Dropping the Ball

I realize that I have totally dropped the ball on this blog lately.  I have a dozen or so REALLY interesting blog posts formulated in my mind...at least they seem fabulous at 2 am when I am up with Peter.  Then I'll sit down and blankly stare at the computer screen the next day struggling to put together a coherent sentence. 

Peter seems to be regressing rather than progressing in the area of sleep.  He's been up every 2-3 hours each night to nurse and then staying up for an hour or two in the early morning hours.  He also hasn't pooped in a week.  He's passing plenty of gas, so I'm sure that the system is working as it should.  I checked in with our pediatrician about it today and she reassured me that he's probably just getting so much nutrition out of the breast milk that there isn't much waste left to pass through to his diaper.  I've got him started back on some probiotics to help out his tummy.  Hopefully there will be some pooping soon as I think that he does have a bit of a tummy ache.

So what have I been up to during the daylight hours?  The children finished up all of their projects to enter into the county fair and we dropped them off tonight.  As a homeschooling family, it is nice to have a place to display their work and it is great incentive to complete any "almost finished" projects!  I'll let you know how it goes in the judging later on in the week.

VBS started today and it is awesome!  This year's theme is the Luminous Mysteries.  Each day is devoted to learning about one mystery...how cool is that?!?  The down side is that it is at the church that's 50 miles away, so it is a trek to get there.  And when mommy isn't sleeping much it makes the drive feel that much longer!

We had a super successful winter with our crafting business which means we need to replenish our supplies before the fall craft show season is upon us.  Todd and I have been plugging away each evening and are slowly getting our storage bins filled again. 

And did I mention that we re-listed our house?  Yes, we're trying this one more time.  The market has picked up a bit and houses in our neighborhood are selling.  We're praying that it sells and for the graces we need to get through the added stress of having our home on the market, showings, open houses, etc.

Oh my...there's Peter again.  Sorry for the lack of any creativity on this post - just sending out a quick update.

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Our house has never looked better....

As I was just vacuuming upstairs, my husband walked by and said, "Honey, the house has never looked better."  My reply, "Yeah, but we don't get to live in it."

We have another 2 showings today.  I know.  I know.  I've been praying and asking for prayers that our house will sell and it can't sell if people don't look at it.  BUT - we're never at home anymore. And when we are here, we're trying not to get the house dirty so that we won't have to spend another 3-4 hours cleaning.  So, we get the house spic and span and then leave for the day.  That's really no way to live.

The couple that made an offer on our house was way off.  We're already priced at $87 a square foot and they wanted us to come down another $30,000.  Then their agent says, "I thought your sellers were more motivated."  Motivated - yes.  Desperate and ready to give the house away - no. 

It is such a sellers market right now.  Everyone knows somebody who got a smokin' deal and that's what they want as well.  I don't blame them.  We'll be looking for a good deal when it's our turn to buy, too.  But, what's missing here is the concept of paying a fair price for a good product.  We custom built this home 6 years ago and have lovingly taken care of it and added on.  There is so much greed and selfishness out there, it's hard not to become discouraged.

So, we continue on residing in this beautiful home that we can't live in.  I gotta run...there's a showing in half an hour.

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Could it really be true that my Madeline is 11 years old today?  It sure doesn't seem possible that she (or I!) could be that old.  None the less, we celebrated her 11th birthday today.  She had the traditional monkey bread for breakfast and enjoyed dining on the "You Are Special" plate all day long.  She used her cake decorating skills on her cookie cake which turned out lovely. 

Here are some photos of her special day.

A new diary/journal!

WOW!!!  A St. Catherine medal with a relic on the back!

After looking through this crochet book, Madeline said, "Mom, this book is really inspiring!".  She's taken a fancy to crocheting and is making beautiful things.

"I don't really get what all this excitement is about...but did I hear something about cake?"

e-l-e-v-e-n...Madeline said to me today, "Mom, you know that eleven is only two years before being a teenager.  That's a pretty big deal!"

We had a lovely day with swim lessons sandwiched in the middle of all the birthday fun. 

Also, we got an offer on our house today.  A HORRIBLE offer, but an offer.  We countered and now we just wait and see how badly they want it.  As always, your prayers are greatly appreciated!

Thank you for your prayers for my brother.  He is out of the hospital and doing much better.

God Bless!

Heather :-)

6 Showings in 8 Days....Whew!

The past 8 days have been busier than usual around the Kraft house. 

First off, the five biggest kids were all in swim camp last week which took up most of our afternoons.  They LOVE the water and are having a blast with it.  We're all geared up for week #2 to begin on Monday! 

Secondly, we've had 6 showings in the past week.  Why the increased traffic?  Only God knows.  One thing I do know, though, is that I am okay with God's timing in our move...even if that means we don't move....really.  That is huge for me.  There have been a number of things that have happened to me this past year and I think that they have all been leading me to the same point.  Are you ready for this?  I am not in control.  I cannot have what I want when I want it.  God will give me what I need when I need it.  I continue to repeat those sentences in my prayer time and throughout my day.

How do I know what direction God wants me to go?

It sounds so simple, doesn't it?  Putting it into practice is the tricky part.

I need to remember that what I think are "lost opportunities" may not be what I perceive them to be...and to shut-up and listen during my prayer time so I can hear what God is trying to tell me!

Thank you all for your prayers.  We are all ready for this stage to be over and to move onto the next.  Please continue to pray for the best possible outcome for our family and that we will know what that is for us.  Also, say a prayer for my brother who was hospitalized over the weekend with nausea/vomiting.  There is much testing but no diagnosis yet.

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Not Really Wordless Wednesday

These are the business cards left behind by the realtors who bring clients through our home.  We're accumulating  quite the collection!

Showings, showings, showings.  I have a love/hate relationship with them.  I will never turn away a showing because that could be "the one" who decides to buy the house. So the children and I scurry around for about four hours dusting, scrubbing, vacuuming, polishing, and tidying until the house shines.

Over the weekend we lowered the price again and decided to up the pay-out percentage to the agent who brings a client in to buy our home.  We had a showing on Sunday, one on Wednesday, and one scheduled for Thursday afternoon.  I guess that the new pricing seems to be bringing them in at least.

Please keep us in your prayers.  Of course, we'd like the house to sell so that we can move closer to the Church of St. Paul and be near other large home schooling families.  But, more importantly, that we don't lose sight of what it is that God wants for us.  We need patience in waiting for God's plan to unfold.  I was reminded of that today by something that Melody posted over at her blog. 

I'm off to get ready for bed, read the bible, and have some prayer time with my wonderful husband.  Ahhh...life is good! :-)

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Pro Life Prayers

It's been 2 weeks since my miscarriage.  For the most part, I have more good moments than bad.  I am laughing and enjoying life more than I am grieving and crying.  Today was the day that my Pro Life group from church was scheduled to go and pray outside of a local hospital that performs abortions as a part of the 40 Days for Life Campaign.  It took about an hour to get there.  When we got there, my daughters and I said a rosary and then we had some quiet prayer and reflection time.

The thought that I can't seem to wrap my mind around is that there are women who CHOOSE to force a miscarriage on their body.  One of the most painful (physically, emotionally and spiritually) things that I have experienced and wouldn't wish upon anyone is considered reproductive health care in our country.  I don't know how to process that.  I can only pray for all those promoting and selling the lies of abortion, that they will have a conversion of heart.  That was what I prayed for today in my quiet prayer time.

Haley and Madeline were so happy to be there.  They both commented about how quickly our hour passed by and that they would like to go again.

Along the same pro-life topic, our family is taking part in a walk for a local women's clinic.  The kids are super excited!  It is only 2 miles which is totally do-able for the whole family.  I encourage you to try to find a walk in your area.  It is a great way to get out in your neighborhoods and communities to fund-raise and raise awareness for the pro life cause.

Also, have you taken notice of any of the pro-life billboards that have been popping up around the country?  And have you heard the buzz that they're creating in the mainstream media?

This billboard features an image of President Obama and was up in Chicago.

Thatsabortion.com sponsored this billboard.  You may be interested in checking out their site.

This billboard was up in New York City.

I have written about the disproportionate numbers of abortions that occur in the African-American population previously.  I think this is a super effective visual to make that very point.

Wow - I could go on and on.  There is so much happening within the pro-life movement.  We have so much progress to praise God for!  But there is still much work to be done.  Abortion has been legal in this country for 38 years and millions of defenseless mothers have allowed their children to be slaughtered.  We must make our voices heard and stand up for the rights of the unborn.  Pray for the courage, wisdom and compassion to be an effective tool in this fight.

As a side note, we had yet another showing this morning but it appears that they are not interested in buying our house.  Please pray for someone to make us a fair offer on our home so that we can be done with this phase of scrambling to get the house ready to show.  We've been at it for a year now and it is getting tiresome.  We feel so pulled toward this other church with a great home school ministry and would really like to get closer so that we can be more involved.  We are invoking the intercession of  St. Joseph and St. Paul.  Your prayers would be so greatly appreciated.  Thank you!

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Coughing, and Sneezing and Wheezing...oh my! (and other misc happenings)

Yep, we've got the cough/cold respiratory stuff at our house...again.  This time of year is tough and germs seem to spread at record speed.  Right now, the two oldest have it and are on nebulizer treatments, antibiotics and some nasty cough syrup at bedtime.  I have a humidifier going in their room and it feels like a tropical jungle in there!  We're praying that it is short lived and doesn't get passed through the entire house.

We reduced the price of the house....again.  But this is the last time we're able to do that as we're at our bottom number.  It's been almost a week since we reduced and haven't had any showings.  I was expecting it to be busy with showings this week.  Goes to show what I know about the realty game, huh?  :-)  Please pray that some family will come see our home that is able to make a full price offer.  It is a big house and we know that it is too many square feet for the average buyer, so it will take just the right person.  It's been on the market for a long time (about 10 months) and we're really ready to move past this phase of our life.

School has been going well.  We've been doing Math at night so that the kids can get a little extra sleep in the morning.  That has been working out great.  It makes me so thankful for the blessing of home schooling.  The older girls would have missed all week of school and been terribly behind.  Instead, we work at a slower pace and take naps in the afternoon.

We got outside today for a walk around the block.  The fresh air and exercise felt great, but the wind was really blowing.  It's supposed to cool off again tomorrow, so we probably won't have the scooters and strollers out again for a while. :-(  The big kids have been watching the little kids for a half hour each day this week so that I can walk on the treadmill.  They are such a help!  Even that little bit of exercise helps to clear my mind and improve my outlook.

You didn't really want to see me on it, did you?

I've been spending all my spare time sewing to get ready for the National Hearts at Home Conference in Normal, Illinois.  We've got less than three weeks to go and have made great progress, but there's always more to do.  The children are looking forward to having some "vacation days" with the grandparents while mom and dad are gone.

Normal, IL  March 11-12, 2011

Hearts at Home National Conference

Esther is almost weaned and is nursing just in the early morning when she wakes up.  I have such mixed feelings about it, but figure it's for the best.  We are going to be gone for 4 days and it seems silly to pump while we're gone to keep my supply up.  She's 16 months old already and is such a ray of sunshine to the house.  She keeps smiles on all of our faces and is really in to puckering up to get kissed...adorable!

I was hoping to put some pictures of the kids up, but can't figure out how to get them off the camera.  Oh well, some other time....I need to get sewing!  Hope that you're all having a blessed week!

God Bless!

Heather :-)

The Joys of Having a House on the Market

Perhaps you can sense a bit of sarcasm in the the title of my blog.  We've had our house on the market for about 10 months now and have had very little interest, only a handful of showings.  We've been praying and praying and trying to remain patient.  Then, yesterday, we had a showing.  We had another one today. There is one scheduled for tomorrow.  So, whoever it was that started praying for us...keep it up!

This is our third house that we've lived in, so we have experience selling homes and know that it can be a lengthy and painful process.  However, the last time we sold, we only had 4 children (with one on the way) and the market was much better.  The most trying thing is getting and keeping the house clean right before a showing.  The 15 month old pretty much has to be either sleeping or in her high chair, otherwise she's running around the house in destruction mode and undoing everything we just did.

Maybe the most difficult pill to swallow is reading the feedback left by the potential buyers.  The couple that came through yesterday didn't like the house because "the home is very personalized and was intimidating to the buyers".  What does that even mean?  Leave it to my Haley to cut through the crap when she said, "Don't they know we're going to take all of our stuff with us?"  Man, that nine year old can really make me chuckle!

So, we keep praying, cleaning and persevering.  We truly feel that  God is calling us to make this move and know that if it is His will, He can make it happen.  It's that whole patience thing all over again!  Any prayers would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless!

Heather :-)