Graduation

Martha's Day Care had their annual graduation of five-year-olds last night. This included Ethan.

So we loaded up and headed to day care in the evening. Gram Jackie, Grandma Carolyn, Grandpa Vernon, Uncle Brandon and Aunt Daniela accompanied our little crew.

It was seriously the cutest thing I've ever seen. They marched down the stairs behind Ms. Martha and lined up in front of their little chairs. 

They said the pledge, sang God Bless America, and then Ethan sang a solo! I was so proud as he belted out Jesus Loves Me! Then they started sing other songs including a song for their daddies since Father's Day is Sunday.

Nathan

Oscar

Van

Quite the gang!

Ethan got his diploma,

Shook Ms. Martha's hand,

and got a great big hug!

Then they sang a song about being friends forever,

and recited a prayer before we ate refreshments.

The boys with Ms. Martha and the cake she got them.

My little graduate.

He'll be in kindergarten in August.

We love you, Ethan! And we are so proud of the boy you've become!

You are an amazing little man!

Boy or Girl?

My brother and his wife go tomorrow to find out if their little bean is going to be a girl or a boy. We're all pretty excited and of course we have our own opinions. I got the idea tonight at the grocery store to do a little picture session to document what we all predicted the little one will be. I was looking for Ethan a balloon (he graduated! I'll post about it tomorrow.) and found the baby gender balloons. We went home and I snapped a shot of everyone that was at our celebration with what they think it's going to be.

Welcome to Summer

Yesterday was the first full day of my summer break. Summer has always been a time of relaxing and getting things done around the house. I usually read some, clean, sleep late, take a nap, watch some show on tv. You know, no where to be at any certain time, no worries in the world, relaxing kind of days.

The alarm went off at 6.00. That's a.m. No big deal, I could lay in bed for a few minutes. Then I heard the chatter of a 10 month old telling me he was ready for breakfast. No problem, I could eat my breakfast while he did and do the things I needed to do on the computer. Then I heard an extra set of feet walking to the kitchen. A two-year-old wanted his breakfast too. That'd be cool, but he has to sit with his mama while he eats. It hit me then, this is my first summer with three kids....I'm not relaxing this year.

The rambunctious five-year-old slept a little longer, but when he got up I knew my life for the next two months won't be easy. Or relaxing. I think I called Ronnie and asked if I could get a summer job. He laughed.

So, what does one do when her kids are driving her insane before lunch on the first day of summer break? 

She gets out a bag of flour and lets her kids do whatever they want while the baby naps.

They seriously LOVED doing this! 

They "wrote" in the flour then they got cars and trucks and played.

This kept them entertained for TWO hours!

Then Ezra woke up and it was lunch time!

After lunch we played and washed more clothes. We read books and ate snack. Then I put Ezra in the pack n' play so I could get some things done and when I went to check on him he was eating a magazine he had gotten his hands on!

You can barely see it, but there's a red corner sticking out of his little mouth. He tried his best to hide it, but I got it back. Just because you're a "kidd" doesn't mean you have to act like a goat!

I gave the boys baths, they took naps, I fixed supper, we got ready for church, searched for the dog, killed a snake in the driveway, found the dog, went to church, played with friends after church, went to Brandon and Daniela's and helped feed up, drove home, called Daddy and went to bed. 

That's how the first day of summer went. And I don't expect it to slow down any time soon. But that's okay with me!

Library Time

When we (the brother, sister and I) were small, our mom made sure we went to the library on a regular basis. It was a good thing I like books, or I'm sure I would have been miserable. Once I was in middle school, the Girl Scout troop I was in took over the summer reading program at the local library and planned out summers full of fun for the kiddos. We dressed up, sang songs, prepared crafts, and read books in the musty dark basement of the ancient library with around twenty kids every Tuesday through the summer. I loved those days and couldn't wait to start taking my kids when I had them.

I finally took Ethan and Elijah last summer. They enjoyed it, but were still a bit young to grasp everything that was going on. This summer I have high hopes since Ethan is getting ready to go to kindergarten (tear, sniff). So today I tore out of school as soon as I possibly could, made the day care stops and high tailed it to Seagrove for the first program of the summer.

We got to the library just after the group began so we made our way over to a vacant area where I urged the boys to go on and participate. They weren't moving. Ethan is super shy in crowds and I really have to try to get him to take some initiative and go out and do things with people he doesn't know. Today there was a group performing songs and hyping up the kids so I really thought Ethan would get involved, but it took til the second to last song to get him out there.

I do understand what it's like to be shy and lack confidence...I'm pretty sure my picture is beside those definitions in the dictionary, and it really hurts to see him follow in my footsteps, but I'm hoping that with some loving pushes he'll get more involved and be eager to participate in more activities.

Until next time,
MK

Let the good times roll...

It's summer! The plan for the summer is to take "Friday Field Trips" instead of a major vacation so we have several small trips planned throughout the next couple of months. Tomorrow is my last work day, but the family and I got our fun started this past Sunday with a little mini trip. Since we hadn't been together as a family all week, we decided to do something together that afternoon. We headed over to a place that Ronnie and I hadn't visited since grade school - Town Creek Indian Mound.

We headed home after church, changed clothes and took off. We stopped at Mickey D's to grab a quick bite we could eat on the road since we were driving for an hour anyway. We really felt like we were going out in the middle of nowhere, and when Ronnie was about to give up finding the place, we found it. 

We watched a video on the excavation of the site and learned facts about the people who had once lived on this land. Then we headed out to see the burial area, the ceremonial site and a hut. I'm not sure how much the boys understood or retained, but I believe they had a good time just hanging out with Mama and Daddy.

(Ronnie actually took the camera and got a picture of me!)

After we had toured and seen the sites, we decided to walk the nature trail down by the Little River that loops back around to the entrance. It was an easy, level walk and the boys enjoyed running ahead, waiting and then getting behind. They were curious about the plants, the river and spiders.

Near the end of trail, Ronnie fussed at us to get quiet and when we all paid attention we saw twin fawns running across the trail. I wish I had gotten a picture, but they were super fast and I'm glad I just watched them while they were there. 

We had a great afternoon together as a family and enjoyed spending time doing something a little different than our normal routine. Stay tuned for more of our summer adventures!

When Nobody Else Understands

Do you ever have one of those days when you firmly believe that no one else knows how you feel. There's no one in your world who understands what you're going through. Your husband is at work while you're dealing with the kids (even though you work too), your mom is sleeping because she has to work tonight, none of the other people you're close to have three rambunctious little boys.

Yeah, I had one of those mornings. It's picture day at day care. And you know I love pictures, but I never imagined this day could be so stressful. Ethan had to have black pants and a white shirt to wear with his cap and gown (tear...my baby's growing up...sniff), and he needed like three pairs of shoes for his different outfits, Elijah got dressed, but then ran outside...with no shoes, Ethan couldn't find one of his pairs of shoes, Ezra was screaming because no one was holding him, Elijah was still missing, Ethan went to the van to look for a pair of shoes, someone moved my shoes this morning, Ezra was really wanting to be held, I couldn't find the labels for Ezra's food, Ethan was only half-dressed and still looking for those run away shoes, I realized I didn't buy anything for my lunch, Elijah was still outside somewhere, Ezra threw up (on his picture clothes), Ethan disappeared to wherever Elijah was, Ezra was glad I picked him up after I carried half the house's contents to the van, Ethan and Elijah were in the van, Elijah had snot all over him (literally) since he wiped it "off" with his hand, Elijah had poured drink all over Ezra's car seat, Ethan found those pesky shoes after I had told him three times to look in the van, and we finally left the driveway. You know, one of those mornings.

But we made it to the van and that meant that I could get us to day care where those awesome ladies would grab my babies and give them kisses after not seeing them for two days, they would feed them and make them presentable for their pictures. Just getting behind the wheel makes me feel lots better about my mothering abilities. This morning Joy FM played the song "Jesus Will." The lyrics say, "when no one else understands how you feel, Jesus will." This morning, I'll admit, that made me mad. I thought to myself, "Yeah right! I don't recall the Bible story where Jesus was working full time and dealing with his three sons every morning."

I was upset with myself for thinking such a thing, but then I thought about a note I had written a few weeks ago and stuck in my Bible. It says:
"I was listening to 89.5 today and they were talking about God's anger. I thought, "why would God be so mean? Why would we want to serve someone that was so easily angered?" After a minute, I realized that He should get mad at us. He gives us all we that we need and we're being ungrateful children by not listening to what He says for us to do. It's just like when we get mad at the boys - we give them so much, but they still disobey us. They want stuff they don't need and it aggravates us. Same thing with God - He gives us so much, but we disobey. We want stuff we don't need and it aggravates God. So it makes sense that He'd get mad at us."

So this morning when I thought that Jesus doesn't understand how I feel, I realized that He does, but on a much bigger scale. He's not trying to get us dressed and out the door for picture day. He's trying to get us to trust on Him so we can go with Him to Heaven one day. He's not trying to make us look good for a moment in time, He's trying to wash us white as snow that we can live for Him. When I get frustrated with my three children, I must remember that we're all God's children and that he understands what it's like to be frustrated with us. So, yes, Jesus knows how I feel. He's been there, he knows all of our burdens. We just have to look to Him for guidance to get through our trying times.

"Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee nor forsake thee." Deuteronomy 31:6

If God never failed Moses or Joshua, He won't fail me and my my little issues. He is with me and he understands. And that's how I can be the mother that I should be. Even on picture day.

Genesis 21:6

"And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear me will laugh with me."

I'm laughing. Or at least I'm trying to.

On March 24, Ronnie and I had a date night. We went out to see the Hunger Games movie after he got home from EMT class. I'm not really sure when he told me, but we had a conversation about why he got home late. He had been talking to a classmate and when he told me the topic of discussion, I was more than a little shocked. He explained to me that he had been feeling the call to preach. I never saw it coming. He had been fighting, ignoring God, for a couple of years he told me. But when God calls you, you can't run forever. He'll get  your attention and He had Ronnie's.

I'm proud of my husband. I'm honored that God has found him favorable to be His servant and I pray that God uses him in a mighty way, but there's a catch: if he's a preacher, that makes me a preacher's wife.

Whoa! What? You have GOT to be kidding me! But God doesn't joke around like that. So here I am, a preacher's wife.

I actually told Ronnie that it was great that he had been called. But he needed a new wife. (Note: We believe that a preacher should be the husband of one wife, meaning no divorce, so I don't know what I was getting at.)

Ronnie told his parents, then mine. The response was fine, until they realized what I had already figured out - that I'm now the wife of a preacher. My grandmother felt the same shock. Everyone was cool with Ronnie being a preacher, but they couldn't believe, nor had they ever expected me to be a preacher's wife.

He announced his call at church this past Sunday. Everyone was really supportive and I'm grateful for that.

But there are comments about me being a preacher's wife. "You? That's a shock!" "Never saw that one coming." "You know you're going to have to be nice, right?" "You better treat him right."  

At first I was okay. I brushed the comments off. After all, I had had the same response they were having. But it finally hit me hard last night. Do people really think I'm that mean? Do they think I don't love my husband? Or give him the love/respect that he deserves? What have I done to make people think I'm such a bad candidate for a preacher's wife?

I know that I'm not worthy of anything that I have. I have so many blessings in my life: a great husband, three awesome sons, a wonderful family, a good job, a roof over my head...more than I could ever deserve. We all have more than we deserve and God trusts us with so much even when we're unworthy, but I don't know what I am doing that makes people think I'm a less than desirable preacher's wife. I know I have room to grow, but the comments started to sting.

I prayed and asked God to please show me something that would help me. This morning I was reading in Genesis and I read verse 6 of chapter 21 and I smiled. It was like God pointed that verse out to me and it hit me that I needed to laugh it off. Sarah was ninety years old and God told her that she would bare a son for Abraham, but she thought having a baby was impossible. She lacked the faith that God would provide her a child. But with God nothing is impossible and He knows what's going to happen to us before we're even born. Things may surprise us, but God is never surprised. If God had told me before March 24, that I was going to be married to a preacher, I wouldn't have believed it. I would not have had the faith to believe that it  could happen. I would have come up with so many reasons why Ronnie becoming a preacher was "impossible." But God makes no mistakes and he knows what he is doing. He knew that Ronnie was going to marry me and He knew that Ronnie was going to be called to preach. So I am a preacher's wife and there is nothing anyone on Earth can do about it. I'm human and my feelings still hurt, but I'm going to try my best to be happy in our calling, to laugh while we do God's work. And, in the process, I pray that my happiness in my "impossible" situation makes others happy as well. Maybe we'll all share a laugh together.