Thankful Thursday

1. Thankful for Spring!
2. Thankful that my sister and her family are coming for a visit.
3. Thankful for my Supermom vitamins. They really do work.
4. Thankful for Vanilla Diet Pepsi.
5. Thankful for rain.
6. Thankful that my Brother and Sister (in law) got their referral for the baby they are adopting.
7. Thankful for good health.
8. Thankful for spring flowers.
9. Thankful for God's peace and joy.
10. Thankful for the AWANA's program at church.



Have a thankful Thursday!

73 words

Speed test

Knock Knock

So, today my 3 year old has decided that our Easter tree is not complete. While I was teaching her brothers she decided to create her own additions. Finally she brought me her finished product. It was a brown paper circle with a hole punched in it and a string through it ready to hang on the Easter tree.

I asked her what it was.

She said "It's the door to the tomb and I say -- Knock, Knock -- Who's there?-- Jesus.-- Jesus who? -- Jesus who wants to come in your heart."


It was really quite sweet and creative and I thought it was pretty funny.
I'm wondering if that is the first time Jesus has been included in a knock knock joke. At least she seems to kind of get the whole point.

Kind of.

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice an opens the door,

I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

Revelation 3:20

He is Risen!

I think it is so easy for me to get caught up in the celebration of Easter and not soak in the meaning. I am such a Martha that I focus on things... like the menu, the traditions, the new outfits.... and if I don't stop for a moment, I will completely pass over the entire meaning of the holiday.

This week, I truly made the effort with my kids to focus on the reason for Easter. We read all the books in the house about Easter. We made Popsicle stick crosses and stuck them in clay. We made an Easter tree and cut out and drew all the different things that reminded us about Jesus and his Crucifixion and then hung them on our tree.

And in the midst of all this, my heart has been so full of love for a Savior who loved ME so much that He died on the cross for my sins. He was beaten, stripped, mocked, spit upon, struck in the head again and again and then forced to carry His own cross to be crucified on. There was no dignity in His death.

My heart is overwhelmed. This is a story we hear every year and I think it would be easy to become numb to it. I never want to forget what Jesus has done for me. The sacrifice He made. And now that I have children I am so much more thankful for the sacrifice God made. He sent His ONLY son to die on a cross for our sins so that we could have eternal life.

God loves us so much that he would do that for us. Even though we are human. Even though we fail Him time and time again. He still loves us and wants to spend eternity with us. That is why Jesus died.

For us.

I am so grateful.

Friends

I read this last night and thought it was really good.

Danger: Traveling Alone

God created us to all be part of His body.

We function together.

Fellowship is a precious gift the Lord gives His children.

To neglect fellowship or refuse to draw near

those who can make our journey all that it should

be is to make ourselves vulnerable to compromise.

Anytime we withdraw from wise friends who will

hold us accountable, we seek our own desires.

We become resistant to "all sound wisdom" (Prov. 18:1)

- and that is a precarious place to be. If we

are committed to travel toward the heart of God , then

we need to move toward the wise

friend, of any age, who can help us stay on the journey.

by Cynthia Heald, A Woman's journey to the Heart of God

It just reminded me again of the importance of surrounding myself with women who desire God's will for their lives and who push me to be a better wife, mom and most importantly, child of the King.

When I allow myself to be vulnerable and completely honest with a friend who I know has my best interests at heart, it helps keep me accountable and focused on living my life for Christ.

Times when my heart is not right with God, I really do want to seclude myself from everyone else. I don't want others to know what a sinner I really am. I don't want people to see my failures or know that I fail God time and time again.

And that is when I really need a wise and faithful friend around who loves me unconditionally and has the freedom to encourage me, admonish me or even give me a swift kick to turn me back from the dark side of the force. :)

Thank you to all my wise and faithful friends!

A New Nephew

Congratulations

to my Brother and Sister-in-Law!
They are adopting from Ethiopia and just got their referral for their baby!
You can go over and congratulate them and read more about their adoption story at

Winter in Ethiopia

Looks like I'm gonna be busy sewin a blue blanket!

They're Not White

So, we really don't have a lot of hard candy we keep around the house. But the other day, my 6 y/o brought home a small package of runts he won at Sunday School for saying his Bible verse from memory.

He agreed to share them with his sibs so we divided them all up and they ended up with about 4.5 runts each.

A little while later my thoughtful 5 y/o comes up to me and says...

"Mommy, since you are so special to me, I want you to have the heart shaped one."

He put it in my palm and I was touched that only having about 5 runts himself, he would give one to me.

Then I looked at it.

It was white.

If you know anything about runts at all, you know they don't come in white. He had obviously already sucked the pink coating off of it.

I expressed my gratitude to him and then gently explained that when one gives a gift of food to another, that one tries very hard not to touch it with one's hands and that one certainly doesn't suck the color off of it before one gives it as a gift. Then I concluded by thanking him and telling him that he was very thoughtful and sweet to be so generous.

I think he understood.

I think.

He Knows Me Too Well

So, the other day my 5 year old set up a "store" in his room. He was "selling" all sorts of items. For most of the day he was begging me to come to his store and buy something. It was really a busy day and we had already spent time together doing his school work and reading and I had a huge list of things to do (which did not include going to a pretend store) so I probably told him several times " I'll be up in a little bit".

Finally, he called down, "Mom, I'm having a special sale of trains... and they are chocolate... and they are free!"

So I promptly went to visit his store based solely on the merit of his creativity. And the fact that he knew me so well...... sale.... chocolate.... free.......

And I bought 15 pretend chocolate trains for free. And I enjoyed them thoroughly.

He was so thrilled that I took a couple minutes out of my cleaning to visit his store that it just reminded me how easy it is to get focused on things (cleaning things, washing things, rearranging things, putting away things, etc) that I really have to make myself take time out of all the things to focus on people. Because, seriously, the things are always going to be screaming at me for attention. The laundry is never completely done, there is always another meal around the corner to fix,

there is always something to pick up or clean up and I sometimes find it difficult to take time off my "schedule" to relax and just enjoy playing with one of my kids. The whole time I am thinking about something else I need to be doing.

But, spending that time means so much to them and I have to remember that my true goals in life are people oriented and Kingdom focused and that the things are just temporal and will still be there, waiting for me, until I have finished eating my pretend chocolate trains.

Thankful Thursday

It's sad, but there are weeks that I just don't want to do a Thankful Thursday. I have so much to be thankful for but I am tired and I just want to stomp my feet and say, "But, I'm just not thankful this week" which is when I know it is all the more imperative that I do it. So here goes.

1) I'm thankful for realtors who call me at 5:30, (right during the middle of dinner, when my husband is out of town, and when I've been doing science projects, and having music practice, and haven't started the evening clean up yet) and announce that they are sitting outside with a client and they would like to come in and see the house.

Okay, so I'm not really grateful for that. See, this is why I need to be doing this!

So I guess that I am grateful for the realtors who actually give me a day's notice that they are coming to show the house and I spend the entire day cleaning and drinking all the diet coke in the house for the extra energy I need to have everything "Southern Living Clean" by the deadline, and then I load the kids up (along with a carload of stuff that I didn't have the time or patience to return to it's rightful spot) and then sit down the street in the car for 2 hours past the time they said they would be there and then I end up going through the drive thru at McDonald's with no make-up and greasy hair because by the time I got to the point where I thought I could take a shower, I didn't want the bathroom to be all steamy when the buyers came through, only to return home to find a message that says they already found a house they are interested in and won't be stopping by.

This is so not working out for me today.

Let's just go with things that I am thankful for that have made me smile this week......

1) Yellow Daffodils around my mailbox

2) Purple Pansies on my porch

3) Bright Red Cardinals at my birdfeeder

4) Daylilly leaves poking up through the ground in my backyard

5) Laughing Children playing together

6) Helpful Children sweeping up the floor

7)Sleeping Children quiet and still

8) Croaking Frogs in the valley behind my house

9) Thoughtful husband who calls to let me know he misses me

That's it. I'm tapped out. I would love to hear what you are thankful for. Calgon take me away.

22

I do not condone some of the language used to take this survey, but was feeling today that this was pertinent information that I needed to know.

So I took it.

And I feel a little better about life in general. Because I have a 6 year old, a 5 year old and a 3 year old. And if this test says I could take 22 five year olds in a fight then the odds are actually in my favor.

I would love to know how many you could take.

And. Um. Yes. It's been a loooooong day.

The Gospel

I'm not for sure what to say about this really except this is the first time anyone of my family members has been featured in a YouTube video.

I'm not for sure this is in line with the demographics of my blog readership but it's fun so I'm puttin it on anyways. (It does kind of make my stomach hurt, though)

My sister and brother in law work with the youth ministry in their church and my B-I-L and another youth worker made some crazy videos featuring the focus of a recent youth retreat which was the GOSPEL.

The man who married my beautiful sister is Eric, the one in the white shirt.
He's a great guy and we love him.

And we still do.

If you gotta go.... go with a digital

My parents recently gave us a monetary gift with the instructions to

buy something the whole family would enjoy...... versus what we probably would have bought which would have been a deposit slip to our savings account.

I'm not kidding.

We thought about it and we have always wanted a piano.

I used to play when I was younger and living in a house that possessed a piano.

We have wanted to get one in the last decade of our marriage,

but we just didn't have room, and then we were moving and

then we just didn't want to spend the extra money.

So a piano it was.

But we had some quandaries. We may be potentially moving. So we didn't want to get something that we would have to pay extra to move and then have to tune again once we get there.

We also wanted something that was easily portable.

That is when I found out about digital pianos.

They have the same number of keys as a regular piano, the keys are weighted so that it feels like a regular piano and it even sound just like a regular piano.

I went to a local music store to try one out and as my fingers started playing the first thing I remembered (which was the Battle Hymn of the Republic) I'm just sure a light from heaven shone down and I heard angels singing.....

and I knew right then ....must.... have.... digital... piano.

So now we are the proud owners of a digital piano and WE LOVE IT!!!!

The best thing of all is that you can plug in headphones.

HEADPHONES!!!!

My kids have been playing it non-stop since we bought it and I haven't

heard a thing! We can move it easily and it sounds and plays wonderful!

I would still love to have a nice, beautiful piano one day.

But for now, I am LOVIN my digital!

The Best Policy

While my parents were here they would pay the kids for chores and helping out. One morning at breakfast my dad passed a $1 bill to my 6 year old and told him thank you for doing a chore.

My son (who is saving for his first jeep, by the way) stared at the $1 and then passed it back to my dad and told him, "Thank you, but Grandma already paid me for that chore."

Wow.

Honesty.

It was one of those moments where you think the kid might make it. That despite all my faults and weaknesses, that somehow, something good is getting through. And all my training and teaching might pay off.

Moments like these, where I see my child walking in truth, encourage me to keep fighting the good fight. I know he is only 6, and we've got a long ways to go, but I am encouraged.

Thankful Thursday

1. I am so thankful for my parents. They have just spent a week with us and have been such a tremendous help!

2. I am thankful for some good ole quality time with my husband this week while he is on vacation.

3. I am thankful for all the rain we are getting.

4. I am thankful we have missed the flu so far (I'm knocking on my desk as I type this... just in case).

5. I am thankful for my ice maker. Ours was not working for the last month or so and even though I am perfectly happy to make my own ice in the trays..... it's just so convenient to have a working ice maker. Thanks for fixing it, dad.

6. I am thankful for laughing gas. Yes, that's right. One of mine kiddos had to have some dental work done. Long story, something about how the enamel on his 6 year molars formed when he was born... anyways SOOOOOOO thankful for that wonderful stuff that made him forget all his worries.

7. Mulch and Paint. It's amazing how nice one's house can look with just a little mulch (okay, so it was like 20 bags, which by the way, you can buy from Home Depot at 1/2 price if you don't mind getting the broken bags..... take your masking tape) and some new paint, and a dad that has a little extra time to help you freshen things up for Spring!

8. Faux orchids. I ADORE orchids. I personally must take credit for the demise of at least 3 orchid plants in the last several years. I love them but with 3 small kids, I just can't seem to give them the love and devotion they deserve. Last week, I was at a place that sold orchids and couldn't figure out why some were priced differently. It turns out they were FAKES! AND they were so good that I couldn't even tell (until closer inspection)! I have saved up my allowance and bought myself a faux orchid for my bathroom and I ADORE it!

Have a Thankful Thursday!