Family Alive

On a lovely long weekend trip to South Carolina, our annual Fall Break to the Fieldstone Farm Inn. Highlights so far… Brian’s 2nd and 3rd place finishes in Greenville on Saturday & Sunday, the horses outside our “poolside cottage”, the kids sleeping in the loft, visiting our favorite gas-station-converted-to-pumpkin-patch on the drive up.

Lovely trip so far! I’m fighting laryngitis and not feeling great, Brian’s out for a 100-mile ride in the gorgeous mountains, and the kiddos are having fun just playing. Ahhh… just what we’ve all needed! Wish you were here!

I had a great morning reading in my all-time favorite devotional, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. (sidenote: I like the way my book reads because it’s an updated edition, but the truth is still the same.)  Beautiful, powerful words from 2 Corinthians 5:21…

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that we might be the righteousness of God.

Love that.  What a glorious thought!  It was a great way to start my day.

Then Brian and I got in an argument over something stupid.  I snapped, he snapped… you know how it goes.  And before I knew it, I went from being clothed in the righteousness of God to my same old sinful self.  And I’ve been fighting a bad mood all morning thinking of how quickly the conversion from Spirit-filled to self-filled happens.  It’s heart-breaking.

Brian and I are supposed to go out to dinner this evening, and Grandma Beverly is keeping the kids. And instead of looking forward to it, I’m finding excuses that we’ve got too much to do, that we won’t be in the mood to appreciate it.

And the enemy is loving it.  He’s watching and loving the fact that he snuck into my Spirit-filled morning and found a weakness.  And now he’s doing everything he can to use the splinter of the morning’s argument to pull us apart.  There’s nothing he’d like more than to see the God’s sacred union of marriage be weakened.  The little splinters add up, and before you know it, the enemy is rejoicing at the rift he’s caused.

So gosh darn it, we’re going out tonight, and we’re gonna like it!  We’re going to take our gift card, have an awesome dinner, enjoy being together, and pull ourselves closer together.  We’ll forgive and  heal, and claim the victory for the One who called us to these verses 7 years ago:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14)

Super cute video of my sweet little guy singing/reading (though actually memorized) a song from school.  Turn the volume up for the beginning, as he’s super quiet.

Brian gently reminded me tonight that we have a blog 🙂 Life has just been chugging along, and I keep thinking “tomorrow…” about so many things I’ve got to do.

But all is well! Life is great, kids are happy, and I am just loving the season we’re in.

A few pics (and I have no idea what order they’ll post in from my iPhone)… Josiah crashed his bike at the bottom of a big hill, and took the worst of it on his face. Tough guy!

We had a brief visit from my cousin, Kimberley, her husband, Wes, and their sweet girls. The kids were thrilled to play together. Wish we weren’t so far apart!

Brian walked both kids to school after our company left. Josiah was in the backpack, and they looked so sweet together, in spite of the bright sun. I love my family!

He’s patiently waited nearly a whole month since Analise started school.  He’d ask hopefully each morning as Analise got ready to head off, “Am I going to school today?”  This long weekend has been even longer with the anticipation of today.  This morning, he and Analise were awake at 6:10, and Analise was as excited for his first day as he was.  She insisted on helping him pack his backpack, and they both wanted to help me pack lunchboxes.

Josiah will be in Miss Debbie’s class, and Analise was in this class 2 years ago.  She is full of tidbits of information about things he’ll be doing this year.  It’s so cute to see her being such a sweet big sister!

Brian walked to school with Josiah in the backpack.  The kids have always loved this adventure with Daddy.  Josiah’s made it quite a workout for Brian, so the end of my kids’ backpack trips might be on the horizon… *sigh*  That will be a sentimental day for this mom!

This year he’s going Tuesday through Friday, from 9:30-1:30.  I’m going to miss my little buddy!  I’m already looking forward to our Mondays together.  I know the 4 hours with him in school will go quickly and my “to-do” list is endless.   We’ll see how quickly I figure out how to manage my time!

Our message at Clearwater this morning was from Titus 2:9-10…

Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith,so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

It was a great message, but for much of it, I felt like it wasn’t relevant to me.  I’m not employed*. I’m lucky enough to stay at home with my kids.  I don’t have an employer. So I listened, but didn’t really notice much application.

Until I thought about my “job”. I do have a job… to love, encourage, inspire and grow my children.  I get to do it full-time and not juggle another job. And when I thought about my job, I realized… God has called me to this position, this “full-time job”. He is my employer.  And WHAM… the whole message was suddenly very much directed at me.

I’m not going to do it justice in my summary, I’m sure.  But Pastor Chris spoke of attitudes at work, gossip, “stealing” including time, obedience but especially obedience with the right attitude. And when I thought of my “job” as a full-time mom and these things, I realized that often I haven’t lived out these verses in serving God as my master (employer). I haven’t always had a good attitude, I’ve wasted my time in countless ways, I’ve grumbled about many of the “hours” I work.

What a calling… what a privilege!  God’s allowing me to serve him full-time in the “job” a mother’s heart is created to do. I have amazing children who I get to help “grow in stature and favor with God and with man” (Luke 2:52).  There are a million things vying for my attention, but I need to keep my Employer and the job He’s called me to at the forefront of my mind.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  -Colossians 3:23

*Funny thing is, I am actually employed with another job, one that I worked at Friday and Saturday! I’m working as an admin for a company that staffs health assessments for the military.  I was gone Thursday night to Saturday afternoon for 2 events.  Yes, I should have been applying the message better to this job and my mom-job 🙂

I sent my lovely mom home yesterday, after a week’s visit.  We always have some fun craft projects on our agenda, and this year was no exception.

With Analise’s first day of school on Wednesday, Mom had seen this link for a cute teacher gift.  We stocked up on supplies, and crafted several of them, including Analise to help design her teacher’s (not shown).

Then we used a cute “Princess” sticker (from UpperCase Living) on top of a scrapbook covered canvas.  Analise was excited to help out on this too…

Our last, and most in-depth project, were canvases with Family Rules.  These deserve their own post, so click on over…

I saw this project last fall, and knew I wanted to create one for our home.   I also knew I’d never get to it myself… perfect for doing with Mom!  We picked out our scrapbook papers, clicked through all the other canvases people had posted in the comments on the link above to pick our favorite rules, came up with 2 11×14 inch Family Rules canvases for me and 1 set with Rules to Live By for my mom to use at school.  Here are the final projects…

A few notes…

• The original from the link is very large, and I wish I could have done mine that big.  But it’s a good thing I couldn’t figure out how to do the lettering wider than 12×12 paper, because I really didn’t have a good place to display anything larger than the 11×14 canvases I made!
• We tried to choose not-quite-matching papers, but they couldn’t be too dark or have patterns that were too strong. And heavier paper works better with ModgePodge, but its not imperative.  We did my canvases with all scrapbook papers we had on hand.
• We cut 12×12 paper down to 8.5×11, typed our rules into a (landscape format) Word document, using fabulous fonts from this link (be careful… very easy to install and addicting once you start!).  We cut each rule into a strip, laid them out in order, and used Modge Podge to put them on the canvas.
• A couple Modge Podge tips we learned (after Mom’s first canvas bubbled/wrinkled badly) – Heavier papers are better, but the absolute key is to paint a layer on both the paper and the canvas.  This way they will bond together, with no bubbles.  Smooth with a credit card, for 30 seconds or so.  Let the Modge Podge dry, then seal the edges with another couple coats.
• I found a fun tip for “antiquing” the edges.  We had painted the sides and 1″ border of the canvases.  After we had Modge Podged as many times as we wanted and it was dry, I used sandpaper to blend the paper into the painted canvas.  It turned out well, looking like the edges were torn, but with black or grey paint, it would have looked much better.
• I embellished with a couple flowers, just to give them some dimension.
• Again, if you’re going to do this, click through the examples of the original project.  Such great ideas, and endless rules!
• My rules list:

Have fun, be kind, ask first, no fussing, no whining.

Treat others better than yourself.

Do your best with a joyful heart.

Husband – hug your wife daily. Wife – Always be on his side.

Sing silly, dance crazy, hug often, snuggle much, say “I love you”

Always tell the truth.

Look for opportunities to serve.

Love the Lord with all your heart.

There is no such thing as mine in this home. It’s all God.

Forgiveness is mandatory.

Obey your parents.

Use manners… “Yes, please”… “No, thank you”

Encourage your siblings. Share in their joy.

Too much TV is bad… too much reading is good.

Keep your promises.

Say your prayers.  Thank God for this family.

I’m so pleased with how these turned out!  If you send me your family rules, maybe I’d even make one for you 🙂

I got a huge basket of peaches for just $14 while we were driving through South Carolina last weekend.  They had been fresh-picked Sunday morning! Love, love, love fresh peaches, but of course, these have all ripened within a day or two, so I’ve had to get busy using them! Here’s what I’ve been doing:

• Freezing them, with great directions here.  I hope to freeze some in 1 cup bags for muffins,
• A peach pie, from Betty Crocker (be warned, sound on this page)
• The most delicious, moist peach muffins from this recipe (And the comments say that any muffin recipe can be made into waffles!  How awesome is that?  Believe me… I’ve got a lot of great muffin recipes that would be fun to try as waffles, especially these peach ones!)
• Homemade Peach Ice Cream (to be made today, I hope)
• Peach Frozen Yogurt (awesome recipe I fell in love with last year)
• Maybe this Breakfast Peach Couscous recipe…

A few other ideas from my Google Bookmarks file…

• Peach & Maple Sour Cream Pie
• Peach Oatmeal Muffins
• These Single Serve Pies look so awesome, and I’d love to try them with peaches.

She was so excited! Not an ounce of fear that I noticed. She had met Mrs. Baker on Monday, and she was thrilled to find some of her favorite friends would be with her.  And she has her own desk, instead of sharing a table. Such exciting milestones!

And to take a trip down memory lane… last year’s kindergarten picture: