TONS has been going on here. We had 11 people in the house all weekend.

My husband coordinates our church's men's conference each year. This year there was almost 200 men. Milton Vincent author of The Gospel Primer was the speaker. I had the privilege of spending an evening and morning with his wife. She was so wonderful.

Since it was the men's conference, my in-laws came up for the weekend for my father-in-law to attend and Ryan's mom hung out with me. We also have a friend staying with us (my personal assistant) :) and I have my sister's two youngest (Ella, 3, and Eli, 2) because her mother-in-law just passed away Friday morning. Having my in-laws here was a big help. I wished we had a little more time to chat, but my mother-in-law is very understanding and jumped right in to help.

It has been a whirlwind to say the least.

God is good. I love having a busy life. Full of opportunities to serve His people. He also gave my husband and I a night away last week to one of our favorite places (Lake Placid). It was so relaxing as it is a very quiet time for the town right now.

On top of all of that we don't have our van because we left it with some old guy named Pearl to have a bunch of things looked at. Hoping he takes his time because we are "suffering" using our friends Cadillac Escalade. LOVE. IT. Might be hard to get the van back. :)

My friend who is staying with us is a photographer. She did a photo shoot with our family last Sunday. Can't really post too many pics because my mother-in-law reads this and (sorry, mom) I don't want her to see them before Christmas.

Here are a few cute ones...

Weekend...

We had a great weekend. Very full, very busy, very tiring...but fun. VERY ready for Monday morning.

Friday was beautiful. It has been for the last week (until yesterday). Fall in the Adirondacks is unbeatable. The Ministry Center is breath-taking. I am drawn to that place and want to stay! We were there a lot this week.

Friday morning we were at the barn. We walked the donkeys down to the lake and spent time enjoying the beautiful scenery. We hiked up my mom's mountain (that's what we call it) behind her house to the lean-to and ate lunch looking at this:



After that, we ran home, grabbed girly off the bus and headed out to the boys soccer game. It was so beautiful and soooo much fun to watch all three of them (Tyler plays too) play together. They won 5-0!

Saturday was spent, again, up at the barn in the morning when four of us had the opportunity to ride. Dallas and I rode Pearl (the HUGE spotted draft horse) and Ethan and girly rode Snickers the cute pony.

That's me!

We finished at the barn and I got the chance for a night out with the girls to go shopping and have dinner. We didn't get home until almost midnight.

Last night our youth group did a progressive dinner for our senior citizens in the church. That is always so much fun. We love serving them in that way. It was a great night.

Today is back to normal...we are headed to the barn!

Beautiful Bride...

Ethan: Mom, do you know who I am going to marry?

Me: Who?

Ethan: No, do YOU know?

Me: No, why, do YOU think you know?

Ethan: No.

Me: Ethan, you can pray for the girl who will be your wife someday even if you don't know who it will be. You can pray that she will be a godly woman who loves Jesus with all her heart.

Ethan: I think I will ask all the wives (I am sure he meant potential wives) if they love Jesus and if they all say yes then I am going to pick the prettiest!

:)

Ouch!

I have shingles. IT HURTS!

I am WAY too young for this. It is common in people over 65! I am 38...doesn't it know that?!

I am thankful for my friend who listened when I was complaining about my aching back and my rash...looked at it and said, "That looks like shingles". (She had it last year. She should know.)

She was right! Thankfully if you get on meds within 72 hours of the rash (not fun) it makes it not quite as horrible, but still pretty yucky.

I wouldn't have thought of shingles but I went to see my doctor first thing this morning and she knew right away that is what I had.

Apparently, if you have had the chicken pox, it lays dormant in your body and something can trigger it, mine, they think, was triggered by my Remicade treatment. Possibly.

Anyway, the question that keeps coming to mind is, "How can I glorify my LORD in this situation?" I just want to complain, I want sympathy. (So any is welcome.) :)

We have a meeting with Social Services Friday. It is REALLY messed up (their fault). Long story that I probably can't print here anyway.

Side note: We are flying to Florida this February and weren't going to tell the kids until Christmas. I was so afraid I would slip (and have several times, but no one caught it). RYAN slipped (RYAN!!!) last night and Dallas caught it. I am sooooo excited that he slipped and not me!

I got to tell the rest of them (girly heard with Dallas) and they are so excited. None of them have ever flown before. Now we are all going to be researching and they will be able to help us plan what we want to do while we are down there. We are thinking Disney and/or Sea World will be on that list. Ethan wants to see an alligator....and look down on the clouds.

Back to School...

So yesterday was it. The first day of school for my kiddos. Dallas is in 9th grade (his last year in school), Michael 7th, my nephew, Tyler 7th (the one in the middle), our girly 1st and Ethan is the only one I am teaching at home this year. He is doing K/1.

In a way I was sad to send them off. It is a long day to not see them. In another way, I realize it is a good thing. They need the routine, the challenge, the chance to be with their dad for a good chunk of the day. How many kids get that?

Ryan shared his testimony the other night with a group of people and said he knew he wanted to work with kids since he was in high school. He said he loves what he does and both boys say you can tell by the way he teaches and manages the class. He loves the kids. I love that he is there with the boys.

Ethan and I had a great day. I had to see where he is in math, reading and writing. The things I had intended to start with this year...he already knows. All the sight words in the first (and second) list, the first chunk of math pages in the book, all the money, how much it is worth and all his letters/sounds and reads quite a bit. Don't know for sure where he learned it all but I really think he just pays attention in life.

He is a fun kid and I completely enjoyed our day. It was really quiet around the house. By five I was itchin' for them all to come home (they had soccer practice, which Ryan coaches too).

Girly had a great day. LOVES her teacher and her classmates. I really pray it is a good year for her. I am sad that I can not post her sweet little face. She looked so cute. Here is the outfit I made Saturday for her to wear for the first day.

It has been pretty calm with her lately. We go through a hard few weeks, then we will have a few weeks that are pretty calm. She can still be pretty punky but I guess I can too. :)

So, the "real" part? I am tired. I haven't gotten anything done that is on my "list" lately. As a mom you just make yourself keep going. I don't think my "list" will ever be done. That's okay.

Nice...

Nice...because it was BEAUTIFUL out today.

Nice...because I got some answers today.

Nice...because I saw my oldest stand up for my girly today.

Nice...because I saw my oldest HELPING my girly today.

Nice...because I got to have coffee with a friend and see her new sweet baby.

Nice...because I got to eat dinner at my favorite restaurant with two of my favorite people. (It was super yummy!)

Nice...because two more of my favorite people babysat for us. (Mr. Cef - if you don't get that, that is how Ethan spells Keith - cute.)

Nice...because I am learning more each day about how dying to self and living radically for Jesus isn't supposed to be easy.

Nice...because I have four beautiful children that I have been blessed enough to take care of and a wonderful husband to kiss good-night.

Nice.

Ethan's Theology

Ethan was singing his heart out in the back of the van yesterday. I loved it because I got a glimpse into his little mind and what He really believes about God.

Here are some of the things I heard:

God is AWESOME.
God never changes.
It's a good thing He sent Jesus because we sin.
He is so good.
God is amazing.
We need to have Jesus in our hearts.
We will get to go to heaven someday instead of hell.

(Remember, this is all to music...made-up Ethan-style...there was more but I can't remember it all)

I LOVE IT!

Purpose

I haven't blogged in a long time. I deleted my last blog because I am an all or nothing person and it was taking too much time. No one may ever read this one but me. I don't care...

I just need a place to try to be more consistent in my journaling. There are so many joys, so many struggles and so many questions in parenting that sometimes it is helpful to write them down. Sometimes I need to vent.

I fail daily. It drives me to my knees nightly. I make some good decisions, handle some situations well, train correctly sometimes...but only by God's grace.

So, if you dare, feel free to join me in reading about my struggles and triumphs. There are so many. So many times I want to quit. On top of the normal struggles and triumphs of parenting...we are foster parents. We have been for almost two years. We have only had one placement, but have had her for over a year and a half. It is hard. Everything about it is hard... but good.

We have learned so much through this. When I think of how I stood there talking to my friends before we started this journey and said, "we know it will be hard" I want to laugh. We had no idea just how hard and you cannot prep someone for what it will be like.

Is it rewarding? Sure. Was it way easier before we started this? Absolutely! Do we ever sit and think, "WHAT were we thinking?" YES YES YES~! Are we going to stop just because it is hard...no. way. THIS is what God has called this family to do.

I am now convinced that this isn't just about her and what God is doing in her life, but also about us and what He is teaching us through all of this...and it is mostly about HIM.

It has been teaching me patience for one thing and that I CAN'T control every situation. THAT is a huge one for me.

Here we go...