Mama Mia!

We watched this movie last night, and everyone absolutely loved it. I expected to like it, but I didn't expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did. The music was beautiful (featuring the music of the band "Abba"), as was the setting--a thoroughly entertaining show! The story line was definitely not an example of righteous living, but it did open doors to communication about the lies the enemy sends regarding sex, marriage and romance.

My husband is so cute... He loves music, and after the movie he spent an hour or so online researching the band's music and history. His music collection is mostly Christian, but my mom happened to have a copy of an Abba compilation album. So after he was done browsing the web, he played some of his favorite Abba songs on the stereo. The kids spent some time with him in the music room while I was cleaning up the kitchen and listening to the goings on from in there. It was a wonderful evening of family time and togetherness. Thank You, Lord, for the blessings and beauty of simple pleasures.

Diamonds in the Air!

When I woke up this morning, the sun was shining. And it was snowing. The snow flakes were the tiny, light-as-air kind that seem to be taking their sweet time making their way from the sky to the ground, and as the sun shone on them, the air seemed to be literally filled with glistening, sparkling diamonds. It was so beautiful, I could have stood at the window all morning, praising God for the incredible breathtaking beauty of His creation. Thank You, Lord!

Winter Wonderland

Where do I even begin...? It started snowing on Wednesday, and it hasn't really stopped yet, not for more than a couple of hours.

I don't really mind the snow... In fact, I love it. No matter how much it snows or for how long, there's always a part of my heart that's disappointed when it stops. So this snowstorm has been a gift to my heart. That said, I wish I could clone myself and send my clones out to help everyone shovel their sidewalks and driveways, because I know that all this snow is causing a lot of problems for a lot of people. I pray that God will send kind-hearted people (like the Blauers) to help them with these needs.

This is what my mom's car looked like when we all woke up yesterday.

Yesterday I got up to go to work in the morning and was going to stop by my coworker's house to get her, because she was snowed in. Even though I was in a 4-wheel-drive Toyota truck with good ground clearance, I didn't make it more than 10 feet out of the driveway before I got stuck. I called my coworker and my boss to let them know I wouldn't be in yesterday, but then my boss called back about 30 minutes later to say City Hall was closed for the day...

This all happened about an hour after I had sent an email to a few of my blogging buddies letting them know I was going on a blogging fast. I guess God had other ideas.

Wednesday was "one of those days." A when-it-rains-it-pours day. My husband called it "miserable." He didn't say it with a bad attitude, but he did say it with a long sigh.

First the snow came and didn't quit, and there were wrecks and delays all over the region. On his way home from work, my husband's car was T-boned by a person driving too fast for conditions. Did did the other driver have insurance? Nope. And he's a business owner. How does that work? You can't see it very well in this picture, but the back door on the driver's side is pretty well smashed in. I feel sorry for Keith because he's always tried so hard and done such a great job of being a good steward of this car since bying it new in 1994.

That same day, Stephen had a little tussle with an icy sidewalk. He slipped and fell and hit his eyebrow on the hard ice. The bump was the size of a small marble when I got home from work, but by the time he went to bed, it was the size of half a golf ball. He could barely open his eye and I was concerned that we might need to brave the weather to take him to the ER. But God provided a registered nurse for us to talk to over the phone through our pediatrician's office, and by His grace we didn't end up having to leave the house, and Stephen's bump started getting better on it's own. Thank You, Lord!

I spent about 3 hours in the morning shoveling our back deck and the front sidewalk, and enjoying every minute of it. But actually, Linnea is our honorary shoveler, and it took her 5 or 6 hours to shovel our massive driveway yesterday, but her puppy, Bandit, kept her company and helped her to find joy in her work. By the time she came back into the house, she was frozen like a popsicle, tired and sore. But she had a relatively good attitude, and I was and am really proud of her. After she had a drink and some warm soup, she took a 3-hour nap on the couch, wrapped in my favorite down comforter.

Keith decided he wanted to take his car to get an estimate for the door repairs. I was whole-heartedly against the idea, but I remembered the excerpt from Fight Like a Girl that talked about not using manipulation to try to control people. So I just said, even-keel, "Sweety, I want to go on record as saying I'm opposed to this idea. I wish you would stay home."

"Why?" he asked.

"Well," I replied, "I don't want you to get into a wreck, or to get stuck."

"I've already been in a wreck."

"I know, and I don't want you to be in another one."

"And I'm not going to get stuck." (Famous last words.)

At that point I just shrugged my shoulders, and on the inside I was praying, praying, praying for God's will to be done. I realize that these weather conditions provide a manly challenge. After all, the snowy roads are something to be tamed and conquered!

However, even after giving himself a running start from the top of our relatively long driveway, his car (an all-wheel-drive Subaru) got stuck in the middle of the cul-de-sac, and several neighbors helped to dig him out.

Yesterday, Thursday, was a really great day in our home, all in all. My mom and I got all of the wrapping done. Here she is, the wrapping queen!

The gifts she wrapped are works of art - total candy for the eyes with ribbons and bows and sparkles. Mine are just standard wrapped gifts with no embelishments. But that's okay. We sang hymns and talked and had a great time wrapping together.

I'm thanking God continuously for this marvelous gift of time He's given me in these couple of days home from work. It does my heart good to be here with my family. I'm praying that His will be done in this day, in all things, by His grace, and for His honor and glory.

By the way, this is a picture of the "Twisted Willow" in our back yard. My mom told me I should take a picture of it because it and the snow formations on it look interesting.

And here's a picture of Megan, Becca and Stephen all decked out in their snow-wear, getting ready to enjoy some time in the great snowy outdoors.

Merry Christmas!!

I love Christmas! The lights, the music, the scents, the yummy goodies, the Christmas cards, the special times with family and friends, the crowds at the stores, the shopping, the traditions, the church and school Christmas programs – all of it!

This Christmas season has been considerably different for me than other Christmas seasons have been. Keith is doing the shopping (Praise God!) because there’s absolutely no way that I can stay within a budget, and I have proved it over and over again. And as God has freed me from the obligation of Christmas cards and Christmas baking (Thank You, Lord!)… His Spirit, His Word, His promise, His miraculous gift… They’re all I need to be utterly overflowing with joy and peace and thanksgiving this Holiday season.

I pray God will be all my children need as well. He is, of course, extravagantly more than they need, but they don't realize it yet, and I do so hope they soon will. I pray that God will do a renewing work deep in their hearts, resetting their appetites and desires so that they will sincerely hunger for that which is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. (see Phil 4:8) And I also pray that they will be so satisfied with all that God is for them in Christ, that they will learn how to be content no matter what. We’re definitely not there yet, not by a long shot. But I believe that God has placed this delightful goal in front of us, and that by His grace alone we will continue to put one foot in front of the other as we cling to Him and to the Cross.

Merry Christmas to any who may read this! I pray that everyone is enjoying and being grateful for the good things of the season, and that the enemy will not be able to steal our joy as we celebrate God’s Magnificent Gift!

The Word of God

God has been calling me back to the truth and beauty and purity of His Word. The last couple of years I’ve been on a feeding frenzy reading books and articles and blogs and websites ABOUT God’s Word. But now He’s placed a hunger in my heart for His Word alone, and I’m LOVING it!

Whenever I start to read the Bible, I do so realizing that the same Spirit that wrote the Book also resides in my heart, and is ready, willing and able to interpret it to my heart and life. My prayer is that He will use His Word more and more in every encounter, to deeply renew and regenerate my heart and mind so that love, righteousness, truth and beauty will flow through all of my life naturally. In every word, thought, attitude, action, reaction, decision, conversation, etc.

I’ve been feeling a bit of unrest lately in my Awana class, and asking God to show me the source of it. The other day I was standing in our kitchen having a conversation with my 6-year-old son, Stephen, and God opened my eyes to see what’s been bothering me. I asked Stephen a question, and in the lull between the question and answer, God showed me that Stephen wasn’t at all concerned with answering the question honestly. His whole focus was on finding the “right” answer, the answer he thought I wanted to hear.

It seems to be the same way with most of our church kids. They think all of this scripture memorization is so they can earn points for their teams and get a piece of candy at the end of the evening... When will they understand that these are the Words of the Living God? And that they are precious beyond comprehension and Something to be treasured and sought after? I know that only the Holy Spirit can do that in them, and I'm praying, praying, praying that He'll grab hold of their hearts and open their eyes.

Then the other day I was reading in Matthew and God opened my eyes to see something else. The Pharisees were scripture-soaked. Most of them had more of the Holy Scriptures memorized than any of us will ever even read. When Jesus asked them questions, they either didn’t answer at all, or they answered the question correctly. Most of the time, they answered the question correctly. They had so much of God’s Word committed to memory, and yet that Word had ever penetrated their hearts.

God used that reality to show me just how worthless a correct answer really is if it doesn’t flow from a heart that has been reborn into His kingdom.

For all of their head knowledge, the Pharisees were cold, wicked, heartless and prideful. Whenever Jesus told them a parable and they figured out that THEY were the bad guys in the story… Were they humbled? Were their eyes opened? Did they cry out “Oh my God, please help us for we are a wicked people desperately in need of your mercy and grace!” No... Far from it. Their attitude indignantly said, “He’s talking about US! Let’s KILL Him!” (What I find really scary about that, is the Pharisees truly believed they were on God’s side, and He was on theirs.)

Contrast their prideful reaction with the humble reaction of King David when Nathan told him the story of the rich man who took the one sheep of his poor neighbor and slaughtered it, instead of using one of the many sheep he owned already. (See II Samuel 12) When he found out that he was the bad guy in the story, David said, “I have sinned against the Lord,” and Psalm 51 was born by the Spirit out of a humble and God-glorifying heart.

Oh, Father God, I pray that You will give me (and my children, and any who hear Your heart in this message) humble hearts like King David. Hearts that are quick to receive your correction and quick to repent of wrongdoing. Hearts that acknowledge that You are our Source, and there is no righteousness, truth or beauty apart from You. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

A Charmed Life

A charmed life. A full life. A life that does not provide very much time for blogging…

This is my family. This picture was taken in Riverfront Park in Spokane in October 2007.

Keith is 46 years old. In fact, he just celebrated his birthday on November 30th. Happy Birthday, Sweety! He and I have been married for 12 years. We celebrated our 12th anniversary on August 29th. When we met, he had two beautiful daughters, Lisa (25) and Kristina (21), and I had a daughter, Linnea (13). Then, together, we had Megan (11), Stephen (6), Rebecca (3) and Michael (2).

Here are some recent pictures of them. Some of these pictures are from this Thanksgiving.

Lisa and Kristina enjoying some sister time in the kitchen
Linnea the bookworm, reading Frank Peretti book, “The Oath”

and here’s Linnea goofing off with Michael

Megan likes to spend time with Michael, too. Here they are together

Michael has this new thing right now. He’s become quite fond of the camera, and whenever he sees it, he runs up to me and says, “Smile, please, Mom?” He doesn’t pronounce his words quite correctly yet, so the phrase comes out sounding like “My-o peas Mom.” It’s pretty darn cute.

Rebecca (the blond) with our granddaughter Alexis (the redhead, 4 years old)

Rebecca playing dress-up in a Dora dress
Here’s Stephen proudly displaying one of his more recent Tinker Toy inventions

When we met, Keith lived in this house:
He had lived there for 8 years, and we continued to live there for another 10 years after that. It was rather small for such a large family. It had 5 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, but two of the bedrooms were in the basement and had non-egress windows, and one of them was dedicated solely to storage. The house was roughly 1800 square feet.

In April of 2006, we moved to this 5 bedroom, 4 bath, 3,400 sq ft house about ½ mile away from the old one…

It’s wonderful because it’s on a cul-de-sac, so there’s no traffic to worry about, and the kids can play outside with relative freedom. But the back yard has a gate that opens up right across the street from three schools--an elementary school, a junior high school, and a high school. And it’s really nice not to have to stand in line for the bathroom. It is, however, a lot of work to take care of. It’s all good. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. But all play and no work is far worse… It makes Jack and Jill spoiled rotten ungrateful brats. It’s been a fun and exciting challenge trying to find ways for everyone to work together to get everything done to take care of what God has trusted us with.

On top of having a big family and big home with a big yard in a nice neighborhood filled with big beautiful homes (whose owners of course expect a certain level of upkeep from their neighbors), I joyfully spend a lot of time at our church, New Hope Christian Center. We’ve been attending this church since 1996, just a couple weeks after we got married. Pastor Eric’s father-in-law, Leroy Hunt, is our pastor.

I am blessed and privileged to be a member of the worship team right now, which means being at church at 8:15 or 8:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings and at worship practice on the first and third Thursdays of most months. Plus, Keith and I attend the Celebrate Recovery class every Tuesday night and teach Awana every Wednesday night. We love our church so much. She will be our church home for as long as her doors are open, which I pray will be for the rest of our lives.

On top of all of that, I work full time for the City of Spokane in this beautiful historical building across the street from Riverfront Park and River Park Square (a beautiful shopping mall). This building used to be a Montgomery Wards store.

This is my messy desk in the office I work in, the Clerk’s Office. I truly love my job, and I’m incredibly grateful for it, but there’s so much to do, that even though the four of us are working as fast and as hard as we can, we’re hardly keeping our heads above water. The full days pass by in such a blur, it sometimes actually leaves me feeling breathless.

My mom moved in with us at the end of November. It’s been awesome having her here. She and Megan, especially, have been spending a lot of time together, which has filled deep needs in both of their hearts. She is in the only bedroom in the house that has two windows in it, because she loves plants and light and beautiful things. Here she is proudly displaying some of the necklaces she’s made recently, as well as a couple of pictures of her beautiful flowers and the plants in her room.


God's richest blessings to everyone reading this, and a big thank you to my family for letting me be away from them for a few hours while I put this post together.