Great Parenting Books

I have recently read 2 more great books on homeschooling. Beyond Survival by: Diana Waring and Home Educating with Confidence by: Rick and Marilyn Boyer. These are wonderful books. When I find a book I really like and one that I really enjoy I usually reread it several times, always finding something new each time. I had thought about making a post about my favorite books. Katie and I were at the bookshelf trying to pull them all out and then I realized I could go on and on. I thought I could just pick a few but there are just too many. So I think I will just slowly throw in a title here and there on the few posts that I make. I enjoy reading books with Sammy after the kids go to bed. We enjoy talking about the different things that the author points out. In the past we have went through Keeping Our Children's Hearts and then Raising Godly Tomatoes. He has been reading and now finished another book that he would read to me and now I need to go ahead and read it all the way through. Sometimes these books are hard to read. Not because they are boring but because they speak the truth to us. That can be hard to hear. What I really like about the books by the Maxwell family is that they apply everything to scripture. I can spend hours in books. Sammy has noticed this and even though he also loves great books he always reminds me to make sure I am spending as much or more time reading the Bible as I do all these other books. So let's not forget the Bible is by far the best book. Reading through it shows us exactly how we need to parent our children. Monday afternoon we were able to catch up with an old friend and her children for lunch. This person is older than me and has raised several and still has several to go. She is an encourager. I talked about a few things I struggle with pertaining to the kids and homeschooling and with her wise words she gave me a great idea. Just enjoy it!!! This was the second time in a matter of days that I had heard these words from veteran homeschoolers. I had to make a call to Gateway, the school we are registered with, and I was told the same thing. Maybe when my kids are adults I will be able to return the favor and be an encourager to a younger Mom. So next I will plan to start sharing my favorite books with others that could also enjoy them. Looking forward to the weekend. The girls are planning on all kinds of Valentine treats for us to bake. Hope there will be a cheesecake in all that baking. My favorite!!!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Happy birthday to the man of my dreams and best friend I LOVE YOU Sammy!!!! LOVE, Missy

Happy Birthday Daddy, wishing you a happy 41st Love, Morgan, Katie, Josiah, Jacob, Sarah, and Samuel



What Morgan loves about her daddy: I love when I have long talks with him about staying pure, and not going with the flow. Besides the Lord Jesus Christ YOU are the number ONE man in my life right now, I LOVE you!!!!

What Katie loves about her daddy: I love when my daddy helps me with my singing ( thanks for giving me that solo in the Easter musical I'll try hard)

What Josiah loves about his daddy: I love that my dad is a good singer.
What Jacob loves about his daddy: I love when my daddy acts funny.
What Sarah Loves about her daddy: I love when my daddy sings me to sleep.
What Sam Loves about his daddy: I love when my daddy feeds me my bottle!!!

The Party

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Tonight we had a little celebration for Sammy AKA Daddy. My mom and sister came over and had dinner, opened presents, and had donuts!!!! Sammy wanted donuts for his cake so we had the cake and candles together.
The kids made signs for their daddy and put them all around the house.

They LOVE their daddy!!!!

Samuel really enjoyed the bow

Morgan and Josiah enjoying the Krispy Kreme donuts

Sarah and Samuel

I had Sarah and Samuel twelve months and three weeks apart. They are the closest in age in all six of my children. Sarah is petite for 20 months, while Sam is very large for 7 months. So, there height and weight is just about the same.
~ Sarah now has teeth and there is eight or ten coming in at one time, poor girl~

--Sam is almost sitting up!!--

We somehow ended up with the same outfit, since they both wear the same size we decided to let them match and wear the outfits for a picture.