There's nothing like birthdays to make you look back and think.  On this day last year my nephew Ben was born.  One year ago today I sat in my house hugely pregnant and prayed that my day would soon come, too.  And it did. Two days later my little Lorelei finally arrived.

So today I sit here thanking God for my baby girl and how he ordained her birthday at the perfect time.  You see, my sister in law and I were due two days and 900 miles apart.  My mother was in a tizzy over what was going to happen.  Jim (my brother) and Hannah live near them, and my parents, of course, wouldn't want to miss the birth of their grandson.  I live 900 miles away and my mother desperately wanted to be here soon after the birth of my child so she could help me.  (Hannah's parents were coming to help her.) 

On October 2, Benjamin came by (thankfully) planned C-section.  No one wants to naturally give birth to an 11 pound baby!  A little more than 24 hours later, my water broke and within 48 hours of Ben's arrival, Lorelei was born.  My parents got to see little Ben and then flew out here after I got out of the hospital.  I love how God always works everything out for our good.  Mom and Dad can see Ben on his birthday and still make it out to my house to see Lorelei on hers.

And that's what's happening this week.  On Thursday, Lorelei's big day, Mom and Dad will arrive to celebrate her very first birthday.   We are busy this week preparing for their arrival and for my baby's celebration.  I like to keep first birthday's low-key.  We'll just have dinner with the both sets of grandparents, open presents and have cake, of course.

Today I'm praising God for always knowing what's best for us.

This weekend we went on a church activity apple picking.  We had a really nice time (oops, forgot my camera, bad mommy!) and got a load of apples that I now need to peel, core, slice and freeze so we can have apple pie and apple crisp and all kinds of other apple goodness all year long.

Before we began picking the apples the owner of the orchard came out to talk to our group.  It was evident in the way she spoke how much she loved what she did.  She spoke to our children about how to treat apples and how to pick them so as not to damage the tree or next year's buds.

You may have read that there has recently been a honeybee problem in our country.  Something is just killing them off.  And you know that those little honeybess pollinate the trees and flowers.  She told us that this year all of the bees in two out of her three honeybee hives died. 

I love how she described what she in normal years would do during pollinating season.  She said she would go out among her apple trees, close her eyes and just listen to the bees pollinating her trees.  She said, to her, it sounded like a beautiful symphony.  But she said this year, she closed her eyes and it sounded like a symphony warming up.  When she opened her eyes, she saw all different kinds of winged insects pollinating her trees.  She said it was amazing to see and this year she had one of her best crops in 20 years.

Isn't it wonderful how God took care of His creation in that way?  God is so good to us in ways that we don't even realize. 

Now that I have all of these apples, I am thinking about all the yummy things I can make with them.

I have never made applesauce, but I'd love to learn how.  If you have a great applesauce recipe or some tips to make mine wonderful, I'd love to hear them.  Such as, I don't have a food mill.  Do I need one or if I just cook the apples down enough will they just mash up?

I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's advice.

My Ainsley, the one who made me a mommy, my firstborn is officially 3 and a half today.  So, it's not much of a milestone, but she just seems to have grown up so much in the last six months that it makes me so sad and happy all at the same time.

Now that it's finally feeling a little bit like fall, I've been pulling out the fall/winter clothes that I had bought off season last year.  I put her in a pair of jeans I had put aside for her and was amazed at how big she looked this morning.

I am teaching once again in our Wednesday night children's club at church.  I am not teaching Ainsley's class but all the classes were meeting together last night during our kick-off.  I was so proud to see her sitting still in her chair, listening well and answering questions.  She really has come a long way.  We still have a long way to go, but I am so happy to see how far we've already come and that she is really developing a tender heart for others and the things of the Lord.

She was working on this picture very hard and then asked me to take a picture of her with it.  I was happy to oblige.

And then there's my Lorelei.  My baby is going to be one in less than a month.  Does that even seem possible???  It can't be.  She is my joy baby in more ways than one.

 
I love how she crinkles up her nose when she smiles.  But she wouldn't do it for me this morning.

I was so excited last night that it was finally cool enough to put feety pajamas back on her.  There is something so sweet and innocent about seeing babies and little children in them.

Ainsley wanted to join in and put on some new pajamas, too.  These don't have feet and she was very sad to see that they didn't, but the fact that they had Dora on them seemed to make up for it.

I'm enjoying my growing babies today.  What are you doing?

It's finally raining here.  We haven't had any rain in a very long time.  I can't even remember the last rainy day we had.  It's a lovely day to just curl up on the couch and read with my girls.   

Last weekend we went to a few tag sales and I found a bike.  My husband has been wanting me to find one so we can all go bike riding together.  (We have a bike trailer, another tag sale find, for the girls to ride in.)  Last night we all took a bike ride around the neighborhood and went to the park.  I don't think I've ridden a bike since I was about 14 or 15 years old, but it was fun and Ainsley thought it was really neat to see me riding a bike, too.  We also found a wagon for the girls at a tag sale.  I was so excited.  I've been wanting to get them a wagon, but they were just too expensive to buy brand new.

On Sunday we had a missionary at our church.  I have known this family since I was a child (before they went to the field) and actually babysat their children when I was a teenager.  It was so nice to see them again.  We had them over to our house after the service on Sunday night.  I loved hearing about how God has been using them and they were happy to see my husband and girls and see that I am still living for the Lord.  I think we were a great encouragement to each other.  It did make me feel old, though.  Their youngest child is now 18 and finished with high school.  I babysat him when he wasn't even old enough for school yet.

My church is beginning a small homeschool co-op of sorts and I've been asked to teach a writing workshop.  I am very excited.  I taught a writing class a few times when our church still had a Christian school, and I really enjoyed it.  I am looking forward to doing it again.

Have a great week everyone.

We've had a busy week around here.  Lorelei is finally giving me a run for my money.  She's been such an easy baby (she still is, really), but she's really getting into everything now.  Until now she's ignored the stairs, but she's finally noticed them and is very interested in climbing them.  She's also opening cabinets and trying to get into the things on the bottom of my baker's rack.  She's also figured out how to get her sister into trouble.  If her sister isn't being nice to her, she's learned how to tell me what Ainsley did to her if I didn't see what happened.  For example, she'll start tapping her head to tell me Ainsley hit her. But I've caught her just crying and tapping her head when Ainsley just walks by her sometimes.  Oh boy, I think I have a little bit of a drama queen on my hands.

Ainsley and I started school this week.  She's really doing a good job.  I'm very proud of how much she remembers and everything she's taking in.  We've had a lot of Spiritual discussions this week about Jesus dying on the cross.  She's now telling everyone she meets that Jesus died on the cross.  Which, of course, forces me to get out of my comfort zone and tell others, too.
Here she is in full princess regalia practicing her cutting.

And this is what I worked on this week:

These are mounds of baby clothes (and some maternity clothes) that were just clogging up my basement.  I'm trying to get my basement re-organized and all those clothes were most of the problem.

  
And here they are all neatly organized by size and season.  When I'm sure I'm done having children I'm going to make a boatload of money selling all this stuff on ebay.

Prayer request:  Something is still not right with me.  I went back to the doctor today and my heart rate is still not right, so I have to wear a halter monitor for 24 hours starting on Monday.  Please pray that they can figure out what's going on and I can finally feel like myself again.