Too Funny

This is one of the funniest things I've seen from a mom's point of view in quite a while. I hope you check it out.

Spring Cleaning

I am attempting to do some Spring cleaning this year. We started yesterday and I am going to do toy rotation and see how it goes. I posted earlier about my struggle to get my children to pick up. Well, I figured out that half the problem was that they have too many toys for the space that we have to keep them in. Don't get me wrong, they do not have a lot of toys. It is just that in our main room it tends to get very messy very fast if they are playing with more than a couple toys at once. I boxed up about half of them yesterday so that it would be easier for my two year old to put things in their correct places and perhaps not be so daunting to them when I ask them to clean up their mess. I think this is going to help and then in a month I will switch out the toys in the box for the toys that are out and hopefully that will keep them interested as well as teach them a bit of responsibility! I also cleaned out our kitchen cupboards yesterday. I am trying to get organized and stay encouraged with this and have been checking out this blog. I haven't printed out all the sheets but she is going about it at a very doable pace and has put a lot of work into it.

Meditation

Since I started going to the gym it has been the perfect place for me to meditate on scripture and pray without being interrupted. This does not happen very often if the kids are awake so I really enjoy it. Lately though I have felt a major shift in what is being called of me. My heart is being drawn unto my husband in a manner I had not known. My heart is being drawn unto my children to be more than I ever thought I could be to them. My heart is being drawn unto my friends to offer more of myself and really come into their lives in a more challwenging deeper way. My heart is being drawn unto those who are cast aside to come alongside them and let them know they are worth investing interest in. My heart is being drawn to encourage and build up and challenge where needed. When I begin to think of it all it can seem like too big a task. Yet it is not me. It is Christ. It is not my own desire but the calling of the Holy Spirit and with His power, with His love it is possible. In a way I felt like Moses at first. He asked Moses to speak and Moses said I cannot, what if I fail? God said you will not fail for it will be me but Moses again insisted he was not capable until finally God sent Aaron to speak instead. My first reaction was to respond, me? Shy, anxious, stumbling me? Yes, me but not my weaknesses - I shall do it in His strength.

Today at the gym I kept having these pictures of hosting a Bible study while kids played and praying together and of my door being opened and people coming in for fellowship, for encouragement, for Christ. Oh what joy it gave me and oh how I pray it comes to be someday! Oh, how far He has brought me, how much He has stretched me, how far I have to go!

Kitties and Princesses.

I was speaking with my son today about when he will be a parent because he loves to act like he is the parent to his sister. During this conversation I did not realize my two year old daughter was listening. After our talk was finished she went and informed her brother that "boys grow up to be parents and girls grow up to be princesses". Shortly after this I told her and her brother to pick up and she was a kitty and kitties cannot pick up.

Mastitis, MOPS, and Rebellion

I am again dealing with the horrible symptoms of a plugged duct and the onset of mastitis. Thankfully I have been able to keep it at bay thus far and hopefully will not have a need for antibiotics. I went to MOPS yesterday while sick if only to get a break from my two older children. It was our tea and testimony. The stories shared were truly inspirational and I am very glad that I went. Unfortunately, upon arriving home, my children got set in front of the TV for most of the day and I laid in bed for about six hours before being able to stand up without feeling like I was going to fall immediately to the floor! That brings me to the rebellion part of this post. Perhaps it is just because I am not feeling well, have a headache, and would like to just curl up under the covers once again but I am really starting to wonder why my children have such a hard time picking up after themselves. They can destroy the main room in a matter of minutes but it takes them the better part of the day to actually pick it up, if they pick it up at all. I know that most of it is my fault, now I just need to figure out how to undo the damage. I'm starting to realize that teaching children responsibility takes a whole lot of effort. I'm also realizing it isn't something I'm up to doing while ill so there are toy strung about everywhere at the moment.

A Smashing Success

Well, today was the day of my son'd fifth birthday party. I was very stressed out about this gathering of 7 children five and under. Would they have fun? Would they play together? Would they even want to come in the door? Yes, they did have fun. I had enough games planned to take another two hours just in case, but that was unnecessary. In the end it only took a game of musical chairs, pin the tag on Clifford, and Hot potato to take us to cake time followed by presents and the pinata. All the mothers were right on time and every child left with a smile and a red balloon. Whew!

Fireproof

I was watching TBN last night (a rarity) because I was aware that Kirk Cameron would be hosting Praise the Lord. I was pleasantly surprised when he started to run a clip from a new movie he is in. It is from the same production company that did Facing the Giants. It is about a couple who is wanting a divorce but God changes the heart of the husband. You can see the trailer and find out more at http://www.fireproofthemovie.com . I am very excited about this!

Not what I expected...

After a week of trying to connect with the woman from MOPS that I mentioned earlier, she showed up at our door today. I invited her in and started to make conversation. Not much time had passed when it came up that she had a disability. A disability? Really? I honestly had not noticed. I inquired as to what it was while trying not to sound overly nosey. She told me she had Cerebral palsy. I was rather shocked. Knowing it now, I see the limp and see a few things but it had completely went unnoticed on my part until that moment. Perhaps I should've seen the signs that she had a learning disability and had trouble understanding and processing things but to me she was just a woman whom I felt God was putting it on my heart to befriend. I am ashamed to say that I was a bit upset that she did not call before stopping by and she did not appear to have much consideration for my time the days we had tried but failed to get together in this past week. Conviction is upon my heart that I might not always know the entire story and I'm obviously not the only person that matters. I am going to try very hard to make myself "available" even when not conveniently so to her and to other people as well. Maybe God isn't calling me to have an indepth Bible study with her but rather just to talk to her, invite her into our lives, be her friend, and all the while sharing Christ with her.

Marriage

There has been something weighing on my heart lately. I know I probably should not be, but I am rather shocked at how people think that marriage is something you venture into for a season and when it is no longer comfortable or beneficial they throw it away. Upon finding out someone that had been married for 13 years and had 3 children decided they no longer wanted to be married to one another - I became very grieved and it has been something I have thought about often ever since.

I, sadly, have come to expect this type of thing from the Hollywood circle and even the secular one, but it is so hard for me to see it in the Christian community. While flipping the channels with my husband last night we landed on "The Moment of Truth" game show. The only question we had it on long enough to see was "Do you think you will be married to your husband for the rest of your life?". We did not see the response, but I couldn't help but wonder why they would even ask a question like that! If your answer is not yes then you have no business being married in the first place. I do understand there are circumstances in which staying married is not an option, in cases of abuse, adultery and if it is an unbeliever and believer and the unbelieving spouse no longer wants to be married, but in every other situation it should be understood that it will be worked through and divorce should never even come up.

Every time I see my husband I think of him in light of the fact that this is the man I love, this is the man I married, this is the man God has given to me and I will be with him for the rest of my life. Knowing this gives me such joy. No, things are not always perfect. However, if you are seeking God, if you are focused on Him as a Christian obviously should be, how can you just throw away a marriage because of some disagreement or you "fell out of love" or whatever the reason may be? Being married as a Christian means that you think of the other person, you find joy in their joy, you want to glorify God with this very sacred union.

Making a Switch

Since my youngest daughter was born four months ago my older children have watched more television than I would like to admit. Their attitudes in the last few weeks has been atrocious so I decided to make a bit of a switch. For the last three days they have watched no TV (except for Super WHY in the morning) and instead of watching a show in the middle of the day I have put in a audio cassette tape of Adventures in Odessey. I love how they have to listen and use their minds to imagine what is going on. Their attitudes have improved significantly, they are playing together better, and I don't have to worry about them seeing an advertisement or a preview for something I'd rather they didn't. I think we might have to broaden our library of cassettes or cd's of this nature!