Spring

My heart feels happy just writing the title to this blog post....spring. I love spring. It's a very brief season here in Arizona, but so lovely while it lasts! Here is a picture I got tonight at sunset...the view out my back door...

The fields are starting to really green up, there's grass poking up in random places in the yard, and the flannels have come off the beds and light cotton sheets have taken their place. I washed all the kids sheets, even their comforters today and they will get to crawl into a sweet smelling bed tonight...I love clean sheets day!
It's been warm here the last week. We have been in the low to mid 80s almost all week. It has been so nice to go outside in short sleeves. The freckles are popping out across the bridges of noses around here...including mine! The girls have been helping dad nozzle pivots and working on their tans.  Anne's been out in her walker on the back porch scooting around. She's growing way too fast....as she should with the way she enjoys eating....

Spring always fill me with hope for the coming year. After a winter of brown, windy, desertyness (I think I might have made up a word), it's refreshing to see green fields springing up and warm spring breezes.  I can't wait to hang laundry out on the line and smell the sunshine. It also means that bath night will be occuring on a regular basis (nightly) and there will be a ring around the tub for the next several months. (grin) But at least they are outside and not parked in front of the television.
I hope you are enjoying springtime as well!

the newest member of the family....

Meet the newest member of our family.....

This is Autumn. She is a pony that a friend of ours blessed us with. The kids are beyond over the moon. She receives lots of attention...brushing, petting, feeding, and leading around the pen. This is a total learning experience for us. The kids seem really into it right now, and I hope it will continue.

Here is our little almost ten month old....eating corn and mashed potatoes!

She is growing so fast and is so much fun. She is trying to crawl. She inches around like a worm. She babbles at you and looks at you like you should know exactly what she just said. It's so sweet.

Yesterday I took a Sunday afternoon walk up the cemetery up the road from our house. I haven't been up there yet. It might sound a little crazy, but I enjoy walking around the cemetery reading the stones, imagining the lives and stories buried there. There were quite a few little ones resting there. It makes my heart tender to think of the sorrow of those parents, and to imagine how that would feel. How could you even try to memorialize your child in so few words?

We had a winter storm over the weekend. I caught the sunset Friday night. It was breathtaking....

With the wide open spaces and the mountains in the background, God has a huge canvas to paint our evening sunsets and sunrises on. I am so thankful to be able to witness it.

That was our weekend in a nutshell.....hopefully off to a good week!!

Yes, I am still here!!!

Yes, I am still here. It feels like I can hardly find the time to check off items on my "to do" list, let alone sit down and try to compose a somewhat coherent post. And to be honest, I don't even know why life feels so busy right now. We are just doing life. School, cleaning, eating, cleaning, sleeping, reading lots of books. Not my books, but toddler books. The boy has decided he loves books. Which is so awesome, yet after the fourth book, I am feeling tired and he is just getting started. And we must read "Goodnight Moon" at naptime and bed time and he must practically punch the book out of my hand as he looks for the "mou". That's mouse for those of you who may not know Landonese! :) He has this habit of not finishing his words.
I took the tribe back to Pennsylvania in January. We were there for three weeks. My sister flew in and drove back with me. Bless her. The trip in went amazingly well. Even baby girl did awesome. Unfortunately Alaina came down with the flu on the second to last day and then Larissa got it once we got to PA which meant we were down for like a week. Then baby girl decided to push through a tooth and kept me up all hours of the night and would only sleep if she were next to me. Did I ever mention that her nickname around here is "Roo" because she kicks like a kangaroo? Seriously. I'd just fall asleep and be awoken by a kick to the gut.  And to wrap it up I got sick the last week we were in. So needless to say, we didn't run around a whole lot. Which is actually okay. We spent lots of time with just my family, which is so nice. My family are some of my most favorite people in the whole world. And I don't say that lightly, because I know there are lots of families who can hardly stand to be in the same room with each other. I know it's a rare gift, and I am so thankful for it.
The trip back didn't go as smooth. It's funny how everyone is just so excited to get to the destination, but once it's time to go home, the novelty has worn off. Plus we had to drive through snow/sleet/slush in Virginia and Tennessee, till we reached Nashville. Landon probably did the best the whole trip. He never complained. He couldn't fight with anyone because he didn't have a sister right next to him. He was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. My sweet mom volunteered to drive home with us....bless her heart. She still loves her grandkids, and that's all I have to say about that! :)
So now we are home and I am still unpacking boxes from our move the week before Christmas. Yes, who moves the week before Christmas????  And I want to take pictures of the house so I can post them, but I haven't got around to it yet.
As soon as I posted that I felt the Lord was telling my word for the year was ABIDE, I was feeling a little leery. Because I am thinking the only way I will learn how to ABIDE is by going through circumstances that require me to ABIDE. It's like saying you will never ever do something and then 10 years later God completely humbles you when you do it! And I must say there have been incidents in my life recently that cause me to step back and ask God, "where are you in this? Are you here?" So with the move comes new routine, and I am struggling here. I just can't seem to find a daily rhythm that is working for us. I used to make meal plans and for some reason lately, everything inside of my revolts at the making of a meal plan. Yet I panic the next day if I don't know what's for lunch. (We eat our main meal at lunch because I know the farmer will be in between noon and 12:30....after that it could be anywhere from 6-9 in the evening!) I don't know why I do this to myself. Making a meal plan for the week only takes 10 minutes at the most, but I just.don't.want.to.
I am also struggling with the whole media thing. For the kids. They want to play games on the ipad. They want to watch Brady Brunch reruns on Hallmark. How much is too much? I'd rather they not at all, yet at the same time technology is part of our lives and you can't just ignore it. They have to learn how to use the computer. I am at a loss. Suggestions welcomed......
One thing I just started doing, like it's the second time, so it's still totally new....is having coffee dates with my girls.  Everyone goes down for naps except the one whose turn it is, and we brew some decaf coffee and sit on the sofa and talk. About anything they want. If they want to play a game, we play a game. I actually got the idea from my sister who took each of my older girls out when we were in Pennsylvania. Today was an extra special day because our darling second daughter, prayed , confessed she was a sinner and asked Jesus to be her Savior! Praise His Name. I am so completely humbled and baffled that I got the privilege to witness that.
Sooo, that's a little of what's going on 'round here. How about you?