reading

Do you like reading? I always feel like one of the best "gifts" I can give my children is a love of books. To lose yourself in a world of imagination; to be engrossed in a book of fascinating history; to be taught by men and women of faith - these things are treasures to be sought after!

Also, God has chosen the written word as His means of teaching us and Jesus Himself is the Word made flesh. When our kids are given their first Bible when they've mastered reading, their excitement brings tears to my eyes. And their Bible reading schedule brings me to shame.

I'm thankful for the many other means of learning and even being entertained, but in my opinion, nothing can beat a good book :)

Over the kitchen sink......

I was recently speaking with someone about a situation that directly affected one of my children. I was passionate about it exactly for that reason - it had to do with my child. At one point in the conversation the guy I was speaking to said, "I realize that you have your 'mommy hat' on right now". And he was right. A few years ago this topic wouldn't even have interested me b/c it wouldn't have "hit home". It kinda made me think about myself and the variety of "hats" that I wear.

I'm fairly adept at changing hats. I can wear my early morning pleasant hat without much effort most mornings (unless I'm awoken too early, in which case my grumpy hat makes an appearance). When I'm on the phone I always don my cheerful hat, regardless of what hat I may have been wearing only seconds before.
My angry hat resurrects from the garbage can far too often and no matter how many times I put my impatient hat at the roadside, it always manages to be at my fingertips.
My biggest hat, by far, is the one I wear when I go out. It has to be big to hide all the other hats that lurk beneath it. It has to effectively cover-up the angry, impatient, bitter, selfish, hurt hats that I need to keep hidden.
In talking to a friend recently, she said that if we showed people what really went on in our hearts and our minds we'd all be shocked; not just by the sin but also by the unknown hurst. But then we'd also be able to better pray for and care for each other. But I don't really want everyone to see my hats. I like to speak of them in a "safe" way - a way that others can identify with. Somehow they don't look so ugly then.
I'm not proposing taking off the "big hat" and throwing all the ugly hats on the table for all to see. But I am talking about being real with each other. About not being satisfied with surface relationships that delight in fun, but never really help anyone. As iron sharpens iron - have you ever sharpened anyone? Or allowed anyone to sharpen you? Or do you back away from relationships like that? I enjoy some wonderful friendships like this. I have friends that I can talk to about my sinfulness and know I'll be prayed for. And I have a very special, understanding, loving husband who points out my sin, but then also points me to Christ.

But above all, I have a Saviour Who isn't fooled by any of my disguises. He sees me for what I am - a sinner saved by grace - and He loves me. Isn't that beautiful? And one day all my hats will be completely done away with and I'll be clothed with white robes - washed white in the blood of the Lamb!

"Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in the temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.....for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Rev. 7:15-17)

My hats - they're too much about me; but the crown I'll wear in heaven - that's all about Christ. To God be the glory!

coordination is highly overated!

I took a trip to the Bibles for Missions Thrift Store yesterday and amongst some great finds I also picked up an exercise video. It’s long overdue and I’ve run out of excuses that even I’ll believe as to why I don’t have the time to exercise. So, this morning, full of good intentions (and purposeful forgetfulness about past experiences with such videos), I took a sleepy Corin downstairs and began my “journey to a fitter me”.

Disaster #1 hit while the opening music played. Corin is convinced that everytime the VCR or DVD player goes on it must meant that Thomas the Tank Engine is about to be featured. His cries were the constant background music to my “workout”.

I determined that a 2-year old was not going to thwart my plans so I tried to tune him out. “A healthy mommy means a happy baby”, I chanted cheerfully. (I think I read that line in a parenting magazine once…….) So I turned back to the TV, noticing that the rather chipper looking ladies weren’t wearing their housecoats like I was. However, that being a minor point, I readied myself for action.

“Are you smiling?” shouted the ridiculously fit little lady bouncing around in front of me. Sure, I thought – she can smile – she doesn’t have a little kid hanging on her ankles and crying for Thomas. But, I started the warm-up with a decent measure of optimism. And I did okay. I could march in place and even get my arms moving at the same time. But then the picture changed.

“Let’s burn fat!” she shouted with a sympathetic smile (trying to look like she had fat to burn). And suddenly the march took on a bounce and a swing and I found myself hitting the wall. My housecoat flapping wildly, I tried desperately to keep up some sort of a rhythm. I must have tripped a dozen times as my feet refused to coordinate with my arms.

“Are you still smiling?” she shrieked, not even remotely out of breath. No, I’m not smiling, unless gritting my teeth counts. But with the Chariots of Fire theme song running through my head, I set my face like flint and convinced myself that a turn-step with a half twist, along with some energetic “reaching for the sky” couldn’t be that hard. But it was. Or, I will humbly admit, I was for me. So, after managing to kick myself rather hard in the calf muscle, I gave up following her routine and just did my own thing.

In the end I did get a workout, I highly amused Caleb who watched from the couch, and I taught my 2-year old that life doesn’t revolve around him. I just hope I didn’t leave him with the impression that sometimes mommies lose it completely and leave their children to cry while they careen around the room with chaotic abandon.

Please don’t visit here too early in the morning ;)

We're URC!

I published the picture below, but for some reason Blogger wouldn't let me add any words to it.

Anyway, yesterday was a day of great blessing for us - both for Rich and I and for our church. Rich had his colloquium doctom (theological discussion/examination) and sustained it - allowing us as a church to become part of the United Reformed Churches. The day followed many days of study and of some stress and tenseness as we awaited "the big day". But the Lord, in His grace, upheld Rich, gave him strength to answer the questions well (may I say that as his wife? :) and to complete it "successfully". All glory goes to God Who so graciously upholds His servants and His church! We now are excited about being a part of this federation. We pray that we will be a blessing to the other churches as they also are a blessing to us.

Praise the Lord!

Sunday night

I think we must have fallen asleep Sunday night still laughing :) We had the young people's group over for the evening and played a game where we all had to draw each other - but not let anyone know who you were drawing. We picked names out of a bowl, drew the person we picked and also had to choose a bible verse or a character trait that described that person. It's a good thing we added the "encouragment theme" to the game 'cause the drawings........well - I'll let them speak for themselves:

This one rather defies description - but I think most of us laughed till we cried! I won't embarass anyone by giving away either who drew it or who it's supposed to be, but I'll give a coupla details. First, the drawing was supposed to fill a fairly large piece of paper - this photo is a blow-up of a drawing about 2"x2". Second, it's a rather ape-like rendition of a very pretty young lady in our youth group. And lastly, if she actually has that bald/thinning spot, she hides it remarkably well :) The worst part was when the artist tried to put a serious spin on it by encouraging her and all we could envision was this crazy looking little drawing!
This particular one is a before and after picture of .................guess who?! The hot air coming from his mouth in the second picture may give you a clue.................;)
I had to fool around with some effects to get this one to come clear enough to be seen b/c it was drawn very lightly. How do you tell someone you find them cheerful and hard-working and encouraging after drawing them like this?!!
Though this is a 2nd grade type drawing, there's something in it that actually looks like the person it represents! Hee,hee :)
Rich (Pastor A.) then went on to read a section from a book on encouraging one another in our gifts and using them in the church we're a part of. It's so easy to think that everyone else has gifts and can be useful, but what on earth can I do! But God tells us in His Word that every part of the body is vital and that we all work together to build His church. We prayed together and sang for awhile. It was a wonderful evening and we are so thankful for this group of yp's. They are fun-loving, but also spiritually serious - wanting to serve the Lord with their lives.

We also had Robin and Jackie with us (thanks for coming, guys!) and their very sweet little daughter, Unjali :)

weddings and things

We are planning a wedding!! My sister's getting married in October and though she's looking a little dazed lately, we're all very excited about it :) Yesterday I loaded the kids into the van and headed over to my parent's place to talk over plans with my sister and my mom. We roped my Dad into babysitting (thanks Dad!!) while we went to look at a reception hall. The funny thing is, the place we looked at is just down the road from my parent's house (the house we all grew up in) and holds a ton of memories for us. It's right next to the best tobogganing hill in the world (or so we all thought :), and is also right beside the paved "hill" (somehow it seemed a lot bigger when I was little.....) that we held rollarskating competitions on. We passed it and dreamed big dreams about it hundreds of times when we were kids. Turns out that while I was dreaming of one day going in there in a fancy dress, Kara was pretending it was haunted :) Maybe my dream will actually come true :) My daughter's dream has certainly come true as Kara asked her to be her flower girrl! (I spelled that wrong b/c blogger deletes that word - I'm not sure why) How wonderful to be in a wedding party - for both of us!

But beyond the of a wedding is the reality of life together - of home life. And though it has its ups and downs, I highly recommend it! It's bit of this:

Sometimes this:
Certainly this:
And in this case, lots of this:
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh" Gen.2:24

Relax in the Lord's will for you, dear sister! The best is yet to come.......or as Ron likes to say "It just doesn't get any better than this!" :)

nice :)

Laura gave me this this morning. I don't feel very deserving - not much like "rubies". A little more like a plain, old rock, perhaps. But don't you find that when the kids are rock collecting, they don't necessarily pick up the ones we would find beautiful? Their pockets are often stuffed with the plain, old rocks. And to Christ I am precious - I am made to be a ruby - and even an example to my daughter.

Lamentations 3:22-24 (King James Version)
22It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
24The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

Do you do this?

Do you have a child (or perhaps more than one!) that just makes you laugh? Rich and I will often gut ourselves laughing in bed at night as we recount things that our kids have done during the day. But it seems that one specific child of ours causes the most laughter. I won't say which one - you may be able to guess :)

"Hey mom - when I breathe like this.... (loud gargling noises, saliva and other unmentionables fly through the air) .....I don't have to blow my nose as often." (great dear, that's sure to catch on world-wide)

"Hey mom.........(runs into the room, trips over the edge of the carpet, knocks over a side table, picks it up, stops to hike up his sagging pants, notices a book, reads it for a few minutes, looks back at me with a thoughtful expression).......awwwww! I forgot what I was going to say!"

"Hey dad - let's wrestle!" (jumps onto Rich's back, falls onto the floor, notices a book, reads it for a few minutes, notices Rich and Luke wrestling, jumps on Rich's back, falls onto the floor, notices a book, ...................)

"Mom! They're laughing at me! They say my face is covered in food!" (runs to me for a hug, tears mingling with the jam all around his mouth)

I don't know - there's just something about this boy of ours. Life is very dramatic for him. Everyday things explode with energy and ............problems. He does everything with lots of fan-fare - yet he's completely oblivious to the commotion he makes. Making of lunch consists of dipping his knife in the peanut butter, dripping half of it onto the table, slopping the rest on the bread, licking his knife, wiping excess peanut butter on his shirt and pants, dropping the sandwich onto the floor, picking it up, taking a huge bite that leaves peanut butter all over his chin, and humming loudly all the while. Then he bites his tongue, wails loudly (showing all of us the half chewed peanut butter sandwich) and comes over for a hug.

We sometimes think of him as the "absent-minded professer" (or "Calvin" from Calvin and Hobbes)- 'cause despite all his mishaps, he's actually quite smart. He's also very affectionate, imaginative and sensitive - and has a great sense of humour! We hope, for his sake, that he outgrows some of his more..........problematic tendencies, but in the meantime they endear him to us all the more :) And laughter is good for us.......right? :)