Do you have Twins!?!

Question I often get are, "Umm, Are they...twins?" "How far apart are they?" "Wow, do you want me to take you to the parking lot, shoot you and put you out of your misery?" (or a variation of that one). The most recent comments not made directly to me but abut me, "She must have twins or something?" (at my yard sale while looking through clothes) or "She was in her last time I was here." (at Wal-Mart with my cart full of my 3 blessings).

Yes! I know they are close in age comparatively speaking. No, we're not the Duggar's (whom I greatly respect); we only have 3 (right now, hehe). Yes, we know what causes 'that'. No, we don't need help because we are not in misery. I can't wait get triplet questions when J is Izzies' size next year.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to tell the story of how God decided to bless us with 3 eternal souls to disciple and bless our lives:

Here’s the story of an OCD lady
With her husband and 8 years of baby plans
All of them were spaced, just like she wanted
The youngest in k'tans

Then that lady had a girl named Maggie
Who was busy for 18 months alone
They were 2 girls waiting for a brother
When Izzie came along

Till the one when the lady told the fellow
And they knew it was much more than a hunch,
That their boy would come just a year later
That’s the way God made us all the baby bunch!
The baby bunch.
That’s the way God made us all the baby bunch!
The baby bunch

Matt and I have always wanted at least 4 children and we also hope to be blessed enough to adopt some day. When engaged, our arrogant plan was to have a baby, wait 2 years, have a baby, wait 4 years, have a baby and wait 2 years to finish off our adorable little, perfectly space family. We had Magdalene in the summer of 2008 and I had a hard time with swelling during the pregnancy so we decided to try for #2 a little early than previously planned. Isabella came in January 2010. When she was just 4 months old, after a family move to a new home, town, and job we were surprised to discover God had decided moving up the time line was what was best for our lives and Benjamin arrived in January 2011, 2 days before Iz turned 1. Crazy, I know! But "The Lord declares" in Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV), "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." And what a future He has in store for us!

What game plan did you have where God threw an audible?

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I have to sacrifice WHAT?

It's important for us to teach our children at a young age responsibility. Maggie, my 3-year-old, in 17 days tear :'O( LOVES "chores" or "jobs" that are hers. We've gone through spells of bossiness between her and my younger daughter (18 months apart) so we had several lessons on what her "job" was as a big sister and what my job was as the mamma.  Every time I reminded her that something wasn't her "job" she'd ask with a smirk, "what IS my job?" to which I'd respond with her list again or I'd ask her to tell me.

Maggie also has many "chores" throughout the day.

*Lunch and dinner she always sets the table: place mats for all, her and Izzie's (and any added little guests) plastic plates, little forks, sippy cups, as well as my prized fiestaware for adults, big silverware, and canned drinks. Izzie is starting to help with this one and LOVES it. She needs a bit more guidance for placement but getting better and Maggie thinks it's great to help her, since she's sooo experience ya know.

*Sorting laundry is something she helps with as well. Then she puts away things down stairs (i.e. kichen towels, her panties, burp clothes, and bibs) as well as upstairs items (i.e. clothes and big towels), if she happens to be up there with me (usually a chore I do myself).

*Unloading the dishwasher one of the 1st "chores" she was given. She was thrilled to be such a big help to me. Her job? Put away the silverware. She was meticulous at this. Originally sorting by type and size alone until we got new silverware which added the benefit of color sorting, Sweet! Just like any other person, this got boring...I guess. Now she often cons her sister into helping her which leads to mixed types/sizes/colors and sometime just up-side-down. Not a big deal, right? To you non-OCD types.

This was just one hurdle I had to overcome in able to allow my children to assist me as well as for me to be able to teach them valuable lessons on stewardship, service, and plain-ole responsibility.

What are you sacrificing in order to train your children? Leave a comment- lets chat about it.

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