The Big Backyard

With the weather being so much nicer these days, we have spent alot of time in the backyard. Chloe loves loves LOVES to go outside and so do the two babysitees. With Spring brings all kinds of lessons for little eyes and hearts to learn. Might as well start teaching them now! Today I spotted a little worm slinking along near the slide so I showed the girls. They stared at it for a minute it or two as I told them that God made it so the birds would have something to eat. Chloe, being little, wanted to poke it with a stick and Taylor says, “No Chloe, don’t hurt it, God MADE that worm!”

This week, the girls also learned about and got to touch frogs! The boys next door love to catch frogs in the pond behind thier house and they were proud to show off thier catches to some excited little girls.

We’ve also been learning about the buds on the trees and the leaves that are coming out of them now. It’s been fun to show Chloe things she’s never seen before and the other girls things they probably never noticed and I always try to tell them that it’s all God’s creation. It’s made me realize (yet again – reminders are good) what an amazing responsibility raising children is. They are getting most of thier first impressions of life from me. Scary but true

Having said that, I totally fell off the wagon this week with my Book Review and reading. In fact, I didn’t do it. There, that’s the truth. That’s bad. And now since I have typed this I am going to smarten up. Sheesh.

All this from the big backyard. I will miss it when we move down the road. The Meadows have been great neighbours and the girls love it when the boys and Sarah come out to play. Thier faces literally light up. It’s very cute.

Let’s have a watermelon picnic

I told the girls today that if they had a good sleep after lunch we would have a picnic and eat watermelon outside. They are sound asleep. The weather has been perfect (to echo Charmin) the last couple of days. I wish every day in the summer would be just like it was yesterday. Warm, not hot. Dry, not humid. A warm breeze, and LOTS of sunshine. It was great. I took some really cute pics but I can’t figure out how to get pictures onto my blog. I’m not that computer smart these days. sheesh.

I went with a new look for my blog. The other one was nice but reminded me of Christmas and I’m not feeling too Christmasy what with all this great sunshine! I had to go a little brighter.

I haven’t given you an update on our new house in awhile. Things are moving along quickly! I’m a tad excited. Ok, more than a tad…let’s go with…alot excited. The drywall is up and being crack filled (I never would have known what that meant a year ago) and we should be ready to start painting on the weekend! Which is the scariest thing Mike has ever told me becuase I thought we were going to HIRE someone to paint it. Yikes. I’m not that good. I don’t want to ruin my house. I have my color pallette (yes, I said color pallette although I’m not too sure I spelled it right) all picked out. I hope I like everything I chose. I’m gettin a little scared that I’m going to see everything together and cry. Oh well, what can ya do? So, here’s hoping we don’t run into any major snags and we should be in by the end of May. Then all you who live in the metro valley area can come see our new dwelling. For those of you who don’t live close enough to visit, I’ll try to figure this thing out and post pics someday.

I’m going to go slice some watermelon. I wish the girls were old enough to spit seeds But I bought the seedless kind.

Book Review – 1 Corinthians 1-4

I wasn’t going to post a review today. And I’m not sure this will be a quality review but I just read those 4 chapters again and something stood out to me that didn’t the rest of the week so I think I’ll try to convey that to you.

Basically if we don’t look like fools to the unsaved, then we aren’t doing our jobs as Christians. If you are unsaved, that might sound like a foolish statement (good, I’m on the right track) but it’s so true. We are supposed to stand out, we are supposed to be a peculiar people, and the world should think we are different. Some will think we are different in such a way that they will want to know what’s up. Others will just be annoyed and not care. It’s not our job to decide who should think we are foolish. We are to stand on God’s word, be different, and make the world stand up and notice us. Why do you think Paul and his friends were always stirring stuff up? Because people noticed that they were different. They didn’t sit back and blend in, nope, they stood up for Christ and the message of the cross.

Imagine if all the early Christians blended in? Would the message of Christ be available to us today? Maybe not as readily as it is now. That’s why it’s our job to further the message.

I can’t tell you how hard I work sometimes just to blend in, to not ruffle any feathers and wait for “opportunities” to tell people of Christ. That’s not what I’m supposed to do. I need to look more foolish in the eyes of the world because what matters is eternity. Sometimes I forget that this life is just a blink and that I need to be working towards building the kingdom of God and not the kingdom of Jenn and Mike

Yup, that’s what I got just now from those chapters. I hope it made a little sense to you cuz it did in my head.

Well, that wasn’t fun

I had the flu. Ew. But I am feeling much better now. I went the whole day yesterday without even sitting at the computer for a second. That’s how ya know I am not feeling well. I feel like I am catching up on everything today having only missed one full day of life. Funny how that is when you are a mom, eh? Mike has been great. He took yesterday and today off to look after Chloe and I. She has loved spending the day with her daddy. I could tell by the many giggles I heard while dozing in and out upstairs yesterday. I’m back on my feet now so Mike is using the rest of the afternoon to go work on our house. The sun was making him antsy to be doing something. That boy does not like to sit still.

No sign of anyone else getting sick and I hope it stays that way. I much prefer to have it over my family. Too much stress when they are sick. And besides, once every few years a mom needs to sleep for an entire day, right?

Chloe’s asleep so I think I will go sit on the stoop and catch some rays

PS: I don’t know if I have a BRF in me today. Maybe tomorrow?

 Edited to add: BRF…sounds too much life something I did a few times the other night (add an “a” after the “b”) I think I’ll start calling it Book Review

Just a little ramblin’

The girls are asleep and thank goodness for that! I needed this break. Most days I don’t mind babysitting. They all seem to be adjusting. Chloe likes having them around most of the time from what I can tell. Today maybe not so much becuase so far, she has been bitten on the big toe – hard. She’s also been hit more than once. Not her day I guess. It’s hard sometimes to not just scoop her up and hold onto her to protect her but some of the interaction will help her learn. It doesn’t seem to be her tendancy to hit or bite yet when she is frustrated so I hope it stays that way. Anyway, enough about babysitting. It’s my own little challenge and maybe I am learning alot about myself Just maybe.

Sunday afternoon I took a few moments (ok, more like an hour) to myself and headed to the shore. Sometimes you just gotta go to the shore. Honestly nothing reminds me more of God’s awesome power than standing on the edge of the vast ocean (even though you can see land, it’s still vast:) ) and feeling really, really tiny. I love it. It wasn’t super warm but it was warm enough that I sat on a big rock for a little while and reflected on the winter months, glad that they are over.  Spring always makes me open my eyes a little wider to try and see what God has in store…or at least be ready for what He has for me.

Anne posted a beautiful poem today so if you haven’t been there, you should check it out. Click here.

Well, Chloe is awake now. I’m gonna go snuggle her up good before the other two wake up

not to play

A few posts ago, I wrote about my dilema of possibly playing for a beer sponsored ball team and how I wasn’t all down with that I had pretty much made up my mind as I finished that post that I would not be playing on that team but I prayed about it more and tonight I emailed my friend and told her she’d be playing without Jenn this year. It wasn’t the right fit for me. Not what God wanted me to do. Or then again, He probably set that up perfectly so I would have a chance to open doors with other players for possible witnessing??? I hope so (she said in a scared, sheepish voice). Honestly I have had a heart for the souls of the athletetic types. Maybe since that is where I have spent tonnes of my time over the years. I see very few Christians on the teams I play with. Very few that I know of. Maybe that’s my Ninevah.

There have been some thoughts rattling around in my mind for a few days on what Book Review Friday has done for me. Which is  interesting to me since Shannon posted this today. I had been trying to organize my thoughts…I don’t think I’m there yet. But I feel like I should try and explain just how much BRF has taught me. Sheesh, it seems like a scary task to try and explain it.

Book Review Friday – Jonah

Oh dear.

I read Jonah everyday this week. When I first heard we were going to do Jonah I had a plan of what I thought I might be able to write about. The more I read, the more I realized how much in common I really have with Jonah. Oh dear. How often do I buy a ticket for Tarshish whenever I’m asked to something hard for God? Often. How often do I complain about the things I can’t control when I should leave it for God to take care of? Often. How often do I think I know what is best for other people and what I think God should or shouldn’t bless them with based on my limited knowledge of situations? Oh, well, let’s see here…..often.

So, in true BRF form, Jonah kicked my behind I learned SO much from him. I think maybe the most important thing I learned is that even when I totally mess up, even when I think I know what is best, God will still have mercy on me when I cry out to him. When I repent and know that what I have done is wrong, he will take care of me. Some people might argue that being swallowed by a whale wasn’t “being taken care of” but I tend to think it was. Jonah would have drowned in the ocean but God had other plans. He knew Jonah would learn his lesson and go preach to the people of Ninevah. He knew they would listen to Jonah and change thier evil ways. He saved Jonah to save a city.

It makes me think, what would God have me do if I wasn’t often running in the other direction? Would he have me save a city? Who knows? It’s not our job to underestimate what we can do with the power of Christ in us. It’s our job to go to Ninevah and trust that God will give us the tools to do what he asks.

I loved reading Jonah. It’s my second favorite lesson next to Haggai.

I pray I can listen and obey.

Good Things

I was going to post some funny pictures of Chloe with kleenex boxes on her feet but I haven’t quite figured out the wordpress picture posting protocol yet

Instead, I thought I’d share with you some of the good things about today:

The sun was shining…I like that

Mike did all the dishes after supper and I didn’t even ask him to…I like that even more

Taylor (babysit-ee) and Chloe got along ALL day. No, I’m not kidding.

Chloe says: “A wah-do mommy” which translates to, “I love you mommy”.

These are good things, eh?

To play or not to play

So, I like sports. And recently the only sport that has a schedule that allows me to be involved seems to be summer softball. I love playing softball. I’ve been playing on teams since I was about 12 or so. This year I decided to leave the team I’ve been playing with for years and join a new team for the sole reason that we moved a little farther away from the home field than is convenient to travel for me. I heard about a new team that started up and thought it sounded like a good group of girls to play with.

Today, the girl who asked me to play dropped by with her husband for a visit which was SO nice becuase alot of the “ball girls” I only ever see during ball season. Anyway we were chatting away about random things as usual and then of course the topic of this new team came up. She was saying that so-and-so got our sponsor and blah, blah, blah. Then I asked who was sponsoring us, thinking about what cool shirts we might have or if we’ll get warm up pants or matching hats or something. She said our sponsor is Bud Light.

Dang.

My heart immediatly sank because I have moral issue with supporting a beer company when I don’t drink and don’t endorse drinking in the least. Immediatly I said, “uh oh” and cheryl was all well you don’t have to wear the shirt. Well, that’s a no brainer, I won’t be wearing the shirt but should I even be playing on the team? I really don’t know now. Some Christians wouldn’t think much of it. But would Jesus play for Bud Light? I might have just got my answer…

Maybe I need to find a new team. I welcome your thoughts on this. I know it’s not a major issue of the universe or anything but I am trying lately to do the right thing

An Easter Post

This evening before we put Chloe to bed I decided to read part of Matthew 28 to her. She stood in her crib and listened while I read and she made faces at her daddy She doesn’t really get it yet, obviously, but I pray with her every night before she sleeps and sometimes she says Amen. It’s cute and she always listens to what I say. One night when I was at AWANA and Mike was putting her to bed, he told her it was time to say prayers and she said, “de-ah Lowd” (dear Lord). How special is that?

Lately I’ve been thinking about how much she really does pay attention to me and I’m a bit scared. I won’t lie, it’s terrifying to know that she says and does everything I do. Reading Galatians this past week started to make me think (again) about what I am teaching her about how I let (or don’t let) the Holy Spirit work in my life. Why do I seem to have a such a hard time lately to drop my bad habits and harsh words? I think I figured out part of the reason tonight. I was watching a You Tube video that Adventures in Babywearing has on her blog. It was a re-enactment of the crucifixion and ressurection from Matthew. I could barely watch. I think I’ve forgotten how great a sacrifice Jesus made for me (and you in case you didn’t know). I forgot what it cost him to save horrible sinners like me (and you in case you didn’t know). And then I forgot that HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD…yes, that’s right, He rose from the dead. How could anything else in this world be more important than these things? The answer is, nothing is more important. And I have forgotten that. Not forgotten in the traditional sense of not remembering but in the sense that I let it be down the list of things that are important. Bad move, Jenn.

Here’s what I am going to do starting tonight. I’m going to change the major thing that has been keeping me from remembering what’s important. I’m going to start praying again. I mean on my knees, in the dark, no dictractions praying. None of this fall asleep while mumbling the god bless list. Nope, when I was a faithful pray-er my life was SO different. Just talking to God is how you stay close to him, it’s how you hear him, and it’s how he gives you direction. Read the Bible too. I’ve been doing that but I am realizing that reading His word and not praying about it makes it less effective in your life.

I don’t want to be like the new Christians Paul was talking about when he said they had turned away from thier faith so soon. Nope, don’t wanna be one of those.

There. It’s easier to write an honest post when you think that maybe only two people have found your new blog.