Rock Solid Family

Elijah has been growing so fast and it’s hard to get enough pictures posted.  Wednesday, he had his first bath sitting in the bath tub instead of laying in a baby bath.  He really liked splashing the water with his feet.  He also liked chewing on bath toys and his brush and comb.

The neat thing for me with Elijah is we are still living in the same house as when Jonathan was a baby.  It’s like going through some of the same memories.  I’m sure I have this same picture of Jonathan using the same bathring.  Before long I will take a picture of Elijah sitting in the same high chair as well.  It’s hard to believe that when we first came here Jonathan wasn’t walking yet. 

These repeat memories are kind of neat.  They may seem simple to some who have lived in the same house for most of their children’s childhood, but as a Preacher’s family we’ve moved around a lot.  The longest we have stayed at one church was five years and even then we moved into three different homes.  Now you may see why these repeat memories are exciting for me. 

The older three children and Scott passed their belt tests Tuesday.  Everyone there talked about how they can see Hannah being a Sinsei one day.  Jonathan has been enjoying the little kids class.  I’ve been enjoying helping in the class as well.  For a couple of weeks I wasn’t able to participate in all the classes,  Scott’s car wasn’t running and we had to take turns between the classes.  We were very glad when Monday, Scott fixed the car.  It turned out being the starter that had gone out.  He fixed it at a very good time, since Tuesday we had park day with our homeschool group and karate class following.  Then Wednesday we had Elijah’s doctor’s appointment.  Then karate on Thursday.  Today, we finally stay home.  Tomorrow, there will be a visiting Sensei from another dojo.    Our Sensei invited the big kids class to participate with the adult class that day.  I will also be working on my Sunday School lesson tomorrow.

And right now Hannah has brought me her book and is ready for her reading lesson.  We are working on the letter E today.  This should be a good weekend.  I’ll try to post more soon. 
 



Picture taken this morning of Elijah playing.

 Last week was busy, but this week will be even busier.  I don’t know why activities seem to all fall on the busiest weeks.  We are actually not going to be able to do it all. There are just too many conflicting activities.  Thankfully I was able to reschedule Elijah’s Dr’s appointment this week.  His original appt. was the same day we have a homeschool field trip.  Then Saturday there are three separate activities taking place in three different directions.  I had to choose which one we go to.  Scott is a wonderful husband.  He knew exactly which of the activities I really wanted to do and just simply said, “We’re going there and the rest can wait.  The kids will be okay.”  He is right.  The kids though disappointed that they aren’t able to do it all are still happy to be able to do the things we have planned.    I would list the whole itinerary but Scott doesn’t like everything published beforehand to the world so I’ll just tell about it as it happens.  I’ll be posting pictures so keep checking back. 

Big smile for mommy.



Elijah is still growing.  He prefers being upright to laying down sometimes.  I took these two pictures this morning while he was playing on the floor.  I think he likes sitting better because he knows he’s not being laid down to sleep and it’s easier to see what’s going on around him.  He is coming closer to crawling, which will probably be his next milestone.    Now to get his older siblings to quit picking him up as much and handing him everything. 



Four of my children in my Sunday School Class.

I took this picture during Sunday School a few weeks back.  Elijah was actually in the room as well but he wasn’t sitting at the table.  Whenever the teacher for Hannah’s and Jonathan’s class is out they come to my class.

A few blogs back, I mentioned Jonathan making his usual comment during one of Scott’s sermons.  His normal comment was “Jesus died on cwoss?”

Last night during our Bible study he made a new comment.  Scott asked if we had any comments, which of course is Jonathan’s  cue.  Jonathan spoke up, “Jesus,” then after a short pause, “:Jesus lay on the floor?”

Scott quoted the verse “(Matthew 8:20) ‘And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.’  So yes, Jesus probably did have to sleep on the floor a few times.”

It’s interesting what kids come up with.  Although, we were informed by Hannah that a kid is an animal.  So I guess I should have said, “children”.

The first blog I posted this week was about Elijah and Jonathan.  Then yesterday I blogged about Joshua and Ruth. So today I’m going to talk about Hannah.

I took this picture today while Hannah was being a swimmer named Leum.  And, yes, Leum is a boy.  Hannah stuffed the dress she is wearing as a shirt into her blue pants which are rolled above the knees.  The belts wrapped around her arms are “floaties”.  And the blue shoestring tied around her finger is a bandage because her finger got bit by a shark.

Last night as we gathered for devotional, Hannah was chewing on her hair.  Scott told her to stop chewing on her hair and asked her if she liked eating her hair.  She told him, “No, I was just getting the toothpaste taste off my hair.” 

Hannah is still our little fireball of emotions.  She is either very happy or very upset.  There is rarely an in between with her.  One night she came to our room hollering and screaming that something was behind her ear.  Scott looked behind her ear and removed the little piece of dried fingernail polish.  It was the day I painted her fingernails.  She must have scratched behind her ear before the nail polish dried.  But from the sound of her hollering you would think she had a giant ant still attached to her ear.  She has given us quite a few scares that turned out being nothing.  I often wonder if some of her reflux cries as a baby were a little over reacted as most of her cries are today.  At the time though, I thought she was really suffering.  So much so that she got to sleep beside me on my firm pillow each night to keep her from having tummy troubles. 

One thing really wonderful about Hannah is that she is a “people person”.  She never meets a stranger and will talk to just about anybody.   Hannah is always saying or doing something that makes us laugh.  Sometimes it may be that she is being completely serious but we can’t help getting tickled.

Whatever Hannah puts her mind to do she does whole heartedly.  When we started the karate classes she was so determined to learn all the katas at once.  I had to insist that Hannah learn only one at a time.  She was getting so many in her head that she wound up inventing her own kata which changed from day to day.

That’s our Hannah!  Now, if I could just bottle up even some of that energy we could sell it.



Joshua Ironing

 I remember my Mom teaching me how to iron when I was a kid.  It was such an honor to be entrusted with a basketful of my Dad’s work shirts.  Well I’m not quite ready to trust my children with Scott’s shirts just yet.  Instead I started them on the living room curtains. 

The curtains came out of the dryer wrinkled.  I sighed because ironing curtains wasn’t one of the chores I had planned to do today.  But then I had a bright idea, a home economics lesson for Joshua and Ruth!  They were excited.  They both got to iron two curtains each from the living room. 

Ruth ironing curtains.



Elijah enjoying his first bites of rice cereal.

 Elijah had his first meal of rice cereal on Friday.  He gave me a lot of trouble going to sleep.  Scott and I both agreed that it Elijah was good and ready for rice cereal.  Friday evening as the other children were eating Sandwiches, Joshua grabbed the camera and took this picture of Elijah having his first bites.

Of course I had to hold his arms down and keep him in order to keep him from grabbing the spoon and bowl.  He had several bites and learned to drink water from a sippy cup.  He did very well.

  After he started acting full, I told his siblings that they could have the rest of the rice cereal.  We didn’t get a picture of the look on his face as they started eating his cereal in front of him.  I don’t know which would have been a better picture his disturbed look as they were eating in front of him or Jonathan’s surprised face as he realized there isn’t any flavor to rice cereal.  Elijah slept much better Friday night.  



Jonathan participating in karate class

 Also this week, I started Jonathan in the little kids’ karate class.  A week ago last Thursday, Jonathan joined me and Scott in the adult class.  He was having some troubles in the play area so I let him stay beside me while we were working on some kicks and punches.  He started doing everything I did.  He talked about that all weekend.  Tuesday, I asked the teacher if we could be in the little kids’ class together.  Technically he’s not old enough yet, but she agreed and he started Tuesday.  He has done really well.

We had a special karate class on Saturday in honor of Sensei John who was retiring from teaching at our Dojo.  He passed the class on to Sensei Patty who has been teaching the classes on the weekdays and weekends that he couldn’t be with us.  Sensei Patty was also awarded her black belt on Saturday.  It was a great day.The big kids and little kids classes were invited to join the adult class that day.  This picture of Jonathan was taken during the class Saturday.  I was surprised at how well he behaved during the hour and a half class. 

Saturday evening we visited a Mission Rally at a church in our local association. Each of the churches present were asked to bring a history of how their church began.  It was interesting to hear how the Lord worked in the beginning of all those churches.  Scott presented a brief history of how our church was started back in 1931. 

We had a busy week this past week and I’m looking forward to seeing what all this week holds.

“I feel like I’ve done a thousand strikes today,” is the phrase Scott and I keep repeating.  The strike-a-thon went very well today.  We had this picture taken of our family right after the class was over.  Later we may get some good pictures of our class performing the 1,000 strikes.

Jonathan is not in old enough yet to be in the class but we let him wear his gi and I told him that he could participate today if he wanted to.  I think he mostly played  in the back of the room.

A mom of one of the kids participating watched Elijah for us so we worked on the strikes.  She is one of those wonderful fearless moms that can comfort a fussy baby. 

Speakimg of a fussy baby…  I better get him ready for bed.  I’ll try to post more tomorrow.  Wow, my arms are soar.

My family and I will be participating in a strike-a-thon on Saturday, August 28.  We will be performing 1,000 strikes against cancer.  All donations will be going to support the American Cancer Society.  All those participating will be wearing the names of family and friends that have been affected by cancer.

If you would like to help us support the American Cancer Society please e-mail me at asmile76@gmail.com .  If you have a loved one that you would like us to honor by wearing their name please include their name in your e-mail.

I plan to bring my camera and have someone take a picture of us as we make our strikes against cancer.  I’ll post a picture of my family wearing the bands with the names of those we are honoring through this.   

The man mentioned in the poster to the right is a friend of our Sensei.  Our family has several friends and family who have personally been affected by cancer.   We wish to honor them through this Strike-a-thon.

Even if you cannot make a donation toward the cause, please support us with prayers for the families who are still fighting the fight against cancer, and for those families who have lost a loved one to cancer.  Thank you.