My facebook isn't working this week, so I'm back to talking to myself in my blog again. :) It has only been a few days since my last blog, but with the quick pace of our lives, that is certainly enough to make a nice, long, boring blog!

Yesterday morning began early since we were sending Hannah off to a basketball tournament in Ft. Wayne. I got up about 6:45 to put a blueberry coffee cake in the oven, and the day started from there. As soon as I finished school planning for the week and got the remaining six kids ready, I took off for six stores with six kids. I got some good deals at CVS ($4 Huggies and $2 - 12 packs of Coke for Steve) to start off the day.

When we were checking out at the Dollar Store, the cashier complimented me on the kids' behavior. She said she couldn't believe there were so many kids in the store because sometimes one or two kids come in and drive her nuts. Let me just take a minute to thank EVERYONE that takes time to praise mothers (especially if they have lots of children) in public for their children's behavior. I usually can't see beyond all the trees around me to realize the forest big picture that my children are making strides toward godly behavior. I once heard of a mother that would treat her kids to ice cream when they would get compliments in public. My kids just have to be satified with a thank you from mommy! :)

Steve wants me to make matching Easter dresses for the five girls and myself this year, so we stopped by Jo-Ann. We found a material the girls liked, but even with my 50% off coupon, I couldn't bring myself to spend $100 on clothes. That would pretty much wipe out the clothing budget for the whole year.

We also stopped by Aldi, where I had just been scratching out a list through the week of things I ran out of. Steve had just gone to Aldi for me the week before with a thorough list, so I only took $70 (of my new-found money). Dumb! I guess I'm one of those old people now, but things have gone up sooo much over the past few years, and I'm still calculating things at their cheaper prices. My total came to $74, so I asked the cashier to take a few things off. A sweet lady behind me that had been talking to a few of the kids gave the cashier the money for me to get the items I couldn't pay for. I thought that was so sweet! We also found a cart in the parking lot, so we made $.25 off the extra cart. :)

After our shopping we headed to a birthday party then home to make cake and corn bread for the chili supper. I also need to share that the kids put the groceries away while I was getting the two little ones down for a nap. I must admit that I was pretty tired after baths and Bible reading last night!

Today we had a nice church service - Steve is doing a series on the family then a birthday party in the afternoon. Now I have a cake in the oven for our chili supper for tonight. Hmmm . . . does this sound familiar to anyone else? :)

I'm 33 weeks today!! We are starting to really look forward to Mary's arrival. I spent some of my new-found money on shelves/hanging bars for the girls' closet since four of them will be sharing the space now. Hopefully that will get completed this week and Ruth will be oficially moved upstairs. Then I have to get all the baby girl stuff ready in the nursery. I fell down a few stairs this week lugging drawers downstairs, so I'll be very happy to have all this done before the bump in front of me gets any larger!

The Lord has so greatly blessed me! I have a precious family, a wonderful church family, and so many godly friends! In our quiet time reading this week we read of the Mary and Martha story. It was a good reminder to choose what is better in life, serving the Lord, then being worried and troubled about many things, which is way to easy to do with seven kids in the house!

Well, the cake just beeped, so it is time to end!