And laundry.... 

Dishes!!!!! 

Video time so Mama can get some things done, like... 

Wonder why we got a dog in the first place.... 

Clean up dog pee...@#$%&*#...deep breath... 

Pat-a-cake tournament 

Gracie all dressed and beautiful...still haven't rounded up Ian 

Went to get Ian dressed and discovered that he had decided to make a bed out of the paper towels...:P 

So then we have breakfast, and the fun really begins....Here's George saying "Surprise!" like he always does after he gets dressed. 

Not a pretty sight first thing in the morning, and what's up with that huge zit?!?  

Gracie's nine month picture. I wish you could see the adorable little cute red corduroy skirt she had on. 

You can kind of see her little bottom tooth here!! :) 

A wild Tigger, um I mean George, I caught playing in my front yard. 

Ian playing outside, being his "cheesiest" 

I love this one of all the kids, I just wish they matched better, isn't that silly? :P 

It's the beginning of a busy week. I will be gone every night this week, except tonight, until Saturday night, then Sunday morning we are going on our little fall family weekend in North Georgia. Can't wait for that. I'm glad I had some great time to spend with Nathan Friday and Saturday night and all day Sunday, because I am going to miss him this week!! We will still get to see each other of course, just not all together as a family. Tuesday night I am bringing a meal to my friend who just had a baby...a boy after three girls!!!, then going to Misty's Southern Living at Home party, fun! fun! Actually I won't be home too late that night because I know she's going to kick me out so she can watch The Amazing Race that night. Then Wednesday is Awana, Thursday Bible study and Friday is an Awana leaders meeting followed by Esther and I's annual birthday night out. Our birthdays are a month apart and every year we go out to dinner inbetween them to celebrate. I wonder where we will go this year??? (Any suggestions?)

May I just expound here on the incredible blessing of friends? People who count you dear, who you hold close and whose fellowship you crave, they are a treasure, a small taste of Heaven, I think. Isn't that what is going to make Heaven so special? Eternal, unbroken, full fellowship with God, and to a lesser degree to other saints of like precious faith. I have heard it said that all that is pure and good on earth is but a shadow of what we will experience in Heaven. That's a nice thought. Can you just imagine what chocolate will taste like in Heaven?!?!?!?

I am going to post Grace's nine month picture after I finish writing. Can you believe I have never had a nine month old child without being pregnant? I wonder if by the end of this month I will be expecting again? I am sincerely hoping the Lord's timing allows a few years before we are blessed with children again, but He is in control. I struggle daily, constantly to give enough attention to each of the small dear children I have now, I cannot imagine how I could divide my time and attention and affection any further at this point. I am looking forward to enjoying this my favorite stage of babyhood that Grace at right now without being sick and tired from being pregnant. All things are possible with God, though, right? If it is His timing, He will provide.

Nate's aunt Roberta came down from TN and stayed with us this weekend. So it was a full Buchan weekend, dinner Friday, lunch Saturday, Caleb's birthday party Saturday night, and the dinner at church on Sunday. We really don't get together with them often enough, the whole family, I mean. Big George's birthday is this weekend. I don't know what to get him. My George says that he needs a "monster toy", whatever that is. :P Speaking of George, do you know what he said to me this morning? I let them watch an Andy Griffith episode this morning and after breakfast George wanted to watch tv again and I said no, and he said, "But Mama, I just can't get enough TV!!" **sigh**

Ian wouldn't take a nap this afternoon so he is up with me here, playing cars. The child is surprisingly quiet when it's just him. I guess he's making up for screaming his head off at me all morning. I swear the kids got together this morning and said "Okay, we're going to make as much fuss and be as ornery as we can today, right?" It was constant screaming all morning, from one kid or another, and then George even peed his pants!!! He hasn't done that in months. Then the cat pooped and peed on my brand new guest room beautiful quilt. AArgh!! Anyway, I feel better now, despite all the stress inducers of my day. I have discovered some great music, stuff that Nate has had for a long time but I went and stole one of his cd's when I was going someplace one night and now I am totally loving this band. Caedman's Call. Just great, worsipful music. I love their "Back Home" album. He had me listen to "40 Acres" but I didn't like that one as well at all.

I've got to get those pics posted and make some calls, so I will go now. I need to make bread tonight, and I don't want to!! :P But, I will. :) Blessings!!

Ro. 12:12
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Ro 15:4
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Ro 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

sleep? what sleep?!?

Yeah, it's 3:16 AM..... It's my own fault, this no caffeine body doesn't respond well to having a ton of it in my system. Some dear friends came over tonight, to go hot tubbing with us, and brought stuff to make iced frappacinnos. Super rich, super yummy, super caffeinated. So, after they left at about 12:15, my dear sexy man and I watched 2 episodes of Fawlty Towers, (our latest Netflix), then went to bed, where I lay and tossed and turned, and tried to get said sexy man to wake up and play, but to no avail. >:( So I got up and got a chicken ready in the crockpot for dinner, took a long shower, read my Sunday school chapter, read some blogs, went to w@h, and now, here I am.

We are just starting going through the book of James in s.s. and I have been soooo negligent in reading/studying it during the week like I should. The familiar passage really struck me tonight, though. James 1: 3,4 "Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." So this says that if my faith is tried, and I let/allow patience to work in me, be completed in this trial, it will complete me, and make me whole. Does that blow your mind?, because it does mine. So this trying by fire of my faith is the only way that I can reach a level of spiritual maturity and completeness....my faith is dead without the works of these various trials that the Lord brings into my path...it is the furnace of hardship that will forge my faith, through patience, into completeness. This is really challenging my mind, and is such an enlightening, beautiful thought for me. ***Just to note here, I am totally free-thought association babbling, let the reader, (if there are any), keep that in mind*** I know that nothing I go through has not been filtered throught the omninpotent hands of my loving Heavenly Father. I know that His ways are above mine, and the thoughts He has towards me are of hope and peace. This verse says to me that the key to "wanting nothing" is to "let patience have her perfect work" while I am "counting it all joy" when I go through trials. --Well, wanting nothing sounds like a peaceful place to be, perhaps I should be doing more to unlock this door into godly contentment.-- Any thoughts by anyone? Please share.

On a differant note, I have heard the verse "faith without works is dead" used to back up a belief that we can lose our salvation if we do not do "works". The "perfect work" of patience seems to be the work it is talking about there. Just to simply spell out my thoughts on salvation losing.....if I can lose, then that means that I can gain it, and then it is no more of grace. If there is ever anything I can do, ever anything dependant upon me that can change the status of my being saved, then my salvation was never of grace, never fully dependant on my Saviour in the first place. Is there anything you can do to change the fact that you were born? Hmm, didn't think so. Is there any act that you can commit, any thought you can hold to, any behaviour so vile that would change your last name, your family name? No. That is why God's analogy of us being his children fits so perfectly. Nothing can change the past, nothing can take back a gift that has been given, even if the recipient tries to give the gift back, the fact that it was given, and recieved at a point in time can never be expunged from history. I don't understand people who believe you can lose your salvation. Perhaps I am taking a simplistic view of it, but that is what the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God has convicted my heart of, and I don't believe that this is a truth meant only for me. There are certainly variations in what the Holy Spirit convicts differant believers of, but there are some things that are so rock solid fundamental to life and faith and the Lord that they apply universally.

On ths subject of the trying of your faith, the dear friends that came over tonight are going through an extremely hard time financially. They have been such a testimony of trying to adhere to exactly what the Lord would have them to do, in money and home and family, and it just is so sad that they should have to be brought to a place like this. But again, perhaps this only means that the Lord is trying their faith, maybe He desires their completion, for them to be perfect and complete, "wanting nothing." They are looking at losing their home, the man having to get a second job, and possibly the loss or at least postponement of their being able to adopt a child. Not fair, not right, they don't deserve this, right? It hurts my heart to see them go through this, but I know that the Lord loves them infinitely more than I do, and He has their greater good in mind. If it were up to me, then no one would ever have to go through these trying times, and never give patience the chance to "have her perfect work." In my finite, comfort loving mind, I would have us all float along, lounging in the mountaintops of blessing, basking in the sunshine of certain care and never having to worry about encountering anything close to a trial. To carry this thought to completion, I would have us all become stagnantly complacent, apathetic in our faith and never knowing the victory of going through a trial clinging for dear life to the only One Who can carry us through. I have heard it said that there is a peace that only comes on the other side of war. Does that mean that there is a spiritual depth that can only come on the other side of heartbreak? Must we have every earthly comfort taken from us before we can fully appreciate that the only comfort worth having is that of being our Heavenly Father's children? Of knowing that He is in control, that we never really are anyway, and of resting ONLY in the fact that God must be our everything? I have not much place to speak on comforts being taken, I live a lush life of provision. My loved ones are with me, I am abundantely cared for and physically provided for, I am guided and protected and dare I say, coddled, by my Lord. I have certainly had some heartbreak, some times of absolute loss and fear and pain, but the place my Father has put me in right now is luxurient. When I take an objective look at the blessings rained down on me, I am humbled, aghast almost at why I should be bestowed with so much, but.....but....NOTHING I HAVE IS BECAUSE I DESERVE IT. Just like nothing I can do can make me deserve my salvation any less than I ever have. It is all from the Lord. The blessings, the allowance of trials, everything is from God. He is truly the author and finisher of our faith, our lives, our existence. It is supremely humbling, and makes me ashamed at my own unawareness most of the time, to truly get a peek at how all encompassing God is. It is Him that allows air for me to breathe, it is Him that keeps the universe together.

--His reach is so far that we can't see the end of it, so we often don't even see the beginning.--

How foolish, how arrogent I am when I allow myself to believe, against the strainings of the Spirit within me, that I am in control, or ulitimately responsible for anything in my life. That not to say that I have no place to live out my Father's will industriously, no constraints of obedience, but just the fact that God is all. Ephesians 4:6 "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." It is overwhelmingly comforting, and at the same time, extremely fearful, to recognize the magnitude of this truth. How dare I worry? How dare I rage? How dare I question? What is the proper response to this truth?

Farther on in the first chapter of James is one of my most often claimed verses.."If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. " Perhaps the true imparting of this wisdom is a small glimpse of the enormity and needed application of Ephesians 4:6. Sometimes, (to my shame, only sometimes), the vast expanse and the efficacy of Scripture, the very words of God, really pierce my heart.

I think it is time for sleep. I think the Lord has brought me to where my heart needs to be right now, or at least given me a greater hunger to seek that place. That place where I always need to be, looking to my Lord. Keeping my eyes on Him. Oh, I have had such a struggle the last few days with my son not paying attention to, not listening, and then not obeying, and then having to be punished. Has the Lord allowed this to illustrate to me my own behaviour towards Him? It certainly would fit. Oh Lord, I am laid bare before you, please teach me....I believe, help Thou my unbelief.

It's Thursday. In Bible study tonight Suzanne, Robin and I are supposed to "teach" bread-making. Of course, this presupposes that I am actually qualified to teach! :P Suzanne and I were saying that we hope Robin is an expert, because we certainly don't feel like we are. It'll be fun anyway. And Krista is bringing homemade jams for us to eat on the fresh bread, it should be super yummy. I am still trying to catch up on rest from being up for so long while I was with Amy when she was in labor. I loved being her "doula", and I am still exhausted from it. :) She did incredibly well, and pushed out that 9 lb, 4 oz baby all on her own, no drugs or anything. She was doing a VBAC and of course the chance of uterine rupture goes up with any drugs, induction or painkilling, so she wanted to go all natural. She certainly did all she could to prepare her body and her mind, and it truly paid off. I was so proud of her. It was an honor to have a part in such a special time in her life. Lukas Gregory was born at 9:42 Tuesday morning. I had been with her since about 10 Monday night. We got to the hospital at about 2, and after explaining her specifically outlined wishes over and over and continually reasuring the nurses that she did in fact know what she wanted, Amy was left pretty much alone by the well meaning staff. Her husband Steve and I stayed with her and both "coached" her through contractions. I don't much like that term, but it's a familiar one in this scenario. After being with Amy for her entire labor, I was even more convinced of the absolute necessity of choosing a proper birth environment, that including people and place. Especially being in the sometimes hostile environment of the hospital, having trusted, supportive people around you, reminding you of what you need to hear and making sure that your wishes are carried out is vital. Amy's husband was very loving and supportive, although being a man, he certainly didn't "get" how it felt or what truly helped during the labor. At one point, I almost kicked him in the shin, when he sat down next to Amy and said "Man, I have the worst headache, it's just awful, I think I need to go get a tylenol." :>* Then he felt lightheaded and needed to go get some air, then he needed some coffee. It was a hard time for him, I think, just seeing his dear wife go through something he couldn't really help her with or take away. He loves her so much, though, and he was doing a great job of just loving her like only a husband can do. It was certainly a special experience for me, and they both said repeatedly that they were so glad that I was there. That really meant a lot. I love birth, pregnancy and all to do with it, and just absolutely treasure being able to help in even a small way those going through that special time in their lives. I would love someday to be a childbirth educator or even a real doula. Who knows what the Lord will bring down my path later in life.

1. My hubby is on his way home
2. Cranky kid number 2 is in bed
3. Oldest kid, who is supposed to be eating his broccoli, is making the youngest kid giggle like crazy instead.
4. Youngest kid is giggling like crazy
5. I had lunch with a wonderful wise friend whom I love
6. Only two more days til Sunday!! :)
7. I have chocolate cake in my house. :) :)
8. I have dark chocolates in my house. :) :) :)
9. I have a movie and hot tub date with my man tonight. (I really can't put enough smiles on this one so I won't even try)
10. Have I mentioned the chocolate?
11. Have I mentioned that I am having my period?And this is felicitious because that means that I am not pregnant!!
12. Hubby just got home, I have some kissing to do.....:)