One night down

Toby's first night with us went fairly well. He has only had two accidents so far. I think the dog slept a little better than I did. I am not sure how much school we will get done today. Hopefully the little guy (Toby) will fall asleep soon and then I will be able to give my younger two children a bath while the older two do handwriting and math. I also want to finish reading a book about Martin Luther to them this week since Reformation is on Sunday. I need to think of a nice Reformation day craft for them to do. We could always draw Luther's rose on clay then paint them. I will just have to see how wild this little dog becomes after he is used to the house.

Life can not be to boring

In our house we like our life to be interesting. On Sunday, what should we find in the newspaper, but an 8 week old male Springer Spaniel. We talked, wondered, mused, and then desided to go and look at the dog. Well, anyone that knows me, knows that I was going to bring the dog home. We named him Toby and now the fun begins.

We also had some friends over after church and we carved 9 pumpkins. It was so much fun and everyone helped clean pumpkin seeds. To bad we only get to carve pumpkins once a year. Those seeds are just so tasty.

Roy Dog June 6, 1994 to October 21, 2006

Our very loyal dog, Roy, was put to sleep today. He was always willing to be by us and love us. In the days of his youth he would run circles around the yard play fetch and loved to take us for walks. You see, when he was a young dog he was very strong and would pull us along as if the most excited thing in the whole world was waiting for him around the next corner. He had a grand collection of toys and would prance around the house carrying them in his mouth. Roy's most prized toy of all was a rather large stuffed cat that he would drag everywhere. He would make everyone of his meal times a grand event and would walk up to the person that was not putting the food in his dish and make sure that they knew he was being feed. His whole body would start to wiggle at the excitement of eating. When Roy was 3, his world was turned up side down when we brought our first new born baby home. He was immediately very gentle with children and he always look after them. As each new baby was brought into the house he was a little older and more patient. Roy also had a terrible time with ear infections so by the time he was nine and half he had lost most of his hearing. This was a very sad thing to happen to him because he never really wanted people to pet him. He wanted people to talk to him. He wanted to know what was going on and he would turn his head and seem to really be paying attention to whomever spoke to him.
He loved to roll in the grass when we all outside. He always slept in our room unless there was a little new born baby in there that woke up often. I think that he wanted his sleep and did not like to be disturbed. He was also a great singer. I know you all are wondering how does a dog sing. But while I studied music in college, he would sit and watch me practice my voice music. One day he just started to sing along with me. From that point until he lost his hearing he would always to sing if we said "sing Roy". He will always be remembered for being the wonderful dog that he was. We will greatly miss him.

What is wrong?

I have an eight year old daughter who is mostly very happy and upbeat but sometimes there is something wrong. I can just tell by the way that she is walking. The way she is holding her head. The way she moves her arms or sits in the chair. Something has made her sad or unhappy or hurt her feelings. She also tends to worry about things. I mean really worry about things. I, as her mother, know that if she does not talk about what ever is bothering her she will become a very melancholy girl. So I then ask the question "what is wrong?" She will then cry and do everything but tell me what is wrong for about 20 min. This then causes me to loose my patience because I do have four children and can not stand there all day while she will not answer a simple question. She is a perfectly normal girl and very smart but when it comes to her talking about he emotions it becomes completely impossible. Usually I can not even understand her because of all of the crying she is doing. When the whole ordeal is over it turns out that she was making her self crazy over something that was so minor and insignificant. My husband and I try to have patience with her but it is very hard. Her little worrying habits can just about take over the whole household if I do not keep a tight reign on them. I think that some times she is using it as a way to get a little attention from my husband and me.

I am sure that often times, in our sinful nature, we will bring many meaningless worries to our Father in heaven. He is the ever patient Father. Always there for us and always providing for us. We need to never worry because He will always give us all we need to support this body and life. Yet, despite this, we worry. We through our sins at God and wonder if they can really be forgiven. His answer will always be a resounding YES! In our darkest days he will forgive us. Some of you may be asking why? The reason is because he said so. Yes I am forgiven because He said I was. He spoke forgiveness at baptisms as a wee baby, and he speaks forgiveness every time He feeds me at the Lord's supper. He speaks these words of forgiveness in the prayer he gave us. The Lord's Prayer. To the free gift of forgiveness, all I can say is amen.

Photo time

My parents came to visit us this past weekend and that always means picture time. Taking pictures in one of my Mother's passions so we always pose for pictures. My husband puts up with us and our many photo sessions. The kids loved getting to spend so much time with their Nana and Papa. We did have a few things on our plate while they were visiting but everything still went just fine. I am hoping that we will be able to get a lot more school work in this week. For some reason last week was just terribly off. A few assignments were done in a few subjects but not enough to make me feel like I taught them anything. I was able to go through three of the children's clothes and pack up things that no longer fit them. This week I would like to finish going through Constence's clothes and give my room a good cleaning. Now just because I say that I would like to get these things done does not mean that I will get around to it. Just as long as every thing in the house runs smoothly. Yeah right, I have got four busy little kids in the house. I will be lucky to get the laundry done. So it goes for my busy life.