Hannah, 6, ready to jump in with the horses

Lydia, 8, learning about the horses

I don’t think I snapped a photo of this but one of the horses is a bit up in age. Sweetest horse! He was out in the yard just free ranging on some grass. Content as could be.  Children and animals running all over and the horse just munched his way around the yard.

Sam, 2, getting a tour of the land from the experienced farm hand

Hannah loved the goats and thinks we need one.

Sarah, 4, and Maxine.

I seriously wanted to bring Maxine home. She is a very old kitty who just wants to sit in your lap and not move. Sarah fell in love with Maxine. And it was amazing. Sarah was still and quiet for an extended period of time. If I could have found a way to sneak her home, Maxine would  be a part of our family. Sarah loved her!

Caleb, 10, and Sam, 2. The boys.

Lydia, 8, loving the tire swings.

Hannah, Sam and Lydia.

Caleb. I love this boy.

Sam ready to ride!

Wasn’t this a fun day?! I hated to see it end. Great fun and fellowship.

Bekah, 13. Yee haw.

Thank you to our dear friends!! It was a wonderful day!

(Just a note…we did enjoy fun fellowship with the children in this family. But as a respect of privacy, I kept photos posted to just our kiddos.)

Mary is a treasure. She is an amazing organizer, she has a delightful imagination and sense of humor that has me chuckling often. She is the best alarm clock; helping me to get up and get moving in the mornings. I really do love her for this. Really. I do.  Mary can turn anything from folding laundry to cleaning out the van in to fun.

For as long as I can remember, Mary has loved horses. While we were tossing around ideas for what she wanted to do for her birthday, I had a moment of sheer brilliance. We have friends who have horses and I was sure they would be delighted to have us crash their home and farm all for the sake of horse lovin’ gal’s 12th birthday. And I was right. Our friends so graciously set aside  a day in their busy life, so that Mary could make a dream come true.

Mary seems to be a natural on a horse. I wasn’t sure if she would be willing to come home. However, I think she is more determined than ever to have a horse of her own one day.

My Mary is such a  blessing to me. So hard to believe that she is 12 already. I blinked and she went from that cute little baby to a lovely young lady.

Mary, Happy Birthday!!! Love you bunches!

(We have more photos from the day at the farm. I’ll post them in a separate post. )

Sam’s current favorite song is You are Holy. He is constantly singing while playing the “guitar”. Naturally, he will not sing for the camera.

After singing praises to the Lord, you may need a nap.

Words to You Are Holy

You are holy (You are holy)
You are mighty (You are mighty)
You are worthy (You are worthy)
Worthy of praise (Worthy of praise)

I will follow (I will follow)
I will listen (I will listen)
I will love You (I will love You)
All of my days (All of my days)

I will sing to (You are Lord of lords)
And worship (You are King of kings)
The King who (You’re the mighty God)
Is worthy (Lord of everything)
I will love and (You’re Emmanuel)
Adore Him (You’re the great I am)
And I will bow down (You’re the Prince of Peace)
Before Him (Who is the Lamb)
I will sing to (You’re the living God)
And worship (You’re my saving grace)
The King who (You will reign forever)
Is worthy (You are ancient of days)
I will love and (You are alpha, omega)
Adore Him (Beginning and end)
And I will bow down (You’re my Savior, Messiah)
Before Him (Redeemer and friend)

You’re my Prince of Peace
And I will live my life for You

Bubbles!

I have a schedule of upcoming blog posts (and I am behind) but I really wanted to share a couple of cute pics from today. Then I will return to the normal blogging schedule.

The three oldest girls were at a father/daughter retreat for the day so we decided to goof off and enjoy some bubbles.

Not everyone was impressed with the bubbles. We are working through some issues he is having with the great outdoors. Bubbles did not aid in this endeavor.

Sarah loved the bubbles. And the camera. Ready for the many faces of Sarah?

She cracks me up.

I think that was suppose to be a mad face? Giggle.

Adorable.

And Caleb, such a good big brother, pushed Sam around to keep him content.

And he blew bubbles so the girls could chase them.

Simple pleasures!

Little Miss Martha turned 4 months old on April 12th. There are people in my house who think she is growing up just a bit too fast. I agree!!

Martha is around 13/14lbs and wearing 3-6 months clothes. Simple put…perfect!

I was reminded that I was late in posting her 4 month update. In my defense, taking these pictures can be challenging. Other people keep jumping into the pictures.

But such cute little creatures jumping in the shot! This leaves no doubt that Martha is deeply treasured by all her siblings!

Martha loves to share her smiles. Ticklish? Not so far. Many attempts have been made to tickle Martha and get her laughing, but all have failed. She takes after her daddy.

Martha loves to talk to her daddy. As soon as he looks at her she starts to chat away. Always a very serious conversation. She is also making a lovely “mmmmmm” sound. I think she is contemplating attacking my chocolate.

And at four months, Martha’s thoughts on structure and design is highly sought after.

Sucking on two fingers always helps when in deep thought!

Martha Ann is such a sweet blessing!

Happy 4 months, Goose!

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

What a glorious and beautiful day it was! I snapped a few photos (Ok, about 100) as I do every Resurrection Day. Before church pictures didn’t happen as we were running a bit behind schedule. Thankfully, the Lord granted us a beautiful, sunny day and a gorgeous backdrop for a photo session after church.

The Tribe - 2012

After the group shot, to the excitement of my children, we did some individual shots. Well, excitement might be too strong of a word but they love their mommy so they humor me. One day they will be thankful to have all these pictures!

Rebekah 13, Martha Ann almost 4 months

Last week, Bekah taught herself to crochet flowers and made some for all the girls! Martha loved her crocheted headband.

Mary, 12 on Saturday the 14th

Caleb, 10

As I was taking this picture, one of his sisters commented on the high probability that the grass was not sanitary.  Sweet, yes?

Lydia, 8

Hannah, 6

Matching outfits for Resurrection Sunday has become a tradition. When I was first learning to sew several years ago, I decided to have them completed by Resurrection Sunday to give myself a goal. And so the tradition began. This year’s outfits were simple paneled skirts for the older girls and peasant dresses with pinafores for the younger set.  They boys were happy to just wear blue shirts. Ah, boys.

Sarah, 4

Sam, 2

By the time of this photo session, Sam was done. I was chatting with him about improving his outlook and Mary snapped a picture.

Little Miss Martha, almost 4 months!

And Martha completely agreed with Sam. Her afternoon snooze was interrupted and she was not pleased.

Happy Resurrection Day! May we remember Christ’s sacrifice for us daily.

Girls..sunshine...paper dolls

I sit here thinking over the day. Thinking of a thing or two that I really need to work on with the kiddos. Thinking of what needs to be done tomorrow. Thinking of how I can improve the running of our day. Realizing that going to bed a bit earlier might help me rise a bit earlier. Giggle. I am a night owl. I gave birth to morning birds. Funny, huh?

Little Miss sporting a new look thanks to Big Sis.

My thoughts are rambling; jumping from one thing to the next. I truly enjoy my days. Even the rough ones. I am blessed to have a husband who works hard and enables me to be at home with our children. I find it hilarious that I am finally understanding Algebra. Homeschooling is so amazing that way. I love that as I was doing math corrections with the 7th grader and jokingly said, “What is 3 +2?”, that my 4 year old said, “3+2 is 5″. She was so proud of herself.

Big Brother ...he was so happy to have Little Miss sit with him.

There really is no purpose for this post. Except  to get these rambling thoughts out of my head before I go to bed. To reflect a bit over the day. Think a bit about what will come tomorrow. Hopefully not forgetting anything important. You know, things like turning the crock pot on the correct temperature for the yogurt. Yeah. That would be helpful. In the encouraging words of one of my children, “maybe you will do it right this time.” (Please know it wasn’t said disrespectfully at all; I don’t think the child even realized how that comment could come across, giggle).

Double Cuteness!

And so I will close…head to bed….enjoy an early morning cuddle with Little Miss as my man heads to work….and the day will begin.

What rambling thoughts do you have at the end of the day? Am I the only one who rambles to herself?

Don't you have frogs in your fridge?

Snoozing Sam

I love quiet time. I love to see those heavy eyelids finally give in to how tired his body really is. I love to hear the quiet whispering of the child who is reading on her own but still hasn’t mastered silent reading. I love the quiet giggles of the “old girls” as they enjoy a break from their work.

Horse-opoly, anyone?

Quiet time is the perfect opportunity to read aloud. Everyone can find his/her own spot and settled with paper and pencil and drift away to the exciting adventure awaiting them. I am blessed that even my older children still love a good read aloud.

My precious girls!

Quiet time happens after lunch. We eat, clean up and quiet time begins. The generally procedure is: find your spot and then you may read, write or draw. Alone. Quietly. However, sometimes I let them do a group activity but they have to stay quiet or they lose it. On this day, everyone wanted markers. It was also a day I couldn’t read aloud as I had some admin stuff to do for my reviews.

Creative and Quiet. A lovely combination!

So how did I get those little chatty girls to be quiet? Librivox. It is a great resource for when I can’t read aloud. I can find a book that isn’t readily available at the library and let them listen to it. On this day, they were listening to Buster Bear by Thorton Burgess. Sadly, our library doesn’t have Burgesses’ books so this works out great. They loved the story of Buster Bear! My older girls utilized Librivox on this day as well. A cell phone we no longer have coverage for is still used for a variety of things. On this day, the girls used it to listen to Pride and Prejudice on Librivox while they play their game.

Sarah Bear

And if you are a mom with children in a wide range of ages…everyone was either quiet or asleep. Yes! The baby napped during quiet time. It was so quiet in the house that if felt a bit odd. Giggle. Quiet time is about hour and a half. Perfect amount of time to take a break and get ready for the afternoon!

Little Miss so happy after her nap!

And just a note….Caleb wasn’t pictured because when he is able, he works with his dad. So on this particular day he was working. However, he spends quiet time either reading or building with Legos.

Do you have a quiet time? What does it look like at your house?