Camping is Now Banned...

First of all, thank you to all of you who are praying for us, who posted words of encouragement on my blog (I needed that!), and who helped us move! What a blessing. I HATE feeling like a burden to anyone but receiving help is such a blessing so THANK YOU again.

We are officially at my parents (2060 Karen Dr. Meridian) and are mostly moved out of the Tysons. My legs feel like rubber and I am disgusted at how much stuff we own. I'll post some pics of our cute little "nest" when I get some time but I have a funny story to share.

We are all being stretched in a lot of ways right now, one of which is space. Our last 3 houses were pretty big and we could all get away from one other for the most part. That is proving to be slightly more challenging here. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get back into running:)

Anyways we are sharing 1 bathroom between 6 people (Miss Eagy can relate here). Well 3 of my kids are readers and the bathroom seems to be a favorite place for that. Tonight I actually had to make a rule called "No reading and camping in the bathroom".
Didn't really ever think I was going to have to ban the written word like that, but the truth is there is just no time. With one bathroom it's gotta be an all business kind of thing. Get in and get out. I know that we are spoiled Americans and dependent on our creature comforts but it doesn't make it that much easier giving them up just knowing that you're spoiled. It's still just one bathroom. Maybe I could make a cute sign that says "No Camping" or "Get'er Done" or...hmmm...I think I need to go to bed. I'm rambling.

Well thank you again for the encouragement and prayers. We need them!

This world is not my home...

I've been convicted of late that my blog is a lame excuse of "sharing" our life with others. I mean sure I post cute pictures and funny stories and things that maybe a few people may find mildly interesting, but it is far from a complete picture of my life or of my families. So in an effort to be more transparent I thought I would share with those who care what is really going on in our life. Maybe it will encourage you, maybe you'll just think "what a loser":), but at least I will be sharing something a little more authentic than the still-life menagerie showcased previously.

Right now we are moving again. We have been staying in the Tyson's home while they have been in China on a job assignment. We have had two wonderful years here and are extremely grateful to God and to them for this haven in our tumultuous life. Unfortunately I willingly admit that I've had expectations of God again, (even though I have been patiently taught this lesson many times in the past). I thought that surely two years would give us time enough to get our "act together". I expected that John's job would be better; it's not. I expected to be buying a house of our own again; we're not. I expected to be living somewhere besides my parents; we're not.

It's amazing to me how prideful I am. Everytime someone asks us where we are going to be living I inwardly cringe. "My parents basement" flows from my lips because I must not lie, but oh how I wish that was not the truth! Yes we (all 6 of us) are going to live in my parents basement for??? Who knows how long.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry!

However before this quickly becomes an entire post on me whining I must move on to what the hero of my life is doing. What the Lord is teaching me right now is scary, and completely liberating. This world is not my home. My dreams must be sacrificed on the alter of submission, and the blessing of drawing closer to Him is worth it!

We all take different things to learn these lessons of the Christian walk, but I must admit at times I feel like the dunce of the class. Apparently I need the long, hard, and humiliating road to learn what is really important in this life.

If you think of us, you could pray that we would be humble, that we would trust the Lord with our whole hearts, and that we would not love our desires above the Lords.

I will continue to share what God is working on in us!

This song encouraged me today;

This world is not my home I'm just passing through
my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

O Lord you know I have no friend like you
if Heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do?
the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

They're all expecting me and that's one thing I know
my savior pardoned me and now I onward go
I know He'll take me through though I am weak and poor
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

O Lord you know I have no friend like you
if Heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do?
the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

Just up in Glory Land we'll live eternally
the Saints on every hand are shouting victory
their song of sweetest praise drifts back from Heaven's shore
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

O Lord you know I have no friend like you
if Heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do?
the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

HOLY HAIL!

Last night we experienced the craziest hail storm. In about 7 minutes it completely poured down on our house. The sound was absolutely deafening!

Jesus, Kids and Gardening; My Plug for Gardening

Ellie and I have been working in the garden a lot the past 2 weeks. We started with these raised planters that were filled with fall leaves, debris, and weeds. It took us several days to just clean up the beds and get them ready for planting, but it gave us ample opportunity to talk. I've been reading through Hosea and Matthew and it dawned on me how much we can miss in our modern era because we are no longer an agrarian society. God's word is overflowing in word pictures whose penetration into our hearts is directly related to our understanding of those ideas. Take gardening (God's first employment of man), unless you grow something from seed it's hard to understand how fantastic and difficult that process really is. Ellie is in the process of witnessing how a tiny seed can grow into a fruit producing bush that by the end of the summer will be as tall as her.
Our planter beds have been a great word picture for us because although the beds looked clean and full of rich soil when we planted our seeds I knew they were not. You see our beds are badly corrupted with a noxious weed called Morning Glory. It's this horrible tuber vine that lies beneath the surface of the soil and sprouts it's fast growing vine sporadically, choking anything in it's way. The kids and I were discussing how much that weed is like our sin and the soil is like our hearts. You can't ever completely eradicate the weed. There are only 2 lines of defense unless you want to completely destroy the beds.

-Daily hand picking every bit of vine that you see.
-And crowding it out with other good plants.

What a perfect image of sin in our lives. If we are to prevail and produce fruit for the Lord, we must be willing to daily pull the morning glory out of our hearts. We can also be encouraged that as we bear more fruit for the Lord there will be less room for the morning glory to take hold.

Hosea 10:12, Matthew 13:24-30

Santa Barbara Zoo

Make a Smilebox scrapbook