Happy Leap year

I just can't resist posting a quick hello and Happy Leap Year! It's not often that I'll get to post on Feb 29 th.
Have you enjoyed your day?
We've celebrated with a pint of Blue Bell Strawberry ice cream, yummy.

Setting Limits

How do you set limits on activities you and your family are involved in? I've really struggled with this and tend to overload my plate. I find that my home is in better shape when I'm not on the road. We don't go to every homeschool event or we would never get any homeschooling done.
I've recently cancelled a breastfeeding support group meeting. At first I felt guit, but the strain on my family was too much. Plus the fact that I've had to cancel numerous times due to the illlness of one of my children. There are just some things you can't plan like 2 am stomach virus on the day of a meeting. I just cleaned out the shelves we had at the meeting location and I just felt relief.
I want to have time and a desire to do the things God wants me to do.

Baby Goats

We experienced the miracle of birth. My good friend lives about 30 miles east of here and was anxiously waiting for her doe goats to give birth. She was praying for twins and for more does to grow her little herd. On Feb 5, the first doe had twins, one male and one female. On Thursday I was talking to her in the evening around 8 and she tells me that she thinks her second doe is in labor and asks if I want my children to see the baby goats being born. Having grown up on a farm and having practically a midwife to cows and sheep I thought, you know that would be really neat for them to experience.
I left a note for Loren since he was at his first evening class up at Wesley Biblical Seminary. I packed up the kids in the van with jackets and some snacks and by 9:00 I am pulling in my friend's driveway. The baby goats still have not made their appearance but the mama goat is definitely trying to push. There seemed to be too much distraction, the older babies kept jumping on her when she would lay down so they got seperated. Literally in the dog house!
Soon we see a little head, my friend's son is in the pen with a towel helping. It looks so cute, and odd, just this little head sticking out. Then the mama goat got up and nearly hit the baby goat's head on the wall. She was distressed and her contractions stopped. I started asking some questions and trying to direct the young attendant but then I realized why it looked 'odd'. There were no front legs visible. My friend looks at me and later she said she knew something was wrong by the look on my face. A million thoughts raced through my head, what to do, how not to scare all the children watching and how to turn it into a good outcome. Then the baby goat started gasping and going into distress. I said "There are no front legs out, there's supposed to be legs." The next minutes are suspended. My friend ends up in the pen and I have her camera, I thought she was going to jump over the wall but she used the gate.
She had to reach in and find the legs, one was twisted at a weird angle and she said later she thought she was going to break it. The entire time she is trying to save this baby she is praying outloud and her son is standing over her shoulder. I ended up holding a few of my friend's rings, I know the mother goat was appreciative of that fact! The baby finally arrived, alive, and it was a little buck.
Afterward her son just kept saying, "Thank you momma." Over and over. My friend is shaking so hard she can hardly stand up. Later she said that at one point she was wondering why she didn't grab my baby and let me go in after the goat's legs. I've done it with a cow and I'm really not sure I want to repeat that experience.
Soon after the first baby arrives, the mother has another one, this time it is a doe. My friend calls her family to update them on the birth and then I notice the mother is not finished. I said, There's another one coming. My friend threw her phone in the hay and they had to help the mother get the sack off the baby doe. It's been a long time since I've seen a sac that tough.
My friend ended up with Triplet goats!
She had been wondering about what to do with her animals and had prayed to God for direction. She was amazed, again, that He cares about the little details in our lives, including her animals. What could have been a bad outcome turned into a blessing on so many levels, especially faith renewed.
Also on the plus side, my children had a very interesting biology lesson, not to mention a very late night. It was after midnight by the time we got back home.

Possibilities Are Exciting

We joined Daniel Memorial Baptist Church yesterday. The children (and us) have been so excited and felt so welcome at this church. We feel that this is the church God has a place for us to minister in and reach out to our neighborhood with. We have met a few times with the Pastor, and the possibilities for ministry are exciting.
I know of at least two other home schooling families attending the church. We also saw more young families at church yesterday. We are expecting big things from God!

I am functioning on limited sleep today. Rebecca had a rough night with gas, she got a few too many new foods at the Love and Laughter Banquet last night. The only position she wasn't screaming in was with me standing and holding her close with my hand pressed on her stomach. You can only stand for so many hours! I treated her for thrush just in case since we have just finished antibiotics for her ear infection.

We are enjoying a quiet evening while our oldest 2 are on a Children's Night Out with the church.

Map for JSU Meteorology Weather Lab Tour

One year ago..

One year ago today we made a hospital stay with John, viral croup. Very scary experience I don't want to repeat. We had tried our usual hot steamy shower and it wasn't working. His whole chest looked like it was about to cave in from his desperate intake for air. His little feet were blue when we got him to the hospital, and it is only 5-7 minutes down the road. It was the hardest thing to watch the nurses working on him. The oxygen mask made him look so tiny, he was just 25 months at the time, and then they wanted vein access so they put in an IV.
A lot of the past has been relived today as my sister took my niece, who is 15 months, into the ER. Her fever went up and when I called to check on Lily I could her the barking cough. I asked if they were taking her in because she sounded just like John did a year ago. I've been praying for the past few hours waiting to hear news. Of course these things happen at inconvenient times. My sister is supposed to be in another hospital 2 hours away tomorrow morning at 6:30am for dental surgery on her oldest daughter, Hannah.
They live in Canada, and have been waiting since October for this appointment.
Okay, the spell check isn't working, forgive the typos please.

My Epihany

Can you believe I'm posting just 2 days after I said I wasn't going to be posting often, funny things happen. I'm sitting in front of the computer with my cup of hot tea. I guess that I'm still not Southern enough to really enjoy sweet tea, besides there is just something about holding a mug of hot tea on a cool day.
My baby is tucked in her sling sleeping. I'm wearing a MamaBaby sling today, similar to a MayaWrap but uses brushed cotton. I'm finding that you don't have to adjust the rings as muchas on a Maya Wrap. I need to get a few sold, maybe I'll post what I have on an online auction since I don't have my shopping cart set up for MamaBaby slings, (yet?).
My children are playing chess, or trying to. I just got a Starting Chess kidkit from Usborne. The directions are pretty good, but this is coming from a complete newbie, haha.
As I was cleaning up the sticks in the back yard I was thinking about God and how He reveals sin in our lives. When you look at the yard you can obviously see the big limbs that have fallen, as you get closer to clean them up you notice the smaller branches. As you keep cleaning, the smaller twigs start to bother you, and then the layer of pine straw and leaves needs to be taken care of. So it is with sin in our life, it is the big ones that God takes care of first, then as we are obedient in dealing with those sins, He draws our attention to the smaller things.
The new Pastor at Daniel Memorial Baptist Church had a sermon a few weeks ago that really has me thinking. He said that sometimes we chose a church because it will minister to us, and sometimes God places us in a church so we can minister to them. We've been searching for months for our place and I believe we've found it. The children really love going there, it is the same feeling we got when we found our church in Arizona.

The Writing on the Blog

My silence on the blog has a few reasons behind it. Yes, I was enjoying getting to blog frequently back in the fall but I still had a nagging feeling. My two month retreat from technology gave me a lot of thinking room, well at least when I wasn't helping out getting my parents home ready for winter.
I have unsubscribed from a lot of the blogs that come into my feedburner, I do not need to be tempted to spend anymore time on the computer. Maybe in another season of my life when my children are older. I have kept a few that are on frugal living and coupon shopping.
I have chosen to stay home, so my children shold get the best of me, not just what's left of me.
Homeschooling takes time to do a good job, and I feel I should put more creative energy into it.
My volunteer responsibilities have become more of a burden and I am slowing trying to untangle myself from the weight of responsibilty.
I will pop in occasionally, but this blogpost is my way of freeing myself from self-imposed guilt!