The family Christmas card

I have never been able to pull off that perfect family Christmas card.  You know, the one that all the kids are super squeaky clean with perfect smiles, not a hair out of place and wearing adorable outfits in the same color scheme - that also seems to match the sky, the leaves, the trees.  Probably because my kids hate photo shoots.  And I don't have the patience to shop at 10 different stores trying to find 4 kids ages 1-19 matching outfits.  And I don't have a good camera.  And my kids hate photo shoots. (Oops, did I say that already?)

We have had two "professional" photo shoots with great photographers/friends that included all the kids at once.  They are the live witnesses as to what it takes to get a halfway decent shot of the Zluticky children.  Let me just say that one said child actually LEFT the photography session and opted to walk home - from city lake!!  That same said child also got sent to the car with me angrily grumbling "no more pictures with him" on the other one.  I seriously don't know what he will do when it comes time for his wedding photos someday.  He will probably have to be photo-shopped in so it doesn't look like he left his bride standing cold turkey at the alter.

Before Thanksgiving I had all 4 kids at the lake.  It was a gorgeous fall day so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get a picture of them for this year's Christmas card.  Only Sarah Joy takes pride in what she looks like and actually combs her hair for this picture.  The boys were wearing shorts and athletic pants that had probably been crumpled in the bottom of their athletic bag.  Picking my battles, I decided not to make them change thinking I would just get a really good close-up of their faces together. (I was borrowing Doris's camera - I was excited.)  That was an "epic fail" -says the son who is ending up to be the main character of this blog would say.  Not only do I have a teenage son who will not cooperate - but throw a toddler in the mix whose name is Elisabeth and why did I even think something would turn out?!? Every year when the same scenario seems to play out wherever I take pics, I threaten to put those on the Christmas card.  And this year, a few of these are going to end up on it.  A mamma's got to call in her bluff sometime doesn't she? These aren't any that are on the card, but here is a few of the pics I tried to take...



Last year, my kids were the living nativity for the senior adult Christmas banquet.  There were dressed up with beards, gowns, the works and Elisabeth was baby Jesus. (Whoever heard of a red head baby Jesus?) Of course I take all kinds of pictures and I kept thinking - this would make a great Christmas card!!! But then people who didn't know they were dressing up for something specific would probably be like "Oh my gosh!!!! She dressed up her kids like Mary and Joseph - and baby Jesus! What nut would do that?!?"  Now I'm thinkin' that would be actually really funny.  Especially putting it on a year later.

My sister has 4 little kids and somehow she ALWAYS pulls off the perfect family Christmas card.  And yes, I'm jealous.  My dad put both of our Christmas cards in this two sided glass frame that sits on an end table.  When we are both at his house we revert back to a couple of 10 year olds and each time we walk buy we flip the frame around so that person's family is in front.  Well this year, she had a photo shoot I didn't know about.  Thanks to Facebook  the photographer tagged her in one of the pictures.  It showed up on my wall. My jealousy barometer raised a notch.  Yes, her kids were actually wrestling or rough housing on this couch but it was captured perfectly.  Her and Jason were standing behind this couch with this cute little chalkboard sign that said "our family" - and they had adorable exasperated looks on their face.  My kids wrestle in a picture and the photo turns out blurry, someone stomps off mad, or there is a finger in someone's nose.  My sister takes a pic like that and it could be a magazine cover! 

Oh well.  I guess that is what makes us - us.  The Zluticky's.  I love each of my kids and their own unique personalities so much that sometimes I feel my heart could burst. This year's card  has 2 main pictures that wasn't even part of that little failed attempt of a photo shoot.  I put in some blooper pics because that is us. Our life is one big blooper.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.  The sentiment I was able to put on the card kind of sums up our life - "wishing you laughter and love through knowing the joy of Jesus this holiday season..."  We have lots of moments of tears, frustrations  and fights like all families... but at least the laughter and love and most of all Jesus is what still makes us - us.



Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Bread in the bed, keys in a can!

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Bread in the bed, keys in a can!: Tonight I pulled back the covers of my (unmade) bed and low and behold found a half loaf of bread.  One guess how it got there, although I'm...

Bread in the bed, keys in a can!

Tonight I pulled back the covers of my (unmade) bed and low and behold found a half loaf of bread.  One guess how it got there, although I'm not sure how she managed it. Its her new favorite thing-buns, bread, anything squishy. She loves to get into the pantry and tear into all the food.  And I mean she literally loves to get INTO the pantry. She completely shut herself in it a few nights ago.  We heard this muffled cry and for a split second we were like, "where in the world is she?" Then it was "Oh my gosh!!! She's in the pantry!!!" We open the door and she had this scared look on her face and accusing glare that said "how dare you shut me in there!" I'm sure it will be a discussion in future therapy sessions. We went back and forth accusing each other and the boys-"Who was the last one to get a snack and not notice Elisabeth underneath the bottom shelf?!?!".   Then last night, I saw the little booger get in the pantry, make herself stand flat against the shelf and shut the door! She did it, apparently there is enough room between the shelf and the door that she fits - the little stink! (It's time for a lock on the pantry door I would say.)

                 Getting into the pantry and helping herself to the cereal.  She thought Matty would  like some too!

So, not only is she becoming a pro at hiding herself, she loves to hide our things.  Things that we need.  Like keys and make up.  She had Chris's church keys.  He tried to go back to work after a lunch break and couldn't find them.  Him and my mom looked for an hour.  My mom finally found them in a green bean can underneath the sink.  I spent half the night looking for her medicine.  It was in a magazine in the magazine rack.  I looked for my makeup.  It was in a bowl of grapes. I lost an important paper from school.  It was in a bag in our back yard. I find random Christmas ornaments off our now nearly bare tree underneath the bed.

We now pretty much have to go inch by inch through our house when we lose something because Elisabeth could have put it anywhere.  Who would have thought to look in a Tupperware full of grapes for my missing makeup?

Reminds me of how Jesus seeks us out, pursues us, does not give up looking for us when we have lost our way.  Whether we are purposely hiding from him, or just got distracted for awhile and lost in the things of the world.  The cool thing is, He always finds us and lovingly puts us back where we belong.  With him.

Luke 19:10

"The son of man came to seek and save that which was lost."

Romans 8:38-39

"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, no angels, no dark powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing can separate us from the love of God."

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Out of the mouth of babes...

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Out of the mouth of babes...: Elisabeth.  Oh you give me so many stories.  I posted briefly on facebook today about the new sound she is making. It's not even cute. And n...

Out of the mouth of babes...

Elisabeth.  Oh you give me so many stories.  I posted briefly on facebook today about the new sound she is making. It's not even cute. And now it's not even funny.  It's pretty much embarrassing.  She likes to make these long screeching/growling sounds that sound like she could have the starring role (alongside Chucky) in some scary Halloween movie.  And she was full on with these sounds today.  At Walmart of course.  Once she went through a sucker (one of those big ones) and a cheese stick and whatever else she ate in the cart, she thought she would amuse everyone with her devil sounds.  One lady stopped and said "oh my...I think she just might be a singer someday..." Hmmm...Is that what you call it?-maybe get a job in a heavy metal rock band ?!?!  She was in full mode at the check out lane and she was actually starting to cause a scene.  I was trying to get her to stop but she just kept getting louder and louder.  The poor check out guy was getting nervous so I told him "don't worry, her head won't start spinning."

 Demon possessed sounds or not, Elisabeth has actually come a long way in her speech.  She's been in speech therapy since she was 6 months old.  I know its hard to believe that any child of mine would need to be in speech - its almost ironic. (Just in case you didn't know, I like to talk.) But at 6 months she was mainly having problems with eye contact and making any sounds and with other presenting problems- early intervention was our best option. But lord willing she will continue to meet all her goals and be out some time after the first of the year! I remember at her 6 month check up when things were pretty discouraging.  I left the doctor's office in tears.  Wondering if and when Elisabeth would just gaze into our eyes, would she ever say Mama? Dadda? Would she even just lay her head on our shoulder?  Things I completely 100% took for granted with my other children. I went home and sought comfort in scripture. I turned to Psalm 139 as I often did concerning her. Even though I have read this verse a thousand times, it jumped off the page at me like never before:

                         

"Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely O Lord." -Psalm 139:4 

That verse brought me complete peace.  The Lord had it all under control.  He knew when and if E would talk.  I could trust in that and rest in His word.

So now at 15 months old she has 3 words she knows - mamma, dada, and bubba, and lots of different sounds...(albeit some well - demonic sounding)   And most of the time she says it to the right people at the right times.  Except for tonight.  I turned on Barney on the T.V.  She got real excited and pointed towards Barney and said "DA DA!!!!!!!"  The last time I checked Chris was not purple.

Elisabeth and "dada" watching "dada".  hahahaha! (I couldn't resist) To her, "dada" means love and she sure does love her "dada" -The REAL one!

                                                 



Six Waters Please!

I can just hear my dad now, "6 waters please!" That is what he said EVERY time we went out to eat. I grew up in a family of six where both of my parents worked at a Christian school. (That equals no money.) We didn't eat out very often. We occasionally went to the local Arby's after Sunday service. If you brought in your church bulletin you got your food half-off. My dad still ordered everyone waters. He was an expert at feeding us all for about five bucks. For whatever reason, in my mind as a kid, drinking water was not cool, especially at restaurants. I thought it made us look heaven forbid, poor - I specifically remember when we were in a fast food line I would try to purposely stand next to another family that looked so much cooler than ours and actually ordered pop. (My parent self is telling my childhood self "girl...you should be thankful you even get to go out to eat. There are starving children in Africa!" someone just should have smacked me.) I like blame this whole childhood experience for my current addiction to diet coke. (Verses I am a weenie in enduring headaches when I do not have my caffeine.) My addiction is no secret. It was actually a matter of prayer when I went to Thailand because I was seriously worried about what I would do going cold turkey off of it for 3 weeks! Isn't that awful? I KNOW!!! If only my dad would have ordered me a pop at McDonald's when I was 11...

Now it seems like it is more popular to order water at a restaurant since that's the healthy way to go, and not to mention drinks are up to about 2.50 now at any given sit-down eating place. My sweet husband knows not to limit my pop consumption but I try to use discretion (sometimes) when we eat out. Anyway, while we were in Missouri a couple weeks ago we decided to go to Olive Garden with everyone including my old roommate and her daughter. Yes, a moment of insanity thinking we would enjoy a nice time of visiting with Elisabeth in tow.

We get to Olive Garden. We have a hour wait. We are not there 2 seconds and Elisabeth spots a table of food that she practically lunges out of our arms to grab. So we go over to the mall and hang out for a little bit. We get back before our time was up, but they had called our name and we weren't there. Lost our table. Wait again and get 2 tables side by side. That's fine. It's time to order. My kids know by now when we've hit the "we're strapped for cash limit and we better order water." We are waiter's favorite kind of customer. (ummm, no. not really.) We all order the cheapest thing on the menu - endless soup and salad, or endless pasta bowls. And everyone orders a water....except one person. (not me this time ;)) Well, as soon as the one soda was set down, the kids thought it would be funny if everyone shared it and stuck their straws in it and sucked it down and asked for another one. They had four glasses of empty pop lined up. Mind you, they were sitting at a table across from us and we didn't know this was happening until we looked over and saw them drinking like this.

Well...that could have possibly ticked the waiter off. Or it was Elisabeth dumping her goldfish all over the floor, or Elisabeth dumping a cup of ice water all over Chris within the first 5 minutes, or Elisabeth banging silverware on the table while screaming and providing entertainment and pleasant noises for our dining partners. Long story short it took well over an hour to get even our first bowl of soup. Even the best behaved toddler, teenager, or adult cannot be good waiting for food that long when we are starving. I was ready to get rude and snippy. My sweet roommate who has had a gentle spirit the entire 24 years I have known her said in her sweet soft spoken voice, "I'm sure ya'll just ran out of soup tonight because it is the first night of cold weather. Maybe they are just making a fresh batch.." (That is just sooo Kaari.) I am ready to stand up on the table and shout "I am about to let my one year old loose in your kitchen if our soup isn't out here in the next minute!!!" My husband gets up and politely seeks out the manager and explains our dilemma. We quickly get our food and the manager gave us our ENTIRE MEAL FREE!! My kids blurt out "we could have ordered pop!!"

Grace. Its what we should extend to others. I know the Lord blessed us with a free meal because of the graceful way Chris and Kaari handled it. (With my comments and attitude I probably had flies in my soup.) Kindess . It's what we should extend even when we have every right to be otherwise. Grace and Kindess - it's who Jesus is.

"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt...so you know how to answer every man.." Colossians 4:6

Things have changed about my dad. Now when he hosts a family dinner, he will easily spend more on meat than what we spend on a weeks worth of groceries. When he knows I'm coming, they always have a case of diet coke in the garage fridge for me. When we are with him at a restaurant, we order anything we want - including pop.

flying fruit and spilled flour

The more that I make a conscious effort to try and practice the fruits of the spirit in my life - love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self control - the more it seems like someone is hitting me with that fruit in the back of the head just to see how I respond!! And lately, when that flying fruit comes in the form of red-head destructor baby, disasters in the kitchen, or rude crazy people chasing me down in the C.V.'s parking lot yelling extremely naughty profanities in my window (that happened last week on my lunch break, good material for another blog) all the ooey, gooey, lovey dovey, Holy Spirit fruity juices are NOT flowing out of me!

Last Thursday, I was going to put a chicken in the crock pot for chicken and dumplings.   But I forgot to put the chicken in the crock pot that morning, left it on the counter for an unsaid period of time, came racing home and did a sniff test to see if I have rotten chicken wasting away.  It smelled fine, looked fine, so I thought I would cut it up and just make fried chicken.  But I cannot cut up a whole chicken.  There were bones sticking out of places that I'm sure were not supposed to be there. (Sideways out of the fat part of the chicken leg.)  My husband walks in and just shakes his head.  He used to be a manager of Kentucky Fried Chicken back in the day. I try to cover the chicken with my body and yell "don't look!"

I make my coating mixture using practically a whole bag of flour in our favorite big ole' plastic popcorn bowl.  I drip the chicken in egg and milk, have my oil ready, and place my big plastic bowl on the stove.  A few seconds later I smell plastic burning.  It does not register with me that it could be the bowl sitting on the burner.  The dishwasher was going so I'm grumbling at the boys in my head SURE that they loaded it wrong and my expensive Dr. Brown bottles were sitting in the bottom of the dishwasher melting.  A minute passed and I pick up the bowl to dip my chicken in.  This is what happened!

My knee-jerk reaction is to throw the bowl in the sink which was dumb since the bottom of the blue bowl was melted to the top of my stove.  Flour then goes all over the kitchen floor!

I cannot even begin to tell you the mess, the lack of patience I had in cleaning the mess, and the grouchies that came on me and settled in for the rest of the evening.  I still fried the chicken.  Later on that night Jonathan starts throwing up.  Crud.  I'm thinking "gosh, I really really hope that chicken wasn't rotten."  I start getting sick to my stomach. I down a half of bottle of tums.  It's gonna be awhile before I fry up some chicken again.

So many Christian people joke about not praying for patience because "you know what will happen when you do!!"  I don't necessarily need to pray for patience.  I have resolved that my life is going to be one big humongous mess for awhile. Just like my house. I just muddle through and do what I got to do. What I need to pray for is love, joy, and kindness. I am a grouch "patiently" cleaning up those messes. Its easy to take everyday stress, tiredness etc..out on those you love.  1 Corinthians 13:1 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal..."  Last night as Chris and I were acting like old people and having our frequent discussion of how tired we are (its what happens when you pop a baby out in your 40's) I asked him once again (in my best whiny voice) "will we ever feel rested again?" He said, "when we get to heaven" I was feeling lovey dovey so I told him "that's okay as long as I get to rest next to you" He said, "wait! I thought you said this was heaven!" and then he adds "Just Kidding! Just Kidding!" with a laugh...  He's probably right.  Lord knows I've been that clanging cymbal lately.  So yes, its good that I wake up and pray for the fruits of the spirit to show in my life that day.  But most of all I need to pray that I show love today - where it matters most...in the home.

To potty in peace - it's not gonna happen!

Last week I saw a link that kept popping up on facebook with a picture attached to it.  It was called "the teacher's bathroom"  and for a split second I almost clicked on it before I realized it was a hack.  The teacher's bathroom is the one place in the school where you can lock yourself in a tiny room, and have a few blissful moments of peace and quiet while your kids are literally climbing the walls and toilets and sinks in their bathroom. And the newest one today is someone tried to see how far their hand could go down the toilet. (Yes, I promise you the kids LITERALLY do that, and parents - some things are just best if you just don't know...) 

My days of peace and quiet in the bathroom are over. done. finished.  And not just at home - but AT SCHOOL!!!  Last week I went to the private, teacher's bathroom.  The one that you need a key to get in.  I walk there, put my key in the door, open it, and turn around and all 23 of my students followed me there!!! They were practically stepping on my heels! "GO AWAY! GO CLIMB WALLS AND TOILETS! THIS IS MY TIME!"   A few days ago we were all taking a bathroom break and I told them, You go do your thing, and I'm going to the restroom and I'll be right back.  One of my little girls grabs my hand and said, "can I go in with you?!?  ME: "no"  Her: "But your the best teacher ever!!!"  ME: "I don't care if I just won a trip to the moon for being the best teacher (Geez, I probably couldn't even win a trip to sonic) there is no way on this planet you are going into that bathroom with me!"

Maybe its because my peaceful bathroom days at home are now over that I long for those few stolen moments of peace and quiet in the teacher's bathroom.  Elisabeth and bathrooms lead to nothing but trouble.  First, we tried to keep all the bathroom doors shut at all times.  Because if we didn't, this would happen.

                                                                            

Then she moved on to discovering drawers and cabinets and toilet water that is oh so much fun to splash around in.  And throw things in - like her waffle, or her bottle, or brand new rolls of toilet paper.  The other day I thought Chris was in the bathroom.  The door was shut, and I heard stuff going on so I was talking away at him.  No answer.  I kept talking and since I wasn't getting a response I told him to quit ignoring me and I opened the door and there was little miss, both hands in the toilet while she just gives me that smile with her scrunched up nose that pretty much gets her out of everything.  If we keep her in the bathroom with us while we are in there she tries to push us off the toilet or climbs in the cabinet and starts tossing everything out, she rips all the towels off, and takes off with the toilet paper and leaves us stranded.  If we leave her out of the bathroom while we are in there we even have a bigger mess to contend with.  Like this past Thursday, Chris was at home with her. He is in the bathroom and while he is doing his thing-  she finds an accidental doggie doo-doo mess that Matty left behind in one of the bedrooms and well, you can pretty much guess the rest of the story. So see, we are in a no-win situation when it comes to privacy in bathroom.

No matter how much lack of privacy we have now concerning the restroom, at least we can do our business in comfort.  Unlike my experience in Thailand with the "squatty potty."  Their bathroom consisted of a hole in the ground that you squatted when you went, then rinsed yourself off with a hose like thing instead of using toilet paper.

                                                                                     
One day when we were working at one of the Thai schools, I had to go! I usually tried to wait till I got back to the hotel because  there was no way I would be able to squat and hose myself off without my clothes getting soaked. There was a line of Thai kids waiting for the bathroom and I just stood in line with them. It was my turn.  I walked into the ONE bathroom of the entire school and figured the easiest way to get this done was just to take all my clothes off and proceed from there.  Well, the whole thing took forever, and by the time I got done there were probably a hundred Thai kids lined up at the door an I'm sure making fun of me in a language I couldn't understand and  wondering if the "American lady" fell down the toilet hole or what. (Ahhh...mission  trip memories...)

I really do long for some peace, quiet, rest, alone moments.  All moms do.  Some days I feel like its not gonna happen this side of Heaven.  And then I think of Heaven.  Ahhhhh....just saying that word lets me breathe a sigh of relief. Because I know that all the hard stuff in life will someday soon end. I love that verse "Better is one day in your courts, better is one day in your house, than a thousand elsewhere." (Psalm 84:10)  Oh to truly rest in the presence of Jesus.  It is sweet refreshment for my soul when I find those quiet moments to read  my Bible, or in the pew when I can picture my Savior as I sing a worship song.  That will carry me through until I can truly rest at the feet of Jesus. "Find rest, O my soul in God alone; my hope comes from him." (Psalm 62:5)  Until then...I am just resigned to the fact that I will probably never potty in peace again.

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: So. How was your day?!?

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: So. How was your day?!?: "So. How was YOUR day?!?!"  When you hear that statement it is usually after someone has rambled on for 20 minutes about the misfortunes of ...

So. How was your day?!?

"So. How was YOUR day?!?!"  When you hear that statement it is usually after someone has rambled on for 20 minutes about the misfortunes of their day.  And lucky you- that is what I am about to do!! I won't even begin at the beginning of my Saturday morning. (Even though the piece of a waffle I found in our toilet this morning, put their by a certain someone, might give you a clue how the day started, continued and ended.)

Let me just recap the last few hours.  I took Jacob over to my mom's to watch the Razorback football game.  He has to watch it over there because we are a Netflix only household.  Hmmm...and what do I say about having Netflix only on our TV? Lets just say its NOT "wow! I am so glad my husband and boys are on the 247th episode of this show in a 3 week period! What constructive use of their time!!" 

We get to my mom's.  5 minutes into the visit Jacob and Elisabeth have already eaten her out of house and home.  Its in the middle of the afternoon and they have consumed the rest of her fried chicken, chips, cantelope and cereal.  And that just confirms her thoughts that I never feed my children well rounded meals and that is why they are always hungry.

20 minutes into the visit Elisabeth manages to push the screen out of my mom's window.  My mom fixed that window only to have a different window screen pushed out by Ms. destructive baby herself.  My mom follows her around like a nervous wreck after that and literally says, "This is EXACTLY how kids fall to their DEATHS in CABRINI GREEN!!!"  Don't worry mom, I am not going to visit the Cabrini Green slums of Chicago anytime soon. I love my mom.

On to grocery shopping at Walmart.  That is almost a weekly disaster.  First, Elisabeth either destroys or eats half of the food in the cart. Today we leave a long line of crunched cheetos and puddles of squirted out Caprison juice.  I was waiting for them to come on the intercom and say "Cleanup in aisle...umm..clean up EVERYWHERE.  Just follow the lady with the red-headed baby!"

Now, while this is going on my husband is out tromping through the woods all day looking for that ideal place to put his deer stand with one of his friends.  What Chris needs to do is to set a deer stand in my dad's backyard at Beaver Lake.  At any given time there is probably 10 or 15 deer happily nibbling on the corn my dad feeds them 5 feet away from their house.  Of course except when we are visiting and we bring our dog Matty.  Matty's favorite past time is to chase all the deer away from my dad's house.  Matty and my dad do not get along.   Now my husband deserves guy time, he works extremely hard for our family. I appreciate and love him for it.  It would just be nice if his guy time was at 2 am or something.  I am finally done with the grocery saga and heading home with 20,000 grocery bags that I am dreading having to carry in and put away by myself. (After all, that is what I have children for, who lucky for them, were not home either.)

In order to get all the groceries in and keep my daughter from running into the street and pushing out the screens in the neighbors windows I have to strap her in her high chair in the front yard.  When I am seriously taking the last load of groceries in, Matt and Chris drive up.  The first thing they say is "Why is Elisabeth in a high chair in the front yard? Then they see the groceries and Chris says "Quick! Let's drive around the block a few more times." And then they start laughing hysterically.  Chris gets out and offers to help and says as he walks by, "I know, I get the husband of the year award..." 

This was Elisabeth actually sitting in her highchair in the front yard.  You can just read her thoughts, "Come on mamma - let me out of here...I can take out those screens at the Martins in 10 seconds flat."



So.  How was YOUR day?!?!

My God moment(s) with Sarah

Sarah Joy.  My original baby girl. I swear that child came out of the womb quoting Psalm 100 and teaching all the other babies in the hospital nursery calculus. She begged us to get saved when she was in pre-school.  I remember us putting it off, trying to wait until  we thought she really understood.  When we picked her up from pre-school, her teacher was telling us she kept talking about wanting to get saved, what it meant, and how her parents were making her wait! Okay, so the kid got it and she prayed to ask Jesus in her heart that night!  She was always playing "church" with her babies. She would sit them all (15 of them) up against the wall next to a piano we had in the house at Boys Town and make them sing hymns. I knew then she had the hand of God on her and would do something great for him and I better prepare my heart then to someday "let her go."

 

I kept a prayer book of sorts for my kids. I would jot prayers and the dates and scripture that went along with 2 year old temper tantrums, lost papers at school, and ear infections that wouldn't go away.  I remember when Sarah was in 1st grade and I felt so strongly that she would become a missionary that I actually wept and prayed thinking about her leaving us to go off to some third world country to be eaten by Indians.  (I was really into Elisabeth Elliot at the time- lol) Yes, that was my irrational prayer that didn't even make sense. But I kept writing those prayers for all my kiddo's, crazy fears and all.

The summer of 2010 we took our youth group to Glorietta, New Mexico to participate in MFuge.  This is part mission trip, part youth camp.  We have never pressured Sarah to become a missionary.  In fact, since she knew all the down and dirty of ministry growing up in a ministry family - we would consider ourselves lucky if she didn't leave the church all together some day! :) But she went forward during MFuge on a Thursday night and gave her life over to full time ministry - and felt special call of God to missions. She felt God calling her to be a sports missionary, possibly leading basketball camps in Africa. Her dad and I rejoiced and hugged and prayed and I secretly prayed for protection against those Indians!

     This is one of my all time favorite pictures of us - and it was taken during that week of Mfuge!

Several months after we returned from camp and the school year was back in full swing I was looking through old prayer journals for the kids. 

I came across this entry (look at the bottom of the picture). This was written 6 years before she gave her heart over to the call of missions.

I called Sarah into the bedroom, showed it to her and it was another tear filled, goosebump, God moment.  Everything that we both felt like God had spoken quietly to us over the years was confirmed in that moment.

She finished out her high school years, playing basketball, ministering in her school and through our church.  She spent time as a summer missionary through the Southern Baptist Convention in Kentucky.  Her major at SBU is in Intercultural Studies with a plan to go to the mission field.  Now don't get me wrong - we had our share of normal teenage knock down, drag out, yelling, slamming doors nights.  She's been grounded from her car, and had her bedroom door removed from its hinges and stored in the garage much to her teenage horror. But her heart always returned back to Jesus.

This summer we had our big garage sale.  (You can read about it in my previous blog "Cow skulls and Kids not for sale") Sarah put out all her stuff, and as I was looking through her things I noticed some basketball shoes she had put a $1.00 sticker on.  I actually plucked them out of someone's hand because I noticed something on them that made those shoes absolutely priceless to me. 

         She had written scripture on her school basketball shoes.  Those verses went up and down the court with her every single game. 

                     That's my sports missionary whether she goes over seas or not.  That's my girl. And Sarah Joy, if you happen to come across this blog in the middle of the night during a late night (hopefully study break) - we are praying that verse over you which carried up and down the court during basketball season Ezra 10:4 "Rise up, this matter is in your hands.  We will support you, so take courage and do it."  You can accomplish everything God has for you.  Love you baby girl.



Life in the Big Brother house

As Elisabeth started her tackle-spree on the first child she sees in the nursery this morning (and I'm trying to loosen her chubby fist out of Claudia's hair)  her teacher tries to excuse her naughty behavior by saying "She has brothers! It's how she plays with them!"  I heard it again a second time when I picked her back up after church. And then I heard it tonight. "Oh... I know she plays with her brothers that way.."  Really, we are family at church.  Its not gonna hurt my feelings at all if you just tell me what a mean little booger she is. 

I have been getting my classroom ready for the new school year. Desks are pretty much a thing of the past and now everyone sits in groups at tables.  Except of course I do have 2 separate desks saved out for "those" kids.  You know, the kids that end up being your favorite but are as mean as snot and likes to poke everyone with their pencils and scissors so they end up getting to sit at the "special desk". Well, I'm gonna save Elisabeth's teacher the hassle and tell her before school even starts just to go ahead and stick Elisabeth's name tag on the "special desk" sitting away from all the others. :) That would save me and the teacher the embarrassment  of sending home a student with a chunk of hair missing and bite marks up and down their arm.

I DO have to attribute some of her behavior to her big brothers.  They are so crazy about her.  She bangs on their door, chews up their xbox remotes, hides their ping ball balls in shoes etc...and they are endlessly patient. But they rough house her to no end.  Just tonight after church Jacob, Elisabeth and I are playing outside.  She finds this ball and throws it gently to Jacob. I tell him to throw it back to her. He just BEAMS it at her, hits her with it and yells "DODGEBALL!!!"  She's stunned for a second and then starts laughing.  He keeps hitting her with the ball, she keeps laughing...until I tell them that's enough.  (I'm thinkin' bruises here.) So yes, when she is purposely hitting other kids in the head with a ball, we can accurately blame it on her brothers.

The Dodgeball trainer and his trainee

If you keep up with my facebook posts you remember that not to long ago Jonathan called his dad at camp to ask where his gorilla mask was.  When Chris asked why, Jonathan said, "because I want to scare Elisabeth." Chris is like, "ummm...NO!"  Youth minister's offices are a gold mine for cool, unusual things.  Last week, there was this reddish rubber gooey pig in Sarah's room that Jonathan was throwing against her wall and it would stick.  I asked her where she got the strange pig toy and she said "daddy's office."  Case in point.  Anyway, Jonathan could not resist the temptation of the gorilla mask.  One day after church JZ retrieved the mask and gloves out of the office and took them home.  He put them on to try to scare Elisabeth, but the little smarty knew it was her brother.  She just looked at him like, "You weirdo!" and then probably bit him.  She seriously will hunt Jonathan down to bite him.  She also bit a piece of Jacob's fingernail off including the nail bed.  I do remember Jonathan getting removed from a church nursery for biting.  They actually called us out of the service to get him and would not let him back in!!! I don't believe in Karma but just maybe....

I am so thankful for my boys.  They are the best.  Elisabeth is a lucky little girl. Despite the tackling, hanging her upside down by her ankles etc...  she has good Christian brothers who will not only protect her, but will teach her all the ninja moves she will ever need to be the biggest bully on the playground.  But the best thing they do is LOVE.

"Love is patient, Love is kind..."  (1 Corinthians 13) Elisabeth has turned their world upside down and messed up more than one controller but they show nothing but love.

"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me." Mark 9:37        Thanks boys....

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Crickets on the menu for today

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Crickets on the menu for today: People probably don't believe half the stories I tell about Elisabeth.  I am almost glad that yesterday one of our sweet youth got to witnes...

Crickets on the menu for today

People probably don't believe half the stories I tell about Elisabeth.  I am almost glad that yesterday one of our sweet youth got to witness the hair pulling, back biting (literal), clothes tugging, children chasing terror spree that Elisabeth went on at the Chick-Fila play place yesterday.  I just looked at Madison and said, "I'm glad you saw this so you know I don't make this stuff up!" 

So before I start my "you won't believe it unless you were there" stories, let me just say that it is perfectly acceptable to eat crickets in Thailand.  Several years ago, Chris and I went on a mission trip to Thailand that was one of the best experiences of our life.  To immerse ourselves in their culture (and come back with a really great story to tell our kids) we snacked on crickets that were being sold at the night time market. I just closed my eyes, plugged my nose, and tried really hard to ignore the crunching sound that was going on in my mouth.

The crickets we ate literally came from this pile right here.

The purpose of our mission trip was to go into the schools and teach them English, which would eventually lead to telling them about Jesus.  As I was teaching English words for food using pictures (I had an interpreter with me) I would ask them what their favorite food was.  In almost every school, at least a couple of children would say "crickets!"

I am really trying to keep a straight face when they tell me their favorite food is crickets and they point to a picture of a boy and call him "sister."  Precious kids.  Just looking through these pictures makes me want to hop on a plane and go back tomorrow.

Elisabeth would fare very well over in Thailand.  In fact, she would fit right in.  A few nights ago I could tell she was chewing up something she shouldn't.  I told her to "spit it out."  That is actually the one command she understands and follows quite well.  She starts spitting out pieces of something that I couldn't quite figure out what it was.  Until 5 minutes later.  We are all sitting in the living room and a cricket jumps across the floor.  She spots it, crawls like lightening speed towards it and catches it!  We get it from her and then start to look at the brown little bits still in her drool on her chin.  Then I remember the deceased little cricket I saw by the dishwasher earlier.  The dead little guy was no longer there and I seriously doubted he was raised like Lazareth from the dead.  Then it was like slow motion from a movie when we all realized at the same time what the brown little bits in E's drool was.  "NOOOoooooo....oh my gosh she just ate a cricket!" 

I'm keeping this story for when she's called to the mission field one day.  I'm gonna tell her, "Honey, God started preparing you for this when you were 11 months old.  You are gonna adjust to that culture better than you know..."

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Just a little unfriendly competition

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Just a little unfriendly competition: I have not won a board game, video game, card game, or ANY type of game against my husband in 20 years. If I think about it beyond 5 seconds...

Just a little unfriendly competition

I have not won a board game, video game, card game, or ANY type of game against my husband in 20 years. If I think about it beyond 5 seconds my whole focus and goal in life becomes to beat him at something. Anything.  But I have serious bad luck when it comes to games.  Four of us play Yahtzee tonight.  But in my head its all about me and Chris and me beating him. My mom and Sarah are non existent in this game. I get a yahtzee, I don't have to put 0's in any of my spaces. I am doing a happy dance on the table.  Chris does NOT get a yahtzee, he has to put a 0 in his large straight and he STILL beats me by 2 points.  In fact, I come in last place among the four of us playing.  Then right after that, me and Sarah play and she gets 4 yahtzee's! Who gets 4 yahtzee's in one game?!?! (I'm taking back her Christmas presents!)



Jonathan feels my pain. He has had some unfriendly competition with his dad also. Both of them revert back to a couple of 5 year olds who call each other "cheater!" So for a nano second he has a ounce of compassion for his mother. He is seriously trying to figure out something that I could beat Chris in.  He starts coming up with a plan to teach me how to improve my skills in ping pong. He tells me we are going to practice the entire week Chris is at children's camp so when he comes back I can beat him. By the tone in his voice and the crazed look in his eyes  I'm thinking he really means it.  He starts taping magic markers standing up straight to our dining room table. (This is the same dining room table that nail polish remover has been spilled on, deep scratches mysteriously are in, rings from water glasses abound etc... so I am way past caring about some scotch tape.)  Then he strings all this yarn between the two markers.  He finds old DS game boxes and tapes handles to them.  Then he braves our wasp infested shed in the dark, with just the light of his cell phone to find some old plastic golf ball.  He comes in, lays it all on the table and says, "mom, training begins NOW!" 



Oh. my. goodness.  He is serious. I will join him in Ping Pong boot camp tomorrow. (Mind you, we don't even own a ping pong table.) Even though yes, I would love to beat Chris in some ping pong - tonight, I love my sleep.  Jonathan and Sarah actually played some ping pong with what he rigged - I was quite impressed with his invention and enjoyed hearing the laughter as plastic cases were hitting a dented ball.



"My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing." John 15:11

Can I pray, "Lord, my gladness would be complete if I could just beat Chris in any game just ONE TIME -please Lord? You understand that this is about to become an out of control obsession in which I could possibly end up on the 5:00 news for?..."  Okay, I won't pray that.  I am thankful tonight for laughter in my family.  Winning or losing, if there is laughter and love what more do I need?



Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Cow skulls and kids: not for sale

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: Cow skulls and kids: not for sale: I am not a garage sale person. Looking in my cabinets you would think I spend my free time scouting garage sales for mismatched tupperware, ...

Cow skulls and kids: not for sale

I am not a garage sale person. Looking in my cabinets you would think I spend my free time scouting garage sales for mismatched tupperware, cracked mugs that say "I love South Dakota" etc... A few weeks ago I thought I would be ambitious and look for some garage sales so I could possibly find a push toy for Elisabeth.  This story I am about to tell you is true. Only if you live in Mansfield will you actually believe it. I get up early on a Saturday (Actually E got me up, I would NEVER willfullly wake up early on a Saturday.) I follow these bright yellow signs out on a country highway.  I get excited because I think whoever put these nice signs out must have a really big garage sale.  The signs lead me about 5 miles out of town, and then down a dirt road, and then down a gravel driveway that winds back into the woods.  I'm starting to get a little nervous wondering if I'm falling into some serial killer's trap and I will end up in their freezer. I pass an abandoned house and then I see the garage sale sign marking the supposed house - but then right past the sign I see a LARGE COW SKULL, then several more cow skulls lining this long driveway (I have yet to see the house.) Then a sign that says "Smile, you are on a video camera." Why I did not turn around instantly I do not know - I just let my heart beat out of my chest and wandered deeper into the cow graveyard...



Finally I see a flat bed trailer of what I am assuming they were advertising as their garage sale - with little bitty garden tomotoes with worms crawling through them, some old perfume bottles, and apparantly this guys personal art that he painted. The only thing that people would have bought would probably have been those dard cow heads but those weren't for sale, not the tomatoes that had looked like the ones sitting in the bottom of my fridge for the last month.  Oh yes that was so worth the half tank of gas I wasted, possible heart attack, and a really good story to tell.

I decide to do a garage sale myself a couple weeks ago. I've learned that 95% of people who come to garage sales in Mansfield only do so just to resell it in their garage sale.  Mansfield is like a rotating Good Will store.  How I accumulate so much stuff I do not know.  Over spring break we load a trailer full of  junk from our house to take to the dump.  And what do you know - someone drove buy, stopped and asked if he could pick stuff off our trailer.  He practically picked it clean. And then he asked if we'd sell our house. No joke. 

When I start to clean out our house for the garage sale the dilemna was where to put it. Our garage was too full of everything that isn't supposed to be in a garage according to my husband. I start to load it in bathtub #1, then I fill up a second bathtub...when my husband came home he took one look and was like, "what the heck?" I told him - "It's our garage sale!" (luckily we have a seperate shower.)



Once the bathtubs were full I moved to the dining room table.  You'd think there was nothing left in my house, but I really think we have enough stuff for about 3 garage sales.



The minute you start to move stuff to your front yard you have your people that come before you even open,  and your people that want to buy your stuff that's NOT for sale.  (Last garage sale I sold our kitchen table that I kept my money box on - hubby was not happy). I had so many strange people this time around.  I had people offer to buy my dog, my kid, asked me to fix their cell phone, ask for the empty boxes in my garage, asked if I'd come down on from my original price of a dime.  So after a day of dealing with the crazies in the 105 degree heat, the next day anyone that walked up I told them - this side everything's a quarter, this side everything's a dime. That was enough to send Mansfield garage sellers into a buying frenzy - filling up boxes, literally loading down their vehicles in which they were sitting ON TOP of my stuff.  I got a little nostalgic over some of the baby clothes I had to let go - I joined the Crazies and actually asked if I could hug a dress before I let it go.  I  guess I got caught up in the insanity and by that time the sun had fried my brain.  Its good to let go of stuff - we can't take it with us and decluttering leaves us with a little more calm in the house.  Whom am I kidding - "calm" is not gonna happen in this house for a really long time. And I guess if I really want some some of my stuff back - I just need to go to the garage sale a few houses down...

Matthew 6:21  "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also..."  Things are just things.  Its okay to let them go. Even to the crazy dog lady who might want to use your darling baby clothes as a dress for her beloved pooch, even to the person who will mark it up twice what they paid to resell it.  If you have Jesus, you have everything you need.

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: spaghetti, spaghetti

Mishaps, Mayhem and Ministry of Me&Mine: spaghetti, spaghetti: Today seriously reminds me of a poem I use every year in my classroom.  The poem is called "Spaghetti, Spaghetti" written by the famous Mr. ...

spaghetti, spaghetti

Today seriously reminds me of a poem I use every year in my classroom.  The poem is called "Spaghetti, Spaghetti" written by the famous Mr. Shel Silverstein.  But today this poem has come back to haunt me, mock me, and ruin my carpet.  The beginning of the poem goes like this:

"Spaghetti, spaghetti all over the place,

Up to my elbows, up to my face!

Over the carpet,  and under the chairs

Into the hammock

And wound round the stairs..."

I fixed spaghetti for lunch today after church.  It is no one's favorite, but its cheap, and the quickest meal I can make and get on with my regularly scheduled, highly anticipated Sunday afternoon nap. Its ready and everyone starts to come and make their plate.  Elisabeth is crawling around as usual just looking to see who she can trip.  Sarah makes her plate.  She starts walking into the dining room and does a silly little dance for Elisabeth and I watch in slow motion her big pile of spaghetti slide off her plate and onto the carpet.  Elisabeth thinks she just hit a gold mine and crawls fast to get her hands into that big mess - I grab E and put her in the living room while Sarah gets the "Resolve" carpet cleaner and starts working away like Cinderella on the bright tomato red spot on the carpet. Not even two minutes later Jacob comes walking through the living room with his plate of spaghetti and this time I am watching in slow motion horror as HIS pile of spaghetti drops in a big blob on the carpet.  At this point there is no where to put Elisabeth to keep her from getting into someone's pile of spaghetti ON THE FLOOR!!! Kids are laughing, I am FUMING, Jonathan reminded me of when I dumped my taco salad last week on the floor, I tell him to quit being a smart aleck - and gosh, we hadn't even been out of church an hour.  Isn't that how it goes?  ( Didn't I mention a few posts ago that we just had the carpets in the entire house professionally steamed cleaned last month? ) The kids did their best to clean it up - as clean as getting red sauce out of really old carpet goes...

My kid's new best friend

So I'll have a new story to tell when I teach the spaghetti poem to a new crop of second graders.  (There is alot more to the poem, its really cute if you are a teacher and want to look it up.)  Several years ago I tried to do a craft project with my 1st graders off this poem.   The project was an EPIC FAIL - for many reasons.  I come up with alot of crazy ideas in the middle of when I'm teaching to drive home a point.  Some of them work and make me feel like teacher of the year, but alot of them don't and thats when I start praying that the principal doesn't walk through until we can get our mess cleaned up. This one was the latter of the two.  We are learning this poem, I have been teaching them "Visualizing."  I decided to let them create an illustration to this poem using cooked spaghetti noodles.  Everyone gets a pile of spaghetti, we dip all the noodles in glue, then put it on a big piece of construction paper - draw some characters - and Presto! I thought this would be a really awesomely cool display for the hall.  Let me just tell all you teachers out there that glue dipped spaghetti shrinks and takes the construction paper with it - so you end up with a crinkled, shriveled ball of dried glue/construction paper mess, that you can't even put in a folder let alone hang on the wall.  I was too embarrassed to even send it home.  I'm sure they could say, "Look what our teacher had us waste 3 hours on but we sure had alot of fun!!" 

I know that soon today's spaghetti story will give us all a laugh.  Actually, it gave the kids a laugh 2 seconds after it happened, and I'm starting to smile about it.  The faint stain is still in the carpet in the dining room and in the living room.  My house sports that "lived in" look quite well.  And I guess I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Eating Air"

I thought I would give everyone an update on our "4 day diet" plan. (See the post "Beware of cranky family" if you are not sure what I'm talking about.)

I am trying to feed my kids healthy foods.  I really am.  See, isn't this so much better than the cheese puffs she usually carries around?  Sure, she spits most of it out - but I guarantee at least a few kernels get down her! 

  The week before everyone took off for camp I tried to implement a family-wide "no preservatives, no processed foods, nothing from a box or bag, no bread" diet.  This was just a willy nilly plan I came up with myself.  Oh my.  You thought I would have sentenced my kids to a month long stay to the poorest parts of Etheopia.  (Although that would not be a bad idea.)  I've already posted about the crazy drug-like withdrawels of corndogs and frozen pizza and pop everyone had.  4 of us fell off the wagon and had a few little cheats - Chris stayed strong till the very end.  We weighed on Monday, and then we weighed on Friday.  Everyone lost weight!!! In just 4 days of no processed foods, Chris lost 3 pounds, and Jonathan, Jacob and I lost 2 pounds each. I was so excited! Jonathan was trying to burst my bubble of excitement lest I keep this way of eating going by saying "MOM!! - We only lost weight because we have been practically EATING AIR all week!!!"  Not true.   For their snacks they had their choice of fruit, veggies, pop corn cooked the old fashioned way and peanuts in shells. But they did not want that.  So yes, I guess they did eat air for their midnight snack during their 5 hour session of video game bliss.

Real popcorn.  People in their early 40's do not know how to make real popcorn.  We practically had to look it up on the internet.  How much oil? How much popcorn?  Chris had the first attempt at it.  Jacob came in the kitchen and said, "dad- why aren't you making REAL popcorn?"  (as in, microwave popcorn) He said, "son, this is REAL popcorn!"  Long story short - with melted real butter and white cheddar cheese - oh yummy - how we still lost weight I have no idea...

I attempted to make "real popcorn" for Jacob and his friend Clay.  Jacob kept bragging how great "real popcorn was - if I melted a WHOLE stick of butter and he pretty much emptied 1/2 container of white cheddar cheese topping on it. I had to call Chris at camp to ask him how to make it.  He told me not to burn the house down. They weren't to keen on getting their pic taken - they just wanted to eat!! (Clay told jacob "his mom liked to take pictures of her food all the time to!") Its what this facebook generation is just gonna have to deal with!

My mom comes over for dinner on Sunday and we sit at the table.  My kids do not like to "sit at the table." They would prefer to eat their dinner lounging around on the couch in front of the T.V.  Most days we do that. (My sweet grandpa Ray is seriously rolling over in his grave at this.)  Once when I made everyone sit at the table-Sarah told me, "mom! why can't we eat in the living room like normal families do?!?!" (Grandpa just did a double roll)

This is a nice sit down dinner we had with my sweet grandpa Ray, complete with salad bowls and water glasses and 3 forks - he actually bought me salad bowls because he couldn't believe I just put salad on the dinner plate.  Oh grandpa...if you only knew....

See - times have changed.  Processed food, the family din din in the living room.  During this last dinner with my mom, Jacob asks "Grammie, have you ever had real popcorn?" She replied, "Of course Jacob! I used to grow real popcorn in my back yard when I was a kid."  The conversation then continued with Jonathan explaining about this awful diet I just put them on.  I'm totally cringing because I can only imagine what my mom is thinking. When they are at her house she puts 2 weeks worth of vegetables on their plates to make up for the lack thereof when they are in my care.  She sweetly explains to them "that is the only way of eating I knew when I was growing up."  (Think of the voice of Raymond's mom on Everybody Loves Raymond - that's what I heard.) I'm trying to do better mom.  I really am.  My big kids only like to eat something out of a box.  My littlest one likes to eat THE box. Saturday everyone comes home and a new grocery week begins.  I am going to attempt a modified version of my willy nilly plan. And since there are no sports activities we are running off to we SHOULD be able to sit at the table.  In theory, this shouldn't be that hard, but in reality - IT IS!!! 

My prayer for this week - Psalm 103:5 - "SATISFY us oh Lord with good things, that our youth will be renewed like the eagles..." 

The devil and dryer sheets

Do you ever wake up like her and just KNOW you are gonna have a bad day? Since you can already tell you are going to have an extremely bad hair day, you just might as well be mad at the world too! 

Now, I wouldn't normally exploit the grumpiness of my children for the sake of entertainment- (okay, I probably would) but this picture fits in so perfectly with my thoughts for this blog!! Besides, considering how many times Elisabeth gets me up through the night, chews up my furniture,eats my necklaces- she owes me this.  It won't be long before I probably start meeting her at the crib looking the same exact way!! (Oh how I love my little red headed fireball.)

I teach the junior high girls Sunday school class at our church.  I love those girls.  They are so honest. We were discussing 1 John 1:5-10 yesterday morning. Our talk centered around how if we are going to live in the light as Jesus does we can't have sin in our life.  I asked them if they thought they could go 24 hours without sinning.  This was their responses - "You would have to be UNCONSCIOUS!!!"  "Yea, you would definitely have to sleep all day to not sin"  "You would probably just have to read your Bible ALL DAY LONG and not think about any person."   How often do we wake up planning out our sin? Hopefully not very often, but because we have a sinful nature we easily find ourselves neck deep in  harsh words, bad attitudes, and a grumpy demeanor- usually all before 8:00a.m! Especially when you are trying to get 4 kids out the door, and they are already fighting over who gets to sit in the front seat of the van.  Seriously!?! Teenagers fighting over the front seat - I thought they would have outgrown this like 5 years ago -but no.  If I could only invent a family vehicle with 5 front seats, I would be a millionaire and probably cause alot of  families to be sin-free at least in the morning.

I think Elisabeth was already planning out her sin before I could get her out of the crib. 

 This dryer sheet story actually happened about a half hour after I took this picture...My sweet 10 month old is starting to let her little sinful nature show.  I KNOW that she knows she is not allowed to eat dryer sheets.  She found one on the bedroom floor by where I fold laundry and grabbed it, crawled off to a corner with her back turned to me and started ripping it apart with her teeth.  I tell her no, and when I tried to grab it out of her little hands she laid her body down on top of it!!! Can you just imagine the battles that lie ahead of me with this child.  Lord have mercy.  She was not "livin' in the light" that morning!  Jesus knows that it is impossible to keep our life completely free from sin. He gave us his forgiveness so we can maintain that fellowship with him he so desperately desires.  1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 

Elisabeth searches the house for those dag gum dryer sheets. She will lay belly flat on the floor and stick her hand as far back as she can to get what she wants.  Don't search out sin today.  Keep yourself from tempting situations.  I think we are going to have to resort back to laundry without dryer sheets.Who cares if my laundry has static - it will be funny if Chris shows up to work with a black dress sock stuck to the back of his t-shirt.  I just need to remove that temptation completely away from Elisabeth before she really does manage to swallow to much and hurt her little rock filled tummy.(One of the other thing she likes to eat.) I think the devil puts those dryer sheets on the floor - not to cause Elisabeth to sin but to STRESS ME OUT and cause ME to sin! :) Is there a temptation that you need to remove from your life?  Living in the light of Jesus is so much better than living in the darkness of this world. "Happy is the man who doesn't give in and do wrong when he is tempted, for afterwards he will get as his reward the crown of life that God has promised those who love him." James 1:12

Now, there is no way I can  remove this temptation completely from her in the house. We'd all be in trouble!

Have a great day everyone! Don't be a crankypants no matter how bad your hair looks today!  "May you go out with JOY and be led forth with PEACE" as your new week begins!  ~Amy ~(Isaiah 55:12)



"Dog Bones and Dorms"

So I sent Chris off to camp bright and early at 7:00 a.m. this morning. All of his sets of clothes in the suitcase are in big ziplock bags marked with the day he is supposed to wear it. HaHa! Just kidding! (Although that is a great tip I picked up from fellow children's camp parents.) I could never be that organized. That is the week my boys can wear the same outfit for 3 days if they want and I don't have to pretend I don't notice - while secretly inside clapping for joy that I have way less laundry when they pull these stunts.

I'm alone with the kids right now - Sarah and Jonathan take off for camp on Tuesday, once the Jr. High get back, and me and Jacob will be doing our best to manage Elisabeth by ourselves for the next 8 days. (This child literally takes all 5 of us to raise!) First thing this morning Elisabeth decided she liked Matty's (our dog) snack much better than she liked her snack -which was a cracker. She gives Matty her cracker. Matty willingly takes its off to a corner and munches away happily. Then she spots Matty's nasty, slobbery, chewed up bone - picks it up and just as she gets ready to put it in her mouth, I clap real loud and say "NO!" She just took off crawling faster with her little chubby fist clenched tightly around that bone. She would NOT give it up! I finally catch her and I take the bone, she throws a fit, and I'm ready to send her to camp with her dad. After that little episode Sarah asked me to go dorm shopping with her. I am just so thrilled that I get to spend the day with my "original" baby girl. We leave the boys at home in front of their XBOX (all is well there). It was so much fun looking at all the cool dorm stuff with her. She patiently listened to all my college stories that she has probably already heard 50 times. I even went into detail about "when I went shopping for my dorm stuff at Walmart...." and THEN when we got home I pulled out the college photo album and had a picture my old dorm room in Leslie Hall!!! The memories!!!  (Two things, Sarah's stuff did not even remotely -  not even from the same planet - come close to how I decorated.  And for the record, I do not decorate like this anymore! I would be living all alone in my blue and mauve country knick knack house if I even THOUGHT about it!)

Sarah recently got her dorm assignment for SBU and she will soon be a resident of Beasley Hall.  What cracks me up is that during one of her visits she heard that Beasley was "the fun girls dorm where everyone acts crazy."   That is the exact reputation it had 20 years ago!!! Once Chris heard that was going to be her dorm he would walk around the house talking in his best sounding cool 80's voice saying, "Sarah's gonna be a Beasley Babe....."  I'm like, "honey, if you are going to walk around talking like that, then grow your mullet back out."

This is my husband back in the day trying to impress those "Beasley Babes."

Now I lived in Leslie Hall but I still managed to have about as much fun in a dorm as your R.A. will allow.  My R.A. was also one of my best friends.  Tonight tucked away in my photo album I found write up slips from her given to me for being to loud!! And another one for pounding on the floor!! (What was I thinking? I totally grouch at my kids now for acting that way!)

Kaari was always so sweet when handing me these even though I can pretty much guarantee I drove her crazy and she still would probably love to come to my house and be obnoxiously loud while I'm trying to sleep and pound on my floor for no reason at all.

Kaari figured if she couldn't settle me down, she might as well join me!

I was telling the kids tonight that my SBU days were four of the best years of my life.  Which then they looked at me and said, "But what about when you had us?!?!?!"  (oops! some thoughts are better left unsaid.  - joking again kids!)  Rut really, that is when THEIR story started!!! I met their oh-so-cool-lookin-mullet-wearing-dad.  We got married.  We had Sarah - in BOLIVAR! She spent her first year crawling around a tiny apartment, in BOLIVAR! And now she is returning to where it all started.  Wow. I am so thankful SBU was in the Lord's plan for me -  the life long friendships - which led to my husband - which led to my kids - "For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)
I'm so glad my original baby girl is willing to follow God's plan for her life.  And of course I'm tickled pink that God's plan includes SBU for her right now.  And if she thinks that just shopping for dorm stuff brings out all these stories and pictures - just wait till' the day when we move her in!!  I can't wait to get back on campus!! I guarantee we will embarrass her.