Sundays

We have this odd habit of always being early for church. It happens because of four things.
1- our clocks are set 10 min. fast
2- I hate being late for anything
3- we live 5 min. from church
4- our children wake us up around 7:30am (it wasn't always that way, we use to get up at 9am and still we were always early)

It usually turns out that we are between the 1st and 3rd family to arrive and sometimes when we are the 1st we drive around to waste time. I always find it amusing when people around me complain about not being able to get to church on time. I don't see the problem! :-)

I have discovered something that helps us on Sunday mornings. Sundays is the only day of the week that I 'have' to be somewhere at a certain time (unless we go away during the week, but that doesn't happen all the time) so I always get ready for Sunday mornings before they happen. I don't look at Sunday mornings as a sleeping in day (though I have slept in some Sundays) I have a set schedule to how my Sunday mornings go, this is it.

Bryan or I get the girls dressed first thing when they get up. I like to lay the girls clothes out the night before so that it is easier for Bryan.

Then I do hair either while they are eating, or before or after it depends on if we are running late.

Our breakfast use to always be waffles with a little bit of honey or syrup, no drips no mess. We grew tired of waffles all the time and have switched to bagels with butter and a very little bit of jam. Again no drips no mess. I find getting the girls dressed first gives us more time but then you have to be careful what you feed them for breakfast.

Then they get shoes on.

Bryan and I take turns getting dressed before and after breakfast, depends on who gets the girls dressed. We never take showers Sunday morning and I usually ask Bryan to shave Saturday night. I never curl my hair Sunday morning, I do it Saturday night, if I do it at all. Of course there are exceptions, but this is the norm.

We like to walk to church when the weather is nice so we have to leave between 9:15 and 9:25am. If we drive we leave at 9:30-45.

If you remember our clocks are are 10 or so min. fast so really we are leaving earlier and there for arrive earlier. I never think about our clocks being ahead when we are getting ready, like I said I like to be early or on time. I am very particular about being somewhere when I say I am. But don't worry it doesn't bother me when others aren't like that. :-)

I like being early as part of getting ready to sit down in church, is everyone going to the washroom, and since we only have 2 washrooms and our family has 3 girls, it can take time. But since we are one of the first families to arrive we get it first. Bryan always takes the girls while I get the baby ready.

So there you have it, our Sunday morning routine.

The funny thing is, it seems that we are late every time we are greeters!! :-)

Still no pictures.....

I tried again, but it isn't working to get pictures on here! I think it might be due to our slow connection. If you remember just after I started this blog we got rid or our Internet connection to just have a break from being on line. Well, I am rather embarrassed to say it only lasted like a day and half and Bryan discovered that our computer would pick up someone elses signal. It worked really well for the first month or so, but lately it is slow. Bryan and I disagree on whether or not it is okay to not be paying for Internet and since it has been slow I think we might just go ahead and pay for high speed again. I would love to have high speed for watching movies and TV. shows again.
Anyhow, all that to say I am sorry for not having pictures to show you!
We had a wonderful time at the Zoo last weekend. I was thankful that we did not take Cassia as I was pretty tired by the end of the weekend. I figured out that at least for our family the zoo is best for children over 4. We had been there for about an hour and Alicia wanted to go back to the hotel to swim. And the last half Moriah complained about being tired and I gave her piggy back rides. I did find it rather funny that after complaining about being tired on our way to have our picnic lunch. All 3 girls were running circles around us after eating their sandwiches. I didn't know that p&j sandwiches give little girls so much energy!
We spent the whole day at the zoo and enjoyed seeing all the different animals that God made. My favorite was the lion, because he actually roared for us. I had never heard a lion roar in real life before.
On Sunday we decided last min. to go to a Reformed Presbyterian church that was close by, I mean very last min. but we made it just as they were singing the first song. It was a small church and congregation and they were a delight to visit with after church. When we had arrived a little late I had noticed an older lady wearing a hat in church, after the service and just before we left she came up to me and mentioned how encouraging it was to see the girls and I wearing hats in church too. She was such a sweet lady and she made it feel like we had some sort of secret friendship since we were some of the few that still cover our heads. We get that often when we visit a church if there is another lady with a head covering. It is nice to be an encouragement to these older ladies. They were such a sweet friendly church that we would love to go back and visit. I always enjoy visiting with other church families, especially when they are small like ours!
When we got home Sunday night and we went to our own church service and found out that my parents were planning on sending Bryan to pick up a car in Kingston the next day. Kingston is 6 hours from our house 1 way. We decided that it would be nice for both Bryan and I to go since he was just driving there and back. I called our babysitter as soon as we got home and after a couple tries, got a hold of her. She was able to babysit and since we had to leave the next morning at 5am her mom brought her at 10pm Sunday night so that she could sleep over. We are so thankful for Jessica and the care that she gives our daughters and the fact that they love to have her come. The more children we have the harder it is to find a babysitter!
So Bryan and I took off at 5am Monday morning and arrived home at 6pm Monday night. We stopped for lunch but otherwise were driving that entire time. Please do not think I am complaining, it was a delightful 13 hours of no interruptions. We were able to talk and enjoy some quiet. I thought of a Erin, Rachel, and Carrie, as I drove by the exits to get to your houses and wished I could stop in for a visit. Bryan and I loved the scenery past Toronto and dreamed of living in the middle of nowhere with just our girls and living off the land! Often I wish I could be selfish and whisk of far away from everything so that Bryan and I could really enjoy our girls and watch them grow and delight even more in their growing. It does help that we have as of late been reading and watching Little House on the Prairie. I told Bryan that if Pa and Ma could build a log cabin, I am sure we could too!! IN the end we decided that in reality we should just stay where we are........at least another 2-3 years!
Tuesday I spent cleaning up from our weekend trip and doing laundry. Yesterday I did some cleaning and talked to Krista, a good friend from South Carolina. We talked for 1 hour and 45 min. Her boys slept and mine watched little house and played. We talked until my girls got too noisy and her boys woke up. Today we went away all day to my mom's and did some biking and had a picnic lunch. Tomorrow I need to finish cleaning the house as I am hosting Ladies Bible study for this month and that is tomorrow night.
And hopefully soon I will be able to show your some pictures of my sweet little girls!!

Our Moriah

I am trying to upload pictures from Cassia's 1st birthday, but for some reason it is not working, so instead I will tell you about our Moriah and what she was up to this past Sunday!
Sunday morning Alicia came to snuggle with Byran and I around 6:30am, I fell in and out of sleep after that. I thought I heard Moriah come down but since she didn't come snuggle I figured I must have been imaging it. A while later Moriah did come to our bed and I noticed that her shirt was dirty around the cuffs and her face was dirty, it looked like candy. I didn't think too much about it as Aunt Nicole had given her a sucker the night before and though she was told she couldn't eat it until after church the next day, they all had managed to get into them a little on the ride home. Bryan went and dressed the girls and then when I started to brush Moriah's hair I saw that she had a bunch of what I thought was candy in her hair! Now I was really starting to wonder how a little bit of sucker could go so far. After finishing her hair and Bryan came down with the other girls Bryan told me that it was not a sucker that Moriah had gotten all over it was JAM!! My immediate thought was why would she open the fridge and get out the jam and start eating it!? But then I realized that I had left the empty (or what I thought was empty) jar of jam out on the counter after getting a new one. So when my little Moriah came down that morning she saw that jar and remembered just how yummy jam is and she may have even remembered when her dear sweet older sister had used her finger and cleaned out a nutella container and since mommy and daddy were still in bed why not enjoy some extra jam!!
So my instincts had been right and Moriah had gotten out of bed that morning, she was too busy enjoying some jam to come snuggle!! Of course a good mother would have put her in the bath and washed her hair, but me, I just got out the water bottle sprayed the jam area and off we went to church.
But that does not end my Moriah story for that day. For that night at church after Bryan had taken Cassia out of the service Moriah found Cassia's tag blanket, it is a small blanket about 10"x10" with different shaped ribbon for Cassia to quietly play with (for some reason Cassia didn't understand the quiet part that night). Anyhow, Moriah found it and started playing with it and since I was tired and the other girls were not sitting still I just let her play with it. But then I turned to check on her and there she sat with her hat off and in its place the tag blanket. She looked so funny sitting there with the blanket on her head and then when I went to take it off her head and put her hat back on she told me that she wanted to wear the blanket. And since the blanket covered her head just like her hat I figured why argue and I let her leave it on her head. I turned to focus on the minister again and couldn't help but wonder what he would think when he scanned the congregation and saw Moriah with a blanket on her head! Eventually Moriah started playing around and put her hat back on then took it off and put the blanket on, so I did end up taking the blanket away. But I sure did have a good laugh (on the inside because we all know as a mother you have to be carefull what you let the kids know you think is funny less they repeat it and it is never as funny the second time).
So that is a little bit of what my Moriah is like! Oh, but then the other day while we were eating lunch she was sitting there not eating and I told her to hurry up and eat. She looked at me and said "Mommy, I am thinking- thinking about going to the zoo. I think about the zoo at breakfast and I think about the zoo at lunch" What a munchkin. Of course all the rest of us were thinking about the zoo too, as we are going there this Saturday. We are all very excited to sleep in a hotel and swim in the pool and visit all the animals. The girls are also very excited that we are going to have a king size bed at the hotel so that all of us can snuggle together!! We have often talked about needing a bigger bed when all the girls pile in with us in the mornings. It is so exciting to see the girls excited. So hopefully I can figure out why I can't get pictures to upload and then I can show you are pictures from the zoo too!

A Shopping Trip with 4 Girls

Today I took the girls to Fabricland, I want to make a new purse/diaper bag. So I thought it would be okay to take everyone and since we don't often have the van, away we went right when the store opened. I gave the girls the 'talk' about being good, staying close to mom, speaking quietly, and not running around. And of course the incentive of a 'treat' when we went to the Bulk Barn afterwards.
We were walking around and the girls were being very good, I was having a hard time finding what I was looking for. So we went back and forth and around the store. As I was looking at some material a man approached me and asked if the girls were all mine. I get asked this a lot when we are out and about and of course replied with a smile and a yes! I think the man was rather bored, as he seemed to be waiting for his wife, so after the usual, "you are one busy lady" he commented on how it was very different for someone to have more then 2 children. He seemed really happy to see someone with 4 children. He mentioned how we are getting immigrants instead of having our own children. I didn't really say to much, other then that we really enjoy our girls. He continued to tell me that he has a 28 year old daughter who has no desire for children, but that he would like for her to soon so that he could enjoy his grandchildren. I was a little surprised and mentioned that I too was 28 and really enjoyed being a mother to 4. That pretty much ended the conversation and we continued on our way. I still was not finding what I wanted so we went to the other end of the store and met the same man there. He commented to me that his son is 24 and not married and has no desire to marry or have children, the poor man seemed a little sad over not having grandchildren yet! He then asked me how many siblings I have and after telling him that I had 2 older brothers and a younger sister and that that was an average size, he was rather surprised and said that he thought 2 or 3 was average. I told him that I grew up in circle of 4-6 children per family. The man continued to marvel over all the children and that was the end or our conversation.
Lately I have chosen to do most of my shopping without the girls, but it was refreshing to take them with and be able to show the world that there are still families that have more then 2 kids. I am surprised that he didn't ask why they weren't in school, but I didn't want to get into all that too. I am very use to all the comments that our family gets, I think it has more to do with having all girls and that they are so close in age, but really is 4 that many!? I know a lot of families with 4 or more it doesn't seem large or out of the ordinary. But I guess outside the church it must be!
Anyhow, I wanted to post this to remind myself to not be afraid to take my children with, it can be an encouragement to other people. And it helps teach them how to behave in public.
So that was our morning, after shopping we came home and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, playing outside and biking!

Pioneer Girls

In the last post I mentioned that I was in the middle of 'spring cleaning', well as you can see I took a break from that and did some sewing!! It was so nice to be sewing again!

I had started on Victoria's pioneer dress a while ago and she has been enjoying the dress for a few months now. I finished her bonnet a couple weeks ago.

Yesterday I made her apron and bloomers, and started Alicia's whole outfit.

Today I finished and both girls have been playing Mary and Laura Ingalls!

I have to make an outfit for for Moriah yet, but she refuses to be Carrie, she wants to be Laura too! So the girls decided that she could be cousin Laura, like in the first book.

I made the dress in the largest size, hoping we will get lots of use for many years to come!

If anyone ever wants to borrow them let me know, I really don't mind!

We are hoping to go to a Pioneer Village sometime and the girls can't wait to wear their dresses!

Since the weather is so beautiful again we thought we would take some pictures.

By accident I doubled this one and can't figure out how to delete the extra one.

Victoria is showing off her bloomers!

I just love these dresses, they are so cute....

and so are the girls wearing them.

Hope you enjoyed our little photo shoot...

We sure enjoyed doing it!!

The Exciting Things in Life

This post will not have pictures as I don't feel like taking the time to up load any. I am in the middle (or more the begining and have a long way to go) of spring cleaning! I was so excited to start but now the task is seeming to get no where!
The reason for getting no where in the cleaning department is not that I have NOT been cleaning, but washing bedding and towels over and over again does not get the spring cleaning done! Would you believe that the flu had the nerve to walk into my home right during spring cleaning!! Ofcourse the bedding has gotten its fair share of the next 5 years of spring cleaning and all those extra towels that I never understood why I kept them laying around, are in fact very useful! For you to understand what my title has to do with this post let me start at the begining...........
Friday night at about 10 o'clock Bryan and I were sitting on the couch watching a movie, we heard little foot steps coming down the stairs from the girls room. We looked at eachother smiling, what was Moriah's excuse tonight! We laughed over a few thoughts of what her excuse might be and as the door squeaked open and around the corner came our little munchkin, we were not expecting what we saw! She was covered in vomit! We quickly rushed to her as she threw up again. I rushed her to the tub and Bryan went upstairs to clean up, up there. I quickly washed our poor little girl, dressed her, and put her in our bed with a few towels under her. I went upstairs to help Bryan and found out that she had been sleeping with Alicia. Thankfully Alicia was clean, but what was not so nice is most of the mess was on the carpet (I was reminded again to never put carpet in a kids room). We cleaned as best we could and moved Alicia into Moriah's bed. Moriah continued to throw up all night. The next day I washed all of Alicia's bedding (just to remind you I had just the day before washed all the girls bedding, for spring cleaning) and our bedding, and a bunch of towels. Anyhow, our poor Moriah was sick until Sunday late afternoon. Sunday night I braced myself for the next sick child! Sure enough 10pm Sunday night, Cassia was crying, Bryan went to check on her and called me in to help. She had thrown up, I bathed her, he cleaned up her bed. I put her back to bed and in the morning found that she had thrown up again. But the rest of the day went well, nothing happend Monday night and on Tuesday I thought we were in the clear, the flu had left our little house. We even went to our neighbors outdoor birhtday party on Tuesday morning. The kids had been cranky all day as some had colds, so we decided to put them to bed early. As we were doing family worship and all praying together Alicia threw up on Bryan's lap, herself and the floor. That put and end to family worship and got us going. Alicia had a bath and was tucked into our bed once again. I put the dirty blankets and clothes in the laundry. But this is when the exciting part happened!! Alicia continued to throw up, but she was able to do it in the container provided!! I was so thrilled when I heard her throw up and walked in the room to see she had done just what I asked!! I think it is just as exciting as when a child finally understands going to the bathroom on the toilet!! I was so relieved and happy and thought to myslef, "I can do this, this won't be nearly so bad" I got a burst of energy and started cleaning the house. I was just about done vacuming the couch when there was Victoria standing before me with vomit all over her! I quickly turned off the vaccum and she proudly and excitedly told me that she, " only threw up on her bed, not the floor" I tried to be positive, but all I could think was, "here we go again" In the tub she went Bryan watched her as I quickly finished the couch. Then as I was washing Victoria's hair, Cassia started to cry, Bryan went to get her and yes, ofcourse she had thrown up too! So as I was finishing Victoria's bath Bryan got Cassia into the kitchen sink for a bath and then I bathed Cassia while Bryan dressed Victoria. Ofcourse all I could think to myself, was "so much for this being easy" and "I wonder if Moriah will start throwing up again too"! We tucked Cassia back in her own bed and Victoria in with Alicia. The funny thing about all this is I think Victoria was very excited about everything, throwing up in the night, having a bath, sleeping in our bed. She was so excited and chipper even inthe night when she came to tell me Alicia had throw up again, she was so happy and bubbly! And again in the morning she was so bubbly and excited. I suppose it was an encouragment to me, and a reason to smile despite the mountain of laundry, to see Victoria so happy! Anyhow, we made it through the night, with Alicia and Victoria in our bed, Moriah in Alicia's bed (as it was Moriah's bed that Alicia threw up on during family worship), Bryan on Victoria's bed and me on the couch. So far today no one has thrown up! I put all the girls down for a nap and I think Victoria and Moriah are sleeping, but Alicia isn't yet. I am very much hoping that this is the end of the flu and that it does not stick around long enough for Bryan or I to get it! But if we do get it, atleast we are able to make it to the toilet!! And I am so thrilled that Alicia is growing up along with Victoria, it is much easier when children throw up in the bucket instead of all over........everything!
So there you have it the exciting life of the Marentette Home!!

Now back to Spring cleaning..............

The Duggars

I tired to upload a picture of the famous family of now 19 children, but could not figure it out! So here is a picture of Moriah while watching the Duggars! She was really tired, that day, I don't want you to think that we find the Duggars boring! If you have been around our family in the past few months you will know how much we love the Duggars! Lately Victoria has been walking around the house repeating their family motto "buy used save the difference" over and over! The girls love to go through the list of this kids names at the begining of every episode and their very favorite thing to play is.........Jim Bob and Michelle!! They do so almost every day and anywhere. We were in WalMart a few days ago and I heard Alicia say to Victoria, "here Jim Bob you can hold the baby now". They way they decide who is who, is very simple. Whoever is wearing a skirt is Michelle and whoever wears pants is Jim Bob. Sometimes they play Josh and Anna or some of the other children, but again whoever is wearing a skirt is a girl and whoever is wearing pants is a boy, as in the Duggar family, you probably already figured it out, girls always wear skirts! Even Bryan enjoys watching this family and has commented to me how easy raising 4 children seems compared to 19! I always feel like I need to mention to people, while I am talking about the Duggars, that we in no way hope to have 19 children. We enjoy watching this godly family but are not trying to be just like them. We have picked up a few things from them, like we now do family worship in the girls room just before bed instead of at supper. This has been such a blessing for our family as it is not rushed and we really enjoy sitting together at the end of the day singing and reading God's word and then praying. I also enjoy their money saving tips and am about to try out some homemade laundry detergent!
Something that I especially enjoy about this family is that they apply the Bible to every aspect of their life, they don't pick and chose. They have lots of children becuase they know God will take care of their needs and that children are a blessing, they have no debt becuase the Bible says owe no many anything but love. They help the poor and they reach out to those in need, even the orphans. They are such a refreshing, loving family. Another tip that I picked up on from this family is the mother, Michelle,'s, gentle and quiet spirit. I read in their book that instead of raising her voice when her children were misbehaving she lowered her voice , to almost a whisper. I have been putting this into practise along with encouraging words and what a difference it has made in me and my girls. We are all happier and more joyful. It isn't always easy, but it does make loving the girls and be patient a lot easier. Another thing that sticks out about this family is that though they teach their children to behave and have selfcontrol, they also realize that kids need to be kids. They let them run around and play, Michelle doesn't mind the noise! I probably need to work on that a bit more!! And I don't have 6 boys all one year apart running around! Ofcourse this family is not perfect, but they are encouraging in the things of the Lord.
We asked our girls were we should go for our familhy vacation this year and guess what they said!? "Lets go visit the Duggars"
So if you have never heard of this family or watched their show, I would greatly recommend it as a wonderful family show! Now that we are taking a break from the internet and won't be able to watch them on youtube we are buying the seasons, so you are welcome to borrow them anytime!
If you have watched this family, what do you think of them! You know I have only had one comment, but I would love to have more, so feel free to tell me what you think!! :-)