Life in our Home

Life is an adventure. This is the first February in the past three years that my kids have not had the flu. However, I think I did breathe a sigh of relief a bit earlier than I should have. For the past two weeks I battled a hint of a cold trying to take over. By Sunday I thought it had been conquered, and by Monday I was sure I was healthy. Then Wednesday happened. I was going about my normal business and Wednesday night I was knocked over by a cold without warning. It seemed like within moments and without a hint of it's arrival my throat locked up and is now screaming, the incessant cough refuses to stop for even a few moments, and my body aches from it all. I could go on and complain, but I do rejoice that since I am sick, I am sick this week and not next week. Next week is a very special week that I will share with you in the future -- right now I'm just going to enjoy those thoughts myself :)

This is what I feel like.

Kara unfortunately is facing the same wonderful ailment. In fact, I kept her home from Kids4Truth last night hoping that taking some medicine and going to bed early and not exposing her lungs to the cold air would help her. Obviously I was wrong. So, today's schedule is quite different from our normal routine.

Ezekiel is down for a nap, and my children are all enjoying a day at the movies. I pulled up some old VHS tapes out of the basement so I could have access to play on my computer (our DVD player busted a few months ago, and we have yet to replace it and so my computer has been our video player as well). So far the kids have enjoyed The Jungle Book and now they are watching Robin Hood. Understand, my kids typically do not watch more than an hour or two of movies a week (usually one movie during our Sunday evening family campouts), so today is a special treat for them.

Thankfully I don't get knocked down like this very often, but I would like to know
What type of activities do you have your kids do when mommy is sick and daddy is away at work?

Choir

Well, this is the first time in the last six weeks that Kara and I have been home on a Sunday afternoon. This past month Kara and I had the privilege to sing in a community Christian choir. I have to say I am amazed at how well Kara did, and shocked at how much I missed singing and delighted at the vocal workout I faced each Sunday.

For the past two years, I turned down the request to join the choir. This year a trusted friend convinced me to give it a try (I guess she thought my two year hermitage needed to come to an end :) ). Not knowing how Kara would do sitting on a pew for two hours singing and listening to a choir director, we decided to give it a try. The truth -- Kara LOVED it. My sweet girl has always loved singing. In fact, she probably spends a good 1/4 of the day singing or making some kind of music. She has always enjoyed making up her own songs. While she didn't always know where we were in the hymns when we were singing together as a choir, and she wasn't always able to keep up or figure out the time signature, she did learn the words, and the messages of the song.

The last two weeks were the concert, and we did video the first concert, so I will try to get it uploaded to YouTube and then linked on my blog. I will miss the choir, but Kara and I are already excited about next year, and who knows - maybe Lydia will be reading by then and able to sit still long enough to enjoy the choir also :).

If you want to see photos of our month, please click this link.

Around the House Today

Today was a nice quiet and relaxing day around the house. We didn't have any place we needed to be (other than my need to go to the grocery store later tonight). So, JA took the kids outside to play in the snow.

The kids created a snow family - if you only see five snowmen, that's because
Ezekiel is the tiny clump of snow right behind Andy. Kara and Lydia have
a hard time not viewing him as a baby.

The love of my life :)

Having fun before our family devotions
(if you click on the picture you can see where Andy
stuck a pencil through the bottom of his eyelid --
Boys are an adventure :)
I just love little babies toddling around in their diapers.
And Ezekiel is so cute to watch walk because he really
does toddle, and he loves to fall so it's fun to try to guess
what he's going to do.

New Year's Goals Updated

Well, I've decided that I must use my blog to help me keep some form of accountability, so for as long as I am still doing well with achieving my goals, I will try to update the progress here on my blog. If we start to get to the middle of the month and you see know progress update, please HOLD me ACCOUNTABLE! Thank you.

Now for the update.

1. Lose 20 pounds by March -- Well 20 pounds in two months was a bit high, but I have lost five pounds so far and will continue to work on this one. I've started exercising more, but have struggled with keeping the food diary.

2. Spend more time in Prayer and Bible Study -- I have been much more consistent on Bible Study, and we have a set family time where everyone does their devotions, so this has helped me establish this time every day.

3. Read two books a month -- Well, in the month of January I read Created to be His Helpmeet by Debi Pearl and For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn. Both of these books are wonderful for working on your marriage.

4. Monthly Food Menu -- January I had a menu, I have yet to sit down an get my menu made for February -- I can see a huge difference too. January we had good well rounded meals. This week we have had rice, sandwiches, quessadillas, all quick small meals. I need to get this done by this weekend so my hubby doesn't starve :)

5. Spend individual time with each of my kids -- this one is much harder than I though it would be. It is almost impossible to spend fifteen minutes with any one child without being interrupted by the others, so this one has adjusted to just spending an hour playing/reading/exercising with all of my kids together (they actually seem to like this better anyways. Maybe I should also just adjust this to about 30 minutes/week with each kid individually).

Well, that sums up my goals.

The kids goals that have been accomplished:

January 21 -- Lydia accepted Christ as her Savior (I'll post about this at a later date).
Kara has been reading at least one book a day
Andy -- well, let's just say he is a work in progress
Ezekiel -- He is now walking. He is also beginning to learn to say please.

Some other Random Things:We've been working on some projects around the house, and one of our projects (cost us only $2) was to build a mitten/hat rack for the kids winter wear. I was tired of having hats, gloves, and mittens mingled with the laundry and scattered around the house, so we found an old piece of trim in the basement, cut some dowels down to size, and created our own mitten tree.

Kara's 6th Birthday

Ok, I know this is early but I am just so excited. I just received Kara's birthday present in the mail today (I know her birthday isn't until April -- I'm just planning early).

Last month I entered into a New Year's Giveaway at Branch of Wisdom, and I won a Proverbs 31 doll - Elisabeth. This is just the perfect birthday present for Kara Beth. I think she is old enough to take care of such a nice doll, and she will enjoy playing and dressing Elisabeth. I am also excited to use Elisabeth as a means of beginning to teach Kara some early lessons on modesty.


Kara requested a tea party for her birthday. So, we will be inviting her girl friends to bring their favorite doll for her birthday party. If you have any suggestions on how to make this a fun party, please let me know I would appreciate it.

For those family members who are already planning to give Kara a birthday present, Elisabeth is an 18 inch doll - the size of the American Girl Dolls. I am sure Kara would enjoy receiving doll clothes to be able to dress her doll to fit whatever activity she is doing.