Resolution vs.Reformation

One more day and we enter into a new year. If you are anything like me looking back into the mirror of 2007 you can see the smudges and sparkles in the reflections, the good and the bad of the year and you feel the things that come with all of them. It is in view now, the new year, and the possiblities that we see are endless and filled with all that is good. We are given an hope and an opportunity to start fresh, to wipe all those old smudges away and begin fresh. This year let us not resolve to do things differently in the New Year but let us decide to reform our lives, to change for the better, for Christ. To.. look carefully how we walk through this year, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of time, because the days are evil... and constantly walking by the Spirit... and not gratifying the desires of our flesh. (Galatians 5:16-17, Ephesians 5:15-16) So wipe those smudges of 2007 away and remember the sparkles.

Don't forget what the Lord did in 2007, hold on to those like precious gems. He has plans for us in 2008! Big plans, plans not to prosper you or to give you a good life with not hardships but plans to use you for His Kingdom, for His eternal purposes that you can not fathom. In 2008 He will provide you will all that you will need in every circumstance, in the physical and in the spiritual and in the emotional for He has already provided His only begotton Son and His promises are solid.

Today reform your life by...

Trust(ing) in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding . In all your ways acknoledge Him and He will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5 and praying, Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Psa 25:4 Refrom your life by living your life not for yourself but for Christ.

Go to His word and allow Him to teach you His paths that He desire for you to walk in. Enjoy reading these resolutions that were for this man of God a reformation of his life. Also, why not Turn up the Music with Point of Grace...

Walk... in Love

Expresso got a call this afternoon and all I heard was: "We don't have any plans" and "Sure, yeah man that sounds great" or something to that effect. In my mind I just knew it was a friend of his asking to see if he was free to hang out. I was ready, waiting for him to come ask me if it was okay if he go "hang out" and I was fighting myself inside of how I was going to handle it with grace or with jealous anger. He approached me and before he could get a word out I uttered: "What?" with a tone of aggitation. What I got was a hard slap in the face, not literally, he said a friend had arranged for a babysitter for us so that we could go eat with them and some others. My jealous anger and aggitation slowly faded away and was replaced with relief, then excitement and then guilt. The Lord is good to us even though we so don't deserve it, which is always.

It was a wonderful time of fellowship with good people and good friends. The conversation roamed everywhere from the funny to the ridiculous to the slightly more serious. Their weren't a whole lot of serious talk. We just got home a few minutes ago and put all of the littles to bed.

Going back to my attitudy earlier, I don't want to behave that way. I can't tell you how many inner battles I fight on a daily basis against this flesh I live in. Life is precious and my family is it right behind my Saviour. They are the most amazing people that fill me with a special JOY that can be found no where else, it is a unique JOY that only they hold in their smiles, eyes, laughs, hugs and kisses, in their hands and in their hearts. Love is all I desire to give them, love is all I desire to display, love is all I desire to speak to them and love is all they desire from me. When my dear hard working husband wants to go "hang out" I desire to display my love for him in my attitude towards his request for some time instead of displaying my ungrateful heart reflections onto him and denying him something that would give him rest and enjoyment. Instead of thinking about how I will be left alone for hours with out him to tend to the children Oh how I could be thinking what a wonderful time he could have away being encouraged and come home to love and how I could spend those hours alone with the children showing them love.

It is not an easy thing to overcome. It is not easy to think this way when you are overcome with feelings of loneliness, it is hard to overcome self. To hang onto love. To find JOY in being alone. To enjoy time with your children even though the responsibilty is high and hard. To love those closet around you even when you don't feel good. To keep your focus on the Cross when the idle of self rises up.

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 5:2

Be Quiet first in Worship

"Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, ‘above all that we ask or think’. Each time, before you Intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!" ~ Andrew Murray

We're all a little Cooky!

We will begin another round of homeschool on Monday. I can not wait to get started again, Growing Minds of Wisdom. In honor of the beginning of our 2008 Homeschool year I give you this video:

Doctor's Visit

I snapped a few pictures of our Butterfly with my phone while she was seen by the doctor. She was amazing. Making faces at the doctor and nurse and sucking her little thumb. Sweet baby girl.

If you ask her, "Where's your bo-bo on your arm?" She will point at it with her little pointer finger, it is so cute!

Farewell Christmas 2007

The days of December have quickly passed along and the new year approaches with it's lingering presence, just days away. I can feel it breathing down my neck. I will miss another year transfered into my memory and I long for the newness of another. 2008. We spent our week before Christmas visiting with family in Louisiana. Unfortunetly on our trip into La. we experienced a tragedy with Butterfly. After a few hours of driving with heavy eye lids we stop for a breather and some coffee. A few minutes at the table of a restaurant and our beautiful Butterfuly found my cup of very hot coffee. We were unaware that she was in reaching distance of the cup until in a split second. One second we were all laughing and about to enjoy our road trip break and the next we were frantically rushing to the hospital where we found out she had second degree burns on her forearm of her right arm. We were devasted that she was in so much pain and in guilt for some how allowing it to happen. We praised God though that it was not much worse such as her face or all over her body, it was a big cup and it soaked her jeans and sweat shirt. God is good. The incident we know had a purpose and we trusted God in it, though we may not fully understand why these things happen. The rest of the trip went smoothly and she was given the strength to endure her injury with no signs of pain or discomfort at all, again praise God!

While we were in Louisiana we were able to visit with many family members and just enjoy them. Unfortunetly my side of the family had to cancel on us for medical reasons and we were all really disappointed with that. We were also extremely blessed to visit with some friends as well... one of my closet friends and let me tell you that there is no one friendship like hers. We enjoyed a fabulous time of shopping together.

Monday, also known as my birthday and the day before Christmas or Christmas Eve, we were on the road again. We left Louisiana at 11:45 and walked in our door at 7:30 completely exhausted but anxious about our family celebration of Christmas. Christmas day was a BLAST! The Littles loved all of their gifts, of course! and we had so much playing together with them. We then were so blessed to spend an amazing time of fellowship with our close friends for dinner. Praise God that He brought us all together on such a special day.

And now we are back to reality... bills to pay, books to return to the library, homeschooling planning for next week, a house to straigten, clean, declutter and organize, loans to tackle, new habits to form, resolutions to make, lists to conquer, cars to clean and register, old toys to dispose of and new toys to embrace, laundry to do, meals to plan and sleep to get. Oh, it's good to be home, :0).

JOYfully in Him,
Kelli

Family Traveling and Shocking Message

I can't believe it is already Monday! How depressing how time flies by me. Last Wednesday we found out that a close relative of my husband's passed away unexpectidly and so were detoured in our original plans. We packed up to attend her funeral and to remember her beautiful servants heart. I sat and listened to her mother in law our great grandma reflect on her kindness and generousity with her time and love, it was encouraging to me. Hearts were broken at her absence but joyful at her presence somewhere else. We are now in Lake Charles Louisiana visiting with family. We had a wonderful time at Starbucks with a cousin and her husband just discussing God, religon, adoption, and family. I don't know if I told you but God, on the day their baby was taken away, blessed them with the news that they were pregnant! She was not suppose to be able to get pregnant, I am always so amazed at His way of revealing His glory. He has always in our lives waited till the last possible minute when it is either assumed immpossible or unheard and then miraculously He shows himself. All praise and glory is His!

The other night Expresso and I watched an amazing sermon that I must share. We had never heard of this guy or his ministry but a friend told Expresso to watch a video of him speaking at a youth conference, that it was shocking. So of course say no more we were on the computer at 11:00 that night and what we heard was more than what we were expecting and probably one of the most heartfelt and bold speaches we have ever listened to. Here take a look for yourself:

Winter Fun

Winter just can't seem to make up his mind whether or not he wants to stay or not, I think he has cold feet.... :0). I love the crisp cold air when I open the door in the morning. It is so refreshing after a hot summer. If you are looking for somethings to do while you stay indoors from the blistering cold or while you continue to wait for him to arrive may I suggest grabbing some white paper or tissue paper, a puzzle, some glue, some crayons and some scissors and enjoy some family time with these:

Snowflake Designs : Have little ones that can't cut yet? don't fear they have printable flakes to color.
A Snowflake Treat: I was pleasanty impressed with these, very good and easy!!
Wintery Christmas puzzle: as easy or hard as you would like it to be.
Dress a Snowman
Starfall Snowman : really cute
Paper Mache Snowman: cute but more difficult than I am willing to do, but maybe you are more super of a mom than me :0)
Snowman Dress up easy: we did this, super easy and cute
Sock Snowman: cute, we wanted to do this and were going to use cotton balls instead of rice. You can also just use markers for the littler ones instead of glueing small pieces.

*I really wanted to make a lot of snowflakes and put them on our van's window for our traveling adventure but I don't think we are going to accomplish that, but it was a good idea. If it is cold out grab a hot cup of coffee or cocoa and just enjoy your time together! I am hoping that we can do this when we get home from traveling.

Christmas Gift Tags

We are dreaming of a white Christmas along with the Drifters :0). We *LOVE* this song, when it comes on the radio we all jump with excitement and run to find the remote to turn it up. We then preceed to dance around the house lip singing, we have the example of Kevin Arnold to blame for our insane behavior and the Drifters. Hope you enjoy it along with us!!

I don't really want to spend any extra money on gift tags this year so I decided to make our own. I found tons of tags online, here are my favorites:

Jan Brett
A Kids Heart
Debbie Dawn
Cute Shapes Tags or Ornaments
Pretty Tags
Victorian Tags
Koala's Christmas Tags
Suess Ville Gift Tags (my personal favorite)
ABC Teach BW Tags (color them yourself, cute)
More BW Tags
Assorted Tags

We are going to use the Suesse Ville Tags, those are way to cute to pass up and the kids will love them!

Family Reflections

We have been faithful to our peaceful walks through the lineage of Christ in our Jesse Tree devotions thus far. It will become more difficult as we begin our our journey out of town next Friday, where the celebration of Christs' birth in Christmas is appalling to some and where time will be frantic and chaotic. I had a full nights rest with just a few Butterfly interruptions, she has a cough that keeps her up at night and miserable during the day. This morning I woke up in a disgusted attitude not quite ready to face the demands of the day but thankfully I was led to spend some quiet time in His presence for the strength needed to make it through this day with my sanity still in tact and smiles left on my littles faces. I knew that I desperately needed to be spiritually nourished this morning with the attitude that I was in and the days agenda on my mind along with having a little sick Butterfly to show lots of extra attention, love, sweet kisses and special lulaby dances.

The Nativity play last night was AWESOME. All of the little actors and actresses gave a phenominal performance. The background I worked on till 5:30 was satisfactory and really added the dramatic effect we were hoping for. I have to say though that the experience of getting it up on the wall was less than fun in my personal opinion, and you would say so to had you been the one to stand on a not so stable stable that was not meant to hold 120 something pound woman and stand on a way to tall wobbly ladder with lots of reaching. Superman nervously said his line with magnificent cuteness and execution, I was a very proud mom.

I am determined to have a great day not matter what decides to come my way. It is cold outside just like I like it and am excited about that. The boys are making crayon spidermen and Butterfly is asleep. I need to get our Christmas cards out in the mail today tomorrow, finish washing and folding the evil laundry and then at 3:00 we have a doctor appointment for our sick beautful girl. Less than excited about that but hopeful for some guidance on how to help releave and kill this cough. Gifts! We have many fun gifts to make for family this week, how fun is that going to be? To much!! :0) I have so many pictures to share with all of you of the things we have made and the fun we have been having as we celebrate but my camera usb cable connection is broke and so is Walmarts machines so hopefully soon.

What time is it?

What a WONDERFUL week, FULL and BUSY, but wonderful all the same! Christmas has my mind churning with many thoughts of contentment and discontentment and the motivation that drives me through each day.... I hope to share more later.



Let me paint the scene at my house right now just for kicks... it is 3:11am and I am (obviously) still awake and it is Saturday night, NO it is Sunday morning! :0) The tv is on keeping me company, the Christmas tree lights dancing in the living room, all little ones are sleeping and I am painfully still holding my eyes open against their will. Dark navy blue paper, scissors, tape, rulers, pencils and paper weights lay on my kitchen floor awaiting me to finish their design. Me, the MAJOR procrastinator, has found herself cramming into a few hours what must be done by tomorrow for 100's to gaze upon. I completely underestimated the amount of time that I would take to complete this project. My little Superman is Wiseman #1 (and is nervous) in our Nativity play tomorrow evening and I was asked to create a back drop to add a little more dramatic essence to the scene. I was excited to do it and still am but am beating myself up once again for my outrageous lack of organization with my time. I always think that I will beable to start something at the last possible minute and finish it in plenty of time... and I always find myself right here in stressful agony. It is now 3:27 and my continual procrastination is leading me further down it's miserable path...

Preperations

We are anxiously yet patiently awaiting the cominging of Christmas, the celebration of Christ our Saviours birth. We have spent the day creating many new decorations for our humble home and many JOYous memories to look back on in the years to come. Our tree is up and decorated though I feel something is missing. Christmas cards are on the table ready to be written with love and sent with anticipation of their arrival. Jesse Trees sit on the floor from moments ago when we all gathered as a family to prepare our minds for the coming of our Lord in a manger. Hot glue guns are still warm from little hands creating their masterpeices from nature. Our advent wreath sits in the middle our living room waiting for it's candles. Thoughts are still lingering of capturing many more moments like these and banking them for eternally lasting JOY satisfying memories. Tomorrow awaits us to experience it's freshness and adventures of daily living together, I can't wait! Our Expresso, whom we have missed so much behind all of the papers and books, is taking a day off to just be with us.

Note: no news on the adoption, all is the same and we are still praying.

Praying in the Word

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. ~James 5:16

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ~1 Thessalonians 5:9

Continue to pray...