Gratituding My Life Away

Gratitude Monday...thanks to the inspiring blog A Holy Experience I have been moved to record here the way I am finding endless joy in my life. I do believe the more I focus on the things I am thankful for the more happy I have become and the more I see God's hand in so much of my day, weaving together the little things into a fabulous story of our family. We are blessed beyond words and even on those days when things seem hopeless I pray that the spirit can draw me back to a heart full of gratitude. So here goes my list....

#1. Watching the children run free, chasing chickens on the hill
#2. A husband who is willing to take the children for a day so I can "catch up"
#3. Seeing Katherine stop and bend down to give her brother a good morning squeeze.
#4. A beautiful Sabbath hike ending at sunset, gazing at snow capped mountains
#5. A precious Caroline's tight hugs each night, not wanting to unwrap arms from around my neck.
#6. Enjoying a play with Mary on Sunday, just the two of us, learning the stories behind many hymns and singing with all present the glorious words penned by such faithful men and women.

Christmas and the New Year....

Eric and I sat down together for a couple hours one morning to really pray over the year ahead. It was wonderful to dream, plan, discuss, look at the calendar, set goals, and look at ways of simplifying together. We MUST do this every year!!! It made us both excited about the year ahead and what God has in store for our family.

We want to hold ourselves accountable by writing our notes here.
These are in no particular order...
1. To bed at 9:30 (encouraging us to read every night) and up at 5:30 to have quiet ourselves
2. Service-Ayme check out how to get K and E involved in ACTS, Eric check out the shower church ministry. Continue the granola bags to the homeless, expand the contents.
3. Exercise-Ayme continue to run 3x a week, Eric bike to work at least 1x a week, and ride 1x on the weekend. Family exercise one time over the weekend. Ayme join weight watchers and lose 15 pounds.
4. Date night 2x a month...once here at home and once out.
5. Schooling...hire a tutor to help a couple hours a week and call Sarah Bowen to help several hours a week.
6. Extras...stop gymnastics and ballet. Katherine to join Prep Orchestra at University of Redlands. Art classes 1-2 times in the spring for E and M.
7. Vacations...
March-Mammoth?
April-Camping Pathfinders
May-CCLHO Monterey, camp on the way home at Kirk Creek.
June/July-Lodge and San Juans?
August-Leoni Meadows
Oct/Nov-APHA Washington D.C.?
8. Start attending Calimesa for Sabbath School and 2nd service(11:45)at LLU.

Just the Two of Us

It is rare that we do something like we did a couple weeks ago.
A good friend had told me about a fabulous hike to an amazing creek that she and her husband had just done together. I thought to myself, Eric and I have to do this. I can't remember the last time we hiked just the two of us! I decided to surprise him. It took a bit of planning as we had unexpected guests come from Germany and the usual busyness of Fridays. He kept trying to figure out what we were going to do, for all I had told him was be ready at 1:00 and wear good walking shoes!

Thomas

So the twins turned 3 on June 7 and several days before their birthday I decided to post pictures and write about each of them at different times. I proceeded to write a post about Carolina and share some pictures of her taken that week, but I must say writing about Thomas didn't come quite as easy! Eric happended to be in Haiti on their actual birthday!

Surprises

This past Tuesday Eric called all the way from faraway Haiti to remind me of two things...to VOTE and to check the early peach tree out in the orchard. All over both of these Babe!

I did debate not voting because it entailed dragging five tired kiddos out of the car into the heat to place my vote. However, since the girls have felt passionate about the debate surrounding Measure O (a measure that would keep supercenters out of our town), I was able to talk to them about the importance of taking time to vote. They also enjoyed watching the process of voting. A good experience even if we were a bit late to soccer practice.

As far as the peach goes I had picked a few the night before and shared them with some friends. We did enjoy fresh peaches for breakfast along with a basketful of blueberries from our plants. So Babe thought you would be happy to know that the harvest was successful! Thanks for all the yummy things to eat out there. Tomorrow we may even attempt a batch of blackberry jam. I think there just might be enough up on the hill!
We've saved a few peaches for you when you return.

We can't wait to have you home Eric. Kids miss you a ton, but I am pretty sure I miss you more! 2 days to go....
Look closely at the pictures below!



Also, this past Tuesday we had a surprise visitor in our backyard. A PEACOCK! Lizzy being Lizzy came within inches of touching it. Way too much excitement around here!

Carolina

It is hard to believe that the twins will turn 3 in a very short time. I thought it would be fun to post a little about each one of them. Hopefully this helps me remember them at this age!

Carolina was born 2 minutes ahead of her twin brother! She weighed in at just a smidge over 6lbs...6lbs, 1oz to be exact. My mom and I worried that she might get lost in the shuffle...you know just ANOTHER girl with Thomas being the long awaited boy and all!

Truly I have something to say about the whole "trying for a boy thing"
People constantly remark "oh, you finally got your boy"! As if all these girls were just stepping stones to that boy. Don't get me wrong, I am completely head over heals in love with Thomas and I do feel blessed to have him, he really is a lot of fun and SO DIFFERENT from the girls (duh!!!), but TRULY God gives you what you are supposed to have and each one is such a miracle. Eric loved having all these girls, neither of us cared the sex and getting a boy was not why we decided to have number four!

Anyway back to Carolina...any worries I might have had, God had covered as usual. You see, she is a very precious mix of layed backness and grit! She holds her own even with Thomas who she loves and is very patient with but he sure can be a pill! She is not fearful, but bold and ready to try new things.
She has always been a climber, from 5 or so months she would climb up to standing, then at one year she would scale the rungs of her crip to get out and back into it, and now she has moved on to scaling the gates that she is unable to open those that lead to the orchard and the bunny cage! She talks a lot but listens too, she gives in to her siblings but makes her desires known,and she never misses what is happening around her! Like mom said the other day..."she is little with a big presense". She is still tiny, a whole 10lbs less than Thomas and a head shorter! She really is sweetness, still small enough to be carried around by any of her older sisters. I love this precious little person!


Some of my favorites taken this week...shows her personality!












So...Happy Birthday Carolina. God surely blessed us when you were born. You add so much to our family, your precious little voice singing your favorite songs...
This is My Father's World
For God So Loved the World
Jesus Loves Me
your enthusiasm for life, the way you obey the first time, and how you love to snuggle up and read! What a priceless year this had been.
I love you so much....
Love,
Mommy

Some of the words I love to hear you say...Sunny and Nuggles (Ducks Sunny and Snuggles),

CHICKENS....

I have so wanted to journal more about what has been happening around our home, but so many things compete for my time. The biggest news right now is that Eric is in Haiti for two weeks. He is having a wonderful time. We talk to him every couple days and have enjoyed hearing little snippets of what he is doing. We can't wait to have him home. The kids and I have been staying very busy! I am near exhaustion most nights and haven't been able to get everyone settled down and in bed before 9pm!

We have HUGE news to share....
Today marks the day that we officially entered the land of no return!




Preparing the Area







Laying the Foundation




After much planning we purchased 16 baby chicks.




With Eric in Haiti for two weeks and summer just around the corner the kids and I thought it "perfect timing" to get some chicks(actually tonight I wondered what got into us with Eric being away and such, what was I thinking???)





The half finished chicken coop sits proudly up on the hill waiting to be roofed and dressed with the siding. Until then, the little chicks need to be under the heat lamp at night.
The kids and I constructed a make shift "day coop" for the little brood of chicks. What fun we had figuring out what to use and how to best make it work.
(Our duck Sunny "visiting" the chicks}

The girls were nearly bursting with excitement and even set about naming them, most of the names coming from characters in Beatrix Potter Tales.


I felt honored that they named one Ayme after there mother...the other Rhode Island Red is Anne (as in Anne of Green Gables)! So far there is Sally Henny Penny, Flopsy, Mrs McGregor, Tiggy, Mopsy, and Smudge.




I have to admit that this has all been very fun today. Of course it is great to see the kids so excited and happy however to FINALLY get the chicks after so much planning and reading up on this whole process (Eric did most of that, thanks Babe!)is just plain EXCITING. We now have 2 Barnvelders, 1 Barred Rock, 1 Buff Leghorn, 2 Australorp (supposedly the best layers), 2 New Hampshire Reds, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Black Marans (these lay dark chocolate brown eggs!), 1 Wellsummer, and 2 Ameraucanas that lay light blue-green eggs. If all goes well they should start laying around Thanksgiving!

Now I'm off to bed as Thomas has been waking up around 5:30 since Eric left and things are sure to start real early here on our little "farm".


One last picture of Thomas...this one proves that mud is the name of the game around here!