Cleaning, painting, napping, and Worship

We had a great weekend, but it was too short. On Saturday we started cleaning out our house in preparation for a garage sale. The first one we have ever done. All of our baby things are going to be sold, hopefully. I can't wait to get ride of everything once and for all. When I found out I was pregnant with Jessica I had to buy several new things since I had donated or passed stuff along to friends. Now that Jessica is a toddler, ok mom, so she's been a toddler since the day she was born, I know. :-) But now that she isn't interested in all the baby toys and she has been climbing in and out of her crib for I don't know how long we are getting rid of a lot of little baby things. And hopefully we can make some money out of it.

We also went to a T-ball game for Michael and My cousins Meagan and and Travis came to watch. Thanks so much, it was great having you there. Below are some pictures of Michael playing T-ball.

After the game I was able to take a nap with Jessica. It was great. I can’t remember the last time I took a nap.

Last week I worked on repainting Michael’s room. It’s about time we turned the nursery into a big boy room. It turned out to be a fantastic color blue. I’ll post pictures when we get the room back together and decorated.

Then Sunday we had a great time at church. Jessica was actually pretty quiet and it helped that the speaker didn’t go too long with his exhortation. And the subject was very relative to our lives, helping us to see that our treasure should not be money because as we have realized it is not eternal and can easily be gone.

Sunday afternoon Daniel practiced t-ball with Michael and Sarah and Sarah actually did a wonderful job she kept hitting the ball when he would pitch it to her. Now we are thinking that we should have put her in T-ball too. Oh well, next season.

He also practiced a bit with teaching Sarah to ride her bike without her training wheels. Let’s just say she needs more practice. Then he took Michael and Sarah on a bike ride around the block. Isn’t he a great father! I just love watching him with the kids. He adores them and they adore him. And so do I. He is so wonderful and when I look at him I’m always reminded of how gracious and present God is in my life, because Daniel is an answer to my prayers in every way. I love him.

While he was having fun out side I was mopping the kitchen floor and tearing the house apart in search of the DVD case to Ironman which was overdue because we couldn’t find the case. I finally found it stuck inside part of the hide-a-bed part of our couch. Don’t ask me how it got there. Anyway, that is all that is new with us. Oh wait one more thing, we bought a cow, half a cow to be more specific, an organic, pestiside, and hormone free cow. We get it at the beginning of November. Yummy. Please enjoy the pictures below of the summer and various other stuff.

Take care and may God Bless you.

Love,

Dawn

Sarah's 4th Birthday

Michael's first day of Kindergarten.

Hello Family and Friends,

It has been such a long time since I posted I honestly don't know where to start. Let's see...

Michael started kindergarten this year, which is the main reason I haven't posted in so long. I wasn't aware how life would change once a child was in school full time. I was very nervous the whole summer about sending him to public school. I felt like I was throwing him to the wolves. But I joined PTA, SAC (school advisory counsel) and I'm the class mom for Michael's class so I feel like I am somewhat of a presence at his school. His school has been described as having a private school atmosphere, so with all these things considered I am feeling very comfortable about it now. He is doing so well in "big school". He wants to go everyday. And he is learning to read at a phenomenal rate! He is already asking to write sentences and is able to sound out the words he wants to write and gets the correct letter for that particular sound a good amount of the time. I am really impressed. He gets homework every night which I wasn't expecting in kindergarten. Kindergarten is not the same as it was when I was a kid. His teacher was telling me that since "no child left behind" began in Florida, pre-kindergarten(which is government funded) has turned into kindergarten and kindergarten has turned into 1st grade. He loves buying school lunch and wants to do it everyday. I feel like such a bad mom letting him, I know this sounds ridiculous but for some reason if I don't make his lunch I feel like I am not taking good care of him. Daniel reassures me that that is not true and I know intellectually that he is right, but emotionally I can't get over the feeling. I miss him when he is in school all day. Then he come home and has a melt down and I think the school day just isn't long enough! LOL :-) He has been very respectful and kind in school. This is something that we had many conversations about over the summer. With the Godless society of today I don't want my children to think that having respect for adults and being under authority is optional. Once they are trained that this is the way our Heavenly Father has ordained things they are very accepting of it. He is having a hard time grasping why they don't pray for snack and lunch at school even after we have explained it to him, but I guess not understanding why everyone doesn't praise and thank God is a good thing. Michael had his first piano recital last week and he did exceptionally well. We think we might tone piano down a bit like 1 lesson a month and concentrate on other things for a while. I don't want to be one of those family's that is on the go every day with no down time. Michael was in basket ball over the summer and is presently in T-Ball. No one told me how fun children sports were. It is hysterical to watch these little ones play. T-Ball does take up a lot of time though with practice/game every Wednesday and Saturday. But Michael really enjoys it and has been a busy boy this summer.. Over all he is doing very well and I pray for God's continued grace and guidance in raising Michael, Sarah, and Jessica to His glory.

Sarah started pre-kindergarten this year, which is not much different from her 3-year-old preschool class last year. She does go 3 days a week now and is learning more in depth letter and numbers. She is not in any extracurricular activities yet, but this week we are going to check out ballet and gymnastics and see if anything is reasonable and something she would like. She is also interested in starting piano, but I think we will wait a year or 2 before we begin with her. She loves pre-K and is bummed out when it isn't one of her school days. But I enjoy the time at home with her. She loves going to Church and being in Sunday School. She is very interested in the Kingdom-to-come and the emblems (bread and wine) and will talk about them spontaneously throughout the week. She'll say something like, "When Jesus comes back the angels will take care of me, Michael, and Jessica while you and Daddy help with the Kingdom." And then "I know what the wine means...it means Jesus's blood so we can remember how Jesus died for us." It warms my heart and brings tears to my eyes when I hear them talking about Godly things all the time. Now if I could only get them to finish memorizing Psalm 23, they can't seem to get past the 4th verse. Hmm. Overall Sarah is doing very well. She has a fantastic imagination and will go off to her room and play for hours alone. Her room looks like a bomb went off in it when she is done, but you know she had a good time.

Jessica is now 15-months-old and my little hurricane. When she leaves a room, any room, it looks a hurricane just hit. Everything is on the floor or toppled over and now that she knows how to take her diaper off there might even be some water damage! In an attempt to rein her in we have converted our house to Fort Knox. Our bathrooms are gated, the kitchen is gated, pen, crayons, markers are locked away, bookshelves are nailed to the wall and all doors are locked shut. And still she manages to get into things. But she is awesome. She has a fiery temper which requires correction and repoof, but she is also so sweet giving my kisses and back scratches for no reason. She is also very smart, all you have to do is show her something once and she has it down. This has caused some problems for the 2 older kids though. I've been trying to teach them that everything they do Jessica sees and will repeat. For example Michael pushed a kitchen chair up to the the counter 1 time and now Jessica does it every chance she gets and tries to climb onto the kitchen counters. She has developed a love for Sesame Street and watches it everyday. She'll sit on the couch and dance to the songs which is hysterical to watch because as she dances she moves forward and then bops herself off the couch. She hasn't been feeling well for about a week due to canine and 1 year molars coming it on the top and bottom. Michael and Sarah didn't get their 1 year molars until they were 2 so they were able to deal with it very well. Jessica, on the other hand is having a hard time and is miserable. Luckily she is still nursing so that gives her comfort and helps us all sleep at night.

Daniel is busy at work and NOT school! Woo Who! I am so glad he graduated. We have so much more family time now. He leaves work early on Wednesday to take Micheal to T-ball which is great for me because then I get some extra time to cook dinner and do housework. We started doing a new Bible study together. We have been going through the parent workbook of this great book, "Shepherding a Child's Heart" by Tedd Tripp. It is a study that goes through the biblical concepts and principals of child rearing. Right now we are looking at the scripture that identifies the heart issues that inevitably lead to sin. For example Proverbs 12:22 "Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those who deal truthfully are His delight." is a great verse to use to direct children to God's Word when they lie and to show them the alternative, which is pleasing to God.

I have been super busy. On top of school and sport stuff I've been getting our house ready to paint. My mom is coming over tomorrow to help me finally turn Michael's room into a big boy room. We are painting it this fabulous blue and giving it a kind of nautical theme. Then this weekend Daniel and I are going to start the long process of repainting our foyer, living/dinning room, and family room this fantastic greenish-brown. I can't wait! The walls need repainting so badly. I have also finally started losing weight. It only took 15 months for my hormones to finally regulate after having Jesse. But hooray I've lost 5 lbs in 1 week! I have also been riding my bike and bike-trailer with Sarah and Jesse in it to take and pick-up Michael from school 3 days a week. The exercise has been great.

Well, that is all for now. We pray for all of you every night and hope you are all well.

Love,
Dawn

Hello Everyone we love,

What an exciting past week it has been! My brother-in-law Ronnie Garan went up on the Space Shuttle Discovery on Saturday, May, 31. It was a picture perfect lift-off. Today, Ronnie did his 1st of 3 space walks and it went very well. Please pray for God's continued care of Ronnie and his fellow astronauts. He returns home in 2 weeks.

Attached are some recent pictures. This is the last week of school for Michael and Sarah. Michael has his pre-school graduation this Friday. I can't believe my little boy will be in Kindergarten next year...yikes... where did these past 5 years go! Our plans for the summer include Bible school and then a condensed version of pre-school for the month of July. It will be a nice way to break-up the long summer. Hopefully it will be a nice and relaxed summer.

Jessica turns one-year-old at the end of the month, June 27th! Wow, finally. This past year dragged for me mainly because she has been a very difficult baby. She is so funny and has such a big personality, she is physically advanced meeting all her milestone 3-4 months before expected, but she is also very high maintenance, not a good sleeper, and needy of me all the time. But she is awesome nonetheless.

Michael is doing very well in piano and this summer is starting sports at the local YMCA. I will also be starting to teach Michael and Sarah to read this summer. I think they will both do well and I'm really looking forward to it. Watch Jessica catch on and start reading too, I wouldn't be surprised ;-)

On a personal note, I have a friend who's 2-year-old daughter, Sarah Townsend, has been diagnosed with a very serious cancer and I am asking everyone I know to pray that God heals this little girl, and comforts and supports her family during this time. With God nothing is impossible for those who ask so please ask our Heavenly Father to give mercy and healing to Sarah Townsend and her family. Thanks you.

Love in our Savior's name,
Dawn

I strive to be a woman after God's own heart.

My daily goal is always the same: do bible study for myself, lead my children in daily devotions to God, pray 3 times a day, exercise, play with my children, keep my house clean, the laundry done, and have dinner ready at 5:30. I'm a stay-at-home-mom and this is my job. Yet you might be surprised to know that days, weeks, even months go by where none of these things get done. I am full of good intentions and everything is mapped out on paper, but in reality I'm a wretched servant. And in this season of my life I know how important it is to instill in my children the love of God. Yet, making breakfast for the kids can last well into the morning, Jessica's naps always occur when I need to do laundry or vacuum, and I'm always in a state of sheer exhaustion. Our family continues to thrive only because of our Father's loving care and mercy. He blesses my family every moment of every day in spite of my disobedience. I fight the good fight, but always fall short. I'm so grateful for my Lord and Savior, he was obedient to the death and suffered so much for me. And our Father loved us so much, that he let his only Son die that we might be forgiven of our sins. I can not imagine watching my son die and that realization makes me solemn. I feel like when I let the day-to-day cares of this world take over that I am not showing respect or appreciation for his sacrifice. I only pray that our Father shows mercy on me at he judgment seat. And I long for the Kingdom where my only thought and care is serving God and Jesus.

Hello everyone. I know it's crazy 2 posts in 2 days, but I have some news. Jessica who turned 5-months-old 2 days ago is now... hold onto your pants... pulling herself up into a standing position!! I mean come on! We thought crawling and sitting up at just 4-months-old was physically advanced, but to pull herself and stand at just 5-months-old, what up with that? I think I might have to talk to her pediatrican. My sister-in-law Carmel said that her bones aren't developed enough for standing, so I am concerned that this might cause some kind of damage. I'll keep everyone posted.

Love,
Dawn

Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve written an update. And so much has happened these past couple months. I’m not sure where to begin. I guess I’ll start with the kids.

Michael turned 5-years-old November 5^th and he is about to start piano lessons, which I am very excited about. School is going very well for him and he has become very interested in reading so I am going to start teaching him sounds and how to read them. We are working on some disciple issues with him at the moment. Right now I’m working on getting Michael to obey me completely. He’s got the immediately and cheerful part down but it’s not full obedience without complete obedience so we trying to get him squared with that. And he has some issues where he totally wigs out, we call it his ‘fits’ because they aren’t really temper tantrums. It’s like a meltdown that can happen at anytime regardless of hunger or tiredness and it’s triggered by the silliest of things like me not answering him right away or him not hearing me. We had a week of training and now we are in the week where he will be disciplined if he doesn’t control himself. So far he hasn’t had a single fit. So we’ll see how it works out.

Sarah is doing really well in school as well and she as become interested in writing letters. It’s so fun to watch them right ‘e’ for the first time. We’ve had some issues of her being a bit mean to Jessica and we are trying to work that out. She has been eating a lot more recently so I think she might be about to have a growth spurt. She’s still my sweet girl and we might be putting her into piano lessons as well. We’ll have to see.

Jessica is 5-months-old today and you won’t believe what she is up to. She is crawling and sitting up and transitioning with ease from one to the other, but not only that she is pulling herself to a standing position. And this morning she just crawled from the living room into my bedroom following the sound of my voice. What 5-month-old infant does thing like this. She’s almost spooky. I’ll be hold her facing he and she’ll turn her torso to face out and then she’ll arch her back to face me and then turn her torso again and before I know it she is literally spinning in my arms. She has gotten to be really funny lately doing things she knows will make us laugh. She is really becoming a joy and I am so glad we had her. I think I’m at the point where I can say I do it all again for her.

Daniel is doing great! His class will be over next week and right now he is in RI for work. He and his brothers gave he dad a surprise party for his 70^th birthday in NY the week before Thanksgiving so we went and stayed for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun. We went to Manhattan the night before the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and saw the balloons blown up. It was awesome. Then we had a wonder Thanksgiving with Daniel’s dad, Maria, John, Joy, Steven, and Nicole. It was great seeing them all.

On a very sad note, my Grandma Sanfilippo passed away very unexpectedly November 4^th just 2 weeks before we were going to see her. It’s still hard to believe. She never got to meet Jessica. I have so many wonderful memories of her and I will always hold them dear. She was everything a grandma should be. She loved her grandchildren and would give them anything they asked; all we had to do was name it. And she was there for us always. She always had a loving hand if we needed it, a loving kiss, a loving hug, and many sweet, loving deserts. She was laid to rest next to my grandpa on their 60^th wedding anniversary, how poetic is that. I am filled with loving memories and I will miss her very much.

It has been a very chaotic 2 months for me. As everyone knows, I have been struggling with finding time for my Medical Transcription studies, which I look forward to doing as a career someday. The material is challenging, but very enjoyable. The struggle comes with the need for a 2nd income and trying to juggle running a household, raising children, and studying all at the same time. Three-weeks-ago my mom was going to start watching my children 2 days a week so I could devote the whole day to school work. The day this was supposed to start was the day we got the bad news that my grandma passed away. So instead of finally getting a jump on my studies I was on a plane to NJ with Jessica; leaving Michael and Sarah for the first time in their lives. I returned home Midnight on Friday only to prepare for Michael’s 5^th birthday party which was starting at 11am Saturday morning. As soon as the party was over I rushed to get things done for my friend Shelly Well’s bridal shower which was the next day at 11:30 in the morning. When that was over I started doing laundry, packing, shopping, and borrowing clothes for our trip to NY. I have been on the go for 3 weeks straight.

When we got back a week later I thought, “Ok I can finally start attacking my studies” only to find out that my mom wants to find a job and won't be able to watch my kids. So I'm going to have to study in the 4 hours when Michael and Sarah are in school. After I brought Michael and Sarah to preschool, I finally started schoolwork . I put Jessica in her playpen and started transcribing. Five minutes into it she started crying so I brought her into my room and let her play on the floor. Five more minutes into my work she fell backwards and hit her head on a computer cart. After calming her down I put her in her exersaucer and went back to work. And again, 5 minutes later she started crying because she pooped and I had to changer her diaper. By then she was ready for a feeding and a nap. She fell asleep but to keep her asleep she had to lay on my chest. So there I was in the rocker for an hour. It was during this time that I looked around at my house and thought about my husband and kids and realized… this was not how God wanted me to care for my house and family. There were dirty dishes in the sink and on the counters, dishes were still on the table from breakfast, the floor was covered in toys. There were piles of dirty laundry and more piles of clean laundry I haven’t had time to put away. My kitchen floor hasn’t been mopped in a month and I can’t remember the last time I did the bathroom floors. I then started thinking about what my kids do when I’m doing school work. They just watch TV and pretty much fend for themselves. I want to do daily devotions with them and start teaching them Bible verse memorizations, but I don’t have the time. So after a lot of prayer and meditation, Daniel and I have decided that it is in the best interests of my family that I stop my medical transcription studies for now with the plan to resume them when Michael and Sarah are in Elementary school and Jessica is in preschool, which will be in 2 years. It was a difficult decision because it means even more time will go by that our family won’t have another income. Plus we are now out the tuition for the course. That being said my families emotional needs come first and I will now be there 100% for them. I think that God has made my ability to finish my studies so difficult in order for me to realize the roll he has planned for me, what I am supposed to be doing 100% of the time not 75% or 80% of the time, which is running my household and raising my kids in the knowledge and Glory of the Lord. I am confident that God will provide for our needs without me bringing in another income.

I pray you are all well. Take care and God bless.

Love,

Dawn

Hello Everyone!

I know it's been a little over a month since my last post. I have been swamped with everything. First of all, Jessica is doing really well. She goes to sleep at 8:00 every night. But her sleep isn't sound enough to put her in bed and have her stay asleep. So at 8:00 I get her pjs on and nurse her to sleep, then I rock and burp her for about an hour. Usually by then she is in deep enough sleep to be laid in bed and stay asleep. Some night are better then others. But over all she is sleeping well. And I thank God for this blessing; He answered my prayers! She is now 3 months old and is rolling over both ways and doing the army crawl. I'm not kidding. She scoots all over the room, it;s hysterical to watch. She is also turning into a very happy baby. She coos and babbles and we finally got her giggling today. I didn't think it would happen, but she has become a very happy baby.

Michael and Sarah started school last Month. On the way to school, the first day, Sarah was complaining that she didn't want to go because she would miss me and that would make her sad. Michael proceeded to tell her how much fun she would have playing with toys, doing crafts, going to PE and Music, etc. So we get to school and I take Sarah to her class first and I'm expecting her to start crying. So I start getting her back pack and cubby sorted and her teacher comes out and welcomes her. I turn around ready for a battle and she is gone. She totally went right in and didn't even give me a kiss goodbye. I couldn't believe it. So I walk Michael over to his room fully expecting him to run right in. Well what do you know, he starts crying saying he is nervous and doesn't want to go to school. I couldn't believe how Michael and Sarah reversed roles. Sarah went right in and didn't even say goodbye and I had to pry Michael off my leg. It was a strange turn of events. Everyone is well adjust now.

Daniel is taking a difficult graduate class this semester. And I am still plugging away at my Medical Transcription studies. I am so stressed out these day though with all the house work, laundry, kids preschool stuff, Michael, Sarah, Jessica, Daniel and my own school work. Sometimes the stress of it all freezes me and I can't bring myself to open a single book, clean a single plate, or fold a single shirt. And I hardly have any energy these days.

Well, it's bedtime for Jessica. Take Care and God Bless.

Love,
Dawn