Power of prayer

Okay everyone,

We are praying for lab reports. That means we need to pray for electricity and internet in Ethiopia.

Would you be in prayer with me?

Respond don't react

I was talking with some friends last night about responding to my children's behavior not reacting to it. (We shouldn't be surprised when are children sin...But I have to admit all too often I am.)

What does this look like?

Well, first if I am responding to their behavior there would be no need to raise my voice, get mad, frustrated or grumpy at them. It means I would look at their actions or lack of them and speak calmly and give appropriate consequences as needed. Simple, right? We all know what reacting to their behavior looks like, but we all have been there.

Wouldn't it be nice, if I could respond all the time?

Today, I was surprised with a large of amount of sass coming from my eldest child. I didn't even know what do! Let's just say she spent a large chunk of the morning sitting and waiting until she felt her heart was ready to say, "Yes to Jesus and No to Satan" and not the other way around.

This was a good lesson for me today because so many times my heart isn't right and I am focused on things Satan would want to have me focused on...and sometimes those are good things, even godly things, but they take my focus away from Jesus.

So this is a reminder to myself to - Respond don't React and to say, "Yes to Jesus."

Go

Exciting times

Exciting things are happening around here, but I can't share details yet.

Let's just say it will change our family forever.

Be in prayer for our family.

Tired...

Last night I was pooped. There is no nice way to say it. After having the garage sale and having guests...I was worn out. I put the girls to bed at 7:30 and headed straight there myself. I heard Adie going from my bed to her bed for about a 1/2 an hour and she finally landed in my bed.

Carl was out on a man-date to the movies.

When we all got up 12 hours later, the only thing that I found that Adie did was color on her dresser. Not bad for a half an hour of running around- nothing the magic eraser can't fix.

Today I need to dig out of my house...I need motivation..something that I am lacking right now.

Pictures

Grace, Lydia, Daddy and Grandma Glenda went flying with Grandpa. Grace was able to sit in the front seat.







Oh Adie Lynn...She still keeps me hopping.


Oh buggy...(that is what she said I should write for her caption.)

Garage Sale Total

We raised $2500 in two days!

I feel so blessed.

I stood there counting the money thinking of the little boy coming with 5 loaves of bread and two fish and how God multiplied it. We came into this garage sale with very few items to sell since we just moved here last July. (I purged before the big move.)

Thank you to who all dropped off items, bought things and helped out. You are all loved.

I am enjoying God's gracious kindness and blessings today.

Praise the LORD!

I know many of you are checking this to see what my updates are!

Well, God blessed the socks off of us yesterday. We raised over $1700!

My new goal is to break $2000. We can do it!

I have great stories to tell that I will post later, but I need to go back outside to set up for today!

I hope you are all encouraged to see what the Lord has done with our "extra stuff."

Here we go!

Today is the big day.

Please pray for its success! I was up most of the night with the Christmas eve excitement. You know when you were a kid and couldn't sleep because you knew Santa Claus was coming.

Well, I am going to eat a little and start running!

I am prepared to receive God's blessings!

And one more thing...there are 12 kids ready for referrals from our agency...our kids might be in this group and my heart swells thinking about it.

HELP!

I need help Thursday and Friday afternoon...is there anyone out there who would like to help run the sale with me?

Thank you!

Garage Sale O'rama

There is so much stuff in my sister-in-laws garage! Wow! I must admit that I was little overwhelmed when it all started coming, but I am content when I have little and content when I have a plethora of "stuff." I feel very blessed. Let's bring those kids home!

Adie Date

I took my little sweet pea with me on a date to Menards and Target. She was so good and so sweet and SO sticky. (I let her have a sucker in the cart) We had a splendid time trying to shop sales, rebates and coupons.

Almost everything on my list to get at Menards had a rebate to go with it, so I was super excited! Plus we were able to find a few things that were free after rebate or for super cheap. I was able to save $49 at Menards with rebates.

Target was great too! I spent $50.00 even, by using $32.55 in coupons.

This is what I got:
10 boxes of tampons for 2.12 each (They were on sale for over 1/2 off)
shoes for 4.24
tights for 98 cents
4 bags of Mozzarella cheese
2 boxes Ritz, 2 boxes Wheat thins, 2 Triscuits, 2 100 cal snack pack, 4 Kool-Aid makes 12 qt. each, soap for 9 cents, 2 Kraft dressings and a pack of hot dog buns.

Okay...okay

I have heard that some of you miss me and all my happenings.

Quick run down of events.

Monday -Homeschool coop in the morning, oil change and my nephew's birthday party...our 7th Anniversary. We are still trying to find a night to go out and have a date. We have decided that we should really pick a different date to celebrate because for at least the next 10 years there will be a party next door for Luke-man.

Yesterday- MOMS group. It was our last day of the year and we had a speaker on the love languages of our children. It was a great reminder to ask my children, "What makes you feel loved?" We had 13 children over for lunch which was a hoot. My sister-in-law and her crew came over along with a new friend that I met at church a couple of weeks ago.

Last night Adie decided she was a little mad at me for not being available to put her to bed, so she took off her diaper and pooped on my (very, freshly, oh so clean) floor. With that event, I decided that I NEED a bissel green machine. This is not a want here folks. I need something to clean up after her. I love her to pieces. I really do! She is the funniest kid, but does make the biggest messes.

Today we went to my mom's house to purge out 30 years of never moving. Ahhh it is refreshing to clean, clean, clean!

Not around much...

In the next two weeks, I will not be posting much. I will be working on my garage sale and trying to finish off the painting in our spare bedroom/playroom that we just finished off.

Today there will be 14 kids at my house for lunch represented by 3 families! Call me crazy but it will be fun. Corn dogs are on the menu...gotta love convenience food.

Mother's Day

I received a wonderful Mother's Day gift. My Adie stayed in her own bed last night! I was so heavenly to have more than 18 inches on my king sized bed.

I am off to get three girls ready for church.

Happy Mother's Day!

Excited/nervous

I am busy making plan for the garage sale; contacting people, writing up info for the papers, and radio stations, cleaning the garage, marking items already donated and sewing for Wings.

I am so excited and nervous at the same time. I know I shouldn't be nervous but sometimes little fears creep in...did I plan enough, what if no one comes? The planner in me doesn't like to forget details! This is the point where I need to sit back, relax and put my worries on God's shoulders.

He knows what is supposed to get done, who is bringing what and He will bring the masses to the sale.

I want so much more from the sale than money. I want to inspire others here living in St. Cloud to adopt; to step in faith and live a radical life for Jesus. Basically to do hard things with eternal rewards.

Final note to think about this week:

Lifestyles are expensive - children are not.

What to do?

What do you with a little girl who doesn't like to sleep in her own bed?


This picture is taken by me reaching around the door because she is sleeping in front of the door.


Do I (a) take the chance of her waking her up by putting her back in bed

or (b) let her sleep on the floor all night?


Notice: she is wearing a dress...which means she switched out of her PJ's. Last night she changed into a princess dress and came out to see if she could stay up just a little longer. (and that ended by sleeping with us all night)

PS: she is snoring and it is too cute!

Propitiation

Propitiation is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, by which He fulfills the wrath of God (both an emotional response of anger and a moral response of indignation), and conciliates Him who would otherwise be offended by our sin and would demand that we pay the penalty for it.

Angel Larsen translation: it means that Jesus Christ took ours sins and took them as his own. He paid the penalty.

My girls understand this:

Tonight at supper Adie had a melt down right before and missed the whole meal. By the time she decided that she was ready to join us, we were cleaning the table and having dessert. She was eating her noodles when she realized that what we were having looked so much better than her noodles.

Carl told her that she needed to finish her noodles before she could have dessert. Like Adie fashion she decided to scream and holler to see if we would change our minds. NOPE ...it didn't work. We reminded her that all she needed to do was finish what was on her plate. (She knew exactly what we were saying.)

Carl and I were loading the dishwasher when I looked up to see Grace grab a handful of noodles and tell Adie, "Here Adie there are just a few left ...eat them up."

Then Lydia grab all but one noodle and ate those.

Grace looked at me and said, "I think we should just give Adie a mercy. We ate her noodles for her and now her plate is clean."

What do you say to that?

Adie got her dessert tonight.

No medals ...

I usually pride myself at remembering my calendar, Carl's calendar, my children's calendar in my head. I know where, when and why I am going somewhere.

But pride goes before the fall...

This morning at 2am I was up with Adie. We went the to the refrigerator to get a drink when I saw THE INVITATION! I forgot the birthday party that we were supposed to go to. My head started to spin....this is a couple from church who are native Ethiopians and I really wanted the opportunity to hang out with them. (I know there will be more opportunities, but you really don't want to mess up the first time! Plus I wasn't thinking rationally in the middle of the night.)

So what do I do when I forget something?

Think about it all the more... Tonight's sleep will be much better!

I hope we can still get together with them soon! They have such a wealth of knowledge to share and I am so excited to learn.

Take your daughters to work day!

Yesterday Grace and Lydia were able to go to a Pulse Event (a ministry geared toward young adults). They had back stage passes and you would have thought they had gold around their necks. It was such a great homeschool event for us. They were able to see what Carl does with the live events in addition to being able to stay and watch the whole concert, which included the Newsboys.Here are the Newsboys doing a little ditty on the end of their walkway. It was pretty cool. Lydia was impressed when the drum kit went up in the air and started spinning sideways. This was back on the main stage.

BUT...they were so excited during the day that they just couldn't rest, which means they fell asleep during the concert! I can hardly believe that they could sleep with such loud music and lights. (I had earplugs in...yes I know I am old but my ears are so sensitive). Lydia slept through most of the first couple bands and woke up for the end of Newsboys and Grace tried SO hard to stay awake that she fell into comatose mode half way through Newsboys.

We had a great time as a family for the past two days...the girls were so excited to find out that we had a swimming pool at the hotel and that I remembered their suits! I love being the hero for such simple things!