Memorial Stones

Stones set up to remember the faithfulness of God. Oh, how many times the Israelites witnessed something awesome, saw their God show himself to be powerful and mighty. One specific time after displaying his power God told Joshua to take 12 rocks, once each for the twelve tribes of Israel, and set them up as a place of remembrance (Joshua 4:1-9). So any time their children saw them and asked they would remember what God had done.

This week (really it was last week- I am SO on top of things) at church we are talking with our kids about remembering times God has come through for us in times of need. I have shared with Kiersten, and I’ll do so again this week, about how God came through big time for my Beloved and I at the time of her birth.

You see, we were in the process of moving. The problem was the new jobs insurance wasn’t going to kick in until a full two weeks after Kiersten was due. Thankfully the old insurance was good for a month from the last day of employment. (Isn’t that a huge blessing right there?) This meant that while my Beloved went to another state, nearly 1,000 miles away, I was to remain behind and wait. Family was 70 miles or so away from the hospital and so I stayed with a wonderful friend as the time drew near.

We had known going into the summer that there was a huge possibility my Beloved would not make it back in time, once alerted, to be there for the birth of our first child. So what did we do? We prayed. Day in and day out we prayed.

My Beloved scheduled a flight up the week before I was due and could stay with me 5 days or so and then needed to return as school would be starting. We went to my weekly exam and just shared our concerns and asked what we could do. The doctor wasn’t for it but said they could induce me at the end of the week if I wanted. I just needed to show up at the hospital the night she would be on call.

Well, we mulled and prayed about inducing. But it just didn’t sit right with us. No matter what spin we put on it it just seemed like we were trying to yank control back from the very God who created this child. It became a control issue for us and not waiting and trusting in God’s perfect timing. So several days before the end of the week we had come to peace with just waiting on God’s timing.

Would you believe my water broke the very evening I would have been induced had we so chosen! Isn’t that just God? So a few hours later our sweet Kiersten girl entered the world to see both her Mom and Dad there. My Beloved was with us about 24 hours and then we drove him to the airport to head back to our new home alone.

Did God ever come through for us in our hour of need and show us just how much He cares for us or what?

We remember, Lord. Kiersten is one of our memorial stones. We haven’t forgotten and we thank you and praise you today for what you did in our yesterday.

Shore

Otherwise known as sure. That is a frequent response we get from Isaiah. Not yes or ok but shore.

                “Isaiah, are you handsome?” – “Shore am.”

                “Do you love to play with your Hotwheels®?” – “Shore do.”

                “Would you like some milk?” – “Shore would.”

 So recently my Beloved was messing with Isaiah, fully aware of the responses he was going to receive. It went something like this:

                “Hey Buddy, how old is Dad?”

                “I don’t know.”

                “Dad is 32.” (So far from the truth, but what does
                the Biggest Man know?)

                “Shore are.”

                “How old is Mom?”

                “I don’t know.”

                “Mom is 40.”

                “Shore is!”

Well, let’s just say Isaiah is a sweetie but if he were 18 his bags would be out on the porch so he could hit the road! 40?! When Dad is only 32?! I suppose I am being too hard on the little guy. It is really his father that is the culprit. My Beloved does like to try to minimize our age difference, 6 ½ years, to his favor. He just can’t win as he is rounding up to 40 and I’ll be rounding to 30 for some time yet. So Isaiah is safe. For now. As for my Beloved? Don’t you worry, he’ll get his! :)

Pray tell...

what is that smell?

When you have small children in your house still in diapers there is many an assortment of smells that come and go in the house. Heck, it isn't only the little ones that you worry about with regard to smell. But I won't go there. However, this morning I claim full responsibility for the smell that still lingers even after lunch.

What was it?

Burnt toast.

I think I am seriously lucky it didn't start on fire. Note to self the left side of the toaster is a bit out of whack. On a setting of 2 1/2 it burnt my toast to a crisp and filled my kitchen with smoke. It is a dual toaster and there must be some kind of relationship like Jack Sprat and his wife. One side of the toaster burns on a 2 1/2 setting and the other pops back up in 30 seconds as if toasted on 2 1/2 setting. Who knows the mind of a toaster? :)

Either way I smelt the burnt smell on myself after we had left the house. I wonder if those other ladies in Jazzercise did too. Or if they just thought, "That girl is literally smokin'!" :) (That might have been true if I hadn't come off like I couldn't chew gum and walk at the same time. I honestly just could not get coordinated.) So it was a morning of mishaps and secret smiles. Ah well, what are Thursday's for if not to make you smile? Have a wonderful day!

Halloween

We had a fun night. The two oldest headed out with Dad to canvas the neighborhood and the littlest one stayed with me. It was just a tad bit too windy and chilly to send her out. BUT that doesn't mean she wasn't dressed up!

Kiersten was Thumbelina, the Biggest Man a dragon and the feisty one was a pixie fairy - or something to that effect. You know you have a girl's girl when she must wear a crown (even though it didn't come with the costume) in order to complete the outfit. :)

The picture above is before they went out and then below is after they came home. You can see Isaiah's red cheeks. They were only out for about 40 minutes or so but still came home with more than enough candy. This picture makes me laugh because of Katie's not amused look.

This other picture captures the smile but not the costume. Ahhh, now you see the method to my madness!!! Oh, and it also shows her holding what is now the love of her life - Dora the Explorer. She has fallen hook, line and sinker for Dora.

And lastly, what would Halloween be around here without a little pumpkin decorating? The kids' seem to thoroughly enjoy painting the silly faces and such on their pumpkins...which will have to suite them for more than some time as they are no where near old enough to carve. So any carving of the pumpkins seen was done by my Beloved. We purposefully grabbed some seriously large pumpkins so that he could harvest the seeds from inside and bake them up for a tasty treat.

All in all we had a lovely night. Our church did get us thinking about ways to be more creative to minister to the families that literally come knocking at our door. This year they had bags full of joke cards (You know, like what do you call a pair of spiders who just got married?  Newlywebs.) to give out with the candy. They also had the churches address and phone # on the bottom. There were suggestions of preparing chili, hot chocolate or cider to hand out to the adults as they walked around with their kids. Definitely something we'll be doing next year! Hope you had a safe and fun Halloween too! :)