But first there had to be a death.

Last night at our midweek church services, Rebecca gave her life to Christ in the waters of baptism. She died to self, and rose to walk in newness of life. We couldn’t be more thrilled. Praise the Lord for His marvelous grace!

The leadership decided to center our service around this wonderful event, and we had a time of singing, prayer, and encouragement for our new sister.

Congratulations my beloved daughter, I pray that God will ever strengthen you and that you will always walk in His wisdom and mercy, never straying from the light of His presence!

(Click on the picture to see a slide show of this wonderful moment!)

Name: Parker Jeffrey
Proud Parents: Marty (my bro) and Kristi
When: 8:05am, February 27, 2009
Where: Other end of the country, but we’re really excited anyway!
Stats: 7lbs 9oz, 19.25 inches, Blonde hair (so they say), Firstborn

Isn’t he CUTE! Congratulations Brother & Sister, we love you!

Our sweet baby girl turned a whole year old yesterday. I really don’t know when I blinked.

One year ago day before yesterday I was ordered to “take it easy” for a few days, because of some preterm labor. I followed the doctor’s orders, but on Saturday afternoon, an hour or so after my husband finished clearing a foot of snow from our driveway, I felt my water break, and he rushed everyone into the car to head to the hospital. We called some dear friends, who met us there and took our older children home with them, and about two hours later our new daughter arrived in the world.

Miriam Elizabeth was born 6 weeks early, and weighed 4lbs 13oz. We’d waited until her arrival to find out her gender, and my pregnancy had been so “easy,” that I really thought she would be a boy, since I’d had simple pregnancies with her brothers. Chris preferred the name Abigail for a daughter, Miriam was my top pick. I thought we were going to use Abigail, but when the nurse asked her name, he said “Miriam Elizabeth.” Between coming a month and a half early, welcoming a beautiful little daughter, and being surprised with the choice of name, her whole arrival felt a little surreal. I lay awake for a while that night, thinking about how wonderful and strange it was to have my little girl lying in the nursery (she needed the extra heat of the incubator) …could she really be here?

She really was, and we spent Sunday getting to know her a bit, with some good cuddles, and I began pumping milk for her. Monday morning was different, though. The nurses told me that Miriam had vomited the tiny bit of milk they’d tried to feed her, and some tests were needed. After a couple of x-rays, our family pediatrician called the nursery to tell me that we needed further expertise, and would have to transfer to a hospital in Boston. I called Chris, who had gone home to be with our children. He called our dear friends back, met me at the local hospital, and we drove together to Boston Children’s hospital, where Miriam and I would spend the next 6 weeks.

Miriam had a birth defect called duodenal atresia: her duodenum was not connected to the rest of her intestines. She had surgery when she was four days old to connect them, and spent the next several weeks healing and recovering. We were covered in prayer and thankful to God that he allowed us to hold our sweet baby girl in our arms.

Miriam has grown into a delightful baby who is the apple of our entire family’s eye. She is cuddly and kissable and gives her smiles generously. There are frequent “discussions” over whose turn it is to hold her, since she’s just so much fun.

Here are a few pictures from our year of joy with the daughter who fills in our “six pack” of children. Enjoy the cuteness!

The First Six Months (Click on picture for first slideshow):

Six Months to One Year (Click for second slideshow):

Thursday I posted some goals to motivate and track the progress on our house cleaning efforts. Here’s the results at the end of day 4:

1. Feed on God’s Word – Proverbs 31:17, 27 spoke to my heart about the diligence God wants to see in my life. Ecclesiastes 2:17-23 reminds me to keep importance on the eternal while I work on the temporal.

2. Schoolwork – On the applicable days, yes, we got it done.

3. Throw away 16 things a day – Exceeded the “limit” every day….boy we gotta lotta junk!

4. Give away minimum 16 things a day too – Over the top on this one as well so far, with 4 more bags of clothes, and some boxes of toys to take to co-op next week and/or Freecycle.

5. Do something to reorganize/repair the home – Thursday, finished sorting and labeling the “attic clothes”; Friday, pared down some toys, cleaned computer desk; Saturday, got boxes into attic, found more clothes to sort/donate, enjoyed dinner guests that evening; Sunday afternoon, sorted & consolidated 7 boxes (with Chris) from our downstairs hallway, kept 2 1/2 boxes worth

6. Post Progress – Check.

I like elephant stew.

In general, I’m not a sports fan. Our family will occasionally (once or twice a year) tune in a football game, and we enjoy the once-yearly free tickets from my husband’s company to see the Celtics, but overall we have more important ways to spend our time. When I was growing up homeschooled in the 1980’s and 90’s, there weren’t a lot of options for playing organized sports available. My brother and I were on our local swim team, which was great exercise, and a shoe-in to a good job in high school as a lifeguard & swim instructor, but I will admit to some sneaking jealousy listening to my husband’s tales of his volleyball exploits.

Fast forward 20 years, and my current homeschooled children could potentially be involved in just about any sport you can imagine. I hear the pickings are a little slimmer at the high school level, but we’re still a few years from that. However, finding the balance between family time, exercise, and the family wallet is still a critical concern! One of the dads in our support group has run a soccer clinic in the late spring for the last few years;  that’s always a joy. My own manly man is planning a volleyball class for our homescchool Co-op next year, hooray! Maybe I’ll join…. Summer holds lots of time for biking and hiking, with trips to the beach and/or pool thrown in for good measure. And in the chill of winter, besides the sledding and snow-fort building,  there is Upward.

If you’ve never heard of Upward Basketball, it’s an organization dedicated to using the game of basketball to encourage children in not only learning the sport but also applying Scripture to a part of life not often thought of as “spiritual”: competition. Devotionals during each practice and game and weekly memory verses are designed to draw the participants closer to the God we serve. While any program has its quirks and flaws, we have found the Upward program run by the community church close to our home to have more benefits than drawbacks. Our children look forward to it all year, and have learned some great skills, besides burning off excess energy in the cold New England winter months. Chris has alternated years coaching Rebecca and Andrew’s teams, and now, since this is Lydia’s first year to play, he’s over at the church gym working to teach a giggling gaggle of 1st and 2nd grade girls to dribble and shoot every week. Pray for that dedicated guy!

It’s great to watch a child who could barely control the ball at the beginning of the season make their first basket in a game by the end. Brings a whole new level of interest to the game! Three months of mid-week practices and Saturday games entertaining 3 pre-schoolers on the sidelines (which are just 3 feet from the painted border of the court) is enough to give the kids a taste of organized sports and cameraderie, and to remind me why we don’t need to fill the calendar with them all year.

Go Team!

Here are a few pictures from recent games; Rebecca and Andrew were the photographers, as my hands are busy enough with Timothy & Miriam, no space for a camera!

….and holding down the sidelines….

We met with a realtor this morning regarding our plans to try and move into a house that has an in-law apartment sometime this year. She had several practical suggestions, and a few extreme ones, for things we can do to make our house more attractive in this difficult housing market.

I already knew what the biggest issue would be, but that doesn’t make it any less formidable.

We need to seriously declutter and reduce the amount of stuff in here. Gulp.

Ideally we’d like to put our house on the market the beginning of April. Double Gulp.

Precisely five weeks from today, my parents are coming to visit for a week, and we’ll be looking at various houses in the area. Our realtor recommended we not place actual bids on them until my parents’ house in Washington sells, but we will pray and work toward  what needs to happen as that comes. I would like to have our house, if not completely ready to show, very close to it by then.

So here’s my daily plan, to begin to “eat” the house prep elephant:

1. Read my Bible and pray in the morning – Today’s passage, Proverbs 26-27, favorite verse, 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” I commit my plans to You, O God, only You can bring them to completion!

2. Do some school work with the children.

3. Find a minimum of 16 things to throw away.

4. Find a minimum of 16 things to give away or sell (unsold items must be given away within a week.) I have five bags of clothes in the car to go to the donate bin.

5. Do one task to repair or reorganize the home. Today’s: Finish sorting and putting away the children’s clothes in the attic.

6. Post my progress here.

For the 2 or 3 of you out there who read this blog (LOL) I’ve not forgotten you, have just been busy, busy lately and haven’t taken the time to finish some of the drafts I’ve got on hold; i.e. insert the pictures and etc.

The next couple of days are pretty crazy too, as I’m doing some major housework, but I plan to put up some new posts soon. Stuff on the kiddo’s basketball, a book review of a recent read, a fun project I completed (haven’t sewn “just for fun” in a while) and more.

For now, just a quick run-down-update (is that an oxymoron?) on the fam:

Chris: Installed coat, hat, backpack, glove etc. shelves & hooks in downstairs hall. Also made himself a loooong list of other household projects. What a guy.

Heather: Loving on & training babies, sorting & storing children’s clothes, working toward a cleaner house.

Rebecca: Teaching herself “Fur Elise” on the electronic keyboard, and doing quite well!

Andrew: Excelling in Upward basketball (full post to come) and also making a pair of slippers for his mama (isn’t he sweet?)

Lydia: Continuing to learn to read, and taking off with it. Also memorized Psalm 23 this week.

Bethany: Excited about the prospect of moving out of Mom & Dad’s room and into her “own.” (Shared with her two older sisters!)

Timothy: Enjoying the mini basketball hoop we have hooked to the door of our bedroom. That kid’s got an arm!

Miriam: Pulling up on her crib and smiling, about to turn 1 in just a few days!

All: Recovering from a medium/mild cold, and enjoying working together on home and studies.

The following conversation occured on our road trip from FL to MA in a roadside rest area:

6yo Lydia, from within the confines of her stall: “Mom, how do they make these gigantic toilet paper rolls?”

Mom: “They’re just like the ones at home, only with more paper on them.”

Lydia: “Oh.   Well, we should DEFINITELY get some of these!  That would last us a year!”

The lady 3 stalls down was laughing too.

I don’t carry my Bible to church.

There, I said it. The simple fact is that with six children, four of whom are ages 6 & under, it just doesn’t get opened much there. I have the baby on my lap almost constantly, and if she’s not there, another little sweetie takes advantage of the empty space quickly! My husband and older children all bring theirs, so I always have someone to read from if needed, and in the rare instance that I have my hands free, I use one of the Bibles from the pew.

One of the challenges of life with many young blessings is the niggling thought in the back of a mother’s mind: “If only I had another arm…” I really do think a useful heaven-sent new baby gift would be an extra limb to stir the soup pot, carry the groceries, etc. Of course, if the Lord granted us that, we’d want another, and another, until we were able to sing a line from my toddler Timothy’s favorite song: “If I were an octopus, I’d thank you Lord, for my good looks. Woo!” (not exactly deep theology, I know, but he’s only 2!) I don’t think it was any accident that Mrs. Incredible’s super power was amazing flexibility, do you? What more could a mom want than to simply reach out and snatch that errant toddler just before he gets into the…but I digress.

We have a family goal to spend time in God’s word each morning. The routine is to rise (the hard part for me!), dress, and read a portion of Scripture individually – pre-readers can play quietly nearby – then we fix & eat breakfast, and have family devotional, where each person chooses a song, and we work on whatever passage we’re memorizing as a family, (currently Philippians 2) usually adding a verse or two to the end. Then hugs all around, tooth brushing, and the rest of the day’s tasks: work, school, play, chores, etc.

My difficulty is, I have nearly as hard a time holding a Bible at home to study the Word as I do at church. Even with a table to prop my study tools, I’m usually holding a nursing baby, or even more challenging, a wiggly, grabby one! Hmm, guess I do have extra arms…

So, while the rest of the family pull their paper Bibles from their carrying cases, I go high tech. My daily Scripture reading is done on Bible Gateway. It has several translations (and not just in English!) to choose from, and you can view the text in segments ranging from one verse to multiple chapters on the screen. It has decent cross-references, and a really nice search feature for those of us who are good a remembering the content of a verse but not necessarily its context (i.e. book chapter & verse.)

My favorite feature though? The fact that it does, in fact, give me the “extra arm” that I need, keeping the Bible squarely in front of my while I snuggle my little one and start the day feeding on the Word of Life with my family.

If you’ve made a goal to spend more time in God’s word this year, maybe this tool will help, large family or not!

For more help for growing families, visit Ship Full O’ Pirates.

Or rather, power is restored to us. The kind that runs lights and refrigerators, not countries.

With the recent New England ice storm, our electricity was knocked out from Thursday around 3:00am until Monday about 8:00pm. The saying is more true than ever, “You never know how much you use something until it’s gone.” We were well provided for, actually. We ran our wood stove for heat and cooking, and our water was still working, unlike many in the area. Flushing is good. Friday night a friend even loaned us a generator, so we were able to plug in the fridge, freezer and a lamp or two.

Exciting stuff without power:

• Since it’s dark by 4pm these days, when I sent the children to bed at 8 Friday night (the usual routine) Lydia happily commented: “Mom, we got to stay up SO late since the power’s out!”
• While running an extension cord from the generator to the fridge, I lit my hair afire with a candle Friday evening, after warning children all night to be careful… No major damage, and the stuff really does smell like “burnt feathers” as they say in Little Women!
• Timothy was very confused as to why his favorite toy, the light switch, did not produce the desired effect, but he did love playing with his mini flashlight “just like Daddy’s.”
• Rebecca & Andrew had a great time cooking grilled cheese sandwiches and pancakes, respectively, on the woodstove. They did a fabulous job playing pioneer.
• Friends from church let us use their house to bathe everyone in warm water Sunday evening. Hey, we’re not THAT pioneering!
• Last but certainly not least, I stepped outside for a few minutes yesterday and chatted with our neighbors across the street, which was nice, as they are busy and we rarely see them. When I returned to the house, I found some “glory” lying on the kitchen floor. 1 Corinthians 11:15 “…but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.” Pictures to follow.