Battlefield

For a long time, I have struggled with being quick to anger, mostly toward my kids. I had prayed about it quite a bit and asked others to pray, too. I just couldn't seem to kick it. I wouldn't all out scream at them, but I would too often yell and discipline out of anger. I was talking to someone and something they said rung a bell. They talked about generational curses and they quoted Deuteronomy 5:9 "I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected - even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me." I thought to myself, "I think this is a generational curse that has been passed down to me and I definitely do NOT want to continue to be this way and to pass this on to my children." We have authority in Jesus to break these curses, so I just prayed and broke that curse and it's gone! That's not to say that I don't struggle with it because I will always struggle with sin, but I don't feel out of control like I used to.
As I've been dealing with something very difficult in my life right now, I am very aware that there is a battle going on. Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." I have been doing spiritual warfare and taking a stand against the enemy. He wants to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came to give us abundant life! Ephesians 6:14-17 "Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." So, that's what I've been doing these days. God is bigger and He is in the business of moving mountains, so that is what I am praying and believing!

Learning Curve

Kiera has been in Preschool for 3 weeks now and I’m blown away with how much she has already learned.  She knows all of the months of the year and the days of the week.  They do the calendar every morning, so thanks to that, she also knows her numbers up to 30 now instead of just 20.  Then, when I was tucking her into bed last night, she suddenly counted BACKWARD from 30 to 20.  What?!  I don’t think she learned that at Preschool; I think she just figured that out on her own.  She is also learning to write the letters of the alphabet and learning what sound each letter makes.  I’m not in her class very often as I’m mostly with the babies and toddlers, but my friend gives me updates and said that Kiera just soaks everything in and just loves it.  She was made for school!  She learned a new song in Sunday School this past Sunday and came home singing the whole song after the first time hearing it.  I love seeing the gifts that God has put into each of my kids.  He is so good!

Blessed

“The more I count these blessings, the more I realize that they really are not the product of my own efforts. They are truly gifts of grace from God above. It’s incredible to open my eyes to them week after week. And humbling. That I should be graced with such wonders? Me… whose heart is weak and black, yet covered with much mercy. How great is Your unfailing love, Lord God of all!” ~Sharaya Crossan

I’m quickly trying to sneak in this blog post while I have 2 kids napping and the other is watching a show.  Haley’s naps are very unpredictable, so I never know how much time I have.  Sometimes she wakes up after 10 minutes, which is very frustrating, and sometimes she sleeps for a couple of hours.  I have hardly any time to do anything for myself these days, but I’m thankful for my kids who keep my hands full.  Here are some more things I’m thankful for:

831. The 18 roses I got from our friends when I was in the hospital with Haley

832. When Jared tells his daughters they’re beautiful

833. The 8 ft. by 8 ft. sandbox Jared’s Dad built for the kids in July

834. When Kiera came and cuddled in our bed on Saturday morning

835. Watching him play

836. Clothes given to us for Kiera which means that I don’t have to go buy any!

837. The way sunlight hits things (or people) and adds beauty

838. That Jared has been full of surprises lately: a surprise day off, a surprise week off, and a surprise holiday for our family!

839. Sister love

840. Encouragement

841. Seeing them all ready for Preschool (all of us go twice a week since it’s sort of like a Home school Preschool at our church)

842. The blue + white freezies…my favorite flavors

843. Sharing a blanket

844. That Jesus is there in the darkest most painful times (I’m dealing with something right now, but his grace is there and he is carrying my burden)

845. Brother-sister love

3 More Videos

I don't have a lot of time to blog these days, but I will do a proper blog post one of these days. For now, I'll just post a few short videos.
Kiera's first time going down a zipline and she went over and over again

Blake bustin' out some moves

Blake tries to say elephant, but it's not close at all :)

1 Month Update

When people ask me these days how we're doing, the first word that often pops into my mind is "chaos." I'm finding it very difficult to enjoy my kids instead of snapping at Kiera + Blake all day long for doing things they're not supposed to do because they're bored and I'm busy with Haley. "Love is patient" and "love is slow to anger" are 2 things I REALLY need help with. It's especially hard when I'm not getting enough sleep. Haley is up once a night and the last few nights it has only been for 20-40 minutes, but before that she was often up for an hour minimum and quite often up to 2 hours. My back gets really sore from rocking her to sleep. That being said, we've gone on quite a few outings with all 3 kids and Kiera + Blake have had a lot of fun and Haley has slept in the stroller! My other kids never slept in the stroller, so I find this miraculous! We've gone out to eat, we've gone to various parks, gone out for ice cream a couple of times, and have gone shopping a couple of times. We've done a lot more things in the first month of Haley's life than we did after Kiera + Blake were first born. Praise the Lord for a content baby!! I find putting the kids to bed VERY challenging to do by myself when Jared is working at his pizza job. We have managed to make it to church every Sunday since Haley was born, so I think that's pretty good!

Kiera starts Preschool tomorrow and we are excited about that! It's sort of like a home school Preschool in that it's a few Moms getting together at our church to do it, so I have to be there the whole time, which means I'm going with all 3 kids. I'll mostly be helping to take care of all the younger kids while the older ones are doing Preschool and then once a week I'll be doing a couple of songs with the Preschoolers. Kiera is most excited to wear her Strawberry Shortcake backpack and her new shoes. :) I think it will be good to get us all out of the house twice a week. Our goal is for our kids to get a Biblical world view and to enter Kindergarten solid in their faith, so the things they'll be doing this year will be Bible-based and Christ-centered, which I'm very excited about!

Life is interesting right now and there is hardly ever a dull moment. I feel like I'll never get time to myself ever again, but I know that's not true! Haley is one month old today, so we survived the first month! I hope each month gets better and better! I am very thankful for Netflix, as we don't have t.v., so Kiera has been watching "Little Bear," "Berenstain Bears," "Max + Ruby," and "The Backyardigans." I did no cooking for over 3 weeks and now I've started making simple suppers and that's going well. My stomach issues are almost all better, so I praise God for that! What a tremendous blessing to not have to make 2 lunches and 2 suppers every day with 3 kids 3 and under in the house! In spite of this being a challenging phase of our lives, we are totally blessed!

Visitors From Faraway Lands Part 2

On Saturday, day 4 of their visit, my cousin got married.  That was part of the reason Art + Jenene came out here.  I really liked their wedding!  It was in a barn that is regularly used for weddings and other events like that.  Here’s Haley right before we left for the wedding, wearing a dress for the first time

My Mom’s side met Haley + Sophia for the first time

This cousin is a nurse at the hospital I delivered at, so she met Haley there.  Interesting fact: she was the delivering nurse down the hallway from me for my friend’s baby less than 24 hours after Haley was born.

Here’s the beautiful bride.  This is the relative who looks like me the most out of all my relatives

She had lollipops in her bouquet, which is totally cool!  She dedicated her bouquet to our Grandma, who was invited to the wedding, but is now in heaven, and she got her Dad to put the bouquet on our Grandma’s grave.  That had a few relatives crying. 

The meal was burgers + fries.  BIGGEST burger I’ve ever eaten in my life and the fries were amazing!  They had an ice cream parlour for dessert and that was YUMMY! 

On Sunday, we went to church and then spent the afternoon at home.  In the evening, we went to my parents’ house for an open house with my Mom’s side of the family. 

On Monday, Jared was officially back to work after being off for 2 weeks, so I packed up the kids and went to my parents’ house.  From there, we went out for lunch, went to the mall and to the chiropractor.  We were in 2 separate vehicles and on the way home, I suddenly heard a very loud rumbling noise.  I pulled over, opened my door to look back, and sure enough, my tire was completely flat!  My Mom’s car was a couple of miles ahead of me, so I quickly phoned her and they turned around.  Art (thank the Lord he was there) changed the tire in very little time!  We were scheduled to get 2 new tires this fall anyway, so now we were forced to a few weeks early.  The tires were on sale, too! :)  After he changed the tire, I drove straight to my Grandparents’ place and we had a wiener roast with my Dad’s side of the family.  Here’s Blake with his 2nd cousin, who is 4 weeks younger than him

I said, “Smile!” and this is what I got…ha ha!

Going home from my Grandparents was not fun.  I could only go 70 km/h on the highway (or just over 40 mph) because of the spare tire and Haley frantically SCREAMED all the way home because she was hungry.  It normally would have been a 20 minute drive but that night it was half an hour.  Somehow, Blake managed to sleep through that!  I’m thankful that it wasn’t a longer drive than that.

On Tuesday, Art, Jenene, Sophia + my Mom came over again and spent the day with us.  Here’s Jenene with her nieces + nephew

I like this sleeping position…hee hee!

On Wednesday (Aug. 31), it was my first day on my own with the 3 kids and it went pretty good!  I’m SO thankful I had help for almost 3 weeks.  In the evening, my Dad took us all out for supper and then Art, Jenene + Sophia flew home.  It was so great to have them here again and now it’s only 3 1/2 months ‘til we see them again at Christmas! :)

Visitors From Faraway Lands Part 1

I have to break this up into 2 blog posts because we did too many things and there are too many pictures to put all into one blog post.  At the end of August, my sister, brother-in-law and niece flew here to visit for a week.  It was so great to see them after 10 months and to meet their daughter for the first time!  Here they are at the airport meeting Haley for the first time

Here’s my Dad meeting his granddaughter for the first time

The airport was a fiasco for us.  We parked on the 2nd level and couldn’t find an elevator, so we ended up dragging Haley in her car seat, the stroller, and diaper bag down a flight of stairs.  On the way back to our vehicle, we found an elevator and it was the wrong one, so we had to drag all of that down a flight of stairs again and back up another flight of stairs while trying to keep track of Kiera + Blake at the same time.  STRESSFUL!  We took them to our favorite crepe restaurant for supper after leaving the airport and they really liked it!  Kiera instantly loved her cousin

The next day (Thursday), I had Haley’s 2-week doctor’s appt. and she had gained almost a pound in a week (9 lbs. 4 oz. with her clothes on) and everything was great!  My Dad took us all out for breakfast after that.

My Mom, Art, Jenene and Sophia spent the whole day at our house.  We took all 4 kids for a walk and this was my first time going for a walk with Haley.  Jenene pushed Sophia, I pushed Kiera + Blake in the double stroller, and my Mom pushed Haley in our single stroller.  We went for slurpees.

Sisters and cousins…love it!

Our friends dropped off supper (some amazing chicken and rice) and it was enough food for everyone!  I found out Art shares my passion for ice cream.  In fact, he might love it more than I do, which I didn’t think was possible. 

I like Haley’s hands in this one

Chillin’ with Sophia

The next day (Friday), I spent all day at my parents’ house with the kids, while Jared worked both jobs.  We took the kids for a walk to my Mom’s work so she could show off her 2 newest grandchildren.

The kids played in the pool in the afternoon

Blake got all cold + shivery and wanted to cuddle with me after.  He’s been a lot more cuddly since Haley was born which we love! :)

My grandparents stopped by after supper to meet Sophia

Thus concludes the visit part 1.  Stay tuned for part 2…