We No Longer Own a Home!

A sad, but happy day.  We sold our home today.  Now we are just renting our home until we move to our new home.

Last Day of School!

Yesturday was our last official day of school.  Everyone is excited and can't wait to play all day.
Today is Kent's last day of CIM Science, he is looking forward to not having school when he gets home.  There are still a few things we will finish up.  We will have an end of year program for Daddy, tonight or tomorrow.  It depends on when Kent finishes his one project for it.  Now I can focus on packing for our move.

Easter Egg Hunt

The kids had a fun Easter Egg Hunt at Dad-Dad and Grammy's house with some of their cousins.

Easter Pictures

Kent's Birthday

Kent is now 7!

Even with yestuday's imperfections on my part he had a wonderful day.

His special place setting for breakfast.  Thanks Kent for leaving your rocks on the table.  They came in handy.

We took Kent to the Lego store.  He had so much fun looking at all the Legos and creating his own mini-figures.  He got to choose 1 Lego package from the Lego kingdom set, which was approved by Jeff and I and he got to create 3 mini-figures to take home, too.  Katy and Kaomi got to assemble 3 mini figures as well.  They all had a lot of fun.  Then on the way home we stopped to visit Kent's cousins Ian, Micah, Ethan, and Joshua.  Kent was thrilled to see them and he said after we left that he was glad that we could stop and see them for a little while.

Shortly after we arrived home, Grammy came over and she brought white icing and sprinkles for Kent's cake.  Thank you so much.  Then she iced the cake while we finished our take out dinner (thanks Jeff).  We sang Happy Birthday to Kent and had cake and presents.  Then Grammy helped wash the dishes (thanks again).

Kent has been having fun with his presents and it looks they will keep him occupied for quite a while.

I'M NOT PERFECT...

so why does it seem like everyone expects me to be perfect.  Kent wants a chocolate birthday cake with vanilla frosting and sprinkles.  Everyone expects me to be able to do what is impossible.  I made the cake last night.  I knew I should clear and set the table and wash the dishes when I sat down last night at 8pm after the girls were all in bed and the cake was out of the oven, but I was exhausted before, I ever go supper on the table last night. 

But this is what my kitchen looked like this morning.

Actually, it was slightly worse, when I walked in first thing.

I've spent much of the morning just trying to get on top of things.  First off I had to get Kent breakfast.  We usually do something special for birthday breakfasts, but with a kitchen like that, it wasn't going to happen.  It still took me 45 minutes to get the table cleared and a special place set for him, so I could take his special place setting picture with him.  By the time I had breakfast poured for Katy and Kaomi, Felicity was done eating, so I had to watch her, until she could go down for nap time (no chance to work in the kitchen then, she needs constant supervision/chasing right now).  By this time I was in tears, I know that Kent isn't getting the birthday cake he wanted, my kitchen is a mess, and I know that it will probably still be a mess when I get home and have to cook supper this evening. We have other things planned today and I no longer have time to make the icing and frost his cake.  I wrapped his presents.  At least that got done.  I cleared the dish rack.  I washed two loads of dishes in the dish washer, and still don't have anywhere to make frosting.  I managed to get a load of laundry in the washing machine, too.  The kids don't understand why mommy is crying, they think I'm supposed to be perfect too.  They don't understand when I say I don't have time to do everything that I am supposed to do.  Felicity is crying, she still hasn't taken a nap and she keeps throwing everything out of her bed, including her favorite rags.  Right now she just has a frog that she is hugging and her blanket.  I'm already exhausted and there aren't many opportunities for naps around here and even if I do start to fall asleep I get woken up.  Mommy is expected to be available anytime someone "needs" her no matter what she is doing.   I never was perfect and I never will be so why, oh why, am I expected to be prefect.  God is perfect.  I definitely am not God.  I guess I should be "counting it all joy" that I am not perfect, but I'm finding that kind of hard to do right now.

Let's Play Catch Up!

Here is what has been going on lately.

Felicity learned to stand up by herself about 10 days ago!

Jeff played his guitar with Derek for the first time at our Adult Bible Fellowship Class a week ago.  This is just something they plan on doing occasionally, but it was fun.  Last week week Jeff also planned the music for the Christian Service Brigade Campout.  We had fun looking at camp songs that he might lead, like "I stuck My Head in a Little Skunk's Hole" and "Flea" as well as some good camping praise songs.

Our new house is coming along nicely.  We like the brick work and we are excited to be having a bigger kitchen and pantry.  We move in less than a month!!!

Rejoice in the Lord

This song by Ron Hamilton goes right along with what we've been studying in James chapter 1 at our Adult Bible fellowship Class.

Rejoice in the Lord

God Never moves without purpose or plan

When trying His servant and molding a man.

Give thanks to the Lord though your testing seems long;

In darkness He giveth a song.

Chorus:

O Rejoice in the Lord.  He makes no mistake.

He knoweth the end of each path that I take.

For When I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold.

I could not see through the shadows ahead;

So I looked at the cross of my Savior instead.

I bowed to the will of the Master that day;

Then peace came and tears fled away.

Now I can see testing comes from above; 

God strengthens His children and purges in love.

My Father knows best, and I trust in His care;

Through purging more fruit I will bear.

Is your room clean?

Last night I asked Kaomi, "Kaomi is your room clean?'

Her answer, "No, its a disaster!"

I have no idea what it looked like, but they girls were sent to clean it up before bedtime and it was in pretty good shape at bedtime.

Joy and Answered Prayer

I am still working on "Counting it All Joy".  Each day I write the things I am counting joy on my white board, then I erase and start over again the next day.  Some  of the "joys" repeat themselves and others are "new" every day.

Here are today's "joys".

Extra snuggles and play with Felicity:  I needed to be making supper because Jeff had a meeting tonight, but all the other kids were busy on something and couldn't help watch Felicity and keep her out of trouble, so I got to spend that time with her.  We had fun.  Then when Katy was done with what she was doing I was able to ask her to help.

Phone call about car:  our car is for sale and someone called who may be interested in it, they would like to schedule a time to get a chance to look at it.  We don't have that time scheduled yet, but phone calls about it are good.

Jeff helping grate cheese:  since I didn't get supper started early, Jeff helped out by grating cheese to help me get it ready a little bit sooner, so he could get to his meeting.

Kent's math went better today:  Kent has been struggling just a little with his math, but today we started a new related concept and he did much better, his errors were due to lack of paying attention to what he was supposed to be doing.

Disobedience:  not my favorite activity, but gives opportunity for teaching and training Godly children for the future.

Counter Offer Accepted on our house:  just what it says.

As the title mentioned I have an answer to something I've been praying about for a few months.
I have been praying that our current home would sell at just the perfect time.  I prayed that if it sold right away we would have a great place to stay for a few months and I've prayed that if it didn't sell shortly after we put it on the market that we would be able to rent it back or stay in it for a few days until we could move into our new home.  We are closing on our current home one week before we close on our new home (answered prayer).  The buyers of our home are willing to lease it back to us for a couple of days until we can close and move out (another answered prayer).

ISN'T GOD GREAT!!!!!  HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED, WHEN WE NEED IT, AND HE PROVIDES ACCORDINGLY!!!!