Monthly Archives: October 2011

Wednesday Wit: October 26, 2011

Wednesday Wit

Eli: Mom, you’re the best mom ever.  Even though you can’t cook on the grill, and sometimes you cook food we don’t like, and sometimes we say things that upset you… we really appreciate you.
I’m just going to take that in the spirit in which he meant in and be thankful his “even though” list wasn’t any longer. 

Eli: Calvin said girls are weird.
Chad: I think sometimes girls are weird and sometimes boys are weird.
Eli: Boys are always weird.

Me: Eli had to get a helmet a size bigger than the girls’.… Read the rest

Sing Praise

Faith

“But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” – Psalm 13:5-6

Many of you know that in May Pastor Stan had a brain tumor removed, then in June found out it was a stage 4 glioblastoma.  Like many people in our church family I felt many different emotions, and wrote about them here… and here… and yet again here.  In August he returned back to our church to work part-time, and it was really exciting.  It was so refreshing … Read the rest

Do not be anxious about anything…

Kids

…but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving in your heart, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:6-7

I’ve repeated those verses to myself over and over again, focusing on each section.  Prayer and petition.  Thanksgiving.  Present your requests.  God’s peace.  Over and over again.  I love, love this scripture.  It’s a little more difficult to help your eight-year-old grasp the concept.

Grace has been in therapy for a couple months now for her extreme emotions and her inability to function … Read the rest

Wednesday Wit: October 19, 2011

Wednesday Wit

Eli:  The sprinkles on my donut weren’t as good as my imagination.  Nothing’s better than my imagination.  Except for God and Jesus.  You can use that part in a church song if you want.

Eli had a bloody nose…
Chad: Eli, you need to try to stop crying (the crying was over a broken toy).  Think of happy things like rainbows and unicorns.
Eli: DAD!!  Those are girly things!
Chad: OK, how about Legos and Star Wars?
Eli: Not right now.

… Read the rest

My Circle of Influence

Faith

For those who don’t know, I work part-time at Sonrise Church – three days a week while the kids are in school.  It’s a really amazing job and I’m so blessed by it.  Today in our staff meeting we talked about who is in your circle of influence.  I think we came to: your circle of influence is anyone you come in contact with, and the depth of your influence depends on the depth of your relationship.  But everywhere you go, in everything you do, you have the opportunity to show someone what you value.  Do you value people?  Your … Read the rest

“Breaking Point” Recovery

Parenting

So I wrote last week that I had reached the breaking point with the children.  It wasn’t pretty.  Thankfully, I have a most incredible husband who worked to bring me back.  I’m on day 5, and I think I’m pretty much back.

You know those meters they show in movies with green, yellow, and red?  And inevitably it goes into the red zone and no one is watching it to turn the machine off that it’s monitoring and then it starts smoking and blows up?  I do my best to function in the green so that when things happen with … Read the rest

The Breaking Point

Parenting

I reached this lovely point yesterday evening.  I had been approaching it little by little all week as my children had one fit after another, and I continued to calmly but firmly give out consequences.  But yesterday they gave me a shove into the red.  I won’t go into all of the long details, but they were riding bikes and decided they didn’t like the boundaries I had given them.  They were mean, disrespectful, disobedient, and throwing epic tantrums.  I calmly but firmly (are you seeing a theme here?) told them this was not how I expect them to behave … Read the rest

Wednesday Wit: October 5, 2011

Wednesday Wit

Dropping the kids off at school…
Me: Bye Ada!  I hope you have fun at your field trip!
Ada: OK!  I hope you look good at work…
You seriously need a healthy dose of self-confidence to be a mom.

Me: Eli, breakfast is ready.
Ada: Breakfast is deserved.
Me: You mean breakfast is served.
I think she meant what she said… 

Eli’s looking out the car window at some crazy clouds
Eli: It’s like the white clouds are the cops and dark clouds are the robbers.  And the cops always win.

Ada: My … Read the rest

My Darling

Marriage

I’ve spoken before about the book Love & Respect, and the fact that I think it is a great book to help spouses understand each other better and put words to their needs.  I’ve heard Chad tell others often that a key to marriage is striving to meet each other’s needs, and he does a tremendous job at this.  For this post, I want to go a little deeper into what those needs are, as outlined in this book.  The book says men and women have six different needs, right now I’m just going to focus on the six … Read the rest