Twas the Night Before the Easter Egg Hunt
And all through the house
not a creature was stirring
Not even a spouse.
The Easter Eggs Were Stuffed
At the fairgrounds with care
In hopes that good weather and children will be there.
The weatherman has said that the degree will be high forty
And I am thinking oh Lordy Lordy!
As you can see, we are preparing for an Easter Egg Hunt. Myself and a friend from church were both burdened for the kids in the community that they would have a place to hear the real reason why we celebrate Easter. The downtown area in our community celebrates the holiday by putting hay on the concrete and hiding the eggs under the hay. That sounded a little scratchy and not so fun, so we decided not to join them this year.
This planning process has been such a faith stretcher for me and my friend. We are both Type A so it made it interesting-both very detail oriented-down to making special eggs for the 1 and 2 year olds so that they would have candy that they can really eat.
We received donations for a lot of the supplies. We have a friend that works for "Ideal or Flowers" bread company who donated hotdog buns, Walmart gave a $25 gift card, a local butcher gave us hot dogs at cost. Also, our church gave us a small budget to work with for missions. Not to mention, our precious people at the church stuffed almost 3,000 eggs with candy. They also donated 1,000 eggs to make "Resurrection Eggs" for the kids to make their own version. Isn't that amazing. Next year my goal is to not have to pay for the chips or the chocolate candy that we are having for "dessert."
What a joy to see all of this come to fruition. One of the biggest faith stretchers was to find the location. Obviously, we have no church building since we currently meet at the middle school. We needed a place with an indoor area as a rain contingency and craft area. We also needed a place with plumbing! My friend suggested the fairgrounds. We were told that we may could get a discount, but we would have to go to the board meeting. So she and I show up scared to death because we don't know anyone and who knows what goes on at a fairground board meeting. We let them know that we were doing this for the community, not just for the people in our church and they said we could use it for free since it was a community event. That was a green light for us that we were headed in the right direction. So we have 300 hotdogs, almost 3,000 stuffed eggs, 1,000 "Resurrection Eggs" to be taken home, and some great Story Tellers lined up to tell the story of Christ and his last week on Earth and the hope that we can have in Him.
What an awesome day today preparing for all of the kids. I need to get some rest because tomorrow we get to see how the First "Maybe Annual" Easter Egg Hunt turns out. I will update you soon.
What are your best Easter memories as a family?
Love,
Desiree'
A Camping We Went!
It was great! I don't think I mentioned this before in my post, but I really have always disliked camping. When I was a little girl I had a terrible camping experience. My mom and dad took me "camping" in the middle of the woods. My dad is a ruthless camper. He believed in really "ruffin'" it! It wasn't at a nice little camp site where we take our kids, but it was in the deep woods where there were no state park bathrooms. I honestly don't remember much of the time that we had there, but what I do remember scarred me for life. We had the lantern lit and on the ground of the tent and I woke up in the middle of the night. All I remember seeing are the shadows of these big ugly Granddaddy Long Legs all over the tent. There were so many of them they were heaped and piled on top of each other so it made more legs than there normal eight. Naturally, they were attracted to the light. It was so gross. I remember trying to get out of the tent the next morning and they were still all over the place. I never again went camping until John Mark and I married. He obviously did not have the same feelings about camping that I did.
Since we have been married (in almost nine years) we have gone camping two times in a tent and one time in a pop-up camper when I was about seven months pregnant in the hot summer with Abby Kaye. I will save that story for another post! :) Anyway, I decided on this last camping trip that we needed to go camping at least once a month. It was so good for us as a family. We set up the tent, cooked dinner, ate s'mores , and then read a book by tent light. The next day we loaded up the camp site, played at the park, and then headed to Mountain View to go to Blanchard Springs Caverns.
It was really more fun than we deserve to have. The kids had a really good time and we feel blessed to be parents of such great kids.
A Camping We Go!
Ok, this has got to be short, but I wanted to ask for deep intercessory prayer! We are going camping. This is after Tuesday I had severe neck problems and after yesterday and even into last night John Mark having a very yucky stomach bug. We are not sure that we should do this, but we are going anyway. Pray that we do not share the stomach bug in the tent! I do not like camping, this is totally for my kids!!!!! I thought I would ck online for a quick camping list to see what we should bring and make sure that we do not forget the essentials so I have uploaded the site for you to check out if you decide to go camping anytime soon. Will update when we get back. Have a fabulous day.
Love,
Desiree'
"What Good Luck, What Bad Luck"
Today has been a day that I will not soon forget. It was a tough day as a mom. It was a great day as a wife.
"What Good Luck, What Bad Luck" by Desiree'
My bathroom drain got cleaned out finally, my cat cleaned it out with his paw and was eating the contents.
My daughter learned some new words, the words are not repeatable.
I got a date with my husband, the food made me sick and I spent the afternoon in bed.
My son decided to take up kick-boxing, he got sent to the principals office.
I have not had an email from the LOL king in a week, I got an email today that he just flew in. LOL! (long story)
We had fun swinging at the park, the swing hit my darling daughter in the head.
My kids took a bath, in the dark.
We have a car to take us places, when my car comes to a stop the whole thing shakes furiously.
My daughter likes back and head massages, she gets them from the car when I put the brakes on.
My husband did the laundry last week, the clothes are all nicely folded on my dresser nearly touching the ceiling.
My house is quiet, I'm going to bed.
Love,
Desiree'
Lime Disease
Ok, so that is really not my cat's name. I have had the most entertaining time coming up with offshoots of names for this cat though. I have three cats and two of them I received as a gift recently. A little about the story, which a lot of you already know, but it never fails to amaze me how God provides for even our silliest wants. A typical Christmas season for me and John Mark:
JM: What do you want for Christmas?
DR: I want diamonds, new jeans, a new cabinet for the kitchen, and 10 house projects finished. . .
JM: Ok, what do you really want?
DR: That's what I really want, but I will take a cute kitten in a Christmas stocking presented to me on Christmas morning. :)
JM: Ok, what do you really want?
DR: AAAAH, that is what I really want!!!
JM: We don't need anymore responsibilites, we already have two kids, a cat, and a yard!
DR: Ok, but that is what I really want.
He and I go back and forth about it for several weeks until about a week before Christmas. He calls a friend of mine, who is a vet, and asks her where he can get a kitten. She refers him to the Humane Society down the road from where we live. He says ok and hangs up the phone. The next morning, he opens our back door to take our kids to school when I hear him yelling. I come running only to see that there are three adorable kittens on our back porch, one of which is now, "Lime, Lime Cat, Lime Lip, Lime Disease, my newest favorite, Slimy Limy!!!" We have another adorable predator cat named Socks, obviously for his cute white paws and black body. The other kitten that was on the back porch ran off and never returned. I have decided that he realized his fate of living with the Rutter Family and decided he better hit the road. So that is the story of Lime Disease and the Miracle Cats!
Love,
Desiree'
We Are Family!
My kids know the song! It is so important to keep our family together but it is sooooo hard! I think last night was the first night all week that we sat around the table together for dinner and even that was at 7:30 pm! Can you believe it?! Poor family! But I am still glad that we made time to sit down together.
I wanted to let you in on a neat thing that we do to keep manners a priority for our kids, and even for us as parents, at the dinner table. The idea came from Family Fun Magazine but we have elaborated on it. We light a 4 wick candle at the beginning of dinner. If anyone loses or "forgets" their manners at dinner then they have to blow out a candle. We even have a bonus candle and that means that we are just really out of this world with our manners. If all 4 wicks are still lit at the end of dinner then we get to have dessert. Dessert to us is hot chocolate or popcorn or whatever we can rustle up. . . just an extra treat!
As parents, we love the idea because it keeps the table focused but my kids like the benefit. If we forget to light the candles then they make sure to remind us.
Food for thought: What does your family do to stay unified? How did you stay a family growing up? What are some creative ways that you have found to keep manners a priority at your table? For you non-posters, make sure you chime on this one . . .ie Katherine Kramer!!!! :)
Peace for your Soul?
I felt a post coming on when I woke up this morning! It has been a tough couple of days for me. For one, the time change has wreaked havoc on my body. Right now I am struggling to keep myself from going to take a nap. Yesterday, I succumbed to the urge to take a nap and today I am trying to fight the good fight.
Another reason why I having a hard time is that I am struggling with work. I am sure that everyone struggles with work to some degree so this is not abnormal, just tiring. My good friend, Meryal would say this is just an opportunity to grow! You either grow or wither up and die-that's my take on it.
I also realized this morning that I forgot to pay a bill. I think, if I remember correctly from someone's website, is that today is National Clean Your Home Office Day and mine really needs it. I am a terrible "stacker". Yes, I suffer from this awful stacking disease. It is a generational stacking disorder. When people are coming over I just go through the kitchen and living room and frantically stack all of the papers together and then stick them in some remote corner of the house. Later, I find the stack with everything from kids artwork, to bills, to homework that Caleb was supposed to do. I should sticking them somewhere that I could find them easier like the microwave or something.
Anyway, the point to this post is that all day I have been looking for ways to console my soul. I just feel this yucky, antsy feeling all over. My natural inclination is to worry and go take a nap to get rid of that awful feeling. That's called denial for those of you who are reading into this! Sometimes the nap part helps, but I never really get to the bottom of the heart issue. What I am wondering is what do you do when you get that yucky feeling that things are out of control and you are not coping well?
Do you eat? I do sometimes. Do you just worry yourself to death? I do a lot. Do you listen to music? Do you read the Word and shake the Word until something falls down from Heaven to help you? Do you read a book on the topic that is bothering you? What do you do to console yourself and to really help you deal with the heart issue? I would love to hear from you.
Works-for-Me Wednesday
Works-for-Me Wednesday is a neat thing that the blogger, Rocks in My Dryer, started to catch up with women across the nation. She has designed a great way to see what tricks women have up their sleeves when it comes to organization around the house, mom I'm bored ideas and etc.
I am two days late on my WFMW post! I just discovered this blog so I think I am off the hook. Anyway, here goes my latest and greatest idea in the kitchen world.
My daughter who is five always wants me to cook with her or have a tea party with her. I am a bad mom and just don't want to get the tea party stuff out or drag out the easy bake oven equipment! To keep me from dreading it and saying maybe later I have made a couple of baskets on my counter for just these occasions. This way, I have no excuses when it is right there staring at me and sometimes I even initiate these adventures. Good accountability for me! Thought you might like to know. . .
My Angel
Ok, so he is not always an angel, but really close. I love my Caleb! He has grown physically, spiritually and mentally so much lately. I am constantly amazed. This age is fun, but it does have it's challenges. He is beginning to assert his independence by appealing many of our decisions which is ok as long as it's done properly. We have been using "the appeal system" and as long as he remembers to do it like this it usually works well for him. He and his sister fuss at each other more than they used to. I think it is because they are closer mentally and socially then they ever have been. She is interested in playing with his friends and even playing nintendo with him from time to time.
Overall though, he is doing so well. He is a great reader. He loves God and constantly has a song in his heart. He also has grown a ton. I can wear his socks!!! He is very independent and motivated; often making his own lunch and breakfast before school. He made himself a chore chart and posted it on his wall. Not that he always follows it, but I was just impressed that he made the chart. My favorite "chore" that he put on the chart is . . .love mom!!! What an awesome guy he is. I am praying that he grows up to be like his daddy!!
My New Pull-out Drawers (in my kitchen) :)
You knew what I meant, didn't you! My fabulous, hunky husband made these drawers for me after hearing me whine about how I could never find anything!!! Seriously, it freed up space in an amazing way once he installed these. The cool thing is that it cost him less than $75 for this project! My love language is gifts and he has found a way to make me happy at last!
Learning Self-Control Through My Marriage
Over the years, almost 9 to be exact I have discovered why God had me marry my wonderful husband. I would say, he and I could both agree, that we were not too sure what we were thinking shortly after the honeymoon. We were and still are soooo opposite in so many areas.
For instance, we were engaged to be married, (and this should have clued us in, but it didn't) and filling out a bridal registry at Wal Mart. We were trying to decide what kind of shower curtain we wanted. A simple task that would normally require just a few minutes to think through. We only had one bathroom to decorate so this was it-no kind of your bath, my bath situation. We had to make a decision. Now most men, I have come to discover, are either not interested in decorating bathrooms or they are wise beyond their years and say "whatever you think, honey." But no, this is not something that John Mark would do. He was not taught to say whatever you think nor is that his natural bent. He, by the way, was a philosophy/honors major in college at the time and likes a good debate. Now me on the other hand am a quiet, shy sort! Not! I am a very stubborn girl-one could call that tenacious if he were speaking positively about it. So it was either the BROWN shower curtain or the nice ivy one with beautiful purple flowers wrapped around trellis! hmmm. . .which one would you pick? Ok, now I would probably pick the brown one, but at the time purple and green were my favorite colors when they were together.
By the way, you know how they have those fun scanners now that you walk around with and point and click, then shazaam it is in your registry. Well, we were registering for our items the old-fashioned way. We had to handwrite a "special" 20 digit code on a piece of paper for each item that we registered for. We were nearing the end of this registry experience when we hit the shower curtain aisle. We argued and argued about that shower curtain until I finally had had enough and just walked out of the store with an unfinished bridal registry. I am not too sure what he was planning to do, but I was leaving. I drove so he followed after me to make sure he had a way home. I was in a huff to say the least and so was he. He just could not understand what I saw in that green and purple shower curtain. We started in again about it on the way back to his apartment. I was so sick of this mess that I rolled down the window while we were going down the road and threw the registry out of the window. He was totally shocked and could not believe that we just spent all that time filling out each box and I threw it out the window. My thinking was I am sick of this debate and will end the debate by getting rid of the object that was causing the strife. I did not regret it one bit. I was mad and this would show him just that!
That instance was just one very teeny tiny indicator that we were going to disagree in this marriage, not to mention have differences of opinion. He is sensible, logical and careful with his money. I am complicated, irrational and not so eager to save a penny. He analyzes options, I just close my eyes and pick one!!
What I have discovered, through trial and error, arguing endlessly about shower curtain type things is that what attracted us to one another are the things we get most irritated about. I love that he thinks well. I love that he does not spend money lavishly. I love that he analyzes His Faith and takes it to a deeper level. He is an amazing person, dad and pastor. Believe it or not, this post was originally just going to talk about the Envelope System that we started in January and here I go on and on about how cool my husband is. hmmm. . .
Well, I guess we know who suggested the envelope system don't we. Well, you guessed wrong probably. I suggested that we start the envelope system with our money. That is how much he has worn off on me. Nine years ago, I would buy $50 jeans and not think twice about it but now I won't buy a shirt unless it is on clearance! This is how the envelope system works just in case you were wondering.
We all have areas of weakness. . .for me I have about 6 areas of weakness when it comes to money. My worst two weaknesses being gifts and eating out. Ok, all of the rest of them come in a close second. . .entertainment, clothes, babysitting, and home decor. John Mark's weakness is projects so he has one envelope! We made a budget based on our income and a great website that helped us allocate the right percentages to the right areas. We used crown.org as our basis to make these decisions. At the beginning of each month, John Mark goes to the bank and withdraws a certain amount of money and we divy it up among the envelopes. When the envelope is out of money we are out of money in that category. Oh my, we have done this for the past two months and it is so hard! We ran out of "eating out" money about the 15th of the month in February and I was thanking God for 28 days in the month! Next year is a leap year, but hopefully I learned my lesson! It is a very cool technique to keep finances under control. Instead of letting your money control your circumstances and things you do, you control your money and bring it under the Lordship of Christ! Neat things I am learning through my hubby. Hope this was a fun blog entry for you to read. It was fun for me to reflect upon.
Love,
Desiree
The Gate to a New Season
This is a picture of the entrance gate to the 10 acre plot of land that our church just made an offer on. We found out yesterday that the owners of the land accepted the offer. It is a beautiful piece of land in a perfect square with two trees. God has been so faithful to shut the "gate" on all of the other opportunities that we have brought before Him. We want to continue asking for His guidance into this next season of life as a church, His church. We want to see how He wants us to be more like Him. . .more servant-like, more faithful, more trusting of Him.
The Evolution of "Clappy Shoes"
As I was trying to establish the very important name of this blog I tried to think of all of my favorite things. My first preference was Lovely Thoughts. . . that was taken. The next name I went to I think was, Grits! That was taken! Aah! Then GritsnCheese. . .can you believe that was taken!! Ok, so I tried my real favorite, gritsnbacon and it was available, but being on a diet and all I should probably not tempt myself too much with having to type that every day! So I asked Abby Kaye (my five year old) her opinion on the matter, thinking she might have some wisdom, as she was the only one home at the time, and her response was Isabelle! hmmm, I will have to think about that one. . .then I saw on the floor beside us, her adorable "clappy shoes" as she sweetly refers to them especially when she is looking for them and I knew that was the name. Why? Because I like clappy shoes too. I remember dressing up in my granny's clothes when I was a little girl and prancing around in her clappy shoes. I am just one of a long generation of clappy shoe wearers!
So the purpose of this blog, whether you are a "clappy shoe" wearer or not, is to have a place to unwind, process things, take a look into your soul, and kick back and relax with me. I have never been a person to relax but I need this blog to help me with just that. It can be a place where I process my days and even keep a record of my days. I have always journaled. . .I'm serious. . .always journaled since I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I still have some of those very important journals. . .hopefully I can share those with you sometime. Quite entertaining, they are! But since I have been married and had kids it has been difficult to keep that a priority in my life. There have been times or periods of darkness where I have journaled but the good times are seldom recorded. I want this blog to be a celebratory one as well!
My typing has gotten much faster since I am almost at the end of my first cup of coffee for the morning. . .need to grab another and get started for the day!
Love,
Desiree'
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