Faith, Fishin, and Four Wheelers

Someone asked me yesterday, "Oh my gosh, how do you guys do it? How do you have that many different kids in one house?" By different he meant skin colors...backgrounds...and so on. And my reply was, "I don't know, we just do".

Of course I ended with a smile and walked away. But later I thought...what are some things that we do that work? There are 2 main things...first and foremost is God and the second is simplicity. We don't have a lot of "outside" influences on our kids. They have had SO much happen in their little lives. They know so much more about life than they should.

Jason and I were amazed at the many things that they did not know how to do and had never experienced...they had NO idea of how to play outside...we would send them outside to play and look outside and they were just sitting on the ground. They didn't know that moms and dads tuck you in at night, or that you can drive to other states, or that you can sleep at a hotel, or how to hug good night, or how to dance in your pajamas, or sing out loud, or how to laugh just because, or that there are other family members that love you too. Both Jason and I were raised by hard working parents who knew how to enjoy the simple things in life and we want our kids to know what that life is like.

We go fishin and ride four wheelers and roast marshmellows and look for four leaf clovers and plant our spring garden and feed carrots to our rabbits and give the stale bread to the chickens and always tell the "girls" thank you for their eggs, and sometimes stay in our pajamas all day, we take care of what God has given us and always try to do our best the first time and we have traditions and love each other and love to hide and scare dad and we make cake just because and color pictures and make things for people that we love and always kiss and hug our family when they leave to go home and that your dog or cat really can be your best friend and that God's word is not just read on Sundays. At the end of the day I want my kids to know the important things in life...not how to play a video game or how to change the tv to the Disney channel or that Abercrombie (I probably spelled it wrong) is a "cool" brand to wear.

I want my kids to know that they are precious because God made them that way and that life is precious and they should not waste a moment on what the world tells them is important!

Gracie caught her first fish last night...