Church- a luxury??

I never thought that church would be a luxury; but with 4 little kids that seem to revel in sharing cold, flu, and any other germs that they come across that's what it seems to be for us around here- a luxury. I never thought that Korey and I took church for granted or didn't make it a priority. But, I don't think I ever appreciated how much our church and the fellowship of the "body" meant to me and my spiritual life. It's easy to get bogged down in life. It's easy to feel like we're in this walk and this struggle alone- and it's doubly easy to do all that when you're not in church every Sunday- or doing a Bible study during the week. This morning I was so discouraged that we were too sick to make it to church this morning (nasty snotty noses and diarrhea for the babies and a nasty snotty nose for Jackson). I feel like we're on the tail end of this cold, but our church has so many young babies in the nursery that we just didn't feel like we would be welcome to leave 2 crawlers and 1 walker in there to slobber on the toys and other babies and 3 kids is a lot to try and corral in the cry room, while trying to be respectful of the other parent's trying to listen to the sermon. So, it was home for us, once again, this week. I really was having a hard time and feeling rather sorry for myself and feeling so lonely and disconnected, but as I was reading in Psalms God spoke to my heart. 

Psalm 72:18 

Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things.

I think I just needed that reminder that my children and my circumstances aren't a punishment; they're not a burden; they're not something bad- they're a wonderful gift from God! This season of life isn't going to last forever. My kids won't always be so good at sharing germs. These 4 children aren't always going to be at the stage they are now. Someday we will be "moving on" from wiping butts and noses. Someday when they're sick they can stay home by themselves. Someday, soon, we'll be back at church every Sunday and missing it will be a strange and rare occurrence- just like it used to be. But, for today, we reveled in the fact that we have 4 babies that need us to do everything for them and that we had the blessing of another low-key day at home, before Korey started another long week of working 5 10 hour days. We took 2 walks, we ate a special lunch, we made muffins and granola, we snuggled babies, we played games, 2 of the 3 "littles" took a nice long nap and we're gonna take Allie to the park to throw a stick in the water, after they wake up. Somedays it's just hard to look at life and remember it's just a stage and it won't last forever, because it seems so overwhelming, but I'm thankful that God often meets me where I am and brings me to the right place- a place of thankfulness and trust that He has our best planned in advance for us! I'm mostly thankful, though, that He give us the grace to have fun and to enjoy this journey that He planned out for us! 

babies??

Or maybe not...I feel like my two babies are growing up so fast! These little buggers don't seem so "babyish" these days- they're just learning so much new stuff and getting into so much trouble :) Their favorite thing to do is chase Jackson and his toys around the house. It makes Korey and I laugh so hard, especially when they gang up on him and each go from a side and sort of "hem" him in! I'm not sure a mom should get so much enjoyment from seeing her poor son being tormented :) 

 they have gotten themselves up and standing on this little piano, but, thankfully, not too often, since they tend to fall down! 

 both girls have reverted back to the nuk...it's weird, but I'm not gonna complain, because I find it so much easier to break a nuk habit than to deal with a baby who is cranky and only satisfied with nursing...

I love my little twinnies! 90% of the time when someone says that I'm blessed and lucky to have twins I couldn't agree with them more (the other 10% of the time I just wanna invite them over to my house @ 4:30pm and let them deal with two crying and whining babies while trying to wrangle Hailey and Jack and get some sort of dinner on the table...) 

 look how big Maelle looks in the doll stroller?? I can't believe it! Even our "tiny" baby is getting to be so big!

The girls are starting to respond to a name and that's been kinda fun. I got Maelle to come down the hallway and into their bedroom by calling her name- she cried the whole way, but she came and even with the crying- she was absolutely adorable! I'm not sure that either of them know their specific names and it'll be interesting to see how long it takes before they respond to their own names. 

I guess I just have to admit that my babies are growing up and aren't gonna be babies that much longer...good thing they're getting easier as they grow or I'd be incredibly sad! :) 

poop?!

Yup, that's right- poop, again! I don't know why so much of our life over here seems to revolve around poop, but it seems as if we're always dealing with one poop crisis or another! This morning it was Jackson. Poor kid, his stomach is pretty upset and he's just not been feeling well and didn't quite make it to the bathroom, but he sure tried...leaving a trail of poop from the kitchen to the bathroom. In my haste to rush to his aid the fact that the twins were crawling around was the farthest thing from my mind--oops, oops, and double oops. When the say double the trouble they are not kidding. Both twins managed to crawl through each and every little plop in the hallway, covering themselves in poop. As I was rushing to clean them up, keep their fingers and toes out of their mouths and yelling at Jackson to stay on the toilet, Hailey decided it would be a fairly appropriate time to start following along behind me, grabbing at my pants, whining and begging for me to carry her...let's just say that mommy wasn't exactly in the right frame of mind to carry her little self around while cleaning up babies and poop out of undies and off of shoes and off the floor. I may have even snapped at her and sent her to my room to sit on the bed. After all was said and done...freshly bathed babies were in bed and freshly snuggled and cleaned kids were on mommy's bed watching Sesame Street...I sat on the floor and bawled. I just let the tears stream down my face, crying because my life seemed so overwhelming, crying because I hadn't handled it as well as I should have, crying because it has been a long week. Then, I got up off the floor, because I had to call the doctor (and when the house is relatively quiet you capitalize on that- regardless of how crazy life is) and went in search of my cellphone. When I finally gave up and just went to bathroom I found it- floating in a tub full of water. I, honestly, don't even have any clue how it got there! But, at that moment it was just what I needed- it was "over the top" enough that all I could do was laugh. I mean, really, as if poop all over the hallway and the babies wasn't enough- I definitely needed a drenched cellphone, too. As of now, it still isn't working, but maybe as it dries it will. But, even more importantly, though, God and His grace were there in that bathtub- bringing me to the place where I could get a hold of myself and get back to the place where I could laugh at myself and my life, again. That's not to say the rest of the day went well or was tear free or even that the kids were well behaved or that the babies didn't spend most of the day crying and screaming and begging to nurse- it means that I worked and I pleaded with God and I gave myself and my children grace. It means that I laughed when I wanted to cry- most of the time, anyways. :)

Hard to believe that these sweet precious ones could ever cause a "stir" isn't it??

oh, wait, ok- that's more like it - my little monkey in action :)

In You, O Lord, I put my trust....Be my strong refuge to which I may resort continually....For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth. (Psalm 71)