My baby turns 7!

Because Mac's birthday landed on a Wednesday and we have crazy Wednesdays getting to church, we decided to celebrate on Tuesday.  Mac had no objections to celebrating a day early.

My only New Year's Resolution this year was to make each kid a birthday cake.  I can't do really fancy cakes, but I did take a course in high school to learn the basic techniques.  I have made one cake for all of my kids birthdays - ONE!  What an embarrassment.

So, two weeks into the year, I got to do my first one.  And here it is!  A minion!!!  I must say, I was very proud of this one - and it was so fun and great to get out all of my tools and be creative.

 In recent weeks, Mac has taken a really, really goofy turn.  So there are lots of animated weirdness in his birthday pics.

 I think if you can choose a month to have a baby in, January is the best.  You can buy toys on clearance after Christmas, plus you can get wrapping paper for cheap - you can't see it, but this is Angry Bird wrapping paper and you can't even tell it is for Christmas!

 Legos!

 A really, really, really noise machine gun that I am having second thoughts about.

 And a Hot Wheels race track that sticks to the walls.

And this is what it looks like after everyone gets the piece they want.

 To hang the track you have to follow specific instructions so that it angles correctly and all the moving parts work.  Jason had Daegan do it.  Funny to watch, but very proud of the results.

 Still working on the track and Mac shooting everyone with his noisy gun.

 On Mac's REAL birthday, I surprised him at breakfast with one more gift.

 A Captain America Jacket!!!

 So, my baby is 7.  I love this goofy, snuggly, awesome kid!!!!!  Our own little Minion.

Happy 7th Birthday to Mac!!!

This is what Mommy and Daddy looked like around age 7:

(1982)

(1979)

Have you scared someone today?

We have a family thing.  We like to scare each other.  I know I am the one that started it, but it is funny to jump out from behind a door at a kid and make them jump.  Isn't it?

I know this is going to bite me in the butt very soon.  As the kids have gotten older, they are always trying to scare me or their siblings.  For now, they are too "loud" to be sneaky, but I know my time will come.

I share this because of last night.  All four boys are in a room downstairs together.  There are two bunk beds and it is a very dark room. 

Apparently, the other night, Daegan (bottom bunk) got up to go to the bathroom and Tavis (top bunk) decided to get in Daegan's bed to scare him.  He wedged himself as far into the wall as he could so Daegan wouldn't notice him.  Daegan came back to bed got settled, and Tavis let some time pass before he jumped/yelled/whatever at Daegan.

Yep,  Tavis is the one I am going to have to look out for.  

Worship via Music

Here are two songs that spoke to me this morning in worship:

You Have Been Good

O Lord, You have been good,

You have been faithful to all generations;

O Lord, Your steadfast love

And tender mercy have been our salvation.

For by Your hand we have been fed;

And by your Spirit we have been led.

O Lord, Almighty God, Father unchanging, upright and holy;

O Lord, You have been good,

You have been faithful.  You have been good.

You have been faithful.  You have been good.

Just As I Am

Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot,

To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, tho tossed about with many'a conflict, many'a doubt,

Fighting and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;

Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am, Thy love unknown hath broken ev'ry barrier down;

Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just where I am right now

A little behind and frustrated would be putting it nicely.

I had two great weeks "off" over Christmas.  The week of Christmas I barely worked and the week of New Year's I worked the bare minimum.  It was great.  It was amazing how much I enjoyed being a Mom those weeks.  We played games a lot.  I baked A LOT!  I cooked meals.  We went on fun errands.  It was just a good time.  I am thankful for my job, but, we all know, deep down inside, I wish I didn't have to work.  I do not think that is abnormal?

This has been my week thus far, and it is only Wednesday.  Cranky customers, a van I have to "jump" every time I want to use it, my dryer quit working and laundry is building, and my dog ate Captain Crunch this morning because I was out of dog food.  And, as I sit here writing this post, my dishwasher is making a horrid screeching noise, so I turned it off to be checked by Jason when he gets home.  Thankfully, Heidie is cooking tonight so clean dishes are not a 100% must!

*Hmpf*

I have panic attacks.  I do get frustrated by them, but I am not ashamed of them.  I recognize my symptoms and I know the severity of them "before" they hit.  As I look back on my school days, I now know, I had many in school, even though I did know what they were at the time.  Mostly, before tests or big assignments.  I put so much pressure on myself, and I had to work my butt off for B's.  I think I have shared this before, but my own doctor told me after my freshman year of college I might consider taking some time off, my body was not handling the stress well.  I went for one more semester and then dropped out.  And I didn't return.

Now, most panic attacks result because of finances.  I am the first to tell you that the Lord can provide in mysterious ways and he has ALWAYS provided.  I tell Jason often, I trust the Lord in my heart, but it takes a lot of prayer for it to work up to my brain.  It doesn't help that I am a numbers person and I HATE credit cards.

Most of December Jason was unable to work.  If you live near us, you know that December was very rainy, which seems ironic to me because Jason's work rarely depends on weather.  He is almost always inside.  But on his newest project, he had to pour concrete twice (a footer and a foundation?), so he had to have two days that were dry and not too cold.  That was hard to come by.  Thankfully, my job was unusually busy for December and we closed out a lot of house right before Christmas - one of those ways the Lord provides in weird ways?

But now, we are hit with January.  We made it in December, but we scraped by - using all resources available.  Thankfully, I paid cash for all of Christmas (a promise we made to ourselves many years ago), so that is not looming.  It is just the bills for living in December that we paid the minimum on and now are double in January.  And people don't typically close on houses in January.  I get paid per file, so chances of me getting a paycheck this month are very, very slim.

I don't put all of this out there for pity or even as a "woe is me".  I put it out there because it is heavy on my heart and it is where we are right now.  It isn't a fun pleasant memory, but it is part of our family history and that is what this blog is about.  Monday night was bad.  I had a stack of bills in front of me and then the dryer went out and I lost it.  It was what I would call a big panic attack.  I basically drugged myself (Xanax and Ambien) and went to bed at 8.  And then last night wasn't much better and I didn't drug myself, but I went to bed again at 8.

And the Lord provided us with a dryer.  I just need to coordinate picking it up.  I feel like it was a nudge from the Lord saying, "Seriously?  I've got this.  Just trust me!"  A lesson I'll probably learn twenty more times throughout this month.

And this morning I woke up and began my day with prayer.  Prayer for strength.  Prayer for trust.  Prayer to snap out of this funk.  I am feeling better.  A little.  I know some of the readers of this blog have been praying for me, and I thank you for that.

Now, I have to figure out if our dishwasher is dead too?  And, I guess, go get some more dog food....

Yep, Jason worked in this today

Tuckers', Harris' and Browns

We are cousins, but we are also very good friends.  We missed the P Caines' in this mix - as we have all vacationed together before.

And again, Mollee was outnumbered - 13 boys and 1 girl

 Glad Daegan had someone to play chess with.

 The "littles" table

 The "big" table

 Old college roommates - maybe I shouldn't say old?  But it was 1994-1995???

 The Adults!!!!!