being thankful for family even when it's hard

Happy Thanksgiving.

Most people look forward to spending this day with family. Some we don't see but once or twice a year and it's so fun catching up, giving hugs and kisses, and seeing how the little ones have grown.

But sometimes it's just plain hard.

Sometimes your the only Christian in your family. Your parents or grandparents, your aunts, uncles, cousins the people you have grown up loving and respecting just don't get you.
They cuss, drink, say the Lord's name in vain, argue, bicker, make fun of you........

They're lost.

And it's hard.
You try and be the light of Jesus. Love them where they are. Not judge. Not preach. Not become angry yourself. Wonder why you even bother coming.

My prayer for those of us that may be going through this is that Jesus knows. He's there too.

Jesus had a hard time himself when He went home.
"Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor."  Matt 13:57

May you see your lost family members as just that......lost.
May you see them through His eyes today.
May you be protected from the things that hurt.
May the Holy Spirit be upon you and the words of your mouth be from Him.

And those that have a house full of believers in Jesus, rejoice and be extra thankful today.

Prayer for the repair man

 Tomorrow the repair man is coming to look at the hot water tank.

Of course the warranty expired. Just last year.

Perfect.

So I have a special prayer request.
That he will come here and say "It's free repair day!"

Or something like that.

A tooth and a prayer

Last night  my husband and I were sitting together on the couch sharing a bowl of popcorn. (actually we had our own bowls because we both love p.c. and end up fighting over the bowl)
We were watching Survivor.
All of a sudden I had a sharp pain in my mouth and then my tooth broke.

I spit  one whole half of my tooth out into my hand and just sat there in shock looking at it.
Then I freaked out!
I was so mad. Like wanting to throw and kick and scream mad.

I think it was like how can things just keep piling up on me. Always something trying to bring me down.

I have no dental insurance.
I have no extra money to even attempt to pay for this.
I'm sure my dentist will let us make payments, but this is one of the last things I want to struggle to come up with a payment for right now.
I'm scared it's going to hurt to fix it.
This weekend is my daughter's 16th Birthday surprise little trip I have planned and I don't really have time to fix this right this minute.
It hurts and I don't know if I can eat with it like this.
I take really good care of my teeth, why did this happen.


I cried and tried to just go to bed so I didn't have to try and figure this out.
But my family wouldn't let me.
My two youngest were so worried about me and were crying as hard as I was.
Mom just does not lose it like this.
My husband was trying to get me to take some advil, but I couldn't because I was too scared to put anything in my mouth.
My oldest came running up stairs screaming "What's wrong?"
Mom just does not lose it like this.

So we prayed.

At first my prayers were for myself. Why? Why? Why? and How? How? How?

But then.

I got this image of Moms everywhere getting bad news today.

How does a Mom come home from a doctor appointment and look into her kids' eyes and tell them she has cancer?
How does a pregnant Mom get up from watching Survivor, go to the bathroom, and find she is bleeding?
How does a Mom get up from watching Survivor to answer the phone and get told her husband was just killed? How does she tell her kids?
How does a Mom tell her kids there is nothing for dinner and have to look into those eyes, helplessly.

My prayers changed rather quickly.
I was thankful for this moment of pain and more financial hardship because it reminds me once again how blessed I am.
It reminds me to let my heart be broken and pray for others.

So, I'm praying for others today.
Will you do the same?

A Boy!

A baby boy was born yesterday.

I'm sure alot of babies were born yesterday. I'm sure alot were not.

I spent some time yesterday in the hospital's chapel. It was beautiful and I had it all to myself.

I prayed for this new baby and this new mommy.
I prayed for some women whom I have never laid eyes on, yet I knew who were praying. I asked for blessings to be sent right back to you.
I prayed for some of the women I got to know this year through blogs, that aren't holding their sweet baby in their arms.
I cried so many tears. Happy tears. Sad tears. The why can't I do more tears.

A baby boy was born yesterday.

He is healthy and safe today.

                                  tomorrow...............................

Off to have a baby!

Not me.

My best friend has 7 children.
6 of them are daughters.

Her oldest is 17, who is at the hospital right this minute getting ready to have a baby.

My best friend is going to be a Grandma.
She was not ready for that.

Her 2nd oldest daughter is my daughter's best friend.
We have been a part of this family for the past 6 years.

Between me and my friend we have 9 daughters!
To say we have spent many nights, days, phone calls.... trying to figure them out, would be a total understatement! You just can't figure that many girls out at once.

Last year this beautiful, smart, sweet, easy going girl went looking for love.
The love that I know was knitted together in her when she was in her own mother's womb. The love and desire to be a wife and a mother.

She just forgot one important thing.

To fall in love with Jesus first.

So her ideas of love got fuzzy. Her desire to have what God put in her overroad her desire to wait out the plan God had.

It happens every. single. day.

I believe we are all born with these desires, gifts, ideas...inside of us. Each of ours so different and yet some the same. But waiting for God to work them out in our lives can be hard.

If you have an extra moment today, I know a scared, yet excited 17 year old girl who could use your prayers. I'm sure there's alot of them out there.
And while your at it say a prayer for yourself. For that desire that only God could have put in you, that you'll wait it out for His plan.

ok, I'm off to the hospital!

boys, boys, boys

This has been a tough subject for us.

When my daughter was home schooled it was very easy to keep the boy situation in perspective.

Sure, they have their summer swimteam where the girls and boys all hang out together all summer, practically naked. But it's mostly supervised by us adults and these kids have hung out together for years so it has that more of a family feel to it.

High school is a whole different planet.

we thought we had made it clear to our daughter that we don't really want her to have a boyfriend.

Does that seem extreme?

Here's our case.
(And yes I feel as if I'm in court, under oath, ready to be sent to jail)

That's what having a teenage daughter makes you feel like.  for me sometimes.


She is almost 16. We have told her that when she is 16 she can start dating. 
But not really dating as in having a boyfriend here and one there. More like go to the movies with this boy, maybe a dance with that boy, hang out with one at lunch this day...................

Ya know what I mean?

I don't really like the idea of her having a boyfriend. A boyfriend to me means, hand holding, kissing, and basically one step away from marriage.

I don't want her to have held 20 hands, and kissed 20 boys, before she says I do.
I am trying to protect her from this as much as I can.

High School is not.

"Everyone has a boyfriend, Mom!"
"Everyone has had boyfriends since they were like 13!"

But I don't want her to be like everyone.

But for her, it's hard. She thinks somethings wrong with her because she hasn't had a boyfriend.

(okay I'm really starting to hate the word boyfriend)

2 weeks ago she started talking about this boy on the basketball team. How cute we thought. He called her the other night and they laughed and talked for a whole hour. How cute we thought.

Today she came home and said he asked her to go out with him.
How cute we thought, like meeting at the movies or something...........

No. like as in be his girlfriend.
How not cute we thought.

Where did we go wrong. I swear we've had numerous conversations about this. Is her hormones heart just overriding her senses right now?

I feel a little bit at a lose right now. This is new territory for us and I feel like I have a vision in my head of how I'm suppose to be handling this, but it's not playing out all that well.

I would love any advice, prayers, humorous stories at this point that anyone  can  offer.

The Bus

My oldest daughter rides the bus to school every day.

She hates it.

I hated it too when I was in high school.


So of course I think she needs to experience it. It's like a rite of passage. It builds character. She'll appreciate her own vehicle so much more some day.

But some days I just feel so bad for her.

Like this morning when it is -2 degrees outside. Yes, you heard right. -2 degrees!

And there is ONE heater on the bus.

Now the good news is, her stop is the very first one so you'd think the chances of her getting the seat that the heater is under would be good.

Not so much lately.

There is a new family that started coming to our bus stop.
And one of the girls always takes the heat seat.

This morning, as we were sitting in the car waiting for the bus, my daughter was determined to get in line first and get the heat seat.

I tried to offer some advice;
"Just politely ask her if you can sit there today, and take turns or something."

"Mom, have you seen her? She's not exactly the sharing type!"

Honestly we don't normally judge people by their appearances.
But something in the way this girl looks, just screams don't mess with me!

So as the bus pulled up, my daughter flew out the door, and ran over to be first in line.

(I know, real Christian like behavior. But come on it's -2!)

As the bus doors opened, the brute girl stepped in front of my daughter and squeezed onto the bus first!

I couldn't believe it.

Part of me was so proud of my daughter for not getting into a knock down pushing match with this girl and totally embarrassing me getting hurt.
But part of me was sad for her.


If she's decided on her own to suffer and be Jesus to someone, then I support her.
But if she's suffering because she scared, I don't want to support that.

What should I tell her?

Pray about the heat seat? Yes, I know God cares about our needs. But I have a feeling He cares about this bully girl more.

Any advice?

The Baby

My baby turns 6 today.

It makes me so sad, yet so happy too.

She has definately lived up to her place in the family, as the baby.

That's all I'm gonna say about that.



I have pancakes to make. (her request)

I have last minute decorations to put up.

I have silver to polish (not really) and china to set out for our tea party later. (her request)

And I have presents to wrap.

But most importantly;
I have knees to go to and prayers of thanksgiving to give.

Children are a blessing and a gift and a mystery too.
Why some are given so easily into the wombs of some and stay there and do exactly what they're suppose to do and come easily into this world, while others never even have the chance to it make there, is a mystery to me.

A heartbreaking one.

Our childrens' health and our ability to have them and that God would even bless me with 3 beautiful daughters, with personalities and gifts that only He could know I needed, is beyond my comprehension.

So, most importantly it's to my knees I will go this morning and thank Him for giving me such a gift that I don't even begin to deserve.

Thank you

I have a totally different post in mind that will have to wait for another day, because I just had to say this first.

Friday I played Kellie's carnival, just because I thought it would be fun and I really didn't have much to say anyway.

I got a few comments. (Yah! Comments are so fun!)
But what was said, well that just overwhelmed me.

I know that most of you have been blogging for awhile and truly get this whole community that is formed here. I actually started my blog over a year ago, but it hasn't been until recently that I get why I'm doing it.
I have done my share of leaving an encouraging comment or praying for a situation that I have read about, from the Mom who is feeling overwhelmed that day to a dieing Father I will never even meet until Heaven someday. It's been like a little gift for me actually, to be able to pray for people I don't even know. I'm a stay at home mom, homeschooling my kids, trying to be everything I can for my husband, and it doesn't leave alot of time to feel like I'm doing much of anything for the Lord. So being able to lift perfect strangers up in prayer,that's a gift.

Then I do this fun little carnival and God reminds me how much He loves me.
I was trying to make a point about my clean house, not solicit some prayers. But they came anyway.
This weekend everytime I looked at my husband, I just smiled. I thought of these beautiful women out there whom I've never even met, and said (to my self) they're praying for my husband! It was overwhelming, in a good way.

So I wanted to say thank you and tell this little tid bit for others out there going through a hard time, we're praying and God hears us. And lets keep encouraging and praying for each other, ok?

You could go here , to my sweet sister,and leave an encouraging word or a prayer. Or sometimes I go here and just pray.