We really are going to move. It is for real. I am packing boxes and listing and selling things on Craig’s List! If I think too long about it, I get a little anxious! Primarily because I have roped my parents into this adventure and I am fearful they are being held against their will! So I immediately turn these thoughts off for fear of having an anxiety attack. :o) I will attempt to take a photo of my progress and download it here tomorrow.

Speaking of anxiety, I read a post on a blog today that contained a very, very brief (1 or 2 sentences) account of a gal who was a 7 year breast cancer survivor and was recently diagnosed with it again but having metastasized to her lungs. Yikes. That sobered me quickly. The thing is, I know the things I am and am not supposed to do in order to reduce my chances of a reoccurrence,  yet it is as though I live in denial. And the denial isn’t along the lines of I’ll never get cancer again but more like I can’t do anything about it so why bother, which is such a lie! I stick my head in the sand. I do not want a reoccurence. DO NOT. Why, if I had a reoccurence at the 7 year mark my sweet kids would only be 14 and 11. They still need me! So why am I so foolish? Once again, I say to myself, ” I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Romans 7:15 For real. What is my problem?

My God is not a God of fear. He says that He is my God, that he holds my right hand and says “do not be afraid for I will help you.” (Don’t know the location of that verse exactly. Psalms?) Do not be afraid. That sounds like a command. Don’t be afraid of dying. Don’t be afraid of leaving your kids while they are so young. Don’t be afraid of treatment. Don’t be afraid of what will happen to my husband. Don’t be afraid of my family falling apart if I die. Don’t be afraid of my kid’s future. Don’t be afraid of who teaches my children or how my children will be taught. Don’t be afraid that there will be no one to love my kids like I do. Don’t be afraid of my children’s sorrow or fear. Don’t be afraid about my children’s relationship with Christ if I am not there to teach them and guide them and point them to Him. Don’t be afraid that there will be no one to love my kids like I do. Don’t be afraid that there will be no one who understands my kids like I do. Don’t be afraid that there will be no one to love my kids like I do. Don’t be afraid that know one knows my kids like I do. Don’t be afraid that there will be no one to love my kids like I do. Don’t be afraid that there will be no one to nurture my kids like I do. Don’t be afraid there will be no one to love my kids like I do. DON’T BE AFRAID THERE WILL BE NO ONE TO LOVE MY KIDS LIKE I DO! Don’t, don’t, don’t.Yet sometimes I am scared to death.

So here is Matthew 6:25-34. I am replacing any reference to me with my kids.

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your kid’s lives, as to what they will eat or what they will drink; nor for their bodies, as to what they will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are your kids not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his child’s life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe your children? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will my kids eat?’ or ‘What will my kids drink?’ or ‘What will my kids wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that your kids need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Thank you Father. Remind me not to me anxious for tomorrow. That tomorrow will take care of itself.

My sweet son is just that. Sweet. So sweet. I could just eat him up. He brings me so much joy each day. He is tenderhearted but can be rowdy as all get out. I often have to walk away when the boys are wrestling because it causes me to wring my hands and cringe with fear.

Today I am reflecting on CJ’s tender side. He loves stuffed animals (so much like his Uncle Jon at that age). He has about 75 Webkins and knows them all by name. He worries about them being warm and comfortable; I often find them covered up or laying on pillows.

We went to a birthday party Friday night at a kid friendly pizza franchise. CJ is a bit competitive so he is pretty driven to win as many tickets as possible at these kinds of places. He is astonishingly good at these games! And as usual he walked away with a boat load of tickets all of which he squanders on a million little items like bouncy balls, tatoos, plastic creatures and sticky reptiles you throw at walls and windows. When it came time for us to leave, Ceej had a handful of creatures and before I realized what he was doing, he had put them into the tiny zipper pocket of my athletic jacket. Without thinking I zipped up the pocket and he cried out then unzipped my pocket halfway. “They need to breathe.” says my son.

He is so cute.

Day 5! I chose my best friends daughter as the subject for my picture today.

Introducing Halle.

“Halle holding her new American Girl doll.”

You’ll have to pardon her ruffled appearance. She was freshly showered but had not had her hair fixed yet.

We have Hal at our house often. We are in the same homeschool co-op. Her mom has been my best friend for over 11 years. We are all together often. Field trips, hanging out, celebrations, camping, vacations, church functions. Hal is an only child. She loves and adores her Kaity and Ceej (Ceej-o-ramma). They all get along famously although CJ sometimes can only handle so much femininity. Hal sleeps over once, sometimes twice a week. She is my third child and is a lot of fun! She is energetic, bouncy, imaginative, an animal lover, strong willed, bossy, obedient, intelligent and well behaved. Her mom and I parent so much alike that discipline, expectations and rules at my house are a no brainer for Hal. She helps with the kids routines, clears her dishes and knows where her shoes go without being asked. If she does need correction, she takes it well and usually does a great job adjusting her behavior and/or attitude. Hal is Kaity’s best (5 year old) friend. There is a 6 year age difference but they manage to have a lot of fun together. They are both Narnia lovers and play Narnia on the trampoline every time they are here. They have invented their own games like Dreams and  Mix. 

We love Hal. We love having her with us. She is so much like family that I hardly remember she isn’t mine.

“Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” – Psalm 127:3

Day 4 of the 365 day photo challenge. I am barely getting this post in before the day is over.

My sweet father had to give up driving a few months ago. This is a big deal for most people. And more often, a person is much older than my daddy when they hand over their license. Because he is a man of integrity and is programmed to always do the right thing, he gave up driving with a commendable attitude at the tender age of 60. He has been such an amazing sport about the whole thing. No complaining. He isn’t angry or depressed. He is not having a pity party. Something that is often an incredibly difficult and even painful choice (okay, some folks are forced), he has chosen to have a cheerful heart about. This is consistent with who my dad is. When faced with adversity of any kind, he is meek and gentle and good natured. He is able to respond that way time and again because he has an advocate whom he trusts and follows and loves. My dad loves Jesus. That is his secret. He is a humble example to all who know him. Can you tell I like my dad?

What is my point here? What does all of that have to do with cookies?

My dad has a sweet tooth. He is Dutch. We Dutch folk love sweets. (Maybe we are related to Buddy the Elf. Perhaps he is Dutch.) Before Dad stopped driving, he was capable of purchasing his own treats whenever his supply ran low. Now that he doesn’t have that freedom, he is forced to rely on the compassion of his wife or daughter for his goodies. It is becoming quite a regular errand to stop at the grocery store once, occasionally twice a week to stock up on necessities like pie, several flavors of ice cream, yogurts, egg nog, cookies and more. I’ll receive a text from him, wanting to know if I am going to the store and if so, could I pick up x, y and z. I don’t mind at all. It is my pleasure and I am tickled to help him under such dire circumstances.

Last night, my mom asked me to pick up a loaf of bread for them. Today, a text from my dad read like this, verbatim.

“Good morning Jenn. If you happen to go to the grocery store for bread, please pick up a couple of packages of cheap sandwich cookies. See you later. Love dad.” So, when I stopped at Fry’s, I picked up 2 large packages of daddy’s cookies and decided to snap a photo. These kinds of cookies are so him.

Thank you for our taste buds Lord!

Day 3 of the 365 day photo challenge.

Today I decided to take a picture of my space. It is a little corner in my bedroom where I have my quiet time without a lot of distraction. I also have my laptop set up here. The rocking chair is one the hubs surprised me with when I was pregnant with my first child. I used it with my babies. I still use it with nieces and nephews and other little ones. I love that I use it daily even if it isn’t to rock a tiny human. If we weren’t getting ready to move, I’d do more to spruce it up. My delicate tush sits on a down throw pillow. The lap blanket draped over the back of the rocking chair was made by my great grandmother. She used an old wool coat of my grandfather’s and lined the opposite side with a groovy fabric that must be from the 60’s. My scarf is new and has pockets for my fingers! On the wall is a wooden plaque from Cracker Barrel with the scripture from Psalm 139:13. Next to that is a very cool scrapbook calendar that is packed with valuable journal and page ideas.

“A peek.”

This next picture is a close up of the tray on my little table.

The box of matches is for the candle I light when I have my quiet time. My pencil holder is one dd made when she was 3 at VBS. It contains multiple mechanical pencils, my favorite RSVP brand pens (fine tip), a bookmark with my nephew’s picture on it when he was 4 or 5, and a magnetic bookmark my mom made me.  Of course something to chew on is a given (Bit-O-Honey) and those gems are held in my fabulous vintage Pyrex dish. (I have a vintage Pyrex obsession). I noticed I have two timers in my tray. I use those puppies daily to keep track of cooking food, wayward children and to manage my time that I would otherwise waste in cyberspace. My favorite chapstick by Nivea, fingerless mittens, journal, Bible study material, notebook, Inductive Study Bible, a homeschool magazine and clipboard are also currently residing in the tray.

Not pictured is my votive candle holder that I burn candles from Armadilla Candle Company in and 2 tissue boxes. One that is full of clean, new tissue and an emptied one that I stuff nasty used tissue into.

So there you have it. Thrilling.

“Let all things be done decently and in order.” – I Corinthians 14:40

Well it is day 2 of the 365 day photo challenge and I have managed to remember to take a photo today and blog about it. This is huge.

Without further delay, I present to you (are you ready?) . . . ta-da! Towels!

“Kid’s and kitchen towels.”

Are you impressed? I didn’t think so. I will explain. Last week, I had a mountain of laundry to do. We had been out of town and that always creates a surplus of dirty laundry. For whatever reason, I decided to pray for my family as I folded. I began folding a load of CJ’s clothes and every time I picked up a piece I would pray for him. Sometimes, if I was folding his shirt for example, I would pray for his arms or heart, whatever area that item of clothing generally touches or covers. I was able to pray all kinds of things for him throughout the day. Each member of my little family was thoroughly covered in prayer that day becuase I was doing laundry all day! So here I am a week later catching up on laundry again and I have a new opportunity to pray over each member of my family in an intimate and unique way. (Imagine what I am praying while I am folding underwear! Talk about intimate!)

I have been asking God to teach me to delight in the work he has for me. All of it. Down to scrubbing toilets and doing laundry. I love that God showed me a new way to cover my family in prayer in the midst of the mundane.

“She watches over her family and never wastes her time.” – Proverbs 31:27

Help me to not waste my time Lord!

Blessings,

Jennifer

I received an email today from WordPress encouraging bloggers to consider a 365 day blog challenge. The email provided examples of what other 365 day bloggers have done or are going to do and I was intrigued. There are some very creative folks out there. While I believe I could come up with something wonderfully creative, I am afraid I would find myself at the end of the day, out of time and pooped out, unable to fulfill my commitment. So my simplified commitment is this: I am going to try to take a picture and then post it every day beginning today. Why wait until January 1st? I may forget by then! I am going to be upfront and say right here and now that I may fail at this! I may do this imperfectly by skipping some days! But I am going to give this a shot. I think it would be a wonderful record of 2112.

Below is my first picture of the 365 day challenge. You may wonder why I chose to take such a ho-hum photo. What is there in this picture that is particularly interesting or meaningful? What is the significance?

I thought about the photo I wanted to take to begin the challenge. Naturally, my children are near the top of my list of priorities. They come after my relationship with Christ and serving my husband. The work the Lord has given for me to do here on earth primarily involves these guys. For now anyway. I decided to snap this pic of Kait and CJ because this is where we were, right now, in life. Kaity is sick with an upper respiratory something-or-rather. Each of my children recently received a Nintendo DS as a bribe (more on that in a different post). I loathe video games and am wondering how I allowed this to happen. So this picture neatly represents, to me, reality. The in-it-neck-deepness of parenting. The problem I am facing, right here and now, in real life, regulating video game time (a.k.a. the mind numbing, brain washing of my children).

“11yodd and 8yods playing their Nintendo DS’s. Muffin the cat blessing them with her presence.”

“He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” Malachi 4:6

So what has my children’s hearts?

We returned from our 2nd annual winter trip to Flagstaff Arizona. We have spent a lot of time in Flag over the last 18 years but it has always been in the spring and summer months. We Tucsonans are starved for crisp, cold weather you know. The below freezing temps are a refreshing blast that we have yet to tire of.

Did I mention we lived in Flag for about 6 months? We lived next to The Country Club. The Country Club is beautiful, the houses are stunning. Our teeny, tiny run down little apartment was nothing more than 800 square feet and a bathroom! We loved to drive through The Country Club and dream of space in which to live and our own yard!

Whenever we are in Flag, we drive by our old apartments. This time as we did, we noticed an odd spectacle across the street on the golf course at The Country Club. An elk! Another Elk! Many more elk! Why, an entire herd of elk! We pulled over and snapped pictures along with a handful of other passer-byers. I quickly counted then counted again. There were no less than 103 elk standing together on the golf course, looking alert and slightly perturbed that they were drawing attention to themselves. It was a magnificent sight!

“Elk at The Country Club in Flagstaff Arizona.”“Here’s another one.”

The kids went sledding with their dad 3 of the four days were there. The first time, I set up my camping chair, bundled up in coats, boots and mittens, wrapped myself in a heavy blanket and purposed to enjoy their laughter and fun while reading a book and snapping pictures. (I did not participate because I was sick).

“Here I am all bundled up.”“Here are Chad and Ceej. Notice the giant snowball in Ceej’s hands.”“Hubs laughing at daughter’s fall off her sled thingy.”“Hubs filling sled stingy with snow to dump on unsuspecting child.”“Unsuspecting child receiving blast of snow from the hubs.”

The other times they went sledding, they went to a popular sledding area and used giant black inner tubes. It looked like so much fun!

I snapped some great pics of my sweet son salivating at the snow through the window in our hotel.

“My sweet boy.”

I always bring crayons and markers and something to color on any trip we take. This time I printed about 50 Christmas coloring pages that I found online. We took them to every restaurant we went to and colored in the hotel room.

“I love that Beebs is wearing her ear muffs while she colors!”

Last year, I brought coffee filters and scissors so we could iron them flat, then cut them into snowflakes. I remembered to do the same this year. Here are some of Ceej’s creations.

“Coffee filter snowflakes.”

We visited Starbucks a few times while there. Ceej loves their breakfast sandwiches.

“Chad and Ceej in Starbucks eating breakfast.”“Beebs’ water and my Salted Caramel Mocha.”“Beebs in Starbucks.”

We suprised the kids and took them to see The Muppets before we left town.

As we left Flag, we encountered fog like we desert dwellers have never experienced before. It was slow going because we could not see very far in front of us. This went on for miles and miles. It was enchanting!

“Dense fog.”“We lost sight of the trees.”“Hubs bravely navigating our way through the fog/clouds.”

We had a lovely, leisurely get away in Flag. I read through almost three books and was able to do some praying and soul searching. I was so grateful for the beauty all around us! I thanked God over and over for the magnificence of the mountains and pines and snow that He created. What a gift!

“Lord, there is no God like you and no works like yours.” Psalm 86:8

What a busy few days we have had! But when are we not busy I’d like to know?!

We splurged and ate dinner with the kids at Olive Garden then went to Home Depot to pick out a Christmas tree. The kids chose a beautiful specimen and in record time too!

They just finished decorating the tree practically by themselves! The hubs wrestled it into the stand and filled it with water. He then dug out Christmas Vacation and loaded it into the DVD player (I am so embarrassed admitting that). I put the lights on the tree and our bells. The kiddos did all of the rest! I am amazed at what a great job they did. It truly looks like I decorated the tree myself.

Here are Beebs and Ceej with the finished tree.”

Yet another sign that they are maturing before my eyes. It was only a few years ago that they clumped all of the ornaments together on the lower half of the tree with no sense of balance or visual appeal. I would wait until they went to bed then spread the decorations evenly around the tree hoping they wouldn’t notice.

Blessings!

Jenn