Hope everyone had a happy Father's Day!

Well, we had another rummage sale this past weekend. This one was nowhere near as successful as previous rummage sales. We had rain on Friday, among other factors. BUT- the way I look at it, we still made a little money, and I had more fun than if we had done a soup supper! Woohoo! Still worth it to me! But I may be taking a little break from the rummaging for now. We stored "le rummage" upstairs, and if any other department wants to take a shot at it, I'd be MORE than happy to assist you, but I doubt Student Ministries will be doing another one very soon.... unless the STUDENTs want to plan it, and let me "help." :)

Anyway, aside from the rain, the weather was so nice for rummaging! It wasn't too hot, under the overhang, at least. And not too windy, which was nice. My kiddos had a good time, as they always do. They rescued some toys from the rummage, and found lots of rolly pollies. They only lost 2 rolly pollies in the piano we had for sale, so that's not bad, right? :-P

Bruce T. won Father of the Year at church. So cute... his daughter cried! It was very sweet.

Veronica is having her baby today! Actually... probably about right now! I'm so excited to see the new little one!

And finally, I'm sooo ready for Pastor Mark & Val to be back home! It's just weird when they're gone... I want them back! Plus, we miss them!

That's all for now! Have a great week everyone!

I answered it! One of the most pondered questions by children & adults everwhere!!!

For the past week or so, Josiah has been asking me occasionally who created God. Here's how the conversation usually goes.

"Mommy, who made God?"

"No one. He just always was."

"But, Mommy, who MADE Him?"

"No one! No one had to make Him. He has always been around. We just can't understand how someone could always be, and that's ok."

"Uugghhhh!!!" Sheer frustration. But what was I to do?

Tonight, he brought it up again. But this time, I had a sudden inspired moment! Here's how tonight's conversation went.

"Mommy, who made God?"

"He has just always been. No one made Him."

"UGH! Mommy!! WHO MADE HIM?!?" (Louder this time, because I think Josiah thinks I'm partially deaf at times. Mostly when I don't give him the answer he wants.)

"Oh, sorry. God. God made God."

"Oh. Ok."

Ahahahaha!! Eliana and I just looked at each other and giggled. Of COURSE the answer is God! Why didn't I realize that sooner?

Flip Flop Parade!

We had a Flip Flop Parade in Kidspace on Sunday to kick off summer. We also tied it in to the lesson (haha~ you thought I couldn't find spirituality in flip flops?) by talking about feet in the Bible. The kids are smart, they thought of several mentions of feet that I hadn't thought of!

Our memory verse was Isaiah 52:7~ How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news....

Here are the pics of their beautiful feet! I had fun, at least. And the Flip Flop Parade was a reason to play outside for a bit!

He got me!

So, we are at church, and I'm in the office trying to get a few things done, and Josiah disappeared for a few minutes. I didn't know where he was, until I heard knocking at the front door. He had gone outside & couldn't get back in.
I went and let him back in, and told him, "You need to stay inside. There is no one outside to watch you, you are not allowed to be out there alone!"
He came back inside, and a few minutes later he came to me and said, "Mommy, I know who can be with me outside."
Well, earlier, Brother & Sister Trusty were here working on the flowerbed, so I thought maybe they were back. "Who can watch you outside?" I asked him.
He replied, "Jesus. Because he's in my heart."

How do you argue with that? Thankfully, Sister Betty is now back outside working on the flowerbed. For a minute, he had me fumbling over my words, unsure of how to explain to a 4 year old that yes, Jesus is in your heart, but you're still not allowed to be out there. I mean, what adult is more responsible than Jesus? Ha!

Only 2 days of school left! I can't WAIT for summer vacation!

This is my first summer at home with the kiddos. Last summer, Thomas had the paper route, so he got to be with them all day, and I got to hear about how they were at the pool or the park while I was at work, so I've been looking forward to this summer!

My life has been so eventful lately. I'm ready for a little LESS excitement! On Saturday, nurse Eliana gave her eager patient Josiah a shot with the Epi-Pen. The Epi-Pen is medicine that you ONLY give if someone is having a severe allergic reaction, and she shot him with it right in the thigh! I was in the shower when it happened, but as I understand it, it was Josiah's idea! He pulled the Epi-Pen out of the diaper bag and said, "Sissy, give me my shot!" and she was all too happy to oblige! Sooo.... after I calmed down & we were able to decide on a punishment, we settled on: grounded from TV & computer (all they do on the computer is type, or play on PBS.com if we are right here), they have to write sentences nightly ("Kids do not give medicine"), and they have to clean the bathroom nightly (to work off the cost of the wasted Epi-Pen). I warned them that if that were to ever happen again, they would most likely need to go stay with one of the grandparents to ensure their safety, because I don't think I'd be able to contain myself. Then Thomas pointed out that I didn't exactly contain myself this last time. :)

I'm excited for One Accord to be here! Our family always loves to see AJ, but we're excited for the concert as well!

On Sunday, we are having a Flip-flop Parade in Kidspace to kickoff the start of summer vacation! Fun, fun! We will be going outside for our parade, and taking pictures of all participating feet. I told the kids they could wear whatever shoes they wanted & we would still take pics of their feet though. I'll post pics on here next week of our feetsies!

So much has happened since the last time I blogged!

I took the kids to the allergist last week. Wait... let me backtrack. Malachi has been congested/wheezy/rattly since he had RSV (a respiratory virus) in March, and our pediatrician diagnosed him with Reactive Airway Disease, which is basically like saying, "He's too young for us to call it asthma but that's what it appears to be." He said he could outgrow it, but in the meantime, he prescribed a steroid to add to his breathing treatments. The steroids seemed to help some at first, but not entirely. I had talked to the pediatrician about Malachi having a possible peanut allergy, because Josiah is allergic to peanuts, and Malachi's congested seemed to get noticeably worse (much much worse) when I would eat peanut butter. The pediatrician said it was very unlikely that he would be getting the proteins through the breastmilk & he didn't think that was relevant. I just couldn't allow myself to believe what he was telling me. I had read information about peanut protein passing through breastmilk on the internet, and I really felt there was more to the situation. So that, combined with our recent pecan scare a few weeks back, finally helped motivate me to make an appointment with the allergy doctor.


The allergist did testing on all of the kids. I won't get into the whole laundry list, but it turns out Malachi DID react to the peanut.... along with milk & eggs. The allergy doctor suggested cutting out milk, eggs, and all nuts from my diet. He told me to continue the breathing treatments to help with Malachi's "asthma" (he called it asthma- said he didn't agree with the pediatrician's diagnosis) until our next appointment in June. He also prescribed a nasal spray. Well.... It has been exactly ONE week since that appointment, and Malachi is now off of his breathing treatments! I can't stop raving about it- I'm so thrilled! Since I have cut milk & egg out of my diet (I was already avoiding nuts before that appointment, once I realized that I thought he was reacting to them), his lungs have COMPLETELY cleared up! I didn't have to fill his nasal spray prescription! I called both the allergist's office & the pediatrician's office before stopping the breathing treatments, and they both sounded surprised that it is so much better.... almost like they were in disbelief! Well... I don't really care if they believe it or not- I just praise God for this knowledge! I can't wait to go back to the doctor so they can fix his charts to show that he doesn't have asthma, OR R.A.D! It's just so exciting!! I didn't even end up getting his nasal spray filled because there is no need!

Ok. Sorry. I'm excited, if you can't tell. OH... but about the milk & egg free diet. Did you ever realize that there is milk and/or eggs in SO much stuff? I'm hungry!! I really just want a big, cheesy slice of pizza! It's ok though. Malachi's clear lungs serve as good motivation. :)


Speaking of food. I have been meaning to scan this and post it for awhile. Eliana made a list of her favorite foods... see if you can make it out. :)

(The top, left corner folded down when I was scanning. The first letter is an M.)







Ok. I will decipher it for you.

Macaroni
Fish
Strawberries (that spelling what probably my favorite. Apparently she pronounces it Schrawberries.)
Corn on the cob
Pizza
Chocolate
Teriyaki Chicken (that was written in yellow, so you can't see it, but it was a great phonetic spelling! Something like: Tereyockey. Haha.)
Pigs
Cow



Have a great weekend, everyone!

(vomitx7)+(poop)+(a good word)= still a pretty good day!

Wow. Yesterday was a crazy day! Seriously.

TMI warning- if you are easily grossed out, STOP READING NOW!!! Lol.

Let me just simplify the story. Yesterday, Malachi threw up (on me) 7 times (in about 2.5 hours.) By the end of it, he was throwing up bile. Pretty scary. I think it was because he choked on his congestion, but regardless, he stopped throwing up and was able to keep fluids down, so it was all fine. This all happened in the afternoon, and I was trying to decide whether to take him to Urgent Care or not. Finally, after discussing it with my pediatrician's nurse, I decided to wait a little longer & see if it continued or stopped. It stopped, so Malachi & I went to church with the rest of the family, instead of camping out at the Urgent Care Center. He hasn't thrown up since about 4 or 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon, so we're good.

BUT, after we got home, I had just nursed him & was holding him on my lap. I heard him "go" and within seconds, felt it on my leg! I started yelling for Thomas to take him, and Thomas & the kids were laughing in disbelief! By the amount of poo on my leg, I sarcastically asked, "Is he even wearing a diaper??" So, Malachi took his 3rd or 4th bath of the day!

Anyway, that's all over now, thank God! I wanted to share something from tonight though. Clint Miles was our guest speaker in youth, and he shared a great message. He talked about the feeding of the 5,000, and he talked about how Jesus told the disciples to bring him what they had. They told him that they didn't have anything, only 5 loaves & 2 fishes. Jesus told them to bring it anyway. This was so significant to me, because it really is how God is with us! God doesn't call us because of our extraordinary abilities! God calls us in spite of our deficiencies, knowing that HE will provide a way for us to fulfill His call! Clint talked about how Jesus took the food, then He blessed the food, then He broke the food. Whoa. Powerful again! Just like He takes YOU, He blesses YOU, and He breaks YOU. In order for God to be able to use us to minister His love to a hurting world, we first have to be broken, to get rid of our own ego and self-righteousness. Of course, being broken is never fun, and we may not understand the reason for it when we're going through it, but we come out stronger, with better perspective, and having learned to TRUST. We NEED the brokenness! I got so much encouragement from that, I just wanted to share it!

And THAT was my day! Today should be fun, all 3 of the kids are going to the doctor!

to the ends of the earth...

Today was BGMC day. By the way, BGMC changed their name this year. BGMC now stands for Boys & Girls Missionary Challenge. Usually on BGMC day, we do a missions-based lesson in Kidspace.
Today, we talked about Samuel, and how God called him from the time he was a child. We talked about how God speaks to our hearts, and God might call us right now to be missionaries at our schools. We also talked about how God might call us to someday to go another place & be a missionary for Him. I knew that there were a couple of kids who have already felt a call to missions, so I asked the kiddos, "Have any of you guys ever thought God might want you to go somewhere to be a missionary for Him?" A couple of kids raised their hands, and I called on them to ask them where. Alyssa told me that she wants to be a missionary to France, and Kathleen told me she wants to be a missionary to Egypt. So awesome- these kids are serious about this! I know it's early & there's no telling what path God might lead them down, but it's awesome to me that they are open to His leading at this young age!
Anyway, my 4 year old son raises his hand along with the other kids. I asked him, "Josiah? Do you think God might want you to go live somewhere & be a missionary?" He solemnly nodded his head. I asked him where, and very seriously, he replied, "Mannford."

I did my best not to laugh! I still giggle thinking about it. The wedding we went to yesterday was in Mannford. Let me just say that if the furthest God calls my children is Mannford, I will be one blessed mommy!!! :)


EDIT: I forgot to mention~ Eliana wants to go to college at ORU so she can live at home. For the rest of her life, she says. Haha.

I LOVE this weather!

We've been enjoying the weather~ we went to Thomas's niece's wedding yesterday, and it was outside, and then we went to River Parks last night... so much fun! I posted some pictures at www.xanga.com/glimpsesof so feel free to have a gander at those if you'd like.
It's been an eventful weekend- had some allergy scares with Josiah & Malachi on Friday night... potlucks and stuff like that are a danger zone for food allergies, and the rehearsal dinner on Friday night seemed to have nuts (hidden) EVERYwhere! Anyway, thankfully, I had benadryl with me, and that did the trick. It all turned out fine, but goodness, it's scary!
I'm excited about church tonight! The youth are in charge of the evening service, so that will be fun!

I think it might finally be spring!!! I mean... it was winter on Sunday, but since then it's been sooo nice outside. Just windy though. But I can't complain about the wind~ it's better than being freezing cold, and in August, we'll probably be wishing there was some wind around!

Big Needs (a celebration of grace)

I recently shared the story about the rummage sale/scrambled egg couch with a friend. She liked the story and said, "Those who live with big needs, they understand a good gift."

Wow. That really struck me. Don't all of us live with big needs? Or shouldn't we? Do any of us deserve the priceless gift of life and salvation that we have been given?

Fortunately, I have enough deficiencies within my own abilities to require daily God-size servings of grace.

Fortunately? (Did she say fortunately?) Yes, I did. No, I don't get some sick pleasure out of constantly falling short of my goals and realizing my human limitations. In fact, it's a constant source of frustration for me. But there, in my imperfections, is where I really learn to lean on God and see His work in my life!

Do I think we all live with big needs? Yes. Do I think we all realize it? No. And I think that is absolutely tragic. Instead of trying to gloss over our imperfections, it's ok to realize that His grace is sufficient where we are insufficient, and His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses!

And fortunately, I have enough weaknesses to allow God to flex His muscles in me for a very long time. :)

I love blogging.

I don't just mean that I love to blog. I mean, I do enjoy the act of blogging for myself. But I love blogging as a whole.
Blogging can be really therapuetic, and provide an outlet for expression, creativity, or just updating people on your day to day happenings.
Even more than I like to blog, I like to read blogs. Reading blogs can give you so much insight into who people are. Sometimes you get the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly, but ultimately you come away with a better understanding of how their mind works.
People like to be understood, and like to know that others are interested in them. Reading people's blog has enhanced my relationships with people because it allowed me to understand them better, and then let them know that I am interested in what they have to say. Sometimes just knowing that someone cared enough to take a few minutes from their day to read their blog causes people to open up even more.
If you have a blog and I don't already know about it, drop me a line! I'd love to subscribe to your blog!!
You can find another blog of mine at www.xanga.com/glimpsesof. I mostly post pictures on that blog.

So I have yet another blog. I'm going to do better about keeping up with this one though.... really I am.

I posted a link to one of my other blog as my "website" link, feel free to check it out if you would like. I haven't posted on it in forever, but it will be updated soon. The thing about blogging is, I always have a hundred ideas on things to write about.... until I sit down at the computer! Oh, well.

The weather has been so gloriously warm lately, it's making me wonder if we might possibly be done with all the cold. I hope so, and I really wish it could just stay nice like this, instead of heating up into the humid, sticky mess that is an Oklahoma summer.

Speaking of warm weather, once we are sure the warm weather is here to stay, and once school is out, we will be having another Student Ministries rummage sale. I have such a like/dislike relationship with rummage sales. They are a REALLY good way to raise money in just a couple of days though, so I try to make myself just love them. :) And I have gone from seeing the rummage sale as just a way to raise money for our ministries as a ministry in itself. In each rummage sale, it isn't hard to spot God working through it! We meet some interesting people, and have an opportunity to meet quite a few people in our community, as well as meet their needs by providing them with really good deals!

One of my favorite stories from this last rummage sale is about the lady who bought a couch. She had been shopping at the sale, and had bought a few things when she asked if we had any furniture. I remembered that we had a couple of things inside that we hadn't brought out yet, so we took her in to show her. There was an older couch that they youth have been wanting out of their classroom, they called it the "scrambled egg" couch. She came out saying she liked and wanted the couch, but she didn't have a way to get it home. I remembered that we had borrowed my dad's pickup for hauling "rummage," so I told her we could deliver it once we got some men around to help.

We delivered the couch the next morning, and Thomas said her apartment was completely bare. She had a dining room table, and a shelf (like the kind in stores) with a few toys on it for her granddaughter who lives with her. There was nowhere to sit. Thomas said she kept saying, "Thank you so much. You just don't know how much I appreciate this!"

I was so amazed. God really does make old things new!! That couch is probably 30 years old, and the youth have been wanting to get rid of it pretty badly (we have another donated couch that will take its place.) And somehow, God worked it out so we forgot to bring it out until that lady wanted it- and she turned out to be the person who was probably blessed by it more than anyone else could have been! It makes me happy to think about her & her granddaughter getting some good use out of that old couch!

That's just one story. The entire weekend was full of divine appointments, and although I was happy to close up shop, I was also kind of sad to see it end. I'm looking forward to the next one though!


Hmm. I didn't mean to make this so long. I'm going to leave you now, and go eat some cereal.

How exciting! The blogs are set up!

More to follow!