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.