Looking Forward To The New Year

Do you have any NY goals? 

When Honey asked the question I was surprised and happy to find out that one of our sons had a long list. And one of our daughters is planning to read through the Bible in a year. 

As for me, it is 2 fold.  First of all I want to concentrate on my relationship with the Lord.  Through Bible reading and prayer, I want to have a closer walk with God. 

The 2nd is loving others.  I want to be broken and poured out.  So often I have good intentions but never follow through.  Then there are the times when I am oblivious to the needs of others b/c I'm not paying attention.  Also, my extreme selfishness gets in the way of everything. 

Once those two things are in place, I figure everything else will fall in line. 

So how about you?  Do you have any New Years resolutions, plans, or goals? 

A White Christmas

Since it's an extreme oddity around these parts I count it as an extravagant gift!

LOVE
THE
SNOW!!

We dug out the snow gear and made up some hot cocoa mix.  What more do you need?  Well maybe my new marshmallow blanket too......sooooo nice.

Remember what happened the last time we had a white Christmas?

Poor Baby Girl!

Well this time there were no face plants.  Only FUN...

Notice how much space they have?  We love it out here.  Have I mentioned that before?   Last time they had to go across the street and import snow.  This time they had more snow than they could play with.

Life with boys = snowman with legs and a gun.   Life with girls = a nice little snow village with a hotel.

The view from the back.  Isn't it pretty?

We had 2 good days of snow play.  And just when we thought it was over, there was more snow in the forecast.  We had to cancel movie night with the Awana friends and head home early.   I'd be perfectly happy with a snowed in weekend.....we'll see.

Our Christmas Our Christmas

Best. Christmas. Ever. 

The kids and I got to spend some time in Texas last week visiting all my family. 

It was a great time of.....

crafting with G'ma

shopping with Nana

talking (alot) to Gram

watching Gunsmoke with Paw Paw

watching Grandpa kill a hog

and seeing Uncle Kenny gut it 

We also got to visit with my pretty grandmother.

And for those of you who have been praying for her, she is feeling a lot better these days. 

It was good to see her smiling.

My family is so hospitable and made it a great week for us all. 

We headed home to get ready for our own Christmas. 

This year we decided to do something a little different.

When the kids came out on Christmas morning they had to follow clues to a scavenger hunt to get their presents. 

Honey made up all the clues (in rhyme).  When they found the hiding place, there was an envelope with letters inside. 

When all the envelopes were found, they dumped out the letters to unscramble the words....

Season Passes To Silver Dollar City! 

We are SOOOO looking forward to this! 

Ethan and Meg came over bright and early and didn't miss anything.

Ethan stayed until the afternoon when he left for work

but we had Meg for the whole day. 

Love my girly at home. (So does everyone else)

Presents! 

And the whole time my in-laws were a part of the action even though they are in far away Florida. 

Thank you Face Time! 

Playing all day! 

Best Silly Straw EVER! 

This was one of the presents I was most looking forward to. 

A car track on the wall. 

For whatever reason, I'm a bit sentimental about my boys and their cars. 

I love their cars.  I'll keep them forever.

And I'm perfectly happy to decorate my living room in Hot Wheels.

Later in the day the Riley family came over. 

We had decided to spend our Christmas time (and money) together by shopping the Compassion, Food For The Hungry, and World Vision catalogs. 

We drew names, dividing up into 7 teams of 2 and splitting the money 7 ways. 

Then we divided up the catalogs and shopped until the money ran out. 

We bought lots of sheep, chickens, and goats. 

Fed a hungry baby for a week. 

Bought a fish pond. 

And I don't remember what else. 

I pray the Lord will use it all to bless those who need it.  

It was an awesome day! 

And I didn't even mention the SNOW. 

SNOW!!!

That'll be tomorrow.....

Oh NO!

I just thought of something.  I went through the Christmas season without talking to my Awana kids about the birth of our Savior!  AND I have new boys this year!!

What in the world??

And now it's too late because we don't have class next week.   AWWWWWW............

I'm praying someone has told them that Christmas is more than Santa and elves and pretty trees.  I'm praying that someone will stand in the gap and pick up where I dropped the ball. 

Oh my goodness gracious. 

John 14

20 precious lives stolen in minutes.  Heart broken families, a stunned and horrified nation.

Oh God.  It is too much.

I am trying to understand (and help my kids understand) the tragedy and injustice of it all.  I weep for these families and can't get the news coverage pictures out of my mind.  The fact that I have a child that age doesn't help.  I think about how they started the day so normal, never suspecting in their wildest dreams that they'd never see their baby again.  And I've prayed that our all-knowing God blessed them with a good and loving morning before they went to school.  Why them?  It could've been mine. I'm just so sad for them.

How much longer can this go on?  When Lord?  When will You return?  When can this be done?

 But God, in His goodness, has helped me line it up with Scripture.  My regular daily reading was John 14.  I was stunned at how fitting it was.

"Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me."  John 14:1

There is so much in this world to trouble our hearts whether it be a lunatic murdering precious children, hurting loved ones, or a busted washing machine.

But, "Let not your hearts be troubled" is not your lame think-positive-and-be-happy approach to life.  Jesus tell us exactly where to turn our hearts instead.

"Believe in God; believe also in me."
But don't the demons believe and shudder?  My commentary tells me that this particular usage of believe denotes a personal and relational trust.

This Genesis 3 world will never lend itself to an option of trusting in our circumstances, ourselves, or other people.  Things won't get better when fill in the blank.  Until the Lord returns, we will always deal with disease, loss, disaster, and sin.

Praise be to God that this is not all there is!

"In my Father's house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."  John 14:2-3

An eternal home of joy, worship, peace prepared for the redeemed who call upon The Way, The Truth, and The Life, our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Because I live, you also will live."  V. 19  (Those little ones are safe in the arms of Jesus.)

And in the meantime, the Father has given us the Holy Spirit (V 26).  God Himself, teaching us the good and helping us remember the right way.  Whenever I would struggle with something, my friend Van used to say, "I trust the Holy Spirit in you to make a good decision."  Such wisdom.

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give to you.  V.27
In this fallen world we will never be free from despair.  But the Prince of Peace has offered Himself so that we have the blessing of a right standing with the Father and an eternal home prepared for us.

"Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."  John 14:27

Living Life Now

I had my first acupuncture appt this week in an attempt to get a handle on these crazy flares.  It's divided into 2 parts.  And after the first part, he told me that he would walk out and be back in 15-20 minutes.

I said, "I should've brought a book."

Then he told me that it's better not to read or play on my phone or anything else.  Just relax and rest and let the needles do their work.

Nothing to read.  No one to talk to.  Nothing to look at.  Nothing to listen to.

Just sit.  And be quiet.

Turns out I'm not too good at that.  I'm so used to having people around me.  I have my stuff to entertain me.  I have lots of books I'm in the middle of.  I have my blogging, and Facebook, and e-mail, and my phone to play with.  What in the world would I do for 20 minutes??

I tried to remember the Verse I'm trying to memorize.  I tried to pray.  But I was afraid of falling asleep especially since I had barely slept the night before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday was a busy day of Christmas-y things with my kiddos.  Meg was over.  It was full and sooo much fun.

After I got the littles to bed, I settled into my usual nighttime routine.  Reading.
But I couldn't concentrate.  I couldn't remember what I had read.  My mind was full of thinking over the events of the day.  I couldn't settle down.  I wasn't sleepy.  Did I spend my time wisely?  Did I pour into my kids like I should have?  Did I do anything to reach out to others?  Did I concentrate on what was important or was I just busy?

I spent a lot of time on my computer and phone yesterday.  Yet, I would be the first to say that I never think I have enough time to do the things I want to do.  But instead of doing what I should be doing, I distract
entertain myself with what other ppl are doing.  No, I don't spend hours in front of the screen, but if I added up all the minutes I "steal" from my life with it, I know I would be surprised at how much of my life I am wasting.  No wonder I can't just sit and be still.

Something needs to change.  I don't want to be addicted to the silliness of Facebook or YouTube, or ridiculous movies.  At one point last year, I deleted my Facebook account.  But I had some lame excuse that I don't remember for getting back on.  Today I will try again.....

My life is a vapor.  My kids will be gone soon.  I have no time to waste.

"So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom."  Ps 90:12

15 More Days!

And we are desperately behind.  Like seriously.

But tonight we are going on a shopping date.  Just me and my man.  Then a choir concert after that featuring some youthy peeps.  And speaking of youth, they were very good last night.

So 15 days to go and we haven't even decorated the gingerbread houses!  Or watched The Grinch!  Or made cookies!  Or hardly anything.  So this week we are ditching school and doing Christmas fun.  Meg comes over tomorrow for gingerbread housing and Grinch watching and Momma cooking.  Today we are making some salt dough ornaments or cookies....haven't decided.

Yesterday was a great day.  After church the boys and Lane went to pick up some fencing supplies at Lowes while the girls and I went to Savers.  This was a perfect combo b/c my man likes Lowes so spent a nice long time in there while the girls and I shopped.  Or maybe it wasn't such a good idea since I'm $73 poorer.  Shopping the thrift store on a non-sale day is highly unusual.  Here's to living on the wild side!

Meanwhile my boys were picking up tools and fencing stuffs to make a dog fence that is hopefully not too obtrusive on our land.  They will have access to the shed like a dog house and the whole thing will double as our chicken coop in the spring.  They are over 1/2 way done and it looks perfect.

Thanks to a good friend and his tiller, we got the strawberries in their brand new plot.  Seems late to plant anything to me but from everything I've read, it seems they should be ok if covered properly.  My boys collected pine needles and FarmerBoy bricked off the new strawberry patch.  And just in time......

It's SNOWING!!!!

Those Tricky Hearts

Awana last night was great as ever. 

My own kids were doing Christmas play practice so I only had my Awana kids in class.  Honestly, that's usually the way I like it.  But last night I was wishing they had been in there.  There was a great lesson to be learned. 

We went around the table and answered 2 questions. 

1.  What was your favorite thing in your day?
2.  What do we need to pray about?

The favorite things were silly and funny and a couple of my guys said coming to church tonight was their favorite thing.  I (heart) them. 

Last week we mostly prayed about grades, but this week it seemed most boys had a family member to pray for. 

Jayden has been to class a couple of times and I was glad to see him back last night.  He's a good boy and fits right in.  When it was his turn, he asked for prayer that his dad would get out of jail soon. 
I asked for a show of hands to see whose dad was in jail.  Half.

4 of the 8 boys in my class has a dad in jail. 

But here's where we made the hard stop.
Hayden says, "I hope my dad doesn't get out of jail.  He's mean and I hate him." 

I saw my chance on jumped on it.  We all make mistakes.  There is none of us who are perfect and never sins.  We've talked a lot about that so they are familiar with it.  Jesus came to take the punishment for sins....and our dads' sins and God is in the business of forgiveness.  We also need to forgive. 

As far as memory work went, they were mostly divided into 2 groups.  One group was memorizing the books of the Bible.  And is it any wonder that the other group was working on Jeremiah 17:9 ...
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it?'

Some Thoughts From Interrupted

I've been reading Interrupted again.   It wasn't on my Christmas reading list but it just happened.  God knew I needed the refresher course. 

There are times when it's difficult to balance family life and ministry.  Especially for my man who is working a LOT.  And there is the thought of ....is the cost too high?  Are we sacrificing our own on the alter of ministry?  What needs to change?  Have we reached the time when something has gotta give? 

Today I read about broken bread and poured out wine. 
"Do this in remembrance of Me."  1 Cor 11:24 

The "do" is a continuous action.  Not only does it require a constant response, but the "remembrance" comes from anamnesis which means "to make real". 

From the book:   Communion is more than a memory, more than a reverent moment when we recall Jesus' heroic sacrifice.  Remembrance means honoring Jesus' mercy mission with a tangible, physical action since it was a tangible, physical sacrifice.  In other words, "Constantly make this real." 

Constantly make this real.  Constantly be broken and poured out for humanity....for the sake of Jesus.
Constantly is ringing in my mind. 

I felt so encouraged after reading this to think that we are still moving in the right direction.   As Richard Blackaby recently reminded me in his book, Putting A Face On Grace, grace always costs something.  Others have to be poured out for the grace that is bestowed on us.   Why should we expect a sacrifice to cost nothing? 

But we need to be in constant prayer to know how to include our kids.  Our little kids are growing up very different from our older kids.  We are in a different place in life and I can see how our older kids are a huge safeguard for our littles.   I love how they love them by helping us keep them on the right track. 

It was easier when it was just me and some of the older kids at Awana every week.  I could pour into the precious lives of my boys without a single thought of neglecting my own.  They were safe at home with Daddy and all was good.  Win win.  But now that everybody's on board, I constantly have the red light blaring in my head "DANGER DANGER DANGER!!!" 

And while I know it's wise to be aware, I also am thinking that they are benefiting in huge ways that I didn't see before.  I'm pretty sure it's the right place to be.  For all of us.