Frustration

"I believe, anytime we feel frustration...we have stopped really relying on God (leaning on him) and have gotten off into our own deal, trying to make something happen our own way." Joyce Meyer

What does that say about me?!

Crescent Rolls Anyone?

Summer is just about over...Today we stayed around the house and just relaxed. This afternoon the kids played in the sprinkler and had a great time. The babies wouldn't get in the sprinkler but were happy to climb on the water table, it has to be their idea!

For supper I made Chicken Pot Pie with a crust made from homemade crescent rolls! I know it was awsome because even my pickiest eater litterally cleaned all the crumbs from her plate! After the pot pie we had the crescent rolls (left over dough) and now Morgan is making brownies with M&Ms! How is that for an end of summer meal?!

Sorry you missed it!!!

Present #2

Today we took the kids school clothes shopping, that was the quickest $1200 ever!!! Anyway, Morgan found these, she's excited to finally be taller than me.

16 Days and Counting...

There are 16 days until Morgan turns 16 years old! I cannot believe my baby is so grown up.

Albert already gave her first present, a guitar (pictures to come later). Everyday we are learning more and more about her. Morgan's interests include the guitar, art, drawing, cooking and Spike (the iguana).

Morgan has made a friend and even gave her testimony during Sunday School this week. This led to her making 2 more friends. God is blessing us but many prayers continue to go up for the first day of school.

Fruits of Our Labor

This weekend several of the girls and I traveled to a local orchard and picked over 30 pounds of apples! It was great fun and easy to realize that it is hard work!

Morgan had as much fun as I did, just look at that beautiful smile!

Today we made applebutter and buttermilk apple bread for tomorrow's breakfast! Finally I had to quit with the apples to make supper, homemade chicken tenders.

A very busy day with lots accomplished! We all got up by 7 a.m. and we also got a lot of cleaning done. All in all, a great day!

Grocery Shopping

What does your workout routine look like? Do you jog, dance, aerobicise or walk to the fridge?
I have discovered a new, very effective, exercise routine courtesy of Sam's Club, Grocery Shopping! To start you have to find 2 two year olds and 2 five year olds to take with you. Then it helps if you can find a 15 yr old to help. The next step is to show up around ten after a long dentist visit. Smart shoppers bring snacks for the kids to munch on (but you better hurry, this only works for about the first 20 to 30 minutes).

There really is no warm up session, just plunge right into the serious workout. Be sure to go up and down every isle, searching for large containers of basic ingredients to be used in several meals, sometimes the large containers only stretch to one meal. After an hour you will begin to get hot, sweaty and tired of pushing the 2 overflowing carts...at this point park one of those and get a flatbed cart. When this is full you should be almost finished. Head to the check out and laugh to yourself at the funny looks from the other shoppers.

After checking out, spend the next 20 minutes trying to load all of this into a 12 passenger van with little luggage room. Secure the children so time is not wasted keeping them out of the path of passing cars. Slowly drive home (so as not to throw #10 cans around and knocking anyone out) and employ all human beings you can to carry the groceries into the house. The 2 year olds can help with things like spaghetti and toothpaste, every little bit helps!

Immediately put all cold items into the fridge or freezer and collapse on the couch to wait for reinforcements...Now, doesn't that make your grocery shopping seem like a breeze?! See below...

Yahtzee!!!

Picture this...8 children, finally in bed. Albert, Morgan and myself all gathered around the dining room table having the best time! We played 2 rounds of Yahtzee and laughed and hollared for over an hour. I know the kids could hear us but we just couldn't help ourselves.

Just incase you cannot see it clearly in the picture, I won both games!

Tonight we are watching Benny and Joon (if you have not seen this movie, with Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson, you MUST find the time to watch it!).

We had trouble getting Morgan registered today, pray that we get it worked out...

Exhaustion

Exhausted - entirely consumed.

I get this feeling from time to time, not in a good way...If I was "entirely consumed" by God that would be a good thing. Maybe that's the answer...

Yesterday morning I had the feeling when I realized I had forgotten to take 2 of the girls to "healthy kids camp." I can do this, how could I forget something so trivial?! Anyway, today I remembered, yea me, so with everything else we spent almost the entire day driving from here to there! Tuesdays are always bad, Monday's almost as tough, then the rest of the week usually go well.

Good news...my bruises are just beginning to go away. I've haven't been beat on since Sunday night and that night she did finally just quit after about an hour. She is pretty sad about losing her new backpack so we'll see if the consequences make a difference.

Morgan is doing well, acting silly with the girls in the van today. Spike (the iguana) gets lots of cuddle time and she is even talking about college.

So, all in all things are great! Have a great week!