i've got joy like a river.

Someone very cute and sweet turned one last month.
He is our gentleman.
Our happy and content little baby.
The one that will be a big brother soon.
We all love to sit and hold and love on this little one year old-- he makes us all happy inside.
Everyone in our house wanted the next baby to be a boy all because River is that wonderful.

to finish off the day.

Running and rocks, giant hills and holes, sand and sea, and wind and waves. 

What a wonderful day we had. 

To top it all off-- we stopped along the road for a brief excursion. 

There's a giant sand hill that the kids have wanted to climb since they were little and today was to be the day that they would conquer it. 

Chris even brought a plastic sled for snow to see if they could get a ride out of it (It really didn't work very well at all.). 

The oldest five went up pretty high and attempted to slide down. 

When they realized that it wasn't going to work, they ran and stumbled and tumbled down until they reached the bottom. 

It really wasn't all that great-- it was just one of those things that they had to get out of their system. 

I guess the trendy way to say it is: It was something on the bucket list.

a day at the tide pools.

This is is going to be a two part post because my hubby took the best pictures on our Spring break trip to visit the tide pools at a nearby beach. 

The kids, Chris and I love going there.  

I thought that so many of the pictures were just beautiful and so perfectly captured our day that I couldn't narrow them down to only a few for a post.

We spent the latter part of the morning until after lunch stepping across seaweed and barnacle covered rocks, getting wet sand between our toes and exploring the wonders of Creation. 

Honestly, these kinds of days are my favorite; When I find the most contentment and peace. 

Watching my children discover, learn and be joyful.  

The day started out overcast and chilly, but the sun eventually broke through and it turned out to be warm and sunny. 

We really are fortunate to live where we do and to be able to regularly enjoy these kinds of days. 

my dream clean.

Seriously-- I can’t seem to keep these posts going. 

But I’m really intent on getting back into the swing of things on my blog. 

Our home school calendar is pretty much spent and I am more than happy to be tossing this past year’s books into the recycling bin. 

One of the things that has caused me lots of stress over the years has been the cleanliness of my house. 

I mean-- we’re not pigs or anything, but it goes without saying that living in a house with 9 kids 13 and under causes one’s house to get dirty fast. 

Don’t get me wrong-- the kitchen floor gets swept three times a day and the carpets get vacuumed daily and even behind the doors gets dust-busted every morning, but it’s not enough. At least not for me... in the back of my mind, I am always thinking about what needs to be cleaned. I’ve always thought that if my house could just stay cleaned, I’d be set free...

Well, I am ashamed to say, but completely happy because my hubby has gotten me the best housekeeper in town. 

It was not only a financial decision, a peace of mind decision, but a personnel decision. 

Once my husband was able to get over the money issue, the problem was finding someone. 

Easier said than done. 

We actually hired the woman who worked at the rich guy’s house across the street figuring that if they were happy with her then she must be doing a good job. 

Unfortunately, she was a very nice lady, but only wanted to do some light house cleaning. 

It was so bad that I had to clean after she was done cleaning. 

After nicely telling her that we wouldn’t be needing her any longer, Chris and I sat down and talked about what we DID want. 

We needed someone who would be aggressive, who would not need to be told what to do and who would want to have the house sparkling by the time they left. 

To make a long story short, Chris began to get names and numbers from the kids in his classes at school. 

He said he’d go through them one by one if he had to in order to find one that I liked. 

We weren’t going to settle for mediocrity.

When a woman came over to look at the house and give us an estimate, she looked real serious and when we told her what the other house cleaner had done, she just kind of frowned. 

At this point, my heart jumped at the possibility that maybe this was the one. 

And when she arrived on cleaning day with a cleaning partner in tow I could hardly believe my eyes. 

During the time that she was here, the kids and I were in utter amazement at the things they cleaned. 

I even called Chris several times at work gushing with delight. 

Oh! My dream cleaner had been found and I will never let her go...

sunday's child.

the telling of our easter.

Easter was a fun and satisfying day for me and my family.

We woke up to Easter baskets. No-- we don’t teach the kids about the Easter bunny, but that their Daddy and Mommy bless them with presents and candy to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

After we headed to church, where the kids were involved in a really neat Puppet show which portrayed what Jesus did for all of us. It was incredible and was followed by something called "cardboard testimonies".

It was so powerful and so moving that tears were coming down from my eyes.

On one side of the cardboard, a few words were written about who the person was before Jesus came into their life. The piece of cardboard was then flipped to reveal how the redemptive power of God had dramatically changed their lives.

They spoke nothing themselves, only what was written.

I was so grateful and thankful for what God was doing in our church.

For a few of the people involved it became so clear how their testimony had actually come to fulfillment and I was blessed to see it.

It makes the whole pioneering journey worth it.

During church, it began to rain which was a little crazy since Easter was being hosted at my house this year.

I had big decorating plans for the backyard hoping that it would resemble the tea party from Alice in Wonderland.

But it wasn’t meant to be, and we all crammed inside our little house and feasted on lots of delicious food.

And wouldn't you know it-- right about the time we finished eating and were wondering what we should do about our easter egg hunt, the rain stopped and the sun came out.

The kids were excited.

There were so many candy packed plastic eggs that no one, big or little, came up feeling short-changed.

 

birthday boy daddy.

In our family, spanning from March 28th to May 20th, we have SEVEN birthdays.

It becomes a non-stop, whirlwind of presents, celebrating and cake eating.

We have been known to have a couple different birthday banners hanging at the same time in our house.

The celebrations start with Daddy's birthday. The big Chief.

We had so much fun celebrating Daddy that he even got a $1.00 bill from Sophia. That is huge when you are only 8 years old and it's all your money.

I took the older kids shopping for him and we had so much fun that we couldn't stop finding things to buy for him. The kids went crazy picking out boxers--with pigs on them. I mean, they thought it was just the funniest thing in the world.

And you should’ve seen some of the other things they were picking out. I finally had to tell them to stop because there was no way I would spend money on some of the gifts that they thought were hilarious. I'll stop there.

In the end, it turned out to be a birthday showered with love.

We knew he deserves the best. He truly is an awesome Husband and Daddy. And best friend.