Busy Moments!

Is it really possible that two weeks have passed since I last wrote on the blog?! Honestly, it does not feel that way! Life has a way of passing right by me if I’m not careful, and I have to snatch the moments that I can!

It would probably be easier just to post pictures of all that’s been happening, but I didn’t do very good about taking pictures either! L Let’s see…we hosted a formal dinner for a few good friends and couples from church, helped our kids work on Pine Wood Derby cars and went to the race day, took a meal to a friend, shared our Alaskan ministry trip with another church, hosted an open house for our Alaskan trip, helped out in a college age activity, worked in Children’s church, homeschooled, ran errands, chauffeured children, went to dentist appointments, shoveled snow, celebrated Roger’s 32^nd birthday, built a room in the basement. and numerous other activities!

We’ve had a few warm days…above 32 degrees, but spring has not been anxious to arrive here in Wisconsin. My children are still happy to be playing in the snow, but have been asking when the grass will come back! J I’m looking forward to spring as well, however, the mud?...not so much! J I’ve made up the rule at my house that you must first ask Mom’s permission to play in the mud as sometimes Mom just doesn’t have time to do laundry! (As a general rule, mud doesn’t bother me, provided we don’t have to get in the vehicle to go somewhere next!) So, usually, I’ll say yes…I know, I’m crazy like that! J

Formal Dinner

Dear sweet friend, Jenna, who is also prego!

Two weeks ago, on Friday night, my friend, Rebekah Longsine and myself hosted a formal dinner for a few close friends from church. We borrowed fine china from a good friend (since the Robertsons are lacking in that department!), set up the living room as a formal dining room and cooked up a storm! We had twelve people for dinner, and it was a lot of fun! We had assorted breads, spinach dip, bacon wrapped shrimp, soup and salad, glazed carrots, roasted potatoes, sautéed green beans, herb roasted turkey, and steaks! For dessert, we enjoyed cheesecake, chocolate decadence, and a chocolate fondue with assorted fruit! AMAZING! It was difficult to decide who to invite, and we would have loved to invite more friends, but we only have so much space and food! L So, we picked a few friends that had been friends with the Longsines for a long time, and I got to come since I hosted the event at my house! J  It was really a lot of fun, but I’m thankful that I don’t have to set my table with multiple forks and spoons on a daily basis! J (I was also very thankful to see the china go back home with my friend…I was so nervous that something would break!) All in all, it was a good time, and I’m hoping to do it again sometime. (Maybe next time, I’ll sell tickets!) J

Following that we had the Pine Wood Derby race. The boys did all the work on their own cars and I’m so proud of them. They may not have been the fastest cars or the best designed, but they did every part of the work themselves. Roger and I have committed since early on in events like that, that the boys need to do their own work. We’ll offer advice or mentorship, but if you don’t work on it…we won’t either! J Chandler actually did place third with his car in his age division, which was exciting, but all the boys were thrilled to participate in the Pine Wood Derby Race. Fun for all!

Pinewood Derby Cars

This past Sunday, we went over to my parent’s church and showed our slides from Alaska. We enjoyed a dinner with the folks there, Roger preached and we answered questions after the pictures. It was a wonderful time to again share our experiences from Alaska.

Happy Birthday!

On Friday, we hosted an open house and shared pictures and experiences with friends and family. We enjoyed having people over to our home and sharing more in depth about the adventures and experiences of our trip. It was fun to share those memories, and I sure do miss the pace of life there! J  It was also Roger’s 32^nd birthday, so the boys decorated a cake for him! J They enjoyed it immensely, and my biggest concern was that someone was going to fall in the cake because they were so excited about decorating it! J

Thankfully, on Saturday, we enjoyed a day at home with our family. We didn’t have any places we had to be, but some friends came over about supper time. We had a great time visiting with them and the boys were delighted because they have children! J Jenn and Arien have become very dear friends to us, and it was nice to have a family stop by and enjoy an informal visit…and we had plenty of leftovers from the open house! J

So, that sums up the last few weeks of family, ministry, and activities!

We’ve been busy, but God has been faithful to sustain us, help us create memories, spend time with our family, and enjoy the journey of life! We are blessed!

Life in the Mommy Stage

GRACE

Do you ever experience a moment where you think you might have a break through with a child? Maybe it’s something you’ve been trying to teach them or something they’ve been trying to do, and suddenly it seems like the lights turn on and everything clicks! Most of the time, I feel like I’m still waiting for those moments J but everyone once in a while it happens.

Actually, this time I’m not talking about my children as much as I’m talking about myself. Before children, I loved to read and spent hours reading books; however, having four children in four years put a serious damper on reading! But the kids are a little older now, and I realized that while I read my Bible and devotional book regularly, it would be beneficial to start reading other books. I recently finished a book called, “Loving the Little Years” and enjoyed it so much that I bought an additional book by the same author called “Fit to Burst”. I feel like this author, Rachel Jankovic, is really down to earth and has practical advice for moms. Through it all, I’ve been challenged in so many areas. I often tend to holler when I should stop and pray, to punish when I should have listened, and to respond with a harsh tone when I should reply with patience. I’m not going to lie…parenting is the hardest thing I’ve ever done! (And sometimes the rewards seem far behind) But, I’ve been challenged to stick with it, to pray with my kids more often, to listen to them when they talk, and to work to respond with grace. After all, my Heavenly Father never responds harshly to me, He always deals lovingly with wrong-doing, and chastises me with a loving approach, which is exactly how I want to deal with my children. Prayers are always appreciated, and as always when you start to really work on an area, God gives you examples to practice! J

Brothers..."boating" together

            We really had an overly full week last week between dentist’s visits for two children, a doctor’s appointment for me, mid-week prayer service at church, a Homebuilder’s activity at church, worker’s training at church on Saturday morning, and a benefit for a friend Saturday night, and taught Children’s church on Sunday morning. (Yeah, it was too much!) Anyways, by Saturday night, everyone was tired so all the kids were in bed by 7:30pm. It was about 15 minutes after we put them to bed, that I realized that it was “spring forward” night so really they were in bed at 8:30pm! It was a very depressing moment for me! J However, the busy weekend gave me many opportunities to practice what I’ve been learning! As in having patience with slow moving children, having a little extra grace on the child who is falling apart because his hat fell off, listening in the car to yet another story that I don’t really want to listen to. But it’s important to the child. So, I’m thankful for GRACE!

            God gives us grace as we need it, not extra to store up, not beforehand, but as we need it! A perfect example…read on: J

Wyatt-not feeling well

The kids slept in this morning until 7am. Woo Hoo! However, I was in bed listening to them stir (I haven’t been feeling that great), when Chandler came into our room. “Mom, there’s a puddle of pee on the floor in our room and it stinks!”    Well, awesome! (NOT!) But, it did motivate me to quickly get out of bed! J Upon arrival in the boys room, I discovered that there was indeed a puddle and a child that was naked from the waist down, except for socks, sitting there quietly reading a book! While cleaning up that mess, the child on the top bunk, Wyatt, started crying. To put it nicely, he was a mess. Apparently, he had an accident during the night and it wasn’t a pee accident! L The bed, himself, and Buzz (the stuffed Toy Story Buzz) all had remnants of a very nasty experience. And God gave GRACE! I managed to clean up the entire mess, bathe two children, and disinfect before I felt that feeling when my stomach started yelling -  STOP! J So, we survived and the laundry is started again and life is moving forward.  I love how God teaches me things as I need to learn them, He doesn’t give me more than I can handle (although at times it feels that way), He gives mercy and patience as I cry out to Him, and I am blessed!

We all face challenges, struggles, trials and hard moments, but this week has been a reminder of how much God loves me, protects me, strengthens me, and encourages me…WHAT AN AWESOME GOD!

Why, yes, it's definitely essential to wear swimming goggles when going outside in the snow!

Because Kids are Kids!

Life with four boys close in age is anything but boring or dull! At times, I'd love to pack them all off to somewhere...anywhere...and have a little peace and quiet, but I do enjoy them immensely. God is good all the time, and I am blessed!

However, at times things occur in my life that are too funny not to write down or repeat for others to laugh with us. For example:

1) On Monday of this week, Chandler had to go to the dentist. If you remember from previous posts, Chandler had been having troubles with this tooth ever since we left for Alaska. We had been praying that we would make it back to Wisconsin before it became an emergency. God answered that prayer, and we made it back.

However, the tooth needed to be pulled this week. Chandler was at 4K on Monday morning, and I mentioned to Garett that Chandler was going to the dentist. "What for?" he asked. I told him and he replied, "That really hurt when I got mine pulled!". I said to please not tell Chandler that he was going to the dentist to get it pulled and he agreed. Chandler arrives home, and Garett promptly tells him, "You're going to the dentist, and it's really going to hurt, but I can't tell you what they are going to do!" WHAT!!! Garett said, "But I didn't tell him what was going to happen!" While I wanted to be grumpy, all I could do was chuckle.

2) Another incident that was humorous happened while Chandler and I were driving in the car together. Chandler was talking about the baby, and he wanted to know how the baby got in my belly! Well, I wasn't about to go into details on that with my five year old son, so I just replied that God had given us another baby and put the baby in my belly. That seemed to satisfy his curiosity for a moment, but then he immediately went on to ask how the baby got out...well... I just replied that Mom went to the hospital and the doctor helped the baby come out. I said that the baby was weighed and given a bath.
 Chandler promptly replied, "OH, to wash of the color."
 I was curious about that reply, so I asked, "What color?"
Chandler replied, "Oh, you know, Mom, the pink color if it's a girl and the blue color if it's a boy!"

How his mind works, I'll probably never know, but it sure brings LOTS of laughter to our home!

3) Maybe this is wrong, but I always enjoy peoples expressions when I tell them about our kids. Today, I was running some errands by myself and at the Dollar Tree, the lady in the checkout line asked if I had children. I replied, yes and that I have four boys. Generally, the reply is something along the lines of "Wow! Four boys, and how old are they?" This is the point where I kinda smirk and say, "Oh, six, five, three and two." Then I just observe the expressions and almost always leave the store with a smile on my face and a spring in my step. I've been told several times, "Oh, I feel sorry for you." That honestly, is probably one of the more hurtful comments, but I've learned to not let it bother me. I DON'T feel sorry for me, because I KNOW I'm blessed! Most people are polite and just say something along the lines of how I must never be bored, or how that's a lot of boys, or about how they would never have that many boys (Really, are you going to send the baby back??), but I've learned to just laugh and move on. God is good, and we are blessed.

So, I have nothing that is really exciting to write about, but maybe the post will make your day a little brighter.
God bless,
Sarah