What our focus should be

Please read this post from Lisa at God Seekers Academy.
Don't miss this post from Ami at Walking by the Way. They both will bless you.

Time to Play!

Jen tagged me, so here are my answers! By the way, Jen, I've never been tagged before, so I count it an honor that you've tagged me. Now to think of five people to tag.


Here are the rules:
1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player tags 5 people and posts their name, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.


What was I doing 10 years ago: I was working at my in-laws Christian school in the learning center. I also taught the gym and music classes.


Five Snacks I enjoy:In a perfect, non weight-gaining world:
1. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
2. Cool Ranch Doritos
3. Sarah's Peanut Butter Pie (where's the yummy smiley face?)
4. Nachos and Cheese
5. No bake cookies


In the real world:
1. I worry way too much.
2. I hate to put laundry away. (I think it's hereditary,mom)
3. I love to check things off a list
4. I love to read.
5. I don't really like eggs and milk very well (ssshhh, my kiddos don't know)


Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Finance lots of missionaries
2. Travel to lots of mission fields (are we seeing a theme here?)
3. Send all my loved ones to see Dr. Clark
4. Buy property and build a house on land that had trees, a pond (hey, even a stream would do for that matter), and it would include some clear land for my children to run free and explore
5. Pay off all my family and friends houses so it could free them up to give more to others


Five jobs that I have had:
1. Baby sitter
2. Pizza delivery person
3. Sales clerk at Dots
4. Answered phones at an insurance office
5. Teacher at Christian School


Three of my habits:
1. Probably check my e-mail too much
2. Use hand sanitizer when we're out (hey, I'm the one that has to deal with the sick kids :)
3. Did I say worrying earlier? He's still working on me, Amen?


Five place I have lived:
I've only ever lived in Ohio. Although we've moved a ton growing up.

What do you want others to get from your blog: Well, I love to keep Aunt Christy (missionary in Mexico) updated with pictures of John and Gracie. My children are such a big part of my heart and I just love sharing what we're doing with other people who are so kind to read. I do want to be an encouragment to wives and mothers as we serve the Lord by serving our husbands and children. This job can be so isolating sometimes and I want others to know that there's someone else going through it too. Your struggles are normal. Plus we only have "one life" let's use it for the Lord.


Five People I am going to tag!: This was really fun, so give it a try.
1. Candace
2. Sheri
3. Jen
4. Ami
5. Bro. Jason (Psst! He's a really talented artist)

Reading the Bible

There are some days that for an odd reason my children wake up earlier than normal. I am usually still reading my Bible. I try to finish up even though they are awake. This happened to me this morning. Gracie climbed up beside me. She sat there for awhile. She then said, "Momma, I want to hear you do this." I said, "Do what, Gracie?" Gracie said, "Read the Bible."

Gracie got to hear four chapters read out loud to her from God's Word this morning. She sits very quiet. To be perfectly honest, my carnal mind thinks that children her age would not be interested in just hearing the Bible read aloud. I mean it doesn't have any pictures, right? I'm not explaining anything. I'm just reading. How could they be interested?

I've determined it's just a lie from the Devil. Both of my children have responded well to hearing just God's Word read aloud to them. I know as mothers we always worry about having something on "their level" and I think that's all good too. Just don't let the Devil deceive you into thinking that the Word of God is only for "big" people, because it's not.

Matthew 19:14, But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Romans 10:17, So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Maybe that's why the Old Deceiver is so interested in trying to deceive us mommas. I encourage you to start small, it doesn't have to be four chapter, maybe it'll be four verses. As they use to say all the time, "Just do it."

Kids Say the Funnniest Things

My Gracie says the funniest things sometimes. Just this morning I said to Gracie, "One, two, buckle my..." and I paused. Guess what she said! Gracie said, "Buckle my seat belt." We both had a really good laugh. If you know Gracie she has a laugh and a smile that will light up the world. I love your laugh, Gracie girl.

My mom and dad had a used bike given to them that needed some repairs before they gave it to Gracie. The other day she said to me, "Momma, Grampy needs to fix my big bike, because it has rips in the saddle." I told you she was a horse lovin' little girl.

Gracie is so much my opposite it seems at times. I just love her for it though. She's got some many of her daddy's positive qualities. What are those? Happy (well, most of the time), always singing, and friendly. She reminds me of a horse herself, always galloping around the house. She's full of life and energy and doesn't seem to have a care in the world. She has a great imagination too. I love you, Gracie!!!

Our Trip to Krohn Conservatory

Last week we got to go to the Krohn Conservatory on my Birthday. My birthday started at rainy and very gloomy. I do not like gloomy, I love the sun. I originally was planning on making the trip in the morning, but it did not work out. God knew what He was doing, because the afternoon was gorgeous. We got to spend time outside that otherwise may have not happened in the morning because of the rain. John smelling the flowers.
God's beautiful creation.
Gorgeous tulips.

This is me and my munchkins. I finally have a picture of me. I'm the one always taking the pictures, so there are usally no pictures of me. So this is for those who have been wanting to put a name with a face.A beautiful waterfall inside of Krohn. This is one of our favorite spots. It's just gorgeous.

A little lady bug. Isn't God amazing?

Gracie with her Powder Puff.
This is a flower clock outside of Krohn. It is always amazing to me.

I love this shot. It reminds me of Anne of Green Gables.

You can see Gracie is still holding on to that Powder Puff.

I knew most of this post would be pictures. The children were so excited and kept saying taking a picture of this. What else can I really say when so much of God's creation is just amazing. I am so humbled by the things He's given us. This reminds me of
I Timothey 6:17, "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;"

God has truly given us so many good things to enjoy. We just have to stop and take the time to look around.

I Finally Received It!

I finally received my $100.00 prepaid Visa in the mail today. That's right you read $100.00. This goes back a long time ago (or atleast it seems like a long time ago). I'm guessing maybe in November of last year.

Walgreens had a promotion where you bought so much Wyeth products and you'd get $100 in spa rewards. I think I spent about $9.00 out of pocket to qualify for the refund. Well I guess they were overwhelmed with the response. They sent out spa gift certificates and were having a hard time fulfilling those.

They gave the option to send in your Spa gift certificates to get a prepaid Visa and so I did that. Today it finally arrived in the mail. The only hitch, it has to be spent by October of this year. Do you think I'll have a problem doing that? I sure don't. The problem is-figuring out how to spend it wisely.

A Birthday Present from God

Well, as I stated before today is my birthday. While I was finishing making up the children's lunch, I peeked out my back door. We have new bird feeders that Amos just installed last night. I hope to do a unit study on birds with my munchkins soon. Anyway, when I looked outside I said a prayer. My prayer was, "Dear God, would you please send a bird to the feeder today and just let me see it for my birthday?" Now Amos told me it may take awhile for the birds to come.

I then took everyone's lunch into the dining room and we ate lunch. On my way back into the kitchen I peeked out the back door and guess what I saw? A bird at my bird feeder, but not just any bird-a cardinal. What's the big deal? Well, the cardinal is my favorite bird.

God is just so gracious to me. What a special present for me! God could have sent any bird and I would have been happy, but He sent my favorite bird. God is good(all the time).

My Birthday

I don't know if you're suppose to do this or not on your own blog, but tomorrow is my birthday. I will be thirty years old. My how the time flies. I can remember when my mom and dad were in their early thirties. Now it's my turn.

I just want to take the time to thank the Lord for being so gracious and kind to me in my life. He has blessed me beyond measure. I want to use my days to honor and serve Him. My prayer is that my life would bring Him great pleasure.

Tomorrow we are going to Krohn Conservatory. It will be a great supplement to our unit study on gardens. We've been there plenty of times, but the children love it. John especially wants to know what every single plant is. They have signs with the names of the plants on them, and every time he sees a sign he'll ask me what that plant is. Maybe, just maybe I'll remember my camera this time.

Our First Nature Walk

Yesterday we were able to go on a field trip with our church's Christian School. We went to a clock museum and learned many interesting facts about clocks, plus we got to see a lot of really cool clocks.

Later that afternoon we all went on a nature walk. We as a family have walked in the woods many times and pointed out God's creation to our children, but we've never done a nature walk like this before. There's a great blog called Hearts and Trees which I think I found from Candace's Blog. On the Hearts and Trees blog, she has free downloadable pages for a Spring Nature Walk Worksheet. It is wonderful.

How is this different than walking in the woods pointing things out to your children? Well, we read the sheet before we started on our walk and this way the children knew what they were looking for. This makes them responsible for being observant and observant and excited they were. They even found things that were not on the downloadable sheet.

The negative, I forgot my camera for the day. It was so fun to see them smelling wildflowers and touching a moist rotting tree. I would have loved to have pictures of this. I'm sure my mother-in-law would agree that we all had a great time.

Since I forgot my camera, I got this photo from a site called FreeFoto. It looks like they have a ton of pictures.