Prayers Caught in the Trees

Have you ever felt like your prayers were not being heard? You cry out every day the same prayer and it seems like there is no response. Not even a "no, I am not answering your prayer."

The other day, my eleven year old son walked in and had a scroll tied to some helium-filled balloons that he had received the day before. Quite curious, I asked, "What in the world are you doing?" He said, "I am sending a note to God." If you have read much about my son, you know this is a little odd because he usually just prays. He asked Christ into His life at a very young age and I sincerely thought that he knew all he had to do was to just speak to God. There are literally no strings attached, just open your heart and pray.

Being the science whiz that he is, he realized quickly that the note was too heavy to allow the balloons to get very far with the note. He decided to reduce the letter to about a sticky note size. It honestly looked like a scene out of the movie, "Up." The balloons were large and very colorful. He just had to get the right weight balance between the balloons and the note. Finally, the work was finished and the balloons were about to be sent to God so that he could get his very important note to Him.

I did not really ask what the note was about, but I thought it might be pretty important since eleven year old's very rarely take time for important things (aka baths, homework, piano practice).

A few minutes after he had stepped out of the door, a very disappointed eleven year old came back in from the cold. His balloons had gotten caught in a tree and his message was intercepted by the dead limbs on the tree. I was so sad for him to say the least.

I was sad for him for several reasons. For one, that just stinks to have a goal of getting something to someone and it not happening for whatever the reason. Another reason is that it is just somehow wrong for such a beautiful experience as sending a letter to God via balloons to get interrupted. And lastly, I know how he felt.

I have felt that my prayers were hanging in dead branches on trees many times in my life. Did I not pray hard enough or loud enough? Have I sinned so greatly that He has fingers in His ears blocking out the sound of my voice? What is going on? Where are you? Where is your hand of protection or Your voice that is supposed to be leading me?

David felt the same way in Psalm 4: 1 and 3

"1Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer. 3 Know the the Lord set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him."

We can be assured that He does hear us when we call out to Him. It says in my all time favorite Psalm, Psalm 34 "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles."

Obviously, the Lord knew my son's prayer, without the balloons making it all the way to Him. In fact, God is in my son's hear. Just sometimes it does indeed feel like the Lord is far away. When you feel like your prayers are being intercepted by a bunch of dead limbs, know that the Lord heard you. He will deliver you out of all of your troubles because He is so good and His love endures forever.

As a side note: I went to Wal Mart the next day and looked for some kind of helium balloon that was big enough to take up a big prayer on big paper. The only one I could find was a birthday balloon and I figured since it was almost Jesus's birthday that a birthday balloon might work. I left it in Hansel's room and when he found it he said, "Oh, that is perfect, that is all I really wanted to tell Him anyway."

I found the larger note that he wrote in my office today confirming the fact that Hansel just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Jesus and asked God if He could possibly heal him from this cold or fever that he has.

By the way, Caleb is at school today with no fever and really not much of a sniffle. God is good and hears you when you pray even if it feels like your prayers are caught in the dead branches of a tree in your front yard.

A Little God and A Little Strength

I have a million things to do not to mention work, but I have to write. I just got back from getting Hansel from camp. Now mind you I did not know if he would call me a day in and say he wanted to come home or if they would call and say he was hurt. But nope, no call. . . .for three days!!!! I was so excited to go and get him I could hardly stand it. My eight year old daughter said I needed to calm down. I got there and he could not talk. He had lost his voice from all of the screaming and singing they had been doing. He was hot and sweaty. He looked tired and worn out, but I saw a difference in him. It was not that he accepted the Lord into his heart because he did that several years back. He was different, still that same sweet spirit, but I think even sweeter!

They were singing really fun songs and he asked me to come up and sing and dance one with him. He is 10! He is still at the age where I am somewhat cool, maybe not for long and definitely not coordinated. I went. They gave all the t-shirts out and lots of applause for all of the help to pull the camp week off. We got in the car to get his belongings from the dorm and when he gets in the car he says in his very raspy voice, "Mom, I got a little God this week and a little strength." He pulls up his shirt sleeve to reveal his sweet ten year old bulging muscle. He goes on to tell me that he needs to read from Matthew 4. He reads in his hoarse voice how Jesus was tempted and then he attempts to exegete the passage. He said one of the boys in his dorm wants to be a pastor and preached this to them.

He read the Bible a lot on the way home and had a glow about him. He was on the mountaintop this week. I remember that feeling. What an awesome feeling. He told me he was going to have to borrow my Bible for church from now on because he needed to follow along at church. I realized before he left that he did not have his own Bible (other than a picture Bible and a Precious Moments one). When he got home I had a present on his bed waiting for him. It was an Adventure Bible with his name on it. He opened it up and looked at it like it was better than a ginormous pack of Pokemon cards. He thanked me and said he was even going to keep the box it came in.

Now he is in his freshly made bed, reading his Adventure Bible, sipping hot mint tea and honey to get his voice back, and getting ready to drift into a very deep after-camp sleep. Praise our Holy and Precious God for moments and days like these. Thank you Jesus for allowing my son to have "a little God and a little strength" this week. You are Incredible.

On Your Mark. . .Get Set. . .Grow Up

There is nothing like sending your child to camp for three days to make you realize that they are growing up. Hansel is going to church camp tomorrow for the first time. And catch this. . .on the list of toiletries it said "deodorant." Yikes! Hansel refused to take it. Honestly, he wouldn't remember to use it even if I forced it on him!
He really is the most "good-natured" kid you could have. He loves his family, especially his sister. He would do anything for anybody. He is a great helper around the house as you can see in this picture.
I am going to miss him this week, but I am just thankful that he is not going off to college or getting married. I have a few years on that one! I am trying to savor the time that I have with him right now. It is good.
Jeremiah 29:11

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Saving the World One Step at a Time

Since the summer started I have made a new commandment in our home. Thou shalt only use paper plates for breakfast and lunch meals. I know this is bad for the landfills, but I do not want to spend my entire summer cleaning up behind my two compulsive snackers! Really, this is very unlike me. I am all about saving the environment. We typically do not buy paper towels and use reusable towels that I can throw into the laundry. We have a compost bin where we put all of our vegetable waste. We even go so far as to all use the same toothbrush to conserve water. Just kidding! I just had to throw that in there to make sure you were awake.

Using paper plates is quite contrary to what I have instilled into my children. My son, who I think is kind of pre-adolescent (10) because he has become quite argumentative about such topics has really taken offense to this new commandment in our home. He said that I am destroying the earth one paper plate at a time. Can you believe anyone in my home could be so opinionated!

I have decided to fight back, not by giving up the paper plate rule because I do not want to clean up behind them all summer. I have decided to, as often as possible, walk him to swimming instead of drive. I did not make it to the gym this morning, but I needed some cardio. It is only a little over a mile away and it is a great way to start the day. Hansel loves the idea of walking because we are being mindful of the earth and it is a great warm up/talking time. So Hansel and the Princess are saving the world one step at a time. . . at least until the summer is over. Then onto new adventures.

Intervention and an Interception

www.bible-history.com/resource/mount-vesuvius

Last night, my mom came to rescue me. I was buried under the ash from what seemed like Mount Vesuvius. My desk had erupted, my patience had spewed and I just needed a break from my new job.

She was taking Gretel back with her and so my Prince Charming decided it would be fun to go to dinner about an hour away to a restaurant we had never tried, but had heard was yummy. It would get my mom an hour closer to home and me away from the computer.

www.nppa6.org/clips/2007/august/Aug07.html

We got seated and Hansel quickly asked the waitress if they had a trash can. I thought this was odd because usually you only need a trash can at take-out restaurants to dump your uneaten food. As soon as I could turn around the waitress stuck out her hand and said, "this is the trash." Before I could bat an eyelash, my son pulled his gum out of his mouth and was about to put his chewing gum in her hand. I squealed and quickly pushed his hand back and yelled, "Nooooooo!" The waitress jerked her hand back before the patty of gum could stick to her thumb. My husband and my mom just rolled laughing. I think it was probably the last time that this waitress volunteered her hand for "the trash."

We had a great time coming out of the dust of the volcanic eruption (at least for me). Now back to climbing out of the ash. Have a great day!

Notification of Offense

When the kids started school, I gave them the list of things to do before school each morning. It included: eating breakfast, getting dressed (including shoes), brushing teeth and making bed . . . if they got all of that done they could watch cartoons.

Today, I walked into their room after they left for school (one child to my friend's who we trade days homeschooling on Thursdays and the other child off to public school). As I partied mourned their leaving, I realized they had committed the first morning offense of the year. Both of their beds were left unmade. I thought for a second and realized that they need a consequence to remind them other than nagging. Nagging only works for awhile. :) They needed a semi-natural consequence. I pondered putting fake bugs and snakes in their bed like they like to do to me, but I decided it needed to hurt their "pocketbook."

I decided to "fine" them. We use a penny jar system that we invented over a year ago to help implement some desired behaviors and ward off negative behaviors. It has really worked! It works as allowance as well as positive reinforcement. We love it. Anyway, they came home from school and I told them that I fined them today and the notice was on both of their doors. They were confused at first when observing the notice on Hansel's door, but I could tell after they realized what happened they were disturbed. Hansel, got a slight smile on his face and I like to think it is because he thinks I am pretty witty. :) Gretel, was quite perturbed and stomped off to her room to locate her fine on her door.

I have great hope that this is going to work to help them remember the details of our morning. What do you think? Have you done something similar that has worked for warding off bad habits in your home? I would love to hear.

Summer Reading

My husband and I finally figured out how to get our kids to read without too much whining or nagging by me during the summer. We bribe them with electronic time. That goes for the tv, the Wii, and the computer. . . basically anything that plugs in. There is a "15 minute increment only" rule. That means they cannot read for 1 minute, run in the living room and play on the Wii for 1 minute and then start the process over again. Believe me, we made the rule for a reason! :)

It has been great. Every morning they have a cutely decorated clip board of chores and it reminds them to read for electronic time. They have to do chores and then they can read for the electronic time. Wow! So far, this is the fourth week in the month of June and it is going well. I think we have found a winning idea. We were at the doctor's office yesterday (for Hansel's ear infection) and an older lady commented to me that she was so glad to see boys reading like mine.

The added bonus, they usually read at the same time and the house is quiet during those fifteen minute intervals. Rare, I tell you, rare! It is definitely worth a try if you haven't bribed your kids recently!

Finger Food Friday

As soon as I told my kids, Hansel 9 and Gretel 7, that Fridays were going to be the day that they got to try their hand at cooking, they begged me to let them cook today. I bought a cook book last year for the kids that are 2 or 3 ingredient recipes. I told the kids that they had to do it all by themselves. I went into the other room to work on a really important project . . . beading. I knew the recipe they chose had to do with kool-aid and it did not seem to difficult. They were going to make slushies and that sounded great to me.

I knew that this might not be working when Gretel came in to tell me that Hansel was using a very sharp knife to break up the contents of the Kool - Aid. It came in a big plastic jug and had solidified. I asked him, calmly, to get a spoon. The next thing I heard, not 2 minutes later was "Help mom! Oh no, come quick!" Of course my mind began racing and beat my legs down the hall! I envisioned smoke, fire and blood.

Well, it looked a lot like blood when I got there. It was red Kool Aid, permanently staining my laminate countertops. They forgot to put the blade component in the blender and when they poured the water, Kool Aid, large amount of sugar, as well as the ice, it all dripped down the blender, down the counter and onto the floors. I am sitting here with red stained hands, lips and tongue with a big smile permanently stained on my face at the fun times I am having with my kids. God love em!

P.S. I would have provided pictures, but they blocked my picture when I went to take it saying they were too embarassed to see it on the blog! :) They know me well.

Funny Stuff

Last Sunday, we were sitting around the kitchen table discussing what we learned that morning at church . My husband is a pastor and I told my kids that daddy talked about spiritual gifts in his sermon. The kids were excited to learn that because they had talked about spiritual gifts in their class too.

Hansel, very matter of factually stated that he knew what his spiritual gift was. I was so excited that he finally knew because I have always really wanted my kids to discover who they are in Christ and how God made them. I was sad though when he stated that his spiritual gift was "eating." Being given that tidbit of information does give me a whole lot more perspective on where all the food has been going! :)

This joke makes a lot of sense too given that his spiritual gift is eating.

Hansel came outside the other day when I was working in the garden and told me this joke. I thought he had been eating and reading Laffy Taffy's, but he swears he made it up.

Q: What happens when a lightning bug grows too quickly?
A: It has glowing pains!!!

That's pretty good, huh! :)

Loving my Time in Flo-Rida

Yo! Yo! What's Up?

I have to admit that one of my favorite past times is singing at home, especially rapping. I am terrible at it, but it is fun.

Tonight my kids and I were flipping through the channels and the American Music Awards were on. One of the rappers was talking and Hansel asked me who it was. Being an out of the loop 30 something year old mom I said, "I have no idea." Gretel (seven years old) says, " Hansel, it's a Yo Yo guy!" Yeah, I guess with all of my rapping she has learned a tad bit of "culture."

The Construction Zone

This is our new guest bedroom. I hope our guests enjoy the breeze.

This is where I see Prince Charming most of the time. We have had a lot of "dates" there lately too. Lucky me!

The other day, Prince Charming walked in looking like the pic above and 8 year old Hansel told him that he needed to be swiffered! :)

More construction zone pics to come.

Recipe for a Fun Night

Tonight my family and I ate leftovers, watched the Alvin and the Chipmunks Movie and ate scrumptious peanut butter honey popcorn.

I got the recipe for the popcorn from my mother-in-law. They have been making it for years and I always ate this at their house when I was dating my husband. Must be nostalgic feelings I have for the popcorn. My son and I both have a special love for peanut butter. Unfortunately, he will probably die from heart disease with all of the butter popcorn he had last year during home schooling. Every day at 10:30 he would make a bag. Now his sister is so excited about home schooling next year because she will have popcorn at 10:30. Hey, whatever motivates them!! :)

I wanted to share the popcorn recipe with you because it is easy, yummy and fun for family nights like ours.

1/2 cup of popcorn kernels - air popped (maybe two bags of microwave popcorn)

Melt 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup of sugar in a pot until it comes to a rolling boil. Add 1/2 cup of peanut butter and 1 tsp. vanilla to the pot. Pour over popped popcorn and toss it until it is coated all over. It's that simple. It is really, really good.

Let me know if you try and love it like we do!!

As for the movie, it was pretty good. It was not a deep movie like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or anything, but it had a fun, sweet feel. I think the worst word was sucks and it was only once. There were some crudish humor, but nothing my kids have not seen or heard or said for that matter. It was fun for my kids to get excited about the funny parts because they had already seen it. They kept saying, "you are going to crack up at this part."

Hope you have a great weekend!

The Lord and the Mower and the Milk

Most college students keep themselves pretty busy and I was no exception. Momhood redefines busy, but nevertheless I was busy in a college student sort of way. Most of the quiet time I had was in the shower. For most of my college journey I had a roommate and then I got married and the quietness was different, but mainly my alone time was in the shower. I heard the Lord speak to me many times while I was in the shower. One time I was told to break up with my boyfriend and other times He just led me to pray more or to get rid of other things He saw in my life.

Well, now my life is different. . .busy as most everyones and now the Lord has to pretty much shout to talk with me over the lawn mower. Yes, the showers are shorter and not much time to socialize there with the Lord. Now He speaks to me while I mow my 3/4 of an acre. Almost every time I go out to mow I hear the Lord tell me something pretty significant (for me).

Now I am about to tell you something that I do not like to admit. . .actually several things. One is that my kids do not drink milk, we have not taken supplements and we do not drink soy milk. I have tried many different things and for one reason or another we have not stuck to any one solution to not drinking milk. Obviously, my kids do eat cheese, yogurt as well as ice cream. . .anything but just a glass of white milk.

I started trying to get to the bottom of this while mowing the lawn tonight. I believe the main reason my kids do not drink milk is because I do not drink milk. I just simply do not like it. My son had a lactose intolerance of some sort when he was little and has pretty much outgrown it, but he still does not like milk. My daughter just does not like the taste. I really think a lot of it has to do with me and how I have perceived it and presented or have not presented it to my family.

Then I began thinking about how many other things besides milk I have done this with. What other things have I not given to my kids because I don't like it. . .other than food. Have I memorized Scripture with my kids. . .no because I don't do that. No, this is not a guilt ridden message. . .it is a wake up call to think of things that I have a bad attitude or a funky taste in my mouth about so that I can be proactive to teach my kids differently. I want to find the things like milk that I do not like or things that I do not regularly offer to my kids and teach them that those things are ok and actually good for you.

So what things do I need to teach my kids that I do not do? First of all, I cannot expect them to do things that I do not do. . .so modeling should be my goal.

• to drink milk. . .I think I might buy us some chocolate milk this week at the grocery store. . .that's better than nothing, right? I might even have a glass or two with them. I am going to make milk my reminder that I am exposing my kids to more things that are good for you and that they need to learn to like
  
• to stop complaining about things and be more positive. . .I want Gretel to especially learn this
• I posted about this last week, but to take time to relax and have fun. They are not going to have fun with their kids if I do not take the time to have fun with them now.

This is all I have in me right now. So tell me, what are the things that you need to teach your kids? What do you need to model to get them to be excited? What do you struggle with making yourself do as a mom that you need to teach your kids?

Shot to the Heart and I'm to Blame

I love watching things grow. Flowers are up there on my favorites list. . they changes from tiny seedlings and grow up into big beautiful flowers. From my own back porch I see the construction growing. I now have walls on our addition and it is so fantabulous you can't believe it. I love watching all things grow, except my children.

I have been thinking about how I have really missed the mark with my kids. I have more excuses than shoes (and girl that's a lot) to not be the mom that I should be. I have excuses to not tuck my kids in, to not help them with building a lego fort, with not being patient with them when they are saying my name over and over again.

The other day, Hansel and I were talking and I told him I would do something in his bedroom for him and he said, "No you won't." I said, "of course I will, why wouldn't I?" He said, "you never come in my bedroom other than to check to see if it's clean." Shot to the heart!!!!! and you're to blame. . .darling you give love a bad name. . . in the famous lyrics of Bon Jovi. Shot to the heart by my own son. I tell you, I am having some wake-up calls around here and they are not pretty.

My kids are growing faster than those flowers out there as well as that construction work and I need to get myself together because I am missing out. Do you ever feel that way? I know that the little old gray haired ladies at the store tell me this all of the time. . ."be thankful while you got em cuz they grow up fast young whipper-snapper." I am heeding your words little ol gray haired ladies.

My goal is to:

1) stop making excuses to not tuck those darlins into bed at night
2) to do what I can to go in their rooms and PLAY. . .I am promising myself to not look under their beds and secretly put things away
3) to cuddle up with my kids on the couch and watch cartoons with them

Shoot, today Hansel wanted me to just fix him a "donkey tail" (more details to come on that one) and to watch Home Improvement with him. How hard is that? I would love to hear your thoughts on how you make your kids a priority and cut the excuses on spending time with them.

Summer and Kid Friendly Recipes

Summertime Fruit Salsa

1 container of frozen strawberries
3 kiwis
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
package of tortillas, cut with a pizza cutter into triangles

Spray cookie sheet with oil and tops of triangle tortillas as well, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar

Use a blender, food processor or food chopper to make this salsa.

Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes; check them often!!! :) Burnt ones do not taste good.


My awesome kids made these awesome:

Banana Chocolate Shakes

1 banana (we freeze ours when they start going "bad")
1 cup milk
3 T cocoa
2 T chocolate syrup
1-2 cups ice (if the bananas were not frozen)

I just noticed the recipe called for cocoa OR syrup but my kids added both and they were pretty amazing. Also, my kids made the first batch and realized they were going to need lots more to fill their bellies and so they doubled the next batch so you might want to triple yours. They made this all by themselves. All I did was put the blender together for them and they did everything else.

Pour milk into blender. Then add banana and chocolate. Blend for one minute. Add ice if you needed. Pour milk shakes into individual cups. Talk about freezing and melting if you have a teachable moment there.

Hope you enjoyed these recipes!!! More to come.

Rabies

I was lying out by the pool today when my daughter and son saw our neighbor's dog run by. I have not seen the dog out much until lately, but it is really friendly. Gretel, the six year old, came back to inform me that the dogs name was "Rabies." It took me a minute to catch on to what was going on. They read the dogs tag and it said, "Rabies" as in it had received its rabies shot. My son did not hear my response and he was in my neighbor's yard trying to get the dog to come to him by yelling, "Come here, Rabies. Over here."

hehe. :)

Fun Florida Times

I am only four posts away from my 200th post!! Do you think we should celebrate? Leave a comment if you would like to celebrate with some Sonic goodness again! :)

Anyway, I am wasting away in Florida this week. Life is treating me bad on the sands of Destin. My kids and I took in some serious rays today. We are having lots of fun playing in the sand and swimming our little tails off! :)

I have some great ponderings to post on later this week. I am too excited about watching some HGTV to take the time to post my thoughts right now. Will catch you up on my great brain waves soon.

Bringing the Heart Back to Homeschooling

Earlier this week Hansel and I finished up the core lessons of requirement for homeschooling with the Arkansas Virtual School. We finished up with a great year. In previous posts, I told you about the ups and downs of homeschooling the lad. Overall, I would say that we both benefited greatly. He wrote his cooperating teacher a letter yesterday and let her know that he "might be back next year." I think he is still praying about it! :) He misses seeing his friends on the playground, but with ball season starting he is getting lots of recreation and so am I. I think we met our quota for the year already with talking with friends!

I labeled this post, "Bringing the heart back to homeschooling," because I feel like I have gone through the motions this year, but my HEART has not been in it 100%. I see the benefits of homeschooling him. . .character development, one on one time with my son, great student teacher ratio, etc., but I have struggled with keeping my heart enthusiastic and not just completing the goals.

As you can see from the picture, we have a bar that tells us how much we have completed. I don't know about you, but I am a goal-driven gal. You put a bar and a percentage in front of me letting me know that I have to complete it and I am all over it.

When I taught school and was in college for teaching school, I loved it. I thought of all of these creative ways to teach Roman Numerals, using spaghetti noodles to write spelling words and getting live worms out to see if they gravitate toward wet or dry environments. This year, on some subjects I have torn out worksheet after worksheet and set the timer. I guess you have to do that to some degree, but that is what my son will remember about this year. . .not about the creativity that we both crave.

All of this to say, I want next year to strike a balance of me saying, "you just gotta learn these verbs dude" and "lets see how this works. Let's get out the cooked spaghetti noodles to spell these words!!" I want my heart to be fully in it and fully aware of the teachable moments and the fun that we can have in learning together.

I am looking at teaching Hansel and Gretel and working part-time. BALANCE is going to be so key in this process. CREATIVITY is going to be necessary and HEART is going to be essential to keeping CREATIVITY in the picture. I think I can, I think I can.
With the Lord's strength!

Baseball Season

I'm working really hard this year not to embarrass the lad. I just get really in to the game. Hansel needs to win a game this year. Last year, they lost every single cotton' pickin' game except one that they tied.

They almost won last night and I am hoping that he will feel the adrenaline of winning a game soon. He is doing great. He did score last night and he is enjoying it more this year. It was getting old dragging a kid to games and practices who did not want to go. This year he has his game face on. I am proud of him and did I mention we are just a couple of days away of finishing school!!

I feel the breeze blowing my way! Have a great day all ye faithful readers. I am off to a field trip today with Gretel.