Happy Mother's Day One and All

This has been a super fun weekend! Saturday was filled with laughter and exploration for the kids - digging in the backyard that is. Then today was just fabulous! My babies gave me my gift from them yesterday. They could not wait. They said "Dad, may we PULEEEEEEEEEEEZ give Mom our Masterpieces now??? PULEEEEEEEZE!?"By then the secret was almost out so - he allowed them to give me my gifts. Here is what HC created for me:
And here is JB's work. Truly Masterpieces right!? :)
I love my husband! What a super Daddy he is! He really planned this Mother's Day out right! I think the thing that makes it all the more special is that this year the kids 'get it'. They know it is a special day and so they continuously give me hugs and tell me how much they love me and they repeatedly tell me things like this "Happy Mother's Day Mom! You are the BEST Mom I've ever seen!" Who can resist that!? I am reminded today that at this stage of life - my kids run to Steve and I as we walk in the door and when we leave they are full of hugs and kisses! I know that there are many stages of parenting but for now I'm drinking in the abundance of love - it overfloweth in my house! Lord may HC and JB always love Steve and I AND each other! That is my Mother's Day wish today!

Happy Mother's Day to all you SUPER Mom's out there!!! May you have all the hugs/kisses/and appreciation that your heart desires!!

The Truth About Truth

I just returned from weekend retreat and there is MUCH spinning around in my head. The biggest thing of all is that God wants truth to rule and reign in our lives.

Truth is a must for living a fulfilling life. Being honest about my places of pain has become a surprising source of freedom lately. Rather than trying to 'suck it up' and go on, now I'm acknowledging how things really did/do hurt me and not trying to act like I'm fine. We often add sorrow to our own lives by trying to get over things instead of stopping to feel the hurt. We want to make it invisible but while pain hides in our heart - all it does is grow into a more vicious seeping oozing wound. Truth is freeing - although it is difficult to stop the bad habit of pretending we are OK.

Another freeing truth is having a proper perspective in life. The funny thing about the topic of perspective is that God had already been working on this topic in my life earlier this year and this was the main topic of our retreat. God's desire is for love to flow from the throne of God, through His Son, into our hearts and into the hearts of others. We cannot properly flow this way if we do not have a proper perspective. Our cycles of belief can distort our perspective and keep us bound in cycles of pain. This is not what God wants for us - He wants us to see clearly so that we can see our pain in proper perspective and then He can fully heal us in that area. It's kind of like when someone has an addiction. They cannot overcome the addiction until they are ready to admit they have a problem. Until you admit that you are hurting you are not usually ready to heal. It does require a choice on your part.

Bottom line is that His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts - that means they are better! He sees what we need and He hovers over us waiting, longing for us to want healing. His heart ACHES to heal us. He ACHES for us to be whole. He ACHES for us because if we would only allow Him to - He can free us. He ACHES for us to call out to Him in moments of distress. He ACHES for us to trust Him and rest in Him. He ACHES for us - He really really ACHES for us to be free! So much more can be said on this topic, but this is all I have for now. There may be more to come.

They Make Me Smile I Tell Ya!

(This sweet picture was taken by our photographer friend Mandy! She did an EXCELLENT job for our family photos! Click the photo and you will be directed to her website, so you can see more of her work! She is FABULOUS!)

I sure LOVE my kids! Today I was reminded of a sweet incident that I do not want to forget. Today my JB finished his lunch and I heard the water running. I said "Turn off that water!" JB said "I was just rinsing my plate Mom. I will turn it off after I rinse this last crumb." WOW! Gotta love that! What a nice surprise for my sweet boy to clean his plate.

The sweet memory this act brought to mind for me happened 2 Saturday's ago. Steve and I had an errand to run and a friend knew about it. She asked to keep the kids so that we could make the most of our errand time and we took her up on the offer. When I called to check in on the kids she said "I have to take a minute a brag on your kids! We were all eating sandwiches and JB finished his. HC got up and whispered something in JB's ear. JB immediately got up and took his plate and mine to the sink. Before I could say anything HC announced 'I taught him to be a gentleman for you.'"

My heart sang with pride! I mean - I teach them good habits but when the habits stick without my provoking them... that's when it seems the repetition is finally not for naught. I just had to take a minute and put this memory down on paper. :) I love being Mom! What an honor! And as a side note - I just pulled HC's 2nd tooth! This was my first go of tooth pulling and I was shockingly able. I usually cringe at the sight of a wobbly tooth so this was major progress for me! :)

ZOO DAY WITH DADDY!!!!

Today we visited the zoo with Daddy and saw a few cool creatures. We thought we would share some of our cool pics with you. Here we have the Tortoise. Snakes.
Toucan.
Stork. (Sure is an ugly one - we saw a prettier one too but I didn't snap a shot.)
Then we visited the birds and we found that Daddy has been hiding a special 'gift'.... he is.... THE BIRD WHISPERER.
Who knew?
He luckily left poo free. :)
A couple of minutes of fun in the Bamboo.
Then the kids finally rode the train! Praise Jesus - they FINALLY rode the train! :)
We were having BIG fun since Daddy was along for the fun.
We saw a few unique sites today - like these two were making out - their tales were even intertwined.
I've never seen the Rhino's walking around. They are usually laying around. This was a neat thing to see.
Camels.
The Giraffes were in rare form too. I love Giraffes. I can't decide if Giraffes are my ultimate favorite or...
if the Zebra's are my all time favorite.
Sleeping White Tiger.
Rarely do I see the Lions alert at all.
Meerkat - couldn't resist.
But I definitely love a good ole Bengal Tiger! GEAUX TIGERS! LSU!
Thanks for the fun idea Daddy! We've never had more fun at the zoo than when you join along in the fun! Loving the spring weather too!

Walking With The Dinosaurs

Tonight we went on a family adventure. We had a BLAST! I wasn't sure how strict they would be about taking pictures so I didn't tote my good camera along on this adventure. There was a fifty fifty chance we would not be allowed to use it, so that explains the gritty pictures. Here are me and HC, she enjoyed indulging in popcorn and most of all.... BLUE COTTON CANDY!! JB and Daddy - Daddy won tickets to this show by answering a question on the radio. Pretty cool huh?! What a smart Daddy HC and JB have! Thank you Daddy!
So here are a few glimpses of all the historic beasts we saw: Here is the Allosaurus on the left and the Stegosaurus on the right.
Here are two Brachiosaurus'.
They were HC's favorite - the long necked ones. They seemed less vicious and I think that is what makes them the most appealing to her.
This was HC and JB's LEAST favorite, the Pterosaur. JB kept telling Steve "I don't want that to fly by me."
Here are three Raptors eating another dinosaur carcass. HC kept saying "I feel sad for that dead dinosaur." See the Paleontologist in the picture? He was our narrator.
Here's the Torosaurus (with the spike coming out of it's ginormous head), a baby Tyrannosaurus, a Mommy one too, and finally a bumpy one with a large stone tail. The bumpy one was called an Ankylosaurus. The Torosaurus was JB's favorite.
Of course the Tyrannosaurus Rex Mommy and baby were the stars of the show - they nearly received a standing ovation. :)
Here are my two with the roaring dino teeth behind them.
What a fun night. Yay Daddy!

The End.

Spring is in the Air

The last week of February we had a special delivery. Our caterpillars arrived. Little did I know that these little creatures were going to be so fun. See them at the tippy top of the container? They are teeny here. And icky here. We had a total of 5 caterpillars and it was gross seeing all 5 of them in there. I'm not a caterpillar fan. Double ick! We noticed them at this size about 8 days after they arrived.
Then 3 or 4 days later we saw them do this.
Then within a day we saw the chrysalis appear. It is a bizarre thing to watch. How in the WORLD does this become a butterfly? I don't get it.
After they were in the chrysalis we were to wait for them to turn a darker color and then move them to our butterfly net. 4 of our 5 attached at the top of the container but 1 didn't make the climb. We put it in the net too, just in case it was still good.
On March 17th we saw that one butterfly made it's way out of the chrysalis. I wanted to watch this happen but we never managed to catch them exiting the chrysalis. See the lighter chrysalis - that's the empty one. Within 2 days they all emerged. The one that didn't hang with the others did become a butterfly but it had a torn wing. It was sad to see it flop around, it eventually died.
Here are the kids observing this latest development.Pretty neat huh?On Thursday we decided to set them all free. If you really look you will see one butterfly in center right and the damaged butterfly on the left of that butterfly.
The kids had a blast with this science project. See the butterfly on the rim?And the butterfly took a leap and landed on the ground. Before we knew it they all took off on their adventure to the big outdoors. Perfect timing too with all the pollen in much abundance.Here is one before it escaped our habitat.I wish we had the pretty yellow butterfly but this was fun even if it isn't the prettiest butterfly I've ever seen. :)
Change is happening all around us these days. It really feels like spring!

Oh Be Careful Little Eyes What You See..

We've all heard this song in Sunday School as children
"Oh be careful little eyes what you see,
Oh be careful little eyes what you see.
For the Father up above is looking down in love,
So be careful little eyes what you see."

Of course I've always been taught this meant to watch what you look at. To not look upon vulgar or awful things. Whatever we look at - if we feed our lust - lust grows but if we feed our spirit man with the things of God - our spirit grows. So feed the thing you want to grow.

Yesterday I was getting ready to meet a friend and I heard this line of the familiar Sunday School song in my head. I almost dismissed it and went on when the "Oh be careful little eyes what YOU see" was the way I suddenly heard the song. It hit me. How DO I see things? I usually see things from my perspective and often with my expectations in mind. That's pretty normal but I have come to realize that just because it is 'normal' to think/do things a certain way doesn't necessarily mean it is beneficial.

I am learning that seeing things clearly is a gift. Many times I have 'seen' awkward moments and/or offensive moments and quickly assessed the situation and reacted - normally my perspective was deceived and I was not seeing what was true. I'm learning how much better to truly look at the whole picture and see what HE sees. He sees what is noble and true and of a good report. He does not see the issues of life as I do.

It's also possible to experience a situation now and evaluate it based on experiences in the past. So, we see a pattern or a familiar source of pain and we are often mistreated again in that area repeatedly. We fall into a trap of looking at our wound and jump into the "Why me? Why is this thing always a source of pain to me? Why am I always let down in this area?". What that does is dig up an old wound that we then cause to become infected again. (It causes us to limp in that area again until our footing becomes more sured on our lie that we must not trust again or we must take care of self.) Then it is a sore spot again, and we need TLC in that area again, and now our foundation is based on a lie in regards to any future scenarios that may cross our paths.

I've recently understood a few things that were once unclear to my finite mind. When I fell Saturday and injured my foot I was having a few bad days. I can clearly see a familiar pattern. I have had a few bad days before (who hasn't?), then WHAM something 'unrelated' happens and it sends me spiraling into a pity party of 'WHY ME?' again. When this incident occurred with my foot something was different. I know God has been giving me MUCH revelation lately but I think I FINALLY have ears to hear and eyes to see. I've asked MANY times to see and hear but never really tried seeing and hearing first. This time I asked, and I am trying to see and hear, and HE IS showing me what He wants me to see and sharing truth with me! What a delightful change!!!! After I fell Saturday, I sat there and composed myself and thought about the moment. I waited to stand when the awful pain ended and was relieved to find that my foot was not broken! Whew! That's a relief!

Over the last few days the entire experience of the bad days plus the fall has been on my mind. I knew something was unusual in it all and I wanted to clearly see what HE would have me see in all this. I clearly see how in the past I've been primed for an incident like this and sure enough - I would have a big unexpected WHAM come my way and it would knock me down (figuratively). This time I was literally knocked down. After being figuratively knocked down, my pattern was to fall into the pit of "WHY ME?" Pity party central would erupt and so would my temper - there was a new wall built and I would withdraw and hide out in hopes of never having THAT happen again.

This time was SO different. SO unlike my natural reaction. I sat there and thought about the moment, stood up and went on. I see how I've grown much stronger as a result of this new reaction. I see that in the past my weakness (fear of being hurt or misunderstood) was my first instinct and now I am learning to follow my strength (trusting Him to be near in ALL situations) instead. I'm growing because I am willing to change my habits and I am letting Him show me truth. As the song mentions "For the Father up above is looking down in LOVE", His view is one of love and compassion. His view is of truth. He sees us in our pain and HE wants to apply the ointment of truth and love to our hurt. When we self medicate instead we say "I don't need you, I've got this." and we remain bound to our weaknesses.

I now see how much stronger I feel even in the pain. I have noticed that since I injured my right foot (right represents government and our source of strength) that my entire body is compensating for the injury. My back is tight, my left leg is achy, my hips ache, my shoulders ache, and of course... my right leg throbs. My whole body is compensating and balancing for this injury. It is changing me physically but mostly spiritually. I realize growing hurts and it takes intention. It doesn't happen overnight. Today I see a pattern of weakness broken in me, I did not fall into the trap again! I clearly see the benefit of taking in the moment and trying to see what is really going on around me. My instinct of pity has left me weak and unfulfilled; but this moment of seeing has brought much strength and joy. Every throb of pain and every uncomfortable muscle is a CLEAR signal to me that I have grown and I am becoming more balanced. I am balancing ON HIM and not on me. My weaknesses are being stifled and growth is the fruit! What a treat!

Matthew 6:22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your entire body will be full of light."