Suffer the little children

I was reading the verse, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14)

The verse has puzzled me for a while... what does that mean? Suffer the little children? Do children suffer in this verse? Then it hit me! Suffer the children means to "put up with them" or "if they are an inconvienence, deal with it". Many adults don't like children in certain situations (like church, or prayer meetings, or bible studies) because of the interuptions or noise level. I believe that children, if taught how to act in those situations, have much to gain by seeing and hearing the adult conversations.

I was at a point a little while ago where I thought it would be good for me to take my kids to a prayer meeting and let them see the importance of praying as a group. Teach them now, while they are young, and when they are older, maybe they'll have an easier slide into the adult world. I had prepped them ahead of time that it was going to last an hour and they were to sit quietly unless they wanted to pray. I even had them bribed with an ice cream cone if they were good. We went in to join and were told that we could only attend if they didn't make any noise. Well, asking 6 kids not to make ANY noise is like pulling a tooth without Novicaine. The pain I would endure just wouldn't be worth it. So we left. I was dishearted by the whole situation and cried most of the way home.

I can see their point. Who can concentrate on praying when there are rustling noises in the background? Ah, but Jesus gave a command. "Suffer the little children". It's not all about us (adults). In fact, most people become Christians BEFORE the age of 18. Statistics say that the older a person is, the more he is set in his ways, the less likely he is to accept Christ. The government has it right. They get our kids 6 hours each day for 12 to 18 years to instill their values. The kids learn that the earth is over-populated, our planet is in the process of some huge meltdown, evolution is fact, and religion has no place in society.

The church is missing its chance. Some of the greatest champions for the faith are still wearing diapers. Who will win their hearts? Allow these little ones to learn how they should act in adult situations without furrowed brows staring down on them. If they are never challenged to do so, they never have the opportunity to prove themselves. Sure it may cause some inconvienence and be against your inclination, but look what the government can do when they see the value of training our young ones. The results are sitting in Congress right now.

A homemade Christmas...

Well, we did it! My goal this year was to have a completely home-made (or hand-me-down) Christmas and we made it! Our family made it through the entire Christmas season without purchasing one single "store-bought" gift (although Micheal's and Hobby Lobby got their fair share of business from us). Our idea was not born from an urge to be stingy (home-made things are NOT cheap, believe me) but a desire to make something more of Christmas. From the idea that there should be more thought in the gifting than just picking from a list. I enjoyed the challenge (for the most part) and though it was a crazy, busy December, it turned out to be very memorable. Another benefit was creating an attitude of thankfulness in my kids. Since they thinking of and making things for others, they (hopefully) were getting a greater appreciation for the thought that goes into the gifts given to them.

Now, having accomplished a completely "home-made" Christmas, I'm not sure we'll extreeme it again next year, but I do believe bits of this Christmas will find it's way into our future Christmas'. In fact, I'm already thinking of fun gifts for next year... if I can only remember them until then...

Here's some of the gifts...

For the guys in the family, we made Gourmet Candy Bags full of fudge, caramels, the world's best toffee and candied nuts...Yum!

Caleb made me a cedar video shelf to fit next to our new (to us) TV. We had to get rid of our entertainment center since our TV wouldn't fit, but had no place to put all of the videos that were once hidden behind closed doors... Problem solved!! Thanks Caleb!

We made Nathan (and his cousins Levi and Jay) an adorable turtle seat that folds down into a step-stool. We all love it! Caleb knitted a Nathan a hat that matches his Osh Kosh coat, and Seth cut out a wooden truck on the scroll saw for him (we ran out of time to add tires, but he liked it just the same =)

Caleb made wooden shotguns for Noah and Seth complete with sights. All of the boys can handle the scroll saw well, so Daddy just needed to help put it together. I didn't see this project until Christmas day... needless to say, I was very impressed!

Noah, in an attempt to gain control over his brothers, fittingly made them wooden handcuffs. Caleb and Seth are sporting the criminal look while Noah uses his new gun to take advantage of the situation...

Noah made me this very, very cool gardening tool. He found a beat-up metal tool while roaming through the brush near our yard, brought it home and Daddy helped him paint it, bought a handle for it, and voila!! A new garden spade! Awesome creativity Daddy and Noah!

One of my favorite projects was these rag dolls that I made for the girls. I just love them... and so do they (thankfully! that hair took alot of work). I made them each a dress that matches their dolly's dress! Kinda old fashioned, but it's right up my ally!!

My other pet project was to make "ready packs" for each of the kids. They are original backpacks that hold all their goodies so we can just grab and go and be ready for any inconvenience. I stocked each one with a notebook, pen, something to color with, a deck of cards or small game, gloves, bandaids, herbal salve, lip balm, gum and whatever else I could find that may be useful. I am happy to report that the kids REALLY like their ready-packs. I wasn't sure how they would like getting a backpack for Christmas, thankfully, they all love grabbing them when we go places! Yay!! Daddy also installed some hooks to have a place to keep them stocked and ready!

And thanks to my darling husband who took on this Christmas challenge not knowing how much he would be involved in the work. Thanks, honey!

Metro Christmas Party

Every year, Paul's work throws a very nice Christmas party for all of the employees. This year they had it at Harry Carry's in Lombard. The food was incredible, of course. The steaks were so big that I could only eat half of mine, and Paul was too full after eating his to finish mine (that NEVER happens). The main course was followed by Eli's turtle cheesecake and Starbucks coffee. Yum!! There's always room for dessert, right? We had decided in advance that we were going to eat and ditch. We usually stick around for the entertainment (unless the comedian gets crude), but this year, the entertainment of choice was a psychic! That's right, one of those mind reading, fortune telling weirdos. We had contemplated whether or not to even attend, but decided to go ahead anyhow with plans to leave early. I am really glad we went for the dinner. We ended up sitting near some people that have a strong influence on choosing the entertainment. We were able to get to know them a bit better and by having fun in the conversations we showed them that we weren't party poopers, so when the time came to explain the reason for leaving early, they would understand it was because of our beliefs and not a personal attack on those that planned the evening.

After we left, we went to see the movie "Blind Side" and thoroughly enjoyed the entire evening. When Paul went back to work today, he found out that the psychic was a big flop. The president of the company gave the thumbs down during the act and the lady who planned the event ended up crying.... Ah, well, better luck next year =)

Thanksgiving at our house

Thanksgiving was at our house this year. Our family keeps growing... We had one more added this year. Scott and Emilee had a baby girl, Taylor Rose in September. When our family gets together, fun and goofiness is bound to follow... and no, I didn't ask anyone to make these goofy faces for the camera. It just comes naturally in our family :)

Thanksgiving meals are always dee-lish, but this year was kinda special... We ate my sister's "pet" turkey. It wasn't supposed to be a pet, but Dawn, the ol' softie, can't help but get attached to her animals (even if she is raising it for our Thanksgiving dinner). She handed it (along with 2 others) over to Paul and I about a month ago to do the "dirty work". It was huge! Around 27 pounds when all was said and done. Though Paul and I (heartless as we are) have butchered poultry before, we tend to not like eating them right away with the smells and images still lingering in our memory, thus the reason we did it a month before. I have to say.... It was totally yummy!! You go Dawn! Don't know what you fed the thing, but it was tasty! We make a great team... You feed 'em, we... well, you know... May they digest in peace.

Fall Pictures

My sweet sister called me up a few weeks ago and said, "let's go take some pictures of your kids". Gotta love her. She sent me scrambling for the next hour trying to get some clean clothes for them to wear that all "sort of" matched. I grabbed what I could and jumped in the car. She picked up Taco Bell for us and met us at the park. Fall is my favorite time for family pictures. The colored leaves make the perfect backdrop... And I'm thinkin' that I just might have 6 of the cutest kids ever... Though, I am a bit bias.

For real???

Paul and the three older boys headed about 3 hours south to a Father/Son camp. Hopefully, they are having a lot of fun despite the two days of down-pouring...

It has been funny that everytime they leave to go camping and just the girls are left to fend for themselves, something happens. Last spring, our property flooded out and 30 of our chickens drown and our fences were washed down, so we spent the week fixing and cleaning. A year ago, when they were at last year's Father/Son camp, our well went out and we had to haul water from other houses to even flush the toilets.... So, this time, I was actually expecting something...

Well, I wasn't disappointed. For the past 2 weeks or so, our mini-van has been running with the service engine light on. It would sputter every time I started it, but after driving for 15 seconds or so, it would run normal. Let me reiterate, it was running like that for over 2 WEEKS. This is nothing new. But, hey, my car decided to wait until my dear husband was gone to give me trouble. Yesterday, the "low coolant" light came on. Fine, I can handle that. I found an automotive store and they fixed me up with the right stuff and even filled it for me. They tried to check why the service engine light was on, but my car wouldn't talk to his little machine for some reason. So, today, the girls and I had a tea party to attend in Dwight (about an hour south). I think I may have been asking for trouble by driving that far, but, again, it's been running this way for a while... Needless to say, I got about 15 miles from my friend's house on I-55 and it died. It was actually still running, but the gas pedal wouldn't work anymore, so it just coasted to a stop on the side of the highway. I grabbed my cell to call someone, and because I had spent the last 2 nights at a friend's house, I had forgot to charge it. It was kind of laughing as it flashed "low battery" at me. I quickly called a friend and told her the situation in about 15 seconds before it went dead. In that time, she managed to get enough info to borrow a van and head out to pick me up. She had to borrow a van because, silly me, I agreed to carpool a different friend's 4 daughters along with my 3 kids. My mini-van was packed to capacity, so we needed a large vehicle to take us anywhere... I managed to revive my phone long enough to scare my dad out of his wits and leave him wondering what kind of danger I was in.

Ok, so, we did make it to the tea party. A tow-truck was called and my van is sitting at a service station in Dwight. I took every scrap of personal information out of it in case someone wanted to steal my identity, but completely forgot my garage door opener. Duh. We hitched a ride home (minus the friend's 4 daughters) and will NOT be going anywhere until my hubby gets home.

Metro Open House

We went to Paul's work on Saturday for their annual Open House. The have it every October for the employees to show thier family and friends thier workplace. They do several things throughout the year to show appreciation to their workers. The kids love going to the Open House. It is heavily geared for the kids fun. This year was no different. The kids get their faces painted, get goodie-bags, jump in a big jumpy thing, play games, and we ALL play BINGO with lots of fun prizes for everyone.

Gracie managed to conquer her fear of clowns and let Skiddles paint her face this year. Ellie, on the other hand, still has glitter stuck in her hair from all of the decoration on her face. I tried to talk her into getting a pretty princess thing on her face to match her outfit, but after seeing Noah get his tiger, she was convinced that "the more paint, the better". At least it was a pink tiger...

We made it through teething!

See this expression? That is the continual look Nathan has given me for the past week. It's been intersperced with a crabby, cranky, "I'm in pain" sort of whine. I don't know if he's even cracked a smile once...

I have had five kids all go through teething before him without so much as a flinch. I ususally knew they were popping teeth because they had a shiny new one poking through their gums. Nathan has been higher maintainance from birth and is not dissappointing me now. (Alright, Jenny, he's not NEARLY as high maintainance as your baby boy.... Now HE'S high maintainance...) But for my family, Nathan wins the medal. Nathan has obliged all of the Pediatric manuels by covering every possible symptom of teething... fever, slobbering, runny nose, crabby, sleeplessness, lack of appetite, crying, whining, messy diapers and swollen, black and blue gums. That's right, people, BLACK AND BLUE! No wonder he's been so cranky. The poor guy was in PAIN! After a few days of fever and incessant crying, I spotted his gums while changing him. It looked like half of a blueish marble stuck on his gums. It was huge. After asking my ever reliable sister and all natural friend what it could be, (Both were perplexed and attributed it to teething), I called my dentist. The receptionist hadn't heard of it, but suggested that I wait it out and if it is still there in DECEMBER??!! (when we have our cleanings scheduled) then I should bring him in to have it looked at. If I didn't like her so much, I'd tell how dumb that idea was... Next, called the pediatrician. (I just wanted to know if it was normal and not some symptom of step, or something that qualifies for the ER). They asked if he's had other symptoms of teething. Yep, fever, nasty diapers, lack of sleeping, ect. "Probably teething, then." Sure, but can't those be symptoms of life threatening illnesses, too??

Relief finally came yesterday when the little white notches of his first molar were seen through the little guys sore gums!! Hip, hip, hooray! ...The bad news is, there is a repeat starting on the other side...

Civil War Days

On Saturday, we went to a Civil War Re-enactment at Dollinger's Farm. It was the kind of fun hands-on homeschooling that we like best. We haven't studied the Civil War yet, so everything was new to the kids. Actually, it was new to Paul and I, too. For all that I learned in school, I really don't remember alot of it. Maybe because it wasn't very interesting at the time, maybe because it was a little blurp in my history book, maybe because I just used my short term memory to pass the tests... It seems like the public school system makes memorizing names and dates the important part (which it is important), but misses giving children a grasp on the whole picture. The why's and the how's. The deeper meanings of war... What would make people give their lives to free slave men? There was a broader ideal of how our Creator endowed each person, regardless of skin color, with inalienable rights. People fought a war and gave their lives while standing on this truth... "There is no greater love than this, that a man lay his life down for his friend." Now, that's some deep schooling.

The boys really enjoyed watching the battle which ended that day's fighting with a truce between the Confederates and the Yanks. In fact, they liked it so much, they went again today to watch the continuation of the battle.

One of Paul's co-workers played an artillery soldier in the re-enactment. We got a quick tour of the Yankee camp and got to check out this working cannon that is an original from the Civil War.

Nathan's started walking (and climbing some more)

My little baby boy started walking last week! I love when they first start walking and they have their little fists straight up in the air trying to keep their balance. He's so proud of himself! And having a houseful to cheer him on doesn't hurt his ego either...

He's loving to flush the toilet and unroll the toilet paper and he's getting himself into some curious places...

I did NOT put him here, he opened the drawer and climbed in himself.

Nathan is Gracie's partner-in-crime...

Speaking of Gracie, my sweet little angel-faced baby girl... she's been mrs. sticky-fingers lately when it comes to candy. I have a stash of candy in my dresser drawer that is probably 2 years old and Gracie has found it. A few days ago, I found her with about 6 fun-dips stuck under her pillow with a pair of scissors to open them at a later time. I put them back and explained to her in my mommy voice that it was not OK to take things that aren't hers and told her not to do it again. "OK, mommy"- famous last words... and so at naptime the next day, as I came up to tuck her in, she was looking VERY guilty. Yep, the same candy was stuck under her pillow again along with the same pair of scissors. I did the same routine and tried to convince her that it was not in her best interest to take things from other people. Did you ever try to reason with a 3-year-old? In her mind, I'm sure it went something like this... "if I can just endure mommy's speech for a bit longer, I can sneak back into her room and grab them and maybe I can just be a little faster about getting them open this time..."

So, the third offense was when she was supposed to be sitting on her bed for her bad attitude and refusal to apologize to her friend. She obviously snuck out of bed and made it back, but the wrappers were still unopened. By now, most parents would just throw the candy away to be sure she can't get them again, but I know by now after 4 kids who were all this age, that it would be defeating my purpose (to train her to obey and use her self-control). One thing that I have learned during parenting is that the "cat" has to be smarter than the "mouse" (or at least more creative). So, I set my mousetraps. Yeah, that's right REAL mousetraps... strategically set up around the candy in the drawer. It wasn't so much to hurt her, but just scare her from going in the drawer. I was actually hoping it wouldn't catch her fingers, but things don't always work as I planned. In fact, the next morning Caleb was the one to find the candy under her pillow once again. I was dumbfounded! How did she get the candy?? I checked the drawer and both of the mousetraps were still set! I couldn't believe she'd be that careful just to get candy that she wasn't even going to open... I can't even set the things without them going off on my own fingers... I wanted to see how she did it, so I had her put the candy back herself just to see, and she did. She reached right over the traps as if they weren't there and put the candy back!!

For the past week and all through this incident, Grace has had a progressively bad (and getting worse) attitude. This was not really a candy issue, but a "are you really going to make me obey you?" attitude and it manifested itself in taking the candy. I believe I have found the solution. She hasn't touched the candy for the last day and a half and has a GREAT attitude!! I will try to explain in a future blog, but for now, I have to cook dinner :) ta, ta, for now!!