It just doesn’t seem right that I just revived this old blog and now our family is unplugging ourselves from media for two weeks.  How about this, I plan to post next week sometime to tell you how our little experiment is going.  And maybe I could sneak in a couple of cute things the kids said since I will be going crazy that I can’t post them on facebook!

A few months ago I read this book called Seven, by Jen Hatmaker.  Jen is a friend of Marla whom I met at our new church over a year ago.  Marla connected me to Jen because she as bringing home her Ethiopian babies shortly after we brought Emelia home.  I have been so intrigued by Jen since she accepted my facebook friendship.  She is so very real, hilarious and she loves Jesus.  But more than that she is making me think (how dare her!).  Making me think about the American Dream and how I say I don’t want/need that, but when I examine my life it appears as though I am striving to go down that road.  I say that all I want/need is Jesus, but I rely on a whole lot more to get me through the day than Jesus.

So this book was an experiment that she did to help her fast from things that she loves or are a convenience, to allow God to seep into those areas.  What frustrated me about the book at first, but I love now, is she didn’t tell us what to do at the end, after the experiment is over.  But of course she didn’t.  God is going to speak to us all differently.  Not logging on to facebook is going to affect me differently than my husband, and we will have separate lessons learned when fasting from it.

So this chapter is about media.  The first three chapters were food, clothing, possessions.  (We have down an experiment with every chapter, I will have to fill you in on those another time.)  So as a family we decided that the tv was being turned off.  I really didn’t think it would be a big deal, but I as sit and type this, the girls are asleep and the tv is on. (remember it starts tomorrow).  I like the background noise, I really do.  But I wonder if that noise is so distracting that I’m not even able to hear from God when He wants to say something to me.  We are also turning off the Wii, which will be a challenge for the boys, but they are up for it!  (I’m pretty thrilled about it, sometimes I envision putting it out on the curb because it causes so much grief here).  The hardest thing for me is this whole internet thing.  I admit, I love it.  But, I want to say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I love my Lord more!

So even though this is going to be the hardest two weeks so far, I am pretty excited about it.  Please read Jen’s book and tell me what you think!  You can buy it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble!

I know, you are shocked to see another post so soon.  I’m pretty shocked as well.   I am in my house right now with two sleeping girls and no boys!  This is unprecedented!  I already did take a power nap and I should be cleaning the kitchen, but that can wait a minute (or twenty)!

I wanted to do a few updates on the kiddos and how they are doing.

Ethan, age 10, is doing great.  He is in the 4th grade and likes school.  He has an amazing teacher again this year and is excelling.  He LOVES to read and play any sport!  He is currently on a flag football team (hence the reason the house is so quiet at the moment) and a baseball team.  We are starting to experience some of the tween moments where he can’t imagine that he is not right.  I think Sean and I are looking forward to adolescence with Ethan.  Its a time that we are taught to be scared of as parents, but I don’t think that it needs to be so.  We are excited to see him grow spiritually and physically and be there for him during those tough, awkward years!  How can you pray for Ethan?  His doctor is concerned about his growth pattern and after some testing we are going to see an Endocrinologist in mid-July.  We aren’t sure what, if anything, is wrong.  We are praying that if there is something that God will heal him and no treatment will be necessary.  Will you join us in that prayer?

Eli, age 7, is our tenderhearted boy!  He absolutely idolizes his big brother and wants to please him so badly.  He is a born helper and wears his emotions on his sleeve.  A lot of things come very easy and naturally for Eli such as academics and sports.  He is in 1st grade and  loves school!  He is very well liked by all of his classmates.  He is currently on a baseball team and likes to play, but doesn’t have the competitive drive that his big brother has.  Eli is always talking about our family and loves it when we are all together.  He often counts our fish and our cat as members of our family bringing the number to 8.  We have to remind them that they aren’t people!  How can you pray for Eli?  Pray that we will continue to encourage the tender heart that he has.  I can see him doing mighty things to serve the Lord as he grows up, but I know that that quality has to be nurtured and encouraged.  Also, he happens to be our clumsy child and gets hurt often.  Pray that God will protect him from any serious injury!

Emelia turned 2 1/2 recently and we celebrated her one year anniversary of being a part of our family on March 21st!  Emelia is full of life.  She is very obsessed with me.  Always wanting me to be actively participating in whatever she is doing at the moment.  She would be happy to just sit in my lap all day long.  We cannot seem to get her to play with her toys independently.  Emelia loves to help by throwing diapers away, unloading the dishwasher, setting the table, carrying something somewhere or anything else you ask her to do.  Lately she has been experimenting with the phrase, “I don’t want to”.  Its not really going over very well and we hope that she will conclude the experiment soon.  Lately we have been talking a lot about her birth mom and her sister.  We have photos hanging on the fridge so that we can be reminded to pray for them and to think about them.  She continues to take a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and still sleep through the night.  Sometimes it takes her awhile to fall asleep at night because of her nap, but I am not willing to even talk about giving up that nap yet!  Emelia loves her baby sister and can always make Ella laugh!  I am thinking about the fall and going to try something with her, possibly preschool, but more likely a tumbling class or something!  Should be interesting!  How can you pray for Emelia?  Pray for patience for us and for wisdom to talk about her adoption with her.  We know there are/will be hurts that she will have to deal with and we are just praying for healing before the hurt even surfaces.

Ella will turn 6 months on Tuesday.  That doesn’t even seem possible!  She is such a content baby.  She’s been sleeping through the night for a good long time now!  Napping is the hardest thing.  She doesn’t transfer well when she falls asleep in her car seat.  So if we do anyting during the day she ends up taking multiple cat naps.  Lately she has been giving me a longer nap in the afternoon (like right now), so we are on the right track!  The girl is so happy.  She can roll across the room, only one direction though!    She is starting to eat rice cereal and we tried some carrots yesterday.  She doesn’t seem to love the food, but doesn’t hate it either.  Just goes with her personality!  Since 4 months we have been doing formula with her.  She prefers for me to give her the bottle, and will often get distracted and decide she doesn’t want to finish it.  Seriously she needs to get over this.  This house is FULL of distractions, she will never get a full meal in.  (Although no one is worrying about her weight at this point!).  Ella is such a wonderful gift that we didn’t even know we wanted or needed!  But now that she’s here we are all head over heels in love with her and can’t imagine our family without her!  How can you pray for Ella?  Just pray for her health and development.  Pray that her calm personality lingers and that she can adjust to be the fourth child and what comes with that!

Thank-you for praying for my kids.  Its the best gift you can give us!  Now here are some photos from the last month!

I consider myself a fairly laid back mom.  I have my moments of frustration or being overwhelmed (every day), but in general I’m relatively even keeled.  There is one thing that can really get me though, and its disrespect.

My boys are good boys.  I do get compliments all of the time about how sweet/funny/nice they are.  With that being said, when it comes to chores at home, those sweet/funny/nice qualities seem to disappear.  One of my boys just dilly dallies and takes his sweet time, the other boy gets annoyed and dare I say……….disrespectful when asked to do something (often).

They have chores they are responsible for every day, this is expected and not compensated in any way.  This past Thursday after I had given them ample time to get their homework done and have fun, I reminded them (also annoying, its April, there should be no reminding) that their chores needed done.  After their initial grunts they headed upstairs to tackle their room.

I went up to check on them after 20 minutes and its as if no one had even pretended to pick anything up.  After a few “encouraging” words, I told them I would be back up to check on them.  I gave them another 20 minutes and went back up.

I opened the door and found the dilly dallier pushing a notebook slowly from one side of the room to another and the other child READING A MAGAZINE.  I lost it folks, seriously lost it.  I lost it to the point of telling them everything I had done for them that day and this was the only thing I had asked them to do and this is what I get.  I said a few more things, I’m sure and ended it with, “I can’t even think of your punishment right now, but know its coming……..Come down to dinner”.

Sean wasn’t home when we started dinner and I couldn’t even pull it together during dinner.  I was livid.  Once Sean got home and we all got to relive the disrespect again, he was upset as well (man I’m glad our caseworker couldn’t see us this night!).

Friday we decided on their punishment.  Their Saturday (today) would be spent cleaning the house.  NO FREE TIME.  Now if there is one thing the magazine boy enjoys its his free time.  This came as a huge blow to him and he can’t quite come to terms with the fact that we are doing this.

So starting at 8am this morning they have been working.  They have done A LOT of stuff.  Including: picking up different rooms, vacuuming, cleaning sinks and toilets, laundry, sanitizing baby toys, sweeping the kitchen, cleaning the playroom and they are currently cleaning out our front closet.  They did have about an hour and a half break when my Aunt and Uncle came over for lunch.  But they will continue until about 3:30 when Ethan has a baseball scrimmage and then we are headed to friends house for dinner.

The kicker is that mister dilly dallier is loving it.  He has not complained about one thing.  He is great when he has a job to do and he has accountability to get it done.  So I’m not sure this is a proper punishment for him.  He just needs a flame under his rear sometimes.

Magazine boy is having a hard time and many tears have been shed, which just encourages us to find something else for him to do because he’s not getting it!  I do think he will think twice in the future about reading a magazine when he’s asked to work though.

Before you call child protective services on us, Sean is currently making them some cookies for a treat and they are going to have a fabulous time tonight.  Being a mom is hard!!!

Well, I took an unintential hiatus from blogging.  I really do enjoy blogging, for the main reason of having it to look back on in years from now, but life has really gotten in the way lately!  I would like to say that I am so busy that I have no time to write anything and although that is sort of true I find time to do other things like facebook, pinterest, tv watching, reading, surfing (the internet), so deep down I haven’t been blogging for some reason.

Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?

In the past year, probably, I discovered blogs that I love.  And I love them because they are written is such a fun, witty, intellectual, meaningful way.  I return to them to see what they will say next or what are they struggling with this week?  I guess I don’t find my blog to be any of those things, I’m not sure who my audience is.

But just today, my Aunt is visiting from Virginia and she was encouraging me to continue to blog.  I also know I have other Aunts and my Mother-in-law who check it out from time to time.  So since I know there are people who are interested (besides me in 30 years), I think its time to rev up the old keyboard again.  I can’t make any promises of how often I will be on here, but I will promise to blog AT LEAST once a month, hopefully much more than that!!

If you can figure it out, leave me a comment and let me know you were here!