Heaven on Earth

There are some days that hold within them all that your heart holds dear. Those days make you feel whole on this fallen earth.

One of those days was today for me. The bluest skies with the whitest clouds floating above my head. So bright that you must squint to look at it. When the air is the perfect temperature; a cool breeze yet the sun shines so warmly on your skin; a perfect combination!

The green leaves; all shapes and sizes blowing in the wind. The colors blue and green, so clear and bright as they contrast one another. The smell of Spiarea and Whisteria flowers so thick on the wind; I am sure that is what heaven smells like (with a touch of new born baby smell)

Your children playing happily; laughing, giggling, smiling.....enjoying the same wonderful day as you only in the way a child would.

All is right. Dare I say perfect for a moment in time. There are perfect moments! There are moments when I get a tiny glimpse of heaven here on earth. Praise you Abba for such beauties. If the creation is just a small reflection of the creator, how glorious You must be.

Funny Things!

So we are sitting at the table eating lunch when we here the front screen door open and shut. I do a head count and feel that oh-gosh feeling when I realize that everybody is still at the table. Devon and I look at each other and he realizes what I am thinking. "we are all here...so who was that" He and I jump up at the same time and walk slowly to the front foyer. We walk past the couch and he picks up a hairbrush laying on the couch. We slowly peek around the corner to see if someone was standing in the entryway...there was no one! Shoooo.... that was weird, we concluded that the door had not been closed all the way and had blown open and shut by the wind. So as we are walking back to the table I look at him and laugh "what were you going to do with that hairbrush, brush them to death?" He laughed and we both said at the same time "watch out I have a hairbrush and I know how to use it!" I was really happy though that he was trying to protect us what a great 10 year old!

Saturdays full of The Fathers Glory

I love Saturdays. Yes most people do! I especially enjoy the rest. I do not do any house work or school preperation. No laundry, no nothin! I do fix meals and wash the dishes, but that about concludes my Saturday domestic duties. The boys get to do what ever they feel like doing and dont have to be worried about mom calling them in to do school or chores. They especially LOVE Saturdays. This Saturday was extra neat

Devon built a mud castle complete with mote....



I climbed this wall.....



To take a picture of this.....




There is a Robin couple that have lived at our house for 2 years now. The boys being the wall climbers that they are spotted the eggs a few days ago and have been watching them every sense. One egg had hatched this morning and the other two hatched out by noon today. They are so sweet. So vulnerable. I am excited to watch them grow over the next few days.

Well I hope that your Saturday is as peaceful as mine and filled with The Fathers Glory!!!

Contempt shown to large families

I read this article here on Tiany's blog yesterday. I thought it made a few great points. I hope that the percentage of people that truly feel this way are small. I think the real lie that people believe that keeps them from having any or many children is that they have to be in a certain place financially or emotionally. That is just not true. If The LORD gives you children HE will also provide for those children. In a perfect world people would realize what a great privilege it is to have children, whether it is one or 20...and hopefully its more than one ;-))

All joking aside...I believe that we should allow the LORD to use our lives in what ever way he sees fit. We are not here for us...we are here to do HIS will. If that means He gives us more than 1.3 children then so be it. Children are a blessing from HIM a REWARD! No where in scripture does it say otherwise!

Anyway enjoy the article and if you are one of those people he is talking about, well....I apologize in advance because I will probably bump into you one day with all my children in tow and I will ask them to be on there worst behavior...haha...just kidding...maybe!

What peace, wisdom can bring

I wanted to share something that I read yesterday that touched me in such a profound way. We as humans are so emotional. We wrap our emotions around our situation and become very self absorbed...I know I can if I don't watch myself. But what about those things in life that we feel are so horrible that we are entitled to feel like we have been wronged. Such as loosing a child. I have never, praise the LORD lost a child and cant say how I would react if I ever did, but I hope that I could be as wise as Melissa, who lost her lovely son 45 minutes after his birth to a rare form of dwarfism. Below is the letter she wrote thanking everyone for their condolences and prayers.

Thank you everyone for your prayers. We need them! I just have to say that this was my personal "worst scenario." I love being a mother, I love my children and family more than anything and thought that if anything like this ever happened to me, I would physically die. I didnt. I am doing great. Mathew had a purpose and he fulfilled it. And being a mom is so much more than I thought it was. I WAS his mom for that short time. You CAN squeeze a lifetime of love in to a few moments. I was given alot of reading material about the grief I would feel. What bothered me the most is the references to how people became bitter about a lifetime of lost memories, as if you somehow deserve and are guaranteed a certain kind of life with your child. We get no such guarantees....not for a newborn, not for an adult child . I didn't lOSE this baby's lifetime of memories, they were never mine to begin with. His life story was written before he was ever conceived. All of ours are.

That was my very best birth. It was so precious, so special and beautiful. I have no regrets which is helpful when you are going through the grieving. I cry, but not out of regret, just out of the natural emotion of sadness we go through as our bodies grieve. It also helps because we took lots of pictures of Mathew and I could see how his little body was formed incorrectly. He didn't look scary to me, which I was really fearful of. He was perfect in his way and just so darn cute! I am so glad we got to see and hold him before he passed on.

So hug your children a little tighter today and remember that nothing....nothing happens in this world that GOD is not in control of. If we can be happy with whatever HE gives us for whatever amount of time HE gives it to us, that is pure peace....and true wisdom. Please pray for Melissa and her family. Thank you Melissa for showing me that we aren't entitled anything and that even if your time here is but a few minutes you were here for GODS purpose. What wisdom!

Sugar and Spice and Hair Barrets

Do You See It?!?......Is that not the most awesome thing you have ever seen?!?......I have been waiting 10 years to do that!!....And I must say, yes it felt so good!!!......All day today everytime I looked at those cute little pony tails I could not keep from smiling! I do that alot, how could you not! She is just addorable!

Getting Dirty

We love to garden...or maybe its I love to garden. So we spent Friday cleaning out the old and planting the new. I love being able to walk out in the backyard and pick a few pieces of lettuce for my sandwich, or a pepper for dinner. There is such a freedom in it. As well as knowing where it came from. Have you ever thought about that, how trusting we are to continually eat food that we have no idea where it has come from.

The boys helped, they do love the digging in the dirt part of it. The dog jumped right up there and started digging to, I think he was making restitution for all the messes he has been making lately...although it did not mean he was done making messes.

We planted bell peppers and tomatoes (all kinds) and we still have the squash to get into the ground. I need about 4 more raised beds to have all the things I want in my garden. Like corn and beans and okra and onions and sweet potatoes and on and on. I probably could plant half of our yard and still not have enough room. It must have been quite a feat a hundred years ago to grow a garden for a large family and have enough to can for winter. How privileged we are these days!

My Eve

Well Eve its been 10 months. How am I doing at this whole mom of a little girl thing? I hope you think I am doing well. I must admit it is different in many ways. You are so little and dainty...and all that hair...I can not wait until I can put it up in a pony tail. Yes you are my little doll. I will find myself changing your clothes a few times a day just to put that next really cute dress on. The more ruffles it has the better!

You only smile when you want to and you already have such a great sense of injustice. But when you are happy it is beautiful. I love you so much my little Eve. I pray that I will be all that a mother is supposed to be. Have patience with me please...I was raised by my dad and never had a mother...so it is all a learn as you go thing for me. I am not a mushy, huggy kissy person, but I am working on it...although from what I can gather you arent either.

So heres to the future and all that it will bring. Thank you for bringing pink into my life....it has been so much fun!

Things Children say...and keep saying

So I am dusting the living room and my 10 ys came up to me and asked if he could dust for me. I said "Im almost finished, your lunch is ready...go eat it" Then he says "Well I am feeling helpful right now so you better use it while you can!" ROTFLMBO

On to the things that children never stop saying...there are days where I feel like if I hear "that" one more time my brain will surly melt and ooze out onto the floor and then I will have to mop it up and rinse it down the drain, which would be good because I would be comatose and then could not hear "that" being said again and again...things like....

"MOM, how long is it till my birthday?" (literally asked by at least 2 children a day, some more than once) This requires thought on my part and they want an answer, so I fumble through all the birth dates in my head until I match the appropriate one with the face I am looking at. Then I must remember what the date is today and then I must do math. What do they want from me?

So since necessity is the mother of invention and apparently the thing that will hopefully keep me from moping up my brain off the floor, I have decided to make a chart that will show all the days of the year. It will have each of their birthdays clearly listed and I need to come up with a simple way for them to "count down" until the day. If you have any good ideas Im all ears. haha

Go fly a kite

I love hanging out with my kiddos doing childish things. We have a large field next to our house and the kids were having a blast flying their kite and hiding in the very tall grass. I love spring!

I wasn't going to do this........

.....but I feel led to.... so here it goes. I have another blog that I am writing called My Journey Out. I began writing it as a way for me to put into words the things that The LORD has been showing me. It has been a very interesting past few months, and all I can say is WOW....who knew! I had no idea where all the "Christian" things that we do came from. Now I know they are the "traditions of man", and not from scripture. I encourage you to look deeper than what you are taught and ask the Father to show you the truth! I am still learning, learning, learning and have many more things I want Him to show me. You may not agree with me but perhaps you will begin to search yourself for the things of the LORD! If you fill led to read than go here, if not....well....then don't!

Oh POO, how I hate thee

Well in case the chuckle from this poo story has worn off, I thought I would give you a new hardy...haha!

We will go where this story begins.....2 weeks ago, our sewer clean out line clogged up and my ever inventfull husband decided to put the water hose down it and flush it out......now we can come back to the present where I am trying to water the back yard. I concluded that using one water hose would not allow me to get to the very back of the yard so I hook up the second water hose (the one mentioned above). Well for some reason after hooking it up and turning on the water, the sprinkler was not spraying...hmmm, scratching my head...it worked a minute ago?!?

So I turn the water off and go to unscrew the sprinkler to closer examine it. Now have you ever unscrewed a sprinkler while it was still pressured up with water....and it sprayed you all over? Great, now add 2 week old poo to that spray and you have me standing in the back yard covered in crap.

The neighbors got a good laugh...hope you did to! I just hope that this week brings less poop my way! And while Im at it may your week be filled with all things not poopy!

Happy Birthday Elijah!

It was three years ago today that you made your entrance into this world. You were in a hurry and decided you were coming with a vengeance. Needless to say within 30 min. of that first contraction you were here. I am glad I was at home and not in the middle of the grocery store. If I ever thought that I was having a girl it was with you. That was such a different pregnancy, perhaps it was just the high altitude of the CO mountains....but on that eventful day you ended up being my 5th son. It was a great day!!

You are the only child who was not born in Texas, but we all made a pact to never let you know that. Yes you are a Texan, not a Colorodian. Thats just a clerical error on your birth certificate...I've just never had time to get it fixed...ya that's it..no time...no time!

All joking aside...you are a great source of JOY to our family. Always having a wonderful smile on your face and making us laugh. Yes you are turning three now which means all that cuteness will melt away into a pile of whining mush on the floor...because in this house its the terrible 3's!
But I will wait patiently for you to turn 4 so that peace can rain once more in the Stucker household.

Happy birthday my son! May The Heavenly Father Bless you and watch over you all the days of your life. I pray that you will fulfill The LORDS purpose for your life here on earth. Always seek HIM and HIS will in all that you do, for there is no other reason to live. Never look to the right or the left but keep your eyes on HIM! May you be like your name sake Elijah and always walk with The LORD! In Y'shuas name I pray... Amein

UNO

It is the game that never ends
It just goes on and on my friends
We simply started playing it not knowing what it was
And we are still playng it forever just because

It is the game that never ends
It just goes on and on my friends
We simply started playing it..................

The great thing about the Sabbath Rest is you get to play games until your fingers bleed. Today was the card game UNO. The first 7 games were great and I won the first round. Then of course we have to play another round so that someone else can win. The problem with UNO is that you could play the same game for hours, which is what happened today. We had to call it quits after about what seemed like 2 hours. So I am the raining UNO champion at this time. YAY ME!

Remember The Last Post?

Well, this one is nothing like it!!

All I have to say is YUCK, PPLLAAA, SPPIITT, PPPLLUUUY and GROSS!!!!

Have you ever had more gross things happen within 3 minutes of themselves than is really humanly possible to deal with within a whole day. Our lovely and happy to crap in the house dog had...yes...crapped in the house.....again. So I was dutifully cleaning it up as I hear "MOM...Elijahs shooey and its coming down his leg". So I finish cleaning up the dog poop, when I see Elijah and realize yes he is shooey and it is more than just coming down his leg. He was holding his diaper on as one side had come undone. I grab my diaper changing equipment and mentally prepare myself for what lied ahead. Yes...gross but no big deal...done this a million times before how much worse could this be. I take a wipe and wipe one of his legs off...as in the distance I hear that very familiar...she has something in her mouth again and is choking on it. (she puts everything that she finds on the floor in her mouth, no matter what it is) I jump up because quite frankly a choking baby is higher on the priority list than a nasty one, so I find her. It seems as though as Elijah was walking down the stairs holding his diaper he dropped some of that precious cargo on the floor, and YES she found it and YES she was eating it. AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I run like she is on fire to the kitchen sink. I cant seem to get her to turn inside out so that I can wash her insides out so I have to settle for her hands and mouth. Oh My Gosh....my precious princess has eaten poop, and no, not her own, which is much more exceptable than eating someone elses. I get her all cleaned up. Well at least on the outside and go to finish with poor Elijah who is still standing there holding his diaper up. I walk into the living room only to find the dog has found that wipe I used to wipe Eli's leg and is chewing on it on the couch, YUKE..can it just keep going because I havent had enough yet?!? So then I finish cleaning up Eli only to scrape the nasty diaper across the floor for yet more crap cleaning fun to be had.

So here is my concern. I have heard those stories about the water parks where a child pooped in the water and another child ingested a piece of it and got sick and died! Should I be rushing my little girl to the hospital or do I have nothing to worry about? Someone please answer and answer quick!!!

Strive to enter by the narrow door

Strive, as in an agony of holy fear. A promise has been made of your entering into His rest (Hebrews 4:9-11). Strive, lest you should come short of it..........

.........Strive to enter in at the narrow gate. Strive, not only by this agony of soul, of conviction, of sorrow, of shame, of desire, of fear, of unceasing prayer. Strive, likewise, by putting in order all your conversation, your whole life, by walking with all your strength in all the ways of God---the way of innocence, of piety, and of mercy. Shun all the appearance of evil......deny your own will in all things, and take up your cross daily. Be ready to cut off everything that would hinder,and to cast it from you. Be ready and willing to suffer the loss of possessions, of friends, of health----of all things on earth---so you may enter into the kingdom of heaven."

If you are looking for funny...then move along

Yep its one of those days where you want to throw in the towel and say I give up.

When you realize that there are just some things you and your husband will never be on the same page about. Although you already thought you were.

When you are having the worst time at getting your children to read, write or anything else regarding schoolwork and realize you have been to lenient in the past or perhaps they wouldn't be this lazy.

When you have said for the gazzilianth time please don't say mean things to your brother. Yes, we all know he is a pest, just embrace it!!!

When you have to tell your son who just got in trouble for being mean to said son above that he would not be any happier if he ran away, but if you must, I'll help you pack...OK didn't say that last part but sure felt like it.

When you wonder if your husband was right all those times he said we should only have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

When you feel like you really stink at all this stuff and maybe you can find someone to replace yourself with that would treat your family better.

When the dog has slept in your spot in the bed for 2 straight nights forcing you to sleep on the couch and shows his appreciation by doing this...again