Wash me whiter than the snow

As I looked outside to see the beautiful snow, I couldn't help being reminded of wash me whiter than the snow. Every first beautiful snowfall each year reminds me of that. What a beautiful visual reminder of what Christ has done for us. To know that no matter how much we sin that He will cleanse us from them if we are sincere in asking forgiveness of our sins. God is so good to send us reminders of that. What a wonderful Maker we have.

Life's little surprises

Ross and I have had many surprises during our married life. I think the biggest one was when we found we were expecting twins. It took us a few weeks to get over the shock of that one and now that we have them we feel so blessed and happy. This week the big surprise was that we bought a new home. Well it's not actually brand new, but new to us. We will be moving closer to the farm. We are thrilled. When we found out that this house was going into forclosure (this past summer) we would drive to the house and sit in the drive way and pray about it. It finally went on the market a couple of months later and it was priced way too high and it needed a lot of TLC. Ross and I felt like it wasn't going to happen for us, but still we prayed "Thy will be done". Even if we did not get the house, His will would be done and we would be at peace with it. It feels like everything is falling into place. We kept saying that the house was built for us. It has 5 bedrooms and a office that could be turned into a playroom. It has a large family room downstairs. If anything, I really wanted a bigger family room. We spend a lot of time together as a family and sometimes ours feels a bit small. The house is pretty much seculeded. I wanted to get off the busy road so I didn't have to worry about my children getting hit by a car, now I'll have to worry about them getting hit by a blueberry harvester. We are so incredibly blessed. We have healthy children and a place to call home.

Love=laundry

I do not enjoy doing laundry. Laundry and grocery shopping are probably my least favorite chores to do. As I sat folding my 5th basket of laundry at 11pm at night I began to ponder why do I do this chore? My heart was heavy and my eyes were tired. I really didn't feel like doing this late at night. I folded and washed for a couple of hours. I probably could do 5 loads every other day and still not catch up on it. It's an understatement to say we have a lot of laundry. So as I sat there folding onsies, shirts, and jeans the thought jumped into my head that I need to choose my attitude doing this. Should I have such a heavy heart doing this? No, I should not. I need to choose to be happy while I fold the laundry. I do this with a servants heart wanting to serve my family and be a good example to my children. They need to see that their mother loves them. I can tell them every day that I love them, but actions speak louder than words. My attitude needs to match what comes out of my mouth. Folding laundry is just one way to show them this. Someday my children will be old enough to wash the laundry and they will need to choose their attitudes regarding this task. They will have moments in their life where they need to choose their attitudes when they find something disagreeable. Hopefully I will be able to set a good example of how to choose it. Folding the laundry is love, grocery shopping is love, giving baths is love. Love is choosing your attitude as you take care of your blessings.

My Clay Turns 5

Clay David Wassink- 7 pounds even, born January 6, 2007

I can't believe it's been 5 years since Clay was born. He was my easiest delivery, my easiest baby, but so far my hardest toddler (we'll see if I change my mind once the twins are older). He was NOT defiant, he did not throw tantrums, and he got along with Leanne. He was the hardest because he was very mischievous. Five examples of this (because he's turning 5) are: 1. Once I found him eating part of a plastic Christmas bulb that he had smashed. 2. One Sunday morning Ross found him in the living room eating cupcakes that had green frosting on them. Some of the cupcakes were upside down on the white carpet. 3. He took a pen and drew a line all the way down the couch cushions. 4. All the numerous times I caught him coloring on the walls. He even did it once when we had family visitation. Talk about embarrassing. 5. The best way I can describe this one is by pictures. He was 2 years old when this incident occurred.

Baking soda on my kitchen floor

buttered popcorn salt on my kitchen floor

just follow the baking soda footprints into the living room

Brand new can of formula. He also found chocolate chips and marshmallows.

He found a car to play with. I think he thought it was sand.

He found a play butterfly net and "caught" my snow globe.

The above photos are all pictures from one mess. I'm happy I took pictures of it so I could look back at it and remember how mischievous he was. I wished I would have strapped a video camera on his head just to see what he did when I wasn't looking. I would have called it Clay's World.

Thankfully, I hope, we are beyond his crazy messes. Clay has filled our life with joy and entertainment. He is so lovable and mischievous. That's probably my favorite things about him. I'm looking forward to watching him grow up in the next years. I'm sure we'll always have plenty of Clay stories to tell. HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY CLAY!! WE LOVE YOU!

A day in the life of Me

Everyone seems to ask me, "how are you doing?" Usually I answer good but extremely busy. What does extremely busy entail? For me, in this season of my life, it's getting everyone going in the morning. I'm thankful I can throw clothes at my older ones and they can get themselves dressed, but they still need help with getting breakfast and that sort of thing. Being busy is pumping first thing in the morning because either the twins are crying or they are about to. It's getting one twin fed,whatever one is screaming the loudest, and then feeding the other. Sometimes I resort to feeding them both at the same time and that is more difficult than it looks. Each baby wants a turn to be held and fed by themselves. I wouldn't want to lay on a stack of pillows with a bottle propped in my mouth either. Then I usually have to get both of the babies dressed and I'm happy if they didn't wet through everything. Every other day I give a bath to everyone. I've thought of spacing it out, but I don't want to do baths twice a day nor do I want to do baths every day. Then I finally get a chance to get myself together. I look up at the clock and it's lunchtime and time to pump again and time to feed the babies and make lunch for the other children. After lunch it usually quiets down a little. This is probably my best part of the day. I attempt to get a few things done around the house. Sometimes the babies take a nap together, but most of the time one goes down when the other wakes up. But I'm happy they are taking naps. That was a huge accomplishment for me. Then I look up at the clock and it's time to pump again and get dinner going. Then the kids play for a couple of hours and I have Ross to help me get everyone ready for bed. Ross is excellent with all five. I couldn't ask for a better husband. I'm so happy the babies go to sleep around 9pm, it gives me a chance to relax before I go to bed and start all over in the morning. But with the busyness of this season of my life is a great joy for me. I love watching my children grow, I love all the kisses and I love yous, I love being the first person they see in the morning and the last person at night. I strive to be a good mother towards them and I pray for patience through out the day. I love Leanne, Clay, Allison, Luke, and Reed.