In the Persian Gulf

I wanted to update and let everyone know that the Lincoln made it through the Straight of Hormuz earlier today. It was said to be a normal, scheduled passage. What is that, exactly? It was tense but uneventful.

As you can see from this satellite picture of the Straight, it is not easy to navigate an aircraft carrier through. It has 2 traffic lanes, one for incoming and one for outgoing ships. Each of the lanes is 3 miles wide, with 2 miles separating them. (Wikipedia has been my friend lately!). That is not much wiggle room for a floating airport! The incoming travel lane is on the coast of Iran. Even in the most peaceful of times, traveling on a US carrier through the narrow straight is very tense.  You can read about the USS Abraham Lincoln's travel through the Straight into the Persian Gulf here. I am sure more news will follow, but in case you don't follow me on facebook and have been praying, I wanted to let you know that they are through and safe. Thank you for the prayers both for the ship's travel, and for my family and the many others who have been holding our breath this week. The danger is not completely gone, this is a fairly unstable place right now, but the imminent threat seems to have passed. Please do continue to pray. Thank you for being faithful to pray and for your sweet words of encouragement.

Fear

Marvin is underway and deployed a LOT. We have dealt with long and short separations since the very beginning of our relationship. It is a part of who we are as a couple and a family. It is hard to watch the ship pull away, we miss him while he is gone, but we have never feared that he would not come home. I have said often, that Marvin being on an aircraft carrier is the absolute safest place for anyone in any branch of the military. No one would dare to threaten a US aircraft carrier. The problem is that someone has. Iran has issued a threat and the USS Abraham Lincoln, with my husband and many others aboard, will soon face it. Two carriers are in the Arabian Sea right now. This will most likely lead to the first test of the threat issued by a very unstable, very desperate Iran as they pass through a very small area called the Straight of Hormuz and into the Persian Gulf. Most think the threats issued were simply empty threats, which is probably the case. The fact that they are most likely empty threats does not seem to ease the fear that settles in during the quiet moments before I pray my heart out. I know without a doubt that my God is in control, and I know without a doubt that whatever happens, He will use it. But this fear is new to me and threatens to strangle the promises that I know to be true. Would you please pray for our brave men and women? Would you pray with me that our carrier passes both in and out of the Straight of Hormuz safely? Would you pray that our carrier will be safe during the time it spends in the Persian Gulf? Would you also pray that the families waiting for the return of our loved ones will have peace, that fear will not overcome our hope?

Snowmageddan 2012

We have survived one of the biggest snowstorms on record for our area. We had about 18 inches at the peak. We had an entire week of nothing but family time as we were completely snowed in! Most of the time with no tv or internet, some without electricity. It was really great to just soak in the people that my children are growing into and to just enjoy each other. At least for a few days:)

Sam was the first of the kids to notice the flakes begin to fall. He was so excited!

These girls are BFFs! They were looking at the flakes on their mittens :)

I love this sweet boy!

It is coming harder and Sam is thrilled!

Michael is building snow castles!

At the end of day 1, it cleared just long enough to glimpse this beauty.

The clearing didn't last long!

Harley absolutely LOVES the snow! It was so deep, he had to literally jump up over the snow to move. He was all over like a big, black rabbit!

This view is almost worth the seemingly perpetual gray. Those times that it does finally clear, I get to glimpse firsthand the true awesomeness of our Creator

The snow just clung to every surface and then the freezing rain weighed it all down

Beauty and stillness 

The snow turned to rain just yesterday and the snow is quickly fading. It has been an experience, the stillness and beauty that surrounds us when the snow comes is truly awesome. I'm glad that it is over though :)

Just Checking In

It has been a while since I last wrote. Mostly because we are in a holding pattern. We are plugging away our days with school. After Christmas, we added a couple of new subjects to our regular routine. Michael started learning Tagalog (Filipino language) with Rosetta Stone. Both the bigger boys have started a weekly journal and added spelling to the mix. We had put those things on hold while they went through the Writing 8 program to help with their handwriting issues. Josh and the girls started sentence school. It is a kindergarten level grammar class that teaches basic sentence structure. It was originally going to be Josh going through it, but my girls are so excited about school, they wanted to be observers. They went from there to active participants and as long as they can keep up and want to be there, I certainly am not gonna tell them that they can't! I love that they love to learn! It helps on the days that Michael doesn't. Most days go really well for everyone, but on those days of struggle, it is nice to see some enthusiasm for learning from someone! Sentence School is by a company that writes our handwriting curriculum. It is called Handwriting Without Tears and we love it for the beginning learners. It is a multi sensory program and it has been great! There is not much time left once school is done, laundry is washed and folded, several meals and snacks are served and cleaned up, and the floor is vacuumed and mopped periodically. We throw Josh's music class, church, AWANA, and a couple trips to the store and our days are pretty filled up. Not very exciting things to blog about! We are still alive and well, just boring here lately :)

Christmas Morning!

The kids have been so excited about waking me up by jumping on my bed Christmas morning since they saw a commercial over a month ago. When I put them to bed, I told them that I was excited for that as well, but not before 7am. They must have been watching the clock, because I had 5 little bodies enthusiastically jumping on my bed at 7:01am.  

We play Santa each year, but are very honest that Santa is not real. The girls were very confused this year. They weren't sure we were telling them the truth or if their friends were in the know about the big man. After all, the cookies and cards they left for Santa were gone in the morning :) 

 Elfie left a goodbye note, little candy canes, a picture of himself, and a bucket of "snowballs" for a snowball fight. He promised to be back next year. Such a fun tradition was started with our elf this year!

The next several minutes were complete chaos :)

 Even Harley got Christmas presents :) I think he liked them!

After the gifts were opened and breakfast was eaten, we got ready and headed to church. We came home to nap since Christmas Eve fun kept them up pretty late. The rest of the day was spent eating and playing and just enjoying each other.

Christmas Eve

This year my kids are all at a perfect Christmas age. For the first year they all really get what is going on. More than the getting, they were so into giving this year. We started the month with a really neat Advent book called the Truth in the Tinsel. It is not just a story each day, but a craft as well. It was so good!

Baking takes up a lot of our Christmas eve! I am not much of a baker, but my children LOVE to bake. I am sure it has NOTHING to do with the chocolate they get to sample :)

Finished Santa's cookies

Our birthday cake for Jesus!

Each child gets to light a birthday candle to remind them to allow Jesus' light shine through their lives all year long. 

Each child gets to open one present after our birthday party on Christmas Eve. Michael and Sam have been around long enough to know that it is always the same thing...

 Christmas pajamas!!!! They get a new Christmas book as well.

These girls love each other SO much!

This is completely spontaneous. These three are best friends

Josh is starting to feel the cake!

They are either hugging or this is the start of a wrestling match...or maybe both :)

Testing Santa's cookies and reading the new Christmas book

Cookies, diet coke, and cards for Santa :)

A Whole Week

It has been a week since Marvin's ship pulled out, and man, has it ever been a week!!!!!!! We stayed very busy. Busyness is a double edged sword. It makes time go really fast, and yet every time we go on a fun outing there is sting in knowing that Marvin is not a part of them. That stings, although the sting gets less over time, I know from experience, which is kinda sad in itself.

Okay, enough of that! I thought I'd write down a few things the kids are doing and saying before they outgrow them. It happens way too fast!

>Sarah has started telling knock knock jokes. An example of one, S-"Knock knock."  Me-"Who's there?" S-"dog!"  Me-"Dog who"  S-"Why did the dog cross the road?"  Or her absolute favorite, S-"Knock knock."  Me-"Who's there?"  S-"Beenana!"  Me-"Banana who?"  S-"knock knock."  Me-"Who's there?"  S-"Beenana!"  Me-"Banana who?"  do this about 10 more times(no exaggeration)  S-"knock knock."  Me-"Who's there?"  S-"Beenana"  Me-"Banana who?"  S-"orange you glad I didn't say beenana again? She is so close to getting that one. The best part is her joyful laugh after each joke :)

>Abby has been pretty obsessed with falling in love these days. The other day she told Sam, "I am in love of you."  You can imagine my 7 year old boy's response to that, he was pretty disgusted and adamant that you can't be in love with your brother. Her response, "Well, I am still in love of you!"  Sam, shrugged, sighed a huge sigh and said, "I'm sure you'll find someone to have a crush on soon." Made me laugh.

>Josh is very much a Mama's boy. I gotta admit that I absolutely love him. He stops what he is doing several times a day to come give me big hugs. He will plop down next to me and ask, "Do you know why I am sitting here by you?" I smile and ask him why. He looks at me with his big brown eyes and eyelashes that about make me melt and says, "It is because I love you!"

>Josh loves me, he also is still VERY attached to his Thumper. "Bunny" is what Josh calls him. A while back we were walking and Josh was holding my hand. He looked up and said, "Mama, I love you the best.......... right after Bunny." I'm thinking he meant that as a high compliment, I'm trying not to be offended!

>Both of my girls have the tendency to cry this high pitch awful cry when they are angry or sad. We have been working VERY hard on putting that sound out to pasture and use words instead. Yesterday, Abby refused to eat her dinner. I told her that she could not have a cookie for dessert if she did not eat the dinner first. She said that she didn't like cookies. So, when it came time to have cookies, she was glaring at me as only Abby can. I ignored it, but Sarah asked why she was being grumpy. The following conversation unfolded. Abby(still glaring) said, "Mama is mad at me." I Said, "Abby, I am not mad at you. I am sad that you chose not to eat your dinner and get a cookie." Still glaring at me, she said, "Welllllll, I am mad at YOU!"  I had to walk down the hall and compose myself before we discussed respect. Can you unteach words?

>When the kids got home from AWANA this last week, Sam was excited about a new game they learned there. He very excitedly asked me, "Have you ever played Sharks and Widows?"  I could not stop laughing, while he looked at me, very confused. I told him that I had played Sharks and MINNOWS a lot. Kinda puts a new spin on the game :)