A Twin Birthday

I have one set of twins-
a little girl and a little boy.
Twin life has not always been easy,
but it has definitely humbled me.
I have not met many people with twins and
I believe God has blessed me
with this precious and unique gift of twins.

So, my twinnies, as I call them,
have turned eight and with every child's birthday,
as a mom, my heart is to allow for this one day
of the year to be really special for them.
Doing that for twins has always been challenging,
but this year I think I got it!

I set up my sons underwater theme decorations in the kitchen area...

and allowed for the dining room to be filled with 

my daughters ballet theme.

I am not an artist, as you will clearly see.

 I copied the octopus and the turtle (my son's favorite animal)

from the table cloth and hung them up.

 (I used water color paints to color in the drawing of the animals.

I find painting large drawings like these

 goes much faster than working with markers or colored pencils).

The 'Happy Birthday' signs are so easy to make and 

I think add such a nice splash to the room.

To make the birthday signs: 

I simply fold a piece of construction paper in half 

and create the triangle shape within it's borders.

Then I use a dinner size drinking glass to trace the large circle

and a breakfast size glass to trace the smaller circle.

(The lettering I typed and printed out).

I found these little octopus lollipops 

on pinterest and had to make them too!

It truly was A-LOT of work for me to pull it all together,

especially because I did a family party one day 

and a children's party another day,

but the result is always the same, worth it-

because they felt loved.

I made both cakes-

a fish bowl filled with gold fish and gummy underwater animals

and I used my 'princess' cake pan for the ballerina cake.

Here they are singing, "Happy Birthday to YOU" to each other! 

The Scriptures says in Psalm 139:13-14 

"For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well."

Every year I sit with them and retell the story of  how Daddy and I believed

God told us we were to have twins and 

how their oldest brother prayed for twins even before I was pregnant.

 I remind them how the doctor missed seeing two babies on the sonogram,

and how we had to ask him to look again and make sure there were not two babies.

When the doctor looked again he found my twins were there

and shouted down the hallway to all the nurses,

"This couple prayed for twins and

GOT THEM!"

God formed these precious, little, ones 

and I rejoice in all that He has given me!

Happy Birthday Twinnies!

Bible Study with My Children

I have been doing some form of Bible Study with my children since I began homeschooling my first child eight years ago. It has been the first thing we do together every morning because I believe if  my children learn nothing else of what I teach them I want them remember that the Lord comes first in our lives and His Word is to be cherished at the start of each new day.

Some of the Bible studies we have done together I have created and have written, some have been purchased and some have been Bible Studies on DVD.  Alongside the study we did at home we also went to a Bible Study group each week. Although I have not attended the outside study group for the past two years, this year, we came back!

Here we are on the very first day of Bible Study.

My eldest son was sick and wasn't able to make the first day with us =(

My two year old is in the Blue Sheep class! 

(She wore her backpack to school!)

My three year old is in the Yellow Sheep.

He was so proud- yellow is his favorite color.

The Bible Study group we go to is  called CBS, (Community Bible Study). I truly love this program because they have even the smallest children involved in an age appropriate Bible lesson. They sing songs, provide craft time, gym time, snack and many other activities planned while the mothers are in their study. It's clearly not just a nursery. It also allows for any age child- they have classes for children all the way up to high school.

If you are not involved in an adult Bible Study I want to really encourage you to do it. There is something about getting together with others, opening up the Word of God together and learning from each other. I will also say that being a part of a study brings accountability-(gulp!) This study requires homework to be completed before the next class and I have found that without it, it is quite easy to forget or to not make room in my day to read the Bible. I find too that being a part of this particular Bible study encourages me that my children are learning the same study as I am- we study the Word together. And lastly, being a part of this group has shown me that the Lord does speak to me through His Word. I have heard His words so clearly as I have studied and read the Bible and it has always been so exciting to share it with the other ladies in my group. The whole experience for us has been wonderful and I cannot wait to delve into Book of Revelation this year!

A Blank Horizon

I had not spent years of my early life dreaming or envisioning what I would be or even what I'd want to be when I grew up, but there was this one day in the August of 1991 where I had a vision for my future, a new horizon, if you will, opening up for me and I felt excited inside. I had a new found hope that I would become something, something important, something useful. Every day, since that day, that vision has given me hope. Whenever things would go wrong for me or situation tough I would think on that vision and press on. Well, I've gone through some tough times again and I gotta say this heartache has changed me to the point that I fear I have lost the vision and now what lies before me is a blank horizon.

I was very sad at first when thinking back on my familiar and lovely vision and for the first time it brought no hope for me. It was like I was looking at someone else's future and felt no intimate attachment to it. I'd try to drum up a vision or excitement over my future, but nothing of a true nature worked. I guess part of the sadness was due to the fact that I used to always see a new horizon budding. I'd be filled with new visions and new ideas and would be totally psyched to jump in and get the job done. I love new horizons. I love moving forward. I love the excitement of it all. I loved thinking about the future and where God might be taking me or how God will use me. It always gave me hope to see the future and think about how God could be weaving all the things I was going through for good and how it might possibly touch other lives.

It's been weeks now and I will say that although there are times of sadness, I'm at peace with my blank horizon. One thing about having a blank horizon is that I find that I am now more prone to live in the day. I'm not thinking, "Oh, maybe this will bring that vision to fruition," and things like that. I'm just living life day by day now and it's good. Sometimes I find myself  scratchin' my head thinkin' where to next, Lord? But still there is nothing. No vision. No dreams. No ideas.

It's a peaceful, restful and a step at a time, time. I have no thoughts of the future any more because it's just a blank screen, but the Lord knows what my future holds and I'm okay with that because He's holding me too.

Turkey Hair Clips

The fall is coming and that means CRAFT-time for me =)

I have recently taught myself how to make all different kinds

 of  hair bows for my girls

 and certainly couldn't have resisted this when I saw it!

It is a turkey pin, but no one I know would wear

a pin, so I turned it into a hair clip for my girls.

(I found the kit in an OTC catalog, (Oriental Trading),
 ordered it and made them).

I made quite a few!
(Not sure what I'm going to do with all these-
It would be fun to sell them!)

Tell me, How darling are these as hair clips!!!

Kid's Bathroom

Well, I've update the 'theme' in the kid's bathroom

from duckies to

fishies!

The kids picked out the underwater theme-

Target had everything they liked-

from the curtain, towels, and rugs.

(The bathroom didn't need a new paint job 

so I helped them pick something that would match the blue walls!).

Okay, that was easy,

the craft part was taking the shelf I had and making it match.

I painted it white and then wanted to add the

characters from shower curtain

 to the shelf to bring it all together.

So, I painted the fish from the bathroom rug onto it.

I am NOT an artist-

but my children think I am! 

They were so excited watching me paint their

favorite characters onto the shelf.

Here's how I did it.

First, I took pictures of the specific animals 

they wanted me to paint.

I think this octopus is soooo cute!

(I painted him without the eye-patch).

How cute is this clam?!

Then I lightly drew the characters onto the shelf

and began to paint them in.

These are the paint I used.

(and there's my couffee cup not too far away!)

Here's my daughter painting on a canvas

while I painted the shelf. 

So, here it is!

Nothing great. Nothing original. Nothing really creative.

But my kids are so proud and they love it-

it makes it worth it =)

On the sides I painted six fish- one for each of my children-

the little ones chose which fish represented them!