Recycling

Thank you Monkies #1 and #2.....so sweet of you to recycle your napkins full of peanut butter and jelly. I'm confident our next guests will appreciate it as well ;)

REST

Funnies & Heartaches

So amidst the sadness of losing Paw-Paw Doc and taking care of all the arrangements, etc....
and Jason being in the last 2 weeks before their musical performance.....and Aubrie still having eating issues.......
God is blessing us with sunny days and our little monkies that keep us smiling thru it all.


The other day Ellie came running into the living room where I was feeding Aubrie.
She had white stuff all over her shirt and was trying to tell me something serious
in her jibber jabber. She led me to the kitchen where the fridge door was wide open
and they had gotten into a little container of ranch dressing.

When I asked her and Gabe who made the mess, they immediately at the same time
pointed to each other with big eyes. Gabe said, "Ellie did it!" and Ellie said, "Bubb!!" (this is what she calls Gabe) I asked them again who did it. Same response, then Gabe says,
"Ellie! Tell the truth!!!" *SIGH* sometimes the monkies listen.....sometimes ;)
I just had to laugh, because Ellie still isn't talking in sentences at all, in fact, she really doesn't
have more than 20 good words she can say.

In fact, some days.......I will just get frustrated and tell her not to talk to me unless she
can go find and interpreter and bring him with her. *SIGH* I know, one day, she's gonna
start talking and she probably will never shut up. And then we'll be thankful for these days ;)


Today, I told Gabe to come with me in the bathroom and got out the fingernail clippers and
pulled him on my lap. Before I got the chance to tell him what I was going to do, he said,
"Mommy, are you going to cut my FINGERTAILS???"

Aubrie is really starting to respond more with coos, giggles, and smiles......
All these make the heartache a little bit less.

And everytime I get all choked up and wish that I would have taken the kids more
often to see Paw-Paw Doc these past 2 months.....someone reminds me that it's
understandable because I have a 3 and 2 yr old and a 2 mth old. And I was making
meals 3 mornings a week in my kitchen for the clinic, then 4 afternoons a week
I was teaching piano.And they tell me Doc understood.


And everytime I think about the fact that Aubrie will never know her Paw-Paw Doc....
someone reminds me that she will thru us, our stories, pictures, and the memories.

An everytime I get angry that he didn't take better care of himself, so he could be with
us longer.....I remind myself.....but oh....he's so much better where he is now. Why would
I so selfishly want to keep him any longer on this earth?

Because dancing on the streets of gold and playing God's big ol piano upstairs is FAR outa
this world better than anything here.

And then I smile.....and the monkies do another funny.
And the heart aches a little less.

Home with Jesus

Paw-Paw Doc went home to be with Jesus this morning. Words cannot even say how much we already miss him. We are so thankful he is finally healed, able to walk again, no more pain and suffering, and playing piano again too!!

The pictures above were at his surprise birthday party back in March.

Thanks to one of our friends who had a wheelchair accessible van, we were finally able to take him out to eat again. It was a super sweet night....it was also the first time he got to hold Aubrie.
He was such a kind and loving man, and such a good grampa to our kids!

What a gift he was that will be so missed!

Solitude

It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them…. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.

Come Lord Jesus

On September 13, 1980, Charles Malik gave an address called “The Two Tasks” at the opening of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. He was the Lebanese Ambassador to the United States. The message was so seminal that in 2006 (his centenary) it was republished with a collection of essays built around it. What strikes us as he stands to speak is the personal dimension and the public scope of his Christian commitment.

"I speak to you as a Christian. Jesus Christ is my Lord and God and Savior and Song day and night. I can live without food, without drink, without sleep, without air, but I cannot live without Jesus. Without him I would have perished long ago. Without him and his church reconciling men to God, the world would have perished long ago. I live in and on the Bible for long hours every day. The Bible is the source of every good thought and impulse I have. In the Bible God himself, the Creator of everything from nothing, speaks to me and to the world directly, about himself, about ourselves, and about his will for the course of events and for the consummation of history. And believe me, not a day passes without my crying from the bottom of my heart, ‘Come, Lord Jesus.’"

Charles Malik (1906-1987), Lebanon's ambassador to the USA (1945-55), President of the UN General Assembly (1958-59), professor of philosophy at the American University of Beirut (1962-76). Quoted from “The Two Tasks” in The Two Tasks of the Christian Scholar: Redeeming the Soul, Redeeming the Mind, eds. William Lane Craig and Paul M. Gould (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007), p. 55.

Dancin' In Circles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69_XxCQYg1U

My new favorite group and song.....check them out. Awesome harmony.....

Pictures-I Love....

I love a Daddy with his child.........especially ours ;)

I love Gabe's endless imagination and creativeness.....

I love how sometimes at naptime/quiet time he konks out on the floor with his stuffed dog Snoopy.....he really is this boy's best friend ;) (can you see him tucked in next to him?)

I love Lil Miss Ellie's personality......and i most certainly didn't teach her to run around topless ;)

I love to watch Jason with our babies....

I love purple....and I love our girls in purple ;)

I love our 2 nephews and the fun they have with our kids.....cousins are so special!

I love how Aubrie is growing out of her newborn clothes.....and her legs are so long....

I love to breastfeed, but I love it when someone else gives a bottle too ;) Thanks Aunty Em!

I love how Aunty Em does fun things with the monkies....making sand creations.

I love it when Gramma S comes to play and babysitt ;)

I love it when they stick their little bottoms up in the air to sleep.

Which God Do You Choose?

http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2010/04/designer-babies-designer-god.html


Read this today and it made me sick to my stomach to think this hibity bibity is actually
going on. Seriously......we need to kick the devil where it counts!!!!

Which God do you choose?

Spring

Outside our front door.....proof that spring really is here!!! What a loooooong winter.....

It will Set You Free...

http://lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com/2010/04/truth.html

I read this post this morning then I grabbed my monkies and hugged them tight.
All of a sudden, their constant bickering and my tiredness didn't bother me anymore.

"Whatever we are facing in this moment we can choose to grab on to the truth. Let everything else go. Let go of the anxiety- fear- uncertainty- and frustration. Park our mind with what is true. "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free," (John 8:32). "
~Lysa TerKeurst

It will set you free....The Truth.

God's Still Speaking

"1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12


"I knew I needed to be transformed. I need my situation transformed, my perspective, my outlook. I need transformation-- how do I get it? By renewing my mind. I renew my mind by reading God's word, hearing from Him as I do and then applying it in my life.

I thought about how we all need transformation in our lives. It might be our situation that needs to be transformed-- a rocky marriage, a job loss, a wayward child. It might be our attitude that needs to be transformed-- how we feel about being a full-time mom taking care of our children's endless needs, the way we treat our spouse, how we handle where we are in life. It might be our perspective that needs to be transformed-- how we see ourselves when we look in the mirror, how we receive God's love, what we see when we peer into the future.

No matter who we are, we need transformation because God didn't create us to stay the same. He whispered change into the fiber of our being, knowing we would struggle with it, resist it, and embrace it at different points in our lives. He wants us to be transformed, changed a bit more with each passing day. To leave us where we are would be boring and stagnant. My transformation requires more transformation, a chain reaction.

Right now I am not loving the changes in my life, the transformation that's being required of me. And yet, I know that transformation is necessary. Stagnant water stinks and so does a stagnant life. And so I keep seeking God as I allow Him to transform me, clinging to His word and letting Him guide me through the transformation, step by step, one truth at a time."

~MaryBeth Whalen

God is still speaking to me about my "life aroma". Tonite I came upon MaryBeth's devotion. The verse in Romans caught my eye because I'm reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan right now. Today's chapter was about being more like Jesus. BEING TRANSFORMED....okay God....I really do hear You! Then at the end of MaryBeth's devotion she talks about stagnant water stinking as well as our lives when we become stagnant. Wow........Can I just tell you how excited I am to hear God speaking?!?!?!?!?

Now.....for the transformation season.......

Pictures-Aubrie-8 wks

I love my Daddy

Look at that double chin!!!

Peek-a-Boo....I see you ;)

Our Life Aroma

Yesterday I had posted the question about the aroma of our life. Is it sweet or burned out?

This question has been going around and around in my head as the past 8 weeks we have adjusted our lives to change. That beautiful change came in the form of Aubrie Grace. Our sweet baby girl that has been such a blessing. However, with a new baby, comes adjustment and change to the life you knew before.

For me, this 3rd baby has more more of an adjustment than the other 2.
Monkey #1....Gabe....was our first, which of course it's a HUGE adjustment, but yet the anticipation of it being your first makes all else fade away.
Monkey #2....Ellie....began growing in my womb when monkey #1 was 8 mths old.
So naturally, adjustment came......but we were already in "baby season" so it really didn't seem much different.
Monkey #3....Aubrie came along when older monkies were ages 3 and 2.....not really babies anymore. We had gotten into quite the groove of life, they were both pretty self sufficient, were best buddies.....we just had a nice routine going. Imagine my surprise that 3 monkies ARE actually more work than just 2 ;) I am loving every minute of it.

HOWEVER.....I find myself so much busier that my prayer life and times with Jesus have been few and far between. And when this MamaMonkey doesn't put this into her schedule of life....
her life begins to have not such a sweet aroma anymore.

So this question keeps going around and around in my head: Is my life still giving a sweet aroma to those around me and is it a sweet offering to Jesus? Or is it stinky? and burned out? Well......to those in my immediate household......they would tell you stinky. I have been impatient, angry, short-tempered, grouchy way too many times in the last 8 weeks.

Today, I came upon this devotion:
http://proverbs31devotions.blogspot.com/2010/04/attitude-adjustment.html
I don't believe in coincendences.....I believe in God communicating to us in all the
little details.....because He loves us that much. If our ears and eyes are open...we will
see and hear what all He has for us.

And as far as adjustments go......the best part of the harder adjustment is that the 2 older monkies are actually quite a help..... they are so good at running and sticking Aubrie's passy back in her mouth when she's crying. WHAT.A.BLESSING ;)

Sweet Offering

Is your life a sweet offering for Jesus or a "burned out" offering?

Reality: Suffering & Grace

"The harsh reality is that God does allow things in our lives that are far, far beyond our ability to handle... but His "grace is sufficient" and His "power is made perfect in weakness."
(2 Corinthians 12:9)

Suffering is not anomalous to the Christian life. "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you." (1 Peter 4:12) "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake." (Philippians 1:29)"

~http://http://thelukesponbergfoundation.blogspot.com/2010/03/reflections.html

God is Good...All the Time

In my quiet time today the thought came to me: "Nothing can seperate me from the Love of God. Nothing......no matter how badly I mess up and fail....He will still love me and His mercies are new every morning. I was going to look up the verse on biblegateway that I remembered from the Word and write it down. Then the monkies woke up and I got sidetracked.

Tonite (8 hours later) I went to a blog that I like to read and hadn't read in weeks and this is what I found:
http://susielarsonblog.typepad.com/susie_larsons_blog/2010/04/he-is-with-you.html

God is good...all the time. He is so into the details....and loves to remind us just how deeply He loves us and will never fail us.

I'm so blessed....beyond words.

Who I Am

"To live by grace means to acknowledge my whole life story, the light side and the dark. In admitting my shadow side I learn who I am and what God's grace means."
— Brennan Manning

Pictures-This n That

His Blood

"3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace..."
Ephesians 1

Do It, Lord...

"I see your glory, covering the earth Lord
Just as the waters, covering the seas
I see the millions, coming to salvation
I see revival, fire in the land
I see the lost, nameless ones remembered
I see the widows, shouting out your praise
Is see the friendless, loved and celebrated
Orphans fullfiling Lord, your calling on their lives
Do it Lord, do it Lord,
Do it Lord, we are praying;
Do it Lord, do it that your glory may be seen."
~from Travis Cottrell album