Birthdays and more

I'm not doing very well keeping up with my sketchbook project. I am now about 2 weeks behind schedule, which makes me a little nervous. I'm hoping that I will be able to catch up during my trip to California for my grandmother's 80th birthday. If I work it right, I will have a wide variety of models to choose from and that might actually help me complete it faster. That is, if the baby cooperates during our trip.

My youngest doesn't sleep very well away from home. I'm dreading flying with him. I have no idea how he will behave. This is the only way that I could talk my husband into letting me take this trip, so I'm kinda stuck with the little guy. I am thankful that I didn't get stuck on any red eye flights, since other passengers seem to handle a fussy baby better during the day. I am also thankful that I will be staying with family members who have had kids and are now grandparents, so they know what it's like and have a good sense of humor about these things. That should come in handy when he is up all night crying! I'm thinking about trying to drug him on the flights! Okay, not really, but I could try benadryl.... I'm not that comfortable with it though. Anyone ever tried Gripe water? Think it would help on the airplane? Any homeopathic remedies to try? If you have any other suggestions, now is the time!Liam climbing up a box in the kitchen, before he could walk; Liam in the bottom of a serving cart.

In just a few weeks, the little one will be one whole year old! He is quite the little handful, but we adore him anyway :) In just a matter of 2 weeks, he has gone from taking one or two timid steps, to climbing and walking everywhere! I kid you not, this kid keeps me on my toes!
I'm looking forward to cake and cousins and all the fun that comes along with a first birthday. I'm thinking a pumpkin cake! We've done chocolate, red velvet, banana, (all for first birthdays) so I think that this will be a nice change for our little fall baby. Maybe something like this:



Of course, it wouldn't say "Preston", it would say "Liam". I'm sure that I have mentioned that we call him our lion (he's loud, he's ferocious, he thinks he's in charge...). Our nursery, that is not quite finished, will be decorated in a lion theme eventually. Anyway, first birthdays are so much fun! 80th birthdays are quite remarkable and to make it to over 100, well that's just something really special! I feel blessed to get to be present at so many special birthdays this year :) Take care!

Tabernacle with me for a moment

Sukkot has come and gone. I'm a little sad and a little thankful. Sad that it is over and our time "tabernacling" together has come to an end, but soooo thankful to be home and have a day (or two) to sit in my pajamas and let the kids be vegetables!


The kids took mini courses during the week. They built a "Sukkah", a dwelling, and had class in it one day!

The Feast of Tabernacles is a time for God's people (yep, even you) to join together for one week, vacating their lives and homes, to remember God coming to tabernacle (dwell) with the children of Israel in the desert. It is also a time for us to recognize the Son coming to tabernacle with us! In both occurences, the Israelites needed to see and know God, to experience His love first hand and to get personal with Him. Its important to remember that even though the children of Israel were disobedient and complaining and difficult to discipline, God stuck with them throughout the whole 40 years! He didn't leave, He didn't walk them to the edge of the Jordan and point the way and then let them go on ahead without Him. NO, He went across FIRST! What He SAID, He was and He did!

John 1:14 says that the Word (God's spoken knowledge!) became flesh and dwelt among us. When God came as a man, Yeshua, it was again to help us see Him, love Him, hear Him, obey Him and get personal with Him. Then, being crucified, He came back, being the first to cross back from death and into life! He lead the way, and since then, His Spirit has dwelled with us, never leaving us. How awesome is that?! It is certainly worth celebrating and I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to be with other believers during this appointed festival.

Some of our collective children; Kids outside, being kids!

This past week was fun and exhausting. The children were great. I'm really impressed with how well they held up, 11-13 children on any given day, together from breakfast thru dinner. There were tears, but there was laughter in abundance. Friendships were strengthened. I hope the adults feel like they got some of that this week too. I know I did.

Despite all the blessings, I have been struggling with one thing. There is a person in my fellowship that just rubs me the wrong way constantly. I know I am called to love even those I don't like, but this has been especially trying. I am ashamed to admit how much anger I have toward this person, but I know that you will pray for me. Pray for me to have grace and exceeding patience. I have had one fairly well handled confrontation with this person and another not so well handled interaction. It's humiliating, but not in a spiritually humbling way. Its a humiliation that comes from letting a weaker opponent get your goat. One that sparks my desire to retaliate, to tear this person down. I want to put on my battle armor and march in with swords ablaze! However, I know this is not what the Lord would have me do, at least not now. This is where genuine humility comes in, knowing that my God can see the ugly things in my heart. There may come a day when I can speak against the things that have this person ensnared and doing evil, but for now I have to try to speak life and not death, even for this person. That's a hard thing for this warrior to do :)