Today was a good day

(I know this is long, but I wrote this instead of an email update to my husband!)

It started out seeming like it was going to be awful. I had plans to go to the store first thing in the morning, but I had forgotten that Miracle had to get her allergy shots at 10. So we pressed and tried to go to the store before her shots, but I was wrong in thinking that they opened at 9. I decided to get her shots early, but the kids just weren't in a quiet mood today and Gabi was doing A LOT of screaming today. Although it was her naptime when we left the doctor's office, I thought I could fit the shopping trip into our morning.... ha ha ha. It was a loud trip. I wanted to get in and out, but Brianna brought in her journal and wanted to stop and write down everything she wanted to buy for Miracle's birthday.......which is 5 months away. So I was pretty frustrated when we left there.

My nap was unsuccessful due to an angry child that did not understand the terms of her discipline and that we don't operate in military time (she wanted to know what time she could leave her room AFTER 12 o'clock. Mind you, it was 12:56 at the time of this meltdown and I told her 2pm.) So I got up and had my second cup of coffee. And from that point on, everything changed! I got 3 projects done, a load of clothes washed & dried, dinner made, and we were getting ready to head to baseball practice when we got the dreaded call.

Joshua's practice was canceled! His coach had to work late and couldn't make it. He was pretty upset so i decided to take him and see if another team would let him practice with them. That worked out and then he was able to practice with the girls teams because they were missing some players and their two teams combined. So he got to practice for 2 hours and got to play coach-pitch! (Yes of course he hit the ball! My boy rocks!) The girls are doing so much better too. All 3 of them get to play around the pitchers mound and 1st base. I don't think they've ever been on 2nd or 3rd. And pardon my lack of baseball terms. I'm sure there's a name for "around the pitchers mound!" LOL The director of sports is Miracle's coach and I know that he likes the kids and gives them extra attention after practices, so I'm not sure if they play those spots because they're really good or because he likes them. Actually, I just realized that I don't really know if those are good spots! LOL They do well there.

The coach knows that I'm going to homeschool the kids and we've been talking about having PE at the Y and he told me tonight that if the group doesn't come, he'll just play baseball with the kids. He loves to work with Josh because Josh reminds him of himself when he was little. ALWAYS wanting to play baseball. I honestly don't know what is going to happen in 3 weeks when Tball is over. I've started to prep Josh for it now, but he literally talks about baseball every day about 10 times a day. So maybe we have a ball player on our hands. I just hope he likes fall sports too!

Enough sports. After practice I was talking to one of Brianna's coaches and another lady who just happened to be at practice tonight. It was all a set up because the person she was coming to meet didn't show up. But the 3 of us stayed at the field until 9pm talking about church, faith, and speaking in tongues--and Bishop was JUST talking on Sunday about one of things we were talking about tonight. So I was able to invite the coach to church since she's looking for someplace new.

The fun part (for the kids). They got to play on these gravel mounds while we all talked. I've done good at keeping them off the mounds this whole summer...but not tonight. So when we were doing baths I noticed sand in Joshua's hair. Then Brianna's hair. Then I was really glad that they hadn't picked up the Kirby yet because I remembered he said there was a scalp massage tool with it! LOL Did he make that up, I don't know. But we sure used it as one tonight to get the sandy gravel out of their hair! (And it felt good because we all took turns!) yes, I still have to wash their hair, but I got most of it out.

Ok, that's a wrap for me tonight.

Devotions

I think I wrote before that we're trying to get consistent with daily devotions. One day I'll record Josh as he "reads" his devotion; that boy is hilarious! Obviously this is becoming routine enough that the other day Gabi decided she was going to participate as well. So she marched up with her brother and read her devotion as well.


While her devotion was spoken in a tongue unfamiliar to our ears and we did not have the gift of interpretation that evening so we could discern it.......Josh's devotions ALWAYS include, "When we bless God, He blesses us. God blesses us when He blesses us!"

My Kids

I just looked at the pictures we took at Picture People last month and I just want to publicly say that I LOVE having 4 kids! I really do. I actually wish we had a few more heads in that picture, but maybe one day we'll get dogs--they're just like kids, right!?!? If you haven't looked at the pictures online yet (since I haven't mailed them either) go check them out. I'm not sure how long they'll be on their website.

http://smilestore.picturepeople.com/my/images?tk=efef7b74-4e27-42f9-90a0-e01115c23aed


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Good News & Bad News

Like most people, I'll do bad news first.

Today was going to be the beginning of my super "vacation" from my 3 older kids; it was going to be just Gabi and me all week from 9-noon while the kids were at Vacation Bible School! I had big plans. Well, actually I was just going to run a lot of errands without so much complaining from the kids who know how to use their words.

Unfortunately, when I picked them up my friend came to me and told me that Josh couldn't come back because he was too young. So naturally I thought he was just misbehaving, but in actuality they changed the age requirements but it was not on the registration form, nor the information board (and I'm not quite sure how or why they checked me in this morning after saying he was 3!) So I had to break the news (and I keep having to break it to him) that he's not going back to VBS because he has to be 4. His response is that he IS 4 now. We'll see how that works out tomorrow morning!

In addition to that bad news, Brianna's teacher marched her over and said, she doesn't feel good. I knew Brianna's stomach hurt in the morning, but she managed to eat a cereal bar, so I thought nothing of it. But she was warm after VBS and throughout the day her temp has crept up to 100 degrees. She was able to eat a piece of toast and some water, but she didn't like the taste of the pedialyte I tried to make her drink....said it tasted like a baby drink. Now I didn't realize that my kids were sick until Miracle told me that Brianna didn't eat snack at VBS (which is one of her favorite snacks--Cheetos) and ate crackers instead. And then Josh didn't want to eat lunch or dinner and only drank water today. His temp has been close to 102 all afternoon. So between my always hungry, high-energy kids not eating and BOTH taking a nap today----my babies are not well! LOL

So my good news! I made good use of my only 3 hours alone with Gabi, we went to the commissary and she fell asleep on the way back (because they ALL woke up at 630 this morning). Once I put her in bed I unloaded all the groceries and decided to straighten up our garage because we haven't been able to park in it for about 2 months. I was highly motivated by the rain that lasted about 7 hours today which led to another cancelled baseball practice. Within 1 hour I had boxes somewhat sorted and stacked so that I could pull the van back into the garage. YIPPEE!!!!!

Maybe my good news doesn't seem so super for a blog, but it's a big deal to me. Especially because I did it and I normally don't even like to stand out there while Wendell works in the garage. So I hope Wendell reads this post!!! LOL

Side note-- you know what I love now? This may sound silly, but God has blessed us with 3 baby bunnies that spend a lot of time in our yard. When we first saw them they would fit in the palm of your hand they were so tiny. Through the weeks I have watched them grow and i think it is so neat how wild animals inhabit the same territory and are unaffected by each other. Earlier I watched from the kitchen window how the bunny was scratching his ears while a lightning bug flew all around him and a robin was looking for food. When the robin flew off abruptly the bunny didn't even flinch--just kept going about his business. It just makes me think about how silly we are as humans. We're ALL humans and yet let ourselves get affected by even the smallest movement or change by another person. If we could just stay focused on what God has called us to do and not get so distracted by the people around us. It just got me thinking.....all this to say that I love to watch our baby bunnies grow and mature in our backyard and I'll miss them when they're full grown and I can't tell them apart from the older rabbits.

here are my babies! Aren't they so cute?!?!? It was so hard not to try and pick them up. Wendell wouldn't let me! But for a few weeks we had to be really careful cutting the grass because they were so small we couldn't see them at all.

Thursday Play Day

Well, today was a success in regard to the house and children being ready for company. However, no one came! I didn't realize how upset the kids would be about no one showing, but maybe next week!