Home-Made: Love...

From The Salvation Army Songbook

"O there's joy in every heart

When there's love at home;

There's a smile on every face

When there's love at home!

Voices have a kindly sound,

Happiness beams all around

Peace and gentleness abound

When there's love at home.

Chorus:

Love at home! Love at home!

There's an angel in the house

When there's love at home.

O there's sunshine on the hearth

When there's love at home,

And there's music in the air

When there's love at home!

We have an infestation of rats and mice on the back deck lately.  Daddy has his way of catching them (professional traps), the kids have their way (home-made) and I have my way- the BB gun.

Faces at the door are sweet,

Laughter echoes in the street,

Paths are smooth for little feet

When there's love at home.

Mary tries to give herself Brownie Points on our chart.

When I see my kids do something above and beyond the call of duty, I always would say "you get a brownie point" and make a tick mark in the air.  Kind of a term of endearment and "atta boy/girl".  That's always why they thought I made brownies.  Isn't that funny!

So anyway, several months ago, I decided to make a chart so that they can actually see their progress.  They are forbidden to ever ask for a brownie point- "and so receive their praise from man".  

I really want to train my children to go above and beyond

with how they treat others and how they approach learning and working. 

"Go the extra mile".

Ann plays this game a lot.  She is practicing for our Corps (church) talent show.

Don't even ask me how many times we've been hit with shoes in the head, I finally sent her outside because I was tired of hearing everyone yelling at her when they got clonked on the head.

Elijah and Hannah playing with his slime and Shreks from a Happy Meal.

When there's Jesus in the midst,

There is love at home;

He will teach you what to do

When there's love at home;

Sometimes...  Elijah ends up on the bottom of the pile.

Help you in life's busy mart;

Whisper softly in your heart

Of the bright and better part,

When there's love at home.

Home-made stuffed crust pizza. 

Hannah is ALWAYS the first one to the table, 

even if she has to sit there for half and hour all by herself.  

The girls have been "gardening" in these little pots.  They pick flowers and replant them and water, water, water.  When the wind picked up one  day and blew a couple of them down the street, the girls screamed and chased after them, and I screamed and chased after the girls.  Mary's head was flopping so much from my running with her on my hip that I gave up when the thought of "shaken baby syndrome" crossed my mind.

We planted carrots a few weeks ago, but Paul mowed over them and they won't resurrect.

Home-made laundry soap.

 

                                This is me.  Can you tell?  Ann is our little artist.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. 
It makes me feel good to be able to share my life in words and pictures,
which causes me to look square in the face at the things I am so very grateful for.
I'd like to tell the whole world how good Jehovah, Adonai,  is...........

Packing...

Most of our packing was done, but the day after we got our Marching Orders, we finished up and packed the whole day long after a breakfast of buttermilk pancakes, eggs and ham. 

Most of the kids worked hard most of the time.  ;)

We have a system... everything starts fine and dandy.  Joy and excitement, singing and dancing fill the air. Tossing things here and there, lots of "yes moms" and "yes dads".  Helpful brothers and sisters.  Sweet talks. Thankful-for lists of The Dalles.  Talks of our new appointment, new ministry, new people, 

new city, new house, new cars, etc...

stir up hope in all of us. 

And then... a few hours into it, when weariness and overwhelming-ness  take over,

we settle quickly into our all too familiar flesh.....

I start throwing stuff away, the kids start protesting, I say "Where in the world did all this stuff come from?"  "Who left a banana under the bed?"  "What did I just step in?"  "I didn't know cheesesticks could get this hard."  and "THERE is my black flip-flop I've been missing since last summer!  How did it get up there?!?"   Then someone's crying that now they don't want to move and I have to psycho-analyze, only to find out that my child just doesn't want to pack.   Paul's scowl deepens. 

Chaos begins to creep in and take over the loving-order that the Lord had so easily begun our day with.

STOP THE SHOW!

Deep breaths,

pray together, ("yes Ann I know Elijah has his eyes open,

but how would you know unless your eyes were open too?")

and make some fun....

What to do with an empty, freshly scrubbed toy chest????

 

We pack, and Paul carries the boxes downstairs to the garage.

This box had a special surprise in it.

I think Paul caught on though because there were giggles around the box.

So the joke was on David.

Paul picked it up, without giving David a chance to jump out with his "SURPRISE!".

And instead, David screamed with cries for help, which we all ignored.

After Paul finished his "Incredible-Hulk-Box-Crushing-Scene"...

he set David down and squeezed Elijah's nose.  

Then we all seriously considered taping up Elijah

and putting him with the rest of the boxes in the garage.

But we love him too much,

and what would our family be

if we were missing even one...

incomplete.

Thank you Lord, for the fullness You give me.