More on the new/old house

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to post more about the house.  

Sorry…but today was my first day alone with the 5 munchkins.   It was MS Dad’s FIRST DAY AT WORK after being off for 11 whole months! More on that another time.

In the meantime, here are more shots of the outside of the house.  I’ll wait till we move in to post pictures of the inside to protect the seller’s privacy.  But the outside is more interesting anyhow.

Now, I must warn you – I don’t quite have my bearings sorted out with this house, so apologies if my description of each location is confusing. I’m confused myself.

This is to the left of the front of the house. Sort of.

 

 

This is the view from what will be either the boys’ room or MS Dad’s study.  It’s the sideyard…..

or maybe it’s the backyard.

I’m not sure what to call it.

 

This is the view from what will be the girls’ room. (taken through the screen mesh, hence the fuzziness)  

It’s the other sideyard….

or maybe it’s the true backyard.

Golly, I sound a little wacky.  See I told you, I don’t have my bearings right.  

 

Another shot of the first side/backyard.  

That fence on the left?

Yup, it contains a pool.

Which wasn’t really on our home search list.
But it came with the house. So we had to take it.

 

Do you think chickens would look good around the pool? hahaha.

 

And finally, here’s a clip showing the drive in from the main road to the house. 

I walked it – it’s about 90 paces.  Man, that’s a lot of shoveling.

I know what I’m getting the children and MS dad for Christmas – big gigantic snow shovels.  Ergonomic ones.  See, I’m such a caring wife and mother.

Um, Excuse Me?

Hello there.

Anyone remember me?

I just turned 11 months yesterday. Really.

Being the 5th child in the family, you can just imagine how woefully neglectful my parents have been in keeping up with the photo taking.

Digging through the files, this is what I could find…

 

 

 

 

Yikes! What happened to my nose?

 

And what’s this??!

 

OK, this is not funny.

 

I’m not laughing.

 

 

Are YOU laughing?

 

 

You better not be.

 

It’s NOT FUNNY.

 

 

I mean it.

 

Gee, I don’t get much respect around here. But that’s OK. I make sure I get heard. Yes sirreee, I do. I have a VERY loud set of lungs. I beat everyone hands down in a game of “Who Screams the Loudest” And to make sure people take me seriously, I include some big droplets of tears to go with THE SCREAM.

Yup, you better not mess with me.

Now let’s see if I can find more nice pictures.

 

See, I’m standing now.  Mummy took this picture to get a official 11-month portrait because she felt very bad.

 

Me, Olivia. Yup.

 

The half-squat half-stand.

 

Blowing bubbles while standing. I’m good

 

Che Che’s purse. It doesn’t have any money in it.

She spends it all. Oh, she says there’s money in it.  2 pennies. OK, 3.

Out with the new, In with the old

We’re trading in this 8-year-old home

for a 30-year-old one…

Come August 21st, we’ll be moving from the home we’ve been in for the last 8 years – the only home that our children have known – to another that we’ve been praying about the last 3 years.

I’ll post the story of how this all came about another time. The Lord’s hand was in it from beginning to end and all glory goes to Him!

Where I Am

Right here….

Sitting on my muskoka chair, enjoying a cup of tea

Listening to the birds’ sweet song, feeling the gentle morning breeze as it blows softly across the pond

Reading my bible and feeling the warmth of the rising sun

Ahhh, the bliss…..

…..

…..

In my dreams…

Sigh…

Oh – this photograph is for real – it’s on a 10-acre property we went to see yesterday. The house, sadly, is probably too small for our family…unless we can figure out how to extend it without spending a whole lot…quite unprobable.

And the search for that elusive home in the country continues….

If our family comes to mind, I’d appreciate prayers for an extra portion of PATIENCE and WISDOM as we continue to seek God’s will in this matter.

Never Judge a book by its cover

This is simply beautiful…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I’m speechless.

Never Too Early

Since the beginning of the year, MS dad has been doing morning devotions with the 2 boys each morning…another nice perk of his staying at home.

They sit down with him at the kitchen table, sipping their chrysanthemum tea, listening to him read passages straight out of the bible.
After that, he reads to them their memory passage and they recite it after him. His goal was for them to memorize John 3:16 and Psalm 23 for the year 2009.

Well, at the end of January, this is what happened:

Obviously we still needed to prompt him with Psalm 23, but I think he’s doing awesome for being only 3! Needless to say, MS dad has since revised his goals…they’ve covered Psalm 1,Psalm 8, Psalm 150 & Psalm 100 so far…

As for the rest of the family, we’re working on our passages. I have one thing to say… I wish I had been wiser when I was younger – and spent more time committing scripture to memory, instead of filling my head with useless nothings. Now being 30-something, (closer to 40 than 30), and convinced that countless brain synapses have either been shut down due to inactivity, and/or permanently lost during my 5 pregnancies (I’m not blaming my children, I’m not), I find it extremely difficult to commit scripture to memory, especially when I see my children do it, almost effortlessly. Not impossible, but harder to get those cogs turning smoothly.

I hope this encourages you to fill your little one’s hearts with scripture. Don’t underestimate their abilities!

And I’m off to review …there’s a family quiz tonight…it’s cumulative..MS dad insists on reviewing all the “old” passages.
Here’s the running list, in case you’re wondering:
Book of James (5 chapters)
Malachi 4
Psalm 1, 8, 23, 100, 150
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5,6,7)

Fisst! Shik-shik! Xing! Pitchoo! Kapow! Can you just hear my head exploding yet?!

A Neat Freebie

Here’s a neat freebie – turn your handwriting into a font!

http://www.yourfonts.com/

You’ll need a printer and a scanner. I’m off to try it now – from what I’ve heard, it’s pretty cool. And did I mention it was free?

Online Sermons

Here’s a neat site that contains a treasure trove of sermons, audiobooks by contemporary preachers as well as the classics like Spurgeon, Nee, AW Pink, in the form of readings.

You can search by topic, bible passage, or speaker. There’s also sermons in different languages like Chinese, Japanese, French, etc.

If you’re looking for spiritual feeding throughout the week, be sure to check Sermon Audio out.

Mrs. Worry Wart

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or what you will drink;
nor about your body, what you will put on.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:
they neither toil nor spin;
and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is,
and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

“Therefore do not worry, saying,
‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For after all these things the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow will worry about its own things.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

                                                  Matthew 6:25-34 (NKJV)

“O you of little faith”.  Ouch, that was painful.  The Lord used this passage today to gently rebuke me for my worry-wart tendencies.

We are very quickly coming to the end of MS dad’s parental leave (in June) and we are still helplessly clueless as to what he will do with work – whether to go back to his current company, or to move on.  All these months, I’ve been spouting some of these verses to MS dad, yet deep down, I was getting antsy, playing out all kinds of scenarios in my mind.  I was not heeding my own advice.  Even worse, I was not taking God at His word.

This afternoon, I was reading Matthew 6.  When I got to the section on worrying, I started to feel uncomfortable, reading about the birds, and how much more He values us, His children.  By the time I got down a few more lines to verse 30: “Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”, I had to stop.  The guilt was overwhelming.   I stared at the words, re-reading this verse slowly aloud to myself.  It was like I could hear God saying to me, “O (my name), you of little faith!  WHERE is your faith?  Have I not taken care of you all this time? Have I not provided for you and your family?!  Why do you keep worrying?”  

In His mercy, He has gently reminded me of His presence, love, and provision for me and my family.  

So instead of worrying, I shall “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”, and rest in the comfort and peace that I am of more value to the King of kings than the birds of the air, the lilies and the grass of the field.

“Consider the lilies of the field; how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”

Matt 6:28-29

Sovereignty of God

This is a great clip by Voddie Baucham about the sovereignty of God.