I was RUNNIN'

I am Running!! Can you believe it? Well it is quite a sight to see. I really want to lose weight and get into shape. I have such a long way to go but I really want to . Melanie and I have been walking about 3 miles, 5 days a week for about 2 years. It is very enjoyable and we get our talking time in for the day while we are walking instead of on the phone. We walk at the church across the street from my house. It is in the middle of the most beautiful field and is surrounded by the most perfect landscaping. They also have a playground and trails running all through the woods which makes it a fun time for all the children as well. Although we love our walking, we realize that it is just not enough, espicially when we slow down because we get involved in a good conversation. So, we have decided to start running. We are starting very slow but we are determined. We are running 1 lap and walking 2. We will keep increasing the running little by little until we can run for 30 min. straight. Sounds like a good plan right? Well I an huffing and puffing after 1 min. Right now I think the most we are accomplishing is a good laugh for all my neighbors. It all ends with a bang when we start stretching. Can you imagine looking out your kitchen window bright and early in the morning, hoping to see the sun rising over a beautiful pasture only to see mine and Melanie's bottoms stuck up in the air as we stretch our legs. Well I am going to keep it up. I have lost 2 lbs and I feel great. We hope to run in a 5K at some point. I don't know if we will be able run it all but we will try.

I've Been Tagged & Open House

OK here goes
10 years ago...Eric and I were 1 month away from celebrating our 2nd anniversary, Elyona was 8 months old and I was 4 months pregnant with Bailey. Life was easy.

5 Things I need to do...
1. Spend some quality time with my husband other than watching American Idol.
2. HANG MY VANITY (Lisa S., Why didn't you do that for me today?)
3. Multiplication drills with Bailey, reading with Mary-Grace and Annalee, and some preschool with Jadon
4. Read my book that I've have had checked out for 3 weeks and am only on chapter 6. It's a good book too!!!
5. Spend time with the Lord of any kind...prayer, bible, singing...you name it, I need to do it.
6. Yes I am adding one... HOUSEWORK...but that's continuous isn't it.

5 Favorite snacks
1. Prestige Chocolate Almond ice cream YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY!!!
2. Monterrey Jack Cheez-Its
3. Chips with sausage cheese dip
4. Chocolate covered nuts
5. Homemade Strawberry bread

If I were a billionaire...I would pay off my debt, buy a 8 bedroom house with an indoor, in ground pool, with lots of land. I would also have one of those one room school houses with a computer built into every desk and tons of books surrounding the room. I would hire a maid sorta like Alice but I would take care of my own children. I would adopt from orphans from a few countries. I would want Eric to quit Honda and either go into ministry full time or to seminary. I would then put some in the bank to live off of and in trust the rest to my elders to use how they see fit.

5 Bad Habits
1. Overeating (can you tell?)
2. Obsessing over my messy house
3. Complaining
4. Talking too much
5. "working" on my children and not "loving" on them

5 Jobs I've had
Well that's a short list. I was a church secretary for Gladeview Baptist for a while. That was after I graduated nursing school and before I had Ellie. Then she came along and I became a mama.

5 places I've lived

1. Anniston Beach Rd
2. House in East Anniston
3. Parsonage in J'ville
4. House in Weaver
5. Presently my old home place that I bought from my mama. Home sweet home!!

OK...Jennifer, Stacey, and Olya you've been tagged.


Below is a picture of Grace Fellowship Christian School. It is the best school ever I think. We are so excited about what will become of this small group as the years go by. Will we have a small half day school one day? Will we have missionaries, teachers, doctors, pastors, and faithful mamas come out of this group? These children are not only going to be a product of a generation of mamas and daddies who felt a calling to break away from the norm and teach their own children at home but also by a church who accepted the call to build a community with our children and the call to help train them in righteousness as well. Thank you to our faithful church who have helped us all to raise our children up in godliness. My prayer is that all these children will one day rise up and call their mothers blessed (and their daddies, elders, and church body as well).

All the children did a great job at the open house with all their presentations and their projects. I am already looking forward to the next one. This open house thing gives me so much accountability to do more than just basic school with my children. Ya'll pray for next year. We are going to be discussing a co-op program where some subjects or electives are taught corporately rather than at home. This is a big step for some of us so pray that we make good decisions.

 

What A WEEK!!!

Wow what a week. I have never had such a busy week but you all know me and that I thrive on staying busy. I will just run down the highlights of all that went on...Monday - Take my Mama to Cheesecake Factory for Mother's Day and get everything done for home school project, Tuesday - go pick strawberries with Harmons and Swinneys, fun, fun! Wednesday - Shopping for all that's going on. Thursday - Home school open house dress rehearsal where I unknowingly left John Mark in the rain at the church parking lot then I cried on and off the rest of the day cause I have so many children I don't know what to do like the lady that lived in the shoe, Friday - Zoo trip with home schoolers where we also had a birthday party for my big boy Jadon who is now 4, AND Friday night - Birthday party sleepover for Annalee, Mary-Grace, and Chloe along with 9 other wonderful sleepover friends and 3 other tired mama's, Saturday - Rest...Yeah Right! Sunday - My Sunday school class presented their catechisms and other things they have learned this year, which they all did a wonderful job. And finally Sunday night which was our home school spring open house which I will blog about later. Not only did I have to get myself to all these gatherings but I also had to get my whole crew along as well...STRESSED OUT!!!

 

Norris Farm strawberries...Taste like candy YUMMY

 

 

Jadon enjoyed his zoo birthday party.

 

This was the best birthday we have ever had. All the girls were so well behaved. We had everything well planned...dress-up, make-up, fashion shows, singing, dancing, and a movie. They all went to bed with no problems and slept thru the night. The best part was that Jennifer, Lisa, Rhiannon, and myself were able to have so much fun with our kids and that is something I don't do a whole lot of. The worst part was that all of us goof ball mamas stayed up gabbing like silly teenagers until 3am.

Groceries for the month

  I have decided to try to buy my groceries for the month. I have tried it before and for some reason I stopped. This time I hope it works out. There are many reasons why I choose to start back. Here are a few of them. 1. I want to always have enough food in my house to be hospitable to others and not to have to plan so much in advanced if I want to have others over for a meal. 2. Gas prices!! 3. It will be a date for Eric and I (almost). We left the girls at home and we went to Quizno's and shopping with the boys. Normally when we go shopping Eric will take the kiddos to the toys or books while I shop but I must have him doing monthly shopping. I filled up 4 buggies yesterday. It was a lot of fun. 4. Hopefully it will save us money because I will not be in Wal-Mart as long or as much. You all know how that place is $$$$. 5. With a large family you never know what will come up and if I can't go do my normal grocery shopping on Thursdays then we are OUT of food and usually end up ordering pizza or fast food.

As you can see in the pics we got a few boxes of cereal bars and a few waters. You should see all the milk in the freezer. I hope it will last us the whole month. We will still have to go weekly for fresh produce, toiletries and, of course, things I forgot but, I am going to try to make this food last. We will see how it goes. I have planned for it to last until June 6. I keep you updated.

Ya'll be patient with me with this blog thing. I know it looks boring but with my blogger illiteracy and dial up service this is about as good as it gets. It took me 15 min. just to download 2 pics. And trying to upload things onto my profile and those cute little side dealies, No Way is that happening. I waited 30 min. to put my pic on my profile and it never did anything. FRUSTRATING

Thanks for reading

 

Proud Aunt

 

Adam is being inducted into the National Honor Society. I am so proud of him. Right now, most of the time, he is just a typical teenage boy who stays in his own world either downloading songs to his ipod or playing his guitar. But then we have days like today when we know he is alive and somewhat of the same world we are. He has proven to be an excellent student and has a desire to go to the University of Alabama. I hope he is able to achieve his dream one day. Roll Tide!!

But more than his academic achievements, Adam is getting an opportunity to defend the Word. He has began a nice little discussion with a fellow student about...you guessed it...the doctrines of grace. Well of course he has been taught these truths very well but has never had an opportunity to see how controversial this discussion can be, even to another teenage boy. Now he is having to prove with scripture references and all to this fellow student what he believes and why.
The whole thing is just exciting to me. The fellow student is a great guy and even told Adam how great it is that they are actually getting into the Word together. Adam has been encouraged not to make this a battle of knowledge or who is right, but just an opportunity to defend what he believes. I pray that this all will ignite a flame in Adam, like it has so many great men of our faith ,to pursue and to know his doctrine, but above all to know his GOD.

Adam, I am so proud of you. I love you very much.
Cecia

To 'V' or not to 'V'....???

 

'V'... You know, the male end of family planning. Well actually it is no longer a question that we are dealing with. It has been done and we can no longer bear children. (Is this something I should be blogging about?) It is a real sad statement when I first had to grasp it but it is even more of a relief. I know to some that sounds offensive, and believe me, a few years (and children) ago it would have offended me. Children are a heritage from the Lord, right? a blessing, right? ABSOLUTELY!!! But somewhere between #5 and #7 life got tougher and my strong convictions got weaker OR I gained a bit of wisdom and became less legalistic. I honestly don't know which has happened. I do know this. I love my children, I love my new baby and can only be so thankful that God blessed us with him. But I do not want to birth anymore children. I am tired. I am ready to raise the ones I have instead of being so tired that I cannot get off the couch. I am ready to run and play with them instead of watching daddy getting to enjoy all the tickle fights while I...sit on the couch. I want to have control over the ones that I have instead of letting them run wild, and care for themselves. When I was pregnant with the first few, everything was sooo exciting...kicks, due dates, sonograms... but with the last few it all has lost its hype. I forgot my due date repeatedly. I was 20 or so weeks when someone ask me if I was feeling him kick. I had to think and say "Oh yeah, I should be feeling that by now", and sure enough in a few seconds...bump there was a kick. What?? that is crazy. Who would've thought that a precious life moving around inside my womb could have been over looked. I never thought it could, but it did. That is when I knew something had to change. Doesn't my precious #7 deserve the same excitement as #1 in the small details. I have always wanted to be the mama who could have a house full and with a smile on my face say "we want more" . I can't because in trying to keep up that "conviction" I am loosing others like child training, family worship, my desire to home school and little things like forgetting to tuck them in at night and tell them I love them.

Our decision did not come easily. Mainly because we had been taught from older women and respected teachers that child bearing is something not to be messed with and fully to be placed in God's hands. I cannot say that we have done the "right" thing. But I also know that to keep adding on to the ones I had didn't seem right either. I still believe that God is sovereign over my child bearing and if I get pregnant I will praise the Lord for working His plan and directing my steps in my life even though I had planned my way. John Piper has an excellent article on his web site about birth control and such. It helped us a lot in making our decision. Take a look at it sometime.

Notice that I have never said that I do not want anymore children. I do!!! Someday. We hope to adopt a couple of children and raise them up to know Christ. It is so exciting to think about the different phases of life that God could have for us.

Now on the up end, I do not want to discourage any of you from desiring or gaining a large family.( Now maybe a little better job of spacing than what we did might help.) It is so rewarding. I have to keep reminding myself that I am in the sowing phase of life now but someday soon I am going to start reaping the fruit of my labor. It is exciting to think of what God could do with my little efforts. Large families are a blessing. Hopefully with this blogspot I can and have encouraged some of you to want a large family. Life is never dull. I do have a heritage growing up here. If you think that by the grace of our sovereign God that you can sow a large field successfully then sow and oh!!what a harvest you will have. But if you think that you can only successfully sow a small field then work hard on that small field and have a fruit filled harvest as well.

Praise God for all these trivial things that bring women like me to cry out to Him for guidance, and what peace I get when I know that the number of children I have is not my sanctification but just another tool God is using to bring me into more of a right relationship with Him. Also, praise God for husbands like Eric who willing and adamantly choose to have the 'V'. Thanks for reading.

Alicia, the happy mama of 7 blessing from our great God!!!

A first time for everything

 

Ok, This has never happened to me. You can tell by the picture that John Mark found the scissors and had a fun time with his hair. It didn't bother me that much because I thought "hey there's a first time for everything" . But today I discover another whack of hair missing off the back of his head. Then my detective mama mode kicked in and a knew it must have been someone else. Well after extreme interrogations it is confirmed that BAILEY who is soon to be 10 cut his hair. WHAT!!!!! I still can't believe it. I don't even know how to discipline her for it. I still just look at her and scratch my head. Did I not train her well enough when she was 2 not to cut her own hair? Why would she cut his hair when she is 9. I asked her WHY??? She just said she felt like cutting something. HUH!!! I have tried to fix it but now he looks like Jim Carey on Dumb and Dumber. Maybe in a few weeks it will grow and look alright

And speaking of unruly older siblings...Elyona ran over Annalee with the lawn mower. The blade was not running so it was no more that a want-to-be go cart. But my nervous neighbor called in a tizzy wondering if she was OK. I had no idea what she was talking about. What she didn't know is that it was all a game, I found out later. Elyona was chasing her on the lawn mower and she didn't hear her say to move out of the way so she ran over her. HUH!!!!WHAT!!!! You see all my neighbors think that I allow this type of behavior. WRONG we have talked to them about lawn mower safety and only let Elyona and Bailey drive the thing around the house for fun. But Oh no they are out there chasing each other with it so all the neighbor's will have one more reason to think we are STRANGE.

Thanks for reading
Alicia