After School Fun

Last week one day after school we headed to the Children's Park to climb, run, and splash. The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. It was great to carve out some time to just be together and enjoy each other. I took my camera and here are some of my favorites.








Last week Aidan got his first report card. That means he has been in school for 6 weeks. That is wild. I imagined that 6 weeks in we would be pretty adjusted to school but I have to admit I am missing that boy terribly! I have really come to treasure my time with all three of the kids. It just isn't enough of it. I think I miss him more now than I did at the beginning of school. I will adjust I suppose, but I am a little sad about this new stage of our life. I know there is so much fun to be had and so much to learn about who he will become and I eagerly await those things, but this loss of time with him is just hard on me. We had a great time at the park and will try to make a habit out of these short after school trips all together.

A little bit of humble pie

I was that mom today. Admit it...you have all looked at some mother and instead of being sympathetic towards her you make some kind of snide remark about how if your child ever acted like that I would...(you finish the sentence). What is with that judgemental attitude anyways? I know I have had it before, but I pray that today's experience will help keep me humble.

So now that I have shared that, I assume you know that I expect no medal for my parenting skills that I showed today. Let me tell you how it went. We went to chick-fil-a after BSF because I needed to run an errand and I knew that the kids would not tolerate running errands on an empty stomach. Little did I know that they were not going to tolerate Chick-fil-a well either. I ordered our food, got to the table, tore the chicken into pieces and distributed ketchup and drinks. Finally, I was sitting down to eat and Andrew got upset because he wanted to drink my drink (which was tea and I don't give my babies caffeine right before nap time). I said no here is your cup. He took it and angrily threw down on the ground. Oh joy. But it did not stop there...he started running his hand back and forth where his food was and chicken went flying everywhere. I did reprimand him for both of these, but evidently that did not matter because he kept at it. While all the fun is happening with Andrew, Rebecca goes to play for a few minutes before we leave. After a little bit she comes out to ask for ice cream. I told her no because we need to leave, because we have errands to run. To this my sweet three year-old began yelling NO NO NO NO NO (You get the point) while she runs for play land. I told her to come on, fought with her to get shoes on, and began gathering our things. At this point Andrew gets upset because of who knows what and he literally began slapping me in the face multiple times. My warnings for him to stop where ignored and it seemed to turn into a game for him. Rebecca is still being extremely rude with arms crossed and tons of attitude and my one year old won't stop hitting me in the face. Plenty of drama to turn many eyes our way. Wow! Any parenting dignity I had went out the window. Just when I start to think parenting is getting easier for a second something like this happens and I am totally humbled once again.

Just in case any of you are having a bad day...maybe this glimpse into our world will help. I know I keep telling myself that everybody has bad days...if it isn't rue don't tell me, I need to believe that right now. To the joys of motherhood!

The Tooth Saga

My 5 year-old is a little (or more accurately A LOT) on the dramatic side. He has had a loose tooth for several weeks and we kept encouraging him to wiggle it and get it out. It was not coming at least not the way he worked at it. We told him several times he needed to get it out or we were going to take it. He obviously didn't really believe us and it remained attached in his mouth. Last night I decided it was time to get it out. We spent at least 30 minutes trying to get tie floss around it and get it out, but he was tearful and afraid and he kept pushing the string off with his tongue "on accident". Finally we gave up. He is so good at this dramatic roll that within minutes of being awake this morning he was crying because his tooth hurt. I just kept telling him that when he gets it out it will never hurt again. Well, I sent him off to school tooth in mouth and when I picked him up he did this


to proudly show me that his tooth was no more. I assumed he pulled it out at school, but no that was his teacher. She told him to come with her, grabbed a paper towel and pulled. I asked him what he did and if he cried. He said "I almost said ouch". Seriously? We had tears, tongues, and protest to deal with and she almost got ouch. I guess we know who will be pulling his teeth from now on. Now I just wonder what other parenting responsibilities we pass off onto her...

Apostolic Passion

I hung out with some friends a while back and the topic of missions came up. One of my friends made the comment that how can we know that God does not have that for us. He only reveals things to you when you are ready to accept them so how can people say I know God has not called me to that (I am sure I am butchering the way it was said, but this is what I heard...I'm sorry). The next week I was reading for Perspectives and I came across the most challenging article yet for me personally. I think that part of what was said in it fits perfectly into the conversation we had. I wanted to share a few things that have stuck with me and I keep finding my mind returning to. The article is written by Floyd McClung.

McClung writes about Apostolic Passion. He says that apostolic passion is a deliberate, intentional choice to live for the worship of Jesus in the nations. "It's the quality of those who are on fire for Jesus, who dream of the whole earth being covered with the glory of the Lord." He goes on to say that "if you live without the vision of the glory of God filling the whole earth then you are in danger of serving your own dreams of greatness, as you wait to do "the next thing" God tells you. There are too many overfed, under-motivated Christians hiding behind the excuse that God has not spoken to them. They are waiting to hear voices or see dreams-all the while living to make money, to provide for their future, to dress well and have fun." He goes on to make the claim that if we do not make an attempt to cultivate the passions of God, a passion for the Nations, then we should not be surprised that we never hear God say go. He further explains that once we nurture the desire to see the earth bathed in Christs praise, then we can truly trust our heart when we hear the Lord say stay.

I think that all too often I care more about the things right here in front of me that are pleasurable but not eternal than I do about Jesus Christ's name being worshipped by all peoples. And I think the biggest crime is when I live as if that is OK, as if that is enough. Christ tells us to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. I am coming to believe that I cannot truly love the Lord fully when I don't even think about His name being worshipped by all and I know I am not loving my neighbor when I don't ever dare to offer Jesus to them. He is love so to offer love in some form I must be focused on offering Him. When my thoughts do not turn in this direction then I can likely rest assured that I am not experiencing Apostolic Passion. McClung encourages us to beg of the Lord to be ruthless in revealing our selfish ambition and our lack of willingness to die to ourselves if we find ourselves in this place lacking passion. I think that is a hard prayer to pray because I believe the Lord will answer and I am pretty sure I am not going to love the response.

The Fair

I got a chance to take the kids to the fair. I loved the fair as a kid and I was happy to share the memories with my own kids. It was a lot of fun, but doing it solo with 3 kids was a bit of a challenge. Trace could not make it because of some things he had to finish up and I was insistent on going on the dollar ride day (it is just too expensive any other day and that was bad enough). We managed very well, except for a few moments like when we had already been waiting in line for a while and Rebecca insisted it was potty time and the one time that Aidan asked to go ride the ride right beside the one Becca was on and for some foolish reason I said yes. I could totally see both the kids and they were fine, but it did really stressed me out. Oh and there were the moments when Andrew had all of the stroller he could take and he just screamed, but those moments didn't last for long. Wow, I just realized what a fun picture I am painting. I am sure you are wishing you could have traded places with me. Well...maybe some pictures will make it look like more fun.

Here we are walking through the animals.

We saw this calf being fed a gigantic bottle. The kids thought this was neat.

And here are some pictures of some of the rides

Andrew during a happy moment in the stroller.

And what kind of fair would it be without some of this

A Curtain Tour

I mentioned that I have a few more curtain projects around the house to wrap up. Well, I finally finished this weekend. Let me take you on a quick tour. Here is the breakfast nook/dining room in my house. This is what it has looked like for a long time.
I love this little area because it gives off so much light and this is the place we all come together as a family for breakfast and dinner. I added this fabric treatment. If you are curious about how I did this you can read about it here. I was going to show you myself but I remembered Kimba had already done it so why bother. Thanks Kimba! Again, these are mistreatment's and no sewing was done in the process of making any of these.

And here is a picture from the opposite angle. I am happy with them and I think they finish off the space, but I do think if I was ever to make more I would use a heavier fabric. This one is pretty thin and I think a heavier fabric would hang better.
This is the small window on our glass door. This one is my favorite in the room. I added a simple center pleat in these to add a little more interest.
For this treatment I just used velcro to attach the fabric to the blinds that were already on the door. It was super easy to do.
And these last two windows are above my sink in the kitchen. It is open to the breakfast nook so I decided to use the same fabric to unite the space. For these I simply folded the fabric and hung it up with upholstery tacks. Nothing special but from nothing to this is an improvement. I hung the fabric high mostly above the window and made it long enough to hide the white blinds when they are pulled up like they are here.


And remember these mistreatments...

I decided they needed just a little more so I added toppers above each window. Again, these are hung with nothing but upholstery tacks and I folded them to make the pleats.
Well, that wraps up my decorating posts for a while. I still have a chair and table I want to update and a simple project for the computer area, but those may have to wait...life is extremely full right now and these things just don't seem to be the greatest priority. Plus, it is now officially Fall so that means the holidays are right around the corner.

I feel like I once again have to give credit to the Nester for all the inspiration. I would have never put hot glue on fabric and just tacked them onto the wall without you.

A Link

Read This if you have time. I think you will find it to be challenging, but good. I know I did.