A weekend away!

Smokey Mountains of TN. HERE I COME! I will be gone this weekend with some really great friends and will get some much needed rest and relaxation. Also on the agenda is some fun tubing in the River. I will take lots of pictures and possibly a video or two. Hopefully when I get back, I will be a newly rested woman, ready to take on the Summer with full Fury.

Be back home on Sunday and possibly ready to blog about the incredibly awesome weekend.

(Please be praying that the rain will stay away- as we have outdoor activities planned and the weather men are not being very positive about the rain that is on it's way there. I know I will be.)

All in a daze work.

Karston is getting so good at driving Papa's lawn mower, that he can do it with his feet!These pics are him just playing around, but he did cut alot of Papa's grass that day. I can't believe how fast this boy is growing up. Cutting grass for his grandparents is just the beginning. We only have four more years until he is a full blown teenager. Ugh! I am so not ready. Is there really such a thing? Being ready for your children to become teenagers and eventually adults out on their own? Well, maybe we will never be completley ready, but I pray that God gives us the strength and the wisdom to be able to say we are proud of our son because we did our very best raising him. It won't be easy, but if it would slow down a little bit I would feel alot better about it.

Big Girl Bed

Alyssa is now in a BIG Girl Bed! We have converted the crib to a Daybed and she loves it. Ok. so the first night she fell off of the bed, but then I started tucking the blankets under the mattress and she has done great. Even though the bed is the same size as it was as a crib she seems so small in her converted bed.

Now when she wakes up, she gets up quietly and plays until she is ready to come out and be with the rest of us (usually when daddy gets home.) Then I start to hear a very sweet knock knock, on the door. Although, when I open the door, I see the biggest mess she could possibly make.

We then start the Clean up process, We sing "Clean up, Clean up, Everybody Everywhere, Clean up, Clean up Everbody do your share." It is so much more fun to clean while you sing.

While I was converting the crib I decided 'why not change the room around a little bit.' So that is exactly what I did. Here is what it looks like now.

You never know what they will say...

I have been taking lots of pictures and making lots of videos latley but I am not able to download them all just yet because our computer is down for a while. So for now I am using my sister's computer. So while I have many blog post just waiting to be written it will be a little while before I can make that happen. In the meantime, here are some old stories about my children that you must read.

Since these are old stories, I thought it appropriate to put an old picture here.

Karston age 4. - Returning home from Vacation in an airplane, Karston looks out the window and says... "Mom, we are so high up I can almost see God."


Karston age 4. - Karston was playing "his imaginary games" with Papa. Papa told him that he has quite an imagination. Karston ws very offended and said... "No I don't!" When Papa explained that imagination is a good thing he accepted that and was very proud of himself. A couple of days later in the car I was pretending something and Karston was saying that it was not true. When I told him that I was using my imagination, he was very suprised saying "Mom? You have one of those too?"


Josiah age 2. - On vacation Heath was with us for one week, but then went home while we stayed for an extra week. One morning, I woke up with Josiah in my face. He said "Mom, where That daddy?"


Karston age 4 - Karston was visiting Nanny in Alabama alone. It had been a couple of days since we had talked with each other. Nanny said, thinking he would be homesick, "Karston should we call mommy? She misses you and would probably like to hear from you." Karston replied "No, she will be ok."




Karston age 5 - It turned very cold in Chicago. We were getting ready to leave our home. I told Karston to change his shirt because he only had a T-shirt on. He said that was the one that he wanted to wear. I explained that it was too cold outside for Just a T-shirt. He then said that he wanted to be cold. I told him that if I let him go out and be cold then I would be a bad mom. I could see the wheels turning in his head as he thought for a moment. Karston asked me, "If you're a bad mom do you go to jail or Dr. Phil?" I told him probably both and his eyes got big and his eyebrows raised as he got up to go and get another shirt.



We were at lunch today and Josiah (age 5) started telling us that he wanted a football helment. I asked him if he was going to be a football player and he said yes. We asked him what position he might want to play? Heath asked him do you want to throw the ball, catch the ball, run with the ball, tackle the other players, or kick the ball? He thought about these options for a little while and then answered......"I want to be the one that doesn't play," lol. I told him that a guy that is all dressed up with helment and all to play football, but doesn't play is called a benchwarmer. He said "than I am a benchwarmer, cause I just want to watch the game." He is so funny.



This is a conversation that I overheard from my boys several weeks ago...
While Karston sat watching T.V., Josiah was playing off to the side in his own world. Suddenly all worlds came together and this coversation was a result...

Josiah- "Why won't my weenie go down?"
Karston- "It's sticking up isn't it?"
Josiah-"Yeah"
Karston-"Yeah, mine does that sometimes too. You just have to push it down for a while.
Josiah-"It's not going down."
Karston-"I know you have to push on it for hours or something."
Josiah-"Karston push on my weenie. Karston did push on Josiah's "weenie" It's still not going down."

It was all I could do to let them have this brotherly moment. I wanted to laugh and cut in with my own comments, but I am so glad that I didn't. Sometimes you just gotta go through things without mom's help, right?

I'm sorry that there isn't any Alyssa stories yet, but she is talking more and more and those stories will come. Sometimes it's nice just to remember how cute the boys can be.

F.R.O.G.

( This picture was taken when Angie and I drove across the country in a moving van. This F.R.O.G became our mascot.)

What is it an Acronym for? I'm sure most people know by now that it means...

Finished Room Over Garage
NO? What about...

Fixture Random Output Generator (lighting technology)
Not that either? Oh, I know...

Flexible Response to Ongoing Growth
Not really? How about...

Fluent Readers On Grade-Level
Still not it? Oh, I know, I know...

Foolish Repulsive Old Gentlemen (informal/social group of southern California businessmen)
I thought for sure that was the one. Hmmmm...

For Recognition Of Greatness
That one sounded good to me, but NO? It's a long shot, but what about...

Free Rocket Over Ground
Yea, I knew that wasn't even close. Try this...

Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (technique that characterizes an ultrashort laser pulse in time)
Ok. Then I give up, Well maybe one more...

Forever or Fully Rely on God

Actually they are ALL real acronyms for F.R.O.G. so you could really just pick the one you like best and claim it. When I googled "the acronym for Frog" this is what I got. So yes they are are All real. I like them all for different reasons, but I especially liked the "Foolish, Repulsive, Old Gentlemen." It sounds so contradictory to put Foolish and Repulsive in the same phrase as Gentlemen. If anyone else knows of some clever, funny or just strange Acronyms let me know in a comment.

Just like the Laughing Cow Cheese commercials says "Have you laughed today?"

WordLess Wednesday...

A blog of a lighter note....

For the last few weeks Alyssa has been climbing out of her crib when she wakes up. When I went in to get her just the other morning this is what I found.
She is such a sneaky little thing. No telling how long she had slept under her bed that night. I have noticed that when she gets out of bed now, she plays in her room very quietly. I usually don't know that she has been up at all but then walk in to see what was a very clean room is now messy with every toy she could get her hands on. I have to wonder how much sleep she is actually getting. She might not be taking 4 hours naps anymore, but as long as she is quiet and happy there is no need to interrupt, right?

The other night Josiah and I were very hungry but there was not a lot of food in the house. I looked through a cookbook at some cookie recipes to see if we could find some easy cookies we could make together. I found a very simple recipe for Sugar Cookies and was so happy to find that we had all the ingredients we needed. So we made them together and had fun! They were NOT good cookies. There was not enough sugar or something. So the next day I made some cake icing and put it on the cookies.

I decided to make them look like my three children so the ones in the green shirts are of Karston.

The one in the Orange shirt is to look like Josiah.

The ones in the Purple shirt are of course Alyssa and this one seemed to capture her latest mood exact.

While they were fun for me to make and the kids really enjoyed eating them, I loved looking over at the table and seeing all my "babies" piled up on top of each other.

This is just one of life's simplest of moments that taste so sweet.

Jesus' Character part 1 of 6

This past weekend Heath and I went away on an overnight Retreat and learned more in one weekend about Jesus than I have known in my entire 27 years of being a "christian."

There are 6 main characteristics of Jesus. We are told in the bible that we should have the same [character] as Christ Jesus. So in order for us to become more like him we must understand more about him. These 6 traits are Holiness, Contemplative, Charismatic, Social Justice, Evangelical, and Incarnational.

Since there are 6 characteristics and so much to say about each of them, the best way to tell you all the inspirations I have come to know would be in 6 different blogs, highlighting each one.

I will start with Holiness.

Holiness is Spiritually related to right thoughts or right actions. This is not something that was surprised to learn. It seems so simple and easy, right? Then why is it that many people we would all consider "holy" have fallen from grace? It is because it takes discipline in practice to make Holiness a character trait of our everyday life. There are several different ways of practicing Holiness, including but not limited to, Simplicity vs. Frugality, Submission, Confession, Sacrifice or Fasting.

Fasting is sacrificing food (or something of routine importance) for Spiritual Purposes. If we fast without the spiritual purposes, then we are really just dieting. In the Bible we find many records of fasting for different spiritual purposes. We learned of 9 biblical fast from the bible.

Now let me interrupt right here. I am not one to fast on a regular basis, in fact I am not sure that I have ever fasted food. Another practice of Holiness is Confession and this may be a time for me to do just that. The reason I have never done a food fast is because it can be a dangerous thing for someone that has a history of eating disorder such as I do. When I was in college, I dealt with Anorexia as a result of depression. While I have been healed of the depression, I must always guard against anything that could re trigger the eating disorder itself. Skipping meals, even for spiritual reasons could set a president and "trigger" not eating all over again. So for this reason Fasting food has never been an option for me.

Going into this meeting about fasting, I knew that it was something that I may have to find a creative substitution. There are different ways to fast. There is a normal fast in which you abstain from food but drink water. There is the Liquid fast in which you abstain from food, but drink lots of liquids in addition to water. There is a partial fast in which you make restrictions on certain foods but still partake in others. There is the absolute fast in which you are restricted from food and liquids and there is a Corporate fast in which a group of people fast together. In studying the 9 biblical fast and their purposes, we saw examples of all of these different types of fasting.

I was drawn to the fast we studied about Daniel. Daniel asked the cook to not serve him and his friends the food, but the cook was afraid of loosing his job. In a compromise the cook agreed to give them only vegetables for ten days and then if they were just as healthy as the other men he could continue to only feed them the vegetables. God honored Daniel's fast and he and his friends were healthier than the other men that had been eating the choice foods.

I figured that since this fast is a Partial fast it may be one that I can do. I know that I would not last ten days consecutively, so I will fast one day a week for 10 weeks. I will be adding fruits to my fast as well so that I am not eating broccoli for breakfast in the mornings. While I am fasting I plan to ask God to move in our house and bring about health. Health from common sickness that goes around, but mostly for health on Karston's behalf. Heath and I have prayed for years for a healing for Karston's spina bifida and while he has not experienced a complete healing we have seen answers in the form of medically finding solutions. We have told Karston that his experiences with Spina Bifida will be his testimony to how God can still use him. So while I pray for Karston's healing again, I will be asking God to prevent Karston from the effects of self-catheterizing(he has had two infections in the last 3-4 months), and to keep him healthy emotionally and mentally.

So in order to practice Holiness I will be doing some prayer and fasting in the next 10 weeks.

Keep checking back for the next part of Jesus' character: Contemplative.

For my baby girl...

Latley Alyssa has been very interested in looking at blogs with me. The problem is that the last post that I did made her very upset. She did not like hearing her voice in the video but not seeing her face. She cried when she watched it. So I scrolled down and found videos of her just to brighten her spirits. She watches very intently and then looks at me with a huge grin on her face. She enjoys seeing pictures of other babies on other blogs too.

So this blog is ALL for Alyssa. I am posting several videos of her that I may not have posted before. I hope that this makes up for me not paying attention to her while I was "cloud watching" and while she had "Eeww" on her "Shoos."

PRESENTING PRINCESS ALYSSA!

Well, I know that Alyssa can't read my blog yet, but I hope that these videos will do the trick to make her happy. It's all for you my Princess Peanut. I just love how it is the little things in life that give the little ones so much joy!

My head in the clouds

One day while Heath and I were driving in the car, I said "I love the way that the sky looks like tonight." Heath then tells me, "I would not normally look at the sky and think of how wonderful it is, but if anything were to ever happen to you, it would be one of those things where I would look at the sky and think 'Charis would have liked the way the sky looks right now,' and then start crying." In a morbid kind of way, it was a very sweet thing to say. I tell you this story so that you will understand why I took pictures and video of the sky/clouds this week. For some reason I have always had a fascination with the sky and clouds.

These pictures were taken just before the big storms that have caused so much damage to the Midwest lately. I love how the light comes through the white clouds in the back and the gray ones up front cause such an incredible contrast. (these pictures don't show it justice)I guess maybe I got a little too caught up in what I was watching because

I didn't even realize that Alyssa was talking to me until I watched the video back again. She had stepped in some mud and didn't like that she had "Eeww" on her shoes. I took several pictures of the sky that day and more video as well, but I won't bore you with them.

Sometimes, I look into the sky and see the beautiful colors or the amazing contrast or just how the clouds are shaped and in constant motion to make different shapes, but every time I think that God created the look of the sky just so that we would look up and see a small gesture of his love for us.

Just the other day Josiah and Alyssa and I were walking on the sidewalk when we started to hear lots of loud thunder. Josiah and I were saying how sometimes the thunder sounds like God talking to us. Josiah asked me what I thought God might be saying. I said "I think he is telling us that he loves us." Josiah said "I think he is saying "WATCH OUT, IT IS ABOUT TO RAIN!"

So the next time you look up into the skies, think about what God may be trying to tell you. Whether it is a statement of love or a warning of rain, He is cares about our every need.

Mathew 10:29Are not two sparrows sold for a penny[d]? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. 30And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.(biblegateway.com)

"The Best Day Ever!"

Today was the last day of school. While it is always sad to put another school year behind us and say goodbye, my boys handled it with dignity. They made it short, but sweet and then went full speed ahead to Summer time. The boys, and Alyssa, had so much fun at their feild day events, absorbing the day as it came to them. They played games like Chicken Relay, Four Corners, Line Soccer, Spray Bottle Tag, Parachute, an Obstacle Course, Tug of War, Capture the Flag, and more. It was a day full of energy and excitement. We did spend most of the day outside so we also got a day full of Sun (It was only the hottest day of 2008, so far.) I hate that I did not get any pictures, we were just having too much fun.

After school was out we were on our way home when I got to thinking. With no central air in our house we were going home to be hot and do housework. That did not sound like a good finish to a good day. So we put on our swimsuits and went to the Aquatic Center. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Splash Park/Playground. It was awesome!

Alyssa did not like the water part, but she always loves the playground. She spent most of her time on the swings. She would swing for a while and then want out just to want the other swing. She would even say she wanted out, just to let me know that she wanted to be turned around and face the other direction. She had a swinging good time, on all the swings.

My sister Gees, (that is what Alyssa calls her) met us at the park for a little playtime as well. Alyssa was so tired (we forfieted all naps today for playtime.) At one point we noticed her climbing up to the slide (or her words "the Weee") and she seemed to be sleep walking. She loved it when Gees decided to swing with her and she just let herself relax.

This is what happened next...

Caution this video could cause motion sickness

I think we may have found our summer second home, I just need to work out the timing of naps vs. playtime a little better. Yay! Summer is here to stay!

Laundry Issues...

Why can't our clothing be disposable?

Why can't the laundry clean itself?

Why do we have so many clothes anyway?

Why don't I have a maid?

Why can't I get motivated to do it already?

Ok. Today is the day that I conquer this mountain of clothing and get it done....

Or maybe tomorrow, there is a juice party today.