Tuesday, January 26, 2010

I Know There's a Bigger Picture Here

We are here. You are there. There is a reason for that. God has a plan. Sometimes it's hard to rest in that. Like now coming off of a really tough week and having another really tough week so far. I feel very weary in well doing. We have tried and tried our hardest and our efforts seem wasted. Why was it that we decided to home school again? Was I crazy to try high school? I could really go for a dose of Pastor Campbell's optimism right now. A really BIG dose!! He would say to just keep plugging away and do right till the stars fall. I miss my Dad! I do know that there is a bigger picture. Really. And so we continue to be faithful until the Lord tells us to quit.
On the bright side, we had a great missionary in this week. He will be going to Israel. What an encouragement to have him in our home. I believe that God gave him the gift of encouragement. Even spending time to talk to our teenager for a bit to encourage her. We have no major health issues. We have a great marriage. We have been blessed with three great kids. Terry has an extra job that pays the bills. Mom is well and works and helps us at the church.
I don't know why I share all this except that blogging helps me to not have a nervous breakdown. That is a good thing, right? Maybe it will help whoever is reading. There is a plan, and it is Divine. My husband and I have been spending a long time in prayer before bed every night. What a relief it is to put your head on the pillow and be able to sleep because you have left all your troubles and burdens in a pair of very capable hands!

Friday, January 22, 2010

As Long as You Are Glorified

Shall I take from Your hand Your blessings
Yet not welcome any pain
Shall I thank You for days of sunshine
Yet grumble in days of rain
Shall I love You in times of plenty
Then leave You in days of drought
Shall I trust when I reap a harvest
But when winter winds blow, then doubt
Oh let Your will be done in me
In Your love I will abide
Oh I long for nothing else as long
As You are glorified
Are You good only when I prosper
And true only when I’m filled
Are You King only when I’m carefree
And God only when I’m well
You are good when I’m poor and needy
You are true when I’m parched and dry
You still reign in the deepest valley
You’re still God in the darkest night

I must admit that I do not know the author of this, but when I read it really enjoyed it. I have no idea of the tune or how it is sung, only that the words touched my heart. So, I thought I would share.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

What Kind of Parent...?!

Battleship! BOOM! My missile sunk your ship!
Nate had an obsession with the Medieval Age for awhile, especially the jousts, archery, catapults, and fencing. Now he is obsessed with Star Wars because he can wield a light saber.

Boys.
Girls.
The difference between the two debated in the halls of education. This Mom knows first hand that there are differences! It doesn't take a college degree to figure this out. I have had several discussions recently with two very different, young mothers who have two very different little boys. But, for some reason, these two little boys share a strange fascination for anything that shoots, fires, or blows something up. hehe.

Ah, yes. The stages of parenting. That ideal( whatever it may be) that is held onto by the new parent. The statement, "No child of mine will ever________." I just have to laugh whenever I hear stuff like that. I laugh at myself, as well.
I shared with these younger mommys my own stories of raising my son.
When we found out that we were to have a boy, I determined( in my naivety) early on that no boy of mine would ever be allowed to wield any piece of weaponry. I was horrified by mothers who allowed their little boys to point sticks at their little friends and pretend to shoot them. I mean, what kind of parent would ever allow such a thing!!? Right?
Sigh. Now that I have had my son lo these nearly thirteen years, I have come to realize that it's out of my hands. And how did I come to this? Well, I spent the first three or four years of his life not allowing toy guns into the house. And so my little boy started building guns out of mega blocks. I stopped it. He started drawing them. I stopped him. He automatically pointed his little finger at things and made the sounds of gunfire. I told him that wasn't nice. By age five, He built wonderfully imaginative forts out his lincoln logs, and you guessed it, prepared for war. I had discussions with him about how mean it looked and sounded. He soberly( as sober as a little boy can be) agreed with me. I made a rule. Isn't that what good parents do? "No guns". My sweet little guy humored me. I didn't hear gun noises emanating from his room for some time. It wasn't long before I started hearing other noises. Guess what? My beautiful, loving son had taken up arms yet again. But he stayed obedient. He had now gone to sword play. I firmly, made another rule. "No weaponry of any kind!" My husband tried to hide his smirk. He pretty much knew what would happen, having been a little boy once. But like any good Husband and Daddy, supported Mommy. He agreed with me about the safety issues involved. I mean, what if our little guy had the chance in some off moment of parental unawareness, to pick up a real gun?
And so to make a long story a bit longer, one day my little guy was playing with his sister. The sister was meticulously setting up her doll house. She was asking his opinion on whether the little plastic couch should go by the window or against the wall and so forth. He was being so patient and giving his opinions in a kind manner while boyishly playing with the little people on a toy train in the back yard of the dollhouse. I was pleased. My daughter finally had her house set up just so. My son looked around, sure that Mommy wasn't paying attention, and yelled, "EARTHQUAKE!" and then proceeded to shake the dollhouse, completely ruining all her work. The difference between boys and girls glared brightly. I have to laugh now, but at the time, I was upset. He was punished. The day went on, my son once again playing nicely with his sister. After awhile, I checked on him again. He was playing with a Barbie. Some intellectuals would say that that is because there in no difference between boys and girls. That boys, with stereotypes removed and given the opportunity, will play with dolls and enjoy it as much as his trucks. Ah, but the rest of the story remains to be told. He had grabbed the doll, stripped it, and was using her as a sword! The head of the Barbie in his little fist, he was wielding it at some imaginary foe, making horrible slashing clanging noises along with the sounds of the dying. It was this incident that made me throw up my hands in defeat. My dear husband gently told me that boys will be boys.
And they will be. We can raise them to be kind and loving, but God has a special purpose for boys and men. And that's just the way it is.
So, as of today, my son has owned GI joes with guns in hand, transformers with flying missiles, army men, cowboys and Indians, one BB gun, a recurve bow with arrows and special feathers( I know there is some special term for that, but forgive me for not being able to recall it at the moment), way too many nerf guns and plastic swords to count, and nerf ball blasters.
"What kind of parent...!" my young friends sigh, shaking their heads in mortification. I just have to laugh.

So, now that I have relaxed that long ago rule and have had time to see the results, has my son grown insensitive and mean?
NO!No!


No! Take heart, all you Mommy's! Boys are boys. God made them to be different than girls. You really wouldn't want it any other way. But since I know that people don't necessarily take my word for it, check out Dr. James Dodson's book Bringing up Boys. Very good reading!
This last pic, by the way, is my wonderful boy snuggling with his little cousin while blowing something up in his Star Wars game. ;)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Safe at Home:  Upstate Missionaries Recall Quake | WSPA

Safe at Home: Upstate Missionaries Recall Quake WSPA
If you would like to see more of the homecoming of these missionaries, scroll down to Links We Like and click on Majesty Music. There is a full write-up on their safe return and greeting at the airport along with pictures of the people singing "To God Be the Glory" as they come into the airport.

Monday, January 18, 2010

New Family Pic


Lynn has been taking pics of all the Church families to add to our church blog. Of course, we were not exempt. Here's ours. Not too bad. Typical for us. The usual "Lanie Look". Straying eyes. Silly child! HAHA.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Family waiting to hear from Upstate minister in Haiti during quake | WCBD

Family waiting to hear from Upstate minister in Haiti during quake WCBD

Another wonderful testimony! God is good!

Found!

We just heard through Majesty Music that Dr. Garlock, Sarah Bennett, and the native Pastor have been found alive. Praise God! Thank you for praying!

Earthquake in Haiti on Our Hearts Today

http://www.wyff4.com/video/22232368/
Please pray along with our family for Dr. Frank Garlock, President and founder of Majesty Music. He and several others were there on a mission trip and are among the missing. Terry and I have had the opportunity to attend one of Majesty Music's conferences and have met the Garlocks as well as thier daughter and son-in-law, Ron and Shelly Hamilton. They are very gracious, down-to-earth people, and we really enjoyed meeting them. The link above is a news story. Also missing is Sarah Bennett, the wife of one of our instructors from BJU.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Defrostie the Snowman



I found this idea on Family Fun. Easy, yummy, but SWEET! Big hit with the troops. I think I'll make some for youth group.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Wii Time

We bought a Wii for the family this year for Christmas. We also bought each of the kids one game each. Then, some of our friends got wind of it and bought each of the kids a game, too. So, we ended up with quite a selection. Well, needless to say, it was a big hit! They love it and wanted to spend every waking hour of Christmas break playing. Although it was a vacation for them, there were still things that needed to be done, but they were ignoring everything else. Nate especially would get up in the morning and literally haunt me until I gave him permission to play. I have a problem with that. I started making them take care of their responsibilities first , but they kept trying to fudge on them in an effort to hurry. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they loved this gift, and I'm not one of those moms who really hates video gaming of all kinds, but when bickering over who got to play next ensued, and no one had gone outside in days, I knew something had to be done. Here's what I came up with. Not only did I use the Wii as an incentive for doing chores, but I also decided that I could take away time, too. You can click on the first pic to enlarge it enough to read the rules. Nate helped me come up with them. Hard to believe, I know, but Nate has always had an overdeveloped sense of what is fair and what isn't. I was very pleasantly surprised with how much he was on board with it. I guess he figured that I was GOING to set limits, so he might as well make sure that they were good ones and applied to everyone. We wrote an amendment about three minutes after printing up the rules.:) Taking my new found knowledge of lap booking, I made a folder for each child to have a visual of time earned. For every chore( aside from personal responsibilities, i.e, schoolwork, room cleaning, music,etc.) they get 15 minutes of Wii time. This has really made things peaceful...and CLEANER around here. :) Responsibilities get done so that they can spend their time earned when they are finished. They don't always have time to play on a given day. For instance, Tuesdays we have youth group and Wednesdays we have Bible Study and Prayer service. Sometimes there is just too much schoolwork and projects to do. When this happens, they don't get upset because they know that they have earned the time and will get to spend it when there is time. One of my friends told me that she allows three hours for weekends and that meant that it was hard to make plans without a major bargaining session. Not happenin' in this house! That would drive me insane! Sometimes they are interrupted and as you can see I added a rule about attitude. No bargaining aloud! Also, Dad has overruled several times for a family game night. The kids get a big charge out of this. :) For the eldest(14 1/2 going on 25), who is wanting to chat online with friends, check emails, and blog, and doesn't really care quite so much about the Wii, this works well, too. Just one of my ideas for a peaceable household, even though I will soon have TWO teenagers ( Nate will be 13 next month :0). Sometimes you just have to get creative as the kids get older. Now, I realize that the visual folder and little quarter hour pieces of pie may seem silly for older kids, but hey, it's working and they're happy. I'm ecstatic! What could be better?



Tuesday, January 5, 2010

I Faked It.


Well, I got three different emails from people asking me where I bought the wall art for my girls. When I said I had made it, the natural question was how. I faked it. Haha! I guess you could call it faux vinyl lettering. So here you go, Gals. First, go to Wally World, or any other such store. Buy some contact paper that you like. I wanted black, but had to settle for white which actually looked better with the color on the wall after all. Second, find a font that you like on printshop or whatever program that you have and print out the letter(s) that you want. Next, use your copier to enlarge it. This will make a pattern for you to tape to the contact paper, so cut this out and tape it down to your contact paper. Lastly, just cut around your paper pattern, take the pattern off, and there you go. Don't peel away the backing of the contact paper until you are ready for placement. I have to say that I only did one letter at a time. It might be too hard to cut out a long saying, but it worked great for the flower and first initial that I did. I got the flower shape out of an old coloring book. I flipped the flower over for Alana's side of the room to make it opposite. This little project only cost me $3.99, the price of the contact paper, and my daughters were ecstatic. And I have a lot left over for other things. I want black, though. Next time I go to the big city, I will have to keep my eye out.