A man A boy A fish....

This is another picture of my wonderful husband fishing with Cullen...
He spends the time needed to build relationships with our children..
He is an incrediable father and I don't stop enough to give him praise, not that he
ask for it or needs it like I do sometimes. He just lives life not wasting a second
building memories with our kids.

With father's day approaching I want him to know how much I appreciate the Lord
bringing him into my life.

Are you on target do you need alittle help from your father?

Tucker is trying to get a boyscout merit badge in rifle shooting. It's alot of work.Scott has been setting up a target and working with him alittle every other day so that he can get the practice he needs to earn the badge.
As I sit on my mommie perch and watch my sweet man come home from along day at the office and take the time to help each child put ear plugs in and take on the 'right' form to be able to hit their target...I'm in awe.I love the way this mans hands gently guides our children into the right position. This is alot like the way he parents..Gently guiding and just setting them up to hit their target when their older.
....Always reminding them of their target or their goal....
To carry on the torch for Christ...He says "I don't want you to just carry the torch I want you to pass it to your kids.."
So we should set up target training for our children every day and gently guide those little souls to keep their eyes on the Lord....
I can see through Scott how the Lord surely is so gentle and patient and loving with us.


"Train up a child in the way he should go:and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

My front yard.

I was driving up the drive-way and this view of my front yard made me stop and take it all in. I love this land we live on it's so rich with the past.The trees seems to tell a story about long ago if only we would stop and listen.

I read a quote from a book I'm reading it said
"We are meant to be grown in ground that is rich with the bones, and the blood, and the voices of our ancestors."
I believe we have alittle of all of that on this property.
We have trees that were planted over 80 years ago by Scott's great uncle Steve, the remnants of his once thriving orchard still bear today. My kids eat the apples that they once ate themselves...Their fruit is still bearing....
Aunt Sara's flowers she had around their home comes up every year they seem to multiply. They always remind me of her and yet I've never met her but somehow she still lives all over this land.She left her fingerprints everywhere..I know she loved roses...
I pray that when I've been dead 45 years our fruit and the flowers that we are planting in our children's hearts will still be in full bloom and have multiplied....
I pray my finger-prints can still be seen by my great great grand-children. I hope and pray they can still see the rich soil of our Lord and Saviour growing where my finger-prints were..On my children's heart.

A simple box.....

Sometimes in our life things are not what they appear. For example a box..To you and I it may not seem like much but to our children it was hours of simple play..
I just need to remember that life may seem difficult for me right now but it's not what it appears because it's God's plan and he sees it differently.He holds the big picture and he knows whats best for us always. So I will continue..and rejoice as I travel these roads of hardship...I'm not the only one going through trials in this life..Our trials are small compared to others.Someone asked me at church today if my life has always been this crazy and I had to laugh because I don't enjoy the trials we have been through but our life has been a bit unpredictable lately. I have enjoyed quieter times that's for sure but on the other hand my faith in my Heavenly Father has grown. If I was still living that quiet life with no hardships I wouldn't have clung so tightly to His hand.We all endure trying times and this just happens to be our season...God is Faithful and for that I'm forever grateful.
Thanks for your prayers...

As for God, His way is perfect.
Psalm 18:30

Please pray for my dad.. As of last night they called in the family for my dad.
They say that he only has a 10% chance of making it.My heart is so heavy for my father.
I was told by everyone not to go see him because he was talking out of his head and only weighed 108lbs and that he didn't want anyone to see him like that. I have prayed alot and asked the Lord for wisdom and direction. This morning I got his number at the hospital and thought well maybe a nurse is in there and they will answer the phone I dialed and on the third ring that familier voice says hello."hey dad" "hey priss""how are you""not to good""I want to come see you dad but I don't wont to if you don't want me up there""I would love to see you Rob"
I called Scott and he is on the way home to go with me.
As I get the kids settled and get ready I feel the deep emotions coming on.
I HURT in the pit of my stomach for him.Why did he choose this path.
Please pray that I can pour out unconditionlal love and forgiveness on him may he see
God in me......

Do you think you're the captain of your ship?

Isaiah 28:12. Of God the prophet Isaiah wrote, "He said, 'This is a resting place, let the weary rest'; and, 'This is a place of repose' - but they would not listen." Here's a little of what followed (originally written by Charles Spurgeon):

"Why do you worry? What possible use does your worrying serve? You are aboard such a large ship that you would be unable to steer even if your Captain placed you at the helm. You would not even be able to adjust the sails, yet you worry as if you were the captain or the helmsman of the vessel. Be quiet, dear soul - God is the Master! Do you think all the commotion and the uproar of this life is evidence that God has left His throne? He has not! His mighty steeds rush furiously ahead, and His chariots are the storms themselves. (Pause, Siestas, and hear the sound of those mighty steeds in your spirit. Feel their hoof-beats pound in your chest. He's on His mighty way!) But the horses have bridles, and it is God who holds the reins, guiding the chariots as He wills! Our God Jehovah is still the Master! Believe this and you will have peace. 'Don't be afraid' (Matt. 14:27)."

My favorite line: "You are aboard such a large ship that you would be unable to steer even if your Captain placed you at the helm." So, we might as well stop trying. Anyway, with the best intentions we'd steer that Titanic smack into the next iceberg with all our loved ones on board. You don't let your two-year old steer the car no matter how she might kick and scream from the backseat. God's too wise to let our control issues work out for us. If we keep insisting, He might let us give it a hand for a while but, sooner or later, we'll hit the iceberg. And the iceberg is He.

Regardless of how convinced we are, God has not placed us in control of our environments nor are we responsible for how everyone is behaving or how things will turn out. He is still God and, yes, even over "this," whatever your "this" may be. His, Beloved Siestas, is a LARGE SHIP. Something much bigger than we can picture is going on from a God's-eye view. Our trials are allowed so that Christ may be formed in us and then, through us, serve that greater purpose. Worry always and only forms thicker flesh in us and weights us down until we cannot walk where the Spirit would take us.

I've come to learn from God that worry is a waving red flag to the enemy. It is a dead giveaway that the person owning it does not trust God. The shield of faith is down. So fire when ready. Every time we're tempted to take it all on and worry something to death, let's say aloud from the depths of our souls, "I choose to trust You, Lord. I choose trust. I choose You."

( I borrowed this from Beth Moore's blog)


I just loved this.....

Feeling like I need someone to push me.

I'm feeling rather low lately as I deal with the sickness of my father.
You know the little girl who was supposed to have grown up years ago( that would be me)
has suddenly come back..I guess every little girl comes back when her dad is doing poorly.My tears will not stop and my memories of my childhood flood every space in my mind. I want to make all of this better for him but I can't. All I can do is stand at a distance. I want him to be better so that the dream I had of him one day making things right between us would come true, but I'm afraid I would be surely disappointed. The years have come and gone between us and there have been no words spoken that has righted the wrongs. I had convinced myself that he surely just does not care but I will not believe this.
I'm feeling rather tired of dealing with death. Not knowing if when the phone rings if it will be "the phone call".I just keep climbing up in my Heavenly Fathers arms and he keeps whispering in my ear that He is in control of everything and that He will push me. .

Oh Lord don't let me waste my life.

I have heard the countless stories of people that say "your family must have alot of love to be able to have so many children" I have to admit that I'm kinda saddened by that statement. They go on to say that they could NEVER do that and how special we are.
Well, our family is not special in the sense they are talking, sure my family is special to me but in God's eyes we are just living out what He has told us to do in His word.
We are opening our home and giving a child a deserved chance in a decent happy God fearing home. Why do people get so comfortable in their routine that they can't open their home or their heart to a child in need...
If every Christian family would adopt one orphan then most of our orphan crisis would go away. Instead they pat us on the back and tell us keep up the good work. They have all kinda of excuses on why they could never do it including, I just don't have time to raise another child. I want to scream from the roof tops of million dollar churches that we had better get our priorities straight. We have time for sports and shopping and we have money for the good life but we will not allow our self the inconvenience of having a child in our home to raise and to nurture and to accept. We close ourselves off and talk about how bad the world has become and yet do nothing to help...I want my family to hold all the children that God will allow us to hold. When I get to the end of my life I want to be able to have all the faces of my children around me red, yellow, black, white and know that I didn't waste my life........I may be poor as dirt from raising them all but I hope that the Legacy I leave behind is "She was the mother of many and she didn't waste a minute"..(that's because I don't have a minute)ha!

I want to encourage anyone reading this to open your home and your heart to a child.
It may not be possible to adopt but there are hurting children in your neighborhood.
There are countless single mothers that need some help...Just make a difference......

"Say not you cannot gladden, elevate, and set free; that you have nothing of the grace of influence; that all you have to give is at the most only common bread and water. Give yourself to your Lord for the service of men with what you have. Cannot He change water into wine? Cannot He make stammering words to be instinct with saving power? God has need of thee for the service of thy fellow men. He has a work for thee to do. To find out what it is, and then to do it, is at once thy supremist duty and thy highest wisdom. 'Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it" (Canon Geroge Body,b 1840)

Pictures of our last two weeks...Wow!!