Enjoying a Plum

Fruitful Vine

I was making lunch for the girls today after our MOPS meeting. I was in a hurry to feed all of them. I was moving at a quick pace. Mya had the nerve to ask me to put raisins on her celery with peanut butter. What? You mean to tell me the peanut butter and celery wasn't enough. It took time for me to spread that peanut butter on each piece of celery. Meanwhile I was trying to feed the baby. And now my child wanted me to get the raisins out and put them on her celery. You know what I did? I stopped myself in the middle of saying the word "No" and realized that she was asking for something so small...and something that would make her lunch fun and memorable. I stopped myself, changed my thinking, and told her "Yes, you sure can." Priorities! Our challenge at MOPS today was based on Psalm 128 where God tells us that we should be fruitful vines within our houses. My priority at lunch was to get things done on my timetable, so I could checkmark those things on my list. But what should be more important is my children. I am challenged to start watching them closer, play Duck Duck Goose when I don't want to, and going that extra mile to put raisins on Mya's celery. By doing these things I can focus on teaching my children the way God has designed it to be. My family is my ministry and I can obey the Lord in that area by paying attention to the children. One of these days will be the last day that Mya asks for raisins, or that Sara asks me to read her a picture book, or that Chloe needs me to hold her hands to help her walk. These days will pass quickly and I want to do whatever I can to minister to my children and bear fruit in our home.

Last night after dinner the girls were playing with their toys and we overheard them telling their toys that they needed to listen to Proverbs to be wise. Wow! I am doing something right from spending more time with the kids. The Lord will bless that extra time and effort that we put into caring for and teaching them. Blessings will be abundant and fruits of the spirit will be seen. I always tell the girls that they are learning to obey so God can use them and do great things with them. I am excited to see God use our entire family as we continue to make positive changes in our lives.

Challenged

I am still trying to work my way through the entire bible, but I am sad to say that I am only in Job. However, regardless of where I read for the day I learn so much. It doesn't matter what book I am in. But Job.....now this is a convicting book. Can you imagine having everything taken from you, including your family? Right away I think....how much do I put my security in the things of this world? If I lost Dan and the girls, would I come out of that experience praising God? unfortunately I don't think so. But I am challenged to reconsider my thinking after reading Job. What can I do to make sure my security is completely in Christ and not in other things. It is a matter of the heart. I believe that we have to accept that there is suffering in this world. That God allows it. Job's friends tried to convince him that his life must be full of sin and that was why he suffered. Little did they know that God and Satan had a conversation about testing Job because God knew he feared him. He was being purified. Sometimes we don't know why we suffer, and yet we still must be okay with that. My bible commentary mentions that it is better to know God then to know answers. So true! In Job 8, his friend talks about security. It is interesting when he speaks in verses 13-15: "Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless. What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider's web. He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold." God can give lasting security. I struggle with insecurities, but I know that if I work on building my foundation with God (which this California experience is forcing me to do) then I can and will gain secure feelings with myself and my life. Slowly those feelings of insecurity will not undermine me.

California Farm

We had a wonderful weekend!  On Friday night we went to a picnic at a California farm.  The girls had so much fun jumping in the piles of hay, feeding the cows, playing with dogs, and most importantly…..having their first root beer float.  The girls drink water all the time so they were very excited to get the opportunity to drink some “pop” or “soda” as they call it here.  We have been corrected with our Ohio lingo.  If you see the pictures below, Mya was very active on the farm jumping from the bales of hay, while Sara spent the majority of her time beside the two black labs.  It was a very fun party. 

I woke up Saturday morning only to find out that Dan had declared it “Mommy Appreciation Day.”  He had the girls make me cards and then they took me out to lunch.  It was a sweet time with the family.  Saturday night we went to a spaghetti dinner at the church.  We also had the opportunity to see our first rain storm since we moved here.  It was awesome to see the rain finally! Then on Sunday after church, I had the afternoon free and took off to Visalia with a dear friend that I have gotten to know.  We spent the afternoon at a consignment sale, having lunch, and just enjoying some time away from our kids.  

Bathing Beauties

We are enjoying the Fall weather here.......100 degrees during the day.  It is quite different from home.  Today the girls and I hit the sales to find bathing suits for them.  They wore their suits out over the summer.  I have to boast on my $2.50 bathing suit find for each of them.  They were so excited because of the style of the bathing suits.  They danced around like ballerinas.

Labor Day Weekend

We are so grateful for the friends that we have made from our church. They kept us busy over the holiday weekend and we are thankful. We went to breakfast at our usual spot on Sunday morning before church. Ever since we had that amazing experience at the bowling alley restaurant we committed to going to breakfast there every Sunday. It has become a great tradition for our family. For some reason it wasn't busy so our family took up two tables. We had the girls sit at one table and Dan and I got our very own space to eat. It was like we were on a little date. Very fun! On Sunday night we had a church potluck. Dan had to work on Monday, but got home around 4. We all got in the car and headed to Lake Success for the evening. A couple families from church have boats and invited us to join them for swimming and a cookout. The girls had the most fun. They absolutely loved being on a boat and swimming in the lake. At one point the girls climbed on top of the pontoon boat, watched people jump off of it into the water, and decided that they could do it too. Sara jumped off with Dan and when nobody looked, Mya jumped all by herself. We were stunned! The jump was about a 10 foot drop. After they did it once they were hooked. We had to leave early so one of the guys had a power boat and took us back to our car. Mya's face while riding the speed boat was worth the whole trip. She just giggled and giggled and smiled bigger than I have ever seen. we ended the evening by enjoying some time spent at the pastor's house visiting his family.

First Day

In my previous blog I was talking about being transparent with people and I believe the word I was actually searching for was authenticity.  To my great surprise I showed up at the first MOPS meeting in Porterville today to find that the topic was just that…..authenticity.   You are so good God!  Authenticity means NOT “faking” it with people.  Now that doesn’t mean that you need to go up to an acquaintance and share your life story, but you do need to ask yourself how real you are with relationships.  The mentor for the MOPS group took this concept a step further and spoke about sacrificial love in authentic relationships.  She described how some of us make the choice to allow our feelings and emotions guide us in our relationships.  But God wants us to have sacrificial love, which might look like sacrificing time, loving when you don’t really want to, speaking kindly when you want to scream at the person, and putting pride aside no matter how a person responds.   Philippians 1:9 reminds us of this:  “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment….”  I am the first to admit that I let my emotions guide how I live and how I respond to people.  Pride gets in the way. But the mentor mentioned that when we allow ourselves to be real and engage in the struggles that relationships have at times, then we can experience the blessings that God has for those relationships.  Some of the most genuine relationships that I have are ones that have struggled.  She challenged us to walk the path of love rather than the path of our feelings.  This is tough for me because I do let my emotions guide me.  But the good news is we can confess our struggles and choose sacrificial love the next time we hit a snag with someone.  I hope to continue to make better choices in this area.

I noticed that on Facebook there are a lot of “first” pictures of kids.  Like the first day of kindergarten, or first day of fourth grade and so on.  I was excited to post a picture of our first day at MOPS.  That is something to celebrate!  I really enjoyed the group in Porterville and am excited to go back again in two weeks.  The group ran similar to the Ashland group and the people were very friendly.  But the biggest celebration is about Mya.  This morning she woke up, got out of bed quickly, and ran to the bathroom to find me in the shower.  She pulled the shower curtain back and yelled, “Mom….today is MOPS.  Don’t forget!”  I think she was more excited than I was.  Then she initiated a conversation about whether or not she would be shy when she went to her classroom.  I told her that she had a choice to go in her room and make friends or to act shy.  So what did she do???  She walked right into her room, smiled at me and told me “Goodbye.”  She spoke to her teachers, made some friends, and came out of the classroom with a big smile on her face.  She has grown the most on this trip socially.  She has been forced to make new friends at the apartment complex, on the city playground, at the library, and at church.  Having her in all these new situations has actually caused her to mature and have confidence in herself.  We are so proud and excited for the choices she is making.