Updates

Here are a few updates of recent posts:

Regarding my camera, eureka! it is fixed! Gregg, having nothing to lose, banged it around a bit and now, whatever was jarred has been jarred back and all seems to be working well! Thank you God! Now, we just need to buy a new toaster oven but that's another story and something we can limp along without for a while...

Regarding our leaf "tree" on our mantel, here is a picture of what it ended up looking like. It's a bit hard to tell in this picture but you get the idea. I also forgot to say that this idea was based on an idea I read by Julie Barnhill in her latest book...

Now we need to take it all down so we can decorate for Christmas!

Bummer!

Yesterday I dropped a bin that contained our camera in the garage. I didn't think anything of it until later when I tried to use the camera - it's broken! Ugh! This was an EXPENSIVE camera. To send it in to the manufacturer to fix it will cost us almost $200. So now the dilemna, do we fix it or get a new one. We won't be able to afford what we paid for this camera but maybe we can still get a nice one for about the same as fixing this one?? We will definitely be shopping around and if need be, I may be getting up VERY early on Friday to try to get a deal - ugh!!! Not what I want to get for Christmas! :-(

Thankfulness

As we come upon Thanksgiving I have been thinking about my life and how blessed I truly am and in some ways how easy my life is compared to that of others. Alyssa and I have been reading a book about the pilgrims' journey to America and their life those first few years in America. It's a book geared towards elementary children so it doesn't go into great detail but it does talk about the persecution, hunger, fear, sickness & death the pilgrims went through while they were in England and then suffered to come to America. I can't imagine living through a winter with hardly any food to eat & people dying almost every day, including your own family. All to find the freedom to worship God in their own way.

Tonight we read about the Pilgrims celebrating their first Thanksgiving. When they saw the abundance of the harvest, their first thoughts were to give thanks to God and they actually chose to celebrate for a week to give God thanks. They were coming upon winter again and even though they had more food, they knew winter was a difficult time with sickness, cold & still the possibility of not having enough food by the end. Yet, they chose to give thanks, invited many many extra guests and put on a lavish feast that lasted 3 days!

In my younger years I have to confess Thanksgiving was one of my least favorite holidays. Growing up I didn't like turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie or cranberries. So, I didn't like Thanksgiving. As an adult I can't say that I like those foods all that much better (although I am more willing to eat them) but I do like the holiday a lot more because I've caught the spirit of WHY we celebrate Thanksgiving. It's not so much about the food as it is about truly being THANKFUL and giving God the glory.

This year, more than most, has made me realize all I have to be thankful for and has given me maybe a bit of a reality check. Between watching my sister agonize over decisions that need to be made for her son & listening on a caring bridge site to another mom's agony over losing her 6 year old daughter this summer, I continue to be reminded to cherish my kids, cherish my husband, cherish my life, hold on to God & to not get so bent out of shape by the little things of life.

This month I wanted my kids to catch a little bit of the spirit of Thanksgiving so we began writing down what we were thankful for each day on a leaf and made a Thanksgiving tree of sorts using our mantel to hang leaves. At first, the kids had a hard time thinking of something to be thankful for but as the weeks have past, they have gotten better about thinking of something without a lot of prompting from me. It has been interesting to hear what they are thankful for.

We plan to read them all off on Wednesday and have a little time as a family to thank God for all his blessings. My hope is that this month of thanksgiving will help all of us be more aware of our blessings and we will remember to be more thankful throughout the year!

God bless you all this Thanksgiving and I pray you will remember all that God has done for you the past year, even in the midst of the trials, and find your ways to celebrate and be THANKFUL!

Matt's Birthday

I've been waiting to blog about Matt's birthday until it was over. Now, a week later, I think it's over. Whew! It's been a whirlwind, so here goes!

On Tuesday, Nov. 18th Matthew turned 4... What a cutey - we celebrated at home with muffins. We don't have pictures of him blowing out his candles ON his birthday (he hid everytime we sang Happy Birthday to him all week) but this was one of his birthday presents - a play dough caddy...

Then on Saturday was his "friends" birthday party where we were all pirates! It was a lot of fun (if it was a bit crazy - I am not used to boy birthday parties with boy energy!). We had the kids decorate individual pirate chest cakes to later eat (thanks Carolyn for the idea). We had a treasure hunt, played Tick Tock Find the Croc & another game, watched part of the Pirates who Don't Do Anything & hung out. It was truly crazy and I'm not sure if we will be doing this again next year or something a wee bit simpler but Matthew has already informed me he wants a dinosaur party next year. We'll see... :-)

We actually made a treasure chest cake (thank you Gregg) but decided to save it for our NEXT celebration on Sunday!

I felt bad for the kids on Saturday as they all wanted to eat it BUT... Gregg's nephew's son Kyle also was turning 4 & visiting Minnesota so we had to get together to celebrate one more time!

Happy Birthday special boy!

Christian Community Fair

Tonight I bravely took all 3 of my kids to the Christian Community Fair at the St Paul Rivercentre. I figured if we were going to go, tonight was the night to do it when it probably would not be too busy. So, off we went! It was actually a lot of fun. They had probably the best petting zoo I've ever been to, lots of inflatables, a craft table, a fishing "pond" where the kids got to actually fish for a while, Bob & Larry, Sharky, TC & a couple other big furry friends I didn't even know. We even took a picture with a couple of adorable bunnies (made me want to get a bunny!). It wasn't exactly "free" as we did have to pay for parking & food (& for fishing & the bunny picture) but the kids had a blast running from inflatable to inflatable - especially Matthew). Actually, I kept losing Matthew because he would run off to another inflatable without telling me (guess I need to have a talk with him about that)...

Here are a couple of pictures...

Matt was the only one who would come with me to see Bob & Larry. Unfortunately, it took too long to get this picture taken and he became an unwilling participant. I STILL needed the picture - I got to hang out with BOB & LARRY!!! Yes, I was more excited than they were - and I am not ashamed! :-)

Super cool petting zoo with LOTS of animals - even tortoises & a camel! There was also another area with lots of snakes & reptiles and we got to pet a baby crocodile! At one point Josh was in his socks while we were at the petting zoo and when I went to put his shoes back on, yep, he'd stepped in something! Actually, that reminds me, it's still in the diaper bag!! Gotta go!

Josh's new word

Josh has learned a new word -- "mine!"

Freeze Out

Last night saw me doing something I haven't done in 20 years - literally. Sitting at a high school football game cheering on my hometown. It was the quarter-finals of the Iowa High School 1A play-offs and my home town, now the Aplington-Parkersburg Falcons, were taking on the Emmetsburg E-Hawks. Since Emmetsburg is only 75 miles from where my parents live and we were visitng them this weekend, we decided why not? and went to cheer them on. It was seriously FREEZING but we put on lots of layers and my dad & I sat in the stands cheering on our old home team. Lots of clothes & a few cups of hot chocolate and we lasted the game (it helped that because both teams pretty much only run the ball, the game was over in less than 2 hours!).

This year was a little different for the football team. Parkersburg experienced an F5 tornado that wiped out 1/3 of the town including the football field & school last May. While the high school is temporarily located in the middle school in Aplington while it's being rebuilt (and the middle schoolers are at the Aplington elementary & the Aplington elementary is at the Parkersburg elementary WITH the Parkersburg elementary) through donations & a lot of determination, they decided to go ahead and get the football field ready to go in Parkersburg and play football there this fall. I can't imagine what it would be like to play with the rubble & the beginnings of the new school in the background but that's what they did. They were ranked #1 in the state & were undefeated. Pretty much they've been playing for the town and giving them a bit of hope amidst the rebuilding....

Unfortunately, they met their match last night with Emmetsburg (also undefeated). It was a very low scoring game for both teams but Emmetsburg ended up coming out victorious.

I'd say A-P was victorious too - victorious in giving their town hope in the midst of disaster.

Leaking Joy and mentors

A while back I blogged about my quest to find more joy in my life and figure out more of what it means to live a joy-filled life. That quest has been an on-again, off-again quest but yesterday I feel like I came upon another nugget of truth in that search.

I was reading a chapter in the book Balance that Works when Life Doesn't. I've referenced it before and it's been a book that I keep working my way sloooowly through. Anyway, in one of the chapters she talks about our thought life and she made a reference to a carton she once watched where the main character gets shot with arrows but goes about his business. A while later he goes and drinks a glass of milk and then all the milk leaks out through the arrow holes. She talked about her inconsistent thought-life keeping her from filling those holes. When we have wounds that need healing or areas we need to work on, our joy can just keep coming out even when we're pouring more truth and God into our lives. That struck a chord with me as that's the way I feel in regard to living a joy-filled life.

She went on to reference Phil. 4:8 - "Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

As she unpacked each of the things we are to have our eyes fixed upon, it made me realize how my lack of self-discipline in my thought life was probably one of the major ways I was continually losing my joy. Continuing to be intro-spective or stuck on a way someone hurt me, gossip or thinking about someone else's weaknesses, negative thoughts in general, down on my kids, beating myself up with my short-comings and failures all keep me from living in a state of joy. Wow! Talk about a "Aha! moment."

I've been asking God to make me more aware of how I let my thought-life stray and he's been showing me. It's saddening to realize all the time I take my eyes off Jesus and how much of the time my "eyes" seem to be fixed on me and my problems. Definitely not giving them to God, but thinking through and worrying about how I am going to fix them. Seeing how, after someone hurt me, I kept thinking about it over and over. I realize not all of that is bad and that sometimes you do have to think about life but I spend much of my day doing that instead of fixing my eyes on Jesus...

I'm not sure how well I've been able to write down my thoughts from yesterday or what God seems to be revealing to me and honestly, I don't think I completely get it yet either. I'm still processing and probably should reread the chapter.

I am excited about receiving this nugget of truth and even more excited that I think God has more in store for me to learn and apply. I have long desired to have a mentor. I have prayed about it for a long time. The thought of having someone come along side, hold me accountable and allow me to be me, provide wisdom & guidance and just allow God to work in my heart, healing, restoring, and help me to "fix my eyes on Jesus" is hugely appealing to me.

At Constance, where we go to church, they have a mentoring program. I am soooo excited! I met today with the leader of the group and another woman who is a perspective mentor about entering the program. It's a 1-on-1 mentoring program where you meet weekly and go through a series of books put together just for this purpose. I am going to pray about it and look through the books this next week but am very excited to have this opportunity. So pray for me that God would put me together with the "right" mentor and that He would just help me dive deeper in my walk with Him!