boy!

 Ahhh, time for a coffee break.

My fine man. Coffee is always a help in the throws of life.

 Hello there little girl Hazel. She is pleasant and light brown. She is 4 and 1/2 months old.

Yes, I'm talking about you now.

 Her hair is flattening some because it's growing a bit longer. She is so sweet.

Hazel, you are precious.

 She is a joy and breath of fresh air. She is extremely observant and already moves her mouth as if she's trying to talk. She's working on cutting a tooth as well.

Don't grow too fast love.

There you have it. A glimpse into the peaceful part of hurricane season.

Learning as we Go.

When did we start this race? I remember being pregnant for the first time and being stunned and amazed at the life that was growing in my womb. If I had known then what I know now I would have said way back when that we will have lots of kids instead of the timid response of maybe 1 or 2 but definitely no more than 4. To think I actually used to think that way. I didn't know then what beauty God had in store for us if we would but trust Him. We love having so many little faces to kiss and big hearts to nurture. The stretch of our family and responsibility has been nothing short of hard and nothing short of the best days ever. I remember being that young timid girl afraid of the future and living for the moment. Never an ounce of thought about next week, much less next year. How God has has flipped my backwards heart around and shown me a glimpse of the future in light of eternity! It is humbling.

As Jake and I have bore children, disciplined children, and loved children, we marvel at what a beautiful gift it is of the Lord to have the privilege. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine what fun and what a humbling experience it would be. We have learned so much along the way. Still each day brings struggles and joys of its own. As our bigs (Colby and Jackie) grow older we are learning that each day takes a different face. Parenting is more fun and completely exhausting!

From spanking the bottoms of the littles (Samuel, Silas, Libby and sometimes others) to late night counseling with our bigs we are learning a new definition of what tired is and a more excellent definition of what fun is.

We are loving each day and are thankful. We are so glad that we have friends, you all, who are along for the ride of this God-given life with us. Bless the Lord oh my soul. Let all that is within me bless His hold name!

The news is frightful and the economy worse. Occupy Wall Street, really? How about occupy your home and recreate the messes that have been ignored there. My mind marvels at why our God has us here on this wild earth and then I'm reminded that it is good. Dominate it, rule it, make it glorify the living God.

Happy weekend dear ones.

"Our marriage shall be a yes to God's earth; it shall strengthen our courage to act and accomplish something on the earth." Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

Two Subject Post

To begin with, the little lady pictured below is 4 months old. She is an absolute delight. She has some crazy, crazy hair. The girl has a poof of blackness that stands on end every day of the week. After the bath, after brushing, even after oiling, it stands up. What's funny is that Jake thinks it's a sign. If you were to look closely at her hair from a certain angle, you can see that it forms a "perfectly peeling wave." Those are Jake's exact words. He thinks it has something to do with the fact that he's being drawn back to Santa Cruz for a surf session. Hmmm.

Sweet little lady.

Jake's perfect peeler.

The second subject I want to mention are the beautiful sunrises that God's been delighting us with here. The photographs below are from my front door on a clear morning. The leaves have started to turn and the skies resemble something of a Carolina sky. It's just so magnificent. It's so kind of the Lord to show us a glimpse of such splendor. I feel so refreshed when I step out the front door and the chill of fall cools my face and the light of the sun causes my eyes to adjust to the bright beauty of it. So wonderful!

Tips of trees bowing to fall.

Down the grassy meadow out front. 

Feathery drifty skies.

Okay, maybe this is 3 subjects. If you haven't checked out Josh Garrels you must. We are all hooked here. We bought the album Jacaranda from iTunes and can't get enough. Dare you to listen!