Does it get any Sweeter?

Yesterday I found myself overwhelmed by God's unconditional love! Not only does He show me daily that He loves me, but He also take the time to remind me! The family that He has blessed me with is my daily reminder! When I see my husband and children I feel such so incredibly blessed! The tears are starting again as I type this! :)

Family and Home are my two favorite words and I am so thankful for what each word means and brings to my life! The beginning of Family is Home and in my home Family is Everything! A sweet phone call yesterday reminded me how short this life on earth is and how important each moment with the ones that I love the most are! What a privilege to be a wife and mother! Even better yet, I get to be a stay-at-home Mommy!! :)

This phone call challenged me to value the little moments that I have with my sweet family. Those moments that I can't go back and re-live! My house will ALWAYS have dirty laundry, dirty dishes, dirty carpets, dust, and cobwebs, but my Home will not always know the sound of children(playing or fighting). My home will not always have little finger prints on the freshly cleaned windows and mirrors, but they will be in my heart. My home will not always have dirty foot prints on my clean floor, or bath water all over the bathroom floor, soggy Cheerios on the floor, a snugly child, icky green noses, Thomas railroad tracks to step on :(, toys all over the backyard, ... get the point? These small, mundane, ever day, little things can make or break me! I am learning to wake up in the morning and before I even get out of my bed I am taking the time to thank the Lord that I can hear my children hollering(I have to go potty! this is usually the case in my house :)) and I can hear my baby girl cry for me at all hours of the night. I have two feet to walk down my bedroom steps to take care of these precious children and I have two arms to hold my children tight! I have so much to be thankful for! Someday my children will be grown and I won't have a mess. Will I miss the mess? No, but I will miss the children! I am determined to live this day loving the little moments and laughing at the crazy ones! Hey, wanna join me? Don't think about tomorrow, just live FOR today! Remember, you only have one today! Make it Great! Only you can make today amazing!

A New Closeness

Wow!! What a fun few weeks! When I last posted my oldest, David, had a fever. The next day he said my ear hurts so to the doctor we went. Poor guy had a double ear infection and yucky cold. That next Wednesday my baby girl, Maegann Joy, woke up from her nap with a fever. She was cutting two teeth at the same time so I assumed that was the cause for the fever. We finally found that she had a very bad cold and flu. Six days of fever and medicine she is finally doing great. Now my two year old, Mark, is recovering from the same thing! Needless to say it's been a fun few weeks!
I have to admit that I enjoy when my kiddos are sick. They love to cuddle and they only want me! No one else!! That's the best!
I sure did learn a few things during these fun few weeks! I found myself constantly going to the Lord to ask him to heal my babies. When my babies started to feel better I didn't seem to go to Him as much as I did when the kids were sick. How sad of me! I got to thinking that Jesus made my kids sick for a reason. Was this reason because He missed me? Preacher said in a sermon not to long ago, "I would rather stay close to Jesus so He doesn't make me get close to him." Yep, He will find a way to draw us too Him! Looking at it from His perspective, all He wants is for us to only want to be with Him! Just like my babies only want me when they are sick. What a concept! I have learned so much and my relationship with Him has gotten so much closer.
Our "Team Daddy" is helping so much during the day. Knowing that the work they do during the day is for their Coach, Daddy, my boys actually get excited about the work they get to do. I love to see their faces light up when they hear the keys in the door knowing that their Coach is home and he is gonna be so proud of them!
What can I say? I LOVE my family!

The Sweetness of the Lips

WOW!! The exact word that I said when I read the first verse of my Bible reading yesterday! I decided to ditch my daily reading and just read the Proverbs of the day! I am so glad I did!The very first verse of Proverbs 15 was such an eye-opener. A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.


Just that morning, while doing my morning dishes, I started to think about how many times I had said the word "no" to my boys. I seriously got convicted! I began thinking of how I could eliminate the word no from my vocabulary and replace it with something positive. This idea got thinking... Do I always have to have lunch at the dinning room table?, Do we have to have nap time at the same time every day?, Do we really need to make our bed every day?, ... So, I said come on boys let's go! I packed up a picnic lunch, grabbed some paper, pens, and glue sticks and off we went!


What a WONDERFUL time the four of us had TOGETHER! I think I may have had the best time with my children that I have ever had! We had our lunch on a blanket and then I told the boys lets collect leaves and things from the ground to make Daddy something special! Even Maegann joined in by tasting whatever we put in the "Special" pile. (no worries, she is fine!)


We spent two and a half hours outside enjoying one another and thinking about Daddy. When we came home I had the boys lay out our "Special" things on the dinning room table for us to create something after our naps.


During nap time was when I read Proverbs 15. Just about every verse in this chapter refers to the mouth, lips, and tongue. A whole chapter directed at ME! MY WORDS!!!! I decided to begin my quest to Keep my Lips Sweet! (Proverbs 16:21)


After praying, reading, praying, (and making sure the little ones would stay in their beds) I began to make a list to help me to "stay sweet" and to make my home fun! I am determined to make my home the place my children ALWAYS want to be! I want my children to want to be at our home instead of bieng anywhere else! I want our home to be the place my children want to invite their friends too! I have one full year to have all three children home with me and I want to make every second count! So, my list.... I want us to always work and play as a team, so I made up a team name for just us five! We are now TEAM DADDY! Daddy is our Coach! We all found white T-shirts and we have Team Daddy written on them and a number. David is D4, Mark is D2, Maegann is D1, Daddy is DC(c for coach), and I am D7(the boys think I am 7 and that is fine with me!)


Two or Three times a day we wear these shirts. We put our shirts on whenever we have work to do and when Coach Daddy comes home! What a huge difference this has made in only a matter of a day! We get up when Coach gets up, eat breakfast together, and before Coach leaves for work he prays with us to start our day off right. We even made up a cheer today that we say right after we put our Team Daddy jerseys on. Before bed all five of us listen to Coach as he prays and we go to bed. Each day I plan something special to do with the boys. Whatever it is that we do, we do it for Coach! Yesterday we made pictures for Coach from what we collected outside on our picnic, then we hung the pictures up in his office so we could surprise Coach when he came home. Today David has a fever with a cold, so we will be staying in to make no-bake cookies for Coach. (after nap time)


I know you are wondering how all of this Team Daddy and Coach stuff is helping me with my Sweet Lips. Well, cheering for Coach Daddy and doing everything I can to point my boys to Coach Daddy has helped me to loose myself in my children and husband completely! As I am constantly thinking of ways to push my kiddos to Coach Daddy I am finding myself more in love with my Lover(who is also my husband), and I am finding I have NO time to think of MYSELF! All this time it has been ME thinking of only MYSELF that has made me loose the Sweetness of my Lips and Words.


Pushing my boys to Coach Daddy has also stemmed many wonderful statements from by boys about Jesus! I am teaching David and Mark, Proverbs 15:20a. We shout(yes, only in our home) A WISE SON MAKETH A GLAD FATHER!! I can already see how pushing my boys to Coach Daddy is giving them and I a sweet closeness with our Heavenly Father! (My ultimate goal!)


No, I am not a writer, as you can tell! I am blogging to challenge myself to Keep my Lips Sweet and to daily remind myself that it is not about me it's all about Him(Coach Daddy), and HIM(my Heavenly Father)!!

Off I go to get the laundry folded before cookie time!