Right at This Moment

This morning has been kinda stressful. Mom's freaking out thinking

 about meals, getting the house clean for relatives that might be coming by

 sometime today, and planning a get together for Glynne's birthday on Sunday.

 Oh! And we also have a wedding to go to tomorrow as well, and Mom's trying

 to decide if she should take the kids so everyone can see them or if she

 should get a babysitter and not have to worry about them. I voted

 for the latter, but I think Mom's leaning toward the first. 

Popcorn for breakfast? Only at our house!

Of course, the kitchen is a mess, which does not help Mom's sanity.

Landon decides to make pancakes and when Jonah sees them he keeps

 repeating pancake, pancake, pancake until Landon finally,

 but very nicely makes one for him.

Mom is making an egg for herself when Jack changes his mind and tells her

 that he does, actually, want a egg. Mom, almost at her breaking point, tells him to come

 over here and watch her so he can make his own. He ends up pouting in the chair until

 I tell him he either does what Mom says or I'm going to drag him down to his room.

 I'm getting pretty frustrated at this point. But I'm really surprised when

 Mom tells Jack that I'm right and that he better get over here.

When I first asked Mom why she was so grumpy, she said, "Because

 there are no towels clean, because Ally is doing her school and then she's going to

 leave to go to work and I'm going to have to do the laundry."

Things will get better soon. Maybe Monday? Let's hope.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry

 about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34

My Strength Wall

I've had many people ask me how I choose the Bible verses that

 I put at the end of each of the blogs. Well, here's how...

About two years ago, my sisters and I made inspirational index card

 "wallpaper" that we taped to the underside of our lofted beds.

We looked up (or in my case occasionally made up) some quotes, searched through

 a gazillion magazines to find random words we could use, and taped them up.

Part of my personality is very visual, I want things to look pretty. I also get bored

 super easily and always have to do something with my hands (biting my nails, pulling

 at loose strings, etc), and anytime I would try to read my Bible I would get distracted.

 I realized this while I was looking through my Bible and saw these... 

The Bible is the tree of life, right? Well, I thought so.

One day I decided I couldn't get to anything in my Bible fast enough and cut

 out 66 little rectangles, labeled them, then taped them to the right books.

I can't even remember when I drew this; there are a couple other spots that look

 like this as well. I was eight when I got this Bible and I still vividly remember asking Mom if 

I could get it the morning we dropped Glynne and Dad off at the airport to go to

 Zimbabwe, Africa, for a two week missions trip.

On the way home from dropping them off, I filled this in myself.

That's a picture of Mom I drew to show that she was crying- sure

 they were going to die- when we dropped them off.

I also highlighted every chapter title in Psalms so I could, once

 again, find things easier. I don't remember doing that either.

This one I actually remember drawing! I was pretty proud of it.

So all of this was my inspiration to do this...

It's my strength wall. Everyday I read the Bible and pick a verse (or more!) that stands

 out to me that day. I write it down with a fun colored marker on an index card- LOVE those

 things!- put the date on it, and add it to my wall. I've been doing this since late

 June of 2013 and have about 214 so far. I'm gonna

 need to start on a new wall soon...

Every one of these verses has a story behind it, whether I heard it in church or

 read about it myself; I love to look over them and remember that particular story. I also

 love how they all have special meaning. I've noticed, too, that since I've been doing

 this I've been subconsciously memorizing a lot of them.

So, the answer to the question is that every time I write a blog

 I go to my wall and look over my verses until I find one that speaks to me,

 in hopes that it makes even the smallest of tiniest of dents in your life.

Then the word of the Lord came to me.

Zechariah 4:8

" I Did This..."

So... today when we came home from church we were all super tired and

 we all pretty much went straight to our rooms, or like Mom and Ally, to our beds,

 with the exception of Jonah who stayed up to ride his scooter.

At first, he was happily riding it around. Then he found the

 baking soda...the full box of baking soda...

Yep. Oh! And the Velveeta. The full box of Velveeta.

The mess reminded me of the pictures of dogs with signs

 saying what they did wrong, and I just couldn't resist. 

Just after Mom found THIS, Jenna spit-up all over both of them. I had to give

 Jenna a bath while Mom got ready to go over to our friend's house to watch the football

 game, or in her case, talk while the game plays in the background. She ended up

 not having enough time to clean up Jonah's mess as she was already late.

Adding to the messiness, Ally accidentally knocked a mirror down in

 Mom and Dad's bathroom, sending glass flying everywhere...

 Yea, it's definitely been a difficult day.

But, this little girl can brighten any situation up, right? We

 even managed to get a couple smiles out of her. She. Is. AWESOME.

Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence

 of death. When I said, "my foot is slipping," your unfailing love, Lord, supported

 me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.  

Psalm 94:17-19

Mater the Dump Truck

Mom had to run some errands, so I got stuck watching Jonah.

 He's not been feeling all that great and has been super whiny all day.

 So when Mom left, I made him some cookies in a cup (a.k.a. no bake cookies,

 they're sooo much better, and easier, if you eat them out of a mug), got him

 some milk, snuggled with him, read him some books, and then we

 watched three episodes of House Hunters together.

After a while he started to feel much better and kept saying he really wanted to

 go see the tractors. I felt like getting out of the house after watching TV most

 of the day and thought that sounded like fun. I got him ready,

 buckled him in the razor, and off we went!

All the tractors were in the building, so I decided to take him down to

Mater- yes, we named it after a character from Cars- instead.

He eventually got grumpy, and we went back home.

 Mom gave him some medicine and now he seems pretty happy.

 Lets see how long that lasts...

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

 The everlasting God, the Lord,

 The creator of the ends of the earth,

 Neither faints nor grows weary.

 His understanding is unsearchable.

 He gives power to the weak,

 And to those who have no might

 He increases strength.

Isaiah 40:28-29