Happy 6th Birthday Donna!!!

Wow, she is such a big girl. In her prayer time last night, she prayed "Dear God, help me to sleep long tomorrow so that mom has time to bake all of my cakes and stuff." So very sweet, then of course she was to excited and was up by 6am.

Day of rest

Why do we get our schedule so full that we no longer have time to rest? We were talking about this one night at our Praise Team meeting. (Church band) One of the girls reminded us that God has set aside a day of rest for us, but we don't use it. Man, that hit me hard. I have always wanted to keep sunday free, and I Don't schedules things for sundays. It seems like the church keeps those days full enough as it is. However I never seem to get much "rest" in. I don't think rest means you have to take a nap (Although I would never be opposed to that), I just think it is a day for us to mentally relax, spiritually refresh our self so that we are ready for the next week. However we get so much going on that we have to use sunday to get it all in, then we wonder why we are so weak and exhausted. I know that personally I need to slow down, I think my weight gain has alot to do with not sleeping enough or making enough time to exercise due to always being busy.

Now here is my problem with all of this. I am really feeling convicted in this!!! However our family has so much going on, that I was asked by a couple different members if we could move Donna's party to sunday. ... I didn't want to, and am still slightly upset with myself for doing it. At the same time, I know that God is ok with us not "resting" now and then, if we have to. So I guess here is the thing, when will I make up that rest time with God? Hmmmm good question.

Why am I posting this all publicly? Because I feel that I need to hold myself accountable to this. I know that God is calling me to find time to rest, so that I can find more peace in my life. I had a great encounter with God on wednesday, and I feel awesome! However I am also reminded that I need to make more time for those encounters. I can have them at any time, I just have to make the time to rest, and be still so that I can experience God at work in my life.

Donna Antoinette

Wow, what do I say about my big girl. She is going to turn 6 this weekend. Where did time go?


Donna is a great:

helper
whiner
hugger
giggler
smiler
cheerer
sister
frustration
daughter
friend
baby-sitter
dancer
princess
cleaner
singer
dresser
prayer
lover
hairstylist
friend
christian
inspiration


She is great!

I am so blessed to have my little me. (Everyone tells me that she looks and acts just like me)

With tears in my eyes, I thank you Lord for my precious daughter. I never in a million years could have ever done anything to deserve her... She is a huge blessing to our family! She is understanding of her siblings when she is just to young to understand it all. Lord I pray that you help me to parent her the way she needs, to appreciate her and love her the way she deserves. Lord I pray that you give her a full and blessed life. That she always stays close to you, and that her prayer time with you always stays genuine. I pray that she keeps you #1 in her life, and that I live a life that shows her how important that is!

Ethan

At 5am, Ethan got up and walked up to me and said "hello!" and gave me a big grin. He is WIDE awake. as in no chance of him going back to bed. What is up with that? I have to wonder if the thunder woke him up, but it never has before. Right now, he is sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room holding a ball, playing with his pj pants. lol
After 2 hours I gave up on fighting him and am just letting him play. I'm sure he will be ready to take a nap when it's time to take Donna to summer school.


As I was ready to hit publish on this, The weather radio went off. I may not think much of it, however it hasn't been working, so for it to go off made me jump and my heart race while I listened to it. Adam figured out last night that it has to be in a different room than our t.v. or our computers. So he had set it up in the dinning room. The problem is that he just left it on the table. Ethan found it... he turned it on so that is was just announcing all of the warnings.

Ok, now I have moved the weather radio out of Ethan's line of vision, so we should be good. Have a dry day everyone!

Rain and floods

We drove out around the lake last night (found out that Donna gets carsick in a car) to see how high the water was. I have told Adam for years how high it got in 93, but it is so hard to believe. So as we drove around he saw just how full it is and it was still 12 feet below where it was in 93. We are now just waiting for the water to top the Saylorville dam's spillway. Then it will flood DesMoines and head on down to Red Rock. Red Rock will hold as much back as they can before sending it on down the river to flood all of the small towns...

Have you ever just known that you are much smarter than all of the "experts"? lol Adam and I have talked about this often and just do not see how Saylorville is helping anyone at all the way they are doing this. Oh well, nothing we can do about it, and thankfully we don't live on the river! If you read this, Iowa could really use your prayers! So many people have already been flooded out, and the rest of this week will see many more flooded out of their homes. I saw a restaurant on the news today, They had their "Grand Opening" today with a foot of water in the cellor, then had costumers help them move everything back out to be moved to higher ground. How heartbreaking for these places!

We will have to go see the water and take the camera with us later this week after it has

Coffee Creamer ~ Bring the Rain - Mercy Me

Have you ever noticed how when something goes wrong, it seems to spiral until you just relax and deal with it all? (Or am I the only one that gets stressed out right away?)

Well, today was one of those days. The kids got up early, I was really tired and didn't really want to be up with them all at 6am. So the girls were awfully quiet in the kitchen, but I didn't think that it meant trouble right away. It was after Ethan joined them and walked back in with a small zip lock bag of a powder that I knew I was in trouble! I called him over and see his hand is a sticky mess. I sniff the bag and instantly know it is my Blueberry Cobbler Coffee Creamer that hadn't yet been opened. For some reason, my kids LOVE Coffee creamer... powder or liquid, they don't care. I sent them all to the table as the girls try sneaking up the stair with their own bags full of it. I walked into the kitchen and find quiet the mess that they tried to clean up. It was very sweet of them, however it left an even bigger stickier mess. So I cleaned up most of it and went to take the many towels to the laundry... Remember I haven't even gotten to Ethan who has a good quarter inch of the creamer now plastered to most of his body as he is sitting on top of the table. That is when I see the next mess. With all of the rain we have had, it has been leaking, but today it went bast leaking to the ceiling crashing down in the laundry area. I wasn't very happy and called my husband to inform him that if he didn't want to "fix" the problem then he could get a part-time job to pay the person I hire to do it... not my proudest moment. However, after a short time of steaming, I just asked God to help me deal with it and went on to clean up the now slightly moldy ceiling tiles Then moved back to Ethan and the table. At this point, the table had a nice thick layer of creamer stuck to it. The best part of the creamer, it is one of my favorite smells in the world, so I calmed right down as I cleaned it up. haha

So, back to when I was working on the ceiling tiles. If you haven't ever heard the song "Bring the rain" by Mercy Me. I love this song! It has been the cry of my heart the last few weeks. However, with it comes the reminder that if you truly want this, you have to be ready for it. That is why, while I'm cleaning up the tiles, I was crying out to God, and I felt a calm and a question. "Do you really mean it? Bring the rain?" Here are the lyrics for those who haven't heard it.

MERCY ME LYRICS

"Bring The Rain"

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You with all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You
Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

I am Yours regardless of
The dark clouds that may loom above
Because You are much greater than my pain
You who made a way for me
By suffering Your destiny
So tell me what's a little rain
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Is the Lord God Almighty (repeat 3 times)

For me, I do mean them! I just have to keep praying that I am better at dealing with the rain! Today it was just a small shower, but with all the tornados, it could be anything.


Blessings for today:
The sticky mess smelled awsome!!
I felt God speak to me, can it get better than that?

Cleaning the bathroom

This is not one of my favorite jobs!! Especially the kids bathroom. It is a very large room, and th ekids tend to make it a large mess. Not to mention kids and toilets = mess. So today I went up to deep clan it and scrub the floor by hand. It took a long time and I just felt so nasty when I was done.

Then I think about all the "crap" that God cleans away from us. He has never told me "this is so nasty! I will never clean this off the wall again!" He just cleans us white as snow, knowing that we will again sin and have to be cleaned. He doesn't smell the cleaner on his hands after and cring thinking of something He cleaned out of our life.

Wow, I have never thought of cleaning the bathroom that way before. As I was cleaning, I was thinking about what a great job the girls have been doing at some of the daily cleaning. I bet God feels that same way when I clean the kids bathroom without yelling or complaining.

Scarlet Lipstick

Do you wear Scarlet Lipstick? I don't wear much make-up, and when I do I wear lighter pinks on my lips. I do however own a couple of bright red lipsticks for the girls dance. So today Ethan found an old "dance" lipstick. It is Scarlet Red. He knew to put it on his lips, however he didn't stop at that. He went on to cover his cest (thankfully he didn't have a shirt on at the time) then the rest of his face and half of his head. If anyone is wondering, you can't use baby shampoo to take lipstick out of hair, and childrens bath soap doesn't take it off skin. You have to go with cold cream. The problem with that you ask? First, it is hard to keep from getting it in the 1-year-olds eyes. Second, it makes hair look very oily,, even after washing it say... 4-5 times.

Sorry I didn't post a pic with this. When I saw him, I didn't want him to get it on anything else. He had already gotten the back of the sofa somehow. Once I got him in my arms, I had to move fast to keep from me being covered in it. Then once I got the shampoo in his hair, he was screaming and fighting to get out of the tub. lol poor guy.

Dance Contest

Wow, my little girl is growing up so fast!!!

When I signed Donna up for dance, I happened to pick the studio that all the girls switch to as they get older if they want to do contest. This kinda scared me, I never had any intention of doing more than just "for fun" dance. I asked when we started how long it would be, till we got to the age of contest. She told me 4+ years. I was ok with that. Then at the end of this year, our girls moved up to the next level a year early. Deep breath for all of us moms, our girls are moving fast! We will now have an extra outfit, a 3rd pair of shoes, and an extra 15 minutes of class. Then in January we can choose if we want to add the pom-pom class. We were all excited for our girls, but also a bit nervous. That was a month ago. Yesterday I got an email, asking how I would feel about putting Donna in a "pre-comp" class. It would mean an extra costume, an extra 30 minutes of class, and extra fee a month, and 4-5 contests in the spring. EEK!!! My first thought was NO!!! She isn't old enough. But I talked to her and she wants to do it. I was still unsure, so I talked to Adam, thinking he would say NO!!! and I would be off the hook. He said Yeah, that's great! Oh boy.... here we go 4 years before I thought we were going to be doing this.

The good news is, I think Knoxville will be getting a grant to do pre-K differently, which means we don't have to pay for it, good thing! We will need that money for Donna's dance lessons and costumes.

2 years ago we had 1 girl: 2 pairs of shoes, 1 costume, and 1 ~30 minute class.

last year we had 2 girls: 4 pairs of shoes, 2 costumes, and 1 ~30 minute & 1~45
minute class

This year we will have 2 girls: 5 pairs of shoes, 5 costumes, 1(probably 2) studio warm-up outfit, and 1~30 minute & 1~90 minute + the pom class

12 years

12 years ago today I was having my hair done, and Adam was running around picking-up our last minute stuff in the rain.

Thinking back on the day, I remember God's perfect timing. It rained, and rained. However the sun came out just in time for us to take the carriage ride from the church. Everyone was talking about how the rain couldn't have ended at a better time. :)

I also remember how we went inside McDonald's on our way out of town in my wedding dress, and Adam in his tux. We had lots of interesting looks. Then we headed to our hotel, where a "kind" couple thought they needed to hear our life story as they stood between us and the door to our hotel room. Adam went back down to get our bags and again ran into the nice couple. 1 1/2 hours after getting to the hotel Adam finally walked into our hotel room to find me passed out on the couch, stuck in my wedding dress. After he woke me up and I tried to get out of my dress, it sounded like rain as all of the bird seed (Thanks John and Rob) fell out of my dress. The floor was literally covered, we had to lay towels down on the floor because we couldn't shove it out of the way.

So, 12 years, 4 kids, 1 house later... time has flown by. I am still in love, and am amazed at how love grows. Adam I love you more today than ever.