God's Cycle with me

For those of you who have regular quiet time, I imagine you see the same pattern: I read and pray God meets my needs perfectly. Then He stretches me. It's usually way out of my comfort zone. He gives me a new desire or a new purpose-I'm hesitant but you know how relentless God is, and of course I want to glorify Him with every decision I make every day, so I do it and then I find that God again provides perfectly. He provides emotional strength, just the right words, the perfect prayer, seemingly extra time in my day, amazing timing, money, cooperation from others, He always provides. Once I'm settled into my new role, He stretches me again. Sure it's uncomfortable at times. But, man, every time, I find myself more blessed by what God is doing and the fact that He finds me worthy enough to be a part of His plan-not only a part, but at times a leading roll. He's always working. He's always patient and always loving.

So I started thinking, if He's got a plan, and tells me the plan, shows me how to follow and gives me the means to carry it out, what's in it for Him? He's gaining nothing-if anything, it's rather inefficient. Surely the God who spoke that world into existence, who causes mountains to tremble just by being close, can get His plan done much better and much more quickly with out me in the way. Then that sweet ministering Spirit quietly reminded me it's not actually about the plan. I mean it is, His plan is perfect and beautiful and very purposeful, but whether or not I carry it out does not change His plan. The point is His glory through my obedience. The point, much like the point of Abraham going to the top of a mountain with his son as a sacrifice only to be stopped by God himself, is for me to prove my level of faith and commitment. Once I'm there, He gives me more. More responsibility, more of Him, more blessing. Every time I am stretched, I am a little more like Him. What an honor. What an honor to have the Mentor of all mentors-the most worthy One of all to ask me to be like Him and them gently show me how to do that.

Praise God for this Cycle. Praise Him that He is kind enough to not do it all at once. Can you imagine if everyone of us had to have a Paul experience? No, most of us would not keep pressing on. Our God is so loving, He just tweaks us enoughso that we feel Him working, but not so much that it scares us off.

Hope everyone reading this is somewhere in that Cycle-if not, jump in. God will provide everything you need.

"Last Memorial Day we met Santa in Gatlinburg."

Quotes from dinner with our friends...

"At least it wasn't drain hair." -Dana
"What does a horse say?" "Meow." -Mandy and Isaiah*
"No, I have two hands." -Dana
"Last Memorial Day we met Santa in Gatlinburg." -Tom

It's so much fun to have dinner with friends. I recomend everyone do it at least weekly. Our new LifePointe Group (small group) starts this week. It's a dinner group-I'm so stinking excited. If anyone ever wants to stop by, feel free! It's open to anyone (well, not so much creepy strangers that may happen upon my blog-anyone I know or at least knows someone I know)

It's been cold here-snowing actually, so not much has gotten done outside. Silas had tests done to find out why he's not gaining weight. They came back normal then the Dr didn't have a good plan for getting to the bottom of this so I'm switching Dr's again. Wes said he's sick of switching dr's all the time. I lovingly reminded him he's never taken the kids to the dr so he really has no reason to complain.

I've decided to start recomending websites...I love to dispence unsolicited advice. Check out www.drdino.com for lots of cool stuff on creationism and www.dealdetectives.com for tons of free stuff. Wes heard about it yesterday and we now have free deoderant, gum and toothpaste on the way a free 30 day trial to blockbuster online (movies in the mail as I type) and free trial Sirius Radio and he told me I can get 110 free digital prints for $3.00 shipping. Maybe I can get a couple pics of Silas to put around the house. Poor third baby.

*Isaiah used to say the horse said "Ride me." Then it was "Coooww." all high pitched-at least meow is an animal sound!

We are all well!!!

Woohoo!!!!! We aren't sick anymore! After my last post, Isaiah got the flu, then I did. It sucked. But Praise Jesus in heaven we are all well!! I'll tell you what, you want to have a fantastic day, start it eary, start it in god's Word and in prayer time, then put in a praise CD and dance with your kids. Eliya and Isaiah just discovered The Happy Song....We danced, twirled and "Shouted Out" the song. They're begging to hear it again but I don't know if I have it in me right now!! I can't believe the baby's sleeping through this!!

BTW, I highly recomend Absolute Modern Worship for Kids! Great worship songs with regular backgroung music (No xylaphones etc) sung by kids...good for the whole family.

Stinkin' Flu

Eliya's had a fever since Tuesday-it stays high and barely breaks even with motrin every 6 hours AND tylonol every 4 hours. She's achey, sad and has little appitite. She has a hard time falling asleep, then when she does she'll sleep a long time only to wake up with a fever between 102 and 104.5 and miserable. She's come out of her room moaning and crying several times a day almost every day this week.

Isaiah woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. Wes gave him medicine. He 's starting to wake up now so we'll see how he's doing in a bit. Not only is it terrable to have such sick kids, it's also so nice out. I thought maybe we'd be able to go to the park with some friends this morning, but that's out. We have a birthday party to go to tomarrow. I'll just have to see what we can do. I know a lot of parents who's kids either have the flu or just got over it, maybe I can get one of them to watch at least Isaiah (I'm still holding out for Eliya to be well.)

So Woohoo! The pics loaded today! Here they are:


These are the sticks I bundled-the'd be more impressive if I had someone standing there for refrence. The top of the deck is about as tall as I am. (There's My Marjory in the background to the right)


Here's Eliya a few weeks ago with her NiNi Snowman (hence the Pepsi) It's cute...and a bit creepy-LOL.


Here's wild man--I could just eat him up.


And last but not least the sweetest pic I've seen in a while.

The Strawberries were a little tart but the bananas were good!

That's a review of my breakfast..Riveting, I know.

As promised here's a pic of the sticks I bundles.** They were outta here Tuesday..WooHoo!!! I spent another hour or two yesterday cleaning up the yard. I filled up the Lenny and 4 count 'em 4 yard bags. I also worked a bit on my compost pile, but then it started raining.

I should start a blog for my compost pile. It's so exciting...Here's an example of what it would look like:
Today I turned the pile ( I should name it...nay her, hmmm, she reminds me of Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock Trash Heap's first name was Marjory. Her name is Marjory) Okay...Today I turned Marjory. Man she was hot, I love the way the once dry useless yard waste turns into a seemingly meaningless pile of wet scraps and a few days later armed with garden gloves and a pitchfork I discover a steaming pile of sweet smelling earth. I love seeing the earth worms happily devouring my perfect combination of nitrogen and carbon. I love using the compost in my garden, it gives me such satisfaction to know I took trash and turned it into rich, money saving, plant strengthening compost. I love collecting the weeds, banana peals, coffee grinds, grass clippings and mulched leaves. I love dumping them into the homemade bin, I love standing there with my hose, stirring and turning and wetting her down until she's ready to sit another 3 days. I LOVE returning to find her a little bit smaller, steaming again, ready to start whole the process over. How great is our God that he designed the earth to work like that. I'm doing nothing special. This happens everyday in uninhabited forests. Rain, bugs, dead and decaying plants...I used to think of them all as useless, even annoying. Now, now they are my past time.

I am passionate about my dear lovely compost pile....

Back to this post. It's supposed to rain this weekend off and on but Wes and I plan to cut down all the over growth along the fence line. Neighbors, prepare to get to know us! (or get a privacy fence--either way...)

Eliya has the flu. Her fever was 104.2 yesterday for over an hour despite the motrin and a bath. I called the doctor and she was not overly concerned. She told me I needed to alternate tylonol and motrin so keep Eliya comfortable and bring her in to find the cause of the fever. I'm pretty sure it's the flu so I won't be taking her in. I'm just praying the boys stay healthy.

**I've tried and tried to upload the pictures of the yard and the kids. I'll try again later.

Ding Dong the sticks are gone!!

Today was another beautiful day. I knew it would be so I planned on taking the kids out early. We got out about 9:00 and I started bundling the sticks.

For the record, the "pile of sticks" as it's become known as, was more then just any pile. This pile was epic...I would dare to say the largest pile of sticks I have ever seen. Before they were sticks they were way over grown privacy hedges. 40 feet of 15 foot tall bushes. The neighbors started complaining so we cut them down in July 2004. The plan was to rent a chipper and chip the branches into the compost pile. The chipper didn't work. Apparently plan B was to let the sticks sit a year and a half and complain about them when we remembered they were out there.

The good thing about that plan is that after sitting so long they were very dry and light so they were easy to work with. We've worked on the sticks on and off since the fall (okay mostly off) we burned some in the chiminea, we filled up the Lenny (yard waste container) and Wes bundled a bunch the other day.

Today I went out and started bundling. It was easier then I thought it would be so I just kept on bundling. I was help done by lunch time. After lunch, I took out the mower and started mulching the leaves and twigs that were under the part that was finished...Then like Forrest Gump who just ran, I just bundled. 15 or so bundles later..The sticks are done!!! There's a small pile of twigs and such to put in a bag...I couldn't bring myself to actually finish a job, LOL. Really, I'm just beat. My back hurts, my legs and feet are sore, but I'm so happy!! I can't wait for Wes to see!!!

Here's a pic of the bushes. I guess I couldn't' bring myself to take a picture of the sticks. I'll post the after pic tomorrow.