Its amazing..

What you can accomplish when you set your mind to it.

The last 3 days I have done nothing almost except focus on a few things. We FINALLY decided to enroll Olivia in the k12 program through the State. Its like a homeschool/public school hybrid. They provide curriculum, materials and everything and I do the teaching. Some stuff is online and other stuff in done in books and I'm paired up with a teacher in my area that will help me along the way and it also provides extracurricular activies for her that are optional of course. We feel despite our efforts to get Olivia in a private school(which didn't work out due to class sizing) that perhaps we were supposed to have listened to our original leading and keep her home to educate. Which is partially why I went with the k12 option. I know its more involvement then I probably want, but it will give me lots of structure and accountability which I think I need to make sure she's getting all she needs. But to do all this enrolling I had to have several documents scanned and sent to them. 2 of which I had to go get! One being a vaccine waiver(we selectively vaccinate and also delay them) so we still had to have the waiver, and also she had to have documentation that she had a Ear, Eye and Dental exam(all of which she passed today!).

Had to sit at the bank to get the waiver notarized..had to sit at the heath department for the exam. Had to wait at the WIC office for a new folder since mine went missing...which they gave me a TON of vouchers for a random little farmer's market that they were having..which would have been fine but it was HOT, my kids needed to pee, and I had to use up ALL the vouchers today because they weren't coming back next week..so I had to take way more produce home then I know we can consume in the next 2 weeks even. I mean at least thats a good problem! :) Have I ever mentioned how SLOW the WIC and heath department are?? Its crazy! Simply a mad house in there...

I also went to lunch, and picked up Kate's raw milk from the farmer...I was in and out of the car and in offices for 5 hours today. It was hard..let me tell you. Taking 3 kids anywhere is difficult in my opinion but having them out that long adds to the drama.

However, I am so thankful to have it all done. All I have left to do now is mail off a copy of Kate's birth certificate, and proof of income(which I already have thankfully) to the Peachcare for Kids program and I'm all caught up.

I know most of you probably think this is all pretty normal stuff you have to deal with..but honestly its a struggle for me. I am a home body. I like things accomplished but hate when its a more then a once step process(like having to get all these papers). I know that I'm old enough to deal with all this, but there is something about having to face adult stuff that still makes me want to run and hide. I feel like I'm pretending to be grown up. I'm in denial about being an adult I think....Normally Luke helps me out and does a lot of this type of stuff, but I'm really trying to be better about it...so he only handled getting one of the documents I needed in the past couple days..thankful for the growing opportunity but also tired out from it all! :)

Great post...

My friend Missi wrote this post a while back and it is so good. When we mothers make decisions for our children its easy to take offense when it differs from the way you've chosen to raise your children. Having someone share their concern today about my children's lack of vaccines(according to the CDC's "recommended" timeline) it reminded me of this...Thanks Missi! Just click on the linky below to be taken to her blog.

Turning The Tables..

I love my children.

I think as parents its so easy to show all the harder parts of parenting and not show as much of the joys of it. Let me preface by saying I am not personally talking about anyone I know imparticular, I'm just saying in general that recently I've seen a lot of parents seeming to not enjoy their children.

I REALLY enjoy my kids. Its why I have 3 with the hopes of more in the future..I love spending time with them, I love seeing their little faces light up when I see them everyday. I love being able to nourish, teach and help them mature in more ways then just physically. I love that there is NEVER a dull moment in our home. I love watching my children interact with each other and love on each other. I love that Olivia is old enough to understand the Lord and asks me all the time to read her the Bible because she enjoys hearing of God's promises. I love that my children are getting bold enough to pray for people to be healed/feel better.

I love that my kids still ask to be tucked in. That Kate comes up to me multiple times a day and wants to be held and rocked.

Errands may take longer, eating out is more difficult, and I may be just plain tired...but oh my...its all worth it. Every last minute.

A child book I like...

We have this bible called- The Jesus Story Book Bible(by Sally Lloyd-Jones)...I heard another mother say it was what she read her kids and upon looking at it bought it almost 2 years ago. We've read through it a couple times now and the kids still love it. However every time I read it with them I learn something new. Sometimes its nice having the Bible broken down and handed to you in a easy to understand way.

One of the things we heard a lot this past week while at the conference was the idea of John 5:39-40.

39-You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me,yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

The scriptures are meant to point back to Jesus....even the old testament. Upon returning and reading this I was reminded of the front cover of our children's bible. It says- Every Story whispers His name..and while reading the story of the ten commandments I came across this phrasing-

"God promises to always look after you," Moses said.
"Will you love Him and keep these rules?"

"We can do it! Yes! We promise!".

But they were wrong. They couldn't do it. No matter how hard they tried they could never keep God's rules all the time. God knew they couldn't. And He wanted them to know it, too. Only one Person could keep all the rules. And many years later God would send Him-to stand in their place and be perfect for them, because the rules couldn't save them. Only God could save them.

They were looking for a way to achieve right standing with God, a formula to abide by.

I have a hard time processing that God knew EVERYTHING before the beginning of time. He KNEW we would screw up, that sin would happen...and He's been trying for a very long time to get us to realize that WE CAN'T DO IT without Him...so thankful He hasn't given up on me. So thankful that at every look into my Bible I'm faced with Christ..and God's master plan to rescue His bride.

I did say

I would post today..:)

My house is messy, my children are on Grandparent detox, and my brain is overwhelmed by the information I am processing.

We had SUCH an amazing trip. Tuesday we got up and was ready to head out by 10:00 and managed to make it down to T'ville in pretty good time. Got our kids settled and exchanged cars since we took Luke's mother's car and we left the van for her to use. Then drove down to Jacksonville to spend the first day and a half with Tyler's parents at their house. Made it in time for dinner and enjoyed being welcomed and blessed by them. They made us feel soo at home and part of the family. Wednesday we hung out around the house in the morning and then went to lunch before heading out to the beach. The forcast was NOT good. Supposed thunderstorms ALL day. I was seriously broken up about it...we haven't seen the beach in 2 years and it was soo important to me to get to go...thankfully God gave us the most beautiful day ever. It was sunny and just slightly windy and the water was perfect in temperature. We spent the day there and then as we were headed back Tyler and Kelly's car broke down. We did manage to get home and ended up finding out it was their battery. Thursday morning Tyler's Dad took us out on the river in his boat and I skiied for the first time since having kids. I LOVED it..despite the fact that my entire body hurt due to not having done it in so long. We spent lunch with Tyler's grandma and then headed out to Orlando.

The conference we went to was Frank Viola's Organic church conference. We got to hear some AMAZING speakers and also got LOTS of time to spend with the body of believers gathered. I have to say one of the biggest things I enjoyed while there was getting a glimpse into what we(being Luke and I) are looking for. We met people we didn't know from Adam but treated us and loved on us like family. I have never met so many wonderful people and talked so deeply with people like that in I don't even know when. We met some families from GA that we'd love to hook up with hopefully even though they are a little ways away. I still don't have it all processed yet....I would imagine I haven't even begun to process it all...it challenged so many of my religeous views and its a lot of things I'm going to have to take to the Lord and allow Him to work it out in me. It made me so sad to leave come Sunday because we just enjoyed being with all these sweet people.

I was telling Kelly that its amazing how much ugly comes out when you spend so much time in close quarters with people. So thankful that Tyler and Kelly were so gracious in forgiving several outburts of nastiness from me...haha...I am NOT perfect to begin with..(big shocker!) and when you throw in being tired(lots of EARLY mornings and late nights), missing my kids, and having God do a lot of work in your heart all in a short amount of time it doesn't seem to help..haha..

Hope to eventually get to share a few things that I picked up that ministered to my heart in the next week or two, but bare with me as I get reaquainted with busy/childfilled life again. :)

Packing, packing!

Tomorrow Luke and I are leaving to make a very long drive...we will stop in Thomasville to drop off our sweet children with Luke's family and then will continue on to Jacksonville to hang out with our friend Tyler's family for a day and a half...then we will continue our drive down to Orlando to attend a Frank Viola conference. We've been wanting to go to one but the timing/money thing never worked out. This conference is being offered SUPER cheap and Tyler and Kelly have friends who are graciously letting us stay with them while down there...so it all worked out. We are super excited about having this opportunity. I'm also overwhelmed at the amount of stuff I have to think about and do before going. Its never the packing the clothes that gets me..its all the extra stuff we have to bring that gets me.

This will be the first time we've ever left the kids this long, and the first time I've ever left Kate for more then 1 night. I think I'll be ok with the older kids staying, but leaving Kate behind is like leaving my left arm. She's SUCH a mama's girl and if she was still nursing I'd have taken her in a heartbeat..It seriously breaks my heart thinking about leaving her..and I have a feeling that I'll probably end up crying when its time to finally hand her over. She will probably be just fine with staying..it will be me doing the clinging. :)

Yesterday we watched some friend's kids while they had church activities they needed to attend...they did really good..and it all worked out because they were needing a toddler bed and we needed to get rid of ours to make room for Noah's "new" bed that my parents are loaning/giving to us..so they toted it home with them and Noah was super excited to see his new bed and dresser arrive with PopPop...Neither Kate or Noah had dressers so we've had to hang up all of their clothes...so its nice now to not have to do his at least.

My man is out working hard today since he'll be missing the rest of the week from the work they all have going today. They left early this morning and I'm pretty sure they are going to try and work a little later tonight to get as much done as they can. Such a hard worker my man is. I love him so much! :)

Off to finish folding another load of laundry and hopefully start putting some of these clothes in suitcases. Will take pictures while we are on our trip...Most likely won't post till next Monday when we are back and settled in a little...

Some days..

I feel like I have millions of things I want to blog about and others I feel like there is nothing. Usually when I sit down to write Kate will end up doing this--

and keeps me from getting much written out..so I have to time it just right. :)


We had a great 4th of July weekend. Saturday we went to a little festival type thing at Atlantic Station. They had tons of free stuff for the kids to do like facepainting, arts and crafts projects, bounce houses, artists who would draw your kids and a Radio Disney crew was there doing contests like hula hooping and watermelon eating. :) We also got the kids their traditional Old Navy flag tees too while there. It was a lot of fun and we tired them out. We also spent a lot of our weekend in our new pool which can actually allow all of us to be in it without bumping noses(literally!). :) Sunday we swam all morning, grilled out hotdogs, ate corn on the cob and induldged in a Lemonaid Icecream pie that I whipped up the night before. It made me remember everything I love about summer....very nastolgic...took naps and then headed over to Erin and Wesley's house in Decatur to join them on a walk to downtown Decatur to see the fireworks. The kids loved them..even Kate. She was jumping up and down and clapping..soo cute.





Yesterday I babysat a friends little ones. She's got 4 and with my 3 we make up quite a full house. It made me thankful that in life you normally get one child at a time and it makes it so that you slowly ease into having more then one child(or 2 or 3)..going from 3 to 7 even for the day is crazy. Do able..but crazy. Specially when there are a 7 year old, 2-5 year olds, 2-3 year olds, and 2-1 year olds..haha..


As Luke and I were continuing to pray about Olivia and her schooling this year, we felt drawn to a certain church by us that happened to have a kindergarten program but because its private its kind of pricey. I hear its a great price, but when you don't have it..it just isn't..So we called and asked if they do scholarships and she said they didn't really but were willing to try and work with us depending on if they could cut out a large chunk of the tuition due to having to pay teachers. Which is fine...but we're waiting for her to call back and I'm nervous. Not sure why because I KNOW that if God wants her there and has a reason for us suddenly wanting her to be there He'll work it out...but if you guys could please just pray for favor and for the will of God to be done either way. I laughed cause the lady we have been talking to was all concerned that she hadn't gone to preschool and was worried about how socially awkward she would be in a class with other children. I seriously almost LOST it...haha..My Olivia?? Socially awkward..not by a long shot. She hasn't met a stranger and isn't afraid to make friends...thankfully. Noah on the other hand...he may need a preschool class next year because if Olivia isn't around he almost shuts down socially...but this is also what THEY say I should be concerned about...not reality. We will just have to prayerfully consider what's best for him next year.

Homechurch tonight, nothing tomorrow, but Friday I'm going to see a movie with my Sista! Can't wait..:)

Matt. 7:11

"So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him." NLT

"As bad as you are, you wouldn't think of such a thing. You're at least decent to your own children. So don't you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?"..The Message.

Biblegateway.com has become a search function for me all the time. I'm always looking for a verse and I just type in the part I can remember and it usually pulls it up...haha..and I love that I can look up different translations. New Living is my favorite as its the way my own bible is..but sometimes the way The Message phrases things is nice and in laymen's terms. :)

This verse stands out because I so often don't like asking God for things(not just physical stuff but various stuff)....then I remember how much I LOVE giving gifts to my children. I LOVE delighting them.....how much MORE does God love to do that for us? WAY more. :) God gives good gifts...always. He knows just what we want and need and delights in seeing us be happy with our gifts.