LOL stands for Laugh Out Loud... you probably know that by now. I just wanted to share with you some funnies over the last couple of days that got me LOLing.
Mia came home from a snow trip with Grandpa Davis and said to me, "I brought you something." Well, how nice! She came up to me and said, "I didn't have anything to put it in so I had to wrap it in garbage." Mmmm... I'm thinking. She carefully unwrapped the granola bar wrapper and revealed a pinch of marshmallow that she saved for me. This is no ordinary marshmallow, it's the carmel flavored ones... "special". I looked into those sincere, dark brown eyes, took the bit of marshmallow, removed what fuzzies that I could, thanked her and gulped it down quickly trying not to think about what else might have gone down the hatch with it. LOL!
Yesterday Andrew was faced with a dilemma. While we were driving down the freeway a small yet potentially dangerous beetle like bug had landed... um, how shall I put this... "between his legs". I didn't notice the bug at first, what caught my attention was his twitching hand as he debated whether to swat the bug and risk a self inflicted injury or to let it continue to crawl on him. Hard to multitask important decisions like that while you're driving 70 mph. LOL!
Speaking of bugs. Sierra came shrieking into the room the other day, dancing all over the place, with something pinched between her fingers. "There's a bug!" she said. She knew she wanted to kill it but halfway through lost her nerve and it freaked her out. I finished it off for her. LOL!
Tonight Sierra came to me crying wearing nothing but her Dora undies. "What's wrong?" I asked her. "I don't have any cute jammies," she sobbed, "I don't like those other ones." Thankfully I had just done the laundry and we found some cute jammies in there. Crisis averted. LOL!
I just love little things like these.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
When Life Gives You Lemon Juice...
I was waiting for gas at the Costco station today. Usually they have the best price and it's conveniently located to a lot things I do (like shop at Costco). It strikes me every time how many vehicles are being filled up there. There's always a line and it's not like they don't have 10 stations!! What is the world coming to? Honestly! It makes me want to ride my bike. But then again, it would be hard to fit all the kids on or behind the bike and fit all my super sized Costco groceries in there somewhere, too. *deep breath* I guess I'm doomed to be a minivanner... at least for now. Speaking of super sized Costco shopping, I made another shopping mistake last time I was there. You know when you're tired and you have to pick up some groceries but you don't have a list, so you just wing it and end up with some weird things but not everything you need? Ya, I did that the other day, Costco style. I was just getting some basics to get us by until I actually had my list. I remembered as I went down their baking aisle that I needed some lemon juice. I'm not sure why it didn't register with me at the time that I did not need 96 ounces of lemon juice, (two 48 oz. bottles). On the bottle it says "the juice of 31 lemons". Hmmm... What would I do with 62 lemons? Thankfully my sweet sister-in-law passed along a great article in Real Simple magazine about uses for lemons. I guess I'm set in that department! In fact, I don't know why I'm spending time blogging. I should be... sanitizing the chopping block or removing soft cheese from the grater. When life gives you lemon juice... remove tough food stains from plastic!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Great Grandparents
The van was quiet as we pulled on to the freeway... something that's odd with our crew of 4 kids. The first to speak up was Mia. "Mom..." she said, "I'm gonna miss Grandpa's sticky buns and stuff." "Me, too" I said. We had just said our goodbyes to GG and Gpa, my grandparents, outside of Denny's. When we hit the freeway, they went north to the airport and we went south towards home.
For the past week and a half we have had a wonderful visit with my Grandparents from Michigan. It's been nearly 5 years since we saw them last and this was their first time meeting Sierra and Eliza. 
The kids got to spend plenty of quality time reading books, cuddling, sharing old stories and enjoying plenty of family meals. Grandpa did make sticky buns, and dinner rolls, and cinnamon rolls. It was great. Grandma made a nice gravy for the meatballs and a wonderful veggie soup. It was so nice to have an extra set of hands around to help with Eliza, rounding up the wayward alpaca, and keeping the dishes moved along. They got to watch the kids in PE class and it was fun to celebrate Mia's fancy birthday with them here, too. 
David, Cheryl and Mackenzie made many trips down here so we could all be together and my mom even slept on the couch several times to extend the visits. It was a wonderful time and they will be missed!!
The kids got to spend plenty of quality time reading books, cuddling, sharing old stories and enjoying plenty of family meals. Grandpa did make sticky buns, and dinner rolls, and cinnamon rolls. It was great. Grandma made a nice gravy for the meatballs and a wonderful veggie soup. It was so nice to have an extra set of hands around to help with Eliza, rounding up the wayward alpaca, and keeping the dishes moved along. They got to watch the kids in PE class and it was fun to celebrate Mia's fancy birthday with them here, too. David, Cheryl and Mackenzie made many trips down here so we could all be together and my mom even slept on the couch several times to extend the visits. It was a wonderful time and they will be missed!! I hope we can get up to Michigan to visit them next. Andrew's never been to their neck of the woods and Josiah doesn't remember when he was there last. He was only 17 months old.
I love you Grandma and Grandpa. THANK YOU!!!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
On a Mission
I recently read a post to FB on complacency in the Christian life. More specifically how it has no place there. It was taken from the rebelution blog . I was reminded again that the journey in a Christian's life should not be driven by what we avoid but by what we seek. I don't want to be known for what I didn't do, but rather by what I did do. In fact, I don't think anyone would remember what I didn't do. What I do, good or bad, will be what is remembered. That concept is hitting me pretty powerfully as we consider how God wants to use us. Is our call to Christian camping and full time ministry still a call or was it a tool to lead us in a different direction with our lives in general? All Christians are "called" to share the gospel or evangelize as well as encourage or disciple other believers. Some are called to do it as their job, we call them missionaries. I'm just not sure where we fall.
We are still approved candidates with American Missionary Fellowship. Since the purchase of the camp has fallen through, AMF has given us time to pray and consider our gifts, talents, and passions and to determine if we still feel called to full time ministry. In which case we would complete our year of candidacy at that point.
We do have a passion for camp ministry. Through that type of ministry I see us as more wired towards discipleship and creating environments for others to evangelize. However that could work, the reality remains that we still have the business and it is not something that we can just walk away from. So, here we are, in what I consider sort of an oasis stage, in regards to our living situation, with time to grow and flame our passion. We have a lot of flexibility in our personal lives in that we don't have a house to sell and Andrew is not so tied to production at the store. We also have a lot of ways that we can evangelize and disciple right where we're at. That's exciting, but does it mean we drop the pursuit of full time ministry? That's what we're weighing.
It's so easy in this spot that we're in to relax and just wait to see what shakes out. The thing is there is no such thing as "holding" in our spiritual journey. It's like we're in a boat on a river, we're either paddling up stream, pursuing it's source, or we're drifting down stream. The waters might be calmer now but they still have a current. We need to keep paddling! Somehow it's more obvious when we're in the rapids.
So in this time where I feel no urgency in my personal prayers or reading the Bible I'm reminded that I am a Christian. I have a long spiritual history of believers who fought to make sure I got the message of the truth. I can't drop the baton on this! There is always urgency! What a privilege I have and what a responsibility. I'd recommend the book, "The Beautiful Fight" by Gary Thomas who addresses this in depth.
For now, I'm looking for ways that God might use me, like in the lives of my kids and friends, and I'm trying to be more aware of and sensitive towards people around me in general. I'm praying that God will give me his heart for people and that I'll see them with his eyes. I'm also praying that he'll show us as a family how we might be used, full time or not, to bless other people and lead them to him. Finally, I'm paddling when I'd rather float. I will seek God through the his Holy Word, the Bible, even when I don't feel the urgency.
We are still approved candidates with American Missionary Fellowship. Since the purchase of the camp has fallen through, AMF has given us time to pray and consider our gifts, talents, and passions and to determine if we still feel called to full time ministry. In which case we would complete our year of candidacy at that point.
We do have a passion for camp ministry. Through that type of ministry I see us as more wired towards discipleship and creating environments for others to evangelize. However that could work, the reality remains that we still have the business and it is not something that we can just walk away from. So, here we are, in what I consider sort of an oasis stage, in regards to our living situation, with time to grow and flame our passion. We have a lot of flexibility in our personal lives in that we don't have a house to sell and Andrew is not so tied to production at the store. We also have a lot of ways that we can evangelize and disciple right where we're at. That's exciting, but does it mean we drop the pursuit of full time ministry? That's what we're weighing.
It's so easy in this spot that we're in to relax and just wait to see what shakes out. The thing is there is no such thing as "holding" in our spiritual journey. It's like we're in a boat on a river, we're either paddling up stream, pursuing it's source, or we're drifting down stream. The waters might be calmer now but they still have a current. We need to keep paddling! Somehow it's more obvious when we're in the rapids.
So in this time where I feel no urgency in my personal prayers or reading the Bible I'm reminded that I am a Christian. I have a long spiritual history of believers who fought to make sure I got the message of the truth. I can't drop the baton on this! There is always urgency! What a privilege I have and what a responsibility. I'd recommend the book, "The Beautiful Fight" by Gary Thomas who addresses this in depth.
For now, I'm looking for ways that God might use me, like in the lives of my kids and friends, and I'm trying to be more aware of and sensitive towards people around me in general. I'm praying that God will give me his heart for people and that I'll see them with his eyes. I'm also praying that he'll show us as a family how we might be used, full time or not, to bless other people and lead them to him. Finally, I'm paddling when I'd rather float. I will seek God through the his Holy Word, the Bible, even when I don't feel the urgency.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Good Stuff
We were riding in the van the other day and Josiah was reading aloud some Brain Quest questions. He came to one, "Who is the author of 'Green Eggs and Ham'?" Doh! I know this one. Why am I having a brain freeze? I just couldn't pull it up. Duh!
After waiting a moment for me Josiah says, "Dr. Suess!"
"Oh, ya!" I responded, "I just couldn't think of it."
"Ya," he says, "I like Dr. Suess. He's written a lot of good stuff."
My son... he's deep. He's read a lot of good stuff.
After waiting a moment for me Josiah says, "Dr. Suess!"
"Oh, ya!" I responded, "I just couldn't think of it."
"Ya," he says, "I like Dr. Suess. He's written a lot of good stuff."
My son... he's deep. He's read a lot of good stuff.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Pastor John Stumbo Update
Pastor John has a long road of recovery ahead of him. He has started a blog which I wanted to pass on to you: http://www.salemalliance.org/serendipity/ I hope you are blessed in following along with his recovery. He tells about his physical state so that we can better pray for him and shares his spiritual insights along the way. God does amazing things in our state of weakness and I'm so excited to see how he uses this influential man.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Speaking of Choices
I've enjoyed lots of good discussion regarding the last post about choice, the octuplet's mother, and about abortion and sex in general. There are some good comments here on the blog too so I wanted to follow up with some more thoughts.
I think that it's clear that the time to educate is before action is taken. Whether that be before implantation of several embryos or having unprotected sex, there are possible consequences for our actions. Sometimes we might escape them but sometimes we do get stung. What I think is ironic is that this woman couldn't have children naturally. She was married and tried and tried to conceive. She had many physical complications. For her, extreme measures had to be taken to achieve something that, for some people, happens accidentally. She was educated that the risk of implanting several embryos was a possible outcome of several babies. Each time she implanted several embryos she took that risk. One time that possible consequence happened big time. Ouch! But she decided to keep all the babies.
I doubt there are many people out there who do not know that unprotected sex can lead to pregnancy, among other things. I think less people are educated about the failure rates of birth "control" (control, oh, that's a whole other topic!) and assume that they are all 100% trustworthy. I think it's unfortunate that there is an "out" for those that do suffer the consequences of that choice simply because the "out" carries heavy consequences as well. And, as I said in the previous post, I don't think we'll ever know the depth of those consequences. The extremely tempting bait is that you can continue on with your life plan without the interruption of an unplanned child or too many children at once. We really value our plans don't we!
Carrying a child, or in this case the children, or aborting them are secondary decisions, the first choices, sex or implantation of multiple embryos, are over with and the results are there to be dealt with. The secondary decision is the one that I feel should be weighed equally. Just because we don't realize the loss that abortion causes doesn't make it a better choice even if it is more convenient than adding 8 more babies to an already struggling family.
Sex is more often a slippery slope where implantation is a calculated climb. You don't need lots of money or a doctors appointment to have sex! I think this is what has most people upset and asking, "What was she thinking!" But in our worst decisions and failures God meets us to restore and redeem. He gives beauty for ashes, strength for fear, gladness for mourning, peace for despair. So, despite the fact that, from my perspective, her choice to have many children on her own may be an unwise decision and that on her 6th time her gambling didn't pay off, I would still say that these children might possibly change the world or at least their world and one way or another I hope they grow up in loving homes and come to know the love of a Savior that died for them and desires a relationship with them.
I think that it's clear that the time to educate is before action is taken. Whether that be before implantation of several embryos or having unprotected sex, there are possible consequences for our actions. Sometimes we might escape them but sometimes we do get stung. What I think is ironic is that this woman couldn't have children naturally. She was married and tried and tried to conceive. She had many physical complications. For her, extreme measures had to be taken to achieve something that, for some people, happens accidentally. She was educated that the risk of implanting several embryos was a possible outcome of several babies. Each time she implanted several embryos she took that risk. One time that possible consequence happened big time. Ouch! But she decided to keep all the babies.
I doubt there are many people out there who do not know that unprotected sex can lead to pregnancy, among other things. I think less people are educated about the failure rates of birth "control" (control, oh, that's a whole other topic!) and assume that they are all 100% trustworthy. I think it's unfortunate that there is an "out" for those that do suffer the consequences of that choice simply because the "out" carries heavy consequences as well. And, as I said in the previous post, I don't think we'll ever know the depth of those consequences. The extremely tempting bait is that you can continue on with your life plan without the interruption of an unplanned child or too many children at once. We really value our plans don't we!
Carrying a child, or in this case the children, or aborting them are secondary decisions, the first choices, sex or implantation of multiple embryos, are over with and the results are there to be dealt with. The secondary decision is the one that I feel should be weighed equally. Just because we don't realize the loss that abortion causes doesn't make it a better choice even if it is more convenient than adding 8 more babies to an already struggling family.
Sex is more often a slippery slope where implantation is a calculated climb. You don't need lots of money or a doctors appointment to have sex! I think this is what has most people upset and asking, "What was she thinking!" But in our worst decisions and failures God meets us to restore and redeem. He gives beauty for ashes, strength for fear, gladness for mourning, peace for despair. So, despite the fact that, from my perspective, her choice to have many children on her own may be an unwise decision and that on her 6th time her gambling didn't pay off, I would still say that these children might possibly change the world or at least their world and one way or another I hope they grow up in loving homes and come to know the love of a Savior that died for them and desires a relationship with them.
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