Coming home from a family reunion tonight I reflected on what an abundant life I have been given. With four hours to reflect I was thrilled to be pulling into the drive way and seeing little eyeballs registering my arrival through the windows. They came barreling out of the house as if it was on fire, running without socks or shoes into the night air to greet me. Moses reached me first and had the car door opened before I could even shut off the ignition...what a boy! What have I done to earn or deserve this??? Truly a picture of God's grace in my life.

School is getting off to a great start, we are thriving on the structure it adds back into our home. I do not schedule, for I seem to always fall short of schedule's. ( sorry Maxwells) I do dive right in really well though and search out a routine that fits for all, and then even give that some room for multiple interruptions. So far this is what the mornings look like at our house. Keep in mind I am leaving out the mess ups and oops' that happen every day. Noah and Joshua are being quite diligent about waking up to the alarm clock and getting outside chores done, pigs, chickens and dog. They check the garage for any cleaning and make sure the yard is picked up. Heaven wakes up upon hearing the noise of them getting out the door and starts her day with a good room cleaning and dressing herself and her sister. She is in charge of the bathrooms and laundry too. Moses and Micah are not too little to help out and I get them off working on unloading the dishwasher. Micah is responsible for the entry way and Moses does the hallway upstairs. They are to put shoes away and sweep if necessary. Simeon wakes up starving and we go straight to the kitchen and feed him so he gets to watch as Moses and Micah decide who gets to put the silver wear away as he munches down his oatmeal every morning. I am still spoon feeding him so I do too! Then I start fixing breakfast and getting it on the table and everyone starts trickling in and if we are missing anyone we locate them easy enough with a breakfast time holler.

Breakfast starts out by lifting up brother Isaac in prayer, wisdom and courage for that young man as he spends the majority of his days in the government school system...we pray for daddy and our good friends the Pittmans and many more people that the children remember in their prayers. We then sing a few songs and anyone can bang on the table or clap their hands as long as it is trying to go to the beat. Then we eat, and they would eat all day and never leave the table. They would play the "what would you do if..." game or talk about dreams they had the night before and what they plan to do next if I did not say "come on guys! Kitchen, Kitchen! " And off they scatter Heaven doing the dishes, Noah the counters, Joshua the floor, Moses the table and Micah does baby Simeon's high chair.

Then Noah starts working independently and I do phonics with everyone else. Simeon takes his morning nap and Heaven practices piano. I dedicate at least a half and hour with Joshua who is beginning to read and Moses and Micah do puzzles or color. Eve likes to pretend to do anything her older brothers are doing so she hangs out with us all the time. Before we know it it is time for lunch and again clean up. Moses, Micah, Eve and Simeon again take a nap or quiet time and I do a lot more school work with Heaven and Noah and Joshua. I am so pleased at the progress we are making already. The children have their goals written down for them and as they do them they cross them off and when they have completed everything they can have free time to read or play computer, ( a typing program) they just have to be quiet till everyone wakes up then they can go out side if they want. Four-thirty is Your Story Hour and Heaven never misses that. Joe comes home between four and five and we go about our night having dinner and reading together as a family. The children are getting over their "entertain me" summer attitudes and enjoying life with more structure...next year I will not break for summer but work right on through at least on the weeks we don't have Isaac. So to make a long story short we get up do our chores do our school eat at the appropiate times and play just a little :}