Contemplating....

Contemplating.... I've been doing that a lot lately. Seems the more some things come into focus other things seem to blur. Life decision flash through my mind and either bring more clarity or painful remorse. I suppose this is partly normal or at least I hope it is, otherwise I may be a tad nuttier than I suspect I am. Seems there are a lot of painful remorse decisions plaguing my mind's eye lately. As I sit here writing this I know in my head there is no condemnation in Christ there certainly is in the human heart. There are so many things that I don't want to miss out on. I don't want to miss any more opportunities to spend time with any of my boys. I don't want to miss Bryce's graduation, I don't want to miss Tyler's last 2 years of high school. I don't want to miss my kids playing with their grandparents, or miss my niece's ballets or Max's 2nd birthday. I don't want my kids to miss the chance to know their incredible Aunt. To know their super cool Gramps and to watch movies and have popcorn with their Gran.

How is it that we get so wrapped up in our business that we miss everything. We are glued to our phones, computers, and tv that we miss life. We think we have time. Time to spend with our kids, with our husbands, with our families. Suddenly the kids are grown, we are on separate pages with our husbands and what's left of our families lies in ruins. This is not even the worst part of it. The worst part is our separation from God. If we are too busy for our husbands, kids and families, we are mostly certainly to busy for God. He will of course understand our business, won't he? I mean after all we can't expect to really make quality time everyday for Him, we just have SO much going on.

What would happen if we actually gave God the time He deserves? What would happen if we were to pour over the Scriptures the way we pour over Google or spend as much time in prayer as we do watching tv? Would we suddenly watch less tv? Spend less time online? Would we worry as much as we do now? Would our children notice the difference? Would our children pull our their Bibles instead of their ds's? Would they flip on the Bible cd instead of the tv? Would our marriages start to show some love instead of selfishness? Would there be more listening and less finger pointing? How would it impact our work, our witness? Would we then begin to tell others about the love of Jesus? Would we be less afraid of what others think and more bold in Christ?

If Christ came back tomorrow would you be with Him or would you be left behind? I think we will be surprised at who is gone and who is here when that day comes. I'm a nobody really, just a small town girl who has made an enormous amount of mistakes. In the world's eyes my voice has no real value, I'm not rich or famous, no one reads my blogs or really cares what I have to say. But I will say this I refuse to live like God doesn't matter, that He doesn't matter to me because He does. I refuse to miss out on anymore time with Him. I refuse to miss anymore time with my family.

I am a follower of the ONE TRUE GOD. JESUS CHRIST IS MY LORD AND SAVIOR. I believe there is coming a time soon when we will not be able to write those words in public without fear of imprisonment or even death. When that time comes I pray I'll as bold then as now. I long for Christ to be more in the center of my heart and life and not on the outskirts. Lord help me to give You the time you deserve in my life. Help me to not turn our time together into something cheap and disposable. Help me to put You first, and my husband and family where they deserve also. Help me not to lose sight of what You have put me on this earth to do. Help me to use the talents you have given me to accomplish what You will to be done. I love you Lord with all my heart. Help me to show it more to those around me. Help me to bold about Your love for them. Help me to not wimp out on telling those that need you all about you. Thank you for loving me the unlovable and giving me this life that I so don't deserve.  

My Best Friend

I'm feeling a little nostalgic tonight. I listened to a song called 7X70 by Chris August, excellent song. It reminds me partly of my hubby and his dad, who died about 10 yrs. ago. There was a lot of hurt there and Doug made peace with him, was able to see his father come to Christ, and spoke at his funeral. Although I was not able to be there with him through that time (this was the year before we started dating) I am so proud of him now. What courage, love, a mountain of other things it took to do that.

Honestly my best friend is pretty darn amazing. I could tell parts of his life story here although he might kill me but it's not really my story to tell. Some might see only the pain he has been through, but I see this amazing man that has overcome some huge hurts and is today the most loving, forgiving, patient man I know. I've watched him transform over the past (almost) 9 yrs and although it hasn't all be pretty it has been amazing. I'm so incredibly proud of him.

He accepts people as they are and with him what you see is what you get. He isn't a different person at home than he is in public. I love that about him. We don't always agree, we sometimes drive each other crazy but man oh man do I love this man.

He is a great dad who loves all the boys exactly the same. He usually knows just what to say to each of them just when they need to hear it. It's amazing to watch him interact with them. I love how our kids each look up to and respect him. That's saying a lot when you have teenagers!

I'm so incredibly blessed to have him as my husband. I'm thankful that he loves me for me (even the side of me that isn't so great!) I hope he knows just how much I love, adore, respect and admire him. I look forward to each day with him and watching our love and relationship grow over time.

He is truly amazing this best friend of mine!

I love the way he looks at me!

My beautiful family!

I am blameless.... Well at least this time

So the other night we are all sitting in the living room doing our various forms of entertainment when Doug lets off of fart not a small fart but a big fat noisy fart. First words out of Andy's mouth is "gross mom!" Hey that was not me! Doug of course is dying laughing that mommy gets blamed for his fart. My kids don't believe me that it wasn't me. Ummm I am a lady I don't fart out loud! I may on occasion fluff out loud but never fart. Who heard of such a ghastly thing! 

This has to be the difference between raising boys and girls. I have a sister and I don't remember farts being so talked about growing up but now it is the topic of lots of conversations in our house. I have to admit that I am succumbing to the boy topics in my house. It's hard to not be pulled into their gross conversations. I feel like I am losing my ladyship status a little more everyday! :) My mother would be mortified! She didn't raise us to be so crude! I have tried to introduce a little culture into my house full of vary levels of testosterone but to no avail. The second they even smell classical music or a classic movie they scatter faster than cockroaches in light. I literally think they can smell for at least an hour before I even think it.

Alas I am the Lone Estrogen. I feel like I need a sidekick now. The Lone Ranger and Tonto meets The Lone Estrogen and Meno (short for menopause). I guarantee estrogen and menopause win that duel! Apparently I will need to be more sneaky when it comes to introducing culture into my clan. Hey maybe I'll make it mandatory homework! *evil laugh* I can do that. I'm mom and teacher!

Sunburned Knees

It was a hard choice today whether to blog about motivated moms or Doug's sunburned knees. You guessed it Doug's knees win out. Yesterday we went to the homeschool swim party at the Y. Now Doug is hit or miss on swimming mostly he goes and just hangs out with us. On this particular day I manned him with the camera and he got some really cute shots too! For whatever weirdo reason we come home and his knees are really sunburned. His face and neck too but his knees it's really weird. Not any other part of legs just his knees. I know it's mean of me but his pain in this is really funny for some unexplained reason.

I was going to post something about it on my Facebook status but Doug caught me in action This did not go over well, however he didn't say anything about the blog! The conversation about the Facebook status was quite comical but I can never remember them well enough to post the actual hysterical comments by my hubby about not posting about ridiculously sunburned knees. Just saying/typing sunburned knees cracks me up.

Bedtime was disastrous!  How do you not get the sheets to rub on your sunburned knees? I know I'm horrible but I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath See I'm laughing now just writing about it. Also funny is that our sheets are cream and red. I pointed out this fact to Doug that he now matches the sheets but the humor of it was lost to him.

This may end up being on of those had to be there kinda funny or it was funny in my head but just trust me when I tell you it was funny!

ETA: This is me trying to get a picture of Doug's sunburned knees. It was not easy and the one pic I did get really doesn't show how red they really are.

This pic just disturbs me!

Trying to use the Swiffer mop head as a shield

Poor Slinky is being used as a doggy shield!

Times this red by about a 100 and that's how red they really are!

The end result is he is now suffering in jeans.