Jasmine with the dress that i may or may not have sat down and cried over a few posts back.... It may or may not have been fixed with one of chris' great ideas.... But anyway, it's fixed! :)

Gender / Personality / Spirituality? #2

I would seriously love my readers input on this topic. Feel free to message me on facebook, email me at christopherbethany@juno.com, or comment on my blog. I'll give more of my thots on the subject but I'd love to hear yours too!

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53 Year Old Mom Looks 33
The Stunning Results of Her Wrinkle Trick Has Botox Doctors Worried
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Gender / Personality / Spirituality? #1

I'm going to try writing about a subject I've been rolling around. I'd love your input! :) I can only write short posts, so I will try to break it up in sections. Chris and I have this on-going differing in the way we respond to life's situations. Case in point: This week end we have to pack up and move back in with Chris' parents. We knew we would only be staying here 2 months but now that the end is here I could so easily struggle and cry about it. Chris, on the other hand, knew the end would come, knows there's no other option (much as he'd love to be able to provide one), therefore, what's the use in ruining the last week here just because we don't look forward to leaving? Now tell me: is that just the difference in gender, or a difference in maturity/spiritual level? I know we women live primarily out of emotion and men out of facts. So is this difference in response just part of the way we are made? Is it ok to "feel and cry and struggle"as long as we don't stay there? Or is there a "higher road"?

This was the beginning of my day - a mouse in the kitchen!!! I'm a real chicken around these critters :( set a trap and caught it abt 20 minutes later... After chris went to work... I know the thing is dead but i just can't do the job! Isaac was my brave man and scooped trap and all onto the dust pan and deposited him on the porch where he awaits chris' homecoming :) great way to start a monday, hu? At least he's dead!!

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Winter Break

It's late and I should be asleep... Tomorrow marks the last day of winter break at school. It's been a good week for the most part. Definitely helped that the children and I spent the day in Holmes Co with my sister Lisa yesterday. We shopped material and thrift stores and in the afternoon when the children were all w/ Lisa's oldest girls we talked about as much as we shopped! :) Good times! That broke the week up nicely and gave us all something to look forward to. Today was a lazy, do nothing/whatever you feel like day. The girls played outside a bunch in the sunshine! I'm hanging onto every day like sand sliding through my fingers. Eight more days in this sweet little trailer in the woods...make em count make em count... I'm really trying to not let the "next" rob the joy of now. I know God is in the "next" just waiting to carry me along if I let Him! So, what shall we do for fun tomorrow? Getting to sleep might be a good start, aye? Thought so! :)

One of those days kinda days

It was 5 this evening before I even remembered that I write a blog post on Mondays! If you would know me very well you'd know something major was up because that is not me at.all. This week is winter break so having all 4 children home all day makes for a very different day for starters. For finishers, there's a bunch of drama going on at home in AR that's heavy on my mind. It's been there for 5 months but today was one of those "mind full" days. I spent alot of my day texting, writing email and on the phone. And the rest of it wondering "should I have said that?" and "how do I get in these situations?" So, I'm being vague, but the Gingerich family and the church at Shady Lawn need prayers if any of you care to fold your hands on their behalf. Please pray that satan and his confusing of the situation would be brought down and that God would move mightily in people's lives. I don't know what else to say. It's one of those "this doesn't make any sense God but that's ok" situations, and I'm resting in that!

Faith Is

Faith is trusting, believing, accepting, obeying, resting, acting, surrendering, and more. It's fairly easy to have faith in a large, comfy armchair or a huge, concrete bridge. Not too hard to obey commands like "stop at the stop light" or "watch for cars before you cross the street". Exciting, actually, to accept the idea of marrying your best friend or going on the Mission Field you've dreamed of. But sometimes there are situations that just do not make sense no matter how hard I try. What if there's no way to explain how a "loving" God would let this happen? What if everything about the deal flys smack in the face of the promise that God is "good"? What then? Does that mean He's not? That I can't? If I can look squarely at those situations and be ok with saying "God, there is no possible explanation to make this all make sense but that's ok. I trust You." THEN I have discovered what Faith really Is. THEN I know the truth and it makes me free. THEN I have pleased Him. Because that is what true Faith Is.

I just had this brainy idea that maybe i could actually send pictures to my blog from my phone. Nothing great like other people but something different! I'll be back later with a regular post but let's check this out! :) lillian and jennifer were so excited about this "baby" snow man! :)

The good and the bad

I've changed my mind on this post so many times today! My day started out with laundry and after the weekend clean up and an unfinished discussion with my man. I felt confused and down and desperate for light and understanding. Tears and honesty on paper helped and then words straight from God to my heart on Ann Voskamp's blog were a special, helpful touch. I never cease to be amazed how God brings words from all manner of sources to meet needs in my heart! The day ended with loading up kids after school, taking them into Chris job, and all of us sledding on this gi-normous hill with a likewise huge innertube and some way too small pieces of laminate! Craziness and hilarity and coldness and fun :) Did I mention there was barely enough snow to cover the ground and this hill was in town? God is so faithful and creative in His ways of blessing and healing! May today be one more reminder to me of His Love For Me in the little things!

Of Husbands, Dresses and Sympathy

O what a day! I spent 3/4 of my day on a sudden impulse to surprise Jasmine w/ a new dress since it was her birthday, she needs dresses and her gift isn't here yet. She was duly impressed until we tried it on. It fits snug across the shoulders and the neck is small! I could have sat right down and cried. I just made a dress recently with the same pattern that fits fine! Then I made a big mistake and texted Chris. You and I know all I wanted was some sympathy, right? Guess what I got? All kinds of ideas on how I could fix it and surely it's not impossible, just a pain, etc. How many dresses has he sewed? ZERO. I know very well that it was all his way of showing care but I sure struggled to see it as that! Thankfully tomorrow is a new day and hopefully my perspective and levels of forgiveness, joy and love have reached a new height by morning. For now I'll try to close it down and hopefully dream of something other then dresses and husbands who think "giving solutions" is synonymous with "showing sympathy"!

Over my cup of tea...

It's been a busy, good week end! Full of Happy Birthday loveliness and church activities. I'm determined to be industrious today! Seriously. I've gotten so lazy from living in for 5 months and then house sitting. It's just not the same as your own house. Can't explain it but it's just not. I have let myself be a bum! Just doing what has to be done (and barely that), sitting around reading and doing basically nothing. It's time to get out of this rut and make myself useful. If there's nothing here to do I'm sure I could find something somewhere! At the moment there's plenty here - piles of laundry and dishes, dirty commodes, tubs and floors... My cup of tea is done, so now it's time to get at it!

To Whine or Not to Whine?

My first inclination would be to write a whiney post about hormones and emotions out of control and that time of the month... It would be a doozy, let me tell you, and all from a very recent, personal perspective! But, on second thot, what's the point? It might do me (and you) a whole lot more good to talk about the sun streaming in the windows and 3 year olds who love "lemontines" and school children all excited about tonight's school open house and 2 year olds who are p.o.t.t.y. t.r.a.i.n.e.d. and husbands who have big birthday plans up their sleeves.... See, feeling better already! Why, WHY is it so easy to focus on the blah feelings? There are so many happy things, what do I get out of curling up with the gloomy ones? Oh yeah, those hormones. Nothing I can do about those. Sigh... Maybe I should deck myself out like Jennifer with a slip hanging out from under her nightie and a slip over the top of her nightie, that would have to be mood boosting! If only I could post pictures... :)

Moments for Grabbing Jars

One of the things I marvel over in the blogs that I read is moms who make it a point to be present. Moms who notice the way their baby curls his toes, the 3 year old's quirky hairdo, their son's eyes when he's thinking deeply... I've learned a lot from them. Last night was one of those evenings when I felt it. Daddy and son playing a game, Jasmine on the couch w/ a book, Jennifer and Lillian busy with a row of chairs and babies and me on the recliner just wanting to soak it up. Wishing to somehow take this moment and cold pack it in gallon jars so it can last forever! Life is always moving. Sometimes it feels painfully slow, other times exhileratingly fast, but never static. If I don't learn to be present and soak and savor I'll miss so much!! In the midst of settling 2 year old hitting induced fusses, battling 3 year old wills, dealing with 9 year old attitudes and 7 years going on 16 it's so easy to forget. Sometimes though, sometimes you feel it, and you grab the jars and fill them to the brim!