Not too many pictures this week. We been organizing and getting rid of stuff around the house. But here's a fun story. Yesterday morning our Internet went out. So we couldn't talk to daddy without the wifi and I'm not computer savvy and couldn't fix it on my own. I ended up on the phone off and on for 3 1/2 hours with Robert (causing him to stay up till 11pm his time), him looking up all sorts of issues that could be wrong. Me communicating horribly what the computer was telling me and him trying to dumb down his instructions so even I can understand! Finally after trying things I never even knew existed on computers he said we had done everything imaginable and it still wasn't working. So I just needed to call the company and pay the arm and a leg to get help. But at the last minute he told me to make sure the cable was still connected where he had spliced it half way across the room. I went and looked and the cord was undone, just laying there in two pieces where a child had unscrewed it. Ha! Oh man. Such is life! He told me to tape it so its harder for them to get apart and hide it. Which ofcourse, I haven't done yet. (He would've done it that very moment!). I gotta remember to do that.
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We bought a new tree. Robert said to get a big fat one that we can have for a good long while. Knowing the absolute horrific persecution being done to Hobby Lobby by our governement I decided to show them our family's support by shopping there. It was a great hardship and sacrafice. *sarcasm* But I will definitely be looking for anyway to give any support to Hobby Lobby for standing up for their right to refuse to pay for others' abortions. And to be honest, a part of me can not believe that I just had to make that statement! That we are even in a place as a country that people are being FORCED to pay for the death of a stranger's child is absolutly brain exploding, right?! I'm just.... obviously so niave to be shocked that we have declined to this point. What some would call progress. sigh.... I'm done..... for now. So we bought a nine foot tree, a few new tree decorations and a small tree for downstairs without any decor for it. I told the kids that if they wanted it decorated then they had to make ornaments. Amazed at how big of a deal that is for them. They are all over it! Also I bought two tiny trees for their rooms for a just a few bucks a piece. They have already made many gifts and wrapped them for eachother and put them onder the trees in their room! It's so cute! Cal even wrapped one of his balls for Deakin. And better yet, eveything was 50% off! Thank you Hobby Lobby! I cried after I left. Because they had a nice young boy that helped me load the tree box. I had removed half of the back seat thinking that might be enough room. It wasn't. So we uprooted the other half of the back seat and shoved it to the side. Still not enough room. So we moved one of the five point harness seats up a row and pushed the box up on top of the second bench row. That finally worked! But I felt so sad afterwards, thinking of how Robert and I usually would be the ones manuevering and shoving that huge box. God bless that young man, he was so patient and nice through all that. For our view on Christmas: http://coffmanfamily.weebly.com/1/post/2009/12/christmas.html
We still feel good about how we do Christmas. It's fun. Our first son was born on December 4th at 1:19am after 6 1/2 hours of labor in the comfort of our home in Springfield, MO. We named him Cal David Lee because we weren't sure if the Lord would bless us with another son and wanted to get a bit of both of our fathers into the middle name. He was a big 'ol boy at 9 pounds 10 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long. He was such a calm baby and the girls adored having him around. He's still pretty big but thinks I can still carry him around and cuddle with him like a newborn. Today he weighs 41 pounds and is 42 inches tall (he has grown an inch and a half since October! And, interestingly, his weight in pounds has always been almost the same digit as his height in inches!) He has weighed about the same as Bryse since he was 9 months old and has been just a couple inches shorter since he was two! He has a hard time communicating because of being behind on pronunciation but that doesn't stop his amazing vocabulary! The other day I was sorting through some dinosaurs for the party and said, "I think this is just a trex." to which he responded, "No, that's an allosaraus." He knows many dinosaur names! We do a short little bible study at breakfast every morning and he always, without fail, says at some point during the study (no matter what we are talking about): "Jesus died on the cross......for our sins......and he came back to life!" This annoys Bryse to no end but Darby and I think it's awful cute! Him and Deakin sword fight a lot, using whatever they can find. They chase eachother around and play very nicely! Cal has been sharing his room with Deakin for several months now and he does SO well with that. Never had a problem out of him with waking his brother. If he wakes before him in the morning, he quietly gets up and leaves the room shutting the door behind him. Such a sweet big brother. We have so much fun with him. Thank you, Lord, for this little man. We had a super fun party on the first for Cal and Darby! Darby wanted a baking party and homemade pizza. Cal wanted dinosaurs. So I decorated and set up dino games and art down stairs for the little boys and got baking stuff ready upstairs. I baked six large pizza crusts and nine personal sized crusts two days a head of time. Baked the cakes the day before and decorated the night before. So that morning all I had to do was put toppings on the pizzas and decorate the cakes. We had seven adults and thirteen kids. The big girls made their own pizzas while the boys played. It was a beautiful day outside so they played some outside as well. We ate pizzas and then the girls made sugar cookies with cookie cutters and while those were in the oven we cut into the cakes! While the cookies cooled we ripped into presents and then the girls iced the cookies and decorated them! It was a blast with little stress for mama because of all the prep work. Daddy called while we were fixing to eat pizza and talked to a few people on facetime. He was very blessed to see so many people at the house (most he hadn't met) and was glad that I had such good fellowship with so nice people!
Today our oldest turns nine! She was born on Thanksgiving day in 2003 in a hospital in Batesville, Arkansas after roughly 24 hours of labor (12 in the hospital) and 30 minutes of pushing. She weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long with a head full of dark hair. She was identical to my newborn pictures. The Lord has used her in mighty ways in Robert and I's lives. A constant reminder of our need of grace as the first born and guinea pig. And bless her heart for her sweet disposition and compassionate heart that is straight from the Lord. Her middle name, Eleora, means "God is my light", which is our prayer for her life. She is in the third grade and is one of Deakin's favorite people. She loves to cook. Every Sunday morning she makes Jiffy corn muffins for breakfast all by herself! She enjoys reading very much! Daddy bought her the Narnia series for her birthday and she is attacking The Magician's Nephew right now. In other news and random family stories: Cal is currently very passionate about being "tough". If I say he's funny, cute, handsome, sweet, basically anything besides tough, I get an ear full! "I'm not _____, I'm tough!" Which I usually say, "Yes, ofcourse you're tough, but you can be (sweet, handsome, cute) AND tough at the same time!" So the other day he asked to see my thumb. The left one. My right one is healing nicely from the violent smashing but I cut my left one with a knife a week before Thanksgiving. So he asked to see my left thumb. When I showed him he said, "Awe.... that hurts, huh? Did you cry when you cut it?" I said, "No." And he responds, "Yeah! You're tough and pretty!" And gave me a hug. Day made. Bryse got her ears pierced while we were in Springfield, MO. So here is a picture of that. She's only been begging for a couple of years! She said, "Ow." on both sides but that was it! The other day while playing outside and racing with her brother and sister she tripped and plowed face first through the grass. Leaving dirt and leaves up her nose, a swollen lip and nose. But she bounced back quickly. Deakin is running everywhere while, strangely enough, windmilling his right arm. Seems he can run faster if that arms is rotating in large circles. He started saying, "Boo!". He has been in a bit of a mood lately with teething molars and some other things. So he is either really fun or really not fun.
And hopefully I will have lots of pictures of our double birthday party on Saturday. Pray for us with that! Gonna be a full house and lots of kids. Things get crazy when all the friends your kids have also have 2-3 siblings to come along too. ; ) Can't complain, we are one of those families too, so the more the merrier! We got back from our trip at 4pm today. Unloaded the van, put away a lot of things, but not all. Then we ran through Arby's and went to the local Christmas parade at 5:30. Which was FREEZING! We left right after with both girls running because they were scared another moment out in the weather and their toes would break off! Loaded kids back into the van, chairs, double jogging stroller and then realized I couldn't find my cellphone. Wandered around the van looking for several minutes and finally walked back up the sidewalk and found it a ways back (praise God, even though it's in a black case). We still need to go grocery shopping and finish unpacking. It's times like these that I sit back and praise God for carrying us through another day and want to pull my hair out at the people that tell me I "make it look easy". Forget how it looks from the outside and HELP ME!!! Ha! Truly though.
We are pressed but not crushed, by the grace of God. And this month will be tough because next Saturday is the double birthday party and then Christmas all without Daddy present. Been a little more emotional today. Counting my blessings this Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for all the hardships that weaken me so that I will lean on Him who is more strong. I'm thankful for a deployment that leaves me running to the cross to remind myself that my security is in Christ's atonement for me and not in how well I do everything else. Thankful for when I snap at the kids and the Lord uses it to convict me and draw me to repentance. Thankful for a calling to homeschool even though I would not choose it because there is no doubt that it's from selfish ambition. Thankful for a loving God who loved us so much that He took our son Home early so that He could sanctify us in a new way. Thankful for a sleepless baby boy who struggles with unknown food allergies because it is a constant reminder that HIS grace is sufficient. And I will be His annoying daughter that keeps asking for help. This too shall pass but meanwhile I will be thankful for the trials because my God is so great that He uses even the bad. After things simmer down I will get back into posting more. : ) GOD BLESS!! He is so good!! But meanwhile, this... this... this... this: http://www.thevillagechurch.net/the-village-blog/erasing-anxiety/ Look what I got to do this morning! For about twenty whole minutes they cuddled with me watching a video on line. Here is what they watched (a few times in a row), followed by a few other animated videos about the gospel: We are finally getting back into a good routine with school after many interruptions a couple weeks back. Deakin is pushing up two molars. I have been asked to lead a short bible study for the women at church on Saturday. Bryse is healing very nicely and has a doctor appointment back in Kansas City on Monday morning. We are headed to Springfield for a few days after that appointment and then on to Pea Ridge for Thanksgiving. Hoping to be back in Kansas the day after Thanksgiving (maybe) and then on December 1st we are having a joint birthday party for Darby's 9th and Cal's 4th! After that we will mail out Christmas presents to Texas family and then things should calm down nicely. : ) I've already finished all Birthday and Christmas shopping. Well, there is a quick update and here is a lovely quote that I found very encouraging.
"We must say to ourselves something like this: “Well, when Jesus looked down from the cross, he didn’t think, ‘I am giving myself to you because you are so attractive to me.’ No, he was in agony, and he looked down at us—denying him, abandoning him, and betraying him—and in the greatest act of love in history, he stayed. He said, ‘Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.’ He loved us, not because we were lovely to him, but to make us lovely. That is why I am going to love my spouse."” Tim Keller Here's a recent picture of Robert! He traveled a couple times last week and sent this today of where ever it was he traveled.
I also heard (from what I consider to be a reliable source) that mail stops on the first of December. So if you want to get your soldier anything for Christmas then you have to have it mailed by November 15th! So me and the kids are kicking it into gear in order to get him some treats for Christmas. So if you wanted to try and get something in the mail for him for Christmas, do it soon! In our last package (for his birthday) I tried homemade goodies again. I did puppy chow and it made it fine without getting stale. Also I tried sending a frozen loaf of banana bread. I wrapped it in a gallon ziplock bag, and then a towel, and then an old reusable freezer bag. It took longer than usual for it to get there, 10 days. He said that banana bread looked good and was still cold! He hasn't tried it yet because he says the puppy chow is the greatest thing he's tasted in forever so he can't put it down! We will have to make some more of that. I will also try some peanut butter truffles that he likes and maybe some other frozen baked goods. We will see. In preperation for Bryse's surgery we had a short, kid-friendly book to read on line telling us what to expect. I read it by myself first and cried when it got to the part where the child said goodbye to mommy and walked away with the strange nurse into the OR. Our favorite thing about the book was that we found out that Bryse could take her favorite stuffed animal or blankie with her. Well, puppy is hands down her favorite, hence her full name: Puppy Chow My Favorite (puppy is a girl, as I am so often reminded of). So that made both her and I feel better. But I wanted to go back there too! So I started thinking... Whenever we send daddy a box of goodies and colored pictures we include a picture that says Sealed With a Kiss and we all put some bright red lipstick on and kiss it and put it in the box last. That way it feels like we all sent him a kiss. (Btw, even Cal does this, even though every single time he says "NO!". But somehow at the last minute he just has to send daddy a kiss and puts that lipstick on!) So thinking on this problem I came up with the idea of sewing a mama kiss on Puppy to go with Bryse in the OR. She picked a fabric, I painted my lips with read tempera paint and kissed the fabric, we cut it out like a heart, and sewed it onto Puppy's back right where Bryse told me to. By the way, the injury up by her left ear is from the time that Bryse decided that Puppy had lost too much weight and needed more stuffing. I helped Bryse very little on that project! I just ripped the seam and she did the rest, stuffing her and sewing her back up all by herself.
And, on a side note, today is Robert's 32nd birthday! Happy Birthday, My Man!!! Love you and miss you. When I was in highschool I broke both of my big toes. It's amazing how little you can walk when you have no use of those tiny little appendages. Well, fast forward to last Tuesday.... When we got home from Kansas City after Bryse's surgery I went straight to my friend's house and picked Darby up, drove through Sonic for the kids' dinner and went home. I unloaded the van of all Darby, Cal, Deakin, the diaper bag, my purse, the sonic food, Darby's backpack, her scooter she took to her friend's house, and all the hospital stuff and threw all that on the lawn. Byrse was still pretty out of it and needed to be carried in the house. Deakin is a wild man so meanwhile I was trying to make sure he wasn't running off into the sunset. So I was distracted and in a hurry and as a result I shut the sliding door of our 12 seating full sized van on my right thumb. Hard. I mean, I've never slammed a finger like this. I gasped and fell to the grass in an attempt to released my muscles and relax and started doing those nice diaphramic breaths that help during labor. ; ) Darby started running around looking for some way to help and I just told her to watch Deakin. I walked around some holding my thumb before I realized it was bleeding, from where I did not care, I was too scared to look. I got to my purse and dumped out all my homeopathics with my left hand and rummaged around until I found hypericum and arnica and rescue remedy. Taking those with my left hand was impressive. Then I figured it was time to get some help. Bryse was still sitting in the van waiting to be carried in and the yard was littered with our stuff that needed to be put away! I thought, "I just need help getting everything in the house!" Darby got me a wet wash cloth as I was still bleeding and I went over to our neighbor's house. When they came to the door is when I started crying, "I need help!" then the blubbering started, "Bryse had surgery in Kansas City today and I just shut my thumb in the van door and can't stand to look at it!" They were so sweet. Came over and brought everything in for me and I got the kids started on dinner. It had been about thiry minutes since we got home and all I had was about an hour until bedtime. But I started thinking about all the stuff that needed to be put away, not mention changing Deakin's diaper and putting him in pajamas is a work out! So I texted my pastor's wife and asked if she could help. She's great, good calming presence that had four children of her own that are all grown. She said that my thumb didn't look too bad (I still couldn't look). And she helped a ton for the next hour. Wrestling Deakin into his pjs, reading the kids their bible story before bed while I nursed Deakin, putting things away for me. It was great. I finally wrapped the thumb but kept having to change the bandaging because it was still bleeding. I did several alternative things for gaurding against infection and eventually got the bleeding to stop 3 hours after it happened. Took 4 ibuprofen and went to sleep. It hurt for two days like there was something broken but the joints were all fine. From the top knuckle up was where the damage was. Now it's mainly numb on top and sore on the left side. The bruising is simmering down and looks and feels better but the swelling still hasn't gone down. I still can't use it, although it doesn't kill me everytime I bump it into anything anymore, thankfully! I am amazed at the amount of stuff I can't do without that blasted thumb! Or atleast, the things that are soooo hard to do without it. Folding laundry, washing dishes, changing a diaper, buttoning pants, cutting with a knife, turing a page in a book, tuning the key in the ignition.... I mean, seriously!! Anyway, so that is why I have not been good at texting or typing in the last week. God bless three families through this that have helped! Our Bible study leader's wife came over and cleaned my kitchen and dining room the next day. And an elder from church and his familiy came over and dusted and vacuumed and did some man stuff for me too. Airing up the tires on the kids bikes and checking fluids in the truck and playing with the boys. Praise the Lord!
The church also brought Bryse a basket of flowers. She is so quiet about those things. But after two days of admiring the flowers she finally said, "Mom, I want you to tell the whole church that those flowers just blessed my heart so much." Those of you that know Bryse know that is quite a statement from her! On Tuesday we woke at 5:15am and headed to Kansas City. Darby spent the day with a friend down the road and the boys came with us. Bryse was very excited. The Children's Hospital is totally geared toward kids so that was nice. She got to play with Barbies while we waited to meet with the surgeon and anesthesiologist. We got to talk to daddy on the phone right before the surgery. He was very upset about not being there. After the surgery they sent the doc to tell me how it went. And then I had to wait for her to wake up fully before they would let me see her. In all the surgery took about an hour and the waking up was another 45 minutes or so. She is recovering well. She is not a fan of the tylenol/codiene they sent home with us. She doesn't care much for regular tylenol either. She has mainly been asking for arnica. She says the "big medicine" makes her lazy. ; ) She asked if I had any medicine that would make her wild and hyper again. I told her, sadly, no. She is walking on her own now and taking the stairs in the house well too. She uses a large sword-like flash light that belongs to Cal as a cane. She thinks that is cool. I have a few more things to share about the surgery but I will save that for later. Not much time now.
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LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
January 2022
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