28th

HAPPY 28th BIRTHDAY to an amazing husband, father, son, brother and friend!

The Thief Among Us

We went to church this morning. It was enjoyable. The girls got to go to their classes and we got to worship and learn in ours. After the service let out, we began the weekly routine of picking up the children from their classes. We started with Ellie and all was going well until I discovered that she had tried to take home a toy that she just couldn't part with. Of course, I sent her back into her class to return the thieved item.

The moment it left her fingers and she realized she would not be able to take this treasured possession home, she burst into a sea of screams and tears. It took sometime for Allen to convince our devastated child that she could indeed go on living, and that it wasn't her toy for the taking.

So what was this amazing toy of all toys you may wonder?

A single strip of plastic bacon.

That is right, our child is so longing to be a meat eater again that she felt she had to steal colored plastic in the shape of bacon, to at the very least pretend she was eating a pig. She was quickly returned to reality with eggplant and salad for dinner :-)

Crazy

Today it was solidified. I am a Mom. I just left a message on another mom's phone explaining that we had lost our marbles.

Yes, we are down 4 marbles!

I really just wanted to let her know that I just cleaned up my house and can't seem to find all the marbles from the marble machine. They are small marbles, and her children and mine were playing with them yesterday. As a MOM, I had visions of one of her children accidentally bringing a marble home, and the youngest (doing as my 2 year old does), sticking it in his mouth, and suddenly they are going to the ER, because I can't find my marbles!

Chalk that up to yet another thing I never thought I would hear myself say.

Living For Thee, O LORD

I must die to live, Not just live to die

I am here to serve, not be serve
To love, not be loved
To bend to Thee, not simply bend a knee

It's All About ___?

As a Mommy I have learned a great many things. Some of these lessons have surprised me. Today, as I spent yet another nap-time fighting my children's sin nature in order to get them to get the rest I knew they needed, I realized that I am my children.

My children are a reflection of me, as they learn so much of their behaviors from me, but today I learned that I am them. Let me explain.

I am as testingly stubborn as a 2 year old.
I am as defiantly manipulative as a 4 year old.
And yes, I am as demanding as a 3 month old.

I get my mind set on something, right or wrong and I don't want to change for any amount of rational reasons. I don't care that Allen is being wise and I am foolish, I want to be right, so I will push to the limits of his or my own breaking point, in foolish stubbornness, just because I don't want to admit that perhaps I was wrong.

I am cunning and conniving, as I plot and plan how to get my way. If I___, then perhaps I can___. Sometimes I am conscious of it, but I am ashamed to say that sometimes it comes so naturally that I don't even notice it. For instance, wanting to have my children go to bed early so that I can have some me time. (Are you catching on to the pattern yet?)

And how often I have thought, "I want to eat NOW, not at lunchtime...I want to sleep NOW not at 11pm or midnight when all my children are finally fast asleep...I want to go to the restroom 1st not 3rd or 4th..." or the infamous, "I want a shower NOW, not when it is convenient for everyone else!".

I am just like my children in sooo many ways.

I am SELFISH!


The biggest difference (besides age and assumed amounts of wisdom that come with that age), is Christ. With Christ I choose to be humble and admit my own wrong doing. With Christ I choose to not manipulate my way through the day, but instead make my choices based on what is best for everyone in the grand scheme of things. With Christ I choose to be patient and serve others above myself, even if it means holding my bladder a little longer than I would like, or waiting until the end of the day to shower off the baby spit up. With Christ I choose to love others more than myself.

I pray that through my example and daily direction, that someday my girls will make that choice too! That they will no longer throw fits. No longer get up continuously when it is bedtime. No longer choose sin over obedience.

FATHER,
May I demonstrate obedience to Christ to my girls in such a way that they in turn would obey. May I demonstrate humility in Christ in such a way that they in turn would be humble. May I demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; in such a way that they, in turn, would reflect the fruit of the Spirit. May I be like Christ, so that my girls would choose to be like Him too.

Thank You, FATHER, for loving me, even when I don't choose to be like you. Thank you for always welcoming me back as your prodigal child. Thank you for being the ultimate example to me, of what I ought to be to my children. Thank you, for being my FATHER, and choosing me to be your child.

Cuddly 3 month old

Gracie has become VERY attached to her blanket from Great-Grandma Sewell. So much so that she really doesn't seem to like sleep without it. The other day Allen went to put her down and she screamed, until she felt the blanket brush against her face, and then all of a sudden she was calm, cool and collected.
I tried to catch her snuggling her blanket today:

1st paintings

Thank you so much to everyone who emailed, commented, face-booked or called to help us out with ideas for our wet-weather-woes. Awesome ideas poured in, and now I have a healthy stalk of back-up ideas for the rather lengthy winter to come.

I mentioned in that post that we painted, and so I thought I would share our work. I am not a photographer, but hopefully you will get the idea. I used the girls hands and fingers to paint most of the images with an occasional brush stroke to complete each painting. Also, if you didn't figure it out already, the painting are of the first 6 days of creation. The final painting is still being completed, but I don't know when that will happen, so I thought I better post them now!

Thank You to Bob the Builder

Dear Construction Dudes

We greatly appreciate the entertainment you provided us (the two older girls and myself) on this fine rainy day, with your nifty remote control truck. It was way cool to see you move the giant arm to pick up and relocate large bundles of heavy duty construction supplies. And to have you so close made it even more exciting as we all watched you unload the truck from our living room window.

Thanks for the rainy day distraction!

Previous Post Explained

So the previous post was an experiment to see if I could get a slide show on to the blog.
Did it work?
Did it load quickly enough?
Did you enjoy it?

What the girls were doing in the previous post:

Yesterday Cleaning Fun

So I deciding to clean house yesterday since it was sunny and dry enough to open all the windows. Here is what the girls did while I cleaned:

Lizzie party

I know a little late, but I am posting these fabulous picks that my friend Ash took at Lizzie's party because they were too cute to resist. There are a ton more pics, but as I haven't asked parents for permission to post their kiddos on my blog, these will have to do!

How I Keep Sane Lately With All the Rain

with

this

and this

and in honor of my brother, Nick
this


If you want to see more of Mercy Me "redoing" other artists, just type "Mercy Me Cover tune Grab bag" into the search engine on Youtube.com

If You Have Children

I just wanted to take the time to put out a warning to parents out there. With the TV switch to digital you may find that, like us, you get different channels. Be aware that even without cable, a large purple dinosaur may appear around the time that you are taking a shower. Your children may be clueless as to who this figure is, at which point you may want to quickly change the channel and make up some lame reason for why they should not be watching him dance and sing.

You have been warned!

The Old Man Snoring

It has been raining and pouring for weeks! And the 10 day forecast doesn't seem to show signs of relief from the strange display of mildew growing, mosquito multiplying, boredom inducing weather.

I am quickly running out of indoor activities to do with the girls. We have used up the following:

-3 glitter glue sticks
-4 painting canvases
-1/3 to 1/2 of the large bottles of tempura paint in blue, pink, red, white, black, green, orange, yellow and purple (what can I say, we have been painting A LOT)
-6 batches (yes 6, I told you we were bored) of muffin supplies
-dozens of Kumon book pages
-2 coloring books worth of color pages
-one 10 pack of roll out crayons
-one pack of 10 markers
-1/2 a pack of colored feathers
-1/2 a pack of colored puffy balls
-lots of glue and paste
-TONS of "scratch paper"
-4 pairs of men's socks (needed for pretending to be ice skating doggies on the kitchen floor)

Any ideas that you have to pass time inside when pretending, playing with toys, and watching movies just aren't cutting it anymore? Oh, and I should say ideas for a VERY limited budget. Since, yes, it would be fun to drive down to Florida and enjoy the sunshine, or fly to WA and visit family and friends (and maybe get some vitamin D), but we just can't manage that right now :-)

(Note: I really am needing suggestions, since I just let my two year old put baby oil all over her hair and body, simply because it kept her busy and wasn't dangerous).
So, in conclusion, if you have sunlight where you are today, then please enjoy the blessings of the outdoors today, and think of us... stuck inside...in JULY!