Funny age

Me, murmuring about John Patrick who wasn't being very cooperative, "That boy..."
Nellie, confidently, "That boy is trouble!...(thinking)... Nellie's not."
riiiiiight.

After telling Anella it's nap time, her response, "But that's not my choice!"

Notice

There is a new link at the bottom of my friend list called What's for Dinner? (My friend Maria's idea and I love it.) The recipe right now is for a really easy and yummy, notice I didn't say healthy, type of biscuit. Enjoy!

One more thing. In the last 8 years my parents went from having a family of 7 to a family of 22 come wedding time in February. wow. You should see the family Christmas picture.

Just because I love this little chubby face.

Hope had her two month check up and is by far my biggest (thank you Glenn family) baby. She is 12 pounds (85th percentile) and 23 inches. But I think the poor girl hasn't ever had her length measured correctly. Who likes having their leg straightened by force anyway?

I read this article today and thought it was very well said. I don't know who this woman is but I read she has 5 kids under 6 (one set of two year old twins):

"In the Rock Tumbler" from Loving the Little Years

I remember a time when I used to be much godlier. It was sometime in junior high and my room was clean. It must have been beautiful weather outside because the lighting was very nice in my room where I was reading my Bible every day and feeling really good. It was quite clear to me that my sanctification was progressing very well. As the feeling wore off, I remember looking back to that time as a high point. That was really living the Christian life.

The truth is my Christian life then was like a rock being refined by a slow river in a quiet place. It wasn't as though I wasn't growing spiritually, but my word! So easily! And so little!

But God took me out of that life and threw me into the rock tumbler. Here, it is not so easy to feel godly, because we spend our days crashing into each other and actually getting our problems addressed. Here there is very little time for quiet reflection. I do a lot of on-the-job failure and correction. Repenting and forgiving. Laughing. Lots and lots of laughing. Because if there is anything that life in the rock tumbler will teach you, it is that there is no room to take yourself seriously. Like trying to strike "cool" poses on a rug that someone is continually pulling out from under you, self-seriousness in mothering is totally pointless and probably painful!

The opportunities for growth and refinement abound here-but you have to be willing. You have to open your heart to the tumble. As you deal with your children, deal with yourself always and first. This is what it looks like and feels like to walk with God, as a mother.

God treats us with great kindness as we fail daily. He takes the long view of our sin-knowing that every time we fail and repent, we grow in our walk with Him. It is easy for us to accept this, because our sins are, well, ours.

But our children sin against us, annoy us, and mess up our stuff. We want to hold it against them, complain about them (if only to ourselves), and feel put upon by their sin. We have a much harder time accepting that every failure from them is a wonderful opportunity for repentance and growth and not an opportunity for us to exact penance.

It is no abstract thing-the state of your heart is the state of your home. You cannot harbor resentment secretly toward your children and expect their hearts to be submissive and tender. You cannot be greedy with your time and expect them to share their toys. And perhaps most importantly, you cannot resist your opportunities to be corrected by God and expect them to receive correction from you.

God has given us the job of teaching His law and demonstrating His grace. We are to be guides to our children as they learn to walk with God.

Sin is just a fact of life. It is the way we deal with it that changes ours.
Rachael Jankovic

First things first

The seasons have officially changed and I think it's time to get rid of the pumpkins huh? This is how lots of things around here are. Well past time to do something with or to them by the time I get around to it.

I'll start with the Thanksgiving party at school. Other than when I almost made one boy cry it was a huge success. We played the relay game where you have to open a brown paper bag and put on whatever you find in it and run back to tag the next person's hand. Instead of separating boys and girls clothes I just piled all the bags up. One of the little boys opened the apron and bonnet and looked up with a terrible face like he was about to cry and said, "I need to pee" and ran out of the room. oops. John Patrick thoroughly enjoyed his days off from school. Crafting often and random dress ups is one of their favorite past times. The army helmet colander made me smile.


The day after Thanksgiving was VERY relaxed. We planned to put up our tree the following week and neither of us are into shopping that day so we just laid around and enjoyed each other... okay and cartoons.

Haha. I don't know what in the world she's talking about but I'm so glad I caught it!

We celebrated Uncle Jason's birthday on Wednesday. Notice how I ran out of frosting. It was home made German chocolate so it was plenty rich enough to be thin.

Maria had the most genius idea. We are trying to flip flop each week when one of us takes the kids to school the other one keeps all the kids so we can run errands. Or just sit and stare at a wall. whatever. It also gives Sam and Hope a chance to get to know each other since they're betrothed.

I might say this every year but this time I mean it: our tree this year is my favorite. Our ceilings are really high so it's easy to want a tall tree but we don't really have all that much floor space open. This year's tree is just tall enough without being way to big around at the bottom.

My girls.

Hope is cooing and smiling lots now. She is a very content and easy baby.
I think she looks like a combo of my dad and Dora.


I have lots of other thoughts I would like to get out and share. Like how God has been showing me lately that I didn't really understand my position in Christ. I'm saying this really flippantly partly because of time (I need to run errands soon) and partly because I have a hard time getting thoughts out this way. When I communicate in person I have to use lots and lots of words to get my thought out. That isn't really a fun read.

Partly through the book I mentioned recently (Because he loves me) and partly through parenting God showed me that I wasn't really operating like I'm forgiven. I heap a LOT of guilt on myself. Especially when it comes to my kids. Does anyone else do that? It's like because I love them soooooo much I feel like total trash when I think I've done something to screw them up for the rest of their lives. (usually this is along the lines of loosing my temper)

Anyway, I just realized that I have always wallowed in my sin. I have a hard time facing Jesus and consequently do the same things over and over because I'm trying to fix it by slapping myself with a self help bible verse or something.

But, I just realized, (I know this really basic) that immediately when I sin I can look to Jesus and he has already taken the punishment for it. When I feel like a total and complete wretch I'm actually seen by God as one who only does everything I should. Because Jesus was already punished for it. Amazing. I mean it. I didn't get this before. I'm not saying I would consider myself as just becoming a believer but I am saying I've kind of been living as if I get to go to heaven one day where I won't sin but as for right now I'm just hanging out and making God really sad because of my lack of obedience. It's so freeing. There isn't ever a time gap in time now when I feel less than completely able to face Him. It makes it MUCH more likely that I don't repeat that sin so quickly.

Okay, really hard to wrap this topic up but I have to. Thanks for hanging on this long if you're still reading and I really do hope for all of you that you are living in this freedom like I am now.

PS. You'll never hear me singing to my kids that second line of Jesus Loves Me that I've heard before, "Jesus loves me when I'm bad, though it makes him very sad." I'm still praying and asking God to explain how he does view my sin, but I don't think he sits up there disappointed at me. Whatever the response is I bet it's full of love not disappointment.

Check this out

My friend Maria posted this on her blog and it looks like a wonderful idea!