Friday, October 31, 2008
Sharing The Wealth...
In the drive-thru pay for the car behind you. (Chief and I do this often and it is fun!)
In the grocery store line ask the person behind you if you can pay for their groceries. (Of course I mainly have to do this in the 10 items or less line, but almost everyone I have asked says yes. Some have said no thank you)
Babysit for someone.
A few years ago the Lord gave me a ministry called Manna Meals. I haven't done this lately but fix a family a meal and take it to them. (Not because they are sick, or just had a baby, or someone died, but just because...) I usually pray and ask the Lord to show me who needs this ministry, more often than not I am the one who is blessed by the ministry.
I am sure you can think of many fun ways to share your wealth, especially with the Christmas season coming so soon. Adopt a family for Christmas, if you don't know one all you have to do is contact your church or any church, I am certain you will find a family in need.
Buy two of everything for Thanksgiving, and deliver a full Thanksgiving meal to a family.
I also want to say that this is a great time to do things like this with your children. Giving is a hard concept for children all together, what a better time of year to share your wealth. Spread it around...I challenge you!
Not to toot our own horns, but come back here and share what ideas you came up with, I am always looking for a fun way to show my kids what true giving is all about!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
This and That...
Date night was good, although we didn't make it to Tallahassee we did go to our favorite Mexican restaurant and had a nice dinner with all the time in the world! We had great conversation and quality time together. It's about that time for another date though!
I must have bragged on Grant too much, because he has had me sleep deprived and in tears for two days. Up and restless. Each morning at around 4a.m. I have to pass him off to the Chief just so I can get some sleep. I really hope we get back on track real soon!
I have a prayer request I cannot go into at the moment, but the Chief and I need guidance and prayer for a situation we are facing. I would appreciate and covet any prayers that were interceded on our behalf. Personally I am praying for Peace, Wisdom, and Discernment.
I am so ready for Halloween to be over! I may step toes, but we don't celebrate the holiday so I am up to my eye balls in Halloween junk. What did me in was Doodlebug #2's note that was sent home stating she would be making Witch's Brew in one of the class rooms tomorrow...I had to let her teacher know that she needed to be pulled from that most definitely. (done with ranting on that one.)
On an up note, next weekend I will be going to my annual ladies retreat, I am so excited and plan to enjoy every moment. There is nothing like being spiritually fed and having the fellowship with a great group of seasoned women, who's heart solely follows after the Lord. Gonna be GOOOD, GOOOD!!!
R.O.M.E The Latest Design...
So it's so great to have friends with talents you don't! Here is the latest design from R.O.M.E Designs. Should you want to place an order I can e-mail you more pictures of outfits, and you can also contact Laura at:
lauranicholson@bellsouth.net
Now would be a great time to place your order for matching sibling outfits for Fall and Winter seasons!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Not Me Monday...Post #1
Friday, October 24, 2008
Friday Thankfuls...
We met Mom and Dad in Bainbridge and I was received with the biggest hugs and kisses. Gunner kept looking at me and grabbing my arm and laying his head on my arm. **Sigh**
Of course, they are calling me Nana and Joel Papa but I am sure that will remedy itself shortly. I did miss them a whole whole lot.
Pray for us as a family, please. Vacation is now officially over and back to our normal routine. I cannot thank my Mom and Dad enough. My Mom literally has cared for this family for a solid two weeks, I thank my sister who kept the little ones while my Mom worked. I couldn't have done it without you guys. And to my Dad who also, bussed Mom over here and back and forth...thank you! I love you.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
A Few Things I want To Share!
The House Is Trucking Right Along!
One Day We Will Be Finished
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A Costly Mistake...
So onto the current post.
Last Wednesday after I got up from my nap, Joel said I need you to come sit down I have something to talk with you about. He began telling me that while I was sleeping Doodlebug #1's teacher had called and said that for the days of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday she had not finished her work and was completely spacing out during school. She assured Joel her attitude was o.k. but her focus was not. She continued to suggest she had a bit of "Baby-itis" and for us to expect quite a bit of Incomplete's on her paper work on Friday.
I lost it! What have I done! Poor thing. The Chief had it all planned out. We would sit her down and talk with her after school and then he would take her off for a mani and pedi and to pick out a toy and to dinner out of her choice! Sounds like a plan to me.
Doodlebug gets home- We sit her down (Mommy's trying not to be emotional). We start with- Kenna guess who called mommy and daddy today? Doodlebug looks like a dear in headlights...What do you mean Mommy? I don't understand? I ask her what work she didn't complete and she says there is none. Daddy tells her we love her and we know times are tough, but things will get better and daddy is taking her on a date tonight! Of course she loves this idea, but every time we went back to her work she would cry and say she didn't understand, finally 30 minutes later it just got too strange, she was addiment that her work was done and so on and so on. I finally look at the Chief...heck now I am confused!
The Chief looks at me and says, "Do you think I have the wrong kid?" Are you freakin' kidding me? I grabbed his phone and called the school..."No, Mrs. Jenkins it was Mrs. Maxwell who called..."Lord hold my tongue...PLEASE!!
15 minutes later...conversation with Doodlebug #2. Guess who called mommy and Daddy today?
Boy oh, boy. The Chief then took Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with all Doodlebug girls three date nights with Daddy. Each got a mani/pedi, each got dinner out, each got a shopping spree and we are out about $400...Not to mention he had to promise Doodelbug #1 he would pick her up early from school just so she would switch her date to the next day so Doodlebug #2 could go on the first date.
I am please to announce that for Thursday and Friday Doodlebug #2 came home with all work complete. Can someone please call the Chief and tell him Mommy is not completing all her work and is not focusing? I want a date night!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Grant Banister
Yesterday was Grant's one week weight check appointment. At birth he weighed 7lbs. 13oz. at hospital discharge he weighed 7lbs.5oz., yesterday he weighed 7lbs. 11oz. We were so thrilled he is growing and gaining weight so easily. He is a GREAT eater and sleeper.
One thing I decided to do this time around was NOT to wake him up to eat at night, now I know this goes against all the nursing rules, but Grant sleeps 6-7 hours at night. Also, my milk came in within 24 hours. I think it's because when he actually woke up and ate he nursed so well cause he was really hungry. It was a great decision for us this time around, (wish I had thought of it sooner).
My best friend Laura took these wonderful pictures of Doodlebug #5 at four days old. I will treasure them forever! We are all doing great and adjusting well.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Some Things I Have Forgotten. Some Things, Oh So Fresh In My Memory.
-How much it hurts to nurse...initially (OUCH!)
-Just how long one can actually go without sleep and still function properly.
-How wonderful it feels to sit on gloves filled with ice in the hospital after giving birth!
-That it actually hurts to fall so in love with your new baby.
-Swelling (enough said)
-That I deserve a pat on the back for successfully nursing Grant and folding an entire basket of laundry simultaneously.
Memory:
-The smell of my newborn
-The first two weeks are survival mode (I am only two days away from week one)
-That I am already dreading the day when my Mom leaves... :-(
-I absolutely LOVE nursing and the whole newborn stage.
-I was so meant to be a Mommy!!! :-)
***I thought of something I never knew at all***
-Having your tubes tied is double and triple the pain of having a baby...it has kicked my ever lovin' butt from here until Sunday!!!!
Monday, October 13, 2008
The Gangs All Here!
And...Doodlebug #4's face says it all too...this is true excitement!
For Nana Grace and Papa Marvin. Can't wait to see you!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Sweet Suprises...
Four hours after his arrival, Grant blessed us with a precious, sweet, smile. I think he was saying, "oh, thank you Mommy for getting me out!"
(just look at that dimple!)
Thursday, October 9, 2008
He's A Comin'
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Here's The Plan Stan!
We have our orders and are taking the rest of the afternoon to get ready. I am nervous and excited all at the same time. So that's the plan. Hopefully we will have Doodlebug #5 sometime tomorrow afternoon!
Keep us all in your prayers and check frequently for updates!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Our Life Update...
Now, please continue to pray for Joel and I as we get ready to induce at the hospital on Thursday early in the morning. Mom and Dad will be coming up late tomorrow night. Please also keep the Doodlebugs in prayer as over the weekend they will be back in Albany and then back to Bainbridge Sunday night. I am starting to panic for my little ones. I am asking for prayer for peace, for myself.
I appreciate all the cares and concerns and will keep everyone posted frequently.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Long Day Ahead....
Mom and Dad took all four Doodlebugs last night and Aunt Jen is picking up the crew this morning and Joel and I will wait at the hospital.
Grace my MIL went into surgery a little bit before 7a.m. and we have been told that the surgery will be about 5-6 hours. We were all a bundle of nerves. We will be oh, so glad when we get that call in the waiting room letting us all know all is well.
Please keep us all in your prayers, there is a large number of family members here as Grace is abundantly loved!!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
House Update!!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
My Testimony!!!!
Last year I got to share this testimony at our annual ladies retreat, some people think sharing things like this would be embarrassing, I can't be embarrassed over something so beautiful and perfect. I feel the need to share and talk about what the Chief and I walked through all the time.
"The miracle was mine for the taking...I took it!"
Lord, I honor you this day for your faithfulness to my precious family!
BTW- I heard my husband in bed last night whisper as he touched my ever growing belly "I am so glad we got to have another baby!" My word...guys if you only knew...if you only knew!
This is:
My Miracle Story (October 2007)
(Pass out broken piece of wedding china)
A year ago this weekend I was moving into an apartment as a divorced single mother of four children who were all 5 and under. Oddly enough this wasn’t the lowest point in my life. The lowest point in my life came September 17th of 2005 when I left my 2000 sq ft. house with three children and 3 months pregnant with my fourth. My husband Joel and I were “taking a break” so I thought, however our little break to “figure things out” lead to a devastating divorce which was declared final on December 21, 2005 by the state of Georgia. I remember thinking I never knew you could get divorced so fast.
To make things really short and too the point, I was devastated over the separation much less the divorce. I mostly battled with extreme embarrassment over being a divorcee. I felt the title to be humiliating. {Matthew 1:18-19> Now this is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But while she as still a virgin she became pregnant by the Holy Sprit. Joseph, her fiancĂ©’, being just a man, decided to break the engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly. As he considered this, he fell asleep, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David”, the angel said.” do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. All of this happened to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:}(God was NOT worried about Mary being humiliated, He was in control from the get-go)
There were days I just couldn’t get a grip on why I was in Albany, at 28 years old, living with my parents and about to have a baby and lets not forget my three little girls! I was a broken hearted little girl with big people problems. I was stressed, worried, angry, bitter, confused, I was searching, longing, hopeful and hopeless all at the same time. I was forgetful, unhealthy sickly, sad. I was desperate but most of all I was stubborn. {Joshua 14:8-9> For my part, I followed the Lord my God completely. So that the day Mosses promised me, ‘The land of Canon on which you were just walking will be your special possession and that of your descendants forever, because YOU WHOLEHEARTEDLY followed the Lord my God’.}
I was born strong willed on December 12, 1976; I hope I stay that way until the day I die. I spent hours upon hours praying for my marriage to be restored. When I say hours upon hours I literally mean some nights I would pull an all night-er…on my knees 9 months pregnant or standing on my bible in my room my precious new baby boy asleep and just pray. Pray, Pray, Pray. {Luke 18 Story of Persistent Widow- One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” her said, “who was a godless man with great contempt for everyone. A widow in that city came to him repeatedly, appealing for justice against someone who had harmed her. The judge ignored her for a while, but eventually SHE WORE HIM OUT.’I fear neither God nor man, ‘he said to himself, but this women is DRVING ME CRAZY. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant request!’” Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this evil judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end, so don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who plead with Him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when I, the Son of Man, return, how many will I find who have faith?”} (I was the persistent widow, bugging, pleading praying, wearing out my welcome)
Some nights I would pray for me, for the children, for Joel most times my tears did the praying my sobbing would be my voice. I often thought that if the mountains could bow down, and the rocks could cry out then God would hear my voice through my tears. I prayed in tongues quite often, hoping the Holy Spirit would understand what I couldn’t seem to put into English.{ Isaiah 55:12-13>You will live in joy and peace, The mountains and the hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where briers grew, myrtles will sprout up. This MIRACLE will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; it will be an everlasting sign of His power and love.}
I always had a sense of being taken care of, every one of my needs was met the very moment it was needed. The childrens and mine. Whether by God’s peace, or the people around me that gave and gave and gave. People sowed into my life that may never even realize what their actions did. I am going to take a sidebar and name a few things that happened to the children and me.
-Went to mail box, card and $100
-Couple gave me $300 dollars
-Same couple (lady), just about furnished my apartment. (bedding, paint, new rug)
-Couple gave me washer and dryer
-Couple gave me microwave and coffee maker
-People came five days in a row and painted my apartment
-People took my children and loved up on them
-I had the greatest baby shower out of all my children’s showers
-I had a $1000 dollar check written to me because this lady was in the shower and was listening to the Holy Spirit when he just happened to whisper to her.
I could go on and on. The giving that these people showed me was and still is unbelievable. Some people did things for the children and I just out of love for my parents! Talk about getting in on a good deal .What a privilege to be so loved by people just because I am Morris and Sarah’s daughter. This defines covenant relationships.
(SET OUT FIRST PLATE OF CHINA)
There was a turning point, it happened in the driveway of my parents’ house. I knew I was divorced, but was beyond accepting it. I was sitting on the bumper of my car having one of my many meltdowns. I don’t remember what the melt down was about. At this time I was on a waiting list for GRAFA, on every imaginable assistance program available, in college and just struggling day to day to keep it together. My dad came out and just as I had looked at my own children over the last year with sorrow for their hurt, knowing they wanted to scream and shout and didn’t know how to tell me how they were feeling, he looked at me that way. I knew then the saying that we all say to our own children “If I could take it would” his eyes welled with tears and he said, “Aimee, you are a divorced women, I can’t change it, you can’t change it, it’s just what it is. I am so sorry.” He loved me the same married or divorced, I was not a disappointment to him. In that moment I felt I could breath for the first time in over a year.
I still absolutely without a doubt didn’t accept my divorce as final (in the heavenlies). I never for a moment ever heard anything from the Lord allowing me to walk away, I did however changed the way I was playing the hand that was dealt to me. I played it or prayed it as divorced women. I moved out in November of last year like I said earlier, in fact this very weekend, within 3 weeks of moving into my own place, my miracle began. Joel and my turning point came in November however there is a certain date that comes to mind…December 12 my 30 birthday, Joel after working a 20 hour shift was standing in the cold at 7:15 a.m. in the morning waiting for me to open the door to take our oldest to school. He was there for me…. for my birthday. (This showed me Joel’s actions, because our trust with each other had been broken so badly.)
(PLACE OUT TEA CUP SAUCER-2nd piece of china)
Through much counseling, prayer, counseling, prayer we began our journey to reconciliation. So pretty much just a suddenly as the ending had stared so the beginning began. It came out of left field, it came when I least expected it, it came only when, I listened to my Father and obeyed. My heavenly father and earthly father. (Under different covering reversed the cleaving process) The day my father was so brutally blunt with me was the day I couldn’t live as a married women any longer, I had to come under a different type of authority.
I find it a privilege to say that I have lived to see something raised from the dead. I have seen God take something dead and breath life into it, make it whole and new again. I don’t know how He did it…how He made something out of nothing. He is the Master Craftsman that’s for sure.
What I have given you today is a piece of my wedding china; it was broken along with three other place settings on the brick steps out back behind my house. My daughter recently found some pieces still laying in the dirt out back. She came in and said remember Mommy when you broke this? (This was not a shining moment for me) I was hoping she wouldn’t remember the last year and a half. Not really knowing what to do I explained that I did remember, and I was again sorry that she saw me do this awful thing, then I took her to the china cabinet and said…that little piece is what happened to our family…but look what God did, and I pointed to a full place setting of my wedding china. So this began my writing this testimony.
(PLACE TEA CUP OUT)
No matter how small the piece God has to work with. He can do it! I always was waiting for the miracle; I knew it belong to me. It was mine for the taking. I took it. Joel and I remarried in February, I moved back home in May. Are things perfect? Not by a long shot. It’s tough; it’s work, a lot of work. I believe this miracle of mine is still in the making and evolving in God’s Kingdom everyday.
I am quite aware of Satan and his work to kill, steal and destroy more than ever, especially when it comes to my family. With in three weeks of the children and I moving home, we had a small tornado come through our town and a branch impaled our roof, our daughter McKenna had a very, very rocky start to the first grade and her teachers suggested she go back to Kindergarten, then I hurt my back, Joel was under attack from a citizen in Climax, our only family car broke down for three weeks, and just this week our air conditioner totally quit working. We struggle a lot, but we believe that if God brought us through what we went through, he will bring us through these struggles. I am proud to be a daughter of God’s Kingdom, but what makes me ecstatic is that my family is a family of the kingdom of God. My cup truly runneth over.
{Psalm 23- read entire Psalm}
(Pour water into teacup and let it over flow…symbolizing my blessings)
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Oh My This Week....
I am exhausted, I swung into the Dr. this morning to get checked before we headed to Albany for my MIL's surgery, still very little change about 1cm dilated. Then at 1:30 my MIL calls and her surgery is postponed until Monday at 5:45am....AHHHHHHHHH!!!!
It's just that everything is happening at once! My precious mother gave up a trip to Disney World (suppose to leave today) just in case I went into labor (oh, I feel the pressure to have this baby). Now Joel and I need to be in Albany from Monday until at least Tuesday and induction on Thursday (early).
The doodlebugs are on Fall break starting Friday and will not return until Thursday the 9th. So I am screaming inside! I either need these contractions to speed up or just plain go away.
Prayer: My poor MIL- after gearing up for double bypass surgery now has to wait four more days. The Chief- pulled in many directions. Me- have baby in the next couple of days or just uterus needs to CHILL OUT! My sis- who on Monday will be sacrificing her day to keep all four of the Doodlebugs while Chief and I are at the hospital.
I know my blogs are boring right now, I have this really funny one to post later. I just have nothing on my mind but my precious baby boy...who BTW thinks he has all the room in the world to move around...OUCH!