sevenchicks

circumstances

 by photochick~  I'm having the hardest time writing this blog post. I'm usually more articulate in the middle of the night when my thoughts have time to gel in the still and quiet of dark. Not tonight.

I'm not sure what I even want to say except that I read this quote today from a Jesus Culture blog:

"Despite your circumstances, are you expecting His spectacular power to invade the deepest corners of your innermost being?"

The deepest corners. Do WE even look in those deepest corners?

The move we undertook two years ago now was a difficult one for me. Leaving Courts of Praise was sooooooo excrutiatingly hard. While I went to church all of my life, this is the church where I made the spiritual move from a girl to a woman. Where I had to learn to stand on my own two feet.It is where my foundation was shattered, and rebuilt, and strengthened time and time again. This is the church where I struggled to cope with the loss of two children in my family. Where I crashed and burned and was renewed again.

It was hard. The years there. The leaving.

As I now prepare to enter my third year as a teacher, this time of year always marks for me when I left my comfort zone. In hindsight the move seems so obviously the right thing to do. Two years ago in the middle of a two day window to make the decision, it seemed so impossible. We cried. And Cried. And cried some more.

Are things perfect? Of course not. Has it been easy? Of course not. But it is exceedingly and abundantly more and more clear every day that this is where we have been planted. In my case, as a seventh grade science teacher. Go figure. You would have to know me to really appreciate that irony. Starting with the fact that both of my parents are teachers and the only thing I KNEW when I graduated was that I DID NOT want to be a teacher. Interpolate that to the necessity to go back to school despite a Master's degree and returning to a salary of a 21 year old. It's becoming more clear. As I said in my last post, it makes no sense in the natural.

So there is apparently really no purpose for this post. Perhaps it is simply my marking my staff of remembrance (Shout out long time Courts of Praisers!). There is nothing particularly serious going on in my life. There are no seemingly insurmountable circumstances. Yet, I am uncannily drawn to that quote. Because there are always circumstances. Circumstances that would keep us from what God has called us to be.

Don't let them.

biblical blessings

 by photochick~ I realized after writing about my baby boy's dedication and the blessing that we spoke over both of our children, that some of you may not be familiar with the biblical foundation of pronouncing blessings and might wonder why we did this. Here is an excerpt of a study about scriptural blessings.

"Blessing our children is pat of a rich biblical heritage. In the Old Testament, fathers regularly pronounced blessings on their children (see Gen. 27:26-29, 39-40, 49:1-28). As New Testament believers and priests of god (1 Pet. 2:9), one of our privileges is to bless others. When we invoke God's name over His people, God blesses them (see Num 6:22-27)."

I do my best to do this each day verbally. In my heart is simply me saying "God, I trust you with these children.  want your will alone for their lives and you alone are the giver of all good gifts."

In one of my Goodwill book buys I found an awesome children's book entitled "I'd Choose You!" It is a story of blessing in a little elephant family and in a note to parents further explains blessing your children. While not a formula, here's what they lay out as a simplistic way to speak blessings into your children's lives, "It's spoken in love . . . shared with a loving touch . . . and stirred by God's wondrous love, which we desire to communicate."

I encourage you to read the full pdf from NavPress about blessings. It's a free download.

radical prayer

 by photochick~ Through some random blog hopping I came across this question:

"What if God said 'yes' to every prayer we prayed today? Would our neighbors or neighborhoods or nation notice? Are we praying radically?"

Hmmmm . . .

This reminded me of Sassy's dad. I've been thinking a lot lately about all of the people that have poured into my life (that's a blog for another day), and when I read this I instantly thought of SassyDad. I have taken away many things from having known him since I was a child, but the two that I go so far as to recite to others on a regular basis:

1) Go big or go home.

2) You'll never know unles you ask.

Hmmmm . . . never quite thought of it in this context. That's pretty deep stuff.

blessings

 
  
  
 by photochick~  No kidding. My baby, you know the one I JUST had . . . yep, he just turned one. Helllloooo! HOW DOES THAT KEEP HAPPENING. The craziest part is, I'm not a day older.

So on to the festivities . . .

We decided to combine Baby Brother's first birthday party with his dedication. We did Punkin's dedication when he was really young. I was sleep deprived and barely remember a thing. Bossy did her daughter's dedication a little later on (if I remember correctly??) and I remember thinking how much more I would probably enjoy it that way. You see, I have an unnatural affinity for sleep. I know. Go figure.

Anyhoo, after being convinced that I wasn't the worst parent on earth for waiting we decided on the combo event and to say it was blessed is an understatement.

Family.

Friends that are really family.

Church family.

It was wonderful. And the best part, I wasn't even stressed the day of the event. Not even a little. We got everything prepared the day before (don't ask about the balloon fiasco) and even when a small avalanche of ginger ale threatened to flood us all friends quickly ran to help and I didn't even have to lift a finger.

(There really aren't words to describe how awesome it is for someone else to clean up for you so you can actually sit and talk for a minute. Thanks guys!!!!!) 

Even better was the dedication service before the party.

My little family right there together. It was just that feeling that you are complete. This is as good as it gets. Before the service Chad and I had written a blessing for both of our beautiful boys. It was a sobering and tearful experience. Saying the prayer during the service turned out no less tearful. At least it the hubs who had to struggle through. I'm not sure I would have made it.

I would like to take full credit, but I kept finding the perfect words to express my heart's desire so I just pieced them together from a lot of different sources. This is truly my heart for my children: 

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"For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the people on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession."  Deuteronomy 7:6

Lord, may you bless Punkin and Baby Brother. May you help them to know how much you love them, and what a wonderful future you have for them. Thank you for all the warmth and love you've put in their lives, and how kind and strong they're both becoming.

Lord, we proclaim that you will lead them to trust only in Jesus' sacrifice for their eternal salvation and will draw them face-to-face with You, that they might taste Your goodness and long for more of You. Fill them with Your Holy Spirit and give them wisdom and discernment so that they might follow a path of righteousness. We thank you that you will protect them both physically and mentally from the evil of the world.

Gracious Father, shower our children with blessings that exceed our dreams. May Your love flow abundantly into their lives.

And Lord, may they always know that we love them . . . and- that out of all the kids in the world-- we'd choose them. Amen.

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The fam. We clean up pretty well. Maybe we should do it more often. Oh wait, I live with three boys. I'm doing good to convince them that showers are NOT optional. Geez.

This would be my two children who under no circumstances will look AT the camera.

Sacred moment. Seriously. Thanks to family who made the trip for such a special day.

 
Most awesomest cake by Singerchick. No less than 15 people asked me where I got it from. I just told them I whipped it up in my spare time while I dusted a little flower off my nose. Hope you don't mind.

Where it all went down. It was cuter in person, I swear.

Someone made a comment on facebook that said he was thinking, "I found the monkey!" LOL

  
 Plannerchick and family.   

admit it, you're jealous

 by photochick~  Prepare yourself, this is going to leave you green with envy . . .

I am currently doing my homework reading THIS article: Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination.

Go ahead, give up on life because I will not share the joy.

(And no, it's not nearly as exciting as the little devil on your shoulder might make you think from the title.)

prayers coveted

 by photochick~ Please pray for the family of Misty Rockman Williams, a beautiful 32-year old mother of three little ones who went to be with the Lord tonight after a long and couragous battle with rectal cancer. She fought until the end.

Her unwavering faith is an inspiration to many. You can read about her journey in her own words on her blog at her personal blog.

I knew Misty long ago in elementary school and now work with her Godly mother. May God wrap his arms around her family and friends tonight like the chicks know only he can.

they say a picture is worth a thousand words . . .

 by photochick~ But really. Sometimes you just need a few, or more, words. There have been so many questions about my snow photos on facebook, so I thought I'd elaborate before I posted a few here. Shocking. I know.

Snow Day 2010 was more than we could have ever expected. The snow was expected on Friday and with every day that passed Punkin became more and more excited. He watched the news religiously to hear the updates. Finally Friday arrived. My husband doesn't work on Fridays and I had taken off for reasons unrelated. Everything came together perfectly and unexpectedly.

We woke up Friday morning to reports that it was already snowing just north of us. The forecast still called for snow in our neck of the woods, but as the day progressed the rain was steadfast. At about 11 a.m. Mr. Photo called his cousin in Andalusia, AL (justa few miles north of us) to check on the snowfall there and to our delight he relayed that not only was it snowing, it was several inches thick. He was not exaggerating.

As we neared Andalusia around noon the snow grew thicker and thicker. Everywhere we looked snow blanketed the landscape and it was falling so steadily that high windshield wipers were required to maintain visibility to drive.

Finally the moment arrived. We pulled into the cousin's drive. Mr. Photo opened the door and took Punkin out to bundle him up. However, with the excitement only a four year old could feel (although his dad and grown cousin were a close second and third), he ran right out into the snow without a jacket smiled a HUGE smile and immediately fell backwards into the snow as if participating in a team building exercise. With no fear. No pause. As if playing in the snow were something he does every few days just for kicks.

A snow angel ensued seconds later. How in the world did my big boy know how to make a snow angel?? "Mom, from Oliva," he later explained as if I was crazy to think he didn't know such things.

The cousins (two grown and one kid) played in the snow for the better part of two hours. Building snowmen on the lawn, snowmen and in the middle of the road for the firetrucks to plow over, snowball fights and more snowball fights.

Such an amazingly unexpected experience for the twelth day of January 2010.

So how much snow did you all receive??

 
 

 
 
 

(apparently no one noticed that my sweatshirt was nearly over my head before we took this photo. that comes from 2 hours of wrangling a baby, who looks equally disheveled, in the snow and freezing temps!)
 
  

melt me

 by photochick~ Punkin just ran over to Baby Brother, kissed him on the head and said, "Baby brother, I've always loved you."

Melt this momma's heart.

tag reading system

by photochick~ Punkin received Leapfrog's Tag Reading System from my brother for Christmas and he absolutely LOVES it. Not only does the nifty little gadget read the entire book, but it also has the option to read page by page or word by word so that it grows with the kids as they learn to read. You simply point to a little icon or a specific word to choose between the options.

As much as he LOVES being able to read a book by himself, an even greater hit are the comprehension, sequencing, main character, and other reading related games on almost over page of the book that he can play independently. AKA, in his room, on his bed, quietly, while mommy cooks dinner. This is the one aspect that really surprised me.

To top it off we were surprised one day when the little gizmo started saying, "Ask your parents to connect me to your computer because you won an award!" For my competition oriented child (no idea where he got that from) that is like saying, "Here is your crack, come again."

So we connected and sure enough the same message popped up on my computer. We clicked and a nifty little door hanger popped up ready for printing and complete with Punkin's name. Since then he's won various "awards" and gained access to online games through his reading and playing the reading games. He's pretty sure it's magic and I'm not far behind him.

 If you're looking for a gift for an upcoming birthday this is definately worth a look. Leapfrog offers traditional books like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Olivia and Disney books like Diego and Cars. So far we have a few of each, plus a set of phonics books geared to introduce letter sounds. I like that it's something we can add to over time and it will keep his interest for more than the first few weeks.

The Tag combo withThe Cat in the Hat runs $39.97 at Walmart (about $10 cheaper than the Leapfrog site) and individual books average $10 - $15. The phonics set (short vowels and long vowels sold in two different sets) are $19.97. Amazon often has sales and you can also find sets that cut the price as well.

The only caveat, an internet connection is required to download the audio for each book.

And no, I did not receive the Tag for free in exchange for a review, but dang I wish I had. I will be happy to review any books if someone from the Leapfrog family wants to send them my way! (yeah, I'm holding my breath.) It's just so hard to find toys that are worth spending your money so since I happened up one I thought I'd pass on the info. Happy reading!

(photos from Walmart.com)

looking back: the pumpkin patch

by photochick~

I'm playing a little catch-up with the photos so here's a few of our visit to the pumpkin patch in Niceville in October. It was a really great little pumpkin patch if you're looking for a place to go next year. They had a jumpee house and they gave you stickers to make faces on your tiny pumpkins. We decorated 3 or 4 and placed them all over Punkin's room for fall decoration. We have been decorating his room for all the seasons this year and he has loved it.

What special things did you do this fall?