It's my youngest baby's birthday today. No longer a baby....we call him our little "kitten" because just about everything he does is adorable, even when he's bad. A few days ago he came into the kitchen and said to me, with a very mischievous grin, "I didn't touch anything." "Oh really, nothing?" "Nope. I didn't touch anything." I immediately ran upstairs to see what he "didn't touch". He had been in my son's wallet, "not touching" all his money. He's funny!
He is very easy to please. I hate to admit it, but all his gifts are from the dollar store! We got him bug nets, critters, a few hotwheels.....he'll be so happy! My daughter made an adorable "alligator cake" out of cupcakes. It is so long, it takes up the whole table. We'll have our traditional crepes for breakfast and tacos at lunch with another little friend's family. So sweet.
My kids joked with me and asked, "Which one of us is your favourite?" My husband and I responded we'd be buying a "technicolor coat" for little B's birthday. Ha! The youngest always gets spoiled. He'll be just like Joseph, with all his big brothers and sisters bowing down to him. They already do! He gets away with a lot around here. I'm so glad God created youngest children! Thanking God for our little kitten today.
We've spent an inordinate amount of time this week looking for a vehicle to replace our van. We needed a smaller vehicle and one that would be better on gas, yet safe for my daughter to drive in. My mom called on a day that we had just looked at one. I told her we liked it, but it was a little more than we wanted to spend, would she pray for a miracle....She must have prayed.
After we came home from looking at the vehicle, we had stars in our eyes as this vehicle was gorgeous (are vehicles allowed to be gorgeous?) We are just so used to driving old beat up cars that for a few brief moments, we got caught up in the "I wish we could drive a nice car for a change" feeling....but then reality hit and we realized it was crazy thinking, unless we could find the same vehicle in an older model, still lower miles, oh and thousands of dollars cheaper!!!!....Was it possible? So RM went back on-line and found just that, the same model, a few years older, needing new brakes, good miles....for several THOUSAND less. Seemed too good to be true. It was just what I had asked my mom to pray for.
RM went to check it out, took it for a quick spin, did a bit more research and decided we could make it work. So now it is in our driveway, with new brakes already and good to go! We feel so blessed as it all happened so fast and now we have an awesome car, safe, fits nearly all of us (it has a jumpseat in the back, so seats 7!), yet it is still smaller than the van and better on gas. Some times both RM and I get panicky, "Perhaps it was all too good to be true?" or we hear a voice in our heads, "You bought a lemon. You're in trouble." But, I've noticed with this purchase that every time we hear a negative thought or a fearful thought or a lie from the enemy we are able to immediately give it to the Lord and speak to the voice of fear and say, "We trust the Lord." We continually say the phrase, "No fear, no panic, no dread" all the time now. RM comforts me constantly with that phrase which I wrote (which comes directly from Scripture)! So he tosses it at me continually! His point is the same each time, too, "Even if there is something wrong, we can deal with it. Even if we have to spend a little money to fix it, we will." Buying an older car will always bring little problems, we know that. He figures even if we get a year's use out of it, it was an awesome deal. We are so grateful. Thanks for praying, Mom!
This weekend is our homeschool conference. My husband and I will be on a few panels. I will be on one about large families. As I prepared for what I would say, I was reading a book on large families and came across an idea that I quickly put into practice just yesterday. It talked about the idea of clutter and toys. We have a lot of toys, not a lot of space or storage...what to do. Before we took the wall out between the family room and the homeschool room, I could close the door on the toys and voila, no more toys! Out of sight, out of mind. Now that the wall is down, I could see everything, all the time, stacked up, lying around...they were everywhere and creeping into the living space.....it was making me crazy and I felt like I couldn't get on top of it. The book I read talked about putting them away in a cupboard with the idea that the kids wouldn't see them for awhile and then bringing them out at another time making them appear new. I've done this before, but not for awhile. I'd always been afraid to not have them where the kids could see them. Then they wouldn't have toys to play with. Ridiculous thinking. So yesterday, that was it. I told my older boys, "Today we're moving all those toys downstairs (aka, the dungeon)." And so we did. I moved many boxes and bins of toys downstairs. No one has even noticed or asked about the toys. They're just gone and guess what? No clutter in the new room. Toys are all on a shelf or behind a door. The floor space is cleared. It looks so much better! One day, I'll bring them up, but not for awhile. Maybe I never will. Maybe I'll give them away! All I know is there is freedom with less STUFF!!!!
So today, I thank God for little boys, cute as kittens, new/old cars, and less clutter. All blessings in their own way......
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