Bath time

 

And then Logan told me he would wash Bamden up for me.  How nice of him.  Poor Camden.

How Great is our God

Today we had the wonderful privilege of hearing Pastor Zachariah Sserwada from Africa speak at our church.  As many times as I’ve heard him preach, I never grow tired of hearing his stories.  It always reminds me of how we’re so spoiled in America.  How we take so much for granted.  How we’re so limited by time and schedules.  How much we truly leave God out.

In Africa they have no watches, clocks, schedules telling them daily that they must be here or be there.  They preach all day long.  The people aren’t worried about getting home to feed their stomachs, mow their lawns or watch their football games.  They are willing to sit all day and listen to God’s word.  They are willing to sing their hearts out and praise God.  Here in America we’re frustrated when our church service goes 10 minutes “late.”

Pastor Zachariah’s life has been threatened many times by people.  They don’t want him preaching the gospel so they've arranged to have him killed—by guns and bombs.  But every attempt has failed.  God has protected him time and time again! 

We need to wake up here and realize that our God is REAL.  He is with us daily and wants to come into our hearts and live.  We need to allow Him in.  He is Great,  Powerful, Almighty!  He is our all in all. 

We want to be happy.  We turn to drugs for happiness.  We turn to alcohol for happiness.  We turn to the latest fashion for happiness.  We try to fill our lives with material things for happiness.  Why do we do this when we have something that is greater than all those wordly things?  Those worldly things only offer temporary happiness.  The drugs and alcohol will wear off and leave us worse than we were before.  The newest jeans or latest purse will become old and out of fashion.  But God is forever.  When we have God in our heart, our lives are happy.  We have no need for those things because God fulfills our needs. 

Yes, trials will become. But how much mightier are we with God on our side!   Daily walking with Him and filling ourselves up, we can get through those trials!  Don’t let the enemy drag you down!  Don’t let the enemy fool you into thinking you can do it on your own!  You can’t!  You need God!

HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!!!!

Mother’s Day….and more

This is my first morning in I don’t know how long that I didn’t have to get up early to work.  I thought I’d take the time to catch up on here.

Yes, I have been busy with work, but in this feast or famine business, I’ll take it.  I know in a matter of a few days, it could change abruptly.  The long nights and early mornings were starting to take a toll on me though.  It was nice to catch up on some sleep last night.

My Mother’s Day was good.  We organized a brunch with my mom so she didn’t have to do any cooking or preparing.  And then we spent the afternoon with the other side of the family, crazing on food and enjoying a bonfire while the kids ran crazy. 

Josh bought me a washer and dryer for Mother’s Day.  Now, before you start bashing him on buying me something like that for Mother’s Day (because some have), let me tell you that IT’S WHAT I WANTED!!! 

We didn’t necessarily “need” a new washer and dryer.  The old ones worked just fine (in fact, we have them for sale if you’re interested).  But we went for something more energy efficient.  I am now making my own laundry detergent and I love that I only need to use 1/2 tablespoon of detergent to my new machine. 

The weather around here has been pretty crummy lately.  Lots of rain and cold temps.  We’ve even had some hail, to which my boys immediately begged to go run out in to.  Something about hail was calling them.

They ran around like crazy collecting all the hail.

And then showed it to me.  :)

The awful weather has allowed us to concentrate more time on their schooling and wrapping things up for the year.  I am seriously contemplating going year round though.  We wouldn’t do school every day in the summer, or even every week.  It would be very light.  I think this would help with the fall, when it’s so hard to come back and remember things.  We’ll see.  This would also mean more breaks during the rest of the year, which would be very nice and I wouldn’t be so guilty when we have a busier week. 

Enjoy some of these Mother’s Day pictures.  I am so thankful for my boys and for each day I get to spend with them.   It is a blessing.

Camden and Logan taking a walk.

 

Eli and Cousin H.  This was taken right after H fell out of a tree, so he’s trying to smile despite his pain.

The yummy cake!

 

Logan enjoying a special treat—a chocolate-covered strawberry!

 

And Camden enjoying his tapioca bread.  :)

Character Trait:

BE FORGIVING:

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

Matthew 6:14

If you want God to forgive you of your sins, then you  must forgive anyone who has sinned against you.

Even as adults this can be hard!  But think of the many times God forgives you.  Sometimes more than once in a day. 

Colossians 3:13: “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you  may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

As hard as it can be, we need to put up with each other; be patient; always forgive any indifference.

Forgiveness is refusing to live in the past.  In Colossians Paul is saying that believers are to forgive each other because God forgave us.  We are to forgive others to the degree that He forgave us—fully and unconditionally! 

Do you truly forgive?  Forgiveness wipes the slate clean.  When it seems you can’t forgive, you need to remember how much you’ve been forgiven.

In Better Hands

This song brings me to tears about every time I hear it.  I know so many who are going through hard times, struggling with knowing that God does love them and will carry them through their trials.  They just need to turn to Him and lean on Him;  TRUST Him. 

You are in so much better hands when you put your whole life in  God’s hands.

Listen and be blessed.

 

It's hard to stand
On shifting sand
It's hard to shine
In the shadows of the night
You can't be free
If you don't reach for help
And you can't love
If you don't love yourself
But there is hope when my faith runs out...
Cuz I'm in better hands now
[Chorus:]
It's like the sun is shining
When the rain is pourin' down
It's like my soul is flying
Though my feet are on the ground
So take this heart of mine
There's no doubt
I'm in better hands now
I am strong
All because of you
I stand in awe of
Every mountain that you move
I am changed
Yesterday is gone
I am safe
From this moment on...
And there's no fear when the night comes 'round
I'm in better hands now
[Chorus]
It's like the sun is shining
When the rain is pourin' down
It's like my soul is flying
Though my feet are on the ground
It's like the world is silent
Though I know it isn't true
It's like the breath of Jesus
Is right here in this room
So take this heart of mine
There's no doubt
You can't be saved
If you're not reaching out for help

Quick Takes…..

……because this is the only way I can get a decent post in lately.

 

1.  I hate to even admit it, hate to even allow the terrible thought in, but I’ve been in denial for quite some time now and I’m afraid there’s no denying it:  I have developed seasonal allergies.  :(-

I think I bragged about it a little too much (“Nope, Josh has all the allergies, I have none” kind of thing—with a smug smile on my face) and now I’m eating my words.

I cannot go outside without getting a sore throat, headache, swollen lymph nodes which leads to me being able to hardly move my neck it is so sore and itchy eyes.  I feel miserable!!!!  I go into this fog where I can’t even think straight.  Awful. 

So on these beautiful 70-degree days, I am not opening a single window in our house.  I am trying not to spend a whole lot of time outside but that’s really hard with four kids who want to be outside.  I was at a friend’s house last Friday and she had all her windows open and it was a very windy day.  I felt so sick by the late afternoon and had the worst headache.  I am on day seven of a headache, which turns into a sore neck with swollen lymph nodes as soon as I’m outside for five minutes.  Ugh.

However, now that I’m getting past the denial phase, I am upping my Vitamin C and D and taking some other supplements to help combat these awful allergies.

2.  I joined a food coop!

I grew up on a food coop.  My mom joined one with some friends and when we were a bit older and her friends had moved farther away, she did coop by herself at our house.  I fondly remember the big truck coming and us helping unload the truck.  I have been searching for one for years, but a little more intensely in the last few months because of the need for certain allergen-free foods around here. 

I have found one that delivers to a small church less than 10 miles down the road from me.  The prices are, for the most part, less than Woodman’s.  The only “catch” is you have to buy the items in bulk, which means cases of six or 12.  But because it is such a large group (25ish families), there’s the option of splitting cases.  And there are quite a few other families that eat gluten-free.  I placed my first order and received it on  Monday.  It brought back so many memories from my childhood.  I am excited about being able to buy our much needed food for less and also the option of being able to afford more natural and organic foods.

3.  Still wanting to raise chickens!

We fed a few bites of natural chicken to Camden and boy, I regretted that later in the night. He was up crying and sick for two and a half hours.  I felt soooo bad for him!  It has to be organic chicken!  I would really like to have chickens in a month.

4.  I have been busy planning our summer schedule, which is very difficult with four kids.  And we have to be home for naptime. 

Isaac and Eli will be taking an art class through the home school group.  One of the moms there has a mom who is  a professional artist and she is teaching the class!  Art is not a strong subject of mine so I rely on others to teach it.  It sounds like they’ll be doing some really neat projects.  They are even offering a preschool and pre-K class for Logan. 

Then there will be two weeks of swimming lessons. 

And Isaac and Eli will also be on a home school baseball league.  Baseball is not one of their favorite sports, but they did want to try it out so I figured this is the best way (and it’s free!).

Logan wants to take a tumbling/gymnastics class, which will be on Saturday mornings so I can leave the other kids at home.

Of course, we need time for the pool and just being summer lazy!

5.  If you’re looking for a good parenting book, I highly recommend Instructing a Child’s Heart.  I am doing a book study with some friends and really enjoying it.  It focuses on the child’s heart when disciplining.  Throw out all those reward charts and punishments that don’t relate to the crime.  Focus on your child’s heart and instruct him/her in what God (Bible) says.  “Train a child up in the Lord and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

6.  Grampa and Gramma H are here! 

We’re happy you’re here and look forward to making memories with you.  My boys love to spend time with you.

7.  Finally, our character trait of the week:

BE CAREFUL.

“For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”

Psalm 91:11

This fits with something I’ve been pressing on my boys’ hearts lately.  Guard your hearts because what comes out of your mouth is what is in your heart.  Let it be of God.

Movies

Eli:  You know, no one has ever seen a full movie.

Mom:  What are you talking about, you’ve seen lots of movies?

Eli:  Nope, because you blink.

Isaac:  It’s true.  We miss like a millasecond.