We're going to be out of town with Nick for a trade show in Las Vegas.

Today was a busy one. I had to wake up the girls at the crack of dawn to make it to their docs appointment on time for a physical and a referral for a pediatric dentist. So Nick stayed home with Nicky and Eva while the three of us went to the doctor's office. Everything was OK with the girls. Bella is perfect. She's 4 feet tall but I didn't get her weight. She was nervous so they had to take her blood pressure twice since the first time it was abnormally high. Rosie, though she's perfect too, still has reflux so we will return next week to get that checked out more thoroughly. Oh, and she's 5ft tall now!
After the doctor's appointments we went home and while the girls and I ate a late breakfast Nicky watched his new favorite movie "The Right Stuff". Of course being only 3 years old he completely ignored all the drama but has become obsessed with rockets and astronauts. So much so that yesterday when he saw the movie for the first time he made me take him on a quick book run to the library to pick up as many books on space rockets as we could find for him. So today we spent a few minutes looking through his library books and he asked me dozens of questions on what was happening to the astronauts in the rockets in the movie and then he adamantly told me that one of the astronauts on the movie was him. Later Bella, Nicky, Eva and I went for for a walk to the park. We played there for a while and I even got a chance to talk to my sister Beatty when she called me on the cell phone. It's nice hearing from her even if we don't get to talk much anymore. Afterwards we came home and waited for Nick to get home from running errands and we went to take Rosie to get her hair cut and to have dinner.
Right now I feel drained but blessed to have had such a full day with my loves! I look forward to later having nightly devotions with the kids and a good night sleep!
Thank you Lord Jesus for all you give us and for all you provide.

Some of the toughest lessons for me to teach my children are how to forgive those who hurt them. Not because it's tough for them to forgive, on the contrary they usually tell me to not say anything to anyone when someone is mean to them. They worry about those people's feelings and sometimes they are also are afraid that those people will be angry at them. The real tough part is dealing with my own feelings of anger when I know someone did my children wrong. Today I was talking to them about a couple of situations when certain people didn't respect their belongings and because of it one of my children's toys were damaged and other toys were lost. I asked my child, the one who's things were damaged, if *** wanted me to say something to the individuals who were responsible. But my angel said no, *** didn't want one of those people to get in trouble or have that person get angry.
That is not the first time people have been disrespectful to my children. In fact I've witnessed how some people are out right rude to my babies. I think there are only a few sins as abominable than hurting a child on pourpuse, even emotionally. I remember years ago certain visitors to my home would ignore my kids when my baies tried talking to them or when my kids brought them a book to read to them or asked them to play. Once someone even read a book as fast as she could to my child, so ridiculously fast that I couldn't even understand what they were reading, to rush and to get my child away from her as fast as possible. I don't know how those adults could be so hateful to innocent children, even with me right there?! Others have yelled at my kids for things they didn't do and my poor babies, being so meek, tell me that even though their feelings got hurt that they don't want me to say anything. Inside my blood boils, my heart breaks and tears swell up in my eyes, however the Holy Spirit keeps me from going after those people and just slapping them. I usually manage to muster up the calm voice to tell my children that I am proud that they can forgive those who hurt them. Then I tell them we must pray for our enemies. It's sad to say enemies because 99% of the time those people have been family. After a situation like that it takes me about a day of prayer to give me the strength to forgive. Then I realise how amazing my children are! When I was their age if someone hurt me I took delight in seeing them suffer and punished. But my kids think about the other person's feelings and well being before their own!
I have no doubt that my babies have the Lord in their hearts. Even though I should be the example to them of how a godly person should react to being hurt emotionally or being disrespected, the truth is that they are the ones who inspire me to become more like Christ and I consider them my heroes!
Lord help me to have "faith like a child". Give my husband and me the wisdom to show them how to gave a Christ like attitude towards our enemies and that my precious and amazing children don't lose that meakness and love they have even to those who don't show them that same love.

It's another day of recovery for our clan. This "bug" trully hit us hard. Eva has been the only one who seems to have avoided it. But we're still praising the Lord that everyone does feel better today than yesterday!

I'm almost done reading one of the 2 books I'm tackling now. Honestly I skimmed through most of it because I had read it a few years ago when I first began considering to unschool (the book is The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffith) and now I was surprised to see how it was sort of like old news to me. The book gives parents ideas and encouragement from the author's and other unschoolers' lives to new and potential unschooled families. Yet, as I read through it this second time I noticed that we already do live a very free and unschooled life! I could relate to the stories of the unschoolers in the book. I felt special (hee-hee) to find that our family fits in the ranks of other well seasoned unschooling families. The chapter that I am reading all the way though is the final one on grown up unschoolers. It's mostly for the sake of encouragement for me. I know that I shouldn't seek for the approval of others, except from the Lord. But in a world where my beliefs are unconventional and where many of the people around me find it hard to understand what we are trying to accomplish for our children , it is nice to read about other families who have gone through this same path we are on right now and that they came out all the better for it.

I've been praying for the Lord to bless us with more babies. I've even thought about how awesome it would be to have twins! Yes, I know what some people would think and say if I told them this. But the Lord has shown me what true blessings and treasures children are and how no where in the Bible does God say we should be the ones to control the number of children we ought to have. Oh, I know how radical that sounds in our culture, even amongst the most conservative of Christians. Yet, as I've been seeking the Scriptures for answers regarding this subject all I see are verse on how children are an inheritance from the Lord and that HE is the one who opens and closes the womb. Any verses that have to do with not having children say that it is a curse to be barren and it condemns people who try to stop life from happening when a man and a woman "lay" together. God's command to wives and husbands to be fruitful and multiply is made quite clear throughout the entire Bible, including the New Testament.

That is the conviction that the Lord has been putting in my heart lately. It even goes against what I've believed all along, so I know it cannot be coming from me. As recently as a year ago I was trying to convince Nick to get a vasectomy. I felt we were so done having kids. Yet, just in this past year the Lord has led me to a new (but not so new) way of seeing who He is and His will for our family!

Yesterday was Isabella's birthday and the day was a good one for her, thanks be to God. The kids had fun at Chuck-e-Cheese and afterwards we took Bella to get her presents at the store. Nick got her a cute little white cake with blue frosting and we celebrated at home.
The only negative part was that Rosie got ill in the truck on the way to lunch and she threw up. So I had to go to Target to get her a new pair of shorts. She still had a good time but after a while she wanted to come home and rest.

7am:
It seems Rosie feels better but in the past 12 hours Nick, Nicky and Isabella also got sick so I spent all night and all early morning cleaning up messes of the not so yummy type. My poor loves! I pray they all feel better soon and that Eva and I are speared.

Right now Nicky and Eva are playing with his play-dough set, Rosie is sleeping in and Bella is resting on the couch. I suspect today will just be a day of recovery for everyone.

It's 10am now and the crew still feels yucky. Rosie is better but still has a headache. She played on the computer for a while and now she went back to bed. My stomach began churning but I'm praying that I don't get worse. I can't afford to get sick! I'm taking care of everyone, who'll take care of me? That's a mother's conundrum. Eva is the only one who is doing just fine. In fact, she's having fun dancing and having free reign of the toys while her siblings lay in misery on the couch watching TV.

It's about 11:30am. All but Rosie and I are sleeping. I can hear her upstairs playing her electric piano. She loves to experiment with the different notes and tries to figure out how to play songs. She also likes to listen to the prerecorded songs that came with the organ and trying to recreate those herself.

It's odd for me when my loves are down for the count. I'm so used to being with them all day and doing things with them. I do have more time right now to read and to be on the computer (hence why I am on here now), but I miss them! I cannot imagine how empty my life would be if we did send them to school. No thank you!

It's 6:30pm and Nick and little Nick just left to take Rosie to AWANA. My poor Bella is still feling very sick so she had to miss it. I know she must be bummed because she loves AWANA. Right now I'm sitting next to her in bed keeping her company. I feel ill too but I've tried to not eat a lot today so that my stomach does't get too upset. Nick took Eva and Nicky to the store earlier so that I could take a nap and that helped me so much! I'm so graeatful for my awesome hubby!

Today is Isabella's 6th birthday, yay!!!! We feel like we are the most blessed and happiest parents in the world because she is in our lives. Thank you Lord for our precious little one!

The kids are excited about the days events bcause every birthday is a fun one for everyone! Our plans are Chuck-e-Cheese, the store to buy gifts and the cake, then we come back here and celebrate more at home. My Isabella chose to get a swing set and a train set (that she said she will share with her brother). She is one of the sweetest most unselfish people I know. For Christmas my mom got her a kit to make stuffed animals and she gave all the stuffed animals she made to her siblings. I love my baby!

My Rosie got ill today just from thinking about bacon, so she said. I think she just has a bug. She rested a while before breakfast. Poor baby.

Nicky requested that I print him out a "Prince of God Chart" like his sisters have (the girls' charts are called "Princess Charts"). It's a way for me to encourage them to act like "royalty" (1 Peter 2:9) of God. So before breakfast I printed his out and he already earned 3 check marks for helping me throw away dirty diapers and for doing it joyfully with out complaining.

Later Nicky helped me cook "chorizo con huevos". Lately he's been my little sous chef helping me crack eggs, measure ingredients, mix them up, etc. He's such a good little man!

Isabella played computer for a while I fed the other kids. After breakfast Rosie found a rainbow on the carpet because the glass table acted as a purism as the sunlight from the window shone through. So we had a discussion about the subject of light and prisms and such.

I'll write more about how the day goes later tonight.

Poem I just found.

I thought that one day
I would be a famous artist
and create great works of art

Instead, God made me a mother,
and my children are His masterpiece.

The design of their lives
will live on after me.
What is painted on their hearts
will last an eternity
- Anonymous

This morning I woke up a bit groggy. Bella woke up several times during the night and therefore woke me up to go with her to the bathroom, or to turn on the TV (for the light because the dark scares her). By the time we got down stars it was about 7:30a.

Before breakfast we did our daily Psalm reading. it's something recent I began to do with the kids every morning before breakfast and so far it's gone better than I expected. The little ones play while the older 2 girls listen to me read a Psalm. That has led to interesting discussions about our faith and to many questions about the Lord. Sometimes those questions are not even with in the subject of the days Psalm, but that's OK. I'm just happy to get the kids thinking and asking about the Lord!

After that I prepared breakfast while the kids played with the Wii and the lap top. The kids sat down to eat while I did some dishes and started the laundry. By the time I got to sit and eat my bf the kids were done with theirs so they went back to their games. I thought it would be a good time to do some reading but that did not turn out to be the case. After I put Eva down from her high chair to go play she became a bit fussy. I thought she was still hungry so I gave her 1/4 of my bagel. She ate some but she was still not happy so I sat her on the ground to play with foam letters and numbers puzzles that she loves and that kept her busy while I finished my bagel and coffee.

After bf I sat with Nicky who wanted to watch Santa Claus music videos on youtube.com. Soon Isabella joined us and we watched the videos and laughed at some weird ones. That lead to us finding even more silly videos and we did that for a while.

In the mean time Rosie made some Miis. Those are character avatars the kids make on the Wii. She also showed us her collection of "giros" (sp?) that she had collected on her Animal Crossing game and we had fun looking at some other people's Mii's. We love to see how creative people can be and the kids like to figure out how people made those.

Isabella wanted a snack so I made her PB&J and Rosie did some anime drawing in the front room. I announced that after Bella was done eating we would have "clean up time".

I don't assign specific chores to each child. I've found that becomes more of a hassle than help so instead we have "cleaning time" where we all clean up together and all of us clean up as needed. This time Isabella and Nicky had fun cleaning up. I allow them to play as they work as long as things get cleaned and picked up in a timely manner. Unfortunately Rosy had a hard time being "joyful" in her work today. So she and I had a conversation on why the Lord wants us to be joyful and great full in all things even when we don't feel like doing our work. We talked about how blessed we are to have a nice warm and safe home and that the Lord wants us to take care of the things He gives us. Also, I reminded her that there are many people who would give anything to have her life so full of love, health and blessings. That helped her to see things in a new way, and although she still didn't want to clean she volunteered to vacuum while the other kids and I cleaned up the upstairs and she didn't complain anymore.

After cleaning time we sat for a few minutes and watched some cartoons. It began to rain and the wind was blowing hard and that scared Bella. We prayed about it and sang "God Is Bigger Than The Boogie Man" but we made up our own lyrics "God is bigger than the scary storm". That made the kids laugh and Bella said she felt much better.
Eva began to get fussy again so I took her into the room to nurse her. Isabella and Nicky came into the room. Nicky requested we sing "Jesus Loves Me", one of his favorite songs, with sign language (we learned how to do that on youtube a few days ago). So we did, about a dozen times! Then Isabella wanted to play from the Rhyme Time Reading Kit my mom gave me. We made sentences out of sight word cards and then played the card game War with the cards provided in the kit.

In the mean time Rosie was in the living room outside playing with "Flip Note Studio" on her DSi (it's an animation program). I decided to write on this blog but then Nicky threw a tantrum about something or other. He needed a nap, but of course he didn't take one.
The tantrum was quenched by a swat in his butt after he smacked a drink off the desk in anger . I know , I wasn't going to spank anymore, but he doesn't seem to respond to any other form of discipline. I won't give up though. I still want to find a better way of disciplining that little dude.
Earlier when Rosie and I talked about being joyful in all circumstances we also talked about Christians like Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie who were persecuted during the Holocaust and how they were able to keep their joy, thankfulness and faith in the Lord during such horrific circumstances and how by their testimony many people, including some women in their concentration camps, have come to Christ. Also about how amazing it is that the Lord has used their obedience to bless millions around the world decades after the fact and even us here in little old Buckeye Arizona today. That is why, I told her, we need to be obedient with joy and thanksgiving to the Lord because we never know when or how the Lord will use our own testimony of joy to bring others to Him and encourage many more.
The rest of the day the girls kept busy with their drawing, computer and Wii games. While I cleaned my room Nicky and I watched a biographical drama on HBO called "Temple Grandin" about an autistic woman scientist who works to make conditions for livestock more humane and also to help fellow autistic people. I don't know how much of the story Nicky understood but he asked a lot of questions about what was going on and he sat through the entire movie very interested. He loves to watch non-infantile movies with me often.
Isabella took a bath, just for fun as she's been doing lately, and she even volunteered to scrub the scum off the tub! She seems to enjoy cleaning and earning check marks in her "Princess Chart". So does Rosie, but in her own way.

While I was reading the news on the Wii Nicky saw a picture of Obama. He goes up to the TV and points to it and says "Awaka Bama". Ha, ha, ha! It was so funny because we have no idea how he knows that!
Later this afternoon while dinner was cooking and after Rosie jumped on the trampoline she wanted to do a couple of science experiments she found on a kitchen science book. The experiment involved sugar cubes, hot and cold water. We discussed and looked at the periodic table of elements, solutions, molecules, atoms and how heat affects molecules. Isabella played with the foam letters and numbers.
After dinner Nicky played Wii (yes, they are Wii freaks specially since I let them put it down stairs). I showed Rosie how to blog (hee hee). It's about 5:30pm now and I suspect the rest of the night will be dedicated to jumping on the couch, playing with boxes in the living room (like they are doing now), doing a final clean up, showers, devotions and prayer, and finally bed.