Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Is my glass half-full or half-empty?

I think that so many times it is a matter of how you look at your life. There are a few things that hinder us from gratefullness. We forget what God has done for us in the past, we don't look to Him for the future and give in to fear and doubt, and we don't have an understanding of what blessing truly is. Our pastor has been preaching out of Micah, Jude and 3rd John about trusting God now (He is the God of the living). He is really right on. We need to practice the things I mentioned in order to trust God today.

What has that got to do with the Vision Forum contest that Kim from Life in a Shoe is offering? Well, I will tell you:

Now I know that my next statement will appall and/or incense some of our family members, but I am going to forge ahead anyway. My husband and I are a part of the first generation in either of our families to have a godly home. We are not alone in this generation. My husband's sister and brother-in-law are also with us in the striving to have a godly home and raise up godly children, for example. We also have been blessed with family members that are christian now and are a tremendous encouragement to us.

The problem with not having come from generations of godly forefathers is that we don't have experience to draw upon. The blessing of not having godly forefathers is not having experience to draw upon. I know you think I am repeating myself. No, that is the point. I do like Doug Phillips' desert island idea. It is basically the idea that if you were trapped on a desert island with only the Bible, what kind of society or home would you make? If we come from a godly heritage our tendency is to just do things because that is how it was done in our family. Now there are many good things that are perpetuated because of a godly heritage. If, however, your children ask why you do something a particular way and your answer is because my dad did it that way, you have missed the mark. We should have a Biblical reason for what we are doing or maybe it really isn't valid.

Now not coming from a godly heritage, it is my propensity to think that God blessed those with a godly heritage more than me. That is nonsense and a lie from the pit o' hell. This is my glass is half-full/empty tie in. We have the opportunity to start from scratch with the Bible as our foundation for our home. We also have the blessing of folks, like VF, that share their wisdom. We also have the opportunity to speak the gospel into other folks' lives that might not darken a church's doorstep. My husband has had many people tell him how the church might cave-in on them if they crossed the threshold. He can honestly say that it hasn't done so on him so they have nothing to fear. My husband attracts those kind of brawlers.

We live in a tough area. There are lots of tough people here. Most folk here think dressed up is a clean pair of Carharts. I think maybe, just maybe God has made us for just such a time and place as this. We could also use these wonderful resources from Vision Forum...

So here is our list:
Jonathan Park (all five CD series)

2 boys Jonathan Park baseball hats

The Elsie Dinsmore Audio Collection

The Centrality of the Home in Evangelism and Discipleship CD
by Voddie Bauchum

Teach Them to your Children by Sarah Wean

Destination Moon by James Irwin

How to Avoid the Destructiveness of a Wrong Self-Image
by S.M. Davis

And last, but not least:
Passionate Housewives by Jennie Chancey and Stacey McDonald

How was that for a lengthy blog with heavy thoughts and a plug for Christmas stuff for us-ins?

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Survival.

We survived! "What?" you may well ask. My mom and I took all six kids grocery shopping to Costco. and Walmart yesterday. Now I am on a budgeting kick. I figured that it would be pointless to try to spend less and then take 6 children plus myself out for fast food. So we packed a picnic lunch. We took off early in the morning to make it to Costco. My mom has one of those nifty handicapped placards so we got a front row handicapped spot (my mom says crip card and crip spot, but only those bearing the card may use such lingo). What a blessing. My mom took the older children and checked out Christmas decorations and snack options down the aisles. I took the two youngest in the shopping cart and the third one was (gasp, are you ready for this?) on the harness. Then we shopped. I had already made out menus for the month and made concise lists. I stuck to my list and I cut my bill by over half of what I had been spending at Costco. in recent months. I was so pleased.

We made it to a really nice park where we ate our picnic lunch and the children played. I changed all the small fry into the last diapers I had on hand (this is an important detail). We loaded up to get going to the Health Food Store and Walmart. This was the time that all the girls needed to empty their bowels. The oldest is a potty user, but the rest are still challenged in that area. I did the best I could for them, made it to Walmart and bought diapers. My mom sat in the van with the stinkers (is she a saint or what?). I then changed all bottoms and we shopped Walmart.

I again stuck to my list and we made it out with plenty of groceries and within budget. I counted at least 5 older ladies that complimented on the harness. They said that they did that to their children and got a lot of flack for it. I just figure that my children are too precious to risk them wandering off in the middle of a store out in the "big city." I know there are quite a few people that think it is a training/discipline issue. All I can say is: You go ahead and shop in Walmart with 6 children 10 and under with no harness. You may not yell at them, lose your temper or lose any of them. If you think you can do it, I would ride a really good pizza dinner on that one.

We then found a place for all the children (legally restrained), the groceries and ourselves in my 8 passenger Astro. I think we deserved a Starbucks treat. My mom and I each got a Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Frappacino. Yum, yum. The children all got a juice and chocolate cookies (the juice was purchased at Walmart and the cookies came from Oma's house:)

We even made it home in one piece. We survived and saved money and learned patience. I guess it is a good thing that we are working on memorizing scripture passages that have to do with endurance and perserverance:)

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Our new family vehicle.




The Ole Daddy Rabbit was browsing the internet for new vehicles for our growing family. Come December we won't be able to squish everyone in our 8 passenger van so we are going to have to upgrade. He found this neat 4x4, diesel, expanded cab truck on e-bay. The asking price was what we paid for our house. Do you think we should go for it?

Monday, October 08, 2007

Double-digit Birthday Boy.


Our BusyBeeBoy has finally seen double digits! Our boy chose Grandma's Special Chicken, French Fries, Coleslaw and Homegrown Corn on the Cob for his birthday dinner. He received a machete, military helmet and a new camouflage jacket from the family. Oma made him an astronaut outfit. Pretty cool!

He wanted to go shooting for his special treat. The "Golden Adonis", a.k.a. Mr. Steve, is a friend of ours that has his own clay launcher. He graciously brought it out to another friend's property and the we got to shoot clays. Our birthday boy shot quite a few clays with my 410 shotgun. Everyone was really impressed. I don't know how many he shot, but it was definately more than his mama's two:) We all had fun. We are so blessed to have this boy in our lives. May God make his next ten years wonderful.