IF someone had only told me!

I have heard so much lately about parenting..  and how hard it is...   AND if only someone had told me what to expect with marriage and parenting...   WELL, I am pretty sure we were all told..  and I am sure we ALL saw the signs...  BUT we chose to not accept the truth at the time..     I can laugh now because I HAVE SEEN IT...   

People say marriage is so wonderful...  amazing....  joyful.....  BUT they forget to explain that it is really hard to live with someone else that doesn't exactly think like you do.  I am sure that there are couples out there that never argue and always get along perfectly..  BUT we are not one..  lol    I love JOHN..  Don't get me wrong...   Can't imagine ever being without him...   BUT really HE is a MAN....   He needs me for everything....   For example......   "Honey, I will make supper for you!"..    Then as the process starts to unfold I see it coming early on.....   "HONEY, where is the skillet??"...   "Honey, I don't see it!"...  "Honey, where is the meat?"  as if it would be any where other than in the fridge or freezer....    THEN the big one..  "HONEY, what do you use to cook this??  Salt?  OH and where is the salt??  Pepper?   OH where is the pepper....  "  As if people don't keep them together...  SALT/PEPPER....   and as if I had moved it in the 13 years we have been married....   SO, if I am going to guide his every move I just as well do it myself...  THUS, he looks great for offering and I actually cook the meal....    Another example....   "OH let me fold the laundry for you while you go take a bath!"     Reluctantly I head for the bathroom and within a few minutes.....  YEP, here it comes  "HONEY, how do you fold the towels?"  "Who's underwear are these?"  I would have given him that one but HE plastered there initials in the back of each kids undies....    THEN as I begin to run the water I hear the kids FIGHTING, screaming, hollaring....    I WAIT....  Listen....   Peak out the door and lo and behold my husband has fallen asleep....   KIDS are crazy...  Needless to say IT isn't WHAT PEOPLE TOLD ME...  

THEN having children changes your whole life...   AND I MEAN THAT in a GREAT WAY..  It is just an adjustment to see it....   The first child was awesome.  I had time to just enjoy him and do daily tasks...   THEN 2, 3 ...  then the twins....   LIFE was instantly crazier with each child.   There is NO SLEEP when you have small children..  Because even if you do get them to actually ALL sleep at the same time....  YOU WON'T sleep at all because you are too worried about everything you DIDN'T get done.....    SO being completely exhausted you toot along with your day....   PRAYING that night would come...  SOON..  VERY SOON....  Screaming kids, fighting kids, crying kids, bleeding kids, runaway kids (we live in a rural FLAT area so it isn't like they are ever out of site)..  BUT we let them think they are actually running away..Makes them appreciate home a lot more..lol   Diapers...  UGHHH    I am so ruined on diapers...   I don't understand why they can't just come potty trained.  I mean GOD knows we are overwhelmed without that too.. haha    OH and then the sickness start.  ONE catches it and then EVERYONE has it over a two week span.  AND being a mom you don't get to call in sick....   AND when dad catches it the world has ended for him...   It takes more time

to take care of him than the whole crew...  haha    THEN in the instance we had to go to town.   WOW, it would take 2 days just planning it out.  THEN once we got there the whole plan would fold...   Country kids are not good GO TO TOWNERS...  Just sayn'....   There was not enough cheerios and sippy cups full of juice in all of NM to get us home from town without screaming kids...   


Then the kids start growing.  Becoming more independent...   Homeschooling has begun....   At least 1 kids will start the day whining about how mean of a teacher I am and WHY do they even need school anyways as they will never need it...   THEN it spreads like a virus...   ALL the kids fall under the spell of WHO NEEDS SCHOOL...    We kick on through school and slowly move on to daily tasks and chores...   Mind you we have a small farm...   and half of the animals have been purchased by the kids and are their responsibility....     Supper time and after dishes I AM DONE...  JUST DONE...   

NOW with all that being said I WOULD NEVER change my life.  I love my husband and EVERY CHILD more than I ever thought I could love anything ever...  and even if someone had told me i wouldn't have believed it..    I mean, who wants to believe that life is NOT THE fairy tale they have dreamed of for all of your life...     MY fairy tale is perfectly made by GOD...  He has blessed me with a completely chaos life...   From minute to minute one never knows when the next mishap will happen...  SO, my advice is ENJOY the moments..  EVEN as few as they are some days...    I look back now on my life just 9 years ago where I thought for sure I wouldn't make it another day...    AND I LAUGH...   How silly was I.....  I am only stronger now...  and also I think GOD is training me to be a great mother in law to my boys future wives... and an AWESOME GRAMMY to my future grand kids....         AT THE END OF THE DAY..  COUNT IT ALL JOY!!!!    I AM BLESSED...   

The Quilt

I LOVE to sew...   LOVE to make quilts....  No, I am not trained to sew....   NO, I don't follow instructions well...   My quilts look like NON OTHER for sure..  AND I don't mean that in a good way....   I always take the easiest road....  of course I don't want to make something difficult...   THEN I would just fail horribly...   So, I go about cutting the quilt squares out..   Getting them all organized the way I want to sew them...   then commence to sewing....   Over the next day or two I enjoy the progress I am making ...    Then I get it the top done and start to quilt all 3 pieces together...   I don't have a quilting frame so I do everything on the floor....  My back starts to ache...   as I get closer and closer to being done...   THEN the finished project...   something I have made from scraps with no instructions has become A QUILT...   AN item to keep someone warm...   A USEFUL ITEM..

Now let's take what I have just said about the quilt and use this information for child training...   I LOVE my children..  and I really do mean LOVE!!!!   My children are like non other for sure...  lol  AND I mean that in the best way...   They are rowdy, ornery, tough, sensitive, funny.........   I could go on for hours about them...  BUT I bet your children are the same as mine so you get the picture..   Now when they were babies and toddlers I took the best care of them..  Making sure the nails were trimmed, hair combed, fed...  made sure I sang to them and prayed over them always...  Then they became  young CHILDREN...   One's that wouldn't sit still to get a bath, combed hair...OK wouldn't sit still for anything even in there sleep...   I started at this point to start cutting them out into quilt squares, so to speak...   And organizing them in such a way that would protect them but yet still give them freedom to change....    Now that they are older 9-12 years of age, I am re organizing them constantly...   I am almost afraid to sew it all together just yet.... This is where my back starts hurting so to speak....   struggles, trials, stress occurs...  Once I do sew it all together, quilt it, it seems so permanent..  Which to me seems that would be the age where they leave home.   You hope and pray that you have raised them right to go into the world and be productive, respectable adults..   (THE FINISHED QUILT)....   My oldest son who is 22 years old is an amazing man...   He is the perfect BEAUTIFUL quilt...   So, I suppose my quilting theory works just fine in raising kids..  

My tip to mothers out there is to STOP and STEP BACK and look at the QUILT often...   Modify it every day if need be...  God intends for families to grow together and to bond....   Take each moment as it comes and be a blessing to your children through love, kindness and laughter ALWAYS...Don't fret over if your house is dirty or if laundry is piling up... You only get one opportunity to raise your children...  This day will pass and you will never get it back again.   Enjoy your QUILTING....  

GOD BLESS

TIME!

WOW!  It has been 2 years since I have blogged.  I have really missed it...  I miss my blogging community...  I am getting a great blog going in my mind of the last two years stories from the Sturza's.    I can NOT wait to get started again....   

Seasons!

Here we sit and Fall is upon us. The mornings are cool and crisp. The animals are all fluffy with there new winter attire.. The goats are drying up, which is good for me... Seeing how I am not that interested in milking in the cold!!! The children all want to snuggle like when they were babies.. But the best thing about the Fall is the beautiful pictures that GOD gives us to enjoy. The changing color of the tree's. Even as a child I can remember driving from Capitan to Roswell and actually realizing that HE had given us this beauty for a reason. HE gave us this for us to remember the things from summer.. The beautiful green tree's, grass and all the fun we had in the warm season. Then we get the enjoy the beautiful colors of Fall. By the middle of the winter we can really appreciate those hot summer days.. What great things that God has given us to make us appreciate our life and the things to come.. As holidays approach we will get to enjoy family and friends... I can see God in everything that goes on in my life...

break

Well, I took a break from blogging... Not really sure why.. Probably the fact that I am completely every minute of everyday.. It is good to be back and be able to write my thoughts!! I have been so blessed and in the next few weeks I will be writing about Adam leaving, the kids growing and summer fun.... BUT for now, I AM BUSY.... SO, it will have to wait... God Bless EVERYONE..

Snow

Well we got our first snow finally. The kids have been waiting an eternity it seems for it. It was so beautiful when we woke up and watched the flakes fall from the heavens. Of course, doing chores in it wasn't so much fun.... But after chores we played and played. I did have to drag the kids aways from the maneur pile... It is the only slope we have around. So I could see where it could have been fun. But still it is horse/goat poop. Icky. I do have to draw the line somewhere, even in the snow.. We enjoyed it until it all melted. Which wasn't very long. Maybe an hour.. But it was fun while it lasted.. I was trying to explain to the children that you just don't order up the snow. You can pray for it but God and ONLY God will send it when it is time. Of course they response is "It IS time"... I told them the reason we don't get snow often is because God wants us to enjoy it. If we had it all the time we wouldn't know how to appreciate it. Just like with other things in our lives.. We eat 3 + meals a day. How many of us are actually THANKFUL for every morsel of food. Although we should be. SO I think God lets us see his beauty so we will always appreciate it. Same as the sun. We love the sun. It gives out great vitamins. It keeps us warm. But we don't really appreciate it until it is gone for a few days. God has given us so many blessings each day. It just so happens that yesterday he blessed us with the beauty of snow. God Bless!

Too many

Too many!!! What does that mean?? People tell us "you have to many kids", "too many animals", "too many issues".... Well, I sure have something to say about that. God gave us TOO MANY kids... Not because he wanted people to be annoyed by us, but because he wanted to shine his light through us.. He has blessed John and I with 8 children, 3 grandchildren, 1daughter in law and 1 son in law. When we go to town some people give us dirty looks when the kids are thrilled to just go somewhere (kinda crazy kids).. They watch us load and unload the kids from the van or pick up.. They watch us wrestle through the stores with a little spanking here or there and a little don't touch this or don't touch that. But what they are missing is the fact that we love them very much and believe that they are truely a blessing from God. I mean who else could have made the twins.... Yes they are wild and crazy most of the time.... But in reality they are just normal kids. Try going to a school and sitting there for an hour and you will see. God has great things planned for each and everyone of our kids. The people that are stubbing there nose at us and talking behind our backs obviously doesn't know what it means to be given the gift of raising children...
Now on the animal thing... Yes we do have several critters. And yes they are spendy... But what more joy do we see when the kids are riding the horses for hours and just happy as can be. How about the dogs. They are happy no matter what we do. They always listen to me whine and complain. Usually giving me a sympathy lick with a really wet tongue. The kids love the dogs. They say a mans best friend is a dog... The cats now..... They are hunters, which keeps the mouse population down. They also snuggle with the kids at night to keep them cozy and calm. They are cheap keepers for sure... The goats... Well they give us milk back. So in itself they are worth keeping. Also having the kids watch the babies being born and helping to raise them is giving them responsibility and also teaching them about how critters have babies... What a lesson in itself.. So I say THE ANIMALS STAY... No matter who says what....
Everyone has issues, but it really isn't anyone else's problem. Don't others have enough issues of there own to worry about, rather than worrying about mine..... If they are Godly people then why not be praying for us and not gossiping... Makes total sense to me... Life is too short to have this behavior..
I may sound a bit irritated but I am not... I just feel compelled to let this out. And heck, no one will probably even read this, but at least I have it off my chest. I do feel much better now... :~}