Discovery: Quilt of Grace

I've just discovered the encouraging blog Quilt of Grace - authored by a gracious homeschool mom of 5 biological kids (including some with serious special medical needs) + 2 foster kids (with special emotional needs), almost adopted. Her composure and humility and bright spirit are a blessing to me. I even love her blog title.

- For those who think there are no truly wonderful men or beautiful long-term marriages out there, read what Laura's husband does for her. It's a heart-warming thing.

- Had a bad day? Laura can certainly commiserate, though she generally tries to be encouraging. She ponders blog honesty: "When we write only a few times a week, it isn't that hard to write about the few token moments where everything was actually going right. We often don't write about all of the moments where everything was falling apart."

- Laura addresses the fears of people who think having lots of children means less parental love for the younger ones. Speaking of her fifth child, who just turned one:

He is so special to our family. I can't imagine life without him. Although I absolutely love my children equally, I have to say that I have definitely enjoyed Giovanni more than I did the others. This has nothing to do really with him or his awesome personality, but more to do with me. The more children I have, the faster time seems to fly by. I made the conscious decision with Giovanni to really stop and enjoy him. When the other children were babies, I tended to get caught up in the busyness of the day. But with him, I would skip that extra load of laundry, and just sit and cuddle with him. I just cherish this time so much. Lord willing, I will still be doing laundry 25 years from now. But you just can't get back that time with a baby.

- Read this heartwarming post on plenty of lavished attention for the kids in big family. I wanted to post an excerpt, but it all really goes together, and I found I was going to be republishing the whole thing, which really isn't fair. So just go over and read it for yourself. I'd like to go visit Laura's house some day (and I don't even know where she lives).

- I loved Laura's family's idea of sleeping under the Christmas tree!

- Funny post on Modesty Gone Too Far.

- Great idea for mattress flipping labels.

Thanks, Laura! I'm blessed you can find the time to blog!