Please join me in: "I will pray for him - 30 Days of Praying for Our Husbands"

For the month of September I would like to take a few minutes of every day and pray for a specific aspect of my husbands life.

If you are interested in participating I will be sending out daily emails with that day's topic, scripture and praise and answered prayers from others praying with us. I have also started a Facebook group so we can share with other "I will pray for him" participants.

You can join by entering your email here 

Don't forget to confirm by going into your email and clicking on the URL to verify that you would like to be on the "I will pray for him" mailing list. You can unsubscribe at anytime.

and if you have a Facebook account join us at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Iwillprayforhim/

I have a few women prayer warriors who have volunteered to pray for your prayer requests if you would like to email a specific burden you or your husband are carrying. These will be kept private and first name and last initial will be all that is used for identification. You can email prayer requests to iwillprayforhim@gmail.com.

I know we will be richly blessed

Getting ready for the school year

I haven't posted in a while, but we are having an great summer. In July we surprised my daddy for his birthday and had a fabulous weekend at Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio.

Most recently I have been scrambling to get the house organized and decorated before we start school, because everyone knows that if everything is organized and cute you'll have a great school year.

Our dining room also doubles as the school area so this was obviously first priority. So I went on a delightful, child free shopping spree to Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, Dollar Tree and Walmart. I used a high quality, washable paint, purchased picture frames (50% off of course), several sets of foldable canvase totes, numerous baskets, bins and buckets and set to work. Our dining room table was unusable for almost 2 weeks as I gutted our homeschool closet, organize the bookshelves, painted and decorated.

Notice there is a missing picture on the photo wall below. I was given an beautiful photo from our trip to Ohio and immediately knew just what to do with it. I spent HOURS arranging and rearraning these frames to make it just right. I measure, hung, rehung and leveled everything. I got to the last photo in the middle and realize that this beautiful picture is designed to sit on a shelf and not hang on a wall. It has no hardware to hang it. Mr. Fixit assured me that we could purchase the hanging hardware next time we go to town and over that last three weeks we have both forgotten each and every time we leave the valley.

This is my very first artificial flower arrangement. 

 And finally a peek into my homeschool closet. This is a work in progress, but I feel like I have everything consolidated and organized for the first time since the move. The goal was to get the house done this week, lesson plans next week and we will start school on Sept 3 since the co-op we are participating in this year starts on the 5th. Then this morning both kids were begging to do school, so life stopped while Blue read us a book and Pink practiced writing her numbers. I think this is going to be a good year.

Happy Birthday Blue!!!

What do you get when you put two newlywed 20 year olds in their first apartment away from their parents with lots of friends over the legal drinking age?

A baby boy!!!!

7 years ago you made us into a family at 6:05am. It was a hot Sabbath day and I had a wedding and a birthday party to attend and a babyshower scheduled for you the next day (because everyone knows first babies are usually late, you were two weeks early). Instead I just stayed in the air conditioned hospital and stared into your sweet baby face. You had LOTS of dark hair and were well worth the effort I put in to get you here.

We may not have planned you, but you were in God's plan and I thank him every day for you. You made me a mom. You taught me selflessness. You have made me laugh and kept our little family together during the rough times.You are a caring big brother (when you feel like it) and a wonderful helper.

At 7 years old Blue LOVES chess and numbers. He's one of those kids who just knows the answer to math problems without having to figure it out. He loves drawing, jokes and puzzles. He would spend all day on the computer if I would let him.

Happy Birthday Blue!! Love ya little man.

Humor is like strawberry shortcake...

every family does it a little differently. It's never bad, but the best is what you grew up with.

After spending a few days laughing uproariously with my sister and parents I realized how much I missed the humor and jokes of my youth. Mr. Fixit and I laugh all the time, but it's different than the giggles my sister, brother and parents bring out. The shared experiences and the genetic ties bring it to a whole new level of hilarity.

Happy 8th anniversary my love

Mr. Fixit and I are high school sweethearts. We were juniors when he came to our school for the second semester. I thought he was cute and made it a point to introduce myself on the first day of class. Mr. Fixit's roomate was a good friend so he just started hanging out in our group. Graduation weekend we spent some time together and he said he'd call me over the summer. Guess what....he did  :)

We officially started dating alumni weekend our senior year Oct 13, 2001. He proposed the summer of 2002 and we were married June 20, 2004 on my grandparents and great grandparents wedding anniversary, in the church my grandfather helped build and where my parents were married.

We were young, and everyone said it was too young to get married. We still had a lot of growing up to do. That we didn't know who we were or what we wanted out of life, and do you know what? They were right! Imagine that. I just figured we'd grow up together and it would only bring us closer and we agreed divorce wasn't an option. Ah youth!!!! We've had some ups and a lot of downs. We've both wanted out but luckily never at the same time.

Today, on our 8th wedding anniversary we are more in love than we've ever been. Young love is fun, it's exciting, it sizzles. Mature love is even better. It's constant and smooth.

We are SO blessed to have added three beautiful children to our family and one we'll hold when we finally go Home! We have a long ways to go in many aspects of our lives but on this day it's smooth sailing. I have confidence that we can weather more storms that are sure to come.

I love you Mr Fixit. Thank you for being my partner, my best friend, the father of my children and the person who can make me mad faster than anyone else on earth. Thanks for the laughs, fixing anything and everything, tag teaming carseats and pjs and taking the kids to swim class today. I can't wait for our hot date tonight.

Happy 1st Birthday GREEN!!!!

Today at 7:52pm my red headed baby turns 1.

The day of his birth, I woke up feeling a little weird. We went to story hour at 10 am and by the time it was over at 11 I knew I was in early labor. We went to a homeschool potluck from 12-2 to meet a new group we wanted to be part of. The mom/nurse/hostess mentioned that I looked pretty uncomfortable. We joked about my water breaking on her kitchen floor and we have been dear friends ever since!!! Happy one year of knowing you, Erin!

  By 2pm I was ready to be home. I ran a few errands, dropped off another family, stopped by my moms and headed home. The kids were picked up by Great-Grandma by 4:45 and I labored alone for a few hours. Mike and the midwives showed up at 7:20 and 7:30 and my little man was born at 7:52 weighing 8lbs 13 ozs beating his sister by one ounce. 

His life has been probably one of a typical third child. He just fits in with what we are doing as a family. He is a very chill little man. He went to his Aunt and Uncles wedding at 1 1/2 days old, campmeeting at two weeks, several camping trips in his first 4 months and multiple

 road trips from MI to PA.

I can't imagine life without our sweet little boy. He is such a joy. He's walking, has two bottom teeth, loves the sand box and his brother and sister. He says words like Mama, Dada, and waves and say's "Hi" to people while we're walking through the store.

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Thank you for the blessing of our little boy. Plese guide us in raising him to love and worship you. Amen

This message is brought to you by Green:
.,,,,,,sda

/

Then he deleted my whole post in one simple key stroke.

And the award goes to.....

ME!!!!

Seriously, I deserve the Super Awesome Mommy award today.

Why you ask?

Because I changed a diaper in a restroom without a changing table. It didn't have a counter near the sinks, a tank on the back of the toilet. Nothing!!!! So how did I do it? By standing on one leg while balancing the baby on the other leg.

I would like to thank Shaun T for a months worth of "high knees". My two older children for providing numerous diaper changes that have all lead up to this moment. Pink for being a witness and finally Green. Without you I never would have found myself in a situation where there was a diaper that urgently needed changing and it was pouring rain outside so there was no way I was going to do it outside on the cars front seat. Thank you all and goodnight!