Last Christmas I gave you a net...

I remember this time last year reading, praying, and wanting to change my life during the Christmas season. I was sick of the hustle and bustle of gift giving, angry people, and just the loss of focus that materialism had on me, friends, family, and those surrounding me.

It was a time for change.

It was a time for action.

I glanced at the wall in my living room smiling at my boys...

I remember swooping Luk into my arms, sitting on the couch, and starting browsing our catalog.

"What do you think? We could do a cow?

Or two goats?

Or we could do 10 nets? What do you think?"

"What else is there?"

"School supplies, immunizations (shots), helping start a new business"

"I think we should do nets."

"Why do you want to do the nets?" (I was secretly hoping for the small business launch for moms.)

"Well, I don't like being bit by mosquitos. It gets itchy, it hurts, and I don't want that to happen to the people."

Then it occurred to me that my then four year old related to people from a different nation. We began discussing how the bite can cause more than just an itch and red spot, but a sickness called Malaria that was killing people when there was a cure for it! It's never too young to explain that life is not just how you experience it, but the way it effects the nations. Last Christmas, we bought ten nets, ten or more saved by a sheer netting that prevented a bite.

This year, I don't know.

Will we give a safe water to a family for their entire life?

I don't know. I'm hoping that a Smith's precious sister will be registered so that we can sponsor her. After all their mother promised and held me tight at the thought back in September. I don't know.

I do know that our boys got extra gifts from us, and I wonder what the letter will share. Their birthdays were filled with new shoes to trek through miles on the graveled road and rainforest terrain to get to their church, sweaters to brave the cold, and food to ease the hunger pains. What will Christmas bring to them?

Do you have a heart of compassion for the people? Do you see that giving up that Dance Star Mickey will save six children? When we realize that our children can absorb compassion from young childhood and they want to save someone his or her age, what a gift! What a lesson you giving!

Give the gift of compassion this year because the beauty in this gift giving is that not only will you be changed but so will our people!

My Holiday Spirit: Laden

 My house is anything but quiet today; it is anything but quiet on most days. Inside is the ring of talk, screaming, and the evening snores at the end of a hectic day. There are moments that I pause, the holiday season speeding by not waiting for me to catch up, and I wonder what I am doing wrong? I stare at our Christmas Tree laden with the Word, to be weighed down, to draw water! Isn’t that what the Word does? It draws everlasting water to our thirsty souls. To find that HE is the only one to quench that drought that tries to dwell in our inner most being. It battles with the Holy Spirit while our sin tries to spread through out vessels so that we can feel like we will NEVER have healing.

I stop for once to just listen to the music playing, and I am reminded of the beauty behind the keys, and it brings me back to just listening, "The Promise." The song’s name and I can’t help be thing of the Ultimate Promise that has been the focus of each night before laying in bed,

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. Is 11:1-3

I close my eyes, and I just listen to that promise, the only one that can bring truth to my life. What am I doing wrong, when I lose my temper, when I complain, or when I just don’t want to deal with the chaos? I crank up the music that I have been ignoring for some time, "Waiting Here For You" the keys each touching a part of me that I want to refine, I need to refine because deep down I know what a failure I am without Him.

One evening, I am told I love the younger more than older. Pain sears my heart from the mouth of a child, he later apologizes saying,

“I know you love me!”

It’s hard for me to believe he believes it.

“Do you, do you know?”  Heart aching knowing I know!

“Yes, because you have the Holy Spirit living inside you!”

Silence, water filling in my weary eyes, what? The saying out of the mouth of babes, but I know that there is only One that is gracious enough to let those words spill out of his mouth. Then the Lord opens my eyes to His desire to use me. I don’t understand it, nor do I try because within it all lies a woman broken and fallen. It is a woman that loses her temper, cries in defeat, and I grumble at my circumstance. Then I read the words,

“God appoints people who do disappoint – to point to a God who never disappoints.”

Yes, Lord. My only desire that through it ALL it ALL points to You!

I go to the Word so that it may laden my soul,

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy; you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:13-16

I go knowing that my soul will be weighed down in truth, that my spirit will remember that GRACE will be given to me through Christ. THE PROMISE! 

He will come from the line of Jesse.

He will present rest to the Spirit of the Lord.

He will be wise and full of understanding.

He will give counsel and might.

He will have knowledge.

He will fear the Lord!

He will delight in the fear of the Lord!

As His obedient child I strive to fight the conformity of my past, and my passion is to be holy through HIM! Lord, what am I doing wrong in all this? I know. I start to conform to the old me: self-reliance, self-seeking, SELF. What I’m doing wrong is not remembering YOU reliance, YOU seeking, YOU!

I don't refine, He refines!

Thank you, Lord for your promise, your use of me, and for letting me disappoint to point to you! Thank you for your constant wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and example of fear. Thank you for loving me enough laden my spirit, for drawing me to your water, and for calling me to your purpose!

Continue to shine, Lord.

Continue to convict, Lord.

Continue to give grace, Lord.

I would be concerned with my life if this weren’t the case. 

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Thanksgiving Day

As apart of 4H Country Clovers, I signed Luk up to work the Community Thanksgiving Meal. It was something that we were planning to do, but with being a member of 4H it gave Luk a community service event for his club. My husband stayed outside taking Logan to the playground while Luk and I stayed behind handing out rolls for the take out orders that were being made.

When I look at our live, I look for the thanksgiving in it all, it is through this that true joy is exhibited in our lives. I want to have a life of joy, and it is through these times to give for what I have been given that my cup runneth over.

Lord, thank you for giving me thanksgiving, joy, love!

Here is our time of service (thanks Send Me Missions for the photos)

Baby Girl

Well, we welcomed a new addition to our family this week. Everyone here is Acorn (aka Baby Girl). She shares a household of boys with me, and I am loving her. No doubt, she is the pet I should've always had.

Practicing lying on her back... this is part of what the judges will do on fair week.

Even Daddy is loving on her, too... she's spoiled rotten... already

October 17, 2009

Two years ago, God blessed us with Logan Nathanael Holt

Logan Nathanael, just when your daddy and I thought we had the most stubborn child you came into our lives. You gave a new meaning to the words "he's a screamer", "mama's boy", and terrible twos. But son, our house would be far too quiet, too routined, and too predictable if you weren't in it. You have taught us all how to love more, care more and give more. You are such a precious gift from God. We love you, baby boy. Happy Birthday, Monkey (aka Banshee).

Acorn

We will be getting Acorn in just 11 days. I must say that I am rather excited about this little gal. She is really precious. Luk is really excited to be getting her, and dad is starting to warm up to her. He definitely started liking her more when we met her. She is a nuzzler.

Here are some fun facts about our little rabbit from her breeder.


Litter details:

Chloe's Litter
Pick of the litter: Acorn
Best Coat: Acorn
Best color: Avi
Best personality: Acorn
Best eyes: Apache
Biggest: Acorn
Smallest: Apache
Most like daddy: Apache
Most like mommy: Avi
Most outgoing: Apache
Calmest: Acorn
Gets into the most trouble: Apache

Maisey's Litter
Pick of the litter: Charlie
Best Coat: Charlie
Best color: Kilo
Best personality: Paris
Best eyes: Landon
Biggest: Kilo
Smallest: Jax
Most like daddy: Landon
Most like mommy: Kilo
Most outgoing: Jax
Calmest: Gizmo
Gets into the most trouble: Jax

Overall:
Pick of the litter: Acorn
Best Coat: Charlie
Best color: Kilo
Best personality: Acorn 
Best eyes: Landon
Biggest: Acorn
Smallest: Jax
Most outgoing: Jax
Calmest: Acorn
Gets into the most trouble: Jax


We are rather proud! =D Now, here is just a few of her other pictures from the breeder, and what her home will be when she arrives.

Here is her home

Luk's Extras

As homeschooler you know that you want to make sure your child is doing something outside of the home, or they are active in things other than school work. So, for Luk we picked two things that we thought he would really enjoy. The first is that we signed him up for Karate. I had made a post about this in the past, but here is our little guy and his best friend after a night of sparring.

Here is a video of Luk- Yes you hear an audible, "Oh Lord" come from me. We have Luk in Karate to practice his self-control, and I wasn't sure how that was going to go when someone hit him. Thankfully, his instructor made it to were none of the new boys got hit so that they could get used to it. He did great.

The other thing that we have Luk be apart of is 4H. He will be showing this little princess:

The breeder (Mandy) named her "Acorn," and we are going to go with that even though she reassured us we could change it, but why change a good thing. If you know Luk his animal naming skills are  quite... human. He wanted to name the bunny "Fred." I happily told him that SHE had a name, and it was "Acorn." He was okay with that. He was a bit bummed that it was a girl, but today while talking to someone on the  phone about Compassion they asked if I had a daughter. I said, "no, not unless you count Gabriela." Luk says loudly, "Yes, you do now. We have a girl bunny!" So, you are the first to be formally introduced to our new addition, our baby girl, Acorn! The breeder exampled that she is a bit fat, well I guess she is gonna fit right in with her momma, and she's a brunette! I got my brown haired gal after all. And so...

These are Luk and his extras. He does have one more "extra" that he is apart of, and that is a homeschool gorup that teaches history/geography. I wasn't going to do it originally because I didn't want to ad too much on his plate. If he gets overwhelmed I will pull him out, but for now he is enjoying it. All of his friends are in the class, and it is after his library storytime. He hated being the only one not there. So, here they are:

Fold it up

Luk is five. He is messy. He likes to destroy a clean house. He is a five year old. However, he does have two able hands and legs. So, since he was about Logan's age (21 months), I have been having him do clean up sessions. He knew that when I said it was time to clean up he would help me put his toys in the baskets.
Well, Luk usually gets himself dressed, and we have had talks about what things look nice together  and what don't. He came out one morning with a multi-striped shirt and multi-striped tie, and I showed him to different patterns on me. He went back and switched to a solid color tie on his own. I love that even though we have talked about it he still is pretty creative with the way he dresses. Here he is wanting to match his dad:

and just because I like this picture here he is for a canoe trip:

Love this kid. Well, he does a great job picking out his clothes, but does an awful job putting them away. I have taught him how to fold his clothes as he sees me doing the laundry. So, yesterday I put him to the test. I had just finished folding two loads of laundry, and as I went to put his stuff away... his drawers were awful. His t-shirts thrown everywhere in the drawer (not folded), and as I looked at the rest of the drawers same thing for the pants, pjs, and underwear. Well, I wasn't about to refold everything when I just gave him a fresh start two weeks prior and given him verbal warnings.

While I was cooking dinner and he was in his room, I told him that he needed to refold all his clothes and make his drawers look nice because he had let them get messy. Logan walks in there, and I begin to wonder how that is going to work out for him. However, nothing extremely loud came out of the room.

After I was finished cooking (about 10m) Luk was playing in the living room, and I was not sure what I would find. Let me show you:

Sure, they aren't perfect, and they don't look like I did them. But he did a great job. He got a big high five and a couple Hershey Kisses to show him how appreciative I was. It probably helps that he knows he gets paid for each chore he completes. My husband and I have told him being home doing his chores and his school work are his job. He usually does a great job, or like times like yesterday he does an excellent job. Did I mention I love this kid?

This is one of the joys of parenthood and homeschool... we even practice our folding clothes skills! =D

Day Two

A day like today is the reason moms would say they don't homeschool... Yep, the day that the kid just twiddles his thumbs and makes two hours of work last four hours... Unfortunately, the bad mom in me came out, and I am not saying this to receive a pity party, but rather show proof that I can't do anything without the grace of God. I got loud, sent my son to his room, and I sat and began reading some of the blogs I follow. One in particular (of course) spoke of how your child's spirit is more important than a schedule, and how one needs to ask their children for forgiveness.

God was speaking to me. The bad mom had to make a choice to accept responsibility for her actions, or ignore them and not show my son my true error. So, I went into his sat on the floor, and ask my son to forgive me for my yelling and attitude. I told him how sorry I was that I got that way, and that sometimes mommy makes mistakes and has to ask God to forgive her. He looked on as I said this to him intently. He first said, "It's okay, Mommy." I told him that, it wasn't. I explained to him that it was not okay that I acted like that. It was important that he know that it was not okay that I let Satan attack me. I was asking him to forgive me like I asked God to forgive me. He did. He replied, "Mommy, I'm sorry that Logan wasn't listening to you. I'm sorry that I wasn't listening to and doing my work. Will you forgive me?" We hugged and loved on each other for a few minutes. It was a beautiful moment with my son. This is why I homeschool, and why days like this can't stop me.

I get to be my disgusting sinful self, and I get to show the grace of God in practice. God allows me to be an example to my son, and I cannot ignore the bad and praise the good. I have to teach my son that our response to sin is repentance and to seek forgiveness from those we hurt. As we finished our hug he told me he had a surprise for me, and he came back wearing this:

He said, "Mom, this is what we have to wear all the time, or we will not be ready for Satan!" The Armour of God! I cried my eyes out, I hug my boy. I leaned in and whispered, "Thank you! You just taught mommy, today!"