An Open House and an Open House

  Happy Belated Thanksgiving.  We celebrate both here.  I grew up in Canada and the idea of Thanksgiving in October stuck.  There's something about having a big turkey dinner and being thankful that just feels better when all the colors and smells of fall are in full swing.  Now, I'm not saying by that I'm going to dump the other one, I can go for turkey and thankfulness in the snow too ...
  We spent this most recent Thanksgiving with our good friends.  For the past bunch of years we've spent it with them - and now that they live far away we got to spend a few days together on account of the long drive.  It was wonderful.  You know when you have those friends who know and understand you ... and are still okay with you?  That's them.  We got to see their new house, new town, and new church.  The kids got to catch up, and we got to pick up right where we'd left off.
  While we were gone, we had our first open house.  We cleaned like mad all weekend, and then packed like mad to go away, then cleaned like mad again.  Only one couple came to the open house.  By that I was a little disappointed, but as the realtor says, "it only takes one".  I know that God is leading us, and I know that He will take care of all the details.  I know that he gave us this house and He knew when we'd need to sell it.  Some days I just need to keep reminding my feelings.  So, now to keep it clean for the next showing ...

New Season

  I love the change of seasons.  I think fall is my favorite season, though.  I love the bright leaves and the chilly weather.  I love sitting with a blanket and my crocheting in the crisp evening.  Ooh, that makes me think of apple crisp.  I love that too.  I love pumpkins, mums, apple picking, cider donuts ...  The only downside of fall that I can see is that it ushers in winter.  But, you know, isn't it just like God to give us the most beautiful season right before the hardest one?  He awes us with His beauty in the fall, making the blow of winter somehow softer.  I love the tree in front of our house.  It's a late turner.  When all the other trees are almost bare, our tree turns bright red.  Right now all the trees around are tinged with red, yellow and orange.  Our tree is still perfectly green.  It'll change though.  It always does.  And it makes fall last longer.  When the first snows come, there stands that flaming red tree as a reminder of the beauty of the fall.
  This fall brings a new season to our family.  We are saying goodbye to our wonderful church family where we've been loved, cared for and encouraged for 9 years and we're moving into the wide unknown of God's leading.  I purposefully don't say "scary unknown"  because somehow it's not scary when God is leading.  It's wide.  We really don't know what God has next for us, but we know that if God is leading, it's good.  So we've put our beautiful house up on the market.  We're saying goodbye to all of our "kids" who will always stay in our hearts.  We're packing up and gearing up for adventure.  The road ahead is not really clear, but God never promised that, right?  He never said that He would tell us far in advance what our steps would be.  He promised to the the light to our path, and to direct our steps - and I'm okay with that.

Storms, school and adventure ...

  So, we survived the hurricane.  Actually, we fared much better than many areas around us.  Our yard looks like we had quite the windstorm, with leaves everywhere.  But we are alright.  In fact, we didn't even lose power.  Quite a difference from what we see around us.  A tree fell onto the house next to the church parking lot.  We have friends who are still without power or water.  In fact, we have some friends staying with us until their power and water are restored.  The devastation is amazing to see.  Not so much the wind, but the flooding.  The Hudson overflowed it's banks onto the bridge exits and there was a beautiful dock floating by ... with boats still attached!  Roads are washed away and a whole town is underwater not too far from us.  Whole fields of crops almost ready to harvest are underwater.  Businesses are caked with mud, bridges are damaged.  Please be praying for the people around here as the water recedes and the damage is seen. 

 Here's a link to some pictures ... the first one is where my husband and another youth pastor friend meet for breakfast.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2330021532462&set=o.216538205051499&type=1&theater

Hello?

Hi!  Can you tell that my camera hasn't been working much this past few months?  I feel like life is happening and I'm forgetting it!  It's the middle of April already ... agh! 
  So I've been reading in 1 Corinthians about being a part of the body ... and I'm encouraged to be me.  I was created to have the gifts and personality that I have.  I will never be anyone else and I might as well not try because I would definitely be terrible at it.  I will never cook as well as Betty Crocker (just look at last night's dessert as evidence ... things definitely turn out better with baking powder).  I will never have as clean a house as ... most people I know.  I will never be as eloquent in my blog as other people I know.  I will never be as sweetly gentle as many pastor's wives.  I am not fashion queen (though I don't ever want to give up on that one).  I am not a perfect mother (and yes, I am aware of the fact that my children were loud today in the library, thank you). That's not who I am.  I am not giving myself an excuse not to grow ... since that would be incredibly prideful and stupid.  But at the same time, I just have to me who God made me to be.
So who am I?  Me!
  When I was in college there was a time where we could each receive personal prophecy.  As the prophets came to me they laughed and said, "You are a spark plug. Don't let anyone try to change your personality or who you are.  God made you that way."  I recently listened again ... and reminded myself.  That's who I am.  

March.

Well, it sure did come in like a lion. Ice. Snow. Ice ... snow.
I am SO longing for the spring. Even the flicker of the woodstove isn't warming my heart like it usually does. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for it, but ... I will also be grateful for it next fall when we light it up for a new season.

I saw some funny signs lately and thought you might like to laugh with me.
1. On a church sign: Whoever is praying for snow, please stop.
2. On a firehouse: Spring will be here sometime.
3. On a salon sign: The groundhog was wrong.

Yah.
I think that I can very heartily agree. The skin on my arms is wishing for warm sunshine.
I started our tomato plants and some flowers yesterday from seed. The boys and I got dirt everywhere. This morning, Evan walked by the flats and said, "Well, no flowers yet." I'm right with him. I'm impatient. I want to be outside, digging in the dirt and planting veggies. I want to have less cleaning in the house because everyone plays outside instead of inside all day. I want to grill without the icy wind putting the fire out. Then reality hits me. That won't be happening for at least another 2 months. The veggies won't get in until Memorial Day. That's almost 3 months from now. Ugh. This is the ugliest time of year for me. All the garbage that was hidden by the snow is starting to show up on the warmer days ... and then freezes solid into a chunk of ice the next.
All this brings me to pondering this morning ... How do we live content when we can see what's ahead, but know that we can't get there any faster? Just because we're on the road doesn't mean that we'll be there soon. Just because I see something in my life that needs to grow doesn't mean that I'm there yet. Just because I'm frustrated with a situation and can see what needs to happen doesn't mean that it will be fixed tomorrow. How do I live content and patient, but not become so accepting that I give up hope for change and become complacent?

Romans 8: 24b-29a, 30a
"For if you already have something you don't need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently. And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. For God knew His people, and He chose them to become like His Son ... And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him."

A Rush of Warm Air

On Valentines Day, our babysitter did a great thing. She babysat not only my 3, but an additional 3 so that we could go out to dinner with our very good friends. This was even more special because those very special friends are moving away. We laughed and talked about things on our hearts and shared things that you can't share with just anybody. These are those kind of friends and I will miss them when they move. That was a special Valentine's Day for me.

After dinner, my wonderful husband took me out to a movie. We haven't been to see a movie in ... a long time. It was nice to just sit together and hold hands. I'll have to admit that the movie wasn't the greatest thing I've ever seen, but it wasn't terrible ... and it made for a nice evening out. When we got home, and said goodbye to that beautiful, amazing babysitter ... we had a nice time reminiscing and thinking and telling reasons why we loved each other ... this made for a nice evening in.
I love my husband so much more than I did the day we got married. I feel like that love then was very bright, but not as deep or as colorful as it is now. Next month we will be married 8 years. I know that is only a drop in the bucket compared to many others that I know ... but it's a long time for me. In eight years we've grown, changed, had 3 babies, walked through ups and downs and highs and lows and all sorts of things. But all that time, our love has deepened and widened. We understand each other more and have more understanding for each other.
Yesterday was my birthday. You know, it's not easy to celebrate a birthday the day after Valentine's Day. Everybody's already celebrated out and sugared up when it gets to my day ... but my family made it pretty special for me. My small group girls sent me nice texts, my parents called me from far away, my kids helped me to make a pumpkin cake to celebrate the day and my man stayed home to just be with me: that was an excellent birthday.
The past two days have almost felt like a dream ... friends, family ... time together. So much to celebrate, remember and look forward to. It was like a great rush of warm air in the middle of a cold, snowy winter. Almost makes me feel like spring is around the corner ... almost (it would feel more like spring if I didn't have hip high snow banks around my driveway).
Tonight is the end of our Daniel fast at GC. I have a big tin of cookies ready to help my girls celebrate their veggie week and kick off the internet fast :) So, not that I'm in the habit of blogging all the time, but ... I'll be gone next week.

Prayers ...

"Dear Jesus,
Could you please help me find that little lego car that I made? I'm pretty desperate to find it."

"Chee-us, a food. Amin. Oh ee oo ya." (Jesus, food. Amen. Hallelujah.)
"Oh wee. Amin" (Holy. Amen.)

"Jesus, thank you for a great day. Make this food good. Amen."

"Jesus, thank you that Great Grandma W can walk. Please help Great Grandma B to walk again. And help her at her new house."

"Jesus, please help Pastor Dave and Laurie to have a good breakfast tomorrow."

"Jesus, help me to have no bad dreams. Only good dreams."

"Mom, I think I'm gonna lay in my bed and just pray in my head, okay?"

"Jesus, help us at church to have open ears to hear your voice."

And this morning, driving in the car ..."Mom, a pay?"
"You want to pray Eden?"
"Yah."
"Okay." So I prayed.

Then her little voice said from the back seat : "Amin."

The Fast ...

GC has joined in a fast ...

1. Week 1 (last week) - social networking sites : Connect with Jesus more through prayer
2. Week 2 (this week) - TV, movies, videos, youtube : Wash your mind in the Word
3. Week 3 - choose your own fast
4. Week 4 - meats, sweets : Live a lifestyle of holiness
5. Week 5 - video games, internet, secular music : Continually worship and focus on God

PGreg's been preaching about fasting and challenging us to a deeper walk with Jesus. I'm so excited to see what God's doing in us. Exciting times and breakthrough are right at the door!

Snow Day!

Today is a snow day. No school!


In honor of this, I would like to put out a great snow day recipe. I learned it in 5th grade when I took a cooking class as an elective in school. I've changed the measurements from metric, but if you would like the metric ones, let me know.

Snow Ice Cream

In a sandwich size zipper bag combine

2/3 cup milk
2 T sweetened condensed milk
1T sugar (or less, if you don't like it as sweet)
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Close the bag.

Fill a gallon size zipper bag 1/2 way with snow.

Pour in a good amount of salt (rock, table ... whatever you have)

Place small zipper bag into larger bag.

Fill large bag up with snow.

Pour in more salt.

Turn over for 10-15 minutes, or until inner bag is quite frozen.

Remove small bag and scoop into a bowl. (You might need to rinse the outside of the bag with cold water so you don't get salt in your ice cream.)

Each recipe serves 1 person a large bowl or 2 people a small one.

Christmas, New Year ...

Merry Christmas. Sorry that I'm late with that. Things sort of got busy.
I hope you had a wonderful celebration time. I hope you remembered Jesus more.
Happy New Year ... a few days late on that too :)

This week is the week of prayer at our church. I am really looking forward to it. I love to start the year off meeting with Jesus and hearing from the Holy Spirit about plans for the year. So far, my own "plans" have not amounted to much this year. I wanted to be at church on Sunday ... Eden was sick so I stayed home. I wanted to be at prayer tonight ... she's still sick. At least she's on antibiotics now. Good thing my grocery shopping plan happened (differently than I thought, but Gabe and I had a great time together) or we'd be fasting more than sweets. I guess I'll have to spend time hearing from God alone. I heard it can be done ;)
Like I said, we decided to fast desserts and sweet snacks as a family this week that we'd "think about Jesus more". The boys decided that whenever they wanted a sweet snack or dessert, they'd remember that they can't have one because they want to think about Jesus more. Fasting is not an easy thing for me (is it for anyone?). The things I generally want to fast are the easy things : liver, laundry, hard exercise, packing all my kids up to go somewhere for a week ... you know. But fasting has value. In giving up food or some other activity, we are saying "yes" to God and "no" to ourselves. Not only do we "think about Jesus more", but we do something to change some priorities in our lives. This opens up the door for God to be able to speak into those things and other areas of our lives. We get on autopilot sometimes with eating, watching TV, recreation, and even our time with God. Fasting breaks that up that routine and hopefully pushes us to pursue Jesus more.

So ... this week is sweetless here. Small beginnings, big rewards.