"There is no such thing as too many children..."

Since becoming a mom of one, two, then three, and now soon-to-be four, I've begun to realize the depths of my frustration with thoughtless words tossed at the pregnant population. Why is it that I must defend myself to strangers, as well as friends, family, and acquaintances, the spacing of my precious, well-behaved-most-of-the-time, gifts from God, beautiful, noisy little boys?! And yes, little old lady in the grocery store who feels the right to ask "Are they all yours?" and then stares in shock and offers a mindless "My, you have your hands full!" when I reply with "Why yes, all three boys are mine and they are ages 3, 2, and 1!", I'm speaking of you! To combat my anger and reflect upon how my God feels about the spacing of my children, I sought comfort in His Word tonight...

"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord…" Psalm 127:3

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart…" Jeremiah 1:5

Just to be clear, there are no "accidents" when my Creator, my God, is directing my family's steps. While our children are close together in age, it is my Lord and Savior who chose their spacing. To God be the glory, HIS timing is divine! I am just grateful He's entrusted me and Aaron with such a tremendous responsibility.

All that to say, here is the first little heartbeat of our precious #4. To God be the glory!

“There is no such thing as too many children… that is like saying there are too many flowers.” Mother Theresa

P.S. And if you know me at all, you know I LOVE flowers! :)

thankful...

a new week, another opportunity

I often feel like each week is a clean slate and another chance for a do-over, rather than being content in my progress (and/or lessons from failings) made in the week before. I need to remember that nothing happens overnight. It took God 6 days to create the universe and everything in it, and even He allowed himself rest on the 7th day! I, too, must learn not to feel guilty for needing a weekly rest, as I so often do as a mom, wife, daughter, friend. We ALL need some down time, and that is okay and even expected and encouraged by our gracious Father.

All of that to say, I am a work-in-progress as is every project I attempt. I fall short, way short, and still need to work on follow-through...BUT THANK GOD I have a precious, loving, patient, forgiving Saviour who understands this and even knew this about me before He created me! And my God still sent Him to die for me, despite my failures! There aren't words to express how truly amazing and humbling this truth is. I am deeply blessed and eternally grateful. I look forward to the day I can rest without guilt in my Father's arms and hear Him say "Well done, thy good and faithful servant!" I pray I hear those words one day soon, and with that I hope to continue each day with a joyful heart in all I do...

"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive your inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve." Colossians 3:23-24





P.S. My daily work is for these three little guys right here (and their daddy) and my prayer is that one day soon our boys will also know the selfless love of and have the desire to follow our merciful Lord!

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Day Somethinornother - My Retro Housewife Experiment

Out of bed at 6:35ish. Coffee and quiet time BEFORE the kids were awake! Success! Thank you, Jesus, because we all know it is not in my "nature" to rise early. I've just begun a new devotional called "A Confident Heart" by Renee Swope and her 7 Day Doubt Diet. My Lord knows I need it, especially after the all-out-tear-wrenching pity party I threw this weekend! Life is a process. Sometimes it's fast (like mine and Aaron's 90 day courtship and the first 4.5 years of our marriage) and sometimes it slow (like the last year in learning to follow and trust God day-in-and-day-out to help me succeed and grow in what can seem like the mundane activities of motherhood and being a loving, caring spouse!) And on that note, here are a few photos from our morning thus far! Our little life, our little daily adventure...

photo 1: breakfast = success


photo 2: my little "stinker"


photo 3: our funny, spirited middle child


photo 3: our sensitive first-born


photo 4: our family pet (yes, the boys take their responsibilities very seriously--middle child ran through the kitchen declaring his dog needed to go potty, flung open the side door and put the "dog" outside)


photo 5: "He's almost done. Good dog!"


photo 6: sometimes we put the "kids" outside too


photo 7: child labor or a lesson in humility? i choose to believe the latter!


photo 8: teamwork


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Day 3 - My Retro Housewife Experiment

Woke up late! Took kids to pool. Got sunburned! Put kids down for a nap. Spent three hours being lazy. Woke kids. Changed clothes. Went out to dinner. House remained a disastrous mess! Stayed up too late working on my sister's wedding invitations. Fell asleep at 12am! Semi-fail! At least the boys had a fun day at the pool and we saw a double-rainbow over our house on our way home from dinner!



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Day 2 - My Retro Housewife Experiment

Aaron was up at 6am, as usual. I finally rolled out of bed at 6:25. After putting on some jeans, a little makeup, and pulling my hair into a pony tail, I stumbled into the kitchen looking for coffee. He had once again taken the pot and creamer up to his office. I think we're going to have to buy a second coffee maker and put one upstairs! As I waited for him to bring the pot back down, I preheated the oven. Biscuits for breakfast! Don't get too excited, they were Pillsbury Grand's frozen biscuits that I had probably bought with a coupon months before. I'm not taking this to the extreme...still using our modern conveniences. It's a must with boys aged 3, 2 and 1!


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Day 1 - My Retro Housewife Experiment

As the title indicates, I will be experimenting in my quest with the desire of a simpler, more "old-fashioned" life for me and my family. I've been exhausted trying to keep up with myself and other's for some time now, and it needs to stop. I have so many ideas I want to experience and share with my boys, and my simple sin of slothfulness is getting in the way of that. SO, this morning I took my first baby step and woke before them...a WHOLE 45 minutes before them. I'm sure this doesn't seem like much to most of you, but for this mama owl it was a gigantic leap toward a better life for my little owlets! My precious hubby has taken the morning duty ever since our third little owlet was born, allowing me to sleep an extra hour later than him. (I'm bad about staying up until 12, 1 even sometimes 2am each night!) He gets the boys up, changes them and takes them to the potty and then brings them down and feeds them breakfast. All that changed this morning! I made MUFFINS! And was able to enjoy an entire cup of coffee BEFORE the pitter-patter of six tiny feet hit the floor.
When they ran into the kitchen this morning, I was rewarded with the exclamation "Wow! What did you cook, Mom?!" by my first-born little owlet. Music to a Mama's ears! And that's our morning thus far...I'll try to update later tonight! I'm still working on the rules and things I'd like to accomplish during this little experiment, but will post a compiled list soon! Whoo-whoo, fellow mama owls! :)


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Location:The Dettling Casa