I got so carried away with my last blog I forgot to say that here are two things you most see/read. I am loving the book "The Hunger Games". I think the best movie of the year will be "True Grit". The girl in it is fantastic!

God is Good

Well, well, well, the new year has started out with quite a push. I'm not sure if its in the right direction, but at least its going. Better than the alternative I guess. Yes, Sam left school yesterday sick again---the 6th time since Thanksgiving. I thought we were through and healthy for the new year. Last Friday late afternoon, Jason noticed some problems with our sewer line. It just finally got fixed last night at 5:30 pm. Just in time for the sleet and snow we have had since 10:00 last night. Thank you God! We had to replace the entire line which was another $5,000 out of our savings. Whew. And I thought spending $700 over Christmas break was bad for another plumbing problem and work on the van. There goes the savings. But I won't complain. God is good. We have water!!! (Thank you Mimi and Papa for taking us in and taking such good care of us as always.)

I have actually had a peace and not been stressed out as I normally would about the situation. Two years ago we didn't have the savings to pay for all of this. God has provided. Two years ago if I had, had the money in savings, I would be frustrated that I scrimped so hard to get some savings and as soon as I do it's gone again. Heck, two months ago I felt that way. But I don't feel that way right now. I am at peace. Two years makes a big difference and I am grateful. This is a blessing to see God's work in my life and the changes he brings to my spirit. Keep on working Lord! I still need more work. I cling to the verse Phillipians 1:6 "For he who began a good work in will you carry it out to completion until the day of Christ Jesus".

I think of all the many people in the world who don't even have running water, who don't have enough food to eat, kids who don't have any parents alive to care for them. I am truly blessed and pampered by God. I don't have a perspective at all, even when I try. If I did, my complaining spirit wouldn't ever return. But alas, it does. I just hope the good days of clarity become more frequent and last longer. It is in our/especially "my" sinful, selfish nature to forget so easily how good God is. And His goodness doesn't depend on circumstances. His nature can't be changed. ("Hebrews 13:8) "He is the same yesterday, today and forever", thank goodness (God-ness). It's scary to think if he wasn't. What would the world be like if God had bad days? Whether "think" we understand His ways (we can't because his ways are above ours) or not, it doesn't change the truth that He is good. He is God. Thank you God. Thank you Jesus. Ok does it sound like I'm ranting and waving my hands in the air? Oops, my charismatic side is turning on. I just get so grateful for the truth.

Anyway, this year has started out with a bang, but God is using it for good and not evil (e.g Genesis 50:20 what Satan means for harm, God means for good in order to bring about his present purpose). His plans are to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). Sorry to be a little preachy and praising, but I can't help it today. I want to keep this moment of right attitude towards God, His vision and perspective. Sooo, I hope all is well with your spirits today and you are greatly blessed with an ever greater measure of His presence today!

My Utmost for His Highest

I have been sensing strongly that this next year, starting right now, I have a critical decision to make. Whether to follow God and Jesus whole heartedly or whether to be lukewarm, safe, comfortable and follow my own interests. Whew. It is a hard decision, yet there is only one answer. I want to follow Him and seek Him only to all other exlusions. But can I do it? I am scared of my own failings and weak, fearful, sinful nature. I certainly can't do it without God's help. But then I do have that.

Anyway, I came across an old devotional, one of my favorites I have read many times and am starting to re-read it now. I got it when I was in college and it was my first devotional to do. It is, "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers and it is awesome. The first day, Jan. 1sts reading summed up my hope for this next years resolution/goal. It is really a lifelong goal, but I want to focus more intensely on it. Anway, here is the entry to read on day one of this book. I hope you like it.

"My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed, but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage." Phil. 1:20 My utomost for his highest. My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed. We shall all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus on the point He has asked us to yield to him. Paul says---My determination is to be my utmost for His Highest. To get there is a question of will, not of debate or reasoning, but a surrender of will, an absolute and irrevocable surrender on that point. An overweening consideration for ourselves is the thing that keeps us from that decision, though we put it that we are considering others. When we consider what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He does not know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point; He Does Know! Shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for this one thing only...My Utmost for His Highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and for Him alone. My undeterredness for His holiness. Whether that means life or death, no matter! (Verse 21). Paul is determined that nothing shall deter him from doing exactly what God wants. God's order has to work up to a crisis in our lives because we will not heed to a gentler way. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him and we begin to debate; then he produces a providential crisis where we have to decide---for or against, and from that point the "Great Divide" begins. If the crisis has come to you on any line, surrender your will to Him absolutely and irrevocably.

I want to ask every morning in my quiet time, before I start the day, "What do you want me to do today Lord?" I want His voice, His whisper to be stronger than my busy agenda so that I don't miss the opportunity to join in His work, His plan. I need to work daily on trusting God enough to "Go forth/ a going out of my comfort zone to follow Him. God doesn't always reveal what He is going to do, (but He does reveal Himself!) so it requires faith to wait or follow in blind trust. But who better to trust. I need to let my attitude be a continual going out in dependence upon God until there is nothing between me and Him.

Happy New Year!!! Last time I blogged, the boys were going over to Mimi's house to spend the night since the last 2 times we tried they had been sick. Well, Jason felt better and had passed his kidney stone that day at work so we went out to dinner and walked around Utica Park Mall that night for a little date night...very nice and long needed. Yay. However, the next morning Mimi called and asked if I had gotten some good sleep and felt rested up. I said yes. Then she said she was glad because she had some bad news. Sam had gotten sick at 4:30 the day before at her house and threw up and had a fever. He had been sick and hadn't kept liquids or ice chips down all night. Max had thrown up 1x in his sleeping bag (which she so sweetly had all freshly washed for me when she brought them home...what an angel!) but had not any other times and didn't have a fever.

Mimi said she could keep them longer if I had errands to run, but if I wanted to get them into the doctor she would drive them back then. I couldn't believe she hadn't called me as soon as they had gotten sick the day before! I don't want anyone else to be exposed and get sick, let alone the work of being up all night with them. Sweet Mimi, always worried about giving others a rest.

Anyway I said I would run over and pick them up, but she said she would drive them over. Sam didn't have a fever anymore and the doctor felt he was on the tail end of another bug. His fourth for the month (He was sick just before Thanksgiving also...Ugh. Really, I do clean and sanitize frequently! I am getting paranoid.) Probably the one Jason had along with his kidney stone. Sam had a fever again the next day and didn't eat or drink hardly anything, but that's typical for him. He didn't throw up at all since back from Mimi's. Now he is better. Whew! The poor sleep over at Mimi's was sooo jinxed and she worked so hard to make it fun.

Oh well. We have been home bodies lately since on break from school. A new game we are playing, besides go fish, I spy card game, Hedbandz, Sorry and War and hide and seek, is Rubikube. It is soooo fun. Max is great at it. We are trying to talk Sam into trying it and will help him if he does. We have done puzzles and are going to do some sand art as a project also. The crystals we grew turned out cool. We have more growing still. Yay! Hope your new year is happy and fun tooo.

Kidney Stones, Crystals, Pillow Pets and Mimi's House

This week we have had to spend $500 dollars on car repairs and $200 on fixing our water heater......Merry Christmas and I hope a happier New Year. Oh well, things could be worse. The kids aren't sick anymore and Jason is feeling better. After he got sick with the same thing the kids had, he got better and then Christmas evening he started passing a kidney stone (which he does periodically...He finally stopped naming them because he has had too many to keep track of). He also had a fever and was throwing up, possibly with a stomach bug on top of it. Ugh. Well he is better now.

The kids and I have had fun playing war, go fish, Hedbandz, Sorry, and doing puzzles. We have also done some cool experiments with Max's new crystal growing kit. It is great. It was something he had been asking for, for Christmas. It has 13 different crystal growing activities to do. We have done three. We grew spikey yellow crystals on a paper cactus we cut out and made stand up. We also made some pretty blue crystals grow on a rock and we made a geode shell and are now growing glowing crystals on it. The geode shell we made has glow powder we put on it before it dried and hardened so now after the crystals grow it will glow in the dark!!! Really cool. I will show you pictures of them later when they are all done growing. And we still have 9 more left to do! Lots of Fun! The only draw back is that the crystals don't grow as big as you would like, but still I highly recommend this kit. It is "Ultimate Crystal Growing Kit" by Scientific Explorer.

One of the things that Sam wanted soooo badly was a dog Pillow Pet. He has wanted one for forever (at least 6 months) and talks about it all the time. We tried to talk him out of it, thinking he was too old for it and wouldn't want it once he got it, but to no avail. Santa brought it to him for Christmas and he has slept with it and played with it ever since. He named it "Hershey" and it is a "girl" dog, his first girl sleep buddy (stuffed animal). He says it looks like a girl dog to him (Maybe because our dog, Maizie is a girl?). Anyway, it is so funny to hear him walk around the house constantly singing the song, "It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a pillow pet!"

Today Mimi came over and picked the boys up at around 10:30 and took them to go rent some movies, then to go see a movie and then to spend the night at her house. She will drop them back off tomorrow sometime. Oh sweet Mimi. I do hope they are good for her and don't fuss too much. I am sure they will have lots of fun. Mimi makes everything fun! This morning they woke up and both boys were singing the Sponge Bob song, "It's the best day ever...because we are going to spend the night at Mimi's house." It cracked me up. Yes they were excited. The last two times we planned for them to do this, they were sick and had to reschedule. Thank you Mimi and Papa for everything!

Always and forever, no matter what!

Yes, I am loving being off work and spending more time with the boys. This morning I was snuggling with Sam and he kept wanting to give me "married kisses". It is so cute and sweet. I will take his kisses any way I can get them. I know pretty soon he will be not wanting to do anything like that with his old and embarrassing mama. Anyway, I had sprayed my hair with hair spray and not brushed through it yet so he kept feeling my hair and telling me that he loved me even if I had dry, crunchy hair...no matter what. He would love me even if I was in heaven. Oh, I just melted. I hope he never changes his feelings. How I love my joy boys, always and forever, no matter what!

Let's Get Creative

Since I am off with the kids for Christmas break since they are out of school, I have been inundated with the cries of, "We want to do a project!" Here are a few we have done so far in the last 2 days. Yesterday I googled a blog site with kids craft ideas and we made "Snowman Poop" that we put on our neighbor's doorstep, as well as the kid's cousin's doorstep. We put large chocolate and white swirled marshmallows into a baggie along with some dark chocolate chips and sprinkled it with silver glitter. Then we wrote out this poem and stapled it to the bag: "You have been naughty so this is the scoop. All you get for Christmas is this snowman poop!" Then we added that we were just joking and hoped they had a fun Christmas. We also made some reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn Christmas Eve. I just add libbed with what was in the cabinet and put several packets of dried oatmeal flakes and some frosted mini wheats in a baggie and then sprinkled it all with silver glitter. We also made a bag of chopped up carrots sprinkled with glitter to add to it later so it wouldn't make the other mix get moist.

Today we played with some stampers, making pictures and decorating a bag for papa's gift, then we played with glow in the dark bendaroos making things. We have also played lots of board games and hide and seek and I have also gone through thier closets and toy boxes to get rid of old things they don't play with anymore and make room for the new. Anyway, now that we are all finally healthy again it feels good to be productive. Have I mentioned we have broken three glass knick knacks in the last 2 days with all the wild play going on? The kids feel better and are bored, tired of laying around. Soooo I must get creative. Anyone have any other ideas? Have a fun and creative Holiday week!