Children are a blessing...........

Here is an actual face picture of the kids.............. God is really a great God and my kids remind me of that every day. Children are a blessing............. The more the merrier... or cheaper by the dozen....... or whatever the saying you prefer is. We will be adding one more to the picture in March!!!! Thank you Lord for our kids!!

What is it about the beach.......

We went to the beach on Saturday and we had a good time. But what is it really that makes people desire to vacation there. Sure, maybe if you didn't have any kids (or they were older) or if you only intended to sit and watch the waves or get a tan it would be beautiful but, when you have four small children...................................it becomes One Big mess!!! First, the sunscreen needs to be lathered all over 4 kids (mess). Then they get in the water and right back out with sand sticking to all of their exposed skin (mess) and they walk onto the towel needed to dry off with and now the towel has wet sticky sand all over it (mess). After a while of being in the sun the sunscreen needs to be reapplied to the wet, sand covered body (mess), and then there is the going home routine. Getting the kids out of the water and walking across the sand to the dock where you have to try to get as much sand off as possible with a small trickling shower and then get them to the car across the parking lot which is, of course, a sand lot. Then get them into dry clothes (or at least diapers on the babies) for the 30 min. ride home. Of coourse they still have sand on their bottoms and it gets in the car and on their carseats and the sand never comes out of their hair (mess, mess, mess).................................................................

But all that, I guess, really isn't as bad as it seems when you look at the pictures. We love the beach and living so close to it!!!

We took the kids to the church camp yesterday because the church was having a baptism in the lake. Afterwards all the kids and adults alike got to go swimming. Our kids had a blast!!

Moving Pros and Cons

There are some people who look at moving as a good thing but I find that even though there are good things there are also a lot of bad things.................

The good things:

1. everything is new, a chance to start fresh, new friends, new places etc.

2. it's like Christmas, the kids love to open boxes to find the "suprises" inside

3. you get to redecorate, everything is a perfect clean slate

4. we get to live near the beach, beautiful weekends

5. our house is big, the kids have so much space to play

6. we have tile floors, easy to clean if the kids spill or throw up

7. the weather is beautiful most of the year, we will be having a Christmas Picnic and we will be grilling our turkey and everyone is invited

8. I finally get to unpack all my things after 4 months of living with my parents

9. the kids have their own rooms with their own beds instead of sharing one like they did at Grammy and PapPap's house

10. we have a screend in porch and a pond in our back yard and the kids love having a space to run around in

The bad things:

1. everything is new.... I have no idea where things are, I get lost as soon as I leave the driveway.....

2. when the kids open boxes they just throw the stuff to the side so they can play with the boxes... they don't actually help unpack

3. redecorating is not that easy with four kids in the boxes labeled "home decor" and the stuff is nowhere (somewhere else) to be found

4. living near the beach is not that great when it just so happens to be in South Florida, on the East coast and in the middle of HURRICANE season

5. the bigger the house the bigger the mess the kids make and you have more house for the HURRICANE to destroy

6. tile floors are HARD and they need to be cleaned ALL THE TIME (I preferr the illusion of clean floors when you have carpet, you vacuum and think it's clean because it "looks" clean, or hardwoods where the dirt blends in)......

7. did I mention the HURRICANES!!!

8. the boxes are not all unpacked yet and we are going into the fourth week

9. the kids insist on sharing a room still ( but not with each other...... with Mommy and Daddy) and they will not behave at bedtime

10. the screen needs to be fixed and the pond has no barrier and the kids can't play outside much right now because it is too hot and the yard needs to be sprayed for fire ants

Anyway, we are now officially residents of Florida and we really do like it here. Any transition is hard and they always have pros and cons but if God is in it then it is all worth it. Joshua loves his job, I love my house and the kids love having their own place. Hope you enjoy the pics of the new place..............

When life gives you lemons- make lemonade!

Right now we are living with 2 other families but when God says "Go," well......................... you have a huge yard sale and then you go. We had a 3 family sale this weekend because we are all moving. My parents accepted a call to a church in Philipsburg, PA and are moving by the third week in August. My brother is moving his family to a farm in Pleasant Valley, MD just down the road from my parents current house. And we are moving to Florida................. Joshua accepted a position as Headmaster of a Christian school and we will be moving at the end of the month. We have been here for almost 4 months praying for God to open a door and for 3 months He has been silent. Joshua has been jobless and all the money we had saved is gone and we had no idea how we were going to pay our bills or where we were going to live. Sound scary?? I know......... But God is always right on schedule............ The school is going to pay all our moving expences, pay for our down payment on a house and even pay ALL of our medical insurance for the whole family. A local church (which we will be attending) has said that they will help us get settled and to top it all off, we made almost $200 at the yard sale so we can buy food until we move....... Eve and Jack decided to have a sale for themselves and made around $30 in one day!!! They made brownies and Lemonade and they had a ball!

God Is Good..................... All The Time......................

Unique!

One of the greatest things about home schooling is that you can set your own schedule. This is a very good thing especially when you have 4 children and you live with 2 other families (we currently live with my parents and my brother, his wife and their 2 year old son). It is now summer and we aren't officially doing studies but we are trying to keep them busy just the same. Fortunately for us they all have their own agenda.......... Jack will stop at nothing to become the next extreme sports trophy winner. Abigail is the mother of all 11 people in the house (and on the side she has her own 6 babies to tend to). Samuel is the great explorer traveling far and wide to discover the next worst place for him to be. And Eve is my artist who never has a lack for ideas or an understanding of bounderies to keep her from her creativity. All of these things, as frustrating as they are sometimes, makes each of my children unique. To know that God made each of them and loves them just the way they are and that He knows me and chose me because I am the perfect mother for them (or maybe they are the perfect children for me).......... WOW!!! What an awesome God!!!

Congratulations Daddy!!!

Joshua graduated with his MAR (Masters of Arts in Religion) on May 19th.

We are so proud of him!!!

We love you Daddy.............