Stream of Consciousness

I was looking through my pictures this morning- and the one above really struck me. Mainly because a little over 8 years ago none of these beautiful smiling faces were part of our family. In all reality they weren't even an idea in my head.
When I went off to college in 1998, my belief was I would go through school, find a job and work for the rest of my life. I didn't fathom getting married, let alone have 4 children by the time I was 28. Bottom line I knew nothing of what was to happen in the coming years. I thought I did, but I was clueless.
So here I am at the ripe old age of 30 looking back at God's grace in my life. There is no one like the Lord. He is mighty with compassion, loving when we don't deserve it, - He knit together 7 little lives in my womb, and chose to take 3 of them home to Him. 4 others He gave us the privilege of raising to the best of our ability, and rely on Him for the rest. He doesn't desert you- He is the keeper of promise. He sacrificed His son for all of us- so that we could go home to Him one day and experience the perfection of His presence. And in the meantime we enjoy His beautiful creation & fellowship with others. I don't want to take a minute of my time for granted, but I know that I will. And when I do I can count on Him to forgive me, and lead me back to where I belong. In His glory.
These are my thoughts right now, nothing magnificent and beautiful but true.

$1 for ice cream!!! I am there!

So the last couple weeks at about 7 PM we hear the charming tunes of the ice cream truck coming down our street. The ice cream truck is the icon of summer, you know the season is here when you hear little kids screams of delight or despair depending on their parents pocketbooks.
I am a professed no cash carrier. I never have it, and normally neither does Peter. And honestly most of the time when the truck goes by we haven't even eaten dinner yet. So our kids odds of a cold treat is minimal at best. But last night was a different story......

Right after we ate, we went outside for some bike/scooter riding and that is when we heard the Pied Piper tune. Solomon & Zeke start to jump up and down simultaneous with Peter pulling cash out of his pocket. Everyone's eyes light up- you would think we had never eaten ice cream in our lives! Then a minute and a half later we couldn't figure out if the ice cream truck was driving down our street or the next. Terror seizes all of us, until Peter reassures us that yes, the truck is on our street! Jack pot!! The truck comes, and the kids expect to all share 2 ice cream treats, because normally they are expensive. But this is a magical, beautiful ice cream truck that has WHAT!!!! A DOLLAR MENU!!! Since when did they start to do that!! It is amazing and makes us customers for life!!! Can you get any better than ice cream for $1!!!!!!

After each of our older children makes his/her choice and the truck drives away, Peter goes nuts. He realizes he could have just bought a dreamsicle for himself- but the truck is gone!! So he proceeds to stare Mary's dreamsicle down for the entire 15 melty minutes it took her to eat it. She loved the dreamsicle and probably all the attention that she was getting from Daddy. But all in all it was a wonderful 30 minute time period- these are the things that memories of made of. But I have a feeling that next time Peter will be prepared, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if he walks around with a dollar bill in his pockets at all times from now on, you know just in case. It is the start of a happy Summer!!!!!

Ella the Rockstar.....

This is Zeke when he is sick....

Zeke is our very vivacious, energetic 5 year old. I don't believe that he knows how to stop moving. It is just not in his genes- he can't sit still ever. When he was 18 mos. old he had closed heart surgery. Typically you are supposed to be in the hospital for a week, but Zeke was released in 4 days. The second day we were home, he climbed onto our dining room table grabbed the chandelier and swung as far as he could. I looked up and there he was, my little Tarzan with all his fresh stitches pulling with the motion. Yikes! Needless to say- he is hard to keep up with.

Saturday afternoon Zeke came down with a fever, and I just wanted to give you a look at what he is like when he is ill. It is pretty hard to tell the difference between a sick day, and a well day. Oh well- I'll do the best that I can, and hopefully we won't have to make too many trips to the hospital as the boy gets older.

The cupcakes...

So like I said in the previous post- Peter & I slaved for
about 6 hours painting these little wooden dolls to look like each of the little girls that attended Mary's party. So I just wanted to post a few pictures to remember our handy work, and remind myself that I can be crafty on certain days with enough motivation! Must remember this post in the dead of winter-when I intend to teach myself how to knit finally!!

Mary's 4th Birthday

This week brings us to our sweet darling Mary Jane's 4th birthday! It is so hard to believe that she is that old! I can easily remember the summer she was born- and she was such a good, sweet baby. She would literally play in her crib for hours, and sit in the middle of the floor watching the boys run around her with a huge smile on her face. Then she turned 1, started talking and has not stopped since! She is such a pretty little girl, but there is just something about her coy smiles, and widely spaced eyes that look at far away places that we have never been, that make her truly beautiful! Jesus made a completely different breed of girl with Mary Jane. But when you look into her eyes you can truly believe there is another land somewhere out there with fairies, princesses and tea parties at all hours of the day (oh yeah and people that never, ever sleep!)
Anyway back to the party! Since her actual birthday is so close to Memorial Day we chose to celebrate the weekend before, and since it is May I pictured beautiful blue sun filled skies. But that is not what we had, so we made the best of the rain. It was a very girly party full of bracelet making (or in some cases- necklaces), nail polishing and princess tea parties. We just had 3 friends, and it made the party down right pleasant! I think it is the first party I really truly enjoyed myself. The only downer was Peter & I painted these sweet little wooden dolls from Etsy like each of the little girls that attended the party, to put on top of the cupcakes. They were beautiful- Peter is super talented and made the hair very realistic! But the cupcakes were horrible looking- since it was so humid outside the cupcake tops were coming off and mixing in the cupcakes. So the frosting was pink with chocolate specks!! Oh well, you win some, you lose some!! What matters is Mary Jane helped me make the very bright pink frosting, and I am counting on her remembering that!!
We ended the party with a tea party on the front porch (with a little rain mixed in), and Mary had a fabulous time serving the girls tea (water), and eating cupcakes. It was beautiful all in all, and I am so thankful for the Lord's provision in adding Mary in our family. We are so blessed!

I made a mistake......

It is Sunday the day after Mary Jane's 4th birthday party (which I will write about tomorrow), and I have 1, no 2, but yes, 3 sick kids. Zeke has a fever, Mary threw up in the car last night (always a great time), and Ella is sick. So today has been a stay at home lots of sleep and movies kind of day. I am sad that everyone is sick, but at the same time I just do what I can, and sit on the couch with them and read a lot. So for some strange reason I decided to read the 7th Harry Potter book again. Do you ever read something for no good reason, when you have tons of the other better books to read? That is not the point though- the point is I read the whole 800 page thing in one day. Then I made a BIG mistake! I wanted to know if JK Rowling was planning on ever writing again, so I picked up my trusted computer and pulled up www.amazon.com. Amazon is like a labyrinth for me, once I start looking I can't stop. SO I was on there for the last hour typing in every author I could think of to see what books I needed to read.
Needless to say my list now goes on and on etc, etc, etc. I am now discontent with my current bookshelves. There is something in me that is hungry and gratified by written word, and I can never seem to get enough. Example- I am on my blog complaining about lack of literature when I have 3 brand new books sitting on my night stand. Enough is enough, I will now close. But my last thought for the night is that Peter and I are going to own a library instead of a house by the time we are 50.