Pumpkin patches...

 It is that time of year for pumpkin patches...

Side by Side...

The Lord has used this book this week to remind me of His Truth- I highly recommend it so far- Side by Side by Edward Welch!  It is a new book that just came out and I find inside a faithful reminder of identifying my thought patterns and choosing to put my hope in God in the midst of struggle.  Through our weakness, He is strong.  Admitting our weakness to ourselves and each other is powerful.  Saying, "I need Jesus.." means our confidence is not in ourselves or in either our righteousness before God or our reputation before others.  Our confidence is in Jesus, and that confidence cannot be shaken."  Through confession, we realize we need Christ and we humbly come before Him to help us.  Praying that I would more readily see my sin and confess it and come to the One who has forgiven me and cleansed me.  And praying that I would be open and share my neediness to God and others!  We need each other!

Listening to...

So the past week- I have been listening to a website recommended by two dear friends- The Read Aloud Revival.  And today enjoyed listening to the Women's Gospel Coalition website from two years ago.  I am looking forward to going to this conference in June with some ladies from our church in Indianapolis.  Today I enjoyed listening to Mindy Belz on the Persecuted Church.  Some great food for thought and good for this Mama to get out of her thoughts and think about the Christians in other parts of the world. 

Josiah 7 Months...

Josiah at 7 months is loving life!  (ok so he is almost 8 months)  He is a contented little guy.  This month he is learning to get his knees under him and wants to crawl.  He will rock back and forth but is not getting the crawling yet.  He is still working on sitting up.  He will get it one of these days.  He is starting to eat baby food really well now and is down to 2 naps a day and sleeping well! 

 

 Some crazies on this Friday!  Happy Friday to you all!

7 kids...

 Today we watched 4 little boys in our home.  So we had 7 kids under 7 and the morning was hopping.  We did some activities inside and then took them outside for our "L" is for leaf lesson with Aunt Laura- we just had a whole school full of little ones. 

Following Daddy...

 Over the last few weeks, Jeremiah has started to have a "thing" for Daddy. :)  He wants to be everywhere Daddy goes and wants "Boy Time"- mom is not allowed.  I am glad he has a great Dad and what a better Godly example for a little boy to follow!

 Lydia on the other hand is into making funny faces for the camera- silly girl.

 So I am feeling these days the impending doom of winter just around the bend.  I am trying to keep my perspective hopeful and trying to enjoy the outdoors while we can- taking many evening family hikes these days in Mt. Airy Forest- just down the street and we can be back in time for a late dinner. And since it is L for Leaf week- we decided to collect a few leaves along the way.

"School" room...

 My sister sent me a sweet little Alphabet rug to go in our little school area we have set up across the hall.  Thanks Teacher Rachel for being so thoughtful!  We love it! :)  It motivates us to learn!

Family Pictures...

Our church is updating the directory with new family pictures.  Not wanting to spend too much money, we decided to have a teenage girl in our church take some photos of us outside before our family photo shoot for the directory.  She did a pretty good job.  So- I only spent the whole morning trying to pick out our outfits, bathing all the kids and getting us out the door in time. :) 
Life these days is busy and full.  I feel like I am running a marathon at times but thankful that the Lord does give more grace for each day!  Michael has a busy schedule this fall- teaching at a seminary in Columbus one day a week as well as teaching at Hebrew Union and also working at church AND trying to write his dissertation.  He got his proposal approved fairly quickly but now he is in the marathon stage of researching and writing.  Can we say- Just keep writing, Just keep writing.

Jumper Boy...

It's time for the Jumeroo!!!

I think he is gonna like it!

10th Anniversary

 A week or so ago- we celebrated our 10th Anniversary!  A sweet couple in our church generously babysat for us and we went to Price Hill to try the Incline Restaurant! 

It was a beautiful night and we got to sit outside on the porch with a GREAT view of the city and the food was good- we had our little buddy with us too.  We then went for a walk along the river before we had to get back and pick up our kids.

 Hard to believe it has been 10 years!  Michael got me a beautiful bouquet of roses that were the colors of our wedding and a cookie cake too- yum! 

Insect Week...

Laura and I have started a little co-op just the two of us for the boys and girls too.  We are doing a letter of the week and focusing on a topic for that week.  This week the letter was "I" and we focused on Insects.  So we found books and all kinds of things on bugs-every boy's dream right!  And I spent Monday evening on the search for bugs in our backyard- we found a cricket on Jeremiah's leg one morning which we swooped into a container.  We took a magnifying glass and looked at our bugs.  We read stories of insects and other six legged friends.  We sang songs- Ants Go Marching One By One and Taking Home a Baby Bumblebee.  We ate ants on a carrot log for our lunch.  And we topped out the end of the week with a trip to the Insect House- who doesn't like Giant Cockroaches from Africa and other not so fun friends.