A City Life For Me

I, Andrea, take thee Ben, to be my wedded husband.   As the Church is in her relationship to Christ, so will I be to you. I will joyfully give you my life, and in confidence submit myself to your leadership, as to the Lord. I will live for you - loving you, obeying you, learning from you. I will always strengthen, help, comfort, and encourage you. Therefore, Ben, throughout my life, for better, for worse... for richer, for poorer... in sickness and in health... at home or abroad... I pledge you my life, as a loving, faithful, and obedient wife,  to have and to hold from this day forward, 'til death do us part. Happy {ten} year anniversary, Ben.  I still do.  

One of my goals this year was to teach my kids a new hymn each month.  I am just learning about what some homeschoolers call "Morning Time," but I guess we've had an abbreviated version of this all year.  We open our homeschool day with pledges, prayer, and a hymn.  Then we divide up into our various Bible classes and play times.  For pledges, we say the pledge to the American flag, the pledge to the Christian flag, and the pledge to the Bible.  Even Henry tries to say the words, and the twins know all the pledges just from listening every day.  The kids rotate who gets to hold each flag/Bible, and who prays. We have done well learning our hymns this year, except for June, July, and August.  With the house purchase, renovation, and move I totally fell off of anything goal related or routine encompassing.  But we started back in September with "Power in the Blood" and now we are learning "Jesus Paid it All."  It's fun to see the delight ...

Last week was one of the busiest, overwhelming weeks in a long time.  I’m still trying to figure out the best schedule/order for homeschooling four kiddos on three grade levels, plus the addition of a precocious two year old who intervenes every 3 minutes.  We hosted a five-day Bible Club for the kids in our neighborhood, and we continued our free-coffee Friday outreach.  Saturday we had Bible Study, and Sunday was a full day at church.  Somewhere in there I need to fit piano lessons, Patch the Pirate Club devotions, art class, and monthly grocery shopping trip.  Not to mention that for the last nearly ten years the biggest place we have lived is 1,000 square feet…now we own a house with twice that plus a basement, porch, garage, and back yard.  (Huge blessing…huge responsibility!) We really did have a good week in Bible Club, but there was a lot to prepare and do for each day.  On Saturday I was sweeping and mopping the floors in preparation for...

While Ben replaces the staircase at home, we came to visit Grandma & Grandpa in Pittsfield.  We enjoyed a beautiful fall afternoon at the local pumpkin patch, Whitney's Farm .  All photo credits go to my talented sister-in-law Meredith! There is a petting farm area.  Elaine loved on the horse a lot! The boys discovered how to hang upside down... Bean bag toss On top of the tractor. Too many pumpkins...too many kids...too few parental hands! Oh my!  I love this picture!  He wanted to carry his own pumpkin so badly! She wanted to pose.  So nice to have a kid that likes to get their picture taken! He's smiling! Henry-Man Not so thrilled with his picture... Little feet I love this one! Elaine and Grandma!