Letter to My Daughter

I heard on the radio this morning that the number one person that influences a girls personal image is her mother...eek!

There are also hundred's of studies that say how important a fathers role in a girls life is...
A healthy relationship with her brother is also very important...
Healthy relationships with her extended family are important...

I know this...I know that both my husband and I play a huge roll in our daughter's self image...
I also know I will fail her.
I know my husband will fail her.
Her brother will fail her..
Her grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins will fail her...

Guess what, I don't need a study to tell me...
the number one most important relationship my daughter needs to become a healthy, responsible woman with a great self image...
Her relationship with her Creator God, Abba Father, Jesus Christ...

He.Will.Never. fail her!

and because of this I decided to write her a letter....

Dear Sweet Daughter of Mine,

I love you more than you can fathom {that is, until you have your own children, but until then}.  I want you to have a life filled to the brim with love & joy.

What I want you to know...need you to know.
You are designed to be loved.  
We all know that deep in our core, that we are created for love.  
But please never confuse what that love is.  You were created by the God of the universe to be loved by the God of the universe.  In the deepest part of your soul you will yearn for that love and search for that love.  
Make no mistake that you deserve that love, there is nothing wrong with this desire to be love.
But know this,
that NO man, no woman, no child on this earth that can love you enough to fulfill that need.  
God created that desire so that you would seek Him.

I love you more than you can fathom, but my love for you is nothing compared to God.
Your father loves you more than you can fathom, but his love is nothing compared to God's love for you.

Also, I am so very blessed to have met, fallen in love with, married and fallen more in love with your father.  
But guess what...
He is not my soul mate...  
He does not 'complete me'...
If for some reason your father was not in my life I would be sad, terribly sad, but I would go on and live the life that God created me to live, because my life is not set on a earthly man that I have chosen to live my life with.  No man on earth can make me whole!
My life is set on the Heavenly Father I have chosen to seek after.

You are beautiful.  Yes, I am your mother and because of that I will always believe you are beautiful.  But I also know that you are beautiful because of who created you.  
No article of clothing, hair style, make up brush can make you more beautiful than God Himself.  I will tell you that you are beautiful, your father will tell you that you are beautiful, your grandparents, friends, aunts & uncle, will tell you that you are beautiful {your brother may not, but that's just because he's your little brother!}, and someday, when you are grown {35'ish}, men will tell you that you are beautiful...those words, my words, "daughter, you are beautiful" aren't what make you beautiful!  You need to tuck this away in your heart, hear it over and over, what makes you beautiful is that the God of the Universe, the God that formed the stars in the sky, the mountains & oceans, paints the sunsets each night, that God...He.Created.You.  He formed you!  He drew the curve of your cheek, placed the twinkle in your eyes, counted every hair on your head, knew the size of your feet and the strength of your legs....  He is why you are beautiful!  You are not beautiful because your father and I tell you, you are beautiful because He says so!

That life filled to the brim with love & joy that I mentioned at the beginning of this letter...that isn't something that just happens.  And notice I didn't say a life without pain.  Not that I want you to have a life of pain, but I also know that pain helps us grow, that pain turns us to our Creator.  The greatest pain so far in my life was the first 17 days of your life...not knowing if you, my precious daughter, would live.  But that pain turned me into the arms of my God.  I sought out His Love and Peace and through that pain my life was filled with love & joy.  
God's plan for your life is to 
"prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 
{Jeremiah 29:11}......but don't stop reading the passage there...keep reading...
"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord."
We need to seek God with all our heart...God's plan 'not to harm us' plays into the fact that we are seeking Him!  Not seeking a life free of pain, not seeking to be beautiful, not seeking to find a man to share it with...
When you seek God and allow HIS plan to dictate your life, that is when the remainder of His plan for prosperity & hope will become fulfilled ...
oh, and prosperity isn't 'the American dream'...God's idea of prosperity looks a little different.  Prosperity is a heart issue not a bank account number!

There is so much more that I want you to know.  So I will end this letter with...
"till next time!"
Your loving, faithful, full of mistakes mom!

This Happened

 15 years ago today!

 we became husband and wife....

there was some kissing....

some laughing...

 and dancing...

and yes...we were children!

I'm not going to blog about
*15 things I've learned in 15 years or
*15 reasons why I love him more now or
*15 things I wish I knew before I got married...

I just wanted to simply say that getting married at 20, although young, was the best thing I have ever done.  I am thankful to God for putting Beau into my life, thankful we married when we did, thankful we chose to have our children when we did...
Beau is a great husband...he's not perfect...
I think I might be an okay wife...I'm not perfect...
we try to always communicate our feelings...
we don't always do that as calm, rational adults...
but we do communicate...
I know he's not a mind reader...
even when I drop amazingly obvious hints...
I can't get mad at him when I haven't communicated what I need or want from him.

Our goal for our marriage is to be in relationship with God and each other and to grow in that relationship.  We are not trying to change the other person {or train, like some would say} into the man or woman we want them to be.  We are hopefully helping each other grow and change and become the man & woman God would have us be.

and that, for us, is what marriage is all about.

Our marriage has been blessed and for that I am thankful!

I love you Beau!

summer plan...where are you?

Last summer I was all over it...I had our summer plan planned before school ended...
I knew how to make our summer not too boring, and not to scheduled and we had a wonderful summer...

We are 2 weeks into summer and I keep thinking I need to look at last years plan...so I finally did, this morning...wow I was on top of it!

We did start the summer by camping on the Oregon Coast {only a 7 hr drive on the last day of school!}...

I can also see how things are a little different this summer but I still like the basic idea...and to top it off the kids and I have been brainstorming some 'bucket list' ideas, things we want to do before summer is over!

Here is our plan for summer this year...

*Swim Team again...and boy to they love it {sarcasm!}, it's a little earlier this year starting at 8 rather than 8:30 and that 30 min make a HUGE deal...there have been 4 practices so far and my kids have made 2 of them, {that's 50%}...I'm buckling down on bed times this week so they can actually wake up...and by 'buckling down' they need to be in bed by 9:30, last week they were getting in bed after 11, it was CRA.ZA.Y! around here, we took the whole "Schools out for Summer!" and lost it a little!
anyways, M-W-F an hour in the pool...it's great for them!

*Summer Reading Program...they are signed up for the reading program at the library, and the boy child will participate in the Barnes & Noble Summer Reading again {it only goes to 6th grade and girl child is going into 7th!...so disappointed in B&N for not continuing to reward and encourage older kids to read!}.  The reading is actually huge this summer, the girl child got reading glasses the last day of school,

that coupled with the 'reward' for completing the Library Summer Reading {for teens} is that they are entered into a drawing for a Kindle...she has had her nose in a book most afternoons, this.is.not.normal!  I usually have to encourage reading using various little tricks, but I have actually said to her, "you need to put that book down!"  Seriously, this is a sentence I never thought I would utter in my life to her, I am so blissfully excited about her reading!!!

*Piano...summer is the easiest time of year for them to buckle down and actually get in ALL of their daily piano practicing and listening {they have a CD that they are supposed to listen to daily}...and it helps me when they are begging to watch something or play a video game to say, "have you done your piano yet?"...

*Summer Journal...I didn't do this last summer and it was obvious when school started up again that they weren't use to writing...we have always done summer journals, not sure why I flaked last summer, and when Wilson was too young to journal he had a summer doodle book, where he would draw things he had done.

*Limited Screen Time...I know it's summer and summer is all about zoning out and losing yourself in tv right?  wrong...I HATE the kids to be zoned out in front of that thing!  But I also know it's summer so I relax my tone just a bit.  They are allowed 30 min screen time before they have to do their reading and piano for the day, and then after that I will look at our day and decide if they need/can have any more screen time....but also depending on the day we may be too busy for them to have their 30 min before reading & piano and I may use it as a reward for them getting all their tasks done and with a good attitude.

Now for our weekly 'schedule' {I use that term loosely, it is summer}
Movie Monday's...either a trip to the 'dollar theater' or a movie at home.

Work Day Tuesday's...this is the day we will pack up and I will drag them into work with me {they can take their bikes and ride in the HUGE empty parking lot}!  And then when we get home they will do any 'work' they need to around the house above and beyond their normal daily chores {clean bathrooms, organize bedrooms, help to clean the garage, weeding, etc}...I figured we should get this done earlier in the week...help the rest of the week go more smoothly.

Activity Wednesday...their piano lessons are early {right after swim and before lunch} so we have the whole afternoon to do whatever, this is one of the days we'll try to check items off our bucket list.  This is also the day that the library has activities planned that correlate with their summer reading program...
And of course it's church night, this is a great night for them to have a friend spend the night because they can come to church with us {or pick them up from church} and bonus no swim team Thursday morning so they can play all they want on Thursday.

Bucket List Thursday...I will let the kids sleep in while I head into work and get a few hours of stuff done, my goal is to be home by 10:30 on Thursdays...then we will do an item or two from our bucket list, we'll probably choose the items at the beginning of the week so we can plan accordingly.

Family Fridays...Friday is Beau's day off so we will treat it like a Saturday and just do whatever needs to be done or whatever we want to do....hopefully we can also check off more bucket list ideas on these days.

to create the Bucket List I opened up my pinterest and had the kids look over ideas I had pinned in 'School Vacation,' 'Yum - Cookies,' & 'Craft Ideas'...and other ideas were just theirs...

and now the Bucket List!!!

just in case you can't read the list above or want links to some of the ideas...

flubber ... Paper beads … Glitter play dough ...  paint rocks …Glow in the dark slime … Newspaper fort ... Bubble week {giant bubbles, bubble blowers, bubble snake}... Water blob … Bleach t-shirts ... Soda can jewelry ... Duct tape purse & Wallet … paint t-shirts ...  homemade tootsie rolls... homemade nutter butters ... Make pudding pops ... Make butter ... make bagels... Bake treats for neighbors ... film a cooking show ... Circus animal cookie truffles … Berry picking ... Kayak {picnic on an island}... Bowling ... Museum ... Zoo beach {sand castles} ... go to the snow {Lassen National Park usually still has snow in late July}... Bumpass Hell ... Sun River {we usually go to Sun River every summer with my in-laws, great summer place}... bike river trail ... Build a catapult ... Make sling shots ... origami ...  Fireworks

.....
so that's our summer...
do you try to organize your summer with a plan or do you just let it happen?

He Doesn't Babysit

Nope, my husband doesn't babysit!
And will NEVER babysit our children!

He is their father...gave them 1/2 of their DNA...why would anyone ever assume that he would merely 'babysit' his own children!?!?

We live in a era that women are put on a pedestal for all they do...glorifying women and all their choices...{don't get me wrong, I think some women are pretty darn amazing}...but for some reason to make everyone believe that women are amazing we had to be fed this plate of lies that men are idiots!  That the only way women can be amazing is if men are the opposite.

Sitcoms show us the bumbling, stupid father that can't make a trip to the store without making a mistake.

Commercials show us that the biggest challenge a diaper can be put to is to leave a diaper clad baby in the care of their father while a football game is on, because a father is to single minded to watch a sport and care for their child!

And society in general...they always assume if a man is with children he is 'babysitting' them, that he's 'stuck with the kids' for the day...that no man would actually choose to parent their own children, choose to hang out with their kids and be their dad!

Let's get real here, I believe in equality...some women are pretty darn amazing...and there are plenty of men that are bumbling idiots...
but their are plenty of women that share the title of bumbling idiots!  And there are some pretty darn amazing men!

I married one...and had his babies...

and he will never babysit our children...he is their father...he will parent our children!

When they were babies he changed diapers, he burped them, he fed them {when they weren't nursing}, he bathed them, dressed them, rocked them to sleep as infants, read to them, sang to them.

As they grow his role is changing, he still tucks them in each night and reads with them, helps them with their homework, makes them dinner, washes dishes or sits back and relaxes now that our children wash the dishes.

He has taught them that being yourself is way more important than being what others want you to be.

He takes them to old bookstores and thrift stores {helping them to respect the things from past generations}.

He teaches them about music; from Benny Goodman, to the Beatles, to Abba, to Journey, to Michael Jackson, to U2 {my kids can play the "who's this band/singer?" game WAY better than I will ever hope to}.

He helps them with their piano or just sits and plays with them.

He takes them on bike rides.

He dates our daughter, teaching her how and what to expect from the men in her future.

He plays games with them {board games, card games, video games, role playing games}.

Starting from a young age he taught them the history of the original Star Wars {and although he's morally opposed to the new movies has left it up to them to make their own choice}.

He is teaching them to mow the lawn.

He watches 1950's horror movies with them.

He takes them kayaking.

He has taught our son that hair style doesn't make you a man.

He loves & respects their mother.

He baptized both of our children!

He has taught them to pray, he has taught them to seek out God's truths in their lives, he has help them memorize God's word. He has put God first in his life and has modeled for them how to live a life that glorifies God.

He has never.once.babysat our children!  From day one he has been their father.

Happy Father's Day Beau, I love you, thanks for being my babies' daddy!

Daddy Issues

This post has been in my heart for awhile now...and with Father's Day right around the corner I needed to get it out....

Don't we all have them...?
Daddy Issues

we have these images of superman type fathers...

Why is that?
I have a pretty decent, loving, good father...
but guess what, he's human!  My father was not, and is not, perfect!

I know women and men with daddy issues...
I know those that have never known their father
Those that wish they never knew their father
Those that had dads like mine
and those with amazing, Ward Cleaver fathers....

all of them...Have. Daddy. Issues...

why?  why is having daddy issues so universal?
maybe, just maybe, it's because we have this need ingrained into each and every one of us for a perfect heavenly Father.

Why do you think God tells us He is our father?  Maybe He knows...because He created us....that we all have this natural desire for a perfect father figure and yet no man on earth can ever 100% fulfill that roll!

Guess what else...?
we women,
we {and by 'we', I mean me} take these daddy issues and we bring them into our marriages...
however horrible or wonderful {or wherever they fall on the scale} our fathers were/are...we bring our daddy issues into our marriages and project them onto our husbands!  we either choose husbands that are the opposite of our fathers or husbands that are very similar to our fathers and then hold up these unrealistic expectations for them to be nothing like our fathers or everything like our fathers...

and when they fall short of either one of those marks we fight, kicking and screaming that they are failing us...
{pause...
I am in no way saying any husband is perfect...
just like no father is perfect, they are all human}
but as wives have we taken our daddy issues and rather than turn towards our Heavenly Father to fulfill our needs we turn towards our husband and try to mold him into something he can't possibly be.  trying to get him to fill shoes that he can never fill....

remember that stupid line from Jerry McGuire,
"you complete me!"...
UGH, I've hated that from the moment I heard it... but that's what we're all trying to find, we're trying to find the man that will fill all the holes that our earthly fathers left gaping open...God is the ONLY one that can complete us, and it's a lifelong journey!

we all have daddy issues...
because we all need a perfect dad
we try to mold our husbands using all the daddy issues we came into the relationship with...
we don't want our kids to have daddy issues
and we want our husbands to fill our need that our daddy issues left in us...
our fathers & our husbands also have daddy issues
and our kids... yep, they will have daddy issues also
we were created with a need that no earthly father can ever live into!

but guess what?
we have a perfect father...He can help heal our daddy issues, help our children with their daddy issues and help our marriages not suffer because of them....

See how very much our Father loves us, for He calls us His children, and that is what we are!

 ~ 1 John 3:1 

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

 ~ Matthew 6:8

I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

 ~ 2 Corinthians 6:18 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to the two women in my life that have help me become the mother that I am today.

Mom, 

Thanks for everything you've ever done for me.  

I treasure our friendship and appreciate the fact that you saved it for my adult years and were my mom first.  So many mothers try to be their children's friend when their children are still children.  You were always my mom first and then when I grew up and moved out you slowly transitioned into a friend!  Thanks for that special gift.

I also want to thank you for the legacy of Jesus Christ that you gave to me.  What an amazing gift you gave me, introducing me you Jesus as a child, always having us in church, praying for us constantly, listening to our questions and helping me have my own relationship with God.  I am forever grateful for that gift and even more grateful now that I am a mother, knowing that your introducing me to God as a child opened up that door for future generations, namely, my own children, to have that relationship, what an amazing gift you have given my children!  

Thank You!

Kathy {my mother-in-love},

How grateful I am for you.  So many women I know have a bitter, spiteful relationship with the women that raised their son!  I have known from the first time Beau introduced us that you were special!  You truly are a gift for me and my entire family.  I treasure you, your love, your guidance, your prayers!  You are a mother-in-law that women everywhere desire!

I also want to thank you for the legacy of Jesus Christ that you gave your son!  I am beyond grateful to have met, fallen in love and married your son!  He leads and guides our family towards God every day and that is because of the gift you, as his mother, gave him by introducing him to Jesus.  Thank you for the legacy of a relationship with Jesus Christ that you have given my children.

Thank You!

I also want to thank both my mom and mother-in-law for the legacy of marriage they have given my children!  Because of your love for God and your relationship with Jesus Christ, your love for your husbands and children you have committed loving marriages!  I have no idea the issues either of you have faced in your marriages {having only been married for just under 15 years I know it's hard work}, I can't begin to grasp the struggles that you two have overcome in your marriages, in a day and age when all the marriages around you were crumbling, I thank you for fighting it out, holding strong, loving your children enough to hold onto your marriage vows, the promise you made to your husbands and God!  Thank you for that gift, that legacy, that you passed onto Beau & I and to your grandchildren!  In a day in age when 50% of marriages end in divorce our children can look around their family and see two sets of grandparents and one set of parents {and an Uncle & Aunt}, no steps, that's 4 marriages that have broken away from the statistics and  have set their marriages in God's hands and not in the world!

Thanks, 

May your Mother's Day be blessed!

p.s. Thank you Kathy for the gift of a kid free weekend with my husband!  

Menu Monday {kids edition}

how do you make your menu?
same thing every week...think of it while your shopping?...poll the family before you go shopping?...do the kids and husband make the menu?..open the cupboard and fridge and throw stuff together?...

I seriously don't like making a menu
very much dislike grocery shopping
but HATE life in my house at 4:55 pm when I have NOT made a menu and grocery shopped off that menu!!!


so I did something slightly crazy for my menu this time...

I handed the ipad over to the kids,
pulled up the pintrest app, had them look thru my Yum- dinner & yum-crockpot boards
& they made the menu....this will get us thru the next 2 weeks...and depending on how well it works we may or may not have the kids make the menu again!

 Baked Panko Chicken Tenders {both kids}

Olive Garden Alfredo {girl child}

The Best Parmesan Chicken Bake {girl child}

Slow Cooker Honey Soy Chicken {girl child}

Italian Sloppy Joes with Ranch Style Beans {both kids}

Slow Cooker Taco Chicken Bowls {both kids}

Vegetarian Chili with cornbread {boy child}

Pretzel Dogs {boy child}

Homemade pizza {boy child}

Not Soggy Nachos {boy child}

Bread Bowls with Chicken Chowder {boy child}

what's your menu making style...?

Who Am I?

Why, Hello There!


You may {or may not} have notice my blog has been silent...
for over 4 months now I've blogged nothing!
zero.
zilch..
nada...

why?  why did I go silent?

it's been a lot of little reasons and a few not so little reason that have kept me quiet...

the first, maybe the biggest...
was the day after my last post
{I posted last on Thursday, Dec 13}
was Friday, December 14
Sandy Hook Elementary

that rocked me...
those little boys and girls
going to school
in a quiet small town
public school...
just like my kids...

I started to write a post the day after, Sat Dec 15, it has sat in my drafts folder all these months...
I had this overwhelming feeling of "Who Am I" to write about this loss, why do I get to chime in and have any sort of feeling for these families that are grieving!

Grief is personal...
it was their kids,
their school,
their town,
their state...

I also did NOT want to start {and still won't} a discussion on gun control....

....the more I thought about what happened at Sandy Hook...
the more I wanted to be present for my kids.
I also didn't want to write a trivial post about my collection of Nativities when something so devastating had happened... {not that Christmas and celebration the birth of Christ is trivial...but you know}

I was stuck between
     "who am I to write a blog about Sandy Hook"
          &
"I can't just ignore Sandy Hook and post a weekly menu"

so I decided to take a break, cherish my kids, and wait until it was time to come back...
and then Monday happened...
the Bombing of the Boston Marathon....
and it was just as horrific...
     {why does it have to be children, seriously!}

I'm in an 8 Week Get Healthy Challenge with some friends...and one of them shared this Bible verse on Monday....
 I have told you these things, 
     so that in me you may have peace. 
          In this world you will have trouble. 
               But take heart! 
                    I have overcome the world.
                            ~John 16:33

Guess What?  We live in a sinful fallen world...'in this world you will have trouble'
but that's not the end of the story....
HE has overcome the world...
AMEN....

lots of other things have happened over the past 4 months...
my life is busier...
but I DO want to still blog...
I will post about the changes in my life...
I will post about my journey of getting healthy...
I will post weekly menu's {when I remember}
I will post God Moments...
I will post the silly things my kids do...
I will post craft projects when I actually finish them...
but I will also blog around my family's schedule,

one thing I have learned from Sandy Hook, the Boston Bombing, and just all the tragedies of life is that cherishing moments with my kids and family is way more important than anything I can blog about!

see ya soon...

November 21

1}  I'm so very thankful for God's protection over my family.

2}  I'm thankful for the guardrail on a road that I drive on everyday with my kids.  A guardrail that God used to save my kids and I from going down a 50 foot ravine.

3}  Thankful for those lessons that God teaches us.

Tuesday morning I was running errands with the kids, driving along.  My phone rings, I glance down, "Private Number," I ignore it...and then I have this stupid, "what if it's really important," thought so I grab for my blue tooth...can't find it, I look down to find it and in that moment...that 2 seconds with my eyes off the road...I drifted into a guardrail...drifted going 50 miles an hour...into a guardrail that was protecting a 50 foot ravine.  I swerved, over-corrected and went into the oncoming lane...NO ONE was there...I pulled it together and pulled over.  I got out and looked at the car.  Pretty banged up...but drive-able...I looked around...NO CARS...NO Traffic on this busy 2 days before Thanksgiving errand running day...

God protected us in so many ways.
  *a guardrail that I've never noticed, never thought about, being in the spot we needed it.
  *when I hit the guardrail, I hit it pretty much on the whole entire side of the van...equaling lots of damaged down the entire side of the van...but also just basic physics, had I hit with the front end we could have been tossed over the rail, had I hit the back it could have sent us into a spin, but hitting the whole side kept us pretty balanced.  I don't think I could have tried to hit it at a more 'perfect' angle if I wanted to...
  *Tuesday was a raining, blustery, monsoon like day.  There was about 10 minutes without crazy weather...that is the 10 minutes that my accident took place.  Can't image what the outcome would have been in that monsoon like weather.
  *ZERO traffic.  No one behind me to rear-end me when I slammed into the guardrail.  No one in the on-coming lane of traffic for me to plow into when I over corrected.  After I pulled over and assessed the damage the road had returned to it's normal traffic flow again...

I'm sure there are other God moments that I haven't realized that took place in that moment that protected my kids and I.  These are just the ones that stand out.

Lesson learned...
 Lesson #1...NO PHONE...NO MATER WHAT.  If I haven't put my blue tooth in my ear before I have started driving, than I just have to wait.  Seriously, it was a call from my doctors office telling me about a recent test. NO BIG DEAL!  And even if it was a hugely important message, the school calling to tell me my kid got kidnapped {just trying to think of the worst/most important call}...how is me causing an accident going to help that situation.  Because now my husband gets this call..."Um, your kid got kidnapped at school, and your wife drove off a cliff with your other child in the car!"  There is NO phone call that can't wait until I get to wherever it is I'm going...and I also have God on my side.  I fully know that if there is that really important phone call that I need to know about right then, I would have a nudge from the Holy Spirit telling me to pull over and check my phone.

Lesson #2...pride...UGH.  Lets go back about 18 months ago...I had this thing I liked to call, "A perfect driving record"...It's something I would remind Beau about lots and lots.  I LOVED my perfect driving record, I was proud of that thing!  Yeah...lets go back 18 months...

• I ran a red light...big time ran it, with video proof... almost got my whole family t-boned by another car {who stopped at their green light,while I blasted through my red light}
• Then 10 months go by..all is well...then I amazingly back right into my friends car...a car that I KNEW was right behind me...but I rammed right into it!  Lovely...also loved the insurance letter sent to my husband, "Dear Beau, after investigating the accident we find your wife 100% at fault."  THANKS...like I needed it rubbed into my prideful face.
• Tuesday...I being stupid...could have killed my children and myself!

Yep, my perfect driving record is gone.  And my pride about it is now filled with humility...I'm not saying I'm humble {because that's an oxymoron}...  I'm saying I get it now.  I had pride {probably still have it in other places that God has yet to point out}...and now I see that my pride got me nowhere, accomplished nothing.  It probably made me more dangerous to myself and my kids.  Pride blinds us, tells us that we're above certain things...when we clearly are imperfect humans that can make a stupid mistake {choose any from my above list, or make up your own} and that stupid mistake, that slip in judgement, could cost you or your family greatly.

November 13

1}  Thankful for nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, and all the specialized people that work in hospitals!  And those that work with kids are even more amazing.

2}  Thankful for children's hospitals.

3}  Thankful for kids spending the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Please continue to pray for our friends daughter.  She was in so much pain today, one of the hardest things I've had to see.  {Kids should not have to ever be in that level of pain...seriously she will laugh her way through labor after the pain she is experiencing today and for the next few days!}.   Her surgery was to straighten out her scoliosis, her pre-op prep took almost 2 hours, and then her actual surgery was about 7 hours, and then another 1 1/2 hours before her parents could go see her, I think they saw her around 9:30 last night.

Brad & Kim putting on their brave faces...
this was yesterday morning before Kenna had gone "into" surgery put was in pre-op

Pray for our friends.  Watching your child in pain SUCKS!  And getting to sleep on fold out chairs...they WILL have short fuses...pray that they can be a comfort to each other and be each others soft place to land.

in a waiting room about hour 5 (of surgery, not counting pre-op!)

Pray for all the other families at that hospital.  We were at a huge children's hospital and walking the halls, seeing all the sick kids, all the parents in pain watching their babies hurting.  Not having answers to help their kids....I'm so thankful for hospitals geared just for these kids, people who devote their lives to helping these children.  I felt like I was praying the entire time I was there {not a bad thing}, every child I saw that was sick, every family waiting for news or talking with a doctor, nurse, social worker, etc...I just saw pain everywhere and I couldn't stop pleading with God to help these kids and families.

Hold your babies tight tonight when you tuck them in.

Thank you God for my healthy kids!  Be with every parent tonight who has a hurting child!

November 12

Beau and I are on a little trip...not a romantic get away, not a for fun get away, not a business get away...
a family friends needs us to walk beside them while their almost 10 year old daughter is having major surgery....
pray for our friends today...
pray for their brave daughter as she goes in this morning for a life changing surgery.
pray for her parents, that wish with all their hearts that it was them and not their baby.
pray for the doctors.
pray for us as we comfort and pray with them today.

1}  Thankful for healthy kids.
2}  Thankful for doctors.
3}  Thankful that my God is the great physician!

November 10

1}  I'm thankful for my mother...it's her birthday today....  I'm thankful that she never worried about being my friend when I was a child, she was my mother!  And because of that we are friends today.  I'm thankful that we talk multiple times a week.  I'm thankful for her faith in God and her prayers for my life.  I'm thankful for her love of my children and my husband.

my parents with my kids...
it's an old picture...maybe 2 1/2 years ago?

2}  I'm thankful for my father...it's also a birthday for him...happy birthday to the Marine Corps.  I'm thankful for a father that fought and returned from Vietnam.  Thank you Dad for your service.  I'm thankful for the patriotism that you raised me with.  Thankful that because of people like my father that willingly enlist others have the choice not too.  {can NOT imagine living n a country where my son and daughter would HAVE to serve!}

and totally unrelated...
3}  I'm thankful for laundry...that's my way of trying to be grateful...I have loads to do today and I'm thankful that my family and I have plenty of clothes to wear & that I have a washer and dryer to wash them with!

November 8

1}  I'm thankful for our parents and their marriages.

my parents @ our wedding

my in-laws @ our wedding

I think it may be a rarity that both sets of our parents are still married.  Both got married young and in an age when divorce was pretty normal our parents stayed the course and are still married.  I'm sure their marriages haven't been smooth sailing, but they love each other, have grown together, and love God.  Both my parents and my in-laws marriage have taught Beau and I things about marriage, commitment, and love.  Their legacy of marriage is something I am deeply thankful for.  My children see marriage as the norm, they see commitment as the option, not quitting.  I know many marriages end today because one or both parties just don't 'feel' it...they made a promise, they need to sit down and communicate and work it out, especially if they have children.  If you fall out of love...DEAL...and then try your hardest to fall back in love!  I'm sorry, that's my opinion.  I'm sure there were times in both our parents marriages that it got tough, that they may have considered not sticking it out...but I'm thankful they did our marriage is stronger because of their commitment and our children have a better chance at having strong marriages because of our parents choices!  

disclaimer:  I think divorce is the answer to SOME marriages {the 3 A's Abuse, Adultery, Addiction}

2}  I'm thankful for my family...mom, dad and sister.

family Christmas pic, cira 1984,
I'm in front holding the cat.

My parents were amazing parents to my passionate personality.  They didn't control me, they taught me to control myself.  They reinforced over and over that I was responsible for the choices that I made, that I had free will, and I would have consequences if I broke the rules!  And BOY did I have consequences...but I'm thankful for those lessons learned at a young age because life consequences for bad choices {sin} at the age of 10 is way  better than life consequences for sin at the age of 16...18...21...  Their parenting taught me responsibility for myself and helped guide my life to where it is today.

3}  I'm thankful for my in-laws.  I am 100% totally blessed with great in-laws.  Those 'mother-in-law' jokes don't make sense in my world.  I have a mother-in-law that I love, who raised a great son, who loves my children and who only gives her advice with love and tenderness.  The rest of them are great too.  I also really appreciate my sister-in-law, she's an amazing aunt to our kids.  Both my mother-&-sister-in-law have taught me how to be a better wife and mother and I am so very grateful for them.  I personally think the Chambers Men marry amazing women!

a shot with the in-laws 2010...
we all look younger now, except the kids are all older

And this is posting a day late...I wrote it yesterday, but forgot to post...

November 5th

I'm thankful for my husband

1}  I'm thankful that we met young and married young.  That might sound crazy.  But we have lived our lives together, 'grown up' together.  We came into our relationship with very little baggage from previous relationships because we we're young when we started dating (I was 18 he was 20).

2}  Thankful that he is a Godly man who desires to lead his family in God's will.

3}  Thankful that we fight.  We are both passionate people and we started out our relationship stuffing our feelings and not being open.  We have grown up and know how to fight...well, at least know we need to not stuff our feelings.  We don't always fight the right way, I may call him names...I might get too emotional...but we work it out and the end of the fight there is always resolution.  I know some marriages that are a lot older than ours that never fight.  Without fighting you don't have change.  The fights help one or both of us see our own faults, {which is my favorite part-sarcasm in case you didn't know}, and in seeing our faults we can work on change and then together we grow in our relationship and hopefully in a deeper relationship with God.

4}  I'm thankful for our make-ups after we fight...and that's all I'm saying on that!-you're welcome Ken!

5}  I'm thankful for the father that he is.  I knew at the early age of 18 that he'd probably be a good dad {Yes,I was thinking about it, but it wasn't the most important thing for me at 18 or even 20 when we got married}...but I had no idea what an amazing dad he really would be.

6}  I'm thankful for his home-bodyness...{yep, made that word up!}...he is a home body...I am not.  His desire and need to be home forces me to have down-time that I would fill with stuff.  I would be going and doing and wearing myself out if not for his need to be home.

7}  I'm also thankful for him saying yes to my going & doing.  He says yes to many of my, 'lets go do something' moments, when all he wants is to stay home...and he usually enjoys himself.

8}  I'm thankful for his love and attraction to me.  He loves me without makeup, prefers me without makeup.  He loves my after-baby-c-section-nursed-two-children body.  Where he has aged well, {he's thinner and fitter today than he was when we got married}, I have just aged....  And he loves all of me. I'm thankful!  Although, he has WAY more white hair than I do!

9}  I'm thankful for his gift of music.  He had introduced me to a world of music that I never knew.  And he has given that gift to our children.  I love that he will just randomly sit down at the piano and get lost in playing for 45+ minutes...I love it!  And that he has a record {yes record...LP} to play for any and all occasions.

10}  I'm thankful for his humor.  He makes me laugh every day.  He is the funniest man I know...although he has yet to discover how hilarious I am or maybe he's just not willing to admit it yet!

And many, many, more things...again I have surpassed my 3 things...

November 4th

I'm thankful for our boychild

1}  I'm thankful that he is so full of life and humor.  He has the Chambers humor like his father, uncle & grandfather...funny men!

2}  I'm thankful that he has music in his body.  The boy hears music and he must dance.

3}  I'm thankful that he is a cuddler...yep just made that word up!...and just an overall physical touch guy.  I love that he hugs his friends, at 7 years old has no problem giving his friends a full on bear hug, because that's how he show his love and he loves his friends.

4}  I'm thankful that he is passionate.  Even if parenting a passionate child is harder, I'm so thankful that he know what he wants in life and will go after it.

5}  I'm thankful that he is an early-bird like me.  I enjoy our mornings together, just the two of us.  I have learned so much about him in our early mornings together.

6}  I'm thankful that he's a thinker and a processor.  His brain is always going and he asks questions I have never thought of before.  Accepting that things just happen because they happen is not an answer for this child.  He needs to have answers and that has caused me to grow as a parent and a person, I have learned because he has asked!

7}  So thankful that he has God in his heart and knows how to pray for God's guidance in his life.  I'm thankful that he has a Godly father that he loves and that he wants to be like.  He thinks his dad is just a 'regular guy' and he wants to be a 'regular guy like his dad' when he grows up.  He has no idea that having a father who seeks God is not the norm.

And of course I could go on and on...but I'm past my 3 thankful for the day...so I'll stop.

November 3

I'm thankful for my girl child

I never imagined myself as a mom growing up...and I never imagined myself to a girly-girl child.
God gave me the best gift I never knew I wanted & needed when he gave us Madison.  I'm thankful for her in so many different ways.

1}  I'm thankful that she has taught me to love the girly-girl in myself.

2}  I'm thankful that she has taught me that your heart is way more important than your intelligence. 
     She is a very smart girl, but school hasn't always been easy for her, she's not an academic person.  But her heart knows so much more than most people.  I would way rather have a child that struggles with reading, writing, and arithmetic than a child that struggles with love.
     I have a sermon that I heard 7+ years ago that bounces around in my head & heart all the time...
a short summed up version...  
When Christians are faced with a situation/person that they don't have an answer for their default mode should ALWAYS be love...but instead most Christians default mode is judgement.
My girl child, her default mode, is LOVE!  She was born with the switch in the right place and I pray that the world doesn't change it for her!

3}  I'm thankful that she embraces who she is.  That she laughs with her whole being.  And that she can laugh at herself.

4}  I'm thankful that she's willing to step out of the box and try new things.  The girl that didn't eat for 8 years...now will taste anything...she'll try any new food you offer her.  It's fun to take her to different ethnic restaurants, she loves new foods!

5}  I'm thankful for her love of family and friends.  It doesn't matter if she sees them every day or once a year.  The moment a friend or family drives out of the driveway she turns to us and says, usually with tears in her eyes,
"I miss _fill-in-the-blank_ already!"

6}  I'm thankful for her love of babies!  She has never seen an ugly baby (Yeah...I said that, we all know there are some not-so-cute babies out there!).  She loves them ALL and gets giddy just thinking about the opportunity to hold a baby!

7}   I'm thankful that she's 100% a daddy's girl!  I'm thankful that she has a father that shows her God's Love and is teaching her what true love looks like.  This girl will never settle for less than she deserves in a man because from day one, she's known the love of a true man and has a healthy loving relationship with her father.  And bonus...she talks to him about all her 'girl issues'... {not his favorite, but he listens and usually says, "um, I think your mom might know all that."}....

I'm going to stop, because I already went over my list of 3, but I could go on-and-on...
I am so very thankful for my daughter!

November 1

short sweet & to the point...
that's what my November blog is going to be about.
I plan to post 3 things I'm thankful for everyday and not duplicate during the month...
so by November 30th I should have a list of 90 things I'm thankful for.
{check out my math skills}

On the weekends I plan to have my kids add their 3+ things they're thankful for and if I can get him to join me we'll see if Beau will add his thankfulness to the list....he may even do his own list over at his blog...hint, hint, hint!

...as I've stated before...
this blog is for fun and to not take away from my family...
yet I plan to post everyDAY in November...
so, these posts will be short...
they may be 3 paragraphs, they may be 3 sentences...
they may be one sentence, or just 3 words...
the point is just for me to jot down what I am thankful for...

and...the list will be a variety and is in NO particular order...
I'm sure there will be deep, meaningful items on the list...but I'm starting at a very human level today...
these are the 3 things that were in my frontal lobe when I started to type...

I'm thankful for coffee, hot showers and a cozy bed.

p.s. don't google images for hot showers
{especially with your 7 year old son standing next to you!}
...I should have known better!!!

Happy Free-Candy-From-Strangers Day

why, hello there!

l-r Wilson's "jack", my curly "C", Madison's Cat on a fence
and then my worty pumpkin with poka-dot holes (hard to see)...
also a plastic golden pumpkin in the background looks like it might have eyes, it does not!

yep, I've been blog absent for a whole month...life just got busy, and as I wrote at the beginning of the year, this blog is for fun and it will not take away from my family...so I have been present with my kids and husband and working, and yes, the blog has taken back seat...

Wilson as his Father & Madison as a 6th grade student in 1988!

but I wanted to do a re-post for ya'll on this day...my post about 'Celebrating Halloween' as a Christian...

enjoy!
http://chambersmade.blogspot.com/2010/10/celebrating.html