Lets Give Them Something to Talk About

I have started blogging on a specific topic two or three times now and just don’t have the nerve to post it.   It is a topic that is taboo to talk about and will make a lot of people angry with me so I can never bring myself to do it.   I keep going back to the verse in the beatitudes, Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for the will be called sons of God.”   But then I think about another verse on Colossians 3:15-17 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.   And be thankful, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”   So two verses about being peaceful, but one of those verses speaks about how we are to admonish others with wisdom.   What a funny word- “admonish”.   Webster’s says that it is to “warn a person, to correct a fault; to criticize in a gentle way.”   I think the re

So this past week we went to PA and left our pool unattended.   It is a small pool, only 12 foot around and 36 inches deep, so we don’t always run the filter, so it was turned off.   Neither of us checked the chlorine tab in the water and, although it was covered, the cover didn’t stay on for long.   We came home to an almost brown pool.   It was so dark green from the algae, it was disgusting.   We let it sit for a day wondering if we wanted to drain the entire thing or try to shock it back into submission.   After going out there and inspecting it closer, I made the decision to drain the whole thing and get on my hands and knees and scrub it out. (hence the reason for the late post this morning) So as I was on my hands and knees in bleach water, algae and grime, I kept thinking- what a great devotional!   HAHAHAHA…   So often we let our lives, our relationships and our hearts stay stagnant for too long.   We let parts of our life not get stirred, filtered, treated.   We say that we

My husband and I got a night away from the kids!   It was great!   It was Sunday night to Monday and on Monday we got to go do an adult activity of white water rafting.   It was amazing.   Instead of using the typical raft, we rented a double duck.   It is basically a double kayak that you blow up.   You it on the floor of it and it goes a lot faster.   Some other things that we found out is that you get a lot wetter b/c you are sitting in water the entire time and you are much lower and apparently it is easier to flip in these. As we were preparing to go down the rapids, the guides were giving instructions to the rafters.   Telling about when to lean in and when to paddle on what side.   He looked at us and just said- “and ducky- good luck, you are most likely going to flip- just try to get back in the boat as soon as possible.   And whatever you do – don’t loose your paddle b/c you will have to doggie paddle the rest of the time.” First rapid came and it was so different and so muc

On Saturday I got to witness one of the most amazing things in my life.   My little sister got married to the man that is perfect for her.   Now that sounds like something that happens every weekend, and weddings do happen every weekend.   This wedding though, it was really special to me for obvious reasons.   My little sister, the one that I helped learn to color in the lines and helped play soccer with laundry baskets in the garage.   The one that ate super glue when she was younger, got stuck on a bike seat in the garage and pulled a TV AND a dresser on top of herself.   My baby sister who came to musicals with me and to church, and hung out with my friends and me by invitation.   The little girl who I would dress to match even as a senior in high school.   My baby sister dressed in a beautiful white dress, walked down that isle and committed herself for the rest of her life to the man that she has fallen in love with.   Needless to say if I am this much of a mess now, imagine what

My little sister gets married on Saturday – I am really super excited for her.   This is a huge deal and she has found a great guy to get married to.   The wedding will be fun, but the marriage is what counts.   I really think that they are going to be so happy together and I am so excited.   Before the marriage starts though, we are having a big old hooplah- celebration this week – soooo…   since I don’t own a lap-top, I will be taking a break from posting for 1 week   - to resume again on Wed the 27 th . Back to today’s devotion though.   With all the wedding talk, it has really made me think about how we are to be the Bride of Christ.   The Bible talks about it all the time.   Song of Songs is kinda the “weird” book in the Bible.   The bride to be and bridegroom are talking about each other and how much they love each other.   It just this morning occurred to me that it is how God wants our relationship with Him to be.   Lets think about it.   Multiple places in the Bible God state

I can’t even tell you how much I don’t want to be sitting here writing this right now.   I just have no motivation to do anything today.   I am exhausted and a   little cranky and well down right drawing a blank on what to write.   That was until I looked down on my nails.   I got my nails done last night – I left my husband with the kids and went and had some girl time with a friend to get my nails done for a wedding I am going to be in on Saturday.   (my little baby sister!)   Finger nails are really rather silly.   Women spend all this time and money on them and what do we use them for?   We use them to scrape the goop off the table or help untie a shoe.   We make them “pretty” really for ourselves.   I can almost promise you that majority of men do not look at hands and say, “what amazing nails!”   So what is the point of spending time, money and effort taking care of our nails?   I have to say, when I have my nails done, I feel so much prettier, I feel more kept, more presentabl

There are sometimes that I wish I could walk up to some people, adults only, and grab them by the shirt collars and holler at them – “GROW UP”.   (My kids I want to holler – “stop growing!).   It never ceases to amaze me the level of immaturity of some adults today.   And not even new adults, ones that are in their 30s and think they are still in their teens.   I remember, as a teen, seeing some of my friend’s parents trying to dress like a teen and we just sat there ad laughed at them.   They thought they were so cool.   Now I see my friends suffering from broken homes and marriages because their spouse and them couldn’t work things out.   They can’t stop abusing a substance, or are addicted to other things.   In reality, they are addicted to themselves and so selfish it makes me want to scream!   I have been posting a lot about being like a child.   That is in your relationship with God – trusting as a child and following as a child.   In real life, as we get older we need to matur

I have learned a lot having multiple kids at my house this week.   1) They are really good kiddos – 2) you can’t cater to everyone all the time.   The middle children inevitably want the same toy.   As soon as one of the kids starts playing with one thing – they ALL want it.   Even if it is a baby’s toy.   3) kids are very imaginative and 4) the majority rules!!! Usually at my house I have a 3 year old that speaks very well and an almost 2 year old that is just learning how to speak.   There are fights over toys etc… but the younger one can’t really voice her opinion yet.   Now, with a 9, 8, 6, 3 and 1.5 I have a lot of difference of opinions here.   It is a good learning experience for me.   One thing that I have learned is that sometimes the majority is great to rule.   Sometimes, you have to do turns and say who gets to do what and sometimes you have to be a dictator and tell them what to do.   They might all tell me that they want to go swimming, but if it is pouring down rain or

It is on days like this that I just don’t want to move- I don’t want to do my devotions, I don’t want to think at all.   This week has been a whirl wind and then some things happened yesterday that made my day very interesting…   My 3 year old had her first sleep over with her visiting cousins in their room and so I was up and down all night reminding them that the main word in the sentence was SLEEP.   I was also up a lot with my youngest who is having a bout with allergies.   So I didn’t get much sleep at all last night.   I just didn’t want to move this morning when my 3 year old bounded into my room at 7am. I really don’t know how she is so chipper with such little sleep, I guess that is what naps are for.   She bounded in and insisted that I turn the TV on for her (the only one up at the time other than her daddy who was already at work) and get her juice.   I believe I just grunted at her at the time- informed her that I needed 5 more minutes.   She went out – came back in my ro

It is amazing how your body just shuts down when it is telling you that it needs rest.   Your head aches, your throat hurts, your whole body feels like it was hit by a mac truck…   It always seems to come at a time when you are so busy and moving so fast that you just don’t have time to be sick.   MAYBE that is a hint.   Maybe your body is working so hard other places, it doesn’t have a chance to create antibodies.   Maybe you aren’t sleeping well enough, or pushing yourself and your brain just a little too hard.   What usually happens to me is that a big event comes up and my KIDS get sick.   It almost never fails that they end up throwing up, getting a fever, having a bad reaction to a vaccine, something crazy right when I can’t deal with them being sick.   It goes back to the timing post from earlier…   We do need to keep our bodies healthy, we all know that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit…   It is found in 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 20 “Do you not know that you body is a t

Some people are really picky eaters.   They hardly eat anything until you put the right thing in front of them and then they become this eating machine.   It warms my heart to see all the food gone and everyone enjoying the meals and the food that I make.   It drives me crazy when I have to throw out partially eaten food.   I have saved it to try to make my kids eat it later, told them they aren’t getting anything else all night long, that doesn’t seem to phase them at all.   I have tried to explain that there are hungry people that live around us that don’t get any food what-so-ever, but that doesn’t sink in at the age that they are.   I want to grab some adults though and inform them of this fact.   Our church has the new director of the food pantry- she is a pretty great lady.   She sees first hand the hungry people in our town.   Our town has a lot of hunger, but if you choose not to see it, it isn’t noticeable at all.   The schools have over 50% getting free lunches and when our

Potty Training can be a beast!   I have a lot of friends, family, and even myself, that have really struggled with potty training.   My problem was that we started and then stopped, then started, then stopped.   We had the poor kid so confused she didn’t know what was right.   We begin potty training at an early age.   We SAY it will be easier once they are in underwear, but in personally, I think that diapers make life a lot easier.   We started training our oldest at 18 months old.   She wanted to learn so bad.   We had a new born and it got pushed off and off – and finally at 2.25 she was trained.   It took forever because she was so confused where if we had just stuck with it at first, it would have been a lot easier for her to understand.   It would be really weird to see a 4 year old still in diapers, or a 6 year old or a 20 year old…   some have to be for health reasons, but for those that are healthy and able to control their bladders, it would be strange.   It is something t

Starting tomorrow I am offering duct tape classes at church for our day camp type program called xplore 2011.   Now… for those of you that don’t know this – I am a little duct tape fanatic.   I love that there are different colors, I love that you can cut it and mold it and shape it and make just about anything with it.   My biggest projects have been purses and wallets, but I also have made tiaras, necklaces, earrings, hair bows, jackets.   I was commissioned by Duck Brand Duct Tape to do the jackets as well as make a lot of flowers.   I think it is a lot of fun! In these camps – we want to have some type of children’s message and I have been struggling to figure out what exactly I was going to talk about until a lady from our church yesterday informed me that we were going to be having a lot of kids from the lower income section of our town coming to this camp.   For my – my response was FANTASTIC!!!   She then reminded me that I needed to make sure that the other kids were bing kin

Sometimes it is easy to see when God answers prayer.   It is immediate and pretty much just about to smack you in the face.   Other times, you forget that you asked, or you just forget that He answers prayers.   Or He is working through you or through a situation to answer prayers.   Sometimes it is easy to chalk it up to your own efforts or just to say a great thing happened.   Sometimes God answers our prayers, but not answering them at all…. (deep right?) Our prayers count, our life counts, the prayers of our parents, friends, relatives, they all count.   Things change due to prayer.   Luke 11:1-13 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: "'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead

Sometimes God’s timing really confuses me.   Sometimes it is funny, but there are other times that I just want to grab him by the collar and yell at him- what were you thinking?!?!?   Especially when it is affecting someone near and dear to my heart. The Fourth of July, the timing was hilarious.   We drove around 1 hour to go and see this awesome fireworks display.   We arrived a few hours early to get a good spot, visit with some friends and just hang out.   Well…   as the fireworks are getting ready, the thunder and lightning start.   People are freaking out- but we decided to stick it out, as did most people.   The fireworks started and ended without any rain.   We packed up our two kids and started heading back to the car, about a 10-minute walk.   About 2 minutes into it, the sky opens up and pours buckets of rain on EVERYONE there.   Everyone was racing to get back to his or her car.   I got shoved and almost fell, we were splashed and all we could do was crack up about it.   I

Having a migraine really throws me off.   I shut down.   I get cranky, don’t want to be around anyone and just need to sleep it off usually.   The problems with this, is that they hit often and usually when I am out doing something.   They hit when my youngest decides she has to poo in her diaper and only the women’s room has a changer.   They hit when I am in the middle of a movie where my kids are being completely ridiculous.   They hit on days that I have a lot to do.   They also hit on days that I have nothing to do but watch my kids.   Fortunately, I have a husband who helps me through them if he can.   Yesterday we attempted to take our almost 2 year old and our 3 year old to the movies.   We had taken the 3 year old to another movie before and she had done fine, but this was our 2 year olds first movie.   Well…   the previews were alright, but then the novelty of the movie theater wore off and if you ask me, there is no way that I could tell you what the movie was about at all!

It is so easy to get discouraged when you keep doing something over and over again that is God’s will and God’s direction and not seeing His blessings out of it.   It is so easy to say, I am doing something wrong, or I have to change what I am doing.   What if what you are doing is specifically in the Lord’s commands though?   What if you aren’t seeing a difference going to church?   How about sharing the gospel?   Or even working with the church in certain areas.   Things that God has commanded us to do, things that God is telling us to follow, but we aren’t seeing any fruits of our labor. I can assure you that we are not the only ones not seeing these fruits.   I have been struggling with an issue recently.   One that has stressed me out, made me sad, angry and all sorts of emotions.   I have felt this way.   It is something that god has commanded me to do, something that is in His will, something that I truly feel called to do,   but I have hit road block after road block.   Last n

We have lived in our house for around 3 years.   We chose 35 acres in the country setting because my husband wanted to escape noise and just enjoy living in the country.   Originally, this was a 40 acre plot and the previous owners sold 5 acres to one of their friends.   They then sold us the 35 acres and we put a house on the property.   We were getting situated in the winter.   The ground was muddy, the weather was cold, I was pregnant with our first child, and we never ended up going over to meet our neighbors.   We definitely met their dog though, he was always on our property and our dogs were not so excited about it.   As the spring came, we had a garage sale and their kids came over to see what we were selling.   I had a newborn and we both stayed to ourselves.   I asked if they wanted to come over sometime for a cook out and they said that they preferred to stay to themselves.   Not 3 days later, the parting started.   The up-all-night, fireworks going off every day, not in th