What's this?  A Ranger caught off his guard? ... Of course I had to quote from Lord of the Rings.  As soon as I typed the title of "Surprise", that's what came to mind.  I need help.

So while I'm waiting on Matthew's birthday cake to bake, I thought I'd put a quick update on here since it's been almost 4 months! What in the world!

The 4 big kids have been going to the all day VBS at Berean Baptist Church this week, from 9-3 everyday.  That has been really nice for them to have something to keep them so busy!!!  And Sophie has proved once again to be the master memorizer--she had the whole book memorized by the 3rd day and has been spending every evening memorizing more verses to get points for her team.  Who would have thought that such an ordinary mom could have such an extraordinary daughter! All by the grace of God.  I just pray that she hides that Scripture in her heart for good.  The others are working hard too, and all are having lots of fun.  Lots of their school friends are going, so they all have buddies. Fun times.

While they are at VBS, the twins and I have been having our own fun.  How nice to have some time to spend with just the little girls.  We have spent the week "park-hopping", and playing, and just taking it easy.  Kind of a glimpse of what it will be like once school starts.  I need to work on my own attitude though, and I pray that God gives me delight in my children, and joy in the calling He has given me as wife and mother.  I am so tempted to think that playing with them or reading them books is mundane, and that I should be using my time to get my housework and chores done.  Sometimes, honestly, I would much rather clean out a closet than play with them, but I see more and more how quickly the times passes, and that I must use my time with them wisely.  There is not a minute to lose, and I must teach them and train them in all the ways of the Lord with the little time I have.  THAT is hard work, friends.  The hardest work there is.  But it is also the most rewarding and fruitful, to raise those little ones up for His glory.  May He give the grace to us moms to do this work with a joyful and grateful heart, even when we don't see progress.  Stick to it, you will never regret spending time with your little ones.  So, BE ALL THERE!  Your kids will know if you'd rather be somewhere else.  Pray, pray, pray and depend on the Lord to help you. He will!  Just a little pep talk there for me as much as for you. I know I need at least one everyday.

Sophie turned 11 in June, I know, hard to believe, John turned 6, Glen turned 30-something , and Matthew will be 8 in a couple of days.  They're all growing! This summer has been the fastest ever.  August is getting full as well, and then school will start at the end of the month.  Wow.  And what a nice cool summer we have had.  We have only had to turn on the air a couple times in the evenings. I just love having the windows open and feeling the nice cool breeze.  We are surrounded by shade so it helps to keep it a little cooler. 

I guess it's time to check on the cake, so I'll see you around. Probably on facebook I guess.

Hi Friends!  I have no idea if anyone will even read this, but I've been meaning to update on here for so long so here goes.

We have started getting ready for our trip next week.  We cleaned out the van, made up the seating chart (when you have 6 kids, this can get rather tricky!) and Glen just took off to go have a few maintenance things done on the van before we leave.  I just can't think! I just have to DO.  Know what I mean?  I can't think in my mind of what to pack for 8 people for a 10 day trip, I just have to do it.  But I can't really do it till it's almost time to leave, so stress just builds up inside me and then it's a mad frantic packing session on Wednesday night.  We plan on leaving Thursday morning early, so that we can get to our first stop (my sisters house in OH) for a one night stay.    I will be very sad leaving her on Friday morning, but we are looking forward to spending more time with her and the kids in the summer months.  I can't wait to try out her elliptical machine!  Any bets as to whether that will actually happen?  So then we begin the second and final leg of the trip to Glen's parents' house in NC.  We're just looking forward to #1 SEEING MY NEW NEPHEW, and #2 just hanging out and having fun with the fam.  The cousins are SO excited about playing together.  It's so fun to just watch them.  They don't get to see each other very often, but they are the best of friends, and just get right to their business of playing together as soon as we get there!  Lots to do and Grammy and Grampy's house!  So then we'll be there for a few days, and then make the 2-day journey back, to be home for the Purity conference in Davenport. The girls and I are SO looking forward to that.  I hope I'm not too worn out from travelling to really soak in the teaching.

Nights have been awful, and no one feels well rested.  We've just had one sickness after another and the twins have developed some horrible habits, and they are waking up and wanting their binkies, and we have foolishly catered to this, and it has gotten pretty bad.  We finally decided that we just can't go on like this, so we are taking the binkies away FINALLY!!! This is the longest any of our kids have still had them, of course I said I'd never let my kids have them past one, but man, life takes over and you just do what you have to do to survive!  Well, we can't survive if we aren't sleeping, so we put them down for naps today with no binkies.  They both got dealt with one time, then right to sleep, and they've been sleeping for about an hour and a half so far.  We'll see how the night goes.  We just have to change this or nobody will be happy!!! UGH! Seems like such a small thing, but getting through it seems almost impossible!  We need so much help from God.  Aren't you thankful we can take these petty little things to Him knowing He actually CARES, and wants to help us through them? 

Still struggling with the whole distance from church thing, but we are still resolved to persevere and keep doing what we're doing believing that it's the best thing for our family.  Oh, how important doctrine is to us.  It affects EVERYTHING.  Being 50+ miles from church has many disadvantages, but we don't think the advantages of comprimising on doctrine and going nearby outweigh those disadvantages.  So onward we go. We are constantly asking God to help us with this ongoing struggle. We desire so much to do more, to reach out more into our community, to be more hospitable, ... the list goes on and on, but we need to be content and do what we can. 

Well, shall I break out a suitcase and see what I can come up with?  It's just too soon.  I need to go drink my coffee that I got started on WAY too late in the day.  Looking forward to leaving this town for a while, that's for sure! We're counting down the days!

Hey everyone-I think I might lose my xanga page if I don't put a little something on here. It's been over a month, but seems like there's just no blocks of time to sit down and write about my life anymore...

We had a great Christmas break traveling to Ohio for a week, then to NC for the following week, had lots of good family time, crazy kid time, too much travelling, a hotel night, then a few shopping trips, and finally home at last.  That was an extremely short version of our vacation!  Since we've been back, the kids only have been to school 3 and 1/2 days, due to a fire extinguisher accident that caused them to miss 3 and 1/2 days, and extremely cold weather that caused them to miss another 3.  Today they are off because of the holiday. It's been nice being able to hang out at home since we were gone for the 2 weeks of break.

Last night I finally read the book "The Princess and the Kiss" to my oldest girls, and we did the first life lesson that goes along with it.  It's a good book, simply written, but it is another way to open the doors of communication, and get everything out in the open regarding their purity.  Not just sexual purity, but emotional and spiritual purity as well.  We had a nice little talk and some prayer time together. I hope to keep this up-going through the life lessons at least once a week. I'm so looking forward to the Pure In Heart conference coming up on April 18, and I think that if anyone cares about purity and planting those seeds in your children whether they are boys are girls, no matter what their ages are, I think you would benefit from being there, and I hope lots more people register.  We all have girls in our lives, our children, friends, grandkids, nieces and nephews... It's important and kids today are being bombarded with everything contrary to God's Word, so we all just need to be more intentional and proactive in encouraging them with God's truth and keeping them accountable, and learning ways to help them, and to encourage eachother in this huge task.  That's my little plug. 

That's all I have time for now, but maybe soon I'll be able to get back in the habit of writing more frequently. ??? What am I thinking.  Anyway, have a good day everyone!  Don't leave me hanging in xangaland!