The Praise-Filled Life

"Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name." 
~ Hebrews 13:15 

 When we live our lives in the daily struggles of life, it can be incredibly easy to lose focus on God. Life, in the mundane, or the frantic, or the lonely, or the suffering, can thwart even the most optimistic of us.

The Bible speaks to us about this, makes it clear, even, that praise for God ought to be on our lips continually. It often isn't, however. But the life of the Christian is to be characterised by praise for our Creator, because that is the best 'fruit' our lives can bear.
The life of the mature christian is attractive, not because it may be smooth sailing (often it is the opposite!), but because it is unshakable in praise and thanksgiving.
But note that this verse says the 'sacrifice of praise'. Oftentimes, in order to praise God, we need to sacrifice first. Praising God is a sacrifice. Sacrificing our self-pity; sacrificing our hopes and dreams and ambitions; sacrificing our time, our money; sacrificing the petty sins we like to hold onto firmly.
To live a life characterised by praise to God is a life of sacrificial obedience. It isn't going to come naturally, we must choose to do it, continually.

This is the fruit of our lips. It is a sign that we acknowledge His name. Yahweh. The one true Most High God. Praising our God is acknowledging Him for who He is. It is bringing God the glory through our affirmations of His goodness.
When Eve was tempted by discontent over the ONE fruit that God forbade her to eat, she was neglecting to praise God for who He really was: A good and faithful God, who provided her with everything she actually needed. When she stopped continually praising God for the perfect marriage, the weedless garden and eternal life and intimate fellowship with God himself, she forgot the character of God. She doubted that He really did have her best interests in mind. She saw, not countless blessings, but limitations; restriction.
Are we like that sometimes too? (I dare say we are...)

In contrast, consider Job. A man who is an excellent example of unvarying praise to God, despite circumstances. A man who had EVERYTHING taken from him but his very life (and his wife), and yet still did not waver in his affirmation of God's sovereignty and goodness. Amazing.....
Praise characterised Job, and God upheld that virtue in him.

Praise honours God. It is what we were created for and it brings us closer to God when we do it.

 As a wife, praise is thanking God for your spouse... no matter how human and fallen they may be. No matter how many socks they leave on the floor.
As a mum, praise is thanking God for the gift of life. Praising Him for the miracle that a soul really is, praising Him for the gift of being able to raise them for His glory.... Even when our windows are always smudged with fingerprints, even when we get no more than 2 hours sleep in a row some nights, even when they bring the stomach bug into our house, or get their clothes dirty 4 times in an hour.

As a woman, praise is thanking God for who he made you. Thanking God that you are not an android, you are a woman. It means praising God that you were created with a special purpose, that you are not an accident, you are not a man with different body parts, but are in fact, a wonderful creation.

As a christian, praising God is remembering how much God has done for you. Praising God for the sacrifice that Jesus made for you on the cross at Calvery.

Praise is our 'good works'. But it doesn't just honour God....

When we give praise to God, we are blessed in return....

"..give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you." 
~ Luke 6:38

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,  who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." 
~ 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

You see? When we praise, it comes back to us. God does not let our praise fall to the ground void. He multiplies it, that we may be filled to overflowing and able to comfort and encourage others to praise God also.

What a great God we serve!

God bless,

Sara








 

I'll Be Right Back

I'm taking a break from blog writing. I hope you will understand.

Some things have to go in my life, so that I can keep my priorities right side up. Taking time to be in God's Word and serving my family is paramount right now.

So I'm giving Raising Arrows a rest for a time. I thank you for taking the time to read this blog and look forward to sharing with you again, when I can.

I will still give an occasional update on my pregnancy, and of course, when my little person eventually makes their appearance, I will let you all know!

And I will still be running the Raising Arrows page on Facebook. You can follow it here, https://www.facebook.com/tinyarrow

In the meantime, feel free to read any past posts.

May God bless you and keep you.

Sara

Re-Jigging The Laundry

It seems to be the popular thing to share tips about how we are managing areas of our homes. So here is my little story about how I've changed our tackling of the laundry monster. It has made a huge difference to our house and I hope it is encouraging for you to see how someone else does it.

Most people seem curious on what it's like with a 6 person household. So, here are some stats on our laundry situation.

Before the changes I made below, I'd be doing on average 2-3 loads a day of laundry. Usually two loads, unless there were sheets to do. This amount of washing kept my laundry basket empty. I would define myself as a wash-rather-than-not sort of person. I wash things, even when they probably don't quite need it yet.

We sorted it out into separate piles on our lounge room floor, then folded it and took it to the appropriate room to put away.

It looked like this:

Anyway, I was recently blessed to purchase the Homemaking E-Bundle that was offered (offer has now ended) via Visionary Womanhood. In it was an e-book entitled Clean Enough.

It has been very helpful and I highly recommend it!!

At any rate, one of the big differences between her way of doing laundry and mine, is that she did each person's laundry by itself and I had been putting anything dirty together and washing it ASAP! Haha.

I wondered how it would work to do it her way. My initial thought was.... Nah..... It takes up more space because you need a basket for most members etc. Nope, it won't suit me..... Because it means leaving it there to pile up until you have enough to wash one person's clothes.

But she claimed it saved her considerable time on the sorting because, well, it eliminates the need to sort it. In a 6 (soon to be 7) person household we have a lot of sorting to do. 

So I sat down and began to think of the pros. I knew that it makes me way too sore, whilst pregnant, to get down on the floor to fold washing once it has been sorted out. I knew that having a pile of clean washing to sort on our lounge room floor was bugging me. I knew that having to go to each person's cupboard each day to put away a handful of clothes was annoying and busy. 

So it might just be awesome to try it, I thought.

I checked with my husband, he was okay with it.

So I got the baskets I needed and went to work. We cleared out our entire entryway that leads to the laundry. In went the baskets.

It looks like this now:

A basket for towels/sheets/tea towels etc. A basket for mum/dad, a basket for the boys (they share clothes and a cupboard because they are pretty much the same size), a basket for Amanda, and one for Emma. Nice.

I also keep a small tub for all the socks, and another for delicates or any hand wash/wool clothes:

I started to hold my breath. I thought it would be awful. It turned out to be a lifesaver.

No more sorting! Well, except for the socks. :) No more massive pile of clean washing on my floor to taunt me. I can fold the whole basket into the one spot on my couch and put it away in the one cupboard or room!

Now a load to fold looks like this:

I realised that my previous method did indeed keep my laundry basket empty of dirty washing. But it simply kept it full on the other end. A large pile of clean washing...and on my lounge room floor, for all to see, no less! It wasn't reducing my workload, just moving it to inside my house.

Now, I have the laundry outside in the porch area waiting to be done. It also means that I am doing just 2 loads most days, dealing with just a few members clothes and cupboards, instead of everyone's things everyday. 

It was mainly the children's job to sort the laundry and help fold what they could manage. Obviously, given their ages, I had a big part to play in overseeing, helping and teaching them. Now I am able to begin to work on teaching them to be responsible for their own laundry, with the goal of them one day being capable of doing all their own laundry. 

Even now, Emma is able to put her washing on herself, fold it and put it away, with my help and oversight. That job is now much easier for her because her things are kept in the same place and separate. What a blessing for her and for me. I am still very much in oversight of what she is doing, but one day she will be able to take care of that portion of her life by herself.

(Unlike me, she will not need to be taught how to work a washing machine by her new husband! Lol)

For now, I do all the rest, the boys help to fold their clothes and Amanda helps me put socks into the laundry bag. Little cutie. She is so excited to be so 'useful' :) We bought a Flip Fold clothes folder for them, which is an amazing tool!! It was about $15 online at the time. I shall include pictures of how it works, but basically it is a frame that perfectly folds clothes in a few moves. You can also see a video via the above link of how it works. The boys think it is the biggest game and love to fold their clothes with it. So glad it is a joy to them!

The Laundry Folder: unfolded (Sorry, this picture is sideways!)

Emma spreads a t-shirt out face down:

Fold right side of frame in:

Open right side, fold left side in:

Open left side, Fold bottom half up:

Open bottom side, turn shirt right way up: all done in about 5 secs!

So I've decided to keep this new system of laundry taming. It works for us. I'm glad I took the time to really give her methods a closer look. It has been a huge change in how I do things, but one that will save me much anxiety as my ability to move about without pain disappears until the birth.

How do you do laundry? I'm really interested to see how each set of different circumstances makes for a different method that suits the home best. Are you like me, and keep doing what you've always done, because you never thought of how it might work differently? That is, until something lands in front of you to help you think outside the box?

Or do you change things when needed?

I feel very blessed that God brought about my reading of this e-book. It was something that was playing heavily on my mind. Something I had been praying about.  I knew that I would not be able to do the laundry alone once my hips began to separate badly. I really did not want to leave more up to my husband and children for the remainder of my pregnancy. Now I feel very confident that as a family, we will be able to manage this area much better. Even whilst I'm at an increasingly reducing capacity.

My husband is amazingly helpful. I'm grateful to him and also grateful that I have a plan that will not ask more of him.

However, the one task I'm not supposed to do too much of soon? Vacuuming. I don't think there is a way to re-jig that. :)

God bless,

Sara 

Gratitude

I'm just getting into that stage of pregnancy where I need a constant reminder to be thankful.

Gratitude.

It seems surreal that in three weeks time I will enter the third trimester!

I am apprehensive about the trials I will be asked to bear during that last stage. But something greater than the trials is at the forefront of my mind....

I'm grateful. We have a new little life. A person! A really, real person. A soul, unique from mine, from my husband's.

I'm grateful that God made me it's Mummy. Me, of all people!

I never get tired of them squirming and kicking and poking me. I really welcome it, like a secret message to me: 

'Mum, I'm still here.'

'Mummy, look at how strong I am today!'

'Hey Mum, does it hurt when I do this?'

:)

Of course, my baby isn't really thinking those things, but still. It's my really real baby making itself known the only way it can.

It is miraculous isn't it? Having a living human being growing inside you. I don't take that miracle for granted. It isn't granted by the sheer power of our wishes.

Sometimes, naturally, people are curious if we will have more. But, nowadays, I don't really know how to answer that. Because, I really don't know what the future holds. I may say, yes I'd like more. But even then, my desires aren't what make a new soul appear out of nowhere. I can't just order a baby, as though God is a vending machine. Only God can decide when to grant life. No matter how much we may want something to happen, it is ultimately in God's hands, isn't it?

I'm grateful. I don't deserve children. I didn't do anything special to earn them. They are a gift, as the Bible says.

They are a gift that will ultimately be reclaimed. They belong to God, even now whilst I nurture them and raise them.

So, as I prepare to enter what may be a pretty good trial in perseverance and suffering, I am trying to stay conscious of my gratitude.

Today, I choose to be grateful. Tomorrow I will be faced with that choice again. 

May I make a wise choice.

Lord, thank you. I am so eager to meet this new baby. To see the individual you have crafted and made wonderfully.

Sara. 

This appeared on my Facebook today. It was surprisingly appropriate. :)

God bless!

Seven Silent Struggles of Homeschooling Mums

I don't often write about homeschooling. But today, I am.

As homeschooling mums we face struggles, but often these struggles are kept silent.... even from one another. My prayer is that this post will expose areas where we really wish we could reach out and be heard by an encouraging ear. Some of these things are not exclusive to homeschooling, so if you are not doing this yourself, please be encouraged to read on.

Struggle No. 1 - OTHER PEOPLE EXPECT US ALL TO BE PERFECT

It is very easy for our decision to home school to give others unwarranted permission to expect perfection from us and our children. There isn't even a standard definition on perfection either! If you're children misbehave or don't know how to spell 'please' at age 5, there can be some pretty hurtful comments made about how well you are not doing. Though we may well be home educating because we believe it will be a better academic environment or because we believe it is a superior moral playground, it does not mean that our children morph into perfect robots overnight. I wish this was just something we dealt with from others only, but sometimes we can do it to each other as well.
But homeschooling is a long term project, not a sprint run. Our goals are longterm, not immediate.
Can be hurtful and hard to deal with, even more hard to know how to respond graciously.
If you are struggling with this feeling of having unrealistic expectations placed on your family, you are not alone.

Struggle No.2 - WE DON'T FEEL LIKE WE CAN ASK FOR HELP

I am terrible at asking for help. It is my pet hate to be an imposition on others. But this is applified 100 fold by the fact that we homeschool. I am afraid that if I ask for help, or admit I might need a date with my husband or a break sometimes, that people will stare at me with this, "Why should I help you? You asked for it by keeping them with you all the time." look on their face. So I tend to save them the effort (and save face by not even giving them a chance to think such a thing) by never asking for help... a short cut to needing it even more!
Why is it that we feel as though (and sometimes are treated as though) we ought to be machines without normal down times, just because we'd like to educate our children at home? Even if they went to school, would I need time alone with my husband sometimes? Yes!!! Would I still need time alone by myself to recharge and come back refreshed to serve my family again? Yes!!! I'm still an average woman with a burn out threshold (more on that in a minute!)
If you're struggling with this feeling (or reactions from others), you are definitely not alone.

Struggle No. 3 - WE CAN TREAT OUR CHILDREN MORE LIKE STUDENTS THAN CHILDREN

Part and parcel with being their teacher comes the mindset that they are our students. Which they are, of course, but they are also first and foremost children (of God). Teaching and loving them are not mutually exclusive, we can do both at once. But sometimes the balance gets out of whack and we teach more than we love.
Sometimes, we lose our focus and it seems more important that they do that math lesson, or tidy their room, than that we treat them with proper love and respect. We forget to consider their fragile frames and their intense need for our affections.
I pray I can keep the balance in the right order, love them by teaching them and teaching them by my love. There are so many things we can show them and help them learn. But the greatest of these is love, hope and faith.

Struggle No. 4 - WE CAN BURN OUT

This is what happens when we don't do number 2 very well. Burn out. It can mean all sorts of things and in varying degrees. But the bottom line is this; we are no longer able to do what it is we are called to do. We are spent, perhaps just like a bank account slightly overdrawn. Or we may be close to declaring bankruptcy. Either way, being in the red emotionally, physically, mentally and/or spiritually is never a good situation. We tend to keep this to ourselves too. Like a secret that no one can know, because we have this silent code of coping to adhere to. It can feel like it is all our fault, even when it isn't. It can feel like a word we never want to hear; incompetent. We want to be doing a good job here, and admitting to burn out seems to be the equivalent of an 'F' on a report card.
But that is a lie. Burn out is not failure. It is succeeding to take care of everything but yourself. It is what happens when we try to meet the needs of everyone but ourselves for too long. It is what happens when we don't care enough about those others we love to realise that they need us to slow down, take a break, sleep more or ask for help... for their sake as well as ours.
If you're struggling with this, I understand! I hear you! Take steps now, before you hit bankrupt to alleviate the pressure. Hot engines are easier to fix than blown head gaskets.

Struggle No. 5 - WE CAN TRY TO DO TOO MUCH

This may sound like the same thing as above, and they are related, but I mean on a practical level. As homeschoolers, we face the constant barriage to 'involve' our children in things. Be it learning to swim, visiting the museum, going to art classes, horse riding or just that golden gem; socialising.
The perception is that homeschoolers are always 'hidden' away at home and that is bad, bad, bad.... so we try to compensate by getting them out, out, out of the house. We may feel like we can justify our decision to home educate by being able to tell the next critic that 'We visited a fire station this week!'.
Don't get me wrong, a visit to a fire station now and again would be quite thrilling. But let's not get so involved in being 'involved' that we forget to have down time. 


Struggle No. 6 - WE CAN FIND APPOINTMENTS EVEN MORE DIFFICULT

This may just be a little years thing.... but I read a homeschool blog once that was boasting some light hearted pros to homeschooling. One of them was the fact that we can go to the doctors, etc, at any time of day and not need the after school appointment times. Now, I can see that it is indeed 'possible' for me to do that. But with four children, 6 and under (soon to be 5 children, 7 and under) this is NOT easier for me! I still need those after school appointments (because I'm blessed with a husband who works early and gets home earlier than most) so that I can just take the appropriate child only to the visit. I have, and can, take all of them to the doctors during the day, but it is quite the expedition.
I'd be interested to hear from those with older children.... this does get easier, right?!


Struggle No. 7 - SOCIALISING IS HARDER

Gone are the days of having a nice, relaxing mums group with all our cute, stationary little babies lying on the floor rugs between us and a nice spread of afternoon tea before us. Now, the children not only move. But talk. Constantly. And when they are not talking, they are fighting, falling down and getting a scrape or emptying all their toy boxes onto what was a clean floor. That isn't a complaint by the way, just stating the facts. :)
What was once a cute competition to see how many times you could get your baby to smile at onlookers, is now a busy rush of activity and multi-tasking and half sentences.
It isn't easy to socialise when you're a homeschooler. That is just the season we are in, especially when our children are little.
Homeschooling is a full time committment to our children's education and so it means that there will be personal struggles to social for a time. Our children are all present at home, all the time. That isn't a bad thing, but it restricts what we can do sometimes.
Finding time to maintain friendships (even of an evening or weekend perhaps) is a necessary part of taking care of ourselves. I'm bad at this too, because being tired can make you feel like doing nothing but going to bed! But realising that even if this season of life is light on the social side, it will one day be different. One day, a cup of tea will still be hot when we drink it. One day, we will be able to sit down without interruption. One day, I might find that I can talk on the phone again or go out for coffee with a friend and not have to multi-task.
If you are struggling socially, you are definitely not alone. Remembering that God is there for me when the season excludes lots of time for others has helped. I am also starting to make small efforts and doing the little things I can to be a friend to others.


There you go. Some struggles we don't often feel able to share. They may not all be applicable to you. But please know that you are not alone if you struggle with any or all of these things. We need to stick together, not suffer alone. We are called to bear with one another in our burdens. This may just be a gentle hug or a smile. We may not be able to change the situation for another, but we can all spare a kind word or a prayer.


If you are not a homeschooler, please use this information to know how to serve, bless, pray for or help someone you may know who is homeschooling. We are not super humans, we are not without faults or hardships or struggles. :) But we do appreciate anyone with a kind word to say, they can be few and far between some days.

May God bless you and your family today,

Sara 

“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” – Phil 4:19

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing" - 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Motherhood: Making Physical Sacrifices

'Whatever you do, do everything for God's glory.' 

1 Corinthians 10:31

Motherhood and pregnancy is often no walk in the park. It can involve huge sacrifice physically.

Sacrifice can seem like a big, big deal. It can seem too much, unbearable, unreasonable even. As mothers, we are called to be others centred and that can be really hard! We will be asked in increasing measure, to lay things aside. Sometimes for a season, sometimes forever. But we do this properly, only when we do it for God's glory.

We are given opportunities each day to show a sacrificial attitude. To give our time, resources, health and abilities to Him to use as He sees best. One of the ways we can lay things aside is through physical sacrifice.

It may be as simple as not eating brie (this isn't so 'simple' to me... I love brie! haha), or not drinking wine (very simple for me, I never drink it anyway... :)). Or it could be a massive sacrifice: I once heard a story of a pregnant mother who had her waters break at 15 weeks!! This is normally a death sentence for the baby. Amazingly, this mother lay down with her pelvis up on a pillow (so the remaining water could replenish and not dry up) until her pregnancy reached 32 weeks and they could deliver her baby!!! I am gob-smacked at the level of sacrifice that must have required! But that wonderful and faithful mother is a true example of self-sacrificial love. Her baby survived because of her willingness to be stationary for nearly 20 weeks (albeit in need of medical care and attention and being smaller as a result of such a small amount of amniotic fluid)! Praise God for stories like that!

Motherhood (or pregnancy) can be a huge physical sacrifice. For me, it involves a committment to severe morning sickness from 4 weeks until around 18 weeks. By the end of pregnancy, it becomes hard to walk without a LOT of pain. (I have Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction). I also get Restless Legs Syndrome, preventing me from being able to lay down and sleep. I go into labour with months of sleep deprivation up my sleeve already. Not exactly the best start to life-with-a-newborn. But I don't mention this for pity's sake. I need none of that! I mention it because I am willingly pregnant with number 5, because I know that the discomforts of pregnancy are not as much of a curse as that little baby will be a blessing. But there are days when I'm tempted to think that it is unfair. I think "Why do I have to deal with this, when friends don't even get nauseous!" or "Why is this so hard for me? Most people can be pregnant and walk normally, or sleep normally...." It is on those days, that I need Christ's presence to be loud and clear. To be reminded of His sacrifice, the ultimate in unfairness. To be reminded that I see only a fraction of the sufferings of others and that suffering isn't in itself a thing to be avoided and abhorred.

Physical sacrifice is just part of the parcel of life. We all go through it in our own individual ways. It may be acute, like mine, or it may be chronic. It may be severe or just that nagging and relentless ache. But our bodies are tools, they are not museum pieces. As Rachel Jankovic has spoken about, we are not given bodies in order to keep them in the same condition forever. Our bodies are aging, but even more than that, our bodies were given to us by God as a tool. They do diverse and extraordinary things, but they are not to become our idols. We are not giving our bodies as living sacrifices if we lament to the point of dispair over stretch marks. We cannot reach our 30's trying to preserve a body like we had in our early 20's. Though I will add a qualification here, I am not saying just let yourself go! I'm not saying, don't watch your weight or diet or care about the condition of your body. I'm saying don't try to dust it off and put it on the shelf to keep it in pristine condition.

A dust collector body that you are too afraid to use is not the same thing as neglecting to maintain your body so that it can be used most effectively.

Our bodies are there to be used. Our hands are there to cut, hold, hug, fold, make, play, wash and much, much more. In pregnancy, our body is a tool that will nurture and grow our babies. When nursing, it does much the same thing, but less intensely and constantly. As our children grow, our bodies are still so very much a part of their lives. They climb on us, kiss us, want to be held by us, lifted up, tucked in, bathed, pushed, fed and carried by us. Our bodies are in high demand, especially in these little years. But it is important to remember that this is normal. This is good. Even though at the end of the day we may feel completely exhausted by all the contact and work that our bodies had to do. This is our living sacrifice. We are nursing or growing or cuddling people for the glory of God.

The world will say that this is truly awful. That the demand a child makes on your body is unreasonable. That if you have even the slightest inconvenience made to you by pregnancy that you should never go there again. (Though there are sometimes legitimate concerns health wise, I'm talking 'inconvenient', not 'life-threatening'). The world will have us believe that maintaining the perfect body is all that gives us worth. But that simply isn't true. We are no less useful to God if we have stretch marks. We are no more useful to God if we are Barbie Dolls either.

Our physical sacrifices are seen by God. We can live in our bodies with a mind towards glorifying Him through them. They are vessels to be used, not trophies on our wall. So use them, without reserve, without begruding the changes that motherhood has made to them. Use them fully and don't look back.

Oh, and back to that note of maintaining our bodies.... That is absolutely essential. Eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep are good places to start. If we want our bodies to go the distance, then just like a car, it needs regular services and needs the right kind of fuel. This can be hard when we are busy all day, tending to other people's needs. But making the effort and the time to look after our bodies will benefit everyone in the end! :) The most useful tools are those kept in good working condition.

The other important reason to be thinking rightly about this, is because it is going to rub off! Our children are watching our reactions to physical sacrifice. They will learn how to 'deal with it' from us. We can teach them to begrudge it, grumble about it, dwell on it, or we can teach them to see it as our normal and blessed living sacrifice. We won't always come out with the right reaction, but we can be prayerful and mindful of it and seek God's grace in those moments of temptation. We can show our children how to seek God in that physical weakness too. When our emotions run high and we fail in our reactions, we are able to show them that God is there to lift us up again.

Praise God for the gift of our bodies. It is a great and useful tool and I am thankful for it. I pray that the sacrifices we make physical will bring glory to God. That others will see a difference in Christian women because of how we view and use our bodies. May we continue to bless others by the physical things we do to serve them. May God be with us and in us and may we remember that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Sara

An old photo from last year, but hey cuddles are always good!

Summer Photos of Random Doings

I feel like I haven't written much this year.
Morning sickness has a way of making everything seem gross. Knitting, gross. Writing, gross. Cooking, very gross. Laundry, way gross.
But we have moved beyond the state of perpetual grossness. Smiles all around for that!
But I figured we must have done something this year, and sure enough we have!
So here are some random pictures from my phone for you. Be warned, I do take some very random pictures indeed!

Amanda kindly offers Panda a turn on the swing.

"Do you put your undies on your head? On your head? Your undies on your head? Uh-ah, uh-ah!"

An A4 magnifying glass sheet is a very effective way of making mummy laugh!

Blackberry picking was enjoyed by all. But mostly by Amanda, who got to sit back and enjoy our labours!

The boys constructed a park bench under their favourite climbing tree. Callum uses his library bag to escape the camera.

Bike riding on the bike path. Note to self, roller-blading whilst pushing a pram and pregnant is hard work! Good thing I went slowly!

The boys are just as proud of their sister's new pajamas and Ugg boots as she was!

A family day out at the football (an early birthday present for Dad). They were even kind enough to win for us that day.

After 5 months of hiding my knitting because it was 'gross', I finally finished my first ever piece of clothing. Emma loves her new jumper, made just in time for winter!

Yesterday was dress up day. Useful for keeping children occupied and for curbing my Obsessive Compulsive Cleaning Disorder. :)

Little sisters are often talented at letting the chickens escape. Good thing Callum is a chicken-catching-machine!

I hope you have enjoyed your own first half of 2013 (wasn't it just Christmas?????).
I look forward to writing more than the titles of my blog posts in the near future (my draft list is huge! haha)
 

God bless,
Sara