I am not a fan of facial hair, especially moustaches. BUT, I do love the message of Movember.
I pray that your man raised some money for prostate cancer and got their prostate checked if they are over 50 (Can it hurt to do it earlier?) or having difficulty urinating.
Quote from JC, “You look funny!” Funny for a cause – way to go Sexy Neck!
Isn’t this a strange photo today? This symbolizes my life at this particular moment.
Another symbol that I am reminded of is the verse in Luke where the woman had been bleeding for twelve years (I have been living in my current town for 12 years!!!), anyways, she came up behind Jesus and touched his cloak and immediately her bleeding stopped.
I am bleeding with my need to control the future and relive the mistakes of my past! I think things are going to go a certain way, but then “inconvenient” things happen – Sexy Neck tears his Achilles, my son is up all night, another son gets sick, someone says something negative to me and we uproot our entire life to move closer to my husband’s work. (These are just a few ‘recent’ events!)
The photo above was a symbol of my difficulty towards facing inconvenient events and my need to reach for Jesus’s cloak on this very day!
Last night, I put my purse on the brown chair. This morning, I could not find it anywhere. I relived every moment of yesterday trying to figure out if it was lost or stolen. I felt sick and was almost in tears all morning, as my Freitag purse is very sentimental but also contained many valuable things.
I waited til I picked up Sexy Neck from work then shared that I thought I lost my purse. How inconvenient! He simply responded – I think I put it up on a cupboard so that the boys wouldn’t get in it. Checkout the photo. Whew!
I realized that losing my purse was no big deal, but my response sure was! When inconvenient things happen, I need to keep my eyes UP to Jesus who can heal me and help me.
I need to realize that “Inconveniences are opportunities!”
P.S. Did you notice the little white toilet screw cover on the shelf? Our wee baby loves to take them off all and move them all over the house – inconvenient or opportunity?
When certain friends recommend books, I know that I should order the book from the library. (I love my library!)
BUT when Ang recommends a book I know that I have to get my hands on it! I normally buy 2 or 3 books per year and when Ang recommended the book Daring Greatly I had it in my hands within the week via Amazon.
The subtitle of the book is “How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead”.
I am on chapter 3, but I have to share the excerpt I read yesterday while I jump up and down. Here it is:
“As I explained in the introduction, there are many tenets of Wholeheartedness, but at its very core is vulnerability and worthiness: facing uncertainty, exposure, and emotional risks, and knowing that I am enough.”
DID YOU READ THAT? Yes more encouragement that I am enough!!
I love God.
“Coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous!”
Tis the Season of Rushing… I am starting to feel things rev up inside of me as the calendar becomes packed up and the to-do-list gets longer.
Thank God for the insight of children.
We were playing at the playground last week and JC looked across the lake and exclaimed: “There is a piece of heaven!” Here is the photo I took of what JC was looking at:
Amid the storm that often brews for people during this season, the light of God shines through.
I am definitely in the eye of a storm. I need to keep focused on His light and His love and His ways.
Tomorrow is week two of living 60 kilometres down the lake. When our family of five was staying in this lovely basement suite beside the vineyard, I felt calm and relaxed. But this weekend, we stepped back into our life and I feel confused trying to figure “things” out and I feel ‘harried’.
I am reminded of a saying that I heard when I first became a Christian because I definitely can’t figure this one out.
“Let Go and Let God.”
At our house we have stolen the term “blue jobs” and “pink jobs” from our friend Penny!
Sexy Neck and I used to have tension, well really we argued, about who should do what around the house. About ten years ago, we sat down and talked about what each of us liked to do then we divided up the “leftovers”. It is a great system to know who is making dinner, doing dishes and a scooping the poop – no discussion it just gets done….. Until you partner tears their Achilles!
In the last four weeks, the pink AND the blue jobs have fallen into my hands.
Today, Sexy Neck even asked me to get up on the roof to clean out the gutters. WHAT? You have to do that! So, here goes the girl who does not like heights up onto the roof! Don’t worry I enlisted a five year olds help and Sexy Neck was supervising from the lawn.
Sexy Neck even gave me a compliment that I have never heard before and sealed it with a kiss: “Now that is a nice looking roof!”
I may have to get up there again next year!
This is a little post for my dear friend Ang, who would never, ever eat cookie dough!
I absolutely love cookie dough, even more than eating a baked cookie.
Yes, I do know that there is raw eggs in the dough, but I figure that certain people eat cupfuls of raw eggs, so it must be okay. At least I include a little butter, sugar, flour, and other things with my raw eggs.
My boys have learned to love to bake with me. I never really baked until I had children, well I never really cooked to tell you the truth! I heated things up.
Now, when I tell my boys that we are going to make cookies, muffins, popcorn they come running, grab their stokke chairs and push them up to the counter. Our middle guy CC is beside the fridge grabbing the milk, eggs, and butter and our big boy is beside the bowl getting ready to add the dry ingredients. It is an amazing time! They take turns mixing and, of course, when it is all done, they each take turns have a taste of the cookie dough. They take licks of the beaters, they sneak their fingers into the dough and they even get spoonfuls sometimes.
We were surprised the other day when our youngest, non-walking baby boy, climbed up, pushed his way between his two big brothers and reached for the dough.
Yes, Ang, we start them young around here!
My cousin, my friend, and one of the people I most admire in the world lives in Spain with her Spanish husband and two little boys. Let me introduce her:
You can find out more about this chicky micky lady at: notsospanish.wordpress.com
Every summer she makes the humongous trek across the Atlantic with her boys, stroller and only ONE suitcase! She comes with her Canadian heart and her Spanish lifestyle. The one thing that always surprises her is how much sugar is in our packaged food, including cereal and granola bars.
This summer she encouraged me to start making my own granola.
Now once per month, I pull out the ingredients and make it. It is incredible and my boys love it. Every time, we make it the boys like to try putting in new things and the flavour changes. Today we added clove. We will see what happens.
I wish I could make it once per week like my Jedi-Foodie friend, Diana, but I am not quite there yet!
PS. The spoon I made in woodworking in Grade 8!
Sexy Neck and I both have Physical Education/Human Kinetics degrees, so when our poor first child was born we had lengthy conversations about which activities we felt were essential for a North American lad.
We decided that the athletic skills that are a challenge to learn, but provide a solid foundation for other sports had to be first.
The WINNERS ARE:
Every year our children will take a lesson, from a “professional” in each of these pursuits. I realized tonight that the boys did all of these things this week! I love being intentional about something and seeing it happen.
I must admit, besides the lessons, there is also an awful lot of living room skating, bedroom gymnastics and tidal waves in the bathtub! I now completely understand the making of Jackass the Movie.
"Be" ENOUGH 