New Blog....Again!!

Hello everyone!  I know I haven't posted on this blog in a very long time.  Awhile ago I started a new blog on Wordpress, and was going to delete this blog.  I had the other blog for awhile, and then our lives became very crazy.  We had a death in the family, another pregnancy/new baby, and many other happenings, that caused me to stop blogging altogether.  Because of so many changes in our lives in the last year (again), I decided to come back to Blogspot and start a whole new blog from scratch.  The name of the new blog is Twenty Shoes, and I would LOVE any of my previous followers from this blog (and my former Wordpress blog) to join me at the new blog!
I plan to make this new blog all about life in general for our family of now 10!  I hope to keep up with this blog better than my previous one, and I hope that friends and family will find it a great way to keep up with what our family is doing on at least a weekly basis!
So...come on over to www.twentyshoes.blogspot.com, to keep up with what is happening with the Babler Family!

Have a great day...and I hope to talk to you soon!

I Miss my Blogging, and exciting news!

Hi all. I basically was just wanting to pop in and say hi, because my poor blogs have been so horribly neglected ever since the school year started! The big excitement around here has been that we are very close to opening up our own official photography business. This has been entirely a God thing, and we feel very blessed (and sometimes terrified), that He has brought this opportunity into our lives.

We have been selling scripture prints, and are finally preparing to expand into a family photography business as well! We have set up a Facebook fan page, and have acquired a smugmug account, which I am excited about. You can find that here: http://blessingsphotography.smugmug.com/.

I really hope that I find the time to get back into some of my blogging, as I still enjoy doing it very much. I hope that all my friends here in blogworld are well, and that God is remaining in the center of all of your lives! I am thankful for all of you, and I thank you also for all the prayers for my Dad, as he is doing really well!!

Updates, a new look, and At The Well

Good Monday morning to all my blogging friends. I know that I have neglected my blogs horribly, but I wanted to pop in a give an update on what our family has been up to, and show off my new look for the season :-).

I have been very busy in recent weeks. Some of you know that I aspire to have our own family photography business. I would ideally love to do family photography (taking pictures of families, babies, seniors etc.), but I am not quite ready yet to venture out into that realm yet. A little more practice perhaps, and a portfolio will help. If anyone who's a local friend of mine would like to let me practice on your family and include the pictures in my portfolio, I would be happy to do that, and you could only pay for prints that you would like to have.

Although I am not ready to branch out that far yet, we have started our own small business on Etsy. I have taken many of the pictures that we have and turned them into scripture prints! I've really enjoyed doing this, and now we have started our own little business, that I hope will supplement our income, but also be a blessing to others while spreading the Word of God! If you want to check it out you can find it here.

This is exciting, but there are many other things going on in our lives too. Audrey has been practicing twice a week now for her role as a little mouse in the Nutcracker. She has been in the clouds with excitement over this. She is such a little performer, and social butterfly. We are looking forward to seeing her perform on December 11th and 12th. Of course I have volunteered to be a chaperone for long rehearsals, and that is fun!

Our family has also been going through a spiritual revival of sorts here in recent weeks. We are purging things from our lives that are not profitable, or not honoring to God. We are getting back to more Bible Study, and we are even changing our homeschool curriculum to fit these goals. It's really going back to our original goals for our family, that we seem to have wandered away from amidst all the trials in our lives over the past couple of years. We are glad to be getting back to the old paths. I will talk more about this on my homeschool blog, along with sharing more about our new curriculum, and what I'm learning.

We enjoyed a different kind of Halloween this year. We have never celebrated Halloween, but this year we decided to take the kids out during trick or treat time, not dressed up, and collect canned goods for our local food pantry. It was a blessed time, and a way for us to use a day that is characterized by things of darkness, and bring some light to it!

So, those are some things going on in our family. I really want to do a Monday post on At The Well, as they are discussing hospitality today, which I think is important. I am out of time for today, but let me just say....I often feel like I can't be hospitable because of the state of my house, and my somewhat anti-social husband. But, I believe in it, and it is something Rob and I both hope to change in the future! Have a read by clicking on At the Well. It's a great article, and I hope you all do a better job of this then our family does!

Have a great day!

Check out my new blog..oh..and apologies!

Hello to everyone! I know I have been less than diligent in my blog posting lately. Life around here has been quite crazy with catching up. After being down in Indianapolis for a week, and really still getting used to our school year to begin with...I have neglected my poor blogs. I doubt anyone has been pining away for me..but I still thought I should apologize. Priorities often have to be made, and sometimes the things we enjoy the most get put at the bottom of the list. As things are starting to settle down a bit, I am again attempting to start posting regularly on my blogs.

I started up a new blog yesterday for the other thing that I really enjoy doing...photography. I am working to learn to get better at it, and I would even love to be able to some day make some money doing it. But, until that time I wanted to have a place to share what I am learning, and the pics that I feel are the better ones that I have either taken myself, or the ones that Rob has taken (he also enjoys photography), that I have fixed up! If you are at all interested in photography and can give me any feedback, I would love for you to check it out! Or....if you just like to see pictures, mainly of cute children and nature...than please head over and follow me! It can be found here: http://elizphotos.blogspot.com/.

I have been learning many things from the Lord in recent months that I look forward to sharing again on my blogs, and of course, my children are always doing things that are worth bragging (I mean sharing :-)) about!

You will notice if you visit this blog, that there are some issues with my sidebar, that are kind of...annoying. A very kind brother in the Lord who knows WAY more about computer stuff then I do, is trying to help me fix it, and hopefully that will be resolved. If not, I hope that you would continue to visit me, simply for content and not be concerned about how it looks!

I will be talking to you all again real soon! Blessings in the Lord today!

Elizabeth

Family Vision

On Monday for At the Well....there was discussion about Family Visions. Although at the time I didn't have time to put down what our family visions are.. I wanted to come back and take the time to do that. If you missed the original post, it was here. Here is a statement page that we have developed that contains the vision for our family.

Family Mission

To Serve Him

Bible

Prayer

Loving each other (kind, edifying, treating each other as most importatntly)

Loving others (volunteering, ministering, evangelizing)

Educated (knowledgable and critical)

Exhibiting Christian conduct In life

Study and meditate on the Word of God daily, both individually, and corporately.

Educate our children in the ways of God and in

The Mission of the Babler family is as follows:

1) Authority:

Love God with all our heart

Prayer and Bible study

Live within the Biblical structure of the family

2) Relationships:

Love one another

Serve one another

Encourage one another

Serve others

3) Possessions:

Thankful

Content

Generous

Responsible

4) Work:

Diligent

Take initiative

Cooperative

Take responsibility

5) Attitudes

Humble – thinking of others before ourselves (actions – even what we wear,

Joyful

Peaceable

Patient

Gracious

6) Choices

Do right

Ask before acting

Exercise self-control

Tell the truth

Again, I highly recommend sitting down together and thinking about what your goals and "visions" are for your family. This will help you when you have even minor decisions to make about your family. Does it fit into your plan for your family, or will it detract? Will it help to facilitate your vision, or bring you farther away from it. I've always liked the saying..."if you aim at nothing, your bound to hit it." In these days, we need to be clear about what we seek to accomplish for God with our families. We cannot afford to aim at nothing! I hope this will somehow help someone pin down what their family vision is.

4th of July Picture!

I said in my Friend Makin' Monday post that I would put up some of my favorite pictures of 4th of July's. This one is a family classic, of my son (the cool blond on the right) and my nephew, hanging out waiting for the fireworks to start!!

Cancer organization- Check it out and Pray!

Hi all. I wanted to pass along a post from a blog that I saw this evening. Please read it and consider prayer for this organization and the people they serve. Cancer is such a life altering disease, and it comes with so much suffering. My dad has been doing pretty well. With 6 weeks of chemo and 3 days of radiation, he's still hanging in there. He has not been sick so far, and his energy level is still mostly up. So that has been a blessing. After the 5 weeks of radiation are complete, then he will wait two weeks before getting an MRI. The MRI will tell us whether or not they can attempt to go in and take the cancer out.
This organization is doing a wonderful service for those who are suffering physically, financially, and spiritually in this awful fight that they are thrust into! Not everyone does so well in this fight as my dad has. I am completely convinced that his doing so well is because he has so many people praying for him. So, check out the site, and take a few moments to pray! Thanks all!

Busy day and Menu Plans

Hi all. I was too busy today to do any formal posting, and now I'm just plain too tired!! Today my inlaws took my three oldest boys to Chicago, and I'm feeling so thankful to have them back safe and sound tonight. It's amazing how much I can worry about them when they are away from me in a big city like that. I really had to stop several times today and pray....Lord I'm trusting you. But now they are home, and I was relieved to have them back, and the little ones were so glad to see them!! My informal menu plan for the week looks like this:

• Monday-leftovers
• Tuesday-cabbage casserole (we never ate it last week)
• Wednesday-chicken nuggets and french fries (frozen....I know, not terribly healthy)
• Thursday-homeade Ziti
• Friday-family get together
• Saturday-same as Friday

I hope to do my Tackling the Tough Spots tomorrow, but we'll see. I've got a big job to do. I'm working on the kids' books. This may not leave me with time to actually post it. I will get to it eventually.

Now, my tired brain is giving up on me. I wish everyone a great night, and tomorrow is another day of radiation for my dad, and major house projects for us! Praise the Lord for my family all together again tonight.

My Favorite Family Pic of the Week!

Daddy's Little Girl!!

At the end of every week, I like to take the time to look over all the pictures that I took during the week, and decide which one is my favorite. Then, I like to share it with all of you out there. This is my hubby with our middle girl....Lily! She's always happy when she's sitting with her Daddy! Also, notice the crayon markings on the wall........life with toddlers. Hope you enjoy the picture as much as I do.

My dream is coming true!!

Ok, I've had this dream ever since I was a little girl! Well, I've actually had two dreams. The first was to someday have a horse. No horse yet, just a dog who's almost as big as a horse! The next dream was to have a piano. You know a real wooden upright piano. Your next question might be.......why do you dream of having a piano, when you've never known how to play? That's a good question, and I'm going to disappoint you because I don't really have a good answer for that. I've always wanted to learn to play, but have never had the opportunity.
My children, however, have been learning to play. My mother-in-law has been kind enough to teach them for free. We require learning to play in our house. They have to learn well enough to play in church, before they can move onto another instrument. But, because we only have a keyboard, and not a real piano, it makes their practicing difficult. Pianos are expensive. My oldest two are actually getting pretty good, by my, nonpianoplaying standards anyway! So, the other day, my husband suprised me and told me that someone locally was selling an upright piano for 100 dollars!! Needless to say, I was excited.

We went last night to see it, and it was everything I hoped for. A beautiful wooden upright piano. Immediately, thoughts of our family sitting around the piano and singing Christmas carols came flashing in my mind. How thrilling. Maybe, just maybe, I'll even have a chance to learn to play it. We wrote a check, and headed home.

Because the piano is in her basement, we have to have it professionally moved. Ah, the bubble bursts a little bit. The quote for moving the piano...........$275.00. Yes, that's right, almost 3 times what we are paying for the piano. Bluck!! My wonderful husband came to my rescue, and inflated my dream right back up by saying....."don't worry we will still buy it, we have all the tax return money." My prince! So tomorrow at noon, my dream will be walking in the door, with the movers, and going properly into my school room, where it will be properly banged on by little fingers, and beautifully played by bigger fingers. And, maybe, just maybe, I will learn to play it, and lead my little (or....big) family in a round of Christmas Carols............ Praise God that this little (or...big) girls dreams could come true!
Next.............................the horse I've always dreamed of...........or.........not!! :-)

A half hour in the life of the funniest person on Earth!

My hilarious little girl......keep reading to the end for the whole story!!!

Notice the pot lid!! In the laundry room!

Gotta put the socks on!

Hitting Jake with the blanket

Taking the cans out and stakcing them.

Getting into the lazy susan

The last few nights, I have been staying up really late at night. It's summer, and Rob is home, so we tend to be night owls. We have watched a couple of the late night shows here recently. You know what I mean, those guys who come out and tell a bunch of scripted jokes, and think they are hilarious. Well, I have laughed at a couple of things that they have said, but nothing, and noone, compares to the hilariousness (if that is a word) of...........Lillian!

I don't know about anyone else, but 18-24 month olds, are some of my favorite people on Earth. They are just so short, and so funny and cute! I have always adored this phase, and am now enjoying it for the 6th time. However, our Lily is an especially funny little girl. With her blond ringlet curls, and her short, petite stature, and the cute way she immitates words, she always has me laughing. She is also quite goofy. She's alot like her older brother Riley that way. The class clown types.

Today, as I was trying to put together our taco salad for supper, Rob was outside with the older kids, which meant that Lily was hanging out near me. I decided to do a mini documentary on what Lily would do during the time I got dinner ready. Of course this made it take a little longer for supper, but everyone was preoccupied, so noone minded, and my project was priceless. These pictures were the product of my documentary. She started out in the lazy susan. I caught her actually climbing into it (as you can see). She takes out several cans and puts them over on the other side of the refrigerator, she makes a small tower, and then goes back for more cans. She gets sidetracked from that and starts pulling pans and lids out from the cabinet. You'll see later, I saw a lid in the laundry room (which is next to the kitchen). She grabs a baby blanket out of the laundry room, and proceeds to whack poor Jake with it (the dog). She then remembers.....oh....my tower. She goes back to restack her cans! She goes back and forth between the cans and the lazy susan several times, and at one point finds a piece of a wrapper, that she she proceeds to put in the garbage. She goes back to her cans, and remembers her wrapper piece. This requires going back to the garbage to retreive her wrapper.

Her final project before I was finished with dinner, was when i found her back in the laundry room with the pot lid, putting someones socks on her feet. She will proceed to wear this sock hanging down way off her foot, for nearly an hour!

There isn't a comedian out there that is as entertaining as my 19 month old. I also don't believe that there is an adult living on this Earth that has as much energy as she does. This is often challenging. Of course, after I made supper, there were cans to pick up, socks to put back in the basket, a wrapper to reput in the garbage, and the pots and pans to put back in the cabinet. Lots of work, very tiring. A half an hour enjoying the humor of my toddler..........priceless!

The Cancer...

I've wanted to blog about this, well, since I started my blog a little over a week ago, but I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. So, here goes. Tomorrow I will be doing something that I have done every Wednesday for five weeks now........taking my dad to his chemo treatment.

This is not a fun thing to do. Let me start this by telling the whole story. To tell the whole story I feel compelled to go back to what I feel is the beginning. Back in March of 2008 my mom came on the day after my daughters birthday, to take her to go get her 4 year old pictures taken. She came, and they went, had a good time, and mom brought Audrey back to the house. We stood and chatted for awhile, and then mom left and I waved to her out the door.....little did I know this would be the last time I would ever see her on this earth! Later in the evening, we received a phone call from a paramedic that was at my parents' home. My mom was dead...just like that. I will spare all the horrible details, but she had a massive stroke, and was gone before my dad could even figure out what was going on. Needless to say, this was a major shock. My dad was a wreck for a time (that is really an understatement), but he is a man of strong faith, much like my mom was a woman of strong faith. We were trusting the Lord. Over the course of the last year, he was doing pretty well. Learning how to take care of himself, and the house, and even finding time for the grandkids.
Fast forward to March of 2009. Shortly before the one year anniversary of my mom's death, dad fell ill (which was unusual for dad). After a few days his general sick feelings began to go away, but he also had some strange symptoms. He had a little bit of abdominal pain, and his body was itchy, even though he had no rash. There were some other bizarre symptoms as well. But because he was feeling a little better, the doctor gave him some antacid type medicine, and told him to call if anything felt worse. Well, the following Saturday night, dad came to our house for supper. Rob and I could tell right away that he looked a little yellow, especially the whites of his eyes. So, I had him call the doctor back, and I took him to the emergency room.....on the anniversary of mom's death, he was told he had cancer of the pancreas. Wow. We were trusting the Lord!
It was believed to be only a small tumor, and they thought they could easily take it out. So, dad was preparing for a major surgery to take out part of his pancreas, and part of his intestines, and his gallbladder, and part of his stomach. All to get the cancer out, and make sure all of it was out. The surgeon sounded very promising about how easily this could be done. We were trusting the Lord. He went in for surgery as my brother and our spouses, and some good family friends of ours waited for the news....we got it all. But, when the surgeon finally did come out 3 hours later, it wasn't what we expected. They could not take the tumor out. The tumor had infiltrated a major vein called the portal vein, and it was in nearby lymph nodes. The surgeon told us that dad would likely have months, and there was nothing they would be able to do for him without surgery. We were trusting the Lord.
After a few weeks of recovery from the surgery that he did do (he rerouted some bile ducts and took out the gallbladder to relieve the jaundice), dad finally saw an oncologist. The oncologist was very upfront with him, yet he gave a small glimmer of hope. " I want to try to shrink the tumor off of that vein and try the surgery again", he said. I wasn't sure how this would go over with dad, the idea of another surgery, but he wanted to try it.
So, the prescription......chemo and radiation treatments! Not the words anyone wants to hear. I think the words chemo and radiation rank right up there with the word cancer itself, in words you don't want to hear. But....we were trusting the Lord.
Dad has been through five weeks of chemo now. Because they have him on a low dose, he has been doing really well, with no major symptoms. This has been encouraging. As I go with him to his chemo every week, I see people who are in much worse shape physically than my dad, even though he has one of the most deadly forms of cancer. It makes me feel good, and yet sad that dad may very well deteriorate to that point in the future. Next week he will start radiation, and that is more likely to make him sick than the chemo itself. We are trusting the Lord.
I wanted to tell this story for many reasons. Most importantly for prayer. If you think about it, pray for my dad. Pray for strength for him, and for me. It is not easy to have to take care of him now that my mom is gone. Having my own family to take care of, makes things very difficult sometimes. I will be trading off with my husband to take dad to daily radiation treatments for 5 weeks this summer, and then if he is able to have this surgery again, it will be right before the beginning of next school year. This will be a challenge!
Cancer is such an insidious thing. In my mind...The Cancer, is equal to sin itself. It creeps in slowly and for a time you don't even realize its there, until one day it rears it's ugly head on you, and you come to realize that it is destroying you. Not only is it destroying you, but it is harming your entire family, and everyone that loves you. You can put band-aids on it and try to cover it up for awhile (chemo and radiation), but it is still eating at you, and you have to realize in the end that there is only one thing that can kill the Cancer (or the sin). God is the only thing that can kill the cancer. In the end it will really be up to Him. We can try with our human ways, to hide our sin, to "cure" it, but in the end only reaching out to God will cure us. Much like with Dad's cancer..........I am trusting the Lord!

Life Walk!

Niles Life Walk!!!

Today we had the pleasure of doing the walk for life for our town, Niles. This was sponsored by the Pregnancy Care Center, a pro-life center that helps pregnant women when they don't know where to turn. For the walk, you get sponsors, and we walked from the park, to the abortion clinic downtown. Outside the abortion clinic, we stopped to pray for the women that come to this center, and for the employees. Approximately six babies are killed here every Tuesday, just in our little city! So we prayed together, and then walked back to the park,

The kids enjoyed it, and our church had the most walkers this year. Our family of nine certainly helped with that. Our family has a burden to see abortion come to an end in America, but most importantly, that a revival and a turning of these women to Christ would be the means by which this would happen.

I would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to participate in something like this in their town to do so. Or to give to their local pro-life crisis pregnancy center. Our precious children are worth it, and so are these women who need to know Christ!

Memorial Day

Today is a day of reflection, as we consider, what price has been paid for our freedom. I can't help but think of the ultimate price that was paid for me when Christ died on the cross for my sins. I also think over the many thousands of men that have died for the freedoms that my family enjoys here in America. The freedom to worship, the freedom to speak out on what is important to me (in this blog for example :-)) The freedom to speak out against my government if I don't agree with what they are doing. I praise God that these many men were willing to lay down their lives just for me, much like Christ did. "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." John 15:13. I am priveleged to count the many men and women who have layed down their lives for me as friends.

Today I had a relapse of rejoicing. God chose today to really challenge my ability to rejoice in irritating circumstances. Today we were supposed to go down to my brother's to pick up my dad who had spent the weekend down there. So, we were all working on getting around to go, and my five year old daughter opened the door and went outside to do something with her new friends (the caterpillars). Well, when she opened the door, our dog Jake went out. Now, he has a tendency to do this. He usually runs around the neighborhood, and then comes back in a little bit. So, we waited, and looked a little. No Jake! It was time to leave, and we still couldn't find him. So, it was decided that Rob would stay home and look for Jake further. This really upset me because I didn't want to spend the holiday being seperated! I was upset with Audrey for letting this happen, and I was upset with Jake for running off, and it made me crabby with the kids. So, we drove the hour and a half to my brothers, with me being crabby all the way. Lord, forgive me....I had to say! I was reminded of the post I just wrote on my blog about rejoicing. Didn't the Lord make this day also. While we are remembering the many unselfish men who fought and died for my freedom....I'm crabbing because things didn't go my way. What a sinner I am! By the end of the day we are home together, Jake was found, and I'm grateful to be forgiven and free!!

Sick kids, and a tired mama

Here in Michigan, it is a beautiful Sunday morning! I am sadly missing church today, as my poor little Elias has a fever, and is feeling pretty lousy. Ethan is also not feeling well, and the baby girls are home to not be a burden to the nursery workers!! It was a rough night last night for Rob and I. Elias' fever went quite high (almost 104), and on top of that, Janie was up in the middle of the night. She wanted to eat again, even though she had seemed done at her bottle before bed. Audrey was up and in the bed with me at one point, and was kicking a lot in her sleep! Sigh........I am reminded now of my previous post on rejoicing. I can look at my kids and think about how they keep me up at night, and I wish they would just grow up and leave me alone, or.....I can remember that my children are a blessing, and that they will soon be grown, and won't need their mommy anymore. Wow, that's a sad thought! So, I must choose to be gentle with my kids even in the middle of the night when I am dying to sleep!!

In other news: Our little seedlings are popping up like crazy. I am getting excited about planting them in the garden, and having lots of yummy veggies to enjoy! I will post some new pictures of our seedlings when I can get them put on my computer. Also, my rhododendrons are in full bloom right now, and I'm loving it!! They are so beautiful, and they smell so good. So, even though I am missing church this morning, and I'm really tired, it is still a beautiful day.

Ethan is excited too today, as his new Math curriculum came in the mail yesterday. Yes...my children get excited about new Math curriculum. Yea for Teaching Textbooks....my kids love it!! They even ask to do Math on Saturdays. You gotta love that. We are also eagerly anticipating this last week of school, and then daddy will be home for the summer. Only four more days! More later.......have a blessed Sunday!! This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it!

Rejoicing Part II

Elias brought me these "flowers" from outside.

Well, I'm not sure if we were successful in rejoicing all day today, between the nine of us, I'm sure there was discontent at some points during the day. But, there were certainly some positives to the day for all of us.

Today I took my dad to another appointment with another cancer doctor. The good news is that he has gained a bit more weight (he had lost a lot), and he is handling his chemo very well. It is good to see him almost in a state of normal right now, as I fully realize that this may not always be the case.

The kids, while I was at the appointment with dad, got to spend the day at their other grandparents, and go swimming. It has been a special treat to swim in May. That opportunity does not usually happen until June.

Although it was sad that Rob had to work tonight, we are glad to realize that this will be his last big event in the auditorium, and that the school year ends next Friday. He will soon be home all the time.

I am adding to tonights blog, some pics of the kids and their swimming, and I am hoping to add some more pictures. Counting the blessings tonight. Looking forward to a day at home tomorrow!

My firstborn is 11 today!!

Today is Owen's 11th birthday! Here he is feeding his baby sister. I like this picture of my oldest and my youngest. He's such a good big brother, and he loves the babies!