The Joys Of Family and Hearth

As a stay at home, homeschooling, run two at home businesses,  mom of many.. I have dubbed a certain time of day as "Chaos Hour".. For us this is usually the hour before my husband is due home from work. I am usually in the midst of making dinner, setting table, cleaning up from whatever project we had done during the day etc. etc. Because I try to create an atmosphere of peace for when hubby comes home, chaos hour.. is just that complete and utter chaos. It's the time of day when my phone will ring the most. It's the time when my little ones will want immediate answers to the worlds biggest questions.. Like "why are duck feathers green?" and it's is asked with such urgency.. like they must know NOW!! :) It's the hour when my oldest ones are either leaving for work, coming in from work, coming home from an outing etc. etc. It's also the time when someone gets hurt, someone needs me to talk to them privately, or the baby is crying and nee...

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20680580,00.html It is so exciting to me to see this young family fulfill their desires to follow the Lord by turning over their fertility to him. As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” Genesis 9:7 When hubby and I were younger and started our family, we were pleasantly surprised to find out we were expecting, albeit it wasn't the perfect of circumstances. We weren't married, we weren't saved..I was on birth control and yet we knew that the life that was given to us was so special, and a gift. You see even tho, we weren't so many things, God had his hand on us. He was protecting us and guiding our ways even though we hadn't fully come to him yet. When we had our first child we decided that if God could bless us while using birth control then we knew it wasn't something under our control. So we at that time, still not saved yet.. decided we would leave it ...

While dh was unemployed we lost all sense of routine! Because our normal "routine" was that when Daddy was home it's all about him and what he wants to do. Well when he lost his job and was home everyday we continued in that pattern. It's all me and my children had known for the past 25 years! Now that he is back working again, Thank GOD!!! We are back to our normal routine! Yeah.. and hubby is feeling back to normal himself! Yea!!! With that being said I wanted to talk about being prepared for a storm.. As a christian woman God calls us to be certain things..  Think Proverbs 31.  I'm going to focus specifically on the ones below and how they help me to be prepared for what is to come. 15 She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants. . Providing a nourishing, healthy meal for my family is important.. The more I read about what is in our foods the more I realize I have to be more dilige...

Proverbs 3:3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. For many months now we have lived this scripture.. When I say lived it I mean LIVED it. I know many will say they are a faithful people or person.. That they live this way.. But my experience has been a bit different. Yes, I would say I've lived a life of faith.. Sure.. But my husband had a job that provided well for us, we had health insurance, we had good vehicles, we "had" it "all" ... in the eyes of the world. We did not worry about where our next meal would come from. We didn't worry about friends we had many.. And then the bottom dropped. And now we LIVE a different type of faith. One that truly does depend on God for our every need to be met.. Our every desire to be fulfilled.  It's amazing how when one loses everything we learn to rely on our Lord so much stronger then we ever have. When my husband lost ...

It's been a while since I've updated my blog.. my apologies.  Our life was substantially turned upside down when Sandy hit just a little over 6 weeks ago. The cliche' of "you don't know what have until it's gone" is something we have been hearing over and over again over the past 6 weeks. The isolation of our neighborhood is mocking to those of us still here. Our close knit shore neighborhood was hit extremely hard by Sandy. She wiped most of it out. 90% of it at least is uninhabitable. People are gone, Homes are gone, Memories remain, but the place where those memories we made are GONE. This blog post is even hard for me to write.. How do I effectively communicate the loss, yet expressly communicate how blessed we were through it all? My heart is torn between those who lost it all..and myself who by the grace of God did not. I still have a hard time fathoming why... I know I can't question God or why he does what he does. I know only th...

Lately I've had an abundance of energy. I guess it's the nesting instinct kicking her. Yesterday, I made several batches of cookie dough, a couple of meals for the freeze, prepared the baby's bassinet, redid his clothing.. Just getting ready for my son to arrive. How my arms long to hold him and nurture him. I can hardly wait to see his sweet face, count his fingers and toes, wrap him up and feed him. I have been contracting since midnight last night.. they are strong and steady but nothing that I can't handle, so we wait until it becomes unbearable and then we go to hospital.

How good I am feeling now that the weather has cooled down here! Yeah!!! I have energy to walk! Energy to cook again!!! Yeah!!!! I love Autumn, it's my absolute favorite season.. and then my next favorite is winter!! :) Our school year is progressing so well. I'm extremely happy with every ones progress. I'm learning how to deal with an almost 18 year old and soon a newborn in the home. What a wide range of parenting stages I am in.. I often have to remind myself of who I'm dealing with and how old they are.. My oldest daughter surprised me with a baby shower for the new little guy who is due to come in early November. What a blessing it was to be surrounded by family and friends all there to encourage me in the welcoming of our sixth child. I could complain of our situation, but I won't. God has taught me to rely on him for ALL our needs.. and he has provided through it all. He has even blessed us along the way. He has taught me so much on grace, me...