home sweet home...

so much has happened in the last week.....

my Man returned from a long business trip (5 days, but that is a long time to be away from my Love!) to find our home with new flooring throughout the kitchen, dining, mud room & laundry, and finally the downstairs bathroom... thanks is not enough to our awesome brothers (and sisters in laws for letting them help us, and to 'M' for watching the mighty 'K' and lil' girlie) who stepped up to install my beautiful tile while my Man was gone!! we had a deadline for ourselves to complete projects around our wonderful home in order to get it on the market for sale, so flooring was going in with or without my Man..

i absolutely love it!!! i don't want to leave now that all these projects are getting completed!! funny how many, ourselves included, wait until the house is to be sold to do projects & home improvements... we have vowed to not let that be the case in our new home... where ever that is to be...

but yes, our broken-in, fits us just right home is now officially on the market; i cried as i looked out the upstairs window at the sign that now resides in my front lawn. i love this home that my Man and i have created, by God' s grace....

...this home where we have celebrated many birthdays for our ever-growing kiddos

...this home that has seen as many colors as the inside of a crayon box, simply depending on my waivering mood and ideas from the pages of torn decor magazines

...this home where i watched my eldest learn to shoot a free-throw in the driveway, perfect fort building with his little sister and seen his heart grow as i hear him pray at night in the dark of his room

...this home where my baby girl had her first birthday, took her first steps, where i held her tight as she recovered from her surgery, and i watch her practice being a mommy through the cracked bedroom door

...this home is all my baby has ever known in his short two & a half years, he knows the floor plan by heart as he pads into my room in the wee hours to cuddle with mama til dawn, this is his castle, his safe haven of love & fun

...this home is where i lay with my Man at night and whisper my dreams and fears to his attentive ears and strong arms that hold me tight, here we've grown to know what real love is alongside real struggle and heartache

...this home where i perfected the painting of faux bricks on the walls and learned more than a painting technique but patience & endurance

...this home where God has met me in the middle of long nights: as i patted backs and rocked small children, or nursed a hungry baby, or worked on a pta project in the cold garage, as i lay nestled with my husband during the storms, or as i lay on the floor sick & crying out for his healing....He has held me up many days & nights as i trod the floors of this home...

the Lord is working many miracles in my life right now... no matter what anyone says i trust His leading, His ultimate calling on my life... i will not waive in my faith of how this walk has already been mapped out by Him and all this is His timing; what a blessing it is to know that God is so faithful to take care of His children.

please pray with us as we await the buyer for our home that God has been preparing, we've been diligently praying for them :) we are praying for the house that God has for us, as well, trusting in Him to bless us with another memory-making home... a home that we will flood with love and joy.... all by His grace that abounds in us.

what have you need of that we can join with you in prayer and faith? if you've never commented before simply chose the anonymous under 'comment as' and you're set... leave your name or don't, we will pray with you...

pity party for one, please...

stomping of the feet, aggravated sighs of irritation, annoyed, aggitated.... mad

biting, indignent.... self-righteous kind of mad

the kind that had me thinking that i somehow live this mostly good and servant-hood life for God that i should be immune to being the victim of someone's elses temper-tamtrum

and yet i sit here grieving my prideful fit of anger, confessing i thought & felt & told Him that He shouldn't have let this happen to me

oh no you didn't?!!! i feel like that's what the angels must have been saying to themselves when i spoke to the King of Kings like that

and yet He told me very quickly, without mincing words that i could use all my best efforts to attempt to be super-sinless but because i live in a world of sin & evil, these things would happen... but He came that i might know what real love & redemption is

He is my victor of injustice!!

so instead of internally cursing the entire situation, i will train myself to pray for a multitude of blessings to rain down upon those that would try to crush me, destroy me, demoan me...

some battles are not against what i can see, they are spirtiual battles that many times go unseen by my earthly eyes...

it is hard to pray for those that intend us harm, it initially rubs me the wrong way... but i have found the Lord to be so faithful to transform my heart, my thoughts, my desires when i remember that it's not about me but about what He's doing through me.

you may feel like i've been a broken record around here, but the Lord is really working on reminding me that He doesn't need me to stress, worry, rant, compulsively plan or any of the like... He wants to bless me!! it is His desire to love all over me, to provide me with all that i need and more!!

what He wants is for me to faithfully trust Him, seek His face & His Way, pour out praise as i kneel at His feet in heartfelt devotion to Lord of Lords... this is what He made me for!!! not to be a robot or follow out of obligation, not!! as i ask Him to change ALL of me then He creates a heart that want to be where God is!! as i seek out answers to my life's problems and praise even when the rain in pourin' down, He answers.... bigger & better than i had ever hoped for!!

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8.28

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11.6

beauty is...

there is beauty & blessing in

a gnome-kiss from my baby, a quick 'love you' from my oldest and a long hug with my sweet little girl.

there is blessing & beauty surrounding me all the time, beyond the obvious, if i choose to see it...

the inside out socks left lying on the floor speak of the hurriedness of a little princess to slip into her play shoes & enter into her world of wonder and imagination

the basketball i've tripped over a 100 times today that conveniently resides by the door awaiting the next round of drills by a young boy that is becoming a young man before our eyes

drips of dinner on the table & chair & floor speak of a toddling, curly top babe who filled his tummy all by himself

crayons left out by our resident artist after her latest masterpiece of self-expression, adding the much needed touch to the walls of this home

a light layer of dust blankets the piano, coffee table & all stationary trinkets... its beauty isn't a riddle, for it will still be there tomorrow patiently beckoning me to wipe it away

but 'P' needs to talk about his day and tell me his latest joke, and my lil' Lou-Woo has an opening at her beauty salon and Charlotte's Web won't read itself, and 'K' has his bucket of army guys that need set up and a warm, sudsy bath to play cooking.... these things can't wait, today is a gift of beauty & blessing even in the mundain nuances of everyday life

...that's why it's called the Present...

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5.16-18

our Christmas morn...

oh how i love Christmas morning...



i cherish the moments of excitement and laughter bubbling out of my babes...

their gratitude is sincere and the hugs & kisses after all the paper is tossed aside are totally worth all the hours of work to earn the coins that purchased gift..

the memories we make as a family on Christmas morning will not be what they found in the box but of the giggles in trying to tear the paper, and the time playing new games together, the sibling relationships that deepen with each moment playing along side the other...

it will be how our home felt as they came down the stairs that sunny morning, the warmth of each other's embrace, the smell of the coffee and cinnamon rolls mingling together in the air, the snuggling under the blankets while listening to daddy read the Christmas story before even a present is revealed...

my mind already remembers a little boy kissing me and pulling on my hand to go downstairs to discover his stocking overflowing, the lights were turned on by another son who had made his way down before us and unpacked his stocking and his hug of thanks, me telling God thank you for these sweet babes, listening to my little men awake the princess with tales of a stocking filled for her, reminding myself that these moments will be gone someday and remembering to treasure these times... so blessed to have this family, so blessed to have a God who prepared a Man just for me, these kiddos just for me...

isn't God grace wonderful?

i am the mama to a tween

hi, my name is Mama and i have a tween son. i am also known to him as:

the "breakfast fixer" for a sleepy middle-schooler who tries to inhale food in five minutes flat before the bus arrives; the "taxi driver" to for all sporting events, practices, open gyms, and ball tournaments; "laundry slave" to keep all the boy's favorite nike & reebok pants and sweatshirts clean upon request; the "coat enforcer" that will be force, if needed, make the tween boy put on his coat even though said child argues that 20 degrees is not cold enough for a coat...

the "toothbrush nazi" since i actually make the boy clean his teeth well and annoy him with reminders to scrub the retainer not just rinsing it; the "loud cheerleader" since i will never be accused of being quiet during the tween child's games and potentially heaping upon him embarassment with my wild game attire and bellowing cheers;

whatever different roles and subtitles i might have for my eldest son, more than anything he knows that i am the mama who will always be there to pick him up when he falls (because he has and will continue to fall down), i love him so deeply, from the depths of who i am and there isn't anything i wouldn't do for him, there isn't any place too far that i wouldn't go to rescue him, he can't ever make me not love him. this doesn't mean i won't allow him to make mistakes and then have to fix them on his own, but i will be there to guide him; there will be times he won't talk to me but i will never stop talking to him :) ; i will not let him date a girl until he's 18, in hopes that as a man he'll know how to truly care & love a woman by Godly standards not the world's....

my son, you are a special gift from God for me (and your daddy) and i love you... all the way to the moon and back...