His Faithfulness, Our Joy

A while back, I shared how we have been longing to move out into the country.  I wrote that post almost exactly a year ago!

Well, we have some exciting news!  The Lord has opened the door to make our vision and his will come to fruition!

We have a contract on a house in the country and if all goes well, it will be ours in July! 

This home needs a lot of work, but we got a fantastic deal on it!  Plus, it's on 4 acres with fruit trees, 2 barns and a chicken coop!  And the house has 4 bedrooms and a basement!

It's been truly amazing to see how the Lord has brought all this about!  It confirmed to us that it's His will for our family and He's worked it all together!

So I've been doing my research and now I'm ready to jump in to the country life!

I'm so excited to update more as I learn more of what the Lord has in store for us in the country!

Another Blessed Birth Story

"...For the good hand of the his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statues and rules in Israel." Ezra 7:9,10

This was my longest labor yet--12 hours total! I was progressing fine and with not much pain, but when I got to a 7, my labor just stalled out. We discovered that Ezra was posterior, so I began to work really hard to get him to turn! I wore myself out doing exercises (lunges, taking the stairs in threes, etc) for almost 2 hours to get him to turn and it finally worked! I continued to labor in a lot less pain...

My midwife broke my water shortly after Ezra turned and I labored in "hard labor" for just over an hour.

Yet again, labor stalled out one last time... but soon, with a little help, we saw his head!

However, once his head and shoulders were out, he appeared stuck. It baffled all of us. My midwife told Ryan to go ahead and take Ezra by the shoulders and "deliver" him. So Ryan pulled him out and that's when we realized the reason that he kept going posterior and getting stuck half-way out...

The umbilical cord was wrapped so tightly around his ankles, he was essentially "bungee jumping" inside of me! His ankles were even blue from the cord being wrapped so tightly! (Thankfully all is okay with his feet, knees and hips!)

So little did we know, he was trying his hardest to get in the right position and come to us, but the cord was holding him tight inside me!

My midwives (Deidre and Kathy) were absolutely amazing and I was so thankful for their godly wisdom!

It was a very unusual birth for me, but the Lord taught me a lot and we are just so glad to have our little man here with us!

Dear Ezra,

Sweet baby Ezra!  We are so ready to meet you!  

We are excited to see what you look like, to hold you, to smell you, to hear your voice!

Your brothers are so excited to be a part of your birth and to finally see with their own eyes the little kicker that has been being formed in my belly all this time!

Your little sister just loves babies and I'm sure will be just as enthralled with you she is with every baby she sees at church, the store and in pictures.  I have a feeling she's going to spoil you!

Your daddy has been praying for you fervently.  He picked out your name before we even knew we were pregnant!

"...For the good hand of the his God was on him.  For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statues and rules in Israel." 

Ezra 7:9,10

As soon as daddy read that verse, about 9 months ago, he knew our next baby boy would be this kind of man...a modern-day "Ezra"!

Your mommy is just thrilled to finally hear the words, "here he is!" and have you placed upon my chest.  My Ezra.  My little reward.  My newest arrow.  My joy set before me.

Our hearts are ready to welcome another Wheeler Man into the world! 

And the house is ready for your arrival!

Our bedroom is rearranged

Birth pool is set up

Your first clothes are set out

 Your new little bed is ready

The birth supplies are purchased and double-checked

And the quilt mommy made you is finally complete!

And now we just wait!  We wait anxiously, but peacefully...knowing that we are waiting on the Lord...the Lord of lords who has perfect timing, unsearchable understanding and awesome wisdom.

His ways are perfect...He is bringing you to completion and will soon bring you to us!

Praise His Holy Name, Sweet Ezra!!!

Love,

Your Momma

The Wheels On Our Big, New Bus Go Round and Round...

I have got some BIG and EXCITING news!!!

This past weekend, Ryan and I got a NEW VAN!!!

I can't even begin to tell you what a blessing this is to us!!!

As a family of 6 (soon to be 7) and with all our kids in car seats or boosters, we just don't fit in a minivan anymore!

Our Old Van

With little hands already unable to reach the buckles that are hidden by the carseat next to them and with NO cargo room... it's already been a hassle with just 4 little ones!!

So my parents blessed us tremendously and helped us to buy our new amazing van...(Remember the legacy of generosity I told you all about? They are an indescribable blessing to our family!)

It's a 15 passenger 2002 Chevy Express and she's a BEAUTY!!!

At the gas station just after we made the purchase!

The kids LOVE all the room they have!!!

And we all love all the room we have to GROW!!!

(When the baby comes, Trusten and Brahm will be in the 3rd row)

I still cry just about every time I see it!  We are so thankful!!!

I have always said that I'd love to have a huge van where I could look back over my shoulder and see row after row of precious faces that the Lord has blessed us with!  Oh, how I love my kiddos!!!

Thank you Jesus~Jehovah Jireh, our provider!!!

LOOK WHAT JUST CAME IN THE MAIL!!!

I can't even BEGIN to tell you HOW STINKIN' EXCITED I AM about my new DVD's!!!

I want to scream...AHHHHHH!!! (okay, that's my virtual scream!)

Remember my very successful garage sale I told you about HERE?

Well, while the majority of our money went into savings, my sweet hubby let me choose between a new printer for my computer or these DVD's I've been coveting wanting!

So of course, I chose the DVD's!!!

A few weeks ago, Franklin Springs Films was running a major deal on the Homestead Blessing videos, so I got these 10 DVD's on SUPER sale!  

In my collection are the following:
~The Art of Gardening
~The Art of Sewing
~The Art of Canning
~The Art of Quilting
~The Art of Dairy Delights
~The Art of Bread Making
~The Art of Soap Making
~The Art of Candle Making
~The Art of Herbs
and I even got...
~The Art of Cooking (which teaches you how to make the following meals completely from SCRATCH-NO grocery store needed!) 
     ~Breakfast: pancakes, fried potatoes, fried apples & onions
     ~Lunch: pizza, tomato soup, salads & homemade dressings
     ~Dinner: pot roast & veggies, buttermilk biscuits & gravy, green beans, peach cobbler. 


For a girl who grew up a bit spoiled (yes, I'm admitting it) these DVD's are a dream come true, because our family's desire to become self-reliant, country-living homesteaders grows more and more every day!

My Hero

Some of my post titles take a little more time and energy to think up with than other titles do.  You see, I like my titles to be "catchy" but also true to the subject matter.  So when I get writers block in my post title, I sometimes have to conger up a lot creative brain power to find the perfect fit.

This post, however, wasn't like that.  Titling this post was "easy par-cheesy".

This post is about my hero.  My husband.  My best friend.


I've wrote a whole post about my obsession with him HERE, so I'll spare you too much mush and just tell you how wonderful he has been to me lately!

This has been a hard season for me.  I haven't struggled this much with morning sickness since my very first pregnancy.  So, need-less-to-say, having morning sickness this bad with four other kiddos in the house has been a challenge like no other.

But my sweet husband has gone out of his way to lighten my load for me.

Ryan knows that the direction he is leading our family in isn't always an easy choice (to learn more about this, I recommend this article that my friend wrote with her husband about being "quiverfull") .  Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our babies.  We LOVE the peace that comes with trusting God with my womb.  We LOVE watching how the Lord supplies all our needs when we are not "leaning on our own understanding" or "being wise in our own eyes" (Prov 3).

But must of you know, following the Lord isn't always easy.  And as my husband likes to say, "Just because it's hard doesn't mean it's not good".

So my sweet husband has recently been seeking out ways to bless me and ease some of my daily responsibilities.

Along with helping me keep up with dishes, folding laundry, bathing kids, and more, he's been going the extra mile each morning...

For the past three weeks, I've woken up to this scene:

~Cereal in bowls, waiting for milk.  Cups full of orange juice.

~Liberty's tray waiting with a banana and dry cereal.

For a momma who wakes up to 4 hungry kids with her own tummy doing cartwheels, this is such a blessing!

I'm so thankful for my servant leader!  He inspires me more and more everyday!

To top things off, the other day when I was CRAVING a chicken burrito from Chipotle, my husband went to GREAT efforts to recreate a Chipotle burrito in our kitchen with his own hands.

(The nearest Chipotle is 1 hour, 45 minutes away!)

He worked so hard and honestly, it tasted just like the real thing!!!

I couldn't ask for a better hero!!!

He leads us bravely in unpopular choices and blesses me abundantly with his servant heart.

Liberty's New Shirt...

Do you like it?

We love it!

Loving My Children In the Spirit

Lately I've been convicted about how pron I am to love my children in the flesh--not in the Spirit.

Don't get me wrong, my fleshly love is abundant and rich, but it is also full of flaws and selfishness.

Since I've decided to go through the fruits of the Spirit with my kids this year...we are looking at LOVE this month.  I have personally been SO challenged by 1 Corinthians 13, as it takes on a whole new light as I apply it to my mothering.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When loving from the flesh, I often rejoice when my kids do things in my perfect timing and by my most ideal standards.  But when they fall short of this,  Patience is greatly lacking.

I'm also loving them in the flesh when I flaunt their academic successes because it makes me look better to those watching from the outside.  It is not true, Spirit-filled love when  Pride and Boastfulness motivate me to brag on their accomplishments.

I love them in the flesh when I look with Envy upon what other moms are doing and attempt to replicate that in my home not for their well-being, but just in hopes that I will be a "better mom" like so-and-so.  

I am often Easily Angered and Rude when I have an agenda and my kids slow me down.  I usually scold them saying how "momma loves you, but..." and then gripe about how long they are taking and how late this is going to make momma.  But Spirit-filled love is always Kind.

I am loving them in the flesh when I want to get away from it all and use the excuse that "I need a break so I can be a better mommy".  Love is never Self-Seeking.

Loving them in the flesh happens when I am trying to teach them a lesson, and though I have forgiven a wrong of theirs, I bring it up by saying "You always..." because Spirit-filled love Keeps No Record Of Wrongs.

Because I know that Christ-like love does Not Delight in Evil, when they do something "cute" yet sinful (like the first dramatic display of passion~ also known as a tantrum), I am loving them in the flesh when I giggle or simply do not address it.

Or when I let them be entertained by worldly things that blatantly contradict the Truth found in scripture, I am not loving them in the Spirit because love Rejoices with the Truth.

Thankfully, when it comes to loving my children in the Spirit, the rest does come a little more naturally to me although there is some fleshly, "momma bear" tendencies that tend to take over from time to time...

"Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails."

(1 Corinthians 13)

Lord, help me to love these kids, YOUR kids, 

in the Spirit...not in my weak, self-centered flesh because by your Spirit, I am a better momma and a better steward.

The Purging of STUFF

Our house has been undergoing a serious "purging" over the last 2 weeks. We just have so much, STUFF, you know? Just stuff...it's everywhere, I look!  Stuff, Stuff, STUFF.


We live in smaller home (for our family size) and we often talk about how we wished we had more room.  But, the simple truth is, we do have room...it's just that STUFF is taking up all our room!

Finally, after a late night talk, Ryan and I got serious.  The next day, we went into "purge" mode and decided to "half our stuff".

This wasn't just casual "Spring cleaning", this was serious, no emotions, "just let it go" cleaning like we'd never done before.

My first spark of inspiration came from my friend Amy, at Raising Arrows, who has been blogging every Saturday as she "halves her stuff" room by room.  Well, we caught onto her vision about 3 months late, but caught up in two weeks!

~~So what'd we do?

Well, first of all, we decided to "practice what we preach".

You see, one of my boys is always saying, "But I need..." 
To which I always say (and now he quotes...), "No, that's what you want.  What you need is air, shelter, sleep, clothing, food, water and Jesus."

So, we simply stopped riding the fence on certain toys, clothes that we've hung onto that get worn too infrequently, books we'll never read again, etc.  And we even took it a step further...

We took a spin on the Amish saying for clothing:

"One for wash, One for wear,

One for play and One to spare"

We have tubs full of cute outfits and matching accessories.  But being a practical momma, I usually gravitate for clothes that can be mixed and matched.  Simple, solid, practical. 

So, we accumulated 15 trash sacks of clothes as we took each age's "tub" and simplified to 7 play outfits, 5 dress outfits and 4 pajamas for both winter and summer.

Yes, those 15 trash sacks sat on our front porch for a few days...

I'm sure our poor, sweet neighbors were less than thrilled!

And let me tell ya...

It felt SO good to condense all our STUFF we had in storage, down to half of what it was before!

Around the house, we literally went room by room and just started throwing stuff into boxes.  We don't use it?... we don't need it.  Can't remember the last time we touched it?...we don't need it.  Etc.

~~The hard part
We had to resolve to not let our my emotions get too involved.  My love language is gifts, so I remember almost every item, who gave it to us, if it's clothes~when a certain kid wore it...and on and on.

Plus, I kept struggling with the thought that we were being ungrateful for all the blessings we had recieved.  But the Lord kept reminding me that people gave us these things to bless us, and if they are no longer a blessing (but a burden, taking up space we need) then it was time to let them go.

So I had to "put on my brave face" and just think practically...which is not an easy endeavor for me!

~~The fun part
Some people don't think of garage sales as very much fun...but I do!!!  We had a one-day yard sale.  I put an ad in the paper and 2 simple, paper signs up on busier streets and set our stuff out.

I went for SIMPLE pricing.  All clothes, all shoes $.50.  We weren't out to make money, so I priced low in hopes that more would get purchased!  And it WORKED!!!

Almost all the toys/decor were $.50-$1.00. 

Books, VHS tapes, DVD's and CD's were $.25 (I told you I wasn't in it for the money...I wanted to get RID of this stuff!)

We had four "big" items (a TV, an old laptop, a DVD player and a camera) but everything else was small "piddley" stuff.

And guess what?  We made almost $800 dollars in those 6 hours!!!

Pricing low was worth it (pun intended!) and now we are a lighter, happier home with more room to run, play and prepare to GROW even more!!!

Let the Little Children Come To Me...

"We were holding back our son's child-like faith, because of our adult-like doubt"

Just over a year ago, our oldest son asked Jesus into his life to be Lord of all. 

It was such an exciting day!  We rejoiced at this new work the Lord was doing in our son's heart and we knew that this was just the beginning of our son growing in knowledge and understanding of sanctification and justification.

At that time we talked to him about the importance of baptism once you make that commitment because baptism is a way to say to the Lord, the enemy and the church that, "I belong to Jesus!  He is my Lord and Savior!"

However, to be honest, Ryan and I's desire was that Trusten wait until he was older and had a fuller understanding of the cross and the gospel (even baptism) before he took that next step.

Well, this week at our church, there was to be a baptism service and Trusten caught wind of it.

One night during family worship he said, "maybe I should be baptized".

We said something along the lines of "sure, someday buddy, when you're a little older..."

But over the next few days he just wouldn't let it go. He wanted to be baptized.  He knew it was the next step of obeidence and he wanted to obey.

Ryan and I were hesitant, but then the Lord spoke to both of us the night of the service and said, "Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." (Mark 10:14).We realized we were holding back our son's child-like faith because of our adult-like doubt.

So that very night, Wednesday, August 4th, Trusten was baptized with water and took a step of faith into being a disciple of the Lord Jesus!

Getting ready to be "dunked", Ryan said, "I baptize you, my son and my brother, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit"

Right after he came out of the water he said, "I DID IT!"

He knew he had been obedient to the Lord's calling!

There is no explaining the sheer joy Trusten had after service...

It wasn't hyperness, it wasn't a sugar-rush, it was the work of the Spirit!

Thankful for our Trusten...and that in the end, we didn't get in the way of his response to the Lord's call to come to Him and be baptized.

We fell asleep that night asking ourselves,

"Why is it that we tell adults all the time to have child-like faith, but when a child has child-like faith, we try to 'reason' them out of it?"

This post is linked to Wednesday's Walk at my friend, Jenilee's blog!

The Creation Museum (Vacation Part 6) and a Giveaway!!!

(Be sure to see end of this post for giveaway info!!!)

Anyone who attended the "Defending the Faith" conference, also recieved a free 2-day pass to the Creation Museum in Kentucky!

We were all so excited!  After leaving Tennessee, we headed 5 hours north to get there.

My sister and I's families

(They bought this whole vacation for us!  What a blessing!!!)

As soon as we walked in, a man was in the lobby with a real-live snake to pet and hold...

My boys were so enthralled!...Well until it got a little TOO close!

Then they got to touch a real dinosaur fossil found in Montana!

We were there 30 minutes and Trusten said it was the best place he's ever visited! :)

Learning how they dig up fossils...very carefully!

The kiddos

First he really wanted this picture...but then when I stepped back to take it, he changed his mind!

Learning about the creation of the universe (and Man's wisdom compared to God's wisdom)

Daddy teaching them about the 7 C's of History

(Creation, Corruption (the fall), Catastrophe (the flood), Confusion (tower of Babel), 

Christ, Cross, Consummation)

"Meeting" and hearing from men in the Bible

I love this picture!  Praise the Lord for Truth...and my Blessings!

Now to the Garden of Eden!

(Samuel was little unsure of what that bear wanted...)

Adam is naming the animals behind us!

Inside the ark!!

Smaller replica

The people perishing

(Trusten was amazed at how tiny the people were...I was too!)

Noah's family, after the ark landed on ground, they worshiped and made an alter to the Lord

Then it was on to the DINOSAURS!!!

We had such a great time!  It was so neat to see these stories we've repeated to the boys so many times, displayed in such a real way!  

How encouraging to be able to take your family to a place where everything you've been teaching them and trying to pass onto them is reiterated and reinforced through sight, sound, touch and feel!

As adults, there were several times we were ALL moved to tears at the power of the Word, the strength and perseverance of our past fathers and the wonder of God's creation and his infinite wisdom in it all!

We look forward to returning again when the boys are older and can get some of the deeper concepts taught throughout the Creation Museum!  (I wonder how many kiddos we'll have then?!?!)  :)

This post will be linked to Wednesdays Walk Down Memory Lane at my friend, Jenilee's blog!  Not too long ago her family visited this museum too!

Today Jenilee is hosting a giveaway on her blog for a super-cool candle warmer!  You can see the warmers here (main site) or here (blog site) and join in the giveaway here!

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First vacation blog post: The Beginning of Our Vacation...Part 1

Second vacation blog post: Life at the Cabin: 14 people Living Together For a Week (Part 2)

Third vacation blog post: The Conference (Part 3)

Fourth vacation blog post:Out and About in the City ~Happy Birthday Hudson! (Part 4)

Fifth vacation blog post: A Smokey Mountain Hike (Part 5)
Next: The Saddest Day--Heading Home (and another hotel adventure!)