Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Because of His Mercy

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Titus 3:4-6


There are many definitions for mercy, including compassion, kindness, and blessings. As I'm looking back on 2008 I'm thinking about all the blessings, compassion, and kindness that the Lord has shown me and my family this year. We've been healthy. We've lived in God's grace each day. We have experienced the joy of adoption. We have served together as a family to love and care for Little Bit while her mom prepares to have her full-time. I've been able to go to Mexico with Cowboy, my parents, sisters and their husbands to relax in God's beauty (without kids). I've been able to take a fantastic weekend trip (Passport 2 Purity) with Miss B. I've survived one semester of life with a middle school child:). I've been given the most amazing hugs by C-Man (especially after I returned home from skiing last night). I've had the pleasure to serve other homeschool families through the leadership team of Keystone Cooperative.

I live in awe of my sweet Jesus for dying for such a wretch as me! I don't deserve any of what he gives me. I pray that all who read this will be able to truly experience God's saving grace and live in His mercy in 2009.

Distracted by a 3-year old wanting to play the Wii,
Jenn

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas Wishes

I'm a couple days late with this, but here are some of my Christmas wishes...

* I wish people everywhere would choose to be adopted by my Heavenly Father.
* I wish more people would choose to adopt a child. I once heard that if 1 family in each church, synagogue, temple, etc. in the U.S. would adopt a child from foster care that there would be no children in need of a home. I know my church is covered, but many churches have ZERO families who have answered this call.
* I wish my father-in-law's cancer would be completely eradicated.
* I wish my children would get along with each other.
* I wish Little Bit would be successfully transitioned home and would be safe.
* I wish Cowboy and I had more date nights.
* I wish my munchkins wouldn't complain when given chores and schoolwork.
* I wish for September to get here quickly so that we can go to Walt Disney World again.
* I wish for our country to not slowly transition to a socialist government over the next few years.

Miss B and I will be skiing over the next few days, so nothing new will be here until New Year's Eve or so. I'm sure I'll have great pics and fun stories.

5 hours until I'm out the door for Colorado,
Jenn

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

A Great Legacy, Part 1



Monday my sweet grandparents celebrated their birthdays. Grandpa celebrated 82 and Grandma celebrated 76. I have neglected to visit my grandparents like I should so I decided to take a little road trip with Miss B, C-Man, and Little I. Knowing that our time with Grandpa & Grandma on earth is getting shorter I decided to let my kids do a little video project. Sunday evening they wrote out some questions to ask their great-grandparents. They needed a little bit of coaching, but not much. We printed the questions and got the video camera and tripod ready to take with us. I got up yesterday and threw together a casserole to take for lunch. We stopped by Wal-Mart and finished shopping for their food basket we took. Then we listened to Christmas music and the Camp Rock CD on the way to their town.
They were overjoyed to see us and get to spend some time with us. We had a fantastic visit and had over 30 minutes of video when it was all said and done.
I'll post thoughts from my grandparents in the future. For today...

C-Man's favorite thing he found out about his great-grandparents:
Grandpa grew up on a farm and often got in trouble with his younger brother when they didn't come home as soon as their chore were done. Grandpa told C-Man that there were always snakes to kill, skunks to trap, and squirrels to hunt. One day he & his brother were remembering how they didn't want to get in trouble by being late, but they spotted a snake going up a tree. They couldn't resist! He boosted his brother up one side of the tree for his brother to make the kill. Then, the snake came down the other side. Grandpa told us he got his stick and smacked that snake. He killed it! His poor little brother didn't get the kill that day.
I suspect C-Man liked this story because it had a lethal weapon, a disgusting animal, and the big brother won! Boys are still the same as they were 70+ years ago.

Our Surprise Christmas Gift





When Cowboy first went to work at Hobby Lobby in 2002 we were overwhelmed by the company's witness to its employees. One of the amazing things was that the company has a chaplain for its corporate employees. A year ago the chaplain began talking to him about how there was a need for a second chaplain. There were simply too many ministries to oversee and too many people with needs that she couldn't get to. Cowboy and I began praying then for God to open that door if it was where God wanted to use him. Recently Cowboy's hours have been really crazy and he's been quite sleep-deprived, causing us to pray even more fervently about this potential. Saturday morning he went into work and found out that he would be starting work on Monday morning as a Chaplain.

Cowboy put in his first day as a chaplain yesterday. He has much to learn, but has never been so excited about a job. He now gets to share openly about our mighty God who wants to be in relationship with the people He created! How cool is that?

What an incredible Christmas gift from God!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Not Me Monday

Here are a few things I did NOT do this week. To check out other people's confessions go to


I did not slip up today and call Cowboy's going away party at his work a "Go Away" party.

I did not have thoughts of asking Little Bit's mom if she'd just turn over rights to us so that she doesn't screw up her life.

I did not act clueless today when my grandparents told Miss B that what they remembered of me when I was a kid is that when I was about 8 I sat on a lawn chair on the front porch and bossed my parents and grandparents around while they were all doing hard-core yard work.

I did not forget to mail 2 bills that were due today! YIKES--who would do that?

I did not leave Little I in the same pair of pajamas for 2 straight days! What kind of mom would do that?

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Our Favorite Christmas Tradition





We pulled it off again! Our kids had NO idea that it was coming. We put them all to bed and got them up out of bed after they'd been there for about 30 minutes. We loaded everyone up in the van with their blankets. Our first stop was 7-Eleven where Cowboy got everyone their favorite drink and snack, then we were off to look at Christmas lights. This was Little I's first time to go with us on our late-night adventure! We forgot the camera at home, but at least got some pics of us surprising them. By the way, they don't always sleep in the same room. We told them it was a special treat that night for all of them to stay in Miss B's room. Aren't we sneaky?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Brown-Eyed Boy



Two days ago I took only Little Bit to the store and left the other 3 behind. When I got home I gave the oldest 2 each something I'd bought for them. C-Man's was new dental floss. He was so excited! Look at this picture and see if you can guess what I brought home to Miss B. I, unfortunately, was in mommy's-tuning-everyone-out mode and missed Little I's questioning, "Is this for eyes, Mama? Is this for eyes, Mama? Is this for eyes, Mama?" By the time I listened the damage was done. Here's my beautiful, brown-eyed boy. Doesn't he look good in mascara?

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas Card

As many of you know our family sent the CUTEST Christmas card this year. Our kids looked absolutely angelic in it. Miss B's hair was flat-ironed so nicely by her Chi, her mascara looked great and you can't tell it, but she's showing off her new contacts she got a few months ago. C-Man is donning his toothless grin. He's missing his 2 front teeth on top plus 2 side teeth on the bottom. (He calls his gaps a maze). His almost-glowing blonde hair is combed nicely and doesn't show any signs of the double-crown he has. Little I is showing off his cheesy grin with his front tooth that is now slightly grayer than the others thanks to his run-in with the recliner. His hair is neatly shaven with no signs of the velcro head that he sometimes has when his white mama doesn't get his hair cut as often as it should be. Little Bit did her part to keep her back to the camera, since technically we shouldn't include her in our family picture (per DHS policy). Cowboy looks handsome as ever and more awake than he has lately with his 3:45 wake-ups and 12+ hour workdays. I, surprisingly, look amazing! You can't see the signs of scars on my face from hormone-caused adult acne. Miraculously the camera didn't add pounds, it took them off!

WHAT? You didn't get our family Christmas picture card?

Oh, that's right! We haven't even taken a picture for the card this year. At this point it looks like we'll send a New Year's card!

Disclaimer--the aforementioned description will never actually come to fruition. It's simply a figment of my imagination. Please don't expect to see it in your mailbox in the coming weeks.

Still waiting to wrap my first gift,
Jenn

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Dangerous Book for Boys


If you're raising a son, you need this book. We found it for C-Man a couple years ago and gave it to him for an Easter present. He LOVES it!!! Today we're stuck inside because it's bitterly cold here. He pulled it out and began plotting. Muhuhuhahaha!!!

Here's a sampling of the contents:
Making a Battery
How to Play Stickball
Fossils
Building a Treehouse
The Rules of Soccer
Dinosaurs
Making a Bow and Arrow
Understanding Grammar--Part One
Table Football
Fishing
Timers and Tripwires
Baseball's "Most Valuable Players"
Famous Battles--Part One
Spies
Juggling
Skipping Stones
Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary
First Aid
Secret Inks

Honestly, wouldn't your boy love a book with all of this (plus more)? It's written by Conn Iggulden & Hal Iggulden. The website is www.dangerousbookforboys.com.

By the way, Superwoman informs me the girls' version is not so wholesome. She says it includes some information on how to have a seance. It is called The Daring Book for Girls and is written by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. They have a website you could go to for ideas without purchasing the whole book.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Confessions of a Scatterbrained Mom

I'm too distracted in December to do a bang-up job of homeschooling. I'm online trying to get ideas for those last few gifts I still need to purchase. OK, let's get real. There really weren't a few gifts in December to buy, there were MOST! Anyway, I'm still stumped on some and there are only 10 days left.
The potential bad weather for this week is distracting to me. I must make sure we have enough food for me to prepare for Cowboy and these munchkins. Our co-op is finished for the semester so I have to do some fill-in for Miss B this week. LUCKY HER!!! C-Man is whining like crazy that he didn't get his Nana Day today because the classes I teach are finished until January. Little Bit gets no weekend visits with her mom for awhile because her mom had a new baby today. Miss B & I are going skiing in a couple weeks and I've been working to make sure she has snow boots that fit. We've had 3 different Christmas programs our kids have been in within the last week and a half plus a few Christmas parties. Miss B's swim club is hosting a huge swim meet this week and we will be putting in lots of volunteer hours with the help of our family. Cowboy has been working ridiculous hours lately--60-73 hours a week lately. When things get out-of-control like this I lose my brain. I can't keep my thoughts focused. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas apparently! I must forge on and school my kids this week--ALL WEEK--if it kills me! (I hope it doesn't, though, because so many things would be left undone.)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Spelling

Calling all parents of kids who take spelling tests! I recently learned of www.spellingcity.com. This is an awesome site for homeschoolers and public schoolers and private schoolers. The student (or parent)enters the word list and then the program sounds it out, uses it in a sentence, and spells it aloud while the letters come up on the screen. I love it. Happy Spelling!!!

Friday, December 12, 2008

My Grandpa

My mom brought me an envelope full of pictures of my sweet cousin, J. My grandpa had sent her the envelope to share some pictures with my friend. (More on my cousin J. later). Back to the envelope. Mom pointed out that Grandpa spelled her name wrong. She seemed to handle it better than I did. She did, however, say, "My Dad's been spelling my name for over 58 years and he's never spelled it wrong."
After that I tried to remember all the wonderful things about my grandpa. When my parents started dating my mom's parents were not Christians. My Dad at that point already had a ministry calling on his life. Grandpa told my Mom that she was not allowed to date that Preacher Boy. Well...the Holy Spirit did quite a work on my Grandpa. Grandpa became very ill and got to the point that he begged to have that Preacher Boy come pray with him. This was the point in my Grandpa's life that he became a Christian. My Grandma followed his lead.
I'm blessed to only remember my Grandpa as a sweet, Godly man. I have memories of him spending time in God's Word first thing every morning. I remember him working on his Sunday school lesson throughout the week. His worn Bible was always sitting out close to wherever he was, whether at work or home.
Stories have been told about times before Grandpa came to know God. I prefer not to hear about harsh, demanding words he spoke. This new, changed man is the only Grandpa I know and I'm so grateful for that.
Grandpa & Grandma are lacking a lot financially. Prescriptions, utilities, etc. are sometimes hard for them to cover. For Christmas Cowboy & I have given them groceries or money in the past. But I know without a doubt that this life on earth is going to seem like nothing when they're feasting in heaven with Jesus. Grandpa will have nuts to eat (which are usually too expensive here on earth) and Grandma will have all the donuts, Oreos, chocolate covered cherries and other sweets she loves (but doesn't have extra money to indulge in here on earth).
When my grandparents go home I will miss them dearly, but I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will spend forever with them praising our mighty God.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Cowboy's Dad

We got word on Monday afternoon that Cowboy's dad has prostate cancer. We don't know anymore than that right now. He will have an appointment next week with a urologist to learn a little more about it. We're just praying and believing that it was caught early and that it is completely curable. We know many men who've gotten past this type of cancer, which is encouraging.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

My Oldest Makes Me Proud


I've debated in my head whether to write this down or not, but I must. Miss B needs to see and know that she makes me so proud! We've really been working on some character issues with her that are quite common for 11-year old girls.
About 1 1/2 weeks ago I noticed that her phone kept going off during our school day. This isn't completely odd, but usually if I notice it vibrating it's because she's been texting back and forth with some of her friends. On this day I noticed it vibrating, but I didn't see her texting. Finally I heard it vibrating when she wasn't in the room. When I looked at it I noticed the alarm was the reason for the vibrating.
I asked her if she kept hitting the snooze. She told me that she had set her alarm to remind her to think about the issue we were working on. WOW!!! What a mature thing to do!
I started thinking...how many alarms would I have to set to remind me to stay focused on the areas of my life that God is working on? YIKES--my phone would never stop vibrating!
I just want my girl to know that I'm so blessed to have a sweet daughter who loves God so much. I love watching her serve God today and look forward to watching her serve God throughout her life.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Ebony or Ivory Revisited

Our family was not God's choice for Ivory. Even though I just "knew" God wanted us to take her, I gave in to Cowboy's leadership in our home. It was not easy, but I believe God's Word and I believe Cowboy is the head honcho, main man, boss, decision maker in our home. So I listened to Cowboy when he said that this child was not for us. I nearly lost it when I thought Ivory was going to be placed in a shelter. God knew all along, though, that there was a family who already had a great relationship with Ivory who loved her and was ready to take on the task of raising her.
So what did I gain from this? I realize more than ever that there's a reason God placed the husband at the head of the household. They don't think with their emotions! They can think in terms of truths and facts and not what-ifs and feelings.
Thank you, God, for making me the emotional thinker that I am and thank you big-time that Cowboy is NOT an emotional thinker!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Discipline is Painful

OK, today has not been a great day. It started off beautifully with all 4 children sleeping long enough for me to get ready, make my bed, and have some quiet time. During my quiet time today I pulled out some books I haven't read or worked through in a while. One of them is Speaking mom-ese by Lisa Whelchel and the other is Every Child Needs a Praying Mom by Fern Nichols. Can you tell what my struggles are today (and every other day recently)? I'm really struggling to be the mother God called me to be. Recently I've felt like every ball that I'm supposed to keep in the air has fallen to the ground on another planet in a galaxy that hasn't even been discovered yet. I can't even keep the simplest things going. [']

So...back to my day. God really spoke to me through Lisa Whelchel today. I love her, by the way. He reminded me that my struggles with my kids are just a reflection of my struggles with sin in my own life. I will spare you the details of my own sin. It's UGLY, as all sin it. But, God is so good to love me and get me out of the muck of sin I'm in!

Well, the kids woke up, we had a fairly peaceful breakfast. Then we headed out the door for a 45-minute orthodontic appointment, off to meet our adoption attorney to get him paid, to the chiropractor for adjustments, and finally home for a lunch that NO ONE appreciated. School was even less appreciated today, by everyone but me. I'm actually enjoying reading about Abraham Lincoln. My children decided to not speak kindly to each other today which caused me to not want to speak kindly to them! We've argued, disciplined, hugged, screamed, cried, had a bloody nose and it's only 3 in the afternoon.

Here's the verse my family is memorizing this week:
"No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening--it is painful! But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way." Hebrews 12:11 NLT

Well, what I'm going through is PAINFUL! It is also painful to discipline my kids. But I'm trusting God's Word to be true. I'm excited for my family to reap "a quiet harvest of right living".

Friday, November 28, 2008

I'm Thankful for...






*Jesus, who loves me so much He gave His life for me
*Cowboy, who is truly the most amazing man for loving me despite my craziness (please don't ask me to go into my hormone rages, weight gain, anal retentive impulses--oops, I'm telling on myself, aren't I?)
*Miss B, C-Man, & Little I--what would my life be like without these munchkins?
*Dad & Mom, Big Sis, Baby Sis, and my in-laws
*Church Family & Friends
*Sam's Club
*Paper Towels (purchased in bulk at Sam's)
*Day-After-Thanksgiving Shopping with Mom, Big Sis & Baby Sis
*Pull-Ups big enough for 3 1/2 year olds who should be POTTY TRAINED
*Children who are old enough to take pictures of family events, so I don't miss them all
*Family Force 5, TobyMac, Switchfoot, Robert Randolph, Harry Connick, Jr.,
*Homeschooling my munchkins
*Wii
*Living in the most conservative state in the Union
*Time spent with my grandparents yesterday
*My kids' relationships with their grandparents
*Miss B & C-Man already choosing to follow Christ
*Not being able to birth more children, but still have more :)
*The United States of America
*Narnia books and movies
*Time to bake
*Miss B's swimming talent
*C-Man's musical abilities (I even enjoy his playing the drums)
*Little I's ability to parrot any sound he hears

Friday, November 21, 2008

Muffin Punkins

Cottagebaker is a dear friend of mine who is truly amazing in the home. She gave me a recipe a few months ago that she calls "Pumpkin Chip Muffins". My Little I adores it SO much that in our home we've renamed it according to the name he has given it. Here it is...
Muffin Punkins
1 c. oil (I use mostly applesauce with just a little oil to be the combined amount of 1 c.)
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 bag cinnamon baking chips
350 degree oven - Cream oil or shortening & sugar, add eggs, mix well, add pumpkin, mix well, add dry ingredients. Batter will be thick. Stir in chips & fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake 25-30 minutes. I get two dozen out of this.
Remember, as with any muffins, DON'T overmix. You want them lumpy and not messed with too much! When you're able to find cinnamon chips stock up on them.
Happy Baking!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Adopting Little I

I've been meaning to do this for a long time. My memory is not that great (& I'm sure my love for Coke Zero is not helping that) so I feel that I have to journal things to remember them. Our story of adopting Little I follows.



Our plan was 2 kids. God was so good to us and we were able to have 2 chilren on our own. As soon as I had recovered from my c-section with C-Man I said I wanted another. Cowboy thought I was crazy and reminded me that our plan was to have 2 kids. I got tired of nagging him and just turned it over to God. I asked Cowboy to pray about how many children we should have. He heard from God and it wasn't the answer he wanted, but he obeyed. (I just LOVE my husband!)



We were not able to have any more kids on our own and decided that we should become foster parents in hopes to adopt. We had friends who had done this and knew there were plenty of kids out there that needed homes. We made the first phone call in August of 2005 to get information about becoming foster parents. We finished our foster parent classes in December of 2005. We were SO ready to have another baby by this point, but we still had more red tape to go through.



In January of 2006 God gave me a dream. God has never before or since given me a dream or vision. In this dream I was on a playground at an orphanage looking for my child. I found him. He was a beautiful 5-year old boy with brown skin and big brown eyes. I woke up from the dream and told Cowboy what our boy was supposed to look like. Even though I knew we were supposed to get a baby, not a 5-year old, I knew God had shown me our child.



We finally received a phone call on March 29, 2006 to ask us if we'd take 2 little boys. Because of some extra responsibilities I had at the time, I had to say "no" to 2. I asked the worker if she had any brown-skin boys under 1. She told me she had some. The stress set in. How would we decide which boy to accept? I called Cowboy, who was in the car with Miss B and C-Man. We said a quick prayer and knew we were to take Little I.

We picked up Little I the next afternoon. He was SO tiny and had the hugest brown eyes. He was a malnourished 9 1/2 month old baby with Don King hair. In those first weeks I told him numerous times, "We'll always feed you when you're hungry."

Many details and 2 1/2 years later he is officially OURS!!! We can't imagine life without him. He brings us great joy everyday with phrases like, "Knock your cheese off!" and "Hey, Bobby!"

God is SO good!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Ebony or Ivory?

If I choose ivory this time, does it mean I'll never get another ebony?...

I have been teary today and I don't know why. I think I'm getting a bit overwhelmed at thoughts of the past week and a half. We were able to finalize adoption on our sweet Little I on October 31st. This has been such a long wait for our family. After the adoption, the Judge looked at me and said, "You know there's more where that one came from." I told him we were ready for more.

Now it looks like we could have another placement, but it's not the placement we thought we wanted next. We had in our minds that we needed another brown-skin boy so that Little I wouldn't feel like an outsider within his own family. When I write this down it seems so silly to me. I think about God's adoption of me. He didn't seem to care that I am completely different from every other child of His. He didn't make sure I was a certain race, gender, or age. So why is it so hard for me & Cowboy to make this decision? At church today God seemed to be telling me in a variety of ways that we should say yes to this placement. However, Cowboy doesn't agree. Because I love God and trust him to give Cowboy the answers for our family, I'm waiting.

By the way, it took Cowboy quite a while to decide we needed a 3rd child. Then, when it wasn't possible to have a third biologically, it took even longer for him to decide that we should pursue adoption. I'll just wait on him to hear from God or I'll trust God to change my heart on this matter.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

What shades I love...

OK, so I absolutely LOVE God's creation, especially His people. (maybe not so much love to the spiders, though.) I've always been a people watcher. People watching is my favorite part of any sporting event, unless my kids are participating in the aforementioned event.

I obviously love my fair husband, my two fair children, and my two brown children. I think people from India are beautiful, as well as brown-skinned Africans, Mexicans, and Native Americans. I also believe people from the Middle East are pulchritudinous.

So, why all the talk about the shades of people's melanin? I think God has placed in me a heart for certain people groups. Show me a picture of a child from the Ukraine and another from Rwanda. Who would I sponsor? Rwanda. Actually, I already do. ;-) I have other friends' whose hearts go out to completely different people groups than mine. It's so cool to me how God places that special love for different people groups in us. It also breaks my heart that there are still people in this world who can't see the beauty in someone that doesn't look like them. I hope my sweet Little I never has to experience those types of people.