bsmiles and sunny days

Hello. It's crazy here. We are so busy. We had a wild weekend with 13 kids. Love it. So fun. I will post px but before that we are moving all the girls to the basement. The boys will each have their own room. So boom. Busyness compounded. But worth it. A small sacrifice for my sweet children to find some... privacy. ish. Privacy-ish. The girls are moving to the basement altogether. But they are psyched about it. Woohoo! Let the good times roll. I wish I had that I Dream of Genie power where you can wiggle your nose and it's all done! hrmph. lvb

I plugged my ears With earplugs So I could read while the tv is on. I'm not sure how Mr.PhD studies in front of it. His stuff is exponentially more difficult than mine! So I have just arrived at the second part of Shepherding a Child's Heart. Please, please, please! If you have children anywhere near Your sphere of influence, Promise me you will read this book! If your chief end in life is to glorify God And to enjoy Him forever, Read this book! I am sick about not having finished it sooner. I feel hopeful for my children again! It is changing me as a parent. My whole perspective is new! Praise God for His mercy toward us! Read it. Read it now. Lvb

Don't lose heart. I AM HERE! I don't have pictures... ...except this one! I just took this one, just for you. After a crazy coop I feel depleted. I don't wanna work I just wanna bang on these drums all day. I'll tell you what happened today. I went to coop and felt happy. Excited even. I love teaching. Then I saw my friend. I have this one friend at coop that I see outside of coop. I look so forward to seeing her. She has a new friend. Her new friend is at coop. They live close to each other. Is this a blast from jr high or what? I feel stupid writing this. But you're honest with me. I am honest with you. They were making plans to see each other throughout the week. I feel unfriended. Dale and I tell each other that we are all we need. After church Sunday and now the unfriending I feel isolated. If you lived here we would party. We'd live close and make plans for the week. And then we'd party together with all our kids

A few weeks ago, my sister and I drove to Indiana to visit my brother and sister-in-law. Jon and Cara. It was 10 hours one way. It was AWESOME. We had fun. Loads of fun! I want to go back. I love them so, so much. There's nothing like walking into someone else's house for the first time and feeling TOTALLY AT HOME. It takes a special family to take in 11 people for a long weekend and make them feel totally at home. Love it. Love them! Then Dale took my big kids on the Katy Trail for a 50-mile, 2-day trek. They left on Monday, returned on Wednesday. That left me with one helper and three pre-schoolers. Busyness. Oh my heck. I didn't stop moving. Day and night I just kept going until I passed out from exhaustion. I loved it. I got so much done. Cleaned rooms, sorted clothes, rearranged stuff, unloaded trash bag after trash bag. I feel better. Much, much better. It gave me this serious momentum that I have needed for SO LONG. I am

This morning I got up early to make muffins for the munchkins. When I couldn't find my muffin tins, I started emptying cabinets. In the meantime, Moses woke up and needed a bottle. I couldn't find one of those either. That led me to emptying the utinsil drawers in the kitchen. I don't put bottles away in the drawers, but 90% of the time I don't put any dishes away. :) I buy minute muffins. Tear open package, pour in milk, stir, and bake. One minute prep. Only today, the minute muffins turned into a total kitchen clean-out. Ugh. And yay! Kitchen cabinets are no longer  emptying their contents every time the doors are opened! So here's the great news: I found stuff!! I have this...idiosyncracy. I lose stuff. Every single day I lose stuff. It drives me absolutely CRAZY! It has left me with this deep-seated fear that things disappear. You can imagine my surprise when I found stuff in cabinets and under drawers. My stuff wasn't gone, it was just

There' s a Florence and the Machines song that I can hear banging in my head. I don't know most of the words, but there is one phrase that repeats. "I think I'm breaking down again..." I don't know why she's breaking down, or why I feel so connected to the song right now, but I do. I am tired and busy. Didn't finish my list today, even though I worked so hard to get through it! There's a new Toby Keith song that I love too. Drinks After Work. Just drinks after work... I don't drink after work. I don't work with anyone but Kennedy. Kennedy can't get drinks after work. But every time I hear it, I want to dance around and get drinks after work! It's weird, I know. It just proves that my affinity for these songs has no direct correlation to my immediate circumstances. I just like em. All that to say, I don't think I'm breaking down again. I am fatter, though! Too much partying. Not enough disciple. Happy wee

Due to technical difficulties, I am a few days late on this post. We had fun, fun fun! The Birthday Fairy sprinkled Birthday joy all over the house In the way of streamers, balloons, And birthday banners. The morning started with Breakfast in bed: 2 donuts from Price Chopper. Next she opened presents: Weather radio. Beauty and the Beast DVD. Cash. Next: Lunch at Cici's with Mawmaw, Grandma Welker, and Aunt April. Followed by a thrilling adventure at Build-A-Bear. We capped off a great day with a birthday movie date after bedtime. Happy Birthday, Lol! We love you!!

Leila asked for money or gift cards to Justice for her birthday. I have never looked at anything at Justice because it is expensive and flashy and ridiculous. It was a courtesy stop if we went into Justice on a shopping trip with me watching the door the whole time waiting for the timer to beep.  I wasn't excited about going there until I heard that there was a Flash Sale. 40% off Plus 20% off everything in the store. Leila was in heaven.  She had $60 in her pocket and the whole store ahead of her. The fancy little cashier was sooo sweet. She called her by name, picked out outfits for her to try on, wrote her name on her dressing room, and wrote, "Happy Birthday, Leila!" on her dressing room mirror. Every new outfit she put on she wanted to show to Ryan. Or Ronnie. I couldn't quite figure out her name... She was ecstatic to help us out. She even told Leila that she could tell she was a Justice girl! That kind of thing i

It's September 1st. This is officially opening day of our holiday season. I had a bad day last week, then I remembered that September 1st was just around the corner. The thought of it brought me so much joy that everything else just went into the shadows of this happy scene! This is Charlie Brown.  He's a serious contributor to the kick-off of the holiday season around here. Today we did lots of traditional celebratory things. One of them was watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" Charlie Brown is my favorite. I love all of his movies. I've always cheered for the underdog. Maybe that's why I love him. Or maybe watching him makes me feel like a kid again. Do you ever really grow up, or do you just act grown up when you have to? I think about that a lot. I don't feel much different.  I tell my kids that being brave isn't no being afraid, it's about being courageous even when you're scared. I wonder if the whole grown-up thing