Lots of Stuff Crammed into This Week

Tomorrow night is the payment night for REACH Homeschool Co-op. It is logistically very tricky to plan it so people aren't waiting in line for hours! Did I tell you that I am the co-director of this leviathon....this monster, we call co-op? Floods of emails, registration forms, printing mega-amounts of things, taking phone calls, making phone calls, emailing people back...some emails not getting through (the reason I have received my first venomous email among the avalanche of positive comments!) Huge amounts of work to be done. Huge amounts of praying needs to be done. Huge amounts of grace needs to pour out of me, almost like it's supernatural or something...hmmmm.?

Tuesday night is my first night of teaching a Bible study in a long time. For those of you LR gals, you will roll your eyes to know that I am teaching Attending the Bride of Christ! Sorry, but when I was asked to teach, I thought, "OK, I can teach, but I have to be able to teach something I have already taught to make the first semester a bit easier on me!" So...that's what I am doing. Lots of being on my knees. Lots of thoughts running through my mind (am I worthy of doing this? am I up to the challenge?) Lots of time to prepare. (time is one thing I don't have a lot of right now)

Wednesday some dear friends are coming from Little Rock to have dinner! We are so excited to see them, catch up, see pics of the kids and how they've grown, and just breathe with the ease of being with old friends. Many smiles, many hugs, many outbursts of laughter are in my future!

Friday is Rainey's birthday party. Though his birthday isn't until the 11th, we wanted to have the party before Bailey leaves. He is excited as we all are! Six years old is big for a little guy. Where has all the time gone? When will I ever be ok with them getting older? Why am I so emotional about his slowly becoming a man?

Saturday Bailey leaves. The first heart God put on the outside of my body is winging her way overseas to work for the glory of God! I couldn't be prouder. I couldn't be sadder. I couldn't be more emotional every other minute of the day! A huge part of me will always be where my kids are and so for a short time, part of me will be bringing her God-given gifts, talents, and personality to the people of Italy.

So my week goes....happy, sad, bittersweet, tiring...all at once. I think I will come home on Saturday from the airport, cry myself to sleep for a bit of a nap, and then get up and take care of the other hearts I have walking around on the outside of my body.

Seven Days and Counting

Yesterday the packing saga continued with Bailey. We got all of the bags and stacks of things and began putting them into the suitcases. At one point, I picked up one of the suitcases and knew it weighed way over the 50 pound limit! So....the hard part began!

I had to have Bailey pick one item out of every category of things that she had to leave here. That's when the waterworks began. The tears began to flow silently out of her eyes, down her cheeks, until they slowly dropped onto the bed. I knew that this one seemingly small, insignificant act was putting her over the edge, but I had to take her there and show her that the edge was really very small and not too painful a fall. It broke my heart to see her.

I took one category at a time and we did it! Jeans, shirts, sweaters, makeup, jewelry, towels, etc...every single grouping got a removal of something! At the end we weighed the bag and it was 45 pounds! She handled it like a trooper and eventually saw the wisdom in it all.

You know, you think that as a mom, your job is mostly over when they hit 15 or 16 or 17....then really over at 18....and beyond over at 19....and at almost 20, they should be taking care of me! But the truth is that they always need you and maybe even more as you think they will be needing you less. Bailey needed me yesterday. She needed me to be strong and hold my ground, but she also needed me to understand that leaving a shirt, a pair of jeans, some necklaces, and towels weren't cause for crying. But that a new grown up life, with new grown up responsibilities, and grown up problems...they are cause for a few tears now and then.

Ridiculous!

Bailey and I began working on getting her packed for Italy tonight! I must say that I have rarely laughed as hard as I did while helping her! She is just plain ridiculous with how much she is bringing! I will show the saga.

Stuff (which I lovingly call 'crap')! We had to pack in the hallway because her room was so full of stuff...pics to follow! :)

Fabulous pic of her room! Why couldn't we fit the stuff in there to work on the packing? I can't even begin to understand!

Her bed! Ewww....gross! She is normally my total neat freak! Truly...I mean it!

Last picture of her room...ridiculous! Oh...yeah...while we are packing Ben is busy...real busy!

Hallway where we are packing. Are you kidding?

Bailey surrounded by the bags and bags and bags and bags.....of stuff! Have I told you how ridiculous this is?

Bailey hard at work waiting for me to help!

Progress! Well...you'll have to trust me on that one!
For all the kidding, rolling of the eyes (on my part), and ridiculousness....I am so proud of her for going on this mission trip. God is really doing a work in her and I am confident, will do a work through her!

Oh yeah...forgot to show the three month supply of makeup! Are you kidding me? This much make up would last me the rest of my life! :)

One Page!!! 25 Years!!!

So I have been thinking about some things that I heard recently. I wanted to share them with you and maybe wrestle through them at the same time. The other night I had the extreme privilege to hear from a woman named Dr. Margaret Nikol. She is originally from communist Bulgaria and immigrated to the US in 1981 with her son under a program that Ronald Reagan started. She was the daughter of two seminary grads...her dad became a pastor and her mom would encourage the congregation when her dad was imprisoned. The communist government came and took all of the Bibles away during a sweep of the country. One old woman in the congregation put hers under her skirt and sat on it while the soldiers were upheaving her home. The following Sunday, she was the only one left with a Bible and ended up ripping the pages out and distributing them among the congregation. Margaret was 12 and ended up with the page that had the Genesis account of Abraham and Sarah. For 25 years she only had this one page of the Bible! 25 years! One page!

Dr. Nikol's mother was arrested and then returned to the home with poison injected in her so that the family could witness her death. Six months later, her dad was killed by the authorities as well. Margaret and her brother, Stephen, were left alone. Stephen ended up becoming a pastor and was killed also! Margaret married, had a son, and soon after her husband died.

When Margaret immigrated, she and her son were the only ones left of her whole family. She now lives in Houston area and started a ministry. She is a world class violinist...in fact she has four doctorates...violin, organ, piano, and musicology. All obtained by the grace of God in communist universities...many the best in the world for her disciplines.

I have been pondering how I would react to her life if it were mine. Would I remain true to God? Would I persevere knowing that whatever this life brings is allowed by God and for my good and His glory? We wept as Dr. Nikol spoke of the contrast of having one page of the Bible for 25 years, her mother injected with poison, her father imprisoned numerous times and then killed, against our problems of daily life both in and out of the church.

Was there too much traffic today that made you frustrated? Did your child throw a tantrum in public? Was there disobedience that angered you? Are the finances tight and not enough to completely cover the bills this month? What are the things that we allow to put up a wall between us and our Savior? She lived on one page of the Bible for 25 years! She watched her mother die! She was orphaned at the age of 14!

Let's get our eyes off of our petty issues and look into the face of God to see His mercy and grace and be received into His arms of love!

How to Beat the Texas Heat!

WATER BALLOONS!

The kids went to the dollar store today and Kally used her money to buy water balloons! They came home and Ben and I quickly filled 100 of those little buggers!

As you can see from the 'grass', we haven't had rain in....well..almost Noah-like proportions!
The kids all seemed to have a great time.
Poor Rawley couldn't quite match the speed and skill that Rainey demonstrated.

Rainey was quite the skillful thrower! Hardly got wet, but certainly was strategic in the wetness of others!

Smiles all around!
Thank you Dollar Tree!

Orange Icicles?

I come downstairs the other day and I see all these little nerf missiles attached to a small metal plate on our ceiling. Rainey had been shooting his nerf Star Wars gun up at the ceiling trying to aim.

This was how Rainey saw it as he laid on the ground.
I love how different the boys are from the girls!

Taco in a Bag

As told the other day, I learned of a couple of new 'recipes' while on our vacation. Here is #2! Called Taco in a Bag, it will be as amazing as Frito Chili Pie in a Bag! :)
Ingredients: individual bags of Doritos Nacho Cheese, lettuce, sour cream, cheese, salsa, and though not pictured, you could also have olives, tomatoes, beans, etc...

Forgot to say MEAT...only the most important ingredient...browned and mixed with taco seasoning. How could I forget that?

Crush the Doritos, and then begin adding desired ingredients. Eat directly out of the bag!

This is a Big OUCH for Me!

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it when we traveled?

What if we used it in case of emergency?

This is something to make you stop and think, “Hmm...where is my Bible?” and “Where are my priorities?”

Frito Chili Pie in a Bag

We are finally back from our around the mid-west/west vacation! Along the way, I was introduced to two really fun recipes (ok...the word 'recipe' might be a stretch!) and thought that I would introduce one of them to you today. If you like frito chili pie, you'll love this! If you have kids, they will love this! If you ever have people over, they will love this!

Ingredients: individual bags of fritos, honey, chili, cheese.
Open the bag of fritos and then do a bit of crushing so the pieces aren't so big.

Spoon in the chili.

Add a drizzle of honey, and then add the cheese. Mix with a spoon. (If you use a plastic spoon, you can throw the whole thing away! Bonus...)

Darby liked it...too busy eating to look at the camera.

Kally liked it too! We all loved it! Hope you do too!