Fun on Friday 33 - {swimming. again. with friends}

I'm getting pretty bad in the taking pictures department. When I plugged my phone into the computer and no new pictures pulled up I knew I was in trouble. Especially since we swam with friends this time!

But alas there are none. And since posts about my kids without pictures aren't that exciting I'll try and keep this short. Maybe I can tell a funny story about a child to keep you entertained....

We went swimming this past Friday and met our friends, the Blegers. It was really great for the kids to have other people to play with other than Mark and I. Kale and Kate had bought themselves goggles with their allowance so they had a great time trying them out. After swimming we all went to lunch. So this was a FF with F[riends].

That night for our small group we watched the movie Courageous. Seriously an awesome movie! Such a great story of what it means to be a dad and our responsibilities as parents. I HIGHLY recommend it!

Saturday we dug out Kate's bedroom. Every other month or so Mark and I have to go in and rescue Kate from herself and her stuff. She, like me, gets overwhelmed and can't handle the mess. The poor girl tries to keep it clean and has to pick it up everyday but then something will happen, she'll get behind and then it's all over! So we rescued her.

That night we watched Secretariat as a family. It was a sweet movie and enjoyed it. Not as good as Courageous but good :)

Yesterday we had church and then had some friends over for an afternoon of food, Quelf and Just Dance. Can you say good times?!

I'm trying to slowly work into Monday now....

I'll throw in an update too. Mark had his interview last week with 2 supervisors. It went well. He's met with each of them previously so it wasn't too stressful. It's been great to know that we can have peace because God is in control. Next week the District Supervisor, Sam, (the final decision guy) will be coming down to meet with Steve and Mark and preach on Sunday. We will hopefully be able to spend a little time with him to get to know him and have him know who we are. Mark was told that they were hoping to have a new pastor in place by Easter. Holy cow! That's still over 2 months away. What a process! Apparently Mark and Steve were the first 2 to turn in their applications so they still are receiving applications and doing interviews. Crazy! So we continue to wait. I'll update when there's more.

And my sweet story as I was putting Jack to bed the other night.
J: My tummy hurts and I need medicine (he hasn't asked for any in a long time).
Me: I don't have any. You're ok. It's time for bed now.
J: But mommy! My tummy is going rumble rumble.
Me: It is? Are you hungry?
J: Rumble rumble. And He fed 5000!
Me: ? (I had no idea he knew the number 5000 and I had no idea what he was talking about and where the conversation was going)
J: Yes. With 5 (holding up 5 fingers) fishes and 5 (holding up 2 fingers) bread.
Me: (finally catching on to what story he was telling me) Who fed 5000 with 5 fish and 2 bread?
J: Jesus!
Me: Yes he did Jack. Wow. Didn't know you knew that story.
J: (with very wide and serious eyes) And then he died on a cwoss!
Me: Yes. And then what happened (thinking he'd say something about how He rose again)
J: And then He went to jail or someting....

Love him.

Rich?

If you would've asked me a year ago, probably even 6 months ago, if we were rich I would've laughed in your face! {not a mean laugh though...I promise} Because I don't consider us rich. Rich is expensive cars, fancy dining with 3 forks at every meal, yachts, exotic vacations, private school, paying more taxes then we make in 10 years of salary, really big houses, people who aren't related to you cleaning those big houses...Nope. That's not us.

But then I was hit in the face {not literally thankfully} with this:

Being rich means having enough.

Enough food.
Enough clean water.
Enough clothes to keep you from being naked.
Enough house to keep you dry and warm.
Enough.

Because being poor means going hungry, trekking 5 miles each direction to get water, wearing the same clothes for a year or more, living in a humble place with barely walls and a roof or nothing at all. I won't even mention indoor plumbing, electricity, appliances, cars etc...

Do I have enough?
Definitely.
Therefore am I rich?
Definitely.

I believe that this is only the beginning of what God wants to do in my heart and in my life. I have two books on my horizon to read. One that I started already and one that is next. Both of them deal, somewhat or totally, with excess (meaning after you've had enough water, food, clothes to keep you from being naked, house etc...the leftover money) in our lives. Coincidence? I think not.

I'm terrified and excited at the same time. Terrified at how much I have given in to materialism and what that means and excited to be set free from too much. I already know that a lot of my stress comes from having too many toys to pick up. Too many clothes to wash, dry and put away. Too many things to do to keep my house in order. What if it was more simple than that?

I'm not suggesting that God wants me to give everything away and live in a tent in the woods but maybe He's beginning to show me how bogged down I am by the things of this world and how I can experience more freedom in Him by releasing it, giving it away, down-sizing. Who knows?

All I know is that something has been stirred up in me and I have no doubt that it will not go away until God peels away this part of me. To free me up to serve Him, to minister to my husband and children, to minister and love others.

I already warned Mark that as I read there will be conversations. Definitely not mandates but that's how I process. Talk it out. Who knows where God will take this. And now I'm warning you :) I'm sure there will be posts journaling my experience and conviction.

Painful? Probably a bit. But from what I know about God, it will be worth every single moment.

*sigh* I'm ready Lord!
(I think)

Introducing...

My sweet little niece Alannah Joy Palmer. She was born last Tuesday.

She weighed a whopping 5lbs 1oz!Isn't she just a little dolly?

Fun on Friday 33 - {swimming. again.} and Semi-homemade...

Nothing too exciting to report about our Fun on Friday. Swimming again. The kids have been swimming deprived so we are trying to make up for it. And since we have a pass...well that's what we're doing while it's cold outside. Although I have to admit that swimming isn't my favorite thing. Well let me rephrase that...sitting in a shallow kids pool watching my kids splash around while I freeze my tail off isn't so fun. Swimming itself is nice...in a hot tub! I swam a couple laps (4) while we were there and was saddened at how out of shape I am and how truly difficult it is to swim and swim and swim! And I was on the swim team at 6 years old for crying out loud! Maybe that's what I'll do when we go to the pool. I'll swim and get a work out and let Mark watch the kids. Hmmmm. Wonder if I could convince Mark? Doubt it.

Anywho. So like I said, not much to report there. But I thought I would show you a couple things I've been doing lately.

First off, I got this awesome Bible (an Inductive Bible) for Christmas from Julie and Mike. I saw that Mark's mom owned one and decided it looked amazing. So I've been doing Bible study everyday and marking the snot out of my Bible. I'm in highlighter heaven! I used to study my notes in college this way and it's taken my Bible studies to a whole new level. It feels like someone gave me a shovel and I'm discovering stuff way beneath the surface. Seriously. You look for key words, phrases, concepts. Ask the 5 W's and the H. Mark names, dates, places. It makes you think! I love it. Have I mentioned I love it? :)

Anyway, I get up. Read it. Drink coffee. And see this. Perfect.

We also did a little semi-homemade project that's been going around in my head for a while. We really needed a coat rack. Really. So I looked for one to buy and was appalled at how much they were! $100 for one?! No way! At least for a decent one. So we tried to figure out how much it would cost to build our own. We figured we could make it for $50. And that's what we did on Saturday.

Mark bought the wood and the hardware (paint made the project more expensive but it was under $50 for the wood and hardware) and had them cut it to length.

The kids and I painted it. No pictures of that since I was trying to monitor 3 excited kids while Mark was outside fixing the steps of our front deck. These are the legs at the base. Then we attached them to a 6 foot 4x4 post. Drilled in the hardware. Fixed the cap on top. Voila! (is that even spelled right?)
And that was our productive weekend!

What's Up?

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Afternoon update:
I realized (after I published this) that I have yet to mention another wonderful thing that happened. My sister, Kelly, got engaged! She and Carson will be married on June 9th in the Golden area. That's 2 weddings this summer! My brother's is August 18th. So we will be spending uber amounts of time in the Denver area with family and I couldn't be more thrilled. Wow!
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A few things actually....

Mark finished the long application for the pastor position. It was only 10 questions long but each question had roughly 10 parts. And they aren't like "how old are you?". They were more like "Tell of a time you had conflict in ministry. What happened and how did you handle it." Every question was one he had to think about and write short answers too. It took him a few weeks to work through all the questions and he finally finished a couple days ago. The next step is a formal interview that he will have next week with our regional guy and the district guy. I think he's just excited to move forward in another step. We are both fully at peace with whatever happens. There are moments when I'd love for him to be senior pastor. Moments where it thrills me and I get overwhelmed with ideas and visions. Then I have moments of "no way could we do this!". Moments of being overwhelmed with the responsibility and leadership requirements. I suppose, in the end, that's a great thing. If I felt like we were ready under our own power then we'd be terrible pastors. Being a pastor (even now) means relying on Jesus for strength and direction and encouragement. We have been told it will be a miracle if we get this job and I say that's the only way I'd ever want to do it. If God ordains it, then let it be so. If not, then we'll love and submit to the next pastor and enjoy God's plan. So that's where we're at with that. The superintendent (the big main dude in our district) will be here over Super Bowl weekend and he will speak at our church and most likely do another interview with Mark and with Steve.

I've had a crazy, busy ministry time in the past few days. I spoke about marriage at our local MOPS group (mother's of preschoolers) on Tuesday. I am certainly no expert on marriage. Only been married almost 12 years (next month). But God has shown me that all He requires is that I love Him and then share with others what He's done in my life. I don't tell people how to have good marriages or be great parents or be a good leader. I only tell them what God has done in me and hopefully it'll minister to them because I am far from great in all of those areas but God has done amazing things in my life and changed me in so many areas! I love bragging on God!

I also decided to step out and continue in women's ministry in the interim. I have a heart for it and have felt like God was leading me to do this, so I am. We had a planning meeting on Tuesday evening to start the process of what women's ministry looks like in this in between period. I'm super excited for the future of this. Lots of hopes and dreams but also lots of waiting for more direction.

I also started back working for the CPA that I have worked for the last 2 tax seasons. It's a nice part-time, evening job that brings in a little extra dinero that we appreciate. It's also exhausting because it certainly isn't a job I can mindlessly do after a long day with my children. It's one that requires my attention and focus the entire time. It wipes me out! So I'm praying for more strength and focus for the next few crazy, insane months.

And lastly, but certainly not leastly....I'm an aunt again! 3rd one this year baby! My brother-in-law, Chad, and his wife, Alisha, had their baby girl Tuesday afternoon. Her name is Alannah Joy and she was a mere 5 pounds! I so can't wait to figure out how to get up to Denver in the next month or so and love on that cutie pie! I'll post pictures when I get some more!

And now I'm off to clean up the kitchen from breakfast and start school with the kids...and rely on God for perseverance, patience and the ability to get everything done today!

Yup there's snow!

If you are friends on facebook with anyone from Durango you will know without a doubt that there is snow here today. It seems silly that so many people (myself included) would post something incredibly obvious to others but you have to understand that we haven't seen this much snow in a looong time. A really long time. Like a long time.

So. On the agenda today was definitely playing outside - and shoveling for me. Fun times. But a good work out! By the way, can I just tell you how entertaining it is getting a child with SPD ready to play outside? I put a glove on her and went to put the other one on and she started freaking out cause her hand was melting. You really need to put all the clothes on in 2.4 seconds or there will be tears...

Back to outside...I'm out there shoveling our long-ish driveway and the kids start yelling at me to come and see. So I go around back where the kids were playing and found this.Kale had gotten a snowman kit for Christmas and the 3 of them (more Kale than the rest though) made this little guy. We shall call him Snowy (Kale's name for him). I thought it was pretty stinkin good for doing it themselves!

After they were done with Snowy they came inside and now my laundry room looks like winter threw up in it. Clothes everywhere and melted snow on the ground. Not to mention the 5 loads of laundry I've been plowing through this morning...*sigh*. BUT! They got to play outside and it was a wonderful break for all of us.

Then for lunch, as part of Kale's curriculum, we made Johnny Cakes. Something people did back when George Washington was alive. We're studying American history and loving it! And since we're in a lunch rut I decided to make these. I didn't care if they hated them.All they are is corn meal, water and butter with a pinch of salt and sugar. Pretty bland but they tasted good - I thought - with more butter and maple syrup. Little corn pancakes! A lot like corn bread. Kate liked them and ate 2. Jack ate most of 1. And Kale had 2 bites and was done. Oh well. Aren't they lucky this isn't their main food staple? And aren't I lucky that I didn't have to grind the corn and then fry them over an open fire and use butter that I had churned?

Yes, yes I am lucky.

And that's our day. So far.

Fun on Friday 32 - {Swimming!}

Yes it's been over a week since I last posted. This week was busy but at the same time uneventful. Nothing really blog worthy. I suppose I can post pictures of my kids' new beds from Ikea and the pictures my sister sent me from sledding... and maybe I will. Later.

For now I'll post a couple cute ones.

On this day that the Broncos will play, I had to post my little niece Tebowing. Hysterical! This was totally not staged and not on purpose {she's only 10 months old!} but hilarious none-the-less. Love her! And I seriously think Tim Tebow is awesome. Kale was given Tebow's autobiography for Christmas and we've been reading it together and this guy is an amazing role model. Such a sweet and generous person. I get tired of people making fun of him. He never asked for it and certainly doesn't deserve it. He loves people and he's not ashamed of his Savior. I admire him. He challenges me!

As for our Fun on Friday we headed to the Rec Center to go swimming. The church blessed us with a 6 month family pass and I have a feeling most of the next months will be spent swimming! Now I just need to get them lessons....
We had lunch afterwards and then small group last night.

Today is being spent relaxing. Maybe finally taking down the outside Christmas lights.

Maybe.

Happy New Year!

It's 2012. I'm amazed.
Life really is like a roller coaster! There are seasons when I feel like I'm chugging up hill forever. Those are matched by seasons of life moving by so fast you can barely take it in before you start all over. That has been my past year.

I was checking facebook (of course I was) on New Year's day and I was struck by how many people wrote in their status' (or is is stati? JK) that they were so glad 2011 was over and they were sure hoping that 2012 would be so much better.

So I though back over the past year of my life and truthfully the things that stick out the most are the yucky stuff. Financial struggles, relationship issues, ministry difficulties, illness etc... The bad stuff jumped out at me and if I had stopped there I probably would've had a similar status to report.

But then God reminded me of this verse...again.

"Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:18-19

So I stopped. I stopped thinking about all the negative things that had happened and started really focusing on all the good stuff. And truly a lot of good stuff happened!

I got a niece and a nephew and one more in the next couple weeks! All in one year!!!!

We had awesome family vacations with my family and with Mark's.

Kale is reading.

Kate successfully started Kindergarten and still loves it!

We got an awesome dog that fits perfectly into our family.

Jack pees on a toilet!!!

I've developed and rekindled many relationships with women who have touched my life, challenged my faith and blessed me beyond measure.

My relationship with God is deeper, stronger, more wonderful than I've ever experienced since I submitted my life to Him.

My 2011 was amazing!

When I first came across Is.43 it was timely. It was during a time where I needed to stop dwelling on past hurts and look forward to what God is doing new in my life. It was perfect timing as usual.

Then the very next day I read this verse:

"Remember the former things long past, For I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me" Isaiah 46:9

I remember thinking to myself, 'God why did you tell me to forget and then just three chapters later tell me to remember?'

And He said, remember what I have done. Forget what others have done to you.

Wow. Remember all the goodness, the mercy, the love, the forgiveness, the miracles, the healing, the teaching, the Truth speaking, the grace He has done for me in the past year. Don't forget Who He Is!

It makes me excited for 2012. Not because it's going to be so much better than last year but because it's another year to grow in my relationships, my knowledge, my fruit of the spirit (all of them!! love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control), my discipline, my awesome parenting skills (um..right) and my life! I get to grow. I get to change. And I get to remember how great my God is and why I love serving Him.

I hope and pray that even if your 2011 was difficult, you are able to stop and see the beauty, even in the ashes, and that you can look forward to this year with hope and expectation because Jesus is already there!

A Few Vacation Adventures

We did a lot of stuff while we were up in Denver, besides opening presents.

We went sledding. I don't have many pictures of that. I took more videos but am having trouble loading them.Oh my gosh this girl was hilarious! This is my neice Lilah and she was so funny. She didn't smile much but she never cried either. She just always wore this look of, yes I'm the queen and you are my subjects and you're boring me. She cracked me up! She didn't even flinch or cry when her sled overturned and she went face-first in the snow. She just licked the snow off her lip. She's the most easy-going baby!Jack ate snow (no yellow snow). Surprisingly he didn't want much to do with thrill riding down the hill. The thrill-seeker didn't seek much thrill that day. Kale and Kate had a blast though! I went down once and flipped. I so wish I had the video of it because it was pretty funny but sadly that's on someone else's camera...Sorry!
And hot chocolate afterwards...We went to Ikea. Hello happy place!
Mark and I got some money for Christmas to put towards some beds for the kids. This was seriously the most perfect place to find beds!
Here's a picture of one aisle of the warehouse. Mark, Meghan, Lilah and I went and had a blast browsing through the store and dreaming up stuff!Wednesday night we got to go see the Nuggets home opener. Super fun!
Mark, Micah, Meghan, Nate, Sarah, Kelly and Carson. We were missing Katie who was on a place back to NYC :(Amazing seats!

We decorated cookiesWhich reminds me...Jack has a sweet tooth. A HUGE sweet tooth. At least once a day, many times more than that, we caught him sneaking cookies/candy/any type of sugar he could find. He'd grab the sugary goodness and run and hide. He finally got to the point where one morning I caught him with something in his mouth and he spit the peppermint bark into his hand, told me he didn't need a spanking and went to put himself in time out. That kid!

We also went to brunch with the Palmers to iHop after church.

Mark and his dadUm yeah. Group hug.Mark's mom, Margie, Alisha and his brother, Chad.I don't know how I missed a picture of Mike and Julie and baby Kieran {his picture will be coming soon!} Julie had to feed him while we were waiting for our food so she was in the car. That's when I was taking these pictures :(

Kale lost a tooth while we were waiting for food. No he didn't lose it in a pancake...We got to meet our newest little cuz/nephew. Here are the proud auntie and uncle with new nephew KieranThe kids didn't get to hold him this trip. We were just pretty busy. I'm sure next time we'll get some good shots of all the cousins (Chad and Alisha's baby will be here the next time we see them)

We also played Dr. and patient.Here are the kids and Mishka "working" on grandpa DougBecause grandma Margie was a real live nurse they have real live Dr stuff at the house. Here's what Mark does when he gets rubber gloves...Then he had to harass Kale and threaten to saw off his legOn Monday we headed to the Museum of Nature and Science and wen to the planetarium. We saw an Elmo and Big Bird show which was perfect for our first trip to see a show on the ceiling! No pictures from there but the kids loved it.

This trip was fun, busy, relaxing, crazy all rolled into one. I tried to condense it all into just 2 posts. Not bad!

Christmas 1,2,3,4

We had four Christmas' this year. You may be thinking it's a lot and you'd be right. I'm gonna attempt to recap them all in this one little bitty post. Or a not so little bitty. We'll see how I do.

Christmas Eve we went to church and had our {now} traditional Sonic Christmas dinner. Apparently there are no pictures from that but I did get the kids in their Christmas jammies.Christmas #1
Christmas morning the kids raced from their rooms to see what Santa had brought them and see what they had each gotten each other. We had them get a gift for each other and it was wonderful! Their favorite gift of Christmas morning was what they had gotten each other. So cool. And just for documentations sake Kale got Kate a Sleeping beauty Barbie, Kate got Jack a talking Finn McMissle car from Cars2 and Jack got Kale Transformer Legos. All big hits!

Kate going through her Santa stuff. There's a fire going on the TV in the background. Oh yes. We were "that" family. Fake fires and all!Most of the unwrapping footage is blurry. They totally understand the fast opening thing...Why yes Santa does, in fact, put underwear in their stockings!After church we headed to our friends, the Beach's, for Christmas #2

These wonderful folks have shared this day with us for the past 3 years and we are blessed with friends who are family to be with on Christmas day. It makes being away from family so much easier. They blessed our kids with a few gifts (which the kids tore into) and then an awesome meal!And some Wii Just Dance! Only pics of the kids who participated. There was a no facebook or blog rule for photos taken of the adults!After this we went home and packed up the car to leave Monday morning for Golden. We plugged the kids in with DVD players we got them for Christmas {an awesome Black Friday find!} and headed over the rivers and mountains and through the woods and plains to grandma's house.Christmas #3 was spent with my family in Golden. No pictures of the kids opening, or tearing madly like crazy people, their presents but I got pictures of my family as we sat down to calmly open our gifts to each other after the kids went down for bed.

My brother, Nate, and his fiance, Sarah, and their dog, Sadie. They're getting married next August.Carson (or almost Uncle Carson as Kale calls him), my sis, Kelly's boyfriend, Kelly and my mom.My sis, Meghan and Micah, her hubby.My NYC sis, Katie, and Bob the Great! (my grandpa)My dad! He holding the scrapbook of our previous donations. They told us one year that they didn't need gifts so we took them seriously and decided to donate to charities in their name with the money we would've spent on gifts. This year we did the charity Read to Me. Sarah's sister founded it and they give books to new moms to help teach their kids to read. Giving money to charities has seriously been so much fun!And last but not least, us. Terrible self portrait!We did lots of stuff with my family but I'm only talking Christmas here so we're skipping on ahead to Christmas #4 with the Palmers. This happened on New Years Eve.

I have to share the video of Kale getting his set of Star Wars Legos from Uncle Chad and Aunt Alisha. He's been waiting a long time for a big Lego set and as you can see, he was quite thrilled. You only need to watch the first 10 seconds to get the idea :)


Here are all the men working on Kale's Lego projectJack barely breathed in between each gift. He LOVED tearing off the paper! And he was so thrilled for his brother and sister when they opened their gifts. He was a cutie! Here he is showing off his doctor kit. Dressed like this I just want to say "the human head weighs 8 pounds"Here's a pic of Jack opening all his stocking presents from the PalmersAnd sweet little girly with her new doll she got from Chad and Alisha. She was pretty excited to have a doll with glasses!And finally here's a collage of the kids with their presents. So fun!Not bad for four Christmas'!