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.

Homeschool Soccer: Week 4

It was another fun, but hot day at Homeschool Soccer.  Nathan's Dad, the kids call him Opa, came out to watch the kids play.  They were very excited to see him!   

I spent most of the day with Grant again.  

Today, he wanted to do all the non-soccer activities more than he wanted to play soccer.  Ha ha.  He couldn't wait to get the mat out and do flips and log rolls.

He also really enjoyed playing with the parachute.  He kept asking to keep playing with it over and over.  All of the other kids did too.  It is definitely one of their favorite parts of homeschool soccer.

Under the Parachute

Grant found a stick and decided to dig around too.  

He has also made a friend at soccer named Drew.  It is really sweet to see them playing together.  Here they are running down the big hill together.

We got to watch Kindle play for a few minutes today.  They were playing tag while dribbling their soccer balls.  

One of the highlights of the day is when they get to have ice pops.  Grant and Kindle enjoyed their ice pops while we watched Cooper's team finish up their game.

They 7 & 8 year old boys teamed up with the 7 & 8 year old girls today to play a game.  Cooper got to be goalie which is his favorite position to play.

He did really great as goalie.  He never let a ball get past him.  Here he is making a save.

The kids had a ton of fun again today and look forward to going back next week.

Sparkles and Gunnar's New Trick

Today, we went over to the Taylor's house to let the kids play since they are out of school for a Fall break this week.  They just got a new kitten last week named Sparkles.  Grant is obsessed with animals so he was in heaven.  He spent most of the day following, petting and holding the kitten.

Thank goodness that Sparkles was a very tolerant kitten!  She and Grant were swatting their hands at each other playing a game.  It was very cute!  She got lots and lots of love today!

We had a really great day playing with friends.  The boys played video games and Legos.  The girls played all sorts of make believe games and colored.  We always have fun playing with the Taylors!

Gunnar has a new trick.  A couple of days ago, Nathan was holding Gunnar and Nathan stuck his tongue out at Gunnar.  Then, Gunnar copied him and stuck his tongue out at Nathan.  Gunnar kept doing it over and over.  He would always have a huge grin on his face and laugh at himself.  Ever since, Gunnar has been sticking his tongue out at all of us.  It is just too cute!

Weekend House aka My Hot Mess

So my friend, Lindsey, is having a contest on her blog Happiness With a Side of Havoc, Please.  It is for photos of everyone's "hot mess" of a house.  Since it has been a busy weekend, I have a case of what I love to call "Weekend House".  I have mentioned this before, but for those unfamiliar with the term, it is when you are so busy all weekend that you don't have time to straighten up.  You just let everything stay wherever it finds a home with the hope of getting it all straighten up later.  So here is what my Weekend House looked like.

The Kitchen

My catch-all cubby

These are only the shoes worn this past weekend.  There are many more where these came from.

My Master Closet

Nathan's Clothes Corner

The "clean & needs to be folded, but we haven't had time so we had to just grab stuff out of the basket" laundry.  There is lots more where this came from.

I am just keeping it real at the Martin house :)  I am happy to say the kitchen and the rest of the area were cleaned before I allowed myself to write this blog.  Now off to conquer the laundry!

This contest is open to everyone.  Go to Lindsey's Blog and enter!

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!

Gifts and Surprises

On Monday when I went to dinner with Alanna, she forgot my gift.  So she brought it to me today.  She made me a mini scrapbook.  I love it!  It is so sweet.  Those of you who know me, know that I love to scrapbook, but I am typically making scrapbooks of my children.  It is so nice to have something for myself :)

The Cover

Alanna & I at a Third Day concert in 2004

She also made me a bow holder after reading my blog about needing another one.  I absolutely love it!  I was really wanting to get one that was this style.  I put a few bows on there so you could get the idea.  She is very crafty and can make almost anything.  I keep telling her to make a business out of it.  Maybe one day I can talk her into it...(wink, wink)

Just a side note, I got her a tile frame that has a cute saying about friendship.  I told her to pretend that I made it.  Ha ha.  

Another gift I got for my birthday, was a gift card to Amazon from Candra.  I LOVE shopping at Amazon so this was the perfect gift.  As I mentioned in my previous posts, I take a long time to decide what I would like to get.  I have to look around at all of the items (either in the store or online).  I always read product reviews and try to make an "educated" decision.  So, I just ordered the items with my gift card and most of them arrived today.  This is what I got:

A cover for my laptop that I have been needing for a LONG time to protect it from little hands.

A protector for my keypad to protect it from spills that little hands make.

Also, I have heard so much stuff over the years from Candra and friends about how awesome Rainbow Sandals are.  I decided that I need to finally give them a try.  They are supposed to conform to your feet over time and then become your favorite pair of sandals that will last forever.  Sounds good to me!

Lastly, I ordered a food processor.  I have been wanting to get one for years so that I can make my own baby food (hopefully :) as well as save time when making our favorite dinner, Chicken Casserole.  {The food processor has not arrived yet, so I can't take a picture.  I attached a link to it below}  I look forward to using it shortly!

This has been a wonderful birthday!  

In other news, I have been walking on my treadmill several days a week and dropped a few pounds.  Hurray!  I am doing pretty good about entering all of the foods I have eaten into the Livestrong app.  I am happy to see that all of my efforts are paying off!

Tomorrow starts the first day of Homeschool Soccer for the older 3 kids.  They are beyond excited!  They got all of their gear together tonight.  I have a feeling when I wake up in the morning, I will find them in their shin guards and cleats ready to go.  I am looking forward to watching them play!  I plan on bringing the camera, so hopefully I can get some pictures of them.  It might be kinda interesting since they will all be playing at the same time, but I have to stay with Grant.  I shall do my best.

Cherokee Indians & Another Birthday Celebration

My parents went at the end of last week to see the Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, NC.  My great, great grandmother on my Dad's side was a Cherokee Indian so they took my sister and her family to go check it all out.  We hope to go one day as well.  I think the kids would really like it.

My parents brought back gifts for the kids from their trip.  Cooper and Grant got tomahawks (don't worry they are made of rubber).  Cooper keeps calling it his ax despite the fact that I have explained to him that it is called a tomahawk.  I told him he can remember because it is like when we go to the Braves game and we do the "Tomahawk Chop" :)  Kindle and Celeste got bead Indian necklaces.  Here is a close up.  They really love them!

And Gunnar got a wooden hand drum.  He actually held and shook it a bit which was cute.  I am going to save it for him till he is a little bigger since he is starting to want to put things in his mouth.  My parents also bought them a book for me to read to everyone to teach them about the Cherokee Indians for school.

I am looking forward to teaching them more about their Indian heritage!


Tonight, I went out with my friend, Alanna.  We went to dinner at Rafferty's.  It was very yummy!  We both ordered the same thing, chicken salad croissants & cream of potato soup :)  The waitress brought us a bowl of ice cream with whip cream and a cherry on top for our birthday.  We also got the waitress to take a photo of us since our last photo together was way too long ago to even mention.

After dinner, we went to see  Dinner for Schmucks.  We are both big fans of The Office and like Steve Carrell so it was a great choice.  The movie was really funny.  I laughed out loud which I don't do very often.  I would definitely recommend it.  (Disclaimer: It is rated PG-13.  There is a bit of bad language & some adult content, but it wasn't too bad.)  I am very glad we had the opportunity to celebrate our 30th birthdays together!

A Broken Camera, Stitches & the 2nd Day of School

These past couple of days have been quite interesting.  Yesterday, Nathan was on a photo shoot for work taking pictures of a hotel in Tennessee.  His camera was on a tripod.  While he was moving an item to take another photo, the general manager of the hotel says, "Your camera is falling over."  Nathan doesn't know what happened and the general manager said she didn't either.  All we know is that the camera dropped on a tile floor.  Unfortunately, the eye hole you look through shattered.  Also, the lens got cracked on the side so it will no longer turn or focus.  He had to leave the photo shoot before he could get the night shot he needed. This morning he took it to the camera repair shop.  They are supposed to be taking a look at it and letting us know what the diagnosis is.  

The upside to this story is that a friend from church that has a professional camera as well, is allowing Nathan to borrow his to do the photo shoots he has this week.  What a blessing!

While the kids were playing today, Grant ran into the corner of the wall.  He busted his head open and blood was gushing out.  At Christmastime, he fell into the edge of the futon and busted his forehead open so luckily I was pretty calm about the whole thing.  Grant handled it like a champ.  He only cried for a couple of minutes.  Since it was in his hair, we knew it needed stitches.  Nathan took Grant to the Urgent Care.  They gave him 2 stitches.  

The doctor said he was the best kid they have ever had :)  He sat completely still and had a great attitude the whole time.  They gave him a lollipop and some stickers.  He was very excited!  The doctor was so wonderful.  He is a Christian Dad of 5 kids.  His wife also homeschools them.  He got along really well with Nathan and he decided to give him a discount.  Yay!

Kindle and Cooper were definitely WAY more upset about the whole thing than Grant.  They just cried and cried.  None of my children have had to have stitches before so they weren't really familiar with what was going to happen.  They were definitely thinking about a worst case scenario.  I explained everything to them and got them to calm down.  They went on to tell me all the wonderful things that they love about Grant.  For example, He is so nice and he is great with a lightsaber :)  It was very sweet. I told them that should tell Grant the things that they love about him when he got home.  So they did.  

Grant wanted to pose with Gunnar too.  Gunnar, however, was more interested in the fan than looking at the camera.

Sometimes bad things do happen, but in the end it all worked out.  Candra sent me this verse today that really encouraged me.  I hope it will encourage some of you too.

"Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." Colossians 3:2

On a completely different subject, the 2nd day of school went really great.  We are still mostly reviewing for Cooper.  It makes the school day pretty short for him by comparison to the end of the school year last year.  So tonight, he left me this note.

"I want to do more school"

I was pretty happy to see that he wants to do more!  I must be doing something right.  He also left this note for Nathan so he could see what we are doing in school.

"I'm reading my Bible in school"

With his school work, he has verses to memorize.  Currently, he is memorizing Genesis 1:1-5.  On his own, he decided to read the whole book of Genesis during vacation.  He is now reading the book of Exodus.  I am very proud of him.  

Kindle did a great job today as well.  She is reviewing what we learned in Pre-K with her colors and numbers.  We are also continuing to work on the letter "I".