Posted in Family Life

My friend Shaina sent me a good knock on the head via Llyod-Jones.  He's speaking of spiritual depression, but his points can be generalized to any area that we struggle with spiritually.  And of course, it's always nice when someone says it's ok to talk to myself. ha. 

"I say we must talk to ourselves insteading of allowing "ourselves" to talk to us.  Do you know what that means? I suggest that the whole trouble of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow ourselves to talk to us instead of talking to our selfs. Am I just trying to be deliberately paradoxical? Far from it.  This is the very essence of wisdom in this matter.  Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?  Take those thoughts that come to you when you wake up in the morning.  You have not originated them but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.   Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Yourself is talking to you.   Now this man's (David in Psalm 42:5,11 ) treatment is this:  instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himslf.  "Why art thou cast down, oh my soul?" he asks.  His soul has been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says "Self, listen for a moment and I will speak to you."  Do you know what I mean? If not, you have had but little experience.

The whole art in spiritual living is knowing how to handle yourself.  You have to take yourself in hand, address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say "Why art thou cast down? What business do you have to be disquieted?"  You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself and say to yourself  "Hope thou in God" - instead of muttering in this depressed and unhappy way.  And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is,  What God is and What God has done and What God has pledged Himself to do.  Then, having done that, end on this great note - defy yourself and defy other people and defy the devil and the whole world and say with this man, "I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance and my God."
 ~D Martin Lloyd Jones

Posted in Family Life

10)  Insurance companies must be the ones who pick out and supply the hospital with their beds.  They are so incredibly uncomfortable in any position that no one wants to stay longer than absolutely necessary. (I checked in at 7:30 on Friday morning and checked out at 6:30 pm on Saturday night)

9) I'm supposed to call my insurance company before I leave for the hospital for their permission.  Whoops.  I truly did forget this small detail.  Why I need their permission, I'm not sure....

8).  Hospital floors are gross.  After an hour and a half of walking the halls to encourage... progress...., my white socks were black on the bottom. I threw them out before I left the hospital.

7)  Televison only gets worse.  I do more TV watching while in the hospital than any other time.  It's depressing to see how much further it's degenerated in the past 2 years.  Especially what passes for kid shows.

6)  Nurses don't always get that IV needle put in right the first time.  Ouch

5)  When the dr. says "Just one more push and then it will be all over" it usually means another 2 or 3.

4) Nursing a brand new baby causes contractions all over again.  You would think I would remember that much, but it always is an unpleasant twist.  I think contractions should be finished once the baby pops out!

3)  I'm not going to have the desire or energy or even presence of mind to work on the baby book or thank you cards or anything else after delivery.  It's too easy to click through the remote 47 times an hour instead.

2)  How fun it is to pick up the phone and ask someone to bring you food to your room and then take away the dirty dishes later

1)  How amazingly tiny and perfect and precious a newborn is, a complete gift from a loving and faithful God!

Posted in Family Life

Well here it is the end of March, another month whizzing by.  I'm still pregnant   I am actually feeling that way lately!  I find myself telling my kids to pick stuff up off the floor more often since I just don't want to exert the effort necessary to get that far down.   Only a few more weeks left, though. I'm hoping to get the last 2 weeks of CC done before the baby gets here.  The women from church threw me a baby shower this past Saturday and I've realized I have to go through Daniel's closet and start moving stuff out of there that doesn't need to be there to make room!  People have been so kind and generous to bless us.

My brother is doing really well, thank you for your prayers! He's planning to return to work mid April and seems to be back to normal. Well, that's a relative term.   

I'm sooo thankful that it's spring.  We still have chilly mornings but there are lots of trees blooming and green shoots poking up through the mulch beds (now if my kids would just remember not to run through them...)  Daniel emerged from his winter of being shut in the house with the lately perfected skill of walking, he's loving the outdoors.  My Grandparents are making their annual spring trip back to Ma after wintering in Tx, they're planning to stop by on their way through this Tuesday.  My grandparents are amazing.  Fit as fiddles and wonderfully fun.  I'm so pleased that my kids get to have a relationship with them.  And my parents are planning to come down from Me at the beginning of May.  Such fun!  Mom broke her foot after returning home from a trip here to help my brother so I'm praying her foot will heal quickly and well. 

Ok, that's all for now, not very interesting...! 


 

Posted in Family Life

So how is everyone doing on their bible reading these days??  I've fallen behind, need to reorder my priorities and get up earlier!  (and go to bed earlier..) I just finished Joshua today, now on to Judges! 

Last night we had the funeral service for my father in law, it was really nice.  Mike managed to get through the whole service and did a great job.  My brother in law provided for some comic relief with a light hearted story about my father in law and my mother in law did a great job of holding it all together.  We had a reception afterward at the home of one of our church friends who lives nearby, lots of people and food.  The kids got to play with their cousins and stay up way too late.  Today was not so pretty in the Nevarr household.  Yesterday we went to the library, so Lukas and Eden spent most of the day reading after I gave up trying to get some school done in the morning. I should have known better! My mom is still here, so she took the kids to the park across the street (if you can call 3 swings and a slide a park!) and kept them busy and entertained.   Mike took the older 3 to my mother in laws so they could spend a little more time with their cousins before they go back to W.V, so it will be another late night for them since it's 9:30 and they're still not home.  My brother is finally able to be here at the house, it's nice to have him here and he's doing really well. He shares his cookies with me that people bake him as get well gifts   My brother, who isn't very heavy to begin with, lost weight while he was in the hospital so now we're all trying to fatten him up again. Of course, it would help if he didn't have so much help eating those cookies!  People have been so very incredibly kind and supportive and helpful these past few weeks.  It makes me appreciate even more how the body of Christ is supposed to work, when I see it being worked out on such a personal level. And i so apprecite those of you who are praying for my family, I know that the Lord is working through those prayers.

Just as a side note, the font has been small the past few posts b/c I was using a mac which doesn't let me change the font size for some reason.  Mike got me this beautiful new computer  - the mac, which I really like, but I still use my trusty laptop to do most of my "work"  All my files are saved on this computer, and I've not figured out how to switch them over yet.

So! That's all for now. 

Posted in Family Life

My brother's out of the hospital and doing very well. He's staying with some friends from church while we wait for our antibiotics to cure us! The Bryans are taking excellent care of him and hosting my mother as well while she is here. Although we get to have her here for the weekend since Leslie is staying there with Tim =) On another note, my Father in law died early Thursday morning at his home. While not completely unexpected, it came as a shock. He's been not well for years and has been battling the flu. The kids are taking it pretty well (mine, that is). They've not had to deal with death in the family before. 2 weeks ago my mother and father in law came out to visit, they wanted to bring birthday gifts for Trinity and Aria. My MIL had bought matching shirts for Lukas and his Grandad, gray t-shirts with a wolf on the front. They wore them together that day, it KILLS me that I didn't take a picture. Didn't even think of it. I don't know why I didn't. I really regret that. I don't know that he was a believer when he died, although anything is possible. Mike had shared the gospel with his parents often enough, perhaps the Lord was gracious and granted him a repentant heart before he died. I hope so.

Posted in Family Life

They released my brother from the hospital for a few days until his surgery, which was scheduled to happen this Wednesday. He's on prescription pain killers, which seems to be doing the trick to control his headaches. Mike was the only representative of the Nevarr family at church today, but he said Tim and Leslie were there =) On the way to church, the hospital called Tim and said they had moved his surgery up to Monday instead of Wed. Please pray for him when you think of it =) Mom is coming down on Tuesday for about 10 days. That will be a huge blessing! Anyway. That's the latest! This afternoon I was reading in Joshua, and noticed that as the Israelites were preparing to move into the Promise Land (totally uncharted territory for them), God admonished them several different times to be "strong and courageous" And so it is with us as we all have periods in our lives where we face the unknown with fear and trepidation. What a blessings to be able to cling to the great and soverign God who controls all things. I have no doubt that He knows what is best and will cause all things to work together for our good and His glory.

Posted in Family Life

So I don't even want to look and see what the last date was that I posted.  I've somehow gotten buried under a bunch of CC related emails and phone calls and am now just able to come up for air!  I do love helping other people get up and running with classical conversations, but since I'm not so very organized it tends to eat up more of my time than it should.

 And then we've all been sick, Daniel's had a rotten headcold that is finally almost done, but he's been waking up at about 4:30 am every morning. I felt sorry for him the first time b/c his eyes were all yucked up with goop, so after I cleaned him up, I let him come into bed with me. He's a rare kid (in our house) who will just lie there with his head on my chest and go to sleep. sooo cute. For about 15 minutes. And then i realize that I can't l sleep. so I put him back to bed and he cries for what seems to be an hour before he goes back to sleep.

 And Then, my brother is in the hospital, so that also has taken up more of my brain space!  I would appreciate your prayers for my brother, if the Lord lays it on your heart.  His name is Tim, he's 27 and was admitted to the ER last Sunday with severe headaches after a week of the flu. Well, turns out it wasn't the flu, it was a brain bleed. So to make a long story short, he is slated to have surgery on Wednesday to remove the blood clot that they found in his head.  I have complete confidence that the Lord is working through all of this and I'm not overly anxious or worried, but I covet the prayers of the righteous (that'd be you!).  He'll have a 6-8 week recovery period after the surgery, and hopefully he can come here and stay with us.  I'm sooo very thankful that he's back in Va and not still living out in Colorado!   His fiancee Leslie has been a tremendous blessing, she's been able to go see him every day, I've not been to the hospital yet.  I'm afraid I'm going to make him sick!

So, that's my life in a nutshell for the past week.  I finally pulled out my bible tonight and blew off the week of accumulated dust and finished the book of Deuteronomy.  That book is such a blessing and encouragement.  Here is a verse that spoke to my heart tonight that I shall share with my brother: Moses spoke these words to the Israelites who were preparing to go face the "giants" in the land, they ring true for us today with all of our own personal giants.
Deut. 31:8  The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.

Posted in Family Life

So we're having a boy.  Yay!  I'm really happy that the Lord has seen fit to make us "even", 3 boys and 3 girls (Lord willing).  We've been tossing around names and have settled on Christopher.  That day that we were at the OB, waiting for the dr. to come in, I entertained the kids by trying to decide what his middle name should be. We were being silly, suggesting middle names like "Columbus" or "Robin"  Aria, in her 3 year old mind (almost 4!) latched onto that conversation, unbeknownst to me.  A few days later, we went to the library.  I had to drop an audio tape at the counter that somehow missed being put back into its case along with the others when I returned it some weeks earlier (oops).  As I was digging around in my bag, Aria decided to make conversation with the librarian behind the counter.  She smiled really big and said "Guess What????" The librarian good naturedly said "what"  Aria replied (very loudly) "My mommy has a baby in her belly and him name is Cwisotpher Wobin!"    I laughed and said "um, I think that one is already taken"  The librarian assured me there was room in the world for another. Since then, Aria has told many Other people about her new baby brother and his name, and I've given up trying to explain. 

Posted in Family Life

           We meet for church services in an elementary school.  In which are vending machines.  Oh, the wonder of it all.  That's why my kids Really like going to church  Last Sunday, their Uncle Tim gave them each some money to buy something out of the machine.  (That's what uncles are for, right?)  Lukas bought a rice crispy treat and ate about half of it before deciding he didn't want to finish it.  He sighed and said "I used to love these things!  Oh , the law of diminishing returns."    Now why is it that he can remember a one time discussion we had on the only thing I remember from my Micro economics class (or was it Marco?) but he can't remember to clear off the dinner table without being reminded???

Posted in Family Life

        Wednesdays are our music lesson day.  What is supposed to be one hour worth of piano lessons somehow eats up our whole morning!  But that's because I figure that once I'm out, I should do this errand and that errand and before you know it, it's noon.  So it's not the fault of the music lessons . 
        On this particular past Wed., I decided that I should probably try to find some flowers for the CC art project we were doing the next day (I'm so organized).  I had actually given this some prior thought and even made phone calls earlier in the morning to area florists looking for someone to donate some slightly past peak flowers for a worthy cause (JoRonda, where are you when I need you!).  I called lots of places (ok, about 4) and got responses like these "Oh, um, we just threw those out yesterday."  And "Well, January is a really slow month for flowers, so we keep our inventory really low."  And " we don't have anything like that now, but call back after Valentines day and we'll have lots to get rid of!"  Well fine, but that doesn't help me today! So I thought I'd try area grocery stores since most of them have floral sections.
         First I went to Shoppers, where most normal people don't even go to buy Food, but I am partial to it because it's CHEAP.  I didn't really think they would have slightly past peak flowers that they would just give me, why would they when they want to charge me $1.68 a pound for Definitely past peak Romaine lettuce! But I needed diapers and they have really good dougnuts.  Anyway.  So there I am with the 5 kids and the shopping cart with the bad wheel that won't let me make left hand turns picking up 'just a few things" (that wound up costing me over $100, how does that HAPPEN?) (and so much for Cheap).  I turned a corner (a right hand one...) and saw a nice lady coming toward me who said "Let me guess!  You're a day care provider!"  I said,"Well, no, I'm a mother!"  And she said "Ohhhhhh."  And this is not the first time I've gotten that comment, I guess b/c maybe Trinity doesn't look like the rest of us??  
        So anyway, I got what I needed (and then some, apparently) except for those free flowers, and got in line at the checkout.  Here we have the latest pictures of Brittany what's-her-name half dressed with lurid headlines about Mental Illness and What Her Children Saw and whatever else, so  I told Eden (who seems to be drawn to lurid headlines) to go sit on the windowsill at the end of the checkout counter while I paid for everything including the 3 doughnuts we split.  Daniel apparently felt badly about whatever he imagines that Brittany what's her name's children saw and cries the whole time we're in the checkout line.  Someone comes and opens up another lane just for me, presumably to get me out of the store so they can go back to listening to their nice peaceful grocery store music.  I decided that Daniel probably wouldnt't let me go begging for cast off flowers at Costco so we went home, I made lunch that  nobody would eat it b/c they were all full from the doughnut half that I let them eat at the store.  Note to myself, next time use the doughnuts to bribe them to eat their lunch.

post script: I'm sure you're dying to know what I did about my dire flower situation.  I went to Wal Mart at 10:30 after Shepherd Group and bought about $15 worth of fake flowers.  Sigh.

Posted in Family Life

        Well, it was a Sunday at home today.  Trinity spent most of Fri. night throwing up, and wasn't  much better on Saturday.  Saturday I was supposed to take all the kids and go to a homeschooling conference which would make the house nice and quiet for Mike (for a change!). But obviously I couldn't take a sick kid and Mike had a meeting in the morning, so I didn't want to leave her for the whole day in case she was still barfing.  So instead, I took Eden, Aria and Daniel and we went out for breakfast (Lukas stayed home with a friend, the child of one of the men who came for the meeting).  By the time we got to Denny's, Aria was making unhappy noises about her stomach.  But we went in anyway and ordered some food. She didn't eat anything (Daniel was happy to eat her food and his), and spent the whole time lying on my lap. She drank a few sips of water and it promptly came back up.  So two down.  (Although I have to say that Eden and I had a great time talking about nothing and everything. I really enjoyed that time with her).  On Sunday, I stayed home with the 3 littles and Mike took Eden and Lukas to church.  By the afternoon, they were also down for the count with Daniel following soon after.  So the Blessing is that Trinity and Aria are much better.  Isn't the Lord good to preserve me from having 5 sick kids at one time???
   
 So.  Since we couldn't go to church, we decided to invite John Piper to come speak to us via DVD.  We have lots of his DVD's.  I flipped past S*x and the Supremacy of Christ and settled on "What do I do when I Don't Desire God."  We watched an hour's worth to practice sitting quietly (Daniel was rather squirmy but since we were at home  I could be more firm with him).  Here are some noteworthy quotes from that hour .
        "Suffering is not the opposite of Joy.  Despair in suffering is the opposite of Joy"
        "The Devil has more theologically correct thoughts about God in 24 hours than you do in your whole life.  And he Hates him."  Correct thoughts about God aren't enough. 
        "Where do your desires turn when you come home from work and the pressure is off. What's the first thing you want to do? Do you turn on the TV?  Your desires show where your heart is, shows what you love best.  Do you love you or do you love God?" (that's a paraphrase, not exact quote, i couldn't write with Daniel on my lap!)
His whole premise is that God isn't interested in mechanical service from us, He wants us to be filled with joy as we serve Him.  Easier said than done! He said joy in Christ isn't something that just happens, it's something that we have to cultivate and grow and fight for.  Sigh. I have a long way to go.

Posted in Family Life

Ok, I thought this was funny.  Maybe you had to be there, though.
Tonight, Lukas wanted a glass of milk before bed.  I got him a cup and he poured it himself. As he was drinking it, he was looking at the label on the milk jug.  Here is what he said  "Hmmm.  2% milk.  What's the rest of it???"
Ha!