Ask and ye shall receive

This morning while I was praying, I asked God to show me something I could do for my husband to let him know that I love him. Not an hour later I was loading the kids up for a short trip to the bank when my phone rang. Paul said that he needed me to go down to one of our suppliers (114 miles away)to pick up something that he forgot to order. He also needed some door samples to be dropped off to a designer for a house that he is building the cabinets for. I started to sqwak about how difficult it would be with four kids or that I don't like meeting with designer people, but I remembered my prayer for today and just said, "Sure, hon. I'd love to help." I never did ask why he couldn't just do it himself.

We got to have a nice lunch out, and the designer was really nice and I had a good time chatting with her. On the way back we stopped by the mall to pick up the kids' portraits that I had done a few weeks ago. I also found some clothing items on sale for Emily and myself. Popping in to the mall might not be a big deal for everyone, but when the mall is an hour away it's a special treat.

Then when we got home, Paul's mom brought over 16 pounds of fresh strawberries! I was just getting blessed all around for wanting to help. (We won't bring up the part about the children having a breakdown in the mall and my name being called from the escalator during the chaos. It happened to be a friend from church see me with four crying kids, but I had not lost my temper during all this so I felt good about myself. She has six kids so I took it as a joke when she said I was crazy for bringing my kids to the mall.) It was a very good day.

Daddy's Girls

You can tell it's the end of the weekend because they're hyped up and he's exhausted

Lily put her baby with my baby

Hanging Ruby's diapers on the clothesline. I think they enjoy doing laundry as much as I do. Maybe we could start a laundry service when they get a little older.

Nolan calls this our "pick-quick" for picnic

This is how she takes her naps, propped up on a pillow on my bed. She still sleeps all night in her swing. Anybody need a used crib? I'm not sure if she'll ever sleep in it.

I really love staying home with my kids. They change so much every day that I would hate to miss a minute of it.

Today Nolan counted:
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14, 14, 17, 18, 19"



Thank you, Papa Lewie and Great Grandma for my new outfit! It's Daddy's favorite.

Shameless Plug

Check out some of the new pictures Paul has posted of his recent cabinet jobs. They are so beautiful! The link is in my sidebar.

They Grow Up Way Too Fast

Ruby is two months old today! Time is really going by too quickly. She weighed in at her check-up today at 10 pounds, 1 ounce. That's right about where all the other Rollins kids were at two months. She is still the smiley-est baby on Earth and still sleeping great and eating well. Her only high maintenance area is the sensitive skin, but I'm getting pretty used to the cloth diapers now that we got the fancy ones. She also has to have all her clothes and diapers washed in special detergent and she has to be washed in special organic baby shampoo. It's so sweet buying all her special toiletries for her.


Nolan got his first T-ball set this weekend. He nailed it on the first try. The weather was horrible, so we took it to the shop and played indoors. He loves it as much as he loves football, soccer, watching motorcycle racing and all the other 100% boy things to do. He told me that he loves me because I play football with him and I wear football shirts like he does.

Adam turned 12 on Monday. That makes me feel not so young anymore so I'll just leave it at that. Also, Emily called me "Mom" yesterday instead of Mommy. It was like a knife through the heart hearing my little baby call me "Mom" like she's growing up or something. I also realized today that Lily will be 4 in one month. Agh.

This weekend we will all be going to the UGA scrimmage football game. Our family really likes college football. We figured that this game would probably be our only chance to go since the tickets are only 5 bucks for adults and 3 bucks for kids. There's no way we could afford to all go to a regular game. Nolan has already picked out which football he is going to take with him to throw in the parking lot before the game. I wish they has a pee-wee league for two year olds!

Easter Pictures

Our first family photo with all seven of us. We're a pretty handsome bunch.
Flower Baby
The Rollins Men
They played a little football
Emily was having a very photogenic day. Aren't they beauitful!

Lonely Friday Night

It's only lonely because it's been so long since I've been alone that I don't know what to do. I'm sure there's a long list of things I've been wanting to do if I had a minute or two, but now I can't think of anything.

Emily is at a slumber party (which I already crashed on my way to Wal-Mart), Lily and Nolan are at Papa and Grandma's house for a sleepover, and Paul and Adam are camping out at our shop property. Ruby is with me, but she sleeps so much that I'm pretty much alone. We stopped by the shop after our trip to Wal-Mart to check out the campfire and Ruby loved it even though she's only six weeks old. She was cooing and smiling. She's going to be a camper for sure.

I think I'll catch up on some reading and go to sleep. Surely that was on my list. I might like being alone.

Super Reader

Yes, the sunglasses are upside-down
He wanted to show all of you his car book

Ruby's Bottom Is On The Mend

Thank You Aunt Faye for my beautiful quilt!


For all of you who are curious, Ruby's extreme diaper rash is healing up. She had an allergic reaction to disposable diapers. Keeping her in the cloth diapers helped, but she is always so wet. I have ordered some really neat cloth diapers that have a waterproof outer-layer and wick the moisture away from her skin. www.bumgenius.com (product placement) I think this will be what we need to get it all the way healed up. Plus, it will be a little easier for me. We just have to wait until they get shipped here which should be Monday. I have also been using Eden Salve from the bulk herb store thanks to Jennifer for reminding me of it. I oftentimes need my friends to tell me what I already know because I get too wrapped up in my problem to figure out the solution.

Other than that, we are just getting ready to start schoolwork again. Emily finished 2nd grade the day before I went to the hospital to have Ruby, so we've been taking our summer break. This week has been full of placement tests. She did quite well so we will be starting mid-way through 3rd grade in math and language arts. There was so much of it that she just figured out for herself. No one taught her how to multiply, she just knew it. She gets very disinterested if she's not learning something new each day, so there's no use wasting time on review work if we don't have to and boring her which will just frustrate me. We will start Bible and Social Studies at the beginning of third grade and we will wait to buy the Science curriculum at the Homeschool conference. I really want to get the Answers In Genesis stuff for science. Paul and I are interested in learning from it, too. For handwriting, I'm having her write the verses she memorizes for AWANA, so she practices both at the same time. She also taught herself cursive just by looking at the letters and I just had to show her how to hook some of them together. Nolan and Lily are just busy with painting, play dough, cutting with scissors, rhyming and letter recognition. Lily told me she wants to read so I better hop on it while she is interested.

We are also trying to plan our next trip to Texas. I like to take each baby by the time they are 12 weeks old to get them used to traveling. It's great that I finally have a baby that doesn't mind sleeping in a car seat. My others were all tummy babies and acted like the car seat had needles in it. Mother's Day is what we are planning for. Paul needs some time off, too. We're headed outside now to take advantage of the beautiful weather.

Lily the Laundry Girl and Sleepy Ruby

It is so nice to have good helpers. It's Lily's job to sort the dirty clothes, put them in the washer and she and Nolan both switch them from the washer to the dryer. All I have to do is put in the detergent and fold the clothes when they're done (and supervise, of course). She can even reach up and start the dryer. Notice she's holding her babies while she gets her housework done.
The other day Lily said "Mommy, can I hold the baby after you get done milking her?"
I set Ruby down for just a minute on my bed while I went to wash a load of diapers (I do those myself) and came back to find her sleeping. She could sleep anywhere. All those smiles she was giving me must have tuckered her out.
Nolan wanted me to take a picture of him in his favorite pajamas.