Busy, busy, busy

This is one of the craziest times of the year for our family. Next week is VBS week at our church. The kids and I have been going out two to three times a week helping sign-up kids for VBS and now it's time to start preparing ourselves for their arrival. For the next eight days straight we will be busy everyday. My husband and I are master teachers and two of our children are table teachers. Everyone is excited.

Although this is a crazy time of year, it is very rewarding. I look forward to all the new faces I will meet and the opportunity to share Jesus Christ with them in a fun way. Many of the children who come are not church children, so it's always a challenge, but isn't this what the Great Commission is all about. I feel honored to be able to be a part of this wonderful ministry.

So it starts tonight at 7 pm with Kids Blitz, which is a Nickelodeon style show with a Christian theme. (If you are interested in attending tickets are $5 at the door) Tomorrow morning we have a breakfast and meeting for all those helping with VBS. Sunday is church then starting Monday night we have VBS every night until Friday night.

Pray for us as we do this great work. Pray that we will all have the energy to keep up the pace necessary and that this will be a life changing week for many with tons of salvation testimonies. Thanks.

Best Laid Plans...

Wolf spider with babies attatched

Ever have one of those days when you think you've got it all together only to find that nothing goes according to plan? We did last night.

After driving into our driveway after church at about 10 til 10 we stopped to instruct the kids how we wanted things to happen once we got into the house. Those kids that were hungry were to go to the table so I could serve them a quick supper of leftovers from our Victory Group (from which I prepared the meal) and the other kids were to go straight in and get ready for bed. All the kids were to get into their PJ's and brush their teeth and then wait and come all at one time to kiss Daddy goodnight. Then everyone was to go to bed. Sounds like an ok plan right?

I head into the house, turn off the alarm, and go to my room to put my Bible away when I hear Jim calling me rather urgently to come back into the kitchen quickly. When I arrive I find Jim standing in the doorway with one of the little ones in his arms staring at a huge spider on the kitchen floor just inside the house and tons of baby spiders covering the entryway. (Ended up finding out it was a wolf spider with babies attatched, yuck!) I immediately took care of the big spider then had to deal with the baby spiders so Jim could get in the house. So now we have kids everywhere and bug spray everywhere. What a mess.

Also, our three year old is crying loudly because his ear is hurting and I need to get some ear drops in his ear so he can calm down.

We finally get everything cleaned up, bring in the food and serve the kids dinner and it is way after 10 o'clock now. Our oldest daughter had spent the night with a friend and instead of getting dressed right away she sits and talks to Daddy (totally fine, I like that).

By the time everyone finally gets changed, and brushes their teeth (no one came in to kiss Daddy goodnight at the same time either) it is close to 11 o'clock and I still have kitchen dishes to clean and the dishwasher is of course full of clean dishes that I have to put away first.

I finally get to bed it at almost midnight and I'm exhausted. Oh well, so much for well thought out instructions and plans for a quick and easy bed time.

Ready for Summer

So either I'm on summer mode already or I'm just really tired all the time from my pregnancy. Either way, I find myself sleeping later each day. During the summer I let the children sleep until 8 am (sometimes 9 am if we were up late the night before, Yikes!). During school they are up by 7 or 7:30 am. But this last week or so I have been letting them sleep until 8 almost everyday.

We aren't quiet out of school yet. You see I'm a stickler for finishing curriculum. Most of my kids subjects are done but there are some that still have a few lessons to finish in just math. I expect them to finish their books. So that means no summer break for me yet as well. I'm ready to start going to the zoo, having picnics, going swimming, going camping, going on nature walks and all the other activities that come with summer. But I guess that will have to wait a couple more weeks.

In the meantime, I'm resting so that I can have the energy to do all these fun summer things I have planned and looking forward to a schedule that is more flexible.

How about you? Do you have special things you try to do each summer? Or maybe you have something special planned for this summer that's different from summer's past. What are your plans?

Pics from our Memorial Day

Ant cupcakes

(Got the idea from RaisingOlives.com)

Ant and Patriotic cupcakes

Kaitlyn and Josiah playing horseshoes

Christiana playing horseshoes

Me playing horseshoes

Matthew took a nap in a comfy spot

Playing cards

Playing cards

Just thought I would share a few pics from yesterday. Enjoy :)

Happy Memorial Day

I would like to take this time to thank all service men and women who have served or are serving in the military. Thank you for your sacrifice and for the freedom that my family and I enjoy.

We ended up celebrating today with a cookout with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. We set up horseshoes and took a drive out to Melton Hill Dam.

I love patriotic celebrations. I love decorating in red, white and blue. I love fireworks and summer time cookouts with all the trimmings and family gathered together. I'm proud to be an American and want to instill that in our children. I pray that we never forget those who have made this freedom possible.

Happy Memorial Day everyone. May you be blessed today and everyday.

Holiday Plans

So this weekend is Memorial weekend and I'm still not sure what we are going to do. Our family loves traditions and to be honest we really don't have a Memorial Day tradition. This is our first Memorial weekend here in TN, so I'm looking to find out what is cheap and available for a family our size. The kids love parades so we may see if we can find one and we do usually have a cook out.

Anyone familiar with this area have any suggestions? Or maybe you can share with me what some of your plans or traditions are for this holiday weekend. So, what are you up to this weekend?

Peek a Boo

Peek a Boo

There he is!

When we were all packing up to head out to NC our oldest son was watching Joshua for us. Josiah comes into our bedroom to show us Christiana's backpack. I thought he was showing us that she was all packed until I looked more closely at it's contents. Joshua actually loved being in there and didn't even seem to want to get out afterwards. We all thought it was cute and I thought I would share it with you as well.