Mark Twain Festival

The children's school, Providence Classical Christian Academy has an annual Mark Twain Festival. To see info and pics go here. Two and a half days full of fun. Besides dressing in character for 2 days, there is the 5th grade frog jumping contest, the Raft Race and the Silver Tongue Oratory Competition.

Ernie wanted to be Huck Finn and the girls wanted to be Becky Thatcher. The dresses are aprons purchased from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum with full slips and shirts underneath.

Dancing Lessons and More

Over the summer, we joined a wonderful recreation center - Concordia Turners. The children took swimming lessons and we had plenty of pool time. One wonderful thing about the Turners is that once you pay your membership fee (extremely resonable for a family of 8), all lessons and classes are FREE! Once the list of Fall Classes was posted, I checked it out and boy was I amazed. Abby and Emma are taking tap, jazz, Irish dance, and gymnastics. Ernie takes Martial Arts and gymnastics. Jonathan attends a few of the martial arts classes, plus he and Christian are in Tumble Bears. This makes for busy nights, but when the gym is 7 minutes away...we've made it work. The children LOVE all the activities and John and I love to see them explore and learn new things. Concordia is a family friendly atmosphere and we are really happy there. If you live near us, go and take a tour!

Abby and Emma before their first dance class.

Sweet Sisters.

Older and hopefully wiser...

I turned 31 on October 10th. It was a wonderful birthday. John had to work so he made sure I had presents and Krispy Kremes to start the morning off right. Next, my Dad took the oldest 5 children out for the day. I headed off to Scandals for a pedicure, then Mom and Isabella took me shopping and lunch at my favorite spot-McAlister's. What an enjoyable day! Once John and the kiddos returned home, we had dinner at Culvers and enjoyed an evening on the couch watching the Cardinals. Too bad they lost. What a great family I have! They know how to spoil me and I really appreciate it!

Presents and Doughnuts

Krispy Kremes with Candles

My Sweet Clan

HAPPY FEET!

What's On Your Mind?

What is on your mind in a day?

Today, I looked down at a pile of stuff that needed to be put into my clean office and I was shocked to realize this is probably what the compartments of my mind contain for daily life as a Mom of six. There is my beloved calendars. Yes, it requires two calendars to track everything - my children's activities, my husband's meetings & coaching schedule, my nights out with friends. Of course there are doctor's appointments, the PCCA volleyball schedule, etc in it as well. Next are all the things I need to remember with 3 children in school: three different grades, field trips, items to bring in for show-n-tell, snack schedules, homework assignments, etc. There are forms to fill out for the chiropractor. Do you see the Post-it note? I presently have 5 around my computer monitor all with things I must remember. A cookbook for meal planning, which requires much thought everyday. Even if the meal is planned you still have to remember to get the ingredients out and what time it needs to be served in order to be at gymnastics or basketball on time. Don't forget the library books - time to read, plus remembering the date the books need to be returned. Last, but not least, is a box of 100 calorie snacks because who isn't thinking about their weight and how they look and what their husband and children are eating. I am sure most women have these compartments and many more, but it was shocking to me to see them right in front of my face in a pile.

Why I love being a MOM #2

My 9-year-old and his creation.

Oh, the love of a son for his Momma - Nothing in the world like it!

Forgiveness

My sis-in-law, Rebekah, gave me a book titled From Forgiven to Forgiving by Jay E. Adams.
This portion is based on "I will not remember your sins" Isaiah 43:25:

"Forgiveness is a promise! Never forget that fact. It is one of the most stupendous facts of all time. When our God forgives us, He promises that He will not remember our sins against us anymore. That is wonderful. ... Obviously, the omniscient God who created and sustains the universe does not forget, but he can 'not remeber.' You see, forgetting is passive and is something that we human beings, not being omniscient, do. 'Not remembering' is active; it is a promise whereby one person (in this case, God) determines not to remember the sins of another against him. To 'not remember' is simply a graphic way of saying , 'I will not bring up these matters to you or others in the future. I will bury them and not exhume the bones to beat you over the head with them. I will never use these sins against you.'"