Brothers and Sisters

To say that today was busy, was an understatement.  We had to have the van checked out and the oil changed since we are leaving for Ohio (woo hoo!) next Friday.  Of course, we had school to do.  I took Kindle to ballet.  Afterwards, we were in desperate need to go to the grocery store.  Since it was just the end of the month, the kids also got to get their stuff with their money at the store.  I managed to squeeze in a couple loads of laundry and some cleaning too.  I was able to do my Beth Moore Bible study as well (which I am really enjoying by the way).

So no time for pictures...however, I snapped this photo with my iPhone the other morning.  Kindle thinks she is so big when she holds Gunnar.  I love how much she loves being a big sister!

I really love how all of my children love their brothers and sisters.  They are great friends and have lots of fun together.  Of course, they do have their share of disagreements, but at the end of the day, they love each very much.  I am so happy they have each other!

Cooper was just reminding me today of how he guessed the sex of each of his brothers and sisters correctly.  It is pretty wild, but he has gotten it right each time.  He has decided that we should have 10 kids.  A girl is next so we can continue the pattern-boy, girl, boy, girl and boy.  I told him we shall see...

Breaking Free & Mighty to Save

We had a super busy day today.  We took baths, did school, put the kids down for early naps, took Kindle to ballet and went to a friend's house so she could meet Gunnar.  Whew!  It was a long time in the car for the little ones, but we survived.

The older 4 watching TV after their baths.

Celeste right before bedtime.  She told me "No more pictures, Mommy!"

Tonight, I am starting Beth Moore's bible study on Breaking Free.  My friend, Candra, and I are doing it together remotely since she is in Ohio till Thanksgiving.  I am really excited because I have never done a women's bible study before.  Lots of people have recommended the Breaking Free bible study to me, so I can't wait!











All day, I have had the song Mighty to Save by Hillsong United stuck in my head.  If you are not familiar with it.  Here are the lyrics:


Everyone needs compassion,
Love that's never failing;
Let mercy fall on me.

Everyone needs forgiveness,
The kindness of a Saviour;
The Hope of nations.

Saviour, He can move the mountains,
My God is Mighty to save,
He is Mighty to save.

Forever, Author of salvation,
He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave.

So take me as You find me,
All my fears and failures,
Fill my life again.

I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in,
Now I surrender.

My Saviour, He can move the mountains,
My God is Mighty to save,
He is Mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation,
He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave. 

Shine your light and let the whole world see,
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus (x2)

My Saviour, He can move the mountains,
My God is Mighty to save,
He is Mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation,
He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave. 

My Saviour, you can move the mountains,
You are mighty to save,
You are mighty to save.
Forever, Author of Salvation,
You rose and conquered the grave,
Yes you conquered the grave

I wanted to see where the term "mighty to save" was found in the Bible and I found this verse.

Zephaniah 3:17 (New International Version)

 ¹⁷ The LORD your God is with you,
       he is mighty to save.
       He will take great delight in you,
       he will quiet you with his love,
       he will rejoice over you with singing.


I hope this encourages some of you as it has encouraged me today.

Resting

Last night when we got home from a busy day, Gunnar was completely exhausted.  I was able to capture a few moments of him sleeping peacefully in his car seat.  It was so sweet.  I love to watch my kiddos sleep.

I love the purity and simplicity that children have.  They have no worry or fear of what will happen they just trust that Mommy and Daddy will take care of their needs.  It is a nice reminder of how our Heavenly Father feels about us.  He wants us to rest and be at peace, trusting in Him.

Matthew 6:25-27


²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?


I pray that each of you reading this enters this weekend trusting in God's promises for your life.  I pray that there will be no worry or stress, but that you rest in the love from your Heavenly Father.

Saturday's Activities and Cooper Leads His First Bible Study

Yesterday, we had a super busy day so I was unable to blog.  I took Kindle to ballet to do a make up class because of Labor Day on Monday.  Then, I went to a scrapbooking crop at Amber's House.  I spent a lot of the time picking out the items I want to order from the new catalog from Creative Memories.  I can't wait to get some of the cool papers and stickers.  Nathan watched the children, so I was by myself.  Woo Hoo!

Then, we went to dinner with our friends, Isaac and Josette.  It was Isaac's birthday yesterday and Josette's a couple of weeks ago.  My Mom watched the older 4 so we just had Gunnar.  We ate at Village Tavern in Alpharetta.  I got the Chicken Marsala.  It was very, very yummy!

Josette & Isaac

Gunnar did extremely well.  He didn't make a peep.  I thought for sure he would fall asleep, but he stayed awake the whole time.  I guess he didn't want to miss out on any of the excitement.

We had a great time!

This morning, Nathan was leading worship at our church.  When he leads worship, I usually stay at home since I am nursing and end up watching all of the kids in the nursing Mom's room while he is singing.  Typically the church offers free live webstreaming, so we watch Nathan sing from home.  It is great because I can nurse and put Gunnar down for a nap while the kids and I are worshipping.  This morning, however, the webstreaming wasn't working.  We were pretty bummed.  We ended up turning on a couple Hillsong songs and we worshipped to that instead.  Most mornings, we do that as a family (we just change up our song list) so the kids were okay with doing that.  Usually after we listen to worship music, we will do a quick bible study together.  Nathan typically picks a verse or two to read to the kids.  Then, we talk about how it practically applies to their lives.  We have gone through Proverbs and gone over most of the more popular bible stories as well as several other verses.  This morning, Cooper asked if he could lead bible study so I said sure.  He got his Bible out and shared these verses with us:

Philippians 2:14-15

 ¹⁴Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

Colossians 3:23

  ²³Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men

Ephesians 6:1

 ¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

He then explained what the verses meant to us.  He gave examples of what complaining and arguing are.  He also gave examples of things that they can do as unto the Lord like their schoolwork and chores.  He also explained to them that obeying Mommy and Daddy is very important so that you can live a long and happy life.  He also told him that it is one of the 10 Commandments.  I was very proud!

Teaching the Kids about Money

This morning, we decided not to go to church.  There was a church wide picnic at a clubhouse with a huge playground that is always so fun to go, however with Grant having stitches, we didn't think it would be a good idea for him to play.  Instead we listened to worship music at home and did a bible study (we do this every morning as well before Nathan starts work and the kids start school).

Nathan and I had been talking about how we need to teach the kids what the Bible says about earning, spending and saving money (Proverbs 22:6).  Since the end of the month is in a couple of days (and we are busy then), we decided we would go to Target and let them pick out the items that they wanted with the money they had earned for doing their jobs.  We told the kids that we are going to be starting something different when it came to the money they earned.  In 2008, we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (highly recommend to everyone!).  During the classes, it talked about teaching your kids what the Bible says about money.  Today, I immediately thought to check Dave Ramsey's website and sure enough there is a list of all of the scriptures concerning money and teaching your children.  You can view it here.  We began by reading Matthew 6:24 to the kids and explaining to them that it is important to love God and not money.  We went on to tell them that we are supposed to be good stewards of our money.  We used the verse Proverbs 6:6-8 that talks about how the ant works hard during the spring to store up for winter.  We explained that it is important to not spend all of the money we have and save money too (Proverbs 21:20).  We also explained that we give a tithe to the church (Proverbs 3:9).  I gave them an example, if they got $10 for doing their jobs, they will give $1.00 to church, save $1.00 and have $8.00 left to spend.  We told them that they needed to chose something to save up towards that was a larger item that they wanted to get.  We also told them that if they wanted to put some of their money to spend into savings they could do that also.  We went on to explain that they could also give extra money (an offering) to church, missions or someone in need if they would like out of their spending money.  We explained to them that it is important to be lead by the Spirit (Romans 8) in all things, so they should ask God to tell them if they should give just their tithe or extra.  We made sure everyone understood what we were doing and how much money they each had.  Then, we went to Target.

Cooper picked out a watch & a Spiderman box to keep his stuff in.

KIndle picked out Disney Princess silly bandz and a Tinkerbell watch. 

Grant picked out a motorcycle.

Celeste got a ball.

It was a good lesson for them to learn at an early age so that they will be good stewards of their money when they are adults.