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The rest is up to Jesus. I can’t control this culture we live in, I can’t control voters or candidates, and I can’t wring my hands to world peace. I can only do the job He’s given me, make a daily deposit of grace and wisdom into my kids, and pray that God blesses it a thousand fold, not because of what I did, but because He’s a loving Father.

This week(?), she deleted her twitter and instagram

(You'll have to excuse the rant I am about to go on here. I am an animal lover, and LL's most recent post has me :pull-hair: )

Yes, that’s right Internet. If you were paying attention on social media this weekend, you already know: we got a dog. Correction: we got a puppy.

We swore up and down we wouldn't do this until we were done with diapers, but I guess instead we’ll just make it our goal to have our human puppy and our dog puppy handle their own poop at around the same time next year. A girl can dream…

Translation: We have a lot of kids. So many in fact that I frequently wonder how I'll survive the day with them. Kids are HARD ya'll. Because of this fact I made a commitment not to bring a helpless puppy into the mix until I at least got everyone potty trained. This weekend, however, we were like "what the hay"! So great news! We got a puppy!

He is mostly Andrew’s project (I’m focusing on the 7 other human puppies we’re raising) and, for that, I am truly grateful. I simply haven’t any angst left to spare on the myriad of questions like, “How often should he be let out to pee?†and “Does he have enough chew toys?â€

Translation: I don't have time for this puppy. I am too busy taking care of my puppies. Did you catch that? I just referred to my kids as animals! Funny huh? :D But really, ain't nobody got time for a dog!

Because winter arrived the very same evening that Wooster did, we’ve got him all settled in his kennel on the back porch with blankets galore and rocks warmed in my crockpot wrapped in old t-shirts.

I’m hoping to at least get a new crockpot out of the deal.

Incidentally, the second the warm rock arrives in his kennel, Wooster quits yelling at us. I’m thinking of putting warm rocks in everybody’s bed this winter…

***Let me just preface this by saying that I live in the same general area as LL. It has been cold here at night...like bitter. The thought of that little puppy on the back porch just breaks my heart. I have a GIANT German Shepherd, and a mean old orange cat. Giant German Shepherd sleeps with me. Mean old cat sleeps in front of the heating vent. Giant German Shepherd won't even go out to pee after a certain hour...he just holds it til morning because COLD! You can open the back door (leading to the backyard) and he immediately walks backwards. :P Orange cat doesn't go outside period.***

Because winter arrived the very same evening that Wooster did, we’ve got him all settled in his kennel on the back porch with blankets galore and rocks warmed in my crockpot wrapped in old t-shirts.

I’m hoping to at least get a new crockpot out of the deal.

Incidentally, the second the warm rock arrives in his kennel, Wooster quits yelling at us. I’m thinking of putting warm rocks in everybody’s bed this winter…

Translation: See this tiny puppy? We're putting him on the back porch with a hot rock and calling it good. (raise your hand if you think we have ANY intention of getting up regularly to change said rock) Hey, did I mention it has been below freezing here at night?

Hmmm...wonder if this would work for the kids. There IS more room on the back porch.

Because we planned poorly, my washing machine is still broken. Anything that Wooster soils is simply sitting, along with nine people’s laundry, waiting for a part to arrive that will make us fully functional and hygenic once again. The kitchen towel situation is quite dire. Fortunately, my kids rarely change their underwear (they think I don’t notice), so the only people truly suffering are Andrew and me.

Translation: Since we are totally not getting up to take this puppy to the potty, we are content to just let him soil himself and his kennel.

Worse yet, I have no washing machine so I am just tossing towels full of piss and shit into the hamper with the kids clothes. Damn but it smells in here.

But I'm not worried about it. Hell, I don't even see that my kids' hygiene needs are seen to, much less some puppy we picked up on a whim.

Only, would someone explain to me why my younger kids, who were thrilled about getting a dog, are suddenly terrified of him and dissolve into tears when they hear him? Help me, oh Internets. Finn kept screaming that he was “scawudâ€

Translation: Does anyone know of any nearby shelters? The kids are already terrified of this tiny puppy and I'm thinking this is not going to work :think:

p.s. Before anybody writes me, I caved right after I hit publish and Wooster’s kennel got moved to the basement until the temps go up slightly. But he still gets his hot rocks. And I’m still getting a new crockpot. And he’s still an outdoor dog… Ahem.

Translation: Don't complain to me about putting a puppy outdoors when it's below freezing! Didn't I tell you I gave him a hot rock?? :roll: You can tell yourself I put him in the basement, but the deal is he's an outdoor dog. The end.

http://www.vitafamiliae.com/?p=4855

Read all the way to the bottom. Be prepared to go :?

http://web.stagram.com/p/141303888603698398_3051716

Also, this is her twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/vitafamiliae

www.vitafamiliae.com/

Why do I judge her? I mean really, should I be judging a mother for just taking a little trip. Heaven knows I do it. This is why I judge. She adopted a daughter from Ethiopia who she then expected to blanket train, sleep on her own and basically just be a perfect little smiley girl immediately.

And then, just 4 months after they brought her home she got pregnant. And her pregnancies are high risk.

She spent almost the entire time on bed rest, medicated and barely homeschooling. The kids got nearly no real attention from her (for reasons i can understand). So what does she do just a couple weeks before she brings yet another baby into this world right on top of a little one she just adopted? What does she do now that she actually can do anything?

She takes a trip to hang out with women bloggers.

If there is proof that the quiverfull mentality that kids are so very very much a blessing, this is it. I have said it before, the parents might be blessed by the kids but I am not always sure the kids are being blessed by these parents.

Because this is Real Life, on the drive home, Mira revealed that she hasn’t quite made it past her car seat panic attacks on road trips. It took awhile, but eventually, I could tell she actually heard me when I repeated, “Mommy and Daddy love you. You are safe in your car seat. We will get you out when we are home.â€

One more inch of progress we could give thanks for that evening.

Praise the Lord, after ignoring your 1 year old's panic attack on the journey home, your little adopted babe finally gave up the ghost of an idea that her mother would listen to her cries. No empathy, no journey breaks, no attempt to understand her. Well done, LL, really well done.

Today, my medicine was making me fairly miserable during rest time. Andrew had taken Sam to art class and I didn’t want to be alone in my room. So I called Ian and Adam to come snuggle with me. I admit, I let them watch my TV, but still, they very sweetly sat right beside me. Ian held my cell phone tightly in his hand because I showed him how to dial Andrew if I needed him to. He took his responsibility seriously.

They will probably never know how much they comforted their Mama in her moment of silliness.

Happily for you, your two young boys are blessed with more empathy in their little fingernails than you have in your whole being. :(

http://www.vitafamiliae.com/?p=4351#comments

Poor little Mira...god bless her, she went from one bad situation to another. First LL post pics of her *after* she's been left to roam the house alone. In typical 2 year old fashion (is she even two yet?) Mira discovered the trash can and had time to smear butter all in her little hair before LL wandered in to...well, take a pic of course! You don't think she's supposed to be mothering this kid, right? Hell no! LL lives to eat chocolate, take naps, and reproduce. :roll: It's nice to know that LL is allotting a WHOLE hour a day to taking care of the kids she's already got!

Since baking with all of the kids in the kitchen is blood pressure exploding on a day when I’m not medicated, I had to plan meticulously. I usually have about one good hour in a morning to be productive.

See how awesome she is? She totally needs another kid! Even though the ones she has make her blood pressure "explode". And even thought she knows she has difficult pregnancies, and even though she knows full well knows that Mira needs special attention, it makes complete since that she got pregnant within the first year of bringing her home.

Moving on, they decide to have a new years party for the kiddos. Night right? Hats for everyone...oppps, not so fast Mira! Everyone except YOU that is. Her hair had just been braided by one of LL's friends, and since LL hasn't taken time to learn to do it herself (already working on the next baby you know) Mira doesn't get a hat. :(

Since no new year would be properly welcomed without the wearing of ridiculous hats, I insisted we all find a hat. These are somewhat blurry pics, but you get the idea. Mira just had her hair freshly braided (by a friend, I still don’t have the hang of it) so she opted out of the hats, but she enjoyed slurping down my juice.

Seriously? This just makes me so angry :(

http://simplehomeschool.net/the-truth-l ... year-olds/

No LL God isn't just getting this. And yes Mira is a really, really tender stage. She may love babies, but as you adopted a children from a different country, with a different language, food and culture, well she deserved more than being your baby for the 9 months it took for you to shoot another one out.

She deserved you and your time. She deserved every single moment she could get not having a baby to usurp her. And the reason you have anxiety over this? Because you suck and you know it and you know that you should have tried to prevent pregnancy.

I dislike you more every time I read something you wrote. You make me a ball of rage because it is so unfair you have children and were able to adopt from Ethiopia and people like me don't qualify.

You suck.

(also Hi you crappy parent lurkers)

The doctor has finally given me a reasonable explanation for why my uterus got cranky before I’m even 20 weeks. He suggested that my baby-holding-up muscles are tired.

Since this is my fifth pregnancy in seven years, I’d say that’s a good guess. (And just typing that sentence made me hyperventilate.)

He thinks that once the baby grows big enough for my bones to take over the baby-carrying for my muscles, I should be fine. (Which would explain why Willa tried to come early and then arrived fashionably late.)

We’ve made some lifestyle changes and I have scads of medications at my disposal for when Ye Old Uterus acts up again. I sort of expect the next ten weeks to involve short stints of rest with short spurts of activity. In other words, our calendar will be very “flexible.â€

Um--- ok, does those lifestyle changes include NOT GETTING KNOCKED UP!!!!!! She's risking having a stillbirth or preemie because she's had so many babies in such a short time- your uterus is tired of being pregnant. You have so many kids, stop having babies!!!!!

And secondly-- you have a beautiful little girl (Mira) and your pictures do absolutely NO justice to her-- it's very simple, you just need to change to light settings on your camera. She has dark skin. You are whiteymcwhitersons. You need to adjust the damn settings!!! Get a good camera, take a photography course from someone who knows how to take pictures properly, and remember to adjust the settings when you start taking pictures of Mira. Seriously. Not hard. She's had a difficult life thus far and worst of all she's stuck with you. You could at least make sure she has some good pics of her as a child and not ones where you can't hardly see her face because her adopted parents couldn't figure out how to use their cameras.

I feel sorry for her....no one should have to go through that, but I can't help but wonder what the last few lines on her husband's update means....

For now, it’s sleep and getting Eunice settled back down. To rephrase Philippians, we want to be able to say, “I want you to know that what has happened to us has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole Labor and Delivery wing and to all the rest that our pre-term labor is for Christ.â€

Oh and umm, for those wondering, Eunice is her uterus...so ummm yeah...she didn't want to offend people by using the actual term.... :?

On a serious note, I truly hope she is able to carry her baby to term.

That's good. She didn't have nearly enough going on. Another little blessing to "train".

I have always made a point NOT to tell embarrassing stories about my kids. They are people too.

vitafamiliae.com/?p=4037

There's more, but this was just :shock: :

"Don’t walk up to her and point out that, even though she’s got three heavy children IN the cart and only one child is standing ON the cart, and she’s kept her hands at ten and two on the cart the whole blessed time, it’s still possible for the cart to be flipped and someone to die. Because she might cry and want to scream, “Unless you’re TAKING ONE OF THESE CHILDREN FROM ME OR HOLDING THEIR HAND ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE CAR, PLEASE KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS TO YOURSELF.â€

I didn’t scream.

But I did cry."

The Vita Familiae (some sort of kin to Mortons, with adopted child from Africa (Kenya?) are going on a road trip:

We are taking a family road trip this week. It should be very exciting, what with the van we don’t totally trust yet, a baby who throws up if she has to sit in the carseat longer than she deems necessary (out of anger at being in a carseat, not carsickness), and you know, just the usual Vitafam off-the-wallery you’d expect.

The stuff she projects onto her adopted baby never ceases to amaze me. How exactly, is she able to determine that she is throwing up out of "anger"?

It always amazes me how fundies are able to unself-consciously attribute any unwanted inconvenience a child causes them, to the child's evil sin nature.

Some people probably think I'm reading too much into this, but it's part of a pattern with her.