Sunday evening ramblings...

Today was a beautiful day.......

 

 

Church this morning, covered dish afterwards, and then an afternoon with family.

Over the winter we pulled everything up out of this flower bed and prepared it to start over this spring.  We have planted knock out roses, gardenia bushes, Mexican heather, day lilies, and a few other annuals.  Our soil was really sandy there so we hauled in a bunch of dirt hoping to help the plants thrive.

I absolutely love this time of year and I LOVE flowers!  My grandmother loved gardening. I wish I could've known her. :(

Madeline has taken over our vegetable garden this year.  She has really worked hard. I hope she has success!

I was going to pitch this little shelf that has been on our front porch for the past several years.  (My minimalism carried out to the porches and I pitched all of my old pots!)  I decided to keep it, and a bird has built a nest inside the birdhouse. We now have six eggs in there!  I'm sure when it is all said and done I will have poop all over it.  So for now we will enjoy watching the babies hatch and grow up. Once they leave.... the house will too!

I have a section in our courtyard with established knock-out roses.  They have been full of blooms this spring.

We took the baby on his first walk down the road today.

Mariah was heading up to a down the street neighbor's house to take some lemon pie to them. I think I've posted about the elderly man down the street named "Mr. W" on here before.  He passed away in January and has left a very elderly wife and an invalid daughter living alone.  We try to check in on them when we can.  Mariah ended up cooking their dinner for them, washing the dishes and taking out the trash. I love her heart to serve.

While she was helping them we sat at the pond and watched birds flying around dipping into the water.  Life is so busy and fast paced.  It was so fun to just sit and laugh at the antics of those little birds!

                                 Madeline the "cow whisperer". :)

                                
                                                             Reflections....

 

Oh how we already love this precious baby boy.

 

Macheus in front of my day lilies that the horses snacked on.  Someone forgot to close the gate!

                                   So many sweet memories sitting on this front porch.

The boys have baseball fever this year and Matthew is enjoying sharing his love of it with them!

Thankful that he spends time with them.

                                                               Boys = dirt

                                                     I love these fellows!

                                              Another "leftie" ball player.

Mariah rocking sweet baby boy on the porch.  He slept most of the day. I may be in for it tonight!

Always hate for the day to end.....

~Goodnight

Camping...

A couple of weeks ago during Marc's spring break he took the boys (minus Mac) camping.  Matthew had to work but he joined them on Friday night.

 

He takes them camping several times a year and they always have so much fun!

They usually hike, fish, canoe, and tour historical sites!

                                               Boys belong outside!!!

Looks so peaceful.....

                                                            Boyhood.....

And a little miniature golf!

~Until next time.....

Our journey begins....

I had intended on blogging our journey but life has just been busy.  I wrote this Facebook post one night last week so here goes...


You never know what a day may bring.....
Many years ago when Marc and I were newlyweds we went through what was then called "Map" classes, or foster/adoption classes. We were still in college but thought we would eventually like to adopt a baby. Instead, God gave us McKenzie and we were blessed! <3 span=""> Every few years He added another blessing to our family, but we always knew that "one day" we were going to foster/foster to adopt.
About a year ago the Lord started preparing our hearts that perhaps it was time. I didn't want to be the one to make the move, so I prayed that if we were supposed to do this Marc would take the lead. I wish I had written the date down, but it was one day last August that he came home and told me he had called DFACS and we were set up to go to an informational meeting. I was EXTREMELY nervous! (Any home school mama will tell you that social workers are something we don't want to hear about! :) ) We prayed together before we went into that first meeting that the Lord would give us a "sign" if we weren't supposed to do it. I kind of thought maybe I wouldn't like the social worker or something. :) Well, she was very sweet and we were set up to do our first of what seemed a gazillion screenings to prepare to begin what they now call "Impact" classes. So again, like any good worry wart mother I prayed that I wouldn't have a good feeling about things during classes if we weren't supposed to do it.
The classes went well, screenings were done and we were set up for home visits and our home study. This was where I really got nervous! I mean... inviting a social worker into my home! :) Again, we prayed and the Lord was so gracious to us! We had a sweet Christian lady come to do our home study. When we first started this process we talked to each one of our children... from the oldest down to "baby K". I wasn't about to embark on anything that my kids weren't comfortable with. Each child (as much as the younger ones could grasp) were not only willing but they were excited about what the Lord might have in store for our family. The social worker had to talk to each one of our children and at first I was very nervous about that. The Lord brought such a peace to all of us during the whole process. Everything was complete on December 9th and it was just a waiting game for the final sign off. For all those weeks it was in the back of our minds. Finally, one day last week we got a phone call that we were approved and had to go into a meeting on Thursday. On Friday we got our first call. We were all nervous and excited as we waited to hear if they were bringing the children that day but some circumstances unfolded that prevented that. So...... we went on with our life.
This morning I was doing jumping jacks with Myles getting him ready to start school when my cell phone rang. I had a feeling it was going to be another call and it was. So... this evening snuggled safe and sound in my arms is a precious baby boy. We have no idea what the future holds for his little life or for our family but we are confident that God in His sovereignty does.

Strawberry pickin' time...

This past Friday we carved out a day to go strawberry picking! 

 

The weather was perfect and we all loaded up in the van to take off.

 

Spring of 2013 I took my seven kids strawberry picking. I took a picture of them and made a comment that I bet that would be the last time I had all seven with me. (Macheus was a newborn.)  That has been true for the past four years until this year!  Right as we were pulling out Matthew drove up.  He had gotten off work early!  We asked him if he wanted to ride along and he did. :)  Love that he still doesn't mind hanging with us!

 

I bet we said, "Only pick red ones!"  a thousand times. :)

So sweet enjoying the next generation doing all of our traditions.

Of course, we couldn't leave without the kids getting ice cream.  Matthew gave Elliott a taste.  The baby has never even eaten a solid yet!  I told him payback would be coming when he has kids. :)

                                                        She was so cute!

 

He was proud of his bucket! They worked so hard! :)

                                             

She tried to like the strawberries, but I don't think she got the concept of eating something she had just picked.

                                                    I spy a bee.

We picked a total of nine buckets!  I spent a small fortune on strawberries!

                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fast-forward to Sunday..... Strawberry jam!!! We will put a few in the freezer for smoothies and eat the rest fresh!!!

 

~Until next time......