Because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself . . .

Ryan and Matthew were in a friend’s wedding last weekend, and being their mother, I was snapping pictures of them the whole time. But then, how often do you get to see your sons dressed in a tuxedo and a new black suit – not often enough, I say, so I rest my case.

So, please humor me by allowing me to share my pride in my two boys, who just yesterday, it seems, were little guys running around the house, and now are all grown up and wearing suits.

Mattie leaving the house for the wedding ~

Ready to begin ushering ~

I didn’t see Ryan until the ceremony, as he was hiding out with the groom somewhere (probably hiding from my camera!). There are a few fuzzy pictures of him during the ceremony, which I won’t force upon you (remember I’m still learning with my new camera). At the reception, he spent some time dancing around with David on his feet – so cute ~

Mattie having a quick snack from the reception table ~

And I just have to share this one – I think it is so lovely of Laura (don’t tell her I posted it!) ~

And I really love this one, even if it is a little blurry ~

There was dancing, too, but I won’t share those as there are a lot of others in the pictures that I haven’t cleared it with, but I can share these two little ones, who enjoyed the music immensely ~

Oh, and the cake was wonderful, too ~

Okay, one last picture . . . because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself ~

Blessings,
Nancy

Our Nesting Mama

She moved into this nest from last year on top of one of the ceiling fans on the front porch. She sits up there even with children running back and forth to me while I sit in the rocker. Every now and then she will get startled and fly away, but then she gets back as soon as she feels it is safe again.

I still have not identified her. She has a white throat and belly, and is dark grey all over the top. It looks like she has a notched tail. I’m thinking that she may be a swallow of some kind or maybe a swift, but can’t seem to find her in my bird book. Any ideas?

She is fun to watch – I feel a sort of kinship when we are both sitting there together, watching over our little ones.

Have a nice day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Grandma’s Apron

The aprons in the picture above are from my collection – the fruit apron was actually my grandmother’s apron, while the other three are some that Jeff bought me – he likes to hunt for them on Ebay for me and usually buys those with hand stitchery or quilting, and, of course, gingham, because he knows how much I love it!

My Mom sent me this e-mail and I loved it so much I just had to share it here.

The History of Aprons

I don’t think our children know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the Fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don’t think I ever caught anything from an apron . . . but Love!!

I don’t know who wrote this, but it brightened up my day! I hope it did your’s too! And I’ll certainly be thinking about all of these things the next time I pull out one of my aprons to wear!

Have a lovely day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Happy Birthday Matthew!!!

Today is our son, Matthew’s 18th birthday!! I can hardly believe it – I’m sure it was just a few years ago that he was born! I can remember so clearly playing cards with Jeff while in labor at the hospital waiting for him to arrive. And then seeing his sweet face for the first time! It couldn’t have been 18 years ago!

Matthew is our third child and third son. He is our oldest at home now and will be graduating from high school this year. He is the first of our children to have been homeschooled from kindergarten on up, and he was the first child that I taught to read myself. These days he teaches me with his natural technical skills and computer know-how. He amazes me with the things he can do in both arenas, and is the one I run to when my computer decides to stop cooperating with me. He has always been very inquisitive and curious about how things work and has the perseverance and determination to find out what he wants to know.

Matthew has a great quiet wit, that is usually only shared with those of us at home. He enjoys spending time with his friends, his job, and his time on the computer and video games.

It hasn’t been easy for him growing up with 2 older brothers, and he has felt himself to be in their shadow for most of his life. But, I have watched him grow into a fine young man with his own gifts and talents from the Lord. He is a very special person, and I am more proud of him than he can know.

The picture below was taken on Thanksgiving. I had commented on the fact that I thought Matthew was growing to look a lot like my father. So, we pulled out this picture of my Dad, taken when he was just a few years older than Matthew is now, and the resemblance was amazing -

So, we are celebrating again this weekend and thanking the Lord for the wonderful blessing of Matthew, whose name appropriately means “God’s gift”.

Happy Birthday Mattie!!!

I love you,
Mom

Happy Birthday Anna!!

Today our sweet daughter Anna is turning 5 years old! I can hardly believe it – I guess I have to stop calling her my baby girl! (Never!)

Anna is our eighth child, third daughter and youngest girl in the family. She is a sweet and gentle-natured girl who is sensitive and concerned for others. She is a girly-girl and loves the color pink and loves to wear skirts and dresses (especially pink ones!)

Anna spends alot of time twirling to music and it amazes us how she can twirl so long without getting dizzy!

She is shy (like her mother), but enjoys joining in as soon as she feels comfortable.

Being the eighth child, many people would expect her to not know how to spend time alone, but she seems to love those rare and special moments when she is. I have sat on the porch many days and watched her roaming around the yard, talking to herself, smiling, and perfectly enjoying whatever imaginary role she is pretending to play.

Anna loves to work in the kitchen with Mom and wants to go with me every time I leave the house. We enjoy bedtime cuddles with stories every night – a time I cherish – and slow, relaxed mornings waking up to a new day.

She is always reminding the household to “remember kindness”, taking to heart a lesson she learned this summer at Vacation Bible School.

Anna is such a sweet blessing to our family and I thank God every day for letting me be her mommy!

Happy Birthday Anna!

I love you,
Mom

Happy Birthday Mom!!

(photo courtesy of Corbis)

Today is my Mom’s birthday! Although we will be officially celebrating her birthday this weekend with a cook-out family party, I couldn’t let the day pass without celebrating a little bit today, too.

So, Happy, Happy Birthday Mom!!!! Thank you for being such a wonderful mother and a loving example for me! May your day today be extra special and full of love.

I love you,
Nancy

My Darling Daughter Does It Again. . .

Chock another one up to the teenage generation and their computer prowess. I have silently been perplexed for days now about a little hiccup on my blog. You may not have noticed it at all – especially if you haven’t scrolled down in awhile. But I noticed it, and had no idea what to do about it. The problem was that starting about the American Girl post, everything had suddenly turned to italics – all of my posts prior to and including that post. I finally said something about it tonight as I prepared to sit down and type in my next post and my daughter, Laura – 14 yrs old – says to me, and I quote: “Oh, I know what that is – it happens to me all the time.” She then proceeded to tell me that I had probably forgotten to “unitalicize” my italics at the end of my Daybook post and it had resulted in the perplexing change in the rest of the blog. I went in to edit the Daybook post, and sure enough, I had forgotten to unitalicize. A few taps on the keyboard and my little blog was back to normal. Did I feel stupid? Yes. Will it be the last time? No. At least I know where to go the next time something unexplainable pops up.

Blessings,
Nancy

Thank you for your prayers!

I wanted to let those of you who were praying for Tommy know how it went. In discussing the situation with the dentist, we decided to wait on pulling the two teeth and let them fall out on their own, unless they start hurting him. This was truly an answer to prayer as I didn’t want him to go through such an ordeal as last time if he didn’t really need to. So, he still has the cavities in them, but will hopefully lose them soon – he is working on loosening them up every day.

Thank you all so much for your prayers for Tommy!

Blessings,
Nancy

Another Sweet New Life!

(photo courtesy of Corbis)

There is another sweet new life to celebrate today!!! Kim C from Life in a Shoe (see blogroll to the right) has delivered a beautiful new baby girl just this morning!! Be sure to hop over to her blog and wish her well! She has already posted pictures and details on the birth. Congratulations Kim and Perry and your whole beautiful family!! She is simply precious!

“Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. . .” -Psalm 127: 3-5a

Blessings,
Nancy

Happy Birthday Robert!!!

Yes, we are celebrating another birthday at our house! Today is our son Robert’s 23rd birthday!!! Robert is our first-born child, and as such, he will always have an extra special place in our hearts.

Another of my biggest babies, Robert weighed in at 10 lbs. 1 oz. and his birth brought me into this marvelous wonder called motherhood. I can remember his baby days so well, it’s hard to believe he’s grown up now – wasn’t it just yesterday that I was snuggling him close and singing him lullabies – just where do the years go and how do they speed by so fast?

Robert was our easiest baby of all 9. The day we brought him home from the hospital, he slept for 5 hours straight. I remember sitting on the couch saying – “Well, this isn’t so hard.” It makes me laugh to think about it today!

Robert inherited my strong will, which over the years, made for a few challenges, especially for this novice mom who just wanted everything to always go smooth. But, hey, where would the world be without the strong-willed challengers? God can use them to do mighty things for His glory and His purpose when that strong will is directed and guided by the Lord.

Robert is so sweet with his younger siblings and has always loved holding the babies and helping to take care of them. He has his own apartment now, which is about an hour away (closer to our old home), so we don’t get to see him as much as we’d like, but the children are always so excited to hear that he is coming over because they love spending time with him (us, too!)

Robert is a genius with computers – what is totally foreign to me is a piece of cake for him. He knows how to diagnose, fix, and build them. He also is quite adept at web design and has made a number of 3-D modeled shorts. He is currently contracting with a major video game manufacturer, fulfilling a long-time dream of his to work in the video game industry.

He is a good friend to those around him and values his friendships greatly. He is a hard worker and is willing to do what it takes to get a job done. He is an excellent artist – he’s been amazing us with his drawings since he was a boy.

So many times I have looked at David and seen Robert (he has a strong resemblance to him when he was a baby) and it gives me such a new perspective – I am so much more aware of the brevity of childhood (even though it feels so slow at the time). The years pass quickly as we race toward eternity and it is so important (I’m preaching to myself here) to appreciate those fleeting moments of childhood while they are here, for tomorrow they will be all grown up!

It is hard to let our children fly out of the nest, but it is God’s will and God’s way and it is good. Even so, I can still miss my little nestling, and I can certainly blog about it on his birthday, when I am prone to reminiscing about his birth and his life. Thanks for indulging me!

And to my little birdie, I say –

Happy, Happy Birthday!!! You are so special to me and I am very proud of the fine man you have become. I miss you and want you to know that you are in my thoughts and prayers more often than you can possibly imagine. I’m so thankful that God blessed me with you 23 years ago today.

I love you so very much!

Mom