May Review ✽ Hello June

I realize these posts are super outdated, but honestly, I write the month review posts for myself anyway (they're fun, haha!) and they were already almost done, so you can skip them if they feel too old, haha... plus, I had to post them so I didn't not post this month's, too, because I can't put them out of order ;).

Happenings:

-Bethi turned 12! She's grown up so much lately, and it's been fun to "get to know" her as one of the "older" sisters now. She and I are a lot alike, except in the ways we definitely aren't, and so we have good fellowship with a little unique spice to it... haha :).

 -Mother's Day came and went. The little ones made Mama some crepe paper flowers and scrapbook paper ferns, and they turned out so cute, haha. I am so thankful for my Mama and all that she does for us, day in and day out. She's one of my best friends, and I love spending time with her and how we can talk about anything together!

-Daddy moved a boulder. Like, it really qualified as a boulder. I turned it over once, and then I left it for him, haha! He was on a mission, and  he got it where it needed to go! There was joking that it would be easier to dig a downhill trench then roll it by hand, though, haha!

-Gramma brought us strawberries and now we have so. much. jam. On homemade toast... YUM!

-I was laying Josiah in bed and gave him the teddy he has slept with for almost a year now.
"Did you ever name your bear?" I asked.
"No."
"What are you going to call him?"
"I don't know."
"Graham?'
"No."
"Honey?"
"No."
"Cream?"
"No."
"Franklin?"
"No."
"Peter?"
"No... I will name it popcorn."
Popcorn it is, and popcorn it shall remain.
Then cue the sass as he examines his bear: "Who put this scarf back on? I had it off. For a reason!!!!"
Well sorry, buddy...

-I won 7 pieces of clothing in a giveaway??!??! That was fun :)! And I almost scrolled past the announcement, ha! And one was a solid grey Maxi skirt... I love it!

-This snail WOULD NOT STOP COMING TO OUR PORCH to visit no matter how often I place him back in the flower bed. I didn't want to un-home him, but I also really didn't want to crush him, and that was in danger of happening a few times. I carried a box out that I couldn't see over, and I was horrified when I walked back and saw him scooting around the rug. If I had felt a crunch, I would have called my day over right there and then.
Tori named him Smooth Move.

-We officially unpacked the last box since moving... yeah, again. We found another one. Haha.

-Daddy went on a business trip and there was so much cleaning, hole filling, painting and home repairing going on here. And we went to the duck pond to see little ducks. Mama kept adding to her list every time she finished something, haha! We set up a new printer, made some framed hymns with it, cleaned the car and car seats, and did a LOT of yard work... in between it raining ALL WEEK, of course. How come whenever you gear up to actually accomplish something outside, it rains?
Noah helped me weed the side bed :)...

-Noah learned to close his eyes while we pray, and Josiah picked out his own dinner fork, haha! (That's a serving fork, if you can't tell!)

-Peter imagined a monster, and Tori brought said monster into a "reality"... too cute!

-I read, which was a big improvement on last month... ha :). I also revealed some canvases I've had ready to go in Under the Tapestry for a while!

-We made chocolate cookies, which is not really worthy of being announced, but making chocolate chips is one of my favorite things to do, so it gets mentioned anyway, haha.

-Also, Josiah was obsessed with a lizard that wouldn't stay off the back porch, whom I started calling  Bill (a very literary lizard).

-My Great-Grandpa passed away. We have only seen him a couple times in the past ten years, but I remember how much we all enjoyed getting to know he and Great-Grandma right before Abbi was born. Grandpa definitely got down on little people's levels and enjoyed spending time with them!

Laughing at:

Sibling: "Do we have forks clean?"
Me: "No. You could use a nasty fork.
....WhooOOPS. I mean disposable."
My true feelings come out, haha... I hate disposable silverware, it's not even close to shaped right. I'm a silverware snob, lol.

Peter: "Bri, whenever your bed needs made, don't do it."
"Why?"
*Ignores me* "And stay out of your room, because I'm going to...
"...I'm going to....
"I'm going to do something. Something that is a surprise."
Hm, wonder what the surprise is? Haha! Love him <3.

Josiah is playing at the park, Tori and I are standing talking to the side, when we look over and see Joey hanging on some climbing bars with his leg all twisted and doubled up and it kind of looks caught, but he's not worried or moving or anything and I thought maybe he had it under control.
Josiah: *looks back and sees us looking*
Very calmly and matter-of-factly: "I kind of need some help."

-Andrew and Peter laughing at "The Wizard of Oz". Never, and I mean never, have I seen those two very different people laugh soooooo hard together at a whole movie. "It. was. humorous."

Reading:

-"The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady". This is a re-read. I just love the pictures, and the little nature poems, and the descriptions of the flowers and birds and their doings. My Grandma had this, and I was going to peruse it while I was at the house alone when Andrew and I went to visit them last month, but it wasn't on their shelves any longer... I found out a couple weeks ago it was because she gave them to us, hahaha!

-Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Pioneer Girl". Mama read this recently and couldn't keep all that she was learning to herself. She kept reading parts to me every time I'd walk in, and she told me that I just needed to read it. I won't spoil the Little House Books, haha! There are some major plot twists from fiction to factual, although it's very interesting!

-"Jonathan Edwards and Justification." A little theology-overview by a few people. Some of us were sick one Sunday and we didn't go to church, and I read some of this, listened to some hymns, read some scripture, and listened to one of the Wednesday night sermons... it's on Romans, which, as you all know, is "my" book, so that's fun :). Also, the sermon was very in depth, which just makes it better!!!!

Fails:

Weeding the garden without wigging out. Seriously, our worms are so big. I actually literally thought I found a snake one time. I yelled.


*Mama calls, the phone stops ringing, I call back*
Mama: "Having issues with the new phone?"
Me: "I didn't know how to answer it. So I had to call you back instead."
I've got that down now, by the way. Thankfully.

Mama and Andrew and I: *clean the car*
There is no way this is a fail, right? Well...
Vinegar cleaner and South Carolina heat: "It's clean, but you really didn't care if it smelled good, did you?"
All of us thee next day: *gags*

*wears a new skirt for the first time*
Peter and I: *drop Frostie on it*
And yes, I actually totally expected that. I'm so clumsy...

Me: *talking on the phone while dusting*
"Iiiiim dusting a shelf I've already done..."
It doesn't help that if Noah thinks of books he empties the bookshelves, so I was having to have him removed every 30 seconds, haha.

Quotes I liked:

Oops. I read... but I was too lazy to write anything down, haha!
*insert some inspirational quote here and pretend it came from me*

 Then tell me which one you chose, please. Haha!

Grateful for:

 -Sweet Bethi!
-That God perfectly picked my Mama for me :).
-Josiah and popcorn ;). (Seriously, y'all, editing this now I have to say this is still one of my favorite things he's done lately, haha!)
-Baby ducks <3.
-The neat fresh look of dirt cleared of weeds and ready for plants!
-A clean car (that no longer smells like hot vinegar, thankfully!)
-A new printer!!! That has been such a help for my shop, too- printing templates, shipping labels, and things like that :).
-That the Lord gave his children so much creativity! Think how boring our life would be if he hadn't included that gift.

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

April review ✽ Way super late

Basically, I totally still blog. I just... don't edit posts anymore. So, I've got a really full drafts folder right now ;).

But I thought that this afternoon would be a great time to go through some of those drafts with a coffee cup full of... ice cream. Haha :). Because that's my favorite way to eat ice cream (the more compact design makes the ice cream stay chilled longer- I hate melted ice cream!)

By the way; Daddy recently, pulling my old coffee cup out of the cupboard; "Um, I wouldn't use this. That crack runs all the way from the outside to the inside. If you pick that up, the handle will stay in your hand, and the cup will go the other way, and you'll have hot coffee all over you."
Me: "Oh, I know. I don't use it anymore."
Me that afternoon: *looks down at the cup I just started eating ice cream out of*
"I mean, you know, I don't use it for coffee..." Whoops. Haha. I wouldn't have hot coffee all over me, now would I ;)?

Happenings:

-We "officially"celebrated Josiah's third birthday, since he had been too sick to do it on his birthday, poor guy :(. He had a train theme, because he's just a super boy-ish boy who loves mechanics, and the bigger the better, and remember he doesn't think he's small, and all that. Haha :). He got to go to the zoo to ride the little train there as part of his special day :)!

-Andrew went to my Grandparent's house to help Grandpa remodel their porch (which looked great when they were done!), and I went along too. While we were there Grandpa took us to our second baseball game. Andrew went to one last year... and I went to one when I was about four. I remember nothing of the game that time, just sitting between my Grandpa and Aunt, haha. So I was pretty lost on what was going on, although I started to pick it up near the end. Mostly though, my aunt and I just sat at the end and laughed hysterically under our breath about pretty much every thing ;).

-I got back from my grandparents just in time to help out with one of the special needs respites I volunteer at... which was being held at the special needs baseball team game, haha! I've been laughing at the fact that I went to one game in 19 years... and then 2 in less than a week. Also, at the respite leader's face when she realized that I was so new to baseball. Ha!

-On Good Friday, Mama and Daddy announced that we had a new little brother or sister... waiting for us before the throne of God. It was sad to realize that this little one wouldn't be joining our family here on earth, but what a joy to know that we can look forward to the day we meet him or her to praise our Savior together forever! I think it definitely made our Resurrection just a little more tangible in what Christ has done for us and the hope that his death ending in life brought to us <3.

-We spent the 15th doing yard work all morning... then realized while eating lunch that we had church prep AND Easter dinner shopping and prep still to do. While doing all that baking... the little boys took big buckets and filled them with water to dump on their bedroom floor. So. much. water.

-We had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday, with all our little traditions; Resurrection buns, in which you wrap a marshmallow that "disappears" as it melts, which always confuses the little ones and is a fun picture of Jesus rising from the grave, eaten while we watched the "That the World May Know" documentary "The True Story of Easter"; did our study of the account of the Resurrection; and, although it hasn't been tradition since Tori and I were little, Mama decided to do an egg hunt for the little ones. We were watching old family movies and Abbi thought the egg hunt looked fun, and asked Mama is they could try it. I think Abbi was the first to say that she doesn't want to do another next year, because between Daddy and Tori everything was too well hidden, hahaha! It was funny...

-We cleaned the garage and unpacked the last box since we moved in!

-Peter turned five! He had a Teddy Bear themed birthday, because he was very intrigued by Noah's Paddington birthday, and he looooooves the book "Found". "It is my favorite book, because he loves the bunny. And you know what? When the moose says "Floppy my bunny!", the bear is sad.... and there...is a tear." *genuine sad face* Haha! He's too cute.

-Noah had his first hair cut (it was so LONNNNGGGG, hahaha!)... and now he looks so much older...

 

Laughing at:

Watching Curious George:
Really annoying character: "I jumped out of a plane without a parachute and lived to tell about it! I. Am. Awesome!"
Josiah: not to get attention or anything, but just quietly to himself because he can't hold it in: "No. You're not..."

I have terrible congestion for days and do nothing about it:
Mama: "Please take something. I don't want to send you out of town if you are miserable."
Cough suppressant: doesn't work after one time
*doesn't care, gives up*
*realizes that I have 24 hours to get it gone before I see my Aunt and her baby*
Me: takes vitamin c, grapefruit seed extract, acv, and takes a eucalyptus steam bath, not because I'm miserable, but because I WILL be well enough to hold my new cousin when I see him. Ha!

*Doesn't realize that the day Andrew and I are out of town is National Siblings Day, and one of my siblings calls me out for leaving them on National Siblings Day*

Me on Facebook: "*is cleaning glasses*
*brings glasses closer to my face to see if they look clean*
*accidentally stabs my eyeball with my glasses*
I'd like to say this is why I have glasses, but in all honesty, I think it's that I'm just clumsy like that..."
Facebook to Mama: "Ambrielle Shaffer just posted for the first time in a while."
Thanks Facebook. Thanks.

Emmi: "Bri, I found one of your shirts in my basket. Do you know how I know? When I put it on, it came down to my knees. It. Was Humorous.
...Humorous? I mean... enormous."
I think she was throwing humongous in there too :).

Emmi: "The other day Josiah was trying to do a somersault, but he accidentally did a somerSIDE, like this."
*demonstrates a cartwheel*

Abbi at being told she could use scented markers: "YES! I can make my card smell!!!"

Mama is giving the girls a pre-spelling test so she knows what words to have them focus on studying...
Abbi: "Here's mine. I went ahead and marked all the ones I spelled wrong."
And she did, too, hahaha!

  Reading:

-Pretty much actually nothing. I finished Robert Frost's poems. And.... yeah, I finished Robert Frost's poems. And read Phillipians and some Psalms and did my regular Ephesians study/reading. I also read some of Matthew Henry's commentary on Ephesians. So I guess that counts? I read the latest King's Blooming Rose magazine, too. Which was wonderful, as always :).

Quotes:

Brought to you by Robert Frost and Matthew Henry, because they're pretty much all I read, as mentioned before ^^^^.

"The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
Ad saved some part
Of a day I had rued."

"We make ourselves a place apart
Behind light words that tease and flout,
But oh, the agitated heart
Till someone find us really out.

'Tis pity if the case require
(Or so we say) that in the end
We speak the literal to inspire
The understanding of a friend.

But so with all, from babes that play
At hide-and seek to God afar,
So all who hide too well away
Must speak and tell us where they are."

-Robert Frost (Some of his poems were just really weird... but I liked these two, haha :).)

"Only by pride comes contention; only by humility comes love."

"If others will quarrel with us, we must take all possible care not to quarrel with them."

"Christ is the lesson; we must learn Christ. Christ is the teacher; we are to be taught by him."

"We must be of a yielding and of a submissive spirit, and ready to all the duties of the respective places and stations that God has allotted to us in this world."

-"Matthew Henry's Commentary of the Whole Bible" (Ephesians)

 Fails:

-Apparently reading.

-Blogging. I'm totally optimistic here, aren't I, y'all? Hahaha! I didn't even journal more than once this month, what happened to me?!?!?!? But, I wrote people back in a more timely manner than usual, so maybe that was a good thing?

-I somehow managing to be the death of another nest of birds :(. I don't know if it's really my fault of not, but I'm beginning to feel it is. I have found 11 baby birds/eggs in the past two years, and I've only seen *1* leave the nest. (There is debate about whether a nest of three made it or not, so I guess I shouldn't count them in my figures). I felt bad for laying eyes on it when I found it, but they hatched and seemed to be doing fine, and I was literally just breathing a sigh of relief when I noticed they weren't fine, and, yeah. I cried, and I really want to know how we have any birds in the world anymore if this is normal?

-Making brownies that were supposed to taste just like our favorite mix, but "better!". It didn't taste just like them, and it definitely wasn't better... but the leftover ones were good with leftover frosting from Peter's birthday cake, so we still won, haha :).


 Grateful for: 

-Josiah's three years here with us! Especially since we could have lost him at his birth, I'm so thankful for the "extra" time we have been given with him <3.
-The great time Andrew and I had at our Grandparents. I loved getting to spend time with them and the fun things they included me in, and had some great conversation with my Grandma :). And while she was at work and the guys were working on the porch, I got to read my KBR magazine that got to me just in time, and worked on an order for my shop... which the pattern for was way super confusing to me somehow even though it isn't actually confusing at all, and I got nowhere on it, haha! Also, my Grandma showed me her favorite rerun of show Britain baking show, and I find it humorous how intense baking can seem when it's for a competition, haha. They were literally sitting there watching bread rise with baited breath... and I think we were too. So weird.
-The gift of Haven's little life. No matter how short, it fulfilled God's purpose... and how wonderful are the ways of the Lord, even when carried out in ways that we may not understand.
-The death and life of our Lord Savior, bringing us from death in sin to life with him.
-Hearty Herb Bread... just because it's good, haha :).
-Graham crackers... they helped greatly with Noah's haircut ;).
-Peter! He is such a sensitive, caring little person, and he definitely sweetens our lives! He loves to empathize... on his birthday he asked Mama, "Can we watch Finding Nemo at Supper?"
"Why do you want to watch that?"
"Because I want to cry." Hahaha!
-Bible studies with Mama, and good commentaries.

"O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.  O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever. Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever: And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever. Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever." (Psalm 136)

Baking, blogging, and gardening ✽ Also, Joey thinks he's 30 if you didn't know

If I were a good blogger, this would be the monthly wrap up post that I told myself I would do every month this year... or, the birthday posts that I have yet to put up. I'm such a bad blogger. I know you aren't "supposed" to say that, because since each blogger is different, there is no reason to compare, and you're supposed to just let it be unique, etc... But the thing is, I'm not even comparing my blog to other blogs, I'm just comparing it to the unwritten but completely thought out posts in my head. Why can't there be a way to just think those words into a blog post? Because I would get a whole lot more posts and a whole lot less thoughts of "Ughhhhh, I have so much piled up" if I could do that ;)...

Also, if I were a responsible person, I would be crocheting or answering emails, or even just getting ready for bed right now. But I'm not doing that either. It's kind of a "spill-random-words-for-no-reason, don't-even-care-if-people-read-it" sort of evening. I get those sometimes... that's where most of my blog posts that don't have pictures in them come from, actually. Now you know ;).

I just finished some banana bread... Our recipe has been coming out super dry since we switched flours, so per Daddy's suggestion I made some changes... left out 1/2 cup of flour, added a banana, cooked it at 25 degrees lower for a little longer... it seems to have worked texture-wise, I just hope it still tastes good in the morning? I'll let you know... I'm worried about it right now, haha!

We worked in one of the flower beds this afternoon. It's been SO long since I did any gardening, and I really enjoyed it, EXCEPT, the WORMS, y'all. I have never seen such worms. So long, so wide, so many. I'm not kidding, I pulled up one plant -not a big one- and there were *5* giant worms curled all over each other. *gag* I used to pick up any worm I found on the road and throw it into the nearest lawn, but I NEVER would have touched these disgusting things (I say that, but I probably would have found something to move it with without touching it. I've still never forgiven myself for not seeing if that moth could have flown if I'd picked it up out of the snow and it had just warmed up for a minute.). Now that we've cleared out the weeds, though, we're pretty confident it should be pretty good growing soil, ha. That is, as long as the birds don't get all the worms now that there are no leaves to hide under. They were having a wonderful time out there this evening... Also, we found 50 snail shells (okay, I didn't actually count them...), a cicada shell (ugh!), and a cocoon of some sort. Hopefully it makes it longer than the caterpillar we found last year. It was so cute and Daddy let me name it Jocke and it was a fun little caterpillar, and I typed a whole blog post out about it, and then I noticed it might be dead, and, yeah...

Josiah when Noah got up: "Can I feed Noah? Here Noah, want a bite?"
Josiah every day: "Can I vacuum the boys room?"
Josiah when he saw the leaf blower: "Can I use that?!?!?!?"
Josiah when I helped him hold the leaf blower: "Can I do it myself?"
Josiah when we're done blowing leaves: "But I want to do mooooooore!!! Please can I do mooooorrrreeee???" *cries*
Josiah while "watching" Noah while he sat in his high chair while we worked in the kitchen: "I'm the boss, I'm the boss, Mama and Daddy's the boss, I'm the boss, I'm the boss..."
The child neither knows he's small, nor when to stop. Help us.
But he still asks to be fed his supper? He's so confusing. But I love my growling teddy bear.

I hope y'all have had a great week and have a refreshing weekend, and I'll try to be back soon to live up to my personal blogging standards, haha :).

Blessings in Christ,

Bri :)

*Whoops, almost forgot a title... that's not important, is it ;)? What link would blogger give your blog post if it had no title?... huh...

March Review ✽ Hello April

Highlights:

-We watched "Mary Poppins" and Abbi became a one man band (also, she told Mama that if the bankers had sung their song to her, when she "heard all that nonsence stuff, she would have just run and given the money to the birds!")

-We took a fun spring trip to the zoo...

-Followed by a snow day soon after, haha! That's SC...

-Our cousin, baby James, arrived on the 15th :)! Mama drove up to see him that day, and while she was gone, to celebrate, I helped the little ones make cookies and gave them super crispy chicken nuggets and chips for supper... like, I've never had chicken nuggets like that before and it was not supposed to turn out like that, haha. But the cookies were good, so it wasn't a complete fail ;). Also, it had been a while since I'd made chocolate chip cookies, and I was shocked at how far a double batch doesn't seem to go anymore, haha. The girls helped me make some one Friday, and we didn't have enough for everybody by the time we got milk again, so I had to make more because I had promised them cookies with milk. Josiah was so ecstatic to get two at once, though, heehee :). It was cute.

Another bit of excitement was very unappreciated, so it was not a highlight, but a very big part of our month... Mama was reading our nightly story ("Heidi", for the curious -so that we could read the sequels, written by one of the translators, which we just recently found... I hope they're good, because I've always loved Heidi!), and had just started another chapter, when Noah was toddling around the room, and got all tripped up and fell straight into the edge of the bed rails and split his little forehead :(. He was so calm about it, he cried at the initial pain, but within a few minutes he was perfectly quiet, didn't even complain about Daddy cleaning it up a bit to see how bad it really was. Mama and Daddy took him to urgent care, and we're very thankful that they were able to glue it rather than needing stitches, but they didn't get home until 3 a.m. the next morning! He's been so good about it, but it's so sad to see his poor little head, and he's stressing us out because he won't stop walking. Naturally, right? Haha.

The next evening we were getting ready to do our story time, and Peter mentioned we were reading the same chapter we were reading when Noah got hurt, and everybody started talking about it... and Josiah asked, "You took him to the hospital last month?"
"Last night."
"Peter?"
"No, Noah. Remember, he had to get his cut taken care of?"
And then we realized, no, he didn't remember. He usually goes to sleep before Mama's done reading, and he'd slept through the whole thing, and had no clue how the cut got there or that it was bad enough to need help. So we had to tell him the whole thing, and he got up and gave Noah hugs and kisses. It was so strange. Also, Josiah is also the only one of the little boys who does NOT now have a scar over his eye, so, yeah, it seems that that is a very common deal with little guys.

-St. Patrick's day :). We celebrated with our customary cinnamon rolls with colored icing (store bought, because we all forgot what the next day was until like 9:00 at night... Mama remembered just in time!) and dressing in orange (the color for the protestant Irish, it's just a fun quirk Mama decided to change/add to make the day a reminder more about God's grace then anything else :).)

-We met little James last Sunday <3! He is a doll, so precious! Josiah was, I think, in shock at how little he was, although he kept asking when we could go see Aunt Amber's baby :).

-Noah turned *one*!!!

-We saw "Rogue One", and it was better than I was expecting... I actually really liked it :).

-And Joey turned 3!

Laughing at:

Mama and I walking through Food Lion with 4 cartons of ice cream, 2 bags of M&m's, a box of brownies, some fruit pops, and italian ice... "If anyone asks if we're having a party, please just say yes."

-Dreaming that a friend adopted three cats, and named them "Pantry", "Bullfrog"... and "Lou-it-be". Where did my brain get those names?!?!?!?!?

Me, checking Abbi's math:
*sees 11*
*mind reads it as a roman numeral*
*reaches for eraser, almost asks "Why would you put two?!"*
Oh. Oops.

-Daddy and I ran into the store after the respite I volunteered at this month, and it was very quiet. One of the cashiers was talking to the other, having no work to do, and was talking all about how she loves children, wants twins, etc, and Daddy said, "You don't need twins; you could just have one at a time and have 9, like I did."
She kind of nods, keeps talking about kids; *does a double take and looks at me* "You have nine kids?!?!?!?"
Daddy: "No, that's my oldest."
Cashier: "Oh. You look like you could have nine!"
Daddy: "She just said you looked forty."
Her face, hahahaha! Also, her friends face as she looked at her as much as to say, I dare you to get out of this one smoothly.... haha!

-Josiah, over e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.... "What EVEN is this!?!?!?" "What EVEN are you doing?!?!?!"

-Mama's crazy crochet inspiration she passes onto me... a mailbox cover, stuffed toy body parts to use teaching science... I think she really believes you can do anything with it. I'm threatening to make her learn, haha!

-Noah sticking his food down his shirt whenever he wants to be done, haha!

-Daddy and I are sitting looking at something together, when Mama starts laughing.
"What is going on?"
Mama laughing hysterically; "What smells like wet dog?!"
Daddy, in a "this answer is of course right" sort of way; "Wet dog?"
Mama, thinking he asked in a "Is that what you said" sort of way: "Yes, hahaha..."
Cue a ton of confusion, until I found out she was reading my blog and I had made her laugh uproarious sharing her own comments.

Quotes I liked:

"I love God as my Savior; I fear Him as my judge."

"May [the Lord] give you what your heart desires, and fulfill your whole purpose." (Psalm 20:4)

"I have the witness of my conscience, that you have done me wrong and violence; and yet I pray God, if it be His will, to forgive you." -Dr. Taylor, "The Book of Martyrs"

Reading:

-"Robinson Crusoe". I'd never read it, but Tori said it was good, so I've had it on my to-do list for a while now. I enjoyed it :).

-"The Swiss Family Robinson". This was coupled with "Robinson Crusoe" in the copy my Grandma gave us, so I re-read it. I remember *loving* it when I was little. Reading it this time... What in the world are kangaroos, buffaloes, penguins, and everything else doing on the same island? And how did every plant grow there? And how did the dad know what literally everything was just by looking at it without opening a reference book once? Lol! It's a fun book, but the guy meant it when he said he just wrote it to teach his sons facts about the uses of nature, haha... I just hope he told them where you actually find the stuff, too ;).

-"The Pocket Book of Robert Frost's Poems". I liked the biography in it, but the poems aren't as much like his "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" as I think I expected... haha :).

-Ephesians, Matthew Henry's commentary, "The Valley of Vision", and some of "The Family Daughter" here and there :).

Fails:

-Me: *mops the floor*
Me, two hours later: *goes to make some lunch of cottage cheese and peaches*
Fridge: *hurtles all contents at me*
Peanut butter jar: *throws glass and peanut butter all over the floor*
"Are. you. serious?!"

Also, I'm probably one of the few people capable of bruising their foot making a meal. (I'm not sure if frozen pizza sauce or refried beans fell out of the freezer; I just know it hurt, haha.)

-Blogging... haha. Sorry I left, guys! There will be several more detailed posts about some of the month within the next week... I never put pictures on them, but I'm not leaving them in my drafts for forever, haha :). I actually didn't do much writing at all, and I'm not sure why... I also didn't realize it until I was just trying to sort through my stuff! 

Grateful for:

-The Psalms, and being able to pick up my Bible freely.
-Songs to listen to while I crochet.
-Hope as I look forward to some things coming up.
-God's grace.
-Second chances.
-Pizza.
-Brownies and chocolate milk... not together, haha :). Although I bet that would be good.
-Mama making extra icing while making Noah's cake just so I could eat some... hahaha :).
-Tori playing Scrabble with me! She won, but since we don't often get to play, I was okay with that ;).
-The wonderful month we had, and the new one just beginning :).
-(Also, that none of my family does April Fool's, because a couple of them would be good at it...)
-Teaching Andrew how to play a new game.
-"Paddington Bear"... the book is a current trend in our house, and I'm glad he's cute, or this could be monotonous quickly, haha!

Oh! And, what do y'all think about the new blog look? Plumrose Lane (my former blog design host) seems to be down, and so I couldn't fix it when it went blank :(. So, I just changed up the sizing of what I was left with, and changed some of the contrasting colors since I didn't have the mix from the background. I also changed the font, but that was something I was planning on changing anyway. I LOVED the font... but it drove me batty that you couldn't see commas on it, haha. I feel like it's too plain, and yet it's rather more "timeless" then the old look. I'm very undecided, and yet pretty sure I'll probably end up leaving it long enough that it will grow on me and it'll stay... Tori says she likes it better than the old pretty one (::sniff::), but, anyway. I was sad when I couldn't use it anymore. I actually created my blog around that background a month before I "officially" opened "Forget Not His Benefits" and thought to myself that this one was going to be I'd stick to, after trying a couple on "Home Life"... but, I guess that plan didn't work out :).

Blessings in the Lord,
Bri

February Review ✽ Hello March

Highlights:

-Daddy and Mama's anniversary :).

-Enjoying some fellowship with a few families from our church.

-Realizing that if I wanted to make chocolate frosting instead of popcorn or chocolate for my snack, I could. I was like, I want frosting, but I don't have time to make a cake.... wait, why make a cake? Lol! 

-Valentine's Day. We always do a little bible study with the story of Isaac and Rebecca, and Daddy gives us each chocolate and roses, and then we do pizza and a movie (we watched the new "Pete's Dragon", and it was actually really cute, but nothing like the first one, lol!)

Daddy during our bible study: "What was Rebecca doing?"
Emmi: "Working."
"What was Isaac doing?"
Josiah: "FINDING HIS KINGDOM."

A little later: "What are we supposed to be focused on?"
Correct answer would have been, you now, the Lord, but Josiah yelled very confidently: "CHOCOLATE!"
Haha. Speaking of chocolate, he refused to eat his fruit filled chocolates. He mashed all of them with his thumb to see what was in them, licked the fruit filling, and was like, this does not go in chocolate, it is gross. So he got a couple chocolate kisses, too.

-Getting to help out at both special needs respites this month, and hearing of another that I may be able toy get involved in. I'm loving helping out with these! Although I have never had so many names I actually needed to remember thrown at me at once, and I'm having such a hard time with them, and it's really bothering me, because knowing people's names is super important to me. Actually, knowing any name is important to me. I felt so bad for forgetting a friend's cat's name one time. Lol1

-Getting to make that bunny hat that I have wanted to make for so long :). Really loved that! I've been able to do so much crafting this month; I just finished another set today, but it's a surprise, so I'll wait to share it :).

-Mama inviting me to study Ephesians with her :). A couple years ago a friend and I read through Ephesians together, and we decided someday we would study Colossians together, because the two books are so similar. We did Colossians 3 last month (which has the most similarities, I think), and then right after Mama asked if I wanted to do Ephesians, and it's fun, because it's like I've come full circle, and it brings even more out when you can compare the two :). While we're going through it, I went through and read all the references for Ephesians, and it was actually a pretty involved church in the NT. Now I want to study all the other churches and see if they were mentioned as much, and it just gets lost in all the places and names, or if Ephesus really was a bigger part of everything, haha :).

-Driving to Walmart WITHOUT running into a pole (I never have yet, but it came close once)... haha!

-Having a several hours long chat with my best friend. It was such a blessing! I love how we can go without talking for a while and then talk for hours; and yet if it's only been a few days, we can talk for forever if we get the chance, too. Andrew was tired of waiting for me to get off the phone, though, haha...

-Mama finding a new youtube channel (Summit Kids) with songs for children that have scripture truths in them, and the little ones, even Josiah, singing along to them every night when I watch music videos with them. It hasn't even been a week and Peter has already memorized the choruses, he's too cute with them stuck in his head, hahaha!

Laughing at:

-The fact that William Tyndale had a friend offer to buy all of Tyndale's bibles for a hostile lord, so that this guy could burn them. He paid Tyndale's friend for giving him that pleasure, this friend then went to Tyndale and they printed 3 times as many bibles with that money. I don't remember that story at all, but it is literally priceless, haha! Nothing shall prevail against God's word and His will!

-Me, teasing Josiah:
"Nooooo, I think you're a bug." *pokes the bugs on his pj shirt*
Josiah: "No, I'm not. I'm just a jamma bug thing." *pauses, realizes that came out wrong* "I have a jamma bug thing. See?"

-Reading through 2 Chronicles in our family bible time, and Daddy getting to the part about King Josiah. We all looked at Josiah to see how he'd take that, and he was asleep.
The second night, chapter 2 on King Josiah: Joey is once again asleep.
The third night, Josiah is awake, but Daddy says, "Funny, he's just called "the king" for like the first 17 verses."
Josiah at about verse 16: *eyelids dropping shut* He never did get to hear it.
And he goes to sleep soooooo fast when he wants!!! He likes for me to be in his room when he goes to sleep. If I leave without snuggling him, I hear he stays awake for a few minutes, but if I agree to lay with him for a minute, he tells me goodnight, very determinedly closes his eyes, and is actually asleep in about 75 seconds. I'm so jealous.

Quotes I liked:

-"He was a brave Lordling, and we need his like: a new weapon of the old metal" -Tolkien Reader, Beorthtnoth (I actually liked this story least out of the book, but I LOVED that "new weapon, old metal" analogy!)

"[Children's] books like their clothes should allow for growth, and their books at any rate should encourage it" -J. R. R. Tolkien

"Let me reckon my old life dead because of crucifixion,
and never feed it as a living thing.
Grant me to stand with my dying Savior,
to be content to be rejected,
to be willing to hold unpopular truthes,
and to hold fast despised teachings until death.
Help me to be resolute and Christ-contained.
Never let me wander from the path of obedience to thy will.
Strengthen me for the battles ahead." -"The Valley of Vision"


Reading:

-"God in a Manger"... because I never finished it at Christmas, lol. I did, like, no optional things during Christmas, haha.

-"The Tolkien Reader", a small collection of stories and essays by Tolkien. I enjoyed this one :).

-Matthew Henry's commentary on Ephesians to go along with our study. I love his commentaries, it just takes a while to get through them, haha :). So much depth -which is a good thing!

I feel like I read a good bit this month (compared to how little I had been doing of it), but I didn't add much to my list. I've still been reading "Foxe's Book of Martyrs", because I didn't finish that last month, and I'm continuing to go through "The Valley of Vision", but that's about it. I'm just happy to have it back as a part of regular life again. I had so many things out of balance, and I'm just trying to egg back to a more consistent way to go about all the lovely things that life holds!

Fails:

-Mama asks me if Polycarp was martyred or just persecuted, before we start a movie about him.
Me, who had just started Foxe's Book of Martyrs, internally: "martyred. oh, but wait, there was that one guy who was just persecuted. that might have been polycarp. now i don't remember."
Me, out loud: "I'm not sure."
Movie starts, and they come to take him.
Me, internally: "drat it. i knew that's how it happened, why didn't i say so?"

I'm sitting on my bed answering emails, Andrew brings me so food.
*pulls the lid off my yogurt*
*goes to take a drink of my yogurt*
Ambrielle, WHAT are you doing, something is wrong with me.

That letter writing challenge I was going to join? Yeah, I wrote 22 letters or cards. I missed six. This is why I never join any challenges. Even the ones that are completely easy and part of my every day life anyway, I somehow end up missing. I HAVE other letters to answer, even, I just haven't found the time to sit down and do them, because once I start I can't stop, and so I didn't finish. Oh well, I'll write the other six, and I'll be glad that I at least gave it a shot. Lol!

-Getting Christmas posts up. I give up, y'all. I'm scrapbooking them instead, and I'll try to do better with my time this next Christmas, and actually do something with myself, ha.

Also, I fail at winning Monoploy Deal. I can't do it. Tori beats me 70% of the time, and the other 30% it's usually someone else...

Grateful for:

-Lemon juice (it makes the fruit tea we drink even better!) Josiah was funny when I first put it in, though. He usually helps me prepare the tea; throws away the tea bags, watches me pour in the ACV, puts the spoon in the sink. He saw me pouring lemon juice in, and he asked me, "What is that even?"
-Noah <3. The little guy is just such a snuggle bug, I love him so much!!! He's a doll. And he loves his feet, haha :).
-Waking up early enough many mornings lately to enjoy listening to the birds singing in the morning. And be productive and have that first little time of quiet to do my bible study, and various other reasons, but hearing the birds singing in the morning and hearing trains at night are two of my favorite favorite "little" noises, and that first morning in forever when I woke up that early again, I was so delighted.
-That Mama knew to give everybody activated charcoal and grape juice when Abbi got a stomach bug. Either it's a really weird coincidence (I don't think she could have been that sick and it's not really be something), or the stuff really works, because nobody else has caught it!
-All the wonderful things that have happened this month :).
-That we are saved by grace as the gift of God.
-That I, as a gentile, was welcomed into the family of God by Christ's sacrifice on my behalf.
-Our new bed spreads :)! Our old ones were looking pretty bad, and these new ones are a lighter color and really brighten up the room. Ad they're cute. I love them :). We went with "matching" ones again, except we each chose a different color of the same print, so that is fun :).
-That Daddy left FCS several years ago to join LifeWay. Now that FCS is closing, it's a big blessing not to be going through that uprooting that so many families are going to be going through now. It's so sad.
-Bibles in different translations, to compare and study.
-All my pillows, haha.
-Finding children's books I used to love that I didn't know we still had, and getting to read them to my little siblings.
-Words, reading, and writing.
-Letters and emails, so I can keep up with friends who are far away (the phone, too, although I don't use it that much).
-Peter's spontaneous hugs.
-People who ask how they can pray for you <3.

I hope you all have had a wonderful month!
Rejoicing in Hope,
Bri :)