Sunday Delights

R.C.'s Sunday Delights:

1. Thanksgiving dinners (at least 2 of them)
2. a day off with the wife from kids (thanks Grandma and Granddad)
3. cooler weather
4. a day off from work during the week
5. preaching

Feel The Love

It's Thanksgiving!!!

Well...not actually today...but this week!

We have three Thanksgiving dinners planned. But hubs and I will only be at two of them.=) That means that on Saturday, the rents-in-law are totally taking the kids and leaving me and hubs home alone most of the day! Yippee!!!!

However, before Saturday gets here we will be participating in dinner's with my mom's side and my dad's side. The dinner with my mom's side is on Wednesday. RC has to work on Wednesday. So we won't be able to get there until 6:00 pm or later.

Except...

My Aunt Abby (mom's biggest sister) called this past weekend and offered to meet us half way today so the the kids and I can be there all day tomorrow.

I'm totally feeling the love.

And I am totally aware that I have left out some details about why it is necessary for her to meet us half way, like the fact that we are spending the night in my hometown Wednesday, driving to my parent's hometown on Thursday and then driving back home. This is alot of driving since there is at least two hours between each stop and there is absolutely no need for us to do all this driving with two cars. Hence, RC driving us half way today, and then coming home to work, and driving all the way tomorrow evening.

I know, it still doesn't really make sense.

But, still, they are willing to make the extra effort to work with us so that we can be there earlier and get to spend more time with them.

I am totally feeling the love.

And did I mention that my sister is home from graduate school? I am stoked!!!

Bridget

Not Me Monday

www.mycharmingkids.net

1. I did not put my Christmas tree and decorations up on Friday because I just couldn't wait any longer.

2. I did not try to rearrange practically every room in my best friend's house while I was visiting.

3. I did not fall in love all over again with her children and now miss everyone and really wish we lived closer.

4. I did not rearrange my curtains and home decor... again.

Bridget

Sunday Delights for 11/23/08

R.C.'s Sunday Delights:

1. Sooners 65, Red Raiders 21
2. Saturday morning chat with my 3 year old daughter at 9:30 - in bed
3. the open possibilities of new frontiers
4. my wife's femininity - (she doesn't have the desire to be "one of the boys" and belch or pass gas purposefully with others around) - thank you Bridget, for being a lady
5. discovering our Sprint contracts were up in June instead of December like we thought

Now, it's your turn. If you read last week's Sunday Delights, you'll notice the stark lack of comments - even from my wife. Surely, some of you have something that delights you. Don't you?

Hi, Honey...I'm home!

So, it's literally been a week. So very sorry.

On Tuesday Bear, Princess, and I left our wonderful little town and drove five hours to Waco, TX. We stayed with my best friend Marianne and her kids till Thursday. Marianne's husband is currently at the Dallas Police Academy and is only able to come home on the weekends. They are having to wait on the sale of their house before Marianne and the kids can join him in Dallas.

Please pray for the sale of their house. It has been on the market for three months now with no bites. Any of you with kids can understand how hard it is to be a single parent. Marianne and Matt have three kids and to make it even harder, their middle child is special needs.

It was a great visit. And we even got to go to Hobby Lobby and Target. I haven't been to Target in over a year now. Man, I miss that store. Just going and walking around it without buying anything makes me happy.

R.C., Bobo, and Popeye stayed here. The boys went to work with R.C. and their Granddad. They got to talk on air and got some Candy Cane Cash tickets at the eye doctor's. Then, the next morning that is all they were talking about. (Candy Cane Cash Tickets are given out by local businesses when you purchase something and then on December 14th there is a drawing for different cash prizes with the biggest one being $10,000.00) After about an hour of Candy Cane Cash talk I finally stepped in and made it clear that if they did win it would all go into their college fund anyway. Then, I remembered that kids can't win it anyway, you must be 18 or older and I really busted their bubble.

I know, mean mama.

I just couldn't take anymore. The chances of winning are ridiculous, anyway.

However, I will so be there... just in case.=)

It's good to be home.

Bridget

Sunday Delights

Every Sunday, I shall try to contribute to this family blog with my Sunday Delights. I encourage you to find 5 things that delight you and post them every Sunday, as well. Please comment or link back to here with your own post. Thanks, and be encouraged.

R.C.'s Sunday Delights for 11/16/08

1. Hearing my sons destroy the evil Sith with their lightsabers and knowledge of the Force (very biblical, in fact)
2. Being with church throughout the week
3. Sleeping in
4. Stealing a glance with my wife after the kids do or say something funny
5. Being allowed to post to this blog!

Before and After

Here are the before and after pics from when I redecorated Princess' room. I am rather embarrassed to post the before pics. I honestly don't know what I was thinking. One half of the room was teal for Princess and the other half was orange for Popeye. I didn't think to take before pics until I had already taken everything off the walls and moved all the furniture into the middle of the room.

This is what you see right as you walk into her room. These red lockers where in RC's room when he was younger. A good friend of mine made the bear in the middle with scraps from Princess' nursery fabric. The walls are a very soft yellow.

RC bought this loveseat at a garage sale before I even knew him. My MIL and I recovered it when we sewed all of Princess' nursery stuff.

Princess' bowling pin and elephants.

These pictures are posted here. I love them!

We registered for this canopy for Princess' baby shower. I was so happy that someone bought it for us. She loves her princess bed. I love these curtains. There are actually four different fabrics in them. My MIL sewed them and then I added the buttons.

We needed four curtains for Princess' nursery. This room only needs two so we were able to use the other two for closet doors.

I was so happy to use Princess' nursery stuff. When I picked it out I made sure to get something that didn't feel like a baby, though it did have to be pink. After three boys I wanted me some pink!

We have beautiful hardwood floors throughout our house so we bought Princess a new white hairy rug for her room. I didn't think to take a picture of it. Sorry.

Princess takes everyone by the hand and shows them her room when they get here. I'm glad she loves it and I pray that through it she feels my love for her.

Bridget

Hickory Dickory Dock

SEVEN mice ran up the clock.

Yes, folks, that is how many mice we have caught since coming home Sunday to find mice running around our kitchen.

I have the heeby geebies just typing this.

And, NO, we DO NOT catch and release. The kids have been very enthralled with the 'cute' little mice and check the traps for us regularly.

UHGGG

Please, Lord, let this be all of them.

Bridget

Oh, and check out RC's blog.

One Thing I Was Made For

note: I know that is not proper English, but that is how the questioned was asked: What's one thing God has made you for?

My wife.

My destiny is accomplished in serving her destiny and the destinies of my children.

25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body. 31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. - Ephesians 5:25-33 (NLT)

The cleansing of the woman comes from the death of the man. That sentence is in my notes from the men's retreat. What really does that mean? Well, the husband is to love his wife like Christ loves the church. Christ loved the church so much, he gave his life for it. I am to die for my wife as well. Daily. Put aside my own feelings and comfort and serve my wife's purpose and destiny. Christ was (and is) so deeply in love with the church (his people - not any building) that it cost him his life - a great expense. Another note from my um, notes: deeply in love at my expense. My wife needs to know that I love her and that I would do anything for her. I'd fight for her and die for her. I've got to live for her. I think of the Bryan Adams song, "(Every Thing I Do) I Do It For You".

Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. This is an all out, unselfish, fully committed, undying, unconditional love. He loved the church so much he died for her. He sacrificed for her. So, how do I sacrifice for my wife? The best way to do this is to ask her. "Babe (or Honey, Sweetheart, Pookie, Wife, Woman, Love of my life, Dear, Baby, Sweet potato pie, or any other affectionate name you have for your wife), how can I serve you? How can I help you to be the woman/mother/wife you want to be - that God has designed you to be?" This may take actually talking to your wife. Once she recovers from falling over, you may have to spend some time in prayer with her. Look out, because all this could lead to her fulfilling the scriptures that are written before the above passage:

21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. - Ephesians 5:21-24 (NLT)

It starts with the husband. The church didn't submit to Christ first. Christ loved the church and gave himself for her first, then the church's response to that is to submit to him. It's a whole lot easier for a wife to submit to a husband she knows loves her more than anything and seeks to serve her above himself. Now, our fleshly side says that it would be easier to love a wife that's more willing to submit to her husband, but that's not how it works. We love Christ because because he first loved us. The church isn't easy to love, either, you know. She can be short-memoried, ungrateful, selfish, nagging, whining, disloyal, and down right rejecting at times, but Christ loves her. We must take our cue from him.

Listen, you start talking and praying with your wife, doing the dishes without being asked, giving her time alone away from the kids, taking out the trash without being asked, picking up your dirty clothes, and other non-selfish things, then you will find a woman more than willing to submit to you. Reminds me of an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" when Ray was vacuuming some drapes and Debra walks up behind him and says, "You have never been more attractive to me."

In attempting to do this, I have discovered just how selfish I have been around the house. I have found that I pout a lot if I don't really get what I want. I dare say that you will, too. But, pouting is not the way of a son of God. A son of God is loving, generous, and unselfish. Pouting does not fit that description.

Wow. Well. What was going to be a simple little post has turned into a 30 minute lecture on husbands and wives. I started this thing back on Oct. 31st. Oh, well. Bridget, I love you, and God has made me for you. Husbands, you were made for your wife. Let her know that. Be encouraged.

Soli Deo Gloria

Bridget's Blessings

This should really be titled Beth's Blessings because this is not an original idea. But now that I think about it, none of Bridget's Blessings are original. I have learned them all through other people.

Here's what we'll do: we will all understand that these are blessings that I have received and am now sharing with others. Like the last line in Desert Song says "The seed I receive I will sow".

Life Lesson #3

Forsake Ambition For Affection

I have been doing the Bible study titled Beloved Disciple by Beth Moore (yes, I do alot of her studies) and that is where God first introduced me to this idea. Beth's encouragement for us was to learn from the man that really believed - KNEW - that Jesus loved him and in the confidence of that knowledge chose to forsake ambition for the higher calling of love. Her focus is mostly on forsaking doing great things for God in favor of being loved by God and loving God back.

Beth never said or even implied that we shouldn't strive for anything. That we shouldn't set goals or learn or try. She did pose this question though: "If I am never used by God in a way that I deem significant, can I still believe that I am loved like the apple of His eye?" Interesting.

This is not a post to encourage or enable people to sit on their butts and do nothing. God has a purpose for us and we need to be about doing it. What this post is about is coming out from under all the self-imposed or world-imposed or, heaven forbid, church-imposed things we feel we need to achieve and finding the freedom in realizing it is not about us or what we do. It is about Jesus and what He did. And to really, truly fall in love with our God, the Creator of the Universe, that first loved us and sent His son to die our death. And out of that love to love others, even in the small ways that seem insignificant. And, I am suspecting, to find at the end of our lives that we did exactly what we were purposed to do.

The apostle John, when in his old age and unable to do much, would repeatedly remind his disciples to 'love one another'. After hearing this time and time again, the disciples asked John why he kept telling them this. His response is liberating:

"Because Christ commands it, and if it alone is done it is enough."

Bridget

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Matthew 22:36-39

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1

This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 1 John 3:11

Not Me Monday

It's late, but it's still officially Monday. To better understand what's going on visit http://www.mycharmingkids.net

1. I did not sit in front of my computer for three hours this morning looking at ThePioneerWoman.com.

2. I did not 'borrow' my in-laws dining table for an outdoor dinner with friends while they were out of town.

3. I also did not 'borrow' my in-laws fall decorations, candlesticks, and sconces for the outdoor dinner.

4. And I most certainly did not find four mice in my house yesterday. YUCK. I think we're gonna have to take Nana up on her cat.

Bridget

A Little Pick Me Up

I'm gonna be honest.

I'm a little down today.

This was my third presidential election to vote in and the first one where the party I voted for didn't win. (I know that gives away who I voted for. I don't care.)

So, I decided to do what I am sure most people do when they are a little down...

I am painting my daughter's bedroom.

That's what you would do, right?

Anywho...

When we first moved into our house Popeye and Princess shared a room and Bobo and Bear shared a room. Around our October birthdays we decided it was time to move Popeye in with the boys and have things split by gender. This means that Princess gets her own room and the three boys get to share a room. No one seems to mind and everything fits.

Now I have to redecorate Princess's room because that's what you do when things change. Just in case you didn't know.

I took before pics and I'll take after pics and post them later in the week.

I'm almost done with the first coat of color after already painting two coats of primer. I'm hoping that one coat of color will be enough, but it's not looking promising. Got to get back.

Bridget

Our Election Day

These are pics of how the kids and I spent our afternoon. We didn't get History & Geography done today because I couldn't make them come in from outside. They were playing so well and they reminded me of when I would play outside at my Mema and Granddad's house. My grandparent's had a huge tree in their back yard that had branches that draped toward the ground (what kind of a tree was that, Mema?) and I would pretend that under the branches was my own little world.

Good memories.

And for some crazy reason I was totally set on taking a ridiculous picture of myself with the 'I VOTED' sticker. So there you go.

Bridget

VOTE!

Get out and VOTE!

TODAY!

and check this out (preferably before you go vote)

Bridget

Halloween

Bobo was the Red Power Ranger, Bear was Iron Man, Popeye was the White Power Ranger, and Princess was SuperGirl.

We first went to see Winnie, a.k.a Altus Nana, and then we went to the Fall Festival at Southside Baptist Church with four other families. The church had lots of games and was very generous with the candy. It was alot of fun for the kids and Bobo won the costume contest for the 3rd and 4th grade division. (He was the only 3rd or 4th grader there)

Then we went to the house of one of the families and the kids played while the adults visited. It really made the evening fun to get to enjoy it with such good friends.

Unfortunately, the batteries went dead in my camera so I didn't get any good shots at the Festival. Here are the kids in the front yard before we left.

Bridget