Milligans: He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

today could have been a really frustrating day.
but once again God has shown us His wonderful ways of working.

our amiable able baby fussed his way through breakfast. so by the time we were all done eating, he hadn't yet had a bite. i guess i picked a rough day to train him not to scream for food. we had a midwife appointment and were on a bit of a time crunch for our schedule. daddy saved the day and took over feeding the boy so we could have a happier day. yeah dad!

able arden milligan is now a 1 year old jabbering almost walking boy!

as we were cleaning up from breakfast, a friendly gentleman entered our back porch to see if he could help us with a water leak he had heard that we had??? interesting. i really love it that mark is able to work from home. it turns out that this man, Bob, repaired the problem free of charge!

leannora, nikao, and able joined me for my midwife appointment. we arrived just on time - i rushed there (a good 30 minute trying not to speed too much drive) to find that she was running a bit behind. it was nice not feeling late. since my last midwife visit (1 month ago) i have been trying (with difficulty) to set up an appointment with a back up doctor. oh, that's a funny story that i've gotta quickly share . . . in one of the first few phone calls i made, the nurse i spoke to told me i would need to visit the health department and take a pregnancy test! i tried to explain that i was preparing for a home birth and my midwife recommended this doctor as a backup and that i was already 23 weeks along. of course i called my midwife to straighten out the problem. she said they were confused and that i should talk to Beth. after a few more phone calls i decided to procrastinate. beth returned my call a couple of weeks later saying she had been on leave for a funeral. but then we were super busy for the following week right up until today. after updating her on a bit more of the story, my midwife suggested we just call the office and get it set up today. the phone call ended up being so simple, it was laughable.

my midwife is a fun conversationalist. somehow in the turns of our conversations, i realized that my wallet was left at home. this really hit me once i got in the car to head to the aldi grocery store in janesville. you can't shop there with a checkbook, so i'd have to go to woodmans to pick up my few items. but i can't shop at woodmans quickly - EVER. (that's why i really wanted to just run in aldi.) today was a 2 hour trip - uhh! i had to check prices on some items i don't usually shop for since we were there and they have that stuff and a big selection to choose from, we were hungry, it was lunchtime, i bought a bunch of junk for $168, had to squeeze it in the car with 3 kiddos and a big cooler (no trunk space available in mark's work car), got the 3 items i needed to hopefully finish off the weeks meals, and had to return inside the store because our last minute thank the children for being such good helpers and tide us over till we get home snack purchase of cereal bars were moldy. but something else happened there that just flabbergasted me. the lady standing behind us in the checkout line asked if she could buy each of my children a candy bar. she let both leannora and nikao pick out whatever they'd like! the children were so excited. it was just as special of a treat for me to be the recipient of such spontaneous kindness. so we were able to thank God for the kind candy bar lady. she cheered up our crazy woodmans trip.

the milligan children enjoying the ride in our new "bleen" dodge 15 passenger van!

nevertheless, i drove home sighing over my horrible organizing abilities and feeling guilty and incapable. my husband was finishing up our huge house project* on his own with some major plumbing catastopheS awaiting him, other unfinished projects all needing priority, as well as ignored income earning work crying out for attention. it was already 1:30 ish. we hadn't eaten lunch yet. i had to unload and put away all this grocery stuff. my children would probably be fussy, hungry, and ready for a nap . . . . .(i didn't yet know about the praise God plumbing fix)

*we blew 63 bags of insulation into the walls of our house last week. a major operation for do it yourselfers with 5 kids, a pregnant wife, and a big victorian house. it went like this: buy 50 bags of cellulose insulation on sale at menards, wait for good weather, drill lots of holes into the siding, wear out a couple of drills, rent insulation blower from menards, work like crazy before it rains, pray for help, feed the help, tell the help they can't use the downstairs toilet because we just found a leak in the basement a few minutes ago, rent a second machine and buy 10 more bags of insulation, thank God for the help he sent, make a quick run to menards for 25 more bags of insulation, clean up the extra insulation blown around the yard, return the 2 blowers and 22 unused bags of insulation and color match and buy the ugly "ish" outdoor paint, patch holes, prime holes, paint the ugly "ish" color on so the holes match the rest of the ugly "ish" color on the house. whew! with all sorts of normal daily interuptions and unusual things popping up we managed to get the job done. we're thanking God for His help. today was the final day of our big house project. tomorrow it's supposed to rain.

grandpa and grandma strub square dancing with the strub grandchildren (even daniel and kayleigh were here for the fun! - but baby milligan didn't join in this time.)

so i got home. i unloaded groceries carefully as able was soundly sleeping in the backseat. i unloaded on mark for a minute. somehow i kept it unusually short and without any tears. i made a quick lunch for the 3 of us that needed to eat. i was encouraged by mark's water guy story and the progress made on the major house project. i was able to put most of the grocery stuff away before some friends arrived to help finish up painting the house. i got to play a bit in painting our back porch white instead of ish. i served leftover chili for supper. i really enjoyed ignoring the days dirty dishes covering the kitchen. i loved our crashing evening and family worship time before sending the children off to bed. i decided to blog this long winded run on post to catch anybody interested up on the adventures of the milligan family. and the funny part is . . . this is just one day (with a bit of kim's necessary background explinations).

after reflecting on the days happenings, i had this strong feeling that God was restraining me today, in a good way i mean. i don't remember losing my patience over anything. and God seemed to interrupt circumstances at just the right time to remind me to thank Him. this morning i was able to have some quiet time before the rest of the family got up. i've been reading a book by paul tripp called war of words. this morning i read a bit about God's sovereignty and saw my failure to trust Him in situations that i can't control. i have been struggling and praying over these things for a while, longing for God to change my heart and free me from my selfishness. anyway, God gave me a variety of opportunities to trust Him and in His wonderful way allowed me to reckognize that He is working in all things. Here are some of the verses i read this morning. look some of em up if you want cause i don't want to type them all out. James 4:1-10, Matthew 22:37-40, 1John 4:7-21, Proverbs 3:6 Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track. Ephesians 1:17-22 He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything . . . No name and no power are exempt from His rule . . . Romans 11:33-36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.

He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. i can't remember the reference for that one, but it's what sums up the day. well, here i go blabbing about our day and God's goodness. i guess i'd better get off and join mark for our we're tired of working lets watch a movie date. sorry, no pictures of this week's adventures - we were too busy to take care of the cameras. but i will post some other recent photos while i'm at this tonight. hopefully i'll get back to this soon cause we have a bunch of pretty fall photos to share too.