October 31

Here's a picture of My Little Pumpkins today!!  Ain't they precious!!

OK, so I wanted to share my thoughts on October 31 AKA Halloween.  Personally just hearing the name of this holiday makes me cringe just a little bit.  When I hear "Halloween", I tend to think dark, evil, witches, scary, etc.  That's just what comes to mind for me.  It wasn't always this way.  I grew up dressing up and going trick or treating and ALWAYS LOVED IT!!  I think that most years I dressed as a witch or a clown, because those were pretty easy.  Now I prefer not to acknowledge this day as a holiday.

I know that this is a very controversial topic.  Some Christians see no harm, and others think you are going to die and burn in hell if you dress your kid up and go door to door.  There's no denying that much about Halloween IS evil.  And the Bible definitely warns us to flee from even the appearance of evil, but the greatest tragedy and where Satan really wins is in pitting Christians against each other.  Condemning each other is also evil.  And prideful.  And I've done plenty of both.  This is not me on my high horse, because I struggle with pride and self-righteousness which is so horrible, because really I'm pretty despicable.  I think that dressing your kids in cute innocent costumes and going trick or treating is not evil.  I prefer not to do it, but I don't think it's evil.  I'm totally guessing here, but I'm inclined to think that the vast majority of parents and children who were trick or treating tonight, did not see any harm in it.  They have no conviction against it.  Here's Wesley favorite line to me, he says this all the time....IT ALL COMES BACK TO YOUR HEART!

I'd be remiss if I did not mention the real significance of October 31st for me.  On October 31, 2006 I gave birth to a very, very tiny baby boy.  His name was Samuel Thomas.  Luke helped name his first brother.  I LOVE that!  When planning for another baby, he begged us to name him Thomas after Thomas the Train.  Samuel was my pick, because I had asked the Lord for another son like Hannah did in the Bible.  Losing Samuel was/is one of the most life changing events in my life.  I don't know if this will make sense or not, but it's like my faith and my reality had a head on collision.  I was forced to decide whether or not I really believed what I had said that I believed.  It grew me in ways I could not imagine and changed me in ways that I did not expect.  It was shocking and heartbreaking and down right debilitating at times, and I know what I am about to say won't make since, but it was also a beautiful time.  Unfortunately, I've since suffered many other miscarriages.  The Lord has taught me different things through each loss, but this first loss was so significant in that it was my first.  It's when the naive girl who did not think that would ever happen to me who thought she was great at growing babies, realized that I am nothing and God is everything.

Sometimes this day makes me sad, but mostly it makes me grateful.  Heart so full that it feels like it's going to explode grateful.  God has been good to me.  He has been faithful.

I don't really care how you feel about Halloween.  I don't care if you trick or treat or not.  I just hope that you know Jesus.  That you really, really know Him.  And you know, I'm not sure that Jesus cares if you trick
or treat either.  I think He just cares about your heart just like My Wesley always says.  He's so wise!

Want another look at my cuties to make your heart swell too?  Here they are again!

By the way if you are one of the sweet people who gave us candy today just now that we LOVED every bite!  Thank you!

Who Knew?

Who knew how far a little gratitude and some new blankets would go?

OK, so this post is going to be all over the place.  And probably long, but pictures will be at the end.  Now brace yourself.

I've done a pretty good job of painting a good picture of the past 2 days with my fun blog posts, and mostly they've gone very well.  BUT the rest of the story is that I've been fighting a little self pity, because my plans have been seriously messed up.

Here's the story...A while back, Wesley requested a couple of days off from work so that we could take a fall break/mini vacation.  Second only to the beach in places to vacation is Kentucky.  Yep, Kentucky!  More specifically a family in Kentucky.  It's a really long and painful story, but we were actually supposed to go there this past weekend and it just wasn't to be.  :(  I grieved that disappointed for a while, but then I got really excited about our "staycation".  You've heard of "staycations", right?  It's when you stay at home for vacation.  We planned several free things to enjoy right here close to home.  And we were all very excited.  Then it happened, we started getting sick.  Elizabeth had been dealing with a little bit of a cold.  Then I got it bad.  Then Bella Peace got it.  And finally Elizabeth got it again.  Don't you just love when it goes full circle like that.  Even better or I should say worse is when Mama gets it!  UGH!!  So the staycation turned into a for real stay at home situation.  Can I just say that I was SO DISAPPOINTED!!  I mean it seems to always happen this way.

Wesley did manage to get out a couple times with the big kids and have some fun, and while I am really, really glad that they got to get out, it did not help my feeling any.  I was just disappointed a lot that I was the one stuck at home sick and taking care of the sick little ones.  BUT finally yesterday something changed.  I decided that I should do my best to have a good attitude and to enjoy the time with just the Littles.  So we did.  Bella Peace and I taught Elizabeth how to do the Hokey Pokey.  Cutest.Thing.Ever!!  And we played Hide-and-Seek together.  And we played a matching game.  And when we heard the others get home we ran and hide and played Sardines adding each person as they came in the house and found us.  Funniest part of that Wesley came in the house last and called out, "Where is everybody?"  From Luke's bedroom closet, Elizabeth yelled, "Daddy we are in the closet!!"  Ha!!  We all bursted out laughing!  Guess she needs more instruction on how to play Sardines!

Well after that things have been so much better, and my mind set has greatly improved.  Funny how a little gratitude and thankfulness always cures my case of "woe-is-me".

Transitioning to a new topic....today I washed all the bed linens.  I mean all the bed linens.  My washer and dryer were in constant use for about 12 hours, because I washed the sheets, mattress covers, comforters, pillow shams, and extra blankets that needed to be added to the beds now that it's getting cold.  I wanted to add an extra blanket to everyone's bed and it was just time to strip them down and get everything good and clean especially since we are all finally on the mend.  Ahhhh...I LOVE clean, fresh  sheets and blankets!  Don't you?

Well it was extra special for the girls, because I added brand new blankets to their beds.  Have you ever heard of the store Dirt Cheap?  Well if you haven't you should find out if their is a location near you, because it's incredible!  And even more incredible is my amazing mom and the steals that she brings home from that store.  She picked up these beautiful, warm, pink, new blankets for the girls.  A couple years ago she gave Luke one in brown, but since then she's been purchasing pink ones as she found them so that she could give each girl her own pink one.

When I tucked the girls into bed tonight, I said, "You want to know what beds in Heaven feel like?"  They were all like, "Well YES!"  Then I pulled back the covers and tucked each one in.  I wish I could have captured their reaction on video.  I don't have video, but I did grab the camera and take several pictures as they were ooooooing and ahhhhhhing like I do when I get a good piece of chocolate!  SO CUTE!!

Silly girls, laughing and refusing to open their eyes!

"Good Night!!"

I knew they would like them, but I was not expecting this kind of reaction?! Seriously they all just closed their eyes and melted.  I tried to get them to open their eyes for pictures, but they all refused!  Grace was the ring leader and insisted that she was too cozy to open her eyes.  Pretty, new, warm, clean, pink blankets...who knew?!

Thank you, Grandmother!!

My Country Kids

Recently my girls have become insanely crazy about being "cowgirls" especially Mary Ruth.  Mary Ruth desperately wants a farm and all that goes with it.  From the animals, especially horses - she is WILD about horses, to the appropriate attire, she is all about being a cowgirl!

Did you see my post about matching?  It's just below this post.  Well Grandmother picked up these matching shirts at a charity sale for literally pennies.  She gave them to me a while back to give to the girls, but I just broke them out today.  I had no idea how excited they would be.  They've declared these shirts their "cowgirl" shirts.   Too cute!!

Look closely at the picture above.  Mary Ruth recently lost a new tooth!  Definitely goes with the role, right?!  Ha!  Totally kidding!

Bella Peace has a matching shirt too, but she's had a fever for the past couple of day so she was inside.

Here's Luke being silly.  He was having a good time playing with this huge pumpkin that he picked out when we recently visited the local pumpkin patch.  Then he decided to show off his strength by picking it up.

Ummm yes it's heavy, but I think he's being a wee bit dramatic.  Guess that's to be expected since he is being raised in a house full of girls!

Ahhhh, finally!  So glad he did not drop it.  There would have been weeping and wailing.  Drama, remember?!

We live pretty far out and these kiddos think they want to be "country folk", but truthfully I don't know.  I think they might all be city slickers at heart!  Ha! 

My thoughts on matching

This picture totally cracks me up.  I LOVE this rowdy bunch!  Even though this picture is of Wesley and the big kids, it's still impossible to get "the perfect picture".  Fortunately I've come to accept this fact, and I can find humor in the crazy faces they give me.  One day, one day they will look back on these pictures and think why was I making that face.  Better yet, one day they will likely have children of their own and these are the faces that they will get when they take pictures!  Ha!

Well I'm home on this Sunday.  I'm home caring for the sick.  I thought about counting how many Sundays there have been this year, and then counting up how many I've been home caring for the sick.  You know I could do that, because I write EVERYTHING down on my calendar.  I decided it would not be the best use of my time, because it really does not matter.  It's just what we mothers do.

I'm determined not to do much today for a couple of reasons.  First because, it's Sunday.  We are supposed to lay around in our pjs and do nothing rest on Sundays, right?  Secondly because this is our staycation weekend.  Your definitely supposed to rest on staycation/vacation, right?

So I'm blogging.  Unbelievable I know!  I'm blogging while I sit next to the sick one.  I thought it would be fun to share these fun pictures from today.  I LOVE to take pictures on Sundays when everyone is dressed up and often matching!  Yes I'm one of those moms.

You might wonder about us odd ball moms who like to match/coordinate everyone in our family even when the kiddos start to get older.  I know it's not very cool or popular, but that's OK because we all LOVE it.  Well almost all of us love it!

So my thoughts on matching...well if they don't mind why not?  It makes for super cute pictures!  And really this started as something that I loved to do, but now all the kids love it and they work super hard on Saturday evenings to piece together outfits that match.  Wesley thinks it's kind of weird, over-kill, too much, but when Luke comes to him trying to find something to wear so that he can look just like  Daddy, well then Wesley cannot resist!

The best matching days are days when I don't go to church.  Ha!  I own the least amount of clothes in our family.  I've changed sizes several times over the past few years, mostly because I've been pregnant a lot.  And I just never seem to buy clothes for myself.  The kiddos have to get new or new used clothes, because they are constantly growing.  Wesley occasionally has to get new clothes because according to him "he's got to look good for work".  Uh huh.  OK, sure.  And if I ever get time or money to shop, I usually shop for Wesley and the kiddos.  It's way more fun!  Don't get me wrong, I do shop for myself sometimes, I just don't do it as often as I do for them.  I usually have a few basic things that I love and I wear them all the time.  I don't have the variety that everyone else has.  So all that to say that it's way easier to match or coordinate everyone when I'm not in the picture.

Occasionally (more like rarely) someone will tell me that they like for their family to match too, but that it's just too hard or costly to pull off.  First let me say, that I'm not the one that plans this anymore.  This is all Grace, Mary Ruth, and yes often Luke!  Also I very rarely spend money so that we can match.  Mostly it just happens.  Sometimes if the kiddos are in need of clothes I might come across a good deal and buy something that matches, but that really is the exception.  A lot of times grandparents buy things that match because they know how we all love it.  Take today's outfit...Wesley is wearing a sweater vest that was a gift from friends for Christmas a couple years ago.  Luke's sweater vest I got at a thrift store several years ago for $2.  He's just now getting into it.  Wesley and Luke's sweaters are not an exact match.  They are both argyle of course, but they have different colors.  In these pictures the colors look a lot more alike than they really are.  Grace's top was in a bag of hand-me-downs from sweet friends.  And Mary Ruth's dress was a birthday present.

Busy Lizzy jumped in the last two pictures.  It was hard for me to let her in, because obviously she is not matching, but I like to live on the wild side every now and then!  Ha, ha!!  She did not go to church this morning, so she was left out of the match up!