Moments To Cherish

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Videos From October

I know this is way past due, but I kept forgetting to post some videos from when my sister + brother-in-law came to visit. Here are a few short clips.

Monday, December 6, 2010

I'm back from my sort of week-long internet break. I didn't take a break for the whole week since I did go on Facebook twice and read some blogs one evening, but I tried to stay away from it as much as possible. On Friday afternoon, one of the most exciting events I've ever witnessed took place! Kiera + Blake were playing on her bed and suddenly Kiera said,
"He came to take away my sins." I've been telling her that Jesus comes and takes away our sins when we ask him into our hearts and she knows that sins are "bad things we do like not listening to Mommy + Daddy and being gentle with Blake." So I asked Kiera,
"Who came to take away your sins?"
She answered, "Jesus!"
I said, "That's right, when you ask him into your heart, he takes away your sins."
Then she said, "Jesus, I ask you to come into my heart."
After picking my jaw up from the floor, I said, "And to take away my sins."
She repeated me and then said, "Amen."
WOW! WOW! WOW! She just made the best and most important decision of her life! I've been praying for salvation for both of my kids since I found out I was pregnant with them, so almost 4 years of prayers were answered in about 10 seconds! After that, we went upstairs and Kiera started singing which I believe was a song from the Lord. She started singing, "Praise Jesus higher, praise Jesus higher..." over and over again. She lifted up her hands, so I joined her and we sang and danced in the kitchen. I totally felt the Holy Spirit and it was so incredibly amazing, I felt like my heart would burst with joy! Later on, when I was by myself, I cried and cried tears of joy. I was such a bad example of a Christian last week as I was irritable and short-tempered with Kiera and had to apologize to her every day for snapping at her when she did something wrong. Obviously, God doesn't need me to be a perfect example in order to save someone. His grace was so evident to me, I was overwhelmed.
Some people may think, "Kiera just turned 3. She didn't know what she was doing." To that I say, her faith may be very simple + basic right now, but she knows that she does bad things and needs Jesus to take them away. Yes, she has many, many more things to learn and understand, but that doesn't make her decision any less valid. I praise God for His goodness and for answering simple prayers and many prayers! Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Friday, November 26, 2010

From Bad to Good

What do you do when you're feeling under the weather and your husband has a high fever and is puking his guts out and your daughter poops in the middle of supper on her chair (and she isn't wearing any pants or underwear because she didn't want to), you're left with a big pile of poop to clean up, and while you're running to the bathroom with her, you get poop all over your favorite jeans?

A. Cry
B. Scream
C. Ask God, "Why did I have children?"
D. Praise God because there are so many more worse situations that you could be dealing with.

Answer: I did C + D. Although I managed to not cry + scream on the outside, I sure was on the inside. I'm ashamed to admit that I did ask God why I had children. Once everything was cleaned up and we were back at the supper table, I thanked God for the many blessings He has given me, including my children. I thank God that He uses them to work on my character and develop a servant-heart, which is hard, but the end result is worth it! I'm thankful that I managed to finish my supper in spite of all the poop and that the kids + I had a peaceful, happy rest of the evening! That is the grace of God!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Old + New

“The more I count these blessings, the more I realize that they really are not the product of my own efforts. They are truly gifts of grace from God above. It’s incredible to open my eyes to them week after week. And humbling. That I should be graced with such wonders? Me… whose heart is weak and black, yet covered with much mercy. How great is Your unfailing love, Lord God of all!” ~Sharaya Crossan

Some of the pictures today are from 5 years ago and some of the pictures are current. Today I am thankful for:

521. Big snowflakes softly falling

522. Cuteness

523. That “The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love” Psalm 33:18

524. Friends I’ve had for 10+ years

525. Hearing my baby speak English (and non-English)

526. Taking pictures in the park with Jared when we were engaged

527. That Kiera enjoys doing puzzles and is getting very good at them

528. Raindrops on flowers

529. Not having any stomach pain yesterday or today (praise the Lord)!

530. Aquariums

531. Christian mystery novels

532. My former bedroom at my parents’ which was full of pictures and bright, cheery colors

533. The guy I played with on the praise + worship team who brushed the snow off of my van after worship practice

534. Red in a sea of yellow

535. The cleaning disc that fixed the problem with the DVD player in our van (the DVD player hadn’t worked since we bought the van in spring and now it does)!

536. Christmas lights on palm trees (pictures from the Dominican)

537. Blake’s 3-hour nap yesterday afternoon (he almost never does more than 2 hours)

538. My cousins

539. When Kiera said, “There’s fire coming out of my head,” after seeing her breath outside

540. Pool areas that have palm trees

Monday, November 22, 2010

This and That

Warning: The following post contains talk of poop.

Kiera is watching Veggie Tales and Blake is napping, so I finally have a moment to blog. Things lately have been mostly good, with a few small "bumps." Kiera's behavior has been worse in the past week, so that has been trying on my patience. I'm continually being shown how much I need God, because on my own, I don't have enough patience, love, joy, etc. I think part of it is that Kiera is bored of being in the house all the time (we hardly go out during the week...anyone up for a play date?), so she gets into trouble. On the plus side, she is totally day trained on the potty! YAY!!!! It took a long time for her to transition from going on her small potty to the regular toilet. Now that she has done that, she goes to the bathroom on the toilet when we're not at home, so I'm totally excited about that! We still have another obstacle to overcome and that is pooping on the potty. She saves it for her nap or nighttime and then poops in her diaper. She pooped once on the potty 2 days ago, so I keep praying she will make that a regular habit!

Blake is starting to talk! SO cool! Most of you have probably seen my facebook statuses, but he now says, "Up, Dad, Daddy, and Ma!" I love watching my kids learn and develop! He is working on tooth #5 right now and I suspect some more will follow closely after. He is close to walking on his own; he just holds onto one of our fingers and then cruises. He takes a few steps on his own almost every day when he walks between Jared + I, which is followed by much cheering and hugs for him!

Jared is busy finishing up his final assignment for the Security + Investments course he's been taking since the beginning of September, writing his best man speech, and other wedding-related activities this week with the wedding on Saturday. We'll both breathe a sigh of relief to have these weddings behind us. It's so much busier + more complicated both being in weddings in the same month while also having little kids.

I have been having digestion issues since the end of October. I haven't been to the doctor yet, as I don't have a family doctor and want to see if I can get rid of it naturally first. I have had mild stomach pain on + off in addition to other "things." I have tried cutting out anything that has flour in it and that seemed to help for a day or two, but I keep cheating. This week, I'm not going to cheat and I'll see whether or not that could possibly be the culprit. I've cut back on dairy as well. I started taking enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules to see if that will help. They pass through the stomach and then get released in the intestines and are supposed to take away stomach pain. I started those on Saturday afternoon and haven't really noticed a difference, but I'm not sure if it's been long enough. I also went to the chiropractor and he said it could be temporary as my body's hormones are changing since I quit breastfeeding in October. He also recommended I take acidophilus, so I am. He is a health-freak and has done a ton of research on everything related to health and the body. I also went for an hour-long massage on Friday, which was amazing, and she massaged my stomach quite a bit and I felt really good after that. I'm just praying that this annoying issue will go away, so if anyone else wants to pray for me, please feel free!