Our Trip to TX

What a great trip we had. I am sorry that it had to be under sad circumstances but we enjoyed the trip nonetheless.

I am not sure if Grandpa and Nana's house will ever be the same after a visit from Jes. He explored everything....everything. Nothing was left unturned. He even had to take a peek in the dryer! He fed the cows and the rooster and put fancy sprinkles on Nana's Tuesday cake.
The only thing that moved faster than Jesse's legs was his mouth. He talked nonstop!

The next stop was Grandma's house where he had the chance to get acquainted with Auntie B. His genuine enthusiasm over the plastic flowers in the Easter basket was so funny! Aunt Barbara especially enjoyed the lunch when Jesse plunged his knife into his roll then into his mouth. YIKES! We have some manners to work on at home.

The golf cart ride was exciting and Jesse couldn't wait to tell Joshua all about it. Laney found a big spider that Grandma tried to kill with a rag. Whoops, it crawled into a spot and escaped! Laney was sure that he would resurface to bite her face off and kept a close eye on the spot the whole time. Grandma stepped on the gas as the spider jumped out and was hanging on by a thread...or a web. Imagine the screams as both kids wanted off immediately!!

Thanks to everyone who put up with us for 2 days. We love you all!

Norman Gammon

My sweet Granddad Gammon died yesterday. He was suffering and I'm glad he is suffering no more.

We never lived in the same town with Granddad and so I was never very close to him but I always enjoyed him when I saw him. I thought I'd share my favorite memory...

I must have been about six. He was visiting us at our house and I was playing with my EZ Bake oven. I had several creations mixed up and ready to bake. I asked Granddad to help. I remember that one of the mixes did not turn out very well and we were trying to "fix" it. We added more water (from the bathroom sink) but that didn't help. By the time we gave up it was pretty yucky looking. THEN....he ate it!! Raw! He kept trying to get me to taste it too but I think I was giggling too much. He claimed it was yummy and ate the whole thing!

I always enjoyed visiting him at Christmas. He had this small bench/chair beside his phone that I always liked. A couple of years ago when he went into the nursing home, I got the chair. I like it even more now.

Please pray for me as I travel to TX this week. The plans are not solidified yet so I'm not sure exactly when I'm going or who is going with me. Pray for my family at home.

Here is my verse for the day: Psalm 104:34
"May my meditation be pleasing to Him, as I rejoice in the Lord."

One more thing...Joshua just woke up and is sitting in my lap watching me type. He says "HI"

Mommaopoly

There is a definite way to make Maeg cry...just pull out the Monopoly board and get her to a few dollars. She's starts mortgaging stuff and in a few minutes the tears will come. She's very competitive and really likes to win. Mom really doesn't play with much compassion...but that's ok. I think it will develop a little character and humility for Maegan. Maybe even improve her monopoly playing. ;-)

God loves birds

Baby birds have a hard time in my neighborhood. There are too many dogs and cats. Springtime is the worst.

Last year it seemed that there was a bird in distress every week. One of kids would go outside just in time to see Myles, our cat, capture his prey. This would cause a panic in the heart of my child with many tears and pleas for me to save the bird. I would go out with a broom, try to free the bird, and come back into the house 2 hours later unsuccessful with a school day shot. Finally after many talks with the kids I made a rule that Myles had permission to keep his own game and we would not interfere.

I guess they forgot. Christian and Laney are taking care of a neighbor's dogs this week. Some sad bird had fallen from a nest. By the time they got home the bird had a name...Jimmy Carlos.
I reminded them that we are not equipped to care for birds nor is there extra money to take them all to the vet. We would just have to pray for him. I reminded them of our rule and they were sad.

The next morning I was reading my Bible and came across this verse.

"to the One who remembered us in our low estate, and freed us from our enemies, and who gives food to every creature. Give thanks to the God of heaven. " Ps. 136: 23-26

How perfect. I gave that word right to my kids and explained how God knows the state of Jimmy Carlos and He is the One to free him from his enemy and to feed him. I think they feel better. God's word is so timely.

Jesse was watching me change Nathan's diaper. When I finished I said "Ok, Nathan you're free!" Jesse says "He's not free, I'M free"(3)!

Laura had a math question that said:
Last year Janet weighed 68 pounds. This year she weighs 75 pounds. How much weight did she gain?

Laura answered correctly.

The second part of the question said:
What type of problem is this?

Laura's answer: Too much food.

I have 6 sick kids this week. Nothing big. Just snotty noses. The good thing is that they are sick at the same time! I love it when that happens instead of one at a time that drags out for weeks. I guess it was brought on by this funny weather.

Bedtime (NOT!)

This day has been full of noise and mess. I'm ready to be done. Bed*time* comes but bed doesn't happen. It should be called cryingtime instead. Round 2 begins. Mallory starts the nightly screaming fit. Nathan won't stay in bed. The other boys won't stop talking and somebody keeps pushing Buzz Lightyear's laser. I take turns going up and down the stairs plugging in a sucky and spanking someone's bottom. It's 9:45 and I've been doing this since 8:00.

I read a post today on a e-mail loop I'm on. This mom says "I always love being with my children!" Always?? I roll my eyes. Either she's lying or I'm doing it wrong.

Mike is having the greatest time in MO. Watching Christian win soccer games, eating out, watching cable tv, and shopping with children that can tie their own shoes and don't need diaper changes. Can you tell I'm JEALOUS?

Joshua's Birthday pictures

Go here to view Joshua's birthday party pictures!!
http://thetaggs.smugmug.com/gallery/1283125

Joshua Michael

It's birthday time again! My precious miracle baby boy will be FIVE in only a few short hours. Oh, he is so excited! He's been counting down how many "sleeps" it is until his birthday. I'm looking forward to it too. The kitchen is decorated with lots of balloons and construction paper chains. Mike, Maegan, and Christian will be leaving tomorrow night for MO so we will do most of the celebration at lunch when Mike comes home.

Here's some fun facts about Joshua.

~He's a great artist. He draws, cuts, glues, and uses up all the tape in the house.

~He likes to write words and asks everyone how to spell ..................

~He doesn't like to read much unless it's Dr. Seuss.

~"Hop on Pop" means one thing stacked on another thing. Ex: wearing 2 shirts. The shirts are hop on pop.

~Joshua still loves the green blanket that Auntie Barbara made for Laney when she was a baby. Joshua has loved this since he was very little. When he was a baby, he sucked all four corners until they were yellow and completely worn out. Mom surged them off and has made many repairs since.

~Every Friday night he sleeps with Maegan. This is a big treat and he starts on Monday counting how many "sleeps" until Friday.

~He learned to swing himself this year.

~He wants to take his training wheels off.

~He is crazy about his new Buzz Lightyear movie and the play sandals I bought him for $1 at the consignment sale.

~Joshua has always been very obedient and HATES getting into trouble. He is quick to apologize and is careful to obey.

~He says "th" as "s"..................like "Sank you" instead of "thank you"

~He is an incredible soccer player. Definitely striker material. He's looking forward to his spring soccer season hoping he can have a gatorade and popcorn.

~His favorite foods are mac and cheese and pizza. He picked grape juice to have for his birthday. Jesse was with us when we bought it and asked if he could have grape juice on his birthday too. Joshua said "yeah, can we get enough for Jesse too?" He loves his little brother.

~Joshua and Jesse are the best of friends.

~Noah's Ark and Jonah are his favorite Bible stories.

Isn't he the most precious five year old in the whole world? Happy birthday my sweet boy. Mommy loves YOU!!!

I read a quote somewhere that said something like "You know you're old when you start saving wrapping paper". HA! That is so true! Only old people save wrapping paper and that will never be me! I do consider myself to be thrifty, but re-using wrapping paper borders on miserly in my opinion.

Today is Laney's b-day. Maegan bought her an X Box game but wanted to disguise the box so she wouldn't recognize the shape. She picked the huge diaper box that I buy at Sams. When she asked me if it was ok, she also said "Don't worry, I can buy the wrapping paper." Why would she say that? I'm not THAT thrifty!! Of course I'm not going to make her buy wrapping paper! I just added it to my errand list.

Joshua went with me to shop for Laney's b-day. It worked out great b/c his birthday is only 3 days after hers and he can pick out his cake and ice cream while we're there. He also picked Sesame Street wrapping paper. Oh, 4 year old little boys are so fun!

When we got home, I was showing everyone our things for Laney. I can't believe what came out of my mouth! It went something like this..."Maegan, use the Sesame Street paper for Laney's present and we'll save it for Joshua's."

Not only am I saving wrapping paper, but I'm pre-meditating the saving! How pathetic. I guess I'm old. When she opened it this morning I thought of wadding it up and throwing it away just to preserve my youth. However, I'm way too miserly for that!!

Laney

Tuesday is Laney's 12th b-day. Like any other mom, I say "How can she be so big? It seems like just yesterday.....".

She is looking forward to her b-day. The meals she picked are:

breakfast- orange rolls, deviled eggs, and juice
lunch - grilled cheese sandwiches, salad, and pickles
dinner- chicken spaghetti
dessert- white/strawberry cake with chocolate pudding filling and chunky monkey ice cream

We always have a school holiday when it is someone's b-day so she will have a long free day to do as she pleases. Her brothers and sisters will do her chores. She doesn't really have any plans except to watch Lord of the Rings when the little boys go to bed. She is so easy to please!

Here are some things about Laney...

• Laney is what most would call a "tomboy".
• She hates dressing up for anything. "Dressing up" means wearing anything except tie dye t-shirts. She loves tie dye and has made a couple of her own tie dye creations. She loves bright colors like orange and lime green.
• She is freed from the responsibilities of being the oldest, yet still enjoys the privileges of being older.
• She's tough, and Mike uses her to make Christian stronger in soccer. She's a quick opponent and hard to beat. Mike says that if Christian can ever beat his sisters, he can beat anybody. Her work and time with Christian is really an "investment" in him. He is a much better soccer player because of Laney. She loves to travel with them to out-of-town tournaments.
• She is not as worldly as many 12 year olds and still thinks it's fun to take a Scooby Doo lunch box on a picnic.
• She thinks playing outside is much better than playing inside and likes her bike, scooter, and pogo stick. She broke her pogo stick and is getting a new one for her b-day. Shhhh!
• Of all my kids, Laney is the most compassionate. She always seems to know how others feel. I love that about her. She also has a genuine love for the Lord that I haven't seen in anyone else her age. She knows she is to be a missionary and is saving money for her first trip.
• She enjoys learning about Biblical archaeology.
• She does not like school. Well, she likes some of her reading and writing assignments, but definitely NOT math!
• She's a good piano player and just received her second "superior" award.
• She always wears socks.
• She is quick to apologize when she's wrong and sincere in repentance.
• She likes to watch Lord of the Rings, Andy Griffith, and the new Narnia movie.
• She is a careful eater and tries not to eat much sugar. She doesn't like to eat before church and seems to be able to read her body pretty well.
• She loves animals and they love her. Animals just seem to sense something special in Laney. She's very good with them.
• She's great with her little brothers and they love to play with her.
• She's read the Bible cover-to-cover once and is working on doing it again.

Isn't she a neat kid? I'm looking forward to another good year with my sweet girl. I love you Laney Bug!!

Momma

Naptime

There are some days when I start looking forward to naptime around 8:30 am. Today was one of those. It has been one of those days when everyone seems unusually noisy and someone is constantly wanting something. Praise the Lord that it is naptime!

I don't understand mothers who give up naptime when their kids hit the age of 3 or 4. It is such a nice (quiet) time to rest and regroup for the rest of the day. Hopefully my kids are resting and regrouping too!

My older kids do not nap anymore but they have "quiet time". They must do something quietly and not disturb me or the little ones. They may not roam the house, but stay downstairs . Usually they are still finishing school. They have always liked this time as their free time to do what they like to do.

I use this time to make dinner, clean, read, blog, or sometimes nap. It's also a good time to run those errands that I can do quicker without little boys. They are quiet and it's easy babysitting for their big sisters.

By the time naptime is over, I'm refreshed and ready for the 2nd part of the day. Tea is ready, dinner is ready, and the house has "recovered" from the chaos of the morning.

I love naptime!

Perfect Weather

I just LOVE this weather! My kids just love this weather too. I have a hard time making them do school when it's so nice out. Yesterday, we put it up and went to the park. Today we did a little then I had them work on some outside jobs. I love homeschooling!

Latest soccer pics

The "blue team"...wearing the red uniforms (our alternates)...went 3-0 yesterday in Springdale, Ar. Combined, the blue scored 13 goals and gave up 4. They played well, however, they really need work on receiving the ball under control and making quicker decisions. Here are the photos:
http://thetaggs.smugmug.com/gallery/1249871

Pictures of my sweet kissable Mallory...





















Isn't this one funny!


























Told ya she was kissable! (So is he!)

 

A David Job

I'm been thinking more about my experience at Sams yesterday and I thought I would type out this little story.

When my older kids were little my neighbor's son, David, was mowing our yard. My kids were watching from the window. When David was finished he started to sweep the walkway. My kids called me to the window and asked me why David was doing that. I explained that David was doing "the whole job" and told them all about what that meant.

The next day, 4 year old Laney was playing in the living room when I asked her to pick up the books that were lying on the floor. Much time passed when I went back into the living room and found her still working on that same job. I asked her what she was doing and why this was taking so long. She replied "I'm doing a 'David job'". She was straightening the whole bookcase!
It stuck. Ever since then when someone goes the extra mile we call it 'a David job'.

This morning I walked in on 4 year old Joshua making my bed! What a sweetheart. He was working hard with the heavy blankets and many pillows to bless his Momma. He put every throw pillow right where it went the same way that I do it.

Laney stayed home with me today. We worked together. I had a big list of several things that needed to be done around the house. These were not light jobs. I am working in the kitchen with her as she is sweeping and mopping. When she mops, there is something gross stuck on the floor that is not coming up with the mop. She stops, gets a scraper, and scrapes it up. She mops another area and notices that she did not do a good job sweeping. She stops, re-sweeps, and mops.

These little things make my mother-heart sing for joy! I hope my kids will always strive to do a David job.

Good morning! Like this bigger font?
Today is looking to be a fun one. Maegan and Laney both have piano recitals. After that they all leave to Springdale for Christian's games. I think Laney may stay home with the little ones and me. I hope so, she usually doesn't stay.

My new favorite quick dinner is ravioli. I get that frozen kind and pour spaghetti sauce over it and bake it. Ta Da! It's done in a jiffy and everyone likes it. It's good when I forget to thaw out dinner. Jesse calls it "olly ollies".

We are still dog sitting Willow. I am so surprised at what a good girl she is. She is learning the rules pretty well.

I've got bread baking this morning. Maegan is starting a bread baking business and I'm about to buy new pans. I will sell my old ones on Ebay to offset the cost.

I made granola bars for everyone for the games today. It's a good energy snack for CT. I also made his favorite juice so he won't "need" gatorade. I think everyone is ready and looking forward to the day.

God bless you!

I went to Sams today. We have reached a point in our family where I can no longer use the regular shopping cart and I have to get flat bed kind. My little boys love it because the ride is more fun. Buying in bulk isn't really buying in bulk anymore. It's just what we normally use. I praise the Lord for Sams! It is so much more convenient than buying all those rolls of toilet paper in the small bags. I love having a big family.

Today I'm shopping with Jes. By the time we were done there was barely room on the end for him to sit and ride. There was a lot of stuff. When I was checking out, I asked the lady if there was someone who could help me load. She motioned to the orange-vested cart gathering guy and he walked with me to the van. I was watching Jesse get in his car seat while the guy unloaded my stuff. Before I knew it, he was walking away. I looked over there and he said "You just need help with the dog food and soap, right?" He unloaded 2 things and left everything else!!

Now, there wasn't anything else that was heavy and it was easy for me to finish but that is not the point. Whatever happened to doing the whole job?

"Whatever you do, do it with all your heart as working for the Lord and not for men." This guy was obviously not working for the Lord. He was not busy gathering carts when he was called to help me. He was visiting with his buddy.

I wonder if this young man is a disappointment to his mother? To his boss? To the Lord? I pray that I am raising sons that do not just do enough to get by. I sincerely hope that my guys will grow into men that will finish the job, and even better.....go the extra mile.

I wanted to paint the living room. I have a sweater that I like and decided that most of the house would look just great in that same color. It's sort of a muddy greenish brown color. On the day I was getting the paint, I dug the sweater out of the washing machine and put it up against the wall just to make sure. Yep, looks good. I took it (still wet) to Home Depot to get the color just right.

Mike watched all this with a raised eyebrow but didn't say a word. You see, I told him that I would paint the living room and he did not need to help. Besides, I was pretty sure he couldn't pick a good color...or even worse, say "white".

I bought the whole gallon. I decided to wait until Monday to get started. That way he'd be at work and wouldn't comment on how dark it was while I was painting. (I was having my own doubts) By the time he got home I would have one wall done and he'd be pleasantly surprised by how nice it really was.

Monday afternoon I got busy. I painted one spot and it almost looked BLACK on the wall!! A friend of mine called while I was doing this. She is a designer. She said I should never buy a gallon, always start with a quart. Where was she this weekend? Oh well, I thought, I'll take it back and get it a little lighter. I did that and tried again. This time it was much lighter but still dark. Even worse is that now it looks like poopy diaper color. "It's fine", I thought, trying to convince myself that once I finished a whole wall it would look better.

It didn't. Periodically one the kids would come down and comment with their noses turned up..."Is THAT the color?" Not to be swayed, I said "Yes! That's the color. And it's NICE!". They obviously don't have good taste.

By the time Mike got home I could deny it no longer. It was so uuuggglyyy. So dark, so brown, so yucky. He was very gracious and just smiled. I think he loves it when these things happen to me. He just said that he thought it was weird for me to make such a rash decision, that it was out of character. I'm glad he thought so. Of course he thought it very funny when I confessed that I didn't think he could pick a good color!

The whole thing is kind of funny now. Yesterday it was not. At least not to me. You see, I wasted $36!! Plus a good 2 hours. Both of those things mean a lot to me. I hate wasting time and money and especially BOTH at the same time!

I was reading my Bible before bed and I realized that I did not even pray about painting the room or picking a color. Some would say that God does not care what color I paint my living room. I would have to disagree. The Bible says that God calls all the stars by name, he knows how many hairs we have on our heads, and every sparrow when it falls. His Word says that I am more important to Him than all those things. If I had consulted Him I know I would've picked a better color b/c he knows my tastes and preferences better than I do. He also gave me my husband as a protection. He also knows my likes and dislikes. I disregarded both of them and the result was something very ugly.

Well, I will pick another color. Mike says "Please do!" I will pray about it first.

I have a small chalkboard in my nightstand. It was a gift from a friend as a visual reminder of forgiveness. (I'll save that story for another time) I like it b/c of what it represents and also b/c it was from such a sweet lady. I decided to paint the back of it with my ugly color to serve as another visual reminder. Hopefully this won't happen again.

Repetition

One of my daily irritations is a messy laundry room. We have so much laundry every day. We also have a lot (a whole lot!) of kitchen towels to wash every day. The laundry room is right off the kitchen and we had gotten in the habbit of just throwing dirty towels in there on the floor. Yes, there are baskets in there but they never seemed to make it that far. The laundry room is also the room you come into when you enter the house through the garage so you are greeted with the mess first thing.

I have a tendancy to think that if I say something once to my children that they should remember it forever and always do it. Just imagine my frustration about this! How many times have we talked about the laundry room? I tried different things . I would lecture, I would give that jurisdiction to a different child to be in charge of, I would clean it myself, .....the list goes on.

I was reading in my Bible in Philippians.
Paul said "It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. " I guess Paul understood what I don't! Repetition is good. It is a safeguard to help us live carefully and to obey. He did not expect to say something once and everybody to remember it forever. I had never read it like that before. Also I got to thinking of all the other times in the Bible when God reiterates things to his people...it's a lot!! And how many times has it taken me to learn a simple lesson? Or a Scripture I'm trying to memorize? It's not usually once. It takes lots of repetition. If it takes me that much time, why would I expect anything different from them?

I came away from that reading determined to be more patient with my children and to remember that repetition is a safeguard. As I was helping the kids do dishes that night, I went to throw a towel in the laundry room. Guess what? It was clean!!

It's almost Joshua's birthday! My baby will be five!! He is very excited and has made an "order of ceremony" with Maegan. It goes like this...

Breakfast: waffles with juice

Lunch: Alot of chicken corndogs. (A bunch and a bunch)

Dinner: Pizza

Dessert: Chocolate pudding cake



1. Turn the lights off and blow out the candles.

2. Take a picture.

3. Sing "happy birthday to you"

4. Cut the cake and eat it.

5. Open presents.