2 Corintians 12:9

A couple of weeks ago, I asked a sweet, godly mother (of 13) and friend of mine for any words of wisdom or counsel on bringing up children to love the Lord and love each other. Some of her children are now grown and not only do they love the Lord, but truly love each other...they are each other's best friends.

Our children are all still so young and while they have their squabbles, they love being together and I want that friendship to last. My dear friend told me a couple of things that stood out in her mind as to developing a close relationship between her children, but one thing that she said was so true and a good reminder to me. She said, "I do not have all the answers, sometimes I don’t know how it happened, its just His grace and mercy upon us, so undeserved!" Oh how true that is!

For one, it was a reminder to me to always pray for each one of my children, for God loves them so much more than Daniel or I do and how He wants their hearts! It was a wonderful reminder that when I am concerned about an attitude or action that I see in my child and I worry or get frustrated, that I need to continually give that child to the One who changes hearts and lives.

"My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness".

And how weak I am! And what undeserved grace the Lord gives me each day!

Thank you so much for your prayers for us and specifically for my morning sickness. Early last week I was feeling pretty miserable but the past 4 days I've felt so much better and we enjoyed getting caught up on house work, laundry, and even helping Daddy with more outside work. Here's some pictures from the past few days:

Isaiah losing his first "real tooth"! We say real because he did lose one a few years ago, but it was due to trying to bite the cement. So this was a very exciting moment! Does that look like a scary way to lose a tooth? It does to me! But the children LOVE having Daddy pull their teeth with his "leatherman". I think he's pulled around 40 teeth this way now :)

Our little Isaiah is growing up!

The girls dumped all the laundry in the hallway to sort...but first, the little ones jumped in it a bit. Well, we don't get any fall leaves here to play in, so we improvise :)
Eliseo is "Daddy's little helper".
Each morning, we have a meeting before school starts. The past few days, we've had it in our bedroom where it is cooler.


Nehemiah and his bullfrog...you rarely see one without the other :)
Lunch time!
Clean up! We get this done in no time...many hands make light work!

Beka's so good to keep the little ones occupied while the older ones clean

Afternoon activities

Saturday, the boys worked with Daddy...it's so fun to have Daddy home! Even Nehemiah's been a big helper moving the dirt

Have a wonderful week as you rest in the grace of Jesus!