Thursdays Tied with Love and Laughter

Over at Our Family Forest, check out Jen's Meme.  I love them because they focus on our marriage!  If our marriage isn't a priority our family structure crumbles. 

This week she is asking the question about the best getaway with Hubby.  There is two that come to mind.  One was the celebration of our 10th year of marriage and we went to a B&B in Stowe, Vermont.  We had never been to a B&B before and it was wonderful!!  It was the first time that I had ever left the kids overnight but they weren't too far away and they were being spoiled by my parents. 

The other time that sticks out in my mind was actually courtesy of the Army.  Every once in a while the Army comes in with a nice perk.  The chaplains hosted a Strongbonds weekends in Cape Cod.  There were classes on conflict resolution and practice sessions too.  They carved out lots of date time though.  They let us loose on Saturday, early in the afternoon to go explore and be together and focus on each other.  We found ourselves at Cold Stone Creamery, the first time we'd ever been, at dinner time, what a treat!  Then went and did a bit of sight seeing, hit the beach at dusk and sat in a life guard chair watching the stars come out.  I think we got some Chinese later on, but it was just so nice to be away from home and the phone and the computer and the kids to have uninterrupted conversation and connection.  I love being with my kids, don't get me wrong, but I love being with my husband too.  He's my best friend, my confidant.  I appreciate him and really enjoy spending time with him. 

After all this talk I think I need to plan another getaway!

Lent Day 7

I'm working through the Bible study Loved by God by Liz Curtis Higgs.  I did parts of it years ago with the ladies group at our church.  It has been good this time because I have been able to take my time and go through it on my own pace, which has been painfully slow.  Today I read where Jacob wakes up after dreaming about the ladder going into Heaven.  Genesis 28:16-17 reads:

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and 

I did not know it."  And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place!  

This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of Heaven!"

The study went on to talk about the fear of the Lord and how this fear should be manifested in our lives.  God is with me, He's with me all the time.  Why doesn't my life always reflect that?  I'm not a bad person, I don't have things that are overtly evil in my life, but it's all the little things.  Like not having enough patience, or a TV show that is inappropriate, or a regimented quiet time with the Lord, or I could go on and on, but I think you know what I mean.  Why is not that reverence there all the time?  I fall into the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality so much.  Every day I need to wake up and say, "Surely the Lord is in the place!" because He is!  It's kind of a scary thought to me, but how much richer would life be if, consciously, every day remind myself that God is here.

This Week: Flying By!

This week has been going by at break-neck speeds!  I had high hopes of joining in on every one of the 40 days of Lent but that does mean that I can't start now! 

Hubby had drill with his army unit last weekend and the girls and I went along to hang out in the hotel and pool all weekend.  It was great fun to be together and having fun.  Belle jumped off the side of the pool for the very first time and found out how much fun that was.  On Sunday during lunch, Hubby threw us and curve ball and long story short we all went with him down to West Point to meet his division commander to tie up all those details that needed attention for his summer mission down there.  Another motive for going down was to see my friend who lives close to West Point.  We got to spend time with her and her kiddos and both of our families got to have dinner together.  It was so fun.  The trip back was long, but we all survived and can't wait for the opportunity to do it again.  But all that fun meant that we had to do extra school when we got back.  We crammed 4 days into 2 and then headed Friday night back down south to #1 house for AWANA games with my girls.  We have a frozen line going between the house and our septic and Hubby and his dad worked Saturday to get that crappy problem resolved.  Like that pun?  Okay, I know I'm getting boos!  And then back up north to make sure that we were in church on Sunday.  Have I mentioned how much I love the church that we go to?  The pastor is a straight from the heart kind of guy.  He makes my brain sweat.  Hubby coined that phrase, but I think he is so accurate.  The people are wonderful and so accepting of us.  It's been great. 

The busyness of life can easily get in the way of quiet time with God.  I have made excuses all week for not being in the Word, but it's not good enough.  You don't grow if you don't eat.  Lent has been in the back of my mind, nagging me to get back on the right path.  I'm glad to have this focus this Lent season.  I was discussing Lent with my brother and we were talking about how much we celebrate Christmas and the emphasis that we put on it.  Christmas is great and I love the Christmas season, but if Jesus was born, but never died and rose again, salvation would not exist.  We sang "In Christ Alone" yesterday at church.  I love this verse that pretty much sums up my beliefs:

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

Father God, thank you so much for sending your Son to die, to die for me.  Thank you for forgiveness, for wiping my slate clean, for choosing me to be one of your children.  I want to live the way that you want me to, I want to be unashamed.  Thank you for your mercy.  In Jesus's holy name, Amen.

The Queen of Gracefulness

I am married to a natural athlete.  He was a 3 sport varsity kind of guy.  I saw him water ski one time after saying how long it had been that he had been water skiing.  Of course he gets up on his first try and makes it look so easy!  I swear he can catch anything that is thrown to him, point being he can catch what I throw.  Belle takes after him.  The first time she played soccer, it was like her feet knew exactly what to do and she just did it.  I have to admit that I'm a tiny a bit jealous.  I have never been known for my athletic abilities, quite the contrary.  I always thought it was solely from my father's side until I saw my parents trip over each other and then it dawned on me that there is not a graceful gene anywhere in the gene pool that I came from.  My brother is 6"6' and my hubby calls him a waste-o-height due to his lack of any talent athletically, sorry Brother, but you know what I'm saying is totally the truth!  I like to think that we are gifted in so many other ways, right?  My brother is amazing musically.  I think he can play any instrument that is put in his hands.  And he picks up languages like nobody's business.  But athletics are not anywhere to be found in us.  Unfortunately I have passed a bit of this on to Ariel.  She is an over comer, I just know it.  She is half Hubby's, so she has half a shot to pull herself out of this! 

All this background to say that today I tripped down the stairs.  The very first time we came into this house and I saw the back stairs, steep and narrow, I knew this would be inevitable.  And today was the day.  I thought I would take the back stairs, a short cut to the laundry room, with basket full of laundry.  I was wearing my comfy socks, you know, those fuzzy, soft ones, and I was chatting with one of my kiddos.  Recipe for disaster!  When it was over and I was sitting on one of the last few steps figuring out exactly what was hurt and how badly it was hurt, I decided that I'd see a few bruises but that everything was intact and I giggled.  I texted Hubby who also giggled and reminisced about the last time I called to say that I fell down the stairs followed quickly by a trip to the ER and a cast on my leg for 8 weeks.  But now a couple hours after this most recent incident, I'm okay.  My toe still hurts and I'm a bit stiff, but a cast is not necessary!

The Stairs of Doom

Quotes from Devos

These are quotes that cannot be forgotten.  In the kids' devos yesterday, we were talking about understanding God and the whole concept of God living forever, that there is no beginning or end to God and that He created every thing big and small.  I asked them what the smallest thing was that God made and Belle says, "A mouse!" and I asked her to think smaller and the progression went to a fly then a flee and then I threw in a black fly.  Belle says, "God did not make black flies, Satan did!" to which Ariel says, "No, God created everything, but I bet there weren't black flies until Adam & Eve sinned."  So to sum up what we learned in devos today, black flies are evil. 

Today the question was, "What is your favorite thing that God created?" to which Belle responds, "My family and giraffes."  Ariel and I giggled and I'm thankful that at least we came before giraffes, but I guess they are pretty cool animals.  I truly believe that God has a sense of humor and I know that because of giraffes.

Scrapping

There are 7 bedrooms in this place.  One is a guest room, the two above the guest room aren't heated to full warmth and are empty, one is a playroom, Ariel and Belle have their own rooms but usually sleep together, and Hubby and I have a room.  There is another room, the Green Room, that isn't technically a bedroom because it is a walk through, but Ariel wanted it for a bedroom until it got too warm for her.  Since we moved her bed out of there two weeks after we moved here, it has remained empty, except for it being used as a restaurant by my budding waitresses.  My new friend from up here, Cat, asked me if I scrapbooked and if I had all my scraping stuff up here.  So the next time I went south, I brought all my stuff up and was thinking about setting it all up in my bedroom when I realized the Green Room would be a perfect location. 

So, I found a table in the barn and with the help of Ariel we hauled it up.  Of course I had to call Cat and she was over the next day and we scraped/talked for 6 hours.  And then the most amazing part was instead of packing everything up, I left it all out!  What a concept!!  Last night I was working on another page, I looked up to see Belle and Ariel bringing in their Barbies and playing on the floor.  I'm still working on Belle's baby book, I did a baby book for Ariel up to her first birthday, and they love looking at pictures of themselves from when they were little.  Oh my word, those babies were so cute.  I'm sure I'm biased.  The best part about this new scraping room is that I can just head up there for a few minutes at a time and putter away and not have to live with the chaos all over the dining room table.  This is my new favorite room of this house!