prayer

Everywhere I turn, I am surrounded by thoughts of my family and friends that need prayer.  I thought I would share on here, so you can help me pray.

My oldest sister Teri has been in the hospital since Saturday.  Not just "in the hospital", but in the critical care unit.  She has double pneumonia and even after almost four full days of being in the hospital, there has been minimal improvement in her lungs.  They found out it was viral pneumonia instead of bacterial, and they changed her medication and put her on a liquid diet.

Do you know how serious it is to be in a critical care unit for that long?  It is.  She's also been on oxygen since then.  I cannot even imagine being that sick, and really can't imagine her being so critically ill.  Today, her doctors seem to think there was a very slight improvement in her lungs.  I am so glad to finally hear of some real improvement!  My dad and step-mom left for (near) Asheville, North Carolina almost the minute they found out about her.  I am so glad they've been able to stay nearby for so long, and I know it's a huge relief to my niece Amanda, too.

Another sister, Lisa, is in need of surgery.  Nothing too major, but surgery, all the same.  I'm praying for her to have wisdom and discernment on the when and where of it all.

My friend Andrea's mom-in-law is having brain surgery next week....she has had a couple of aneurysms and is having something done about them next week.  My friend needs strength and energy and her time to be multiplied as she goes through this with her.  Her husband, my friend's father-in-law, passed away last year.  They had three kids~a son here, a daughter here and another daughter who lives out of town.  Most of this is falling on my friend's shoulders.

My neighbors have been so sick!  They have had some sort of a stomach thing going on for almost two weeks now.  One of their nephews had it, then Katie, then Travis, then the nephew again, and now Katie again.  I have no idea what they have, but they need major prayer!

Another friend is going through issues with her heart right now, and is wearing a monitor to try to get to the bottom of it all.

After writing all this, my little problems are nothing.  Please, if you are the praying type, join me in praying for all of them!  There's other things, too, that I didn't mention, but God knows.  I'm thankful for Him to lean on in times like these...He knows all these needs.  Thanks for reading, and for praying.  Love to all!

snow day

I could be that mom and homeschool on days when there's snow, but at this time in my life, I don't have to do that.  If the kids in public school are out, I let mine enjoy the day off.  Especially because we don't get even dustings of snow very often, so why not?  That being said, we enjoyed a loverly day off yesterday.  It was worth it.

It's funny what happens when kids start to get older...they don't get as excited over "snow" as they used to.  In fact, when we woke up to white everywhere yesterday morning, they just rolled back over and went back to sleep.  A few hours later, they did want me to take them out in it and I did oblige.  I thought I would share some pictures.

I know, I know.  It's kinda pathetic, our snow day, but we'll take it.  It was beautiful and they enjoyed every second of the white stuff.  This area in our neighborhood used to be a house with a pretty pond and gazebo in front of it.  The city bought the land and tore the house down last year to make a retention area for extra rainwater to drain into.  Thank you, The Ville, for a fun new area to sled.

We came back home after about an hour of this for them to thaw out, because they were thoroughly frozen.  I got out to take this picture then went back to my car.

When we got back home, Todd helped them with their newly activated iPhones.  Just Graham and Drew, I mean.  Jonah and Noah don't have phones and don't need them.  The phones aren't new, just new to them.  They each got a great deal and bought them with their own money that they had leftover from Christmas.

Such a sweet daddy.  :)

We stayed in for the rest of the day, and after (a yummy) dinner, I took them out for some nighttime sledding.  We had never done that before, but I think we started something new and fun.  This time we went to my church.  In the back of the lot, there's this area with a great hill for them to go down.

It's hard to see, I know, but you get the drift.

Mr. Crazy, himself.  ;)  They had a great time.  We came back home, the boys popped some popcorn and went upstairs to watch a movie, and Todd and I stayed downstairs to watch The Voice.

It was a lovely day.  I hope yours was, too!  Love to all.

weekend

My sweet Noah played his last basketball game of the season Friday night.  This was their tournament, and they lost to the number one team by two points.  I would say that makes them number two.  :)  It was a good game~the kind I alternately love and hate.  The crowd was going crazy, and I kept thinking how much fun that must have been for all the team to hear.

I was a little relieved that we didn't have to spend Saturday at more tournament games.  It was gorgeous outside, and my kids were gone most of the day.  They rode bikes to the church and watched their friends' games, and they were just out and about.  All day long.  I spent a good portion of the day by myself, watching whatever I wanted on tv.  :)  I love not sharing a remote!

We had dinner at my mom's Saturday night, then I came home and went to bed kinda early.  I took a picture of Andy in my room~he goes to bed when I do every night.

He's a little too big for his dog bed.  He doesn't seem to mind too much, though.

We had a lovely morning at church, starting at 8:30, then came home and made lunch.  Graham and Drew had plans to go to Winter Jam.  I'm so glad they still went, in spite of the ice they were expecting late last night.  They had amazing seats.  Here's a picture of Colton Dixon that Graham took.

They had a great time and made it safely back home around one this morning.  I stayed up to wait on them and just barely made it.  I'm used to going to bed at ten something every night.

This morning we woke up to some snowy ice.  I don't know what else to call it.  It looks like snow, but it isn't, it's just sleet or ice that froze overnight.  My husband rode a shift last night, in the Millington area of Memphis.  He left at two something and still hasn't made it back home yet.  Millington got hit with much more than we did, and there are trees down everywhere and wrecks galore.  I don't know how he does it~staying up all night like that.  He's been up for twenty-six hours, having only slept for four hours before that.

Speaking of all this snowy ice, here's a picture of what our street looks like.

Most of it's already gone.  Make fun of it, if you want, but it doesn't snow much in Memphis.  And people may overreact to our lack of wintry mix and their decisions to close schools, but some areas were hit really bad, like the area where Todd is right now.  I'm glad they closed schools for the safety of the kids.  After a bad decision not to close them a few weeks ago, I think this was in their best interest.  My kids are glad to have friends around to play with today.

That was our weekend.  I hope yours was great.  Love to all.

the rest of our week

Our weeks are a little unorthodox.  I love that, and that's one of the million reasons why I love homeschooling.  Each day, where and how they do school work looks different.  It's funny how they kinda look to me to decide where they'll be for that day.  On this particular day, I think Wednesday, I was upstairs cleaning and this is where they all landed.  Three of them were in the playroom, and one of them was in the room that holds the ping pong table.  (I don't know what else to call that room, but that's pretty fitting, right?)

The reason why one was in the ping pong table room by himself was because he was hiding in there, with the door shut and locked.  He (Graham) scared the daylights out of Drew, and Drew was waiting to retaliate.  Life is never dull at my house.  :)

I'm still not drinking soft drinks, just two cups of coffee in the morning and water all day.  I'm still not eating carbs that are found in bread, pasta, potatoes and rice.  I am still eating fruits and veggies.  For lunch on this day, Drew and I had sauteed mushrooms, onions and spinach.  I sauteed these goodies in olive oil, 1 tbsp of butter and about 3 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce.  It was delicious and really filling.

And pretty.

We went to church Wednesday night and for the first time ever, I went upstairs to the youth service.  It was really good...their worship is amazing.  A sweet friend was back to visit, Erin, who used to be the minister for our girls at church.  She went to Greece for three months, to work with the A21 Campaign, an organization that brings girls out of slavery.  The fact that this kind of thing exists today and all over the world (including Memphis) is astonishing.  Yesterday was the 27th of February, and on this day, to raise awareness about the 27 million people who are trafficked each year, we wore red X's on our hands.

These young people are sold into slavery for sex, work (sweat shops) and to be child soldiers.  Anytime there's a huge event (think Super Bowl), these kinds of horrific things happen.  Just recently, in Sochi, during the winter Olympics, some reporters almost became victims of this.  They had been "interviewing" for a position to cover the Olympics, and had been going through the process for months ahead of time.  When the one they had been talking to asked if she had any girlfriends who could come with her (without being interviewed for months), she knew something was wrong and notified authorities.  Sure enough, the company was bogus and the man is believed to be in the industry of slavery recruitment.

(This also reminds me of the movie Taken.)

There is so much more information about this out there, if you want to read about it.  Just Google "end it movement".

Todd was out of town Wednesday night.  We thought he was going to be gone Thursday night as well, but he was able to make it back home.  :)  We had the most amazing dinner ever (or maybe I was just starving!) of chicken parmesan, pasta (just for the boys, I skipped this part) and salad (they had ceasar, but I made my own healthy dressing).

Olive oil and red wine vinegar make for a delicious, healthy dressing.  There was nothing fancy about my salad, either, it was just organic green leaf lettuce and two huge bunches of spinach.  I'm really, really trying my very best to eat healthy.  I know some days might be more hard than others, but this first week has gone a lot better than I thought it would.  :)

Well...my dad just pulled up and it's time to hit the road.  I hope you have a great day~happy Friday to you!  Love to all.

a little encouragement

He said, "Look!  I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."  Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out!  Come here!"  So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them.  They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of the heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.  Daniel 3:25~27

Years ago I learned that that blazing furnace was so incredibly hot that the ones leading them into it would have died as well.  The fact that their captors led them into it and died, but these four were walking around unbound and unharmed is a miracle.  The reason they were led into this furnace to begin with was because they would not bow down to the image of gold Nebuchadnezzar had made.  I love the mental picture I get of an entire kingdom bowing down before this image, and then, there stand Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, these same three who served the Most High God that Nebuchadnezzar eventually subjected himself to.

When times get tough, don't forget Who carries you through...as Paul states in 2 Corinthians 12:10, "For when I am weak, then I am strong."  The Lord allows us to go through fiery times to sometimes get our attention.  Don't ever doubt His love for you, though.  Whether He delivers you through the fire, in spite of the fire or straight into His arms after the fire, He will be right there beside you.

(Some of these thoughts are taken from Beth Moore's study on Daniel.)

Love to all.

a week gone by

I thought I would hit the highlights from our past week.

On Thursday night of last week, Noah had his basketball awards ceremony.  This guy came and did tricks for them (think Globetrotters, but not one of them) and then spoke afterward.  At the end they received their trophies...we added our first basketball trophy to the collection.

Left to right are his teammates Andrew, Carter and Alex.

When we got home, we found that Andy had bled all over the downstairs floor.  His nail had somehow come almost completely loose and it had to be taped up until we took him to the vet the next morning.

No, I did not call 911.  Todd and his partners came to the awards ceremony and were still in The Ville when this happened, and he came home to look at it.

Poor Andy the Wonder Dog.  This was his temporary cast.  Which he promptly pulled off five seconds after I took this picture.

Friday night I celebrated my best friend's birthday with her by eating at Pancho's.  That is still my all-time favorite Mexican food restaurant.  And it was a treat, because the next day, I started watching what I eat.  I think I may have a thyroid issue going on, and the way to cure it is by diet and exercise.  Today will be day five of no soft drinks and minimal carbs.  I'm not cutting them out totally, I'm just cutting way back.  I'm also not skimping on fruit and veggies, and the carbs that are in those things, I am not counting.

Anyway, Friday night I came home and went through old pictures.

I found these.  The left one is the summer I graduated, the top right is the summer my sister Debi graduated from college and the bottom one is on my graduation day.  Todd has been part of my life now for longer than he hasn't.  :)

On Saturday, Noah had a basketball game, and that night we went to a friend's house for dinner.  It was so good being with them again, it had been over a year since we'd gotten together.

On Sunday we spent the day at church and/or home groups, then Monday found us starting our week.  Monday night was ladies night at my church, and when I got home, I learned that Drew couldn't find his phone.  It turns out he had placed it on the back of my suburban and I drove off with it.

Said phone was shattered and completely ruined and is now living in our trash can.  :/  He's been reduced back down to a dumb phone for the time being.  We simply don't have the money to replace it with another smart phone.  And even if we could, I'm not sure we would.  To assure you that we're not completely horrid people, he does at least have a dumb phone and he still has an iPod touch.

Yesterday was a really good, long day of school work for the boys.  I found this picture on Drew's iPod that he had taken a week ago and posted it to Instagram for him.  He loves when I do that, but the kid has some talent.

Here are some images from what we do in the day time:

We write in journals.  We use fun pens.  Because, why do school work in boring old black pens or pencils, when colored pens aplenty are available?

Today will be another long school day for the boys, then church tonight.  Todd left to go out of town for maybe two nights.  The boys and I will muddle through without him and pray that nothing catastrophic happens while he's away.  Because you know that happens.

Thanks for reading~the two of you who read.  ;)  Love to all.

Guess what day it is?!

Yes, it is hump day, but it's also the day before our homeschool group meets.  I'm particularly excited about tomorrow, because we're finishing up our study on Ephesians (that part I'm sad about), and we will be talking all about spiritual warfare.  That is something that every single one of us struggles with, and I'm hoping our Bible study teacher will bring some things to light that will open my eyes more to warfare.  A large amount of what goes on in my head is warfare.  In 1 Peter 5:8, the Bible tells us that Satan is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour, and I'll be honest with you, I have felt like I have gone through some devouring at certain times in my life.

The enemy is very real, my friends, and it's important for us to know what he looks like when he attacks.  Because if you think he won't attack you in any way possible, you are mistaken.  If you struggle with depression, or being down in the dumps, do you think he's going to let that be all you struggle with?  Nope.  He's going to get further into the recesses of your mind, and he is going to start making you doubt your friendships, or your family relationships, or even your own sanity.  He is crafty, he is very intelligent and he is the prince of this world.  The Bible calls him that, in John 12:31.

Even as I was writing this post, I had this really strong urge to stop and pray for our group of precious moms tomorrow.  I know that the enemy will use any ploy he can to keep us away on Thursdays, including bad weather (Have you checked the forecast?!), and I am asking that the Lord keep any bad weather away until after we all arrive tomorrow morning.  I know that's a big request, but I serve a big and mighty God.  I know He is able!

Well...I almost feel like I should end this post there, but that's not really what I had intended to write about.  Maybe that was meant for someone tonight, and if so, I pray you find some encouragement from the word of God.  Nothing comforts me like His word.

Today was a good day.  I have this rule that starts first thing every morning, and that is a no-technology rule.  The boys can get carried away with it, and if they don't put it away first thing everyday, they might never.

They always keep them in the kitchen on silent, and I decided to take a picture of it this morning.

For lunch I made homemade macaroni and cheese.  Who eats sandwiches, when you're homeschooled?!  Unless they're some kind of special sandwich.  I snapped a picture of what it took to make lunch:

This lovely grater was my Valentine's day gift.  Some gals are wooed by jewelry or flowers, but not me!  (Although I do enjoy flowers on random days, ahem, Toddley, and he's good at giving them to me.)  I am wooed by practical gifts.  I had been wanting a better cheese grater for ages, and it's not necessarily something I would spend money on.  But as a gift?  Perfection!  This one has a grater, a smaller size grater, a slicer and a microplane zester.  Insert happy, contented sigh here.

I especially love this because I don't buy bagged grated cheese.  I grate my own and I have a home full of cheese-lovers, so you can understand how much cheese we can go through.

After lunch, in browsing the internet, I came across what I'm going to use for science next year for Jonah and Noah.  (Graham and Drew will be taking science~chemistry for Graham, biology for Drew~at our homeschool group on Thursday.)  I am so excited!  It's chemistry for middle-schoolers.  And it's free!

I took a picture of it, so I would remember.  I've also started a note on my phone for the curriculum I'll be using for them for the next school year.  I'm trying to be more on purpose right now, in order to save us money.  I feel like I'm always thinking ahead, but that's a good thing, right?

I came across a saying that I love today:

I wish words could explain how much I love this saying.  I love books.  I adore books!  And I own a lot of books.  A LOT.   I feel like you can't have too many, and I feel like the more you read, the more intelligent you will be, especially as an adult.  I'm always pushing the boys to read.  They don't always want to, and it's something they resist me on, but it's a subject that I always push back with.  They will be readers.  Even if it kills us all.  ;)

As I was making dinner in shifts tonight, at one point I was sitting at the kitchen table reading my chronological Bible, when I looked down and saw this.

They really do love one another, at least from time to time.  ;)  Every time I see them laying side by side like this, I start humming the song, Ebony and Ivory, by Stevie Wonder.  Remember that song?  And, you're welcome for that.  If you're like me, you'll be singing it for the rest of the night.

Today was a good day.  I think I already said that.  But it was.  I pray that you feel the same way about your day, and if you don't...well, may I encourage you?  Don't look to others to make your day~if your boss says something you don't like, or if someone hurts you, turn the other cheek.  Don't look to others.  Look to Jesus.  I know that days will be rough, but I know that the Lord has already gone before us.  He knows what we're up against each and every day, and if we walk each day with Him, having spent precious alone time with Him prior to getting the day started, I promise you this: your day will flow.  Words will roll off you.  You will smile freely.  You will see the goodness of God all around you.

If you don't believe me, try it tomorrow.  Put Him first when you wake up.  Before you turn on the tv or open up that laptop, spend time praying and reading His word.  One thing I like to do is read in Proverbs~whatever that date is, that is the chapter I will read.

Enjoy what's left of your night, my friends.  Love to all.