Jun. 17, 2008 - When Jesus' Power is Formed in Me...

That is the title of the devotion I read a minute ago. It is by Brennan Manning...I love his writing. Something I read resonated in me like a gong. I will share part of it. Its from the book Reflections for Ragamuffins.

"Am I unjustly criticized, rejected, betrayed by a friend? I can touch the life of Jesus who faced the same things and can will myself to respond as He did. The power of his Spirit passes into my spirit, and the purpose of Pentecost is fulfilled: Christ is formed within me not just in peak moments or transcendental experience but in the nitty-gritty of daily life."

Thats all I want. Christ to be formed in me. In my hurt and betrayal, Christ is formed in me. I can't forget that he has felt these things, too.

May Christ be formed in me. May my heart be His.

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Jun. 16, 2008 - The heart of God discoveries

I have been having a very difficult week. I would have to say this is the most difficult week of all. Heart wrenching, shocking, stay-in-bed-all-day, and eat-a-box-of-(organic-naturally-sweetened)-cookies. Did I mention that it was an entire box and I hadn't eaten anything else? So, that's where I was a few days ago. I'm somewhere else now. I'm in the wow-real-food-sounds-good place. I'm also in the place where I know I am loved. I cry even as I write that last statement. (My sentiment my change in about 3 seconds, though.)

I only mention my tough week because I wanted to talk about the heart of God. In all this turmoil a good friend and older woman of God said that she would pray that I would have the heart of God in all this. I thought, "Oh yeah, that's a good prayer. Thanks." And I meant it, but my hurt and anger couldn't fathom that idea. Then another friend called and gave me encouraging words of hope. As I sat around mulling over the things I found the heart of God. Its great and nice to pray for healing, but that is a process of time. Asking for the heart of God is so immediate. It in no way negates any of our emotions. I have a new direction in my thinking. I'm not saying that I will never do the wrong thing, but I am more mindful of His heart when I am pondering life's twists and turns.

Job was stripped of everything except his doubting wife who told him to curse God and die. I want to honor God in everything. I want to see how His hand works in us. The victory is the Lord's. It is His battle, not mine. Something amazing is about to happen. (I say "about to happen" as in the next hours, days, weeks, months, years...perhaps, generations.) I will not give up.

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Jun. 5, 2008 - Life These Days

Twelve years ago, at this very moment, 11:29 pm I was confident I would be having a baby on June 6. After all, I had been in labor for over 12 hours by then. How much longer could it possibly take? Well, it would be about 25 hours later on June 7. I want to ask, as I do every year: Where has the time gone? Those baby days flew by so quickly. Yet I remember lying in bed begging God to please just let me sleep 15 more minutes. Please make the baby stop crying for a little bit. Then there was the intense training phase that I was so unsure about. Do I flick his hand for that? Does he understand? Will he ever understand? (I still ask that last question.) Oh, and then there's potty training. I was way stressed out. I had a friendly upstairs neighbor tell me to start training at the age of 1. His mom had 6 kids and did that. Poor traumatized Christopher. My friend and I dressed him up as a little wood elf or sprite or something like that. I'll have to scan in the pictures. Oh, and lets not forget the eating of Ben and Jerry's...oh wait, he never at that. I did that when he was napping. He ate marvi bars and home canned pears. He loved his daily bath. So did I. He was contained and couldn't go anywhere. Well, I didn't love it when he decided pooping in the tub would be fun. (He'll be so embarrassed when he hears of that last one.) Oh, he once saw a life-size cut out of Darth Mal and asked me why God made such ugly people. He used to sing in his car seat and I heard, "Dear God, thank you for the street lights and electricity so it isn't dark anymore." When my dad died, Christopher would try to comfort me when I cried, but would end up saying to my husband, "She's crying again, what do I do?" Then when we built our house he was such a hard worker. He would be so exhausted at times that he would crawl into a ball, wrap up in Kelly's coat, find a corner, and cry himself to sleep. Less than a year after moving into our house he suddenly, and I mean suddenly became a big brother and the oldest of four. (You can read the beginning of that story here.) Gone were the carefree days of going here and there whenever I wanted to. Gone were the days of showing up at births or even meeting new babies. He had to grow up a little. He had to share a room and his parents. Our lives are so different now. I thought I was busy before! Ha! And now, my son is a tad taller than myself.  He steals my gender neutral looking socks. His voice is LOW. He definitely has a preference in music. I tell him to pull up his pants or put on a belt. He does love to shower, though. This evening I saw he had left some hair products out in my bathroom, but I never noticed that his hair looked any different. He loves me, but he plans on leaving me and exploring life on his own. He used to tell me that he'd let me live in his farm house with him and his wife so I could do all the cooking and cleaning. I think I'd rather him leave me out of his old farmhouse anyway. He wants to learn photography and editing. Oh, and recently he's been asking me to read, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" to him. What? He's kidding, right? Nope. Not at all. Did I mention that he really loves me. He loves Jesus, too. He's also still into legos and transformers, and I can often be caught with a glazed over look when he's talking about a star wars character or ship. He's beginning to recognize that look. Darn it! I love him. I love that he still tries to sit on my lap and will still lie down and take naps with me. Oh, and I really love that he takes care of breakfast all by himself. I love that he is so nice about the fact that I will be completely absorbed in a wedding I'm photographing on his birthday so he won't really have a celebration that day. Have I mentioned that I love that boy even though it scares me a bit...not the love part, but the whole growing up part. I love that he's getting older, but he's not too cool to kiss me and hug me in public. Last Sunday he and I were together the entire day without anybody else and he could barely separate himself from me. It was odd. He had to hold my hand or have his arm around MY shoulders or kiss me if he left me to go into the next aisle. Hey, when did it become okay for him to leave my sight in the store? That's not supposed to happen for a few more years, right? Man, that one snuck up on me. It won't be long until he's driving. I hope he'll want to be home more than any other place. I made him go to bed at the same time as the younger ones, now I wish I would've kept him up just a bit longer. I think I'll start reading that book to him soon. He loves it when I read books about how a young man is supposed to be. I asked him if he wants to read them alone and just talk about it. Nope. He gets more of me if we read it together. Well, I think I need to go kiss him, or crawl into bed with him on the top bunk, or pick him up and cradle him and sing some cheesy song.

Go kiss your kids now.

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May. 22, 2008 - Pray for Steven Curtis Chapman's family

So very sad. Please look here and give them support here.

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May. 9, 2008 - Wonderful Weather and Wacky Kids!

You wouldn't know it by my blogging habits, but I absolutely LOVE to blog. That's right, in my head I am a masterful blogger. I write about things that keep my readers on the edge of their seats waiting for more. In my head I am a prolific writer. The problem is that I am busy and little bit lazy and really good at procrastinating and such a perfectionist in such things that I don't want to post until I know it is great, but end up posting something not-so-great. So here I am. I have pictures to edit, a house to clean, laundry to fold, and cookies to bake (courtesy of The Pioneer Woman).

Now, for the real exciting stuff. I introduce to you the new member of my family. She is beautiful. Her name is Ruby. Please excuse my bad picture. I never claimed to be a photographer...oh wait, yeah I did.

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Apr. 23, 2008 - You know you have a problem when...

You find yourself sitting at the computer squirming because you have to pee so bad, but you must check out “just one more blog” which reminds you that you were going to go check out the photoshop brushes which reminds you that you need to work on those wedding pictures which makes you wonder if you should go over the the windows xp side of your mac and do a little photoshopping with those new actions (since photoshop elements doesn’t support actions), but realize it doesn’t really matter because I’m not sure how to use actions anyway….

You decide to blog because the cold hard fact is that if you get up to go pee you’d have to walk through your kitchen and dining room which both look like bombs have gone off. Besides, the kids are pretending that they’re “falling” and they might just fall on you.

You have NO idea how much money you have in the bank or what you’ll make for dinner, but you plan on spending money and eating at some point. Maybe if I ignore it long enough I won’t have any problems.

You still have to pee, but really want to post a picture to go with this blog, but you don’t have a picture of your toilet which needs to be cleaned anyway. Ugh, both bathrooms need a good cleaning.

Well, now the husband is home and in the bathroom. Doesn’t he know I was just getting up to use it? What was he thinking? How rude! I guess I’ll just pee my pants.

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Apr. 19, 2008 - Wow

And as I write this, the ground, chairs, bbq, and mini-trampoline have a light covering of snow. It's sticking...for now. My dad always used to say, "If you don't like the weather in Oregon-wait 5 minutes!" You know, its closer to summer than winter!

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Apr. 17, 2008 - Overwhelmed and really wanting to Procrastinate!

So, I'm sitting here at my happy spot gazing out the window watching Dusty running back and forth between our house and the big ditch. I've beent thinking of those amazing brownies I made earlier. I think I should have some. Also, my fingernails are distracting my. I've never really had long nails, but I stopped biting them on my right hand. I'm not sure why I keep biting them on my left hand, but I'm not going to worry myself with such matter. So, these are the things that I think about when I have a large task at hand. I have about 900 pictures to sort through (digitally) and edit. Wow. I am just overwhelmed. I really should've gotten to it earlier. I ran into a couple of snags. The first one being that the wedding exhausted me and left me with a migraine! The next thing was that my MacBook was full. I had about 3 gigs available and that isn't much when you shoot in RAW. (Don't ask me to explain that RAW thing.) Man, I remember when our computer was 20 gigs and we thought we were rolling in the memory! So, I bought an external hard drive. Then it took me a few days to figure out how to move my iphoto library to the external drive, create a new library, etc. and etc. I was so paranoid about losing pictures...and I did, but not wedding pictures. I accidentally formatted a memory card that was patiently waiting to be uploaded. You see, one of my darling children threw something at my window and startled me. Thus the reason for me picking up the wrong card. It had some awesome pictures I took at the park, band pictures, and senior pictures of my friend. Bummer. I talked with the manager at Shutterbug and said she might be able to restore them. Hmmm, are you interested in this at all?

I love brownies.

Okay, I better get back to editing those photos....

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Mar. 30, 2008 - A little update

I have so much to write and so many pictures to share, but little time to do so. I'm busy keeping my house clean, planning school, training children, editing photos, learning photoshop, and getting ready to shoot a wedding and senior pictures. I've enjoyed a girls night with my girls and a morning at a coffee shop with them. It has been a much needed respite from the boys.

Please pray the adoption will go quickly. I have some papers we need to sign and notarized to send back to our lawyer. I guess we'll get our court date after that. I remember the day I stood before a judge and he told me my new name. It was amazing. I will tell you about it one day.

The weather has been crazy here. A light dusting of snow covered the ground on the first day of spring. The other day it was literally freezing when I woke up. Then there was rain, hail, snow, and bright sunshine alternating throughout the day. This is not the norm for the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Right now frost is on the ground and the sun is shining brightly.

Hopefully I will have a more organized and focus blog entry, but I knew that if I didn't get something up I'd get some emails encouraging me to do so! (That was for you Rachel!)

The following picture was taken on the 28th. Lovely, eh?

 

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Mar. 21, 2008 - Rosetta Stone Contest

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while -- next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE! 

This is a $219 program (and believe me it's worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.

This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports. 

 

To win this most excellent program -- in the language of your choice -- copy these (blue) paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post -- then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE:http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/  and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it.  And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it.  And good luck!  The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg.   And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win.   Yay for free stuff!

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Mar. 19, 2008 - Random Blatherings...

Sage has been doing school and obeying very well since last Wednesday. It has been a long 3 months of fits and screaming, I hope we have left it behind.

Forgive me if I've written this before, but its very exciting to me. I cleaned and organized a little nook in my room for creating and scrapbooking...now if I could only remember where I stashed those quilt pieces I had mostly cut out. I have all my stamp pads (about 50) displayed quite nicely on my desk along with my plethora of pens. I have several bottles of ink for my wonderful dipping fountain pens that I love to journal with. I'm almost done with my current journal and my book-binding, calligraphy writing, crocheting, midwife of a friend is going to come over and teach how to make a book. I love her. She makes me want to have a baby...Anyway, I call it my happy spot. The desk, that is. I took pictures, but I'd feel silly posting them. So instead I leave you with this.

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Mar. 6, 2008 - Yay!

This morning I woke up feeling pretty good. It wasn't perfect, but I certainly didn't feel like I had been run over.  By the end of the day Ireland was up and playing on the computer, demanding that I not kiss her so much, helping skwub dishes, playing doll house and tea with her brothers, and even playing outside. Although, getting her ready to go outside took longer than the time she stayed out there. She is still pretty tired, but her body isn't as sore. She was very happy to show me that she could stand on her toes without crying. She also isn't eating much, but she's tired enough that I could get her to eat her YUMMY broccoli without much of an argument...and just now she dumped out a bunch of wedgits to play with. I am soo soo glad. I started my day with a huge list of things I wanted to accomplish. I did very few of those things because I spent about 4 hours cuddling with sick children and reading ERAGON. I did get around to cleaning off the cluttered surfaces such as island, dresser, table, blanket box, computer desk, stove, and the washer and dryer. I also refilled my cleaning supplies so now I smell like tea tree oil, tangerine oil, and peppermint oil. Christopher vacuumed for me, but I still need to sweep the kitchen and dining room. We've moved the laundry right along, but have piles and piles to fold. I'll be working on that later, I guess. Oooh, I also have my oven doing the self-cleaning thing. So, I think we're doing good. Tomorrow I might even make a Goodwill run. Why is it that we always have so much to get rid of? Although with the price of gas I might wait and just go for a walk instead. We do have a bunch of books due and a library only a few blocks away.

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Mar. 5, 2008 - Spring is on the way!

This is actually a picture taken last summer in my front yard. I love daisies and I just might love that purple striped spider!

I woke up with the sun shining brightly and frost on the ground. I am so glad it isn't gray and cloudy. I needed the sunshine. My sinuses are really bothering me and my head hurts. I slept in the front room with the vaporizer along with the girls. Dusty is coughing and sneezing and desperately needs to brush her hair. (I need to brush my hair, too, but my head hurts and I'd rather not expose myself to such torture.) Ireland is coughing without me forcing her to do so, but she still doesn't feel hungry or thirsty, but she'll drink when I tell her to. She is actually awake to watch Tom and Jerry. Yesterday she didn't stay awake longer than just a few minutes. I have to give her an herbal tincture every hour for 3 days, 3 liquid homeopathics 5 drops- 5 times a day, 2 homeopathics in pellet form 3 times a day, but not at the same time, and it is recommended that I do the hot/cold remedy. That is where you put cold wet, but not dripping, socks on then cover them with wool or fleece. I can also do it where I put a hot towel on her chest for a few minutes followed by a cold towel, then flip her over and do it on her back, too. I tell ya, I'm going to be pushing the echinacea on the other kids whether they like it or not. Fortunately they love vit. C (with the exception of Ireland). Ugh! My face and head hurts. I think I'll make some tea and oatmeal for breakfast. Actually, Christopher is in charge of breakfast!

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Mar. 4, 2008 - We are sickies, but I am practically famous!

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Feb. 11, 2008 - Another Day...

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Jan. 26, 2008 - It's that time of month again!

Ugh! I hate this time of month. It always gives me a headache, I'm crabby, and I just want to eat some chocolate and take a nap. I'd do almost anything to get out of it. (It's not what you're thinking!) It's budget time and grocery shopping time. I have to sit down with all our bills and figure out how to spend, or not spend, our money. There is always so much to remember! Then I have to have some sort of menu in order to make a grocery list. Do I head North and go hit Trader Joe's, Costco, and hit Winco on the way back? I'd have to drive for an hour to get there. I may have to also go to the Harvest Fresh in Mac on the way back. (Although there is a scrapbooking store on the way that is having a garage sale type sale! Hmmm, how does that fit into my budget?) Have you tried navigating the store with 4 tired and cranky kids. The husband might be going out to shoot guns with a redneck friend from church so he certainly can't take the kids with him. On the other hand, I could go to Salem. There is no Trader Joe's there. It's a bit closer and much easier for me to get there. Not so much lane changing. That's right, I'm a small town girl and I don't really like getting on the highway and all that hullabaloo. Salem does have a health food store, Costco, and Winco. I'm much more familiar with Salem. Oh, I just don't know what to do and I'm a bit concerned about how Sage will be. Shoot, I'm not even sure that I can fit all our groceries in the jeep if I make a big trip. Ugh.

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Jan. 25, 2008 - Baking Bread

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Jan. 23, 2008 - The Electric company

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but I taught myself to read when I was 4 years old. It was largely due to the Electric Company. I also watched Sesame Street, but I LOVED the Electric Company. Guess who the shadow on the left is? Morgan Freeman. I have always liked Morgan Freeman, but I didn't remember him from this show. He was in a an S.E. Hinton movie that I loved. Anyway, I watched a bunch of clips from the show on YouTube, but this is by far the favorite part and it taught the most. The show started in 1970, a few years before I was born. I wonder if my kids would learn to read if I let them watch hours of this! I was very motivated. I grew up in a little shack across the street from the school in Willamina, Oregon. This school burned down in 1979. If you were a neighbor you would've seen a little girl screaming at the firefighter carrying her out of the house. That little girl said, "No, don't take me. The school is gone and now I'm gonna grow up stupid!" It was a big fire, but I was able to go to Kindergarten, which I loved, 9 months later. By the way, I still love my first school teacher and I still see her once in awhile and I just want to hold her hand. Isn't that funny?

Just in case you can't view the video, you can go here,

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Jan. 22, 2008 - Ice

It was so cold last night! Kelly and I went to bed at the same time so I didn't have the luxury of putting my freezing cold feet on him. On the rare occasion that he goes to bed first I will put my cold feet on him. I love his reaction! He doesn't ever wake up, but rather talks in his sleep. He'll jump then say in a very whiny voice, "Geez! Its so cold." I'll say something like, "I'm sorry, I'll scoot closer to warm you up." Then I put my cold feet on his legs again. Its great fun. He doesn't remember it in the morning. This is exactly the reason I wake up when he comes to bed. I don't want him pulling tricks on me! Anyway, this entry is about ice. For some reason our neighbor turned on their sprinkler. Perhaps it was to prevent freezing, but this was not trickle. Each grass blade was coated in a thick layer of ice and icicles were dangling hanging from the porch. I did manage to get a few shots with my digital, but I got out my film slr and took a few shots as well. Then I let the kids play outside for awhile. It was so beautiful outside that I was inspired to take the kids for a walk. We decided to go to the library where we got so many books I didn't think we could carry them all back! By then it was time for lunch followed by stories and nap. After nap it was time to start making dinner which was stir fry with marinated tofu, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, garlic, sesame seeds, and peanuts sauteed in roasted sesame oil. Does that sound yummy? Well, it was, but 2 of my kids didn't like it. Sage insisted that the chunks of meat (tofu) were too too big. They were only about 1/2 inch cubes. I told him to cut it with his fork. "But MOM, it is too too hard. I just can't do it!" Someone ended up being excused from the table without the privilege of eating a yummy vegan apple-maple muffin with a maple glaze. Oh well. Did I mention that I made 2 loaves a white bread, as well. Before you shoot me for making white bread let me tell you that it is a whole wheat white bread. Christopher called it wonderful bread and said I should open a bakery. Funny kid.

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Jan. 21, 2008 - Praying Mantids

I can't remember if I've blogged about this before, but toward the end of summer the kids caught 2 praying mantids. *Singular form of the word is mantis.* We knew they were female so we kept then until they laid their egg sac. One of them far outlived the other one. We had to buy crickets to feed her, but alas, she could hold on no longer. After both the mantids died we put the whole thing outside so the eggs wouldn't hatch too early. However, Christopher found another egg case outside on a ball. So, he brought it in. Now, 3 months later, we have a bunch of itsy bitsy baby mantids. Apparently there can be  hundred of them inside an egg case. Here are the babies just beginning to come out. This started on Saturday, now there are several more hanging out! This one is one of the ladies we had last fall! I'm so glad that praying mantids are not bigger than us!

Check out What's That Bug website for the most AMAZING mantids you'll ever see!

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