PAIN.

So, my life has not been characterized by pain, agony, hardship, and the like. God has thus far given me a life that has had little bitterness to it. And, the opportunities to feel bitter (for we all have them to different extents, depending on our lifestyle choices and relationships) have been short and far between, with ample supplies of His love and mercy to help me through without a chance of leaving a scar upon my heart.

I am grateful. God has given me much, and i know that much is then to be expected of me. I believe that means He expects me to "bounce back" after experiencing an offense from someone, because in the Big Picture, what is one little misplaced phrase or misinterpreted word/action? I believe God expects to see the fruit of His Spirit come through when i am being tested by my lovely children, because, after all, He gave them to me, right? So whatever He wants to teach me through these three gifts, i need to be open to learning. There are so many other examples, but my tired brain is asking me to stop there. You get the idea, and i'm sure you can think of scores more then i could .

So now i feel like i finally have a painful trial to experience... (i needed the above paragraphs to explain why this is a "trial" for me, since i don't suffer often...It definitely isn't as bad as what many go through daily)
For two weeks now i have been living on Tylenol and Ibuprofen in the attempts to make it through the day without a pounding head-jaw-neck ache. Some days are good, other days the pain still persists. bla. I am so weak - i keep saying to myself - some people live with worse pain than this on a daily basis. I think I would go insane. I have trouble making small talk, or concentrating when it gets bad. I try to sit and rest, but it is worse then - even though i am tired from the pain waking me in the morning. ik. So i am thinking the end result of this will be a root canal, my nerve is obviously NOT healing up after my cavity was filled two weeks ago. :( The strange thing is, i wasn't in any pain until i had my mouth worked on.... and that fact tries to make me think it is the dentist's fault. But i do not think it is. I think my cavity was just in the wrong place, perhaps a little too close to my nerve, close enough to cause more trauma than it would recover from.

So if you read this. Pray for my tooth-jaw-pain, please. Last time i had a root canal done, it sent me to bed for the day with serious pain and nausea. After two weeks of that....I'm not exactly EXCITED to go back for more....




Julia received an MP3 player from her Babysitter for her birthday, and she lovessssss it. we put some of her favorite worship music on, and she listens and sing along. And we filled it with "Adventures in Oddessy"-kids stories. (you can get the MP3 format for much cheaper than the hard copies online, if you are interested)
Anyway, i took this picture of Julia sharing her headphones with sam one day. it was so sweet, the two of them listening together like little buddies should. :)

"Am i really 6 now?" -Julia, upon waking the morning of the 19th

I'd write more, but i need to get out the door to the chiropractor and then to bible study. Normally that wouldn't take a lot of time, but sam is still asleep, so i need to wake him to eat. :)

SUmmary: we had a wonderful party day. fun with friends in the morning, and good times with family in the evening. :) now i have a lot of cleaning and "regular" life jobs to get done since the last two days have been glorious family days!! :)

I have a six year old!! wow. crazy. And a very sweet one at that. Thank you Lord. :)

Note: the cupcakes were made my Karli, amazing cake maker!!! :) The boxes of cereal, yes, they were just that. we had a cereal party. it was a big hit. Julia is stoked about all the fun cereals she gets to eat now!! hahaa. that's all for now folks...

Upcoming birthday: sneak peeks. :)

As a note: i stole this artistic idea from Elly F., creativist extraordinaire!

SPRING HAS ARRIVED!

45 minutes to CUTENESS!

So, my project for my own kids this spring is: Wide brimmed sun hats!! :) today i tried copying some bonnets that the girls had given to them last year by Oma and Opa. I LOVE THE end result and need to make another out of funky material for Julia... maybe, it may be too young of a look for miss J, who looks like an eight year old, instead of an almost 6 year old... but we'll see. :)

With putting kids down for naps, dealing with a crying baby, and figuring out the "pattern" without having a pattern to follow... this took one hour... so without the delays, i'd say you could have "30-45 minutes to cuteness" with this project!! :)

Of Crayfish, Frogs, and Frills.

We called up our "Spur of the moment expedition" Friends, (haha) And ended up in a bog getting soakers and an earful of Frog peeping!! The noise was so loud, the frogs must have been rejoicing in the arrival of spring! Unfortunately, we didn't pack our boots...forgetting that the last time we were here, it was frozen over and you could walk anywhere on the ice without getting wet and mucky.... oops.



We found a crayfish in a puddle-pond and caught a little froggie-woggie. It was funny seeing the kids react to it. Sam really wanted to hold it, until it was an inch from his hand, and he said, "Maybe Julia can hold it". haha. And poor little C, her dad help out the froggie for her to see and she jumped from the shock of seeing it so close and ended up in the half a foot of water she was standing beside!! Then we turned around and headed back home.... :) A good adventure all in all. We got dirty, wet and saw wildlife!! :)







My mom always finds these gorgeous Spring dresses for the girls. :) aren't they FUN!!??

thanks mama!!

well, time to wake up the Jules so she can be ready for school today. If you know J, you know she is like her daddy in making big plans and home businesses etc. Her latest plans have been: a missions trip to Haiti to help the people there, and she is adamant that her buddy Hudson (JK at school, adopted out of haiti) is coming with her. (He has already been teaching her Creole!!!) Her most recent home business: selling "marshmellow roasting sticks" that she has carved herself. :) She squandered her earnings on a ride at the mall for herself and for sam.

Sam's latest quirks: he says "guess" alllllllll the time. under his breath. really loudly. anything. In between bites of his dinner. Or every ten seconds during a story or movie... random. one night i came into his room after putting him to bed and said, "okay sam, you need to go to sleep now, no more talking" and his reply was, "but i'm still going to say guess!" yeah. weird i know. :) hahaha. he is MY CHILD though, that is obvious in all this weirdness!! haha.

Mercy: she is not walking (18 months old) but cruises around all the furniture and shuffles on her bum just like her big bro. she loves singing Jesus Loves Me, looking at stories, and eating. eating. eating. favorite words: Cookie. bottle. baby. puppy.

that is the kid update for now. :)