Church membership

I don't have any cool pictures, and exciting post written up or anything, but I didn't want to let this day pass without saying that John and I were interviewed by the session at Apple Valley yesterday, and accepted as members. We will make public vows in two weeks, not looking forward to standing up in front of the church, sigh........But I am thankful for what the Lord has given us for now. I'm thankful to be able to take this step, and hopefully put down more roots here in Wisconsin. We have really felt like the Lord has been leading us, but especially me, not to think of SC as home, and there has been various things that have definitely made me less excited about settling there in the future, but who knows what will happen, or what the Lord will do by the time Hunter turns 18/graduates high school. I'm pretty much content to leave that in the Lord's hands for now, and not worry about it. Too many, "what ifs!" And in the meantime I am thankful that the Lord is feeding and caring for us here. People might forget, or let us down, but He doesn't.

Caroline

One of my goals for the week was to get new pictures for the kids frames in the living room, and her is Caroline's. Hunter's school provided his. Luke spent the whole day saying, I want this or that, then when given it, crying and saying he didn't want it. For everyone's good health I decided to postpone his photography session to another day. On the bright side, these are cute, and I had some great coupon codes to use when I ordered prints :-). The even brighter side? Tomorrow is the Lord's day, and Daddy will be with us all day :-)

Family pictures

Some of these pictures are not quite the groups and poses I originally had in mind, due to a certain uncooperative two year old, but they are most certainly a snapshot of real life around here! I love my family, I love pictures, I love preserving memories, so to me it is soooo worth the hassle!

My favorite.

A hug from guggle Duke. He refused to sit on my lap though :-(

When mother and daughter are both rolling their eyes....

Giving thanks and remembering

I saw this picture this morning and it was so perfect for me in this season of Thanksgiving because in my mind so much of being thankful is about remembering. Remember all the ways the Lord has led us, the prayers he has answered, even our failures and sins can be helpful at times to remember so we can learn from them, and be thankful again for the Lord's forgiveness and mercy.

That would be why I bought this little remember charm to wear with some birthday money five years ago, and I still wear it almost every day. Well, it's totally my style :-), but I also love what it symbolizes and reminds me of,

The Bible tells us so often to remember, remember, remember -

all that the Lord has done for us,

past mercies,

blessings,

answered prayers,

promises,

the ways He has provided....."Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."

"And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee....."

 "Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God...."

"But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God...."

"Remember the LORD..."

"Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold."

"I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old."

"If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth..."

"Remember the word that I said unto you..."

"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast..."

(verses from Deuteronomy 8, Nehemiah 4, Job 36, Psalms 77,137, John 15, and Revelation 3)

Remember to give thanks in everything.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits....

"...last night I dreamed that I got such a view of God's kindness and benefits to me, that for some time my throat felt choked. I could find no way of giving uttermost to my overwhelming feeling of  wonder. When I awoke the savor of this still remained with me."

Andrew Bonar's Diary

My birthday

Chinese take out at home date night/birthday dinner/first night of gun hunting season tradition. I love crab rangoons! I was also given a gift card to a local restaurant so we should get a date night sometime, and John is going to make me a cheesecake.

Luke's birthday

We started out with falling apart cake layers, and ended up with a very rich, yummy construction birthday cake for Luke :-)

Luke is excited about his birthday cake!

Birthday selfie :-)

My baby is two today!

We let Luke open his present from Daddy and Mama after his nap. He likes the whole tool bench, but the hammer was the biggest hit. No pun intended, lol

Balloons are the favorite birthday thing around here.

Luke's birthday dinner.

Birthday cake! After we finished singing he asked for a spoon. He thought he got to eat the whole thing, lol.

Reading with Daddy.

Birthday presents.

First snow of the year

A day in pictures

It's been quite awhile since I did a day in pictures, so....

My morning began when I went to change this little guy's diaper and found it down inside one pajama leg by his ankle. And yes, he had pooped, and yes, it was everywhere. It also included John leaving early to attempt to fix and get Grandma's broken down car back on the road. What a day! And it's not even 8:00 yet!

Apparently it is a good day for sparkly pink and pearls. I actually got this nail polish for Caroline, but couldn't resist trying it. Does it take years off my age? :-)

What the living room looks like when the kids decide to play tea party.

I bathed Luke, cleaned bathrooms, and then mixed up two batches of cookie dough to chill and bake tomorrow. Tomorrow's job is baking.

I also made these Italian sub pinwheels to go with roasted veggie soup for dinner. Some of them don't have lettuce because, picky children.

I had a busy morning so I let the kids do their thing and play......this is what the house looked like by lunch time. But they helped, and it was cleaned up in about 10 minutes!

Leftovers and Caillou for lunch. I let them watch a video while they eat so I can have a few quiet minutes to eat and look at facebook/chat with John. Most of our daytime conversations take place through fb chat.

Then we took our walk.

Played outside.

Naptime.

After naps Caroline did what she calls homework. It keeps her busy and happy so I'm good with it

Dukie got to help with the tractor.

They have the unique talent of knowing they don't like a meal just by looking at it. Sigh. As it turned out Luke loved it though.

We had BOGO coupons so made a trip to DQ. When we stepped outside into the dark, "Mama! The sky disappeared!" The kids love to look at all the cakes. And Luke does have pants on, but for some reason he kept pushing up the legs, lol.

Another favorite, watching the fish at DQ. Then we did a little shining for deer, went home, put the kids to bed, and watched some Black List.

Nursing ends

This week is one where I'm feeling sentimental and nostalgic. For the first time since July 3rd, 2012 I'm not pregnant or nursing. It's a weird feeling! Luke has been nursing once a day before bed for months now, He calls it, "Muk and guggles." I've planned to wean him at two for awhile, and had mixed feelings. But in the past week or so he's nursed less and less, till Saturday night when he said he didn't want to. Sunday night he wanted to again, tried, and sadly told me, "Don't work." It was quite pathetic, but I am assuming we are done. He's happily drinking milk from a cup today so I think the whole thing is probably harder on me than him, lol. My baby is growing up! And I'm so thankful that the Lord gave me the ability to nurse both my babies for so long. I'll always have happy memories of our "guggles."

Election 2016

The election stuff has died now some, but still plenty of complaints, arguing, etc. I'm so tired of it all!

Feeling loved

Recently I enjoyed reading a little fiction, I've always liked this author's books. One thing in the book stuck with me, when one of the main characters resolved that her husband would never spend a day feeling unloved by her. I thought that was a wonderful goal for a wife to have, and hope that my husband and children will feel the same, that I always love them!

First drumsticks!

Election and changes

Yesterday two things happened. Trump became our president which I don't think anyone is happy about, but we're all thankful to have been spared a murderous criminal which was the other option.  Definitely the lesser of two evils. For the record, I didn't vote for either of them. More importantly, in my own life, it marks the day I got to start speaking with my sister again. For the first time in six and a half years, through no fault of either of us. I'm thankful for the communications we do have in the family, and I pray for more peace and unity, and understanding as time goes on. Most of all I pray for the salvation of everyone in my family. And I remember God's faithfulness and the answers to prayers I have already seen.

Luke and Caroline said

Every evening at family worship Luke requests that we sing, "Oh give ye praise," (Psalm 117). I'm so glad our children are learning to know and love the Psalms. What a blessing to start memorizing them before you are even two!

Luke comes up to us all the time, "What do ding?" What are you doing?!

Luke has branched out from requesting, "Oh give ye praise," (Psalm 117). Last night he kept asking for, "Shepherd," and we finally realized he was asking to sing Psalm 23 :-)

As I left for the grocery store this morning, Caroline told me, "Don't worry about anything, Mama. I'll take care of things here." Coming from a three year old it wasn't terribly reassuring, haha.