currently reading...

I've been reading the book " The Ministry of Motherhood - following Christ's example in reaching the hearts of our children" by Sally Clarkson. So far it's a great book. She uses the word GIFTS as an acronym to help remember the spiritual priorities in training children.

G- represents the gift of grace
I- represents the gift of Inspiration
F- represents the gift of faith
T represents the gift of training

I just finished the gift of grace and I am moving on to the gift of inspiration. I like her writing style, and i can easily relate to it. I'm just going to share some quotes from the book that stood out to me. There are MANY MANY more, but i don't want to write out the whole book.

"to God, relationships are always top priority"

"If I want them to be open to my messages, I need to be willing to serve them- to voluntarily give up my rights and my time to meet their felt needs- just as Jesus was willing to give for his disciples."

" I realize my love and service to them must come before any of my great words, my teaching and training. My time, my attention, my "soft-tickling"- even when i am tired or have other "important" things on my mind- is what builds our relationship and prepares them to listen to what i have to say. Only then, once wells of their need are filled with the grace of being loved, will my words to them about God's grace finally make sense. "


"Maturity in Christ is not instantaneous. but a slow process."

" it is gracious forgiveness that enables us all to move past our mistakes and keep on growing. Even more important, it is forgiving grace that makes real love possible in our lives."

"This is an important word to us as parents. Sometimes we feel that we need to play the role of Holy Spirit in our children's lives and impose great guilt on them so they will be hesitant to sin anymore."

I'm using this book right now as a study. I like how the author uses each chapter and goes through Scripture and the life of Christ as her model to parenting and outline to her book. If you are looking for a book to read on motherhood, i highly recommend this one.

all about advent

So since my bloggy friends are posting about advent and how they like to celebrate it, i thought i would share how we celebrate advent around here. A few years ago my blog friends where talking about how they celebrated advent. Growing up i remember going to an advent celebration at my church, but nothing more then that. I always longed to figure out a way for my children to really anticipate the arrival of Jesus' birthday and the full weight of what that meant to humanity. In the beginning of our Christmas celebrations i started a tradition of reading what is now my favorite Christmas book on Christmas eve. (my birthday, Jesus birthday)After we read the story we have birthday cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus. But i wanted more. So last year after looking around at different traditions we decided on the Jesse tree. There are a few different story lines you can go by, and basically whatever line you go through it all ends on Christ's birth. I like to go with the story of creation, key events and people leading up to Christ and then the whole story with the shepherds and angels and wise men. So each day starting December 1st we read a bible story related to the days topic (like dec. 1st is creation) and then after the story the boys have a special ornament they get to hang on the tree. And Christmas day we get to the birth of Christ. This especially helps my oldest son as he tends to just focus on toys at Christmas time. Anyway.. so that's what we do! :)
Feel free to share your thoughts or your traditions...

I love the quiet of the night. I use to feel like I wasn't a great mom or so spiritual because I am NOT a morning person and therefore I cannot get up before my children in the morning and have my quiet time. I have now grown enough in my understanding of the way God made me to know that it is best for me not to focus on what I think should be the mold I should fit into. I hear of so many women getting up bright and early spending time with the lord. As much as I love my Jesus , I think he would rather have me sleeping in the morning and speaking to me through my dreams. So now, when the house is sleeping and all are tucked in bed, yep, even Matt, I sit in the quiet and my soul rests. The fire glows in the wood stove and keeps me warm as well as bringing peace. It's weird to think that fire can be peaceful... But it is to me. And I'm thankful for it tonight. And the smell of the newly cut Christmas tree.

So I have a little bit of time to share something that I've been thinking about.
During this season of celebration and reflection a lot of families strive to really teach their children the meaning of Christmas. Many have traditions of advent. All of these things are great and should be done, but I just really wanted to share where my heart is on it. We could fill our children up with stories and traditions and church activities and teach them and pray for them to have a good moral character and grow up to serve the lord... But it doesn't start with teaching about advent, it doesn't come from telling about the Christ child who came to take away the sins of the world. It starts at your everyday life. The way you respond to the everyday mundane, the way you respond to unfavorable events, the way you respond to yet another disappointment, the way you deal with disscouragement, the way you speak to your spouse, the way you speak to you children. Showing them grace, love, faith, and all the things you desire your child to have starts with being Jesus to them. You and your spouse are the most tangible form of Jesus that your child will encounter in their early years. And if you really truly desire for your child to see Christ and follow, it needs to start with you and your heart. It needs to start with them seeing you in situatons where you are choosing the let Jesus shine through. So this holiday season while you are wanting your children to focus on the coming of Christ, remember to be Jesus to your child this season.. Show them Grace and mercy, love and faithfulness. And above all, choose to praise God in whatever situation you find yourself in this season. I guarantee you that your child will walk away from this seson of life more with how mommy and daddy treated them then what stories or songs or readings they went through for the season.*


*this post is not meant towards anyone... And really as a reminder to me, I just want to share and I hope that no one felt like I was attacking them personally.

for those of you who have wondered

I've been talking about Daniel a lot, and for some of you who read this you've never met him or gotten the chance to meet him. So here is a video of Daniel doing his talking and saying hello. I made this video for my mom to thank her for all that she has helped us with in giving Daniel a voice. I took this video tonight and just to let you know his verbalizing is much more then it has been even in the past few weeks. In the end he signs thank you. He does use very basic signs when i ask him to. Joshua jumps in near the end to add his sense of hyperness!



oh and for some reason he has been pointing to his teeth a lot lately and trying to tell me something, not sure if they hurt or what, i guess i trip to the dentist is due... :S

picture post...

Untie Kayla showing the boys how to make spritz cookies..













shhh... i didn't tell her i used gluten free flour and she said they tasted GREAT! :)


Joshua wants to be a hunter like daddy




painting this years christmas ornamants









Cutting down the tree...


I really dislike cutting down the tree... it is HARD! I'm not sure if i just don't have the grip strength for the sawing or what, but seriously my least favorite part of the whole christmas tree process..


more pictures and thoughts to come later...

Thankgiving!

Today is our American thanksgiving! It started with my mom calling me at 6 am to tell me that my little sister (who is actually staying with us for the holiday on the other end of the house) was having contractions and to go check on her. So i got out of bed and walked down the hall and sure enough she was having some contractions. So I decided to bring her in, just to be safe. She is only 34 weeks, this is her first holiday season away from mom and Minnesota family and of course as you know we lost dad a few months ago so i think stress kicked it in and also i think she is fighting the flu. We went in and they checked her out and hooked her up. She was having regular small contractions but she wasn't dilated or anything like that and so they gave her some meds to stop contractions. They stopped and after an hour they sent us home. Now she is sleeping and I'm about to wake her up to so she can shower and we can go celebrate thanksgiving with Matt's family. I am thankful today that my nephew is still safe and sound in utero and hopefully sticking in there for at least the next 2 weeks!

Let me just tell you that this is a crazy time and according to all of our circumstances i should be feeling more stressed out then i am, but God has given grace and peace during this time.. and today that is my BIGGEST thanks!

May you have a great day, and not only today, but everyday find God's mercies and blessing in each day and find at least one thing to be thankful for a day.

learning by doing...

We have a way of homeschooling here that is more relaxed. If there was a homeschooling method that i would say i went by it would be the Charlotte mason homeschooling method. If you are interested in homeschooling and want to know about the Charlotte mason homeschooling method i would recommend the book "A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning"
I just wanted to give you an example of what our schooling looks like.

Today Joshua found a lady bug crawling around the house. So we took the opportunity to look up information about lady bugs. Joshua went right to work making his own lady bug. After observing the ladybug for a while (he caught it and put it in a jar) he came to me and was excited because he discovered the lady bug had wings!!! Joshua actually did most of the work. He was curious about the ladybug and i was able to turn it into a school activity. It was fun and educational and it was him discovering first hand and learning from the world around him. I love this kind of learning for children so young. Work books and textbooks with pictures and information will never be as valuable or as fun as hands on life experience and will never foster curiosity.
I encourage you to look at learning and school a different way, it's much more then textbooks and multiple choice tests.