Sunday School

We just finished up our last Sunday in the four & five year old classroom for the year!  Our last five Sundays to teach have been fun, but like a long list of other things (i.e. house chores, cooking dinner, following our daily schedule, rotating toys, doing "school" with the boys, blogging, blah blah blah) I haven't been giving it 100% due to my pregnancy fatigue and nasea.  Even though I didn't think of super cool craft ideas, class went well and the kids were happy with what we did do.  Here are pictures of the crafts from our last four lessons:

First, I don't have a picture from our lesson on Elijah & the widow.  We didn't do one; instead we went outside and collected sticks like the widow was doing to prepare for her last meal.  When we came inside, we found a big loaf of bread!  We talked about how God provides for us and we are so blessed to have snacks at church.  We also prayed for faith like Elijah.

 The week we taught on Solomon, I didn't do a whole lot of preparation.  After reading the story and watching a cartoon clip of the story we did a simple coloring sheet.  I love how the kids are so happy to do anything you make sound exciting!  We prayed for God to give us wisdom like Solomon.  We talked about how living in a humble home with little money and knowing Jesus is better than a big fancy home but not knowing Jesus.  Wisdom is more valuable than rubies and diamonds.













This next craft was for the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  This was an exciting story because of what happened to the three men for their faith in God.  The kids were silent for the entire story, as well as the video clip.  For the craft they glued flames to the paper, along with the three men, and the fourth man, Jesus, that protected them.  Their faith was so great that even when their life was threatened in a terrible way, they stood strong for the Lord.  I pray that none of these little kiddos have to face such terrible persecution in their lives, but whatever trials they may have to walk through that God would give them strength and faith to stand for Truth for His glory.

This craft is looking pretty shabby- it was left in the van and acquired a few dirty foot prints.  The story for this coloring sheet, if you haven't guessed already, is of boy kind Josiah!  I love sharing stories of the men our boys are named after.  I prayed over the kids that God would give them each a heart that is sensitive to the Spirit.  That they would have a deep love and devotion to God's Word just like Josiah.  I prayed that they would not only have a desire to regularly read God's word but to live out God's word.








Lastly, we have Jonah & the whale!  This was another great one because all of the kids knew it.  We talked about making good choices and how it usually doesn't end up "well with you" when you disobey.  Then we rejoiced over God's mercy and grace and how God will always forgive a sorry heart- I explained what having a contrite heart means.  For the craft each kid glued blue tissue paper squares to their whale cutout.

Its been a fun year!  I think one of my favorite times in the classroom is the prayer/praise time right after our worship.  I love to hear their cute little requests for Jesus to heal a sisters owie or a mommy's tummy ache, or for a grieving family that lost a pet fish.  Then there's the sweet praises for a new toy or a new sibling or a visit with cousins.  There are always a few kids (sometimes my Eli) who are thankful for Jesus.  It must put a smile on His face.  Absolutely precious!

Own unique fingerprint at 13 weeks!

Even though I've done this whole pregnant thing three times before, it still amazes me to read about the baby's miraculous development inside my womb.  This is what has been happening for the last week (13 week old fetus)...

Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long  and weighs nearly an ounce.

I am so thankful and overwhelmed that God is allowing me to experience this miracle again, blessing me with yet another sweet newborn to hold on my chest, and entrusting me with another child to raise.  May He give me the strength and wisdom to do it all to His glory! 

The wedding season has begun!

It is so beautiful to witness a wedding of two people who both love the Lord with all their heart.  Those are my favorite weddings to go to.  They leave me so edified.  It's SO exciting to watch a couple begin their marriage on the right path.  Here's a sweet little clip of a godly couple exchanging their wedding vows. 

Yep, its true! We are having ANOTHER baby!

Here we go again!  If you haven't heard by now, I'm 3mos pregnant and due with #4 on New Year's Eve!  It was pretty shocking news for me, as I was wanting to have a bigger gap between #3 & #4.  I am also a little nervous about how everything will work out with four little ones.  I'm praying for supernatural mommy abilities so I can do a really, really good job.  I am so thankful and appreciative of the positive and encouraging responses to our news.  Two emails in particular blessed me greatly-- I want to share them below this next picture:

 I had an ultrasound today.  Even though I asked for a "between the legs shot", its a little too early to tell.  For those of you familiar with ultrasound pics you can see the legs and those two white lines almost in an arrow shape in the middle.  We looked at google images to see if it resembled other boy or girl ultrasound pictures, and they all look really similar at this stage.  I will say though, that I'm thinking it may be a boy after seeing how active this little one was!  Showing off for the camera just like the first three!!  There is one big difference this time around- its how much better I feel.  Even though I am nauseated often, its not constant and I haven't been nearly as physically sick as I was with the first three.

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Hi Jessica!

Congratulations! I think that is awesome! I know how overwhelming it is to have so many little ones. Sometimes it feels like you can hardly keep your head above the water...but Christ sustains you and carries you and provides everything you need for this season!

 Looking back, those were beautiful days...when all the little ones were all around me all the time. It's so hard to see it now...but you will look back, too, when the three boys you have are men. And they live giving their hearts, souls, minds, and strength to the One who gave all for them. It's so hard to watch them now carrying their crosses...whatever that may look like on a particular day. Sometimes it's homesickness when they know they are where God wants them, but they miss family. Sometimes it's trial in ministry, a broken heart from a person's harsh criticism, discouragement, watching them be overwhelmed in what God has given them to do and having to seek His comfort, encouragement, hope and promises. Whatever they are enduring as men of God, we as mothers remember those precious times when our kisses and hugs made everything better. When we got to tuck them under their covers and know that they were safe from any distress or concern.

 Love this time, Jess...even with all its crazy demands, chaos, exhaustion. Trust that God has established spacing and order of the children exactly how He desires it to be, and that anything that must be endured because of it is ordained by God to establish Godly character and ruin fleshly habits. Don't grow weary in doing good....lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...

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Hi Jess!
I just wanted to say again, happy mommy-hood!  It would seem God has decided to give you more than you've ever thought you'd be able to contain in terms of joy.  Yes, with that, some hard work, but there is nothing more wonderful than the gift of life, and He is so blessing you!  Think what your life will be when you are your moms age, or your grandmas, with lots of little grands and greats around you at your 80th!

Wow.  You are so blessed.  :-)

I pray that God will allow you to see just how much He is showering you with favor and that you will enjoy Him forever.

Traveling with little ones...

We don't usually do a lot of traveling since we have little ones, but for some reason we're going to be doing a lot more of it this summer.  Here's what it looked like for the last thirty minutes of our drive home from the Klamath Basin yesterday:

 Despite what it looks like here, it was a fun trip.  We got to see people we love, had delicious meals prepared for us, the boys got to run wild in the country, we received countless hugs and everyone was constantly adoring our little blessings.  And an extra special treat- my grandma insisted that we use her washer to do our laundry, so now my clothes smell like my grandma's laundry.  Some people may not like that idea, but I  happen to love the smell of my grandma's laundry!  :)

Kisses from my Bean

bad news after bad news after bad news

Life has been full of bad news lately!  My heart feels so sad and discouraged.  There are so many friends or acquaintances or friends of friends going through brutal trials.  My grandma's husband, Ted, has Leukemia.  I know of three ladies, young moms, battling through difficult pregnancies and possibly facing the devastating reality of losing their unborn babies.  I know an amazing woman of God struggling and grieving over the life of her 20 year old son as he is faces a 5yr prison sentence... and now her best friend has breast cancer.  I know of a faithful and gorgeous 34yr old woman (and mother) who, after having a rough last five years, found out she has stage IV colon cancer... then found out her brother-in-law has a stage IV brain tumor.  I know a young couple who are trying to be a light to their parents who are separating after 30+ years of marriage.  I know a sweet lady and mother of two who, after a year of battling breast cancer, now has thyroid cancer.  

There is a phrase that Pastor Rob loves and often quotes.  It goes like this:  "God's past faithfulness demands our present trust in Him."  We know He has done great things.  He has made what was once filthy, beautiful and has restored the years that the locus destroyed.  We know He can be trusted.  I love that when we are struggling to be faithful and trust Him, He can supernaturally fill us with those things.  It reminds me of a few lyrics from a song our worship leader wrote years ago:
When we're faithless, You are faithful.  
When we're helpless, You are able.  
When we're empty, You sustain us.

Noah's 3rd Birthday!

I was a little nervous how Noah would respond to all the birthday attention, since he's not one that likes attention in a group setting.  He did great, though!  It's a good thing I spent quite a bit of time talking to him about what to expect and things he could say when people spoke to him.  He seemed to even enjoy his birthday song!  Yay!

Noah has been really into farm animals lately, so when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted he decided on a horse cake!  I'm so glad that he approved of it... actually he really, really loved it!

My big boy!

House Projects

I would hardly consider the weather we've been getting for the past two months as spring weather, but hey, at least its not snowing like it has down at my mom's cabin in southern Oregon!  Even though we have been drenched in rain lately, we do seem to get glimmers of spring every once in awhile, and whenever that sun does come out from hiding and chase those storm clouds away, we are out working in the yard or playing.  Here are some of the projects we've done:

Becky helped us paint Eli & Noah's room in April.  We let Eli paint his name before we started.

My mom came to visit in May and bought us paint to paint our living room and kitchen.  She, Jonny and I spent about five hours painting on a Saturday.  Here's the green we picked for one of our walls.  (Not a very flattering pic of me, but look at the green paint!)

The rest of the room is this brown color.  It turned out really, really nice.  Jonny was up there vacuuming all the dust!  The wall behind him is the wall that is now green. 

I'm loving how our entrance is looking.  My mom gave us the Oelkers' sign a several months ago- one of her many talents/hobbies is making and selling these types of signs. The boys gave me the hanging flower basket for Mother's Day.

Because of the weather, we planted our garden really late this year.  We're finally seeing some things pop up.  It's so fun for the kids to watch our garden veggies grow!

My rock path around our garden beds is almost complete!  All of those rocks are from the river- or at least the roads near the river.  At several different trips throughout the year, I've taken the boys with big buckets to go collect rocks.  Its been a great activity!  Since this picture, I've laid soil down and plated strawberries in the area at the end of the beds surrounding the bushes.

And finally, my pretty flowers by our front window!  Becky was up here in April, and she helped me plant them.They're not real big yet, but still looking good.  The Snap Dragons are out of control- I think I need to tie them back somehow.