Do you ever have one of those days?

The title says it all. Comment if you want.
Lord Bless,
~Amy

Potty training update...

Well, day one of our "let her run naked" experiment proved to be what everyone said it would be...spent cleaning up little potty accidents. Five to be exact. Day two we only cleaned up two. We are now on day three and are looking forward to perhaps none?

I need some advice from anyone of you willing to give it. What do you do at night for those children who NEED to go to bed with some water? It makes the little one want to tinkle in the middle of the night, but she has always needed water at night. *sigh* Do we have to train her to get up in the night to go? I don't recall having this exact problem with any other children, not to say that we didn't, just that I don't remember. Thanks for any words of wisdom.

Long time no post.

I have realized that I may never be a consistent blogger. As desperate as I may try, I seem to find that weeks go by with no new posts. Case in point, it has been 17 days since I last posted! It doesn't seem that long to me, but it has been that long. Sheesh.

As a quick recap of everything we have done in the past two weeks, I can say the words "clean & organize". We are still going through the remaining boxes of "stuff" we have accumulated. We are almost done organizing the boxes that have been brought over to the new house. Vanity of vanity, says the writer of Ecclesiastes. Cleaning and organizing truly is a vanity. By that I mean that we never really come to the end of it. Does anyone ever truly finish their laundry? finish the vacuuming and dusting? finishing washing the dishes? I don't think I will ever come to the end of organizing this house, even if we do finish sorting through boxes. With each trip to the store there are new things to put away and make room for. God has so richly blessed us that we have to organize all that we have. What a glorious thought! Imagine those people that have two or three things, rather than a house full. (Sometimes I think that would make my life easier.) Thank you Lord for the material things that You have blessed us so richly with. May we use all that You have given us for Your glory and may we seek to humbly serve You with all of the blessings You bestow upon us.

On a separate note, we are trying a new method for potty training. We are letting our two year old run buck-naked through the house! (I must say that there is mild anxiety on the part of my husband who just built this gorgeous new house, mostly because of the brand new carpet!) I have heard good things from every person that has tried this before. They say it is the quickest way to get the potty training done. With our PT already in week 2, I am ready for it to be done. I will post our success or failure using this method when such a thing can be determined.

Hidden Jewels

Malachi 3:17, "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels."

Every saint is a jewel of God. I am convicted by God to look at people (and also my children) in this light. Often we cannot see the jewel as it hides behind the rough exterior. All we see is unsightly hard rock, but God wants us to look beyond what we see on the surface.

We sometimes hear the phrase, "He's a rough diamond." This means that the person is pretty rough on the outside but inside they have a heart of gold. We need to be reminded that there is a diamond, or perhaps a sapphire, an emerald, an opal, a ruby or an amethyst in each person. The jewel in every person is different. Each jewel will reveal different colors and lights of God's character. But we cannot see the beauty shining from the jewel until it has been cut and polished. And what a painful process this is. Much cutting has to be done o reveal the many-faceted hues and beauty of the gem. The cutting goes on and on. And when it is finished, the polishing starts. It hurts

I know God has to do so much more cutting and polishing with me. May we let Him do His work and cut away all the roughness and hardness. May we also have patience with all God's saints, even those who are still rough and uncut.

May God give us patience with our children. God has given us the task of being a lapidary (a cutter and polisher of gems). It is the lapidary's art to reveal the gem. Sometimes we may feel it is a hopeless job. But we must never give up hope. There is a jewel in every child of God. There is a precious jewel in every one of our children that waits to be revealed. We must see it by faith. We must pray it into being. May God give us vision, patience and understanding as we fulfill this great task. It does not happen over night. It is painstaking and time-consuming.

The above paragraphs were taken from an Above Rubies digest written by Nancy Campbell. What a blessing to me this morning! It helped me see the disciplining and discipling of my children in a new light. When children are young they need a lot of their sinful attitudes and selfish behaviors "cut away". When they are a bit older, they need their parents to "polish" them. What a glorious way to look at our commands in Scripture to raise up our children! To be lapidaries to them! Lord, thank you for blessing me with these words this morning. May I always look at Your children that You have entrusted to me as jewels. Help me to cut and polish them so they are ready for Your service.

Adam Eliot, February 26, 2008

Most of our babies have been bald, and Adam is no exception. He has a beautiful cue ball head. He is pictured here with Thomas, our oldest son who is 15 years old. They are great friends. Adam weighs about 14# 9 1/2 ozs. give or take an ounce.

We have been going through the garage at the other house and yesterday we looked at miscellaneous pictures. I was amazed at how similar my kids look! I can see it with some of the kids, but not with all of them, until I look at older pictures of my kids. Wow!

Gorgeous beams!

Larry worked on this beam work for about a month, give or take a week, in January. I am sure he could tell you the technicalities of the job, but for now you will all have to settle for just looking at the beautiful pictures.


I find this work extremely beautiful and I appreciate it so much more knowing just how long it takes and how labor intensive it is. Many nights my very fit husband came home with aches from having lifted so many heavy beams that day.

Joseph's 6th Birthday on Jan 22, 2008

I can't believe I am posting these pictures over a month late. I am embarrassed that I am such a procrastinator. Regardless, here are the pics from Joseph's 6th Birthday.

The look of delight stems from the gift being the movie Happy Feet. Joseph adores penguins.
A new deck of playing cards brings immense joy to the life of a 6 year old.
The fire bearer is our son, Nicholas, our very own pyro-"maniac". He is a responsible fire-lover and is your man if you ever need a candle lit. I believe his love of fire is genetic and comes from his father. There are many stories that could be told.
"Thank you Lord for this cupcake and sugar that I am about to receive."

Take a look at these cuties!

Here is a picture of 3 of the cutest kids you can imagine. One is our little Ruth, pictured on the left. On the right is the adorable "Nettie" Dade (her curls are spectacular) and in the middle, the object of their affections is the 12 day old Dathan Dade. Both of these girls love and adore babies as attested to by their constant demands to kiss and hold babies.

Good thing big sister Rachel Dade was nearby to make sure they didn't drop the baby. It wasn't long before Ruth thought her piggy tails needed mentioning in the picture and neglected the holding of her half of the baby.

What a treasure to grow up with families that are such kindred spirits to your own. Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with the Dade family and their fellowship. Continue to bless and prosper them and guide them as they raise their children according to the Scriptures.

Christmas Eve pictures of Adam.

Here is our wide eyed little one at 6 weeks old. You can't tell, but there are reindeer on his little sweater and on his little hat. And the corduroys have suspenders!!

He is so cute and photogenic if only you could capture that BEFORE the flash.
Enough already, he says.

A few more house pictures.

I found a few more pictures on my camera that we had taken before we moved in. This particular picture shows the trim work over the door (which I love!).
This picture (which is duplicated below because of computer user error) is just a close up of our fabulous door knobs. I love the way they look, the way they feel and I am so thankful that my husband ordered these. He has such good taste.

Good morning.

It is a wonderful morning when one can rise to the sound of children giggling, their little feet pitter pattering about the house. Older children seen in the kitchen with little ones laughing and singing and cooking breakfast together. Everyone clean and shiny and happy.

*wake up*

Someone hollering down the hall for Mom because their fort has been torn down by a sneaky older brother. The sound of the always on dryer clinking and clanking as the clothes tumble dry yet another load. The smoke alarm beeping as the pancakes that were supposed to be for breakfast are becoming charred as they sit on the griddle a bit too long. The dog yelping for attention and his morning potty run. The baby just stirring in the cradle and before you can rise to attend to everything, lets out a cry telling you that it has been 8 hours since his last meal. That is more like it! As much as I would love to believe in the existence of the first fairy tale, it is not my life. My glorious life is filled with normal, everyday noises that remind me that we are all human, sinful and part of a large family. Yes, our dryers run almost non stop. But what a blessing that we are able to dry our clothes rather than leave them outside to freeze. Yes, the smoke alarm does occassionally go off (usually because of some food left inside the oven and not cleaned up before the next pre-heating), but isn't that a sign of our being provided for that we have food to cook? And that I can clean one while cooking in the other oven? All of our noises are ours, and I hope that when my children grow, they will fondly remember the noises they grew up with. I love the fairy tales and Bible stories read endlessly, along with the little kiddie songs and clapping games. How many times in one day have you sung pat-a-cake? How many times have you read Green Eggs and Ham or the story of David and Goliath?

Up and running again.

For all those of you who have patiently waited for me to post something, ANYTHING, for the past month, I thank you. (I know there is at least one!) There are several reasons why nothing has been posted, but alas, excuses do not make for exciting reading. So please, accept me for who I am, even if that be a bit scatterbrained at times and enjoy reading when I DO post :)

I have commented to several people that burning the house down almost seems like a reasonable solution to my dilemma. The problem is that there are many things left at the old house that we still haven't moved over here. They are things I can't throw away, yet don't want to bring here. They are in moving purgatory one could say. Rather than being forced to deal with these things and actually have to decide where they go, I think burning the house down would solve the problem. I would have no guilt over getting rid of them, and I don't have excess things clogging up my new house. The disclaimed needs to be inserted here. Disclaimer reads: I do not actually plan to burn the house down. It is spoken of tongue in cheek and merely a random thought that runs through my often clogged brain.

My newest little darling is crying for me so here I must stop. I have many pictures to add so check back for more posts.

May the Lord richly bless you this day.

Pictures of the new house.

View of the master bedroom: closet doors on the left, door out of the room in the middle, and linen closet door on the right.
Picture of half my kitchen.
Picture from the upstairs hallway looking down the stairwell at the front door.

Pictures of the new house.

Exterior shot of the house.
Looking out the dining room bay window, with sliding patio door on your right.

After the move...

Well, we are mostly moved in. That would mean that the main things are over at the new house such as the beds, clothes, kitchens and bathrooms. The offices are still set up at the old house and even the phone has not been transferred. Also at the old house are the toys and games and the entire garage. I enjoy living in my new house without all of the extra things that aren't needed day to day. I know at some point I will need those things, but not having them around right now is quite helpful.

Thank you to everyone who left ideas on packing and moving. They were all helpful and we implemented them immediately.

Back to the old house cleaning for me. We are trying to get it emptied out by the end of the week so we can begin making the improvements that we would like to before we sell (That and clean it! I am amazed at how much dust collects under the washers and dryers!).