Blessed Beyond Belief

Amy tagged me. I once had a nose piercing I can easily touch the tip of my nose with my tongue I can make a pretty good meal using leftovers or whatever I find in my cupboard and fridge, just don't ask me to make it exactly the same again. I feel very sincere and deep love for most people very quickly after I meet them. Sometimes I make people uncomfortable because I feel so deeply for them. There is nothing I would not give or do for a true need of another person. This has only happened since I have become a Christian and I know this is the love of Christ manifested in me. My favorite sound in the whole world right now is the sound of Allison and David playing and giggling and talking. It makes me want to worship God and thank Him for his grace to me which I know I do not deserve at all! I can usually smell things minutes before other people can. This heightened sense of smell has developed with each pregnancy I have had. Also, I had developed a love for spicier and spicier ...

Why is it that we would rather grumble, wish and nag than pray? Why is it so easy to manipulate circumstances, make suggestions, and criticize? Why is it that a complaint comes running off our tongue and shooting out of our mouths literally days before we begin to pray, IF we even begin to pray at all? Over the past several years God has patiently been discipling me in this Art: Close thy mouth and start thou praying! Now, mind you, I am a slow learner! And oh what a patient disciplier I have in the Lord Jesus. I have found a wonderful ministry that monthly sends me a newsletter with pages of scriptural prayer requests that I can pray for those God has placed in my life. Click here to sign up for it yourself: Prayer Closet Ministry . The reason I love this ministry is because it is VERY biblical and all of the prayers are directly from scriptures and the verse reference is listed right along with each prayer. And you can't go wrong praying through the perfect Word of God! T...

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves" ~~Jesus I talk a lot with my children. I talk with them in the car on the way to school. I talk with them, when they pass me in the hall. I talk with them when they come home from a friends house. I talk with them when they are bad & when they do good. When the "Cars" lunchbox we recently got started to show wear and the fabric was fraying & ripping, I gathered them around and I told them that every time someone tries to teach them that we evolved and elements & cells naturally order themselves together & produce good things over a lot of time, I tell them to remember this lunch box. Remember this skirt I bought you 2 years ago. Remember this rotting metal shelving unit at the 99cent store. Does the evidence point to natural ordering and improvement? When the radio program "Focus on the Family" airs a warning to parents to occupy...

Tim prays with the kids every night (almost every ;) ) David desires peace Apparently Allison does too! The second most precious male in my life and me. Kayla & mommy being our true selves!

I got to hang out at David's school last week. I was invited to observe at the state preschool next door for part of the day. There were two little girls who were trying to line up to come in from recess at the door of the class room. Of course the classic "I'm first" "You cut!" argument started to break out between these two 4 year old girls. Because I am not employed by the school, nor was I acting in a volunteer capacity, I just watched. But, I could only watch for a few seconds before my conscience urged me to intervene. The anger in the eyes of one of the little girls was fierce. Let's call her "Hasmik". Hasmik moved her face to about 6 inches away from "Alik" as she darted glares of hate straight into Alik's face. "I'm first!" she seethed. Alik stepped up to the plate and glared back "No! Hasmik, you always cut! Teacher!!!" Well, of course the teachers were busy doing other things and...

Hello, my name is Wendy and I am a reforming Christian Judgementalist. I say reforming, because I have not yet arrived at complete reformation in this area. We Christians are some of the most judgemental people I know! We lack love! Where is our love?!? Jesus said that people would know us by our love for one another. 1 John 3:14 "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. " Why is it then that most of my Christian life I have sat in loveless Judgement of fellow believers? I have excelled in Judgment. Judgment has abounded in my life. The moment I met any Christian, there it was. My righteous judgement. It just flowed out of me naturally as I sized up the 'godliness' of my fellow sister in the Lord. Here is a fictional but true to life way of how I used to think when I met a Christian woman: Hmm, shirt is a little low cut. ungodly. Did she just say 'Oh, my Gosh' or was it 'Oh my ...

This morning at about 6:15 am a little sweet boy crawled into my bed with me. "doo mawnee" he greeted me with a big hug. As we snuggled up in bed, he had his back snuggled up closely to my front as we both lay on our side under the cool sheet. I kissed his neck and let my thoughts turn to God as I always try to do whenever my eyes first open up after sleeping. "Lord thank you for this sweet boy", "Lord thank you, for who he is", "Lord thank you, that you created him with a hearing impairment", wait a minute... what was that that flowed naturally out of my own heart? Thank you Lord that you allowed my son to suffer for 2 years without hearing, to be misdiagnosed with autism, to live in a state of anger, sadness and frustration for the first 2 years of life, to not be able to say his own name at age 4 1/2. Thank you Lord? Yes, thank you Lord. I can tell you I have been thanking the Lord for David's impairment since I first found out, but .........

Rescuing and loving stray dogs Harvesting from the garden Playing with Friends Reading Bible Stories after dinner Loosing Teeth Making Pies ~Everyone helps Learning to fold laundry with a happy heart Learning to master our multiplication tables with the free program "Timez Attack" Working and eating in the garden Learning to sew a up a hole in our pants

Sleeping Allison in the car. This is her classic car sleeping pose~ What a beaut, I am saving this one for blackmail later in life ;) First stop: Mc Donalds where we used 3 buy one get one free coupons and it still cost us 13.00 to feed our family. No sodas, no desserts, just fat fried french fries and artery clogging burgers. 2nd Stop: Camp, where David poses with Nana and Papa . David thoroughly enjoyed the beach. This is the first year he seemed to understand what was going on and was able to communicate his excitement to us. It was so fun! Other beach beauties! The fam at the tide pools in Pismo. Really weird foaming crab. He just kept blowing these slimy bubbles at us. We found a large piece of seaweed and made a rope swing/seat for David and Allison. Our traditional stop at the Avila Beach farm where the kids get to feed the farm animals, and we get a little treat. We have been coming here for almost 8 years. The kids rode and rode and rode their bikes. David did really ...

Kayla, Maddie and I are reading a book called, well, you can see in the picture what it is called. It is so good! Maddie in the past has had a problem with doing hard things. If I had a nickel for every time she said "It's too hard!", well I would be about 10.00 richer! This book has challenged them to rise to the occasion and do what is hard. It has challenged me to raise my expectations for them and not listen to the little nagging guilty voice in my head that tells me 'they are only kids, what do you expect?'. It has also got me to thinking about my part in providing them with hard things to do!!!!! Some thoughts off the cuff are: volunteering at Children's hunger fund on a regular basis street witnessing babysitting for free for our sick neighbor the jr. lifeguard program at Hanson Dam (next summer~ if the Lord provides 650.00 for them both to do it!) Mission Trips with our church ????????? On a smaller scale I am having them(K, M, D & A) do thi...

Every summer, I seem to reach my limit of hearing my little ones whine and cry when I brush their hair. It happened with Kayla when she was little. Maddie too. And now Allison has fallen victim to my scissors. There is something about the hot, stickiness of summer that just makes me a wee bit less patient and a whole lot more practical when it comes to hair! Allison before haircut Allison after haircut, still cute as a button in my book!

Daddy and Kayla had a fun evening camp out at Camp "Come As a Kid or Don't Come At All". It was a fun time for them to enjoy being together. They hiked, and ate, and talked and ate, and slept and ate! We finally got a family picture taken at Sears. Kayla doesn't like it because she says her head looks too big. Come to think of it, I actually have a really small head! Ah, well, what can you do? I look at this picture in disbelief of the beautiful family God has given me. I am truly blessed. David was given an hour of AVT therapy through the school district. I am very excited and hopeful as to how it will help David with his speech and listening skills. Praise God it is only 15 minutes from our house and it is free for us. Also the gal who runs it is very caring and very motivated to help us help David. I am so grateful for this hour a week. It seems like we have been waiting forever for something like this for David. David has proved to be quite a hunter. He...

I am in tears right now. The Lord has been so faithful to me, that it takes my breath away. All I can say is that prayer to the Almighty God through a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ works! The most recent prayer that God has chosen to answer for me is this one "Lord, give me wisdom in deciding the right communication choice for David and please help him to be able to communicate" . And here is how he answered it. I have been praying frequently that God would make it clear what I needed to do for David. Sign language w/speech as an adjunct or pursuing oral/auditory communication without sign. Last week David had an audiology appt and a ENT appointment. Both professionals told me that David has a wonderful voice and he will speak! The ENT is going to surgically put in 2 tubes which will increase his hearing a wee bit. The Aud told me "this boy will talk". This last week David had 2 Speech related appointments back to back. At the first appointment I was great...

Kayla pulled me aside in a whispered voice today. " Mommy, Allison said a really bad word". My heart dropped. My stomach churned. I sifted through the list of "really bad words" I knew in my mind. Was it the s one? . The d one? Please don't let it be that really bad other one! As I gained my composure I looked at her and said "Kayla, what really bad word did Allison say?" "Well she couldn't get the dustbuster to turn on, so she said 'come on you dumb buster' " I hid my smile and thanked God for the sweet innocence He has allowed my almost 12 year old to maintain even though the world is trying to bang down the door and steal it away. Thank you Lord for allowing me to savor this moment of innocence. :)

Okay, I got a really good deal today and I want to share it with all of you, whoever you are.... :) I found a brand new Krups Convection toaster oven for 7.95 at a local thrift store. Whats really cool about it is that our toaster oven went out this morning. This thrift store, called Valley Thrift Store is so cool because they are so big and have so much stuff that you can pretty much just go out and get what you want when you want it for a good price. They only accept cash. They have daily specials like today for example: 1/2 off any items tagged blue, yellow or green. Be forwarned because parking is a huge problem. I wandered around for about 5 minutes before I could find a spot. Be aware of "no parking" signs. Oh, by the way the toaster oven I got retails for between 99.95 and 129.95. Yipeee!!! What a deal!! Another source for good food deals: Did you know that Smart and Final marks items that are close to their sell by date for 50% off and more? I was tempted to keep this...

http://www.getexpelled.com/ Ben Stein, in the new film EXPELLED : No Intelligence Allowed His heroic and, at times, shocking journey confronting the world’s top scientists, educators and philosophers, regarding the persecution of the many by an elite few. Coming to a theater near you on April 18, 2008 Ben travels the world on his quest, and learns an awe-inspiring truth…that bewilders him, then angers him…and then spurs him to action! Ben realizes that he has been “Expelled,” and that educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired – for the “crime” of merely believing that there might be evidence of “design” in nature, and that perhaps life is not just the result of accidental, random chance. To which Ben Says: "Enough!" And then gets busy. NOBODY messes with Ben.