Foto Friday 4 (biggest and littlest)

S.'s band concert was a highlight of this week. She's playing her flute beautifully these days. Littlest also mastered sitting on her own. She's now quite content to play on the floor for a bit surrounded by her favorite things. This makes for a happy mommy :-)

Next week the other two girls both have singing roles of their own, P. at church and C. in her school chorus concert. See you then!

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Christmas thoughts

Some of my favorite Christmas holidays have come when we've been blessed to have a young baby in the house. A wee child in my arms brings about feelings of true joy, love, and wonderful anticipation of what's to come. Dwelling on this gets me back in touch with the true importance of Christmas, allowing me to push some of the extras and excess aside. Little ones are not yet aware of the preparations and presents, the decorating and planning, and so much of what I must pull together to make Christmas a 'success' around here. I believe that what Z. wants for Christmas is not a shiny new toy with music and lights, not the biggest tree ever, not the perfect Christmas card picture, but simply to be surrounded by those who love and treasure her. I'd guess that's what our Savior wants most this year too.

Still icky :-(

I've been a bit scarce these past couple of weeks as the entire family has been battling various illnesses. I started things off some three weeks ago with a sinus infection that progressed down into a mild pnemonia/bronchitis. Two different courses of anti-biotics later I'm feeling somewhat better but still not nearly myself. Our oldest had a strep. throat last week and I was back at the docs again with littlest yesterday. Her cough had gotten a bit 'barky' which made me nervous. Doc assures me hers is viral and should get better soon.

I feel a bit whiny for complaining about it all when I know of many who are truly ill. I often forget to thank God for his blessing of health for my family. He looks after us and provides for us in so many ways that go unnoticed.

Foto Friday (late)

Yes, I know it's Saturday but I'm running a bit behind this week. Here's a sneak peek for my loyal readers... a preview of our Christmas card picture. We've resorted to making our own snow this year since we're not expecting to see any of the real stuff until we head north to celebrate the holidays.

Cassie's Comments

Happy Turkey Day!!! My mom is cooking the desserts . My dad is cooking the turkey, the veggies, and the stuffin. MMMM.. I can't wait to eat the feast! I also can't wait to say what we're thankful for. I'm thankful for a lot of things, to tell you the truth all of us are. Well, the thing I'm most thankful for is my parents. My parents always care about me. They will always love me. I'm also thankful for teachers. Teachers teach us new skills every day. They even help us with problems. I'm also thankful for friends and brothers and sisters. I only have sisters, but I do have friends that are boys. Anyway friends and siblings always spend time with you. I just can't imagine a world without friends and siblings. I really am thankful for a lot more things, but I am only going to share one more thing. I'm thankful for volunteers. Volunteers help people because they care. Alot of people care, but they get paid for it. Volunteers don't. I hope you think of something your thankful for. HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!!!

Paige's Thanks

Thanksgiving is coming. It's one of my favorite holidays. And I have a lot more favorite holidays too. I'm thankful for America because without America the Pilgrims and the Indians wouldn't be friends. The Indians and the Pilgrims helped each other. Then they had a feast. That's why we have Thanksgiving. I'm also thankful or my mommy and daddy and my whole family and for my friends. I'm thankful for our country. I'm thankful for Jesus and the food he gave us so we can live. I'm thankful for my home. I'm thankful for trees and nature. I'm also thankful for our pets.

I eat turkey on Thanksgiving. We have stuffing for too. We have pies. I'm thankful for pudding and banana pies. That's it.

Love,
Paige- I am 5 years old

A New England Holiday

I find myself missing New England most during the fall. It's a balmy 76 here today and as I look out my window I see many trees still wearing their muted colored leaves. The Thanksgivings of my childhood were rather different....

I often visited Plimoth Plantation. This place is the real deal, a 1627 Pilgrim village where the surroundings are so authentic and the villagers speak and act completely in character. You can also visit a Wampanoag homesite and board the Mayflower II, a scaled down version of the original. While in Plymouth, MA we always had to go see the rock which is actually a bit anti-climactic after all that 'living history'. click here to see a pic of the rock

By mid October the leaves were changing, and frosty evenings foretold a winter not far off. By Thanksgiving time silvery tree branches were all too visible, and the cold had crept in permanently. In New Hampshire Thanksgiving was often synonomous with snow. I remember sitting at the bottom of a huge hill two holidays ago and praying that the van would make it safely up. I thought that we might not make it to dinner at all that year as the snow went from 0-6+inches by noon time. Once you start up a long snowy hill, you'd best not slow down or you'll lose precious traction and never make it to the table. The song "Over the River and Through the Woods" often takes on a whole different meaning in New England!

I'll also admit to being a bit picky regarding my Thanksgiving menu. I grew up with the classics: roast turkey with stuffing (in the bird please), mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, peas, and pumpkin pie. I hear lots of talk here about macaroni and cheese, ham, and potato salad, amongst other dishes. Sure they might be tasty, but to me they just don't belong on my holiday table. Check out a quintessential New England menu here . Think cranberries, lots of cranberries folks. Incidentally they flood the bogs to harvest them and those bogs made for some of my best childhood ice skating shortly after turkey day.

We have so very much to be thankful for this year, and of course that's what matters most. At the top of my list are the many friends and family we're missing up north. We've developed a new level of appreciation for you all and can't wait to see you over the Christmas holidays. We're also so thankful for the friends and family that we have here in Georgia- the faces which color our daily lives here with laughter and love. We wish you and yours a blessed Thanksgiving, no matter how or where you celebrate.

I'm going to let the girls take over the blog during this school holiday so they can let you know what's on their hearts as we gather this year. Stay tuned...

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.
Psalm 136:1

Foto Friday 3 (proud mommy)

Despite my persistant sinus infection it's been a good week around here. Progress reports came out this week and the older two aced theirs. They always look good, but this quarter things are looking great! S. had a 95 or above in each class and C.'s lowest grade was a 96! I'm so very proud of them for all the work they put in at school and hope it speaks of good things to come.

Our school doesn't issue progress reports in Kindergarten, but I'm pretty proud of P. this week too. I need to get around to buying a scanner, but a photo taken of her drawing will have to do. It makes my heart happy when she proudly brings home pictures like these. This is definitely one of my faves. Her Dad and I are holding her hands, all of us wearing big smiles. The sun is shining, the cross is above us, and there's an American flag blowing in the wind off to the side. I wish more of us could see the world that way.

Life looks pretty good from where I sit. Sometimes I'm simply awed by it all.

Father today I thank you for the wonderful gifts of my children. Please continue to watch over them as they grow. Keep molding their hearts and mine. In your name I pray, Amen.

Unavailable

Okay, confession time...

Sometimes I hate being so available. Communication is so fast and convenient nowadays, but it can all be a bit intrusive. I've been interrupted way too often lately by the chimes of one phone or another and feel compelled to answer an email or letter once I open it. I often shut the ringers off on the telephones, put the cell on vibrate, and resolve to check email only once every day or so. I'm trying to pull back a bit and focus on the more important things, God and my family. So much of the rest is just that- the rest. Most of that stuff can wait. The kids can't. The Lord shouldn't have to.

I think that's why I'm enjoying blogging so much. It perfectly fits my schedule, never interrupts my day, and once I've got you here you're a pretty captive audience. Selfish, I know :-).

So if you find yourself "leaving a message after the beep" these days please understand that I'll get back to you, when I can. A girl's got to prioritize.

21 Rules

I like to keep things simple when possible. I came across these a while back and shared them with my own family. They've been remarkably effective. So check out The 21 rules of this house here. The rest of the site if pretty cool too.

Taking care of mommy

I certainly don't procrastinate when it comes to getting my kids to the doc. I can't say the same for myself however :-(. I started last Wednesday night with a few aches and a scratchy throat and things quickly went downhill from there. After a long weekend filled with fever, chills, and no sign of an end in sight, I finally got myself in yesterday to get checked out. Turns out I had a sinus infection all along and it had gotten, well, a bit out of hand. Today I'm feeling ever so slightly better thanks to an antibiotic but the doc had warned it would take a couple of days to see some marked improvement. Thankfully hubby had a long weekend thanks to Veteran's Day so he was able to help out with the kids quite a bit. The household chores and my mega to-do list are piling up quick though. Personally I know I'm sick when the house is a mess and I don't care!

Hopefully I'll continue to recover and will get things back in order sometime in the near future. I would certainly do well to remember that I can't take care of everyone else when I don't take care of myself. Being sick always makes me miss my own mommy.

Praying for Paris

This week my church is again sending a team of five women to Paris. They'll be working with a team of established missionaries affiliated with the International Mission Board who work to build relationships with immigrant Muslim women in Paris. Specifically they'll minister personally to women at a community center started by the missionaries through teaching of the biblical story of Esther.

Muslim women who come to Christ face tremendous persecution from their friends and family. A dear friend recommended the book The Torn Veil: The True Story of Gulshan Esther . This is a compelling story of the freedom and healing that this young woman experiences as she embraces Christianity. There are many, many more women like Gulshan Esther living in Paris that need to meet Jesus too.

The mission team left on November 9th and will return home on the 17th. Please join me this week in praying for them and the families that they are leaving at home this week. Please pray for the spiritual growth of the team members and that they'll be brought into an even deeper relationship with the Lord as they work as His hands and feet. Please pray also for the women that they will encounter and for potential relationships they'll make there. Pray that many Muslim women will see and feel the love of Christ in tangible ways through this ministry.

Thank you.

Foto Friday 2

Well here are the results of my sewing project. I've enjoyed making these jumpers for P. and Z. and am almost done with a second set. I'm going to tackle some applique pieces next. We're all spending a bit of time on the computer lately, even little one wants to get in on the act. The girls' current fave is penguin baseball. A sure fire time waster! Let us know how far you can hit. C. holds the record at our house.

Brrrr...

It amazes me how quickly our bodies have acclimated to the Georgia climate. I quickly developed a much higher tolerance for heat and have now realized that I'm losing my ability to cope with cold weather as well. The last few days the temps have dipped into the low 30's overnight and have warmed only to the low 60's during the day. I am downright cold! We're excited to head north for Christmas and have been missing our northern folk lots, but I'm sure hoping that the weather is kind to us while we're up. I'll admit that the thought of sub freezing temperatures or driving in the snow is not a welcome one anymore.

On an unrelated note, I've been working hard lately on a sewing project. My knitting needles and stamps have been gathering dust for a while. I'm pretty proud of my results, so tune in tomorrow for some pics!

Oh, and kindly keep your cold weather north of the Mason-Dixon line, or at least ship me down some wool socks! :-)

Family Arithmetic

Have you ever thought about the simple math involved as God grows our families? First there's addition. We marry (that's a +1 for sure) and then he sometimes sees fit to bless us with children. I thank Him each day that I'm a +5, just in my own immediate family. He continues this growth by multiplication. I've seen Him at work in the families of our parents. My husband and I were the first on both sides of the family to marry and to have children. In just over a decade he's multiplied our families with 3 additional marriages and the blessing of nine children!

The flip side of this would division, and while I wish it weren't so, it does exist. I believe this comes not from our heavenly father, but is the unfortunate result of sinful individuals living in a fallen world. At times we're incapable or unwilling to do the things we should to promote peace and prevent conflict, myself included. God gave us the gift of free will, so I think that conflict within our families will always exist to varying degrees. While he does not prevent division, he does prevent subtraction and I thank Him for that. Even if family members become estranged and eventually when they pass away, they are not gone from us. They live on in our hearts and memories.

As much as conflict pains me it's often an opportunity for growth. An argument within my own extended family has troubled me lately, but serves as a reminder that my happiness is not determined by the people or circumstances that surround me. My fulfillment comes from above. He will fill me to the point of overflowing if I let him. I can always find peace by looking up, even when I'm surrounded by strife.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Proverbs 15:1 (NIV)

Lord please help me to act in ways that will promote peace and temper anger. I wish for my family to be marked by growth and not division. I ask this in your name. Amen.

Six months?

Ican hardly believe that our little one is six months old. It feels like she was just born yesterday. I remember trying to take care of our older girls at home while running back and forth to the NICU to be with her as much as possible. She was so fragile when she came home. I'd watch her breathe and live in fear that her apnea alarm would sound if I looked away- even for a moment. How wonderful it was to introduce her to her friends and family up north this summer and then to return to the peace and quiet of home here in Georgia. Don't let her know, but I almost miss those early weeks where I'd find myself rocking to her and singing softly at 3AM. I recall first baths, first walks, first trips to church, first smiles, and first giggles. I thank the Lord for you each day and ask Him to be with us as we celebrate many, many more firsts together. Happy 1/2 birthday, little one. I love you!

I Am By Mark Shultz

Here's another favorite of ours. Enjoy!

Love

1 Corinthians 13
Love
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(NIV emphasis mine)

This chapter of scripture is such a gift, it has always spoken to my heart. The people that God has surrounded me with, my family and friends, are truly blessings to me. I hope that they know that whether we agree or disagree, whether or not I may "like" them at a given point in time, I always love them. I belive that I always will. I believe that love never fails.

Foto Friday 1

Here's our oldest two sporting face paint from the end of the season soccer celebration and littlest from her command center, aka excersaucer. She loves standing up in it and enjoying a better view of everyone. "See" you next week!

Stuck...

One of my favorite childhood books is "Where the Red Fern Grows". It's a story about animals, growing up, love, and loss. A young boy wants to learn to coon hunt with his dogs. First he goes on a journey to raise money and purchase his pups and then he sets about training them as hunters. In order to do so he needs a coon hide for them to chase. His wise grandpa suggests a deceptively simple trap: a wooden box with an opening just large enough for a coon stick his hand through with some shiny metal 'bait' inside. The boy is skeptical, all the coon would need to do is let go of his metal prize and he'd be able to remove his hand. Grandpa proves right when he traps his first coon using this method.

I'm more like that simple raccoon than I'd like to admit. I often find myself stuck simply because I refuse to let go. Sometimes I'm holding on to something that I truly believe is important, but all too often I'm holding on to something that's just, well stuff. All that holding on can definitely hold me back.

Jesus spoke about this several times during his ministry, a few of my favorites are the ninth chapter of Luke and the parable of the rich young man. My prayer today is a simple one...

Lord please help me to let go of anything which is holding back. In your name, I pray. Amen