Loving Your Husband Friday- Selflessness

It's Friday...and that means time to focus on our marriage, and things that we love about our husbands.

This last week, Rob decided that we should go on a trip to Michigan's Adventure ( an amusement/water park) in Muskegon. It is something that I had requested to do. Since we can't go on a regular vacation this year, I was hoping for just one day of fun. So we went and took the five oldest kids. One reason I wanted to go to the amusement park was because the last two or three trips that we have made to an amusement park...I have been pregnant. It is no fun to go to an amusement park when you are pregnant. It's hot, you are miserable, and you can't ride anything! But, I've gone and watched Rob and the kids have fun (which I do enjoy). So, Rob informed me on the way to Muskegon, as we were kind of planning out who would ride what when, that this trip was for me, and he wanted me to be able to fit in all of my rides, even if it meant he didn't get to ride anything. Now, this is a big deal, because Rob is a bigtime rolller coaster enthusiast. He stuck to it the whole time we were there. He did get a chance to ride his favorite coaster, but for the most part, he stuck with Elias, while I rode rides with the other kids. Once again....thinking of me above himself! I so greatly appreciated that, knowing that likely the next time we get to an amusement park...I may very well be pregnant again!

Be sure to link up with Shannon, for more Loving Your Husbands Fridays.

At the Well- Family Vision

Good morning all. Today the ladies At the Well are discussing having a Family Vision. I'm not going to have time today to share with you all, our family visions because we are leaving for a fun family trip this morning. However, I plan to share what we have written down for our family visions in a later post! I also want you all to think about the importance of having a vision and goals for your family! Please click on the At the Well link above, and check out what they have to say about it this morning, because they have already taken the words out of my mouth about it. It is so important!

Although I don't have our general family vision handy to include right now, here is an example from my homeschool blog of our family homeschool mission page. This is just an idea of what it means for our family to set goals based on scripture. Click here to see this. I hope you all have a blessed day, and begin to think about how you can put to paper what you want to see happen in your family today! Now....off for a day of family fun!!

Saturday Steps of Faith- The Big Picture

Today is Saturday, a day where with Lisa I choose to ponder what promises of God I am being blessed with! This morning I was looking through one of my mothers bibles (she had three of them that I took after she died). I found a bookmark in the Bible, and I was very blessed by what it had to say. I wanted to share it today.

My life is but a weaving, Between my God and me.

I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily.

Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride,

Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.

Not 'til the loom is silent, And shuttles cease to fly.

Will God unroll the canvas And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful In the skillful weaver's hand,

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned!

`G.C Tullar

I'm praising God today, that although I don't always understand that which he brings into my life, and the lives of others that I love....I will someday! When I meet my savior face to face, I will have a full understanding of it all, and will see how God's plans and purposes in our lives were perfect and without fault! What a wonderful day that will be, to see the big picture the way our Lord does. He is faithful, His timing is perfect, and He is the skillful weaver, who brings all things about for his glory and our good! Praise the Lord!

Loving Your Husband Friday- Putting Me Above Himself!

Today is Friday...which means focusing on our hubbys and what we love about them. I'm thanking the Lord today for a husband who stayed home with all seven of my kids for two whole days, while I went with my Dad to Dayton. The trip meant a lot to me, and he didn't even flinch about allowing me to go. He took good care of the kids while I was gone, and that even including getting them to church on time Sunday morning (even though the power went out). I knew it was going to be rough on him, but he was thinking more about me, and not about himself! I praise the Lord for a husband who is not only capable of taking care of our children when I need to be gone, but for a husband who cares enough about me to allow me to be gone when it is needed! He's a caring husband, and a great daddy! All 7 of them were alive and even dressed when I got home :-)!!

Join Shannon at The Peer Review for more focus on our husbands today!

Thousand Words Thursday

I like to go back to the oldies for the Thousand Word Thursdays, because between here and Facebook, I usually share my newer pictures with everyone. The other day as I was looking for a different picture...I came across this picture...I had almost forgotten how little our Lily was.
This was our Lillian when she was born...five weeks early. She was 5 pounds and 1 ounce. The one on the left is Audrey's baby doll!
She looked so much like a doll when she was a baby. My mom used to call her my "little dolly"
Here she is today.....a bigger little girl. She will be two in early October...hard to imagine. She's still rather small and petite! But, there's nothing small or petite about her personality!!

Join Cheaper Than Therapy for more Thousand Words Thursday

Thinking Healthy Thursdays- How much?

Hi all. If any of you follow my homeschool blog, you know that I am attempting to lose weight, and get healthy. So, I like to follow up my Weight Loss Wednesday over there, with Thinking Healthy Thursdays here. I think being healthy is important. We as Christians know that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, and from a purely logical perspective, if we are taking good care of ourselves, we can accomplish much more for the Kingdom. So, I'm attempting to pass along anything that I learn on my journey to help my entire family become healthy. These might sometimes be tips on general health and weight loss or fitness, but I may also pass along anything that I find that has anything to do with our health! I would also love for anyone to pass anything they have learned along to me! So, please feel free to share anything having to do with health for adults or children!

This week I've been working on a new game plan for my family in eating and drinking. I discussed the first week how we should be drinking lots of water. Well, I realized that hubby and my kids are not drinking as much water as they should be. So, in my quest to keep everyone eating right, and drinking the water that they should, I did some research on daily calorie needs, and daily water needs for my children. What I found out from my family doctor was that a 9-13 year old needs about 1800 calories a day (this can rise depending on activity level). A child between 4-8 around 1200 calories, and the littlest ones 1-3 need only 1000 calories a day. This gives me a good starting point for them of how to help my young ones who tend to want to eat things just because they taste good even though they are not hungry...learn to balance their eating. So, ideally we should be eating only healthy foods that would be lower in calories anyhow. But for the times we don't...we can look at serving sizes, and keep our eating reigned in to how many calories we actually need. For my older ones, they can earn more calories with more activities! This is kind of how my doctor does things with his kids.

Now, for water, I just looked on the internet. I discovered that the general rule of thumb is 1 quart of water per 50 pounds. Again, this is baseline, and more might be required for greater activity level. So, for my family that translates into between 3-4 quarts a day for hubby and I ( a tad more for him), which I fill up my 4 quart container and try to finish it every day. For my 11 year old, 2 quarts a day. For my 9 year old, 1 1/2 quarts a day. My 8 year old, 1 quart a day. My 5 year old, also about 1 quart (he's small for his age...she's big for her age!). My 3 year old needs about 1/2 quart a day and I don't worry much about the baby, she drinks 32 ounces a day with her bottles! Again, more is requred for more activity, especially on hot days, but this should be the minimum amount every day for each of them. So, my plan for them is to go out and get them each a container that will hold the right amount of water for them, and they can each make sure that they are getting the right amount every day when that container is empty!

So, that is my new health knowledge for the week, I hope it was helpful to someone out there. I will also give a plug for www.sparkpeople.com. If you are thinking about trying to lose weight, or just stay healthy and fit, I just joined this yesterday, and so far, I am pretty impressed with it. There are different groups you can join for encouragement, and it helps you set goals, and keep track of stuff. Pretty neat.

Happy Health!

Thankful Thursday

I decided to join Truth 4 the Journey for Thankful Thursday today. The key is to write 5 things that you are thankful for.

1. I'm thankful for the forgiveness that God so graciously gives me on a daily basis.

2. I'm thankful for the delicious veggies that our pastor's wife passed on to me from their garden, and the fellowship of believers.

3. I'm thankful for the fact that my dear friend who has been fighting for life in the last few weeks, appears to be showing some improvements.

4. I'm thankful for God's Word, that gives comfort when needed!

5. I'm thankful for my 7 children, and how much they enjoy life and each other.

These are just five things that I have been thankful for in the past week. Head over to Truth 4 the Journey, to see more things to be thankful for!