My Life

A six year old brother throws up at 2:00 in the morning, and needs to be all cleaned up and settled in bed with tea and stomach formula in his belly.  A two year old sister has a sore bum and needs some diaper rash cream and a little extra affection.  A fussy baby man needs to be rocked while mama washes her face at bedtime before feeding him.  

This is my life.  This is the life Jesus has called me to.  It's not always easy or glamorous (according to most standards) but it's a good life, and it's not a waste of my time.  This family...these children that I've given my life to are going to change the world and make it better, and I get to be a part of shaping them into what they need to be to do that!  I love my life for real.  Yes, I become overwhelmed sometimes, but you kinda get overwhelmed at some point along the way no matter what you do with your life.  So...  

I am just saying I'm proud of what I do for the King, and believe that it will avail much in the long run.  

Brilliant

We all want to be around people who think we're brilliant and awesome.  It's just natural that you wouldn't look forward to being with people who don't like you, ya know?  I love it how in "A Beautiful Mind" (with Russell Crowe) the woman he marries is so INTO him...she loves all the little things about him that no one else has ever been intrigued by or attracted to.  This sweet Jesus that we love and serve is totally crazy about us like that...He thinks we're brilliant and loves all of the little things about us that no one else notices.  He doesn't want us to be anything other than close to Him, and moving towards deeper intimacy with Him, by continually working on our stuff/letting Him mold us into the people He's called us to be.

It makes me want to cry happy tears, when I think about THAT kind of love.  He loves me just because He delights in me as a person.  He loves me with all of the good parts of me, and He loves me in my messiness.

His Nature

Do you ever feel like God doesn't know what's going on in your life?  Like He doesn't know it's painful and messy?  I struggle with feeling that way sometimes, although I know it's not based on truth.  I know this because in James 1 it says that in Him "there is no variation or shadow due to change".  It's funny how so often we know the truth, yet we either choose to believe or inadvertently believe the opposite.  I suppose this is just part of the battle that comes with having a sin nature. 

"When the tide rises high

And we cannot see the shore 

Be by my side forever more" 

~The Vespers "Please"

He is by my side when I'm in the depths of the ocean of despair.  He really is...even when it feels like I'm in this "alone". 

Notes I took while listening to Graham Cooke's "The Nature of God" that are life to me in this part of my journey:

This great God that we serve will throw us into situations beyond us, with no other thought but that His great heart will sustain us.

He is consistent, but He's also unpredictable.

He's called me to live in His faithfulness.  

A Happy Day

Thursday was Tate's 6th birthday!  He's so grown up. It makes me kind of sad sometimes, how grown up he is.  He won't let me kiss him or snuggle him very much anymore. He's much too old for that.  He loves Legos and to play outside with his best buddy, Ethan.  He's still my "Baby Tate", though. He was Baby Tate for 5 years before the newest little munch came along, and as far as I can see, he shall remain so.

On this already joyous day of celebrating the life of one of my favorite people , we had other jolly plans. Our family is being featured in the March issue of the Waxahachie Now magazine, and that day the editor and photographer came to interview us and take pictures for the article. Dad said he wants to hire that photographer for our next Christmas picture because she's so fast. As you can imagine, taking a family portrait of 11 people has a pretty high stress potential if we don't have an efficient photographer :). 

The time with the magazine ladies took less time than we expected.  So we were just sitting in our house all dressed up.  What's a family to do in a time like this?  How about go out to eat?!?!  That's just what we did. It's kind of a rare luxury to go out ALL TOGETHER, so we were quite excited. We went to a brand new Chinese buffet down the road, and it was soooo good. Beautiful and delicious food, and charming companions.  How rich are we to have each other?

Home

This song...oh my word!  THIS is music.  It's a super powerful song. At least it is for my family in the season we're in.  We love to take secular music and find the redemptive value in it.  Some music just isn't worthy of being 'time well wasted,' but a lot of it can be super encouraging.   

Another happy thought: the first 100 copies of my EP were delivered to my casa today!  Anybody want me to mail you one?  LOL.  No seriously.   It will be available on iTunes and CD baby by mid-January.  New of EP release party coming soon! 

This Tiny Little Person

I am sitting on my bed with a lovely little person in my lap.  As scrumptious as she is, this new found skill of poking my eyes and pulling my hair is not my favorite.  She's grown waaay too much over the last few weeks, which I have mixed emotions about, and she has quite a sassy personality that is openly displayed daily :).  This week, especially, her "sin nature" has entered the picture, and the easy breezy days of infancy are behind us.  No longer is she simply an innocent little angel.  She knows what she's not allowed to play with, and those are the things that she wants the most.  Ahhh, the nature of our humanity.  It makes me grateful for God's grace, because He's gotta get fed up sometimes, don't ya think?  How He consistently shows grace is beyond me.

This picture is only one of the many examples of the messes she is capable of making :).  Craziness!  

This little munch is life to me when I'm struggling.  Her laughter and sugary smile makes it all feel worth it!  Cherish these days with the little ones in your world, all you who are richly blessed in this way, as I am.  Before you know it, you're gonna blink and they'll be "too big", and you'll wonder where the time went!  I spend my days with many other precious peeps, who aren't as tiny as this one, but are just as dear.  I have made it one of my goals in life (a necessary goal) to make them feel just as loved and wanted.

Belated Christmas Post

I know.  I'm late.  It's already 2013 and I'm just now writing about Christmas LAST year.  Life... :)

This year we broke tradition a bit. We didn't go to sleep on Christmas Eve awaiting all of the presents brought by "Mommy and Daddy Santa Clause" the next morning.  Instead, we celebrated the 12 Days of Christmas.  Every day we exchanged a certain amount of gifts or did something fun as a family, rather than opening ALL of the presents to and from 11 people at once.  It was much less stressful, and I enjoyed the holidays so much more than I have in past years!  Winter is my favorite time of the year, but with it comes the craziness of the holidays.  Doing this new way of celebrating Christmas allows us to enjoy each other and savor this time as a big 'ol family all living in the same house, while it lasts!

Christmas socks and jammies :)

For one of Mom's big presents from Daddy, we all went to City Church International in downtown Dallas.  CCI is a family integrated church in that we were a part of before we moved to Waxahachie, and the drive became impractical.  The candlelight service is always so beautiful.  It was my favorite part of Christmas this year.  We got to be with 'tribal' friends who live far away, dear friends we don't get to see very often.  It was so refreshing to be with people who totally get our lifestyle.

Romans, Ruizes, Weirs...so precious to all of us :)

11 stockings hanging on our awesome Victorian fireplace.  It was broken all last winter, and we had it repaired just in time for the cold weather, which makes me very happy.  Life is good in this home.