Party Time

We're finished! With Beth Moore's study on Esther that is! Our group of ladies has been awesome! I was paired with two of my best friends (I have lots of best friends, so don't feel left out) in leading this group of women through the study. It wasn't too much work. Just sit at a table and let ladies talk. Like that's ever too much of a problem! We learned wonderful truths, made new friends, enjoyed a night out each week.

Then we partied! I was left in charge because our fearless leader decided to traipse across the country to visit her newborn niece. (wink, wink) Sooo.....

I planned ahead and made my potluck contribution of wild rice soup the day before. I was already in the kitchen cleaning up our after-church turkey dinner, and while I was at it I figured I'd start the bird carcass boiling for soup, and since I'd started the soup, I may as well finish it. So. A mom's rule of thumb: While in the kitchen, get as many things done at once as possible. So I made more soup. The wild rice soup, that is.

I gathered decorations. Whatever I had out for fall was added to my bin. I also found nice clean sheets work famously as tablecloths for big round tables. And napkin rings work great to cinch up the corners.

On Monday morning I got a little sidetracked from party planning. I helped my son clean his room for two hours. Forget school. His room was driving me crazy. Did school in the afternoon.

Then I made Haman's Ears, a traditional Jewish cookie baked to celebrate Purim. (cause, ya know, Haman was hung up by his ears....well actually he was impaled, but whatever) First batch failed.(~only 4 cookies, thankfully. I had enough foresight to do a trial run.) I'd forgotten half the flour! I added the appropriate amount of flour, and filled with my homemade apple butter from my homegrown apples, they turned out marvelous!
 

 So proud! So yummy!

Party time came and we had enough of everything and I didn't forget anything.

(Except I did skip cleaning up the bottle of laundry soap that fell off the top of the washing machine during a spin cycle and spilled all over the carpet before I left the house. Whoops. Sorry honey. I'm sure you weren't happy when you discovered that little surprise.)

Anywhoooo.... everyone ate til they were stuffed.  The dinner was as lovely as the ladies that came! Love you girls!

Now run over to Leah's blog to see others with bragging rights.

Harvest

Genesis 8:22

As long as the earth endures, 

seedtime and harvest, 

cold and heat, 

summer and winter, 

day and night 

will never cease.

A Birthday meditation

I'm wrapping up two things right now: a Bible Study on Esther and another year of my life.  I've learned a couple things this year, in life, and from that study.

The first is that God is still with us when the what ifs we fear become reality. Beth Moore had a great session in week four of the study that really hit home with me. What if my worst fear came true? What then? God asked Beth that question, and he's dealt with me in that area too. What would you do? What would I do? Beth answered the question as we all should. (The following is the Kristina, who has a very bad memory, version. My version lacks quite a bit of emotion and the charm of a southern accent, but you can read a little drama into this!) The conversation went (a little) something like this:

What if____________?

Well, I'd cry and scream and lay on the floor and cry some more. I would be angry. I would be crushed. I would have a big time pity party.

And then what?

I guess I'd have to get out my Bible and read some verses because I can't live a day without the truth in my life.


And then what?

Well, I'd have to find a whole lot of verses to memorize to help me deal with life. I'd have to put them on index cards and carry them around to remind me of the truth. I would need a lot of verses and cards.

Then what?

I guess eventually I'd have to quit crying, get up off the floor, dust myself off.

 Then what?

Then I'd go back to living my life, teaching Bible study, serving You.

Through the pain, God is with us and never changes. We have access to everything we need for every crisis. His grace is enough. His goodness is not reliant on our circumstances. His love never changes.

OK, that's great. (Actually, it really is.) But what about when the crisis is over, God has been faithful, and life does go on? What about the fears that return later. Fears of it happening again? Of a repeat? Of the new trust being betrayed? What about that?

Beth gets credit for this lesson too. But she gave words to a truth I've experienced.

God gives us grace to endure difficulty.

Yes, He does. And He has. For me.

But God does not give us grace for fear and worry.

He says "Fear not, for I am with you."
He says, "Do not be anxious about anything."

I can either embrace my fears in disobedience to Christ
or take those thoughts captive and banish them to the glory of God, and live in confidence of His goodness and love.

"Do not worry about anything, but in everything, with prayer and petition, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which is beyond our understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

When I give my worries to Christ in prayer, he guards my mind against those worries.

I may not have power over all my circumstances, but I DO have power over my thoughts. Because sometimes my fear is just a figment of an over-active imagination. I borrow trouble. That means the trouble  does not belong to me. When it doesn't belong to me, I don't need grace. I need reality.

Reality is:  When____________ , then God!

So as I look over this past year, I see the faithfulness of my God. And as I look forward to another year, I am confident in Christ and trust Him to remain faithful still.

Philippians 4:6, Isaiah 41:10, 1 Peter 5:7

My life as of now

See these cute snowmen? My children made them out of clay complete with paper hats and finger-knit scarves. Yes, they are creative. For the moment. The rest of the time, recently, has been spent chasing each other around the house screaming and causing me to about lose my mind. But I haven't lost it completely yet. Thank goodness. I need it. Bad!

You see, I've started a new job. Possibly the reason my kids are unattended and running around screaming. Yes. I now edit blog books for a friend of mine. (A friend I met because she blogs. And now she's my real life friend, not just a cyberspace friend. How fun is that?)

You see all these typed words on blogs can be turned into family treasures. Professionally printed books. And now it's my job to do that for people who don't want to take the time to figure out how to do it themselves.

Meanwhile, until we figure out a new routine, my children are running wild and causing me to about lose my mind. But not quite. They do find creative things to do too.

Alphabitty Moments: Jj is for Jump4Joy

This was the girls' first year to be a part of Jump4Joy, a small Christian dance group in our area. I love this program because it's relaxed, they dance to uplifting music, it's cheap, and they only meet for a couple months. Just my type of extra-curricular activity! It's just enough to give the girls a chance to move to music, hang out with other girls and at the end, they give a fun show and have a formal banquet with awards. Megan and Madison loved it!

Now, jog on over to

to see what others came up with for this weekly challenge.

Pink Unicorns

OK, so this post isn't fall-on-the-floor-funny, but it's the best I can do today! Some days our kids just need us to join in their fun, and give them a laugh. It doesn't take much mom or dad silliness to make a child smile. Their belly laughs come easy! So, today, join in their fun. Bring them joy. Do something silly!














I created this opportunity to share stories or pictures from your family that are a bit amusing or odd. They can be current or from ages ago. My goal is laughter. Lots of it!
The rules are simple. Post a Whimsical Wednesday entry on your blog and use the button above in your post. Link your post to mine and enter your blog address in the McLinky below. Then have fun reading others whimsical memories!

Living Grace and God's Agents

Our second Bible quiz meet was yesterday and, though I'm not a typically gushy mom, I have to gush today!

Isn't this boy adorable all spiffed up! And he's mine! Who knew he cleaned up so well? The boys voted to call their team God's Agents as in "special agents" and chose these outfits over black t-shirts!

Can you believe it!? Really? A TIE?

Here they are congratulating Andy after a correct answer.

 

 

And.... my girls team. I have so much fun with them at Wednesday night practices! Every night is full of lots of energy and girl chatter, and they are always anxious to pick out a butterfly tattoo for a memorized verse. All the girls are doing great with their memorization. Holly was a quick jumper yesterday, quizzing out once (answering the max correct of  4 in one quiz), and getting three correct in the other quiz. Great job, Holly!

 

Here's a photo with the whole team, Living Grace.

Aren't they cute too? 

Alphabitty Moments: Boyhood initiation-mowing

My son turned 10 this summer and his father deemed him old enough to learn to drive the Xmark. He takes his job very seriously and he does it well.

 

Hello again! Time for a funny story or picture....or something.

Today I shall reveal to you a bit of family history.

I bet this has never happened in your house!

Our family was at our cabin (which we no longer own, so don't invite yourself to it!) and my husband was preparing the kids for bed after a trip to Walmart. He began to bathe them, filling the tub with hard, rusty, stinky well water that is so typical of cabins. Yuck. As if that wasn't bad enough to give them a bath in, he decided to add something to the water. Now, usually we would add bath salts, bath oil, or bubble bath. That's what I would expect, at least. Nope, my husband was in an unusual mood. He decided to find out whether the leftover cotton candy from Walmart would turn the bath water interesting colors. So in it went. With the kids. Not sure what to think of his strange behavior, I collapsed on the sofa. I couldn't decide whether to cry because my husband had lost his mind, or to laugh because he was crazy funny. But Robb was not done. As long as the bath water was messed up and his wife thought he was crazy, why not put all doubts on the matter to rest and add potato chips to the bath? Which he did. With a smile and a laugh (at me). And a promise to clean the mess up completely. Which he did.

What I didn't do and what I did

Some friends and I threw my sister
a fabulous baby shower this last weekend

and I just have to share a few pictures!

Anitra made this darling diaper cake.

Courtney decorated.

 

 Kimberly and Courtney made yummy food.

 

After knitting thousands of caps for the babies born at St. Mary's

Grandma made one more for a special great-grandbaby!

My sister appropriately decorated a onesie with music notes.

(duh! she's a music major!)

I did not have any burdensome responsibilities
for this lovely shower,
which proved to be providential since
Mads was sick the entire week.
Thankfully her fever broke the morning of the shower,
allowing me to feel somewhat less guilty
leaving her with a babysitter!

I did not cook.
I did not decorate.
I provided...
{dramatic pause}
..chocolate and nuts!
Oh, the sacrilege!
I've lost myself!
Ahhh, my creative days have waned,
though I'm sure they'll return again soon....
when I have a few moments to myself
and my creative thoughts are not interrupted
by the sound of the piano banging
or children wrestling.

I did, however, become the event's photographer.
I guess I'm not a lost creative cause after all.

Congratulations Sara! Can't wait to meet your little one!