oh baby!

able keeps asking me to sing "oh baby" lately. it's turned into my little song for shiloh. to the tune of pharoah, pharoah . . . except we sing: shiloh, shiloh, oh baby, we love you so, yeah yeah . . .

each of the children have a special song that i have made up lyrics to fit just them. although the first 4 have much more thought put in (shhhh - i do have plans to someday tweek the more recent kiddo songs)

so the point of this silly post . . . we're going to need to come up with a song for milligan baby #7 coming september sometime! the rumors are true, but probably not too surprizing. anyways, we are super excited. and the momma has even had a bit of a taste of yuckie pregnancy stuff this time around. it's a first for me to regularly feel yuckie. and i'm still sneezing. and trying to keep up with busy bunches of energy times 6, soon to be 7!!!

wow!
i'm still trying not to sound too untrusting of God when i ask Him why He thinks i can do this momma thing again. why is He choosing to bless our family? especially when i see how often i fall short in the good things He has already given! another opportunity to watch God's grace in action!

please pray for us if God brings us to mind. and feel free to pass on this crazy celebratory news!

diaper school?!?!

so yesterday (sunday), mark and i attended a cloth diapering class at nicki's diapers in madison, wi. it was a super fun event! my parents watched the children for us so we could be free to take our time. and take our time we did because we were there for a few hours! nicki, the business owner, walked the bunch of us attending the class through her vision for the store, all about the evolution of cloth diapering, and washing instructions. we got to check things out with our eyes and hands and ask all the questions we wanted. kendra and val, you would love the place!!! sometime you'll have to come and visit so we can all have a momma diaper date!

nicki also announced that this week her own creation of cloth diapers will be available to purchase. those were our favorite-called best bottoms. the salesladies there told us that they expected the new line of diapers to sell fast and to order them online if we were interested. so i guess we're gonna try to get some of that style! i'd also like to try out a couple of other brands because the all in one pocket diapers, fuzzibuns and mother's touch, interested me. kendra and val - could you tell me again what you like and give me some details of how you make cloth diapering work for your families? i would love your input because i'm easily overwhelmed about such things. thus why i'm finally getting started with child #6! thank you so much for directing me to nicki's! and thanks a bunch for letting me learn from you - your help is invaluable to me!!!

i guess my goal is to get up and running with the cloth diapering stuff by shiloh's 1st birthday - february 23. a funny birthday present, huh?! but hey, we're homeschoolers, so we're expected to be funny about such things. did i mention that mark is experimenting with making his own homemade sourdough bread? and he wants to try milling our own flour! to top it off, this winter i'm planning on ordering heirloom garden seeds so i can collect our own seeds for future gardens! yep, we're on our way to planet weirdo.

the heart of many issues

today, i've been wrestling through my thoughts and reflecting on our full visiting weekend. (we hosted family for new year's and went to dixon for a big family event - celebrating Grandpa Hartzell's 90th birthday!)

my heart is heavy for our friends and family and brothers and sisters that are struggling through all sorts of issues. it's been reminding me of the lessons God has allowed us to work through for many years now. I think we're always in the process of growing and balancing, but lately God has been setting us free from yucky boxes that we've put Him in and ourselves as well as others.

on sunday, we were blessed to join with 2 families who are beginning to meet as a part of the church of dixon in their homes. we read through psalm 2. this and our conversation got me thinking and praying. here's where my thoughts and hopefully the holy Spirit have led me. . .

to begin, a gathering of yesterday's thoughts on psalm 2:
(maybe it would be good to read the psalm first before reading my thoughts on it)
-the nations turn against God, His truth, commandments, etc.
-but in vain as He has a sovereign plan, a coming King
-their (the nations) judgement is from God (not us)
-His plan is through the coming King, Jesus Christ
-serve and worship the Lord, fear Him (not the power of the nations)
-trust His sovereignty (even when things look bad)
-know Jesus Christ who is our blessing, refuge, and hope

so from that context and the context of various conversations throughout the weekend, here are further thoughts related to those above:
-all the yucky stuff we see and experience in the world is a consequence of SIN
-the Spirit helps us to discern and be convicted of problems in ourselves, others, the culture, the church, etc.
-we find solutions to these SIN problems in relationship with God's Word and Spirit
-the problems and solutions we see and find are to point us to our need for a Savior
-but we've gotten caught up in the excitement of movements that teach answers (ex. homeschooling, family integrated church, home church, creation, christian political action, etc.)
-in reacting to SIN and all sorts of answers with good intentions, we've made the mistake of worshipping convictions and have begun to set standards for ourselves and others
-we can fall back on the culture we've created by our personal reactions to SIN, but fail in the heart of all the issues - THIS IS VANITY!
-it is only through CHRIST that SIN is conquered
-we must focus on CHRIST and God's sovereignty! we must trust His sovereign plan! He lets SIN happen. He lets trials and persecution and trouble lead us to see our need for Him!
-we need to seek HIM for a BIBLICAL and SPIRIT LED true balance of LIBERTY
-then the true LIGHT will shine from us through our relationship NOT duty to Christ
-the heart of the issue is knowing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord - it's the message of the gospel, it's unstoppable!

i don't know that this even makes sense to anybody. but this kind of sums up what has been on my heart and mind. we have been so wrong to set standards for others and for ourselves. we want to confess to those that we have offended in this process of growing up in the Lord. we are so thankful that God has been revealing these things to us. and i guess whether it makes sense to anybody else it doesn't really matter. we rejoice that God is at work. we want to let God do His work in the hearts and lives of our friends and family and serve them and Him by sharing our lives in service however He leads. we pray that He will use our mistakes and the lessons we are learning to help others. and we hope that He will use us to be a light that shines of a sweet relationship with Jesus Christ our Savior and let us rest in the workings and timing of His plan.

He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it!

in Him,
kim milligan :)

Happy Buddy Day!

so we had a REALLY happy buddy day. becky and jeff arrived first (so we FINALLY got to meet him). the wadsworths and stonesifers followed soon after in a boy van load and a girl van! madsons joined in with lots of goodies to share. and chris arrived last (but never least) welcomed by lots of happy children yelling surprize. My Buddy even showed up from a keepsake box in the attic! and for our buddies far away who couldn't attend . . . we missed you. here's our version of the fun:i think and hope that we ate well. kendra led the children in a super fun game of simon sez. the wadsworths supplied some games. the dads got to play. the moms got to talk about cloth diapers, school, and that kim is not the superwoman that she appears to be. (look for the superwoman disclaimer in future blogs.) the children enjoyed cookies and sweets and toys a whole bunch. and we all took turns not neglecting the little ones. jeff and becky played buddy sitters for quite a while which was really sweet and enjoyable. jeff led 12 kiddos in singing their own versions of happy buddy day (to the tune of happy birthday). lots of sugar, soda, munchies, snacks, games, conversations, etc. so much fun that i forgot to serve the hot chocolate (though it was set out on the counter the whole evening!) and to take pictures. so these are the only milligan photos of the day. since we had so many good photographers in the house, i'm sure you'll all have yours up on facebook or something. we milligans just cannot commit to joining that crowd, so maybe some nice buddies could blog every once in a while so we can still keep up a bit?!? we do want to keep in touch with buddies and such, (someday i'll have to take some time to share our facebook disclaimer since i'm an explanation kinda girl) and we feel so blessed that you all traveled and took time out to join us for a fun day in our home! we hope you all had a happy buddy day too!! THANK YOU!love in Him
the milligan bunch
mark, kim, hogan, owen, leannora, nikao, able and shiloh

Happy Buddy Day to you, until we meet again . . . bumbadoodah bumbadoodah bumbadooo dahh
(my buddy song is to the tune of happy trails to you)

Milligan Christmas Letter 2009

Hello and Merry Christmas from the Milligan family! This letter is an attempt at a family update. (A simple disclaimer: both Mark and Kim have contributed to the writing, so we apologize now for any confusion.) Well, though we’ve tried to move a couple of times this year, we are still in our big blessing Edgerton house. We would love to have a bit of land, but we trust that our God has a wise plan for us. It has been good to be content and thankful for the great gifts God has given. The hustle and bustle of house repairs and readiness is behind, and for this season we have been able to ignore the itch to be on the go and rest for a bit. (This is a new thing to us!) Work has been a bit slow, but the family is growing right on schedule.

Shiloh is nine months old, just like we thought she would be about now. She’s becoming a sweetest little girl. Sober is often the word to describe Shiloh, but she will always burst forth a beautiful smile at just the right moment. Then just as abruptly as the smiles and giggles come, they vanish into a silly sober smirk or a thumb popped in her mouth. She’s a beautiful addition to this crazy, cozy circus called the Milligan household. Some days we just sit back on the couch, laugh, and enjoy the show.

Able is our small, wandering friend. (I remember Nikao doing that for a time, but Kim says that he only did it for the cookie table at church meetings.) So, maybe that’s just Able’s way, and he’ll remain the child who freely roams. What is nice, is that he is also very sociable – an entertainer, even.

Nikao is done with paper pants, so now we’re down to two in diapers. (Able seems close, too. That would be dreamy!) Nikao has been really getting better at talking. He’s such a fun bright-faced boy. One day recently Nikao was able to go tuning with Papa. It was a pretty special day for a little boy who’s on his way to growing up and a daddy who loves his little boy.

Leannora has been singing the Greek alphabet. She has heard Hogan practicing enough, that she has simply picked it up. What a way to learn! Leannora is always making music – humming, whistling, singing, creating songs – it is so fun. She loves to read and draw and LOVES the color pink! She also has some new found friends. It has been sweet to watch her grow as she has mostly known a household of brothers.

The big brothers, Hogan and Owen, are our official students this year. The boys work together on many subjects. That has been great as they help and complement one another so well. Besides working at Greek, Hogan is reading about Pilgrims, Indians, and early American stories. It’s hard work sometimes to pull him away from a book! Owen gets a bit fidgety at times, but as long as he gets in some sneak around time he seems to do well. Owen really loves science and experiments and just about anything he can do with his hands.

We have been trying to get a bit more organized, lately. Our friends, the Robertstad family, have given us some of their old homeschool books/curriculum. It’s been fun. The organization work has already been done and we just make the details work and fit our family. Though we lack consistency, the flexibility is wonderful. We’ve found ourselves to be better at routine than schedules. It has been a great relief to shed off standards and expectations.

God has given us a great gift this year – some close by friends! The Crenshaw family have become close friends over the last months. We play games and study the Scriptures and share meals and have picnics and other sorts of things together. They have 3 children that our children love dearly. And in places where our families don’t quite match up they give us grace and love us anyway!

Ah, fellowship has been sweet and full this year! Our week starts with the church meeting in our homes on Sunday evening. Monday morning at 7am, I (Mark) meet with Jason Crenshaw to read through The Work Of The Holy Spirit by Octavius Winslow (it’s a sweet time together with a sweet book). On Wednesday, we pray with the Robertstad family (our other friends who have blessed our socks off!) On Thursday, we have been going to the Crenshaw’s to discuss Knowing God by J. I. Packer. On Saturday, I have been meeting with Mr. Crenshaw

and Mr. Robertstad to discuss the Westminster Confession of Faith. Other things fit in the in-between times. It’s been enjoyable.

The Lord is good to us. He is helping us to grow up – we need a lot of that. In His timing we wait for His Spirit to grow our faith. We also need a lot of strength, patience, wisdom, discipline, gentleness, love, etc. He’s supplying all that we need for life and godliness. We’ve been enjoying Him more and more, learning deeper ways to live in Christ and be dead to the flesh, as it is written. One of the latest scriptures that has brought me encouragement is 1 Corinthians 15:10, which tells us that life in Christ is not just the spiritual/mystical stuff, but also the visible and practical stuff like doing dishes and raising children. I have been concluding that in all our labors, we should be able to say, “yet, not I, but the grace of God in me.”

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God in me.” 1 Co. 15:10

Love in Him,

The Milligan family

Mark, Kim, Hogan, Owen, Leannora, Nikao, Able, and Shiloh

Buddy Day - Christmas '09

Alright, ya'll: December 20th. All day (or more if we all get snowed in). Old-time Buddies. Our old house. Hot cocoa. Hot woodstove. Games. Catching up. Bing Crosby. Eggnog.

It'll be more fun than a stick in your eye. So, be there or be square, yo.

we're puttin' 'em to work early

here's our shiloh sweetie at 9 months. she wants to be a big helper. do you see the little dirt pile beside her rollie car? good job girlie!

we've been keeping busy.
shiloh can drive just about anywhere in the house with her rollie rollie.
able is a talkin' away these days. he's a trick to keep up with and still in his tornado ways.
nikao is a delight and is proudly wearing big boy underware all day and all night!
leannora has had a full social schedule with neighbor girlies asking - can leannora come out and play?
owen and hogan are our official students this year. history has been the blast with the boys. (leannora is often joining in with a twist of the hair - not so sure of the adventure stories we've been reading.)
momma has been enjoying the learning time during quiet time. a nice trick to keep tabs on the little ones while we accomplish things that need our attention without constant interruption.
we've been meeting sunday afternoons for church in our homes with the robertstad family here in edgerton. that has been a delight. fellowship has been sweet and full as we have been enjoying spending time with a family in milton too - the crenshaw family. both families have been a gift from God as we've been a long time praying for friends such as these!