Little of This, Little of That

Wow! Having a blog is a good way to realize how fast the time flies. It felt like only a couple days ago that I last posted, but when I looked at the date I realized it was already a week ago!

Hmmmm. What have we been doing?

Here's some photos to bring you up to speed. :o)

I was excited when I actually caught this face in a photograph, as I have tried many times to do so! This is Haddie's "Rocker Face". One of Seth and Haddie's favorite activities is to turn on music and dance in the kitchen. We've done a lot of dancing lately (trying to stay active when it's too cold to be outside!) Seth has some great moves too. I'll have to try to capture some of them. (Haddie's Rocker Face is most commonly seen during "Rock Monster" a Veggie Tales song.) :o)

Recently we said good bye to my great-grandmother, Flora. She passed away at the age of 93 (in fact she was born in Holland and immigrated with her family to the United States when she was young). It is sad to know that she is gone from this Earth, and we'll miss her greatly. There is much to be thankful for though. She lived a long life and was quite healthy. Most importantly, Flora trusted in Jesus Christ as her Savior. She had no doubts about where she was going to spend eternity. Ingrained in my mind are numerous memories of Flora taking my hand in hers, looking in my eyes, and saying,"Natalie, I am praying for you. I'm praying for all of you." We knew she was too. Even when she became so old that she couldn't remember faces, she still kept a list of all her children and their families, and she prayed for each person by name. It will be so cool one day when we are in Heaven together, to perhaps find out the effects of all those faithful prayers!

Here is Haddie (and I) last spring with Flora, her great-great grandmother! It was pretty neat that Seth and Haddie both got to meet her. Side note: Flora was especially fond of Steve. Though he married into the family and only met her a handful of times, Flora remembered him well - even when she didn't remember me anymore! She was proud of her great-grandson-in-law, "the pastor". ;o)

Yay for a beautiful day enabling us to play outside! Here's Seth getting pulled around the block in the sled.

Here's Haddie girl. She and I had a little girl time one night when Steve took Seth to a game in town.

This is actually from last month. We stayed in a hotel and the kids had a BLAST in the pool. This photo reminds me so much of being little and the excitement of going swimming!

At the hotel that night. "Ok hon, the kids are ready for bed!"

Hooray for more and more moments of Seth and Haddie getting along! True, they are simply watching a video here, but they are laying peacefully next to each other none the less!

Recently a bunch of relatives had fun bowling together. Here is Daniel, Caleb, and Jake (Seth and Haddie's cousins) beside our kiddos.

I got a kick out of the tiny bowling shoes they had for Seth and Caleb!

Here's Seth at the bowling alley... cooling off his face with the hand dryer thing (what's the correct name for it??) He he!

Swimming Kiddies

Hi there. I was thinking that I needed to do an update tonight, and I ended up doing two, as Steve won't be home till late and this is soooo much more appealing than than tending to my dirty house. ;o)

As I was looking at the pictures I took of Haddie in the tub tonight, I remembered some pics Jess took of Seth when he was in the tub at about the same age. I had fun looking at them. Hope you do too!


Here's Haddie, taken tonight. She's about 20 months old.

Haddie with a funny face. ;o)

Haddie, wondering what I'm doing.

Done "swimming" here, but I thought this one was too cute.

Haddie and I.

This is Seth at about 18 months. Jess took these pictures of Seth while she was babysitting him (Steve and I were attending our annual conference gathering - thanks Jess!).

This is still a commonly seen face of his.

Reading books in the hotel room.

Hanging out after one of the conference sessions. I know I look kind of goofy, but I think Seth looks cute here.

Similarities??

Don't forget to scroll down and check out my other post from tonight! ;o)

Washing Over Me

A few days ago I was feeling overwhelmed. Not just one of those momentary, gone-in-a-few minutes kind of overwhelmed. The kind that you wake up with. That builds steadily, hour by hour, all day long. The kind that makes normal daily tasks feel unbearable and unattainable. I could see it coming, I guess. The last month has been filled with lots of unusual stresses (prolonged sickness in our house, the death of an extended family member, some difficult choices to be made...) All compounded by February. I enjoy February for lots of reasons. Many of our family members have birthdays this month, plus there's Valentine's day, etc. And I'm not one to complain about the weather. But here in the North, by this time of year, winter gets hard. "Cabin Fever" takes on a whole new meaning, especially for those with young children (even if you have made a good effort to get out in the fresh air whenever the temperature allows).
Anyway, it was one of those days that had me feeling utterly incompetent as a productive wife or mother. By the time Steve came home, not one check mark was to be found on my long to-do list. The kids were at each other. And I was tired with a capital T.
Steve was gracious enough to take over all parental duties when he saw how I was doing.
I retreated to a quiet room, and for some time, staring off into space was all I had motivation to do. Eventually I mustered what determination I could and started to read.

Now, here I come to the whole point of this post. I wanted to share with you the well known verse that I stumbled upon as I read. I know it well, yet it was as if I was reading it for the first time. It reminded me of my adoration for the Word. My wonder at its power. My amazement in it's ability to change me.

Here's what I read;

The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease.
For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,
"Therefore I have hope in Him."(Lamentations 3:22-24)


I can't tell you how many times in the past I have either read or heard this passage. Yet, that night, as I read these verses, my heavy burden of weariness was lifted. The best way I can think to describe it is a complete peace that washed over me. I have experienced this before with God's Living Word. Jesus said, "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Light indeed! I love that His lovingkindnesses never cease. That His compassions never fail. That they are new every morning. Woo Hoo! New every morning?! That's what I'm talking about. No more of this carrying-around-my-own-burdens-and-dragging-them-into-every-new-day stuff that I tend to do! I love that the Lord is my portion. He is all I need. Because of this I do have hope in Him.
Free and light. That's how I feel.
I mean, yeah, it's been a couple days and there have been times when I have felt very tired. And my responsibilities are still sometimes staggering as they stare me in the eye.
But I am rejoicing again because I have been reminded of the truth.
Ahhhhh. :o) Praise the Lord. He is so good.

So that's my little bit about what God is doing in my life this week.

Dinosaurs and the Cross

Recently I've had some good laughs while reading friends' blogs. I love hearing the sweet as well as the funny things little kids say.

So here's a new one from Seth that combined a little of both....

One evening I was laying with Seth in his bed. I was just about to get up to go down stairs when he suddenly sat up and looked at the space between his bed and the wall . He peered at the dark space a little closer and then asked me if there were dragons back there. I told told him that he didn't have to worry, there were no dragons back there, and in fact, there were no real dragons at all. This disappointed him for some reason. He asked if they were in Indiana (where did he come up with Indiana??). I said no, there are no dragons on the whole Earth, just like there are no dinosaurs on the Earth anymore. Curious, Seth asked where the dinosaurs went. I told him that all of them died a long time ago.

"On the cross?" Seth asked.

"Um, no honey, the dinosaurs did not die on the cross....."

(I turned my face a bit so he wouldn't see my silent chuckle. To my relief, that was enough information about dragons and dinosaurs for him, and he changed topics.)

Oh, funny little ones. :o)

Happy 28th Birthday to My Handsome Hubby!
We're so thankful to have you in our lives as daddy and husband! You mean so much to us!

The first thing that attracted me to you about fourteen years ago was that you didn't mind going against the flow (and your cuteness didn't hurt!). I loved that about you back then, and I still do today. I love your enthusiasm, your wonderful ideas, your leadership in our family. I appreciate that you share your ideas with me and even ask me what I think. I'm thankful that you still do sweet and thoughtful things to let me know that you care. I'm thankful that you are eager to play with Seth and Haddie and teach them things. I appreciate how hard you work to provide for our family, and also how you are ok with using the vacation time you've earned to stay home and help take care of the rest of us when we're sick. I love to see how much Seth and Haddie adore you and how they race to the door to greet you when you come home. I love how you use your gifts in ministry to teach others about Christ. I love that you love Him more than anything.
I love you Steve - and your kiddos do too!
Happy Birthday! We hope you have a wonderful day!

Happy Thursday!
This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and for a chance to win
$100.

("Hi/Lo Thursday is where we get to know each other by sharing our emotional/spiritual HIGH and LOW for this previous week. It's a great way to get to know each other better!")


I called Steve at the office (he had a couple free minutes before his "school-to-work" boys showed up) because I wanted to ask him what his "Hi/Lo" for the week was. He said that his "Hi" was that he excited to be getting a lot of details squared away for the missions trip he is taking the youth on this summer! They are working with "Youth With A Mission" once again. This year's destination is Galveston, Texas to do hurricane clean up.

(Just a little pic of some hurricane damage that I found. They'll have their work cut out for them!)

(What the coast line looks like when it's clean.)

My "Hi" for the week is that tomorrow is my wonderful hubby's birthday and we are going on a date to celebrate! Yay! It's been too long since we've gotten out and it will be a lot of fun to do something special for him!

It was easy for us to think of our "Lo". For the past three weeks we've been struggling with a long string of sickness. First Seth got a cold and suffered with fevers and coughing. Next Haddie got it and had lots of difficulty breathing. My turn followed, although I didn't have the same symptoms. Promptly Steve got the flu, followed by Seth and Haddie! AHHHHHH!

We know this is nothing like some of you are having to endure, and through this we've become even more thankful for typically healthy kids. That said... it's been rough! Hopefully we're almost done!

What's your "HI/LO"?

Praying for Abby

Hi friends. Just wanted to put up a picture of a little girl we've been praying for. Her name is Abby and she is just a few months older than Seth. She was adopted from Guatemala a couple years ago. Right now she is struggling with Leukemia. Can you imagine a four year old having to go through vicious chemotherapy and its side effects? We are praying for Abby's comfort and healing, that she will get to come home soon, (she is in the hospital again) and for strength and God's provision financially during this difficult time. If you'd like to learn more about Abby and her family you can click on the icon entitled "Praying for Abby" at the top left hand corner of our blog.

Thanks.

A LITTLE BIT OF SUNSHINE

Howdy folks. Well, seeing as our family is cooped up in the house due to the flu and a freezing rain storm, I thought it would be a good time to bring you a little bit of sunshine. Last night we sent Grandpa Dewey and Grandma Sheila off to sunny Arizona, and it reminded me of the trip our family took out there last February. As I wasn't blogging then, I thought it would be fun to share some of the pictures from that trip. We had a really great time. Check out how much the littlest punkin has grown since then!

Steve, Seth, me, Haddie, Aunt Stephanie and Aunt Jessica at the Phoenix Zoo. It was a beautiful day!

Haddie, hanging out with us at the house my parents rented.

Steve and I.

Hmm, the short hair looks appealing right about now.

Anyway...

Hadassah Joy.

Grandpa Dewey and Seth. This day was a little cooler, but we had a lot of fun hiking and exploring the hills. Too cold for snakes to be out - that was a big plus! ;o)

Grandpa Dewey and Grandma Sheila. You can see a bunch of cool catuses - cacti (?) behind them!

Seth, all ready for the horse show. It was Seth's first big show and he was excited to be dressed for the occasion! (When I was little my family showed Arabian horses, and a couple times we took trips out to see the Scottsdale horse show. We made sure to squeeze in some time at the show when we went last February. Ahh, nostalgia...)

Here he is picking a flower for me, sweet boy!

One of the gorgeous sunsets we saw.

My sisters and I the day we went hiking.

Haddie and Grandma Sheila. Haddie's thinking hard about something!

Shaun and Tammy. Sorry it's so far away. Isn't the backdrop beautiful though?

The four of us having enjoying "Rawhide", an Old West town.

That was fun. We'll have to try to do it again some day.
Now, sunshine and warm weather for us.... about another two months??? :o)

Self Control Revisited

Well, we've been working on Self Control for about a week now, and I thought I'd give you a little update on how it went. First, I have to say thank you to those who mentioned that they would be praying for us. It was so appreciated! :o) Thanks also to the creative ideas from Naomi and Marcy (daughter and mother) who commented about what your family did to encourage the Fruits of the Spirit!

As a reminder about Self Control, I posted the words in our kitchen (ha ha, obviously that was a reminder for me, as our kids can't read! That's ok though, I needed the reminder.) Seth and Haddie wanted to write their own reminders when I was writing mine, so I asked them to write about Self Control on their papers. Here is Seth's. According to him, the blue and green marks he made said, "God, I love you." Yeah, I thought that was pretty precious.

Here is Haddie's paper.

My friends whom I mentioned before, wrote about how they had Fruit of the Spirit trees. When a child in this family displayed a Fruit of the Spirit, a sticker representing that fruit was placed on his or her tree. A treat or reward was given when the tree grew enough fruit!

Eventually I hope to make higher quality trees that can be re-used, but here's the tree I made for Seth (Haddie got the same one) for the time being.

To be honest, working on Self Control was good, but tough. The second day was particularly hard. Lots of pushing buttons went on between Seth and Haddie. At one point during the morning I felt so overwhelmed by cranky, crying kids that I had knew I needed to do something quickly or else I'd be joining them! We laid a couple blankets on the floor and all three of us had "calm down time" while we listened to some music. I was pleasantly surprised how long that lasted (about 15 minutes - the picture was taken at the end when they were getting up), and how well it worked. After our calm down time everyone was more able to use Self Control. :o)

Yay, getting along and using Self Control! This was only a couple minutes after we got up from the blankets. Seth was quite the gentleman and even helped his sister up into the chair so they could play together!

Thanks again to those who prayed for us as we worked on Self Control! We are seeing small steps of improvement, and we will continue to work on this. This week we are adding Patience!

Oh, by the way, I'm doing better with the chocolate over-indulgence! ;o)

We hope you are all well. Thanks for stopping by!