joy in the journey

that crazy white stuff

JOurneY — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:21:55 +0000

Even though the snow barely covered the little bit of grass we have in the back yard, my kids went absolutely nutty this morning. I told them to go look outside and that was the end of it. If I would have known what was to follow I would have delayed their looking! The cutest part was when Jack said, “This is the best gift ever” and John said, “I have been waiting for this my whole life!” Luke simply said, “mommy, snow!”

It was 7:30 am and I was fighting them off. I had to bribe them with a DVD just to be able to eat my breakfast before going outside. Finding the “perfect” snow clothes was a job in and of itself. There was yelling, pushing and several rounds of tears (and we won’t even go into how the boys acted….haha). We finally made it outside and all was well with the world. It is amazing how much effort it took and how much of a toll it took on the kitchen, but it was worth it. These boys definitely have a need to conquer something every day (they should put that in the Charlotte Mason homeschool book). I think the list would be more complete if it read like this:

1. Something to do

2. Something to take care of

3. Someone to Love

4. Something to Conquer

The snow is fun, but I am kind of glad it is warming up (don’t tell my kids)!!

pictures to follow (=

Use Your Words

JOurneY — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:31:57 +0000

If there is one phrase I say over and over this would be it…”use your words, use your words, use your words.” Whenever one of my kids screams or whines I tell them that I cannot hear them or help them until they “use their words”. Well, you would think that since I say it so much that I would have it down myself, but I sometimes find that is not the case. Today I got upset at how my husband responded to me and instead of “using my words” to ask him what he intended to say I got upset and left the room with my feelings hurt. What am I, a three year old??? Uggg! To make it worse, later in the morning I was getting onto one of my kids for getting angry with their brother before talking it through with him (insert conviction and more uggg!!) Yes, you guessed it. I immediately emailed my husband an apology. I guess I need to learn this lesson before I can expect my kids to do it right 100% of the time. That is why there is grace for today and bright hope for tomorrow (=

I See The Light

JOurneY — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:00:58 +0000

You know..the one at the end of the tunnel! We had major breakthrough today. Jack read!! He realized he could do it. He sat down and read 50 pages in his reader. Something opened up for him. He is sitting by me right now and just said “mom, now I am going to be reading all of the restaurants for you” (food is very important to him). This is not just huge for him, but for me too. As a new home school mom working with my first kid I am constantly asking myself if this is actually going to work. It works for other people but they are probably better at this than me, so will it really work? Well, it does and it did. I feel like I was successful at something for the first time in our home school journey. We have had small accomplishments, but this is the first big breakthrough and it is so rewarding…even more than I thought it would be…to see your child get excited about reading and start inhaling every book that looks even half way interesting. My heart is so full of a really deep and rewarding joy. Thank you Lord for this moment…I am treasuring it fully!

“I do believe, help my unbelief”

JOurneY — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:13:13 +0000

It has been quite a month. Mainly because my little one fell and busted up his teeth. He ended up losing one, or so we thought and we finally got him into the dentist for an x-ray and they said the tooth was fractured and the root was still in the gum and the other tooth was loose and would have to come out too. Now we are looking at extracting both. I basically just had a pit in my stomach. Now, I realize that it is not the end of the world and it is “only his baby teeth” but it is HIS BABY TEETH!!! The cutest teeth a kid will ever have…one of my favorite features about him. I don’t think I have fully grieved the fact that this happened to my baby, but it bothers me. He is oblivious to it all, except for a few inconveniences and of course will still do nose dives toward the fireplace despite my obvious discomfort (= Anyway, through this whole process what I realized is that there is this lingering pocket of unbelief in my heart from when my dad passed away. After all, we were praying and all believing that he would be healed. I know he is in a better place, but we still did not see what we were believing for. For the last year my heart cry has been to see God show up in a major way and do the impossible. I want to see the unseen….I am contending for it. God revealed to me that just praying for Luke was not enough, but I needed Him to heal the unbelief in my heart. I have tried to overcome it on my own by just saying that I believe, but this scripture called me out. Mark 9:24b ” I do believe, help my unbelief.” That is exactly what I feel!! I set aside some time to seek the Lord on this and it was amazing what He did in my heart. I woke up Monday of this week with this untainted hope and expectancy in my heart. I have not felt that in so long, and it was not from a place of striving or fighting, but of rest. It is actually an awkward feeling, but good. I am resting and trusting and God did it all. I have let go of my expectations of what healing looks like and just have this expectancy in my heart that God is on the scene and will be true to His Word. I am asking for Jesus to have compassion on Luke and to heal his teeth and gums…I am believing for a miracle in his mouth, but the amazing part is God started with a miracle in my heart.

What are “The Walking Years”

JOurneY — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:37:02 +0000

You know….the years you would rather be jogging through, running through, sprinting through or even flying through, but God prefers that you walk through slowly with eyes wide open so you don’t have to learn all these lessons again when the cost is greater. For me it is being at home with small children (aka “the refiners fire”).

I love to jog. I know some do not relate, but it is one of my favorite things to do by myself. My head feels so clear and I feel so alive after a good run. Anyway, between being pregnant three times, three c-sections, three nursing babies and then the fact that there are three boys to take care of I have not exactly gotten to jog that much over the last six years. I do however go on walks.

One beautiful spring day I loaded up the double stroller with my five year old and my three year old, including drinks and snacks for the journey, wrapped on the baby sling and tucked my little two month old inside. It was our first big walk since he was born. It felt so good to be out, however, pushing 80 pounds around the neighborhood is not as refreshing as I thought it would be. As we were rounding our last corner, exhausted and ready to be home, I look over and was instantly overcome with feelings of depression. It was a young girl in her 20′s with her mp3 player clipped to her sleeve, her headphones tucked perfectly in her ears (blocking out the whining coming from my stroller) and her new jogging shoes moving so smoothly past our toddler parade. She looked so peaceful and light without a care in the world and it was then that I realized, I am in “the walking years”. (more to come on how God has redeemed this moment for me)

Years

JOurneY — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:03:06 +0000

Seems like years since I have written a blog, and as a matter of fact it has been. Something about that third kid just makes it hard to sit and type, but I am feeling it is more necessary than ever, so here goes……

Firetruck

JOurneY — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:30:58 +0000

We have this firetruck. Jack got it for his birthday last year and it was so much fun. It was a blow up toy that the boys could acutally sit on and pretend like they were the firefighter. It hooked up to the garden hose and water sprayed out of a little fire hose and out of a separate little fire hydrant and then there was also a sprayer on the back of the truck. Really..lots of fun, until…it broke. The water would get backed up in the little hydrant and would never reach the other sprayers, and then that water got all moldy so I had to separate the two parts and now it doesn’t hook up to the hose anymore. It is just a little fire truck to sit on, which is still kind of fun, but not nearly as fun as we all know it could be. Jack keeps asking me about it and today I was trying to explain why it doesn’t work anymore and I found myself telling him that it was all connected and since some of the parts are broken then the whole thing is broken. Oh man did this lesson jump out at me: This is what the body of Christ is like. Some of the parts are broken and the water gets backed up and all moldy and never makes it to the sprayers. The body as a whole is still kind of working, but is not nearly as effective as we know we could be. We can never believe the lie that what we are called to do is not important to the body. Each and every part is important or somewhere along the line something will get backed up. God, please continue to show me what I am to put my hands to in this season…let no job be too small to glorify You!

The Cross

JOurneY — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:57:11 +0000

A few weeks ago I was called into the bathroom (which can always be dangerous) and my 2 year old said, ” Mom, look my poopy is in the shape of a cross.” I know…gross, right. I did not know if I should be proud that he noticed it was in the shape of a cross, or embarrassed that he actually put the two together. Anyway, since then he has actually started to notice when anything is in the shape of a cross, not just his poop, which definitely redeemed it for me (-: The Lesson: I should be the same way, not with the poop, but with seeing Jesus in everything, always looking for the possibility of Him being involved..inviting Him back into the creation that He created.

Leave-In Conditioner

JOurneY — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:31:02 +0000

As most everyone knows, all great revelations come in the shower…or at least in some proximity of the bathroom. Being a mom of two boys who inherited great communication skills, for me it is the shower – my 10 (ok 30) minutes of quietness!!

My great revelation this evening came when I was looking up at the conditioner bottle and saw the word fortifying. I thought to myself, “now that is a great word to describe God”. I went on to read the rest of the “promises” that were written on the bottle and I realized that if you just substitute the word “you” for the word “hair” and God’s name in place of the word “conditioner” you have yourself a message of deliverance right there in the shower. Now, you have to take into account that I just so happened to purchase a conditioner for dry, damaged hair which makes it even better. Stick with me!

This is how I read it: “Are you dry, over-dried or damaged? Feel unhealthy to the touch? Do you need nourishment without being weighed down? Try God’s Triple Nutrition…the 3 nutritive oils penetrate to nourish every part of you to the core. 1. The oil of the Father nourishes the inner core. 2. The oil of Jesus nourishes and softens the middle layer. 3. The oil of the Holy Spirit nourishes and smoothes the surface. The Results: Triple Nutrition for a dry, over-dried or damaged you. You will become silky, radiant and full of life. Directions: Apply God to you from the root to the tip. Rinse. For best results, use the the whole Triple Nutrition System!!!

Ok, you can’t say that isn’t just good stuff right there on isle 32. The Lesson: God is everywhere and in everything desperately wanting to heal our dry, damaged souls. All we have to do is apply it (His Word and His Promises), and the more dry…the more we have to apply, every day. I pray that He will open your eyes to see the radiant and full life He has for you!

He Gave It All

JOurneY — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:46:29 +0000

Well, I guess you could say this is my “christmas blog”. My oldest son has had so many questions this Christmas season about God and Jesus and what all happened that I can hardly keep up. Today, he blew me away. We were dropping our daddy off at work and going to run some errands and he started firing away. If you know him, you know that he can ask more questions in one minute than a doctor..a special gift that he comes by honestly (-: Anyway, he was asking me if God had blood. Well….I said, ” I don’t think so because He is a Spirit.” Then he said, “but Jesus had blood because they said it spilled out” so I answered, “yes, that is true. When Jesus lived on the earth he lived in a body just like ours and he did have blood that spilled out when he died on the cross.” So my son sat there for a minute and then said, “But he does not have anymore now that he is in heaven, because he spilled it all out for us while he was here on earth.” Wow! I just sat there for a minute and finally said, “you know, that is a really good observation” and man it is so true…Jesus gave it all while he was here on earth so we could have it all when we get to heaven. Thank You Jesus…we really do appreciate it!