6 mo's have flown by!

I can not believe Mercy Jayne is already 6 months old...It has seriously flown by.

She has gone from this...

To this today...

She is so happy and curious, and her face lights up every time she sees her brothers or sisters. She is just starting to sit up and she loves her jumperoo, although she tries to walk in it more than jumping.

This is my absolute favorite age, everything is new and each new day brings new milestones and discoveries.

I can't wait to spend the next 6 months with her!

Thank you Lord for this child, I can not imagine life without her.

Wheeew! We have almost made it!

So to say that things have been busy would be quite an understatement.  I had no idea how child #4 would turn our world upside down...well I think it was the collision of said child and my (and Annalee's) first official year of home educating that really did it.

Even though we got 6 weeks in prior to Mercy's arrival and took about that same amount of time off after she was born, nothing I did really prepared me for what it would be like to try to teach Annalee (and Jude and Ezra) while taking care of an infant.

There was a LOT of trial and error, and LOTS of tears...some of them were even Annalee's....Lots of "I give up's", and lots of "I'm sorry's", and lots of "Ok, let's start over and try this again's".

There has been just as much learning about patience and forgiveness as there has been about Math Facts, and Grammar.  It has definitely been very educational for both of us.

And here we are in the home stretch of 1st grade, and not only did we survive, but we are better for it!

The Top 5 things I have learned this year

1) Not using an official curriculum with a laid out plan is NOT FOR ME! We made it work, but more than anything I have obsessed and worried over whether or not I was covering all the necessities and I KNOW that contributed hugely to how hard this year has been.

2) I am not a teacher. I have no clue what the "right" way is to teach Math Facts, or Money or Reading...non, nada, zilch. It is only by the Grace of God that this is working, His blessing and favor are definitely upon us.

3) I am loving it!- The joy I get from watching their little faces when they finally "get it" makes it oh so worth it.

4) It is lonely- For me, not so much for the kiddos, but where I was once able to do play dates and hang out with other SAHM's, now we do school, and it is hard to take time off to do other things.  Where other people are sending their kids to school and have the day time hours to occasionally have coffee with a friend, I do not, and it has not been easy to connect with other homeschoolers, especially when no one in my immediate circle of friends does it.

5) I really don't have to wear make up everyday- Ha! I know I know, I should have already known that, but this year and it's many time challenges have put having a full face of makeup waaaaay down on the priority list, and I am totally ok with that.

Oh and a huge bonus! Just about any fun thing we do can be counted as a field trip! We went to Cedar falls park last weekend and I got to count it since there is a lot of history there from the Cherokee Indians to battle land to how it used to be a woolen mill, saw mill and power plant. Plus the science about the wild life that can be spotted there!

Here are some pics from our day...

Mercy's Birthday

So Miss Mercy was breech, I became aware of that right around 34 weeks, because of pain in my ribs, and ultrasound confirmed that was her little round head pressing into my ribs on my left side...nice.

After a successful version at 37 weeks, she decided to flip back up to where she seemed most comfortable, so Dr. Keith and I decided to give it one more try at 39 weeks and if it worked to immediately induce labor.

It just so happened that my doctor was scheduled on call on Friday Sept 20, the very first day of my 39th week.  Sept. 20th also happened to be the exact same day that we found out we had lost our sweet baby last year.  This realization floored me, it felt so full circle and completely redemptive.

Romans 8:28
 ^"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,^[a] for those who are called according to his purpose."

To have all the pain and sadness that started last year on Sept. 20th, to be relieved and the desires of our heart fulfilled exactly one year later, was just more than we could have imagined, but the Lord knew, He knew when he created that sweet baby, and when He took that baby, He knew his plan even though we didn't.

Jeremiah 29:11
 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Mercy-"A blessing as an act of divine love"   Jayne- "God is gracious"

And she is every bit of these definitions.  We are blessed beyond measure.

Ephesians 3:20-21
20Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

It's a.....

Healthy Baby!!

I am so relieved!  We loved seeing all the pictures and hearing over and over again, yep that looks good! We got some pretty good pictures, but baby is very active and it wasn't very easy to get a good one of the face.


We came home and gave this card to the kids to open...

Here's the video of Annalee reading it...