Good Morning! Once again, it has been a while. I'm not really sure why I don't feel I have time to blog as much since we moved. Its not like we homeschool, have four kids, and lots going on or anything. Anyways, I really, really want to get back into the weekly (or more) blogging thing so we will see how that goes. Its one of my Spring Resolutions. Ever heard of that? Me either. I think I may have just started something....
Its Sunday morning here. I was up, putting together my meal for our church potluck today and was about to go take a shower when Liam came up and told me he threw up in the night. Liam is a little different in that he will not wake me up when he gets sick in the night. Just ask my family from Christmas time. He sometimes will get sick in his bed and sleep in it! Yuck! Anyways, he got sick in the night, but said he was feeling better. But just a little while later he was throwing up again. So Liam, Lexi and I are home from church this morning. I will admit I was quite disappointed to not be in church this morning. I love our church family and I love going. But Liam needs to rest. So I am blogging instead. ;-)
Since its been a while, lets update on all the family.
Liam, our big 6 1/2 year old is doing well. He still loves school, although it is getting to be a bit more of a battle as we are nearing the end of the school year. It also doesn't help that I think Spring finally decided last week to show up and we have had some awesome weather. The high 50's and low 60's! Perfect! So he is wanting to play outside every chance he gets. He has been riding his bike up and down the street (well, on the sidewalk), and playing with the neighbor kids. There are quite a few kids on our street that are all our kids' ages, so that is neat.
Last month, Matt took Liam to his first pro hockey game. They went with some people from church. Liam LOVED it! He still talks about it. It was a special time with him and Matt. I know Matt loved it too.
Liam has developed a love for reading (that's my boy!) and is excited that he now reads "chapter books." He is currently into the Boxcar Children books. My mom got him several and he is reading them all the time. He also loves reading his monthly magazine, Highlights. I often will find him reading to Leila or Libby. He also loves to read his Bible. All on his own he will spend time most every day reading some of it. Makes my heart happy to see that. We really do see the change in him since he accepted Christ as his Saviour. Yes, he still disobeys and fights with his sisters and such, but there is definitely a change in him and I am so thankful to see that! Even his prayers have gotten deeper and more like a conversation with God than just repeating what he hears Mommy and Daddy say. I can see such a tender spirit in him and pray that never goes away!
Leila is her ever bubbly self. She still is constantly moving, can - hardly sit still for more than five minutes. She still runs, skips, or hops most anywhere she goes. She like school okay. But it is a daily battle with her. She sort of reminds me of me. She doesn't seem to have the same desire to learn like Liam does. She does, however, love art and is very good at coloring and cutting and such. I am often surprised by how well she colors things. Its funny to see the difference in the personalities of your kids. Liam couldn't care less about coloring, but loves arithmetic and science and reading. Leila, on the other hand, hates writing and numbers, but loves the artsy stuff. She is able to read small, three letter words and some two-vowel words and does a good job of it. I sit there, listening to her read and think, "I can't believe my Leila-girl is reading!" Time is going by very fast!
Leila loves to help me out and, as always, is usually not too far from me. She wants to do whatever I am doing. Although while I am doing it she often will say, "I don't want to be a mommy when I grow up because I do NOT want to do that." She usually says it when I am switching laundry or putting something in the oven. I tell her, "Sorry, babe, but no matter if you are a mommy or not, you are going to have to have clean clothes and eat food!"
Leila has been bringing up salvation a bit more lately. Whenever the kids bring it up, we talk about it, and then we just tell them that when they are ready to ask Jesus as their Saviour, to come to Mommy or Daddy. We did that with Liam for probably over a year until he was truly ready. The last thing Matt and I want is to pressure them into a decision or give them a false idea of their salvation. It has to be their decision. We want the Holy Spirit to do the work. He doesn't need us to do His job. So we are just praying for Leila and talking with her about it all for now.
Libby. Oh, my Libby-cakes. She is a busy little girl. Thankfully, we haven't had a marker-on-wall incident in about a month. But she still gets into enough mischief. She's always busy doing something, but still follows me around everywhere. She is talking in a lot less gibberish and I can understand most everything she says now (although not everyone else can...). She loves her Princess dolls. She has four that she always wants with her - her Ariel (which actually sounds more like Eeyore when she says it), her Belle, her Princess (which is Snow White), and her Mommy Princess (which is Sleeping Beauty). Took me a while to figure out when she would say that she "wanted her mommy" that she was not talking about me, but her Mommy Princess. ;-)
Due to the bedroom situation in this house, all three of the older kids are sharing a room. And for the first several months of us living here she would wake the other two up each morning by turning on the light. Libby is the early riser of the family, where as Liam and Leila sleep in much longer if not disturbed. Well, I finally figured out (I'm kinda dense sometimes) that I just needed to rearrange the furniture in a way where she can't reach the light. Problem solved! Although now we have another
problem - its called the sun. We are quite a bit farther North here than we were in NB, and now that it is spring, we see the sun much more. As of now, it gets light around 6:30ish and is still light until about 9:15 ish. And its only April. I asked someone in the church and she said that come mid-summer, it will still be light at 10:45 p.m. What? I knew this would be the case, but was somehow hoping it would be different. Having it light that late isn't my most favorite thing. The kids seem to have a harder time going to sleep and Libby wakes up way earlier when it is like that. So, after some great advice, I got some black garbage bags and taped them to the windows in the kids' room and that has made a HUGE difference! Woohoo!
Libby also loves to sit with Leila and watch her school with her. I don't mind this as long as they aren't goofing around. Yesterday Libby asked me if she could watch Leila's school. I told her no, Leila wasn't watching it then. So then Libby said, "But I'm Leila Claire!" She spent the next few minutes trying to convince me that she was Leila so she could watch school. Ha! Cute!
Our little Lexi-bug is busy, busy, busy as well! Now that she can walk there is no stopping her. Her current favorite toys are: the broom, my tupperware, books, toilet paper, Libby's potty seat, and the potty brush. Oh, and my baking supplies, as usual. I think I spend a good half of my day getting her out of something she shouldn't be in. I know this is common for this age, but she is WAY busier than any of the others. I really think she thinks she is older than she is. She wants to do everything the others do. And gets very frustrated when she can't do it. She has learned the trick of throwing herself on the floor crying when she doesn't get her way. Ya, that doesn't work for us.
She is still a Daddy's girl and loves to give kisses. All you have to do is say "kisses" and she will pucker up, make a smacking sound with her lips, and sometimes even say, "Mmmuuaahh." So, stinkin cute, I tell you! She LOVES music and the second it comes on she will start bouncing her head and dance. It is too funny to watch her shake her little tush! I will have to try to get it on video!
As for her nights, she still is up at least once a night, usually two times. I have discovered she has some allergies/sensitivities which are affecting her digestion. I think I need to get some testing done, because it is hard to figure out what all upsets her belly. So far we know dairy and strawberries affect her greatly. She can, however, drink goats milk so that is what she is on. I am thinking of trying out almond milk, but want to do a little more research on that. This is all new to me, as neither Matt nor I, nor the other three have any problems. I do think that her belly is affecting her sleep some, so the sooner I figure this all out, the better.
Matt is doing well, busy with church. He still is really busy here, but its a totally different busy than he was back in NB. It is so nice to have another Pastor to help carry the burden and not have everything on his shoulders. Matt really is in charge of youth and young families. He has started a Sunday School class which I am loving. Youth group is going great. He started that up from basically scratch when we first came and now we are running about 20 consistently. We are reaching out to the young families and trying to build, encourage, and minister there. He is really looking forward to the golf courses opening up, hopefully in the next few weeks. There are quite a few golfers in the church, so I know he is looking forward to going to the course with them.
I am busy with just the normal household stuff. Not too glamorous but my calling for now. I was asked to share my life story last week in church. For some reason, I was SO nervous! I am not usually very nervous when I speak in front of people, but I was this time. But God calmed my heart and I was able to share all that God had brought me through and all He has done for me.
I guess this has gone on long enough. I have lots more to share, but will save that for the next time!
Until next time...
