Cherry Blossom Time

Cherry blossoms are in full swing here in middle Georgia. They are absolutely beautiful and paired with the spectacular blue sky of today, it made for such a pretty picture.

My favorite place to take pictures of cherry blossoms- our beautiful church.

Look at that sky!

Pink petals lining the sidewalk.

Beautiful creation.

Random Thoughts

• Emma was diagnosed with the flu on Thursday. Poor baby was so sick and feverish all Thursday and into Friday, but she seemed to feel alot better Saturday and even better today.
• Ben came down with the flu on Friday. He has had a very mild case of it, with his main symptom being a non stop runny nose.
• I am battling a sinus/ear infection. Bleh. I hate those. They make you feel miserable, yet not sick enough to justify lying in bed all day, but that's really all you want to do.
• Paul went camping for 3 days with just a backpack. He hiked 20 miles carrying a 40 pound pack with all his supplies on it. I think I'd rather stay home with the sick kiddos!
• Our temperature here was 88 yesterday. Whoa- it's only March! Too soon for such hot temps. Today is much cooler.
• The cherry blossoms are in full bloom and amazingly beautiful. I'm hoping to get some pictures in the next day or two before they start turning green.
• My laptop is not working after "someone" spilled water on it. Sigh. I hope its fixable. I again did not back up some pictures, so if the laptops gone, so are the pictures and videos. Will I ever learn?
• Emma has been saying dada and bye bye. No matter how hard I try, she won't say mama. Her dad is eating it up that she says dada so much. She yells it, says it, whispers it and growls it! She's so cute.

Emma at 8 Months

Emma turned 8 months old on March 6. This was the first time I was able to take some pictures of her due to her being so sick. Thankfully, she is doing much better!

This is her contemplative face.

Yay!

So happy! She had a ball sitting outside while Anna made her laugh and I snapped pictures.

She is crawling everywhere and pulling to standing whenever she gets a chance.

Spring has Sprung

Nothing says Spring more like blooming cherry blossoms here in Middle Georgia. They are so pretty. Emma thought they looked good to eat too. The Cherry Blossom festival starts the end of this week. I think they timed it perfectly this year. The trees should still be in full bloom at the beginning.

Not quite a cherry blossom, but I'll keep him. He found this packet of ketchup on the ground and insisted he bring it home. He is a strange but wonderful child.

Another cutie pie up in a tree.

I'm sure you all think I never wash this boys face. Oh my. It seems we are forever washing him.

Wow...

I can't believe it's been almost two weeks since I last posted. Where has the time gone?

We've been extremely busy around here in these two weeks. Well, busy and sick.

Last week, we attended a local "campmeeting". I had never heard of a campmeeting (other than youth camp) until a few years ago. I would describe it as a revival on steriods. This campmeeting was held at a church located about 30 minutes away. There were services every morning and evening and the church provided lunch and supper every day. Our entire family enjoyed these services very much. Lots of great preaching and special music. We didn't make it every day, but went quite a bit through the week.

Very early Friday morning, Ben woke up throwing up. Ugh. So Friday, the little ones and I stayed home from the services. Come to find out, that this stomach bug was working it's way through the nursery in the church. Ben was only sick a day and a half. He's a hardy little guy.

Monday afternoon, Emma threw up. And hasn't stopped since. Paul came down with a virus much like the flu Monday evening. Sam began throwing up Tuesday night. Anna has had sore throat and headache on and off all week. Paul Jr. just walked in the house from work a little while ago and told me he felt like he's been hit by a bus. I've been battling a headache and sore throat on and off, but haven't felt "sick".

So it's been a fun week around here. Poor Emma has had it the worst. We thought she was recovering yesterday, but had a relapse last night. Today she is just limp. She did eat about half a container of baby food and held it down this afternoon. Maybe?? Sam seemed to get better and then threw up again Wednesday night. He seemed better Thursday and then woke up from a nap burning up and complaing of ear pain. And then he threw up again. I know when he complains of ear pain, he has a bad ear infection. So I took him and Emma into the doctor last night and she said his ear was on fire. Because he couldn't hold anything down, he had to have a shot. Poor kid. Last thing you want when you don't feel good already is more pain. But the shot seems to have cleared him up. His ear does not hurt today and his stomach seems to be better.

Paul is feeling much better today, but has a lingering cough and weakness. He was surprised at how bad he felt- it's been a long time since he has been this sick.

So that's what we've been doing. I'm hoping and praying we're all on the mend- it's not fun being sick and it's not fun taking care of so many sick people. Anna and Ellie have helped me out tremendously, especially in the area of cleaning up vomit. Most of the time I didn't even ask them to do it- they willingly did it. They are troopers.

Thoughts on Fasting

Paul challeneged our church members to fast all or part of last week. Many people participated in many varied forms of fasting. When he first talked about it, I decided I would fast from food for 3 days. He had already decided to fast from Sunday to Sunday. This is the longest he has ever fasted and it was quite a challenge for him to partake in. He started Sunday and did well, even during our Fellowship meal at church. He was hungry, but not overly so.

I woke up Monday morning and "out of the blue" decided I was going to join him on this fast until Sunday. I say out of the blue, but I know the thought came from God. I had fasted one time for 5 days (can't really remember why), so I was fairly sure I could do this.

It made it easier for both of us to be doing it. We were able to encourage each other and have sympathy for each other when we wated to eat. I found out that I was not really that hungry, the entire 6 days. The hunger would come, strong, but then it would go somewhat quickly. I also realized how much "mindless" eating I do. You know, taking a spoonful when you're making dinner or eating a bite or two off the little one's plates.

Paul lost 9 lbs and I lost 10. He looks great! It is amazing how much these last 9 pounds have changed the look of his face and body. He looks like he did 20 years ago. The weight loss was a (nice) side effect but it was not the reason we fasted.

We fasted and prayed for the beginning of Lake Wildwood Baptist Church. God laid on the heart of the leadership of our church to begin anew. We prayed for God's richest blessings on our church and specifically on this Sunday, that God would bring many people out to hear His Gospel.

We had 107 people on Sunday, about 40 more than our normal Sunday attendance. It was a wonderful service, with special music and preaching. God blessed our church on Sunday and some of those blessings may not be known for years; some may never be known on this side of heaven.

I was very proud of our church members Sunday; they all did a great job doing whatever needed doing. But I was also proud of the ones that fasted the week before. There were many people fasting many different things all week long and I think God blessed that tremendously!

**Please don't be impressed with our fasting. I did not write the post for that reason. I wrote it to encourage someone that may be considering starting that spiritual discipline and also to remind myself in the days, weeks and years to come of what God is capable of doing in the lives of those who are serious. Paul and I are considering fasting one day a week to pray for our children. I need to remind myself that this is a worthy discipline to partake in.

Ben's Party

Ben was VERY excited for his party. He could not wait and asked about it all day. When people started arriving, he was beside himself. He was so animated opening his presents. I'm still disappointed we didn't get it on video. He was crazy excited! It started out slowly,

and with each present the excitement grew. Notice he's not sitting down anymore?

Here he was watching Dad and Andy play with his walkie-talkies. I was surprised at his self-control, not to snatch them out of their hands.

An alligator and snakes from his sisters. Look at Andy, playing along with Ben!

When he opened this present, (a pb candy heart) he yelled, "MY VALENTINE! MY VALENTINE!" and then he kissed it over and over. It was so funny! Later that evening, he did NOT want to share, but I persuaded him to give everyone a bite. He held onto that heart as each of us bit into it, watching carefully that we did not take too much.

A mini bottle of sparkling apple juice from Dad.

Emma wanted in on all the fun!

Anna made him this cute, cute robot cake. He loves robots (for whatever reason!) and she searched online and found a cute tutorial and did a wonderful job with this cake.

3 candles!

Trying to keep him from blowing out the candles too early.

but there was not stopping him when the song was done.

He had such a great birthday. I hope he will remember at least part of it when he gets older, but I know I will remember his excitement for a long time.