These pictures will not portray an ounce of glamour, but wow, did we ever have a fun week! Hope you enjoy: I’ll just make a brief caption at the bottom of each picture.
That’s our week in pictures!
Love to all,
Christie
Hello all! I have devastating news: I didn’t take my camera to camp.
Agh!!!!!! How?? I even packed the charger.
Thankfully, I do have a few photos, but not as many as I should. I was really hesitant about taking my iPad around, not wanting it to be damaged or lost.
We had an amazing time!! The girls loved it! We hung out with the teens, did crafts, went on hikes, played on the playground, attended a nail polish party… so much fun!!
So, you can see, my pictures are not at all representative of what actually happened at camp. We were so blessed to be with all the other staff, the amazing volunteer leaders, and wonderful teens.
Leaving was so sad.
I truly hope the girls and I will be able to go again next year!
I am woefully behind at posting pictures! Hoping to catch up… here are the shots from our quick trip to visit with Paul’s parents and grandparents.
Uncle Daniel is only represented in these pictures by the cookies he baked for the girls. Can you find them?
A few weeks ago, the funniest thing happened while I was preparing to iron on a Saturday night.
I took a skirt off of it’s hanger and mindlessly hung it on a nearby doorknob. A little “clink” sounded when the hanger hit the door. Instantly, my mind was flooded with sweet sounds and memories.
I used to hear that “clink” sound a lot on Saturday night.
My mom would be quietly ironing in the corner of the family room closest to the laundry area. I hear the spritz of the spray starch, the poof of the steam, the fabric being readjusted on the board, and of course, the clink of the hanger either coming or going from the doorknob.
Everyone in general was spread out sort of doing their own thing.
My dad’s chair creaks in his office. He must have sat back to think for a minute about his Sunday school lesson. The chair creaks again as it’s returned to upright position; smooth dark fingers return to typing and clicking away.
I can hear my brother walking back and forth in the hallway, thinking out loud to no one in particular.
There are a number of sounds my sister might have been making. Practicing that offertory one more time, fussing in front of the closet, or moving positions on the couch while she devoured a book.
I really can’t for the life of me remember what I would have been doing. Certainly not paying attention to anyone around me.
Funny now, how it all seems so clear.
(Hello and thanks so much for reading these reposts of the Israel series. If you’re new, I hope you’ve been enjoying them; and if you’re not so new, then we can all look forward to new content coming!)
It’s been awhile since I’ve really been able to buy Paul presents.
Gone are the days of being in love, single, employed, and able to buy things for the man you love. Not that I’d trade a big warm body to cuddle up to at night, no siree! But I do miss giving him special gifts.
Let’s see, last year I had this great idea to make homemade butter and other gifts to sell at our apartment office in hopes of making enough money to buy him a really great present. After covering the costs of  materials I had about sixteen dollars left which I used to buy him The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough which he really liked, but it was not the kind of present I had hoped for.
But this year would be different! I still didn’t have any money, but because he was gone I made some executive decisions about how the money given to us by family would be used. (Haha! rubbing hands together gleefully) Of course, the girls would get their presents, but they already have so much and the things they wanted weren’t going to cost that much anyways. So the girls and I discussed it, and we made a plan to go shopping for Daddy!
Bottom line: it was a blast.
I won’t bore you with the nitty-gritty details, but here’s what we came away with. A laptop table from World Market, Hebrews from the New American Commentary series, a dress shirt and coordinating tie (picked out so lovingly and adorably by Hope and Sophia), and a stud finder (we are permanently and irreversibly diy/home improvement challenged). Yay for presents!
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After a great day of shopping for daddy, I noticed that I was really feeling anxious about him flying home. So much for my unshakable trust in the sovereignty of God that allowed me to not worry at all when he was flying over there.
Basically, I think that knowing he was so close to coming back just made me really want to know that nothing would keep us apart any longer. Everything had gone so well; it was nerve-wracking to think about what would transpire if there were any major calamities now, on our end or on his end. My solution? A night of crafting.
I am not a crafter whatsoever, but I had heard that felt flowers were really easy to make and I wanted to actually make something to give the girls for Christmas. After putting it off for two weeks, I decided that I might not get any sleep that night anyways, so I would do something to occupy my mind.
Unbelievably, they turned out in such a way that you could recognize them! It was tons of fun and I will hopefully do  more in the future. I confess one that was supposed to look like a rose ended up looking like a really bad outie belly button, but other than that, I was happy with them.
Now to go to sleep, and wake up, and hear that he’s in the states.
Thanks for reading my first series: Taking care of four little girls alone (while my husband is on an amazing study trip to Israel). Here are links to the other related posts.Â
It’s official: the Israel trip is on
Day 1: to turn out that last light
Day 3: Is something wrong with me?
Day 4: Sometimes you just need…
Day 6: The problem with “me” time
Day 9: Letting others be there for you
Good morning!
Here are a few funny things that were heard around here this week ~ hope you enjoy!
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This morning, Gracie got out of bed a little earlier than I wanted to. So after taking her to the restroom, I brought her in bed with me. One of my favorite things to do with the girls is to ask, “What is your favorite…?”
“Gracie, what is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?”
“Strawberries and eggs.” No surprise there; she’s said that before.
“What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?”
“Macawoni and cheese.” Again, completely normal two-year old answer.
“What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner?”
“Pizza.” I quite agree.
“Gracie, what is your favorite thing to eat for a snack?”
“Spinash.”
?
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We were driving home from eating dinner out this week when Gracie interrupted the conversation to complain…
“Mommy, I’m hungry!”
I reasoned with her, “You can’t be hungry, Gracie. We just ate.”
“I’m hungry from the talking!”
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And the grand finale (in my mind). = )
Hope and Sophia were cleaning up their papers and crayons after coloring one afternoon. Sophia held up two cut-out figures that closely resembled a man and woman for me to see.
“Wow, Sophia, those are great. Who are they?” I asked.
Her voice became very excited as she held up the woman who I could now see had a beautifully colored dress, “This is Aunt Laurie at her wedding!!!”
“Oh wow!” I said.
She held up the rather long, skinny figure of a man, “And this is Uncle Aaron. He was so excited he turned into a microphone!!!”
Only Sophia. = )
Hey everybody! These pictures have been a long time coming!
To save time, I’m just going to put captions on them at the bottom of the pic.
Hope you enjoy!
All in all, it was wonderful! So thankful to the people at Paul’s school for putting on such a fun event.
Hope you’re having a good weekend!
Christie
Hey everybody! I have another somewhat funny thing that was said in our house today…
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(Sounds of Mckayla crying around the table)
(me) “Gracie, what happened?”
“Mckayla was trying to get up in my chair.” (Gracie)
(me) “Did you push her?”
(Gracie) “Yeah, but I’m okay.”
(Oh good. That was my concern all along.)
Awhile back, I was reading at a prominent Christian mom blog. A particular and common topic brought on a myriad of thoughts; I came over here to write them out, unsure if they would ever be published. I have been thinking about it a lot, though, so I decided to go for it. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.  Â
The question was posed, “What questions do you have regarding your marriage relationship?” The readers were supposed to leave their questions by way of comment to be answered in future posts by a mom and daughter.
The overwhelming majority of questions dealt with how to handle a husband that isn’t the spiritual leader he should be.
This question at once resonated with and unsettled me. Of course, I have felt and wondered about this same thing at times, but there has been a huge change in how I think about this matter in the last few years. Besides that, it didn’t look as pretty coming from other women as it did from myself.
So… what does a spiritual leader look like?
There are three major thoughts that come to mind regarding this issue, but I’m just going to start with one of them. (I don’t want to be blacklisted by my gender!) = )
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According to the Bible, one of my major roles as a married woman is to be the keeper (despot) at our home. Not just the figurative, emotional part of the home…Â the home: the toilets, rugs, baseboards, pantry, schedules, sleeping quarters, etc.
I don’t know about you, but I was no ready-made homemaker when I got married. In fact, quite the opposite… minus a hundred thousand. I am and always will be everlastingly grateful that my husband was patient with me regarding this. After six years, I’ve come a long way, but I have so much farther to go before I will even close to consider myself equal to most of the people I know.
Don’t you think that we as women might just be a little bit hard on our guys regarding this “spiritual leadership” issue? I mean, most guys don’t have any experience at spiritual leadership when they get married. So they gave a devotion in teen group? Were a prayer leader at Christian college? Led a discipleship group in their church? That no more prepares a man to “lead” an emotionally charged, newlywed girl/woman, then a high school cooking class prepares a woman to feed a gargantuan, hungry man… every day, on a budget.
How would you like for your husband to comment every time you left dishes in the sink too long? or were impatient with the children? or didn’t put much effort into making a nutritious, filling dinner? or for that matter, slept in and didn’t read your Bible? I know some women experience this regularly (thankfully, I’m not one of them); I doubt it’s a pleasant or inspiring experience.
Here, simply put, is my first question regarding husbands, wives, marriage, and spiritual leadership.
Are we too hard on our husbands regarding their God-given marital roles while giving ourselves unending patience and grace?
More than likely, yes.
A relationship has an atmosphere. Criticism and impatient waiting don’t mix well with love and support. Patience and grace can create an environment where small steps are encouraged, not avoided for fear of failure.
Besides that, we wives probably have enough work to on with ourselves for a while. When you take your eyes off of someone else’s faults and begin to concentrate on your own, things really do brighten up.
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Has anyone else noticed this widespread dissatisfaction? What are your feelings on the matter?
Hi again!
I hope you enjoyed seeing the first half of the pictures from our fun day at the farm. If you missed it, here’s a link:
Remember, (the motherload) is in the title for a reason; this is a lot of pictures! If you don’t know us, I won’t be offended at all if you go read somewhere else. This might be a little much. = )
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Here again, you see the girls in another long line…
But this was the attraction this time!
There were smaller lines for smaller tractors, but no-siree, they’d wanted the biggest one. (And I did, too, but the line was really long. Think small children who don’t want to get out of the tractor once they get in, and parents who are trying to reason with them that other boys and girls wanted to go, too.)
Once we got to the front wheel, we took fun pictures of the girls. The wind was blowing so I think most of them are trying to hold their hair back.
And we finally made it!
Sophia was the first to the top, no surprise there.
Hope looked the most like she knew how to drive.
And Gracie tried to buckle her seat belt as soon as she got in the seat. I love when kids do things that totally surprise you!
Then we took more pictures in the much larger back wheel. So fun!
Just when you thought the day couldn’t get any better… they gave away free ice cream to everybody! We had so much fun sitting on hay bales and eating ice cream.
This picture represents a nostalgic mommy moment. Hope asked if she could go throw her own ice cream carton away. I said that that would be fine, but watching her go away and stand and move around the other kids made me realize how big she is. She looked so sweet, and happy, and grown up! It made my heart happy and sad at the same time.
What a lovely day!
Believe it or not, Mckayla was perfectly content the whole time in the stroller. I was very thankful for that. That stroller was not made to push through tall grass and barn shavings; I definitely got my workout that day! Sometimes I just picked the stroller up with her in it to get over a hump or something.
Also, there are a few pictures that I can’t find to stick in here… Sophia milking the cow, Gracie eating her ice cream, and one of all of us together. If I find them, I’ll stick them in and let you know that I did.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Thanks for reading…
small steps, big picture 