Be Merciful

Posted on May 17, 2013 by sarabethgrace

This week we worked on the letter Mm. We didn’t do all that much now having tiny one home and figuring out how to balance some homeschool activities while also tending to feeding and changing diapers. It’s a fun new challenge and I look forward to continuing down the path of homeschool.

It amazes me how much the girls learn through the activities we do and hubby and I making a habit of pointing out letters and words when reading and doing various other activities. They pick up so much without there needing to be a large amount of structure- It’s so fun!

Our verse this week was Luke 6:36 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

This verse really struck me as it relates to parenting. Being merciful is being full of mercy.

It brought up questions like, Am I merciful to my children? Are my standards too high that they can’t ever hope to reach them, and thus fail? (which then I would be lacking mercy) Am I too hard on my children sometimes? I have been pondering these types of questions. I certainly don’t think being merciful equates to a lack of disciple or allowing children to “get away” with whatever they want. Psalm 103: 8 says, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Our God is so merciful to us as we constantly fall short, thus we ought to show mercy.

I started reading “Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches” by Rachel Jankovic and found this passage to be particularly on point , and I think it relates to being merciful:

Parenting isn’t easy, but I have found that there is much more joy when I choose to approach struggle with mercy and patience, and not see misbehavior as something against me personally, but as an opportunity to guide my children and help them grow.

Five Years

Posted on May 15, 2013 by sarabethgrace

Today our miscarriage five years ago has been on my heart. There is a box that sits on our dresser in our bedroom holding the tokens of love when friends and family found out we were expecting and token of sympathy that we received following our miscarriage. I have an ultrasound picture from May 7, 2008, the day we found out our precious little no longer had a heartbeat. Sometime between 10-12 weeks our baby baby, what we affectionately called him/her, stopped developing and other than that we have no answers. I like having this box as a reminder of him/her, something tangible that represents life. Putting together this box helped a lot in my grieving process. At first there was shock and then, of course, a period of grief. It’s been five years already, which seems crazy. A lot changed in my life shortly after my miscarriage-for example, I quit my job because many that I worked with were not supportive of me needing time to grieve and told me I needed to “get over it”, I started working part-time, which thus made for an easier transition to me staying home full time with our now four children. It’s neat to be able to look back and see the steps along the journey that have brought me to where I am now. In the midst of pain and struggle things don’t seem fair, they don’t make sense, but relying on God for strength and knowing He will never leave you or forsake you brings comfort and rest and can ease the storms of life.

We just welcomed our fourth daughter into our arms just a little over a week ago. In a strange way it is neat that the dates are so close together. In some ways we have come full circle- from a heavy heart five years ago to being able to hold new life.

I think it is important to talk about this so others know they aren’t alone in the grief. I have found that the more you talk about it, the more people you find that have had a similar experience. A friend recently blogged about her miscarriage (Our Contented Life: Losing our second love) and I think she beautifully put into words her feelings and thoughts on grieving and finding joy. She made the point that you can find comfort and love from those who “have walked a mile in a matching pair of shoes or haven’t felt the emotions of your plight at all.” It is important to share our pain and sadness with others. God created us to be relational.

For me, the experience of miscarriage propelled a passion to help and serve women faced with an unplanned pregnancy and has grown my awareness of abortion and finding ways to assist in helping women choose life for their baby. The main avenue my husband and I have been able to do this is through Pregnancy Solutions and Services. They are worth checking out and supporting! Connected with this great organization is ICU Mobile. ICU Mobile seeks to “serve and provide care for abortion determined women and their families, empowering them to choose life while sharing the love of Jesus.” Together they provide free ultrasounds to women facing an unplanned pregnancy in the Akron, OH area. ICU Mobile is expanding across the country, partnering with like hearted pregnancy centers to provide ultrasounds. Did you know that 86.9% of abortion minded women choose life after seeing their baby on an ultrasound? That is a huge deal!

Be encouraged that you are not alone in your struggles, sadness, grief. There is still joy amidst the storms. It’s good to take the time you need to grieve, and in doing that, finding those around you who love you and support you in the storm.

Our “Baby Baby’s” Box:

Tessa’s Birth: The lightning round

Posted on May 7, 2013 by elgwhoppo

Ladies and gentlemen it is time that I, Joe Clarke, take the www.joeandsarabeth.com helm once again to write about the birth of another beautiful child of ours. It would seem that this is about the only time that I write on this site anymore is to provide a detailed “from the eyes of Joe” experience brief complete with honest revelations and perhaps a dash of humor. Let’s be honest, since I’ve posted for every one of the kids when they’ve been born, I’ve put something in motion that I can’t stop. Unless we stop having kids. But that’s a conversation for another day.

Also on that note, for the haters, don’t be sorry that I have 4 girls. Children are a blessing, and it irks me to no end to hear someone say “ohh I’m sorry man, 4 girls? How old are you again?”. I usually stop them right there and say, well you shouldn’t be. Kids are a blessing and I love my family. I love having a big family, ups and downs, challenges and easy times. Talk to folks we know like the Pavlak, Agnone, and Uvegas families and ask them what it was like steering the ship of a family with a lot of children. Ask them what it was like on Christmas, do they really remember the total dollar amount they spent in the weeks before Christmas, or do they remember their kids’ faces? Ask them if they could do it all over again if they would wanted to have had fewer kids. OK, rant over on the quantity of kids part of the conversation.

It’s pretty humorous that just earlier on that day, SB and I were joking with our friends, Nate and Cindy, about the fact that it really could be any day now that our little girl comes along. In fact, Cindy was rooting for that baby to drop right then and there I think. It would seem her wish was granted. So anyway, there I was. It was about 11:30 at night and I was occupying space in SB’s office due to my eviction from the basement office due to recent external plumbing failures. I was enjoying what I would call a well earned round of Team Fortress 2 with Erik Gibson (Crashmagnet), posting Forge LAN photos, working on a presentation for work and just having a grand old time on a real desktop computer. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Mac, but every now and again I just want my 3 monitors and 2 video cards, especially this week since my PC had been sitting on the kitchen table for a week.

Sarabeth walked into her office and said…”I think my water broke”. I said in a fairly nonchalant fashion…”Oh snap. What does that mean again? I suppose you should call the doctors office.” Then I actually typed into google (this is how sadly dependent and forgetful I’ve become) “what to do when your water breaks”. The internet reached out from my computer, smacked me in the head and said: “go to the hospital dummy”. The woman who answered the phone for the doctor’s office when SB called also concurred with the internet’s assessment. So we called SB’s mom and she came over. And thus the adventure begun. I carefully drove to the hospital, doing about 5 under on every road in super grandma mode. On the way to the hospital, we knew that SB probably wouldn’t get anything to eat if the birthing process was to be anything like what we’d experienced before (several hours long), so we stopped by the golden arches for some french fries. We continued on our way, and during the ride I distinctly remember telling SB, “There’s no way you’re 9cm yet…I’m pretty sure you would know it and would be punching me in the face”.

We arrived, got checked into the hospital and got immediately placed into a room. I went down to get the rest of the bags since it was obvious we were staying, and on the way back into the room I definitely heard one of the nurses say, “Oh my, you’re about 10cm! You’re almost ready to push!” Uhhhh…..saywhat? So I’m not going to have time to do a live blog here? I really had to eat my words on that one.

The nurse started an IV on SB, which always ends up making me queasy, especially if they have to do it twice, which she did. So I went and sat down, as I could feel the color draining from my face. Way to be a real man Joe, a real man. Your wife is about to be stretched out like a balloon and you’re falling over white in the face because an IV missed? Yep. I sure was. And I probably still do that in the future. If SB ever has to do a C-section, I’m going to need some Valium. Hey, at least I know myself well enough to call it like it is.

So the IV was started and Dr. Foote showed up just at the right time. It was at this point we were trying to decide if an epidural would be effective at all since we were this far along. The scariest part I think for SB was simply not knowing what natural child birth was going to be like. We ended up deciding that an epidural was more risky, because SB was having the labor shakes and since she was now 10cm, she was pretty much done already. So we pressed on! And by we, I mean SB. I was merely the washcloth, ice, drink man. That was me. I had it down pat though. And talk about weird, I was just sitting there saying nothing doing nothing, not a single sarcastic quip or joke was heard from me for the entire time she was in labor. I suppose that’s a good thing, all I kept saying was positive encouraging remarks. Then at 1:44AM, our little Tessa emerged weighing in at 5 pounds and 13 ounces, 18 and 1/4 inches long. Sarabeth is a champion, and I’m so proud of her for pressing through!

Welcome to the world Tessa. You have tons of love around you, especially from the two people who will be on your side no matter what may come in this world, your Mommy and Daddy. Love you.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Posted on April 29, 2013 by sarabethgrace

Yes, I know, totally overused phrase. This phrase is holding true for me so far though-Geez! April has left me in a haze! We approached April knowing that hubby would be traveling each week. Though we weren’t excited in the least about this, it’s manageable and part of his work from time to time. But the other stuff that has come our way this month has definitely been “showers.”

We have had mice in our house-gah! Seriously, not cool (see previous post: 4:30am, Sickness and a mouse, OH MY!). First we thought it was a solo mouse, but he ended up having three amigos. Mice are gone, we have moved on from that.

Cue, crankiness and lack of listening, which I fully believe is the girls adjusting to daddy being gone for work and figuring that out. Not a huge deal by any means, just tiring when running solo.

Growing baby, growing belly. Wrapping up the month at 38 weeks. Pregnancy treats me well, just adds to the tiredness.

And the GRAND FINALE- over 18 inches of water in our basement! WHAT IN THE WORLD (I definitely say this often, and now my four year old says it too)?!?! The main water line to our house burst and left us with a mess! We were left with no water and no heat in our home and with three littles ones this gets complicated! We have been living as vagabonds for a few days. All our stuff is in the garage, some salvageable, some not. And this week we continue to process of restoration after the space is dry.

This has been a trial for sure. It’s going to be a big project to get back to “normal,” but things are moving in a decent direction so far.

Even with seemingly so much chaos, we are still able to smile and chalk it up to “it’s just stuff.” The timing of it all isn’t great, but the timing of any trial really is never great, right? It’s exhausting, but we will get through.

The great thing is, we can rest in the Lord. There is hope, there is always hope. In the midst of trial, whatever the trial is, God is constant, does not fail, and will not leave you.

There is hope.

Though the process to get things back to “normal” is going to take weeks, there are blessings from this. We can update the furnace, water heater, washer and dryer (all of which were ruined by the amount of water in the basement), we can get rid of some of the stuff that isn’t needed, which is freeing. It’s not fun, it’s not what we wanted to be dealing with right now, but it also it’s terrible.

I will say that I am looking forward to “flowers” in May. One of which will be our sweet babe, any day now.

So long, April!

Tie Dye Spring Flowers

Posted on April 11, 2013 by sarabethgrace

The girls and I put some spring into our home a bit ago by making these easy and mostly mess free flowers. We made hearts for February (Tie Dye Valentine Craft) and I decided we’d keep at it for the different seasons and holidays since it is fun and all the girls are able to participate, which is definitely a bonus!

Supplies: coffee filters, washable markers, paint brushes, water

Color on the filters, add water with the paint brush. The markers bleed to make a cool tie dye effect.

Fun for all ages! My littlest is just over one year and she was able to add some water and help with our fun craft.

Aren’t they pretty? We really enjoyed using the bright colors.

I have put ribbon on our kitchen cabinets by simply knotting either end and attaching the ribbon with masking tape to the inside of the cabinet at the top and bottom. I then use close pins to pin the flowers to it. Brightens up the kitchen on those rainy days

I hope you enjoy making this craft with your little ones, or older ones for that matter. We will have to decide what’s next for a tie dye summertime craft.

In Defense of [my] Children

Posted on April 10, 2013 by sarabethgrace

The other day I read a post from a mom entitled “Are you Done Yet? In Defense of our 5th Child.” She has many great things to say and I found myself nodding in agreement throughout. Take this tid bit:

“Here’s my question: why can’t we look at children as future contributors to society, not burdens on society? My children are the best gift I have for society. Children bring hope for the future and model unconditional love. Have we forgotten? It is the sign of a dying society when we see our children as burdens rather than beacons of hope, future innovators (From “Are You Done Yet? In Defense of our 5th Child”).

She goes on to describe some of the rewards of children, and I couldn’t agree more:

Children keep me young and joyful.
Younger kids bring joy out of my older kids, no matter how grumpy they get.
Life is never boring!
I don’t sweat the small stuff anymore.
Parenthood makes me work hard.
Kids make me realize how ridiculous I can be.
There is nothing like parenthood to keep you humble.
I want less stuff.

I totally related to this post and was reminded of a post that I jotted some thoughts on, but haven’t gotten around to posting. I feel inspired and encouraged to share my thoughts on the matter. I just need to find more than five minutes that I can sit down and blog

Thank you, God, for Sunshine and Washing Machines

Posted on March 28, 2013 by sarabethgrace

Well, sickness has reeked havoc on our home since Saturday night. Actually, make that since sometime last week when L was sick, got better, we thought we were in the clear and then BAM! sickness crept back to keep us busy for a week now. The days have been long and lacking in lots of fun, but we have carved out moments of joy and making memories. Like, L and I staying up late watching movies and eating ice cream

I was happy to wake up to sunshine pouring in through the blinds this morning! That glimpse of sunshine made this morning just that more enjoyable and hopefully there is more sunshine to come. I felt hopeful as the sun poured in. Thank you, God, for that moment, You know what we need-even down to the perfect timing of a few rays of sun.

I am also so thankful for my washing machine! 15+ loads of laundry since Saturday-good times. I can’t imagine washing that much laundry with a washboard and basin! That would have been crazy!

In the midst of all this sickness I am reminding myself that, though it has been a long week, this too shall pass. I need to find my strength in the Lord and keep going (even with throw up, accidents and messes all over the house).

Soon we will be all better and the weather will be warm and we can enjoy springtime. Here is to being hopeful and trying to keep a positive outlook.

4:30am, sickness, and a mouse, OH MY!!!

Posted on March 22, 2013 by sarabethgrace

This week has been interesting. Really comical at this point. I am thankful I can laugh about it and am not down in the dumps about the craziness that has presented itself to the girls and I throughout the week. Take note, hubby was out of town for work this week.

The week started normal, stayed around the house on Monday. I am definitely nesting, so I have a list of things I am trying to clean and organize before baby sister arrives in May. We had Life Group Monday night which is always a good time and uplifting to be living life with some awesome Christ followers. We got home, girls went to bed much later than normal, but we had no plans in the morning, so it wasn’t a big deal.

The craziness began around 4:30am Tuesday morning when all the girls woke up wailing. I think one started and then the others woke up because of it. It was fun (not) After we all got some more rest we were much better. The rest of the day we had some running around to do, and I should have definitely went to the grocery store, but didn’t make it there. Retrospect.

Wednesday early morning L woke up sick, throw up everywhere. Yay. No grocery shopping today. Meals became creative as we were lacking ingredients, but we had things to eat, and for that again, I am thankful. L slept the sickness off all day and THANKFULLY no one else has gotten sick!

This leads up to the grand finale (unless something more exciting happens today) of discovering a mouse in our basement. Seriously! J said she saw something scurry across the floor and I thought she was joking. They have recently watched CInderella and all those mice are super cute and friendly, so I thought she as just pretending. Definitely no pretending here. I can handle a lot of things, but a mouse is not one of them! He (or she) is super tiny, but at the same time scary. We all got upstairs and have not returned to the basement to check on our friend. My brother set some traps and I am NOT about to go see the result of those. And here is some irony-earlier Thursday I was reading books to the girls and we read one entitled, “The Mouse Who Trusted the Cat.” I really hope this mouse isn’t all that trustworthy and stays put in the basement until someone else can check on the situation. I do think it got in through the garage, so we don’t really have a mouse problem, just one pesky intruder.

The mouse in our basement might be just as cute as this picture from the book, but he doesn’t belong in our house. It is official that we will never own any type of rodent as a pet!

I say all this to make a point, that even though our week didn’t go as planned and there have been several things that were not fun, but rather challenging, I can rest in Christ, find strength and encouragement, and know that God meets all my needs.

We didn’t lack any good thing this week. Keeping my eyes on Christ and having a positive perspective, I got through these silly challenges that could have brought me down.

Whatever the challenge or frustration is big or small, serious or silly, the Lord is there.

Cute Jellyfish Craft

Posted on March 8, 2013 by sarabethgrace

This week we are working on the letter Jj. We have been working our way through the alphabet at our own pace, no rushing, lots of flexibility, no pressure on myself or the girls to speed through. It has been working really well for us and this week we did a fun jellyfish craft. I am sure there are other blog posts out there with similar crafts or some pins on Pinterest, but from what I saw, no one was using a neat little technique of coffee filters for the tentacles. So, here is how we made our jellyfish:

Supplies: egg carton, coffee filters, paint, paint brushes, glue, string, googly eyes, scissors

Cut out sections of the egg carton and let the painting begin! Evening our one year old partook in a little painting, but her interest didn’t last this time long enough to take a picture

Dry time and prep for next steps.

Punch a hole through the top of the carton section, pull strong of your choice through and tie in a knot. Apply glue around edge for tentacles.

Little hands love helping with gooey glue I cut the outer edge of some coffee filters which gave a cool wiggly, crinkle effect without having to fold paper back and forth. Coffee filters are a must have for crafting with little kids-SO MANY possibilities (Tie-Dye Heart Craft)!

Finished!

I think they are adorable! Even hubby commented that he thought they were cute and fun. Real live jellyfish are certainly not as cute, and definitely not fun! But this craft makes a great addition to working on the letter Jj or ocean lessons!

God is SO big!

Posted on February 28, 2013 by sarabethgrace

J and I had a sweet conversation at bedtime. She was asking about how big God is. I am thankful for her sweet heart and mind. She is thinking a lot about God lately. Thanks God for speaking quietly to her heart, she is listening.

J: “Mommy, is God bigger than you?”

Me: “Definitely!”

J: “Bigger than our house?”

Me: “Yes!”

J: “Our house is really, really big.”

Me: “God is way bigger than our house.”

J: “Is He bigger than a giraffe?”

Me: “Yes”

J: “But giraffes are really tall!”

Me: “That’s true, but God is WAY, WAY bigger than me, a giraffe or our house.”

J: “Even bigger than the moon when it is full?”

J: “What about the sun?”

Me: “God made everything, He is the biggest.”

J: “God made the first people”

Me: “Yes, He did. Do you know their names?”

J: “Adam and Eve.”

We talked a bit more and she seemed happy with God being the biggest! I wish I knew all that went on in that mind of hers. Great questions from such a little one. I absolutely love it.

“It is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself.” -John Piper

Jeremiah 10:12

It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.

the c crew

family of 6 daily trying to seek the Lord and trust in His plan for us