Party like a princess...

So times are a changing here in the King household. Almost 2 teens live here, and soon to be a bunch of pre-teens to follow. :) Trying to...

Thursday, September 27, 2012

lazy days.

lazy days are not for the here and now.
i like to think they used to be.
i could sleep in. i would sleep in.
now...sleeping in is deemed 7:30 a.m.

i got married.
to a man. who rarely rests.
and then.
i had kids.
5 of them.

i love.love.love it.
and sometimes when i can be lazy.
i chose not too.
i chose busy.
to blog. to clean. to sort thru summer clothes.
HELLO.
do you know how long it takes to put summer clothes away, and dig out winters for 5 kids.
i am on my 2nd day.
but looks like it's going to be 3.
eeekkkk. :)


little 14 month old karolina popped 2 more teeth on top.
and she has a cold.
sleeping stinks.
naps. nightime. all of it.
she's so snotty.
boo.
my girl took her first 3 steps today.
yay.
hate to rush it, but she is afterall 14 months old. following in big sister calli's footsteps, i suppose.


and campbelll meg is loving kindergarten.
she is pretty happy she gets to come home at 12:20 p.m. everyday.
some of her classmates wish they could sneek along with her. :)
we do lots of playing. some computer. some reading. some running around. but mostly playing.


me and my girl calli.
we made play dough last week.
from grape kool aid. it is the BEST.
and my hair is curly now.
that is the BEST too.


kaycee. well. she is adjusting to school.
she had a few visits to the school nurse this year.
i found it kind of funny.
she is horribly shy, but found enough courage to ask to go to the nurse.
for a sore throat first, then the next time, a headache, and the last time, a sore shoulder.
[first time was legit...strep. second time. hmm. third time. playing football with her brother who is a good 35 lbs heavier, might give ya a sore shoulder. :)]
i know my girl thrives on quality time.one on one.
i guess she gets that from the nurse?
i am trying to be more intentional with my girl kaycee, and spending quality time with her.
it might be working. no more trips to the nurse. yee-haa. :)


and here's my lovee, kaden.
he continues to love to snuggle. i cannot find enough time to snuggle with him.
he will even snuggle up to matt. which is very funny, if you know my hubs. :)
he is liking 3rd grade for the most part.
i hope he learns to write more neatly. or would care about it anyway.
he loves when i come to get him at the bus stop.
he is social. touchy-feely. likes math. and hates to practice piano.

okay. off to take kaycee to the orthodontist.
happy rainy day.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

clay shoot.

this blog is about me.
a lot of the time.
today. it is about my man.
what he likes. what he doesn't.
this is one of the ways he likes to have fun.


and it looks like a few of his friends enjoy the same thing...
our property is adjacent to all the buildings in our public school system.
the crack up of this day was that there was little kid football all afternoon.
and clay shooting at the same time.
i find that kinda funny.

my man likes adventure. fun. guns. hunting. activity. people. busyness.the mountains.skiing. ice hockey.
he likes thursday morning breakfasts with the guys. when the comradery is way better than the food. :)
he likes to travel. it doesn't matter much how...motorcycle, plane, etc.
he hates the beach. crowds of people. reading. writing- by that i mean, he doesn't write cards, journals,
notes, he doesn't like writing. he doesn't like cities either.

i am so thankful my man has a supportive group of christian male confidants.
christian is a huge component.
because. well. christian or not. we all mess up.
each of these men are trying to do the best they can to provide for their families.
to provide. to lead. to father. to protect. to follow Christ.
it all looks very different. but it's all a lot the same too.

in talking with my sister the other day, we again realized that when it rains it pours.
when life is good. it is really good.
when life is hard. it is really hard.
this is a hard season.
we are walking beside friends, people we care about, thru hard, difficult stuff.
and it was asked of me last night.
you know. this is when our faith counts.
do you really, really believe in prayer?
or do you pray, and then try to do your own thing, and say God is working?
hmmmmm.
when the pain is so intense, so real,
that an end seems "better".
that is scary. matt and i have not been there.
but you better believe we are trusting God to walk our friends out. alive.
bigger. better. healed. free.
we are trusting in our big, huge God to help us know how to help them.
how to help us. you know it's kind of a great pressure to do the right thing these days.
well. more for me than my man.
he is the kind of guy who doesn't worry much about what other people think.
i guess. he way tries to balance me out the other way.
he's big on the "it's up to you how to respond. how to react. you are in charge" mentality.
i don't want to offend. i don't want to hurt. i just want to help.
but that can look so different for everyone.

so. i am trying my best to pour my energies into trusting God with all these things much bigger than i can fix.
much bigger than i can even fathom.
God has a plan. i have no idea how he's working it out.
but it's times like these where i am drawn to him. all i can do is trust. and walk in blind faith.
because i can not see a clear purpose thru all this pain.
and pray and cry out to God like crazy.

so. not only can you pray for our friends who are going thru trials.
(i don't even think that sounds like a great term for it...that's too nice a term. :)  )
pray for my man.
(and me too.) but these trialed people in our lives right now are men.
they are men of God. they are men of faith.
pray that Christ would continue to reveal himself to them. to us.
in tiny little ways that we can see. a glimmer. that's all i need.

[i am excited to start my beth moore bible study today. on James.
one of my most favorite books of the bible.
it's so practical. you don't have to work your way thru jargon. it's an easy to read book of the bible.
this is the book that starts off with the verse "consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds."
so fitting for this season...
i cannot wait to be challenged in my thinking...]




Tuesday, September 25, 2012

meet * Simon *

he is the new *temporary* member of our farm family.
(we are just *pony sitting* for a little while).
the kids have been wanting a horse.
very badly.
especially campbell.
she will not give up.
and let me tell ya. she loves.loves.loves this pony.


well. actually. so does calli.
yesterday. it was a bit quiet for awhile.
all the sudden it occurred to me, that calli was probably riding simon up to the school by now.

it wasn't quite that bad.
but, calli was INSIDE the pen, with the gate WIDE open. :)
this really is a good pony.
obviously, we had to go over the rules. AGAIN.

(notice the football action in the background.
our home is seriously a hub of activity all around...
which is a lot of fun. we have friends popping in all the time.)

Saturday, September 22, 2012

singing in the rain.

it's been one of those weeks.
busy. very busy.
we have been learning to sing in the rain.
and maybe dance too.



Tuesday, September 18, 2012

fire.

life has been a bit busy around here.
to say the least.

i had been gone most of the afternoon yesterday.
and was only home a short time,

my mom was here helping watch the kids in my absence...
calli was headed to the bathtub...
others were getting out of the shower,
and still others were coming home from the neighbors.

and matt came busting in the kitchen
and told me there was a major problem and i needed to go to the chicken house. :)

i looked at mom.
she looked at me.
i told her to put the kids to bed.
 lucky her. :)
or lucky me, depending on how you look at that.

our generator had turned on,
and we still had electricity in the house...
it was a bit strange.

when matt went to "check" on things, he found that there was not an ounce
of electricity down at the chicken houses.

this is what we found...
after he was thowing metal covers around,
checking to see what was "burning"...



it smelled like fire.
obviously there was some fire.
i cannot explain to you the panic that matt was showing me,
and the nervous paniced feeling i was quickly getting.
ugh.

anyway.
i got to run thru the chicken houses and open all kinds of doors...
with a flash light in pitch black.
matt was flying around calling a million people to see who could come help us.
he did get an electrician to come,
and after lots of bypassing, etc.
we were pieced back together by 11 pm...

to think if we would not have been home.
to think it the whole chicken house would have caught on fire.
i know it's only money. but. that's a lot of money. :)
i just kept thinking about losing thousands of chickens overnight...
like 25 or 50 or75 THOUSAND.
eeeeeekkkk.

we are grateful. we are thankful.
and we will sleep better tonight. :)

thanks mom for all your help...
and doing the flowers for me.
we got so many compliments on them this afternoon...


Sunday, September 16, 2012

*praise you in this storm*



matt and i got to pick up our friends from the airport this afternoon.
what an ~honor~ to be able to help them.
at this time.

these are the friends some of you have been praying for.

our friend, glenda, who was in a simple. bicycle accident 8 weeks ago,
while vacationing with her family, in oregon,
died on friday.

tragedy has struck very close to home.
and it hurts.
it hurts to watch people you love hurt even more than you can
imagine, in your wildest dreams.

how do we help them?

i keep promising glenda that we will take care of bill and emily.
that we won't forget about them.
that we will be here every step of the way.
and i think she is smiling at me
when i tell her that.

it sounds so dumb.
but i have her pictured in my head.
smiling. her big beautiful smile
when i tell her i will be here for her husband,
and her only daughter.

i have such vivid happy pictures of glenda swimming around in my head.
and i am so thrilled to have those etched in my mind...

this week we will be here for them.
and that means kids bouncing from babysitter to babysitter.
schedules being switched around,
and meetings being ignored.
that is what's going to happen for this week
and maybe others, if that's what's needed.

i am making a memory board of our "small group" memories,
and my good friend nik,
who is on missions in the dominican right now,
sent me this...
i LOVE it.
so i am going to share it here.

(glenda, nik, bill)

our hearts are breaking.
we will praise God in this storm.
trusting that time will make it better.
xoxo. mis.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

shape up.


so...i went to this sporatically last year.
and it was good.

one of my friends helps to teach it.

{nights are not the best time for me to get out of the house...
my husbands schedule can be very last minute,
which means i must be flexible,
even at the last minute. :) }

that being said, the first session was this past monday night.
and we are encouraged to bring friends.

so...

I AM INVITING YOU TO COME WITH ME
next time. monday. september 17, 2012.
6:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m.

it really is structured to do as much or as little as you can...
you can tailor it to "you".

leave me a comment if you wanna come...
or just showing up is great too.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

~THIS~ saturday.

so while my husband is with my 3 youngest girls,
and my sister and sister-in-law are taking my 2 oldest children to dutch wonderland,

i will be in Reading, Pennsylvania
listening to beth moore.
LIVE.


she rocks.

 i love her Bible Studies. She is hilarious.
i know there has been some controversy with her teaching lately.
i haven't found anything she has taught on to be out of line with scripture.
that's all. plain and simple.
i hear a lot of women are going from this neck of the woods...
so maybe i will see you there. :)

and if you still want to come...i think i can get you a ticket.
$65/seat.
we are leaving from my church at 7:30 a.m.
and it goes until 4:00 p.m.

leave a comment. i will work some magic. *  :)

on another note
i am so sick and tired of presidential party pushers calling my house.

please. please stop calling me.
i will vote for whomever my husband tells me too.
ha.ha.ha.

 

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Happy Grandparents Day!

We had matt's parents over for lunch to celebrate Grandparent's Day...
and then suggested they take us out on their boat to celebrate some more...
what great kids we are. :)

 (karolina usually tolerates the boat for about 3 hours, and then she wants to wiggle and scream her way out of the life jacket. then she gives up. cries, and falls asleep. everytime. so far. :) )

We had an introductory lesson in crabbing...

(well, and then we had to pull out the fishing pole,
since we kept seeing fish jump out of the water. but that was un-successful.)


we might have cramped their style a bit...
a party of 7 is a lot to add to any boat,
especially when you are throwing crab traps and chicken bait in the mix...


thanks for the fun afternoon and evening.
for letting us cramp your style. :)
and for being such great grandparents to our 5 children.
you are loved and appreciated.

we stopped at this awesome burger and crab joint for dinner.
i had a mashed potato burger.
have you heard of them?
it totally rocked.
a huge, huge burger...(so big i did feel a bit sick afterwards)
with mashed potatoes, melted cheddar cheese and bacon on it.
who would have thought?
can you feel the calories and fat clinging to me??
yum.

*************
and well, to the other set of grandparents...
they have 18 grandchildren they pour into,
and well, we were late in the inviting.
they were already feasting for lunch and had an evening planned
 with 5 of their other grandchildren already,
so we will celebrate with you another time. :)
you are also loved and appreciated!!

our family is very, very blessed with full sets of grandparents on both sides.
we are lucky and we know it. :)


pretty sure this was the last boat ride of the season...
so, good-bye until next year.
we do love being on the boat.

i had never had the priviledge of riding on a boat
until i met my man.
the first time i was like, hmmm, 13 or something...
and the stage was set. :)

and...we had a date night on saturday night.
it was supposed to be our monthly motorcycle ride,
but since we got caught in the rain last time, we decided not to bother this time around.
you can only handle so much motorcycle rain riding.

and we got a new television.
boy...was our old one REALLY old. :)
now...to hook it up...and screw things into place.

:)

the stage is set for me to have a great week.
(with the exception of having a nasty cough and sore throat we are sharing.
kaycee is the only one with strep so far...we'll see if we can keep it that way. )

and well. my friend. i hope she gets to meet Jesus this week.

my friend was in a bicycle accident almost 2 months ago.
some of you have been praying for glenda, bill and emily...
thank you.

while we are sad here,
very, very sad.
and wonder how in the world do you help her family walk thru this...

we are believing she will be meeting our maker.
can you even imagine?

so. while i try not to be a little bit sad everyday.
it helps to think about her meeting Jesus.
wow. meeting Jesus.
enough said.


Thursday, September 6, 2012

and i sigh.

how is it that my 3 year old
can lay in her bed
for an hour and a half
and NOT fall asleep.

come down stairs
cry. cry. cry.
(because she is so exhausted)
while i ignore her
(because she is so exhausted)
and fall asleep on the bathroom floor
where she then slept
for an hour and a half?


that is just the kind of day that i had today.
SERIOUSLY.

i hope you had a great day.
here's to a better one for me tomorrow. :)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

protection.

do you believe God has a sense of humor?

i am thanking God this morning for protecting my family.
specifically my children.


i ask this question because at the wedding this past weekend,
i was telling someone
that i am tempted to keep my children and family trapped inside my house,
to stay safe.
safe from bicycle accidents, bee stings, bad words...the list can go on forever.

this person said, "yeah...but then your roof could fall in on you...
you are never "safe"...
and we chuckled.

i ask if God has a sense of humor
because this is how we found our basement this morning.


sometime last night our whole entertainment center/tv fell over onto the floor.

serioulsy, one of our children could have died,
had they been playing under it,
or watching a movie...

sobering to think about.

i thought it ironic after my chat with that man at the wedding.
don't you?

Sunday, September 2, 2012

*38* and a wedding..

no better way to spend your 38th year of life celebration day 
then at a wedding watching love transpire...

that was our day ~yesterday~

obviously. this was a great picture of the man who was sitting behind us... :)
but i love it for other reasons too...
neal and kelly's expressions, and all the cars parked beyond in the field.

(chloe, ezra- my nephew, who kaden looks like, :)  cassidy and judah- my nephew.

kristy, our favorite babysitter, sister of the bride.

my sister- in- law, naomi, with son ezra...


everything was simple. and gorgeous.
 (morgan, kacie and ashley...3 beauties i happen to know.)

matt and i were youth group advisors for 4 years once upon a time ago...
it is so much fun to watch them grow up.
it really was a priviledge to be at this wedding.
and i loved every minute of it.

RADIANT. GORGEOUS. GLOWING.
so they may have been making fun of me on the dance floor.
one arm draped around my man dancing. and snapping pictures with the other. :)
it's all good.

kelly. you were gorgeous. kyle you were sharp.
we love you both, and can't wait to watch you live out your lives together.


***********************

and now onto the other reason we celebrate september 1st...
my man turned *38*

i am finding i am focusing less on *38* and more on that's only 2 years away from 40.
eeeeekkkkk.

we rode to the wedding on his motorcycle.
that's always fun.
especially in a dress on the way to a wedding. :)
wish we had a pic. :(

i love this man for a thousand reasons.
some of which are:
his work ethic, he loves things to be clean and in order, he is a go-getter,
his drive for life. he is a leader,
a people person- he can talk to anyone, about anything!,  he is wise,
his Bible knowledge astounds me,
he is a great dad, he is smart...

some. are the very reasons i can get irritated these days...

isn't that funny?
they told us that during pre-marriage counseling, and i didn't believe them then,
but i do now. :)

i am lucky to be partnering thru life with this man.
and priviledged to be called his wife.
he does know how to have fun.
that i will give him. :)

hope your day was happy...