"For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession." Deuteronomy 7:6
Then on the 21st for five great days, sister and her boys came to visit! What fun to see the cousins together! Sister also presented Nate and Charis with the quilts she made them. How beautiful they are and what talent!! Thank you so much for the keepsakes!
Before my man came home for Halloween weekend, I made some bagels and posted about the whole experience HERE
The day after Abel arrived, we had a Harvest Tea (right before he got sick...)
Then we dressed up and got some candy for the kids.
Charis was a dancer!
How is she so grown up?! and How on earth does she have so much hair?!! Guess it's time for another baby! {grin}
Ethan's surprise costume was borrowed from our neighbors. But he loved being Bumblebee.
And Nate was the best Batman I've ever seen!!!
After we went to a few houses in the neighborhood, I took Ethan to a Harvest Party with our neighbors for a short time. It was held at their old church. He was a little unsure but I think he had fun overall. Our family isn't super crazy about this holiday. But the kids sure do like dressing up!
We got back from California very late on Sunday afternoon and are just now adjusting back to our normal life and schedules. Would you believe I didn't take a single picture during our time out there?! Not kidding.
Abel was with us on the flight out and drove up from work last Thursday afternoon to share a second weekend in a row with us at my parents. I felt so spoiled getting to see him 7 out of the last 14 days! And then he'll be back for about 10 days over Thanksgiving. Yeah!
We decided to go ahead and extend our contract on our house one more month (thru November 30th) and after that, take it off the market till next spring. I am praising God over the peace and contentment I have in this really strange situation. And so, though hard days are sure to come, I know we've done all we could on our end to make this move possible...seems God has some better plans than are waiting in the wings.
Well, we'll talk to ya'll hopefully much sooner than two weeks! At least, I know there'll be a Bread post coming up this weekend (but between you and I, I've already baked the Brioche...I'm just waiting till it's time to talk about it.)
Oh, y'all. I am so very excited. This last week, God has been showing me some amazing things and I am beyond blessed.
My sister was here these last 5 days and my daughter was sick last Monday so it's been quiet for a few reasons! However, I just have to pop in during this busy, busy, BUSY week to share what I've been learning through the Word!!
(real quick, our part of the Thanksgiving cruise was canceled because of how far along I am in this pregnancy, so I've moved up the date to visit my parents in CA. Next week, we'll be gone so look for more writing/photos the week of the 8th! Sad though we are to miss out on that vacation, I think with this current work-separation from my man, the very best plan for us is what is to be! God is so wise!)
As I wrote two posts ago, this extended season of quietness with the Lord has been a new thing and more than a bit frustrating to me. Little by little, pieces have been falling into place and some huge ones just this week.
I've been experiencing a bout of pregnancy insomnia (well, I suppose any woman with hormones knows about that, can I get an 'amen?'). Well, not insomnia per se. I can sleep for about 4-5 hours. But then have the hardest time getting back to it. August and September's lack of sleep was due to anxiety, but these last days I believe the Lord doing something good. Part of the reason I'm confident about this is that I'm not exhausted and my temperment has traces of the "fruit of the Spirit." {grin}
While sister was here, we talked a lot about what God is and has done in our lives this last year. Her story is amazing, as you can suppose. And mine I was still working through (perhaps still am...but I feel like we're near an end...) As I was talking with her I referred to the thoughts I had written in that post.
Well, one night while she was here, I was in a dream-ish (but definitely not sleeping) place just earnestly sharing my heart with the Father. I've felt so unlike myself lately, and it isn't the pregnancy I'm talking about. I told Him my frustrations over my feelings, my desires over His Word and will in my life and confessed that all those things don't match up with His Word right now.
And during that early morning, the song "As the Deer" came to mind from so long ago and I thought, "YES! that is what I want to want! and that truly is what I need." Somehow, getting up before the children happened and I searched my concordance for where the words appeared in scripture.
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?" These thing I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and the Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love; and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock: "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?"
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. ~ There is no way to express how I knew the Lord himself had directed me to read this. I've put in bold the parts that spoke most to me.
This psalm showed me my issue so clearly. And the Truth has certainly set me Free!!! The Enemy of my soul was LYING TO ME!!! And because of all the distractions, I was believing it! Even though my soul knew it wasn't true. And through the summer, through this weaving of quietness and desiring God's presence more, He has shown me the amazing truth behind 2 Corinthian 10:5.
"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ."
Friends, I have no idea where you are, but test your thoughts about your situation and about your God against His. own. word.
And then choose to believe Him.
And if all remains silent, trust Him. He is working out something amazing.
This song played on K-Love this weekend when I was out running errands by. my. self. (thank you sister!!) and it is exactly where I am. It's probably been out a while, so I think this was my time to hear it. (I love when God does that!)
And finally, I'll wrap up this post with a quote I put on Facebook after doing Session 5 of Esther.
"God is always active in our time of 'wait...' Our strength will be depleted when we wait upon an event/thing/person...but waiting upon the LORD, our strength will. be. renewed." (see Isaiah 40:31)
In a way, I knew this when I wrote this post...but now it seems even more affirmed. I feel so much at peace about our situation. It's not turning out at all like we thought but it is well!!! And we are doing truly great.
Please keep praying for us as linked in the previous paragraph. And thank you so much for all the praying you've each done for us. We are so grateful!!
No really, I had to get back to my oldest's quasi-schooling, and it was truly easy to have the KitchenAid on while doing our Worksheet, Handwriting and Math today.
Recounting this weekend, as any conference attenders can attest, could create a small novel. And while that might be fabulous for some friends to read, most of y'all just do not have the time to park it at this ol' blog for 30+ minutes.
(can you imagine reading all 13,000+ women's experiences?!?!)
These sweet bloggers/friends shared specific impacting points: ~BigMama (on her site and at AllAccess) ~BooMama blogging at AllAccess ~Stephanie ~Robyn (I'll be editing this post when more friends put up their thoughts)
But as for me, the "life camera" took a huge zoom Out and I came away with a greater, deeper understanding about what (perhaps) God is doing right now in my life. At least, my outlook was altered by this weekend.
On the way to Memphis, I was reading back through my current journal, which begins in July, and many phrases stuck out over the months. Many of you already know what this season has been for me and my family...a transition that is broken up and not moving forward.
But on a more spiritual level, it has been a "quiet" season. And for the life of me, I didn't understand why I wasn't hearing from Him like I had! After such an amazing show of His Glory in January over my nephew, I wasn't expecting Him to go quiet. Here is a peek into my heart over the last few months:
July 9 ~ journal entry "Father, help my unbelief. I'm straining to see you, to know where you are here. I believe this isn't for nothing. But where is the 'something?'"
Sept 6 ~ Notes from a sermon entitled A Heart not Satisfied: "'We can be too passive in our relationship with God. He does pursue us, but how much do we want God? We all have seasons of feeling far from God ~ but we don't have to accept as normal a lack of intimacy with God. We need to pursue Him.'" (emphasis mine)
Sept 20 ~ journal entry "It's not an accident I am where I am and things are as they are. So I turned my thoughts to look for You, to start seeking where You are in this season. You've never left me alone, you promised you wouldn't. So I can expect to see your hand some. where."
Sept 21 ~ journal entry "Talk to me, Lord, let me know you are there."
Then last week, I started doing Esther. And of course, Beth shared (allow me to paraphrase) you can learn as much about God through His absence in Scripture as you can through His presence.
Yesterday found me meditating on Psalm 119:10 "I seek you with all of my heart, do not let me stray from your commands."
And finally, the theme for this Living Proof Live weekend was "Going on a Wild God Chase."
Her very first question: "When was the last time you asked 'Who is this God?!" referencing Luke 8:22. (um...all. summer!!)
We stopped briefly in John 14 to be reminded, if we love and obey Christ, He will show himself to us, which means a personal revelation! It's been promised to us!
From there, we landed in Exodus 34:1-10 for the rest of the weekend. These verses are continually quoted through out the Old Testament, yet we rarely consider the importance of who God says He is. Some of the other ladies have fleshed that out a bit more. But these 7 self-disclosures tell us all about the Character of God. And when life doesn't make sense, if we know His character, we will be able to walk forward on a sure Foundation, continually developing our faith, confidence in Him and increasing our depth of relationship with Him.
As we studied over the day and a half, there was so much I loved. From the honest praise and worship (oh, did we sense His presence!!) to the Teaching. But here are three specific phrases that I keep mulling over:
~"Blessed is the one who needs Jesus because she will. get. Jesus!" ~"Sometimes, we can just pamper ourselves out of a good Walk. We are so afraid to live here on Earth in the danger zone. But after this, we'll spend eternity in bliss!!" ~"Sometimes there is a gap, a lack, an absence to let us know there is only ONE who is worthy to fill it."
So, now I feel a sense of excitement as the Lord takes me to a fresh, new, deeper place with him. As He has promised to never leave me or forsake me, I must trust His character even when I can't see Him working. I love this quotation from J.I.Packard:
"A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about Him."
Is it easy or comfortable? No. But I am confident it will be more than worth it!
Hopefully, in my next post, I'll share my pictures! How fun it was to be apart of this wonderful group of women over the weekend. They are a hoot and I was blessed tremendously!
I've got lots to share. But had a very busy weekend and then had to jump back in to single parenthood. So it'll take some time to share. But here's video recaps and so many of my friends "made" it on Rich's! (he he)
Incidentally, the theme was "Going on a Wild God Chase." That is my life right now! So good!
Don't ask me how I'll manage it...there may not be much I can do. But it's a foray into baking with dear friends across the country and I'm sure it'll be fun.
If you'd like to be a Half-Baked Beauty, read how to join on the side bar!
But we'd planned to have Ethan go with us in the first place. Here we are getting ready to leave.
In the waiting area, reading "Green Eggs and Ham."
Hmmmmm.......I chuckle at this one.
Here are our Sonogram pics. The Tech was so great, telling me to close my eyes as she maneuvered around till we got to a 'safe' place for looking again.
(By the way, I can't believe I'm halfway done with this pregnancy!!!! Thankfully, I enjoyed every bit with my 3rd because there hasn't been time with this one!)
Final "stats" Weight: about 12.2 oz Est. Due Date: 2/15/10 (doc had said 2/16) Heart beat: 149 bpm
All in all, very good! 20 week appointment is scheduled for Monday.
I'll add descriptions...my fourth time around I could see it all right away. But I know it can be tough!
Front of Face
Front face on with yawn, arms by head (all my kids did this!)
Profile, elbows in foreground, hands by ears
Feet! First time I've seen "flat" feet...usually my babies are all curled up!
Afterwards, Ethan and I went home to our backdoor neighbors to pick up my other two munchkins and get to the airport for Abel's arrival. We had lunch, are now home and letting my very tired, croupy Nate make up sleep and Charis get her beauty sleep.
Abel and I have a date planned for this afternoon/evening and hope tomorrow to take the kids back to the Nifty Nut House. This will be Abel's first time though ~ F.U.N!!
I'm praying the time doesn't go too quickly. I feel kinda cheated already.
Abel will miss the ultrasound in the morning, due to technical problems with the plane in California and that DFW doesn't have any flights leaving at 6 a.m. on American.
Guess it's good we're not finding out gender. Ethan is still excited to go. But the kids will be heartbroken daddy's not home for breakfast like I said he would be.
Nate finally caught the cold Charis shared with Ethan and me over the weekend.
Poor boy, it goes right to his chest! We decided to stay home from playgroup just because of how it sounds. I think it's improved greatly today ~ course, we've had our windows open all day with this beautiful fall weather. It was 47 degrees when I checked the weather at 7 a.m. and it only got up to the high 60s! yeah!!
Anyway, I took this picture of Charis for my friends doing Priscilla Shirer'sOne in a Million study. These were are super sale at Baby Gap last fall:
This is what we did this morning instead of playgroup:
My man enjoys these...or at least he DID. This is before he ate the Monster Cookies on vacation. But I still love Texas Governor's Cowboy Cookies. It makes a TON in one recipe so beware if you proceed with this recipe!
We're heading to church tonight for our second to last September Supper. What a fun bi-annual time with our church family. Ethan's just reciting his verse, then we're all headed home to get to bed EARLY!!
Daddy comes home tomorrow night! We are so. very. excited.
And I'm praying our colds are just about gone by then!
I mentioned last week that we went up to Kansas City Friday for a night with a dear friend. I was a very generous mama and let both Terry and Frogger take a turn at the wheel. The boys were proud of their buddies doing a good job!
Then this sweet thing had 2 major accomplishments this week:
First she's starting to finally eat some eggs. After her reaction at 6 months and subsequent negative interactions with even baked goods, we were steering clear of them for a while. Now, she's doing fine and ate some of my scrambled eggs the day before these pictures. She didn't care to have her own, mind you, when she had them. But at least we're beginning to expand our breakfast horizons!
Secondly, we are just now (and finally!!) getting this girl into 18 months clothes (...she's 20 months!) We had some bad days with diaper rash and I think a small part of the problem was her pants being too small.
Unfortunately, 18 month pants can still be...a bit big. Her daddy won't believe she can actually kinda fit into this outfit...but he'll probably also be glad she's not growing quickly, since he's so far away! Abel does come home this weekend! yeah!
And we'll be pretty busy until he does, thankfully! We have our ultrasound on Friday and are praying baby is healthy (and no, we're still not finding out!)
I won't pretend that all is peachy here. It's pretty hard.
I've been listening to/reading a lot of Jill Briscoe lately and it's been so encouraging and convicting, reminding me to keep "going to the Deep Place where nobody goes." I hope, if you've not hear of her, you'll listen to some of her teaching at OnePlace.com. She, her husband and son all teach but here's a specific link to her most recent podcast. It's worth your time alone to listen to her accent.
(smile)
Truly, only the Lord Himself is sustaining us. I heard recently, "You won't waste a prayer on us." And I second that. If we come to mind, you can pray ANYTHING for us and I'm most certain it'll fit.
Thanks for continuing to check in here. I pray you are finding His grace sufficient for your day as well!
Great post on homeschool and the "socialization" question. I, in fact, agree very much with this article, while recognizing there's both sides of the bell curve. I've seen both kinds of homeschool students.
Oh, and I never linked to this post by Boomama. I read it on a day where I really, really needed to lighten up. And if today you need yourself a good laugh, it's a goody.
And if you want to keep laughing, read some of the comments. Delicious!
Then we headed to the airport for dinner (again), changed the kids into jammies, brushed teeth, prayed and sang "good-night" songs all before we left to go home and hit the hay.
While Abel was home, we decided to do some fun things to eat.
Saturday we all went to The Old Mill Tasty Shop. It's the only morning they serve breakfast and it's pretty reasonable!
It's been around a long time and used to be a soda shop, back in the day. (I'm not sure when it opened.)
Then, Saturday night I decided to actually cook. Haven't done that in a while because it's been just me and the kiddos. Time and energy would be unappreciated... But I'd seen Pioneer Woman's recipe for this steak sauce earlier in the week and knew I would love it...
More importantly, my man would love it.
So, we made the meal (courtesy of Walmart's* reasonable steak prices) and boy, it was delish!!! I highly recommend "throwing" it together the next time you're grilling. I did use Gorgonzola cheese despite PW's request not to alter the ingredient because I really can't stand blue cheese. It was still fabulous!!
(Oh!! and side note Pregnant women, as far as I've seen on all the labels I've checked in two different states in different regions of the country, all blue and Gorgonzola cheeses are made from pasteurized milk here in the USA. So, happy indulging to you!!)
Here's my man's plate... that watermelon was perfect. Truly, it rivaled the California fruit he'd been raving about on his visit.
Then I "threw" together Beth's Texas Sheet cake. It's very similar to my mom's recipe, but I wanted to taste the difference. What a nice way to finish off our special meal.
We shared with our neighbors 'cause it makes a TON of dessert and we were also able to bring some to ABF for a potluck breakfast the next morning.
While I know not every man is the same, I'm so glad a significant way to my man's heart is through his stomach. Some incredible food sure can be the way to mine!
