I Don't Have To Get It

It was a perfectly good day.  On the outside. 

But then...don't stand too close.

A hugely disappointing e-mail. 
A seemingly generous invitation that makes me question motives.
The realization that we made an non-repairable mistake with our kids.
Another low offer.
A cancelled trip to Haiti.

How could such a storm be brewing when the skies looked so clear?  

So I did what I always like to do when things don't go my way.  Cry and pout. Fold my arms across my chest and scream "INJUSTICE!"  I don't want to talk and I don't want to listen.  I'd much rather wallow in self-pity. 

God doesn't  allow this for long.  And for some reason that I will never understand, He speaks in the storm and stills the fury raging inside me. 

"Great is the Lord and mighty in power.  His understanding has no limits."  Ps 147:5

I never learn.  Why am I so hard headed?  I serve a God who has infinite wisdom and power, yet I am crippled because as Oswald Chambers says....I do not believe in His power apart from my own finite understanding.   So I throw a fit and demand answers.  Now.

When instead, I should just be still.
And quiet. 
And thankful. 

If I can just get my eyes off myself I can see that it's not about me.  I step back and realize that I believe lies that are birthed in the pit of hell.  And the fact is....I have been blessed with every spiritual and material blessing imaginable.   I have a God who is so patient with me that I don't even get blasted when I deserve it. 

It doesn't make sense.

Heaven Rejoices!

It all started around VBS time.  Joey was asking questions and was interested but the time wasn't right.  He wasn't quite ready. 

It wasn't over though.  The Holy Spirit was working. 

Fast forward to last week.  I walk into my Awana class and find 5 eager boys.  We talked about their day, prayed, and settled in to memorize some Scripture.  Immediately Joey comes to me and says, "Ms Sandy, I want to pray and ask Jesus into my life. " 

Really?  We weren't even talking about that!  It was apparent that it was something he'd been thinking about. 

I remembered some of his issues from the summer so I asked him some questions to make sure he understood what he asking.   It was clear that he did and we prayed. 

Before the excitement even had a chance to sink in, I had 2 other boys asking the same thing! 

Whoa!  Red light. 

These boys have been with me long enough to have the right answers.  They knew what to say when the questions were asked.  Unfortunately I did not.   I really didn't know what to think.  On the one hand I've been surprised that they haven't made this decision before now.  On the other, I didn't want them jumping the gun just following their friend.   Are they sincere?  Do they know the truth in their hearts?  Or just the head knowledge? 

This is where it gets a little crazy.  In walks Misty.  Perfect timing!  She helps me talk to them and asks George to talk to Cole.  Cole leaves and the door opens again.  My oldest son pops his head in to say that things are not going so well with little LJ.  So now Cole and Caleb each have someone talking to them and I slip out to see if I can help with LJ. 

I never should've left. 

Not only was I unable to help LJ, but by the time I got back I had MISSED my opportunity to pray with Caleb!  Epic failure.  Awwwwww .   Of all my boys I would've loved to pray with Caleb or MJ.     And I hate that I missed out on something so important with him. 

But....  I am super excited for these guys and look forward to helping them grow in their relationships with God.  

Heaven rejoices!  And so does a 3rd grade Awana teacher.

On A Thursday

~Guess why my house is so clean again? 

Yep, another showing.  2 this week.   I'm thinking I need to start calling up folks and begging them to come look at my house just so I can bask in the dustlessness more often. 

This is the 3rd time she's looked at it.  She noticed the smiley faces.  She looked at everything and even stuck her head up the fireplace!  Now she's talking about coming back with her brother.  I do wish she'd bring all her ppl at the same time.  On the other hand, I totally understand.  It's not like buying a pair of shoes. 

~Remember the old episodes of Brady Bunch when at the end of every show the mom and dad would be in bed reading a book?  (Was that Brady Bunch?)  Well tonight that's us.  Only we have laptops instead.  Honey's looking up songs for youth and I'm doing this.  Think I should text him?  Or message him on Facebook? 

~After having 6 kids with coughing fits, ear troubles, and 1 kid throwing up it's nice to have them on the mend.  They even made it to TKD tonight.  I was pretty sure that LittleMan would hafta see Maggie over it but it turns out he's doing great. 

~OH!  AND I woke up this morning making 2 complete fists.  First thing in the morning.  That hasn't happened in over a year. 

~Awana last night and I had a new girl.  Cutie pie.  I hope she comes back.  But I hear my little Greenlye is moving!  Misty is this true?  I wish I would've known!  WHY do these kids move so much??

~Today I have a whole day with NO other commitments.  Just school, loving on my babies, feeding my man some lunch, and being home.  Ahhhh......

The weather is supposed to be perfect and it's shaping up to be a great day!

It's A Stair Climbing Day!!

But it wasn't yesterday.  Or the day before. 

I've had this huge flare in my foot for 2 days now.  I did ok on Sunday, but it went downhill after that. 
I tried to be patient with it.  But I find that I'm not as patient with that kinda thing as I used to be.   I know how far it can go. 

Tuesday is my Maggie day.  Have I told you about Maggie?  She's my think-outside-the-box, in-your-face, not-what-you-would-expect, gift-from-God doctor.  So I texted her and asked if she had any tricks up her sleeve for a flaring foot.  She said maybe. 

Amazing.  She could tell by how I walked where the flare was before I even took off my shoe.  When I told her I was even considering a shot she threatened to kick my butt.  And believe me, she could do it. 

She had something different in mind.  3 shots.  What??  THREE?!  3 non-corticosteroid shots with something that started with a D that will repair nerve endings.  Doctor talk. 

There was an immediate difference.  Not huge.  By bedtime it was only 1/2 as bad as it was.  I woke up at 3am and did my usual routine of manipulating certain joints to see what the day would bring.  And BEHOLD!  I could move my foot! 

Of course there was no sleeping after that.   I wanted to wake up Honey and tell him.  I wanted to text Maggie and wake her up too.  I wanted to go climb up and down the pool ladder to prove that I could.  But I decided this was the next best thing. 

Just in time.  Today is egg pick up day.  That means I get to climb a flight of stairs balancing 10 dozen eggs. 

BRING. IT. ON!

Youth Day One

Yesterday was our first Sunday to have the IBC youth all to ourselves.  What an amazing bunch of kids!  Sunday morning we had four. 

We decided to start at the beginning.  Genesis 1.  Creation.  And as Honey is telling the story all eyes are up and looking on him.  They were attentive and interactive.  They caught on to the memory verse super quick and after a couple of creation type memory games our time was already up. 

During the service Honey addressed the congregation and discussed our vision and hopes for the youth.  One of the things we did was to have each young person write their name on a 3x5 card with a prayer request.  He then asked the congregation for volunteers to take a card to pray for them.  The volunteer then had to write his own name and prayer request on a card to give to the youth and they become prayer partners for a time.  We had more volunteers than cards! 

Sunday night was even better.  In addition to the original four, we had 3 more.  We reviewed the lesson from the morning and dove a little deeper, including some of Genesis 2.   Even the 3 new ones caught on to the memory verse as if they were there in the morning. 

We also had some time to talk about some things we'd like to do in the future including some music for the congregation, service projects and outreach, and some video productions. 

We are thankful and excited to see what God has in store!

Pease Pray For My Grandmother

Isn't she beautiful?  And every time I see her she looks better than the time before.  Amazing. 

This sweet lady has a type of lung cancer that is caused by asbestos poisoning.   We will know more on the prognosis Wednesday. 

The kids and I made a trip to TX and got to spend a couple of days with her.  I can't believe this is the only picture I took!  What is wrong with me!?

My grandmother is such a special part of my life and I hate the thought of her being so sick. 

Will you please pray for her with me??

Some Of The Fun Of Yesterday

Valentines Day!! 

Love it. 

Homemade valentines.  Paper plates.  Lots of love!
Every year I buy each kid a new coffee cup for hot chocolate.  It's fun collecting them throughout the year. 

Tacos for dinner with the same Valentine dessert that we've made for years.

The table.

Once dinner is ready we open a napkin over everyone's plates then all the kids come in and slip their valentines under the napkins.  What do you think about the paper sack covering the big valentine? 
Yep, we do it up fancy around here. 

I love all the sweet valentines.  And all so unique!  This year Josh drew comics for everyone for their valentine.  I think LittleMan made me about 12 valentines and Mally especially enjoyed her own stickers this year.

Meg bought Mally and LB a little mailbox with a flag months ago that she had been saving.   This was BIG for Mally and she was sure to let me know where she was going to keep it in case I needed to give her mail.  I also got a lesson on the proper use of the flag. 

The rest of the night was full of bionicles.  Our kids have been sick and the bionicles have gotten a lot of play time.  Not to mention the brand new one that CT and Lane bought for the boys to share. 

There are so many now that I can't keep them straight.  Plus there are new upgrades everytime you turn around.  Lego's smart.  My favorite is one that didn't have an official Lego Bionicle name so the boys named him Kevin. 

Then some playing around with the camera...

Happy Valentines Day!

Blessed Morning

Don't you love waking up to the special blessing of rain?
Water on the earth.
Life giving rain. 
Gentle thunder coupled with bird song.
(Have you noticed the birds are coming back?)

I read this this morning...
"You visit the earth and water it;  You greatly enrich it."  Psalm 65:9

Oh yes.  We are greatly enriched. 

"Shout for joy to God, all the earth.
Sing the glory of His name. 
Give to Him glorious praise!"  Ps 66:1

Close But Not Quite

We scheduled our first house showing!

Sunday at 2pm. 

We worked on it Saturday.  We worked on it Sunday morning.  And after church Sunday afternoon.
OOOOOhhhhhh, did my house look good ya'll. 

Honey and the kids and dogs headed to the park about 1:45 and left me with our eldest son to show the house. 

2pm gets close.  And I remember that I had my phone on vibrate during church and I better check it in case she cancelled. 

Sure enough.  Cancelled.  But there was another missed call.  And when I called back it was another lady wanting to look at it.  Yippee!  I called and asked if she could please come now because my house will never be this clean again.

While we were waiting I got another call!  WHA??  Double showing!! 

Both sets of ppl looked over everything more than once and stayed quite a while. 

About an hour later one of the ladies called back and wanted to come again.  Really?? 
So we cleaned up the mess we had already managed to make and the family and dogs left again. 

She brought a friend and asked if she could come back later in the week with a contractor to talk about a bathroom remodel.   Oh yes!  

Confession:  by this time I was reminded of how much I really really like my house.  Especially when it's all clean.  And I half way considered pointing out the smiley faces our son bleached into the carpet.  ......uh, maybe not. 

Later I got a call saying she was placing an offer in our mailbox.  WOW!!  How bizarre would that be to sell our house to the first person who looked?  Technically we had 2 first people I guess. 

But unfortunately it was a low offer.  We have it priced so that we don't have a lot of negotiating room.  And neither did she. 

Too bad. 

At least we got a super clean house out of the deal! 

Snow Day!

It's been such a warm winter we were resigned to the fact that it probably wouldn't happen this year.  But someone said it was coming and we hoped they were right.

So we snuggled in a blanket and watched The Grinch to add to the winter mood. 

And sure enough it came!

SNOW!! 

Beautiful wonderful no-school-today SNOW! 
Thank you Jesus. 

I was so excited.  I was up long before the kiddos.  Except for the one who stole into our room in the wee hours b/c he wasn't feeling well. 

So I got busy in the kitchen and started simmering all those yummy snow day type of foods.  Minus any sugar b/c my kids have been sick. 

Finally they started waking up and SURPRISE!!!  Happy day.  Love those happy faces when they first see the snow out the window.   LittleMan came stumbling out all sleepy and asked, "Did it snow Momma?" 

Cream of wheat with berries and hot cranberry tea.
Buddled up snow babies...

And ever so much of this...

Taking the neighbor's snow.

I know my Colorado peeps will scoff at this.  But hey, we gotta take what we can get when it comes to snow! 

Then back inside for chicken soup and cranberry tea.

Thankful to Him who gives all good things....

Thinking Out Loud

I don't feel like I'm using my time in the best ways.  I'm always busy but don't seem to accomplish much.  Always moving but not going anywhere.  Spinning my wheels. 

I've been asking the Lord how He would want me to spend my days.  In Isaiah God says the people laid many plans but they were not God's plans.  I don't want that to happen to me.  Yet, that's probably what has been going on lately. 

As I've been praying a few things come to mind....

~Be more intentional in my Bible time with the kids.  I don't want it to seem like just something else to check off the list.  Sadly...that's where it's been.  My favorite children's Bible is Egermeier's Story Bible.  My copy is completely worn out and I don't think my younger kids have ever heard it.  It's on my library list this week. 

~Dictation with our memory verse.  This is a terrific way for my kids to learn and they seem to like it.  Also a good way to teach spelling and vocabulary.   Another thing I haven't been doing. 

~Write to my grandmothers. 

~Show appreciation for the ppl that are investing in our lives every week.  Our TKD teacher, piano teacher, math tutor, the Rileys, Maggie.  A note, a plate of cookies, a loaf of bread....how hard is that? 

~Do the worst first.  That would be writing and listening to my readers.  I tend to gravitate toward those school subjects that I enjoy.  Writing is NOT one of them.  It gets pushed aside and I have this nagging guilty feeling that they'll never be able to write a sensible paragraph and it'll be all my fault. 

~Work with COW in the kitchen.  What happened that I think I need to do all the cooking all of a sudden? 

~Re-visit my Flylady zones and routines.  I have such freedom when I stick with this, why do I stray?  I certainly need a better morning routine and to train my kids in a few cleaning talents. 

~Exercise even when it's cold outside or I don't feel great.  Just something, anything, is better than nothing.

~Work on my baby's scrapbook.  He's 4 1/2 for crying out loud.  It's time. 
I also have a music project for Honey that is important to me.  (I might enlist the kids for this too.)

So there it is.  And I feel better even having some ideas in place!

You Gotta Try This!

Candy Apple Dip (adaptation from Whole New Mom)

I used to whip up a dip with peanut butter and whipped cream.  We think this is just as good but a lot healthier.  I made a double batch and it was all we could do to save some for Honey when he got home. 

1 Cup nut butter. 

1 Cup coconut milk (or any other milk)

1 tsp stevia

1 T. sucanat (or other sweetner)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Whirl it all around in your blender til it's mixed and thick.  Super Simple.  Easy clean up.  Dip apples or carrots or just your fingers. Heck, just grab a spoon and go to town!

*A word about stevia - I've never liked it.  But I've used it to sweeten oatmeal and it was passable.  In trying to stick to a candida diet, I wanted to give it another try.  This is the 2nd thing I've tried and we loved both of them.  So if you don't like stevia, you might want to try it in this recipe and see what you think.  Next time I want to try leaving out the sucanat and increasing the stevia. 

My Goals Today

* Look people in the eye and smile when they are talking to me. 
I often don't take time to listen to my kids as I should.

*Put aside my distractions and give my full attention. 
My phone, computer, book, or whatever I happen to have in my hand needs to be set aside so I can pay attention. 

*Pray for all my family by name.

*Cast my cares upon Jesus. (1 Peter 5:7)

*Thank God for something that I don't usually think to thank Him for. 

~Awana night!  Tonight I get 4 new students.  My own!  I'm looking forward to my Awana friends getting to meet my kiddos. 

~Piano day!  Lane is driving Jes and having some algebra tutoring at the same time. 
That means I don't have to go anywhere until Awana this evening.  LOVE that.

So maybe I can get some school organizing done, house cleaning, and a music project for Honey underway. 

Today's meals...
Breakfast - oatmeal
Lunch and Dinner - venison chili (thanks to our neighbor)
*bread baking and maybe I'll even get to play with the dehydrator I'm borrowing. 

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work in us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen. "  Eph 3:20-21

On A Monday

I woke up this morning with NO plan for this week.  none.  No menu, no thoughts of school, not even sure if I had anywhere to be today.  How did this happen?   It's like I was surprised it was Monday. 

And I kinda am.  Because I'm pretty sure I'll wake up and it'll be Friday already. 

Life is speeding by and I'm holding on for dear life!   Anybody else feeling this way or do I just sound like an old lady? 

Yesterday was a day full of emotions.  Our last Sunday at our church and first Sunday in our new building since the fire of last summer.  OH my.  It was even prettier than I imagined.   I savored every minute of watching my guy and our girls on the stage and listening to Chris and Mark's excellent message.   Our sweet friends said goodbye and were very encouraging. 

And nowwwwww.....onto the new adventure!  Honey has been hired as Immanuel's youth pastor.  Meaning we have a new church family, new ministry, new opportunities, and more time to get to know those precious Awana babes I like to talk so much about.   And last night was our first night. 

We have no idea what we are doing.  We are full of ideas but moving carefully.  Scared and confused.  Praying and planning.  Talking and dreaming.  Humbled and excited!

Eager to get to know our new friends and thankful for the way God is moving in our lives. 

Awana Night Tonight!

Did you know it is fund raising week in the public schools?  Yup.  Cookie dough sales.  And I'm $42 poorer since several of my kiddos go to the same school.  Summit campers will have lots of cookies this summer! 

I had a new guy in 3rd grade tonight.  He came in just as we were getting ready to pray so I asked him if he had anything he'd like us to pray about.  He said he wanted to pray that his cousin's dad would come back. 
So I did.  And I asked God to help him to make a good decision to go back home to his family. 

When I was done, Corry said "No, he DIED." 

Oh. So what exactly was I supposed to pray about again?  I still haven't figured it out.

I had a guy that was causing a little trouble.  Nothing big.  Just picking at the other boys and making the night a bit harder.  So we had a talk about being a peace maker vs a trouble maker.  Joey immediately spoke up to talk about something called Moses The Peace Maker and something he learned about that.  Next Caleb raised his hand to add something about Moses The Peace Maker. 

So I said, "Wait.  What's Moses The Peace Maker?"  I figured it was some movie they saw. 

But no.  It was the Bible club lesson that a couple of the IBC folks go and teach to the kids at the apt where they live.  Joey went on to say how much fun they had and they even got to eat cupcakes. 

These guys are learning and I'm so thankful for the folks who invest in them. 

Caleb had a lot of work tonight in his book.  Some fill-in-the-blank work and looking up Scripture.  We looked up 2 Timothy 3:16 and talked about 4 reasons the Bible is profitable with the rest of the class. 
I looked over the work he had completed earlier and saw that one of the questions was "Who was the person that told you about Jesus?" And guess what?   It was ME!!

Joy unspeakable.  I'm so thankful to be there.

My Favorite Guy In The Whole World