Today is my little man's 5th birthday.

It was cute, as we were preparing some of his favourite foods (potato casserole & turkey with stuffing...) my 6yodd looked at me sadly & said, "momma, when i'm a mom, my husband will have to do all the cooking." i looked at her & said, "Why? Don't you want to do it?" & she said, "Yeah. But i don't know how."

We laughed & i told her that she'll learn by the time she leaves my house how to cook & bake & she will be a great wife and mother:)

Cai made muffins yesterday all by herself. She forgot the sugar, so they were super healthy too! Hee hee. Oatmeal berry. The other littles gobbled all 3 dozen of them with jam, so they can't have suffered too much.

The "3 bigs" (as my 3 oldest girls call themselves) made breakfast in bed for Charter. Mollen got breakfast in bed too because Charter needed someone to keep him company as he was banned from coming downstairs as the "3 bigs" decorated. My main floor is prettily decorated with balloons & streamers in anticipation of our birthday dinner tonight. i invited my cousin whose son Charter greatly admires, so that's a little surprise for him 'cause he doesn't know they're coming.

The years are flying & i find myself staring at their little faces trying to memorize expressions, mannerisms, childish wording... & time is just going too fast & they're getting so big.

*sigh*

i love this job.

i 've been mulling the purpose of prayer...
i think i'm coming to some conclusions. stephanie (big sister) says all the time, 'fruitfulness from intimacy' & i'm starting to think that this fruitfulness plays a bigger part in God desiring us to pray, than answered prayer requests...
i had a neat talk with another mama at the beach last week about prayer: why bother, if God's going to do as He pleases anyway. i know i've felt that way ~ or if not quite that way, then: *how* to pray if He's going to do Right regardless of my pitiful attempts to pray for what i would think was right. Do i just pray "do it your way, God" and leave it at that?
i'm starting to see value in prayer because of the relationship it grows between the Creator and the created. i see value in prayer because i think there is a release of burden when we 'cast all our cares' ~ God sees, He hears and He will deliver us.
My mom has a quote too, 'loneliness is God's invitation'. So many times i've found myself feeling alone & knowing that He'll meet me where i am...
The bible talks about how God knows our needs before we bring them to Him.
God doesn't need me to tell Him what i want or need ~ He wants the intimacy of our conversation & the reward is relationship.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Ane lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.