What I've Been Up To

You may have noticed that I've been gone for a couple of weeks. If you don't follow the Gracious Daughter of the King Facebook page, you probably have no idea what has been happening.

Gordon Carmichael holding Gordon Carmichael

First, I gave birth to our newest little one on September 24th! Gordon Carmichael was born at 1:48 pm at home. The birth went well, but he had difficulty nursing in the beginning so it was a rough couple of days.

Second, my father-in-law's health was declining (and had been for a while), so much time was spent helping him and my mother-in-law.

Thirdly, my mother-in-law ended up in the hospital herself for a couple of days. My husband spent that time with her.

Fourthly, I spoke at my local MOPS meeting. This was something new for me. Another woman and I spoke about meal planning-how we do it, how it is helpful to us, etc.

Fifthly, my father-in-law's health continued to decline and some hard decisions were made regarding his care. He went to be with his Lord and Savior on October 5th. Since we knew it was coming, we had already started planning his funeral and the visitation was held on the 6th and the funeral on the 7th. It was a rough few days for our family, but the funeral was a beautiful celebration of his life and testimony.

It will be difficult to transition to a new "normal", but we will in time. My first goal is to get back into schooling. Once we get back into that groove, I am going to try to add my writing back in. So, it may still be another week before I am back to writing and sharing consistently. I hope you bear with me during my absence.

Marriage Moment Monday

Don't be so busy doing things that you don't have time to pray! Prayer is the most important thing you can do for your marriage.

Why I've Been Scarce

As you have noticed, I haven't posted much in the past two weeks and there is a good reason for that!

Of course, we celebrated Independence Day on July 4th. Our family attended the local parade and then just enjoyed family time together for the remainder of the day. Some of our girls had to work the next day (as well as my husband) so we decided to forgo the fireworks that night.

Our oldest graduated from our home school last weekend so we spent the week preparing things around the house, setting up shade tents, making food, etc. for her graduation and open house.

The very next day was our annual Carmichael family reunion so we then had to clean up from the open house and prepare for the reunion. After the reunion, it has become a tradition to go to my sister-in-law's house on the river for some fun in the sun.

The day after the reunion was the start of our three day Bible Bee camp. Our local Bible Bee gets together every summer for three days to have fun, work on learning verses, understanding the scripture passages, etc. While it is very fun, it is also very tiring (especially for this pregnant mama in this heat!). The younger children and I came home every night to do evening chores and then morning chores before heading back to camp. It was pretty rough on the youngest children as well since they either missed naps or had shorter naps than normal as well as getting to bed late every night. It took (is taking) a few days to get back to a normal routine.

Once we returned home from camp, not only did the older girls return to their jobs, but we had to start preparing for our son's 5th birthday! His birthday is today and we will be celebrating with family today and then he will have some friends over tomorrow to have some fun with a Thomas the Train celebration.We also have another graduation open house to attend after our son's party.

After that, we have a "normal" busy week filled with shuttling girls to jobs, tending the garden, midwife appointments, continuing in our Bible Bee studies, etc. before I will be taking my oldest on a girls' getaway for a few days. I have also recently agreed to be a mentor mom for our local MOPS group and the leadership is having a planning weekend that I will try to attend at least for a little while.

Through all this busyness, I have realized how beneficial Plexus has been to my life. You see, I actually ran out of my Plexus Slim last month and due to financial strain, couldn't order more. I went back to needing naps, getting charlie horses in the middle of the night, not sleeping well, not having regular bowel movements, etc. I also noticed that it had been keeping the negative side effects of our neighbors spraying chemicals on their trees at bay. In less than a week of being off Plexus Slim (and the neighbors spraying again), I started having an allergic reaction where my entire body itched as well as the normal sinus drainage that happens every year when they spray (which I hadn't actually experienced this year yet). Those effects made it even harder to sleep and pretty much made life miserable for a while. I did start on some herbal supplements to help combat those effects and started seeing improvements in just a few days. Through all this, I now know how much Plexus had changed my life and I know my gut needs much more healing for me to continue to see improvements.

I truly believe that Plexus can help so many people with their health issues. I have heard story after story of how Plexus has changed the lives of friends and others that I have never met and it is interesting to see how it seems to help everyone a little bit differently. It has also been amazing as I have been learning more and more about gut health, how many different health problems actually stem from poor gut health. 

I would love to discuss Plexus with anyone who has questions. Please just contact me through the form on the right side of the blog!

Here are a few pictures from the past two weeks so you can see what we've been up to!

Can you see what it says?!

 

I'm Busy, Lord

I came across a beautiful poem when studying patience that I wanted to share with all of you.

I'm Busy, Lord!
I'm busy, Lord. Surely You can see
The thousand things that wait for me!
The dishes still lie in the sink-
I cannot stop to pray and think.

Lord, I know You understand.
For You gave these children to my hand;
And now they cry and need me so,
Lord, You understand. I'd better go.

Now I've got them all to sleep,
I'd better dust and mop and sweep.
I must thaw out the meat for stew,
And the ironing is long overdue!

And kindly my Lord answered me,
"Why do you from my presence flee?
I have so much for you today.
My child, I want to hear you pray.

"I love you, child; I want you here
To rest and listen- to shed a tear.
What if Paul had stopped to say,
'Lord, I'm too busy to write letters today!'?

"No, my child, I'm what you need,
Through household duties you can speed,
Yet when you're through, there's emptiness
If this quiet time you miss."

Oh, thank You, Lord, for showing me
How much I need to wait on Thee.
For what's an undone dish or two
Compared with sharing time with You?!
-Nancy Stitzel

Busy

Just the other day, I was talking to a friend about one of the problems with our world is that we are too busy. We are too busy for the things that matter in life. We think that busyness means we are productive and worth something.

There is a major problem with that!

Many times we are busy with things that just don't matter. We are too busy with inconsequential things that we don't have time for the things that really matter-relationships.

This friend and I try to get together often just to talk, have tea, and share what is going on in our lives. We do this not only because we know someone is listening to us, but because we then know how best to pray for each other. As what happens too often, it had been a few weeks since we had been able to get together or even talk on the phone. When I said I was coming over, she asked if I had time to do it. My response, "I will make the time because it is needed."

We need to spend time in relationship with others. Being open and real with others helps us get through the tough times.

God created us for relationship. He wants to have a relationship with us, but He also wants us to have relationship with others.

Don't let your life get busy with things that don't matter.

Also, remember that just because something is a good thing doesn't mean that it is meant for you. Too many times we are too busy with "good things" that we miss out on the best things that God has for us.

Do you find yourself too busy? I would love for you to share your thoughts.

Are You Busy?

Well, I thought I would start having time to get back to writing, but things just keep popping up to keep me busy. I'm not complaining, mind you. While I enjoy writing, all the things that are keeping me busy are good things.

What is keeping me busy right now is preserving food for the winter. A friend offered to let us pick apples off one of their well-producing trees. We filled 6 5-gallon pails and 2 bushel baskets full of apples! I was hoping to do applesauce with those on Monday, but another friend dropped off 2 boxes full of broccoli, 1 box of tomatoes, 1 box of sweet peppers, and more apples. Since the broccoli and tomatoes needed to be done immediately, we set to work on those and the applesauce waited until Tuesday. Of course, our own apples need to be picked and hopefully our own tomatoes turn soon so we can process those.

Keeping busy can be a good thing as long as you don't allow it to draw you away from time with your Lord or your family.

Are you busy?

Prayers Would Be Appreciated

I first need to apologize for not being around and posting like I should. I've been keeping busy with homeschooling, preparing for the upcoming run of birthdays, extra work around the house, and extra responsibilities at church.

My husband took a second job in December and has been picking up 10-30 hours a week with that job. In addition to that and his full-time job, he has become the interim pastor at our church. Our pastor resigned quite suddenly a few weeks ago and since my husband had been preaching once a month already, it was natural for him to step in while we seek a new pastor. The pastor's wife used to lead our Wednesday night women's Bible study and I have taken on that role. Since my husband has been working so many hours, there is a lot more work around the house that I have picked up to ease his work at home and to give him a chance to get sleep.

In addition to all that, we had a goat give birth just two days ago. We have been been dealing with sick kids and have been struggling to keep them alive.

I could really use some prayers. I have been feeling stressed, tired, and at a loss for a number of things. I feel bad coming to my readers to ask for prayers, but I know that many of you are prayer warriors and I could just really use your prayers. I would love to get back to having the time to write posts, but my first priority needs to be getting back to properly ministering to my family. I know that you will understand.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I feel so bad that I haven't posted much lately. We returned home late last Saturday night from our 1 1/2 week vacation to Texas. I've been playing catch-up since. It is my hope to be able to sit and write at some point this week, but we just got 250 lbs of potatoes that need to be canned, apples should be arriving any day, and I was asked to make and can sauerkraut for a friend (of course this is all on top of home school, laundry, etc). I figure if the Lord has something important to say through me, He'll give me the time to write!

I hope everyone is having a blessed month so far!