Summer; that lovely time of year that yields a host of varieties to our lives. Summer; that season that goes so fast you lose track of what you've done and where you've been. Summer; a time for: "spotting" fawns, glorious moonlight,
loving sisters,
sidewalk chalk portraits,
eyepatches ( um, actually- lens covers),
itty buglings,
giggling girlfriends,
hydrangeas divine,
huggin' brothers, ( also best friends, as in this case)
spoonfeeding sissys', ( I don't know which one had more fun?) sunlit catnaps,:) bathtub chubbies,
grad parties,
chocolate ice-cream (no comment!),
special grandpas', (love makes the world go round...... and round, and round.....) SWINGSETS!!! ( How could we live without those?), and last of all, swimming buddies, (who also happen to be excellent splashers and dunkers. :P What a coincidence!)
"Skipping down the cobblestones, lookin' for fun and feelin' groovy. La, la, la laaa laa la la. Feelin' groovy....."
This is just a peek of my summer, thus far! I haven't had time to load all the millions of snapshots that I would love to show. I am catching up slowly, but surely.... so please have patience- the rest will be shown. Ah, so many great memories, so little time.
Oh, give me patience when tiny hands Tug at me with their small demands And give me gentle, smiling eyes; Keep my lips from sharp replies. Let not fatigue, confusion or noise Obscure my vision of life’s fleeting joys So when, years later, my house is still- No bitter memories it’s room may fill.
-anonymous
Sometimes fatigue, ( fatigue? I am Never fatigued. Ha.) confusion, and noise (Did I say sometimes and noise in the same breath?) overcome my desire to follow my Lord's commands to joy in His service. Today has been that sorta day..........ahhhhhh.
This is when I need to review this prayer and meditate on I Thess 5:16-18
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all things for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
Alleluia, Amen.
I sometimes ponder that I probably won't live here always, I hope to have a home and family of my own. I know I will miss the constant hum of six-year-old-and-under voices, the nightly and daily hugs from little arms, the interesting questions (Lizzie has at least a million stored in that brain of hers) that spill out, and all the other wonderful things that make life pop here at our house. I am so blessed to be the oldest of six children. Thank you, Lord.
About two weeks ago we went camping with two families that live near us. It was extremely fun!
We have a tradition with our camping buddies that we always have a party with a theme such as traditional Mexican or traditional Italian. We do everything that is required such as listening to the traditional music, wearing- um, not fully traditional clothes, ( the guys are excluded from this part.) and eating traditional food. This time, thanks to Shelbi, we had a Polish night. All the girls wore floral skirts and white shirts, such as a traditional Polish woman might wear. :) Did you get the idea that it was traditional!!!!!!
I was, well, let's just say a little bit nervous about cooking Polish food. I mean what do they eat? After a lot of internet research we four older girls found some recipes that turned out wonderful.
Allix fried some Pirogi. I went back for seconds on this. :)
I made Polish meatballs and a Babka Cake.
It rained almost the whole trip, but this added a fun dimension to our normally dry camping trips. Think umbrella's, raincoats, and muddy boots sloshing through puddles.
Some activities we enjoyed:
Skipping rocks into Cooper lake,
Bike riding,
Singing in the rain, ( this was actually a thing we did, weird or what?)
Scrabble,
Apples to Apples. (No comment :P)
Eating,
Talking,
Snapping Pics?, ( You might have already guessed this!)
Laughing.... this is one of our favorite things to do,
Quoting Sense and Sensibility ( alright, the boys didn't do this, but we girls sure did. " Love is not love, that alters where it's alteration finds.....")
Having camera wars,
Walking ( uh, we did alot of this while having camera wars.)
Teasing one another,
Collecting rocks,
Playing volleyball while the wind was blowing eighty miles an hour, ( Well, it seemed like it, especially since we used a beach ball )
Making clay snakes,
Racing down the shoreline,
Writing our names in the sand,
Playing at the park,
Squashing twelve kids in the back of a fifteen passenger van and then driving forever!
Jonathan, biking up a storm!
Seth, "the cool" with his can o' Dr. Thunder
Savannah and Shelbi in all their loveliness!
Allix, Savannah and Louisa.... friends forever
The men... talking about everything from theology to how quickly they can pack their campers.
As you can tell even the youngest people in our party enjoy camping!
Finally, all of us kids together! Hooray, I can't wait to go again.
Here are our families again, camping last summer, plus a few extra cousins. :) I cannot believe how much everyone has grown.
A year ago our family went camping with two other families and really enjoyed hanging out. We also went swimming and rafting in the large lake at the park, thus our rather sunburnt faces. :)
Today is my little sister's sixth birthday, what a joy she has been for the half dozen years she has been a part of our home.
Lizzie:
The girl who when two years old could explain many things in wonderful ways while making you want to hug her to death. The girl who is absolutely laughable- when you see her pixie face you want to pinch it. ( please don't- I've learned from experience.) The girl who talks.(need I say more) Anyone who has met Lizzie can collaborate my statement. The girl who loves to tell you about the time she was a little bitty baby, "ownly five." The girl who at age three had an excellent conversation at an RV park we visited with a little seven year old boy while her elder siblings looked on in stunned amazement. The girl who at age two when asked what the name of her future husband was...... replied, "I think I'll name him, Sloppy." The girl who sounds the same when she laughs or cries. The girl who has had a thousand people tell her they wish they could take her home with them. The girl who sleeps in my room and begs me to tell her bedtime stories until my voice goes horse. The girl who loves helping cook in the kitchen, especially cookies!! The girl who nicknames almost as well as I do. :) The only girl I know who wants to be called Hopalong Cassidy. The girl who we cannot spell things around anymore cause, well- she can sound the word out faster than Mom. (well, not quite) The girl who always makes her food choices by asking, "what is the healthiest?" The girl who chose to eat oatmeal this morning for her birthday breakfast because it was, "the healthiest." Groan. The girl who can quote movie quotes better than the actors. The girl who begs to clean the bathroom with me. The girl who tries on at least three night gowns before she finds the "right" one. The girl who knows the first fourteen Catechism questions, watch out big kids!!!! The girl who I cannot imagine life without.
I love you like crazy, Lizzie!!!
Lizzie
Lizzie's poetry in motion, a steam car with a mouth, a double barrel gun that talks manufactured in the South.
Lizzie is an articulating brain who became fluent at age two, a junior conversationatic Chatting with Lola, Betty and Sue.
Lizzie is a gregarious rainstorm coming in the midst of drought, a watermill that is full of words trickling and pouring out.
Lizzie is an expressive puddle that has turned into a lake, a magnet that can always find new words to brew and bake.
Lizzie is an imagination getting set to blow her top, but even as the words come down she is planting yet another crop.
Lizzie can converse better Than many folks ten times her age I hold her up as an example of a walking, talking page.
Maddie 2008
I made this video last Summer when my cousin Emily came to visit. The four girls have so much fun together. The photos were taken for Lizzie's fifth birthday at Nanna's bunkhouse!
This is a picture of Nanna with her namesake, Louisa Rose.
Today is my grandmother's birthday and I want to honor her for the godly stand she has taken throughout her sixty-five years of life. I am so blessed to have a mentor and friend who walks according to the Lord's word with a smile. I am thankful that she has my siblings and me over to her home every week for a sleepover and fun-filled "whoda night". Thank you for all that you have done to mold me into a more Christ-like child of God, you have been one of the most influential women in my life.
Nanna's Advice
You have taught me to yield and good character build, to advance in God's will and my fleshly lust kill.
To walk the right ribbon, and to get your work done, flee temptation really quick; Let all your sins make you sick.
Better to not have one friend than to party in a vile den. Keep your thoughts clean and pure, reject the world and Satan's lure.
Act modest and dicreet, be the first to smile and greet. Talk to God daily on your own. Be a friend to the person who's alone.
Have a soft and gentle heart, finish all the things you start. Speak out boldly of the King, Give up your rights in everything.
I wanted to thank you for the words you have said, I will recall and use them often For I've kept them in my head.
“Here is a sweet fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is worthy all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, whom, while I minister in Christ’s name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother’s heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, how wondrously blest.”
-- Elizabeth Prentiss, Stepping Heavenward.
“The best convent for a woman is the seclusion of her own home. There she may find her vocation and fight her battles, and there she may learn the reality and the earnestness of life.”
--Elizabeth Prentiss, Stepping Heavenward.
“As you have spoken plainly to me, knowing me to be a wife and a mother, you must allow me to speak plainly in return,” I began. “Oh, speak plainly, by all means! I am quite sick and tired of having truth served up in pink cotton and scented with lavender.” “Then you permit me to say that when you speak contemptuously of the vocation of maternity, you dishonor not only the mother who bore you but the Lord Jesus Himself, who chose to be born of woman and to be ministered unto by through a helpless infancy.”
Every morning exuberance fills my heart when I see the bundle of assorted dumbbells that wait expectantly on our craft table in the studio. Mama and I are going to exercise with my four little sisters. I hear gleeful sounds emitting from our hallway and the door crashes open. Catching looks of eagerness from each girl as she lines up along the rose covered carpet, I laugh. They make desperate attempts to establish each other’s exclusive corner. Baby Katie looks on knowingly from her swing. I take my place in front of the television as dumbbells are collected and clasped in readiness. Mama reaches for the control and the screen lights up in aerobic movements. Bella and Lizzie have the daily debate deciding who is going to be which exerciser, the wondrous Jodi is always chosen first. Three bodies sway in front of me, brimming with energy. I can barely lift a leg without tangling with a pint-sized person. Arms lift with funny little jerks, they are keeping up today. Katie’s swing keeps time to the beat. Wiggy* pauses to return a host of toys to baby’s tray. Bend and straighten, kick and lift then walk again. Bella places her hand in mine, rambling up and back in the row of roses that has been named ours. Soon all five of us are sailing over the floor together, screaming in merriment. Wiggy drops her weights the standard two-hundred times. I wonder why Mama and I are sweating more than the girls. We tread on, until- at last, we finish! I now have a new and improved definition for aerobics class. Oh, the joys of home school physical education!
* Nickname for Louisa
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
"She always made home happy," - epitaph in a churchyard, inscribed by a husband after sixty years of wedded life
He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18:22
"Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness, and without any dread of ridicule."
-F.W. Robertson
"And be ye kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." Ephensians 4:32
Please go over to Jasmine's blog, Joyfully at Home, for info on a Noble Rose Press give-away!! The site is beauitful, appealing and feminine and the dolls themselves look so sweet....I love paperdolls.
I am a daughter of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God saved me, by His grace, at age five and my desire is to grow in the love of my Savior. I live on a farm, where I am daily able to enjoy God's creation and to help and play with my five younger siblings. My two best friends are my mom and dad who are educating me and teaching me to be a homemaker and future helpmate.
"Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: Bless the Lord, O my soul."
Psalms 103:22
"Whenever we step out of domestic life in search of felicity, we come back again, disappointed, tired, and chagrined. One day passed under our own roof, with our family, is worth a thousand in another place."
~ Earl of Orrery
glorious moonlight,
loving sisters,
sidewalk chalk portraits,
eyepatches ( um, actually- lens covers),
itty buglings,
sunlit catnaps,:)
bathtub chubbies,
chocolate ice-cream (no comment!),
special grandpas', (love makes the world go round...... and round, and round.....)
SWINGSETS!!! ( How could we live without those?),
and last of all, swimming buddies, (who also happen to be excellent splashers and dunkers. :P What a coincidence!)
"Skipping down the cobblestones, lookin' for fun and feelin' groovy.
This is just a peek of my summer, thus far! I haven't had time to load all the millions of snapshots that I would love to show. I am catching up slowly, but surely.... so please have patience- the rest will be shown. Ah, so many great memories, so little time. 
