Life By Faith

 This mornings bible reading slapped me in the face......immediately after some gutting news. Our #lifebyfaith is not easy and at time doesn't make much sense at all and is ridiculously hard. And honestly some days I feel like I want to throw in the towel and do my own thing....because you know....surely I must know better (not!) God and I just had some words well actually I had words....God just listened and then slapped me with this! It's these words that brought me to my knees though....."for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible. " Heb 11:27b

When Jamie and I prayed and told God we would live a life by faith...saying yes to whatever he asked....we could have never imagined the life we would be living, how hard things would be at times or the storms we would have to weather.....but we would never have known such growth, such intimacy and seen God move in tangible ways. Those are the things I hold on to....that and the deep knowing that God is good, He loves me, He is for me and He wants good things for me. That is how we live a beautiful crazy faith.

Number 8

 Here's to a flexible life plan.....Baby #8 is on its way!

Boy or Girl?

Mumma to the Rescue

I felt to share this as I just spent some time reflecting on how much my views on parenting have change over the years and seven children later. My bookworm son (see previous post) rang me from his upstairs bedroom, sheepishly asking me if I could make him two cheese toasties with a side of Aoili and chutney.... why...because he was too comfy and too engrossed in his book to leave it.

My first thought was....um no... I am not sitting here twiddling my thumbs you know, and I have just cleaned up the kitchen....but the more I thought about it...the more I thought ...yes yes I will. My son the one who helps me out whenever I ask, the one who takes the little people for a walk for ice cream, and more importantly the one who I love dearly and gives me the biggest hugs ever. Of course I will do that for him. Yes, he is quite capable of coming downstairs and making it himself, but I still remember not wanting to leave my bed and book because it was that good.

So here it is.... cooked, delivered and served, all because I love him and I am so thankful I get to be his mama!

Just One More

Reason #363 I love homeschooling. Interrupted blocks of time to do the things they love and that completely absorbs them. Ahhhh my son after my own heart....I remember the days where I would get so lost in a book that hours and hours would past....it was always "just one more chapter!".

I won't see him much today.

A man after my own heart

A Night to Remember

Last night will be forever etched in my memory! There is very little that can compare to watching your children choose to make a public declaration to follow Christ by getting baptised (by their dad none the less). Tears flowed freely as five out of seven of our kids made that awesome and heart felt decision last night.

Jamie and I have purposely not made a thing or pressurised our kids into making that decision...we purposely left it so that they would come to that decision on their own. Once they began to express an interest in water baptism we have talked with them to make sure they knew what they were doing and why they were doing it.

It was such a privilege to have family members, friends that are like family and church family there with us for the occasion but also knowing that many many more that were unable to be there were in prayer and supporting my kids from a far.

We are truly blessed. xxx

A Bunch of Budds

Helping Hands

Busy in her work helping me make pumpkin soup this morning. Seeing as I am away this weekend, I thought I better leave them at least a backup meal. Yes, it's always quicker to do these things by myself.... but that's how they learn best...it's called life learning.

Plus, I get to hang out with her in all her cuteness.

Frankie's such a good helper

Time for some self-care

It's been an afternoon of self-care for me.... which for me meant coffee, my electric blanket and good wholesome bingeing on Netflix. There actually isn't very many TV shows I can stomach watching but I found this recently and it's just what I need to relax and not have my brain think of anything else. I have been battling tonsillitis AGAIN...the third time this year!

We all talk about self-care and we all encourage each other to take some time out to look after ourselves, but do we actually do it. I have some actually tell me they believe it's being self-centred..NOOOOOOO! Its imperative to our health.... mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. I was actually meant to be elsewhere this afternoon celebrating a first birthday, but an unwell kiddie made me stay home while the rest of my family went. He is resting and so I thought I would do the same.

After three episodes of When Calls the Heart I felt it was time to put on good worship music and start dinner. It feels good to have had that time to just sit...and not be running around constantly doing something.

What have you done for you?