~When I'm Gone!~

You may have heard of the sweet married couple Joey + Rory that sang together.  They suffered A TON together as well.  Their story in a few short words are:
First she (Joey) lost her only brother in a car wreck when he was 17!
When Rory asked Joey to marry him, He asked her beside that little white cross by the side of the road, so she could have some HAPPY memories there, instead of sad ones of losing her dear brother.
Then, in 2014 God entrusted to their care...a special down syndrome baby girl born to them, whom they named Indy (Indiana.)
And then when baby Indy was only 3 1/2 months or so, they found out that the Mommy (Joey) had cancer!
After a horrible battle with caner....
Joey just passed away on March 4th at the age of 40 years old!!!  :-(
Joey + Rory had such a sweet relationship and truly Loved the Lord, and kept their faith in HIM, even though they were suffering so much!
They have a hymn CD out that is beautiful!!!   (We do NOT listen to country and western music, but happened to see their Hymn CD at Cracker Barrel)
(I don't know much about their other music, but Their music on THIS CD is beautiful, and more careful than some of our church people are putting out now-a-days!
Why do we think that the Church has to imitate the WORLD with our music? :-(

In that CD package they tell their story from Rory's blog and share sweet pictures.  They've also enclosed a refrigerator magnet that says,

"So we don't have Forever.

 We've got right now.

And that's enough."

                               Joey + Rory

Their sweet but SAD story was a gentle reminder and again put things LIFE in perspective.

~So what if there is dust on my piano...I'm going out on a date with my Sweetheart husband!

~My floors might not be spotless....but who cares...I'm rocking my baby Abigail (who is growing so FAST!  

SO DISHES BE QUIET AND DUST GO TO SLEEP,

I'M ROCKING MY BABIES...AND BABIES DON'T KEEP!

~All the dishes might not be done...but let's make cookies with the younger kids anyways.

~The clothes might not all be folded just right...but the kids are LEARNING TO WORK, and we had together time!

~My Table might be sticky...but I'm going to take my Sarah and younger kids on a Bike ride this Sunny Day!

FOR WHEN OUR KIDS ARE GONE FROM OUR HOME....will they remember the SPOTLESS HOUSE....
OR WILL THEY REMEMBER THE TIMES MOMMY TOOK TIME TO BE WITH THEM?

AND WHEN I'M GONE (TO HEAVEN) WHAT WILL PHILLIP AND THE KID'S MEMORIES BE OF ME?

So, please know that my house is RARELY perfect!...No, probably NEVER perfect!

When you see a pretty picture on my blog...just know that just outside that picture...is probably a little messy. :-)
If you were to show up unannounced at our house, I'd probably be making lots of apologies...BUT I SHOULDN'T Feel under bondage to do that.
For I'm living life to the fullest with my family, taking good care of my Sweetheart, homeschooling our children, making homemade meals, and spending time together ...while trying to keep things tidy.

I'm not condoning never doing anything 

to keep our homes clean and picked up, 

but I am saying that 

SPENDING TIME 

WITH GOD, 

OUR HUSBANDS, 

AND CHILDREN...

IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN killing ourselves to keep a spotless house!!!   

                                  ~Heather~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Getting back to my roots! :-)
~I was born in Ohio, but moved to GOOD OLE TENNESSEE when I was just 6 months old, and lived there until I was 11. ( I also lived in the South (South Carolina, and LA) 5 or more years of my life as well,...so I'm a SOUTHERN GAL!
My Grandmother was a Tennessee Girl, and so was my Moma.
SO ...I'm enjoying being back in the U.S.A. to get corn meal to make cornbread.  (Thank you, Aunt Carole for the corn meal!)

 ~I probably got too much bacon grease...but it was YUMMY!~

 ~Since we have a Sarah and a Noah that are nearly the same age as their cousins Darla and Bryan, we often grab some COUSIN TIME!!
Here they are playing the game Twisters, afterward we had homemade lemonade and cookies.~

 ~One morning we were surprised to get a nice package in the mail from our dear friends Luann and Bethany.  :-)
WOW! We feel so LOVED getting all these gift cards, cards, and gifts in the mail!  THANK YOU TO EACH OF YOU FOR LOVING OUR FAMILY!!!
THANK YOU LOTS, LUANN AND BETHANY, FOR THIS BOX OF TREATS!!!~

 ~Mary with her gift~

 ~Elijah with his.~

 ~Noah with his gift.~

 ~My gift...a neat scooping ladle with holes.~

 ~Mary's cute little tea set.~

 ~Abigail with her little colorful duckies.~

 ~Then we used the Cracker Barrel gift card from my sweet friend Shawna Fuller to take our mission director Mark Becker and his dear wife out for supper.
Abigail giving Kimberly snuggles at Cracker Barrel.~

 ~It was such a delightful evening with our Dear Mission director and wife!!!  They are the Best!~

 ~Elijah's cast is pretty full of signatures! :-) ~

 ~I love it that Abigail still sleeps this way!~

 ~On Friday I enjoyed a cappuccino in my new cup from my "Colombian parents" Jaime and Sofia. (Pastor Jimmy's parents.)~

 ~And here's my cute little milk pitcher from Pastor Jimmy and Sis. Farly.~

 ~I'm not into animals, but the kids inherited 2 gold fish, so we said they could keep them.  Shockingly, They survived a long trip home, and living in an old ice cream bucket in the boys' room for several weeks, so Phillip got them a real fish bowl.  The kids love them and take turns keeping them in their rooms. :-) ~

 ~We also enjoyed a yummy family time at Starbucks...Thanks to our dear friend Shawna's gift card!~

 ~Last Friday MY BACK WENT OUT....so the family had to HELP ME WALK VERY SLOWLY INTO STARBUCKS!

 ~Little Abigail's "TIC-TAC TOES!"  (That's what her cousin Bryan says her toes look like....little Tic-Tacs. :-) ~

~And then because My Phillip and Kimberly had spent such wonderful 13 days with Bro. Paul, Anna, and Zack in Colombia...they were having "PILMORE WITHDRAWS!" :-)
So, we invited the Pilmores over for an informal evening of just being together.
We had purchased a Larosa's Pizza Buddy card to help Anna pay for her Mission's trip to Peru... and the Pilmores had one too, so we each paid for one Large pizza and got the other for free.  The girls made us a salad, I made us some sweet tea, Anna made us yummy brownies, Phillip made us some coffee, and Phillip picked up yummy ice cream...all which made for a delicious easy supper.~

 ~Phillip letting Bro. Paul try Argentine Mate tea.
Paul is wearing a nice shirt that Pastor Alberto and Sis. Alba from Medellin, Colombia, made and gave him.~

 ~Zack and Abigail (with her left-over brownies on her face)~

 ~Spot-It game!~

 ~Bro. Paul and Mrs. Susanna have been our Dear friends since our God's Bible School days!~

 ~Levi and Elijah.~

I'm doing my best to rest, and take care of my back.  I'm using ice on it and hoping and praying it will get better soon. :-)
My sweet sister brought a yummy supper over last night!  It was a HUGE BLESSING!
Thank you, Dear Laura!
MAY GOD'S BLESSINGS REST ON EACH OF YOU TODAY!!!
~HEATHER~