Happenings

Well, we have been taking advantage of any free moment we can to go out and have fun with the kids before the baby comes. I have been so thankful for Tyson and my mom and other friends who have helped me do this! It is getting hard to have the energy to do much of anything with the kids and there is sooo much that they want to do!  We have managed to do a lot though and to have a lot of fun. Here are some pictures so you can share in our adventures. Here come a lot of pictures!

The kids and I went on a fun day with Grandma so that Daddy could have some uninterrupted time to finish some work. We hopped on the ferry and headed to Lodi. Surprise, look who else was on the ferry!

We fed Susie the duck! Lots of fun for only 10 cents!

And for a special treat...ice cream cones at 10:00 in the morning. Yum!

Mayme and I shared my favorite Zanzibar chocolate. Not the best choice for a little girl in a white shirt, but this was a fun day, so it didn't matter!

Next, we went to this new Splash Pad in Middleton. The kids loved the idea of it, but weren't too sure about actually playing in it themselves...oh well, we cooled off a little bit anyway. 

They did have a lot of fun at the park though. 

Don't let her expression fool you, she loves to swing!

Lucy was so excited that they had a balance beam. 

Next we visited this fun restaurant for lunch.

Can you see the two doors? Such a cute idea!

A day at the zoo with the family. 

We had to stop at every one of these. What a cute zoo keeper!

Poor Mayme, she enjoyed the zoo, but was in the stroller most of the time, so she didn't fit in many pictures. 

Next, our devoted Daddy took the week off to tackle some projects around the house that we wanted to finish before the baby comes. Here are some before, during and after pictures of the wall in the stairway that leads upstairs that suffered some water damage from winter ice dams on the roof. 

The other side of the stairway...no water damage, 

but the old plaster is going to get covered so that both sides match. 

Voila! Tyson did such a great job! This angle makes the stairs look steeper than they really are. He even added some lights on the right side to light up the stairs at night. I'm thankful to have a railing in finally...just in time for this Momma!

Mayme making peanut butter cookies with me. 

Lucy surprised us with this little piece of work-that she did all by herself! 

We were so proud and had to take a picture before she gave it to her friend.  

Allow me to translate: "A boat can float on water. Your friend, Lucy"

Well, I hope you are all having a fun summer too! There is definitely a lot going on here, but life is good. God is good! We are enjoying His faithfulness and blessings. 

God Bless YOU!

Multitude Monday

51. How far you can stretch the meat from a Turkey

52. Empty laundry baskets

53. Laundry Baskets

54. The luxury of living in a home with modern appliances (washer, dryer, fridge, stove, microwave)

55. Running water

56. Early morning walks

57. Adoption...the blessing this has given friends of mine to add to their families, and the blessing we receive as we are adopted into God's family

58. Weather with low humidity

59. Watchful waiting of flowers to bloom

60. Cheerful flowers brightening up my home

61. God's Kindness (Romans 2:4)

62. Homemade rope swings

63. The gift of the Holy Spirit to comfort and teach and convict us

64. Band-aids

65. Baby Dolls

66. The wonder of air planes

67. Peanut Butter Cookies

68. Tools

69. Vacuums (can you tell I'm nesting?) 

What are you thankful for? 

Join Multitude Monday here

Reflections, Part 3

This is the final part of my little "Reflections" series.  Just some things God's put on my heart to think about lately on the topic of waiting and resting and surrendering to Him. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, these notes are from a podcast from James MacDonald from Friday, May 28, Powered by the Holy Spirit, part 2. He is preaching from the book of Acts, and this part comes from Acts 1:4 where Jesus instructs the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the gift (the Holy Spirit) the Father has promised. These illustrations really stuck in Tyson's head and he kept pointing out to me different types of waiting that he saw in our kids, or in me (after I confessed to him that I had done a poor job of waiting on the Lord in a certain situation). I'm grateful for this because it made me really think again about waiting on the Lord. This is such an important but hard part of our lives. Anyway, here are my notes...hope these stick in your head too and help you to wait on the Lord.

Waiting on God is pretty tough! So often though, this is the tool God chooses to shape our character.

 Here are 5 Things we do that we think are waiting…that’s not really waiting.

Because if we want the blessing, the growth, the joy of God, the obedience to the Holy Spirit, we need to do more than just stall, we need to wait.

1. Red Light Waiting: You are at a red light…You’re racing your engine, saying “Come on, come on, come on.”…the light turns green and the car ahead of you doesn’t go, so you honk your horn. Sometimes we are like this with God. This isn’t waiting. It is not resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him.

2. “Is it soup yet?” Waiting: Your mom’s making soup and you keep walking into the kitchen checking the pot to see if it is ready yet. Well, it isn’t and it is never going to be if you keep walking in and opening the pot because you are letting the heat out and it won’t cook. Sometimes, we make things worse because we have to check all the time. We’re not giving things over to God or trusting Him because we have to check every 5 minutes to see if it is ready.

3. Bruised Fruit Waiting: You’re waiting on God to change someone else. You understand that only God can change another’s heart. If you can’t pick the fruit, don’t bruise it. So, if you are waiting on God to change someone else, don’t bruise the fruit by checking constantly to see if they are “ripe”. Don’t constantly feel the other person out to see if they are “ready” (Are you ready?  When are you going to figure it out? Figure it out? Figure it out?). Just leave the fruit alone, let God work in them, so that you don’t bruise them.

4. “No Detours for me” Waiting: You don’t trust that detour signs are really true. You always drive down the street anyway to see if it is real and end up having to turn around…and if your kids or spouse are with you, it is embarrassing. Or there is a detour sign and they are trying to reroute you in a totally opposite direction and instead of trusting, you try to find your own route. This makes the trip longer and not shorter because we try to find our own way to go. We often do this with God, and this is not waiting because we aren’t trusting God—we are trying to go our way instead of waiting for His way.

5. “Pizza Burn” Waiting: You’re really hungry and go to pick up the hot fresh pizza and can’t wait until you get home to try it. You can’t wait! You have to at least look at the pizza; then have to try the pizza, and burn your mouth, and get pizza stain all over your shirt. You get home and your family says, “Why couldn’t you just wait?” The pizza needs time to cool off. You need to wait to try it. We often get burned or hurt because we don’t wait on the Lord.

These pictures are easier than the reality of the pain we cause ourselves by not waiting.

The good news: there is not a single thing God’s Spirit wants us to do but that He gives us the power to do it. God never asks us to do something but that He gives us the power to do it!

Peace

(Mayme fell asleep in her high chair. This happens almost everyday at lunch time.

Full belly, sweet sleep...peace)

It is 1:15 in the morning and I can't sleep. I'm going to be tired tomorrow, but at the same time, I've been sleeping so well lately, that I've been thinking that I'll be in for a huge shock when the baby finally does come and I'm up every couple of hours. That is one thing I was always thankful for at the end of pregnancy... learning how to get by on less sleep...it always helped prepare me for having a newborn. I remember thinking, "Wow, I'm getting 2 or 3 hours of sleep at a time throughout the night. This is great!"


Well, anyway, I thought it would be a good time to post some things that I've been thinking about. Tyson's been sending me some of Tony Evans' quotes off of Twitter. They have been such good reminders...especially for this time in my life.

When all hell is breaking loose and you are still feeling heaven, that is the peace that surpasses understanding.  

You know that God is moving when He provides calm in the midst of chaos.

Every believer has been given peace from Jesus. John 14:27 Peace is your privilege.

The reason we can't find peace is because we are looking in the wrong place. Peace is in a Person: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

-Tony Evans

After reading the first quote, the thought struck me, that I can seek and have peace in my own life. I don't have to wait for it to be handed it to me. God has already made His peace available to us to have by faith. How do I get this peace? By faith. By fixing my mind on the Lord. Like, Tony Evans points out, Jesus already privileged us with the gift of peace (John 14:27)...peace that is so strong, He was able to endure the cross with it! We just need to embrace it and apply it to our lives by faith. 

Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." (ESV)

So, I've been seeking to have this peace that passes understanding in my life lately by fixing my mind on Christ. I have not been 100% successful at this, but I am encouraged and full of faith and hope in the Lord. 


Today (or maybe, because of the hour at which I type this, I should say, yesterday) God led me to this verse:

Luke 21:19 "In your patience, possess ye your souls." (KJV)

Another verse about patience! Oh wait, was I talking about peace? Oops...well, anyway, I connected this verse about patience to the thoughts and verses about peace immediately without realizing they were using different words. :-) I know that the biggest reason I haven't had peace in my life lately is because I haven't been very patient! I haven't been patient with myself, my children, some people around me, troubling situations, and mostly, the Lord. I haven't been patiently waiting on the Lord (this is another post I can't wait until I have time to type it up...it is Part 3 of my Reflections, but I have to actually sit down and type out some notes from a sermon I've been listening to...you guess it, James MacDonald...so stay tuned). Anyway, I never remember hearing anyone speak about this verse, but how powerful it is! Our lives will be saved/gained by patiently enduring through all that we are suffering. 


Our lives were saved by Christ's patience in enduring the cross, the wrath of God. 


Praise the Lord! 
May God's peace be with you all today. 

The Funny Things They Say

Don't kids say the funniest things sometimes? 

Maybe these will only be funny to Tyson and me, and our families, but I just wanted to share anyway. 

Yesterday morning, Mayme woke up and came to sit with me on the couch. She was saying all kinds of things, and then she paused and just started saying, "Umm," for a while. I looked at her and asked her what it was she wanted to say. She said in the most thoughtful way, "Umm...I think...I build...snowman...with Daddy!" She must only remember a snowman from this one Winnie the Pooh book we read over and over. It was the funniest comment for an almost-two-year-old to share in the middle of June!

-----

A couple weeks ago, I bought Jude this new outfit from Wal-Mart, for $5.00. It is a light blue sleeveless shirt with two lions on the front, and blue and brown plaid shorts that match it. (We are always looking for cute clothes or other things for Jude that are lion related because of his name of course, "Judah" and it reminds us that Jesus was the Lion of the tribe of Judah.)  He was so excited about it and wanted to wear it right away, unfortunately, just after I bought it, the weather got too cold to wear a sleeveless shirt and shorts. He asked every day though, if he could wear it, if "today was the right day". Then, one day, the kids and I were driving around and I had the radio on a station where David Jeremiah was just finishing a sermon on a chapter from the book of Revelation. He mentioned the name "Babylon", and Lucy perked up and said, "That's where Daniel was!" I said, "Yes, good job," and continued to simply explain how Babylon fit into the end times, and how Jesus was going to come back to take all the Christians to Heaven with Him. Jude suddenly spoke up and said, "Mom, then can I wear my new shirt?!" It was so funny! By the way, the "right" kind of day for Jude to wear his new outfit finally came. He was so excited! He said, "You mean I get to wear that today? Did God say it was the right day?"

Ok, one more story. The other night, we tucked the kids in for bed and on the way down the stairs, we said, "Sleepy Deepy." Something we often say to them at bedtime. Mayme yelled back from her bed, "Sleep-py Deep-py Dad-dy! ....and Hap-py Birth-day Mom-my!!" It was so funny! We all just laughed and laughed. 

Well, that's enough for now. Hope that brings a smile to your day. 

Multitude Monday

31. Snuggling up to read a book.

32. Little girls (and boys) who love to read.

33. Children's books

34. Pig-tails

35. Pretty dresses and stuffed animals that make little girls smile.

36. The "must haves" when going to Grandma's House

37. All the children smiling at once

38. Painted wooden Polar Bears, when the real ones can't be seen. 

39. Giant Turtles to climb on when you're too scared to go see the real ones.

40. Creation that glorifies The Creator. 

41. Animals that aren't scary. 

42. Picnics

43. Cooling Breezes

44. Simple Pleasures

45. A place to dig!

46. Tents (which you can't really see in this pic) that pop up in an instant

when the rain surprises you while having a picnic. 

47. Swingsets

48. Underducks

49. Church

50. Quiet time to read God's word in the morning. 

Reflections, Part 2

Continuing on from yesterday's post, here is another thought I've been pondering on "The Art of Surrender". 

   "There is a moment of surrender and a process of surrender. The moment of surrender is the surrender of the will to personal belief in Jesus, that He is the crucified Savior who forgives sin. It is the moment of faith. It happens in an instant of time. 

   The process of surrender is the lifelong, daily crucifying of the human will -the will of the flesh-over and over and over again. It is surrender and resurrender and re-resurrender. It is a "process" because we surrender our will at the foot of the cross, but then we take it back up again. Surrender is an art."               

                                      - Walking With Christ in the Details of Life, Patrick M. Morley, p. 111

 

Reflections

I was awake pretty early this morning, compared to what is normal for me right now. I still felt so tired though, so I just stayed in bed, thinking... For some reason, (hmmm, I have a feeling the Lord is involved in all of this), I began thinking about the meanings of our children's names.

Lucy Ellen: both names mean light

                 Reminds us that as God's light shines in and through us, we need to be light to the world. 

                 Question to think about: Am I being light to the world around me? Am I being light to my children?

Judah Wells: his first name means "praise", and his second name is a family name that refers to a location "of the wells/springs"

                 Reminds us that we need to be people of praise. Now a well or a water spring is something to rejoice about, especial in days long past, but this also reminds me that even in the deepest "wells"/pits/valleys of our lives, we can find joy in the Lord and we need that praise for Him to fill our lives. The stars never shine brighter as when you are in the darkest part of the night. (That last sentence I took from another great book, by Arthur Bennett)

                  Question to think about: Am I praising the Lord in my well/valleys? 

Mayme Rae: her first name means pearl, and her second name means wisdom.

                  Reminds us that God's word is a precious pearl of wisdom that we need to seek after. 

                  Question to think about: Am I seeking God's Word as if it really is a precious stone/jewel? We're told in Proverbs 2:4 that this is what we are to do. 

Baby number 4...we're planning on naming her
Selah (Say-la) Mae: first name is found in the book of Psalms and as a musical term in that book, it means to pause, reflect; her second name (like Mayme, originating from the name Margaret) means pearl.

                  Reminds us that we need to rest in and reflect on God's precious Word. We are a rich and blessed people when we are able to truly rest in God's Word.

                 Question to think about: Am I resting in God's Word? Am I yielding to His word or am I being anxious and full of worry?

I, at the moment, am asking myself these questions over and over again. I don't know whether it is pregnancy hormones to blame or falling short spiritually, sin, that I feel like I'm failing in each of these areas of my life. Sometimes, life is hard, and we do fail. I'm so hopeful though in my God who is so much bigger than all of these things! I know that He is always with me and that He is using every moment to shape me and make me more like His Son. For that I am so grateful. I just thought that these thoughts He gave me were neat and wanted to share them with you.
...I have a couple more neat things to share related to these thoughts, but that will have to wait until later...it is time to go and rest in God's Word before our three little blessings wake up.

-Heather

Sewing Projects

Well, if you read my post from last week, you might remember that I was hoping to get some sewing projects done this weekend while Tyson had to work late. Guess what. I did! I'm so excited and relieved that I got them all done except for one more detail. Want to see what I was up to after I tucked the kids in bed?
WARNING: lots of pictures!

1. A little changing "pad" for the baby. I can fold it up and take it with me wherever I go. The back is terrycloth. I used bias tape around the edges to make the project go faster. I also sewed on that little pink pocket to keep ointment or other little things in. 

2. A new bag for baby and me. I made a bunch of bags a couple months ago as "Thank You" gifts for my MOPS Steering Team. I've been wanting to make one for myself ever since. That is the changing pad folded up behind the bag. By the way, I got the bag pattern from a great book which I would love to get some day. I just checked it out from the library for now. Anyway, it is called Sew What Bags, by Lexie Barnes. 

Some detail work on the front pocket of the bag. If you can't read it, it says "Suemnicht". 

(Yes, I hand embroidered that.)

Inside view of the bag. I added extra pockets to store things like diaper ointment, pacifiers, diapers, socks, etc. All those baby things that get lost in the bottom of diaper bags.  I also, just for fun, added a couple ribbons around the top edge to clip things to for easy access...like the pacifier. 

3. Burp Cloths...I bought some fabric several years ago to make burp cloths after my mom gave me some hand made ones that she bought from a lady at a craft fair. I never got around to making them...until now. Some are for me, others are gifts for friends. 

4. Baby Bibs! I made so many of these. I don't know how many are there. Some are for me, the rest are for more gifts. I still need to put the snaps on them...that is the last detail that needs to be finished...besides maybe clipping a few stray threads.

5. Skirt. I had made myself two maternity skirts a few weeks ago. I had the fabric all cut out for the third one, but hadn't been able to finish it until now. I got the idea and directions here and here (another book I want to get someday).

I tried to add a little detail to the hemline since they certainly aren't professionally made skirts by far. 

The third skirt is a light denim material...I just happened to be wearing it today. 

Here I am. Lucy was my photographer. She's almost better than I am! Ok, can you handle a couple more pictures?

After seeing me get sewing projects ready all weekend...and then seeing the results...and watching me embroider, Lucy was begging me to let her sew again. I've given her fabric stretched over a little embroidery hoop, a few times with a blunt needle. She's done pretty well with it. The hardest part of letting her do this, is getting her all set up each time, and this always holds me back from letting her be creative.  So, I pulled out a box today, and made her a little kit. We cut some fabric squares and put them in the kit along with a needle and some embroidery floss. Then, she went to town. This is what she created! I couldn't believe it. She did this completely on her own! I didn't draw it on the fabric at all or give her any ideas. It is so beautiful. (It's a flower if you can't tell.) I really wanted to sew a border on it and either frame it or put it on a pillow or something, but then she went and cut all around it super close to the image she made. I was kind of sad. Hopefully I can still figure out some way to preserve it. Any ideas?

Well, then, of course, Jude wanted something too. Several months ago, a friend had given me some fabric that she had started making a bag for her sons with. She thought Jude would like it, so she made the straps and then gave me the fabric for the bag. Today, I finally finished the bag for him. 

He was so happy. It's just a simple little backpack with dump truck and excavator straps. 

Ok, thanks for letting me show you all that I was able to make. Now I can finally put all the sewing things away and use our diaper changing table again.