God is good ALL the time.

So, the past few days have been eventful and such a time of seeing God's kindness revealed to us. On my husband's way home from work on Wednesday he informs me that he thinks his transmission is going out and that he will be stopping by our mechanic to see what's up. An hour later the diagnosis is in... $1400-$1700... that we DON'T have, I might add. Now I have to start by saying the company my husband works for is AMAZING... and his boss and co-workers are as well. How God uses them in our lives is such a blessing. He let his boss know what was going on and the first thing said is that there is a new guy on the team who use to be a mechanic and they will be glad to pull him off training for him to put a new transmission in... for FREE. So right off God provided the labor. Then my husband went on the search for a transmission. Apparenty there are many junk yards left, and we couldn't trust the craigslist ads. So my hubby sent out an email to everyone he knew and asked for wisdom and prayers. I was so proud and grateful for his humility to do so. The verse that pops in my head, paraphrasing, is "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble". By thursday morning one of the other guys from work had spoken to a parts guy at one of his lots (Aaron works for an automotive specialist company, who does car interiors, and exteriors for resale car lots) and was able to find us a transmission with 42,000 miles on it and a small parts warranty for $750 after tax and fluids that needed to be purchased!!! So now God has provided the transmission. We still didn't have $750 lying around, but it was a lot less overwhelming than the $1400-$1700 we originally thought we would be paying. God provided above and beyond. He is always such a show off... and I LOVE IT! We had the money gifted to us! So yesterday Aaron, his boss, and the mechanic on the team took the transmission out, waited forever for the new one to arrive, and worked past dinner time to put the new one in for us. We absolutely CANNOT thank you guys enough for your servant's hearts!!

To top it off God showed off yet again. One of the families my husband had originally emailed came to our door with a christmas card. In the card were movie tickets for a date night and a money gift. Of course, I cried. So now, not only is our transmission fixed so Aaron can go to work (since he works out of the truck), but we also get to have a date night, and some money so I can get some christmas presents for the kids. (Secretly, I was more excited about the movie tickets)

I am thankful for God's kindness, knowing that if I got what I deserved I would get a lot... a lot of really horrible stuff, but instead my Father lavishes His kindness on me.

Boy, oh boy... thanksgiving, and such

Yet again I find myself "catching up". Although I am doing better than the last time I tried a blog. Life is just so busy, Ifeel like I hardly have time to sit down. Most of my internet interaction is from my iphone, which I can't blog from (or at least I am not smart enough to figure out how to do so). As most of you know, we found out on November 23rd that we are having a boy.
 
 

There was no guessing... it was there for all to see.

Honestly, I thought we were having a girl. I felt is was a girl, had a name picked out for a girl, invisioned a girl. When they said it's a boy I about fainted. Then I preceeded to cry for the next day and a half. Parting with Lorelai's baby clothes, knowing I would not have another daughter to put them on, just did something to me. But by God's grace I've realized it's like most things in life - The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. (Proverbs 16:9 ESV). I had plans. God has different plans. I threw a two day tantrum. Plain and simple. So now I have growing excitement for our baby boy and all that he will offer our family, knowing he IS God's best for our family. Now to just pick out names... so far we have Asa Jack Coombs (my hubby really likes the name Jack, and I want to let him have it... it just seems really hard to come up with a good name to go with Jack)

Thanksgiving!!!

We had cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon, and sausage for breakfast.

and yes.. the kids ARE color coded :-)

For Thanksgiving it was just us (which is 7 people) plus hubby's parents, as well as my mom and sister. There was tons of food and leftovers for days.




Sausage, mushroom, and rosemary stuffing, hawaiian roles, and brie and chive biscuits




sweet potato souffle, cauliflour gratin, glazed carrots, garlic mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole.




turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, butternut squash, half mash (half potato half sweet potato), and cranberry apple pecan stuffing muffins.




serving, like usual




Hubby feels like I avoid being in front of the camera...




That's my love!!!

Easy like a Sunday morning...

Three out of five of the children had pretty bad coughs, so we thought we would be oh so kind and keep our germs to ourselves. And honestly, who ever wants to be the family that the church sickness is traced back to. I mean, you know there are always those mothers who go through the list of every child that has been sick to find out who that very first, inconsiderate mom was who brought her sick child to church. ;-) But I digress.

So instead we stayed home and listened to worship music (with whole house singing) while we made brunch. My AMAZING husband went to the store for sausage and picked me up a couple of "I LOVE YOUS"

Soy Cinnamon Dolce Latte with whip

Beautiful Flowers

             For brunch we ate scrambled cheese eggs, bacon, maple sausage, and cinnamon muffins.

This is our family at the table. In the future my handy hubby will be building a breakfast nook that will fit in the corner like a booth, with a square table, and these fabulous antique pews we have. But for now, this is what it takes to feed all 7 of us... and 8 ft. folding table :-)

The rest of the day was spent taking things to goodwill, replacing my car battery, doing three loads of laundry, color coding the kids hangers, redecorating part of the house, and after the kids were in bed, a fire in the fireplace, music on the radio, knitting needles in hand, and my love by my side. That is until he had to get up to fix the internet so that I could post today. J/K... maybe

Full Throttle

Life is in full speed and it's hard to catch time to post. So I'll attempt to do a quick update of the past couple of weeks. Although our oven has been broken my mother in law so graciously allowed me to come over and put our apples to good use.

apple crumb cake


apple cobbler

For October 29 Carson, Matthias, and Dylan all had fall festival parties. I was not able to attend matthias' party but did send in candy apples for the teachers and sliced candy apples for the kids. The first attempt I did not cook the candy long enough and it ended up soupy for the slices. I got it right with the actual candy apples though.

Dylan wanted to be one of the twelve dancing princesses for her book themed costume, so I made her skirt from my 8th grade formal dress :-)

very last minute costume...



craft at Dylan's class party 



Carson wanted to be Samson for his costume



Also very last minute...

But I was very excited that the kids invited me to their parties. It is amazing to realize how God has blessed these relationships in such a short time of adjustment. I am excited to see how we grow closer in the future.

 

Catch up

So for the past week I have been out of commission. We started out on Sunday with a family picnic in Ellijay and apple picking at BJ Reece Apple house. We had a great time. Grammy (my mom) and Grandma and Grandpa (Aaron's parents) came with us... it was nice to not be out-numbered by children. We did subs for lunch, picked apples, then let each kid pick a "special treat" from the Apple house. Our main camera died after just a few pictures, but thankfully we were able to use daddy's phone as a backup.

Monday I felt sick, Tuesday was no better. After seeing my OBGYN he sent me to the ER for a chest xray where they found pneumonia. So after days in bed, a round of antibiotics, and Loli getting sick as well, then weekend came an brought lots of excitement. Matthias had fall festival at school on Saturday, the older kids went to Kennesaw Mtn with daddy, and Saturday night we cooked hot dogs on the fire pit and had fun with smores. Then we all seven piled into a tent and went to sleep. Daddy and I were pretty impressed with how well the children behaved and how quickly they went to sleep. If I must be honest, Loli and myself went into the house a few hours later. Also, Saturday morning started roughly with Matthias splitting his lip open after he fell from a bar stool and the bar stool landed on his face. I was surprised we didn't have to make a second ER trip this week... it was busted open like it had been fillet sliced... really gross.

Our oven broke Thursday night, so I have been doing my baking from my second home (the Holli House) definitely thankful for the hospitality. Tonight I was suppose to be making an apple pie and a pumpkin pie for my dear friends' going away party (which I am still in denial about). Unfortunately, putting your filling together and taking it with you to finish at someone else's house so you can bake it lends itself to forgetting ingredients... at least for me. I completely forgot the flour in the pumpkin pie. So after almost two hours of cooking it still wasn't solid. The one thing I've learned is you can fix most baking mistakes with marshmallows or cool whip, depending on the temperature of your dessert. So I took two, not completely soled but cooked, pumpkin pies, dumped them in a casserole dish, mix it all up and melted marshmallows on top... voila! pumpkin pie casserole ;-)

So thankful for this week, despite the craziness. The song that has been stuck in my head is "Oh no, You never let go through the calm AND through the storm. Oh no, You never let go, every high AND every low. Oh no, You never let go, no you never let go of me!" I think it's been very fitting this week through every high and every low, I am ALWAYS in the loving hands of my Abba Father!

Here are some pictures of the haircuts, although I don't think Aaron got the camera out in time to take one of Carson. Carson wants to grow his hair out which is huge for him because he hates change as well and has wanted the same haircut his whole life until now. Matthias' hair is staying the same, but Chandler wanted a mohawk... I gave him a fohawk (fake mohawk) instead.

A change of plans

This is the pie I was taking to dinner tonight... before it got canceled. I think this mught just be the most beautiful pumpkin pie I have ever made. If you know me at all then you MUST know how much I do not like my plans to be changed. There are many reasons I can use to justify why I don't like for my plans to be changed, but when it comes down to it there is one main reason... CONTROL. I HATE feeling like I don't have control over my day, my circumstance, etc. So after getting a little upset about my night being changed I had to call my dear friend and ask for forgiveness. Of course, as all good friends do, she forgave me. So instead of dinner at a friends house with the Coombs Clan we stayed at home, did some much needed rearranging and organizing (which feels like it is never ending), had dinner, and did boys' haircuts and showers for all!

The boy who cried wolf... or should I say "CORN ON THE COB!"

Okay, so I've tried this blog thing before, when it was just me and the two pumpkin heads... I failed miserably to post anything. Maybe it was the whole working thing. Now that there are SEVEN of us... well, almost EIGHT, there just seems to be so much to write about. Who knows if anyone will ever actually read this, but I think for me it will be an outlet. Maybe more so a place where I can chronicle the events of our days and be amazed by God's kindness to me and our family.

At this point you (if there are any yous out there) are probably wondering what in the world the title of this post has to do with anything. Well last night at our house was eventful. There was triumph with children and terribly funny moments. I'll start the day off in mid afternoon. I made 3 batches of whole grain pumpkin muffins, which are almost completely gone, and with water bottles packed up, headed to get the older kids from Cartersville. Today was a bit different, because instead of making my rounds of picking up Chandler at one school, Carson and Dylan at another, and Matthias at a third school, I would be doing all of this with the extra bonus of taking all five children with me to a doctor's appointment for Chandler. Long story short, we made it through the appointment with minimal damage done to the office, the car, the children, or my sanity. Then we get home... in a matter of minutes Matthias hits Chandler just because he "felt like it", Dylan jumps on Carson which hurts his nose, so in anger Carson begins punching his sister. At this juncture I had no mental brainpower to deal with this (also since I do not discipline the older kids outside of time outs, discipline for physical violence towards siblings had to wait for daddy). So for the next thirty minutes they all sat in separate parts of the house waiting on daddy to finally get through rush hour (more like hourS) traffic. The plans of having a wonderful pot roast dinner and quiet family time diminished.

Finally daddy arrives home and after his long day begins to sort out the happenings of the afternoon. The first was easy, and Matthias was disciplined accordingly. The second and third were not so easy. Stories began changing. This is where the rubber meets the road in parenting. Weeding through what is actually important and what we actually need to discuss and which things deserve consequences. After multiple times of deliberation between Aaron and I, we came to the conclusion. Carson was honest with his sin and was disciplined accordingly. Dylan on the other hand was honest about what she did, but her story was changing about what Carson did (which he had already admitted to). After more conversation and through tears she finally tells me, "I don't like for people to be mad at me. I don't want Carson to be angry because he got into trouble". So after having her tell him that, and him crying and telling her he wouldn't be mad and that he would always love her, Aaron and I sat in the girl's room with tears in our eyes feeling like there had been a victory. We were patient and diligent, by the grace of God. Their hearts were broken and honest, by the grace of God. We knew, this wasn't OUR victory, but God's victory.

Then there was the boy who cried wolf... the "Coombs version". Daddy thought he would tell the story of the boy who cried wolf at dinner, which was a HORRIBLY inaccurate version of the story. Daddy was getting corrected at ever turn of the story, then as the kids began to listen more intently and daddy builds up to the boy crying wolf, out of nowhere Matthias yells "CORN ON THE COB!". Now we were not eating corn on the cob for dinner, we hadn't discussed it, really, there was no reason for such an outburst... but that's Matthias. We all begin dying laughing. The rest of our night was fun and crazy like usual, but I was keenly aware of God's hand in everything and very thankful for this crazy life.