the past few days...

We have been praying for our 5 year old friend, Kate.  She has battled Epilepsy for the past 4 years.  With no success in controlling seizures via meds they have chosen to do brain surgery to give this little girl some relief.  So to show our support we wore our "Team Kate" shirts and prayed for her throughout the day.  With Benjamin it left a lot of questions about what is a brain and how will the doctor get in there and how will they close it up and so on and so on.  Recovery is underway for Kate and God has been faithful.

 We found ourselves some wild blackberries:)

It rained here ALL DAY on the 4th.  We were going to go see the fireworks in Murfreesboro but decided to spend $12.99 and enjoy some at home instead... in the rain of course!

And with a short break in the rain today we went back out to gather some more blackberries while Hope was napping...

Everyone uses a tractor to pick blackberries, right?

It started to sprinkle and then the bottom fell out of the sky, again.  We ran for the neighbors barn and then decided to make a dash for the house.  Rusty driving the tractor and Benjamin and I running with the berries.

We had to let them dry before we bagged them up to freeze.

Earlier in the week I had some help in the garden.

A Cicada beside a shell of a Cicada.  A first for me to see.  I told Hope to listen to the sound of a Cicada (she was not looking at this).  I asked her if she heard it and she replies, "oh yeah, she was in my class one time".  What?  

A very mild week here led to lots of time on the front porch.  I moved this little picnic table out there and it has been great.  Not sure why I didn't think of this sooner.

Rusty bought Benjamin a 4-wheeler at the scrap metal place for $50.  He is in love!  With his daddy and the 4-wheeler.  I have never seen him so thankful for anything before.  He would ride for a minute and then get off and hug Rusty and thank him.  This went on and on and on.  So genuine and so sweet...

The big kids are due back tomorrow night late:)  YEAH!

improvement

Last week was H A R D and the weekend was not much better.

Monday brought some changes as did Tuesday and today we turned a corner. 

I wish I could say that I used some great tactics but I didn't. 

He did stay closer and I provided a little more for him to do but today he just seemed to decide to stay out of trouble. 

Last week he missed church so this morning he was told that if he made bad choices he would have to go to bible study with me and miss his class- he really wanted to go and he did really well all day long, I was SHOCKED!  Carter even told Rusty at dinner that B didn't not get in trouble today... the bad behavior is noticed by everyone!

he is a handsome little boy:)

Figuring kids out is tricky. 

One question that B can't seem to answer is why.  Like...

 why did you color on the couch, chair, and windows with a marker?

why do you like cookies?

why do you like to ride your 4-wheeler?

why did you touch the computer (that was behind a closed door) for the 10th time today?

why do you like your shoes and dress shirts so much?

It doesn't matter what type of question you ask... if it begins with "why" then you get a blank stare or a shoulder shrug (some of the shrugging goes back to Rwanda, like a shove-off type of response that we dealt with a lot).  "Why" may be too deep or too analytical of a question, I don't know.  I even role play and answer why questions and he still doesn't get it or chooses not to answer.

So, I get frustrated with him when he doesn't answer me at all.

I think I might like a simple "I don't know" once in a while.

So I wanted to share that he has done great today.

We will see how tomorrow goes.

on a lighter and more fun note...

guess who likes pickles, like loves them???

she could not get enough at lunch.  Carter was so happy, he wants everyone to love pickles!


Later I told Hope to smile...

and then I just told her to open her eyes...

all of our kids have always loved to swing, I think all kids do.

these 2 can't seem to get enough these days...



Knowing that I can't do this job as Mommy on my own is comforting in a way, but I do wish that I would find myself running to the Lord more quickly than I do. 

I wish I would grab Benjamin's hands each time he disobeys or makes choices that he knows aren't right and pray with him FIRST instead of raising my voice or redirecting, the redirection can come next with a hug and a kiss.

Right now life is full, it really is a good full- most days. 

I need to post some videos so you all can see how the personalities of #'s 4 and 5 have changed!

I am ordering Grace Based Parenting and hope to get some wisdom out of it... I went to a Parenting with Grace session at my retreat and want to know a little more.  If I want to be given much grace by my Father I need to know how to give it as well (especially in hard places).

End of the randomness:)

Tomorrow the board of tumor doctors will review Sallee's case and make a decision. Pray.

another great gift

Look what I got today from Benjamin...

Now I WANT you to check out this post from 13 months ago to the day...

http://rutledges-rutledgereview.blogspot.com/2010/07/morning-gift.html

It is SCARY how similar they are... REALLY!

I absolutely love zinnias!  Fresh cut flowers for really CHEAP all summer long! I just don't get the root ball and all when I go cut them but root ball and all it MADE MY DAY(even with dirt to sweep up) to get this and mostly because Andrew has done the same exact thing 1 year ago:)  They both seemed to have picked the tallest in the bunch!  We have hundreds of them!