You know you are a Mom of 5 boys when....con't

.......while playing the game Zoo Tycoon where the objective is to make the zoo animals and those visiting the zoo happy, my kids take part of the fence for the lions away and laugh hysterically while the lions eat everyone. ( Do I need to pray harder for my kids?)

......... 3 entire boxes of cereal are considered one breakfast for the gang. Any wonder why nothing gets bought unless it is on sale, I have a coupon and it is double coupon day.


......... a typical visit to Sam's consists of one flat bed full and one shopping cart full of food. On the ride home all the boxes fall on the kids heads and we get to hear them complain all the way home. It is a fun experience!

......... finding a dead critter on the farm fascinates them and they will take any chance they get to gawk and it and usually poke it with sticks.

....... At the end of the day they always smell like they found something dead and were poking sticks at it.


........ Showers and bathes at the end of the day are a necessity!


........Any game, no matter what it is, ends up as a full contact sport. Riding bikes turns into bumper cars or see who can chase down the kids without a bike the fastest. A matching game turns into an all-out war with cards flying. We don't let them play twister anymore ;)

....... Life is never dull and as the Mom I usually get treated like a queen.

........The time-out chair is the most used chair in the house (except maybe the throne)


........ No one(except Mom) can ever find anything. I can give out precise, detailed directions, but it is nowhere to be found. It just amazingly appears when I go to look for it. It is funny how that works.


........ At bath-time you don't know what is suntan and what is dirt.

.........Life is good and full of energy and laughter.

You know you have 5 boys when............

.......At Wal-mart you get looks of pity from other Mother's.

......You have 2 boys in the cart, 2 hanging off of the cart and one trailing behind complaining about wanting to look at video games.

........There is more dirt and sand dumped on the bathroom floor than is left outside.

........ The dryer lint trap has more sand in it than lint.

........ There is no safe place to hide from the nerf and pellet wars. ( Not even the bathroom!)

......... Finding a kid tied to a chair is not an unusual find.

........ Brotherly love is shown more in a punch or kick than a hug or kiss.

........ Hosing a kid down, to remove the layers of dirt, before they can enter the house is pretty common.

......... having, bugs, toads, frogs, snakes and worms given to you as loving gifts throughout the day.

......... you have a vase of weeds on the kitchen table.

........ " Stop that, you're going to get hurt" gets repeated over and over.

....... You get showered with hugs and kisses

........You find the youngest peeing in the dirt to make "mud"

........ More to come, when time permits!

Our little guys are so funny. They absolutely love to hear someone pray in tongues. When I put them to bed they say"Are you going to say ABAKA BAkA?" It took me awhile before I knew what they were talking about.

The Power of Prayer

R3 (age 3) can be quit a handful. There are days I exhaust my options in discipline and I still have a 3 year old that will not mind. It can be frustrating, but at my last discipleship meeting with Beth she gave me some great advice and today I was able to use it.
At naptime R3 can get out of control and I don't have many options to deal with him. I usually end up getting frustrated and that never helps the situation. Today was like any other day and I was getting very frustrated with him, then I remembered what Beth said. I sat on his bed and rocked him and just prayed in the Spirit. He is fascinated by speaking in tongues and always asks me to pray more. The more I prayed, the more he and I both relaxed. It was a great moment and I know God is doing deep things in his little heart. Life is so much easier when I ask God for help first!

Prayer

Today the 3 young ones were playing outside. I looked out and R3 was sitting on the frisbee and the other 2 were squatting around him talking to him. I watched to see what would happen next. I figured R3 was refusing to give up the frisbee and a fight was sure to break out. R2 saw me watching out the window and gave me his big smile and came running to the door. He yelled" we are teaching R3 how to pray. He didn't know how and we are telling him."
The frisbee, it turns out was his prayer seat ( so his butt didn't get wet, I was later told!)
Later I saw R2 on the frisbee, he needed a break to pray.
How completely awesome is that?
These kids teach me over and over my shortcomings and over and over they teach me of God's goodness and how much he really loves us.

Sunday night I really appreciated Pastor Jason's message and R2 did also. He has been telling me over and over, "My God is a personal God." That is in his heart. He might not understand it but he recieved that message and is clinging to it! Praise God! He is a personal God!

Settling In

Tonight at dinner I finally felt as though we were starting to interact as a real family. Suddenly adding 3 little boys to a family can disrupt a lot of things. After a month we are starting to settle in. I needed that after a few rough days. As with the last time we fostered, I was at a point, I was ready to throw in the towel. God is so good and helped me through, along with prayersand lots of love from all my family and friends.

It was so nice to laugh and have fun and enjoy all of the kids. We all seem to be settling in.

I made pizza for everyone and we were eating and talking and the youngest( age 3) started sniffing and making weird noises. I looked in his nose and sure enough he had shoved a mushroom up his nose. I got the tweezers and pulled it out. It was huge, I don't know how we didn't notice him shoving it up there. I guess it was his way of saying" I don't like mushrooms!"
Life at our house is never dull!

What a Day!!

Yesterday I made pb&j's for the kids lunch. I set them out on the table and then went to gather all the boys. I came back in and the "p" part of one of the pb&j's was missing and Miss Zoe was licking her lips. I was so frustrated I grabbed her collar and took her to the corner and made her stay. As I was walking away, I had to laugh at myself. I put the dog in time-out without even thinking aboyut it!

Elijah & Ethan

I always worry that our boys will resent Randy & I because we are fostering. Last night my kids so wonderfully reassured me that they enjoy(for the most part) fostering and what it means to our family.
The boys were upstairs playing with the oldest(51/2) and they came downstairs so excited and having such a good time. Ethan said this is so cool. I like being a big brother. Fostering is pretty cool.
When we have bad days and think we just can't do it any more God brings a good thought or an encouraging word or deed that gives us the strength to go on.

Sing with me Elmo should be outlawed!

Sing with me Elmo has some problems. we were so sick of hearing him that I stashed it in my bedroom. This morning at 2AM Randy and I were awakened with "A,B,C,1,2,3, sing with Elmo"
It scared us half to death. Randy was grumbling if it wasn't the kids now it is stupid Elmo! I grabbed my scissors off the dresser and was ready to cut the battery pack out of Elmo and be done with it. Randy had a bit cooler head and got his toolman and just removed the batteries.
Elmo will not be getting his batteries put back in any time soon!

silence is golden

Ahhh! the sound of nothing. Never knew it could be so beautiful. Nap-time is a wonderful thing!
having extra's in the house has really made me rely totally on God and it has made me see a few things in a different light.
One thing I have learned is how gifted my husband is at counseling. Our new boys need a lot of help and Randy has been so good at talking with them and they are doing so much better. I am amazed at the wisdom God gives him as he talks to these little guys.
I can really see how Randy and I fit as a team. My gifts and strenghts are not even close to his, but we compliment each other and it works.
I'll up-date as I can. One thing I can give praise to God about is the fact that we are getting sleep. Now that is a beautiful thing!

5 Boys

We now are a family of 5 boys. We increased our family by 3 Friday night. Everything is going pretty well, but we could always use lots of prayer.
This is a more difficult situation and Randy & I are needing a lot of wisdom from God.
We already are seeing the effects of prayer.

The first night the youngest 2 (ages 3 & almost 4) were very scared of going to bed. They have seen way too much and were scard of boogey men, clowns and the bad man under the bed. They said they always have bad , scary dreams. We read stories and then we prayed. The next morning they said they had a good night and had good dreams about God. The middle boy said he talked to God all night and every time he takes a nap or goes to bed he says He is going to have a good dream about God.
That is so powerful to me. God is comforting them in this difficult time. he is being real to them and they are feeling His Presence. No matter what comes up God is fully able to handle it and He is helpimng these boys. He is so good!

My Beekepers

The Mighty Beekeepers

It is a beautiful thing to see a Dad teach his children. What a gift to teach something, to hand it down to the next generation. Beekeeping is a connector in our family. It keeps Randy connected to his Dad. It gives them a point of interest that they can spend time together and enjoy the same thing. Now it is a teaching and learning experience between Randy and his boys. It is a beautiful thing!