Florida's comin'

Check out what my sweet sister-in-law did for the dvd-less 20 hour trip. I also picked up stories on tape and new to us books from Goodwill. That combined with Easter candy is a guarunteed quality road trip for the girls.

So I was driving home the other night.

I was beyond excited and couldn't wait to come home and blog about my excitement. I've been praying for God to bring people into my life that need Him, and of course He provided. This may come as quite a surprise but being a stay-at-home mom, living at a Christian camp with all Christians, doesn't equal tons of evangelism. He provided 2 families actually, and then I walked through the door to meltdowns and mayhem. My 5 year-old had gotten into quite a bit of trouble with the little neighbor that needs Jesus and I was reminded how messy life-on-life evangelism can be. But strangely this was also a blessing. That night we wrestled, and I do mean wrestled, with some character flaws (a.k.a. sin) in my 5 year-old that would have possibly stayed under the radar if she would have never been told, ' it's ok to sneak over, your mom won't be mad.' We are not hear to keep our yards perfect and our hands clean, we are here on this earth with a mission (Mt. 28:19-20). As much as I want to keep to ourselves and lead safe lives that's not why I'm here, so it's bound to get messy. So now to figure out the careful balance of loving and living and showing them Jesus and at the same time protecting and nurturing a 5 year-old who has only known Jesus a year and is very influential. That's where I'm at. On a side note less is best once again. I am no longer folding all day. I have a lot more free time for awesome things like, cleaning toilets. It's great!

Just in time for an Easter brunch!

This turned out beautiful and special and only took 30 minutes start to finish. You could throw in whatever you would like for your frittata. Just follow this link for the recipe. Here's our version, Bon Appetite!

Quote on Reading.

Andy's reading the book Spiritual Leadership and there are some great pieces of wisdom that we're trying to apply. Here was a great quote on reading that I wanted to share by Muriel Ormrod;

It is better that we should always tackle something a bit beyond us. We should always aim to read something different-not only the writers with whom we agree, but those with whom we are ready to do battle. And let us not condemn them out of hand because they do not agree with us; their point of view challenges us to examine the truth and to test their views against Scripture. And let us not comment on nor criticize writers of whom we have heard only second-hand, or third-hand, without troubling to read their works for ourselves... Don't be afraid of new ideas-and don't be carried away with them either.

I think this little book is a powerful tool for anyone trying to 'redeem the time.'

Progress day 4

Things are going well, really well. Lily chose to hang a dress up and she was given the choice of picking out a shirt for herself or receiving money and picking out a shirt for her sister, who's down to 0 shirts. She chose the money, and gave away her chance to get another shirt. I think more lessons are being learned than originally intended. Claire is still lacking initiative, which is not a shocker. We're going to keep working though.

An Experiment.

A big chore that had begun to take over my life was refolding and putting the girl's clothes away. So it dawned on me. If they didn't have so many clothes, we wouldn't have as much to launder or fold or organize/put away. So it's bare bones now. 4shirts-2 long 2 short, 2 pants jeans/ slacks, 2 skirts, 1 dress. I was gracious and left them their underwear, p.j.'s, and socks. There was great wailing and bitter looks from 2 fashionistas. Some Cheerios and a bubble bath got them over the worst of it. They can earn them back, by folding and putting away their clothes consistently. We'll keep you updated on the progress.

Home,

and not feeling well. River is next to me sucking his thumb and I decided it was time to write. We're having fun here, let me show you what I mean.
You see we didn't think we would be here, in Wisconsin, for any length of time, but God had very different plans.

So us painting doors, and putting in ponds is us saying, 'Ok Lord we're here as long as you want us here. Your timing not ours, your will be done.' And if God says, 'It's time' we'll leave the red door and pond and comfort and... And if He says 'Stay', we stay.

And this is what River has to say, 'Whatever guys, food's the same anywhere we go, I'm good.'