Praying for my extended family

In October, my precious cousin lost her oldest son. He died in his sleep from pneumonia and complications of H1N1. He was in his early 20's.

At that time, she also found out that she was pregnant, which she said was not suppose to be possible...

This week she gave birth to her miracle, Joshua David, and in the process she went home to be with the Lord...

Keep Joshua in your prayers as he is in ICU at the moment, as well as her husband, other children and family members.

The last time we 'talked' on face book, we talked about Heaven. And we comforted ourselves in that fact that we do not "sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus....For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess. 4:13-18

We were talking about her son, and now those words are comforting me, about her. It really is hard to believe.

~Becky

A New baby in the house...

A baby bunny, that is! : )

As I have mentioned, we are done with birds forever! And with the proceeds of the beautiful cage we were given for Jimmy, Joy bought a Holland Lop from a breeder.

This is Flopsy:

Isn't she too cute?!

We named her after one of Peter Rabbit's siblings. (since I knew their names my kids were ever more certain that I've watched Miss Potter, one too many times) ; )

Flopsy is SO cute and tons of fun. She's 9 weeks old.

Joy wants her to be an inside bunny. (not too sure how I feel about that yet) Her room looks a bit like a barn with hay strewn from the cage but she's keeping the cage clean and her room doesn't smell like a barn. Thank goodness.

She is litter training her. It is really just too cute!

Tonight she said "One of the things I love about Flopsy is that she doesn't talk." -See, that confirms it! We are forever done with birds! : )

~Becky

Super Victorious

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:35

If the worst earthly troubles and sorrows can't separate us from God's love, then why do I let petty troubles get to me?
Nothing could be worse than being separated from His love. If something like my sins or stupidity could actually make Christ stop loving me, then I'd be in trouble.
But nothing changes His love for me.
Totally grasping His love is something we all need to do. His love took Him to the cross where He conquered sin, death, hell and the grave for us!

(I love this part!) -He's made us 'more than conquerors' through that love.
'More than conquerors' in Greek is "hupernikao" and it means 'super victorious' (whoo-hoo!)
or someone gaining more than your average victory. Amen?!

By His love we are super victorious over the greatest of hardships.
Here is what Oswald Chambers said about hardships in this verse:

"God does not keep man immune from trouble; He says -"I will be with him in trouble."
It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form gets hold of a man's life,
not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God...
"Shall tribulation?" Tribulation is never a noble thing but let tribulation be what it may
-exhausting, galling, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you. : )
"Shall anguish?" -Can God's love hold when everything says that His love is a lie and that there is no such thing as justice?
"Shall famine?" -Can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while being starved?
Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's character."


May that 'extraordinary thing' become a part of all of us!

~Becky

This recipe is a winner!

Literally! The lady who came up with it won $400 from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.
It is that yummy!

Greek Spinach Veggie Burgers were definitely a risky choice to make for my crowd.
(hubby not included)
My kiddos don't think think they need veggies like spinach in their lives. ; )
But, these were SO good, that I got a thumbs up from all three kids and kiddo #4 (the Picky Eater) even ate all of his.
So, it was a winner in my book too!
I can't wait to eat them again.
Here is the recipe:
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/beef/greek-spinach-veggie-burgers/

Yumm!

~Becky

A good read

I recently read Same Kind of Different as Me and I'm not sure when the last time was that I tried to read a book and load the dishwasher at the same time. LOL! It was that good! (and that didn't work out too well) : ) I want to read it to my family soon.

Sarah was right! Everyone should read it if they haven't already.

After that, I had to read the sequel:What Difference Do it Make. They shared a bunch of great stories about how the first book impacted people's lives and what they did about it.

~Becky

In defense of Michael Pearl

...even though I know he doesn't need my help. : )


First, I have to say that my hubby and I are big fans of the Pearls. We love their magazine!
-When our friend did an amazing bathroom remodel for us, my hubby made sure to have a magazine holder made just for our No Greater Joy magazines! Now that is saying something! LOL

Our family doesn't resemble their typical fans...
We live in the city, attend a big church, let our kids be involved in a youth ministry and we read the NKJ and the NIV versions of the Bible....to name a few differences. Obviously, we don't agree on everything. But their child training books changed our parenting and continue to bless our family!
(and don't even get me started on how great Debi's book "Created to be his Helpmeet" is! Every woman should read it)

Anyway, we have learned some invaluable lessons about 'tying strings' and delighting in our children that totally changed our way of parenting and gave us all more joy.
This article sums up what I love about what their books teach and it works!


I was so grieved to hear that someone who read one of their books, beat their child to death and I was even more grieved to learn that the media blamed it on Michael Pearl. That is the craziest thing ever. Why blame an author because someone read his book and did the opposite of what it said?! Don't we all have free choice?

I like what Mike said here:
"If a man leaves an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and gets drunk, do you blame the twelve step program? If a man under psychiatric care commits a heinous crime, do we charge the psychiatrist? If a teen kills himself in an auto accident after taking drivers ed at school, do we stop the program? When an angry, abusive parent recognizes his need to reform and seeks help through our material, but lapses back into his predisposed habits, injuring his children yet again, is our material that teaches caution and moderation to blame?"

Most certainly not would be my answer.


Go here for the whole article.



~Becky

Different

Andrew was recently describing the differences he sees in our family as compared to others and he summed it all up with quote from the movie Fantastic Mr. Fox:

"We are just different but there is something kind of fantastic about that."

I agree! : )

~Becky

Wrapping up my year as president

So, the year is coming to an end and I have been busy!

This week my head was swimming with details for our end-of-the-year pool party and the used curriculum sale that we hosted. I was so busy thinking about lighter fluid and matches, that bringing a bathing suit to the party didn't even cross my mind! lol -And did I mention it was a pool party?! : )
We held it at a Baptist conference center and it was such a beautifully quiet and peaceful place. We had a shelter in the shade by the lake for our picnic and then went swimming in the pool.

The booksale was a big hit! I don't know of anything more fun for homeschooling moms than to get books they need for next year at a steal of a deal! -I'm happy that I was one of those moms! Hooray!

Next on the agenda is to assemble a board for next year, find a replacement president (could use some prayers about this) and finish up the yearbook. There is also one more field trip and a yearbook signing party and then my year as president will be complete.

It has a been fun and I've learned so much!

I'm happy to say that even though I was so busy, multi-tasking to-the-hilt all year, I just found out that my kiddos scored well on their tests and evaluations. Whoo-hoo! I wasn't always sure that would be the case, since there were many times that I was present in body but not in mind. But God is faithful. Someone I know and love says: "What you make happen for others, God will make happen for you." And that is what He did for our 'school' this year as we sowed into other homeschoolers and He blessed our year.

I was also reminded this week that on my own, I can be quite scatterbrained. I've been known to go to events, like graduation ceremonies, on the wrong dates. (my hubby isn't even surprised when this happens now) For instance, just this week, our youngest two were going to dog sit for a neighbor from Friday-Sunday. I sent them over after dinner to feed the dog on their first night and then for the life of me could not figure out why my neighbor pulled into his driveway shortly after. I was just completely clueless and started thinking he'd changed his travel plans. And then it hit me! It was NOT Friday, but apparently I spent all of Thursday afternoon thinking that it was. Good grief!
All this to say that I was reminded of how faithful God has been to our group this year. (and to me) His grace was very present the whole time.
-Obviously, since I didn't have any crazy mishaps the whole year and I didn't show up to anything when I shouldn't have or miss anything I was suppose to lead. LOL! Whoo-hoo!
He is awesome!
-I do hope He has a slower and simpler school year in mind for me next year. : )

~Becky

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day!

-Come to think of it, this guy makes everyday of my life wonderful! : )



Here he is with the boys:

You may notice here that I am now the shortest person in our family! Boo-hoo!

After church, we had lunch at my favorite restaurant -Sweet Tomatoes. (aka Soup Plantation out west)

Andrew called his ice cream "Mt. Carmel"

and said that he was now going to "consume the sacrifice." ha ha! I'm thinking they just might have talked about Elijah in Kid's church today...

Then we headed to another one of my favorite places -the beach!!!

Here we met up with friends from church who happened to be having an identical Mother's Day to ours. (Sweet Tomatoes and the beach for them too! Really funny coincidence!)

The texting teenager:

The beautiful sunset:

The End! :) It was a great day!

~Becky

Handsome!

Here are some pictures of two of our boys

taken by one of their leaders in the youth ministry. : ) I love the pictures and the boys in them!
~Becky

Fads

Are silly bands big at your house? Do your kids have an arm full of colorful rubber bands that turn into shapes when they take them off?

I think my personal fave is the mini-van. It is so ME. LOL!

But I think it has long since been traded for something much cooler. : )

Here are some of my kids favorites at the moment:

This fad has replaced wearing 3-D glasses from the movies with the lens popped out. That one cracked me up. I have cute pictures of Andrew and Joy doing school with those on but they didn't want those posted on the blog. Mighty cute though!

So what is 'in' at your house? : )

~Becky

An amazing gift

Our sweet family members and friends in California have bought us tickets to fly out and visit them this summer!!! : )

Isn't that amazing?! They are SOOOOO sweet and generous!

We are so excited!!!

~Becky