it really is book worthy....

Yesterday... it was beautiful!! We packed a Lunch and headed to the Rock Ranch with our homeschool group.... weather was perfect!!! We learned about pioneers, thanksgiving and ground some corn... had a great Lunch and then off to the races... well not really but I felt like all the walking between the tiny town, corn house, pillow, slide.. I at least ran a half marathon, right??? Just kidding... then...... one of the Mercer girls came to me and said " I think Caleb is hurt" ... mind you that 4 years ago we went to the ER with Caleb with a broke leg from the Rock Ranch.... so I investigate and yep... trip to Dr..... can't walk, crying, and in so much pain!! Kathy took the girls and Christina came to my UNCLEAN house ( because spending time with the kids is so much more important..)

I had to drive to Jonesboro... so the text I get while I am there were cracking me up.. one said " garrison peed in the toilet and doodle the dog drank it" and "the little guy got a diaper change and had a corn crop from the corn house"...

Praise the Lord that Caleb's foot was not broken... just sprained pretty bad....

So I am still gone and Doug had brought pizza home, Christina had been herding "ants" soooooo funny!!!! So she and the kiddos at pizza too... well..... Doug ask lily what she wanted to during, she said the juice in the fridge, Doug poured, lily said NO thank you after a sip.. so they ate and loved the pizza... b and b if you wanted to order some.... great plug ugh!!  So as I got home and talked to Doug he ask what kind of juice was in the pitcher in fridge, I said there is no juice that is chicken stock from the chicken salad I made today... we BUST out laughing!!!! I called Christina in tears laughing so hard!!!  I'm telling you our life is book worthy 😃

Time!!! it is so precious!!!

time is precious, I mean really precious.. the kiddos are growing and changing RIGHT before my eyes!!!! I am realizing now that I am a mom of 6 that there is just not enough hours in the day. Things get pushed to the next day and so on... and guess what... I AM OK WITH THAT...

laundry, well , that is a whole blog in itself, I don't even have time to write the blog...
kitchen clean, well, it stays cluttered...
bathrooms, this may be gross, but I think it has been about 2 weeks since the last deep clean..
beds...I need to change the sheets as I write this..
mopping.... that needs to be done , like, yesterday....
dusting... what is that!!!

oh , I did today get all the closets except for mine changed out... it will be cold later this week my friends... I will be freezing but the kids will be NICE and COZY  :)

years ago if you ask me about how my house looked I would tell you it is CLEAN... well I have changed, the sanctification process .....cleaning comes last..... not something that I will do before I love on these kiddos!!!
I have said so many times  "the days are long, but the years are short"  this is my life.... it is so true... if I have time for nothing else ..... I will spend time with my kiddos...

The good, bad, and ugly.....

since I wrote my blog yesterday I have thought back and pondered should I have put it out on facebook... the main reason I do this is so my mom and family can read on what is going on in my life and heart... BUT yesterdays post spoke to so many, they may not be going through exactly what we are BUT there is something else that may be... I was encouraged that I am not in this thing called life alone.. I am so grateful that the Lord sustains me in times of need, His grace is sufficient, and He is enough. My blog is my thoughts and heart... I tried for years to do scrapbooks with in the end feeling like a total failure because I still only have Alexis' 1st year done... people she is 12!!!!!!

so my blog is the GOOD...... family trips, friends, extended family, mountain top experiences, kiddos, thankful list, dogs, garden, cute sayings the kids may say (well only one but it was cute), my mission trip to East Asia, and the list goes on....

so my blog is on the BAD..... life is messy at times... Ill be honest I hate the term "positive thinking" because it really does not matter if I think positive the Lord is sovereign and he will bring trial my way...
James tells us in verse 2-4......
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
I know that God molds and shapes us into His image through the trials, so I consider it pure joy to face these

so my blog is on the UGLY..... this my friends is my heart when I am sinning...  I know my heart is full of sin and I am EVERY single day preaching the gospel to myself.... oh and the first part is ugly... God and His holiness, His perfection and myself who is the wretched sinner.... realizing with my sin I can not even be in His presence.. that is bad people... BUT oh the good is that He in his LOVING,GRACIOUS and KINDNESS sent His son to die on that cross so I may be saved through His blood and sacrifice... we need to be preaching this to ourselves EVERYDAY!!!

This so called life is not easy, just because you have Jesus does not keep us from trials, I will cling to the cross when things are good, bad, and ugly!!!

pictures always look different!

Sometimes being strong and having an I can do anything personality can be sooooo discourging at times! we think we can do it all, our husbands think we can do it all, our children, parents, and our friends think we can too!.. it really stinks at times ... sometimes you just need to cry, vent, or just take a bath to bring yourself back to reality!... I myself have had these days since the boys have got here... most everyone knows that we are fostering 2 boys and have 4 of our own, so add that up and you have 6... its tough! I am leaning on Gods grace sooooo much...

I have felt lonely at times because everyone thinks we have it together all the time... some days I just want the phone to ring with a voice that says "how are you?? or hey you need a prayer?? or a text ...this has not happened very much... sadly but I know everyone is so busy ! BUT God has done so much sanctification in my own life these past weeks... He knows what is good for me... and I have leaned on Him so much during these weeks... we always have these images in our minds on how things look....... ummm they are NEVER the same images in real life...

Fostering is a blessing and we are able to care for these boys while mom gets her things together BUT this is not the picture I had in my mind....
although it is amazing how God gave us these boys and they look sooooo much like our family!...
Fostering is hard BUT oh the love the boys are getting here is amazing to see...
Fostering is life changing BUT what they are showing us about how important it is to reach out into our own community and really what goes on in our backyard!
Fostering is the heart of God, these boys are without their family so we must love, nurture and share with them.
Fostering is about Him and His children...
Fostering has made me realize more that the state has in trusted these children to us and even more importantly that God has in trusted all these children to our care including our own!

I am thankful that God has lead us to care for these boys, even when the picture in our minds did not look like it is! His grace is enough! and that I am thankful!!!