To Everything There Is A Season

A Time For Every Purpose Under Heaven

A blog about raising a young family and keeping Christ at the center of it.



The Cyrs

The Cyrs
Photo Credit: Rachel Dewhurst

Thursday, May 23, 2013

A Time for a 12-passenger van...or not?



Oddly enough one of the first things that went through our minds after finding out I was pregnant again was, "What will we drive??!!". After getting over the initial shock of course. When we purchased our Yukon just over 2 years ago we had the 5 kids with no plans for more. When surprise blessing #6 was on the way we thought, "oh cool, we've filled up our truck, no extra seat anymore". When we found out about surprise blessing #7 we had no idea what we were going to do. Here's our dilema...

1. We live in the woods on a dirt road that the town does not maintain. It is the responsibility of the few residents that live on it to maintain it. We pay for plowing, etc. but you really need 4-wheel drive (a feature most 12-passenger vans do not come with) if you want to be guaranteed to get out everyday in the winter. Ben gets out with his car but he has studded snow tires and chains in his trunk...we don't fit in a car anyway so that's not an option for us. :)

2. Our garage is only so big. The height of a 12-passenger van is taller than our garage so if we decided to get one of those then it would need to stay parked outside...really defeating the purpose of having a brand new garage. I'm pretty spoiled now and love the fact that I never have to clean snow off my vehicle or trudge through snow with all the kids to get to it.

3. Having just bought the Yukon (you can read all about that here: How God Provided) not too long ago we really were not in a position to buy a new vehicle...and we really don't want to because we love the Yukon! 

4. And lastly...I just don't want to drive a van that size! I admit it. When we spent 4 months in WA state, shortly after our 3rd was born, for Ben's work the rental car company was out of SUV's and the only vehicle large enough to accommodate our family size and all the luggage & baby gear we had was a 12-passenger van. So that is what we drove for our time out there. Ben loved it. I'm not sure if it was the van he liked so much or the fact that it was brand new and we've never had a brand new vehicle in our lives! Anyway, I did not like it. I found it really intimidating to drive. I know I would get used to it but I just don't want to...unless I absolutely have to! 

So when you consider all these things what do you do? Friends of ours began telling us of this website called "Little Passengers" that will custom make seats and benches specifically for SUV's. You give them your make and model and they customize it to fit. So we looked into it. What we read and learned we liked. It seems like the perfect solution to our transportation issue. While it is costly considering you are just buying a seat, it's cheaper than buying a new vehicle and the seat can be taken out and put into a new vehicle of the same model should you decide in the future to buy a new one. Yes we will lose our cargo space in the back but thankfully we have a roof carrier that my aunt & uncle gave us to put luggage when we travel as well as a covered u-haul style trailer they gave us. We take the trailer anyway when camping because we just can't fit all the gear we need otherwise. So traveling will not be an issue. It is not purchased yet, however. We will wait till the baby is here to do that. I am not a pessimist but a realist and the realist me (that should say "us" because Ben and I are both the same when it comes to this) says wait because even though things are going well and you and baby are healthy anything can happen between now and then. It's a lot of money to spend if you end up not needing it. So I will let you know once we get it and have used it for awhile what we think. For now though I'm excited about it and thankful we have this option. For a little bit longer I can avoid driving a 12-passenger van! 

Monday, May 20, 2013

A Time for Singing



O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. ~Psalm 95:1


There is always singing or music playing in this house. Having a husband who is very musical and loving music myself its rare there isn't a cd playing, instrument playing or voice singing. I am the first to admit that I have a terrible voice but thankfully the only thing God requires of me is to "make a joyful noise". In turn we spend a lot of time teaching our kids songs and hymns, we usually sing 3 or 4 after family devotions together. The thing about our kids though is outside the confines of this house they are very shy to sing for people. One of our good friends who is the song leader at church is one of the few who knows their willingness to sing because they are like family. One evening at church he prepared a song with the boys and him to sing for our church family. He managed to get 3 boys up there...Owen was having nothing to do with it! :) He's our extremely shy one. So for our family and friends who miss out on this part of our kids lives here are a few videos. They are not professional singers by any means but they do understand the joy that comes from singing praises to God! Click on the underlined links and they will take you to the you tube video. Enjoy. :)

1-2-3 Jesus Loves Me: Will & Jena
If you are not familiar with this song the last line is "9,10 it's time to end there's no time to sing it again" and Ben always does this part with the kids in a crying, sad voice...

Daniel Was a Man of Prayer: Gabe
This was when Gabe was 4 so about 2 years ago.

Showers of Blessings: The 5 older ones
Jena was not in the mood for singing when we did this but often
you will hear her walking around the house singing this song.

My God is So Great
Will is SO loud. He loves to sing and if he knows the song well
he lets it all out! :)





Tuesday, May 14, 2013

A Time for "I love you because..."



This year for Mother's Day Ben had the kids write down reason's why they love me on small pieces of paper. One side said, "I love you because..." and the other side was for them to fill out. It was then presented to me in a jar on Mother's Day. I loved the thoughtfulness in the gift, the planning ahead and time that was involved, but mostly I loved some of the answers they gave! Ben said he didn't have to prod or give ideas even with Jena...that is what made these especially funny I think. This had me smiling and laughing and I know it's something I will enjoy looking back on in the years to come...enjoy!

"you think of good ideas which make me happy"-Owen

"I love mom!"-Jena
             

"you always turn on the radio in my room"-Will


"you are my mom"-Noah           

"You take care of me & my problems"-Gabe

"You feed me every morning"-Noah

"You take care of me when I am sick"-Owen

"You bring money to the dollar store"-Gabe

"You pick out my clothes, especially my shorts & t-shirt"-Will

"You find my tag blanket"-Jena

"You love me"-Noah

"You sign me up for soccer"-Owen

"You let me play outside"-Will

"You brush my hair gently"-Jena

"You get me cool stuff for Christmas, like in my stocking"-Noah

"You bring me to the beach"-Gabe

"When I cough sometimes you bring me to the Dr.'s"-Will

"You get me glasses"-Noah

"You get me cool things for my b-day like an RC car (but I actually can't remember if you are the one who got me that)-Owen

"The Bible tells me so"-Jena ( Ben has a side note that says, "she said this for real!")

"You feed me tasty-Oh's"-Owen

"You put me to bed...yes, I like going to bed"-Gabe

"You bring me to Walmart"-Will

"You give me milk"-Jena

"You do absolutely everything for me"-Tess (via dad!)

"You're my mom and you understand my problems"-Noah

"You get me hot lunch"-Gabe

"You bring me to VBS"-Owen

"You let me sleep "a little bit"-Will

"You bring me to church"-Jena

"You help me with my homework"-Noah

"You let me watch some of Star Wars & get me Star Wars things"-Owen

"You got out clothes I haven't worn in a long time"-Gabe

"You let us play wii when we want to play"-Will