Stephen is 8!

Last Friday my baby boy turned 8.

Due to our schedules this last week we did not have a big party but rather just had a little family fun.

Stephen is such a joy. His smile is amazing and I am so thankful for his sense of humor and giggle.

Stephen is smart. God has gifted him with amazing abilities and talents.

He loves sports and being active. He loves to play soccer.

We love to tease Stephen and get him laughing. His candles were trick candles and kept re-lighting. It was so funny to watch as he realized the situation.

I am blessed to be Stephen's mom. He is a such a gift to our family. God has amazing things planned for this little man and I am thankful I get to watch the journey.

Lessons in the car...

So we got our first snowfall (other than a quick snowstorm in October) this past weekend. Of course the temperatures are to rise again so it will not last too long. The kids enjoyed being out in the snow on Saturday. (I will post some pics soon. I am having trouble with my card reader.)

It has been foggy and rainy. We started the week with a very dreary type of Monday. But God was making me think as I drove back to work after lunch yesterday. I am visual and like to have a picture of a concept or thought. It makes a more lasting impression on me and my heart. Here is what I was thinking...

At the moment of salvation I have been washed clean, whiter than snow. However, over time I become dingy and dirty, because let's face it, I'm human=a sinner. I often need a good cleaning. (Kind of like my car right now.) I know that God offers me grace and forgiveness (like rain), but unless I am willing to scrub the dirt (sin) out of my life the dingyness remains in my life, making it difficult to see the beauty of God's holiness. I have to be willing to turn from the sin, scrub it away, so that God's glory and grace shines through.

The rain today only washed the surface dirt off my car. It will take a good scrubbing to get it clean. I can take the forgiveness I have been offered, but unless I desire transformation from that grace and forgiveness, I am going to be needing the rain again (and soon). (How often do we find ourselves asking for forgiveness for the same sins?)

God loves me. He loves me so much that He not only wants to forgive me, He wants to make me new. As I continued my drive I thought about the fact that in just a few weeks there will be a day when the air will be clean and the ground will be springing with new life. Without the cleansing of winter's snow and the renewal of rain, the new life of springtime would lack it's luster and joy.

What about you? Are you skating by, enjoying the benefits of God's grace and forgiveness (rain) but not really experiencing the joy that is available to you through true transformation? Transformation requires a bit of time and scrubbing in our lives, and sometimes it's painful, but the result is a spring in your step and joy in the abundant life you were called to live. That's what I want. Joy because I have hope. (Romans 12:12) Hope that I can be changed and be more like Christ because HE is in the business of new life.

A new week...

Sometimes, you don't just need a new day to start over, you need a new week.

Last week we started our week off with the stomach flu. Stephen got sick late Sunday night. At first we thought it might be that he overate at dinner. That theory was quickly shot down as he was up every 20 minutes or so. It was so sad. It lasted for about 5 hours. It was a long night for mommy and daddy too. In fact Aaron got up and headed in to work over an hour early. (And he goes to work early as it is.)

Well, I tried to work from home on Monday. I was able to get some things done as well as take a nap. :)

Tuesday we headed out for school and work as normal. Tuesday was one of those crazy days. Alex had a basketball game at 4:00 on the east side of town. Aaron had a game at home at 6:00 and I had a meeting at 7:00. Fortunately, we all seemed to be doing OK, just tired.

Then it all changed. Aaron started to feel sick. He decided to spend the night in the basement so that I could sleep. That was such a thoughtful thing to do, until Emma woke up and got sick. So I was up most of the night anyway. Aaron and Emma seemed to have a bit more severe form of what Stephen had but it still only seemed to last for about 5-6 hours. But by then they were so drained and tired.

I tried to work for a little bit in my office on Wednesday morning but was so tired that I headed home. I took a nap, did a little disinfecting and then did a little catch up on work. I am so thankful my job is flexible and I can move my hours around as well as work from home.

Thursday we once again all headed off to work and school. Emma didn't want to go, but she had not been sick for 24 hours and was not running a fever, so it was off to school. It was great to sit in my office and actually be able to work on those things that I couldn't do from home. On Thursday's Emma stays for daycare and I generally pick her up around 3:00. Well, at 2:00 my phone rang and the nurse said she was coughing and now running a fever. UGH!! So I picked her up and we waited for the boys to finish their school day.

By the time we got home, Emma no longer had a fever. And Alex had a game so we all headed to a town about 45 minutes away. We went to Friendly's for dinner. As we were finishing, Jackson headed to the bathroom and when he came back he said his stomach hurt. OH NO!!! Well, he was very upset that we wouldn't let him get ice cream but we didn't want anything else in his stomach on the ride home. Fortunately we made it and he didn't end up getting sick.

Friday I couldn't take Emma to school since she had a fever within the past 24 hours. So after we took the boys to school, we came home, cuddled on the couch and watched Tangled. Aaron got done at work early and so I headed into work after lunch. Again, it was nice to get some prep work done for Sunday that just could not be done at home.

This was Homecoming weekend at the school. So Friday afternoon and evening was filled with basketball games, followed by the alumni game and the Homecoming court and coronation. Saturday, Aaron and I helped serve at the Homecoming banquet. It was fun to see all the kids all dressed up.

It was such a long, tiring, and crazy week. While there were definitely highlights, it was one of those weeks you would like to forget or at least fast forward through.

I am thankful for a new week. I hope that this one is less eventful (at least for those "unplanned" events).

New House Pictures

Here are pictures of the inside of our new rental house.
Some of the rooms still need a little more work, but for the most part we are getting settled.
I will try to get some outside pictures this week and get them posted as well.



One of two entrances from the Front Porch. Nice area for coats and backpacks.
The Laundry room door is directly across from this entrance.



This is the other entrance. This is the original entrance to the original house. (This house is old and has been renovated and added onto a number of years ago.)




This is the Kitchen with eat in area.



The living room. The TV is to the left of where I was standing.



Emma's room.

Jack and Stephen's room.

Master bedroom.

Alex's Room. (We have permission to take the wallpaper down, which we may do at some point.)



The "Kid-Cave"



This is the Dining room, however we are using it as the computer room.

Christmas Pictures (Finally)



Our very simple Christmas tree. It has no decorations on it. Knowing we might move at any time during the holiday forced us to keep things simple. Not a bad thing at all.



Emma enjoyed a very "Girly" Christmas with lots of Rapunzel stuff and a new dollhouse.



We enjoyed a quick Christmas Eve visit from Aaron's parents. They headed out on Sunday after church to go on vacation as a 40th anniversary celebration.

Jack got KNEX Mario Kart race tracks. He got an add on as well.

Alex got a laser tag type game. Grandma and Grandpa thought ahead and got extra guns and targets so all the boys can play. The boys are looking forward to hiding the targets in our new yard and playing outside with it in the spring.

Lot's of building of tracks. (Stephen got a race track too.)

  

Stephen got a reflex punching bag.

And of course our traditional Jesus birthday cake. This is the true reason we celebrate Christmas. There is no gift that could ever compare.

Chapters

I often think of life in terms of chapters (maybe because I love to read). We spent last week closing a chapter of our life and beginning the next. We don't know how long of a chapter we just started, it might be relatively short or maybe it will last for awhile.

This past weekend we moved from one rental house to another. It is a bit ironic to me that it coincided with New Year's.  New house, new organization of stuff, new drive to work/school, new landlords, etc... Also a new resolve to truly clean out the "stuff" in our lives and get rid of what we do not need.

As we were moving boxes that we had not even opened since moving to Pennsylvania 16 months ago, it became apparent that we were just moving a bunch of "stuff". Stuff that is not necessary for our everyday lives and just takes up space. While there are a few boxes that have been relatively untouched over that time that we will keep (mostly pictures and books) most is just "extra weight" in our lives. So we have a plan to have a garage sale and then to arrange for a local organization to come and take whatever is left.

All of this has gotten me thinking in light of the typical discussions and comments on resolutions. I know that for myself I don't typically make resolutions on January 1st. I do however like to set goals for myself. I recognize the importance of setting clear and appropriate goals. Any goal needs to be attainable but also needs to be challenging to accomplish. For example you can't set a goal to lose 100 pounds in 6 months. That's not attainable. You also can't set the goal to just lose weight. It's not clear enough. But you could set a goal to lose 8 pounds in a month. This is possible and for most would create a bit of a challenge. And sometimes, a goal needs to be tweaked along the way depending on reality. Also, short term goals are better than long term. We need to be able to "see the end of the tunnel".  While it is OK to set a goal for the year, that goal needs to be able to be broken down into smaller goals. For example, a goal to read the entire Bible in a year is more easily attained when you have a daily reading plan. You have a daily goal that helps you accomplish the year long goal. Finally, when goal setting have a reward in mind. If your goal is to lose weight, make the reward a new outfit or accessory. If your goal is to read the Bible in a year, buy yourself a new Bible when you accomplish the goal or a new devotional.  Give yourself something to work for in addition to the sense of accomplishment in reaching your goal. It helps with motivation.

Now to tie in the goal setting and the chapters of our lives; when you are given a new chapter in life, what do you want the story to reflect when the last part of the chapter is written? For me, tangibly speaking, I want to move a lot less stuff. I want to value what I need and use regularly and let go of the things that are just taking up space. I want my home to reflect love and care of people rather than material things. And my reward for doing this will be less muscle aches when we have to move again. So for this chapter of my life, my goals will help write the story.

What about you? Is this new year bringing a new chapter? Or are you in the middle of a chapter? No matter which category you fall into, you have the ability to affect the story by the goals you set. Maybe your goals are related to health, maybe toward family relationships, maybe to being more like Christ, or maybe to all of those things. Come up with a plan that has clear, attainable goals and go after them.

Imagine if we all sought to be more like Christ, the chapters of our lives would have ETERNAL impact. Now that would be amazing.