A new chapter

Its been a while since my last post and thought it was time for an update. We moved about 10min from our town home in winston salem to kernersville. I'll admit, the move was tough and full of emotions. I was officially a single mom on my own. The week of the move I was pretty down, which makes it nearly impossible to get packing done! My friends and church family really came through for me and I pretty much had someone with me at all times helping me pack. The day before the move I had a full house of friends helping me out, and the day of the move a group of men from the church came and got us all moved in. I even had friends come over afterwards to help me unpack and organize. During that time I felt so unworthy of some much help and love. I wanted to repay everyone, but had nothing to repay them with...other than cake! I was shown so much grace, unmerrited undeserving grace. I was given a glimpse of Christ through the selfless love I was shown.

We are now getting settled in and I am actually thankful for our new place. We live right behind one of my very dear friends, Becky, who is renting her trailer out to us for an incredibly low price. So I live next door to one of my best friends...whose children are best friends with my children...who share their yard with my kids...which is complete with all kinds of places to explore, a trampoline, and even a little slide that kydon is in love with. I have a new oven in here, a dishwasher that actually dries my dishes, and a huge tub that the boys have taken over. Initially I really struggled with giving up my dream for a place of my own and becoming so dependent on others, but I'm starting to see how this is good for me right now.

after football practice...

I just thought I'd post a follow up on Carter's first football practice. Here are his exact words in the car on the way home from practice...

"Football is the BEST, Football is the BEST!!!!"

(that pretty much sums it all up)

(their halloween costumes a couple of years ago, soon I'll be able to post a picture of them in their first official uniforms :)

Carter's Quote of the Day

Quinton and Carter have been signed up to play flag football at the YMCA. Quinton is thrilled. Carter...well, not so much. Carter wouldn't participate in anything if it were up to him. He is perfectly content with staying home with his legos all day. I want him to give other activities a try before he rules them out. I thought that maby he is worried about getting tackled, so there in our minivan I explained the game to him. How if the ball is thrown to him, he will get to run as fast as he can to make a touch down. How when the other team has the ball, he will get to chase them and try to tear a flag. How they will get to protect their team mates. We pull in the driveway as I finish and just sit there in silence. I can see his little mind processing this information. I wonder if I have sold it to him so I ask

"well Carter, are you excited about football"

"no"

"why not?"


"because I hate it"

(end of conversation)

My not so ideal evening

Today I was exhausted. We had a busy stressful day and it hit me at some point during the day... my kids have eaten sooooo unhealthy lately. I decided I was just going to have to push through the physical and emotional exhaustion and make a good healthy home cooked meal. I envisioned all of us around the table talking, laughing, and just enjoying each other as we ate this wonderful meal.





After I picked Quinton up from school I started on the meal. I thought this could be a fun family activity. The boys were glued to the TV and wouldn't aswer when I asked them to help mommy. I ended up loosing it with them and yelled at them to listen to me. Not a great start to our fun filled family evening. Kydon hung onto my legs the whole time and screamed at me. I was cooking on the stove top, turned my back and turned around to see him on a stool reaching for the stove. My heart momentarily stopped as I moved him and tossed the stool into the other room. He proceed to reach for the sink and scream at me. He wanted a sink bath. I thought that could me nice. He could play happily in the sink while I finished dinner. Not so much. He played for a whole 5 min and started to crawl onto the counter. I took him out, let him cry, and frantically finished dinner.





Dinner is cooked. I put kydon's food in his high chair and go ahead and place him in it. As I'm filling the boys' plates I see he is throwing all his food on the floor. I try to get him to eat...add BBQ to his chicken and look over to see the boys eating up their food....without me. I finally sit down and Kydon stands up to inform me he is finished. I get him out of the chair and he cries at my legs while I try to eat my dinner. I cave and turn the TV on. Happy to have him entertained I sit back down and proceed to initiate a conversation with Quinton about school. I ask him the same question 5 xs and realize that talking is pointless bc they can see the TV...if I turn it off we have to deal with grumpy baby.





We finish the meal. The kitchen is now a COMPLETE disaster (did I mention that Kydon also got out ALL the pots and pans while I was cooking). And mommy is WORN OUT! I tried. I'm going to give it another try tomorrow and maby it will gradually start to get better....I sure hope so!

victory?

This week has been a bit...crappy... for me and has caused me to really take good look at what I want out of my life. What would I define as victorious living. If I'm honest I had decided that I would be victorious if I could ever have stability in my family and in my finances. If only we could, together, own a house...go on family vacations... even just have meals together...then I'd be victorious.

But is it possible to feel victorious and to be poor, broken, and needy at the same time. Logic tells me NO. There is no hope in that. But somehow the Lord is telling me YES! As a daughter of Christ, I get to share in His victory over sin and death. I've been predestined to good works and have a purpose. My purpose in this life isn't to get to the next financial level, but to take part in Christ's agenda. And His agenda will end in victory!

So now I continue on with my crappy week with an attempt to experience this victory in the midst of broken dreams and hopes. It doesn't make the pain go away, but does leave me with a different kind of hope and a purpose.

Devos with the boys

Every night I try and do family devos with the boys. I'll admit, I usually don't feel like doing it, and sometimes its pretty much the last thing I want to do at the end of a long exhausting day, but I try and just make myself do it.

Now, I know that Satan does NOT want me doing this with the boys. His tactics include putting invisible ants in their pants, preventing them from being able stay in the bed, let alone sit still and pay attentions. He also plants toys around them that are suddenly show up when I open the bible. And lastly, He will periodically possess Kydon causing him to scream louder than I can read (note the scarcasim in my voice). But despite the frustration that I may face, not once have I regreted doing them. The majority of the best conversations I've had with the boys were during family devotions. Which leads me to our devos last week...

After reading the Bible I explained to the boys that we don't grow close to someone unless we talk to them. That is the same with God...we can't grow close to Him unless we talk to Him. We proceed to pray and Carter ends with, "God thankyou for this good day, thankyou for this wonderful day, thankyou for this super good day, and God...God....I just want to be close to you, I just want to be super close to you...and thankyou for this good day, and thankyoufor this wonderful day.....etc, etc, ETC..."!!! This went on for a good 5min and then he told me "mommy I want to be super close to God, so I prayed for a super long time". I told him that God will answer that prayer because He wants to be super close to Carter. I told them the story of Solomon asking for wisdom and God giving it to him. Quinton told me he wanted to pray again saying "God I want to be so close to you and I want power and love and wisdom amen". He then smiled confidently at me and told me that God will answer his prayer too.

A great Bible for boys that we have is The Action Bible, which is basically a comic bible. They love it and actually remind me to do bible story time because they can't wait to read it. Here is the link on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Action-Bible-Doug-Mauss/dp/0781444993/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310260811&sr=8-1

Another good one is the Veggie tales family devotional. It is a bit lengthy, but very interactive with different activites for the kids. I do this one once a week because it can take a good 45 min to do. Here is the link http://www.amazon.com/VeggieTales-Family-Devotional-VeggieConnections/dp/B000GYI1MY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1310260946&sr=1-1

My Carter Barter...

(sleeping wtih a legoman in his hand...he is very serious about his lego obsession :)

I've decided to feature my creative 4 year old, Carter in today's blog. As many of you know, Carter is one of a kind :) He has the biggest imagination and comes up with very creative ideas and stories.

(he fell asleep on the stairs...not sure WHAT he was thinking??!!)

Here are a list of questions that I asked carter followed by his response:

Name- Tarter

Age- holds up 4 fingers

favorite thing to do- uh....mommy tell me which days i get to play the wii on

favorite toy- actually my favorite toy is daddy's lego ship...his star wars

favorite game- hmmm i will say its star wars

future job- i want to work at the lego store

favorite color- all of the colors except pink and purple

favorite place to eat- mcdonalds, that's a place you can play tag you're it and hide and go seek. and mommy, and mommy, and mommy, mommy at church I told that riley girl where a girl was and her found her.

what are you good at- I will say I'm really good at building legos

favorite movie- its only lego rock monster...and star wars...and lego ningago (followed by a long graphic story about lego ningago)

Things he has taught me:

1. You shouldn't love lego's more than you love God. He "loves God first, then legos"

2. Apparently I shouldn't look at the colors yellow and brown, bc looking at them might make me have to go potty (that one cracks me up :)

3. never, ever, try to give him chicken nuggets without honey mustard sauce

4. that he apparently doesn't have too many legos, his friend has two boxes of legos and that's too many, but he just has one box so he can get more legos.

5. if you can't tear into a pinata with a bat then just get rid of the bat and do you karate moves on it (yes, he did do that)

6. It is possible to use the word "eventually" at least 3 times in one sentence.

7. legos are a mommy's best friend

8. A lot of patience is needed during learning time. Letters may turn into animals or other objects at any given moment.

9. I am to call him "Mr. Carter" when he is wearing a tie

10. That sometimes its good to just take a breather, smile, and enjoy his little creative self :)