God's servants....

What an honor it is to be one of our Holy Lord's servants. He wants me to be a light for Him. Little ol me gets the great honor of working for our Lord Jesus Christ.

In my Sunday night Bible class we are studying the book, Pray with Purpose, Live with Passion by Debbie Williams. We are studying the Lord's attributes A through Z. Today we talked about our Lord being a Just Lord, King of Kings, and the Lord being our Light in darkness.

A few notes that I don't want to forget:

Help me to be merciful to those that wrong me, just like God has shown me mercy & grace when I screw up.

I don't have to worry about getting vengance...God will take care of the sins of others. I don't have to worry about that. Just let God take care of it.

When I deserve it the least is when He is most merciful.

Micah 6:8 "But he's laready made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is loking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don't take yourself too seriously - take God seriously."

Deuteronomy 32:4

The Rock: His works are perfect, and the way he works is fair and just; A God you can depend upon, no exceptions, a straight-arrow God.

God cares about our joy. He is FAR WISER than us on what will bring us joy!!!

Real joy is found in His service.

We can pray BIG because we have a great big King to listen.

God gave me His children for a season. I must raise them according to His standards, not mine. I must pray to Him to give me guidance.

"We have no light in and of ourselves. He ignited us with His spirit so that we would be light drawing others to Him." Debbie Williams

I take comfort knowing that God lights the path He wants us to take.

When you are kind, gentle, loving in the midst of a difficult situation, you are a Light for the Lord.

Do others see Christ's light in me and glorify God?

Some thoughts I needed to note before I forgot them.

As far as the last question. I hope that one day it becomes as natural as breathing to me to go to the Lord with EVERYTHING. I can feel Him tapping me on the shoulder in the middle of the day saying, "Um, my dear child...how do you expect little Max & Molly to be gentle, kind, loving, show self-control, patient, when most of the day you are anything but those things? You fly off the handle, spank, yell, put them in time out when they probabaly don't deserve it."

I want others to see the Light within me. I am so blessed to feel Him closer and closer to me these past several months.

A few notes on the kiddo front:

Max's new negotiating tool is after I tell him no he says, "Will you think about it momma?" He is so sweet and grown-up and polite about it I have to tell him I will.

Oh and last week I got upset about something....I forget what. I came down the stairs and Max asked me, "Why are you so mad Momma?" About broke my heart.

I'm not sure if I wrote this last time, but when we were coming back to KY from MI, Molly was in the back seat talking to her baby doll. She was grabbing her cheeks telling her "to listen whne I speak to you". Then she turned her doll over and spanked her.

She had a naked tea-party yesterday. That girl is unreal. I can't wait to see what God has planned for her.

Our Maggie is as sweet as can be. She started rice cereal. She is still in the phase of trying to figure out exactly what it is that I am putting in her mouth.

Friday night we spent the evening downtown at the Corbin OctoberFest. The kids had animal balloons made and then we got out our chairs and blankets and watch the Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin movie in the park. It was followed by about 6 episodes of Tom & Jerry. They had a blast and fell asleep on the way home.

I LOVE the small town movies in the park nights. There is just something about it. I just love it!

God just keeps the blessings a flowin'

In Christ Alone....

God is faithful...even when we are not.

It is a statement I have seen over and over everyday for the last 7 days. It was a theme in bible study last Sunday. It was in my reading for our morning Sunday school class. It was in the Karen Kingsbury book I just finished tonight. It was a theme in one of the sessions I attended at the Hearts At Home conference this weekend.

Then why am I allowing Satan to creep in. Why is it that it is so easy for the devil to squirm his way into our minds & hearts? he causes doubt & fear & sadness & worry. Why can't it be just as easy to call on God when Satan comes near? I suppose it is that easy...just get down on your knees and call out to Him.

He is Almighty, the Beloved Son, Comforter, the Door to all that is good, Eternal, Faithful, Guardian of our Souls, Immanuel, Just...All of the things I am learning in the Bible Study on Sunday night.

I know it's sinful to worry. I truly try not to worry. I try not to worry about my husband, my kids, the house that can't even attract potential buyers, the upcoming election, etc. etc. But man, that devil knows how to get to me. He places that fear & worry right on my heart. I need to remember to immediately get on my knees and ask for my God to be that Comforter & Guardian to my soul. How great is it though that I don't have to ask Him to be those things for me...He already is.

The question that won't leave my brain tonight...
If God places an opportunity in front of us, how do we know it's a good one?
If he didn't want us to come to Kentucky, He wouldn't have placed the opportunity to do so in our laps would He?
I believe that we are here for a reason. I truly believe that.
It's just not working out as we had planned.
I know it's not our plan. I know it is all His. I know that He will show us what is next in our lives. I know He didn't promise easy. He promised that He would be there to show us the way.
That's enough for me.
Who knows why He brought us here? If for nothing else I am opening my Bible everyday. I feel Him transforming my heart. I know He has a plan for me and my marriage and my journey as a mom to His children.

Those children He has for now blessed us with...they are amazing. I have new pictures to post, but of course the battery is low and charging. I'll post them later.
Max is looking a little like Shaggy these days. He likes that I call him Shaggy and doesn't want to get his haircut. The other day we were walking down the Halloween costume aisle and they were all going a little nuts over the costumes. Max was talking about the Spiderman costume, Molly about the princess ones. They were both finding cute ones for Maggie. Molly says, "Momma look at that princess one for Maggie".
Max shoots back with, "Molly, that's not a princess one, that's for Dancing with the Stars".
I thought I was going to pee my pants right there from laughing so hard.
I swear that I have cut way back on my television watching, but apparently ABC is still on a little too much :)
My Molly is my Molly. It is still up for grabs whether it's all DNA or if it's from the great amounts of sugar water she got in the hospital when she was just 3 weeks old. I can't wait to see what God has planned for her.
My Maggie...oh my Maggie. How I missed her when I was gone. She is growing so big. Holding her head up...looking like a whole new little girl. She will start cereal here in a few short weeks. She is now officially rolling over even though if you ask my mom she'll tell you that she was rolling over at 12 days old. She was. (Even if it was the bouncy couch helping her out).

Thank you Lord for blessing my life. For loving me so much, for being my Comforter & my Guardian. Forgive me for the times I forget you when the devil is working overtime in my life. Please hold our little family in your hands and clear the path so that when you want us to take the next step we will be able to hear you and yield to your plan for us.
It is in your Holy and Almighty name I pray, Amen.

Too long of a break...

Too many funny & important things have happened in the last 10 days that I have failed to report. We've been busy with Aaron coming home and taking a few one day road trips, me getting sick, and then the work with comes with making up the time for being sick.

Here goes....

Praise Jesus...Aaron made it home Thursday late....less than 24 hours before Ike pounded Houston. He had a layover in Houston. I'm not sure how much longer it would have taken him to get home had he gotten caught in that horrific storm.

My babies were so glad to see their daddy. He got home after midnight so when they came into our room in the morning and figured they would peek a look at their baby sister and wake me up they were surprised to see him.

Several weeks ago, Molly said something to me and I told myself right then and there to blog it b/c I would forget. Sure enough, I did. I remembered tonight though.

The kids were getting their pjs on one evening. Max was busy trying to get everything right side out and not on backwards. I took Molly's shirt off and went to put her nightgown on. As I reached for her nightgown she looked down at her chest. She says to me,

"Momma, I still got my boobies. I didn't lose them. You can't lose your boobies."

I thought I was going to pee my pants right then and there. Where does she find this stuff???

We had Max's second birthday party for his 4th birthday tonight. He has already had a Michigan party with some of his cousins. Tonight was his Kentucky birthday party with some of his best buddies here. It was fun. We really have been blessed with some wonderful friendships down here. Ones that I will treasure whether we are here for a year or 20 years.

Well before I start drifting and typing things I don't mean to type I am going to sign off for now and try to get back to reporting to myself at least every other day. Maggie will 3 months tomorrow and I feel like I don't remember any of it!

A few notes

Talking with my Grandma today, I remembered that I failed to blog about a little story last Wednesday. Max has been in Awana for a couple of weeks now and has been busy memorizing his bible verses. Last Wednesday afternoon I was drilling him on his bible verse over and over, "God loves us so he sent his son". So as we were walking out the door and climbing into the van, I said, "one more time buddy".

He replied,
"God loves us so he mailed his son."

Oh how I love my little boy!

I also found kind of a neat sight tonight.
www.wordle.net

You can type in a bunch of words and click "go" and it'll make kind of a cool little picture of it.
Or you can type in your blog address and it'll take a bunch of random words from your blog and jumble them all together. Kind of neat.

A little more than 48 hours until Aaron returns. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

A filling day....

...but not even close to being full.

What a wonderful day in Lord!

(even though I took the kids to Shoney's tonight...as soon as we ordered Maggie started crying...hard...Molly decided to start doing flips over the back of the booth, and then Max put his hand in my water, I went to smack his hand, he pulled back...yep, water and ice EVERYWHERE....later he went number 2...in the toilet...only to go in his pants 5 minutes later...while I was on the phone with the phone company trying to figure out how to make an international phone call to my husband...apparently I put a block so that no one could make international phone calls from our home...I have no idea why I did that...it'll take 4-5 days to take the block off...he'll be home by then...anyone have any idea how crazy I am going to go not being able to contact my husband?!? anyone who knows me will....)

Anyhow...on to my heart-warming Sunday....

I said good-bye to my husband early this morning (hopefully for the last time for a while), climbed back into bed and prayed that he would make it to Guatemala and back home safely.

He comes home on 9/11. I know that he will be okay.

Satan smiles knowing that deep down I worry.

This morning I woke at 6 a.m. wondering why my husband still had not called me from the Lexington airport...less than 4 hours earlier he had told me he would call from every stop.

I attempted to call knowing that he was already boarded. I knew he probably forgot and that he would call from Houston. He did.

I got all of the kids around in time for Sunday School. I was hoping to be Super Mom this morning and get some nice pictures of them before we went to church. Nope. Decided I would cut my losses and take them after church even though Molly's hair wouldn't be nearly as cute. I was right.

I got the kids to their Sunday school classes and myself to Sunday school on time. I was amazed!

We studied 1 Samuel 1:1 - 2:11. It tells the story of Samuel's birth. How his mother, Hannah, wanted a son so badly but was unable to have children. The Lord finally blessed her with a son.

I could not help thinking of my dear friend and her husband who want a child, but like Hannah, are having trouble. In our study guide there is a question posed in the margin. "How can a Christian encourage someone who is struggling with a difficult situation such as childlessness?"

What I really wanted to know is how a Christian, who has never had difficulty getting pregnant and now has 3 kids, encourage her dear dear friend to trust in the Lord, that he has a plan for her and her husband.

I pray for her. I want to point her to scripture. I want to remind her that her Lord Jesus loves her and has a wonderful plan laid our for her. But...that is all coming out of the mouth of a women who has 3 healthy kids.

One verse that did pop out at me at Sunday school was from 1 Samuel 2:2. It's part of Hannah's prayer.

"There is no one holy like the Lord:

there is no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God."

I hope she learns to lean on Him. I hope that if I were going through what they are going through that I would be able to lean on Him. That I would still be able to trust in Him.

I will continue to pray hard for you dear friend.

After our time together in Sunday School we gathered for worship.

To be honest, I missed most of the message due to my youngest not being able to find a comfortable position to nap. Therefore, I spent most of the message walking around the hallway. I still love her. And I can't wait for Aaron to come home.

The kids and I came home and enjoyed a nice lunch, played playdough, called grandparents for Grandparents Day. We headed back to church for a new bible study that started today.

It's on Debbie Williams book, Pray with Purpose, Live with Passion.

This study is going to change my heart. I know it. I hope it.

Lately, I have really been hearing how I speak to my husband. How I discipline my children. I catch myself after it leaves my mouth and impossible to get back.

The way I am with them sometimes brings absolutely no glory to my Lord Jesus.

By being disrespectful to him, I am being disrespectful to our good Lord. After all that He has blessed me with how could I do that to Him?

It makes me feel awful when I take a breath and realize how I just spoke to my kind husband. I would fall to the ground if my husband ever spoke to me the way I speak to him sometimes.

I realized tonight that when I snap at my husband, or lose my cool with my kids, or doubt that my God is a sufficient God, the devil is smiling and couldn't be happier.

I am not to live my life according to Suzanne Turner, but I am to live it according to my Lord Jesus Christ.

How would my life be different? Would I truly believe, no matter the hardships, that my Father's grace is sufficient? Would I finally take advantage of this abundant life like He wants me to?

My goal this week with my husband and my children is to take a tip from p. 13 from the book that we are studying.

"Each of us has the opportunity to stop and think about what we are doing or about to do."

"The moment we smell a defeated attitude or sin overtaking us, we can stop and turn to God's Word or stop and pray."

"Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always." Psalm 105:4

A shout out...

First and foremost....

A HUGE shoutout to my very dear friends, Sheri & Mike, who will be getting married next fall. They were just engaged this past weekend in my very favorite place on Earth, northern Michigan.

This shout out was supposed to happen on my last Hodge Podge post. It was supposed to be about all of these different things I wanted to write about, but of course, I end up losing out to my exhaustion and my posts are cut way shorter than I intend.

I am so excited for their wedding. I think maybe because it's in the fall when Aaron and I got married. Maybe I am so excited because I know how great our wedding was...how much fun we had...how we didn't even spend a whole lot of time together while we were at our reception, but he caught me starting at him a whole lot and I caught him staring at me a whole lot that night. I wouldn't change one thing about it. I can't believe that it'll be 6 years next month.

He truly is my best friend and my rock. He is the head of our home and having him as a husband and a father to my children is more of a blessing than I deserve. He is the one person I am not afraid to tell anything to and I know that it won't change the way he sees me...not even for one second.

Oh how I miss him...I don't know how wives send off their husbands for these long extended tours of duty. May God Bless them.

Let's see...what have we been up to???

Aaron came home to visit last weekend. Molly is seen up above working on the blueberry pie she made for him. I think she was more interested in eating as many blueberries and as much cool whip as she possibly could everytime I turned my back to stir the filling. She has taken a nice turn in her behavior lately. We made a sticker chart and who knew that stickers would be so powerful in Molly's world. The last thing she wants to happen is for her mom to take a sticker away from her. She LOVES her stickers.

A few things out of Molly's mouth lately:

"I hate you Max."

"Momma, this tape is really pissin' me off."

"Momma, it was my fault."

"Absolutely, Momma."

"I want my daddy."

The first was because the 2 of them were fighting. They were arguing b/c Molly insists on teasing Max. They were in the back of the van. She kept telling him that he was 2 and that she was 4. Well....that drove Max CRAZY. He started yelling at her. She yelled back.....back and forth back and forth. Finally, Molly said, "you aren't my friend anymore. I hate you Max". I felt awful. We had a nice long talk about how our brothers are very important to us...especially to their sister and that it's ok to be mad at him, but not to say those hurtful words. Last weeks bible verse has helped alot..."be kind and loving". It has really come in handy over the past few weeks. (It's a real testament on just how the bible can truly get us through our days!)

Molly's verse this week, in case you were wondering, "God knows everything about me". Thank goodness because I am not sure I want to know everything about Molly. It's a little scary to think about if I am being honest.

Now, the tape thing. I said it under my breath in the kitchen. She was in the living room. 10 minutes after the fact she comes in the kitchen with her own scotch tape saying the same thing.

Unbelievable.

That is another one of their words lately. They love unbelievable.

Max is doing great. Loves school. Loves Awana. Loves Sunday School. I really couldn't be more proud of him. He comes home singing a new song. Telling me stories about his day. He loves going to bed at night knowing that when he wakes up in the morning he gets to go to school. He spends Fri-Mon. night asking when he gets to go back. I hope this enthusiasm for school will last. If he is anything like his father it will.

Maggie is doing wonderfully. She is getting on a bit of a routine and I can't say enough how lucky and blessed we are with 3 healthy children who sleep thru the night regularly. Her smiles melt my heart and remind me in an instant that I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

I told her she can't move into her crib until her daddy gets home.

Oh, that reminds me. When Aaron came home this past weekend he brought gifts for the kids. One of the gifts was a stuffed snake for each of them. The second night Max had a horrible nightmare. Monday night he brought the snakes downstairs to me telling me, "Momma, their eyes are too big. I want daddy to get me a new snake with small and nice eyes". The snakes now hang out on the chair with me at night.

Again, here I go with the bobbing head and droopy eyelids.

A Hodge Podge....

A few different things running through my mind tonight....

Do I have the faith that I have b/c nothing really awful has happenend in my life?

The Lord has showered me with blessings...it's an honor to be married to Aaron, I have 3 of thee most beautiful and caring and adorable children, loving parents, fabulous sisters, a great brother, hilarious nephews, wonderful niece, I get to call some of the best people in the world my friends, my family and I attend a terrific church where I get to praise my Lord and my children are learning about their creator, I have a home, 2 cars, the ability to visit my family when I want, food for my children, the means to send my son to a Christian preschool and my daughter to gymnastics class...I could go on and on.

If I was crushed by devestating news am I strong enough in my faith to say, "I believe my Jesus is the same Jesus before this news"? I hope so.

I read some of these of these blogs and sometimes the tears just flow and then I get on my knees and grab my children and don't let go. The faith of these women is truly something special.
I believe that God works all things for good. I believe he has a plan that we are neither supposed to question or know.

A little something on the kids.

They are learning bible verses in Sunday school and Awana. Molly's last week was from Ephesians 4:32 Be kind and loving.
Anyone who knows our little Molly knows that when she is kind & loving no one can top her. However, when she is not, I pray this verse over her sweet little head.
This weeks verse is from Psalm 139:1
God knows everything about me.
Thank goodness he does, because I can't be everywhere and it brings comfort to my heart knowing that God can see her and know everything about her.

I was going over Max's bible verses with him. We were talking about all of the people that love him.
I asked him, "Max, who loves you?"
His reply, "John and Clay do."
Those are his 2 new buddies from church.
The answer I was looking for was, "Jesus loves me".
My little boy is going to be 4 in 20 days....I can't believe it.

My other Max story (this is why the title of today's post is hodge podge)
The kids have this frisbeet that is hollow in the middle. They enjoy putting it on their heads and wearing it as a hat.
Max put it on his head yesterday as we headed out to the falls.
He put it on his head, grabbed it between his fore finger and thumb and said, "What can I do for you ma'am?" ADORABLE.
Oh and Aaron brought the kids home these huge stuffed snakes. The kids were really excited at first. We are pretty sure that they caused some pretty major nightmares Saturday night. I was sitting downstairs tonight watching the Scrubs marathon when Max came down for the gazillionth time carrying his snake. He asked if I could hold onto the snake because he was scary. He told me that he wanted his dad to get smaller snakes with smaller and nicer eyes.
I told him I would speak to his dad about that. Up the stairs he went and a few seconds later was down with Molly's snake too.

My little Maggie. She missed her daddy. She was smiling at him all weekend.
I am in awe of those women who ship their husbands off overseas and are alone in raising the children months, sometimes years, at a time. May God bless them.

Well my eyes are slowly shutting and we have another busy week.