My kids have said some funny things and some words of wisdom lately. You guess which is which.

1. Max and Sam keep singing the song "Drop it like its hot!" and wiggling thier bottoms like in the Sun Drop soda commercial. They have it memorized. If only they could do that with thier homework. Hmmmm.

2. A commercial came on that talked about celebrating something. Max said to me seriously, "Its not worth celebrating if God's not there. Nothing is without God because He made everything.

3. Max loves his new pair of jeans he picked out. He says, "They have energy."

4. My father has been in the hospital for a week and we have been praying for him. I went into Sam's room after praying with Max and asked Sam if he had prayed for Papa with dad. He looked frustrated and dissapointed and hung his head dramatically saying, "Oh man! I prayed for world peace." I laughed and told him he could still pray for Papa and he quickly did that, relieved.

5. Sam tells me everytime he prays at night that its ok that his are short because it doesn't have to be long or fancy. His prayers are still powerful.

6. I prayed for my boys to become prayer warriors and they looked confused and said, "Mom, we already are prayer warriors." How right they are.

7. Max has wanted to get baptized so I took him to meet with the children's pastor. The pastor gave him an intense talk, kind of trying to talk him out of it and wait til he is older and understands the serious committment it is. He talked comparing it to marriage, a lifetime committment and said that if he decided to do it, he would no longer get to decide which movies to watch, video games to play, music to listen to or even which words to say. Jesus would decide that and Max would no longer have the freedom to choose for himself. He would have to choose to do what Jesus would want him to do. Baptism would be confessing to all his friends and the world that he puts God and Jesus first in his life. It was an intense conversation and intimidated me for him. Max listened and the pastor left us alone to talk and see if Max wanted to wait a while or go ahead and get baptized. Max said he wanted to do it and not wait. He was sure. Sam looked sheepish and said he wanted to wait til he was eight years old to get baptized (when earlier he was chomping at the bit to do it too). I agreed Sam should wait and went ahead and gave Max permission to get baptized. I just don't want it to be too early and not make an impression he can remember as life changing and permanant. But he can recommitt later in life if he feels the need. I need to honor his desire now and his willingness to committ to our Lord. I am so proud of him. My boy---Baptized---on Mother's Day---What a Mother's Day gift!

8. Easter day Sam got his chocolate candy out and kept telling me to watch him. Then he proceeded to tell me he was acting out Maizie killing the Easter bunny. (Because she did kill a rabbit in our back yard last week.) He then shoved the chocolate in his mouth like a wild animal eating another animal. Nice.....

9. I have to say that after that meeting with the pastor yesterday, both of my kids have been extra helpful and sweet, wanting to be good and honor Jesus. They are going out of their way and making comments about honoring him. So nice and sweet. Hope it lasts...at least for a little while.

Well my father is doing better, slowly on the mend. He will still be in the hospital at least until Monday. He has a serious blood infection, Klebsiolla bacteria which is antibiotic resistant and he has no immune system due to kidney transplant antirejection meds. he takes which complicates matters. Please pray for him.

Eggstravaganza

We had a pre-Easter kick off at our church last Sunday. It was called Eggstravaganza and people/esp. kids were encouraged to invite friends to come for outreach to unchurched people. Then next Sunday they may come to Easter service. Great plan. The church had an indoor Easter egg hunt in one room, face painting, snow cones, games with prizes to win, free candy and a petting zoo inside. The petting zoo was in a fenced off area decorated with fake flowers and trees and candy. the trees had bags of cotton candy hanging off every limb and they passed out bags to kids. It was soooo cool. The animals they had were: rabbits, chicks and baby ducks, of course, but also, a baby kangaroo, baby foxes, lemur chinchilla, huge tortoise that was painted pink and other colors like an easter egg. I may be missing a few others, but you get the point. It was sooo cool. Did I say cool? Yeah. Anyway, it was fun.

Now despite the cool events my church does, the church does not focus on entertaining people and being known for fun programs and events. If that was the focus I wouldn't have chosen it to be my church. I am grateful that the church challenges me to move out of my comfort zone and trust God by giving, helping, and getting involved in ministry and the lives of others...which is a sticky, scary and uncomfortable thing to do. It is even risky. But we are called to do it. We must love the unlovely, difficult and hurting people who need God. And we are the priviledged people, who if we obey his call, get to join in the work of God.

Anyway, I hope your Easter is an eggstravaganza of fun. Just remember the reason for the celelbration. OUR SALVATION! What greater gift could God give us, but His son, Jesus...to die for us, take our place so that we could be saved and have a relationship with God...restored...so we could be with Him for eternity. How great is our God? How worthy is our savior? How grateful are we for His spirit willing to live in us---us dirty, sinful creatures so prone to sin---and guide and teach us, pray for us, intervening on our behalf, transforming us with His work if we are willing? HE IS SOOO GOOD! HE IS GOD.

Still LOVING American Idol! Can't get enough of it. Another thing I love is my iphone. I know I have said it before, but it is sooo true. I am addicted to Words With Friends, but this last week I downloaded two new apps. to use at work for people with communication delays. The iphone has many apps for assistive technology some for a small fee and some for free! I got one that works like a jelly bean switch. It cost $15 one time fee and to order a jelly bean switch it costs at least a couple of hundred dollars. Parents can get this app to use for their kids. If they use assistive technology (AT) or (AC) Assistive Communication devices, this can be used in place or at the least as a back up if they are out and forget to bring theirs from home. It is awesome! The other one I got is like a choice switch that offers choices from categories such as foods, snacks, outdoor play, indoor play, etc. choices. Then it opens up with those choices and you pick one and then it shows an "I want" button to push next to the choice, e.g. Apple. The kid pushes both to make a request "I want Apple". You can program in any choices and they have real life pictures, not drawings that are less concrete. This type of device can cost $10,000 to $15,000! Yes, big difference from the $15 I paid for each with a one time fee. Anyway, I am soo jazzed about them. I can't wait to use them and show clients. Way to go iphone! They also have specific apps for people with Autism where you can make visual schedules,etc. and for kids with Apraxia. Did I say AWESOME? Yeah awesome. Just saying!

Pray and Praise

Lately God has been reminding me of the need to pray. I have been so out of the habit that it is embarrassing to admit. It is not my first instict. I used to pray, praise God and Jesus and read the bible with my boys back when I did hoo hoos. We did this every night. But sadly, this was a long time ago. I have been so negligent it makes me sad. I do scripture memorization with the boys on the way to school each day. They know eleven verses now. I am going slow so they don't forget them and get overwhelmed and want to stop. And right now they still like it. It is going on the third year of this. Anyway, I have been trying to pray with the boys each night as I put them down to bed and have started this after scripture time while driving to school in the morning.

This morning I had them each pick a person to pray for then I prayed for the boys. Max choose his cousin Sawyer to pray for--so he would know how special he is. Sam chose to pray for people with cancer (since we were turning in our box of change collected for the cancer drive at their school today). It was such a great morning that I wrote a note to tape up in my car and in my work vehicle I drive. As I put one in my work vehicle, it dropped to the ground under my seat so I felt around for it and pulled up a long lost something...something I had been praying for, for two months to find...my scripture memory cards on a ring! Yeah, an aswered prayer. It was perfect timing. I had even prayed about them after I got the kids dropped off at school and was on my way to change out cars at work. Yeah! God's answer to prayer and in His perfect timing. And all because of my notes to "Pray and Praise". God rewards those who seek him!

Anyway, I hope my reminders in the car help me to turn to prayer throughout the day. I am trying to pray for all my clients as I drive to see them. Just a quick prayer, but at least something. I am not eloquent, but that doesn't matter. I just need to be faithful, obedient and PRAY! Pray about ALL things. This will draw my heart and mind continually toward God's and His guidance and change my attitude. How many times do I get soo bent out of shape, frustrated with the daily irritations of the day that it affects my walk with God and Jesus? Often! Ugh. It is embarrassing and humbling to admit. But I realize how often it occurs with traffic, rude people, the rushing from place to place with no time for a lunch break sometimes or client situations that are uncomfortable or heartbreaking. It doesn't take much to get under my skin and prick my spirit, ruffling my feathers. My irritations seem so silly compared to the daily crises that many people around the world face. I can just see thier faces, and the Lord's face, disgusted and amazed at how I can be so easily offended. Really? And over what really?

Anyway, my solution to fight back against my sinful nature is to pray. Pray, pray, pray. If you want to join in the battle too, then pray with me. Hopefully we will see the Lord move in Big ways, changing our attitude, heart, mind, spirit and posssibly our situations. Pray on!

Akiane Kramarik

Akiane Kramarik is a girl who at the age of four started having visions from God and says she has gone to heaven to visit many times. She started to sketch and paint after this started--at four years old!--and her work is amazing. She is a genius who credits her gift to God. He tells her what to paint or sketch and gives her words for poetry. She spends five hours a day painting, sometimes up to 15 hours a day. Some of her paintings have taken up to 300 hours to make. They are amazing for anyone, especially considering her age. It is very inspiring. I especially like the paintings of Jesus. She says this is how he looks. The boy I wrote about whose parents wrote " Heaven is for Real" about his visit to heaven when he was four and very sick on the operating table, says this is exactly how Jesus looks. He has said every other picture he has seen painted of Jesus looks wrong, not like him. But this one is right. Anyway, interesting and inspiring. At least it was to me. Hope it is to you too. Here is more about Akiane and some of her amazing paintings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAg4I4fa7x4&feature=related

Updated Pics!

Here are some pictures I promised would be coming. This is Sammy holding a magic wand full of purple thirsty/bouncy crystals the boys made during Spring break. The pictures of the bubbling and frothing potions/experiments didn't turn out. Waaah. They were all blurry. Too much action going on apparently!

Max and Sam at the Aquarium. They both got to pet some sharks as seen below. Cool!

Max looking at a jelly fish.

Sam looking at a glow in the dark jelly fish.

The boys had lots of fun. Me too! Last night Max went home from school with a friend for a play date, then was taken to dinner and a kids theater play of "Ferdinand the Bull". It was sooo nice of Collin's family to do that. He had a great time.

We woke up this morning and the boys helped do yard work with Jason, picking up acorns and sticks to earn a prize. Jason did most of the work, especially having to motivate Sammy to help. Oh well, it is good to teach them to help out. Hard work never hurt anyone. Sammy did help by steaming the hardwood and tile floors last night as I vacuumed the carpets. Way to go Sammy! That gave us more play time together. Friday nights are always hard as they are house cleaning and laundry night, right after a full days work. Sometimes Max vac cums for me. Got to train them up early to help. It will pay off in the long run even if it takes longer sometimes now. They actually enjoy it. I do toooo!!!

By the way. Just got to say...I LOVE Pandora Radio. I play it while I clean the house and have an awesome praise time. It puts me in such a good mood and makes it all seem to go sooo much faster. Did I say I love it? Well I do. LOVE IT!!!