Psalm 16....My Portion

vs. 1:
You are my Lord
Apart from you
I have no good thing
God sometimes I doubt
I don't know my way
Where do I belong

bridge:
You speak to me
Inside my heart
I hear your voice
You instruct my heart
You show me your way
Night and Day I know...

chorus:
You have placed my portion before me
Your grace helps me embrace it
Your love completely surrounds me
My cup runs over with joy

It is good...you are enough for me
I have abundant life
When I'm in your hands

vs. 2
You are my Lord
I know your will not abandon me
God, I am secure
I rest in your love
I belong to you

When I'm An Old Lady

So..I am so thankful this season for my kids. I love them so much. They do truly bring me joy.
My mentor sent me the poem below that made me laugh right out loud because even though I love my kids there are days when I shake my head at the end of the day and think, "why? why? why do they do the things they do?" Do they not see the big picture of what I am trying to teach them or that I really am trying to raise them to be ladies and a gentleman? Of course not! They have no real understanding of all that.....yet! But at night when I do creep in to see if they are okay- they are sound asleep and so precious, I stand over them and thank our God for giving me such precious children!! What gifts!!

Enjoy the poem....laugh out loud!!

When I'm An Old Lady

When I'm An Old Lady, I'll live with each kid
And bring so much happiness...just as they did
I want to pay back all the joy they've provided,
Returning each deed, Oh, they'll be so excited!
(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.)

I'll write on the wall with reds, whites and blues,
And I'll bounce on the furniture...wearing my shoes
I'll drink from the carton and then leave it out
I'll stuff all the toilets and Oh, how they'll shout!
(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.)

When they're on the phone and just out of reach,
I'll get into things like sugar and bleach
Oh, they'll snap their fingers and then shake their head
And when that is done, I'll hide under the bed!
(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.)

When they cook dinner and call me to eat,
I'll not eat my green beans or salad or meat
I'll gag on my okra, spill milk on the table
And when they get angry...I'll run...if I'm able!
(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.)
I'll sit close to the TV, through the channels I'll click
I'll cross both eyes just to see if they stick.
I'll take off my socks and throw one away
And play in the mud 'til the end of the day!
(When I'm an old lady and live with my kids)

And later in bed, I'll lay back and sigh
I'll thank God in prayer and then close my eyes,
My kids will look down with a smile slowly creeping,
And say with a groan, "She's so sweet when she's sleeping!"
(When I'm and old lady and live with my kids)

Author Unknown

My son likes to dress up and enjoys being an animal, a superhero, a cowboy, a doctor, and lately he loves being Billy Blazes, the firefighter. But this particular morning he decided to emulate a cartoon character on his cereal box!! So..I couldn't resist capturing this funny moment.
"It's Great!"

Every morning we study in our Awana Cubbies book...he then becomes Cubbie Bear for awhile!
I never know who it is that is living in my house from day to day, moment to moment....
I love my son!!

Election thoughts...

My children and I have watched the election very closely. We have studied all aspects of the campaigns and prayed over the men and women running for offices in our government, particularly the president's office.
We have discussed carefully what our response should be if our particular candidate didn't win the election. Well, that has happened.
I am amazed at the derogatory remarks, disrespectful attitudes of many Christian adults toward our President Elect. This saddens me. I do not agree with him, I do not in any way, shape, or form support many of the agendas he has, but I believe that God has laid it out in Scripture that I am to respect the office of president that he will occupy. I must now support him through prayer. If I have any issues that I disagree with then I should look for ways to get involved to change the course of those agendas NOT criticize and speak with malice about him. But, sadly, I am not seeing that in many of the adults that I have spoken with. Instead I have heard many malicious comments toward our President Elect or at the very least comments that totally tear down and not encourage or help....
What are we teaching our children? Are we ignoring God's Word, are we saying it is okay to say things in politics about people when it is never accepted to speak that way to individuals we are daily involved with?, and are we proving to our children that we don't really trust God and his ways? I mean, God is still in control and uses all people to bring about his glory whether or not they "want" to bring him glory (think of Pharoah....Nebachanezzer....Pilate...)!
I really want to help my kids to understand that right now God is in control and he will use these next four year to shape his people. I do not know what the future holds but I know who holds the future and I trust HIM (Almighty GOD) to keep me in his hand as well as my children. God can and will give us the courage and the will to stand for him in the days to come. He will show us how to be actively serving him and actively working toward seeing his principles put into practice whether it be in our lives individually or collectively as a nation.
I hope that we as Christians can look to our President Elect and pray with pure hearts for his turning toward God's voice and God's principles. I pray that we as Christians will stand up and be a beacon of light in this nation even when we are not particularly thrilled with the outcomes of elections, world events and so on...
Please pray for our President Elect- Barack Obama as he gets ready to serve and work for our country. Pray because God requires it of us.

I went to a funeral yesterday. It was a funeral with mixed emotions. You could see the sorrow in the faces but so many of those faces also had joy mixed in. The pastor told about how this man, Ed had shared his faith and loved the Lord so much. Here was the end of the earthly story for this man, but yet he was just at the beginning of his eternal life with Chirst. It was both sad and exciting to think about.
Today I went to a baby shower. It was so surreal to think about the day before I watched a family say goodbye until we meet again to their loved one and then here I was watching a young woman saying hello to a new life entering into the world. The circle of life that God started at the beginning of time is so precious and every part of it truly does point us to our Father God's great love for us.
I talked with my girls about this subject on the way home from the baby shower. It was really quite wonderful to hear them commenting on how God is in control of all parts of life, the sad and the happy. They both said that we should trust God when he makes these decisions, that he isn't being mean when he takes someone home to him. That is a big insight from a 7 year old and 9 year old. I just kept driving my vehicle while my heart rejoiced in my God's working in their hearts.
Well, my heart is full. My conversation with Jesus today involves requests and praises for this family that is grieving and for this young mom who is waiting for her precious baby to arrive.
What a full life we have in our Lord Jesus!!

They know how to do what?

Have you ever watched your children do something and wonder, "where did they learn to do that?" Today I did. My Mom-in-law gave the kids a bunch of marbles today. So I am in the kitchen making supper and hear their conversation. I come around the corner and there they are all three of them making a circle, putting marbles in the circle, and then shooting marbles trying to get them out...anyway, I was astounded that they knew how to play. Where did they learn that?
My kids set me staight- Laura Ingalls. Emily has been reading the Little House books and they like watching the Little House TV series. So..now my question has been answered but it made me wonder how many other things have they learned via books and TV without my knowledge.
Hmmm.......what is a mom to think about that? Monitor, be aware, take note, and PRAY!!!!

Amazing facts learned....fun in the process...

Well, did you know that Play Doh came from Ohio? We were studying Ohio and up popped the invention of Play Doh! Look it up...very fascinating! It was a wallpaper cleaner to start with!!

Okay, so my kids have to pick a state from the region we are studying and do a report on something they found interesting from that state. Emily loved the Play Doh invention. My kids have two bins full of Play doh utensils and such...so, it was no surprise to me that she enjoyed that particular fact. So off to the computer we go to find facts about Playdoh.

And then back to the kitchen to write the report and to experiment with recipes.

Here is her version of Play Doh. It made enough to fill 3 to 4 Play Doh containers! Very cool.

We also learned to use gelatin for color and smell. We also found out that if you use baby oil instead of cooking oil in the recipe it lasts longer and smells wonderful....just google Play Doh recipes and you will have many to choose from.

We had so much fun watching this Play Doh emerge from flour and salt to something moldable!

Kinda reminds me of us with the Lord....today (except for this wonderful time with Em) was a hard day for me with my patience. And I just started wondering if I will ever be molded completely into Christ's image...something I long for but continue to see that it is truly taking all of God's love and his grace to mold this mom!! Well, happy Play Doh molding....

An Apple a Day....

Learning about the relationship of bees and apples!!

Doing the Bee Dance to pollenate the Apple Blossoms! Too funny!

Mom, look at all these apples!

After apples and more apples, Katie found the Farm area.
Of course, she found the horses (minature!) right away!


What fun we had at the Apple Orchard. It was purely amazing to see all the detail that goes in to making a apple AND then to realize that God did all that with his voice at the beginning! Incredible. What a Creator we have!

My schedule...God's plans!

I happen to "love" my day planner. I like knowing when and where I am supposed to be weeks in advance. Sadly, I have not been planning out the actual day to day the same way. Everyday I need to accomplish certain things- like schooling my children! But, there are so many days that I am ending with that being the only thing I accomplish. Yikes.
As I look back at what I just wrote I realize that it is quite backwards...I mean if you look at it in the light of Scripture. I am not to be "worrying"/"planning" so far in advance because I do not know the plans that God might have that are completely different from mine and I do not know how he will care for each of the needs that arise in the coming days. Yes, I still need to be on top of things scheduling appointments and so on... But- what I really have as a guarantee is that I have today, moment by moment.
Today as I talk with the Holy Spirit I know what he wants me to do. I know for a fact he wants time with me, he wants time with each of my children, he wants attitudes and actions to reflect his image, he wants me to take care of my home, making good decisions for my household (Prov. 31), he wants me to school my children (all over the Proverbs and Deut. 6) in knowledge and in the wisdom of the Lord, he wants me to be a wife of noble character so that Jerry can trust me with the home and children. In all this there is a pattern, a schedule of sorts, if I follow the Scripture.
The Lord is to be above all and in all. So HE is where I start my day.
My husband is to be one with me and I am to serve and honor him. So next, I need to meet any needs he might have before he is off to work. Which for my husband means to tidy our room, make his lunch, his clothes are where he needs them, he is loved on by me, and his children have the freedom in the early morning hours to play, talk, and enjoy daddy without me giving them any instruction or chores.
My children (Eph. 6) need order and consistency as well as an example to follow, we need to start with a tidy room, a good breakfast, and then it is time to FOCUS the priorities!
1. The Lord is to be above all and in all. So HE is where they need to start their day.
2. My girls needs to learn to be caretakers of the home. So here is where their chores come in.
They also need to learn to serve- helping their little brother with his chores.
3. My Josh needs to learn to "work for his bread" so to speak- so he has chores to accomplish.
4. Honoring parents needs to be a priority. Listening to a devotional with mom and then answering questions from the Word is so important to our morning.
5. Knowledge and understanding of the world we live in (Proverbs, Acts) should be next on our schedule. (This is SCHOOL TIME!!) Oh, boy, this is the challenging part- fitting three levels of learning into workable segments. But, with the Lord's leading this CAN be accomplished.
6. Serving others and working on relationships (Body of Christ/a witness to unbelievers), this is the time of day that at least once a week and most of the time it is more like three times a week we take time to schedule in ways to be with other people.

Okay! So, in writing this out for myself I am seeing that I can accomplish this with a little diligence. I can do this if my focus on how God sees my life as a child of his, a wife and a mother our continually before me.

Lord, I know I fail at this more times than I succeed. I allow the selfishness of "my time" to get in the way of what you have prepared for me to do in light of your Word. I need to take the time everyday to focus on your Spirit allowing you to change my perspective, my wants- basically my will!! Jesus- please intercede for me as I learn to allow the Spirit to control my daily plans. Spirit please pray for me when you see me going my own way, please speak to my conscience and help me to make the changes you want moment by moment. Thank you for your mercy to this mom who just doesn't get it and then when she does still wants her own way. Oh, change my heart, Oh God!! I love you.

If you out there reading this blog think, wow, this woman needs help...you are right. I think all of us need more encouragement then we let on. So, pray with me that daily we will seek God's plans not our own wants. That our husband and our children's needs will come before our own "me time". Oh...what a way to live!

My kids...

Don't you just love the fact that kids enjoy life. They don't worry if someone is coming to the door or if someone is documenting their silly faces...they just enjoy. The are not concerned with "image"! I love this in my own kids. I love to see them dress up and act goofy! I love to watch them go from reading a book to getting their siblings on board for acting out the story. Imagination is an amazing gift. I have felt very pressed upon by the Holy Spirit to let my kids have more time for this kind of play. To let them be children...to encourage their minds to create. Our God is the Creator and we are created in HIS image so this is the image I want to impress upon my children to be like. To create, to love, to care for others, to anticipate His relationship with them, what more could I ask for in regards to the lives of my children? To be like their Creator. For this moment...I am taking in these fun moments of creativity and laughter...

To live....

Well, a new friend that I made this past weekend at a retreat encouraged me to try blogging. Not sure about it just yet but I sure did have fun setting up this site. Putting down all my interests and so forth....
I think that I want to write frequently about what God is teaching me and my children. What a great way for us to be able to look back through the posts and see God's hand in our every day lives. This could be life changing....
As far as blogging about my present thoughts...well, they are numerous. But, what came to my mind today is the fact that I want my kids to grow up completely comfortable in who God made them to be...to live with the concept of it is "all or nothing"! I was thinking about how God wants me to live. He is an all or nothing God. He does not enjoy the lukewarm in fact in Revelation it says he would rather spit us out than have us lukewarm. I believe that my relationship with the Lord encompasses every single aspect of my life including my personality, the way I am...so, I need to embrace the fact that I am personally a "live big, live loud, live with emotions" kind of a gal. My oldest daughter, Em lives cautiously but when sure of things or people- trusts completley, My middle girl, Kate lives with abandon, and my youngest, Josh is still figuring it all out...but I have noticed that their personalities have made their relationship with Jesus so unique. When Em prays she listens. When Kate reads her Bible she takes it to heart.
Anyway, I am praying that today I live for God completely with my whole body, soul, and spirit!!
What a way to LIVE!!