Goodbye 2007

2007 has been a year of changes. God called us to leave one church family and brought us into another. God called RC to leave one vocation for another. God called us to move from one state to another. God called us to homeschool. And the work God is doing in us began to dramatically increase. At least, that's how it feels.

Over the past week I have been asking God what He wants for this next year. It is something I have been doing for the past few years and each year God has revealed something different. Last year at this time I felt the Spirit telling me that 07 was going to be a really good year. My best friend felt like the Spirit was telling her it was going to be a year of miracles. While 2007 was a VERY hard year, RC and I are more in love with Jesus than we have ever been and I know God calls that good. My best friends daughter has had four brain surgeries this year, and now crawls, talks (her own language :-)), and is progressing wonderfully and God added a new blessing to their family through a baby girl born in September. I know God calls that His miracle.

As for 2008 one word keeps coming up: SIMPLE
God wants me to keep my life and things simple this year. I am to focus on learning gentleness and humility. Particularly with my children. I know that this is going to be harder than it seems, but I am looking forward to it. My focus is to be running my home and teaching my children until God says otherwise.

Titus 2:4-5
These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to take care of their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.

Happy 2008!

No Night There

Frankly, I'm not even sure anyone reads this, but still, it does me good to write it. Through the extreme life circumstances of my best friend this past year I have become aware of a very special website. It is called CaringBridge and is serves to allow families with very sick children to keep everyone updated on their journey. When God leads my best friend to a new CaringBridge site she usually passes it along via her daughter's own CaringBridge site. It is amazing and one thing I have noticed is how CaringBridge has almost become it's own community that allows families to connect with other families experiencing the same or similar things and hence not feel so alone.

Anywho...I just visited the site of one young man who is 13 and about to be taken to heaven unless God chooses to pull an 11th hour miracle. We all know God can, but does He will? On this young man's site a visitor had posted a song that I wanted to also post. Just the words but if you will allow Him I'm sure the Spirit will sing the melody for you. This is what we are looking forward to! Praise the God of the Universe!!!

NO NIGHT THERE John R. Clements (c.1899)
“In the land of fadeless day
Lies the city foursquare;
It shall never pass away,
And there is no night there.

Refrain:God shall wipe away all tears,
There’s no death, no pain, nor fears,
And they count not time by years,
For there is no night there.

All the gates of pearl are made,
In the city foursquare;
All the streets with gold are laid,
And there is no night there.

All the gates shall never close
To the city foursquare;
There life’s crystal river flows,
And there is no night there.

There they need no sunshine bright,
In that city foursquare;
For the Lamb is all the light,
And there is no night there.”

Family

I'm about to end my five day stay with my parents. It has been good. My sister's and I redecorated (actually, decorated) my parent's bedroom for their Christmas present. They loved it! And we semi-redecorated (clean sweeped) our Nana's room. (She lives with my parents)

The kids have had a great time and got lots of presents! I got my Mema's beautiful china! I'm so excited! It's white with black long stem roses on it. Fabulous!

Today we go to Woodward to spend time with my Dad's side of the family. It's huge and there are lots of kids so it's a chaotic blast!!! Then back home this evening so "Santa" can come!

Merry Christmas!!!

Paint (sigh)

So...I have just finished repainting my kitchen. Yes, REpainting.

My living, dining, and kitchen are all open to each other. They were all a very creamy, beautiful navajo white. Looking back I don't know what was causing me to so desperately want to paint my kitchen...but I wanted to...bad. The problem was I kept feeling the Spirit say "no".

You see, I had just painted my daughter's bedroom a very bright teal. In my mind I could mix the left overs from her room with a gallon of creamy white and make it light enough to work in my kitchen. WRONG!!!! The worst part isn't that the mixing didn't work, but that I proceeded to paint to whole kitchen and dining room with this awefull color. I had convinced myself that this was going to work and nothing was going to stop me.

After I had finished and had left the house for awhile I returned to discover that I had made a mistake. Not only had I painted the kitchen an embarrassingly bright teal, but in not following the guiding of the Holy Spirit, I realised I had questioned God's motives in telling me "no". I'm sure that God would have prefered me to spend my time doing something else, but I believe that at the core of His "no" was the simple fact that He knew it wouldn't work. The color would not be right and I wouldn't like it. His "no" was to spare me work that I would just have to redo, not to surpress my creative spirit. ;-)

I have been on what I can only label a spiritual growth spurt this past year. I guess I forgot that God isn't just interested in removing all the things in us that don't look like Jesus and adding the things that do. He is very much interested in enjoying this life with us. He is interested in being a part of everything that we do. Even the things that seem to have no spiritual significance. Our God is the Creator. He knows everything about everything.

Including decorating.

...and now my kitchen and dining are a creamy, beautiful navajo white once again. :-)

SNOW!!!

Yes, we had snow. No, it was not alot. It was, however, enough to thrill my children. Popeye and Princess had never seen snow in person. When we awoke this morning there was snow, there was also sun so I knew the snow would not be around long. As soon as breakfast was over we dressed and headed outside!

It is now almost 4:00 and the snow is gone! :( The kids keep saying, "Maybe it will snow again tomorrow!" What optimists! Popeye thought it should be Christmas day because of the snow. He was pretty dissappointed when he realized he wasn't going to get to open presents!

Starbucks

I'm currently sitting at my computer drinking a caramel apple spice cappuchino from starbucks. It is one of their holiday favorites. I think it tastes like malted apple cider. It's OK, but not one of my holiday favorites.

My sons are very much into Pokemon on the Gameboy. Frankly, It bugs me and we have rules like no talking about Pokemon during dinner to keep my sanity. While Princess has no idea what is going on she likes to do whatever she sees her brothers doing. She found a new place to play the gameboy tonight. Yes, the clothes are clean.

I've been trying to stop preaching at everyone since Thanksgiving, but Jesus is teaching me something that I know isn't something that is just important for me. I am in a season right now where the small everyday things are a very big deal. Not because I'm living through serious life circumstances, but because God is saying to me, "If I can't trust you with the little things then I won't ever be able to trust you with the big things." I desperately want God to be able to trust me with the big things. I want to live a life that is overwhelmed by the power of God. By the glory of God. I want to stand in front of Jesus and hear Him say, "Well done, My good and faithful servant." The Spirit is teaching me to go to Him for EVERY decision I need to make. It is surprisingly hard and I have realized how much I want to control everything. It becomes very clear when you want to go get a coke from the Tunnel and in trying to do everything God's way you ask Him what He wants and He says no. Do I really trust that God knows and wants what is best for me and is going to give me something even more fulfilling than that coke? Or when I want to decorate someone's bedroom for their Christmas present and again trying to do things God's way I ask Him His plans. He says no. Do I trust that God is going to give my family member something better than I could? I use these examples of God saying "no" because when He says yes I don't bat an eye. I am getting what I want so I don't even think about it. I am reading a book called The Reason for My Hope by Charles Stanley and in it he says, "Your destiny will unfold before you as you OBEY the daily prompting and leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit." I truly believe that to live a powerful and victorious Christ following life we MUST be obedient in the small day to day mundane things and somehow, someday God will call us to obedience in the big things. I am NOT going to miss my call!!! My prayer is that you don't either.

Philippians 2:13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey Him and the power to do what pleases Him.

NLT

Changes

The kids got their picture taken with Santa tonight. Princess did great. Just walked right up to him and said hi. She was even the first one to go. Popeye asked for a Nintendo DS, Bear asked for a digital video camera, and Bobo asked for an i-pod. ?????

R.C. is currently working at KVWC radio in Vernon. On Dec. 20th he begins his new job at KWHW radio in Altus. We are very excited!

eat your vegetables

Yesterday at lunch Bobo and Bear had a great conversation. It was as follows:
Bear: Bobo, do you believe in Christmas?
Bobo: Yes.
Bear: Do you believe in God?
Bobo: Yes.
Bear: Me too. God is strong, and mighty, and He eats his vegetables.
:-)
Don't ask me where that came from. I can't tell you the last time we had vegetables with lunch.

Indoor?

Well...Gigi remained an indoor dog for aproximately 17 hours. Yep, I have given up. The dog has no interest in being inside and I just figure why fight it? :-) She whined all night. I expected that because she had to sleep in her cage. What threw me was once the kids got up I thought all would be well. Nope. She kept right on whining. Finally, I caved and put her outside. I know you're thinking, "Well, you need to let her outside sometimes and she probably needed to pee." The problem with that is she won't get within ten feet of me now and she had already peed all over the kids bedroom floor. After having her outside for a little while I just realized that I really don't want/need the extra hassle of an indoor dog especially when she prefers to be outside. So, Gigi, enjoy the great outdoors and I'll enjoy my dog odor free house!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Sept. 2006: We 'adopt' Bravo and Gigi
July 2007: Bravo gets fixed
Sept 2007: four little puppies join our family (oops)
We have been able to get rid of the two little girls and one of the boys is going to R.C.'s sister and her husband so...If anyone wants a cute little all white puppy for a GREAT Christmas present just call me!

We have given Bravo to R.C.'s parent's and have decided to make Gigi an indoor dog. We went to Walmart today and bought dog shampoo and a new pink collar. I ran water in the bathtub and then went to get Gigi. Of course, I had to corner her first and then carry her to the bathtub. When I got there I found a surprise guest waiting for us. She removed her shirt herself.

The kids are really excited about having Gigi inside and I'm sure Gigi will love it, eventually.

R.C.'s Nana turned 81 on Dec. 2nd. We watched The Santa Clause 2 and ate dinner and cake. Thank God for Nana's and Mema's and Grandma's and Bea's. What a blessing the older generations are!