Higher Ways

 A few days ago a friend posted a quote so very apropo,  I needed to sit  and meditate on it. I don't know if it's her original quote or if she heard it elsewhere, but nonetheless it nourished my soul:
                        "There are places where God exercises His sovereign right to retain mystery.
                           In times where there is no answer, I need to step back and let God be God."

Tonight as I was thinking on those words again, I noticed the verse-of-the-day on this blog:
                        "In repentance and rest You will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength."          Isaiah 30:15

I drew the correlation between quietness and trust in that verse and  His sovereign right to retain mystery in the former.  I am guilty of trying to hurry God; to urge Him to act quickly on our behalf or that of others.  However, in that I am missing the mark. It is not my place to question His time or His will; but it is my obligation to trust Him that He will do what He will do when He will do it. After all, He is far greater than I can even fathom!

Sunday Funny

Yesterday I came across this delightfully awkward picture of my 3 older siblings and I in 1975. I'm in the pink shorts.  It's too bad the picture was cropped because I would have loved to have seen my father's expression. (He's standing behind us.)  We were at a  week-long family reunion at my grandparents' house. My mom had just given birth to my younger sister 2 weeks prior, so she stayed home in Michigan while my dad took the rest of us to the reunion in Minnesota.  He was a brave man to undertake a trip like that! I was only 5, but I'll never forget that while we there, we all contracted food poisoning and my dad had to take care of 4 puking kids by himself.  Fun times!

Chip and Chin

Monday night Luke split open his chin. He whacked it on the same window sill upon which Katie cracked  her head 2 years ago, for which she needed 3 staples to close the gash. Must be that his bony chin has few nerve endings, because Luke didn't even realize he'd hurt himself. Not a tear was shed while we considered whether to take him for stitches.  It was 9:30 p.m. and since I managed to find a few butterfly bandages that would hold the skin together nicely, we took our chances and treated him at home. He'll probably have a scar to remind him of it, but it seems to be healing up rather dandily.

This morning Nathan ran into the coffee table. He chipped his front tooth a bit and tore up his lip and the roof of his mouth pretty well. It caused him pain for several hours and he was unable eat or drink anything until dinner.  To add insult to injury, he fell again on the pavement and started bleeding all over again. Poor kid. My teeth hurt just thinking about it.

(Sorry -- no picture. He wasn't very happy with me when I tried to photograph him...go figure.)

Peace, Be Still

I've continued to ponder some of the things I mentioned in my previous post.  The Lord has no doubt been doing a work in me. The "Spring forward" time change has tried to get the better of me this week but this morning I was up bright and early before any of the children.  I awoke with anticipation about what the day has in store for us but also with a sense of unrest. I'm anxious. My hands are tied regarding our future; Matt and I have no control and no say in what happens next for us. We must depend fully upon our Heavenly Father and trust that when and where we move is His Will -- His good, perfect and flawless Will.  There is peace in knowing that, yet the imperfect person who is me still feels disheveled and anxious, worn-out and berated. I have no human strength left to finish this long journey to financial recovery; my hope for the future gets clouded by the reality of  our current state.
  However, the few minutes of uninterrupted quiet this morning afforded me time with God, and He graciously reminded me of this promise:
Peace, be still --know that He is God and He has us in His hand. Peace, be still --He knows the aching I'm feeling for life to get a little easier for all of us, wishing we could just cut a break.  Peace, be still --and give Him my tattered and broken heart and allow Him to re-fashion it until it beats with hope and encouragement. Peace, be still -- He is our good shepherd, and He cares for us. Peace, be still -- rest in Him.

Spring Has Sprung

Spring Break is this week, and given our circumstances we've made the most of it. Being a one-vehicle family with Matt working 20 miles away and gas prices on the verge of ridiculous, the kids and I are homebound; but it's been a good week and I've enjoyed having all my ducklings running around.

The weather has been lovely, so there's been a lot of this:

and this:

 plus some of this (does a mom's heart good):

 There will always be plenty of this:

 There was even some of this!:

Tomorrow is Matt's Saturday off, so I'm looking forward to having him home for the next two days before we all get back to the grind. There is a sense of anticipation around here, knowing that we will be moving soon (hopefully?).  Call it Spring cleaning if you want, but I've been preparing for the changes by cleaning out closets and cupboards and packing what I can.  I've been saving boxes for a year and I'm glad there's finally some inspiration to fill them. As well, I've been preparing my heart and mind for our move. I look forward to leaving some of my old character behind and starting anew with a new hope, motivation and love for my calling as a wife and mother. Our long and difficult season of winter is (almost) over...Spring has come!

Sometimes a Mom Just Needs To....

...BRAG!!!!

Seth has made a huge turn-around this year.  We've always known what he's capable of and it's wonderful to see him finally realize it himself!

Got Swagger?

You all should know by now that I am all about saving money. I have found a great way to earn free stuff, and I really must tell you about it: SWAGBUCKS.  If you already know what Swagbucks is, you can stop reading now.  (Ha ha.) 
Swagbucks is a search and win toolbar, but there are no gimmicks, I promise!  I downloaded the toolbar about a year ago and use it in place of Google. For instance, if I want to look up let's say, polar bears, I would just type it into the search bar and it will pull up the search results just like Google does.  However, sometimes along with your search results a banner will appear saying, "You've won __ Swagbucks!"  The amount varies but is usually 8-10 Swagbucks; sometimes it's more, sometimes it's fewer. 
So why win Swagbucks?  So you can shop at the Swagstore, of course!  Once you've accumulated Swagbucks you can trade them in for hundreds of different prizes at the Swagstore.  You can buy actual items (anything from crayons to an iPod Touch) or you can purchase giftcards. For example, a $5 Amazon.com giftcard costs 450 Swagbucks. It's an online e-card, so when you're ready to shop at Amazon.com you just redeem the code on the card and you save $5 off your purchase.  Seth bought a PS2 game  for $10 from Amazon the other day using Swagbucks.  He redeemed 2 Amazon.com giftcards and used them to purchase the game.  His total purchase cost $0.  It was absolutely free, just because he uses Swagbucks.
I purchased the ToyStory 3 DVD last Fall  for $19.99, but paid just $5 because I redeemed $15 worth of giftcards I had purchased with Swagbucks.  You can also apply the money to your Paypal account. Matt redeems his Swagbucks on Paypal and then applies it towards his purchase of nutritional supplements that he buys online. He has saved up to $20 on a single order thanks to Swagbucks. 
The great thing is, it costs absolutely nothing to use. Inotherwords, you're getting the prizes and giftcards FREE. 
Once you've downloaded the toolbar, you will discover that there are several ways to earn them.  Sometimes there will be a Swag code encrypted in the Swagbucks blog. You simply copy and paste the code to your account and you've got yourself some Swag. If you "Like" Swagbucks on Facebook, there will also often be codes in your newsfeed.
So...do you understand how it works, at least a little bit?  Then go get yourself some swag!  You can click on this link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/momx8 
Have fun!

Better Than Playing Video Games

We've been enjoying mild and warm weather for the past couple of weeks with few exceptions, so I decided to post some pics of the kids playing outside. 

  Star Wars.  Luke is Darth Vader and Nate is Luke "Sidewalker" (quoting Katie)

 Glad I snapped this before they got tripped up and fell over on eachother.

 Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me ---I'm the stinky cheese man!

 No matter how often I clean it, our back door is always smudged with fingerprints. Always.

Abby joined an online photography club offered by k12.  These 3 pictures are some she took for an assignment: