love to paint

When I watch Hallmark movies, my husband rolls his eyes. When I read cheesy, cheesy Christian fiction books, he also rolls his eyes. I am not ashamed that I enjoy both. But, I have found that many movies and books follow a formula that always centers around a romance. I think we all love the ideas that love conquers all, that love is greater than everything else, that love heals all wounds, that the love of a significant other is what will complete people's lives and make them happy and enjoy life. I love a good happy ending--where the conflict gets resolved and peace is found. But, I think we have to be wary and not get caught up in these ideas. A few years ago, I read a book called Seduction of the Lesser Gods. It was quite a good book and it has come to my mind many times over the years. Basically, anything that we give more importance to than God becomes an idol. Anything can become an idol--friendship, children, jobs, and even love. There are different kinds of love...

A few months ago, I received the Read And Share Bible for Autumn and I wrote a review of it that I posted it on this blog. I'm not sure exactly what I wrote--but we have loved this Bible Story Book! It is very biblical and has really caused me to think about what the Bible says and what it doesn't. I don't have the DVD version of the Bible, but have been curious about it. So, I was very excited to receive a copy of The Christmas Story storybook from Thomas Nelson. It includes a DVD with a sampling of the stories on the Read and Share DVD Bible. This storybook is a larger sized storybook than the read and share Bible that includes the stories about Zecharias, Elizabeth, and John, as well as the stories about Mary, Joseph, and Jesus' birth. My 6 year old enjoyed the pages at the end which ask you to tell the story with the pictures (which are out of order). The stories on each page tell a story (they don't have to be combined all together and then put in order)...

Letting Go is always hard. Trusting is even harder. They should always go hand in hand, but sometimes they don't. It's easy to turn inward sometimes when we let go of things instead of turning to God and trusting. In our hurts and struggles, we cry out to the Lord, but we can also harden our hearts if we don't choose to trust God. I love Jerry Bridges definition of what that means (in my words) to choose to look to God and glorify Him by trusting His love, His plan, and His goodness instead of giving in to ourselves and our desires to wallow in our struggles and pain. I come back to the verse in Psalms that God laid on my heart when I had miscarried Hannah before Autumn. It was "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." I find great comfort in God's reminder that He will heal my heart in His timing and in His ways.

Maybe I should have just titled it A truth about people pleasers. It's hard being a people pleaser. I am one. It messes with your motivations and why you do things. It also makes you feel horrible when you think someone doesn't like you. I feel like God is really challenging me in this area right now. I feel like I'm being faced with it right and left. I find myself afraid of what people have said and haven't said. I talked to my mom about something that someone said to me last week via email. My mom knows my life and what I have to cope with and my mom (who is a people pleaser and loves people a lot! with such a loving heart) told me to let it go. I can ruminate about things, because I just want to please everyone and I know my mom was wise to say this to me. Yesterday at church, a woman spoke with me about the church nursery at the new church we are attending. Over the past few months, God has been laying it on my heart to submit to authority and love my f...

We have come to the place where we have realized that we really need to decrease the stress at our dinner table. So, we're going to give Sami one serving of everything and then not give her another serving when she's done unless she's eaten her vegetables. We both know that means she will likely not eat them, but we're going to stop fighting her on it. I know little kids tastes change and there are lots of things she does eat. It's just vegetables, mainly, that she won't. So, we're going to save up for a Vita-Mix and add vegetable/fruit smoothies to our diets. I think that will be a good thing =) It will get her the nutrients she needs and make life less stressful for us!

Autumn told me that I needed to turn off the lights so that they wouldn't blow out the birthday candles...Hee Hee =) She's silly!

When I was in college, I chose to take History of the New Testament. It was taught by a liberal Chaplain who was also a professor at the small college I attended. He looked at the New Testament from a purely historical perspective. When we studied the synoptic Gospels (Mathew, Mark, and Luke), we focused on the discrepancies between the Gospels. The differences were called discrepancies . Little rabbit trail... Yesterday on the way to church, my husband cornered me and challenged me to sit through Sunday school. In the process of having and nursing 3 children over the past 5 years, I have gotten out of the habit of being able to focus and sit and listen (without talking) for any period of time. I haven't been able to sit through a church service in a long time without one of my children needing me. And I have seen this in myself, but it took my husband's challenge and encouragement to go and sit through Sunday School. I am so thankful I did! I left that college class u...

This morning was my eldest daughter's first piano recital. She played after several other people had gone. It was sweet. It never crossed Autumn's mind to be nervous about being on stage---hmmm...what does that mean =) Ms. Kay called Autumn up and said to Autumn, And are you six now? Autumn replies in a clear, confident voice. "Yes, I am already six." Everyone burst out laughing. It was very cute. Autumn played Old MacDonald with no mistakes. Then she smiled and walked back to her seat. Afterwards, everyone commented on how cute Autumn was but when I spoke with one woman, she told me what her niece said after Autumn's six statement. She said, "Wow! She looks great for being six!" The cute little girl was only 7 herself. She said it the way a young woman would say about an older woman Wow! She looks great for her age! Such funny things they say...

You know it's a very funny thing that spam is the word used for junk that we don't want sent to our email accounts. I think Spam would also apply to totally irrelevant comments on a blog =) My last entry got the most bizarre comment (the second comment). I had gotten one very random post before from a guy named Mike to a gal named Barbara--so funny!--my name is definitely not Barbara. =) Anyways, I am activating the comment moderation on my blog--just to avoid "viagra" spam like someone or some computer program posted on this blog today. Anyways, I just thought I'd explain... =)

A few weeks ago, when I asked Autumn what she wanted to eat on her birthday this is what she wanted: Breakfast: Golden Grahams Lunch: Macaroni and Cheese and grapes Dinner: Chicken Fingers and sweet potatoes This morning I asked Sami because her birthday is on Sunday and this is what she said (this cracked me up) Breakfast: Pancakes Lunch: Cereal Dinner: Eggs and Biscuits She is my little breakfast eater. She is a horrible dinner eater--but if she could have breakfast all the time, she'd be as happy as a clam! =)

I just finished Respectable Sins. I included a quote from this book a few days ago while I was in the process of reading it. It was a thoroughly good book to the end. Over the past few years, I have found a few authors that I resonate with--who seem understandable, knowledgeable, and biblical in their counsel. I find myself at peace when I read their books because I know I can take it to the Word and not find that the Word contradicts what they have written. And I know that what they have written is grounded in the Word. I also have found myself more and more drawn to authors who rely more on translations than paraphrased versions of the Bible for the scriptures they site and talk about in their books. Paraphrased versions already have been interpreted by the authors who wrote them. I appreciate Paraphrases at times, but when I am looking to do a Bible Study, encouragement, or counsel, I prefer that to come from a Translation. Before this summer, I had never read a book by Jer...

I think one of the hardest things about having sick kids is that they just don't act like themselves. For a week and a half, Eli was mostly cranky, sour mouthed, and crying. Yesterday, I watched him giggle when I tickled him, sign "please" for his milk, smile and laugh, wave good bye to a dog at the park, light up at the sight of all of the squirrels at the park, and just generally be in a good mood. What a blessing! And it helped my patience with everything else a lot too =) Sami is getting over her cough still so I think it will take her a few more days. But, with her it's different--her tears. On one hand, older siblings help children grow up and then on the other, younger siblings keep them young. Sami so often acts like Autumn, but then so often acts like Eli too.

The other day I was talking to a fellow from our small group about the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I have the second book he wrote called Forgotten God, but for some reason just haven't picked it up yet. I believe the premise of the book is a call by Chan urging Christians to realize what it really mean to love God wholeheartedly. One of the strongest chapters, so I've been told and have read in reviews, is the fourth chapter about Lukewarm Christians. From what I've gathered, Chan asserts that the scripture in Revelation 3:16 "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." that there are no lukewar m Christians--such people are not saved. The day after I had this conversation, I was reading Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges and the chapter I was ready was about the respectable sin of ungodliness, which Bridges describes as "an ungodly attitude toward God." later, in the chapter in more detail-- ...

I just finished this Bible Study, but my thoughts are a bit jumbled. So, please be patient with me as I sort them out... I think I'll back up first. A few years ago, I read an amazing book called Seeing Through Cynicism by Dick Keyes. It hit me hard--like a brick! And so many lights went on for me. I was able to see that my struggle with many mainstream Christian books stemmed from growing feelings of cynicism about the "church", mass popular Christianity, and mega churches. It was as if there were books that gathered cultish like followings (which always makes me think of brainwashing) and mega churches that were/are about checking in on Sunday and putting in your time without any accountability and personal relationships--with God or others. See? Can't you just hear my cynicism in those few thoughts? I saw it and didn't know what to do about it. My cynicism was beginning to permeate my entire world view--which is deadly! I read the book by Dick Keye...

This has been a hard weekend. Eli likely has the swine flu and Autumn either has a cold or a milder version of the flu. I'm hoping it's a milder version of the flu so she'll be done with it. One thing that meant for us was that the girls couldn't go to the Fall Festival at the church where they attend Awanas yesterday. They've been looking forward to it for weeks. I prepared them on Friday and explained that we would try to have several surprises for them the next day. I felt bad for them, but knew there was nothing I could do to change that Autumn and Eli are/were sick. I was talking on the phone yesterday morning and the friend asked if the girls were really disappointed and how they were doing. I told her they were okay. And thankfully, they really seemed to be. I'm sure they were disappointed but I am so thankful that they still enjoyed their day. I got out the puppet theater in the morning and made coffee cake for breakfast. After breakfast, they ...