I heart blogging

I have enjoyed blogging for a while now, but have gained a new appreciation for it recently.  I have been working on our family picture album from 2008.  Yes, I realize it is 2010 and that is a difference of two years!  It is odd I don't have many pictures (relatively speaking), and I'm not sure why.  For example, I only have 5 pictures of SweetBoy's baseball season that year.  Five.  That is so not like me!  Maybe I was too busy chasing a 2 year old.  That must have been it...oh, and we were potty training!  No wonder!  I really didn't see much of the games!  Anyway, I am amazed at how little I remember to journal with these few pictures.  Many times I have gone to the blog to see if I wrote anything noteworthy here.  Thankfully, it has filled in many blanks!  I like my digital scrapbook here in the now, so I can refer back to it later when my brain fails me!

Speaking of baseball...yesterday we signed up for baseball and softball!  Yea!  I am spoiled to have everything within walking distance, so practices and games 15 minutes away are going to cramp my style! :) 

Question...(you are up for a random post, right?  Good.)  We are almost at a point of reaching some pretty mountainous goals, and I feel the need to celebrate, but I'm not exactly sure how to do that.  I am curious, how do you and your spouse or family celebrate milestones of accomplishment (beyond birthdays and anniversaries)?

Thanks for stopping by today, Blog Buddy!  You are another reason I heart blogging!

Scripture Memory Team #5

I am realizing over and over again how much I need God's Word to work in my life.  It is so powerful to change the way I think and react.  It gives me so much hope that struggles I have right now will not be for long if I let Him chip away at it.  And it gives me the strength to know it will be there in the future when I need to stand on that promise again.  This is just huge to me!

Here is my verse this time around.  (Remember you can choose your own, you don't have to pick this one.)

1 Peter 2:9  (NIV)
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.

Our pastor has been teaching in 1 Peter for several weeks and this caught my attention.  Then it came up again, so I'm guessing it is a truth that I need to take to heart!  To be chosen and belong to God is so precious!  And to know that He will never reject me or turn me away.  He always has time for me, and when I seek Him, I will always find Him.  His wonderful light is SO much better than the darkness!  No one else can fit this description!  I love being His!

Redefining Grades

It is report card week.  (I can't believe there are only 12 more weeks of school!)  The kids both brought home very good grades.  SweetDoll had lots of E's and S's.  She told us that S was for super!  We thought that was pretty cute.  Thankfully there were no N's or U's, but we thought of some euphemisms for those too!  Humor at the educator's house!

When you are at a small school, you have to wait until the big boys are pretty much done with practice and games before the little dribblers can start their season.  So here we are ready to anticipate baseball and we are just beginning basketball.  Just another adjustment, and we can handle this one!  Here is SweetBoy in action!

Scripture Memory 2010 #4

How are you coming on our challenge?  If you feel like you need some extra time on a verse, take it.  Do it again for another two weeks.  The goal here is to get His Word in our hearts so that we can operate out of that truth.  So give it time to go deep and do the work!  If you just decided to join us--come on!  Here is my verse for this time around...

John 17:3 (NIV)
Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

This is in the middle of one of Jesus' prayers that is so rich.  This verse jumps out at me because it defines one of the core ideas of Christianity--eternal life.  God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), so part of being human is desiring something beyond our existance.  We seek it in vain in many different ways, and it is not just the benefit of Heaven.  Jesus said that eternal life is knowing God.   I heard Beth Moore teach one time that all the warnings and judgements of God are written in the Bible, but it is the wonder of God that we can never find the end of!  I love that!  I love it when I hear people who have been studying the Bible for years talk about what they have just learned and discovered about God.  That is eternal life in the here and now!

Another time I heard Beth teach on Proverbs 3:5-6 (this is another great verse to memorize if you are looking for one).  It says:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

She said you will lean on someone's understanding--your own or God's.  His is more stable to lean on!  "...in all your ways acknowledge Him..." Acknowledge right there means to know. So in all your ways, whatever situation you are in, know Him there. 

Finances tight?  Know Him there. 
     Kids acting up?  Know Him there.
          Achieve a goal?  Know Him there.
               Laundry about to bury you? Know Him there. 
                    Work tough?  Know Him there.
                         Grieving?  Know Him there. 
                              Tough to love someone right now?  Know Him there?
                                   Celebrating?  Know Him there!  Get the idea? 

Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

Snow Days update

SweetDoll got to play today!

We had a great time building two more snowmen today.

My three kids!  (I know, I know--today it is NO coats!)  It is warmer today.  At least the sun makes it feel warm.  We have enjoyed the snow, but the sun is glorious today!

Snow Days

Yesterday I was looking at some of our pictures, and we have had a lot of snow this year!  We played in the snow at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The drift in our drive way that happened Christmas Eve lasted almost a month!

The last patch of it melted and we got snow again!  Then last weekend it iced and snowed that closed area schools for two days!  Our power was on and off for 3-4 days.  Thankfully it was on enough to keep us warm, and we helped it out a little.  We had the windows in our room covered with blankets, and put up a tent for the two big kids with a massively thick palat on the floor.  Then SweetTate slept with us.  Everyone was toasty warm!  We didn't even know the power went off in the middle of the night.  We found lots of entertainment...  (Warning: PJ days usually mean no fixing hair either, so there is a scary hair warning before viewing these pictures!)

playing the DS

wrestling with Dad

Shutes and Laddars anyone?

SweetBoy played DJ for SweetDoll and SweetTate--too cute!

Finally, this week we got another snow that was wet and perfect for snowman making.  (And we had power, so we could come in and warm up!)  Unfortunatly, SweetDoll had a tummy bug and stayed home from school so she couldn't go out and play.  But according to the forcast, I think she might have her chance in a few days!  The boys and I got out and built snowpeople.  (Dad even helped a little!)

Snow angels. 

I can hear Mom and Mema now, "Zip that child's coat up!"  I know.  Sorry.  It didn't seem all that cold, but I had my coat zipped up.  :)

It was perfectly wet snow! It made huge balls in a hurry!

SweetBoy was bound and determined to get the biggest snowballs.  The second one, he started far away from the other and then when it was the size he needed, he still had a long way to roll it to the base and it grew with every roll!  By the time he got them together there was no lifting it on to the base.  So he came up with plan B...

This is what happens when your stomach is bigger than your eyes.  Or your eyes are bigger than your muscles.  Something like that!  So we have a cowgirl diva and a lazy laying down snowman.  (Does that sound like anyone else's house too.)  I won't even go there!  From the look of the maps, you may be having snow too. Have fun!

Scripture Memory 2010 #3

It is amazing to me that we can have a major ice/snow storm with random power outages, and still manage to get the laundry done!  Because you know it is never ending!

I have not been able to get two brain cells to cooperate lately--just ask my kids how I did playing games while the power was down!  It was not pretty!  Anyway I have a thousand things bouncing around in my head, but I wanted to pop on here and sign in for our 1st and 15th Scripture memory 2010 challenge.  I'm still trying to catch up on my verses from January, so this one is simple, but very timely for me.

2 Corinthians 3:12  (NIV)
Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

Many of my verses for last year talked about hope.  Now I need boldness in that hope.  I'm starting a new Bible study group this week, so I'm praying I will be bold in a new group.  (A prayer for me Thursday morning would not be wasted!  Thanks!)  You can pick my verse or your own.  Can't wait to hear from you!

I can't be lazy and just let my kids walk home in the ice and snow, so I better go!