Getting Ready for School

We are gearing up for school to start (August 13th, Lord willing). I'll be taking a break from blogging until after Labor day. I'll probably still check friends blogs on the weekends, but I don't think I'll be writing anything until after we get a good start. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Oh How I Love Jesus

Kim tagged me with a wonderful meme, to write out 5 reasons that I love Jesus.

He is...

Creator- With all the fruit and flowers growing in abundance at my house right now, this aspect of Jesus came to mind first! His creation is amazing. I'm so glad that he gave us so many different kinds of plants, animals and people. And being created in His image, he's made us creative too. I can't wait to see what Heaven is like!

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

Friend- This past year God has allowed me to go through a valley of sorts. I didn't really have any close friends. Now, I'm not complaining; I had my health, family and a few faithful friends who live very far away. But the day, to day, live life with you, bear your burdens, laugh with you, cry with you, give you a hug when you need it kind of friends were gone. The reasons why are for a different post altogether. But God allowed me to be striped of something good so I would learn to depend on Him alone. Even though it was hard, I learned He is a faithful friend.

He has restored to me a growing circle of friends through our new church and school group and gave me a surprise of friends through blogging as well! I hope that learning to have Jesus be my best and first friend will make me a better friend to the earthly ones He's given me now.

John 15:14-15 "You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."

Sovereign- I have been learning so much about God's sovereignty in the last year or two. It is so comforting to know that He is in control!

1 Timothy 6:15 "our Lord Jesus Christ, ... he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen."



Preparer- Knowing that Jesus is preparing a place for me gives me such a different perspective. I remember John Piper once talking about enjoying a walk in winter. He realized that he had never had a winter vacation, cozy in a cabin, reading lots of good books next to a fire and his family and thought that would be a lovely idea. But, he also thought, it can wait. Yes, it would be nice, and there is nothing wrong with vacations, but even if he never got to have it, heaven will be so much more glorious than the best vacation ever taken on earth, he could wait.

John 14: 2-3 "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."

1 Corinthians 2:9 “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”

Rest - In this season of life I am not as physically weary as when I've had newborns and little sleep. But I find myself emotionally (and sometimes physically) weary from the many roles I have with wife, mother, instructor, housekeeper, cook, etc. I find myself needing to come sit at Jesus feet to give me strength to do what I need to do. Again John Piper says in When I Don't Desire God:

"The human heart does not replenish itself with sleep. The body does, but not the heart... We replenish our hearts not with sleep, but with the Word of God and prayer."

Matthew 11:28-29 "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."


I tag:
Alicia
Kristen

Leigh

Johanna

Jess

Movin' On Up

Evan and Amy just got promoted up a belt in Karate. This has been a very good experience for the kids, promoting discipline and physical fitness. We have been pleased with the instructors at this dojo.

Amy waiting at the beginning of class. These are all pictures of the belt promotion ceremony.

Amy is getting her new belt- White with a Yellow Stripe.

Evan has been taking lessons longer and has moved from an orange belt to a blue belt. One of his Sensei is handing him his new belt and his promotional certificate.

Our Karate Kids!

This is Evan's goal. To become a black belt.

Visit with Noah and Johanna

We had a great visit with my sister and her baby Noah this week. I thought Emily was going to get upset with me holding Noah. She's done that when I've held other babies recently (she's in a very clingy stage!). But she got upset when it wasn't her turn to hold Noah! She just loved him.

Amy, of course, was a great helper and enjoyed her cousin a lot too. I don't have a picture of Evan with Noah because when I was taking these pictures (unfortunately, the only time I had my camera out) Evan was helping my sister carry in her luggage and baby stuff.

A Story of God's Goodness

Twelve years ago today Sean and I were married. It was a sweltering 115 degrees outside. (Praise God for air-conditioning!)

For those of you who missed it last year on GirlTalk, during the bookclub discussion, here is the story of how we met.



Just like Ruth, the story of how God brought my husband into my life started out with difficult circumstances. I was starting my fourth year of college, helping to organize Bible Studies for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. During an event designed to reach out to students, a young man handed me a love letter saying that "God had told him that I was the one he was to marry". It turned out that this man was not a student, but a homeless schizophrenic man who now knew my address, since one of the Bible Studies was at my apartment. Over the next few weeks he dropped off letters at my doorstep, in the middle of the night, that became increasingly obscene and threatening. I decided to call the police.

I was advised to get a restraining order and not walk alone. God met my needs abundantly. My roommate's father was a lawyer and filed the paperwork for me free of charge. Twelve other believers lived next door, underneath or across from me in our apartment complex. They took turns walking with me to class and going to the police station with me to drop off more letters as they came. At one point three young men slept on my living room floor with baseball bats "just in case". During finals' week when my friends were busier and my life was more stressful, my dad took a week off of work and came to be with me.

During this time I met three police officers who were handling my case. I would find out later that all three were godly Christian men. Two were my fathers age and viewed me as a daughter in Christ. One was a good looking single guy. He ended up being the one who came and arrested the man who was stalking me.

Over the summer break, the stalker was released from jail. I ended up having several conversations with the young police officer about it all. Each conversation would start out "Hello Officer" and end with "Good-Bye Sean". By the time I returned to school, at a different address, the homeless man had written me one last letter saying that "God had told him to move on". The return address was in another state. The case was closed. Sean helped me move into my new apartment and took me out to dinner, our first date. We were married 10 months later.

Last year when I was talking to my son about Romans 8:28 he looked at me and said, "Mommy, that's just like how you and Daddy met! God used it for good!" Amen to that. He sure did!

I Love You Sean!!!

Here's to many more great years together. Thanks for being my "Knight in Shining Armor"!

Summer Fun!

We've got fruit galore this year and it all ripened at the same time! I'm busy, busy picking and making jam this week!

And The Winner Is.......

Margie!!!

I'm long overdue to give you a call and set up something for the girls. Now we have one more reason to get together! Congratulations!

Thanks to all of you for entering and making this fun! I'm on a cleaning and purging spree. The homeschool closet is next and we're going to have a garage sale next week. So maybe I'll find another good give-away. Is anyone looking for any curriculum in particular? You never know, I just may have it and not need it anymore.

"Win-a-Book" Week

It's official! Fishmama even made a button for it! If you have a book to give away let her know and she'll keep a list of who's giving what away. Sounds fun, huh?!

Win Another Book!

My friend Jessica is having a book drawing too! Check out her blog at Fishkids.

She also had a great idea and apparently the guys over at Desiring God thought so too. So do you have a good book or two that is a double that you'd like to give away? "Win a Book Week" sounds great to me!

Contest to Win a Book

I've been going through my bookshelf to make room for the books that I ordered this past week. I found an extra one of my favorite garden books.

"Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots" by Sharon Lovejoy is a delightful book on gardening together with children. Chapters include: Top 20 Plants for Kids, Theme Gardens (like the pizza patch, sunflower house, and moon garden), and Gardening Basics. It is full of great advice and bright captivating illustrations.

If you would like to win this book, just leave me a comment! I'll draw the names out of a hat next Saturday. If you've never left a comment here before, please feel free to enter the contest also!

As an added bonus, this book is even signed by the author.

"Healthy Cookies"

I've been making this recipe for our cookies since Jessica posted it. Several people have asked for it. Here's my version tweaked a bit from her version. Enjoy!

Trail Mix Cookies
2 eggs
2 t. vanilla
3/4 c. canola oil (or ½ cup oil and ¼ cup applesauce)
3/4 c. ground flax seed meal
¾- 1 c sucanat
1 c. white whole wheat flour
1/4 c. wheat bran
1/4 c. wheat germ
1/2 t. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of cloves and ginger
1 t. baking soda
2 c. rolled oats
1 c. trail mix (cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, pepitas etc.) I usually just use dried cranberries
1/4 c. dark chocolate chips

I mixed this in the Kitchen Aid, combining the eggs, vanilla, and oil first, then adding the flax and sugars. When that was well blended, I added the flour, wheat bran, wheat germ, salt, soda, spices and oats. Then, the trail mix and chocolate chips.
I made large cookies: about 9 per cookie sheet. The total recipe yielded about 20.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes

Win Some Money, Save Some Money

In case you hadn't heard yet, next Wednesday and Thursday (June 27 and 28th) Desiring God's bookstore is offering ALL their books for $5 each. The special is good online only.

Westminster Bookstore is also having a great sale on children's resources that ends next Tuesday June 26. I was able to buy what we're going to use for our Bible curriculum next year at a great price. (Thanks, Leslie!)

Finally, if you have kids and have a garden, your pictures could win you some money. Enter the contest here.

Playdough Recipe

My kids love playing with clay. While the older two have graduated to Sculpy clay and ceramics that can be fired, Emily has just discovered the joy of Playdough. Here is our favorite recipe given to me by my MIL. It smells so much better than the store bought stuff!

Playdough

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup salt

2 pkg. kool-aid mix (grape is our favorite)

3 Tablespoons oil

2 cups water

Stir together. At this point the playdough will be very sticky. Add more flour, stirring then kneading until it gets to the consistency you'd like. Store in a Ziplock bag or air tight storage container.

Two New Blogs

Mark Dever from Capital Hill Baptist Church now has a blog. Sean and Evan got to visit CHBC when they went to D.C. and enjoyed it very much. "The 9Marks blog aims to stimulate a helpful conversation among pastors, church leaders, and Christians about life together in the local church." (Taken from their blog.)

In other news, my other sister, Shauna, now also has a blog. If you want to see the cutest picture of my nephew, CJ, click here.

I'll be adding both of these to my sidebar.

Emily Hiding

Lately if we can't find Emily, she's likely hiding here....

"Peek- A - Boo!"

"Now, go away!"

Children with Disabilities

My friend Kristen is adopting a little girl from Guatemala who has Down Syndrome. Because of her, I was excited to see GirlTalk's new series on children with disabilities. You can catch up here, here , here, and here. They linked to an excellent article by Peter Avery. "Then Shall the Lame Leap Like A Deer: God and the Disabled."

We're waiting and praying with you Kristen!

Noah

My third nephew was born on April 25. I didn't get to go and meet him since it was so close to Sean and Evan's D.C. trip. He was due earlier that month!

Johanna, (my sister) and her husband Ben have their own blog now too.

The last picture is a recent one of Noah. There is a picture of my sister when she was a baby with that exact same expression. Too cute! I can't wait to meet him.

Eight is Great!

Amy turned eight this week! She wanted a party on her actual birthday so we had a midweek park party. I found some bucket and pail sets at Michaels for $1 and got those as party favors. The kids spontaneously decided to hold a sand castle contest. They had such a great time! It was fun and low stress for me since I didn't have to clean my house or plan party games. One of the little girls asked what the "theme" of the party was. Park, of course!



Our neighbor and good friend, Tawni has the same birthday as Amy. It's been fun to share their special day together. We get to go to her party this weekend!

Two layer dairy free chocolate cake!

Sandcastle contest.

The three little girls really liked their party food.

Happy Birthday Amy!!!

Our First Sunflower

Doing Hard Things

Sean has been pouring concrete this week. He is building a path around our house and a shade structure over Emily's window to keep out the heat. It's been over 100 degrees here.

Evan has been helping Sean. The first day he went out eager to "help dad". This morning he wasn't so chipper. "It's hard work, mom!"

The guys over at The Rebelution have a motto. Do Hard Things. I got a chance to remind Evan of that this morning. Evan is almost as strong as me. I want him to use his strength for good and not just laze around playing computer games. The image of the boy in the Little House on the Prairie books who didn't help his pa and ended up getting stung by an entire hive of bee's came to mind. Evan isn't quite a teen yet, but he's close. Today his dad had some hard work to do and he needed real help. Mixing cement in 100 degree heat isn't my idea of fun, but thankfully God worked in Evan's heart to accept the challenge. Tomorrow it's supposed to be a bit cooler!