Perfect Peace: Isaiah 26:3-8

You will keep in perfect peace
all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Trust in the Lord always,
for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

 He humbles the proud
and brings down the arrogant city.
He brings it down to the dust.

The poor and oppressed trample it underfoot,
and the needy walk all over it.

 

But for those who are righteous,
the way is not steep and rough.
You are a God who does what is right,
and you smooth out the path ahead of them.

 Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws;
our heart’s desire is to glorify your name.

 

I love to watch my children sleeping.  It's the most peaceful sight to see.  I makes my heart slow, and my body relax.  I want to have that perfect peace I see on their faces in my heart as I deal with the challenges of life. 

 

As I face the struggles and battles of life, I have found the words of Isaiah so true.  As I set my eyes on the circumstances of my day, I feel stressed and overwhelmed.  When I stop and put my thoughts on God's promises and His faithfulness in my life, I am filled with peace.  It's not easy to trust, and I have to be reminded that He is the Rock Eternal!

 

I have seen as I trust HIM as my Rock, He does go before me and smooths my path.  In amazing and miraculous ways, He goes before me to smooth my way.  There might still be obstacles to overcome, but the path is straighter, easier, and enjoyable.  (Disclaimer: I am in no way saying I am a righteous perfect person.  I'm just a girl trying to please my King and seeking forgiveness daily.)

 

I pray you are filled with peace as you fix your thoughts on the Lord through your day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good-bye and Best Wishes to Our Buddy

Here's the first day when I thought how in the world can I do this.

Today is the last day with my little buddy, Winston.  He is moving.  Our family has been blessed for almost three years with him.  For 50 plus hours a week, Winston has made a permanent place in our hearts.  Joel and Winston have been my "twins"who love each other with a fiery brotherly love.  

He has brought a giggle to every meal and a friend to every day.

 

He will be missed!!

 

Now they are my big ole boys.        

Home Schooling in Peace

Peace, Rest, Joy, Laughter, Hugs, and Fun

Those are some words that I pair with homeschooling.

 

Today we stayed in our pjs all day.  We did school in our pjs, and we had a picnic lunch in the front yard while acting Jonah and the big fish and Abraham and Issac in our pjs.

 

I praise God for the sweet times I have with my children teaching them and training them.

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Oh oh oh...I know he's mine, but I declare him completely kiss-a-licious.

 

 

After being inspired with Ten Apples on Top. The boys learned how to balance today. Using books and apples, they discovered it wasn't that easy.

Here's us at the learning table working on math (Clark), comprehension (Joel), handwriting (Mr. W), and eating books (Levi).

A Little Trip to the Grocery Store with Four Monkeys

I love my life.  I really do.  I love every single blessing, challenge, and adventure that God has allowed me to live through.  Grocery shopping is one of the challenges/adventures I wanted to share with you today. 

 

 I have been blessed with a cool big old truck to drive around with my crew of four boys!  Today we hopped in "Big Red" and headed to Aldi for some much needed grub.

 

What's the challenge and adventure part, you might be wondering.  It starts when you pull up at Aldi.  You have to stalk the parking lot to find someone finished with their cart to ask to trade your quarter with for their cart.  After loading four kids into the cart, you head for the fun part.

 

If you have not never been shopping with four very active little boys, that is truly the greatest part of the  adventure!  They are literally all over the place.  It takes every ounce of creativity and patience to keep them mentally busy while at the store with dialogue like this, "Who can find the brown sugar? Look for the C-O-R-N flakes.  Let's count together as we put in three bags of chocolate chips." And so on.

 

Then after every single person in the store has told me that "your hands sure are full" and that I have half of a baseball team and blesses my heart, I push my completely overwhelmed cart filled to the brim with food and four boys hanging on.  I estimate the cart must be hauling 100-150 pounds of groceries and 140 pounds of boys. 

 

My boys help or should I say slam the food on the belt.  I then give over every penny I own to the clerk, and I head back to the truck to spend the next 10-20 minutes bagging everything while the boys

party in the truck.

 

My Little Monkeys

 

My grub in the back of the truck

 

When it's all done, I sit in my driver's seat and breathe a deep breath in praising God for His blessings and praising the boys for a job well done.

This here is my driving partner.  Clark loves riding shotgun and helping me drive and brake with his imaginary wheel and pedal.

 

Home Improvement Kick

I decided to make a before and after post of home improvement in the kitchen, living room, and school room.

Five years ago, Michael flew from Dallas to Chattanooga by himself, and he picked out our new home.    Here's some pictures of what the house looked like before and after we got our hands on it.

The kitchen before

After...tile floor, more cabinets, paint, built in microwave,  new knobs

 

 

 

The Green Living Room Before

After.  aw.....

New paint, wood floors, new ceiling fans, new trim

 

 

 

 

 

 

The formal living and dining room before....

School room after....

New carpet, new trim, new ceiling fan

The Great Water Leak of 2012 (and hopefully the only one, too)

 As promised, here is a little post devoted to our bathroom disaster of 2012. We discovered the floor had a growing hump between the laundry room and bathroom. Soon after we discovered water dripping in the basement. Then rotten boards and mold and a water leak were found, and we attacked head on.

Here's a picture of the rooms before we moved in five years ago.  Beautiful wallpaper, old square wood flooring, and other remanants of the 1980's.

Here's Michael taking out everything: flooring, toliet, sink, electrical outlets, sheet rock, subflooring, underlayment, base boards...EVERYTHING. 

Clark was my big helper with the wallpaper removal.

Here's Levi helping by staying busy while mom and dad work.

This is Michael's pride and joy: updated electrical outlets with built in breakers (I guess).

Aw... new floor, fresh paint, new baseboards, new outlets, updated doors, and new lighting makes a old bathroom smile.

Now, we can "rest" in peace in our beautiful bathroom.