Please Pray

My heart is heavy! This morning I visited a blog of a friend (from our hometown) to find out that a Pastor in Baton Rouge lost his wife yesterday. They are a young couple and they were Pastors at Bethany World Prayer Center North!! I am shocked and ask that you lift up Joel Stockstill and his family as they go through the process of laying his precious wife, Amy, to rest. Here is a photo with a description of what is going on below. I found the picture on our former Pastor's blog, Pastor Dino Rizzo. How powerful to see the youth reaching out in mass!

"This is a picture that Jason Laird sent me earlier of nearly 1,500 kids outside of the Baton Rouge General Hospital, praying for Amy Stockstill. She is the precious wife of Joel Stockstill, who pastors the North Campus and the youth of Bethany World Prayer Center. This past Friday, the doctors gave her 48 hours to live, but the body of Christ is standing in prayer and faith for the Stockstill family. Let’s continue to press in."

As I continue to piece more info together I found that she died of a progressive form of cancer. From what I gather, her husband Joel is also struggling with kidney issues. This family needs a miracle still! Keep them in your prayers!

Surprise for ME!!!!

I hear "MoOOoM THE DOOR BELL WENT DiIIIng!" I had just walked into my room and I can NEVER hear the door bell from my room. I go unlock the door to find a box on our doorstep. Here is my box and it's contents.

HC was thrilled!! My girl LOVES flowers!! She immediately began saying "Oh MOM! Don't you just love my flowers?? I need to call Daddy now!!" We called Daddy and she said her thanks but we cannot bear to tell her the flowers were for me - Mommy and not for HC!! Thank you Husband for the flowers!! We both loved them!!There is no occasion either! These were sent just because!!! Even better!

A prayer of blessing

I received this prayer via an email forward and thought it worthy to share with anyone who visits my blog today!

The prayer:

Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and those that I care deeply for, who are reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of your love and power. Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit at this very moment. Where there is pain, give them your peace and mercy. Where there is self-doubt, release a renewed confidence through your grace. Where there is need, I ask you to fulfill their needs. Bless their homes, families, finances, their goings and their comings. In Jesus' precious name. Amen.

Consequences

A few days ago HC was watching one of the tv shows she likes and the character had a consequence. HC said "MOM, they have a consequence too! JUST.like.ME!" I guess it comforted her to know she wasn't alone in the crazy world of consequences! :)

I stopped comparing, for today.

It is easy to dismiss the good you ARE doing when you are busy comparing your journey to others. I thought we were not getting enough Bible in our lessons, once I looked at what we were doing I found we were fine all along.

We were:
1. Listening to Bible story CD's (with music too) in the van

2. I read Bible verses repeatedly until HC began saying "Shh, shh Mom. I want to say it by myself." (Like the Lord's Prayer)

3. We have learned 3 Bible scriptures (not counting the passages mentioned in #2)

4. We read Bible Stories - we have a collection of Veggie Tale books that discuss character issues like Sharing , etc.

5. We read prayer poems

6. We start our school day with worship

7. We pray. HC is even telling me "I trust God Mom. I told God I trust Him to help me with x-thing." This has become a common statement lately. Which tells me SHE is praying on her own too!

Anyway, just wanted to say that when we are busy comparing our journey to another person's journey - we often miss what we ARE doing right. Not to mention the constant supervision of me, Mom, has taught my kids conflict resolution. They are friends (9 times out of 10). Not in theory. They really ARE friends. They take care of each other, they help each other, they encourage each other, they LIKE each other, they are genuinely kind to one another!! That doesn't just happen!! It isn't my doing, it is a God thing. Obviously God knows how to reach my kids hearts and He is busy doing just that! What an awesome thing to recognize!

So I will stop comparing my journey to yours for today. Then tomorrow, I will choose to stop again! Such an easy thing to say but so difficult to do. I think we all tend to look to our fellow Moms, and their kids, as a barometer for our kids. It is easy to forget that our kids are different. They have different gifts, talents and abilities as well as different emotional needs and different methods of learning. God is the only one with the plan that will work. He knows how to lead us so we can lead them! I hate to say that I tend to check in with my Mom friends on how they handle x-issue before I pray sometimes. I hope to seek Him first in this area. I will do that today!

Super Tuesday 2008

We did our part! We voted on Super Tuesday 2008!! This was the first time I was able to vote on Super Tuesday. What fun!I was so disappointed! I must admit that I prefer Louisiana's voting method over our new state's way!

In Louisiana they have the machines where you flip a latch to vote. You go into a booth and flip a switch. The switch causes the curtain to close behind you. You pull levers for the candidates, you turn the exit lever and this counts your vote and opens the curtain so you can exit. All the fun and mystery was sucked out of our experience here.

This was my first vote in a different state. They gave me a piece of paper, I filled in the circle, put the paper in a computerized machine that read my vote. All out in the open. No fun! No thrill! I felt like I just finished an exam at LSU. It felt so sterile and cold. Oh well, my vote counts either way. I just think the whole event would have been more memorable for my two future voters if we had the cool effects. They did leave with a patriotic "I voted" sticker!
They had fun either way! And JB's shirt reads "I do all my own stunts". He cannot read, of course, but this has become a quick favorite. I think he senses the intent! :)

Birthday Party Part 1

I thought any "Good" Mother would tell her son "Happy Birthday" on the morning of his birthday. How could I not?? Boy was that a big mistake! ALL DAY long I heard "When is my party Mommy? When will de kids come to my party?? Where's my party?" Oh my!! His party isn't for 2 weeks! We are having it outdoors and tried to push it back in hopes of good weather. My son was on the verge of tears anytime he thought about his lack of party. (sigh)

We could not celebrate without Daddy and we did intend on having a family party for JB. It was just going to be after Dad was home from work. Daddy just happened to work late on Friday, double whammy!!

We had a play date scheduled that afternoon. I thought our fun plans would clear JB's mind of all things party. BOY was I wrong. As we left the play date, I had to carry JB out while he cried "Where's my party? Where's my party?" Do you think this is a tantrum? NO WAY! He just understands the whole birthday thing this year! That's all! Bad time to plan a late party! My fault! So here is JB's mini party. The friend party comes later.

Look at the thrilled expression. You would think he won the lottery or something. But no, it was only...
A football BALLOON!!! Go Daddy! Great job! Dad came home with this in tow!
Of course in our home, it isn't healthy to come home with one balloon. We HAVE learned this lesson.
JB blowing out his candles.

Gobbling up that cake!
Enjoying every bite!
This is why we are having JB's party in a few weeks. We are having an SEC football birthday party. Everyone is wearing their teams gear!! My JB loves sports! No better party indeed, if he can only wait for it!! Geaux Tigers!!!!

JB ready to run! This is a familiar pose in our home. This is the beginning of his run! I love it!! Looks like Tigger or something! haha
The helmet!
The total package! Uncle Kiva and Aunt Candice gave JB the cool football for Christmas!
Happy Birthday JB! The kids will join in the fun in a few weeks! :) I know it will be fun!

(By the way Blogging Friends, we are praying for a sunny day and highs in the 60's on the 16th! Join us in prayer!!)

Answered Prayer

January has been an unusual month for me. I've never blogged during the month of January, so I may find this experience to be normal, but I felt the weight of 2008 on my shoulders. We were recovering from the travels of Christmas and we were getting back into the groove of school. A lot of adjusting it seems.

Our church always begins the year with prayer and fasting, this year was no different. I've never been one to fast (this fact changed January 2006 - my first fast). I know it is a personal discipline and one that should be done by God's leading AND one that is done privately. I do not share my experience to broadcast this information to the world, but to put my praise in context!

So, recovering from travels and getting back to routine was accompanied by a deep time of seeking. I found my heart heavy for where we are going in our Home School journey next year. HC and I are doing great, now that we've overcome a few bumps in the road, but I feel an urgency to train her more using the Bible. I asked around to a few Moms in real life and blog life, "What do you use?? Do you LOVE it or is it just acceptable?" etc. Their answers didn't help me. (Go figure) :)

Time for a common reminder AGAIN. This journey isn't being led by the Joneses AND if 'so and so's' family is called to x-curriculum, that doesn't mean we are! I still felt I was missing the opportunity to share God's Word with my kids. Here I am able to train them up in the way they should go but I feel lost in the how.

Our local Home School group met Monday, January 21st, to discuss our semester field trips and to visit. Before this meeting I was being stirred as stated. I had my list of things I felt would accomplish a great education for my soon to be K-5 daughter in August. I felt empowered but still missing the Bible tool. I am always empowered by a list of what I plan to do, but I also know that list is subject to change. God always makes the final cuts, I am just glad to have a general direction at all. Later in the week I received a notice from Scholastic that the book club we joined (last year) was finished - we had all the books in that sequence. The next book coming to me was.....

Did I ever tell you that I love the God factor of my life!! I love when He peeks His Almighty Head into my life to say "I've been working on this WAY before I put this burden on your heart!!!!!"

Ok, so the next book Scholastic was sending my way was this (which arrived Friday):

I was thrilled!! This devotional has great Devotions with things we can do together to make the Bible story come alive. JUST WHAT I WAS SEARCHING FOR!! I say searching, but more like a consuming search! The devotion can be used with about 5 Veggie movies that also reinforce the Bible story. YAY isn't enough! So for the remainder of our Pre-K school time we have a great devotion to start off the Bible portion of our learning.

OK, so the week before our meeting I found a website for a curriculum that interests me. It is Heart of Wisdom. I know we are at the beginning of our journey but I want a general direction for our family. I have a lot of questions still but at least I feel drawn to something finally! Did I mention that I was wanting the HOW of getting God's word into our future studies?? They are the HOW curriculum. :) HOW funny is that!

So, I found that website and the host just happened to offer a contest. I registered the weekend before my meeting and the day after our meeting I found out that I won an E-book. It was beyond a thrill to me because I could see what a unit study was!! The E-book really gave me a glimpse to see if HC is ready for the units or if I should wait until a year or two to start unit studies.

This may have been the most boring read for you but this is answered prayer to me. The kind of prayer that aches your soul. My daughter's education is in my hands and the weight of knowing that is sometimes too much to bear! I feel like know God heard the cries of my heart AGAIN! That is beyond exciting to me! So I give MUCH PRAISE today!!!!

My baby is 3!

My sweet JB!! I remember finding out we were having a boy!! We were thrilled! You have always been an active one, I knew we were in for a fun ride with you! When you were in my belly, my belly was prone to drastic movement and often!! The day finally came and you were born. Wow!! What a precious little guy you were! So peaceful and surprisingly still. :) We were imagining the day when you and your sister would play together and tackle Dad!

I can't believe you were so tiny once - these days you are so tough and strong. Thinking of you being small and fragile is hard to remember!!
Your first birthday was upon us fast!! We were finally seeing the spunk that is JB!! You were so brave and such a thrill seeker!! You were also my cuddly bug, when it was time for night night. You would only slow down long enough to be rocked before bed time!
Oh that sweet face! While looking at photos for this post I quickly realized all of the good ones are blurry! You rarely slow down long enough to let me capture a moment like this one on film! Most of your best smiles are in the blurry pictures!! That has made photographing you tough but it also reveals the love of life you have!! You are always up for adventure!!
This past year has really been fun! You've been so independent! You've become a sports fan and you love to try them all!! I find myself watching you from afar and smiling. Wondering what this life has in store for you! You are so kind yet so tough. You are quick to say "I love you Mom" at a random moment (or Dad or sister). Then that would be followed by a tackle!You love your cars, you love your music, you love everything. And when you love something - you love it ALL the way! You don't hold back! I love that about you! Keep living life for every moment!! I love seeing the world through your eyes! I may have grown up with brothers but seeing this world from my son's eyes is beyond amazing. I am learning so much about boys as I watch you and Daddy have fun!Happy 3rd Birthday JB!! We love you!!