What was I thinking?

Here's a pic of my best friend from college, Jill, and her family. They currently live in Russia. Jill has been telling me for months to download Skype. So, it's been on my to do list forever.

Well, today I downloaded said Skype. Once I called Jill and saw her beautiful face coming through my computer AND heard her voice clearly, I promptly jumped into my car, drove to the store, and purchased a webcam. I could see and hear her, BUT she could not see nor hear me.

Once I got everything set up we had the best conversation (1 1/2 hours). It was so INCREDIBLE. It was FREE (apart from the purchase of the web cam). What was I thinking? Why did I wait so long?

Steve Saint

This week very well could be the most memorable of 2008. Two events occurred. One I'll share in this post and the other I'll save for another post.

Our church hosted an evening with Steve Saint (pictured here with Mincaye). I am so thankful me and Hannah were able to attend together (David was also there, but he was working). Our neighbor, Cindy, kindly watched the boys so that I would be able to focus (rare in my world). So I sat and soaked while Steve Saint shared experiences from his life.

For those of you who do not know...he is the son of Nate Saint. His father along with four other men were matyred in Ecuador when they made contact with the Auca Indians. Then, by events that can only be explained by God, some of the women and children went and lived with the very people whom had killed their husbands and fathers. This tribe went from being violent to being loving.

That surprises us. As christians, why does it surprise us? Much of the New Testament was written by Paul who went from being a christian-killer to a leader in the church, a missionary with a tender heart for God's people. And really, if we look at our own hearts we know how vile they can be apart from Christ. So, I digress.

While I can't tell you everything Steve said, I can tell you my impressions. Steve was real. He was down to earth. He was funny and engaging. My strongest impression was sitting beside my daughter and watching her face light up as she listened. She was 100% engaged. She loved every minute of it. Of course her favorite part was when Steve was asked what was his first impression of the people when he went to Ecuador. His answer was "It was very revealing". And yes, he meant their nakedness. My girl thought that was FUNNY.

Personally, my deepest impression is that God has a plan and a purpose for all of our lives. Sometimes we get derailed because we do not choose to walk His path...we'd rather go our own way. What if those five men had said...no way man, I am not going to the jungle? Maybe they would have lived long lives. But, would their lives have impacted the world. What if those widows had said...no way man, I am not going to live with those savages who killed my husband? Would they have seen how God can redeem the darkest circumstances?

My take away is that each day I must listen carefully to the voice of God and follow him. Wherever He Leads I'll Go!! You know the really cool thing...Steve and Mincaye are speaking at our church this morning. It feels like Thursday night may have just been a warm-up

My saddest moment was to hear that Elisabeth Elliott is not well. I remember seeing her speak when I was a newly wed twenty-three year old. She of course has influenced my life in countless ways through her books.

Odyssey of the Mind!!

Our homeschool group has been doing a class entitled "Odyssey of the Mind". It has been a blast. We have twenty students who come together to solve problems creatively. These pictures are from our first class where they were given the problem of creating the longest rope with a few basic materials. They had a great time and worked together quite well.
Noah got to go to "class" this last week because he was on holiday. This afternoon he asked me when we were going to work on his project from the Odyssey of the Brain class.

Speechless!!

Noah's quote for the day while I was giving him a hug..."Mommy, sometimes when you hug me for a long time, it makes tears come to my eyes." Then, he leaned back and said "See, they are happy tears".
And sure enough, his sweet, clear, beautiful blue eyes were welling up with tears. And a big smile was on his face. Words cannot convey how that tender-hearted little man touched my soul in that moment!!!
Love deeply!!

Elijah is Three!!

Elijah is growing up before our very eyes. He turned three on January 27th. His verbal development is amazing. Here's some of my favorite quotes from this past week.

"The poop is hiding" - While sitting on the toilet during our first attempt at potty training.
"You're a sweet boy" - to Hannah when he was trying to convince her to do something.
"Your burgers (boogers) are hiding" - While cuddled up in my lap during reading time. He was holding my nose at the time, tightly I might add.
"Fire" - when Clara's friends Molly and Caroline took away the candle lighter from him (scary actually)
"I'll be a sweet boy and will not knock over the trash can" - after being sent to time out for knocking over the trash can. What remorse!!
"E-L-I-J-A-H, mommy is my name" - While trying to sing the song I sing to him. The lyrics are actually "E-L-I-J-A-H, Elijah is my name. I am three 1-2-3".
"I'm too busy" - when we ask him to do something. How many times has he heard that before?

Weekend Guest at Hotel Smith

Hotel Smith welcomed a VERY important guest this past weekend..."Little Bear". Little Bear is a stuffed animal that goes home each weekend with the star of the week from Noah's class.
You guessed it, Noah is star of the week!! This child was more excited about little bear than a snowstorm (maybe not). He and little bear had many adventures that are picture journaled for your viewing pleasure.
My husband brought up a great point. He observed that "Little Bear seems to me to be a breeding ground for germs and sickness". Well, I'm not a germaphobe, but I did pull out the Lysol Can!!
Little Bear went back to school today.
Hotel Smith awaits our next guests...we have plenty of openings this winter.

The Lake House

Thirteen Ladies.

Mounds of food, not laundry.

Movies galore and Miss American, not Dora or Little Einsteins.

Space and time to pursue scrapbooking, reading, jewlry-making, haircuts.

Total girl time.

Uninterrupted conversation.

Sweet God time.

Roaring Fire.

Tranquil setting.

Time with friends is truly a precious gift.

My trip to the Lake House was wonderful and I'm so thankful to David for taking up the slack at home so I could get away with friends for the weekend.

Thank you Jennifer and family for opening this beautiful home to us and for the reminder of how God the Father lavishes his love on His children!!!

Another View of Tornado

Another view of the tornado that passed by really close to our house. We've decided that tornados are really scary and so incredibly unpredictable.

Picture

Here's a pic taken from our neighborhood yesterday. Our house is located right in front of the trees pictured.

Thankful for our home!!

Yesterday afternoon as David was driving home, he watched a tornado develop very close to our home. After dodging lightning, he ran inside and encouraged us firmly (yelled loudly) to get into the bathroom.

As I got the children settled in the bathtub with blankets and pillows, my husband does what? He goes outside on the back porch to watch the tornado. As he points out, he could get to the bathroom in one minute.

It was a difficult time for our little man Noah. We are learning he is tender-hearted and watching the weather really stresses him out. His questions and comments for the day were: What is a tornado? Does it kill people? What is a tornado made of? Why does God live in outer space?

While we were in the midst of the storm we couldn't promise Noah that everything would turn out fine. That is out of our control. We could promise that God would be with us no matter what happened. That seemed to settle him down. The faith of a child!! We're still trying to come up with an answer for why God lives in outer space.

We are thankful that our home is still standing today. And yet, we pray for those who were deeply impacted by the storm that ripped through this area yesterday.

What do we take for granted?

I ran across this in a book written by Elisabeth Elliot. It was written by her father. It tied in nicely with my earlier post.

"Blessings taken for granted are often forgotten. Yet our Heavenly Father 'daily loadeth us with benefits' (Psalm 68:19). Think of some of the common things which are nevertheless wonderful.:

• The intricate, delicate mechanism of the lungs steadily and silently taking in fresh air eighteen to twenty times a minute.
• The untiring heart, pumping great quantities of clean blood through the labyrinth of blood vessels.
• The constant body temperature, normally varying less than one degree.
• The atmospheric temperature, varying widely it is true, but never so much as to destroy human and animal life.
• The orderly succession of day and night, spring, summer, autumn and winter, so that, with few exceptions, man can make his plans accordingly.
• The great variety of foods, from the farm, the field, the forest, and the sea, to suit our differing desires and physical needs.
• The beauties of each day--the morning star and growing light of sunrise, the white clouds of afternoon, the soft tints of a peaceful sunset and the glory of the starry heavens.
• The symphony of early morning bird songs.
• The refreshment that sleep brings.
• The simple joys of home-the children's laughter and whimsical remarks, happy times around the table, the love and understanding of husband and wife, and the harmony of voices raised together in praise to God.

So many reasons to be thankful!!

Thanks!!

Thanks for all your prayers, comments, e-mails and calls about my dad. He is doing great...still in pain, but working hard in the recovery process. My dad is in good health and the early discovery of the cancer was a miracle straight from God. Yesterday he walked around the hospital floor and even asked if he could take another lap!! Today he has requested special Super Bowl snacks (the hospital food leaves lots to be desired).

We should remember to thank God regularly for our health. It is something we take for granted when we are healthy. Hannah and I have been studying the different systems of the body. Did you know an adult heart pumps blood through 75,000 miles of blood vessels? Did you know that it is very important that lungs be kept clean and the key cleaners are cilia, tiny hairs you can only see in a microscope? By the way smoking is way bad for the lungs!! And, exercise is way good!!!!

My question for the day is why do we do things that are bad for our body and not do things that are good for our body?

An update...

An update on Diane's dad...he went in to surgery this morning at 8:30 AM. The surgery lasted until right around lunch time. He's now recovering in ICU. The surgeon indicated that he was very confident that he'd gotten all of the cancer and that the cancer hadn't spread.

Please continue to pray for Diane's dad. He'll be in ICU at least through tomorrow, in the hospital for about a week, and then at home for a six week recovery period. Pray also for strenght and endurance for Diane's mom as she goes through this exhausting time.

David.

My Dad!!

I love this picture of my kids with my dad. Hannah doesn't look too thrilled. But I guess that comes with being a teenager.

Anyway, my reason for this post is to ask for prayer for my dad. He was recently diagnosed with lung cancer. Due to a sharp eye of his urologist it was diagnosed early. So, we are thankful and hopeful.

He will have surgery this coming Wednesday to remove the cancer. Please pray for the peace that passes all understanding for my family during this time. This is scary, but God is greater than all our fears.

Must be a Boy Thing!!

It is 4:30 in the am and I am AWAKE. Why you may be wondering...well I was sleeping peacefully when I heard a pounding. So I went to the boys room to investigate. Their room was quiet, but Elijah was not in his bed. So, I followed the pounding noise and found Elijah upstairs on the floor on his stomache, pounding the floor with his head.

So, being the good mom that I am and desperately wanting to sleep, I invited him to follow me to bed. It was so sweet, he nestled in close to me. Finally, blessed sleep. No way...he began to beat his head against the bed. Then, his right leg. Then, his left leg. And I don't mean a gentle beating, I mean a full force knock you out pounding. After my nose narrowly missed being broken by his skull I decided to get up.

And now, I hear the pounding somewhere close. He has gotten out of bed and is in our living room..pound, pound, pound. It is getting faster and now he is starting to hum. Last night we gave him Mucinex for his cough...I don't think we'll be doing that again!!!

It is a mystery why Elijah pounds his head to go to sleep. But, the truth is his brother has to roll his head back and forth to go to sleep. I'm wondering if they both might have rocks in their heads and they like to hear them shaking.

Little E has found me, he is now sitting in a chair, pounding his head, his leg and rolling his head back and forth....mind you his eyes are closed!! Poor little guy.

Funny Blog!!

If you have time to kill or you need a good laugh, I'd recommend going to visit www.thatsmywholething.com and meander around. His latest blog post has created a palpable tension in our home. As my husband said, he went from preaching to meddling!!

After an evening of discussion and debate we've decided to the graciously disagree with our friend Greg. We just can't end our love affair with DVR...at least not yet. However, we really did enjoy reading this post and laughed our heads off with his description of what is all too true in our home.

Mr. Steady Makes a Change!!

This is the formal announcement that my husband is leaving his career at EDS and changing careers entirely. The following letter was sent to David's co-workers and I thought it summed things up nicely. Our family would greatly appreciate prayers during this transition time.

Letter from David's Manager at EDS...

As many of you already know by now, David Smith has decided to pursue a new career opportunity with New Hope Christian Church in Bartlett, Tennessee as a Discipleship Minister. David's last day with EDS will be on Friday (1/18), so be sure to say goodbye and good luck to David prior to that time.

David is very excited about his new career venture with some of his new responsibilities that will include oversight of all adult ministries at the church including Men's Ministry, Women's Ministry, Sunday Morning Adult Bible Studies, Small Group Bible Studies and Life Groups (mid-week intergenerational small groups).

This would also have been David's 20 year anniversary with EDS on 10/10/08, so on behalf of EDS, your many co-workers, friends, and the entire leadership team, we congratulate you and thank you for all your many contributions to the success of numerous projects during your EDS career.

Although you'll be missed, we wish you much success and happiness with your new career venture.

Our many thanks for all your many contributions and years of service to EDS.
From all your many, many friends at EDS.

Reading is Rewarding!!

Who knows where this post is heading...just to warn you. I'll start by sharing the books we read last night. The boys and I read "In the Castle" which is a beautifully illustrated book about old England. This is a book they love to read and they pick it regularly. The swords, the king and queen, the jester, the knights, these vivid pictures capture their imagination. Of course they love the feasting page. One day they will be teenagers and we will be hard-pressed to feed them. Then we read "Goodnight Moon". One of my personal favorites. Elijah continued "reading" after we were done saying goodnight to everything.

After the boys went to bed, the girls and I read from two books. The first is "Helen's Temper and It's Consequences". This book was written in 1872. It's a sweet little book that packs a powerful punch. The book is about two sisters. One who is outwardly good. And the other who shows much kindness from her heart. The hysterical thing is that the two sisters in my house were DISCUSSING HEATEDLY last night about who was Helen (outwardly well behaved, but inwardly mean and spiteful) and who was Betty (younger without all the right answers, but kind and tender-hearted). Betty shows much kindness to a young cripple girl she meets. Helen on the other hand is mean and worried about what others think. Much to both their chagrin I pointed out to them that at times they are both like both. That seemed to settle the argument.

Some of the language in this book is old-fashioned...the little girl is called a maiden several times. And yet, I like it. Why? Because it's simple, but not shallow. In the chapter we read last night Betty shows her little crippled friend, Louisa how to be helpful. She teaches her to clean while her mother is away working. I LOVED THIS PART!!

We also read from one of Hannah's school books, "The House of Sixty Fathers" which is about a young boy in China whose family fled from the Japanese via a river. While his family was away working, the sampan he was on got loose and floated back down the river into enemy territory. He was all alone in enemy territory. Well, not exactly alone...he has a pig named Glory-of-the-Republic (who I renamed G-pig). The little boy's name is Tian Pao (well I got tired of trying to say that so I renamed him T.P.)

One section we read last night described him watching a group of obviously starving children from a bush (with G-pig). These children ate grass and one little boy, the smallest of the lot began to eat mud. TP realized that he had not seen an ox, goats or pigs. The enemy had taken all the food. He realized that his pig was in serious danger. But before fleeing, he snuck over to the little, mud-eating boy and gave him the last of his rice. And ran away. This section undid Clara. The thoughts of starving children were difficult for her. But, she stuck it out and we finished the 18 page chapter we were reading.

Now, of course we don't do that every night. (We started reading Helen's Temper at Thanksgiving and are on chapter four) The two nights before we watched American Idol and promptly sent them to bed!! This morning I was thinking about the importance of reading books to my children. It seems to settle them. The boys sit in my lap. It puts us all in the same room. Really, it is
comforting to me also.

While I've avoided making New Year's Resolutions this year, I would like to make sure we carve out time to read together more regularly.

New Year's Eve

When we lived in Ohio, some of our friends started a New Year's tradition that we've decided to continue. In Ohio, we usually went out to dinner with a few couples and then gathered in a crowd at someone's house. Those were some sweet times!! I always feel a twinge of sadness that I'm not with the Adams, the Depps, the Harts, the Russells, or the Slatons at New Years. (We still love all you guys!!)

This New Year's Eve we had two gatherings. Our friends Matt and Jana, not really pictured anywhere, joined us for an early pizza dinner. It was nice, quiet and relaxing. They had to get home and put their little one to bed.

Then, the party kicked into full gear. We had several friends over for a New Year's Eve game night. It was loads of fun and we enjoyed kicking off the New Year in a relaxed, casual environment. The children were all amazing and went on and on like energizer bunnies!!

Now, you will notice the intense game of Settlers (We did miss the Richardson's and the Watson's...Thanks for letting us use your settlers board.). These people did not move from the table the whole night. This was some serious gamesmanship!!!

Anti Day

One of the websites I frequent is http://www.flylady.net/ and on this website Wednesday is deemed anti-procrastination day. So, today I decided to get some things done that I have not been getting done. Of the twelve things on my list I completed eight items, did not get two things done (both phone calls), and 1/2 completed two items.

So, I'm calling that a success!!! And, I'm adding another anti day to my life. Every day is anti-sticker day. Let me explain. One of my to do items was to touch base with friend whom I haven't talked to in a while. I picked Elijah's rest time as an opportune time to sit down with no interruptions. It was a wonderful, lengthy conversation with my friend.

When I got off the phone, Elijah was pleased to show me what he had been up to...he was supposed to be in his room napping. He had found a Little Einsteins workbook he received for Christmas. The idea behind this work book was for him to have something to do while his sister did school. Rather, what he did was stick ALL THE stickers on the floor all over the house.

I just finished peeling stickers off the floor....after all it's anti-procrastination day so I couldn't put it off until tomorrow.

So here's my challenge to you....do one thing you have been putting off. No excuses, just get it done. You will feel much better.

AND NEVER EVER SEND ME STICKERS...OR CONFETTI...AUNT MARILYN I'm talking to you!!!