Our Children: The Way We Build the Nation.

I found this article in the new Above Rubies #85 magazine and just had to post it. THIS is why I love living in a big family and why want a big family myself when I grow up! Totally love this:

Our Children: The Way We Build the Nation.

Children are wonderful.

They are beautiful.

They know how to get your attention.

We adore their chubby cheeks.

Their cute ways.

Their big innocent eyes.

Their little pitter patter of feet.

Their unending questions at they seek answers.

They are our flesh and blood.

They hold our DNA.

They are our future.

They are our heritage.

They are our true riches (money and possessions cannot compare).

They are gifted, talented, and creative.

They are tomorrow’s leaders.

They are tomorrow's provision for our family and nation.

They are tomorrow’s security.

They draw love and many other virtues from us.

They make us a charactered people as we build character in them.

We must take responsibility for them so they will in turn take responsibility for us.

Without children there would be no family.

No Home, Sweet Home.

No Family vacations.

No birthday parties.

No romances. 

No Weddings.

No future work force.

No future soldiers to fight evil.

No future fathers and mothers to raise children.

No babies.

No families.

No nation.

It is foolish to raise cats, dogs, and goldfish to satisfy our paternal and maternal instincts. 

Animals and things are no substitute for children.

By refusing children we accept the destruction of our nation.

Parenting children in NATION BUILDING.

Our western nations have become increasingly sterile, selfish, spoiled, and boring.

We have sacrificed our families and nations on the altars of selfishness, careerism, and materialism.

With smaller and smaller families we have become lonely, deprived, unfulfilled, and without character.

We have little, if any family to come home to.

No laughter, no singing, no natural family to entertain us.

We have no one to care for. We have given what little we have to daycare.

No one to love.

In turn, we have no one to love us.

We have been deceived.

We have created our own holocaust.

We have destroyed ourselves through contraception, sterilization, and abortion.

Pro-choice is the choice of destruction.

We are swiftly breaking the generational chain.

The dynasties are quickly ending.

Hell claps its hands.

Heaven weeps.

What have we left to live for?

By the grace of God, every Christian husband and wife should aim to build a dynasty for God.

The world, heaven, and all creation waits to see what can come out of your home.

Every home should be a little church-the father/pastor, the mother/assistant pastor, and the children the congregation.

Give your children your very best effort.

Your home is you sculpturing studio.

But, you are not sculpturing clay, stone, or paper mache.

You are sculpturing flesh and blood.

As your children are molded in the ways of God, by the enabling of the Holy Spirit, you are sculpturing nothing less then the glorious likeness and image of Go.

Could anything be greater? I think not.

The whole world is waiting. Heaven is waiting.

All creation waits for the manifestation of the “sons of God.”

It is the desperate need of the nations.

What are you waiting for?

It is high time to stand up and take your place in the greatest building project of all time - THE FAMILY.

By Colin Campbell 

Above Rubies # 85.

Being Thankful

Being thankful can sometimes be hard. It’s very easy to be thankful when everything is running smooth when life is good. But what about when it’s tough? It’s nature to start complaining when you’re having a bad time. 

When times are tough, try to think of all the things to be thankful for, it helps.

The past few week I personally went through it. 

My mother had an ultra sound on our little sibling Wednesday 4 weeks ago to find no heartbeat and the baby only measures 8 weeks, where my mother was 11 weeks pregnant. Baby was still there and was perfectly formed, so they where able to take a few pictures.

The next Monday my mother miscarried. It was a tough time and it was natural to go sit and cry and complain.

When I read my mother’s blog post on the miscarriages and talked to her I realized I should be thankful for everything I have. 

I started writing it down:

Thankful for the most beautiful family of 10 the Lord gave me.

Thankful to know that there are 5 siblings waiting in heaven for me, that I will meet some day.

Thankful that I had the honour of taking a picture of my mother with her tummy.

Thankful that we have an ultra sound picture of the baby.

Thankful to know that the Lord knows exactly what he is doing in my life.

Thankful for the most amazing mother.

Thankful for knowing that I can go to my mother any time I want and ask her about anything, she will never send me away. Knowing she will make time for me.

Thankful that she knows when I have a bad attitude and what’s wrong. Not just sending me off, telling me to work on it! She asks me and we talk.

Thankful for a mother that drives me to ballet three times a week and tennis four times.

Thankful for a mother that reads ALL my blog posts for me.

Thankful for a mother that sponsor my baking challenge every two weeks.

Thankful for a mother who makes a big deal out of meal times every day.

Thankful for a mother who gave up her life for us, to educate us herself. 

Thankful for a mother for whom ME TIME isn’t what life is all about.

Thankful and so happy that my mother does tennis with us.

Thankful for the most amazing dad.

Thankful that my dad loves us and cares more about us than any other dad I know.

Thankful for a dad that spend so much money on getting me the right braces.

Thankful for a dad that flew me to Durban for months for my braces.

Thankful for a dad that works SO hard to take care of us.

Thankful for a dad that takes us for fun things.

Thankful for a dad that is the leader of our home.

Thankful for a dad that reads my blog posts every time I sent one. (My mom and dad checks every signal one of my blog posts, for spelling and grammar)

Thankful for each of my siblings of all ages.

Thankful for a “big brother” that I love so much and can talk to about just about anything.

Thankful that the Lord gave me a little sister and that I’m not the only girl.

Thankful for all the little ones, that look up to me as their big sister.

Thankful to know that there is still a baby in our home, even though little Michael is already 2 years old, he will always be the baby.

Thankfully looking forward to have my own babies and growing family one day.

Thankful to know there are lots of things in life to look forward to.

This list can go on forever!

So I just wanted to say, think on the bright side, every storm has an end, every cloud has a silver lining.

Have a blessed day everyone and start working on your own thankful list.

Heidi-Mari

Blue, Buttons Bling Card for Stampin for the Weekend.

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good week!

It’s Friday again and time for a new challenge over at Stampin for the Weekend!!

The theme for this two weeks is................

Blue, Buttons and Bling!!!

So here is my card to show you!

I normally find it difficult to make boy cards and to use buttons! I hardly EVER use buttons. I just can’t think of a way to arrange them in a creative way I like! 

But with this card I managed pretty well! 

I used an old Sugar Nellie stamp and colored it with the following Copics:

E00, E21 and R20 - for the baby’s skin 

B05, B02 and B000 - for the baby’s nappy and the blue lines of his hat.

Y15, Y11 and Y00 - for the yellow on his hat.

G17, G14 and G12 - for the flowers on his hat.

W3 - for a shadow around the stamp.

I found a few new ideas for buttons and I think this one looks best! 

Punching holes in the paper, then putting the ribbon through and make a knot.

And for the finishing touch, I put buttons onto every second knot.

I wrote “It’s a Boy” in a dark blue color, on a light blue card stock, and then stuck it on a yellow piece of paper.

This is a little squirrel I cut out of some of the paper.

Please go and take a look at Stampin for the Weekend, look at all the beautiful DT cards and see if you can take part in our challenge! 

I would also like to take part in the following challenges with this card:

Shelly's Images - Anything goes.

Digistamps 4 Joy -  Boys/Men

Penny's Paper-Crafty -  Anything Goes

Truly Scrumptious - Anything Goes 

A Spoonful Of Sugar -  Anything Goes 

Tuesday Throwdown - Baby/Child

Have a blessed weekend!

Crafty Greeting

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Hello everyone, HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!

I hope you all spoiled your mothers today! 

We gave my mother a lot of presents this year:

We gave my mother a new pair of slippers, since her feet is always cold in the winter!

It was very hard to wrap. But I think it turned out pretty good! 

I wrapped silver ribbon around and added a flower in the middle.

I made a gift box for my mother too. Here are some pictures of it.

For the front, I used a new Whiff of Joy stamp called: Baking Tray of Love and colored her with the following copics:

E37, E35 and E33 - for her hair and the heart cookies 

E00, E21 and R20 - for the skin 

Y15, Y11 and Y00 - for the top part of her dress 

RV34, RV13 and RV10 - for the bottom part of her dress

E33 and E53 - for the baking tray 

W3 - for a shadow around the stamp

Then I stuck some heart gems with flowers in the middle and one at the bottom of the hearts. I also glued a few pearls for a final touch.

For the second side, I cut a doily in quarters and put them in the two corners.

The I arranged one big flower and three little flowers at the bottom part of the big flower, and three heart pins coming out at the top. I also used some pearls on the corners.

On the third side, I used another new stamp from Whiff of Joy called: Dare to Dream. I colored her with the following Copics:

E37, E35 and E33 - for her hair 

E00, E21 and R20 - for her skin 

RV34, RV13 and RV10 - for the top and bottom part of her dress 

Y15, Y11 and Y00 - for the middle part of her dress, some dots on the bottom of her dress and the flowers in her hand

G14 and G12 - for the leaves of the flowers

W3 - for the shadow around the stamp

For some more decoration, I made holes in the paper, two by two and then tied knots with three different colored ribbons.

And then for the forth side, I glued a pice of ribbon and lace at the bottom and a big flower with a few little flowers in the top left corner. 

I also made a swirl of small pink and yellow pearls come out of the flower.

To put inside the box I made packets of Lavender and Epsom salt, to put in her bath. You can read more about the Lavender and Epsom salt packets here.

My little sister Danika also made my mother a gift box:

I think it is excellent for a 7 year old! She did most of it by herself! 

We also gave my mother a new Willow Tree Doll. The one we gave her’s name was Close to me! One of a mother and daughter and I just love it! 

We also gave my mother a set of new cake forks and spoons, since her’s was really old!

Here is a family picture we took today. From left to right: 

David 4 years, Me 13, Andrew 5, Daniel 2, Josua 10, Michael 16 months, my dear mother, CJ 16, Danika 7 and my dad.

And one of my mother and a her children! It’s very hard to let everyone smile at the same time!

I also have a list of 12 things I love about my mother. Since my mother have 12 children. (4 waiting in heaven)

So here it is:

1 I love it that my mother don’t leave us at schools and play groups and go to work. As a “full time job”. My mother is a full time MOTHER at home!

2 I love it that my mother homeschool us!

3 I love that my mother wants all the children God wants her to have, by not using the pill or abortion.

4 I love that my mother cooks a big meal every night from scratch!

5 I love it that my mother spend lots of time with us.

6 I love it that my mother makes us clothes.

7 I love it that my mother drives us around to our activities - taking my older brother CJ to the horse farm 3 days a week and me and Danika twice a week to ballet. My mother only have Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays to not have to drive us around! 

8 I love it that my mother NEVER complains about things like driving us around, “not sleeping at night” because of babies. I know some of my mother's friends that do complain constantly because they don’t sleep! 

9 I love it that my mother is NEVER moody! 

10 I love it that my mother is hardly ever sick! And when she is it is SO hard to keep her in bed! “BUT I have to go and do this or that!!”

11 I love it that when we are sick my mother takes good care of us!

12 I love it that my mother (and father) teach us so much of God and what He want us to do! Even with the little ones! 

I love my mother!!!

Now I’m challenging you to write down 7 or more points of what you love about your mother! Even if it’s not Mothers Day any more! I give you about a week or two, and if you have a blog, link it back to this posting and leave a comment so we can have a look! 

Lets see how many of you love and appreciate your mothers!

Have a blessed week!

Heidi-Mari