Broken Laptop : (

Last Saturday night I dropped my laptop & broke it! I was walking to my printer to print out some coupons and it slipped out of my hands. It landed opened up, flat on the ground. When I picked it up I saw that the whole screen was shattered & I burst into tears! I was angry at myself for dropping it and afraid that I had lost all of our family pictures & everything else! Randal ran in to see what happened & asked why I was crying. He was so sweet & I could tell he was having immense self-control & patience with me even though I had just destroyed my laptop! He encouraged me that the hard drive was fine & that it was just the screen that had broken. Of course, even if it could turn on, we wouldn't be able to tell because of the shattered screen. I am on Randal's laptop right now. He is taking college classes online at nights so he takes his laptop to work everyday and is on it for school every night. I try to squeeze in a little time in between but school definitely comes before my blogging & couponing! He is sweet and tries to give me a little time everyday.

What is God teaching me through this? That is the very question I have asked myself over the last week. He is teaching me to trust Him, even when I don't understand. He is teaching me to depend on Him, even when I want to do things my way. He is teaching me that sometimes it is better to be undistracted by "good things" for a time! I think I have talked to and thought about God more this week than usual. I have looked into my sweet little girls' eyes while they talk & snuggled with them on my lap more this week than usual. I have cuddled on the couch with my Hubs & felt completely "released" from the "urge" to coupon and find deals online more than usual! So, yes, I miss my little laptop, but......God is good & He has a plan!

Sweet singin' Girls!

I was in my bathroom getting ready to run errands with my girls this morning listening to the "Valley of Vision" CD playing in my room. All of a sudden I heard my girls singing ~ loudly ~ so I came out into my room to see what they were doing. It was a very sweet & happy Mommy-moment when I saw all of my girls sitting on the edge of my bed facing the CD player singing their little hearts out to "Heavenly Father, Beautiful Son"! I had to get my camera out & take pictures of that sweet memory! Abby was rocking back & forth as she was singing, Ashley was holding Ava as she was singing & as Ava was playing with the plastic CD cover & Amy was reading along with the words as she was singing! So precious! I was actually surprised that they knew the words and could sing along so well. I'm always amazed at how much children retain & what seeps into their eager little hearts! I'm grateful that what came out today was about God! Here is what my sweeties were singing......

"Heavenly Father, Beautiful Son"

Father, You loved me
Sent Your Son to redeem
Jesus, You washed me
By Your blood I am clean
Spirit, You've opened these blinded eyes
And brought me to Christ

Heavenly Father, beautiful Son
Spirit of light and truth
Thank You for bringing sinners to come to You

Father, You gave me
To Jesus to keep
And Jesus, You love me
As a shepherd, his sheep
Spirit, You've given me faith in the Son
And made our hearts one

Father, You're waiting
To hear my requests
Jesus, Your loving
Open hand is outstretched
Spirit, You're in me, You intercede
And help in my need


Mark Altrogge
Sovereign Grace Praise


God has been so good to give us His Son, Jesus! God has also been so good to give my Hubby & I our 4 precious little girlies! : )

(By the way, notice that our girls are all dressed in fall colors. It's been a smidge chilly here in the mornings so it's starting to feel like fall! Our girls picked out their clothes together & even Ava's cute little fall dress & they came out dressed in their coordinating fall colors! So cute! These are definitely girlies after their Mama's own heart!)

Beauty is in the (little blue) eye(s) of the Beholder(s)......: )

This afternoon we were playing outside & my girls gathered this "beautiful bouquet of flowers for you Mommy ~ because we love you so much!" To the untrained eye they are just a bunch of weeds. To the eyes & imaginations of 4 little girls (& to the heart of a Mommy who loves to see the world through their eyes!) they are a gift picked with lots of love for a very BLESSED Mommy! I sure love my 4 precious little girls ~ God is so good!

Ashley ~ our little nurturer!

On Saturday morning Ashley woke up early & heard Ava playing quietly in her crib. They were both awake earlier than normal & the rest of us were still asleep. Ashley quietly got Ava up, brought her down stairs, put her in her booster seat & fed her yogurt& Cheerios. She cleaned Ava up with one of her baby wash cloths, put the rest of the yogurt in the fridge & played with her for a few minutes in her "baby safe" area of our living room. Ashley thought Ava still seemed hungry & a little sleepy so she made her a bottle, warmed it up & took her back upstairs to her nursery. When I woke up & came into Ava's room, I saw Ashley softly singing to her, rocking her in her glider & feeding Ava her bottle! It was just so precious to me that I had to take pictures of them together! Our little Ashley is only 6 & God has given her a sweet nurturing heart & the gift of mothering already (especially toward her sissies!). We are so grateful to God for our 4 little girls!

Co-op!

We are doing a co-op with some of our friends who home school also. We are meeting every other Friday for Art, Science & PE. Friday the 12th was our 1st co-op & our girlies had so much fun! They got to see Mrs. Julie Rawlings & Mrs. Julie Cook doing fun and exciting science experiments! (Who knew seeing a can of soda explode was so exciting : ) & we are still talking about the egg/fire/bottle thing!) They got to learn about Art from Mrs. Nikki Roberts & they drew mutli-colored & monochromatic pictures of their favorite summer memory! The funniest part of art class was when all of the little 4-5 year old girls drew the typical girly picture......you know, flowers, butterflies, rainbows......& sweet little Adam Moseley (the only boy ~ bless his little heart!) drew a very manly looking roman soldier holding a sword! The little girls didn't know what to make of that ~ so typical boy and so typical girl response : ) ! (Robin you can be proud that your little guy is representing true biblical masculinity already!) Each co-op the Mom's will take turns teaching, helping or watching the littlest ones.

Julie Rawlings ~ thank you for your love for us Mommies & our precious little ones! Thank you for your hard work & sacrifice to put it all together for us! God sees what you do in secret & we are grateful for what you do in secret 'cause it's always a blessing to us! We love you! Julie Cook ~ thank you for opening your home to ALL of us (which ends up being about 40 Moms & kids) every other Friday! You always serve & offer warm hospitality with love & joy! We love you!

My sweet little girls love being with their little friends & we are so happy to have this co-op to grow & learn together!

Web Cam!

Auntie Raigan bought our family a web cam so that we can see & talk to each other! Yippee! We have missed our Grandpa, Grandma, Auntie Raigan and Uncles Reed, Ross, Ryan & cousin Koby in Arizona! Tonight was our 1st night seeing Grandma & Auntie with the web cam. It was sweet & so much fun! Our whole family was gathered around the laptop looking at & talking to them. Our girls each took turns talking & showing special things to Grandma & Auntie! It was a sweet & special little thing for us! Thank you Auntie ~ we love & miss you all so much! : )

Gardening Girls!

We planted a little garden this week! My little girlies, our sweet friend, Gwen & I spent 5 hours planting our winter garden on Thursday morning. Gwen has been gardening her whole life so she came over to help us get started. (Thank you Gwen, for sharing all of your wisdom & knowledge about gardening, mommy-hood & everything else! I had so much fun with you!) Her teenage daughter, Sheree, came over to play with our 4 girlies while Gwen & I worked. (Thank you Sheree, our girls love you & you were such a great help to me!) Our sweet little Ava took an awesome nap while our big girls came outside to help. Amy, Ashley & Abby were my sweet little helpers and had so much fun playing, digging, planting and watering! We planted broccoli, onions, kale, rosemary, thyme, sweet basil, oregano, mint, cilantro and curled parsley. We are excited about our little garden and we can't wait to eat our veggies and cook with our fresh herbs! We are planning on planting a summer garden in the spring with all the salad veggies and anything else we can grow! Gardening reminds me of how amazing God is! He creates life and allows it to grow. I"m so grateful that He shows His love for us by providing practically & even delights in allowing us to enjoy fun things like veggies from our own garden! We planted on Thursday & by Sunday we already had kale and onions coming up that we had planted from scratch ~ amazing! I must say, Daddy was pretty impressed by how much his "outdoor gardening girls" got done & he is very proud of us! If you don't know me well, I'm not exactly the most outdoorsy girl you'll ever meet. I try, but sometimes my love of all things neat & tidy comes shining through even when I try to "suppress" it : )! I'm about as opposite as can be of my sweet sister, Emily. She's my beachy, all natural, "granola-girl"! I love her with all my heart & there are so many things about her I wish I was! My friends who know me well were surprised (dare I say, shocked : ) !, but very happy to hear about my gardening adventure! I had so much fun gardening with our little sweetie girls ( & Gwen too!)! Our garden will be a fun part of home school this year for our girls and I! It was HARD WORK (I was super sore the next day from all the ground breaking!) but SO MUCH FUN! : )