Fall fun

I love my kids!
Not intentionally placed as a follow-up to yesterday’s blog, but maybe well-placed anyway, I just wanted to share my overwhelming joy with my children. The early years are not often easy, especially when there are so many kids in the early years at the same time.  They can be full of so much training and teaching and discipline that it can seem like all you do is say “No” and “Don’t” all the time, without ever having any time for enjoying the blessings God has given you.  You go through the tough newborn stage when the baby is trying to adjust to living outside the womb and you get no sleep and no showers and so on.  Then after a b

From my heart
Have you ever known, as surely as you know that the sun will rise and set, known without a doubt, without one ounce of uncertainty, that God wanted you to do something? Have you ever spent some time running away in disobedience to that? Was it something that, once you finally did it, was well-accepted by those you love and who love you, or was it something that they couldn’t understand, something they may not have approved of, or something they were flat-out against? God has been dealing with me for the past year or so on one certain issue, and I feel like all the convictions that I have been fighting for this past year on this issue have culminated in my heart

Convictions from a wife’s heart
Recently I have had several occasions to think deeply about what it means to be a godly wife.  Through a couple of books I’ve read, a couple of classes I’ve taught, a couple of classes I’ve attended, and just a few conversations I’ve had, the Holy Spirit has been working to strengthen convictions that were already strong in my heart, as well as to show me areas where conviction was needed but was lacking.  I share them here so that I can publicly commit to my husband to be striving for more consistent obedience in these areas, and also so that maybe others can be encouraged by the Spirit’s work in a sister-in-Christ. I’ve been convi

Life from Samuel’s perspective
Credit for this blog post goes to my dear hubby, who made some observations the other day about how Samuel has learned to cope in this family. Give a baby 14 months, and he will learn some pretty advanced skills for surviving in the family in which God has placed him. Here is some of what Samuel has learned: * If you drop something, go ahead and say “No-no” because that is what someone is about to say to you. * If Elisabeth comes anywhere near you, just go on and start crying to save time. * If someone is trying to dress you, hug you, or otherwise bother you, start saying “Owwww, owwwww” over and over until they stop. *