New Blog!

The time has come for the E family to have a new blog.  The Lord takes us through different seasons of our life, Since my blogs are similar to a journal for me, I feel the blog should also reflect those changes.  When we moved from Texas my first blog Texas Tidings ended and this current blog began.  Now with the Clarity of Vision that I shared recently it is time to start afresh.  So dear readers, welcome to my new blog...


Restwood Memories

A large family...

I copied this post from a blog I follow...to visit A Wise Woman Builds Her Home click HERE.

I love the fact that we have a large family. Since I was an only child, it is almost like I have another chance to relive my youth in a family of many siblings (except now I am in charge!). It has truly been an adventure, a joyous adventure in having 8 children and getting to live each moment with them--the fun, the exciting, the good and the bad.

There has been so much I have had to learn in how to raise a brood this size so I appreciate when I see lists like the following that bring a smile.

Large Families..

-Accept donations of restaurant-size cookware!!!

-are CHAOTIC and NOISY and FUN

-have no matching socks...but 58 white non- mates

-always have someone to play with... never bored or lonely

-lots of babysitters, readers, and rockers

-never have a dull meal

-are never picky eaters! there's someone to eat it!!!

-have an ever ready sports team

-never have moldy leftovers (ha!)

-and yes the parents DO know what causes them...

-and no, moms are not supermoms or super organized

-do not have overabundance of patience, just lots of opportunities to cultivate patience!


 (Source-A Christian Home) 

Large families are a blessing in so many ways and children are a joy to raise. Money might be tighter but the riches of having a large family are priceless! 

Clarity of Vision

I mentioned in a previous post that we had some family direction that I would soon announce.  And since I know everyone has been waiting on pins and needles :)  Here it is...

But first a bit of background...

When we moved here from Tx we were seeking the Lord as to where we would live in SC.  We knew we wanted to be back in the country and live near our good friends that were also moving as well.  A beautiful piece of property across from our friends was for sale, which we purchased and named SpringMeadows.  But we still needed a temporary place to live.  My mom was here ahead of us and so began calling on rental properties.  She called a man about a doublewide in the country.  He said that was rented but that he had a big, 5 bedroom home he was currently living in that he might consider renting.  Mom knew immediately when she went out there that it was perfect for us.  This is where we are living now.  Our landlord has become a dear friend to us and is a sweet Christian.  This place has suited our needs in every way.  The doublewide that originally was for rent that  my mom called on, eventually my parents moved into on the same property.  

Fast forward now 2 1/2 years... We have been waiting and praying for the ability to begin out at SpringMeadows.  But SM is a raw piece of land...no water, septic, electricity, road, etc.  So no matter what angle we tried to plan it was a huge undertaking.  We thought of building a double garage and moving into it while we built the rest of the house..but even that would be a big bite to get the land able to be lived on with all the things I listed above.  So we kept praying and waiting.

And then the vision came clear...we WERE home.  Why not see if we could buy this home.  This place has been a sweet haven and wonderful place to raise our children.  Is roomy, and in the country, and 7 mins from our dear friends.  So we approached our landlord who had actually already thought of it.  So, long story short, we are in the process of purchasing the home we are currently in.  We have had the inspections and are waiting on the appraisal.  All being well, we hope to have everything finalized before too long.  

We have some really great plans for this house too... After we finalize the sale, we are going to enter into major remodeling.  For those of you who have been here I will try to describe it for you.  First of all, the biggest problem for us in this house has been the lack of eating space.  So we are thinking of making our current living room into a dining hall.  We will knock out the wall between the living room and kitchen and make the kitchen open up into the dining hall.  Off the back of the house we are going to put a large addition on which will  have our living room with a fire place (if possible) and lots of windows and off the other side of the addition will be pantry/laundry/closet and mud room.  Outside under the addition we are talking about a nice carport.  Then we are talking about the back room of the house becoming Steven's and my room and knocking out the wall between the little back bathroom and the room to make a second master bedroom (if you remember, we are using the master bedroom as a schoolroom/guest room) complete with sometime I have longed for for years....a big garden tub.  :)  S wants to make under the house really nice and pour concrete for a nice workshop and gameroom under there as well.

We also plan on redoing all the floors (ripping out the carpet and probably putting in wood) and repainting everywhere.

So there you have our exciting change of plans.  It's the same vision --  the Lord just had us take a turn we had not anticipated.  We are thinking about what the  name of our place will be.  For those of you who know S, he names everything.  So there will be a new name announcement soon..and with that maybe even a new blog, we shall see.

I should say, all of this is, of course, Lord willing.  He could have surprises waiting for us we did not anticipate or close doors that are not His will.  So we take each day as He leads us and move forward in faith that He is guiding us.  But, as our friend and landlord said, he sees this merely as another revolving in the door of Providence from when we first contacted him over 2 years ago.  

Thanks for sharing in our excitement!

Grape Harvest!

As I mentioned in a recent post...it was time for our annual scuppernong/muskadine picking.  As many of you know, this vineyard is a short distance from our house.  We have become friends with the owners who have generously allowed us to come every year and pick to our heart's content.  The first year we "accidently" stopped by during harvest with our out of town friends (hello Huddles!!).  The owners are so sweet, and this time even brought out pictures they had taken from our first year there, they have saved them all this time.  It is such a blessing to have such friends and neighbors.

I want me some grapes!

Mmmm....

For your info..THESE are muscadines....

And...

These are Scuppernongs.

It's a beautiful vineyard

Now that box doesn't look like grapes!

E picking away

Watch for bees on those grapes, cause mommy popped on in her mouth on a grape last year and got stung on her tongue!

This was Stef's first year coming with us.

the buckets are getting full

Find just the perfect ones, girls

A family event

We picked over 16 gallons

And tonight there are 14 gallons of soon-to-be wine buried underground brewing till the spring...yum!

Computer back/Shopping!

I am back in action!  I got my computer back today and am so glad!  I have missed blogging and even though I can keep up with my phone, it has not been the same.


So I have a riddle for you?  What do you get when you combine six babies and 13 years?  You get a surprise when you go in the attic and find that the maternity wardrobe you had....will not work anymore.  So, today my mom and I went out maternity shopping.  It was so much fun.  We hit the goldmine at the Motherhood store I went to.  It is just as much fun to be able to smile and enjoy trying on your "preggy clothes" the 7th time as it is the 1st.  It's also fun to be able to tell people that it's my 7th...the responses are so great!  :)  Anyhow, 22 items later we walked out with my wardrobe.  I found some really cute things.  So maybe this will hold me through my next 7 pregnancies...LOL!  Just kidding.  I don't think the Lord will be giving us 14 children...but then again, who can tell the future.  (smile)


My mom is back in the car now (I am on wifi) so have to run...

Tomorrow my Dad is ordained a deacon..a very special day.  But, sadly I will be missing it, because I am coughing as well as the children.  But, it will still be a blessed day!  Happy Sabbath everyone!

phone post!

Good evening everyone. This is a little test blog. I am using a new application on my phone that allows me to post with it to my blog. Modern technology is amazing. S is working tonight so after our Thursday night grocery shopping we are watching the Fiddler on the Roof. I love the music in it!

Fall is in the air!

Well here I am again, popping in to let you all know I have not fallen off the face of the earth!  My computer is still in the shop...it came back to Best Buy after the screen was fixed and failed a mother board test, so of course we told them to send it back...so two more weeks it is!  I am borrowing Stef's computer to update this.  Hopefully, I will be up and running again before too long.  So let's see, several bits of news...

We have been really sick lately with a nasty upper respitory infection.  This was the first time that we took all six children into the dr at the same time...S took off work early and we looked like a parade walking through the drs office.  Antibiotics for all 6, and two cough syrups later we arrived home.  The coughs with this virus have been so very hard!  Never have we had the violence of this cough before.  But it is going around everywhere.  It has been well over two weeks now, and we are still coughing.  Apparently, even after they are over the initial sickness, the cough lingers.  Now this preggy mama is coughing...

I am 11 weeks pregnant...only another week or so till I should feel some relief from the morning sickness!  Yahoo!  We have found a midwife that I think I will really like and she came out to the house for the initial visit.  She and another primary midwife work together and will do either a home birth for me or a birth center birth.  It is up to me.  I go in to tour the birthcenter and have my first prenatal on Monday.  But the best thing is....We heard our precious baby's heartbeat!!!!  I am so thankful to the Lord that He has seen fit to preserve this little life so far.  We already love him.  I say him, because it is Daddy's prediction (and he has been right all six times) that it is a boy.  And the magnet test also said boy.  :)  I am definately growing out of my regular clothes and it is time for maternity clothes to make their appearance.  I am so looking forward to this second trimester.

Fall is in the air.  The nights are gettting cool and the trees are beginning to show change in color.  It has still been quite hot during the day...but the autumn is surely beginning to take hold.  I can't wait to go outside during the day and feel the cool breeze on my face.  I have put out my fall decorations in the house which is a nice change.

It's muscadine time again!  The vines are being harvested and the owners told us we can come whenever we would like to pick.  So tomorrow we are going to get our scupernong grapes!  S is all ready to make and bury his famous wine and we are excited!  You have not tasted anything till you have S's homemade wine.  :)

These next several weeks look to be very busy.  We have our deacon ordination this Lords Day, a baby shower, birthdays, the state fair, S and I have a couples night one weekend, the girl's piano recital, our church's communion season...it's shaping up to be a busy fall!

And the Lord has given us some direction in a major area of our life, which I will be sharing very soon....

Quick update

For those of you who have been daily, hourly and minutely (haha) checking for updates from me...I know, I know my blog has been very silent and boring lately.  But, I have two good excuses.  1.  I have been very morning sick and life has been on quite a standstill.  My days have consisted in keeping my tummy happy (which is not easy) and trying to get a little bit of normal life accomplished.  :)  I did end up so incapacitated by the nausea that I had to go in to the Dr who put me on Zofran for the nausea and Unisom to sleep at night.  The zofran has helped tremendously and I am so thankful.  But, the mommy-has-been-hit-by-a-truck feeling is still there and so I my moving around resembles one of those slugs that kinda creeps slowly across the room.  :)  But, I am happy to say that I am 9 weeks and things seem to be going well.  I am going to be researching midwives and making a final decision as to my caregiver soon...and look forward to hearing a heartbeat in a few weeks, Lord willing!  My belly is already filling out and so this little one is making himself known.  For the record we think this baby is a boy.  S has guessed with every child and been correct each time.  He says "boy".  Also, we did a magnet test which some are convinced is very, very accurate.  It also says "boy".  So, we shall see what this little pumpkin is.  :)

2. My second excuse is that my computer screen on my laptop broke.  Thankfully, we have full warrently, so it is in the shop being repaired.  I am keeping up with email through my phone, but that is not very conducive to long blog posts.  I still have pics to put up from J and E's birthdays...all in time. 

So a couple other bits of news.  Our church is hoping to move into our new building soon.  There is a problem with the floor which we are trying to get fixed (the carpenters botched the application of the stain) so we are delayed a bit, but are really looking forward to getting in there.  It is going to be such a nice place for us.  At the rate our congregation has been growing, we are going to need a bigger place in the not too long future though...it's a good problem to have.  We are having a congregational meeting tomorrow night where we are voting on the election of a new deacon and two new elders possibly.  This would make our whole session to be local, which would be wonderful.

So there is a little update of the E happenins'    Hopefully you will hear more from me as I start feeling better in a few weeks.  Bye for now!