With Faith and Hope: It's not always easy to raise a large family, but it's worth it!

Well, life is not always a cake walk with 5 children still at home, 1 in college and another in the Marines, but it is worth it, even if I have to remind myself that on a daily basis.

I pray daily that God will lead my children to the right "life mate", one that will help them grow in Grace, help them walk in His light, someone that will help them know HIS will for their lives. I pray daily for their health, for their futures, that they will be considerate of others, that they will live by J.O.Y., by always putting Jesus first, others second and themselves last. Jesus, Others, Yourself, JOY! I have learned to take nothing for granted, but to want JOY for myself and for my children.

It has been a difficult last few weeks with everyone being sick with colds, flu, Isaiah being hospitalized with an abscess in his neck due to a nasty virus, but we are all finally on the mend and Isaiah is definitely back to his onry 3 year old self. He went to his first birthday party on Sat. to a place called the Jump Zone and he was afraid at first, but once it was time to go, he was ready to play and wanted to know if we could please come back with DADDY sometime. I told him, that yes, we would come back another day. All the flu symptoms started the day after our company arrived of course, but we managed to hold things together on most days, while our son Alex was here, along with my niece Amanda and her boyfriend Jose. Unfortunately, Jose got sick for one day and Amanda was sick for several days and we had to load her up on water, meds and tissues for the long drive back to Kansas from Tennessee. They made the drive back w/o any trouble and Mandi was feeling better a few days after getting back. Grandma Connie was sick for a month with this stuff and I was sick for a good two weeks, Isaiah & Ava were also sick for about two weeks. Isaiah & Ava still have a slight cough, but they are so much better and I think the worst is over, at long last. I will also post some Christmas photos soon as well. I managed to make Christmas dinner the day after Christmas, but at least we managed it, I made a leg of lamb with a Moroccan spice rub and it was fabulous and will most likely become a tradition at our house. I also made turkey, dressing, potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, yams, lots of treats, cookies, etc. That was great, as than we had left overs for several days and I did not have to cook much again! We also got pizza and take out as well.

We took Alex and Jose out to see the house we really want to put an offer on and they both LOVED it!
Alex agreed that the house was much more US, than the house we are currently leasing. He is very much for us getting it, but unfortunately, the sellers will not even take an offer on the contingency that our house in KS sells, so we are stuck trusting that it will still be on the market WHEN our house finally sells. We have run into that a lot here in TN, they all want CASH offers only, so that has been frustrating, but I am trying to be at peace that it will all work out how it is suppose to. I do not however want to lose this house, as I can see us creating wonderful memories there together and really making it a HOME and not just a house, like the one we are currently living in. But if we do, I have to trust that it was not meant to be and that we WILL find our HOME here in TN.

Even though our older sons are now 19 and 23, it seems they still depend on us for a lot, but they are our children and we will always be there for them, but we cannot be a constant cash cow for them forever either. Boy some days are harder than others to let them "fly free" on their own and let them fall where they may, learning life's lessons the hard way sometimes. I think without my faith and praying for them daily, I might be a wreck, but I know that our Heavenly Father, has them in His capable hands. I know we have made mistakes as parents, but I also know deep down that we have set a good foundation of faith and values for our children and that nothing can take that from them, they may stray from it at times, making mistakes of their own, but that foundation will always be there for them to come back to and I know that both of our older boys have HUGE hearts for others.

Having two girls that are now "pre-teens" can be daunting & frustrating to say the least, but I know too, that this stage will soon pass and hopefully, I will see my lovely, hormonal daughters grow into wonderful young ladies all too soon. The stomping, rolling eyes, talking back, will hopefully all pass soon enough, keep reminding me of that ok? I adore them both, they are beautiful, loving, bright and talented, they just get lost in the hormones, right?

Jade knitted a beautiful hat from a kit she got for Christmas in about 5 hours and Grace made a wonderful scarf in less than a day! I am excited to see what else they will make in the coming year, as Santa brought them plenty of yarn! They should have lots of fun letting their creative juices flow.

Finding time to schedule doctors appointments, therapy appointments for the kids since we moved here, has been difficult at best, but my New Year's resolution is to finally get all that going again "in full", no matter how hard it will be to juggle it all and possibly go back to work, either full or part time, sometime in the near future. I need some adult contact, Isaiah needs other children to play with and we could also use the extra income with our house still for sale in Kansas. Hopefully, now that we have dropped the price another 10K, we will get an offer and Prayerfully, they will have an early Spring in KS, so that people will get back out their to look at houses, esp. now that the housing stimulus has been extended and expanded. We still need to find the time and the funds to finish moving the last of the "junk" we still have to move, or pray for good weather, so we can make one last ditch effort to sell it all at a garage sale, so we don't have to move it, we also have a lot we will just give away to needy families.

I have finished reading: What Happens When Women Say Yes to God, by Lysa Terkeurst, from Proverbs 31 Ministries and I have to say it is one of the best books I have ever read and would recommend it to all Christian mothers and fathers. Thank you Alex for giving it to me early for Christmas. It is just what my soul needed at this time in my life for sure. Now I am reading another one of Lysa's books, What Happens When Women Walk in Faith and I highly recommend both books to anyone struggling with the day to day stresses of being a wife, mother, sister, daughter, it has helped me learn to relax, Trust in Him, Listen more closely, to truly hear HIS will for my life and for his will for my family. I know that reading this book, taking the weekend off by myself a few weeks ago and ending up at our new church, was no accident, that it is just what I needed and what He wanted for me and for our family. We all LOVE our new church, we are ALL excited about being here in TN for the first time, but we are VERY anxious to move closer to our church, to get the girls into school there, as the public schools here are horrible and we wanted them out of these schools, yesterday, and we cannot do that until our house in KS sells, so our prayer now, is to keep trusting in HIS perfect timing and believing that it WILL happen, as all of this feels so right, for the first time in a very long time. There is more LOVE, JOY, Acceptance, Diversity, in this church, than in any church we have gone to for our entire 27 years of married life. I feel like we will finally be able to really begin to heal from the last 8 years of our lives, that have been so difficult, with so many losses, so much pain, too many being dx with cancer. I truly feel that this church will be really good for our entire family. I know I need healing and I know our children do too, esp. our older children.

I want to live my life for HIS purpose! I want to learn to listen and HEAR Him in every decision I make for myself and for my children. I vow to SEE and Hear God more clearly this year, in the faces of my children, in the trees, the hills, the flowers, to stop and appreciate the beauty around me more and to thank Him for the many blessings in my life.

Lights outside George Joneses house at Christmas

Isaiah playing his new drums, with his sister's sunglasses on