Being Gone For A Week Leads To:

On Monday I was busy with load after load of laundry, dishes from the weekend, and all more normal Monday cleaning. So the above was the state of my home. Can't say I'm not real! More pictures tomorrow from our week at WOL Family Campground.

Uncomfortable Circumstances

We heat our house and our hot water with a wood furnace. But in the summer, (what summer we have!), when we don't need to heat the house, we switch over to heating the hot water with propane. The short of it all is that the hot water tank is in the bathroom closet and there is a smell to the propane. As the propane tank gets lower and lower the smell gets worse and worse. To the point that I'm downright embarrassed to have people over and have the walk down the hall towards the bathroom.

I have made my own "stink" about these uncomfortable circumstances to my husband and our friend, whom we affectionately refer to as our "General Contractor", since last summer when this first happened. (Because it was our first summer in this house!) And it's even to the point that I find myself wishing summer would hurry up and go by just so we can use the wood furnace again!

Today, while in the bathroom brushing my hair, I caught myself starting to "stink" again with an attitude about how I strongly do not like that smell or having to endure it for the whole summer! (As if 3 months is so long!) And then in the same breath I stopped and looked at my self in the mirror - my attitude sobered as I felt the Holy Spirit pricking my mind and heart.

Lately on Facebook I have read several status updates that say something along the lines of "such and such happened and now life stinks", "I have to do this and it is such a bummer"...you get the idea. I have quietly read those comments and so badly wanted to respond with "Life is so much bigger than this or that! Use this for God's glory not your own pity party!" And now as I stood fixing my hair I realized I was having the same attitude that I have been condemning others for having. The cold water of the Holy Spirit washed over my soul and gave me a jolt!

While my bathroom stinks and it's rather uncomfortable to say the least, I still have no reason to have a bad attitude about it. While the thought of enduring a bad oder as a means to spiritual growth is rather strange, it's also very real and powerful, just like the oder!

Standing on the cold tile of my bathroom I immediately thought of how smelling this smell for 3 months of the year can remind me that life is not about me and my own comfort. Learning to deal with the stench actually brings about a growth in patience and endurance of uncomfortable circumstances that, in light of many others, are actually quite comfy.

So next time something happens and you are tempted to join me in the "that-stinks-attitude-club", I invite you to join me in the "life-is-not-about-me-club" and see what God may be trying to teach you.

He can use anything to draw us closer to Him. Even the smell of propane!

Wordless Wednesday: A Girl & A Kitten

It's a classic - a little girl and a little kitten!

Go HERE to join the rest of us at

5 Minutes For Mom

on this Wordless Wednesday!

Life According To Emily

ONE:
Emily was excited to ride in her Grandpa's mustache last weekend. Most of you would know this as a Mustang!


TWO:
While we were at WOL Family Campground last week I did not feel good one morning. As I laid in bed, still half asleep, I overheard Emily tell Justin this:
"Daddy, I have a good idea! Why don't you go to bed and let Mommy get up and fix us breakfast!"


THREE:
I told Emily to do something (forget what right now) and to do it quietly because her brother was sleeping. She just did it and then yelled down the hall: "Mommy! I obeyed you and did it quietly!"


FOUR:
Micah was playing around with Abby's new sunglasses. He would put them on then take them off. Over and over he would repeat this. Finally Emmy, with hands on her hips, said to him: "Micah! Put your eyes back on!"

You're An Old Married Couple When...

Yesterday was Monday.

Monday is my favorite day of the week.

It's my cleaning day.

The day that everything gets back to order after the past 6 days.

On this particular Monday I had an urge come over me to make sure my living room was really clean. Really.

So after moving the the wing back chairs, the coffee table, and the end table off of the area rug and cleaning it...I decided it was not clean enough. Knowing that several children have had "accidents" on that rug kind of makes one doubt the depth of clean that is truly attainable! I quickly rolled that baby up and plopped her on my front porch and when Justin came home I sweet talked him into carrying it out to the road for me. "Someone will stop and take it", I assured him. He cast his doubtful glance at the 6 year old rug and humored me.

When he came back to from depositing the rug by the road he challenged me with, "I bet no one will come and take it!" I reached out my hand and accepted the hand shake with my counter of "I bet someone will take it!" We then did the very mature thing that old married couples do and put a hot fudge sundae up for grabs for the winning spouse.

The sun slowly sank and no one stopped to take the rug with them. This morning when I got up it began to drizzle and then outright storm. My hopes of a hot fudge sundae began to dim. Surely no one would pick up a soaked and used rug!

WRONG!

I got home from today's errands and a hot fudge sundae danced before me! While I was gone someone indeed had stopped and adopted my outcast area rug! And my bet-winning-hot-fudge-sundae was quite delicious!

1 Little Girl + 1 Big Prayer

Last night I texted a sweet friend of mine and made plans to meet at a little playground garden for a picnic and play date. When I had checked out the weather forecast for the week it looked good all week long.

This morning we woke up and got ready to go while listening to thunder, watching the lightening, and feeling the rain. I had a few errands to run before our set meeting time and so I figured that the worse case scenario was to switch from the Story Garden to a McDonald's with a play place.

{By the way, Emily calls McDonald's "Ole McDonald's"!}

As we headed down the road on our way to the first stop my oldest child spoke up from the back seat: "Mommy, it's going to stop raining soon."

I cast glances in all directions and seeing only dark gray clouds I asked Abby why she thought that. Her response was ever so serious: "Because I prayed and asked God to stop it."

My jaw dropped so low it about hit the brakes! I quickly began my own talk with the Lord asking Him to help me use this time to teach her about prayer. No matter what He chose to do.

After our first stop we came out to gray skies clearing and tinges of blue poking through. As we headed on to the next place we talked about how God always answers prayers. I reminded the girls that He either says "yes", "no", or "maybe". Emmy added her 2 cents by saying, "And sometimes He says "wait", Mom!" I think she put it in perfect words! Then God brought to my mind what they had learned in Sunday School and we then talked about how Hannah had prayed and how God chose to answer her prayer.

It was truly the most awesome experience! As I tucked them into bed on Sunday night we had talked about Hannah praying and the importance of prayer and then here, only 2 days later, God brought a huge lesson and hands on experience for us to walk through. And the neat part was that at Walmart one of the girls told the cashier that we were going on a picnic. She looked rather surprised and asked if it was still raining. I then got to share how Abby prayed and how God chose to answer that prayer.

So 1 little girl + 1 big prayer made for a very special lesson from our Mighty Creator today! And after getting home from our picnic it began to storm again. How totally cool is that?!?!?!

During our time outside I was able to catch a few cute poses for you all to enjoy. My friend Susan was there with 3 out of 4 of her kids, too.

Here are our 2 youngest children, Micah and Nolan, thinking about climbing the climbing wall. They are about the same size but they are almost exactly a year apart! Mr. Micah is too much of a little brute!

This is 5 out of 6 kids giving us silly poses - after we explained to Abby what a pose was!

It's called the Storybook Garden because each thing in the garden has to do with a book. This is the Secret Garden.

I needed to stay with Micah, so most of my pictures are of him, but I did manage to snap a few of the girls as they zoomed by!

Emily...

Abby...

A giant story book with a giant chair and flower pot.

Micah crossing the foot bridge. Literally! They have flowers planted in all kinds of shoes all around this bridge.

Micah with his Oreo mustache giving me a "cheese" from the house of the 3 bears.

Micah is actually in the right window playing the part of Goldilocks in male form!

And "Miss-I-Can-Do-Anything" Emily climbing the wall. No surprise there!

There was so much more but I did not have time to get good pictures. Hmmm...can't imagine why!

Thanks for stopping by to visit us!

Potty Habits

If that title didn't catch your attention I don't know what would!

While it's slightly strange, I'm really wanting to know about the "potty" habits of other children out there. Okay! So it is more than just slightly strange!

Let me explain...

I have noticed that my children (specifically the girls since Micah is still in diapers!) are running to the bathroom constantly! Or at least what feels like constantly. We will get ready to go somewhere and I will have them go before we leave, then without a doubt they will have to go 15 minutes later! Or there is always the dinner/lunch time bathroom break. Seriously! E.v.e.r.y. meal they have the need to use the bathroom sometime around the half-way-through-the-meal mark.

So all I want to know is if my kids are just odd...or if you have kids, too, that seem to enjoy hanging out in the bathroom?

To join in this rather interesting, yet slightly strange and maybe more than slightly strange conversation, please click here to go to my Blog Frog Community Forum. There you can read or add your own strange, or slightly more strange, comments, thoughts, and suggestions!

Too Funny!

Too funny! Dont you agree? (It's Emily.)