The Spiritual Use of a Cricut

I could write a whole series on the subject of the many ways a Cricut could bless our lives. Click the link if you just thought, "huh"! I got my Cricut Expression with one goal in mind, a spiritual, family centered, Deuteronomy 6, type of goal, 6 months ago, that I've yet to accomplish.

I've read several books that talked about praying scripture over our children. This was a new concept for me. But, from that grew an idea to put a Scripture/blessing on each of my children's walls. I've been trying to decide just which verse to go in each of their rooms ... for a year. It would be easy to stick with praying Scripture, I wouldn't have to make a decision on one verse that will stick on their wall semi-permanently.

I want the Scripture to be in the form of a blessing ... a direction for their lives to take, a glimpse of their future spiritual selves. Otherwise, a self-serving verse such as Exodus 20:12 would work great in large 6 inch bold letters.
"Honor your father and mother so that you may live long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you".


So, my goal is to make a decision on the verse in the next day, cut it out and put it up in their rooms. What a great way to start the New Year for each of the kids! Well, at least the one that can read. The other one will probably use it as a target. But, it will be a good reminder that David and I are purposed by God to raise our children to love God with all their hearts, soul, mind and strength.

Christmas Break

This week the kids are both out of school and we don't have any Bible classes at church so I'm taking my own Christmas break. I find it helpful to take full advantage of the "down-time". When January comes, we begin planning all sorts of fun things: Art Camp, Leadership Retreat, Vicki Courtney Simulcast from Moms and Daughters, and we get to decorate "The Park" and finish some other decorations. Part of me keeps thinking of little things I could go to the church building and do now, but, then I remind myself that the kids will be back in school in 8 days, we will be traveling for part of that, my bedroom needs to be organized, and River needs to finish her Science Fair project.

Yesterday, I bought a bike. I started spin class last year and love it but I'm needing to ditch the costly gym membership so David convinced me to use my Christmas money to buy the bike I've been wanting. Reese used his money to buy his seat. This is important. My only free time is free time with Reese. I used to be able to take Reese to the gym and get to work at a reasonable hour but now that River is at her new school, I spend a lot more time dropping off and picking up. I've been paying for the right to say I am a member of a gym over the last few months. Unfortunately, the benefits only happen if I actually use the gym.

River's science fair project is on Geocaching. Geocaching is a super cheap, family fun, outdoor activity. Geocacher's hide objects all around the city and put the coordinates on a website. Other cacher's use the coordinates to find the caches and log them. For the kids, there are fun little treasures to trade. I'm thinking about hiding one at the church building as yet another way to encourage families to spend some time together.

My goal for Christmas Break is to organize a couple of seriously neglected rooms in our house so I can have people over again. Yeah, we'll see if that happens. Organization and children really don't go well together.

Today it is freezing outside. The high is supposed to be 50-ish. That is way too cold for me. There was ice in the dog bowl this morning. Tomorrow though, we should be near the 70's so the kids and I are going to go look for treasure ... and do the Science Fair project. If you see my family wandering around a greenbelt holding iPhones and GPS units, don't worry, we know what we are doing! We might be lost but we have technology to save us :-)

I Don't Want To Be A Canaannite

I'm fairly sure the song "I Just Want To Be A Sheep" does not have this verse, "I don't want to be a canaanite ...".

Tonight, River said, "Mommy, I know why the verse says "I don't want to be a Canaanite". It's because Cain killed Able and he must be a knight but we don't want to be that type of knight because he killed his brother". Then she burst out in song.

This is what I get for deciding to read the Bible to my daughter this year. At least she is remembering the stories.

Empty Bag and Baby Hands

What does it mean when my 11 month old digs in my office trash can and chooses the Starbucks pastry bag? Then, with sad little eyes, he shows it to me, empty and tries to tell me about it! I can only imagine him thinking, "Mom, really? You ate it all? No Mom, the 'you'll get it in the breastmilk' excuse is no longer working. I want a real, chocolate chunk cookie!"

Sorry, kid, I ate all the wonderful chocolate chip cookie! All gone. But, I have some great Cheerio's just for you. They are yummy. 

Yeah, I do feel just a little rotten.

UNTIL OUR ASSISTANT AND JANITOR WALK IN AND ASK IF I NEED MY FLOOR VACUUMED.

"No", I say as I roll around my desk.

  And there is Reese, surrounded by cheerio's, with a great big grin that could only mean he was thinking, "Surprise, Mommy, I dumped the cheerio's all over your office floor! The whole bag. Next time, maybe you will share with me after all."

Possessed or Hormones

Ever so often, I think my perfectly fine, sweet, innocent and well behaved daughter has become possessed. They say the hormonal swings of a teenage girl is pretty bad. River is almost 7, so, I can't blame it on teenage hormones. My perfect child, the one that is told she is a "little young lady" and "has great manners" suddenly becomes very fond of the word "no" and other words of disdain.  "No Mommy", "UGGGGHHHH", and "AHHHHHH" all accompanied by body language that other kids might tag a four letter word onto but she doesn't know any so we get grunts. Eye's narrowed, feet stomp, nose in the air, and back to us, she gets her message across, "I don't like not being in control of my life".

Possession happened sometime at school on Wednesday. Not sure what happened at school, I wish I'd asked her teacher because she says she had a great day. But, in Bible class, it got really bad. I teach River's class on Wednesday nights, so, after a few minutes of disrespect, she got to visit her Daddy in the hallway for a time out. Time out then turned into screams at the top of her lungs which sounded like a beating was in progress. It wasn't, of course, but I was just waiting for an elder to come running down the hallway, panicked, afraid someone had lost an arm to child friendly scissors. I'd have to say, "No, really, it's all right, it's just the Children's Minister daughter letting the WHOLE CHURCH know she didn't get her way".

Today is Sunday afternoon and she's spent a good portion of the weekend in time out and other punishments. And even though the revenge of punishment feels good in the midst of disrespect, we have tried as many positive approaches as possible, too. She's spent time with each of us, with her favorite hobby, helping me make things for the church classroom, and watching a movie. What do we get in return? Cave man grunts.

But, hey, this too shall pass, right? In a little while, she'll remember how fun it was to be a good girl, how she got praise, time with parents, and fun activities instead of time out in her room. She just has to check out life on the wild side until she remembers that it is not so wild. Better at 6 than 16. At least she'll know as a teenager that our word is golden.

God built many lessons into this job called parenting, and, this must be one of those lessons. How many times have I read God's word, said a prayer and felt His leading, but still kicked, scream, grunted, and turned my back on Him instead of doing His way? His response doesn't change, He just waits patiently until I get over myself and start relying on Him again. Jesus was His answer to our desire to test the waters and thankfully, He took the punishment for us. But, on parenting days like today, I can't help but think that God gets a little kick out of watching one of His babies teach her parents a lesson about sacrifice, unconditional love, and discipline.

She's napping now. I'm praying that she wakes up sweet River and not her evil twin!

Scrapbook Night

Mommy Me - can't wait to scrapbook and be away from the kids for just a bit, but, find out after getting to scrapbooking that I'm too tired to scrapbook and think it would be better for me to be in bed. So much for me time.

Minister Me - thinking of all the details that we still need to do to be prepared for Sunday morning, panicked feelings about not hearing from all the teachers, and looking for last minute instructions for crafts in the curriculum with no details. But, oh yeah, I'm going to scrapbooking.

Wife Me - come home. Kids in bed. Husband is HAPPILY playing Mario. How come he isn't this tired?