Katie

Katie, my niece

August 1993-December 28, 2007

Psalm 139:13-18 – Katie’s version

God, You made all the delicate, inner parts of Katie’s body and knit her together in Dawn’s womb. Thank you for making her so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well we know it. You watched Katie as she was being formed in utter seclusion, as she was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw Katie before she was born. Every day of her life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are Your thoughts about Katie, O God. They cannot be numbered! We can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!

His First Love Letter

My 4 year old son is scaring me just a bit. We've always known he is going to be dangerous when he is older. This due to his ability to make a grown woman's heart go pitter patter when he was 2 and would say, "Your hair looks gorgeous." So, he has met a precious older girl at church (she is 5) and is becoming a little enamored with her. He came home from church today and wanted to make her something for Christmas. I suggested he just make a Christmas card. Here is what it says,

"Dear Emma,
I'm coming to your birthday. I'm glad that you are my friend. I'm inviting you to my next birthday. I'm glad that you have presents under your Christmas tree. Merry Christmas, Emma! I liked your dress today. I'm glad that it is Christmas. I like your hair."

Oh my. Then he helped me make something for her hair! Please tell me he will lose this love for the female for a VERY LONG TIME. When do they get cooties and gross him out? He is always rubbing my back, touching my hair, giving me these adorable loving smiles, telling me he loves me, kissing me on the lips. I realize that this affection will be given to another female at some other time. Please tell me this won't happen until he's out of college!

Sleep Deprivation

As a mother with 4 kids, sleep deprivation seems to be a constant thing. I don't claim to do a good job at the whole sleep thing with my kids (I've never had one sleep through the night consistently until they are over 2 - 2 years old, not months!). But my 4th is the worst. You know, you get a little arrogant by the 4th kid. "I know what I'm doing, leave me alone! No advice, I'm a pro!" Well, #4 is making sure that I stay humble. :-) All my other kids would wake up, I would nurse them, put them down and they would go back to sleep. Not so this time. Sometimes that does happen. But, he has a "habit" of not going back to sleep too. For a long time, he would just jump in his crib. For a long time. He did this enough, that I started getting heart palpitations when I would hear him jumping - no kidding. He's been doing better, but right now he has a cold. So, he woke up last night around 2:30 and didn't go back to sleep - until 4:30??? I'm not even sure. I had listened to him talking to himself, playing in his crib, jumping for a long while from my room. (Just so you know, I am such a pious person - I spent that time praying! "Dear God, KNOCK him OUT!" Just kidding, I really prayed for other things, with just an occasional request that angels come and sing him a nice song. I'm weird.) I finally went in his room and laid in the bed in there with him. That didn't work. I went back to bed, he screamed. Finally my dear, sweet husband got his sick body up and laid down in there. Why does that work? It does! Why, if I'm in there does he want to play and talk? As soon as Daddy goes in there he is quiet and goes to sleep. Can someone explain this to me? Anyway, at 6:30 he was screaming again. Brought him in my bed, nursed him and told him to lay down or he was going back in his crib. Instead, he sits up and says, "Sef is seeping" in a very loud voice. (#3 has been getting up at night due to being scared. He has a sleeping bag on our floor and was in it.) So, let's see, I went to bed around 11, was up from 2:30-4:30 (I do think I dozed a little in that.) and up for the day at 6:30. Coffee anyone? I love coffee. Really, I LOVE coffee. Any questions why?

A Great Book

I just finished reading a wonderful book. Since I've been recommending it to different people, I thought I would recommend it here! The book is, "The Ministry of Motherhood" by Sally Clarkson. She and her husband have a wonderful ministry, Whole Heart Ministries. This book is the first book about parenting that speaks my heart's desire. This quote is a good summary of the book, "This is the true ministry of motherhood - to usher my children into the living presence of God, to nurture in them a heart for Jesus and the Great Commission He has called each of us to fulfill." (pg. 209) You must must read this book! Check out their ministry too!

Me

It seems that people want to know who I am and see a picture. Nosey people. :-) Part of the reason I haven't done this yet, is that I really have a hard time describing myself. So, last night, I started thinking of how other people describe me. Still having a hard time with this! I tried thinking of how other people describe themselves. Funny, many of the things they describe themselves as, I am, but not sure I identify myself that way. You know? I mean, I breastfeed my kids for a long time, but I don't identify myself as an "extended breastfeeder". It's just what I do. Does this make sense? All right, enough with trying to confuse you and myself. I will just write what comes to mind (which could be scary, so watch out).

I am very "natural" in my thinking. Natural childbirth (4 without drugs or other interference), extended breastfeeding, wear the babies in a sling, use herbs and homeopaths, attempt to eat in a healthy way (although the turkey corn dogs my children are inhaling right now are evidence that I don't always do that!), I like to garden, I'm fairly "environmental", used cloth diapers with my first (but I did give that up without much guilt at all!), we attempt simple living. I'm sure there is more, but that's all I can think of in this category.

We are Christians. I was raised in a Christian home, rejected it for a while and came back to it when I was 20. We definitely have a Christian "worldview". Because of this we have felt led to home school our children. Man, actually, this affects so much of my life and the way I operate that I don't think I can write it all down. The main thing is that Jesus is my friend! I talk to Him, want to know Him more, want to spend time with Him, want Him to have control in my life.

I am a military brat and military spouse. When we moved into our current home, I counted all my past home addresses - 22! We have lived in this house for 5-1/2 years, which is longer than I have lived anywhere in my life. Not sure this is where I wanted to land, but God knows what He is doing!

I am "outdoorsy" (is that a word?). I love to hike, camp, garden, walk, run, just be outside. My dream is to have a farm with 20 or more acres, a few chickens, dogs, horses, you name it! :-)

I am also sick today, so this is it for now. Oh, forgot, a picture. All right, I'll find one and add it.
So, there I am with 3 of my kids. This is actually a recent picture! I was trying to have pictures taken of my haircut so I could send them to my sister. The pictures didn't turn out very well and I never did send them to her. So, sorry susa!

OH! Forgot this part too. My brain is soooo not working today. I play the piano, and love love to read. Like to bake too. And fireplaces. And cats. And dogs. Do I need to keep going here? :-)

Christmas letter

I have spent some time today putting together our "annual" Christmas letter. I can't really call it annual, since I know I didn't send one out last year and I'm not sure about the year before! So, I'm feeling this need to send one out. I love getting letters from other people and pictures and cards. I LOVE it. I just stress over doing this myself! How do you make the letter sound just newsy. Not "look at us we traveled all over the world" or "look at our kids they are brilliant" or "look at us we're so HOLY". Just newsy. This is who we are, this is what we do. We have friends all over the place, who we really just keep in touch with this way. Should we even stay friends with people like that? Seriously. (My oldest daughter's favorite word right now. Seriously.) I love hearing how they are doing, but am I ever going to speak to them or see them again? Plus, there is the stress of who I am going to offend with this letter. "You mean you traveled to my state and didn't visit me?" "You mentioned so and so in your letter, why not me?" "You put that family members life in your letter why not ours?" ARGHHH!

This is driving me to chocolate and red wine.

**I am trying to put together an "intro" post. This may take a lifetime. I'm going to figure out how to put pictures in and everything. Hopefully I will finish it this year!

Who lives in our zoo?

I started a post about who we are a few days ago. That is when the thought hit me, "why am I doing this?" I mean, if it is just for my family and friends, then I don't need to introduce us! But, thanks to Tricia, people I don't know in real life (IRL is the "right" way to do this, but I just can't do the acronym thing yet), are reading my blog! So, here is my family.

First, my husband. Officially, he is a Lt. Col. in the US Air Force. I haven't been in his office in over 10 years and don't really know what he does at work. The kids think that he showers there (he does sometimes, after working out), that he sees crocodiles there (???) and that he wrestles at work, since he loves wrestling when he gets home! :-) We have been married for almost 13 years. All wonderful wedded bliss. Well, except for when we don't get along. :-) He is the One that God chose for me, of that I do not doubt. His biggest desire is to raise our children to love the Lord, to follow the Lord, to be obedient to Christ. Besides that, he plays the guitar (quite well, I will say!), he runs and currently is spending tons of time trying to figure out what he will do when he retires from the Air Force. Which could happen in another year! Yikes! Here is a picture of him with one of his guitars. (Most people think he is very serious. I like this picture because it proves he is NOT! Well, he can be.)

Next is our oldest daughter. She is 9 - turning 10 in just a couple of months. She is so excited about "double digits!" She is the reason I refer to our family as a zoo. She is a MONKEY! She climbed a flag pole when she was only 6, bare hands and feet. She is in gymnastics and loves it! She is also taking piano lessons. Her favorite subjects in school are science, history and geography. She absolutely hates math!

Then we have daughter #2. She will soon be 7. When you see this quiet, petite, blond hair, blue-eyed girl, you think - wow, so cute and quiet. Then you get to know her and you realize that she is a fire cracker! Fiercely independent, an awesome imagination, very focused, can we say strong-willed? :-) She is currently taking ballet and piano.

Since we are a very organized couple, we had our 2 girls first and then our 2 boys. Did I mention my husband is an engineer? So, now we have our first son, who is 4. He is a B O Y. Vehicles, sports, weapons, wrestling, superheros. And, he loves his mommy very very much. :-) Since he has 2 older sisters, he is being carefully schooled in how to treat a girl. Watch out moms, he will know how to win your daughters' hearts! When he was 3, he would tell women, "you're hair is gorgeous." Yes, I will lock him up when he turns 16.

The youngest one in our zoo is our 20 month old son. He is a typical toddler, climbs everything, screams when he doesn't get his way, sleeps horribly, smiles as cute as he can, talks all the time (and we even understand most of it!).

I realize that I haven't included myself in this list. But, since it's my blog, I guess I'll introduce myself more slowly.

SNOW!!

Yep, it's snowing! The kids are beyond excited. The plan is for them to go outside and feed the birds, bring in some wood and clear all the branches off our sledding hill (the windstorm knocked quite a few down). Then I'm going to be mean and make them come in, do school work and clean their bedroom (the girls') before they can play. I know, mean Mom. But, you should see their room!! I have considered not getting them anything for Christmas until they learn to keep their room clean. I'm not THAT mean though, so they will get just a few tiny lumps of coal. :-)

Why do people blog?

I have been reading different blogs for a while now. After I wrote the one entry for MY blog, the thought came to me: "Why am I doing this?" I mean, I should have a reason, an intended "audience", right? If I'm writing this for my family and friends, it will be full of my kids and all the cute things they do. Of course, then I have to tell them I have a blog, which I haven't done yet. If I'm writing this to share all my wisdom (ha ha ha), then I would write about how I'm growing in Christ and what I am learning. Or is this just an online journal? A place to share my random thoughts, the cute things my kids do, my rants about life? Am I overthinking this whole thing? Not that I'm prone to doing that. :-)

My Lazy Day

Yep, finally going to try this blog thing. Not sure how much I will write. As I lay in bed last night, composing a blog post to a blog I don't have for the umpteenth time, I decided it was time. So, here it is, the official first blog! :-)

Yesterday afternoon, I was thinking to myself, "man, I've been lazy today!" This is because I let the kids watch a long movie, let them choose their own lunch (ice cream) and had them take rests, while I took a nap! So, I felt lazy. After I thought about it though, I realized that I was anything but lazy. I think that if you usually run through life, when you slow down to walk, it feels very slow and lazy! So, here is what I got done yesterday, on my lazy day:

- Up at 6:30, nurse our "baby" (hard to call him a baby - he's 20 months!)
- Made coffee and pancakes; emptied the dishwasher, straightened the kitchen, started to clean up breakfast dishes
- Got everyone ready for the day, including myself
- Dropped my parents off at the train at 8:30 (they were in town for a week and take the train to the airport)
- Stopped by Michael's on our way home - which included sitting in the parking lot for 15 minutes waiting for them to open
- Let the kids watch Swiss Family Robinson - I did watch part of this with them, but took the laptop in the room and started Christmas shopping
- Took a NAP (Mom will be so proud of me!)
- Got up at 1:30, cleaned up the kitchen, stripped a bed, started laundry
- Made turkey pot pie for supper
- Another load of laundry
- Fed our oldest daughter supper around 4:15, got everyone out the door to take her to gymnastics by 5:00
- Took extra food to friends, since I made too much
- Spent the evening purchasing Christmas gifts online
- Got to bed around 10:30!

So, that is what I think of as a lazy day??? Maybe I need to rethink my definitions. The truth is, it did feel lazy though. Most days I do all that and we do school work and I don't nap!