Finally

For the last week the girls have slept in their own beds at night. They have received a small prize (although they each did get a watch and Ruthy loves telling me what time it is) every morning. Ruthy thinks she still needs a prize each morning but we're trying to do extra time-together activities instead. It's been nice to have the extra room in our bed and not have to worry about Javan waking them up, but sometimes I miss having them snuggled up close and quiet.

Javan is growing so quickly. He's six weeks old and has started drinking 6oz bottles every feeding. Today he was awake for about four hours this morning and then took a four hour nap! We're working on teaching him to sleep in his own bed and fall asleep there. He's still in the bassinet in our room though.

Yesterday I was fixing the girls' lunch and Ruthy says, "Mom, can you tell me all about God?" WOW! It really made me think. She knows and reminds me that he's our shepherd and our father and that he made everything. I better step up my Bible reading to answer such a big question.

Speaking of step up we started exercising. Since we have cable tv here I turned on the FitTV channel one afternoon and the girls and I did an hour of exercises (they didn't do an entire hour but probably 20 minutes worth). It was a lot of fun. Honestly, I thought with how many times I sit on the floor and get up each day (countless) that my leg muscles were ok, I know not great but at least okay, but after the workout I could feel the burn! It was good though. I hope to do it regularly.

Sunday we went to Travis & Lindsay's house for supper. A few days previously I drove in the car and measured the distance from their house to ours and it's a half-mile. So Sunday while Mark was at worship team try-outs we packed up in the wagon and walked to the Myers' house. It was a good walk and there wasn't too much traffic on County line 215 that goes between our homes. Ruthy walked the whole way!! I was so proud of her. Moriah sat beside Javan in the wagon and pushed his paci in his mouth if he spit it out. Thankfully we didn't see any dogs and only one motorcycle. It was a fun night together visiting and enjoying a delicious supper. Then we rode home with Mark, who met us there for supper, in the truck.

Oh, one more story,.. Friday I decided to take the girls and Javan to Wal-Mart as we needed formula, eggs, milk, bread and a page worth of groceries. We've been a couple times by ourselves w/o Mark and usually do okay, it just takes awhile longer.

Anyway, Moriah is at the stage where she wants to walk beside (sort-of) me. She does okay but she also thinks it's fun to run off. Ruthy usually stays beside me pretty well but she sings every song she knows at the top of her lungs! Thankfully Javan was quiet and even asleep through most of the shopping part.

We got to W-Mart at 8:30am. At 10:15 we were finally checking out and my cart was full! Javan chose then to wake up screaming hungry. I had two grandmas ask if they could help. (I'm sure they were great wonderful women but I'm still apprehensive about unbuckling my baby from his carseat and handing him over to a stranger) so I let him scream a bit longer while I tried to put bagged groceries in the cart. Finally when the other customers and my girls couldn't take it any longer I pulled out a bottle and mixed the formula and started feeding him...which of course meant I couldn't put the bagged groceries in my cart so I kept going back and forth.
My cart at this point is FULL of groceries and I'm wondering where I"m going to put the next 10 bags of groceries. The grandma-to-be behind me is having a conversation with the girls which is keeping them from pulling candy and pens off the shelves. Meanwhile, a lady pulls up an empty cart beside me and starts taking bags from the spinning Wmart rack and putting them in the cart. She says, "I have two daughters who have kids the same age as yours. I know what you're going through so I"m going to help you." The Wmart cashier thought this lady was my mom I guess because she kept asking Ruthy if that was her grandma and Ruthy kept saying no. The cashier really didn't believe that this nice lady wasn't our grandma until I said how unfortunate it was that our grandmas lived so far away. She pushes my cart and pulls her cart and follows me to the car while helping me corral the girls. I'm pushing my cart with one hand and feeding Javan with the other. She stood beside me and talked to the girls while I loaded the groceries in the car. I got in the car and the girls and I prayed and told God thank you for such a kind, helpful lady. It made me think of "whatever you do for the least of these you do for me." I would've had a terrible time getting out of w-mart that morning but God provided a kind Christian woman to help and encourage me. thanks, God!

Sorry for the long story, but if you ever see a crazy lady at W-Mart with three kids, find a way to help her...maybe just don't ask if you can hold her baby! : )