That was such a blessing...

I know it sounds silly, but it took all of my courage to take the kids to the Assisted Living place here to visit the men and women there.  I think it was more of a stretching experience for me than for the kids.  I was looking for every possible excuse not to go, like "I can't go, Evelyn just fell asleep an hour ago".  God prodded my heart and said "then wake her up - she's not sick, she'll be fine".  "But I have so much housework to do"...that didn't work either - God just reminded me that that hasn't kept me from doing other things.  Okay, God, no excuses!  I even thought I could get myself out of it by saying "if I go into Evelyn's room and she wakes up, then it means I should go."  I went in and she was sleeping soundly, but I still didn't feel right NOT going to visit today. 

There is a home school mom that started going with her 4 young kids (all younger than mine!) and has done it faithfully ever other Tuesday, gently inviting anyone else to join her.  I'm ashamed to say, I was usually relieved when I had a "good" excuse not to go.  It's not that I didn't want to bless others, but more the fear of the unknown as well as selfishness of not wanting to feel out of my comfort zone and also, not knowing how the kids would react.  I even tried to get "out of it" in my mind and heart with, "I'll start once we move" or "I'll prepare better next time and go next Tuesday that they're going".  Oh, and another excuse I thought of this afternoon...the kids are dirty and they won't want to be around dirty kids.  All lame excuses.

I finally asked JB and Gloria if they wanted to go and they both were game.  Okay, God, it's just me and my selfishness hindering this mission...time to "just do it".  I'm soooo glad we went this afternoon.  I hope we blessed the people there and there was a couple of them that said they hoped we come back.  I hope so too.  Please help me like you did today, Lord, get over my fears and step out of my comfort zone.  I know, it sounds so lame of me, but I'm pretty shy, and would be perfectly happy to stay in my shell, except that God didn't let me today.

All the kids were great there - eight kids in all with Kerri's four and my four, seven men and women who live there, and two moms.  Gloria read to a lady, who seemed perfectly happy to just sit there and, even though I don't think she could hear her, seemed to enjoy it anyway.  Gloria didn't seem to have any fear or hesitation in talking to the older ladies.  JB was very good at teaching one of the younger boys as well as an older man how to play Othello.  JB was very patient with the man and the man very patient and grateful to JB.  It was really a sweet scene that melted my heart as a mom, who loves the fact that my kids are so much braver than I am.  Benaiah seemed to just fit right in.  He was happy just to mingle in with everyone like it was normal (which I hope it is with our kids...in the right setting).  I sat next to a lady with Evelyn in my lap and we read "Go, Dog, Go" and "Fox in Socks".  The lady told me the same story about her two boys three times and she delighted in Evelyn, who had a pink frilly skirt on.  This particular lady said "oh, she's so sweet" every time Evelyn would say a word.  I hope we were a blessing to the men and women whom we visited at the Assisted Living place because I know they were a blessing to us today.

Lord, please give me the strength to step out of my shell again and give the kids wonderful experiences to love and serve others without my own selfishness getting in the way.

Benaiah continues to take his cute pills...

As I was carrying Evelyn from the bathtub to the laundry room, where we keep her pajamas,  I noticed Benaiah quietly writing in a notebook.  He looked up at me with those big blue eyes and said, "I'm writing a story for you, Mom."  I said okay and kept walking toward the laundry room to get Evelyn diapered and clothed.  Benaiah joined us and announced that he was done with his story.  Since I knew he only wrote a jumble of letters, I made up a clever excuse and said, "I can't read it now since I am changing EV...could you read it to me?" 
Benaiah looked at with a puzzled expression and said "I can't read."
"But you wrote the story, so do you remember what you wrote?"
"Oh...yeah!  I do!"

He proceeded to read his story about dragons and castles getting hit by a tornado and the prince dying.  It was quite the story for a bunch of strung-together jumbled up letters on a page.  I was quite impressed by his reading skills.

We're still here, just a bit distracted...:) Read on...

Blog posts have been very few and very far between.  This is mainly because for the last few months if I have been on the computer it has been to look for a house in Colorado or more recently, to design a kitchen or a bathroom in our new house in Colorado.  We are not going to be there for a couple of months, but now is the time to get started on this stuff.  Also, if I have not been on the computer, I have been homeschooling, doing outdoor painting in preparation for the next people to move here, or doing other clean-up stuff around the house.

We are extremely thankful and relieved to have a buyer for this house and to have a house in Colorado near Max's parents (about a 15-20 minute drive) in a beautiful area, at the bottom of a "gated" mountain with gorgeous views.  Mixed emotions run rampant at this time as I am excited to be able to design a new house in Colorado (with the help of contractors, family, and home improvement stores), yet the waiting and decision making are stressful and exhausting.  I'm also looking forward to getting to Colorado to hopefully spend more time with my husband as he plans to take time off before his year-long deployment, yet our move to Colorado also means the deployment, a year without my beloved right next to me, is within sight.  My determination is to enjoy the time we have together while we have it, to keep in such good touch while he's gone (as much as possible) that it doesn't feel like he's distant, and to keep my eyes on the Lord, which is where my help comes from.  Help me in these goals, Lord, I can't do it without You.

Anyway, with getting started on house renovations in Colorado (contractors will do the physical labor, of which I am thankful, but more decision-making looms ahead - as I said, both exhausting and exciting!), getting our current place ready for the next occupants, and packing in the next couple of months, we don't have a lot of free time on our hands.  However, we are striving to take rests, as we tend to get less productive and much more stressed if we don't have a Sabbath, as the Lord prescribed to us and set an example for us.  It surely wasn't for His own good for him to rest, because as God, he didn't need to, but He surely knows His creation needs to rest.  We need Your strength in resting too, Lord...strength not to jump in on the next project or even to use brain cells thinking about where the oven or fridge should be located.

Here are a few pictures I've been wanting to post, but haven't taken the time.  Sadly, we really don't have a lot of pictures in either the February or March folders, not nearly as many as we usually have.  Shows how distracted we have been. Forgive me to those who do check this blog for not keeping up with it.  I'm thankful for you!

Evelyn with her pony-tails, which Gramma Shell introduced into her life with our visit to Colorado for a house-hunting trip.  Now all she wants is pony tails.  Very cute.

The girls get to cuddle with a new lamb in Gramma Shell and Grandude's kitchen.

Max in the attic, looking from the other side of the ceiling, in Oklahoma house.  One of many projects with our current place was adding a fan/light in the kid's bathroom.

Evelyn likes to fall asleep in this glider when she is sick and gets "spoiled" with movie watching.  This was a couple of weeks ago.

The cycle of frustration over pencil sharpeners that don't work and never having sharpened pencils has recently been broken with the purchase of this nifty little camera-looking pencil sharpener.  Now the kids (esp JB) cannot wait for pencil leads to break or get worn down...It sometimes helps in homeschooling when the kids look forward to wearing down pencil leads:)

Evelyn and Benaiah resting, our Great Phyician's orders:)