Let them Own their Faith

I can't count the number of times I have shouted "Yes!" while reading the the best book series I have ever encountered, The Chronicles of the Kings by Lynn Austin. It has confirmed so many thoughts stirring in my heart regarding current events and key issues of life, but this quote from the 16th chapter of the 5th book in which Joshua pleads for mercy on his wayward son (who Simeon wanted to banish because he was a "corrupting influence") is too good not to share with other like minded parents:

“Sin isn’t [only] out there somewhere, on the mainland, among the pagans, in my son. Sin is inside each one of us. You can banish Nathan or even execute him, but that won’t protect your sons from sin. The evil one will always seek a way to tempt them away from God..."

The answer isn’t to shelter our children from every bad influence that might lead them astray. The answer is to allow them to experience God’s goodness and faithfulness for themselves. Let them ask difficult questions. Then stand back and allow God to work in their lives. Let your children taste and see that the Lord is good [Psalm 34]…

Our generation experienced God’s deliverance firsthand, so we have a relationship with Him based on faith, but we can’t pass our relationship onto our sons. We can point them in the right direction, but they must experience God for themselves and decide whether or not to embrace Him."

We are grateful for our school & church communities which support our desire to teach our students how to think instead of what to think. By giving them the freedom to seek, they will eventually find those answers for themselves. When our children are not merely force fed the faith but allowed to experience it for themselves, their faith becomes genuine, and they own it with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Mighty Moms

A friend twisted my arm for months to get me to lead a fitness class for moms.  It was something I had always wanted to do, but I just didn't think anyone else would trust me to train them, much less agree to my goals for the workouts.  So I set a minimum and a maximum and she had the class maxed out by the time the classes began.  I wanted to emphasize spiritual health, inner strength, and wise stewardship of the body God has given each of us, so we may DO the work He has given us more effectively for His glory, NOT our own. I do not ever want to train with those whose only goal is to make the outside fit whatever the culture's ever changing but always impossible standard is for that day and/or to win the approval and attention of man, for we are not mere objects to look upon, but hearts, minds, and souls with infinite value and eternal purpose. Miracle of miracles, all the women who came to the class seemed to have the same goals. 

These less tangible, spiritual goals did not translate into easier workouts, mind you. These women, some who insist they are at least a decade older than I am, may not have known exactly what they were getting themselves into when they registered for the "Mighty Moms" workout group, but they pumped iron with power and perseverance. Martial arts, sports drills, push-ups and pull-ups of every variety, boot camp workouts used to train police officers and military forces, and conditioning exercises developed by/for Olympians and professional athletes were all included. They modified as needed, but these ladies shown here minus a few not pictured DID NOT QUIT!

We’ve each been thrown some tough life situations this past school year with some so devastating, I weep at the mere thought of what they have faced. But through each challenge, God has sustained, strengthened, and carried each one, never leaving or forsaking us (Hebrews 13:5), for He who has promised is faithful. Just as muscle must be torn apart and broken down before it can built back stronger, we have come to the end of ourselves to find His strength is perfected in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). It’s through the trials that we gain the most strength (in body, mind, and faith/spirit). Each dedicated "Mighty Mom" has sharpened me as iron sharpens iron and encouraged me in my walk with Christ. It’s been such a blessing and a privilege to spend my mornings with the Mighty Moms, and I thank God for each one of you.

Attention trainers, never take your eyes off your workout partners, because the moment you do, they will snap a photo of you straining during your last rep (lawsie, I hope that was my last rep and that they all didn't look like that!) with YOUR phone as a permanent reminder of how funny you look, and you will not know they took the photo until you find it on your phone much later. You made me laugh, ladies, as I thought I was only uploading pics of dirt from a landscaping project in process. ‪#‎mightymomfun‬ ‪#‎workhardplayhard‬

After receiving some comments about my "guns", for the record, we Mighty Moms usually opt for "concealed carry", but after the moms pulled one over on me with my phone, I had to be a good sport and share. Payback is coming, but I doubt I'll ever catch any of you making a grimace as unflattering as that one. "Grimace and grunt" will be our next motivational motto.

The high school guys left out these ropes which provided a fun workout alternative that made us grimace and grunt.

Birthdays for the young and old

These two cuties celebrated birthdays yesterday.

Youngest - now 7

Oldest - now 43

Happy birthday to our nephew, the YOUNGEST family member on my side of the family and to my husband, the OLDEST of all the sons (including their wives).  People have implied that I married up, but I think they were speaking in terms of age, for this man of mine is a whopping 21 days older than me.  :-)

Since my husband just unpacked the room over the garage (which has served as our attic or storage area) and decorated it into a nautical themed man cave (he paid back his education at the USNA by serving as a naval officer on a submarine), I thought this old picture of our little girl made a nice image for his birthday greetings as we sent lots of hugs and love to our hero and our favorite former submariner.

Even the sun seemed excited about my husband's birthday, for it cast the most unusual mint and pink colored, heart-shaped reflection on our house this morning. It reminded me of those sentiment sweethearts we passed around on Valentine's Day. It was if the sun was sending a loving senti-mint for his birthday. Ha!

You know your daughter is in the prime of middle school when the cards she picks out for her daddy go from sweet and sappy to cat pranks, and her father congratulates her on picking out the type of card his family likes best.

It made him laugh, though, and crack a smile, which is refreshing on one who often looks too professional and serious.

For his birthday, he took a half-day off from work and went to the movie theater ALONE. It's an introvert thing, so I can't understand how that could possibly be fun for anyone, but my introvert friends assure me that it's what they enjoy and that I must not take offense.  I had no time for movies anyway.  I did manage to prepare him a home cooked meal....two weekdays in a row.  That is a miracle in itself.  And just for him, I made meals that were fattening but yummy.

We have been baking a lot lately for guests, birthday parties, Easter gatherings, etc. so I bought him a birthday cake/pie instead of making one myself.   He was not disappointed, though, because blueberry pie and cheesecake are two of his four favorite desserts, and this pie combined both into one.

Our daughter was a bit nervous when we let our son light the candles.  The last time he lit candles was when our family was chosen to light a candle for advent in front of the entire church, and he almost set the church on fire.  :-)

Spring Break 2016 - Birthdays, Basketball, Art, Drama, Party Fun

Our school's spring break seemed to come early this year.  The first two full weeks in March were mostly warm and sunny, however, so it felt wonderful.  After our trip to Israel in January, we needed those weeks to catch up on household projects, doctor appointments, and such, but the kids stayed busy with their many extracurricular activities and at play dates and birthday parties.  Muffin posed for spring photo shoots two weekends in a row.  We celebrated our daughter's 12th birthday, and our son went to several birthday parties for his classmates.

Rush Hour Karting & Ruckus pizza for Chase's birthday

He bowled a strike at Ben's birthday party!

I still tried to put in some billable hours over spring break, so while I worked, the kids decided to paint canvases on their own and unsupervised.  I thought the finished products were excellent.

On the house front, we began with spring cleaning, so our son learned about all the different cleaners and polishes we use for wood, tile, painted walls, glass, silver, stainless steal, granite, marble, leather, etc.

"I wish there was one universal cleaner we could use on everything," he said.
"There is," I replied as I watched him scrubbing baseboards.
"What is it, and where can we get it?" he asked.

"It's called elbow grease," I told him, "and children are a mother's primary supplier of it."

We also finalized plans for a landscaping project after much complaining from our neighbors which involved them contacting the town, consulting with an environmental specialist who recommended tens of thousands of dollars worth of changes that were not only expensive but unrealistic and impractical.

We painted (or hired someone to paint) two bathrooms, the staircase, my office, the guest room, the mudroom, and accent walls in the master bedroom, fitness room, and bonus room. We added glitter to the paint for the master suite, half bath, and my office for a beautiful shimmery effect.  We completed the last of our furniture refinishing projects, and my husband began finally unpacking and purging his office which we had been using as a bit of an attic.  It's a large room over the garage and has a nice man-cave feel to it now.  I have been working on a lot of photo collage projects for our super bonus room.  I cannot wait for my husband to get those up on the walls.  I hope to post updated pictures of all our new and improved rooms as soon as the pictures are hung.

Our son also finished what will probably be his last basketball season with Upwards basketball.  I knew I was sleep deprived (as always) at his last early morning game (and frustrated after many failed shopping attempts requiring returns and exchanges) when he made a rebound, and I shouted, "Good Refund!".

The season would have been incredibly depressing for him were it nor for his best friend Ben who was also on the same team with possibly the worst losing streak in Upward history.  Still, I'm glad our son learned how to lose with dignity and how to put the interests of others before his own, at least with regard to his basketball team.  Most of his team had never played basketball before, and several on the team had special needs, so I enjoyed watching our son give those players many opportunities to improve and score points as they were integrated onto a team and experienced basketball for the first time.

Dan the Animal Man brought some of his birds to the end of season celebration.

Our daughter decided not to do spring sports at her school this season.  Instead she is playing AAU basketball, and I think she's a bit blown away by the skill level she's seeing at tournaments.  Her last tournament was the day after her state drama competition which had her gone from 6am to midnight the day before, so she was dragging. She had to miss the first day of the tournament because of her drama competition, so she did not get as much playing time as she would have liked, but she certainly gained respect for the competition.  They play like grown champions. One of the 6th graders in the tournament was 6'2", which explains why she is required to bring her birth certificate to the tournaments.

 

Spring Break concluded with the beginning of Daylight Savings Time.  Our last sunset view before DST began was so pretty.  I took this pic from my bike on a very old low budget Android phone.  Imagine how much prettier it would be taken with an iphone or an SLR.

State Theater Competition

Ever since Holly, a friend from church and school who is two years older than our daughter, mentioned the state drama competition, our daughter has dreamed of participating, but she was too young until this year. Auditions for the school's competitive team were intense, and our daughter was at a big disadvantage during the first audition because she had been sobbing her heart out just before her audition because a teacher seriously over-reacted to one of her nervous habits and punished her much too harshly.  But she gathered her wits about her and gave it her best effort.  She was at the top of her game for the next two auditions and was thrilled to be selected to play Darby in One Cold Afternoon.  She was also given a smaller secondary role in One Cold Afternoon AND she got to be the understudy for her friend Holly who had the lead role in the team's other play, Tomato Plant Girl.  Our daughter had more lines to learn than anyone with all those parts combined, and she was one of the youngest among the cast comprised of 6th through 8th graders.

Practices took place before school at 6:45, and she had team basketball every day after school, all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA, so she worked long and hard this past semester.  Before taking their plays to the state festival, the cast performed the plays for the school.

Susan joined me in the audience with flowers in hand for our drama queen.

Our actress in stage makeup with "Grandma Susan" and two flower bouquets

From the cast's drama coach after the competition:

"Congratulations to the casts of Tomato Plant Girl and One Cold Afternoon for both earning SUPERIOR Ratings! Awards earned by CCS: Excellence in Overall Production Design for both shows; Excellence in Acting for J____ S____, C____ B____, and B____ M_____; Outstanding Acting for Holly Ficken; Excellence in Ensemble for Tomato Plant Girl; Outstanding Ensemble for One Cold Afternoon; Excellence in Directing for C_____ C____ and L____ B____; Design and Production Awards for E____ Y_____, Holly F_____, and S____ H___; Festival Spirit Award. WOW! They were amazing, and seemed to have a LOT of fun. I'm SO very proud of all of them and thrilled that they were recognized for their hard work and talent. They represented [our school] well in both character and art."

Drama games at the state festival

From me:

"Thank you to our school, our many devoted volunteers, and to the Lord God Almighty" for giving my daughter a stage where she can unleash her abundance of creative and high-energy DRAMA!  Thanks to Susan for coming to her show. Thanks to my husband for taking her to all those 6:30 am rehearsals (except when he traveled for work, and I nearly died trying to get up that early), and kudos to our little actress for learning not only her lines for One Cold Afternoon (and performing them well enough on stage at the competition to help the entire cast get the highest award at the state competition) but ALL of Holly's lines for Tomato Plant Girl as well. I'm sure it must be hard as a 6th grader to be the lowly backup for the 8th grade star of the show because you have to learn all the lines and go to all the rehearsals, yet you don't get to perform a single one of those lines on stage for the show or the competition. I praise God for all the lessons He taught you, sweet girl, as you learned to work for the sake of the team and for the glory of God instead of for your own season in the spotlight. Awards for legitimate effort are one thing, but life lessons like that one last forever!"

Easter Weekend

On Good Friday, I met someone who came from a land far away from here who spoke differently, not just with an accent, but with authority and conviction. I wasn't sure I wanted to stick around very long because she said things that were hard to hear, and she told it to me straight - without any sugar coating at all. But by the end of our conversation, I realized that she had imparted truths to me that would benefit me greatly, and I wanted her as a friend. That's when I learned that her first name is "Gospel", which literally means "to bring or announce GOOD NEWS." 

The timing of our meeting falling on Easter weekend is significant to me. Hearing the truth that we are all sinners deserving of death is hard to hear. Reading about what our sins did to Jesus on the cross is hard, and there is no way to sugar coat something so awful. It was gruesome agony, but He bore all the penalty for our crimes against God in our place out of love. But the grave could not hold the Almighty, and He rose again, just as He and all the prophets before Him had said. Now we too shall be raised with Him, as God's children and Christ's bride! We only need to believe and let HIM lead our lives as Lord. Now that is some seriously good news right there, and His gospel has completely changed our lives forever. May we be faithful to spend our lives bringing and announcing the good news to all the world. Gospel knows Jesus as Lord and Savior. Do you?

We drove to my hometown for Easter. 

We arrived at my parents' church too late to check the kids' into the kids' church ministry, but I wanted them to worship with us anyway.  After listening to dozens (possibly hundreds) of sermons delivered by my childhood pastor (who is still at my parents' church after all those years) on CD with me in the van (thanks for those, Mom), our son was excited to get to hear him in person that day.   He even listened attentively throughout the sermon. I would say it's an Easter miracle, but if you know Rev. Bob, that should come as no surprise.

 

Nana invited our extended family and very close friends

 (my brothers' in-laws) who are like family, too.

She and Pops prepared a delicious steak dinner for all of us. Our daughter made apple cobbler for dessert, but others brought lots of delicious desserts, too.

 Our kids always enjoy time with their cousins. 

In this picture, Eli was showing the kids funny animal gifs.

Our tiny point guard (aka Goldilocks...or more recently Browning Locks) was excited to discover that she has officially outgrown each and every Baby Bear's chair at Grandmother's house.

 Each grandchild got an Easter basket per tradition.

What a wonderful Resurrection Day it was!

She's 12 Years Old!

We celebrated 12 years of LOVE and LAUGHTER with our caring, creative, deep-thinking, determined, dramatic, driven, endlessly entertaining, smart, and super silly girl over spring break.

She wanted a birthday party at Defy Gravity followed by gourmet cupcakes (by Cupcakes D'Amour) at our house.   She usually loves it when her parents join in on the playful fun with her, so both my husband and I climbed onto the trampoline and jumped the entire time.   We attempted synchronized back flips.

When you are with me, my heart leaps so much I turn back flips.

When you've loved someone since the day you first met (this month marks 24 years) and you are old enough to no longer care how silly you look to others, doing life TOGETHER is what matters most, even if it's something you've never done before. #synchronizedbackflips #orsowetried

Birthday girl shows us how a tumbling run is really done.

Her guests, their siblings and even we parents had a blast at Defy Gravity.  

Ellie still participates in competitive gymnastics, so she really showed us up!

When your daughter asks you to take her to Defy Gravity for her birthday and she insists you jump and climb with her, you do it....for her. When the love of your life offers to do synchronized back flips with you and then race with you to the top of the Ninja Course, you do it, because you grew up on Bonnie Tyler lyrics and would "climb every mountain and cross every sea" to be with your man. When the bandage slips off your finger where you nearly sliced it in two the day before, you keep hanging onto those bars like a fool because your daughter is cheering for you to make it to the top. And when the fun is over, you come home convinced you are 19 again and just had the best date ever with the man of your dreams. Then the next morning when you wake up, you can't move your neck or raise your arms. Sharp shooting pains race up and down your spine and you can't get up. That's when you realize you aren't 19 anymore, and you spend the rest of the week at the doctor's office getting rehabilitated. #mylife #YoungatHeartButOldinBody #coupleswhoplaytogetherstaytogether

I encouraged a super talented friend to start a catering business, so I was eager to support and help promote her new bakery.

I decorated the dining tables and large island with pretty place settings where the girls could sit and eat, but they went directly to the porch instead withe several sitting on the floor.  I'm glad the kids and their friends enjoy our porch so much.  Much giggling took place on that porch. The laughter legacy lives on!

After lots of fruit, cheese sticks, chicken, pizza, snacks, and sugary carbs, the girls went outside to play basketball.  Most of the girls played on their school's blue team, but they were just as fierce playing against each other and their little brothers who joined in when their parents came to get them.

Our last PK meeting

Our last The Princess and the Kiss mother/daughter Bible study fellowship was held at our home last week.  It was small group, but we had such a very special time of sharing and encouraging one another to pass the baton of faith to the next generation and to all we meet who may not have believing parents to teach them in the ways of the Lord.

Next month is the final commitment ceremony, but we are hoping to start a new Bible study next year.  This group has been such an answer to prayer in so many ways.  It helped my daughter and I grow closer to God and to each other.  It helped me make new friends at our new school, while providing each of the daughters in the group with friends to keep them accountable and other moms they trust as mentors, listeners, and supporters.  Already, God has placed a young lady on my heart to meet with one-on-one since I have personally experienced some of what she is going through right now.  Meanwhile, God has been prompting her to spend time with me.  I was dreading sixth grade for our daughter and all the ups and downs that come with adolescence, but so far, sixth grade has been one of the best years yet for my girl and me.