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Thursday, June 27, 2013

May Blessings

I finally transferred a whole bunch of pictures off of my camera yesterday, so now I’m playing catch-up.  Here are a bunch of blessings from May:

Windows that go almost to the floor which means Haley can see out of them no problem

The basket of goodies Jared got for Professional Admin week from his boss:

Cheese, Lindor chocolates and chips

Cookies, crackers, hazelnut spread and chocolate hazelnut sticks

Catching them sleeping

Hats made in Sunday School

Morning cuddles in our bed

Haley was busy on her computer while Jared went on our computer

Indoor beach day

My Mother’s Day gift from Jared

The flowers I got from Kiera

Haley’s favorite book is the Bible and I pray that continues as she gets older

My new pink shower cap, which I used when I gave my hair an overnight protein treatment of olive oil and egg (you can ask Jared how attractive he thinks my shower cap is, ha ha)

Family popcorn time in the morning

Friday, May 31, 2013

Learning Through Trials

I have not blogged in a while because of my arms. A week ago my left arm started hurting and a couple of days later, so did my right arm. I had tendinitis 9 years ago when I was a cashier and I think that's what I'm dealing with again. I see my doctor in a week, so I will talk to her about it. I'm seeing her for a follow-up to find out my x-ray results. I've been having pain on + off by my tailbone, exactly where I had a cyst removed 7 years ago. The doctor couldn't see anything from the outside, so I opted to get an x-ray done. Some days I've been incredibly discouraged by the almost constant pain and having to always think, "How can I do this activity so that I don't further hurt my arms?" On those days that I get discouraged I go to my journal where I have Scripture promises written down about healing, who I am in Christ and fear. When I feed on the Word the fear and discouragement starves. I keep on thanking Jesus so that I focus on all the good instead of all the bad. It's definitely a struggle, though. I'm learning that I can try to eat as healthy as possible, avoiding gluten, most dairy, sugar, even substituting coconut oil for butter, take vitamins, minerals, fish oil, etc. and still not be immune from health problems. I'm not saying that those are bad things to do. I want to honor God with my body as it is where the Holy Spirit lives and I want to take care of it, but I am not ultimately in control, as much as I try to be. I do the best that I can and I need to just trust God to take care of me. The almost constant health issues since last year are so tiring, not just physically but also mentally and emotionally. At the same time, my compassion for those with chronic illness has grown immensely and I pray for those people I know often. I don't want to complain about it but I also want to be honest with where I'm at right now. The tears have come frequently lately and, "Lord, I need you," has come from my lips often. I was reminded of that verse, "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 He has overcome and I can rejoice in Him! No matter how much pain I am, I can still choose to praise and look for things to be thankful for. It doesn't mean that I have to keep a smile pasted on my face but even when the tears come I can still worship. I pray that God will be glorified in my body and I pray for healing daily not only for myself but friends and family as well. If you want to join me in praying, you are more than welcome to! :)

Thursday, May 2, 2013

March + April Photos

I have pictures from the past couple of months that I haven’t posted yet, so here are some that make me smile:

I have been keeping my eyes open for a Strawberry Shortcake toothbrush since Kiera saw one this past winter and wanted it but I didn’t buy it at that time.  I found these at Wal-Mart for the kids and they definitely like them!

This “after bath” hairdo

She likes the double chocolate spelt muffins that I make.

At the old house, Kiera liked to come with me to get Haley when she woke up in the morning, and she would sit Haley down on her lap and slide her way down the stairs with her and then sometimes sit with her on the couch.  I love how she loves her baby sister!

I tried to get a good picture of Haley in her Easter dress, but she just wanted to move around all the time and not look at the camera.

Kiera came home from school one day looking like this, which was a cute surprise.

It’s hard to get a picture of the three of them together all holding still at the same time, so I got one when they were watching a show.

Blake spilled some iced tea on the counter and this was his way of cleaning it up, funny boy!

The hours they have spent drawing colorful pictures at the counter while I am cooking, baking or cleaning in the kitchen.

Blake’s drawings are really progressing: I think the dinosaur is having a party with balloons.

I can always tell when she has enjoyed a meal because her hair and face are covered in it!

She may have been pretending to be an airplane….not totally sure.

She has a lot of space to push her little stroller around.

Her hair is getting in her eyes and we don’t want her to have bangs, so I’ve been starting to put it in a ponytail on top of her head.  She doesn’t like to leave it in for very long most days, but I managed to get a picture of it before she pulled it out.

I think they were doing sock puppets, but again, I’m not sure.

Kiera painted herself and Blake at school and I thought it was funny and cute.

I came home one day last week to find her fast asleep in her high chair at lunchtime.  I think that’s the first time she’s ever done that!

My favorite flowers are bright-colored daisies, and my friend brought these over as a housewarming gift, having no clue that they are my favorite!  What a blessing!

Our house is surrounded by mud since there is no yard yet.  When we were moving, I was packing the kids up to leave the new house and go back to the old house.  They were all in the van and I had forgotten something inside, so I quickly ran in to get it.  When I got back in the van, Blake said, “Haley is all muddy.”  I was confused as to how she would have gotten that way, so I turned around and this is what I saw:

This picture doesn’t even quite fully capture it.  She looked like someone trying to camouflage themselves in the bush, there was SO much mud covering her entire face!  There was mud all over her seat, Blake’s seat and a couple of the windows.  I asked him what happened and he had quickly gone in the mud before we left the house and had decided to wipe off his dirty mittens all over his sister and the van!  Haley looked hilarious, especially because she seemed quite oblivious to it all but I was not impressed by the mess I had to clean up.  At least I got a picture out of it and now I can laugh about it!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Is Tattooing Taboo?

Recently, someone I know got a tattoo. I have always thought tattoos were wrong because of this verse in the Bible, ""Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the Lord." Leviticus 19:28 I mentioned my view on tattoos to a friend yesterday and then I started to wonder, "Why did God say that and what were the circumstances around that?" I did some research and found out that this passage in Leviticus, including the surrounding text was dealing with the pagan rituals of the people living around the Israelites. God's desire is to set His people apart from other cultures. The focus was prohibiting worldly, heathen worship and witchcraft. In this same passage in verse 26 it says, "Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood," and verse 27, "Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards." Well, many Christians today eat non-kosher meats and get haircuts without participating in the forbidden worship of pagans. Back then these customs were associated with pagan rites and rituals. Today they are not. So, I don't think the main issue is "To tattoo or not to tattoo?" but to ask, "What are my motives?" "Am I seeking to glorify God or draw attention to myself?" "Will this be a source of contention for my loved ones?" "Am I being led by the Holy Spirit?" We should be asking ourselves that with everything we do. I've always thought this was a black and white issue, but perhaps it's not. I haven't really come to a firm conclusion and I don't know if I need to right now. I need to look at my own life and my desire is for my life to line up with this: "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Kid Snippets

I came across these short clips today on another blog and thought they were very funny! There are many more on YouTube if you like these ones.

Monday, April 8, 2013

This and That

It’s been a long time since I blogged.  I’ve been a tad bit on the busy side, with moving on Easter week-end and trying to get all unpacked and organized as quickly as possible.  We started moving all of our boxes on Wednesday, March 27, and we did that for 3 days.  Then on Saturday, March 30, we had about 9 guys come and help us move all of our furniture and the other stuff that hadn’t been moved yet.  They started at 8:00 a.m. and were done by 10:30 a.m.  I was cleaning most of the morning and packing up the last of our stuff.  I had 3 ladies come and help me and we were totally done by 11:00 a.m.  By 11:30, we were all at the new house eating pizza for lunch!  By Monday, April 1, I was done unpacking (except for a few boxes in the basement, which will most likely stay there) and everything was organized.  Yesterday, Jared hung up 6 pictures for me and I have 3 more that I want to put up and then I’m all done!  It feels SO good and it’s slowly starting to feel like home.  Since we moved to a different area, Kiera will have to change schools.  At first she was quite upset about that but now she can hardly wait to start at her new school!  We will switch her when school starts again in the fall. 

I will post pictures of the new house hopefully soon.  In the meantime, I’m still behind on photos, so here are some of the things that the kids have been up to:

There’s love in between the fighting.

A couple of months ago, we used the Juppy Baby Walker for Haley to try to encourage her to learn how to walk.  Praise God she doesn’t need that anymore since she is officially walking and almost running!

We had our family Christmas with my parents close to the end of January.  It got postponed 2 or 3 times for various reasons.

They got this train set for Christmas.

I made heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies on Valentine’s Day.

They like to dress up.

Occasionally Blake ends up in a dress.

I think the hat suits him better than the dress.

The kids found the Lite Brite hidden away in a closet (I bought it at a garage sale a long time ago and forgot about it), so we got that out and it brought back memories for me.

I see a lot of these smiles, which are my favorite.

Kiera has been wanting goggles for a long time, so when she saw a 3-pack at Wal-Mart, she bought them.