Ladybugs & Stinkbugs

If you're a parent, you know your children never look cuter than when they're sleeping!! Here's proof:



Don't ask my why my children, who all have perfectly nice, warm, comfortable beds, would all prefer to sleep on the floor!! Annie sleeps in the boys' room every night with her brothers, and they all end up sleeping on the floor together.



Matthew is a good sleeper - always has been. Get him to hold still (and stop talking) and he's sound asleep. Anywhere, anytime.



Annie's a very light sleeper. She may be confused when you come in there, but she's gonna be awake. She also has the hardest time actually falling asleep. She has lain awake for hours before, just still and quiet, because she can't fall asleep.



Drew's the hard sleeper. You can't wake him up with a crane, a jackhammer, or a hurricane (I wonder where he gets that?). Seriously, I've picked him up, taken him into the bathroom, turned the light on, and set him down and he still hasn't woken up!

We go in and check on them each night before we go to sleep (an old habit from the infant "are they still breathing" phase), and there's nothing that will fill your heart as quickly as taking the time to stop and look at the blessings that God has laid at your feet, in the form of loud, wiggly, messy - and beautiful - children.

Okay, I thought this was really cute: the kids riding a horse!! (And, yes, "The kids" does include Jeremy!) Thanks to Shelly & the girls for letting us ride!

Matthew is learning the catechism right along with Annie. Here he is reciting, with Annie asking the questions:

Here is a photo of how my garden is growing:



It's doing really well. The cucumber is running along the ground and starting to grow up the fence. The zucchini is just taking over! We also have a few bell peppers already on the vine - cute little baby ones. The tomato plants are getting huge, but not a whole lot of blooms yet. Here are some close-ups:


Zucchini Squash


Baby Bell Peppers!!

We are having so much fun taking care of this garden. The kids love to help me keep the grass away from the edges, and they watch me water (sometimes they water without asking...), and are very eager to pick those bell peppers!

Annie's Bible curriculum this year has a catechism that she is learning. You ask her the question, and she responds with the answer about God. She is learning a lot about Him and His truth, and they will be ingrained in her heart as she is memorizing them. Here is her reciting questions 1-5:

Midwife victorious in Penn. case

Jeff Johnson - OneNewsNow - 6/2/2008 6:00:00 AM

A Pennsylvania court has ruled that lay midwives can continue delivering babies in the Keystone State.

The Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine fined Diane Goslin, an internationally certified lay midwife with 25 years experience, and ordered her to stop delivering babies after the board re-defined lay midwifery as the unlicensed practice of medicine. Randy Wenger, chief counsel with the Independence Law Center, represented Goslin.

"For communities who find home births to be important -- particularly, say, the Amish community -- by prohibiting lay-midwifery, it's really going to have a significant effect on a way of life," says the attorney. According to Wenger, the majority of home births in Pennsylvania are to Amish families.

Wenger says the court looked at the strict definition of practicing medicine in reaching its decision. "The appellate court has sided with Ms. Goslin and said that the laws that we have here in the state do not apply to lay-midwifery, and that she can continue her profession and she can continue helping those in the community."

The court did not consider the religious implications of the medical board's decision, Wenger says, as much as it looked at the literal meaning of the law. "So what the Commonwealth Court has done has been to allow home births to continue the way that they have been for, I guess you would say, centuries," Wenger concludes. "And I would applaud what the Commonwealth Court has done. It's sticking by the rule of law and it's standing by freedom."

Had the decision been upheld, Goslin would have faced a fine of $11,000.

Article copied from here.

We are going through it right now!!! I'm not complaining, because things are going really well, but, man, when it rains it pours!!

First, earlier last month, the a/c went out in our van. Jeremy thought it was the evap. coil, so he took it to the dealership. They said it was something different, and "fixed" it - $600 worth of fixing. That was great, and we had a cool van again...until last week. Then it went out AGAIN. We took it back in, and, sure enough, it was the evap coil! Of course, this time it's going to be $1200 to fix, so right now we are "suffering" (as Matthew would say) until we can get the money to fix it.

That was bad enough, but then, the same weekend, the a/c in our HOUSE went out, too! We spent one day in 95 degree weather. It was horrible. But we finally got the guy out there and he fixed it. That was SUCH a blessing.

So, I guess "trials" may be a bit of hyperbole. And "suffering" definitely is.

And Jeremy says we don't need a new van...