Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Allow me to introduce myself



Hi there. I'm Lynsey.

I've finally done it. I hit "new post" on this forgotten blog. It's all good though.

My lack of silence around here as been a very good thing. And also a very hard thing. The Lord has used this time to do some amazing things in my heart. Amazing! He has given me freedom in areas that were once taken captive.

Although I would love to get into the knitty gritty right off the bat, I feel like it's time we get ourselves reacquainted.

This isn't about a New Year's resolution. I sort of have a comical relationship with those and know that ultimately the Lord is in control and sovereign over everything in our lives.

The best resolution I could possibly come up with would be to abide more in Him, buckle my seat belt in the passenger's side of the vehicle, and let Him do the driving.

With this absence from blogging, I've realized how horrible I am at capturing and documenting my family's life. So, that's what this is about. A lot has changed in and around us.

Like long lost friends reuniting for a cup of coffee after months gone by, allow me to catch you up to speed with the "Top New Things....." in my life if you would be so kind as to humor this behind momma.

I was going to do "Top 10" things, but just to alleviate the pressure, we're gonna go with it and see how many I can come up with.


1. We are having our 4th precious girl!!! I'm due January 31st and we couldn't be more thrilled. See??? This is what happens when you let months go by in posting and documenting your family's lives. I've grown a baby in my tummy and she is about to be here really soon.

All I'm saying is how does the manliest of men end up with 4 girls?? I will tell you. He is an amazing daddy to our little girls. It takes a special man to be the father of girls. Jason shows them what it is like to be loved unconditionally and tenderly. And just between us, I think they each have him wrapped around their delicate, dainty little fingers.

The joy of having a 4th girl is that you have to buy basically NOTHING.

2. Homeschooling is going great this year. We are part of a community called "Classical Conversations" and we are loving every minute of it. I will have more to say about this in the future and would love to share our experience with you.

This community couldn't have came at a more perfect time in my life. Being new to homeschooling is overwhelming. However, with incredible support and also the clear Christ-centered vision of this community, the road untraveled has been sweet so far.

3. The Lord has brought us through a rough season and plopped us down in a new church. The church is new to us, but several of the families have been part of our lives for years. We are so blessed to be a part of this community of believers.

4. Ruthie is walking. Well, she's been walking for a while now since the beginning of November. She has been our latest walker so far (17 m0), but she skipped the "new walker" stage and went straight to running.

Here is a progression of her new found talent.





5. Farmer Jason's sister and husband packed up their boys and moved to Haiti. I wanted to mention this so that you can be praying for their family and keeping up with their story. They are so dear to us. So, although this change isn't directly in our lives, we love and care for them deeply. Their journey has inspired and humbled us. It's put various things into a much different perspective.

Our summer was spent surrounded by them out on the farm. And now our Christmas break has been spent much the same. Sweet cousins playing, sister in laws laughing, good food, late night talks, sitting by the fire, and (oh yes) recovering from a whole slew of illnesses.

In just a few short days, they will return to Haiti again staring situations and people in the face that I can't even wrap my brain around most days and can only see in pictures on the news.

Go subscribe to their blog...that's assuming that you already aren't a reader and fan along with the bazillion other people who are.

6. Cloth diapers....I quit them. But, I need to un-quit them because I really do love them. Ruthie received a horrible ammonia burn from them because our water out here on the farm is super hard (even with a softener). They weren't getting rinsed out completely even after 2 or 3 cycles in the washing machine. So, I'm trying to figure this all out since baby #4 is on the way and I will have 2 in diapers again.

Anyone out there with hard water and use cloth diapers??

7. I've updated on sweet Ruthie but not the older girls. Really, Kaylyn and Laney Rae are just getting sweeter and sweeter. We, of course, still have our moments, but I love my girls!


Laney Rae is quite the character still. She is full of joy. You never ever know what she is going to say. Be ready for hilarious Laney Rae stories in the near future.


Kaylyn is learning and maturing so much. She has definitely embraced the role of eldest daughter and lead sister. Kaylyn is so helpful. She is showing sweet fruit in her life and loves to sit and read her bible. I catch her often throughout the day with her bible trying to figure out words.

8. The Farm.....it's growing! There are lots of new things happening around and on the farm. Expect lots of updates on that in the near future too.

I'll leave you with some more updated pictures of the girls. Thanks for dropping by! I hope we can continue this long-lost relationship.



13 comments:

The Farmers Nest said...

Yeah!!! So happy to see all of the pics and read about everything. I look forward to more LR stories.

Anonymous said...

Loved the pictures and love reading your blog!

Amy

Sarah Shalley said...

oh yay! loved the update. i too have a forgotten blog (and business), but God has also used this time in my life to show me that there are more important things to take care of.

i am absolutely IN LOVE with the last pic of Ruthie. can i borrow her to kiss on?

love you kramers and can't wait to see the newest addition!

The Wells Family said...

love your updates! glad to have you back...

Noelle Gonzalez said...

Yay! Welcome back!
Your girls are beautiful!
I can't wait to see updates in the future so that I can pretend I don't live in a village all alone!

Ng.

Hendrick Family said...

I'm in love with this.

I mean...I love liquid sunshine...but I love that you're blogging again.

Heather

For one more night you're right across the driveway.

Love you.

Practically Ava said...

So my heart skipped a few beats when I saw you updated your blog! Yay I am super excited. Love you!!
Kayla

sugarcreekfarm said...

Welcome back!

~Kelli (Sugar Creek Farm)

Sarah Crosby said...

SOOO happy to see a blog post from you!! LOVE YOU and your precious family!

Jessica said...

Oh how I've missed you, Lyns! AND I had no idea you were having another babe! Another girl at that...so exciting!!!

Glad you're back, friend.

The Currie Family said...

Your girls are precious! Can't wait to see pictures of girl #4!!

Erin said...

so glad to have your posts back! your girls are beautiful! just wanted to say we use cloth and a while into using them with our first boy, he got an AWFUL ammonia burn on his little boy part and it was traumatizing to all of us...he woke crying at night and we couldn't figure out what was wrong and we just held him (never changed his diaper) several times that night when he woke. it was awful. took him to the doctor. travis was traumatized more than caleb i think... :-o

we use them again now with our 2nd boy, but i haven't gotten the nerve to try them at night again. i do love them, too, but i got so frustrated trying everything in the world to get them clean but not with build up. i would sometimes do 6 wash cycles with various things or just with hot water and they'd still stink as soon as they got peed on!

we used allen's, soap nuts, calgon, vinegar, and finally charlie's. i am trying to use the least chemically stuff...i don't know how charlie's ranks with that, but we've had the most success with them getting clean (i felt like with allen's eventually they just always stunk and never got truly clean) but no ammonia smell or burns. we do have to watch the amount carefully and sometimes i wash them with vinegar and an extra full cycle to limit build up. we are still battling it...but i use them during the day with no problem.

i've rambled. i have no idea if that helped...

:-) erin

Rachel said...

I use charlie's soap here in Houston and have for years, but I think next time I'll try rockin green hard rock. Have you heard of it? It's specifically for hard water. And they have funk rock to soak your diapers in when you're having trouble with ammonia.

My newest babe is 3 months old and this is the first time i've used cloth from birth. I've loved it! Congrats to you on that new baby girl on the way!