Golden

Golden leaves call to me,

watch me,

smell me,

play with me.

Golden leaves silence me,

the awe of their maker,

He captures me.

His Golden heart inspires me,

to dance in the midst of his beauty.

The leaves are a warming invitation,

to play in his creation.

Aubrey lost her first tooth

Aubrey has been so excited to loose her first tooth. It's been loose for a couple of months, but the last couple of days she's been giving it the wiggle. Today I was in the kitchen baking and she came in bawling because it was hanging on by a thread. I calmed her down and told her it was fine it would come out soon. I asked her if I could pull it but she was to freaked out. A couple of hours later she was again pulling on it and she ask if I could get it out. So I started to talk to her to distract her and after a couple test pulls a yanked it out. She was so excited jumping all around the house. Here is a pic of her toothless grin.

Crunch week before school is so much fun lol

Wow I can't believe how much activity is going on right now and I'm not even stressed. I think because it's all so exciting!



Last night we had a wonderful surprise birthday party for Pastor Shirley she looked stunning when she came in the room. There was allot of excitement and laughter going on last night. Good food and great people celebrating the life of an amazing woman.



We are also having our upstairs bathroom remodel done this week. I painted a couple of weeks ago and now we are leaving the rest to the pros. They layed the new white tile on the floor on Tuesday, and yesterday they grouted it. Today the Are laying the glass mosaic backslash on. They had said 3 days So today should be their last day. You know how women think ahead.....I'm guessing two more days. I don't think they work weekends so it may take us to Monday our first day of school yikes. All well that construction for you.



Malachi's birthday is also coming up soon. Tom and I decided to have His 4th birthday party at the house because the last time we did he was 1. Tom had talked all summer about building the kidos a new playhouse swing set system. Well lets just say there's nothing like waiting till the last minute :) love ya honey. We really wanted to make sure that the yard was kid safe for him birthday party. There was a really bad storm a couple of years ago that picked up our playhouse and flipped it up side down on our fence. So have been using that one every since. We just flipped it back up right and kept playing. It seemed ok but as time went on things really started to loosen up on it and we new it was going to have to be replaced. So thank goodness for great friends. Toms friend Tim built his own a couple of months ago. Tim and Tommy dug right into it yesterday! I went to get flowers and came home and was surprised to see a miter saw in my yard. I thought they were just going to talk about what the plans were. 6 hours later after running to Lowe's to get wood. they had the sandbox built and the frame of the playhouse done. Way to hustle guys! I was so excited when I came home last night from Pastor Shirley's Party to see how much work they got done.



Today my friend Erin is in town from Milwaukee and I'm so excited to see her!......

Pt 2
I did get to see Erin. She is so full of life I love getting to see her. She has passion seeping from her veins. It was adorable she was staying at her parents house while she was in town and her Daddy was on call so he was home. He asked the kids if they wanted a fish what do you think they said. You guessed it we came home with two new fish and a fish bowl. We aren't quite sure where to put them yet. They are sittin gon our kitchen table right now. Needless to say the kids are in love with Bob Erins dad now. I'm sure they wont forget it.

O yes I had started this post Thurday and today is Saturday. Update on the bathroom it wont be done till Monday. God must have built in women a sence of time that men must not have lol. At least it will be done soon it was a year long thought process and I'm excited to see the results so far so good.

organized

I just found the coolest website for making it simple to keep up my Homemaker planner. I needed to dig it out of my TV stand anyways . Its been sitting dormant a little too long. I think setting some new goals has given me a fresher zest for life. Or maybe it was putting my kids in boot camp that created some peace for me to refresh and get focused. I think it was all of the above. My mind can start spinning try to keep all the goals I want to achieve straight. Anyways I found a website that was PERFECT! for me I'm so exited!..... WOW I mean seriously! It's www.organizedhome.com they have all kinds of planner templates to print out LOVE IT! my favorite is the Christmas planning ones. I just know it's going to make my 2009 Cookie Swap planning very efficient indeed.

When I get a chance later in the week I want to post our boot camp update it's been great I will say that.

Back to Bootcamp

Parenting can be most rewarding and challenging at the same time. We as parents love to give to our children just like our heavenly father gives to us. He (Our Papa God) is where we get our generosity from. He gives and takes away and that's just what I did last night. We have lavished on our kids so much. Our love for them to see them excited when they get something new. To bring them something home when we've been gone for awhile. Then there's Santa who shows up in December with the entire toy section from Wal-mart. The list goes on birthday's and on and on. I always say I'm going to cut back and rarely do. I get so much joy out of giving it's hard to stop. I always want my children to really appreciate the things they've been blessed with because after all I felt blessed when I was a child and has less than they do. So here is a little piece to say we are having some struggles with our kids at the moment. I'm sure a lot of parents have been here or will go through this at some time.

Boot camp started about 24 hours ago. It breaks my heart that I even have to go here with my kids but its necessary to Christ like character developed in them. It all started yesterday I was down stairs waiting Tommy to come home and I heard a lot of large thumps upstairs. My kids were up there cleaning there rooms before dinner at least I thought. I thought maybe I should go check I mean like most mom I thought maybe they were doing something dangerous that they might get hurt. As I started up the steps I heard laughter, lets break I heard them chanting. I started walking a little faster because I could hear now that the noise was coming from my room. As I entered the door way I saw my precious children with looks of foolishness on their faces throwing one of their Cd players on the floor repeatedly. I was instantly hot. I mean....I thought who in there right mind would do such a thing. I couldn't and can't understand the reasoning behind it. I with and extra spring in my step grabbed one in each hand. I took a moment at the bottom of the steps shut my eyes and briefly asked God for peace or something like that. I know it's not a good Idea not spank them in anger so I stuck one in each corner of the living rm and told them not to move. Just then my mom walked in, with tears my eyes I said please come to the back yard . I needed to vent so I could think clearly. I told my mom what had happened. We were discussing the thought behind it and what to do about it. After Tommy got home a couple minutes later he talked it over with the kids and they said we didn't want it anymore. That was there reasoning behind it. I could believe it! I was like you broke it because you didn't want it anymore? I guess they just have too much.

Tom and I took a little time while the kids were upstairs cleaning for real this time to talk about what to do. We agreed to take everything away. If they don't have anything there is not to much to clean, not to much to fight about, and not to much to break when they decide they are done with it. The job was a big one.. we left them there beds one blanket to cover up with 1 pair of pj's, 1 outfit for church, 2 everyday outfits. The rest of it we bagged up boxed up and put it in the basement. John Rosemond said at a meeting I went to a couple of months ago all big problems start as something small. In order to make sure they don't become something big you need to have large consequences for the little things. Basically saying do sweat the small stuff because all thing small can grow bigger if not dealt with. So it may sound extreme to take all our kids things away, but I hope it prevents them from a life of foolishness. I'm not sure when they will get there things back. I want to see genuine attitude change and good stewardship before we do. I may be a week it maybe be month or two. I hope the sooner the better but for now on the light side less laundry and less cleanup is a plus lol. I have a feeling when they do get there things back a lot will be missing out of those bags and boxes. It's time to make a change. I'm looking forward to the days ahead and I hope and pray my children will remember this when they are old and grown and be thankful that I stopped the madness when I did. I want them to enjoy life and the things in it not take it for granted.

Goal Setter

I took some time this morning to write out the goals for the year, months, and days we have left in 2009. I sometimes write goals down but, I've never made a goal journal like I did this morning. I got a free composition notebook this week at CVS ( gotta love CVS) and it was perfect for my goal setting journal. I like it better than the to-do list that I normally set for myself, if feels more freeing. I wrote out what I think I want done, prayed about it and gave it to God. When I make a to-do list I tend to have inflexible expectations for myself and then beat myself up over it, if it doesn't all happen. With this new system if my goal doesn't get fulfilled my the end of the day, month, or year I will just roll it over and trust in Gods timing.

Just like my devotional journal I love reading back through it to see the cries of my heart that God answered. Reading it gives me hope when is feels like nothing is changing. This goal journal will be something too I will enjoy reviewing at the end of the year and checking off the things that happened and rolling things over for the next year.

Worship flag day

Let the creativity Begin! Today I did a little shopping this morning to collect some item to make 2 worship flags for my kids. It's a project I thought about over a year ago and never got on it. So during my devotional time this morning the thought popped back into my head. I've found that God often reminds me of things I should do when I spend time with him. So after lunch I put the kids down for quite time at got to it. I would have let them help but, I decided to use hot glue. Not a good choice for a 3 and 5 yr old.

I bought 2 dowel rods some shimmery fabric and ribbon for a little sprinkle on top. It all came to about $6.50 per worship flag. I'm sure I could have gotten thrifty and found better deals but, I just wanted to see how it would pan out on the first try. Maybe next time I make some I will challenge my self to see how cheap I can make it.

So it only took about 30 min to make two of them and it was so much fun. I love working with my hands.

The kids didn't seem to be too quiet in quiet time today so after I was done with the flags I let them come down and try them out. They were so excited! Here are some pics of my creation.

A new season

Life is ever changing, that we all know. It's been hitting me like a ton of bricks lately though. I know a ton of bricks sounds heavy. I would say that in a lot of ways life has been heavy lately but its also been refreshing and renewing. I almost can't even put my finger on everything my heart is feeling at this time.

It's good to know that God is in control. Knowing that timing is in his very hands is refreshing. Knowing that what ever comes and goes he is the Author of life itself.

I say all that to preface the changes that have happened in this past year. I have reconnected with some precious friends that I grew up with. After we got married we all kinda did our own thing for awhile. In a lot of ways I think it was good for all of us. To have separate lives for a while. We have all grown and matured in allot of ways since the last time we were really connected. It's awesome to experience being moms and becoming moms together. One just found out she was expecting 2 days ago. We are all giggles to find out what she is having. This is her second child and she already has a boy. Another one is getting married in August and plans to start a family right away. When we get together the 5 of us their are 6 kids Plus 1 in the oven and 1 in the planning.

Tim and Michelle some of our dearest friends moved away. They are pursuing their dream to create music for the lord. It broke my heart to see them leave. I know God has great plans for their lives and they are following his direction. That being said it was still very hard to see them leave. With out Knowing Tim and Michelle our lives would be so much different right now. A long story short. I grew up in church but, stopped attending when my parents went through a rough divorce . It was about 8 years after that Tim saw us leaving Wal-Mart and at that time we had never met him before. He invited us to his church Easter Program. You see their was something different about him. Tom and I had church shopped for a couple years before. trying to get connected trying to find that place that would feel like home. Every place we went I would go to a bible study etc. But I never really made friends and felt welcome. Tim was different the love of God shone in his eyes. I felt Gods presence that day when Tim came up and talked with us. It was a feeling I had known at time as kid growing up in church and going to church camp in the summer time. It was the really the thing I was looking for. We started attending church that very week. The next week my sister and I gave our life to the lord again and soon after that her husband and my mom came and gave their life to the lord. The following fall my husband gave his life to the lord. You see it was a huge chain of events that happened all because one man who loved the lord and obeyed him invited us with love to church. Our lives have been changing every since. This past Easter we have been born again for 5 years. Needless to say Tim and Michelle have had a huge impact on our live the last 5 years. We've been through the good the bad and the ugly and still God remains the same. I'm thankful for the years that we had them to help mentor us in our walk with the Lord.

I was able to experience what it's like to see childbirth this month also. On July 8th Baby Judah was born and it was the first Time I was able to experience childbirth without being in the bed myself. What a tear jerking experience! I was in awe and still am. That is a moment I will never forget. It meant allot to me that my Friends Amanda and Jeremy would let me be apart of Baby Judah's birth. That might be the only time I get to experience it. I was crushed to find out 2 years ago when My sister was giving birth that I would not be able to be in the room after 9 months of planning to be. She ended up having a c-section. We were all very happy that My niece Payton was fine but, I still craved that experience that I always looked forward to. I left the hospital after Judah's birth feeling like God had given me a present that day. It's so sweet to realize moments you know God had a hand in. Not everyone would care for extra people in the room while giving birth. God bless Amanda and Jeremy :)


Another thing that has been on my mind lately is school. My daughter Aubrey starts Kindergarten this year. I'm going to keep her at home again this year. I home school preschool last year for her and my little guy Malachi. He is going to go to the Church of the Savior preschool this year. Then I will probably start him in kindergarten at home next year if he is ready.

Last night I read through all my teachers manuals trying to get familiar with how its all going to work. I plan on making my daily schedule soon and getting the kids started on their sleep schedule.

I'm here allowing God to use all these changes to work in me and though me.