Prayer Journal

Lately I have been doing something that has taken my prayer life to a whole new level... A prayer journal. 

I find it very easy to express myself through writing. The words and thoughts just flow out of me and onto the paper. 

I truely believe it has strengthen my relationship with the Lord. There hasn't been a night when the tears aren't flowing down my face.  

 To me its a sacred time. I can't wait to read through it one day and see what the Lord has done! How he is going to take those heartfelt words on paper and turn them into a testimony.

 During this special time It's just God, me, the dog(ha!)soft lighting, and candlelight. No tv. I alway wait until after the kiddos have gone to bed. Whatever is conducive to a good writing environment for you. I always play my favorite praise and worship songs and there is just something about having that worship music on. It is a very important element to my journal time. 

If you are feeling like you'd like to go deeper in your prayer life,  try a prayer journal. I can't recommend it enough. 
  

Blessings,

enough already

May I quickly share something on my heart that I've been thinking about tonight?

Usually what you speak of a child is what they become, so be careful how you speak about your children. If you call Susie a spoiled brat, don't be surprised if she becomes one. If you don't want Johnny to be a menace, then don't tell him he is one. If you want confident children then stop telling them all the things they are not, and start telling them the wonderful things that they are.

        xo,

Baby needs a new pair of shoes.

Noah needed a new pair of shoes, so I turned to one of my favorite places to shop (amazon) to see what I could find. I have been wanting to get the boys a pair of keens for a while now so I figured this was as good of time as any. I was excited to see that they had some pairs about twenty-five dollars less than the original price. He wanted blue (that is his favorite color) but that particular pair was about twenty plus dollars more, so I easily convinced him that an "awesome fire engine red!" pair would be equally as cool. He was happy with that! He has been asking each day if they had come in yet, and I told him I expected it to be tomorrow, but to my surprise, they arrived tonight! He absolutely loves them! And they are a perfect fit. Score! I was a little nervous about buying shoes online since he could not try them on before hand, but I have read that these shoes are pretty true to size, so I gave it a shot. He wore them until bedtime so they must be pretty comfortable.
I love this about children, that when something so ordinary as receiving a new pair of shoes, is "the best day of his life"! Kids have such a wonderful zest for life, don't they? I wish I could record all of the cute, sweet little things that he says. He is always saying something that makes me laugh or smile.

Mother's Day 2015

I had a great Mother's Day this year! Drew had to work, but he left work long enough to bring me a Starbucks coffee in bed. He knows how important my coffee is so I thought it was incredibly sweet of him! He also gave me my gift which was a Starbucks mug, two edible chocolate straws, two nice candles, and a sweet card. I always love his cards! I have watched this man pick out a greetings card. He is quite meticulous about it and he doesn't pick one until he thinks its just right and fitting, so I know whatever the card says, he's truly saying it from his heart.

Nathan made me a sweet little card. Homemade cards rock! He also told me numerous times throughout the day, "Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you!"

Zayne made a cute little painted mason jar vase at school and a card. I can't wait to pick some wild flowers to put in it!

Noah colored a cute little card that said mom, and gave me a little flower pot with a close up picture of his face. Planted in it was grass which is supposed to be his hair. Too cute!

That's one thing I love about elementary school,  all the cute little holiday crafts.

 

After lunch, we drove out to Millwood to spend some time with my mom and also for my cousin Courtney's sweet 16 party! I'm blown away that she is 16! I remember the day she was born.

Time flies!

The boys, along with their cousin's Lily and Emma had a really fun time riding on a handmade boat built by Mr. Mullis, the girls papa. Chelsea played so hard with them and they enjoyed it so much! The kids hung their feet off the boat while Chelsea was in the pond. They would each take turns throwing her a plastic cup and make her swim for it. Each time they would throw, they would move their little legs and splash. Nathan was able to drive the boat back to the dock. He really liked that.

                                                          

 After we left there, I picked Drew up from home, and we met his mom and dad at the cemetery where Drew's Nana is buried. This was Nana's first Mother's Day in heaven so it was bitter sweet to say the least. Afterwards, we ate dinner at their house.

I hope that whatever you did for Mother's Day, you felt loved and appreciated. But if by chance your day did not go as well as you had hoped or planned, just know that the ultimate Father was shining down with so much love and adoration for you. He see's all of the hard work you put in to caring for your babes. He's see's every boo boo kissed, every tear wiped away, all the late night's your stay up worrying about your child, every good moment and hard moment and everything in between. Older Mom's, you may no longer be kissing away the boo boo's, but you are still painstakingly doing for your children. Praying fervently for them. Worries for them do not cease with age. He sees. He knows. He cares. He smiles down and knows that He created a masterpiece when He created MOTHERS.

Isn't there something just so special about the bond of motherhood? No matter what type of mother you are, it is a day when we are all on common ground.

Blessings,

Monday ramblings...

While we were sleeping...

Gotta love waking up to this! I was not too happy about picking up each of these gross, chewed up, pieces of yuck off the ground. Luckily we had some gloves.

That's a stray cat for you.

All I can say is I cannot wait until we get our second trash bucket! By mid week we are almost always to the brim with trash, and by the time trash day rolls around, well, it's just plain embarrassing!

Happy Monday everyone!

 I will leave you with this insightful text my dad wrote me this morning..."Have a great day honoring God in everything you do. It's the little things we do over a lifetime that add up to be a lot so don't grow weary in well doing".

Goodness I love him! He is always writing something to encourage me. Even thought I'm no longer his "little girl", he still does everything he can to help me grow in my relationship with our Heavenly Father. I'm so thankful for a dad like that.


Blessings,

Another post about how God uses motherhood to change me for the better. (Warning: I did not proof and wrote this on my phone so it's probably going to sound like a hot mess!)

  So Zayne has had a very hard time transitioning back into having homework again since returning back from Christmas break. Before break he was doing well but each day this week have ended with either none of it completed or only partially. Thankfully he has an amazing teacher that is so understanding and helps any way she can. We have tried it early in the day and later in the day but no time is a good time for Zayne. He completely shuts down and either laughs and tries to be silly, or becomes so exhausted that he almost falls asleep at the table. And that's just after the FIRST question!! Last night was really bad. We tried everything that normal parents do when a child is not behaving as they should, he even ended up with 2 little spankings (which we hardly EVER have to come down to that, but that just tells you how bad this was getting). He just balled louder and still could not even complete one problem. (Keep in mind that one of the biggest challenges autistic kids face is transitioning, especially when they are transitioning into something they DO NOT ENJOY.) So finally we said, out of desperation and resources, to eat dinner and go on to bed and when he woke up, he could finish it then. It was only around 6:30pm at this point. He was so distraught and let's face it, WE were distraught. I know, I know, not our finest parenting moment but there is so much truth to the old saying desperate times call for desperate measures! He refused dinner and went into his room and sobbed in his bed. I couldn't stand it. I knew that there was more to this than just simple defiance. He wasn't trying to give us a hard time, he was having a hard time. I went to his room, laid close to him, and softly asked him if he wanted to pray to Jesus to help him with this. He said yes, so he, with a determined look on his face, repeated a little prayer after me. With his eyes closed, we prayed that God would help him not be so upset about homework. He made sure to repeat every word of the prayer that I said. After the prayer he was still upset but not as much. Then I remembered Drew needed to go to Lowes. I asked Zayne "hey, how would you like to go to Lowes and look at the toilets"? (Because with Z, a trip to Lowes is never complete without a trip down the toliet isle). He softly replied, "yes". I said "I tell you what, you complete your homework without tears and we will go look at every single toilet that Lowes has to offer. And you can show me your favorite toilet and I'll show you mine." Then I asked him which toilets he preferred, and said, "I like the toilet with the flusher on top"). "Cool Zayne". Then I said "so, do we have a deal"? And he said, "yes". Then he went to get up and said, "I'm chillwe" so I asked him, "how would you like to do your homework by the fire tonight?" (that's what he calls the electric fireplace in our bedroom, he LOVES "the fire"!!!) he excitedly said, "yeah!" So sitting by the fire he and Drew raced through all of his homework and he got ALL the problems right faster than I've ever seen. Let me just say he can do 3 numbered addition problems in his head faster than I can! LOL 

   Little did I know when I was saying that prayer with him, I was really praying for myself because it took me changing my way of thinking to get through to him. Sometimes we pray for others to change when its really ourselves that need to be changed. I was praying for Zayne to change his behavior but God reminded me that sometimes I have to change my behavior in order to sync with the needs and uniqueness of my special child. It takes love, prayer, creativity, out of the box thinking, lots of encouragement, and much patience to figure out this complicated world he has to deal with. 

  So, we went to Lowes and not only did we see every toliet but we also had to see all the lights, doors, refrigerators, bathtubs, kitchen cabinets, and anything else that you can install in a house. He hated to leave, he had many opinions about some of them, and he ooooowed and ahhhhhhhed over lots of them! 

  One of the greatest, most difficult things I've ever had to do is be a mom. But oh what a great blessing it is! While we are raising and growing our children, God is also raising and growing us. 

With love,