Things to Look Forward to...

Today at lunch, the girls brought up what life would be like in the resurrection. They were describing all the things we have to look forward to and here is the list they came up with:

"No more hospitals because there will be no more sick people."

"No pain."

"No bad people."

"No sadness."

"And Mommy, you'll be able to cook!"

Four Children: A Blessing

Since Abrielle has joined our family, I have been asked several times, "How is it having four kids?" Just recently I was asked by someone to write some "words of wisdom" about having four. I don't feel like I'm very wise in this area, but I can share some of my thoughts/experiences/convictions about having kids in general. For anyone keeping track this will be the first installment.

Today I want to focus on the complete blessing it is to have four children. I am not saying it is always easy or that I never get frustrated, but it is turning out to be a wonderful experience and I am enjoying each child immensely. So at this point I am going to do something dreadfully embarrassing and that is to point out that I was the one confidently telling everybody a few years ago that we were done with two! And of course I ate my words and now I have four. And the best explanation I can give about this is that I really started believing that Psalm 127 is true. Children (and more specifically godly children) are truly a blessing from the Lord. I am NOT saying that if others have only two (or less), then they are in the wrong. But as I prayed for and about my family, God showed me that my reasons for only wanting two children were plain old selfish and didn't quite match up to His reasoning.

How are these little ones a blessing? It is a blessing to watch each child as they go through each stage of life. It is a blessing to hear them tell me that I am a wonderful mother (oh, if they only knew!). It is a blessing to see how very different four little personalities can be. It is a blessing to watch them grow in the grace and knowledge of God. It is a blessing to be puzzled at how to raise these immortal souls and to throw myself in humble reliance on God for the grace to do it. It is a blessing to laugh with them. I cannot adequately explain it and I can't seem to convince enough people, but having a houseful is definitely a blessing from the Lord.

Welcome, Abrielle

Abrielle Faith Matangelo was welcomed into our home yesterday, June 7, at 2:59 pm.  She weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20 inches long.  We thank God for a safe delivery and are happy to report that both mom and daughter are doing great!  Pictures to come soon...

O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. 

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance. 

Psalm 16:5,6

Don't Get Excited

I just showed Doug my last post and he freaked out by the baby picture.  He told me that it looks like I had the baby.  Well, I didn't and so don't be mistaken by Alyssa's baby picture in the post about her birthday.

Alyssa Turns 5

Five years ago this little girl popped out in the living room caught by her daddy:

We celebrated Alyssa's fifth birthday at the end of April.  It was a fun day.  We decided to take her to Chuck E. Cheese.  It was her first time to go and she loved it.  

We came home after our little excursion and had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Since I couldn't eat the chocolate cake or ice cream I had my own little cakes - rice cakes, that is. Yum!

Annalisa joined in on opening gifts by reading Alyssa's cards to her.

And this is a picture of our gift to Alyssa.  She loves puppets and I told Doug a few months ago we should make her a little puppet theater.  Thankfully, something better came along. Our church has a clothes closet where we can donate things we can't use or we can take anything we can use.  One Sunday, Doug asked if I had seen what was in the clothes closet. Well, seeing that I have to climb about 20 stairs to get there, I don't go up very often lately. Doug told me about the puppet theater - just what I pictured making with some puppets included and a white board, too. So there you have it - now you know exactly how cheap we are; we gave our daughter a free, reused gift.  Actually, I bought her a brand new set of white board markers and an eraser to go with it.  Just as I thought, she loved it - can't you just see it written all over her face?

It's Official

After going back and forth for a while now, Doug and I have finally decided on baby names. "Names?" you might ask. "Isn't it a girl?"  Well, that's what I was told, but I have to admit I haven't felt sure about it and I was pretty surprised when the ultrasound tech told me so confidently that she knew what it was since the baby hadn't been extremely active during the sonogram and the tech had had some difficulties viewing other parts of the body.  Whatever we get, we will be content, but just in case, we have chosen a girl's name and a boy's name. Sorry, I'm not sharing (well, okay, Tina you know, but I haven't told anybody else).  I'll just let the rest of you know that both names do start with an "A" since we couldn't stand to break the tradition.

It's So Good to Be Loved!

Yesterday while we were waiting in the car for Annalisa to get out of school, Alyssa said, "Mommy, I like you a little bit, but I like Daddy a lot!"   And she made sure to drag out "lot" for emphasis.  I was a little shocked, but I admit I started laughing because I was completely taken by surprise.  No worries, Alyssa added on, "Oh, but you're very pretty!"

When I relayed this conversation to Doug he said, "Well, she is your daughter - very honest."

Making the Most of the Snow

I took these pictures the day after the first major snow storm.

Note the orange mittens. One of the moms in our church gave these to us last winter - they were her son's. They are seriously Alyssa's favorite accessory. She even tries to wear them to church with her pretty green dress and black dress coat; I won't let her.


This girl would play in the snow all day if we let her. I made her come in after a few hours of playtime when Alyssa started complaining that her toes hurt!


He made it in the snow for probably a whopping ten minutes. He was not impressed. Check out his coat I found at a consignment shop for 7 bucks!

One Year Ago Today...

This sweet guy was born:

I have had three very different birthing experiences. This was a planned home birth and was by far the most difficult labor for me, but the most relaxing recovery. There is something that I love about never leaving the house during the whole labor and birth, and God graciously allowed it all to work out even though there were some moments it seemed we were destined to be in the hospital.

As you'll notice there are no pictures of me. Let's just say I was completely uninhibited in my own home to the point that all the pictures of me from that first day are not for public viewing. It's a real bummer because I wish you could see the "serious conage" that Andrew's head came out with (those were Doug's exact words). These pictures were taken when Andrew was about an hour old.

I was blessed with a wonderful, Christian midwife and my good friend who is her assistant was there, also. Of course, Doug was with me through it all, but since Andrew had to be pulled out, Doug didn't get to catch this one.

Building a Bigger House

The name of my blog is "Building a House" and obviously I am not building any type of physical house. But I am building a house every day in all kinds of different ways - cooking meals, changing diapers, nursing, doing laundry (or at least trying to do it), driving to and from Annalisa's school, greeting my husband with a smile, reading to the kids, teaching them about God, submitting to my husband, laughing with my family, teaching Alyssa her sounds and counting, and the list goes on and on. It's not always easy to keep track of it all, but this is God's call on my life and I love it.

So, for anybody who hasn't heard yet, the word is out that I am building my house in yet another way - God is forming another baby for our family due to arrive sometime late May/early June. We are very excited and eager to receive this blessing from God.

Psalm 127

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.
Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one's youth.
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

First Grade is Here

Annalisa started first grade today. She was so excited. Yesterday she kept saying in a dreamy voice, "Tomorrow." It was quite entertaining. Her "tomorrow" came and went and she loved every minute of it.

I could barely get her to stand still for this picture
she was so busy trying to look for familiar faces.

Her teacher tried to get her to make a funny face for the picture,
but Annalsia didn't dare - she takes school very seriously.

Fun with Drew

Just 'cause I can't resist, I thought I would post a few pictures of Andrew from this summer:

Andrew had fun discovering his shadow

Fun at the park

He is a sweetie, but it's not all roses.

Giggling with Daddy this past Sunday

So I Lied...

But maybe you weren't paying attention. The last post says that I am supposed to be writing about our guests from last month in this post, but that is going to have to wait. Today Andrew stood up on his own. This third-child-growing-thing is happening way too fast. I barely have time to look forward to what he'll be doing next because he does it before I think of it - so different from the first two. It was a struggle, but I did manage to get a picture of him standing even if it does look a little blurry. He was trying to attack me and use me as his prop to get in the proper position before letting go. I'm sure it looks like he is leaning on the couch in the picture, but I promise he is not. And it is so funny because his sisters and mother always get so excited when he does a new skill and he loves the attention so he does it again and again just to see how we react.

And here's a bonus, just 'cause I love him so much:

The Lord's Day

We have been quite busy now that summer has arrived, so hopefully I will be able to post some pictures soon of the fun things we have been doing. In the meantime, I just had to relay a conversation that took place today.

Annalisa asked me, "Is Sunday the Lord's day and our day?" I said no that it wasn't that it was just the Lord's Day and I knew what was coming next: "So that means that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturdays are our days, right?" I told her that no, all the days belong to God, but that Sunday's special name is the Lord's Day.

Losing Her First Tooth

Whew, a lot of growing up has happened in our home this week. Annalisa came into my bedroom a week ago Monday with a bloody mouth. Surprisingly she wasn't crying and I looked down to see a piece of scotch tape in her hand. So, her two front bottom teeth have been slightly loose for about a month or so and she sped up the process for one of them by trying to cut a piece of tape with her teeth (ah, she has learned my habits so well). Anyway, the next few nights were spent with Doug very patiently trying to take out her tooth. He got about as far as getting her to open her mouth, but he was not aloud to touch it. We were really trying to figure out how to deal with this very delicate situation. I mean we have 19 teeth more to go, so we didn't want to freak her out too much. She is a pretty sensitive little gal, so we were trying to be gentle about the whole process.

Saturday night we were at a dinner at church and we came home and I asked Annalisa to wiggle her tooth so I could see how it looked. It was practically falling out so she and Doug went off to take it out. All of the sudden I hear screaming. I thought, "Finally, it's out." Doug came out, and no, nothing had happened. "Can you help?" he asked. Hmmm, I'm just not usually very helpful in these types of situations. Anyway, after a harrowing ten minutes, she finally decided to pull it out herself while Doug cheered her on and I looked the other away. She was quite surprised when it popped out with no pain.

The First Six Years

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

Annalisa when she was about six months old. Andrew looks so much like her!

At Doug's cousin's wedding in 2003

Her first time bowling

Helping Mommy make Christmas cookies in Arequipa

Getting used to the heat of Pucallpa

Just before she started Kindergarten last year


Last month

Promotion Day

Today was Kindergarten Promotion Day for Annalisa at The Oaks. We had the opportunity to go to her school to watch her perform along with her classmates. This post is probably going to get quite long, but I thought I would use the opportunity to talk about Annalisa's school, why she is attending there, and how it has gone.

Annalisa on the first day of school. The picture above is outside our home and the one below is her doing her first task at school. Her sweet teacher is the blond.

A few years ago, this wasn't exactly how I envisioned her Kindergarten year ending. Many of you know that I planned on homeschooling my kids. As I started to seriously plan this, I found out about a method of education called Classical Christian. The method is based on the Trivium (I will do my best to describe that) and I use the term Christian to mean Christ-centered.

The concept of the Trivium is simple: you teach children going with the grain. So the early years (up through about junior high age) you pack facts into the brain. This is done through song, chant, catechizing, and imitation. Remember all those silly little rhymes you did at recess as a kid? Well, think that, but with Bible, math, spelling, science, and music rules and facts and there you have the first few years of education for your child. The next stage of the Trivium is as one lady put it the "pert" stage. Think teen. Teens like to challenge the world around them, they like to argue, they aren't satisfied with the facts. So the idea is to go with the grain and teach the student how to analyze and think critically about the facts they have been given. The final stage of the trivium has been referred to as the "poetic" stage or rhetoric. This would be about that time in the teen years when a person is really concerned with expressing himself or herself. So the focus is to take all the facts and critical thinking and turn them into something beautiful and meaningful. For example, the seniors at Annalisa's school had an independent study they had to complete this year. One student wrote and recorded songs in a studio. Another student (my midwife's son) got to explore the world of filmmaking. Another student wrote and directed choral music and we got the chance to hear it performed by the high school choir. The final products are really cool, but in the process, not only are the students putting together a world of knowledge, they have had to work hard, too. (That's the best explanation I can give of the Trivium; obviously I could work on my rhetoric:).)

After learning about this whole process, it made sense to us to educate our children in this manner and I was planning on homeschooling the girls according to this method. Let's just say the task seemed daunting. When Doug and I knew we would be moving to Spokane, we decided to look for a classical Christian school. I knew that I could probably do a decent job teaching Annalisa basic reading and math, but I also thought that I would love to give her a little more and felt the best way for her to get that would be through the setting of a day school. We found one classical Christian school in Spokane and one in Idaho about 45 minutes away. The one we really wanted Annalisa to attend was in Spokane and they said that they probably wouldn't have space for her, but agreed to meet with us anyway. The other one didn't really appeal to me (all via the internet), but we decided to check it out and as it turned out we visited there first.

The school in Idaho seemed very academic. And, yes, classical education is a very academic way of learning, but Doug and I felt something about the Christ-centeredness of that school was missing. Don't get me wrong - there was plenty of talk about God, etc. with the principal of the school, but we felt something was lacking. The students seemed like any other students, just smarter. Doug and I left that meeting agreed that if we were going to invest time and money into this type of education and this school was our only option, we would rather go at it on our own through homeschooling.

The next day we met with the assistant principal of The Oaks. It was a great meeting and the entire atmosphere of the school was so different from the other school. The students greeted us in the halls, held doors open for us, and we could literally see Christ's love spilling over in the school. The principal found out we would be visiting his church that Sunday and invited us over for Sunday dinner (that is a whole other story!). We left the school very disappointed only because it was exactly what we were looking for in a school, but it seemed very unlikely that we could get Annalisa a spot in the Kindergarten class. We still filled out the paper work and sent it in and God worked it out that she was to be a student there.

So, how has it been? I can honestly say it is better than I ever imagined. Prior to this, I hadn't had the best taste in my mouth for Christian schools and thanks to my public school teaching experience, I knew long before I had children that I would choose something else for them. What I never expected was how well a school could be run and how The Oaks teachers really do what they say they mean to do. When the handbook and internet say they are Christ-centered, they really are. For example, I've noticed a genuine "putting of other's interests before your own" attitude by the students. Doug and I have gone to school performances and had students hold the door open for us while we were still half-way across the parking lot and the student didn't even know us. Other examples can be seen by some of the students who also attend our church. One girl noticed that I was trying to nurse Andrew and get the girls situated while Doug helps set up sound in between Sunday School and church time. Without asking, she has taken it upon herself to take the girls to the bathroom and get them settled in their seats so that I can tend to Andrew in the Mother's Room. The amazing thing is that this attitude isn't unique to our church or even to a "type" of family in the school, but is a serving spirit that is fostered throughout the school. The older students are taught that they are models to the younger students and they rise to the expectation. The result is that the relationships between students, teachers, and parents resemble those of a family more than a learning institution. Is the school perfect? Of course not, but the strength lies in that the staff recognizes this and they strive to grow.

I could write story after story of what I've seen and learned from The Oaks. Suffice it to say that Doug and I are very pleased that Annalisa is there. It has been a gift from God and a breath of fresh air to our weary souls. I don't know how long she will get to be there, but we are thankful for whatever time she has in that environment. Someday, I'll have to write about this year's graduation ceremony. I was inspired, but I will have to save that for another day.

Latest Baby Talk

I thought I would write about some of the funny conversations that we have had with the girls about babies. Actually, as I am thinking about this, I think they are all things that Annalisa has said.

Spitting Up:
I was holding Andrew one day when he spit up on me as he does quite often. "And that's why I don't want to have babies!" Annalisa announced. I laughed and then we had a little discussion about the joy of children with or without the spit up and whatever else they come with.

Pain:
Annalisa announced quite a while ago that she does not want to get married. The first reason was because she couldn't marry Daddy. Then it was because then she would have to have babies and that that would hurt. Well, I guess I have put the idea of pain medication for deliveries so far out of my mind that I never even thought to tell her about it. And it doesn't seem to matter that two of my three kids have been born at home; the girls still equate babies being born with hospitals (which is fine with me). Anyway, the last time Annalisa announced that she didn't want to get married because of the physical pain of having babies, it suddenly dawned on me that I should let her know that she can have medication to take away the pain. She didn't seem very convinced that the medication would really work.

Bulldog

I'm sure most people think we are a little off our rockers because of our kids names, but without even planning it, all three of our children have nicknames that start with B. And here's a recent picture of our little Bulldog: