A joyful life

After Luke was born I found myself drowning. A newborn is difficult, but a newborn plus a two, a four and a six year-old was beyond overwhelming. I made a choice then to stay sane by eliminating anything that wasn't absolutely necessary in my life. I focused solely on feeding, clothing and caring for my children. Occasionally I would pay attention to my husband and when we ran out of clean clothes, I would wash some. I also attempted to complete my church assignments though complete probably wouldn't describe my end performance.

My newborn is now four and what a difference four years makes! The brainpower that I thought I had lost forever is back. I am now juggling family, home, teaching, writing (a little), and church assignments without freaking out. In fact, not only am I not freaking out, but I am finding joy in folding clothes, cooking and cleaning. I am so grateful to feel peace and joy.

Serafina

This post is for Kara. She gave us our kitten almost a year ago now. She had named it Tabitha, but my kids wanted to rename her after her mother, Serafina. For those of you who haven't watched all the computer animated Barbie movies yet, Serafina is the name of a beautiful cat in one of them. This post is entirely photos of Serafina from the last year.

Happy Birthday Kara!

Thank you again for the sweet kitten. I hope you enjoy the photos!

My little girl

When Eliza turned 10 in December, we gave her permission to get her ears pierced. Since then she has been debating about it. Saturday she finally got her courage up and got it done. My little girl looks so grown up! Okay, so she isn't so little anymore. I don't really like the idea of her growing up, but she is amazing.

Paul's birthday/family day

Happy Birthday Paul!

Yes, my dear husband is another year older. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday. First, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to Spring Park in Tuscumbia. Paul rode the train with the kids, and then the kids played a while. We ate at a Chinese Buffet. Yum! The kids loved it! Their favorites are sweet and sour chicken, shrimp and rice. Of course there is the dessert bar as well. 

If you look at the third picture, you will understand why we later went clothes shopping for Eliza. She is so tall! Then we went on to Sam's Club and the mall. We never go to the mall, but this was a special day. We even gave each child $10 in spending money, and we let them use it in the candy store. Thankfully they chose not to spend all their money in the one store.

The day was awesome! We actually spent the entire day together! We haven't really done that a lot lately. Enjoy the pictures.

Catching up again

What have I been up to lately? 

Here is a photo diary of the last month and a half. 

We took the kids to the Birmingham Temple. They stayed in the waiting area with my friend while we went through a session. Later we went out to eat at a real restaurant. We don't do this often as evidenced by Leah's comment after the waiter took our order. She asked, "Mom aren't we going to pay for the food?"

Luke's first week of preschool.

I found this in Grandma Hazel's linen closet. If you recognize it, you have to comment about a memory it evokes!

I took this photo in the hope that I could show it to Grandma later as proof that her parents have been dead for a long time. The poor woman relives her parent's death almost daily. This day she had me drive around the cemetery twice looking for fresh graves because she was convinced that they were just buried.  

The last weekend in January I went with the young women and young men on a "Return to Virtue" hike. They also repelled about 100 ft down between this rock bridge and the cliff. I did not repel.

The next two weeks I spent baking 51 dozen treats for our Valentine's Day fundraiser. I am so glad that is over!

 This is our silly cat who wants to drink out of all of our faucets instead of her bowl. If you look closely you can see the water on its way into her mouth. Is that a cool action shot or what? By the way, you can tell by the sink that I have not been spending my time clean the bathroom. Gross!

The following are pictures from last Sunday. We awoke to snow and church cancellation. It was a very peaceful, slow paced day. I usually don't have time for fun pancakes. The kids really enjoyed these.

The next two pictures are four days after the snow fall. It was 73 degrees today.

Yes, there are ten children in my backyard. Yes, this is pretty normal. The strange thing is that only my four children live on our street. The others just sort of show up. 

Luke getting a breathing treatment at the doctors office yesterday. Should I be concerned that the nurse practitioner said "I wouldn't go and buy a nebulizer yet. Just rent or borrow one for now."