Momma Bean

It's hard to believe.

2011-04-16T08:01:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that I'm old enough to have born six children.

It's hard to believe that we're old enough to have a mortgage, which we're working hard to get rid of.

It's hard to believe that I'm old enough to drive a Suburban, because I need to, not just because I think it's cool.

It's hard to believe that I've been married for ten years, and it's good. Really good.

It's hard to believe that I've grown up.

But what's hardest to believe is that despite all of my efforts, God has brought me here. I'm in love with Him, in love with my husband and in love with my family. They love each other and they love me too!

Sweet Pea

2011-03-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

Pictures from Ruth.

My utmost for His highest.

2011-01-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

From today's devotional.

"When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing. Never try to help God fulfill His word. Abram went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all of his self-sufficiency was destroyed. He grew past the point of relying on his own common sense. Those years of silence were the time of discipline, not a period of God's displeasure."

I am amazed at how long Abram waited. 13 years! That is huge. I start pouting after two days. I want to be able to say that I waited as long as it took. Abram tried to help God which is why we have Ishmael. I have to admit there are many Ishmaels in my life. While they may not be real people they are there none the less.

At the end of this devotional I have to ask myself. If the Lord had given Abram his son right away, say in a year or two, would Abram have been willing to lay him on the alter? Would he have "known" Hagar and learned that he cannot do things on his own, that he must rely on God's will and timing. Would he be able to say to himself "God has promised that my decendents would be like the sand on the shore, surely I can trust him in this as I have before.

This make me, with fear and trembling, want to go through the darkness, to be strengthened. When Mercy Me's lead singer Bart Mallard recorded the song "Bring the Rain" he was asked, "Are you sure you want to sing this?" It is a fearful thing to say to God, "Do what you want, I'll take the bad with the good, test me and see if I'll praise you no matter what... help me do it, but send the rain Lord."

Just in case.

2011-01-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving tomorrow night for Vancouver for a few days to attend my Grandpa's funeral. Whenever I have to fly some where I am faced with my mortality. I've been faced with it a lot lately in Francis Chan's book Crazy Love.

I have a bit of a habbit of writing my family a letter when I fly somewhere (as if I'm not more likely to die driving somewhere) just in case. I've decided to put it on here because it's not as likely to get lost or eaten by a toddler :) Usually they are very long with a large portion for each child. This time I don't have so much to say.

To my family.

Never forget that no matter how many times I failed, I loved you. You will fail too, and I hope if you have learned anything from me it is that God's grace is big enough, period.

Serve God, no matter what the cost may be. Be it your life, your relationships, your comfort, your security, your money, your time, your sleep. Give it all to him. Not just in your heart. But give it in service for him. There is nothing on this earth that is worth holding onto. It is all for God.

No matter what it costs you or how much it hurts, read the Bible and do what it says. People will hate you for it. They will say that you don't love the way Christ wants you to. They will say that you are legalistic or a hypocrite. People who always stood beside you will leave. We are not here to please man, man has nothing for us, man's opinion does not matter. The only thing that matters is God and his word. They are the only ones who will be there in the end. Our life here is but a vapor. A fleeting moment. Don't waste the little time you have.

Do not worry about things. God will give us all that we need. If you are hungry he knows. If there is no food, don't question God, worship him. He will not forsake you. He is sovreign, don't ask why he's letting you go hungry, thank him that he's allowing you to even draw breath.

I want you to love each other. But not the way this world loves. Serve each other, give your lives for each other. HOLD EACH OTHER ACCOUNTABLE. If your brother or sister is sinning, don't let them feel good about it. Show them their sin, let them see how detestible it is to God. Pray for them and help them out of the pit, but don't sit there and watch them wallow in it. What does darkness have to do with light?

Honour your Father. He is a man with much wisdom. More than most his age. Submit yourselves to him while you are in his house, and honour him and his opinions even when you leave. He is not perfect, but neither are you and the Lord has set him over you to train you up and send you out. As long as he isn't telling you to sin (and I don't mean the kind of thing that you think must be sin because it's uncomfortable and you really don't like it, I mean the "thou shalt not"s and the commands of Jesus.) do what he says. Period.

This isn't a fluffy love letter. I know that you understand how much I love you. These are the things that I want to live by, the kind of person that I want to be. I pray that they will be the same for you, that is why I've written them.

May the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and may your rejoice and worship him even when it doesn't seem to.

I love you all,
Momma

From My utmost for his highest by Oswald Chambers

2011-01-18T08:22:00.000-08:00

" Jesus said to her 'Give Me a drink' (John 4:7). How many of us are expecting Jesus Christ to quench our thirst when we should be satisfying him!"

Crazy Love

2011-01-15T22:17:00.000-08:00

I am reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. So far it's life changing. Here is a part that I read last night and it floored me. He's talking about worry and stress and not rejoicing in all things as the scriptures command in Phil. 4:4

"When I am consumed by my problems - stressed out about my life, my family, and my job - I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God's commad to always rejoice. In other words, that I have a "right" to disobey God because of the magnitude of my resposibilities."

Then later on talking about worry and stress Chan says:

"Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it's okay to sin ad not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional. Both worry and stress reek of arrogace. They declare our tendency to forget that we've been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won't be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God's strength, our problems are small, indeed."

This book is full of these beautiful nuggets and I love the way the Lord brought it into my life right at the same time I fould the song Follow You by Leeland. There is deffinately a theme going on here :) I think someone is trying to tell me something.... how about you?

Our Anthem

2011-01-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

Smart, not wise.

2010-10-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

Voddie Baucham said "I smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others." Now he may not have been the only one to say it, but he's the only one that I've heard say it.

I unfortunately have been smart lately, not wise. It seems that growing up never officially happens, it's a process. I seem to find myself being refined quite often. Weather it's being mean to a friend's child or gossiping, I've done it. Saying innapropriate things? Check. Speaking unkindly to my spouse in front of my children? Over here. The fact of the matter is, I don't think it will ever be over. The fact of the matter is, I'm sinful. The muck of sin is in me and every now and then it likes to revolt. I pray that I'm right when I say the battles are fewer and farther in between, but then I'd probably be getting prideful on top of it all.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one doing these things. It sure feels like I am. I never hear anyone say,

"Man, I was gossiping again and it came back to haunt me."

"Shoot, I can't believe I just said that to my husband!"

I often feel like I'm the only one being refined.

Most people look like they've already gone through the process and they're done.

I get very tired of needing refinement, I feel frustrated with myself for being smart and not wise. Good grief woman, just do what your bible says! Listen to the spirit as it leads you and DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD!!!

But no, I don't. I continue on like a sheep (I hear they're very stupid), needing to be rescued from the mirey clay and barb wire fences. I always do get rescued, but not without injury to myself or others.

People encourage me and edify me a lot, apparently I need it, and I'm thankful for it. It makes me want to be a better person. Not a lot of people have the guts to say the hard things.

What if we did?

What if we stopped talking about other people? What if we stopped talking about our kids and our spouses and this woman we know from work? What if all we talked about was ourselves and the Lord?

What if instead of voicing our opinion or our experience to help someone, we opened the word and prayed it?

Who would we be?

I want to find out.

To Mom.

2010-10-08T08:53:00.001-07:00

"Thank you for helping me threw my strugls"

It's good to know that despite my failings, the Lord is still driving this ship and we seem to be going in the right direction.

I recently starting writing in a journal for each of my older children who can read. It's not all the time but whenever I see them struggling or notice something that is particularly great I will write them a little note and try to throw in an appropriate verse to encourage them. A lot of times in the day I am too surrounded by littles trying for my attention or being just plain trying and I'm not good at vocalizing during those times. I need to be quiet and focus on not being the mean mom. If there is too much pressure to also be encouraging and talk about stuff in the midst of the chaos, I tend to lose it. But there are things my children need to hear, especially the older ones. So in enters the journals.

My children dont' have baby books. But hopefully they will have these to look back at.

When we judge people...

2010-10-04T12:25:00.000-07:00

...we leave no room to love them.

I would love to know who is the owner of this quote. It's a truth that is becoming more and more real to me everyday.

Who's baby is that?

2010-09-28T18:33:00.001-07:00

Which one?

The one covered in fecal matter.

Oh, that would be my baby.

Yeah this one. Although he's not covered in fecal matter in this picture. Thankfully.

Things I learned today.

When Ephrim shouts, "THERE'S POO ALL OVER THE STAIRS" (which are carpet, by the way) Mr. Superfantastic is more than willing to finish up dinner.

I can touch large amounts of my children's poo without feeling sick or even really grossed out. I don't know if that's something to be proud of or not?

There's no such thing as washing your hands too much. (well I guess if you stood at the sink for a whole day washing that would be too much)

Raisins digest faster than corn.

You're welcome.

Mr. Superfantastic....

2010-09-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

...strikes again.

I got them :)

I love my Momma...

2010-09-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

....and so do they.

Fire!

2010-09-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

I finally did it! I finally made a fire in the wood stove! We have had wood heat for around seven years and this is the first time I've made the fire. I know it's almost too pathetic to be proud of. Oh well.

It just goes to show that Mr.Superfantastic loves to take care of me. But right now, he's taking care of some other people (with my very happy blessing) so I get to take care of him while he's here. Now just to figure out how to move the greenhouse for him? It just requires some big guys. It's not even on a foundation.

In the mean time I'm going to make these muffins and sew some new wipes today. While Joe is mostly potty trained, I do still have Travis in diapers and in about 26 weeks there will be a new little tush to change around here. Only a month left until I can tell you if it will be a boy tush or a girl tush. Yes, we are going to find out this time, Lord willing.

I made these muffins last night and they've been a hit this morning. I made them without the chocolate chips and used water instead of milk. I also used coconut sugar and coconut oil.

I am thankful!

2010-09-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning feeling... well... Thankful!

I am so thankful for my husband. He has been working 12 hour days for the last two weeks. The only complaint I have heard is "I'm tired" and it's not even said as a grumble, just a fact!

This morning when I realized that, yes, I had in fact fed his lunch for today to the children for dinner last night and he now had to eat out (something I would be happy about, but not him), no grumble.

When I asked him last night if he can hang some shelves for me (I was asking if it was even a possibility or if I could do it) he just said, "Show me where you want them", followed by, "Not tonight right?"

Not only do I have an amazing husband. That husband has an amazing mother! While I love my Momma, I also love my Momma in law. I keep tricking her into coming over here to look at different decorating ideas that I have for my house and get her advice. That woman has an amazing gift when it comes to home design, inside and out. Her house looks like something out of better homes and gardens. I love being there, I feel instantly relaxed.

I am also very thankful for friends who we let my husband use their amazing tractor for free to dig the holes for our RV storage! For Free! We felt pretty loved last night when it arrived and my husband nearly giggled with excitement. Can you picture Mr.Superfantastic giggling? Neither can I, and I've been married to him for almost ten years!

Ten years!

I am thankful for clean floors, and empty laundry baskets, eggs, and neighbors who do chicken chores, bake, and teach our children all sorts of amazing things.

I am thankful for the beauty of fall but more thankful for winter when the bears go to sleep, I'm sorry to do this, but here's to an early snowfall!

10 weeks? Oh my.

2010-08-15T20:26:00.000-07:00

So I'm around 10 weeks. But I look like I'm about four months. Now granted this is my 6th baby and I guess things are moving into postition to accomidate my growing uterus, but I'm wondering if this is going to be another pregnancy like Ephrim's. After the small bellies with Joe and Travis, I'm not looking forward to another monster pregnancy. I've already gained close to ten pounds, also something I'm not used to doing, I usually don't gain anything in the first trimester. After working hard to lose weight it's hard to see it pile back on at rapid speed. Oh well, I lost it once I can do it again, it is completely worth it to be blessed with another Wiebelette!

I have to be honest I have really struggled through the morning sickness this time. I have gone on Diclectin, this is the second pregnancy I have done it with. I'm managing to take only one pill a day but am still exhausted and sick off and on, but much better than without it. I am looking forward to the half way mark and some energy!

But there is joy still! My children are full of it (joy that is) even when I'm having a hard time, and I'm finding I am slowly getting back on top of things with the house. They are so excited for another sibling. And while everyone else is hoping for a girl this time (we are hoping to find out what we're having) Emma insists she wants another brother.

It's up and down, good days and bad. But all in all I am thankful!

I just don't know how Michelle Duggar did it!

A new favorite.

2010-07-27T18:11:00.001-07:00

Sixth

2010-07-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

I know I'm number sixth,
but the fact you can't deny is that God,
Almighty Giver, is the Author of my life
My soul is no less special, and my spirit no less great than those that came before me--
be they one, or six, or eight!
So many eyes are blinded by the whispers of this world-- to them,
there is no miracle in a human life unfurled. A baby's just a plaything, a burden,
or a chore, and we must proceed with caution to prevent too many more!
Only a fool would trust the Lord to give as He desires and live a life of trust in Him..
whatever that requires.
A new car may be exciting; a new house may be a prize,
but my new life is better than any thing that money buys.
So all the world may roll their eyes when sixth now they see--
But I can't wait until I meet the "fools" who welcome me.

written by: Jennifer Wilson

Looking for...

2010-07-07T07:51:00.001-07:00

We are looking for an adult female cat that is already spayed, good with kids and other animals, and house trained. We have a mouse problem :( It has to be short haired as Dalen and Adon have allergies.

We're also looking for a female puppy that will grow into a med/large dog. No pitbulls or the like. I would prefer a mutt as that's what we can afford.

If you have either of these or know of anyone who does please let me know!

Thank you!

I didn't think I was a redneck.... until this.

2010-06-30T06:35:00.001-07:00

While this may be about the worst picture of me, well no it's not but it's one of them. I LOVE IT! This is what community is about. I am so thankful for each of these people! Dalen helped too but he didn't want to be in the picture. He caught the chickens for us. This is the first time Dalen has intentionally touch a chicken! WOOHOO! Adon was so excited to get to cut the heads of this time. I was very proud of him! All the other boys in the picture were head cutter-offers too! These guys are going to be such useful men!

Please Pray

2010-04-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

Adon's rabbit pens were destroyed last night by dogs (we think) we have found one rabbit but there are still ten more out there. Two are pure bred rabbits that we just bought a week ago and spent quite a bit of money on. There are six babies that were supposed to go to the pet store this weekend and four adults. Please pray that we will be able to find them and catch them. Thank you.

Adon's Logo

2010-03-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

Our son Adon has started a business breeding rabbits. He has done it entirely with his own money and has not been allowed to borrow or take on any debt. This has been a huge learning experience for him. Yesterday we decided it was time to make him a logo.

We are just calling it A.W.Bunnies, but I like it. It isn't too cutsie and seems a little professional. I am so proud of him.

If you have any odd jobs that a boy could do and you don't have a boy to do them, please keep Adon in mind as he is always looking for ways to make more money. He also takes pop/beer bottles and cans and sorts them and returns them, so if you have some stashed for a rainy day, maybe this is the day, nevermind that it's beautifully sunny out ;)

Welcome to the Family! (03/26/2010)

2010-03-27T07:37:00.000-07:00

While he's always been a part of our family....

...he's a new member of the family of God! Happy re-birthday Ephrim!

Joe is 2! (Dang-it! I blinked again!)

2010-02-12T23:01:00.000-08:00

Adon

2010-01-21T23:16:00.000-08:00

We were up late last night washing floors. The older kids get to stay up and help. They actually enjoy the time together and they get to stay up late! At about 10:00 I ask Adon:

"Adon are you tired?"

Adon "Nope, just hungry" :) "Are you tired Mom?"

"Yep, I'm really tired." I was sitting in a recliner nursing Travis to sleep.

Adon "You have to be really tired if you're going to be the best mom in the world."

I love that boy!

16 days

2010-01-20T09:36:00.001-08:00

Yep that's how long it's been since I posted that I would be posting every day! HA! Well I should know better by now! But I am posting to update on how things have been going.

I haven't worked out enough in the last week but I've worked alot. We have been very busy here and I'm fine with that. So many things have happened in our home that have needed to very badly.... like the school room and the under the stairs storage area.

Last night Adon and Emma joined 4h, and I am so excited about it. Adon will be doing Rabbits and Emma will be doing poultry.

Okay onto fatso business!

I have lost 7 pounds! I'm so excited. I am now 170 pounds and I haven't weighed this much since before I got pregnant with Adon!!!!

Okay here's the real amazing thing! We were cleaning out the stairs last night and my wedding dress was in there.... yes it's stuffed into a garment bag and stuffed into another bag and stuffed under the stairs. I GOT IT ON!!!!!!!!!!! I could barely breathe, but it zipped up!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am now 20 pounds away from my goal and have lost 35 pounds since Travis was born!!!

I haven't been having Dairy which is great. Some days I've had too many carbs but for the most part I am so happy with my eating. And I'm totally fine that I had french fries for dinner last night while sitting on our bedroom couch with Dalen and watching the Duggars.

I've discovered that we cannot keep this family in enough fruit and I really don't like munching on veggies.... but I will keep trying.

I found a great webpage.

http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/

I'm not gluten free but she also has some great vegan recipes which mean they are dairy free.

Well there's my update... maybe I'll get Adon to take a picture of me later to add or something? What do you think?

Oh Right! My inches
This is what my inches were on the 8th

Bust- 45
Waist-38
Hips-47

Today they are

Bust- 43
Waist - 36
Hips - 46

That's 5 inches down!!!!! YAHOO! And my pants are thanking me.... how do I know? When I jump they are shimmying all around me, not holding on for dear life ;)

January 8th

2010-01-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

Breakfast
2 hard boiled eggs
1 T. Miracle Whip
4 crisp breads

Snack
1 cup fruit smoothie

Lunch
1.5 cups chicken noodle soup
3 carrot sticks
1 cup almond milk

Fats 1.5 Fruits 2 Veggies .5 Meat Carbs 3.5 Milk 1 Free 1.5

Okay here is the weigh in.

Weight 174 (it was 177 when Dalen and I started)

Bust - 45
Hips - 38
Waist - 47

Dalen has lost 5 pounds already! Crazy guy I've got my work cut out for me. I've got 24 pounds left to go and I'll be getting myself and new wardrobe! But... he's pulling out the big guns... He has stopped drinking COKE! Can you believe it! I don't know how long he's planning on not drinking it and if he's just going to have one every now and then, but he's not bringing them to work in his lunch anymore and I haven't seen him with one for a few days. I just don't know what to expect next? We're going out for dinner tonight so it will be interesting to see what he gets? I think he'll have a coke.

I am planning to have this yummy pasta dish that they have that has no dairy. But I'm going to ask for half of it to be packed up right away. Then I guess I'll try a salad. I don't know which one though (we're going to Mr.Mikes) I can't have any dairy, and I don't like sea food.. so I guess I will wait and see what they have.

I did 1/2 an hour of aerobics yesterday and I'm going to go do it again today with some crunches and pushups.

Here's some eye candy.

Adon's Christmas present from my parents.

They shared a milkshake and fell asleep in a pile of socks watching modern marvels. I love them!

And I love them!

Diet Blog

2010-01-07T13:22:00.001-08:00

Well I know I've not been on here a lot lately... I'm okay with that :) Life happens like that. But now, I will be here everyday! Unfortunately it's going to be my diet blog. I will be going back on the Exchange Diet and will be using the blog to keep track of my exchanges and exercise. Dalen and I are competing against each other to see who can get to 155 first. Can you believe he's only 5 pounds lighter than me! Men.

Anyway he's three pounds ahead of since I've been sick and haven't been able to exercise but that will change today. For those of you who are interested in things like dieting and such I could sure use the encouragement, for those of you who aren't, I won't be offended.. I'll throw in some cute kid pictures every now and then ;)

Alrighty then! Today will be my first workout day and meny planning day and tomorrow I will weigh in and measure up ;)

I'm so thankful for these moments.

2009-12-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

To be able to give the gift of nourishment that is perfecetly made for my babe. I am thankful that he was born without a cleft palate and that he has been able to breastfeed.

Nursing is a time of relaxations and peace for me. Our bodies release calming hormones when we breastfeed, I experience this every time I nurse Travis. When I am stressed or upset my first inclination is to nurse my baby. I am so thankful for God's amazing design...

... and for the pictures to remember this feeling.

Thank you Ruth!

Wiebes

2009-11-29T08:41:00.000-08:00

Adon (who will be 8 next month)
Emma (who lost her two front teeth in time for Christmas)
Ephrim (who loves me SO much and always kisses me)
Joe (who doesn't like looking at Aunty Ruthy's camera)
Travis (who thinks he should walk and is breaking my heart)
I can't believe how blessed I am!

GASP she's blogging!

2009-11-24T21:56:00.000-08:00

So I made a few things for my fabulous neighbor Carla and I wanted to post them.

I made her a tea inspired gift, since she likes tea. At least she always asks me if I want tea so I'm assuming that she likes tea... hopefully.

So I found her some vintage coffe cups at the thrift store and put them in a basket with some BEAUTIFUL tea that I found at Save-on-Foods (thank you Joni, the silk tea bags made me want to like tea)and some other "tea" stuff.

The "STASH" tea things (see I don't even know tea terminology) are not the tea that I gave her. They are just from my tea collection that is as old as Adon(possibly older) I always asked myself why on earth I still had it and now I know, to model Carla's tea wallet! I used this tutorial to make the tea wallet and used this tutorial to silk screen the tree onto the outside. I know that Carla must love trees since she has a giant one tatoo(d, ed) on her back. It's impressive. Hopefully she isn't sick of trees because she has one on her body, but I figure since it's on her back she probably doesn't get to look at it much, maybe her fiance Eric (I almost called him the "Fine Fiance Eric" but then realized some people may think I have a crush on him, which I do not, in case you were wondering) will hate the tree tea bag. HAHA I love it!

I also made her a coordinating tea towel and put her fabulous silky bagged tea into a coordinating drawstring bag which also matched ;) I didn't follow a tutorial for the tea towel... sorry, I'm also not going to give you one :)

I just have to say that I'm in love with silk screening. I used this(scroll down on the page) tree embroidery pattern from Lollychops (please read her blog she is the funnest person to read!) and printed it in mini. I will be silk screening many things.... I only wish I knew more people who liked tea :( There is also a business card wallet in this pattern... I may have to whip up a few of those for my entrepreneurial spirited friends.

A lesson in Tact

2009-11-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

We were discussing a character in a movie, it was a catapillar that was very fat and ate all the time with the excuse that it needed all that food for it's transformation into a "beautiful butterfly" most of you with kids will know what movie this is. In the end it hatches into an obese butterfly with inty bity wings.

Emma: " Was the butterfly beautiful Mom?"
Adon: "No it was fat."
Me: "Things can be fat and beautiful."
Adon: "Like you"

Thankfully I'm fully aware of the fact that I'm fat and often discuss it with my children. I don't want it to be taboo and I want them to see my weaknesses and my struggle to master them. So I laughed! Really it was meant to be a compliment. Hopefully he'll marry a good natured woman!

Or a skinny one ;)

Wool Sweaters

2009-11-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

If you have any that you don't use I would love to have them!!! Thanks!

One Bunny...

2009-10-17T09:29:00.001-07:00

...and a very happy boy!

Bunnies!

2009-10-16T09:19:00.001-07:00

I am looking for rabbits. I need a female Mini-Lop and a male and female mini rex. I would prefer that they are not black but will take what I can get. Thank you!

Reply to a comment

2009-09-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to publish this in the comments because of some bad language but I wanted people to see it, so I just edited out the bad language and I'm publishing it here. It's pertaining to the video/song below.

"No offense but this post and song made me feel realllly sorry for you if you actually believe this stuff. omg, so basically before your husband and god made you "pure" and worthy again you were basically just garbage? Nice...that is so sad....and brutal. I guess that's why you've been guilted into pumping out as many babies as hubby and god decide you should, nice christian prison you're living in there... "

Romans 3:23-24 says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

I am so thankful for the gift of salvation that Jesus gave me. Until the day I received this gift my life was worthless. I spent every day looking for love and never finding it. I would find a moment of love and it would quickly be over. I depended on people to give me a "feeling".

But people fail,

always have and always will.

No one could love me enough to fill the void that I felt. Was it because the people I was with weren't good enough?

Yes.

There is no one good enough. Not me, or you, or my husband. There is nothing that any of us could do to save another soul from their sin. Only Jesus was able to because he knew NO sin.

None.

He was perfect.

He was God.

Come to earth.

Born of a virgin.

Man and God together.

So Jesus did take me from someone who was worthless and filthy and made a spotless bride in his sight. He made me new, gave me his robe of righteousness in exchange for my filthy rags, took all of the things that I had done to find love before him, and wiped them from his record.

So please don't feel sorry for me! I have joy! I know that no matter what it is that I have done, I am forgiven!

I know that no matter what comes my way there is hope!

I know that no matter what comes my way God's mercy is new every morning!

I know that no matter what comes my way, there is love!

I don't have to look for love, I don't have to try and find meaning in my life anymore. I can be content where I am, I don't need to fulfill myself.

God is my meaning, he is my love and he fulfills me. No matter what.

As for pumping out babies? God called our family to give him control of our womb. When we read the verse Psalm 127:3-5 we believed it!

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate."

I have a calling that is far beyond anything I could have ever imagined for myself. I am raising children for my King, Jesus Christ! God has blessed us with these children and given us the task of training them up in love to serve our great God. If he feels I can raise 10 or even 20 then I will take the job! I am greatful for every child that we are given.

Yes there have deffinately been times that it's been hard, times that I've struggled. It is hard to surrender your own will and your own dreams for what God wants for you. You get tired, very tired. You feel cut off from other people and you are judged. But God is my rest, he is my friend and he is my defender!

I traded my life for his. That also means I traded my plan for his.

This is not a prison. This is freedom. Before Jesus saved me I was a slave to my sin. There was no hope. Sin was my master and I lived a life with no meaning, no vision and no hope. I was bound to my wants and needs and wasted my energy trying to please myself and others.

Now I have traded masters and I am a slave to Christ! There is meaning and vision and hope. There are no chains or shackles.You will always serve a master. Satan or God. It doesn't matter if you agree with it or not. Truth is truth.

If I hold a loaded gun to your head, believing it isn't there will not save your life if I pull the trigger.

I am so thankful to God for giving his son to save me. I love him for it and because I love him I choose to obey him. Regardless of what others may say or do to me. I do not do it perfectly, but I do it. And where I am weak He makes up for it. I pray that you know this love as well and if not please don't wait.

I will pray for you.

My children will pray for you.

Dancing with Dalen in my livingroom...

2009-09-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

... listening to a song about my life.

2009-06-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

This isn't the best video but still neat to see. Dalen time lapsed it so it doesn't take you half an hour to see like it did for us :)

Two sets of twins....

2009-06-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

The easy way :)

Adon and Emma in 2003 and Joe and Travis in 2009

Answers

2009-06-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

Okay lets see if I can remember all the questions

Jenny-"Was it hard getting the permit to sell the chickens? I heard there's a lot of rigamole to go through. "
We didn't get the permit. We are taking the chickens to rosswood and there is a woman there who has the permit and we will be paying her to slaughter the chickens and eviserate them. Each order of chickens will have a tag on it with her government issued number on it.

Joni- "Do you purchase non antibiotic feed? .. just wondering because most feeds have the antibiotics in it." The bag of feed says "non-medicated" and I dont' add anything to their feed or water in way of medication.
"and can you tell us more about the hot mash? i have never heard of it for chickens."
The hot mash is a combination of grains (it has apparently has flax too) you boil it in water to make it nice and soft and this gets more water into the birds and breaks down the food so that they digest more of it instead of just pooping it out. I'm really excited about doing this!

Chick, chick, chick, chick

2009-06-11T15:38:00.000-07:00

Well it's official. We are going to be selling chicken!

I think we will sell up to 30 of the 68 that we have. We will be delivering them all on one day once they are butchered. They will be bagged and kept on ice until they reach their destination. We can only sell them whole and yes this is legal. We are paying a certified chicken killer ;) We will be charging $3.50 a pound. We'll have a scale and weigh them there with you. The chickens are usually 5-6 pounds each, much bigger than a chicken you would buy at save-on and there is much less waste. The chickens will be ready at the end of July/beginning of August.

These chickens will be living the good life. They will live in a portable chicken pen so they will have 24/7 access to grass and bugs. We are planning on feeding them hot mash which makes for a nice tasting bird (or so we've been told) Our feed will not be "organic" but our birds are not given antibiotics.

If you are interseted please let me know and let me know how many birds you would like :)

Thanks!

Freezer

2009-06-09T19:20:00.000-07:00

We are looking for a deep freeze. Any size will do. If you have one that is in good working shape that you want to get rid of please let us know! thanks!

Remember This?

2009-06-09T17:28:00.000-07:00

Well the lovely Marlene let me use the cup again for an updated picture! He doesn't fit as well does he?

Look at all the squishy, pinchey, chubby goodness!

My song today

2009-06-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

Lord take the fruit of our hands
Let it grow
Oh, take the fruit of our hands
Let it grow
Let it feed and nourish all in our home
Take the fruit of our hands
Let it grow

Take the fruits of our love
Let them grow
Take the fruits of our love
Let them grow
Raise them to be,
Sons and daughters of The Lord
Take the fruits our love
Let them grow

Take all of our home,
Let it glow
Take all of our home,
Let it glow
Let this be a haven from the storm
Take all of our home
Let it glow

lovely moments

2009-06-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

Some moment in Travis' second month that I want to remember.

kissy lips in auntie's greenhouse

spending time with his second favorite lady

naked and sun warmed

making new friends

sharing a nap

Warning, an animal is killed in this post.

2009-05-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

I did it! Dalen didn't video me because he didn't want to add anymore pressure. If you listen closely you can here him giggling at the end when the deed is done... I'm now calling him the unwilling farmer :) If you're wondering why Shane is pulling so hard to get the chicken off the block it's because I didn't sever the esophogus, but I got the part that counts and the chicken didn't suffer even though it may look like it did!

Okay I like animals, if you've known me for long this may be completely shocking to you. Why am I excited about killing a chicken? Well for one it was eating our eggs and you just have to get rid of them. Above all else these animals (which I really do adore) are for eggs for my family (whom I adore more). I want safe nourishing food for my family. So I have chosen to keep egg layers and learn how to butcher for the 70 meat birds I have coming. As we speak there are five turkeys in our back room who will one day feed us and hopefully others.

We simply cannot afford to buy chicken or turkey for our growing family, for some people the solution is to stop growing the family, for me it's to start growing our food. You gotta do what you gotta do.

If you're wondering why I'm so happy in these pictures, it's not because sometime died, but I am thrilled that I know I can kill something for food! If you still think it's aweful. Then we can just agree to disagree :) For those of you who are interested here are more pictures.

After the chicken was plucked in Shane's great whizbang chicken plucker... Dalen sure was interested in it I'm hoping that means I'll be getting one in the next few years.. if you're wondering what a whizbang chicken plucker is you can go here to see it in action.

Trying to get the guts out... it's really not easy at all. They are really attatched in there ;)

Shane giving me a hand.

See the egg on the left there.. and beside is are some yolks. This was a layer so she had her little egg factory inside. It was really cool to see all the yolks that were being made to be our breakfast... too bad she was eating them before we could :(

This is a look inside of the chicken. All of those yellow dots are yolks. There were SO many of them!

I'll be cooking this hen in the crock pot tonight. I'm very thankful for God's provision :)

Next up... hatching out some layers and in about two months we'll be butchering 70 meat chickens!

Truck got Stuck

2009-05-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

This one's for Tom... if you're out there somewhere!

So Excited! Praise God!!!

2009-05-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

We have officially raised enough money for Luogon to go to school next year!!! We received a donation today that topped it up and I am SO SO thankful to everyone who helped towards this goal!

Next up $300 to pay his rent. We need to get this money together by July. It is a big work but I believe God is faithful and able...

and so does this guy!

My letter to Luogon today.

Blessings to you Luogon!

We are rejoicing today for our Son/Brother in Africa! Today Luogon my Mom said to say hello and gave us the last of the money that we needed to get you into school! Praise God Luogon because he knows you and cares for you! He is moving the hearts of many for you and your friends in Africa! I wish I could give you a huge hug! I feel like we have achieved a victory!

But don't stop praying! We are now going to raise money for your rent. Our goal is to pay for one room. Pray that God provides for more than that! Tell the young men you are with to flood the gates of heaven! We may be far away but God has given us a love for you and the young men you are with. Pray Boys! Continue to read the bible together and PRAISE GOD! Sing with loud voices! We are singing too and our songs will fall on God's ears together!

Make plans Boys! Give all that you can to those around you, your needs will be met! Serve as Jesus served and we will do the same!

Little Emma is praying for you Luogon. She wants to meet you. She wants to see her brother in Liberia. She has hope for you and so do I!

We love you!

Mom Sarena

Update on Luogon

2009-05-17T23:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to a blog post that Karen Barkman from Provision of Hope did about Luogon and the boys that he is living with. Please check is out and share it with as many people as you can.

http://www.provisionofhope.com/blog/?p=256

As of now our fundraising total for Luogon is $313.50! I am so excited that we are so close to the goal of $400! I have a new goal though. I want to raise another $300 so that Luogon can pay for a year of rent. This would be for a room that would be big enough for another two boys to live in. After that of course I'll want to raise some more for food... But baby steps people :)

I just realized something the other day. I have never touched, smelled, or felt poverty. It isn't real to me. I am probably too fortunate for my own good. In my day to day life, what Luogon and so many others are facing, it just isn't real to me. God has been opening my heart to it though. I'm starting to realize.... someone's life is on the line. In our culture if someone is going to have a baby and they don't have much for that baby, what do we do, we dig through our old baby clothes, some buy things, some make things. We make sure that baby has WAY more than it needs. We have food banks and welfare.

Luogon has had no parents since he was 5. Imagine your children/siblings when they were five. Now imagine them alone. On their own, no one to hug them, or wipe away their tears. Lost and without our love. Now imagine that they have no food. And they grow up this way. They are in a home with two adults... now imagine that soldiers come, the round all of the children up, the point guns at your children and yell at them... your precious five year old child. They take other children, put guns in their hands and teach them to kill.

What would you do to free your child from that? I would give my life.

These boys are grown now.

They grew up without the love and touch of a mother.

They were not afraid of monsters or shadows. They feared gun shots and starvation.

I used to judge people who would plead for money for "starving children".

Now I am one.

I used to think that they were just trying to guilt your money out of you.

Now I know.

Someone has to help these kids. And according to God, WE are those someones. Ask God today what you can do to help. He doesn't say "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress if you feel that you can spare some extra change right now, or if you have some free time."

I'm pretty sure he didn't forget that part :)

Be creative, this doesn't have to look the same for all of us. Please, ask God now, what he wants you to do.

Thank you.

2009-05-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

Just need to add the buttons!

Yeah, this isn't working.

2009-05-09T12:53:00.000-07:00

Blogging that is. Well blogging works fine but not in correlation to anything else in my life like house and children. So I'm done for now. I am officially pausing my blog. You will get occasional updates on Luogon and the kids and my extreme chocolate binge that I'm having. it's really okay, it's better than my voice box megaphone.... nevermind.

So it's abrupt but it's not the first time.

Talk toyou later!

Friday

2009-05-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

Travis is our portrait guest this morning.

Breakfast

Homemade hamburger with white bun and a little bit of cheese.

Lunch

2 helpings of spaghetti and 1.5 pieces w.w. toast

Dinner

Chicken wrap and helping of spaghetti

Snack

Popbottle gummies

orange

Exercise

We spent the better part of the day helping Jaclyn with her greenhouse. Shoveling and carting buckets of mulch! I felt so good last night and I still do... accept for my hip and shin that I just bashed into and open drawer. I LOVE open drawers!

And now I'm forcing myself to eat something when there is just so much to be done. And I'm sewing for mother's day!

joe a wrap and some black bean hummus

2009-05-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

I look like a boy when I eat.

2009-05-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Thankfully I'm starting to look at the the morning picture as kind of a challenge to see how bad I can really look. This is me eating my morning wrap.

So this is what I ate yesterday.

Breakfast

My morning wrap

WW tortilla

2 eggs

lettuce

black bean hummus

homemade mayo

Lunch - My mom brought lunch

2 peanut butter and honey sandwiches

2 of those round stick cookie things with chocolatey stuff in the middle

a gazzilion 2 bite chocolate macaroons.

Dinner

Roast

Yams (I LOVE YAMS!)

Carrots

Corn

Snack

And orange and a few gummy frogs

So how am I doing? Not great, but better now that I was able to get some groceries. Am I dissapointed in myself? Nope. I'm doing my best with what I have. I have no self control so that's something I'm working on. But I feel like I really am doing well compared to where I was a month ago!

And now my dear friend Laura is on her way to take all of my children but Travis for the day so I can get some work done... pictures to come :) (no it's not sewing)

Oh and one of my chickens is broody so Jaclyn hooked me up with some fertilized eggs and I'm hoping she'll hatch them! We'll see I'm trying not to get too excited about it.

tuesday may 5th

2009-05-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

3 WW Tortillas
2 eggs
1 chicken breast
2 carrots
mayo
hummus
lots of lettuce
little frog candies (like 15)
a bunch of watermelon
Apple juice

Starla came to my house and did all of my laundry. What a blessed woman!

I am in a huge hurry to get house work done before my mom comes for lunch.

welcome Bennet Rooker! I can't wait to see pictures!

Monday, May 4th

2009-05-05T08:58:00.001-07:00

I deffinately didn't do any exercise yesterday. I had a fussy baby and no motivation. but good news! I lost four pounds! 197 it is!

Breakfast/Lunch

2 poached eggs

1.5 pieces whole grain bread

1/3 cup chili

2 cups mango/strawberry smoothie

Dinner

5 pancakes (1/4 inch thick and 4 inches in diameter)

Maple Syrup

1/2 cup sweet and sour hamburger

1 cup white rice

1/5 small pieces of bacon

Snacks

10 little gummy frog candies

2 handfulls of salt and vinegar chips

Orange

Not eating breakfast is really wrecking me. I end up being much more hungry in the evenings.

Dalen started my chicken tractor!!! I'm so excited, I ordered our meat birds on Saturday 70 chickens and 5 turkeys!

An e-mail from Luogon

2009-05-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that Luogon is able to e-mail me. This is however very costly for him so please pray that God will continue to provide so that we can stay in touch.

Here is an e-mail that I received from him.

Hello mom . I just want to take this time to extend my thank and appreacation to you .Iam willing to work but it is not easy here in Liberia for me to get a job at this age.Here in Liberia you get a job if you are in colage or have a paper that you are out of hight school.I still have two years to get out of hight school and now I don't have a ducament to carry to any prenticeship for work. The Bible studies is progressing .I has been looking for ROOM and all the room I form cast TEN US DALLORS PAIR MONTH. which means a year will cast ONE HUNDREN US D. I love you mom .my time is out GOOD BYE.YOU SON IN LIBERIA LUOGON WIEBE

The first time Luogon wrote and called me Mom, I wept. I have learned that this is something fairly common there, they seem to call any women who show them love Mom. I can understand when you've been without one all of your life. He also refers to himself as Luogon Wiebe when he writes to us. There was a time that he asked us to adopt him. It was very hard to tell him no and I'm sure he was broken hearted.

I love this boy!

Why three is the best age.

2009-05-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

Ephrim (very randomly and out of the blue) "Mom if we had 15 babies you would have a lot of privates"

Me "What?!"

Ephrim "You would have a lot of privates because 15 is ALOT of babies"

Me "What?! Who would have more privates?"

Ephrim "You would cause that's ALOT of babies"

Me "Do you mean for feeding all of the babies?"

Ephrim "YEAH!"

Thankfully it doesn't work that way.

Thursday April 30th

2009-05-01T09:05:00.001-07:00

Travis was seven weeks old yesterday! So instead of a picture of morning joy from me you get some eye candy of him ;) Some of the pictures are not the best angle but he just won't smile at the camera so you godda do what you godda do!

Peace

Talking to Grandma Wiebe, he smiles the most for her. She is commited to the cause ;)

Sleeping again. I love a sleeping baby, for so many reasons!

I sneezed and he didn't like it at all!

Oh! Doesn't that just you want to ~~pinch~~ kiss him!

Okay so I will be working on a post about what I'm doing in more detail over the next day or two. I thought that I would also include my to-do list for you so you know what else I do with my time, other than pinch cute babies!

So what I ate yesterday.

Breakfast

Nothing again. I know, I know! We had to get groceries yesterday and left as fast as we could. We were gone all day.

Lunch

2 grilled chicken ranch wraps from Tim Horton's

Snack

4 slices of watermelon at 5:00

Dinner

Homemade Hamburgers with oat flour and flax

The fixins' (Ketchup, mustard, homemade mayo, lettuce and tomato)

Burger first bun (I got these half price for quick sale at superstore. This bun was really good but more calories than a normal bun because while it is a lot thinner than a normal buy it's bigger and denser.

Snacks

3 pieces Amish Friendship bread from Carla, my neighbor who loves us with baking :)

An orangeg

Granny Smith apple with peanutbutter.

Okay so the day was great other than the not eating enough and the 3 slices of friendship bread. 1 slice would have been better but apparently my body was very hungry still and my self control was dwindling.

So my list for today.

Pack away all winter shoes/boots

Make cookie dough for auction

Make Patty's hammock

Mail Patty's hammock

Drop off cookie dough

Everything else that my day entails... including comforting a fussy baby and feeding him.

wednesday April 29th

2009-04-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

Praise the Lord! I managed to get in some exercise today! I did three miles (40 minutes) of aerobic walking! According to sparkpeople.com I burned 363 calories! WOOHOO! I'm so into that. Travis was in the wrap the whole time I think I should get extra calories burned for that!

Breakfast

1/2 cup rice/hemp milk

Granola 3/4 cup homemade

Snack

Carrot with dip

Lunch
3 sandwiches (white bread no crusts, peanut butter and jelly, my mom brought lunch)
Cookie thing my mom brought
2 rice krispie squares 2x2x1"
1.5 cups rice/hemp milk

Snack
Rice Krispie square

Dinner
3 chicken thighs, baked with breading
1/3 cup corn
1 large potato with butter

Tuesday April 28th

2009-04-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

I'm going to add my picture to this post later since I'm on my laptop right now. So I weighed myself this morning and there's been no change. But I feel skinnier. So whatever that means. My goal today is to chop up a lot of veggies to have on hand for all different things and to do 20 mkinutes of cardio...

Someone asked why I drink apple juice. Mostly it's because I'm craving sugar in a big way and it's better than drinking a coke. I pretty much only have it with breakfast. There is something in me that has a hard time drinking water with my breakfast.

Breakfast
Pancakes (1/4 inch thick and about 4 inches across)

Maple syrup

2 cups apple juice

Lunch

3/4 cups meatloaf

1/2 cup yams

1 cup cauliflower

1/8 cup corn

Snack

Carrot sticks with homemade dip (1/2 cup mayo, 1/4 cup olive oil, juice from half a lemon and 8 cloves garlic crushed, recipe from thetwosisters.com)

Dinner

Cowboy food (scrampled eggs with all beef hot dogs, mushroom and onions

1/2 in thick slice of white toast with butter

2 cookies

(we are really short on fruit right now and I'm missing it a lot. Can't wait for payday!)

April 27th 2009

2009-04-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

Okay so I'm not going to be posting on Sundays and Mondays. You may have noticed.

I have a bit of a problem. I'm having a really hard time eating in the morning. Lunch is usually my first meal. I am praying for God to give me the time to eat. I also forgot to weigh myself this morning when I first woke up so hopefully I'll remember tomorrow.

Breakfast (at lunch time)

Scrambled egg wrap with salsa
1.5 cups apple juice

Lunch (at 4:30)
Two Tim Hortons chicken wrap snackers with grilled chicken.

Dinner

3/4 cup chili

4 cookies
1.5 cups hemp/vanilla rice milk

It wasn't a good food day. Not nearly enough food and I didn't take my iron. I still haven't taken my iron today but it's been a much better food day. Thankfully my husband did all of my dishes last night so it set me ahead as far as time goes today. LOVE HIM!

Friday April 24th

2009-04-25T07:59:00.001-07:00

Good morning. What a difference 1 hour of sleep makes. Yesterdays picture was so much nicer and I only slept an hour later. I've been getting to bed very late as there is just so much to do around here and I just want my kitchen clean before I go to sleep. Nevermind all the laundry and floors. And that's only one half of my house. I've been completely ignoring the other side. I may have to give up facebook, even though I only spend about 20 minutes a day on it. I am looking forward to the day that I can work without interruptions. It may take 20 years or so.

This is Joe sporting a pinafore that I made for Jenny. 99% of the time I love that I have four boys and one girl (who is 6 by the way) But when I put this on Joe to model it for some pictures for Jenny I started pining for a baby girl.

Anyway on with the info and then on to my work.

Breakfast (this meal was pretty much skipped yesterday due to busyness which I know is aweful but hey, that's just life people!)

1 sticky bun

2 cups apple juice. These were scarfed down between nursing and blogging and cleaning.

Lunch

1 cup veggie chowder

1 w.w. tortilla

1 t. Ketchup

1.5 cups scrambled eggs

Snack (we were at Megan's birthday party and that Laura sure does put out a good spread, mercifully she also picks really good yummy fruit)

Lots of grapes, strawberries and watermelon. Mmmm.

1 small brownie

1 small handful of chips

1 small handful of cheesies.

I just want to say that I'm really proud of how well I did at the party. They were my favorite kind of chips and the brownies were so good.

Shoot I just remembered that I ate anothe sticky bun before we went to the party. Ah well whatever. At least they're healthy-ish sticky buns.

Dinner

1 large helping of spaghetti with meat sauce.

Snack

2 pieces w.w. raisin toast with p.b. and chocolate/almond butter (recipe to come hopefully)

1 almond milk/blueberry/banana smoothie

Okay so it was a really high carb day. the more tired I am the more I want the carbs and sugars and since Travis was really fussy and I just had so many things to do it seems that I gave into the carbs more rather than preparing something better. I'm so thankful for the nice fruity break of the party (and especially the visiting!)

I am still taking my iron every day. I use spirulina, which is an algae and doesn't make you feel sick or constipated. I love this stuff. It doesn't taste so great though.

Anyone else out there who has a great Iron source? Please share!

2009-04-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

It was so beautiful outside yesterday so I rushed the kids through their school and we headed out. For the first time we let the chickens out and had a lot of fun with them. Here's some photographic evidence.

For the first time since Ephrim was a baby his finger cold sores have returned. Yes you can get them on your fingers. Poor kid. Time for naps, probiotics and no sugar.

Thursday April 23rd

2009-04-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Today feels like it's going to be a good day, and no I'm not going to knock on wood.

Okay no fitness yesterday, at this point I'm not going to take this part seriously. There simply isn't any time in my life for it.

Breakfast

1 Sticky Bun

2 Hard boiled eggs

2 cups apple juice

Lunch

1/2 and apple

1 banana

4 pizza rolls (Maiya made them and they are incredible) They are about 1 inch thick and 2"x4"

Snack

1 pizzza roll

Dinner

2 hotdogs

1/2 carrot

1 Marshmallow (we had a wiener roast)

Snack

1 sticky bun

1 cup vanilla rice milk

Poor Travis is fussy today. There was cheese in the pizza rolls. It'll be a hold the baby close with a soother morning.

Wednesday April 22nd

2009-04-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Good morning from a tired Lady. I'm always exhausted when I wake up but then as I get giong I perk up.

Again there was no exercise yesterday as I'm still working hard to get caught up in my house work, I also have some sewing commitments that have to be met.

Breakfast
3/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup rice milk
2 T. cane sugar
1 t. coconut oil

Some time before lunch I had a bite of Joe's tortilla with hummus. He loves tortilla with hummus and it's such a great snack for him. I just slather the hummus on and roll it up.

Lunch
1 cup home made noodles
Butternut squash sauce
1 cup asparagus

Snack
Blueberry banana smoothie with dates and almond milk. I put too many dates in and it was too sweet so I only drank half of it and passed it off to the ~~vultures~~kids.

1/2 a tortilla with hummus (Joe's was just too yummy)

Dinner

Kona Chicken - 2 drumsticks
1/2 cup yam
1 cup peas

Snacks
I was still very hungry after supper so I chopped up the left over potatoes and yams and threw them together with the leftover peas and corn and cooked them in rice/almond milk. I then scrambled two eggs and mixed them with some butternut sauce and some corn starch. Then I boiled it all together until the eggs cooked. I had a half a bowl of that and I was good for a while.

Emma made bread dough before she went to bed to I finished it and decided to make Dalen some sticky buns. Instead of giving into the temptation of all of that refined badness I decided to try an "unrefined" healthy spin on sticky buns. They were still made from white, refined flour but you just have to make lemonade people!

I replaced butter with coconut oil
Brown sugar with organic cane sugar
Whipping cream with almond milk.

These are absolutely delish and decided to treat everyone this morning with sticky buns and boiled eggs for breakfast!

I also had 1.5 cups of apple Juice.

I am so happy with my food yesterday! It was an awesome day and I feel really good about it. I am not trying to cut out all sweets, I am a sweets loving girl, I am just trying to cut them back and make them as healthy as I can.

Mr.Travis has a mohawk. He looks incredibly bald in this picture. He isn't it's just that fluffy newly grown in baby hair. Oh well he's still SO incredibly sweet and kissable, especially when he's smiling at ~~my boob~~ me ;)

Oh I think my blog rating just went from a G to an A.

Tuesday April 21

2009-04-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

So I'm also going to endeavor to take a picture of myself every day. I will also try to make myself smile for these pictures. You are going to get the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm going to be photographically honest. No editing here folks.

My food intake for yesterday.

So I woke up at 6:00 yesterday and I felt great all day. Today I felt like the living dead ;) Travis is very gassy and fussy today so it's neat to have everything I ate written down so I can see what may be bothering him.

Pre breakfast snack (I was up too early to not have this) Homemade granola and rice milk

Breakfast

Whole grain flax pancake (no egg) with maple syrup

2 scrambled eggs.

Lunch

Homemade whole grain noodles in chicken broth

Snack

1 cup rice milk

1 medium banana

Dinner

1 cup brown rice

1/2 cup sweet and sour hamburger

1.5 cup coconut milk stir fry

Binge

3 marshmallows (yes they are sugar but the are only about 25 calories a piece and it's a whole lot better than a whole chocolate bar or a bag of chips)

My goal for today is to slice some veggies for quick quasallias when I need something to eat. I make them with my butternut sauce instead of cheese so they are a lot lower in calories. Also if I need protein in something I add eggs. Even to soup and stir fry.

I didn't get any exercise in yesterday I was too busy about the house and just didn't have time. I'm hoping to go for a walk today and try to get through one of my circuits from Kim. I still can't bend my legs withough feeling like I'm going to collapse after the last work out so I'm hoping to get something in today to warm up those muscles again.

Travis is unhappy this morning. I'm hoping that he'll sleep soon.

No more calorie counting.

Accountability.

2009-04-21T06:41:00.001-07:00

Well it's nothing too exciting but I've decided that I'd better work my rear off to lose as much weight as I can and get as healthy as I can before I get pregnant again :) Seeing as I never know how long that will be, but judging by last time, I've got to get going! So yesterday began my boot camp, and I mean boot camp people! I have a five circuit work out and at this rate I'll be happy if I'm good enough shape to just finish it one day... far, far away! Also another biggy is diet. So I'm attempting to avoid refined sugars and flours and whatever else they have managed to refine :) I am off of dairy for Travis and have discovered that I like rice milk and am looking forward to making almond milk today. So in an attempt to hold myself accountable, I'm going to post everything I'm eating, honestly. Here goes. (did I mention there would be eye candy?)

Monday April 20th 201 pounds (oh yes I'm posting my weight, it's really not a big deal, people know I'm fat, hiding the numbers won't change it ;)

Breakfast
1 cup steamed asparagus
1 whole wheat tortilla
1 cup rice milk
Scrambled eggs with squash mix ( I cook butternut squash, carrots, onion and yam in chicken broth and puree, then I use it for mixing into eggs, in place of cheese in quasadillas and for pasta sauce)

Snack
1 Banana

Lunch
1 cup brown rice
Stir fry with coconut milk ( coconut milk, a little soy sauce, garlic and corn starch)
Egg/soy sauce noodles (whisk some eggs together with soy sauce to flavor and then fry like a crepe on a griddle or in a pan, flip and then roll up and cut into strips like noodles)
Ephrim is in love with his little brother Travis

Snack
Homemade granola with rice milk
1/4 of a cantelope
2 small squares of organic chocolate

Dinner
2 tortillas
Salad with apple cider vinagrette
1/2 cup chicken
6 small taters (this was an indulgence, but I'm fine with it)

"Can you take a picture of me mom?" "Sure but you have to make it look like you're actually doing something"

Snack
2 small apples in slices
3 tablespoons Adam's natural peanut butter

Total calories (estimated) 2217!

eek! The thing that really got me was the peanut butter. Over 300 calories! But I'm wondering, if the majority of these calories (say 90%) are from very healthy sources, and lets say I only ate until I was full and spent parts of the day hungry, should I really be aiming for less calories? No I dont' think so.

Oh Travis, poor baby.
What I noticed yesterday. I wanted sugar. So I ate protein. It really helpped. Also I would drink water when I felt hungry (most people confuse thirst with hunger) if the hunger came back after that I knew I was hungry and would have a snack. When I'm watching what I eat I usually make the mistake of being careful with meals but not with snacks. I'm really happy with my snacking yesterday!
Emma is the other mom in these parts

My goal for today is to dig out my exercise ball and fill it up. Then find my weights. I'm not using them today though, it's a cardio day. So I'm going to aim for 2 miles of walking aerobics. Me and Leslie are friends again. Oh and I also have to care for my 5 children and home. PRAY FOR ME!

Yes we got a wii, I don't really want to talk about that, anyway how sad it is when a 1 year old knows how to turn on the TV and the wii and then stands below the basket containing the wii controllers saying "Moe Moe Moe!" (more)Said 1 year oldI love sunshine at supper time! It means that spring has sprung!Travis has a shortage of neck, see? All the skin for a neck is there under his chin, but the rest is missing.

The chub is starting to form!Yummy smoochie baby lips!

Luogon :)

2009-04-16T09:55:00.001-07:00

So just an update. I talked with Karen Barkman from Provision of Hope. She is the one who got us connected with Luogon again and who is taking care of the administration side of things for us. She put together a info sheet for Luogon that I can e-mail to people if they are interested and she also works with Hope of the Nation and can get tax receipts for anyone who is giving a donation if it is made out to H.O.T.N.

So far we have $197 in donations and orders. Please share this with anyone you know. Also Ruth helped me set up a facebook group if you are interested. It's called Made for Mercy.

Thanks guys!

Wowzers, it's been a long time.

2009-04-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

This post is being put together little pieces at a time. I have a lot of things to talk about but right now there is one thing predominantly on my heart.

Luogon.

Luogon is my African son. You didn't know I had an african son? Well I do. Technically he's not mine, but in my heart he is. And as far as my children are concerned he's ours. He's too old to be adopted (and that just something that our family can't do right now) and we will probably never ever meet him. But we love him. Honestly I'm too scared to call him because I think, "what if I can't understand him?" Liberian english is very different from Canadian english.

So I lost contact with Luogon for about a year. We prayed all the time for him and that we would have a way to get a hold of him (Liberia doesn't have a mail system so any letters have to be brought there in person) Two days ago I received a letter from him sent by Karen Barkman. She runs an organization called Provision of Hope out of Kelowna!

Luogon has been living with a pastor in Liberia and has been out of school for two years. Finishing school is a huge thing in liberia. I know it is here too but there it's their only hope. I dont' think it makes that much of a difference as to wether they can get a job or not but it's a big deal for them. It will cost us about 400.00 to put him in school for a year. And get this. He is currently living with a group of 20 boys in their late teens all in the same situation as him, their orphanage closed. For about 7000.00 us we could shelter and feed 12 of them for a year. That's pocket change for our God. The thing about these boys is that they really don't know how to do for themselves. They don't always have great attitudes either. They have been given everything they have and haven't had to work for it. That doesn't make for an entirely productive character. Does that make them less deserving of our love and offering? No. They need us. Luogon needs me. He considers me his mom. Do you know how heart breaking that is to me? I think some of you obviously do.

When Karen met the boys in Liberia Luogon offered to run a bible study with the boys and they instituted a prayer and singing group. I am trying to contact Luogon by e-mail but it costs about a dollar for them to check e-mail and they really just don't have that money. Anyway if I can get into contact with him I want to hold him accountable to these things. I want to see an willing heart from him to do something. Apparently he has some sort of apprenticeship right now. That is really encouraging to me.

So here is the deal. ALL of my sewing money is going to be going to putting Luogon through school. Believe it or not my little business doesn't really rake the cash in. So I am believing for a miracle. And sometimes you have to do for yourself when it comes to God too. He also wants to see a willing heart :) So here's the word for all of you (all five of you).

I'm going to get sewing. I am going to believe that if this is God's will there will be people to buy what I have to sell. This is going to be a painfully slow process as I have a four week old and can't even keep up on marking school and house work so please pray that God will multiply my time, keep me focused and give me help if I need it. My goal today is to get as much of my house in order as I can. Tonight Dalen is going to help me clean my floors. I am so thankful for this as they are not the color they were a month ago.

If you want to help me, then I'll take it. Any of it. Money, time, prayers... if you want to give it I'm there. And if we get more that 400.00 I'm sure one of those 20 boys wouldn't mind going to school.

400.00

That's
12 wraps
40 pairs of beanie legs
20 Kimono tops
40 pairs of pants hemmed

20 boy x 400 is 8000

That's
229 wraps
800 pairs of beanie legs
400 Kimono tops
800 pairs of pants hemmed

Two homes with rent, food and medical care is 14,000

That's
400 wraps
1400 pairs of beanie legs
700 Kimono tops
1400 pairs of pants hemmed

22,000 for a year to care for 20 Liberian boys and put them through school.

That's

629 wraps

2200 pairs of beanie legs

1100 Kimono tops

2200 pairs of pants hemmed

Things could get real busy ;)

the generation gap

2009-03-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

me "doo doo doo, looking out my back door"

ephrim "No it's not back door it's, 'doo do do, lets get on the bus!'"

*update* ephrim "Doo do do get on my back door" it's a merging of the generations.

Marlene?!

2009-03-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

Okay so I've really blown it. I'm going to blame it on extreme sleep deprivation. Someone ordered two wraps and I know her first name but I cannot find her phone number. Her name is Marlene and she had a baby boy a week or so before I had Travis. If any of you know who I'm talking about please please please let me know how I can find her! Thanks.

And Jen I got the diapers and cups from www.naturalbeautycanada.com she works from home I think and she has flat rate shipping! She's from the lower main land.

The goods.

2009-03-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

Well the diapers and sippy cups are here! I buy the cadillac of cloth diapers. I use them all the time for my babies and to me it's worth the money. You can cloth diaper successfully for much less money. So far we have been very blessed (by all of you) and have had to spend very little money on diapers, and they will last for many children, especially since I can mend any velcro bits that may not hold up.

We had some extra money left over and I decided to spend it on some "Safe Sippy" cups. I LOVE these cups! They do drip a little since they wanted to make them not so hard to drink out of for babies. Since the only thing I usually give my kids to drink is water it's not a big deal for me. I am planning on ordering two more of these so that Adon and Emma can use them for water bottles. They are really great! We got a blue one and a teal one (which they call green).

And please head over to "my charming kids" to keep up with Stellan and what is going on. Things are getting worse and this family needs our prayers for whatever God has for them. This all seems so sureal for me, I can't imagine what they are going through.

Last thing

2009-03-23T19:01:00.001-07:00

So I really don't want to be posting this, but Stellan is back in the NICU with SVT. Please head over to MckMama for updates and to find out what's going on. And please pray for this family. Often!

Eye Candy

2009-03-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

So this is the basket that my mom delivered on saturday. Here's the list of what's inside
5 egg salad sandwiches
5 tuna salad sancwiches
1 ham with sweet/sour ham sauce
1 roast with potatoes and gravy
2 (containers)mashed potatoes
2 rice pilaf
2 sweet and sour meat balls
3 jello
1 baked custard
2 cauliflower in cheese sauce

Yeah, wowsers. My mom is an amazing cook and this was such a HUGE blessing to me as my church meals are done now and it's so nice to not have to cook yet.

Sleeping on my lap

Sleeping in the wrap, first trip out to the chicken coop.

Hmmmm. I can see that!

Happily sleeping on his tum.

We got the bassinet from Jaclyn... THANK YOU! I have to admit it was the best gift anyone could have given us.

Joe got his own baby. He was starting to want mine too much. Emma spend about an hour teaching him how to take care of his baby. Even how to feed it.

He really likes his baby!

And Emma's. I didn't get any good pictures of him bashing the baby's head on the floor or biting it's foot.

How old are they?

2009-03-23T18:20:00.001-07:00

Stacy asked in the comments how old Emma is so I'm just going to post everyone's age.

Adon is 7
Emma is 6
Ephrim is 3
Joe is 1
and
Travis is 12 days old.

I just have to say I'm feeling a lot better about this Travis characted. The first week had me a little worried. But since we've discovered he's a tummy sleeper things have gotten a lot better. Yes I know.... "back to sleep" hard to miss is when it's printed on their diapers. Ever heard of the saying "When Momma doesn't get any sleep, someone may get hurt" ? Yeah, the second one pulls more weight around here ;)

Ten Days

2009-03-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

No time to actually write anything but here are some pictures from our first ten days as a family of seven. Travis doesn't like to be put down. Ever.

The yellow lump is Ephrim, the green one is Travis and the blue lump is me. This is the day I got the flu. It was gone by the next morning praise God!

Joe is a savage... at least he likes to act like one.

Mmmmm.... pizza. Cheeseless pizza! It was good Joni! The best part about this is that when he woke up he cried for about three seconds and then started to chew again.

Just like Daddy, a Coke and the remote!

Big brother #1. I am so thankful for this boy!

Emma teaching Joe to put away laundry. I'm so thanful for this girl!

Big brother #2. He absolutely adores Travis and told everyone who came over that "we got a new Travis!"

This girl already has a Mother's heart.I don't know why they're so tired?

2009-03-12T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well hello there! I'm home! There really honestly isn't a lot to tell about Travis' birth. From start to finish it was 8 hours and the actual delivery was only 7 minutes. It was very intense and crazy but so good! It just one of those things when you feel like you're going to die and then it's done and you're like "what's the big deal?"

They broke my water around nine in the morning and I walked for an hour, nothing happened so they put me on Oxytocin. I was scared about being on the drip since it increases the risk for rupture but the doctors really felt confident that all would go fine and I had about the best nurse (Roz) a person could ask for. From 10:30 until about 6 we just slowly increased the level of Oxytocin. My Doctor came to check me at 5ish and I was six. He seemed a bit discouraged at my progress. Things were really getting intense and I was getting kinda "pushy" then I started having back labor. Travis was transverse which means his head was sideways and was trying to rotate into position. I've never had back labor before and I cannot imagine how women go through their entire labors that way. I'm very thankful it was short for me.

Roz checked me again and I was 8. I remember hearing her call the doctor "Hi, She's 8" click.

I don't remember a whole lot after that. I remember thinking that Jaclyn wasn't there yet. BOOHOO! then another contraction, then I heard the doctor come in. Then I was pushing. And it wasn't like the last time. Last time I pushed a bit first to get the baby down, then I took a few more pushes to get him out. This time his head was half way out after one push. He did a wierd shoulder thing that freaked the doctor out but after the next push he was out and I WAS DONE! Praise the Lord. All was well. I was good, baby was good. And when I say all was well you mommas out there know what I mean ;)

The best part is that he does not have a cleft palate! My God is amazing. I am so thankful. There is more that I want to share but it will have to wait. I need to go feed my babe.

Say Hello!

2009-03-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

Starla posting for Sarena:

Travis Richard was born tonight at 6:25pm. He weighed 8lbs and was 21 inches long. Mom and baby are both feeling great and will probably be home tomorrow!!!

Psalm 46

2009-03-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

Ruth shared a part of this psalm in the comments the other day and I just wanted to share the whole thing because it is very powerful and is really ministering to me right now.

Psalm 46
1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, (removed people, the earth removed)
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; (into the sea, all of the mountains!)
3Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
4There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,
the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
5God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved:
God shall help her, and that right early.
6The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved:
he uttered his voice, the earth melted. (uttered his voice and the whole earth melts. This is power beyond what we can comprehend!)
7The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
8Come, behold the works of the LORD,
what desolations he hath made in the earth.
9He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;
he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder;
he burneth the chariot in the fire.
10Be still, and know that I am God:
I will be exalted among the heathen,
I will be exalted in the earth.
11The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

My God is INCREDIBLE! He is power and might and he cares for me, for the tiny baby in my womb. I know that he is able to do all things. I am not left here to flounder on my own trying to decide what to do. God has heard me! I am in his care and I can rest knowing that even if I have a c-section tomorrow, he is in it.

Update.

2009-03-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Just in case there are those of you who are wondering what's going on...

Nothing. I had mild contractions throughout the day. MILD. Strong enough to wake me up from my nap, and that's about it. As the day went on they became fewer and farther between. I am now going to have a bath and try to get a good rest. Hopefully they will come back tomorrow.

For now I am content. There is a plan. And other than that there's nothing else I can do.

I will have a baby in my arms by thursday morning. Hopefully those arms won't be shaking uncontrolably from a c-section.

Night!

3 cm

2009-03-09T09:11:00.001-07:00

Yep I'm finally dilating! No labor yet but I am so relieved that something is finally happening! If it doesn't happen before we will be having our baby on wednesday, or at least trying to. I really don't have a lot of options so we'll just have to see how things go. The baby's head is still high which means he can't break my water because the chord could prolapse (come out before the baby) and that's very bad. So please pray that

1) I will go into labor on my own in the next 48 hours
2) If I don't the baby's head will come down
3) I will continue to dilate until then!

Thanks guys!

Micah 7:7

2009-03-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

"I watch in hope for the Lord. I wait for God my savior. My God will hear me."

Pray for me today people.

nothing yet.

2009-03-07T19:40:00.000-08:00

But I'm really ready for it to happen. I am also ready to put Joe to bed, have a bath and sleep for three days. Apparently my body is going into "conserve energy" mode. Dalen made dinner tonight. I layed on a make shift bed on the floor and played with Joe. I wish I could eat things that have tomato in them. No spaghetti, chili or sweet and sour, these are things we usually eat about once a week. I enjoyed some left over yorkshire pudding with jam and two everything cookies. Maybe I'll make myself some real food later. Maybe I'll just go to bed.

Anyway just wanted to let you all know they deal. Pray for things to get going, I am still quite happy and not feeling "overdue". I'm just ready now. Even Dalen is complaining. He never complains, he always deals with my complaints. It would be great if I could have the baby tomorrow as Dalen wouldn't have to miss any work. Idealy. When is having babies ideal? Yeah I thought so.

What a great morning!

2009-03-07T10:10:00.001-08:00

Wow that was awesome... it was "the" nurse but she was absolutely great and so long as she doesn't try to give me an IV I think we'll be all good! Also my doctor didn't even meet me at the hospital and just told the nurse to come back Monday morning for another stress test! Thank you so much for your prayers people! I was totally expecting to have to fight it out with the doctors! Apparently they value their Saturdays! Off we go to get ready for Emma's party! Did I mention that my MIL was here all night cleaning my house for me, with supper in hand?! I am blessed beyond measure! Now I need some labor to start!

Stress test

2009-03-07T07:52:00.001-08:00

I'm heading to the hospital right now .....

for a stress test. Sorry Jen I had to!

I am going to be meeting my doctor and possibly having to defend my stand to not interfere in the "this is taking forever" pregnancy. Please pray that I will have dilated more, that my doctor will be happy and I won't have to battle too hard. By battle I mean talk it out people. Also for those of you who know what I'm talking about... it "the" nurse. Pray for me!

In which Joe takes a bath by himself.

2009-03-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

"Hmmmm... what do I do with this?"
.
.
.
.

"Momma uses this to wash me."
.
.
.
.
" Oh right I'm in the bath, I should be splashing like a crazy person!"
.
.
.

"HAHA!"
.
.
.

"Oh this retains water... I can drink from it."
.
.
.

" Mmmmm soap and baby dirt."

"Forget the cloth."

" Gug."

("Gug" is Joe's new word for anything that he may want to eat, drink or just generally enjoy)

Emma Grace

2009-03-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love my girl. It's going to be hard to pick which pictures to post of her. Emma has been a huge joy in my life. It doesn't hurt that she loves all of the things that I love. When she came home from birthday shopping with Grandma today and I asked her what her favorite thing to buy was she said "FABRIC!" Ahhh... a girl after my own heart! Here is a peek at Ms. Pie as we call her around these parts.... also known as Emma Pie, Baby Girl (Daddy's nick name for her), Emma Bemma, Emma Grace and Gracie Pie. Feel free to share any memories you have of Emma. I'm sure she would feel really special to hear them!

From my favorite Meggers!

2009-03-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

To: A Good, friendly, Happy, joyful, nice, peaceful, Wiebe. Stork.

Lost my,

2009-03-06T09:38:00.001-08:00

plug. Sorry guys. This usually happens like a week before I have the baby. I'm not getting too hopeful about my Sunday "due date" guess. *sigh* God and I are talking a lot. Well I'm talking to God a lot and he patiently letting me vent. I'm really okay with being overdue. What I'm not okay with is planning how I will respond to the doctor when he wants to cut me open on Saturday and ~~arguing with~~ talking to him in my head all day long.

In other news it is Emma girls birthday! More on that later!

Ephrim said to me last night while snuggling on my lap "Momma, I'm gonna really love you when you go have the baby."

A Wiebe Preview

2009-03-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

No Jen I'm not in Labor... sorry to get your hopes up. I got some new ultrasound pictures of the babe today so I thought it would be fun to post all of the ones that I have. There are a lot of pictures for this baby.

This is a picture of Baby Wiebe at 13 weeks gestation. The head is the blob on the right and the body is the blog on the left. You can actually see some facial detail, to think that they don't consider this a baby?!

22 weeks. For some reason I like looking at ultrasound pictures when the head is on the left. What a nice little face :)

22 weeks. This is a shot of the bottom of Baby Wiebe's feet. I love baby feet, although they don't look as kissable in utero.

Another profile shot from 22 weeks. I love these glimpses of a baby. I am always trying to think of who's ultrasound they looked like.

These next two pictures are from today. 41 weeks. Things are a little more squishie in there. Okay I really think that all of my babies ultrasound pictures look similar. Dalen thinks I'm silly when I say that one ultrasound looks like another.

For fun I'm going to also give you ultrasound pictures from the other kids. You may be thinking that I just did this recently. You're right, I did a year ago. After Joe was born.

A little Ephrim Peanut

An Adon PeanutA Joe Peanut

And I can't find an Emma Peanut on the computer. I'm also way too lazy to walk up 15 stairs to get the hard copy our of her baby book, which also only has a handful of pages with anything written on it. She should feel good, I haven't even written in Ephrim and Joe's yet :)

The Deal

2009-03-05T09:27:00.001-08:00

Nothing has happened. There has been no more dilating and baby is very happy where he/she is. I am going for an ultrasound today to make sure the pool inside of me isn't depleating and that the baby didn't dissapear or loose a limb in the last month or so. I'm pretty sure the baby is still there ;)

The doctor doesn't like that I'm so late. He will be consulting the non-vbac friendly OBGYN today. So please pray that they don't stress me out to much as I will put up a huge fight before I let them even try to interfere without a very good (one of the "baby is going to die" variety) reason. My babies are always late. 10, 11 and 12 days late. And the only time I was induced I ended up with an emergency c-section. I'm just not a big fan. I like my uterus and it's already gone through a lot. I'd like to keep it as happy and healthy as possible for future children....

Did she just say future children?

Yeppers, I sure did. I pray for my womb a lot. I realize that there is a time and a place for intervention and I'm thankful that we have the medical ability to save so many lives in this area. But I am not for doing things unnessicarily. I do not want to limit what God can do with my womb unless there is a really good reason for it. There.

So please pray for peace for my doctor. Help us to be firm but not stupid and to follow God's lead. Dalen is very strongly opposed to any interference and I'm thankful for that. He is also not an emotional thinker and I know that I can trust his judgement in these things. If Dalen says it's time to interfere, I know it is.

With all that said, I'm really not that worried :) This is nothing new for me, but the doctors stress me out some. I'm praying for an advocate on Saturday morning when I go in to see my Dr. again. And can I just say that I absolutely LOVE my doctor. He is incredible and thus far has made very wise decisions for our health. I am SO thankful that God placed him in our lives. This has got to be a very stressful situation for him, so please pray for him as well. Thanks!

Where I'm at.

2009-03-04T21:16:00.000-08:00

Well I'm going to give you all a baby update. Don't get too excited!

I am now six days overdue. Yesterday I ended up at the hospital as the baby's heart rate was irregular at my check up. Everything ended up fine. I've never had to worry about the well being of my baby before and it was a new experience, I definitely felt peace and was pretty sure there wasn't really anything to worry about. I am thankful that it all worked out, obviously, but I appreciate women who deal with these things all the more.

Up until tonight there wasn't really anything labor related happening. Yesterday I was 1.5 cm. dilated. Not too exciting. But around dinner time tonight I started getting frequent braxton hicks contractions. I have had very little of these at all this pregnancy. Now I'm getting them every 8-15 minutes. They don't hurt but they are squeezing pretty good and I am now looking forward to my check up tomorrow to see if they will have done anything. I'm trying not to get too excited as it could still be many days before this baby makes an appearance but it's good to feel like my body is finally doing something!

I just realized that I don't have any pregnant pictures from this baby and I need to get one taken! Hopefully one of my wonderful photographically inclined friends will drop by tomorrow?

Emma's birthday is on Friday! She is going to be SIX! AHHHHH! I'm very excited and hoping that her party will go off without a hitch. It is very low key so even if I am in labor it should be okay. Just the grandma's and auntie and two friends for lunch and then the girls will spend the afternoon crafting/scrap booking.

Well that's it for now. We have been very low key here. We've taken the week off of school and are just hanging out living life together and I'm enjoying it tremendously! Hopefully my next post will be telling you that I'm in labor!

Getting to know you.

2009-03-03T15:24:00.001-08:00

I'm taking part in this getting to know you blogfest over at WalkingBarefoot. Go join in, it should be a lot of fun and it'll get you some extra blog traffic! I can't wait to check out all of the fun new blogs! And while you are there... take in the beauty of Lynnette's life and what God has done. You can find her testimony in the right side bar of her blog. And just in case you've been wondering, I am still here. I've just been taking it easy and enjoying some relaxed days with my family, before things get less relaxed. We did have a tiny scare with the baby's heart rate today but in the end all is well and this little one is very happy where he/she is.

Just in time for Wiebe #5

2009-03-01T22:57:00.000-08:00

Song for a Fifth Child.

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.
The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow

But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Coop

2009-02-28T13:55:00.000-08:00

update- Joe went back to sllep and I had a very nice nap, it was very peaceful and my house still is.

the coop is clean. I say clean loosley. It's a place where birds poop 24/7. Adon is allergic to hay. Which means he can't help me clean the coop anymore. I'm completely exhausted and very thankful that Ephrim and Joe are napping. I am going to go do the same. Our neighbor is back after being away for a month and she's very excited about the chickens. I am so glad that she'll be helping to clean the coop. Especially since it needs to be done every week or so and in a week or so I'm going to have a brand new baby.

Joe's awake.

2009-02-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

the more i seek you,

the more i find you

the more i find you,

the more I love you

i wanna sit at your feet

drink from the cup in your hand.

lay back against you and breath,

feel your heart beat

this love is so deep,

it's more than I can stand.

i melt in your peace,

it's overwhelming

-Kari Jobe

Coop

2009-02-28T11:36:00.001-08:00

I think I'm going to wait for Dalen to get home to start cleaning out the chicken coop. Boy am I tired today. I think there is a quiet time in our future with my rocking chair calling out to me. I really want to move it up into my room in preperation for baby. I wonder how heavy that sucker is? Dalen may spank me if I move it by myself. Hmmm ;) I've rediscovered my embroidery floss and some cross stitch kits I had. Maybe this will be my quiet activity?

1:00 am again

2009-02-28T01:07:00.000-08:00

What's the deal. Well I know what the deal is. I can't sleep because my brain is too busy. I'm struggling a bit, I hurt and I'm grieved in my heart over some things that I've heard lately. Things about aweful, terrible, horrible things done to children.(not mine) Some things I just cannot bear well and they linger in my heart and make me crawl into bed with my children while they sleep and hold onto them and cry.

Then I need "yammer". Fluff to fill my head and let me focus on something else.

I pray, and cry and give it to God. Then I have to let it go. Sometimes that means staying up way too late reading new blogs. It doesn't happen often though.

I was reading over at the Riggs Family Blogg and Brent was sharing why he has so much joy in the face of his daughter fighting cancer. In a nutshell he said that he will one day be in heaven and this life is just a vapor. What's a week or so of not being able to use my hip and ~~dreading~~ waiting to deliver this new little Wiebe?

I've always day dreamed about being one of those moms who's water just suddenly breaks so we go to the hospital and 2-10 hours later our baby is born. I'm not that mom. I'm the one who's labor is nice and gentle. Contractions 10 minutes apart until transition and even then they're only 5 minutes apart. Sounds nice hey. Well it is... but after 30 some hours it gets old. I'm grumbling here and not focusing on the whole "One day I'm going to be in heaven and this will all be a vapor" thing. I guess I haven't had as much practice as Brent and Michelle.

Wasn't God just telling me this morning to "rest". Yeah, time to get over my pity party, eat a sandwich and go to bed!

Well if that wasn't a nice little bit of realism from Momma Bean.

Night

Catching up and finishing off.

2009-02-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

Here are the birds that we made. I linked to the tutorial in this post. I decided that I didn't like the birds that were in the tutorial so I copied Robin's. The two older kids had a lot of fun with these too.

I found these grape vine garlands for under two dollars each at Creative Zone. If I could have I would have bought them all for my gift drawer. they are adorning my front porch. Right now they are the only thing adorning my front porch other than my scarlet cord. More on that later.

So this is the soup that we made with the noodles. It was delicious! The noodles were incredible too. I used oat and whole wheat flour for them and cooked them in beef broth from our pot roast last night. I added leftover beef and veggies from the meal as well. I needed to add more water and some chicken boullion for a little more flavour. Delish! The noodles were very very fast and easy to make!

Here is Noah helping me out. Noah and I became buddies a bit today. I have realized that when it comes to kids you can't wait for them to decide to like you. You have to just like them and not give them the choice. Noah had a moment today and was very upset. I just held his little face in my hands and gave him a kiss. Then he liked me :)

And now for a baby update.

I had a Doctor's appointment today. He checked me. I'm 1 cm. The baby is very low. I think that most people are 1 cm. I have been very okay with being overdue because I've always been overdue, but tonight my hips are hurting a lot and my children are getting so anxious to have this baby here, that I'm feeling a little impatient. I would appreciate your prayers. I'm okay right now but it's been a lot more uncomfortable to even sit and nearly impossible to walk at times tonight.

Starla folded Mt.Laundry.

There's nothing more to say about that is there?

You all love her so much more now don't you?

Don't you wish you had a Starla?

Too bad, she's mine! ;)

Well I am going to catch up on some blogs, have a bath and tidy my bedroom until I'm too tired to tidy anymore. I was up until 1:00 last night baking and cleaning up from baking and I'm really feeling it right now. I think it's time for an earlyish night.

Momma Bean

It's hard to believe.

Sweet Pea

My utmost for His highest.

Just in case.

From My utmost for his highest by Oswald Chambers

Crazy Love

Our Anthem

Smart, not wise.

To Mom.

When we judge people...

Who's baby is that?

Mr. Superfantastic....

I love my Momma...

Fire!

I am thankful!

10 weeks? Oh my.

A new favorite.

Sixth

Looking for...

I didn't think I was a redneck.... until this.

Please Pray

Adon's Logo

Welcome to the Family! (03/26/2010)

Joe is 2! (Dang-it! I blinked again!)

Adon

16 days

January 8th

Diet Blog

I'm so thankful for these moments.

Wiebes

*GASP* she's blogging!

A lesson in Tact

Wool Sweaters

One Bunny...

Bunnies!

Reply to a comment

Dancing with Dalen in my livingroom...

Two sets of twins....

Answers

Chick, chick, chick, chick

Freezer

Remember This?

My song today

lovely moments

Warning, an animal is killed in this post.

Truck got Stuck

So Excited! Praise God!!!

Update on Luogon

Yeah, this isn't working.

Friday

joe a wrap and some black bean hummus

I look like a boy when I eat.

tuesday may 5th

Monday, May 4th

An e-mail from Luogon

Why three is the best age.

Thursday April 30th

wednesday April 29th

Tuesday April 28th

April 27th 2009

Friday April 24th

Thursday April 23rd

Wednesday April 22nd

Tuesday April 21

Accountability.

Luogon :)

Wowzers, it's been a long time.

the generation gap

Marlene?!

The goods.

Last thing

Eye Candy

How old are they?

Ten Days

Say Hello!

Psalm 46

Update.

3 cm

Micah 7:7

GASP she's blogging!