I blinked... and she isn't a baby anymore!

Do you ever have those moments that seem so unreal?

You find yourself looking at someone or something and it's like you have an out of body experience?

When you think to yourself, "This can't be happening!"

It's sort of like you stepped out of yourself and are looking at everything and everyone for the first time in a long time.

I had one of those moments a week ago.

It happened because of this:

Wait... what!? She's riding a bike all by herself with no training wheels! No, this can't be right. Wasn't she just taking her first steps last week?

Yes, I'm sure she was just learning to walk, not learning to ride a bike. 

No, it can't be! I refuse to believe it. She was just learning to walk and talk.

Yes, there's my baby. 18 months old. This is what she looks like.

Ack! Who is this?! This can't be my girl riding a bike, she's only a baby.

Okay, okay, I give in. Maybe she's not a baby. Surely, she's 2.

Yes, my little girl, a sweet toddler. 

Um, Hannah what happened? 

Okay, maybe you're not 2 anymore. Aren't you almost 4?

Yes, this is my little Petunia.

... Hannah?

My Hannah at 6 and a half. 

Riding a bike by herself, 

reading at an advanced level for her age, 

eager to learn more and more about God and spiritual things, 

becoming a great big sister, 

and growing into a beautiful girl inside and out!

I'm so proud of you! The years are passing too quickly. 

I love you! 

"A mother's treasure is her daughter." ~ Catherine Pulsifer

Character Quality Sunday

This Sunday's Character Quality to ponder throughout the week is...

RESOURCEFULNESS vs. Wastefulness

 - Wise use of that which others would normally overlook or discard.

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much." Luke 16:10

I'd like to think I'm pretty good at being resourceful, but I'm sure if I really took a closer look at my home and habits, I could probably find many more ways to improve. I think the hard part is living in a culture that for the most part is pretty wasteful, and ready to get the newest thing on the market whether the previous item is broken or not. I think that lately there has been a new movement in our culture on being "green" that has helped some people with unnecessary wastefulness. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. So many of us, myself included, are too often ready to jump at the next item that is presented to us before we think about if we are just going to throw away what we already have. I truly want to be a good steward of what the Lord has given us and not waste His blessings.

A not so Wordless Wednesday

I guess this post will not be wordless today.

I have to play catch up.

It has been crazy busy lately and I haven't been able to keep up on my blogging. Sorry to all my faithful readers... um, you are out there? Aren't you? (crickets chirping) Mom, I guess it's just you and me! =)

Anyhoo, this past weekend was a blur with lots of fun. Friday started with a big shopping trip to a really nice consignment store where I found some great deals on barely used name brand clothes! Score! I love upscale consignment stores! Then we had lunch at Philip's dad's restaurant since it was a half a block away.  Later that night we went to a big party in Atlanta. My mother-in-law's families' restaurant was celebrating it's 50th anniversary of being in business. (Yes, there's lots of family restaurants in this family.) We had so much fun and saw lots of family too. Saturday we played outside and Hannah surprised us with learning to ride her bike without training wheels! (More on that later) *Sniff* Wasn't she just a baby? Later that night we went to a CD release at our brother's church. It's a wonderful CD to benefit missions. And then, Sunday we had lunch with Philip's family and spent the day playing outside since it was such beautiful weather. Whew! I told you it was crazy! Monday came and I was out of steam. I did manage to clean the house a little and do some school work with Hannah so I did accomplish some things.

I promised a post on organization. And I didn't get to it. =( I did think about it a lot though. That counts for something, right? The junk drawers under the microwave, (Yes I said drawers, not drawer. sigh... I know, it's horrible) have been calling my name. Hopefully I will tackle that project tomorrow.

I also haven't forgotten the character quality series that usually I like to post on Sundays, but didn't get to it this Sunday. So here we go. This weeks topic of contemplation is: (picked at random)

WISDOM vs. Natural Inclinations

- Seeing and responding to life situations from God's frame of reference

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

Wow, this is a doozy! I could contemplate this for a long time. When I am presented with a situation, do I respond with my own natural inclinations, or do I first try to view things from God's perspective? Wow, so many situations come to mind. Raising children, money, marriage, work, relationships, and so much more! As always your comments and thoughts are welcome on these subjects. What does this mean to you? The purpose of these posts is to give food for thought during the week, myself included.

So now that I have caught back up, I'll leave you with some pics from Saturday. (Yeah, I also squeezed in some trampoline time with my second born.)

Just call me super-mom.

No really, DON'T!

I'm not. And just to prove it to you:

We had frozen waffles for dinner on Monday night!

Because, well, I was tired and we also didn't have any food in the house. Oh well, not a shining moment for me regarding nutrition, but the kids loved it! Not to worry, we now have a fridge full of nutritious food. Now, if I could just pay someone to come cook for me I'd be set!

Sorry I started rambling again... so I'll stop.

Here you go!

It was a beautiful day for... jumping!

Once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader

After jumping for a while, this old lady could barely breathe!

"Oxygen, I need oxygen!"

Girl talk

Mommy and her Pixie

Washing clothes... in the bath tub?

Our washing machine is broken.

It has been broken for a few days now.

My Mr. Fixit husband is waiting on a part that he ordered to fix it. It should arrive in the next day or two.

Meanwhile... the clothes are piling up!!! Arg!

Ahhh, what's a mom to do??? I thought about taking some clothes to wash at one of our moms' houses, but I decided to do this instead. I am so glad I did!

You should have seen their faces when they saw me throwing clothes in the bath tub!

We're going to wash clothes in the bath tub?!

They thought it was hysterical!

Instead of crushing grapes, they're stomping clothes.

THEY... HAD... A... BLAST! 

I think they'll always remember this! 

I know I sure will. 

I picture us still laughing years from now saying, 

"Remember when the washing machine was broken? And we had to wash clothes in the bath tub!!!" 

(Now, I'm kinda glad washing machine bit the dust! We'll always have this fun memory!)

Wordless Wednesday...

Sharing Joy

If you are a parent, have you ever had a moment when your child does something exemplary and you feel like your heart is about to burst and you thank God because you needed to see some confirmation that all that you are teaching them might somehow be taking root? Well, we had a moment like that recently.

So, I will take this time to share a precious moment with Hannah a couple of weeks ago. Now don't get me wrong here, my children are NOT perfect. And like all children, they need constant training and discipline. Believe me I don't know how many times I've said, "Stop your fussin', fightin', and squabblin'!! Now go give your sister a hug, and apologize for arguing and not not showing each other love and kindness." Moms, can I get a witness? How many times do we do this over and over?

But when Philip and I see them do something that is good or uplifting or kind, we try to praise, encourage, and shed light that act because we do want to make a constant effort to positively reinforce that behavior.

So here's this short story... it made my heart swell. I hope you enjoy it too.

Back in July while we were at a family reunion in TN, Hannah was given a purple monkey (yes, I said purple monkey!) as a gift from my cousin. She loves this monkey dearly and has become quite attached to it, she calls it Blueberry. So for months now she has played, slept with, and thoroughly enjoyed this monkey.

A couple of weeks ago Philip took Hannah along with him to a clothing store to exchange something. While they were there Hannah saw a display of stuffed animals. Now instead of begging Philip to buy her something, what did she do?

Well, I will tell you.

To Philip's surprise, she was thrilled to see a pink monkey EXACTLY like her purple one. She immediately started exclaiming that this was just like her monkey and how she REALLY wanted to buy it for... KAYLA! "Daddy can I please buy this for Kayla, she will love it! PLEASE?!" How could he say no to her unselfish desire to give something to her sister for no reason except that she knew she would love it too. So he said yes and Hannah was thrilled.

When they got home and told me all about it, Kayla was still taking a nap. Hannah was so excited and she wanted to give it to her right then. We took that time to tell her how proud we were of her for thinking of someone else in that instance. We told her that she could have easily wanted something for herself, but we were so pleased with her unselfish giving attitude. We also suggested that she give it to Kayla as a present. Hannah immediately went to my closet and was happy to look through and choose gift wrapping material for Kayla.

When Kayla woke up, Hannah was beside herself excited to give her sister this present.

I could just feel her anticipation... 

Her joy in seeing her sister's joy brought tears to my eyes

A pink monkey like Hannah's purple one!

Hannah wanted Kayla to have the same thing that she she loved, because she loved her! She wanted to share with her the thing that brought her such happiness.

Afterwards, I started to think about everything. And it struck me. Are we just as enthusiastic and jumping at opportunities to share what we love with others? 

Do we love other people so much that we look past our own selfish desires to see the chances and opportunities to share the love of our Saviour? Are we so full of joy and happiness with how He has redeemed us, that we can't wait to share it with others? Do we truly want others to know the love of God and hear the Gospel? Yes, we do. But, oh Lord forgive us, how we often fail in this area. 

Lord, help us to look past ourselves, our own selfish desires, and see people who are in need of you. We want to share with them the joy and love that comes from knowing you. We want our joy to be their joy, knowing Christ as their Redeemer, their Saviour!

 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." - John 15:9,11

This Sunday's Character Quality is...

ORDERLINESS vs. Disorganization

- Preparing myself and my surroundings so that I will achieve the greatest efficiency.

"But everything should be done in an fit an orderly way." 1 Corinthians 14:40

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Wow, I needed to hear this today. I have recently been feeling the need to simplify... well, pretty much everything! I have been reading other blogs and a lot Moms have inspired me to clean out the clutter and organize so that I have more time to do things which are more important to me.

Again, just to explain. I found a list of Character Qualities with operational definitions and will be posting one at random every Sunday. Feel free to comment about what each might mean to you, including any tips on how you try to implement them into your daily lives.

I will try to post an example of something (a drawer, a closet, cabinet etc.) this week that I will hopefully change from disorganization to orderliness! =)

Wordless Wednesday... in Black and White

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Character Qualities Series

I've decided to do an ongoing series on different character qualities. Each Sunday I'd like to write a brief post on a character quality with an operational definition. I recently found a list with 50 different qualities and it has definitely been food for thought. So, I will post one each Sunday without much commentary. Mainly, this is just what I'll be trying to think about each week. They are in no particular order. (Feel free to share your thoughts on each topic and what it means to you.) First up:

ATTENTIVENESS vs. Unconcern

- Showing the worth of a person by giving undivided attention to his words and emotions.

"Therefore, we must pay more careful attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." Hebrews 2:1

Patience

Sigh.....

I wish I was better at this.

Too often, I'm not.

Love, Joy, Peace, PATIENCE, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control.

I love this quote from KimC at inashoe.com

"God doesn’t give us the grace, or the energy, or the patience we need for the whole upcoming year all in one dose. He measures it out for us day by day, like the manna He gave the Israelites in the wilderness.  Planning ahead is good in general, but when the Israelites tried against God’s command to gather enough manna for the following day they found it rotted.  Don’t worry about tomorrow.  Do your best today.  God’s way keeps you coming back to Him.  If you start feeling like you can do this all on your own, things are about to go downhill."

You can read the rest of her post about patience here: http://inashoe.com/2011/09/4-moms-practice-patience-in-the-midst-of-chaos/

We all find ourselves when we come to the point where we just lose it. Maybe it's because you can't find that stupid hairbrush that you've been trying to find for the past 30 minutes, or some toy mysteriously gets flushed down the toilet, or an entire bowl of spaghetti gets dropped all over the floor, or it seems like you can't even go to the bathroom without someone banging on the door with an urgent need. (Most likely it's just to tell you that they just finished drawing a picture and NEED you to see it RIGHT now! You know urgent stuff like that.)

Or most likely, if your me, I reach that snapping point when we are trying to leave the house and have to be somewhere at a certain time. It's usually me that's running around like a mad woman, five minutes after we're already supposed to have left, shouting, "I can't find my other SHOE!!! Grab the baby's pacifier! What do you mean you can't find it? Can SOMEBODY PLEASE help me find my purse! Wait... where's my cell PHONE? OK, let's go... what... you have to go potty right NOW?!"

Anyhoo. (I know, I need to work on my organizational skills... and probably try to become better at planning ahead.)

While I don't have 12 kids like KimC, whew... God bless her, I find myself struggling with patience with my 3. When I do lose it, I truly regret my lack of patience with them. I'm so thankful that I can tell them I'm sorry, ask them to forgive me, and start all over again. And then the best defense is to PRAY, PRAY, PRAY! THANK YOU Lord that each new day is a new start and you promise to give me exactly what I need for that day. Help me to remember, even in the midst of chaos, to love my family with kindness and patience so that I might glorify you!

(And then if it's REALLY been a trying day, I try to self medicate with chocolate and take a bubble bath.... if I can get my hubby to take care of the kids, which he usually does, because he's good like that.)

"Love is patient, love is kind." 1 Corinthians 13:4a

Update on Santa!

I have a real quick post for today for all who are interested and want to be informed about Santa, the orphan we hosted last summer. The Mom of the family who hosted her last month has emailed me and told me that Santa said YES to their offer of adoption! We have been waiting and praying for this and are thrilled!

Many of you supported us last summer with our mission to help Santa, and many of you met her. (If you want to read more about our story with her, scroll down the side bar and read my posts from 2010 in my blog archive.) Thank you to all that donated in any way, you were a part of this journey for her as well. This family still has a ways to go before they will be able to bring her home for good. Hopefully soon, since the summer is over now and the government officials are back from vacation, this family will have a date set for their first court appearance in Latvia. Please join us in continuing to pray for Santa and for this wonderful family who has opened their hearts and home to her. This will definitely be a journey for all involved with, I'm sure, many bumps in the road along the way.

We were so pleased to be able to speak with her last month via Skype while she was in the U.S. She looked great! Praying for her during these last few months, hopefully soon she will be home for good!