Happy Halloween!

From our little pumpkin
and our two fairies...or butterflies...or princesses...or tinkerbells...or whatever it was they felt like being at that particular moment.Hope you had a great day!

Family Fun Day

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins. Everything today was about pumpkins.

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffinsBaked some pie pumpkins and scraped out the good stuff

Pureed the good stuff and made...the best pumpkin pie in the world =)

And to top it all off, we carved some pumpkins too.I love the fall!

Reminds Me of the Cosby Show

Avery talking about how Connor and Bryce were going to come to her birthday party.

Me: "Do you remember that Connor and Bryce moved away? Its a long drive to come to our house. I'm not sure they can come."

A: she got sad for a minute and then said in her excited voice, "I know. Can't we just find 2 kids and call them Connor and Bryce and bring them to the party? They can just pretend to be my best friend and at least I'll have a Connor and Bryce at my party. "

I probably should have been a good mom and talked this through with her. But I couldn't help but picture Rudy from The Cosby Show telling Kenny his name was now Bud.

Anyone else remember that episode? How could you forget the line "my name's not Bud, its Kenny."

Okay, maybe its just me that loves that episode. But I bet everyone loves this one. Click here to see one of the greats =)

A Great Deal

I don't normally post about deals, but this one may be too good to pass up =)

If you complete the following steps, you should end up with 20 Christmas Cards and 20 envelopes for a little over $2. Who doesn't want to save a bit of cash around the holidays!


Go here

Then click the red button that says "Get Your Free Gift Here"

You enter in some info and they'll email you a promotional code good for $15 off any item. The email comes in minutes.

Then go back here , click on "shop photo cards" and put together your fabulous Christmas card. To get the 20 cards and 20 envelopes for $2, you'll need to choose one of the cards that says it comes in sets of 10. Mine was 10 for $4.99.

At checkout make sure you state you want 2 sets. The total for the 2 will be around $14.00. Enter in your promo code that was emailed to you and you get the cards free. You just pay the $2 for shipping.

Pretty fun right =) I love getting free stuff!!

The Best Invention Ever

There is nothing worse than a still quiet morning, a hot cup of coffee, spending time with Jesus, and then an ear shattering scream of

"I'M AWAKE!!!!!!! I'M AWAKE, I'M AWAKE, I'M AWAKE, I'M AWAKE....."

Enter the best invention ever!
Yes it looks like a normal clock but...
We set it to turn yellow when its time to go to bedand turns green when they can get out of their bed!


Its the little things that make me happy =)

My Spiritual Journey

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5

Last week I wrote about wounds. This week I'm writing about the blessings of the wounds.


See last week I would have told you about certain areas of my life that needed to be refined. Areas that were clearly evident to me as I observed my day. I would have laid out my spiritual journey for you completely differently if the wounds had not occurred.


This week my journey took a completely different turn that what I expected. I have seen completely different areas that need to be refined. Wounds do that. They pull back the scales from your eyes and reveal sin. Not the type of sin that you try to hide from yourself or other people. The type of sin that you don't even know exists until God chooses to reveal it to you.

Yes, wounds are good. Wounds are refining. Wounds prove that God is alive and active and cares enough about you to keep working on you.Goals from last week:

• I lost the book Life With God! I've started reading Prayer again in preparation for a session I'm teaching over prayer. I know the other book is in the house somewhere! I'll keep looking this week =)
• I've failed on the TV thing this week too. So You Think You Can Dance is my downfall!
  
• Still reading Psalms at night and working on meditating. I have really enjoyed working on the discipline of meditation. I'm not good at it yet, but its a fun journey!

Goals for this week:

• No TV except for So You Think You Can Dance. For the kids of course. The girls look forward to watching it during our Girls' Night =)
  
• Find and continue reading Life With God.
  
• Review Meditation
• Start memorizing scripture again.
  

Dedication

Justus, this morning we stood before the church and declared that we would raise you to walk in the faith of your family. We desire to remain humble and dependent on the Lord in order that He may use us to point you to Him. I know we will fail at times, but I pray the Lord's grace will reign over this household so that His strength will prevail even in the midst of your parent's weakness. We prayed this morning and will continue to pray that you will come to faith in Christ knowing that He alone will bring you joy, contentment, and life. We love you buddy.
(the verse we are praying over you)

the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
Ephesians 1:17-19

Family Fun Day

Just a little glimpse into some of our family fun day. Pretty sure Brent may kill me later for posting a video of him in his PJs playing the accordion, but it was too good to pass up =) Enjoy!

Happy Birthday!!

It Makes My Heart Smile

I bent over to give her a kiss on her forehead at nap time. Suddenly I felt two little arms wrap around my neck and pull me down to the bed.

"Mommy, will you be my stuffed animal at nap today?"

Who would have thought being asked to be a stuffed animal could bring me so much joy =)

Quote of the Night

(this was said after Avery got in trouble for disobeying)

Me: "Mommy and daddy love you too much to let you disobey"

A: said perfectly innocently with a wide eyed disbelief on her face "Being in trouble isn't loving!!"

She then looked at me as if I were lying to her. This evening, she was definitely not buying my reasoning for why she gets in trouble!

My Spiritual Journey

This past week I've been dealing with some disappointing situations.

Over the weekend,
the disappointments
turned
to wounds.


Deep wounds.

Wounds that penetrate the very depth of your soul.

Wounds that bring tears to the eyes with a mere thought.

Wounds that won't heal overnight.

But the fight begins.

I refuse to allow these wounds to stay open and fresh.

No they will not fester bitterness.

Through God's grace, the wounds will heal. They may leave a permanent scar, but they will heal. It may just take time.

God never promises we won't get hurt in life. He only promises He'll never leave us.

For he wounds, but he binds up;
he shatters, but his hands heal. Job 5:18

Behold, this we have searched out; it is true.
Hear, and know it for your good.” Job 5: 27

Goals from Last Week:

• Reading Psalms before bed has been great. I haven't succeeded every night, but working in that direction. Meditating on TRUTH from scripture has been life giving this week.
  

Goals for this Week:

• Keep reading Psalms before bed.
• Keep meditating on the truth of scripture throughout the day
• Continue reading Mastery and Life With God
• No TV this week
  

Family Fun Day

Pumpkin Patch Time!

Avery loved posing for pictures
Elliana loved searching for the perfect pumpkins
Justus wasn't so happy about the whole experience

We did get a fairly decent family pic at the pumpkin patch though. Check out the new picture in the header if you're interested. All in all, it was a fun afternoon and evening!

(on a side note: I tried to top off the experience with a "pumpkin" pie made out of butternut squash. Allrecipes.com swears it tastes the same if not better. It doesn't! We'll have our real pumpkin pie next weekend =) )

Happy Fall

I think pumpkin pie is the next thing we'll make...yummmmm. I love fall =)

My Spiritual Journey

I'll just say I failed on my goals from last week. I did really well for 2 days and then everyone got sick and stopped sleeping. Instead of calmly reading the Psalms before going to sleep, I simply fell into bed exhausted and sick. We are all finally healthy (except for Justus) and hopefully we'll make it through this week without any more sleepless nights! So no new goals this week. I'm just starting where I tried to start last week. We'll see how it goes!



This song has been playing through my mind as I deal with some disappointments this week. Thought I would share. I attached the lyrics below as well. Hope you enjoy!

You Are Still Holy - Kim Hill
Navigation: K \ Kim Hill \ You Are Still Holy

Holy, You are still holy
Even when the darkness surrounds my life
Sovereign, You are still sovereign
Even when confusion has blinded my eyes

Lord, I don't deserve Your kind affection
When my unbelief has kept me from Your touch
I want my life to be a pure reflection
Of Your love

And so I come into Your chamber
And I dance at Your feet, Lord
You are my Saviour
And I'm at Your mercy
All that has been in my life
Up 'til now
It belongs to You
You are still holy

Holy, You are still holy
Even though I don't understand Your ways
Sovereign, You will be sovereign
Even when my circumstances don't change

Lord, I don't deserve your tender patience
When my unbelief has kept me from Your truth
I want my life to be a sweet devotion
To You

And so I come into Your chamber
And I dance at Your feet, Lord
You are my Saviour
And I'm at Your mercy
All that has been in my life
Up 'til now
It belongs to You
I belong to You

You are still holy
You are still sovereign
You are still holy, Lord
You are still righteous
You are all-knowing
You are still holy

You know Its Been a Long Few Days When...

Half way into Wal Mart tonight, Avery looked at my feet and said "Are those your slippers you're wearing?"

"ummmm, yes they are." As I looked at my feet, I suddenly realized not only had I forgotten shoes, I had also forgotten to put on a bra, brush my teeth, and comb my hair. The window of opportunity to get out of the house without all the kids is so slim that I guess I jumped at the opportunity tonight a little too quickly!

For two seconds I thought about going home, but the thought of having to come back to Wal Mart with all 3 kids next week was enough to motivate me to just go in the store regardless of my appearance. I walked through those automatic doors praying I wouldn't see anyone I knew!

So yes, from now on I will never judge another disheveled looking woman who looks like she is wearing her PJs while shopping at Wal Mart. Maybe she had been stuck in the house for 2 days with sick kids and was just anxious to be out too.

Family Fun Day

Or maybe its better titled "Family Sick Day". Yup, we're all sick this Friday. Even Justus has this pitiful little cough and fever.So we didn't leave the house.

This picture was taken at 6:30pm and notice everyone is still in their PJs. And yes, those are the PJs we slept in the night before. Everyone needs those kinds of days every once in a while =)
Playing make believe, board games, movies, and telling stories in a tent were some of the highlights of the day.
Lucky for us, there were some glow sticks left over from last night's home makeover rally. They made the tent even more fun!
I mostly included the above picture because its not very often you can capture on camera both girls picking their nose at the same time. We'll just say we're still working on the whole hygiene thing =)

First Day of School

Its official. Avery has started preschool. Deciding to let her go was pretty easy. Actually letting her go was hard!!!
She was so excited. Little sister wasn't so excited. E hugged Aves tight in the parking lot and then said, "I want to go to preschool too."I bought a special activity book for E and I to do together on the days Avery is in school. It was fun to just sit with E and have no one else compete for attention. The house was so quite though. When big sister isn't home, there's no chase happening, there's no screaming and laughter filling the house, there's no huge messes from hours of playing make believe. It was weird. I think we're all going to have to adjust to this.
The decision to send Avery to school came down to the middle child syndrome. I was a middle child so definitely have sympathy =) We realized that this next year will be the only time that I will ever get alone time with Elliana. With Avery at school and Justus taking a morning nap, I can spend my morning investing in Elliana. That fact was enough to motivate me to send my baby off to school for the first time.

This watching your kids grow up is going to be hard for me!!

Our Week

Check it Out

Whenever you have time, you should read this blog.

Her journey is inspiring.

My Spiritual Journey

I think we all go through different seasons in our walk with the Lord. Sometimes we need intense study, sometimes we're holding on for dear life, sometimes we just immerse ourselves in prayer and meditation. There's a time for all of it as we walk our journey with the Lord.

The past 6 months I've been in a season of survival. I always get that way after having a baby. I immerse myself in prayer throughout the day and short tidbits of scripture to fill my mind with truth; however there is very little structure or rhythm or goal-setting. If I were to do that, my time with the Lord would simply become something to check off. Instead I know that it takes me about 6 months to get back to normal after having a baby and so during that 6 months, I am way informal in my time with the Lord.

But its now been 6 months and I'm feeling the push from the Lord to no longer just float through life. I know he's calling me back into structure so that I have the disciplines set up that He can use to teach me and change me.

This past week, I've gone from just reading short scripture passages to reading through an entire book. I've been stuck in Isaiah this week. For some reason I can't put it down. It has been speaking truth in my life like crazy and giving me tons to think about and meditate on.

I've also decided to try to deepen how I meditate on scripture. In the book Meditation by Jim Downing, he suggests that you begin your personal time of worship right before you go to bed. You read the Psalms or whatever you usually read first in the morning right before you go to bed. He suggests that by doing this, you're allowing your subconscious to meditate on that scripture all night while you're sleeping. Then when you wake up, you're already familiar with the passage and can begin to experience deeper personal worship times in the morning. So here's to trying new ways to meditate!

Goals:

• No TV at night this week. I want the last thing my mind to think about to be God's word instead of CSI or Law and Order =)
• Read through a chapter of Psalms before my head hits the pillow at night
• Continue to read through Isaiah every day this week
  

I know goal setting and structure isn't for everyone and it definitely has its seasons where its not useful to me, but now is the time where God has called me back to structure so that He can use it to teach me and draw me closer to Him. Pray I make the transition back into spiritual discipline quickly. As I tell my kids, I want to obey right away, all the way, and with a happy heart =)

Garage Sale Day

Wednesday I woke up and decided this weekend I was going to do a garage sale. I advertised on Craig's List, threw everything into organized piles in the garage, and got ready.

Almost everything sold! Praise God. One quick trip to Good Will with all the stuff that didn't sell and all of the junk is out of the house!The perfect end to the morning was some friends dropping by with lunch for the family. Lunch with friends and some extra cash...you can't get a better morning than that!

Family Fun Day

Mini Train Ride and picnic for the family
Double date with great friends at Joe T. Garcia's for mommy and daddy

A little bit of fun for everyone =)