Saturday, November 29, 2014

Follow Him!- 52 weeks of Family Scripture Memorization

What kind of parent are you?

Gracious in your words and actions?
Merciful?
Patient?
Kind and loving?

Does it just depend on the day?

I would like to say that I am a great mom.  Always gracious and merciful and patient and loving.  But if I said that I would not be completely honest.

Because sadly, I am not.

I would like to be. I long to be.  And on some days I may come close.  But often stress gets the best of me.  Busyness takes up my time.  Anger creeps in.  I fail.

And then I do and say things that I wish I had not done and said.

But, God... well, He is not me.  And He never fails!


While I strive daily to do better and show my children what graciousness, patience, mercy, and love look like, in my human weakness I will never be perfect and sometimes I will fail.  

So instead of saying "follow me," I am trying to teach them-

Follow Him!  Jesus.  The one that is perfect.  

As we get closer to the Christmas season and turn our eyes to Jesus, let us remind our children that by following Him we can learn what graciousness, mercy, patience and love really look like.

And then let's take the time to show those things to those around us.

Blessings,


*For the rest of the year we will be focusing on scripture from the Christmas Story!  We hope you will join us!


Friday, November 28, 2014

Thanksgiving Surprise!

You may have already seen this on our facebook page, but if not-

We are thankful for this guy-





 and the fact that he was able to come home last minute for four days before he heads overseas.


And that we were able to carry off the surprise!

Blurry, I know, but I love the smiles!

I told the kiddos we were having a special dinner with Morgan, while he secretly snuck off to the airport to pick up dad.  Meanwhile the kids and I prepared dinner and then I made them all hang out with me in the kitchen.  Some, to remain nameless, whined about having other things to do, but I told them I was lonely and needed some attention!  You should have seen the look on their faces and heard the squeals when dad walked through the door!

Priceless!  Wish I had thought to have the video camera ready, but oh well.


Two burst out in tears and all have not stopped smiling since.


Monday begins our new, official countdown, but this time hopefully we can start healthy and we can start knowing the days actually count towards the 365 count!

I pray your Thanksgiving was blessed as well!

Blessings, Michele


Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Thanksgiving Craft, Anyone?


I know tomorrow is a busy day for most of you, but if you are looking for a fun last minute activity to keep the little people in your life busy, I shared one of our favorites with The Schoolhouse Review Crew!

Some dear friends shared their Thanksgiving Apple Turkeys with us years ago and we always have so much fun doing them.  Supply list is minimal and mess level is low  ;)



Grab a few apples and have some fun!

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!  May it be a blessed one.  And may God open our eyes to see the many things in our lives we should be THANKFUL for!

Blessings,

Monday, November 24, 2014

You Can't Even Make This Stuff Up!

A week ago I was retelling- oh okay, whining to a friend of mine about our past four weeks since my husband has been gone.  When I finished my tale of woe, her words were-

You can't even make this stuff up!

No kidding!  Thankfully I am beginning to be able to laugh about some of it.  Not all, mind you. That may not come.  And as another friend suggested, I am going to start yelling PLOT TWIST and see if that helps me feel better.  At the very least it will entertain the troops here at home.

Let me just give you a taste of things... it may make you feel better! ;)

Week 1-The night of my husband's departure, my 7 year old began running a high temperature.  This is the kiddo who doesn't do sick well and therefore freaks out and asks if he is going to die every few minutes.  Fun times.  The good news is that it is hard to be too emotional in saying good bye when you are sleep deprived and distracted.

Two days later he got better and my daughter and I got sick.  We headed to the doctor to be told she had a virus, me- bronchitis and pneumonia.  Four weeks later, I am still coughing.

Week 2-  Back to doctor! Daughter got better, but oldest son was down for the count and diagnosed with pneumonia.  I was put on a second round of antibiotics because I was not getting better.  Oh, and the mice moved in while mom was in bed for 6 days straight!  YUCK!

Week 3- Back to doctor! Next daughter started feeling badly.  At the very least she is worn out and the allergy thing is still not worked out.  She is not feeling well, not sleeping and generally feels like dirt!  Hmmm, could be from taking care of a sick family, stress of finishing her degree and working a job, plus college/church ministry and on and on!

Plus while we were at the doctor's office the doctor turned on me, I mean turned to me, and said, "I notice you are STILL coughing.  That is not good!"  Add a steroid to my list of medicines.  This is the family who does not like to take medicines, I remind you!  Plus, we came home with more cough medicine with codeine, which my daughter begged him not to give me since it makes me cry. A lot!  Funny how codeine works!  For the sake of the family, I have refrained from taking it.  I am nice like that.

We also went back to the doctor the following day with the youngest because he too has developed a cough and the doctor is either concerned or just likes seeing us frequently.  Medicine for him.  Is it any surprise to you that the gal in the pharmacy actually called me by my first name, pondered out loud why we were back AGAIN and told me how sorry she was for us?!

Then just to add to the fun, while I was out my 13 year old was "fixing" a pen that exploded blue ink on our bedroom carpet.  I am still working on that matter.  And yes, the same day as the doctor visit! Then I had to take the car in to get the oil changed and Farmer Dan's wife (who has had car issues of her own) said she could take me to pick it up.  My chariot arrived, we chatted for a few minutes and then out to her car we went- yep, it was dead!   You would have been proud of us- we just laughed.  We should have yelled PLOT TWIST!  With the help of another sweet friend, we got car picked up and I safely delivered 7 people to church for a few hours.  I drug myself home for a few hours of quiet to only walk through the door to find the dogs had opened a glass bottle of natural supplements intended for the college daughter and had eaten 86 out of 90 of them!  Brand new bottle!  I spent the next hour calling vets and making the dogs throw up.  And just possibly saying not so nice things to the dogs. More fun times.

Then, I tried to put a storage crate away in the garage only to have it about fall on top of my head.  Managed to duck in time, but my back may not be the same for weeks.

Oh, and I fell in a store nights ago.  Yep, embarrassed everyone and bruised my knee.

Week 4- Today you will find us back at the doctor.  Yes, you did count that right- four weeks in a row.  More tests  and various blood work for the oldest who is not getting better.

See,  you can't even make this stuff up.

BUT, before you feel sorry for me, let me share some words of wisdom from a dear friend who has been there done that with this deployment thing recently.  I had shared with her that I was afraid people were going to start to wonder about us and why so many things seem to be crashing around us.  And trust me, I was beginning to wonder the same thing.  Here's what she shared-

Such is the life of a military wife.  Or any other spouse for that matter whose does life alone at times.  Things just happen.  Whether a significant other is around or not.  The difference is we are suddenly doing it alone.  There is no one to rescue us at the end of the day.  No one to pass the baton to.  No one to whine to.  And so our friends see and hear much more than they normally would.  We just air our dirty laundry more (you can thank us later) and therefore you see our lives as an open book.  We probably have no more craziness than any other person reading this, it just can seem like it because it is center stage.

Well, thank goodness.  Not that our mess is center stage, but that our mess is no worse than your mess.  

At least I hope.

I am however looking for the nearest vacation spot!  You are welcome to come with me.

Blessings,


My Joy-Filled Life

Friday, November 21, 2014

Keep Your Eyes on God!- 52 weeks of family scripture memorization

Let's face it, some days are just harder than others.  Some weeks are like that!

I feel like I am stuck in one of those seasons.

As I so often say to my close friends- KEEP YOUR EYES ON GOD!  

Yes, I am shouting that to myself.

 

We need to teach our kids that when things are good we need to keep our eyes on God.  And then when things get hard, we need to continue to keep our eyes on Him as well. How easy it is to take our eyes off God and drown in our own helplessness.


I am a momma.  I love my kids and I want to supply their every need.  Make everything all better.  I want them to come to me with all of their sadness, hurt, and pain.  But before even that, I want to teach them to take all that to God first.  I am human and I can only do so much!

He is God, and He alone will  give us refuge and sustain us!

Teach your kids to keep their eyes on God and make Him their refuge!

Blessings, Michele