A Quote

My dear husband has posted this little ditty in our kitchen, where we spend a ton of time. It is a good reminder and I thought that I would share it with you.

"Dusty Bibles lead to dirty lives. In fact, you are either in the Word and the Word is conforming you to the image of Jesus Christ, or you are in the world and the world is squeezing you into its mold." - Howard Hendricks

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Years ago one of our pastor's wives was sharing at a gathering. She spoke about how we (the church) often measure how we are faring by comparing how we are doing at keeping our distance from the world. She pointed out that what we need to look at is how we are doing as far as how close we are to the Lord. You see that while we do okay at keeping our distance from the world; the world is constantly moving away from the Lord. And guess what that means for us....yep, we are moving away from the Lord at the same pace as the world if we are not very careful.

I have often thought of her analogy, it is a challenge to me to make sure that what I use to measure how well I'm doing is Scripture and not what others are doing. I fall short many times, most of the time. I am praying that the Lord gives me a continual, growing desire to grow closer to Him.

Bubbles

Nathan recently received a new bubble set and was not

having much success at making his own bubbles.

Brandon went outside with Nathan

and was teaching him how to do it.

(Sorry the picture isn't very clear my batteries were going dead.)

After showing him a few times, Nathan tried it himself.

I'm not sure how many bubbles he made with the wand,

though his face was covered when they were done.

They stayed out in the backyard

for quite a while working on bubbles.

Nothing warms my heart more

than watching our kids work together,

even on the smallest of tasks.

Concert

Last night we heard Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith in concert - how fun is that?! (That is a rhetorical question.) At one point in the concert I turned to my 16 year old son and said, "Those are grown men playing that!" He just quietly groaned.

It was great to hear the older songs along with some new ones and to hear how the Chapmans are doing almost a year after the loss of their little girl, Maria. Keep praying for them.

As I have thought back over the concert there are two songs that have challenged me, neither song ones I would have thought of reflecting on. Both songs have been around for awhile and both by SCC. I pasted the chorus from each song below:

Dive (chorus)

I’m diving in, I’m going deep in over my head,
I want to be
Caught in the rush,
lost in the flow,in over my head,
I want to go
The river’s deep, the river’s wide,
the river’s water is alive
So sink or swim, I’m diving in.


Live Out Loud (chorus)

Wake the neighbors, get the word out
Come on... crank up the music...
climb a mountain and shout
This is the life we've been given made to be lived out
So la la la la live out loud
Live out loud, yeah

After thinking about the concert I find myself wondering-Am I diving in? Am I following the Lord in the areas He is directing me? And am I living out my life in the way the Lord wants me to be living? (Honestly, I probably make my husband a little nervous asking these questions.) Last year at the Adoption Summit I think Kay Warren referred to this as "dangerous surrender", so sink or swim I'm diving in!

Both of these songs are full of life. That is the way I want to live my life - full of LIFE; that only comes when you are walking closely with the Lord!

Happy Birthday Brandon (a day late here)

Though this post is a day late, we celebrated right on time! Can't believe how much Brandon is growing up. He loves anything sports related, even filled out his first NCAA March Madness bracket this year. Brandon loves to sing, just a little bit ago he was singing "God with Us" by Mercy Me.

This picture is at about 8 months old in his first boxers.

Brandon has an infectious smile and often has us in stitches. The morning of his birthday we heard him talking in his room. Ken peaked in and there was Brandon standing in front of Nathan's crib doing a little chant, "I am six today, I am six today", swaying back and forth. Nathan thought it was great entertainment.

Happy Birthday Brandon!

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Happy Easter!

Christ has risen!

He has risen indeed!

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Family Fun

For fun the younger kids had an Easter Egg hunt this afternoon. Nathan seemed to be getting the hang of it. But there was something not quite right in his basket.

Guess all the tennis balls didn't get picked up last fall. He still thought it was a great treasure. :)

Then we attempted a picture of all the kids, since Allison is home from college for the weekend. It seemed like it should be a piece of cake.

Ha ha ha! After this picture with Nathan so busy one of the older kids suggested just photoshopping Nathan into the picture.

Now we'll try inside. Everybody look - oops no, not that time.

You see first you have to get the attention of all of them and then hopefully you can get the littlest on board.

Or the next-to-the -littlest on board.

I think this one works. Yeah!

You are all set free ! (At least for now.)

Bunnies

Molly holding two baby bunnies.

Showing one of the bunnies.

I had to run an errand this morning and took the two youngest boys with me. When we came home there was quite a stir of activity in our front yard. Seems that for the third year in a row a rabbit has made a nest in a small dip in our front yard, about a foot off the sidewalk. So here were Ken, Molly, Natalie, and our wonderful neighbor Dorothy all out discussing what to do. They were trying to rig a cardboard box over the hole with a hole for the mommy rabbit to get through. An attempt to protect the two bunnies that were still alive. Just as I was walking into the house another neighbor Tom came hustling over with a milk crate. So now we have a milk crate upside down over the nest - it has openings for the handles, with two big rocks on top to hold it in place. We'll see what happens. It is always a dilemma when something like this is found. I enjoy animals but the Lord keeps these things in order.


Shortly after we all went inside Molly announced that she would like a baby bunny for her birthday, luckily that is not for a looonnng time.

Update: As of this morning (Good Friday) our two little bunnies have left the nest. We are choosing to think that they left on their own and not under duress. The kids will miss checking on them, which is maybe why they moved on.

Boys Have Got to Have Fun!

Ken took the three oldest boys to the Car Show tonight. He left with three boys and came back with two boys and a tiger!

Brandon as a cute little tiger.

He's being ferocious here! That's a little too realistic. Though I'm not sure how ferocious a tiger can be without his front teeth.

NATHAN HANGING OUT

SNACK TIME

SHARING