As They Grow

It's amazing how one day you have this life (or in my case lives) inside of you and before you even see them you are in love. Then one day you get to meet that child (or children) face to face and you love them even more. It's hard for me to believe that over 5 years later I am still falling more and more in love with my children.

I love to watch them grow. I love to hear the things they come up with, their conversations with each other, the expressions on their face when they are happy or excited or sad, and to listen to all their questions. Okay, maybe not ALL their questions. If you were a fly on our wall you will often hear, "No more questions, I can't take it anymore!" Or while we are driving in the car, "Can we just drive with no one talking." But there are times when I do love to listen to their questions. Especially when it's just me and 1 of my children and not all them asking questions at once.

I just wish I could bottle it all or some way share with you all on here their cute little voices. The funny expressions on their face. The way Alex loves to just creep over onto your lap and you don't even notice. All of a sudden there she is. Isaac hopping around the house on his big ball. (Best invention ever!) The cute way that Joshua pulls his mouth right after he tells you something that is very exciting to him. The serious look that Amanda gets on her face when she is telling you a story and the clicking of her mouth as she tells it.

I love to watch them grow. The older they become, the more complex their questions. Questions about God, questions about Satan. Their thought process is amazing! I love to just sit back and take in their "childlike faith." Although they are busy asking questions and trying to learn from me, I sit back and I learn from them. I love to listen to their prayers. Prayers of praise, prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of petitions. WOW! It's amazing to me how much 4 and 5 year olds understand.

Alex came to me a few days ago and said, "Mom," (all sentences with her either start with or end with the word Mom) "Does Satan try to trick people?"

Me "Yes he does."

Alex "What state does he live in?"

Me - Laugh and then try to explain to her how Satan works. I'm guessing she wanted to check if he lived in Indiana to know if he would be trying to trick her.

As much as I would love to just freeze time and keep my kids this age forever, I am also excited to continue to watch them grow and to see what God has in store for them.

A Hair Raising Wordless Wednesday

All Together Now

Verse Of The Week

To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, I trust in You;
Let me not be ashamed;
Let not my enemies triumph over me.

Psalm 25:1,2

I saw this verse and thought to myself what great words to have on my mind every time I leave the house!

My Boys

I have a new found appreciation for people who photograph children for a living. It took me a lot of shots to get these but it's still fun to see the ones that do turn out. Now it's just selecting my favorites. If you have a favorite I'd love to hear your opinion.

Wordless Wednesday - Daddy Time

Carving a Pumpkin

My kids being 5 and 4 have never carved a pumpkin. Actually, they still haven't. I did carve a pumpkin for them this year though. The girls wanted nothing to do with sticking their hands inside and getting the seeds out but the boys were willing to help me.

I told them it had to be a happy pumpkin, so that is what it is.

I tried roasting the seeds when I was done. No one really liked them, so they are now sitting in a baggie and will probably going in the garbage some time soon.

How Great Is Our God

This past week in my Bible study we have been studying who God is. This has made me really meditate on something I know but don't always take the time to think about every day.

I'd like to quote from the book we are studying called "This We Believe".

There is nothing more perfect, beautiful or glorious than God. He truly is the greatest thing. Yet all too often we forget this truth. When we do, idolatry creeps into our hearts and we cease to live fully for Him. But when we see Him in all of His glory and splendor, the sinful enticements of this world are crowded out. We become more holy as we develop a grand and magnificent vision of the transcendent God.

Today as I make my list of what I am thankful for, I want to focus on some of the things that I have been meditating on this week of who God is and some of His attributes.

Multitude Monday 181-197

His ways are higher than my ways Isaiah 55:8,9

He is the One true and living God

His power is absolute

He is the Great Creator

He is Triune

He is All Knowing

He is Unchangeable

He is Holy

He is Sovereign

He is Just

He is Wise

He is Faithful

He is Merciful

He is Good

He is Loving

He is Perfect

He is Everywhere

May you take the time today to think about the things that you are thankful for and may one of them be that we serve a Great God!

Verse of the Week

I was all set to post one verse and when I sat down today I changed my mind. I am doing a study in my small group and the lesson that we are working on is entitled "The Triune God and God the Father" and underneath that title is a memory verse. After worshipping this morning and going through this study all week I really felt that I wanted to memorize this verse instead of the one I had chosen a couple days ago.

You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.

Revelations 4:11 NKJV

I hope you will join me this week in memorizing a verse from God's word.

Photo Editing

A few weeks ago I took the girls to the park and we had a little photo shoot. I took about 80 or 90 photos and didn't get as many good ones as I hoped. I then need a photo editing program to spruce them up a little. I was debating about buying a program when someone told me about Picasa. You can go to there website and download the program for free. Which I did today and then had some fun playing around with it. I thought I'd share my results.

I'd love to hear your opinions. Now I just have to wait for a nice day so I can take the boys!

Let's Memorize

I've tried memorizing scripture before and well, I'm just plain bad at memorizing. When I teach my kids verses over and over again, I can never remember how it starts. I always have to have the book in front of me. This, however, is not going to keep me from continuing to try. Many years ago I worked at the Bible League. This was my first attempt at trying to memorize scripture. Every week a group would get together to recite scripture that they had memorized and then pick a new verse to memorize the next week. But they would say all the verses from the previous weeks, after a while this just became too much for my brain!!!

Last year I attempted to memorize with my family. I would pick a verse each week and we would usually learn it at the dinner table. Of course, a couple weeks I forgot to pick a new verse at the beginning of the week and then the rest is history.

I am now again attempting to memorize scripture and I hope you will all join me. Each Sunday I am going to post a verse of the week and I am hoping you will all memorize it with me. Maybe as we go along I might pick a few verses at a time but for now we will keep it simple.

Why memorize scripture you ask? Well, I thought of a few reasons.

1~ write God's word on your heart
2~ teaching and disciplining your children
3~ witnessing to others
4~ use it to encourage others and even yourself at the same time
5~ use it in prayer as praise to our great God
6~ see your sin and also how you should live

Chuck Swindoll wrote, “I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture. . . . No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant. Your confidence and assurance will be enhanced. Your faith will be solidified” (Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], p. 61). Go here and read John Piper's reasons for memorizing scripture.

I hope and pray that together we can grow in God's word as we memorize His word together. I would love for you to email me or post a comment and let me know if you will be joining me. Let me know how it has or is changing your walk with God. Of course you don't need to let me know but if you do then I can encourage you and it will encourage me as we do this together. Also, if you have a verse that you have always wanted to memorize, please let me know and I can include it in one of the weeks.

So please come back every Sunday for the verse of the week and let's write God's word on our hearts, for out of it flow the issues of life! Proverbs 4:23

Things Said

Here are a few things said and/or overheard around the house lately that have made me smile.

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I was watching Planet Earth with the kids and there was a shark that ate a seal and it was really fast. Isaac says, "Mom, if you want to be fast you have to be like a motorcycle." Really? Not sure where that came from.

While watching this show a commercial came on for Head and Shoulders where there was a man interviewing a football player after a game and the player had this long, flowing, curly hair. Alex says, "That's a boy with girl hair, right mommy?" That most definitely was a boy with girl hair! If you've seen this commercial you know what we are talking about!

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Last week I was baking a cake and Isaac was in the bathroom....on the toilet. Apparently he likes to think while sitting on the toilet. He called me over once to ask me a question and I answered and then went back into the kitchen. Then he starts calling me again, over and over and over. Finally, I head to the bathroom where I got this thought provoking question, "Who painted the walls in the bathroom?" Seriously????

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One day I was doing devotions with the kids and the devotional was about how God made the ocean. Afterward one kid had a comment and in our house once one says something, everyone has something to say. So we started with Isaac.

Isaac - "We can make sandcastles at the ocean."

Next was Joshua - "God made everything."

Next Amanda - "We love everything that God made."

Then came Alex - "I only like soccer practice."

Hmmmmm? Wonder where that came from.

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Last Friday my nephew Carter spent the night. I overheard Joshua to say him, "So Morgan is always bossy at you?"

Carter replied, "Of course she is, she's a girl!"

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I was using the bathroom when my lovely daughter Amanda walked in and told me, "Mommy, I think your buns are too big for the toilet."

Ummmm, Thank you?!

Multitude Monday

This was a very busy week. I am somewhat of a homebody and I was hardly at home at all! My house became a disaster area, fast food was eaten more than usual, my kids barely saw me. It was one of those weeks that I'm just glad is over, not because it was bad. It was just busy.

I still look back on my week and am able to give praise to God for so much.

171~ coming home on Wednesday to cupcakes decorated by my kids and a friend who helped them

172~ crumbs finally swept off the floor. there were a lot of them!

173~ a night with friends before one of them moves away

174~ Lego's to walk over every time I enter the room

175~ silly girls

176~ spending some time with my aunt

177~ turning my furnace on for the first time this year. BRRRRR! It's gotten cold!

178~ slipper socks, can't live without them in the cold months.

179~ 30% off at Kohls that helped me save a lot of money on some much needed items.

180~ a busy week that the Lord brought us through once again provided for, healthy, and safe.

A Weekend Away

Last weekend I went away. I am finally blogging about it because once I came home I had a really busy week and once again was away. My week went like this - Jury duty Wednesday thru Friday and then every night I had something with the exception of Tuesday night. So here I finally am to tell you about my weekend at the Hearts at Home Convention in Grand Rapids, MI.

I went with 12 moms (including me) from the MOPS that I go to. We left on Friday morning in a couple cars. My car first stopped at the Tabor Hill Winery for a little wine tasting and some lunch. After sitting down for lunch we took a look at the menu. This was a fancy menu and I looked but could not find a hamburger and french fries.

Immediately one of the girls with us said, "We will never see these people again, we could just leave."

Someone else was a little embarrassed to do this so we decided to get a couple appetizers and split them and if we were still hungry we could hit a McDonald's later. So, the waitress comes over and Mary (who was doing the ordering) tells her what we have decided (about the appetizers not McDonald's). She tells her that we would like the crab cakes (which for the record I don't even like). (I have a lot of paranthesis going on.) The waitress lets us know that it is only ONE crab cake. Which then brings a lot of laughter from the rest of us. The ONE crab cake was only about 2 1/2 inches in diameter and was $14. After much laughing another girl asks her if we can have a couple minutes. After she leaves we then decided that we would rather leave than pay a lot of money for food and still be hungry when we are done. We ended up finding an Applebees later and eating there. It was delicious and in our price range.

Friday night was Moms Night Out and they had a Program. Go Fish was there, I actually had never heard them before and then there were a few short speeches.

On Saturday morning Jill Savage spoke and then I went to four different sectionals. Guilt-Free Motherhood and Finding the Hero in Your Husband both by Dr. Juli Slattery, E-factor with Mary Steinke was about different emotions and the last was My Hearts at Home with Jill Savage. My favorite was Finding the Hero in Your Husband. I am hoping to write another post just about some of my favorite things that I learned during the sectionals.

We ended the day listening to Dr. Kevin Leman speak. He wrote the book Have a New Kid by Friday. If you've never heard him speak I just have to tell you HE IS HILARIOUS!!!! I have not laughed that hard in a very long time. The next day my stomach muscles hurt from laughing so hard.

I also forgot to mention that Saturday was my birthday. I have now hit 34! Why does that number always seem so big when I actually see it. It sounds old, but when I see it WOW! That night we went out for dinner and Mary got her crab cakes. Got 4 of them for $7. Seemed like such a bargain after seeing 1 for $14.

On our way home we got a flat tire. Thankfully Mary said she knew how to change it but unfortunately it was a different kind of jack and she couldn't get it under the van because we had to pull off the road and the van was on a tilt. Sooooo, thankfully after about a half an hour a man stopped to help us and then a few minutes later another man stopped. Between those two men they got it changed and we were on our way.

It was a great weekend away but it was so good to get home. I missed my family a lot and couldn't wait to get home to them!

The Beauty of the Earth

"Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land. Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker."

Psalm 95:2-6

As Fall is now here, as I am outside or as I look outside the window I see, hear, and smell so much in God's creation that I am thankful for. It's just amazing when you look around and think that He has created each and every thing that we see and has made it's intricate design. How He created the weather and the seasons. It is just incomprehensible. He has given us this beautiful earth to enjoy. I was able to take a short little trip this weekend and was able to see so many beautiful things as we drove. Here are some of the things that I noticed this week and am thankful for.

154~ smell of burning leaves

155~ beautiful scenic drive to Michigan with all the leaves on the trees changing color, so many beautiful colors to enjoy

156~ a beautiful and unique leaf with a red tip

157 ~ corn stalks tied together

158~ bushel full of apples

159~ a dirt road

160~ trees bearing fruit

161~ corn fields

162~ pumpkins

163~ gorgeous blue sky with the most perfect white puffy clouds

164~ mums

As the seasons change, I hope you will take the time this week to enjoy God's creation and thank Him for the beauty you see all around you.

There were also a few other things I was thankful for throughout the week also.

165~ A Mom's weekend away with uplifting seminars

166~ my stomach muscles hurting from laughing so hard

167~ my husband who is a hands-on dad

168~ safe travel

169~ A couple men that stopped to help us change a flat tire

170~ cute old men

Magazines and Recipes

I'm not sure if you all do this but I accumulate magazines. I get them in the mail, look at them and then they go in a nice pile. I might mark a few pages that I have of interest and set it aside but if I don't use it right away of course I can never find it.

Years back I had gone through a lot of my magazines and I had two binders I put them in. One for recipes and the other for home remodeling. Of course the kind of recipes I cut out 10 years ago are definitely different than the kinds of recipes I cut out now. It's all about ease and not too much for entertaining. The home remodeling ones were very helpful when redoing our house. I would often take several ideas and put it into one or even just room colors and things like that.

Since I have about 3 or 4 years of magazines collected again, I've been slowly going through them. Sometimes I'll just grab a couple and page through them before I go to sleep. Most of the magazines I have are Family Fun and Better Homes and Gardens but I have a few others mixed in also.

I've started folders this time to make it a little easier and as I use them I will either mark them as something we like or throw it away. My folders consist of Crafts, Kids games, Home Decor, Landscaping, General Ideas, and Recipes. I have not completely decided how I am going to work my Recipe folder yet since this is a little more complicated.

I did make a meat loaf recipe the other night that I wasn't crazy about so that page went directly into the garbage. Then the next night I tried this White Chili with Chicken that I found in a recent Family Fun magazine. This one was absolutely delicious! Of course that is what I thought, can't say the whole family agreed. One kid loved it, another said she didn't like the beans and ate everything else, another said she didn't like the beans but then only ate the beans and another slept through supper. If you know my kids you can probably figure out which kid is which.

I found one magazine that I used to get called Wonder Time. They stopped printing this magazine and I found out why. Not one page got ripped out of this magazine while I was flipping through it and recipes were not very kid friendly. Not even sure they were adult friendly. Things like Thai-style butternut squash soup and also lentil soup. Are my kids the only crazy ones that would never eat this? I think Brad might even turn around and walk out the door if I told him that was what is for supper when he got home.

I would love to hear what you all do with your magazines? Do you rip the pages out? What do you do with them after you do that? Any organizing tips you can give me?