Look Alike Cousins

Dara spent the night at Charity's house a couple of weeks ago. I can always count on my sister-in-law to get great pictures! Dara had to borrow some of Charity's clothes as we weren't planning on leaving her there, so they dressed alike and had a photo shoot. Although they definitely have their own look, I think they look enough alike that they could pass for sisters. Even though there is only a 4 month difference, Dara would be mistaken for a younger sister because she is shorter than Charity!

Babies in Red

I just had to share these pictures of Jaina and Martha. I am still trying to get a picture with both of them smiling at the same time and will definitely post it . . . if it ever happens!

Mowin' Good Time

Chad was outside trying to get a lot of things done before the rain started and needed some help. I was inside trying to get the twins ready for bed so I couldn't help him. He decided Dara could help him by finishing up the mowing. She doesn't have the strength to push in the clutch, but she could steer. She was having a hard time mowing in a straight line as well, but she did get it done so we shouldn't complain too much! I was able to take a few pics between feeding the girls.

Bad Mama

I feel like such a bad mother right now.

Martha, Jaina, Cora, Sabra, Dara, and myself all had rashes on our bodies (mine was on my hands, Dara's is on her neck, the rest of their bottoms). We saw our herbalist who told us to put lavender oil on them. I asked what oil I should mix my lavender with and gave me a bunch of different oils. She mentioned that Wheat Germ oil would be good as it is helpful for skin cell regeneration. Since I had that, I used that. Well, my rash and Sabra's rash cleared up quickly. Martha, Jaina's and Cora started healing up, but not as quickly. Martha also developed a reddening of the skin.

When I changed her diaper this morning I noticed that a thin layer of her skin was coming off when I wiped! I prayed over her during my morning devotion time and began to wonder if she was allergic to the wheat germ oil since she has a wheat sensitivity. Well, I made an appointment this morning and mentioned my thought to my herbalist. She said it was rare, but she checked her and sure enough, she is allergic to wheat germ! I feel so bad for causing her more pain and discomfort. Jaina and Cora are also allergic to it, but a very mild allergy so it didn't cause the same reaction in them. I now am now to mix the lavender with olive oil.

Keep Martha in your prayers for quick healing and comfort for her pain. Keep all of us in your prayers as it was discovered we are all carrying the flu virus right now as well. It has gone around our neighborhood and now we have it. We are hoping to keep the symptoms away by treating it now (Dara and Sabra already showed some symptoms).

Team Carmichael Girls

Last Sunday we stayed inside and watch old family movies because it was storming outside. We also videotaped the girls a little because we hadn't had the video camera out in a long time. I also took the opportunity to get a picture of all seven girls together. Although it isn't perfect, it was the best one I could snap. Do you know how hard it is to get seven girls all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time?!

Music to my ears!

Dara had her first piano recital on June 6th. She began taking lessons in September. In February, she wanted to quit, but decided to stay in until the recital. She now says that she wants to continue lessons in the fall because she wants to be able to play in church and use her music to praise God! What a blessing it is to see that our daughter is already thinking about serving God's kingdom!

Lil' Charity also began taking lessons last fall with Donalyn as her teacher. Since Donalyn wasn't planning on having a recital and Dara wanted to play a duet with Charity, Charity played in the recital as well.

Dara played all her songs without music in front of her!

Allyn was mesmerized by all the piano playing. She sat very still and listened intently to everyone who played.

Love to Read

Eva loves to read and is now enjoying reading to her baby sisters. She props them into the corner of a chair or the couch and reads them books. You can tell Jaina and Martha enjoy this activity because they look at the pictures and smile.

Loving One Another

I know I've said this before, but it still amazes me to watch Martha and Jaina interact. I truly pray they stay so close.

I was trying to get a picture of them together with both of them smiling, but as you can see, I was unsuccessful. I will just have to keep trying!

Girls, Girls, Girls!

We were given another swing-set and large slide. The girls were out playing on the new slide as soon as we unloaded it off the truck. I grabbed my camera and took some pictures, but my favorite pictures I took of the girls just "posing" for the camera. I was thinking about all the pictures I have been taking of Martha and Jaina and want to make sure I wasn't leaving the other girls out so I snapped a few. I might be biased but. . . I think my girls are so cute!

Dara

Eva

Allyn

Sabra

Cora

Scripture of the Day

"I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand."--Isaiah 42:6a

While I was reading Isaiah 42 this morning, this verse really struck me. God is holding MY hand! That is awesome to picture as well as think about. God cares enough about me to be by my side and holding my hand through everything I do. Is there a better way to visualize that God will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8)!

Smith Family

On Memorial Day, we were in Muskegon visiting my parents. They called my cousin, Janna Smith, who is a photographer (Janna Smith Photography) to come and take family pictures as the last time they were done was Feb. 2004! They thought that since they have added a daughter-in-law and 5 granddaughters, that it was time to update the photos!

We were planning on taking the pictures outside, but it was really windy and we were concerned about it being too much for the babies. Instead, we had the photos taken in my parents four-season room. It wasn't the optimal backdrop, but they turned out better than I thought they would.

We had pictures taken of all of us, my parents with the grandkids, all the grandkids, and each family separately. Chad and I also had our picture taken together outside since we are rarely in pictures together and never just us!

I am so thankful to Janna for taking such great pictures and for allowing me to put them on the blog. She is a great photographer and I highly recommend her to anyone who is in the Grand Rapids area! www.jannasmithphotography.com

Poor, Girl

Cora sprained her knee Sunday night. We were in Copemish because Chad was filling the pulpit for the Copemish Mission. It is a new start church that meets in the park. The kids were playing on the playground equipment while we had service. Cora was going down the slide with Eva, and started screaming. When I first ran over to see what was going on, I thought she had dislocated her knee. I took her back over to where the adults were and we took her pants off so we could get a better look. It didn't look dislocated, but it did look weird and swollen. Cora wouldn't stand on it at all.

On the way home we stopped by our herbalist's house and she checked her out. She informed us that it wasn't broken, but sprained. We had what we needed to give her at home so when we got home we sat her on the couch with ice on her knee, gave her the herbs she needed and popped in a VegiTales video so she would sit still. She still won't walk on it without support from me or furniture, but she is now crawling on it and moving around some. Keep her speedy recovery in your prayers.

Stay-at-Home Mom

I received the following article in one of my e-newsletters I receive. I asked permission of the author to copy it here as it embodies a lot of what I felt and went through when we decided I would stay home with our children. Please understand that I know that some women want to work outside the home and that some have to because of finances, but I believe that if you long to be home and can make a few changes, then it is definitely possible.

SO YOU WANT TO BE A STAY-AT-HOME MOM
Homebodies
By Cheryl Gochnauer
mailto:homebodies@comcast.net
Copyright 1997

(NOTE FROM CHERYL: The following column is a shortened version of the article that started Homebodies several years ago. This story was written as a letter to the editor, after a checker at a convenience store refused to accept my home number as a "real work number". Reader response was overwhelming, and prompted the editor to ask me to write a weekly column. Homebodies was born!)

I have found the Promised Land, and it is in my own backyard.

The honey flows sweetly, whether soft spring breezes are ruffling my children's hair, or the kids are splashing through summer's sprinklers, or I join them tumbling in autumn's leaves. Even smacked upside the head with a preschooler's snowball, I love being a stay-at-home mom.

I am a thirty-something, college-educated, work-oriented woman. Ranking high on my list of career priorities is providing the absolute best life for my children, my husband, and myself. I personally can best achieve that goal by putting my training and education into action on the homefront.

Organizational skills gleaned from the classroom and workplace serve me well as I juggle my family's needs. In my role as Chief Financial Officer, I take our family's paycheck and stretch it in all ways imaginable.

As Family Counselor, I untangle a web of relational challenges, from sibling rivalry to deciphering a toddler's intricate code words. I actually have the patience to listen to my husband's venting after a hard day, since I'm not just waiting for my chance to grind an axe about my own frustrating experience at the office (although I may have a good story or two about the kids).

Life is certainly entertaining as I juggle various roles at our Family Industrial Complex. You've seen the hats listed before: teacher, interior decorator, gardener, chauffeur, cook, laundress, accountant, secretary, physician, etc. All rolled together, they equal a stay-at-home mom.

A classic Type A personality, I am sure that quitting full- time work outside the home has extended my life considerably. I no longer feel my head is about to explode as I rush to daycare, rush to work, rush to errands at lunch, rush back to work, rush to daycare, rush to the supermarket, rush home, rush supper, rush housecleaning, rush my kids to bed so I can have a moment's peace, rush to my pillow to rush in six hours sleep before we start this all over again tomorrow.

Instead, I can follow a flexible schedule just as vital as any I used to outline in my Daytimer. I work for a smaller corporation now, a private entity composed of me, my husband, and our two children.

It hasn't always been this way. Although I sincerely wished I could be home with my two daughters, I didn't believe it was financially possible. But as I took a complete look at our finances, I found that after Uncle Sam, the babysitter, the car finance company and the fast-food diners took their cut, I was bringing home $39 a week.

I was sacrificing my dream of being home with my kids for less than a dollar an hour. According to the figures, I had been working for this measly amount for almost a year.

I called my husband and asked if he could pick up $39 in overtime a week, to which he immediately responded, "Yes." I turned in my notice that day.

It's true. It's not how much you make, it's how much you spend. We sold our late model luxury car and paid cash for an ancient but well-maintained auto. Do I miss my plush car? Of course. Am I willing to work full-time so I can have it? Of course not.

So I live within my means, knowing that someday, when my children are grown or more money appears in our household, we may choose to buy a new car again.

Instead of racing to the restaurant for a primo lunch - and watching the clock, cursing the slow waiter, then paying triple what it would have cost to make it myself - I can brown-bag a lunch of PB&J (the perennial kid's favorite) and go to the park on a time schedule I set myself.

My luxury car languished in a parking lot when I worked. Now my older car patiently waits as my children and I brown ourselves under sunny skies. We lay on our bellies, our faces inches above the microworld contained in grass we once just trampled, discovering tiny treasures.

Chubby fingers push back my hair and soft lips smack my forehead. "I love you, Mommy."

No car is worth this.

You probably instinctively knew all the pluses to staying home before you started reading this article. Sounds like a great dream, but you can't afford to quit work.

Maybe. Or maybe not.

Sit down with your spouse and determine your goals for your family. Don't just look at finances; include personal and spiritual goals. What would be the ultimate situation for your family? What would be tolerable? What is unacceptable?

Cut out everything that is wasting your money, time and energies. Discover the difference between wants and needs. Are some of your wants stunting an area of need? Your children are precious. What expendable items stand between them and you?

You may be proud of the beautiful house you have provided for your kids. However, if you find they spend little time there with you - that they are instead at a childcare center while you make the money to pay the mortgage, then there may be a problem in priorities.

Same thing with the fancy car. If Mom's not there to drive to fun places, why bother?

There are universal truths, and one Truth is this: When given a choice, young children will always choose time with their beloved parents over time with things.

If after making all the cuts you can muster, you still don't see enough room in the budget to leave the office behind, consider the next best thing: working part-time.

It's not always possible for a woman to make the jump from full-time worker to stay-at-home mom in one leap, even if she wants to. There are many reasons she might choose to work part-time first.

Maybe the budget won't allow a total break right now. Maybe her husband's a little nervous. Maybe she's not sure exactly how she will like being home all the time. Whatever the reasoning, going the part-time route is a road an increasing amount of mothers are choosing to maneuver.

Cutting back on work commitments benefits both you and your children. But you may be surprised at the change in your husband, too. Instead of evenings filled with laundry and housework, you can schedule your chores so that you get off work when he does. Now the evenings are free for family fun.

Deciding to stay at home is definitely an example of "less is more". Consider simplifying your life and realize the rewards of downscaling material expectations. Like me, you might discover the Promised Land in your own backyard.

*****

READERS: If you enjoyed So You Want to Be a Stay-at-Home Mom (InterVarsity Press, 1999), here's a way you can help get it into the hands of other present and prospective at-home parents.

The next time you visit your local library, check to see if So You Want to Be a Stay-at-Home Mom is on the shelves. If not, simply ask the librarian to order a copy. Librarians love buying books their patrons like, and there are lots of moms who can't afford to buy their own copy, but who would appreciate being able to check it out. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Here's the ISBN, or order number, the librarian will need: 0- 8308-1922-3. Got other favorite parenting books you'd like to see on the shelves? Bring those to your librarian's attention, too!