The Gift

Last weekend a neighbor had a yard sale. Eli (10) came home so excited. He had bought me a gift at the yard sale.

'Mom, if I give you your birthday gift, will you make me something?"

My birthday is at the end of next month.

"If you give me the gift, you want me to make you something with it?"

"Yea, it is so cool."

So I open the said birthday gift that the boy has spent a whole $5.00 for. This is a big deal since he and the other two younger sisters brought home lots of junk, I mean stuff that the kind neighbors gave them for free. This was the gift.


A Juicer. A Jack La Lanne Power Juicer.

So I read all the instructions and find that it will take 5 apples to make one glass of juice. But I can use the pulp for cooking as long as I use it in three hours. Not! Hubby thinks this is a great thing til I point out to him how much a gallon of juice is at Wal-Mart and that our budget does not allow us to eat organically or juice our own stuff. Unless they want to use the carrots and cukes from our own garden. They say 'yuck' and we decide that maybe this is not for our family.

So son says what do we do with this juicer. And we (and I mean me) put it on amazon.com to sell. With in hours it sold for $70! He has decided that he is going to buy a ipod Shuffle and if there is anything left something for me for my birthday. Wait a minute, wasn't it my birthday gift? I am trying to decided if I should be offended.

Day 3

Day 3 on my commitment to meet with the Lord in the wee dark hour of the morning and we had success. It is all the Lord's doing and not my own. The Empress awoke again this morning before 5:00, it think it was like 4:52. Hubby had already left to meet with his men's accountability group and I staggered out of bed to greet the little darlin'. She went back to sleep after about 10 minutes. I went back to my room because my alarm had gone off and was playing music, turned it off and contimplated crawling back in. But my conscience, I mean the Spirit, spoke to my heart and said, 'Come on...I woke you up...now let's go meet for coffee'. So we did.

How awesome it is and how much I take it for granted that the Lord pursues me. He has other things to attend to, others that are more eager to meet with Him, others that are more faithful, others that are more holy, others that are less sinful. And yet He pursues me. For three mornings in a row the God of the universe has pursued me and woke me to spend time with me. No words of prophecy has He given. No words of revelation. Just a sweet time of fellowship. Me and Him. Him and me. Why am I not more in awe? Why do I not pursue Him automatically in the wee hours? Why do I long to go back to bed? I frusterate myself. Thank you Jesus for your patience and unfailing love and pursuit.

Breakfast, Neighbors and Back to School

Today went a bit better. The alarm went off at 5:20 and I was out of bed at 5:45. This is progress. I remembered that the first 10 minutes is the worst and stumbled to the kitchen for my favorite red Fiesta Ware mug and made a cup of International Coffee's French Vanilla coffee. I finished 'Shopping for Time' and started AW Tozer's
The Pursuit of God. I am also reading through Breakfast with Jesus by Greg Laurie - it's a great devotional. A morning with the Lord is wonderful.

Our ice cream party the other night went great. It started out with everyone aprehensive (including our family) and not quite sure of the whole thing but by the end of the evening we had laughter and friendships started. I am so glad we did it. We had 6 out of eight families come and they all expressed appriciation and a need to know our neighbors better. We will have to do something else like this again sometime.

As we continue to work towards 'back to school schedule' yesterday was fill the cupboards day. I think I may have a tendency to be a shopaholic because I can't tell you how wonderful it made me feel to fill our cupboards and pantry with canned and frozen goods. During the summer we eat primarily fresh veggies and fruit and grill a lot on the grill so the cupborads were bare of canned and frozen goods. I am ready to break out the stock pot and crock pot for fall. I can almost smell homemade bread baking for supper...mmmmmm...

Was it really 5 am?

Ok, so day one and I already failed. Baby woke at 4:50, I am sure that the Lord stirred her so I would get my hiney out of bed. I don't know about you but 5:00 seems early enough, but when I look at the clock and there is still a 4 at the begining...well, that is just rediculous! So hubby when to check on the Empress and I went back to sleep til 6:30. The Empress woke again at 7:30 so I still had a good hour of quietness, but to think it could have been 2 1/2 hours!! I will persevere to the prize!


I have not done this for awhile and am late this week, but here goes...

Monday: Chicken Fajitas (Costco Rotisere) and watermelon
Tuesday: Salmon and green salad
Wednesday: Church dinner
Thursday: Grilled Thia Chicken and veggies
Friday: Hamburgers on the barbie with melon

Have a tasty week!

So...what have we been up to?

I am reading a book recommended by Kim titled Shopping for Time by Carolyn Mahaney and her girls. I had seen this book earlier and decided against it because of the subtitle 'How to do it all and not be overwhelmed'. I have no desire to do it all so I passed it by. But Kim's review of the first chapter made me reconsider and I am so glad. It is a great book. Simple and to the point, which I love. I will be joining the 5:00 Club this week. I have been a member in the past and have seen the benefits first hand. After bring baby #5 home...well, let's just say my membership has lapsed and I need to rejoin. Thank goodness the rejoining fees are free. ;o)

We are also getting ready for school to start. Really, we could have started last week. All supplies and books are bought and I am just about done with the scheduling for the day. I think the kids are getting excited even though the older two would never admit it. They keep asking questions like 'What is this going to be like' or 'What is this book about'. Great questions to start the year. I am hoping the anticipation will just build. The children in our neighborhood go back on Wed so we will officially start then.

We are also having a ice cream party for our neighborhood tonight. We have been trying to come up with a way to connect with our neighbors. We will see if this works. Who doesn't like ice cream?

Hubby is finishing up the summer stuff with the youth group and rolling right into the next school year. He is changing the direction and vision for the youth group. He is envisioning a ministry to come along parents and enrich what they are already )or should be) doing at home. This is instead of being the main spiritual trainer for the kids. This is a major change for our church. The past attitude was 'Don't try this at home...leave it to the professionals.' I think he has his work cut out for him, but this is a much more biblical form of ministry.

So, that is what is going on here in a nutshell. What's up with you?

Simply Compicated

I picked up a new magazine at the grocery store the other day. It is called
Homegrown Hospitality
and it is very cute and full of clever homemaking ideas for family and friends.

The editor of the magazine calls her life 'Simply Complicated'. I love that. It so describes how I live.

For example...
I am a mom - simple
I have 5 kids - complicated

I homeschool - simple
again, 4 kids of different ages, learning styles and abilities - complicated

I go to church - simple
My husband is on staff - complicated

I have friends - simple
We are not all like minded - complicated

The list goes on and on... but what I realize is that what makes my life complicated is relationships. I get so caught up in wanting to check things off my to-do list. To be able to accomplish what I need to in a timely manner. But the relationships in my life interrupt that. Some days barely anything gets checked off and it is all because of people interruptions.

And I think that is exactly how God has planned it. God allows the people in my life to interrupt me to keep me on His track, not mine. The relationships remind me to think of and serve others first. Sometimes only because they demand to be dealt with immediately. If they did not demand my attention I would and could easily put them off til a more convenient for me time. So I am thankful for people interruptions in my life for without them I would be more selfish with my time and self centered in my actions than I already am. Oh, goodness...that would be ugly.

Gotta go...I am being interrupted. ;o)

Recent Family Pics

We had an awesome opportunity this summer to help a gal get started with her photography business. She offered us a great deal to work on her portfollio. But I think we were blessed by the photos more than she was.

Ella
Evie
Eden
Eli
Emma
Ron & I

Getting ready for fall

It has been awhile since I have posted. I have been touring around the blog-kingdom regularly when I have a minute here or there but not enough time to actually have a complete thought to post.

As I said before, summer life is nuts around here, like I am sure it is for most of you. One thing the Lord has taught me is Everyone is busy. We are all busy doing something. Raising kids, working, being a wife, homeschooling, working at school, working at church, and so on.

I have been working on getting ready for the next school year which I am very excited about. I was hoping to post last week on the Back to Homeschool Week but lo, I did not. So you will have to go there and read all about it.

I am sure this is shocking to all, but I am not excited every year to teach my children. Some times I start out the year with prayers like 'Lord, are you sure You still want me doing this?' So far His answer is still 'Yes', so I obey. Eventually my heart catches up with my obedience and all is well. This is how I am on most things. I wish my heart didn't have to catch up. I wish I just automatically felt the desire to do His will. But more often than not my heart must catch up. Apparently my fleshliness is strong willed. Oops, got side tracked there...anyway, we are making some changes in our schedule and lightening up our outside commitments. This summer I have learned that Ella(1) does much better if she is not being toted here and fro constantly. She needs consistency and to be home, alot. So that is what we will do. This really frees us up to be spontaneous and we will have extra freedom which I will like.

God has shown me that (not like I didn't notice) that last winter and spring were a disaster. I need to do somethings differently. Before you turn me into the local school district, they did learn, they were tested and did fine. But life was too stressful and it was my doing. I tried to do too much outside of the home both physically and with my commitments to others, so I am paring down. It feels good. I am excited to see what the year has for us.