Texas wedding

Legos in your underwear

My breakfast buddy

Noah is a monkey

Amazed by His love

I am sitting here writing this...okay rather typing this crying! Happy tears! I am overwhelmed by the Lord's love for me and my family.

Quick backdrop for this amazing story...Dan is unemployed and has been since August. Unemployment runs out at the end of this month. We have submitted over 60 resumes and have had some call backs and interviews but have had closed doors.

Dan went to one company interview and was asked to come back for a second interview and then called in for a third interview with the president of the company. But that door was closed and left us wondering why.

A few weeks ago my parents were in church and they were attending a Sunday school class that had just started. They were taking prayer requests and they asked everyone to pray for Dan and I for a job. Another couple had asked for prayer because the husband was under so much stress from work that it was causing him to become physically ill. My mom was chatting with the women afterwards and it turns out that her husband was working at the company God had closed the door to for Dan. Thank you Jesus!!!!!

Sunday night I received a call from my parents telling me they had an envelope for me. It was from their Sunday school class. They had taken up a love offering for Dan and I. WHAT??? Some thoughts running through my head were..."They don't even know us." "We don't go to their church."  "Who are these people?"   and  "WOW, they totally get Your heart Jesus!"

I am still amazed and in awe of their hearts and generousity to a couple they do not know but loved on anyway! Jesus, I so want Your heart for people! I want to love on them at every opportunity I get. Help me to be love everywhere I go!!!!

Through His eyes

Yes, you are seeing this correctly. I have decided to dust off the old cobwebs and write a post on the old blog. I always have all these great posts in my head but never really find the time to sit and post them. Well, today I found time!

I was praying in the shower for my kiddos, as I usually do, and the Lord spoke so clearly to me today. I said the words, "Lord, I just want what is best for my kids." and I heard Him ask, "what's best for them to you or me?" to which I replied,"what????" Profound...I know! He said, "Let me rephrase. Do you want what's best for them through your eyes or mine?" I thought we wanted the same for them but I guess somewhere along the way I had mushed all four of them into one instead of seeking out what was best for each little individual.

Let me just say that I am not perfect nor have I ever thought I was! BUT I thought I was doing pretty well at this mom thing. Apparently I had lost sight of what was best for my kids. So I spent the next hour in prayer going after the Lord's heart for each of my kiddos. WOW does He love them and know them and cherish everything about them. I was in awe of how He poured out His affection over each one of them and then He did what He does best and poured out his love for me too. Because I had gotten off track and needed a little reminder and a lot of love to help me find my way back on track. 

Suddenly Psalm 139:13-16 became real to me! You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

My time has exspired and now I must feed my kids...but let me add this before I go. This post was my heart being intertwined with my Papa's heart. This wasn't meant to bring judgement or condemnation on anyone! Just a mom trying to do what's right through His eyes!

The hubs

The hubs bought me shoes the other day and I totally heart them! He is AMAZING!!! Here is a little side note for all of you who don't know. Hubs used to manage a shoe store when we met and on our first date he brought me a pair of New Balance sneakers instead of flowers. From that moment on he had my heart and my feet :)

Date night!

Sleeping perfection!

Beautiful junk

Who knew shipping pallets could look so lovely? One is for holding books and the other for holding wine :)

Noah's hawk

My kiddos

Kaiden's new hair cut

Spidey is down

two of my boys

No more slippers for me!

Last Friday the hubs was home sick from work with the flu so that meant I was on duty for taking care of three kids and a sick bigger kid! My Noah came in as usual to snuggle with me in the morning but told me his belly hurt because it was hungry. I told him and his sister to go downstairs and give me 5 minutes to wake up.

After about ten minutes I crawled out of bed and put on my purple fuzzy slippers. I walked over to Kaiden's room to get him up but he was still sleeping (very unusual). So I preceded to head down the steps to make breakfast. The very first step I took I slipped and fell down the whole flight of steps. Before I realized it I was hopping on my rear end and my left arm down to the bottom. I was in so much pain and could barely breath but I looked up to find my hubby right beside me checking me out to find out if I was okay.

The wind was knocked out of me but once I could talk I told him I was sore but fine. He was persistent that I call the doctor so I did and they wanted me to come in to the hospital for observation. My wonderful Father in Love Bob took me in and I was hooked up for 4 hours.

Baby Levi was fine and there was no internal bleeding so after a relaxing 4 hours of being waited on I was sent home to be mom again. Upon my arrival my house was clean and the kids were fed and napping. My poor sick husband was exhausted but insisted on taking care of me! He rocks and I am so grateful for him!

Here is a picture of me relaxing in my beautiful hospital gown :)

New Hair Color POLL

Please help me decide which color to dye my hair this Friday.

Number 1 (Dark Auburn)

OR

Number 2 (Dark Golden Brown)

Oreo Brownies

Simple...just mix up brownies and add 1/2 - 1 cup of chopped oreos and bake!

Laney's School Snack

These little treats are sooooo easy to make. Literally only 3 ingredients, gotta love that!

mini pretzels, Hershey kisses and m&ms

Preheat oven to 275 and place your mini pretzels on a cookie sheet. Next put a Hershey kiss on each pretzel and pop in the oven for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes pull out of the oven and press an m&m on each one and refrigerate until you serve!

Love people where they are

I was reading to my kids the other night and they were not into it. I mean Laney was all over the place with random questions and Noah really wasn't even paying attention. I trudged through it and finished tucking them into bed and left frustrated.

The next day I was trying to show them letters on a paper because they asked me to write out their names for them so they could practice their names. But after barely getting it written on the paper for them they had moved onto something else. My day continued with similar situations of them not staying focused. I had had enough and put them in their rooms and jumped in the shower to pray and think. I do a lot of praying in the shower if you haven't noticed.

I was venting to God about the kids and the day and He showed a picture. It was a picture of Jesus surrounded by kids and He was telling them a story. And at first I saw it the "perfect way" because come on...it was Jesus! But then I saw it the way He wanted me to. The kids were fighting about who got to sit on His lap, who got to sit next to Him and in front of Him. And then I saw kids looking around and poking each other as Jesus was talking to them.

And at that very moment I realized that it wasn't about how the kids were acting but how He responded to them. He loved them where they were, not where they should have been. Oh MY...that truth hit me like a ton of bricks. I realized that I have been loving people conditionally. I tried to change them into what I thought they needed to be in order to love them fully. I was so humbled at that very moment...and still am. I asked God to give me His love for people...to love them where they are not where they should be to me. Really when you think about it we all fall short and struggle with something so why not in our pursuit to be more like Jesus, we love like Him!