Painting the Town Red.....

I have a new love. It is paint. I just can't get over how much 3ish hrs and 1/4 can of paint can transform a whole bathroom into something new. AMAZING! I chose the color Java Chip which looks exactly like a cup of coffee would if you poured 2 T of French Vanilla coffee creamer into a cup of Vanilla Caramel coffee. (Yes, I do have personal experience with this shade. Now when I am in the bathroom I will remember my morning cup of energizing elixir.) I origionally chose this shade for the Living Room and it will still go in there, but decided to try it in the bathroom first...just to see how it would look. It looks good! :) Pictures soon to follow.

Sick...Oh so Sick

So I woke up this morning and I feel kinda terrible. I feel hot but no fever. I ache. My chest feels tight and every now and then I cough. Poor sick me. Gavin is sick too, except he coughs alot and his nose is pouring out stuff. (Don't you appreciate that I said stuff and not snot...trying not to gross you out.) Anyways, being the diligent mother that I am I came downstairs to make the kids breakfast and promptly fell asleep on the couch. Sooo Matt made breakfast for all. I decided to forgo church due to said illness. You all can thank me next week :). Matt took the rest of the family to church (except Gavin and Bennett, who by the way feels fine, but wanted to take care of me). About 15 min later he brought me back Starbucks....sweetheart.... I think it was a kindness or maybe a ploy on his part so that I wouldn't fall back asleep and let the kids burn the house down while he was gone. Smart man that one is. Anyways I am using my sick time wisely to catch up on laundry. Laundry is a disease, left unattended will take over and conquer your life. I hate laundry. But alas, clothes are somewhat essential in America. So I will do my wifely duty and pray that when Matt gets home he will feel so indebted to me for doing laundry while I was sick that he will send me to bed for the rest of the day, and draw me a hot bubble bath, and make me dinner in bed, and actually put the laundry away, and clean house, mop floors, etc. I am sure by now you have realized that I am indeed ill and now even delerious....:).

Drums

Today we were blessed (????) with a free drum set. Joey has always wanted a drum set. I have in fact NEVER wanted a drum set. Hmmmm....well let me just say that drums are a bit....well...loud. Okay they are so very loud. Like REALLY, REALLY loud. Drums are SO loud in fact that you can bang them in the garage and hear them in the house and they are still LOUD! I am going to have to come up with appropriate drumming hours in my house. My neighbors will be so thankful and thrilled. Regifting your old stuff to the family with six kids is well ....appreciated (sometimes). I have a singer/piano player; a guitar player; and well now also a drum player....In fact I have an entire rock band, at my house. And guess what, when they are famous and make TONS of money...I will hopefully get a dedication on the inside front cover of the album...and perhaps ear plugs for Christmas. All because I was THAT kind of mom, the kind that allowed her kids to have drums, and willingly let them play them too!

Laazzyy Sunday

I had such high hopes for today. I had so many things I wanted to do. So many lines on my need to be done list. But I got a bit of a migraine. And it hurt. So I did not much. And that is okay.

I watched my husband and son, Phillip clean our backyard up. I watched my two youngest boys, Gavin and Bennett play on the swings. Avery read luxuriously most of the day away. Joey battled warrior cats on the computer. Sophia watched the movie Tangled all of 5 times. In a row. Good thing it's a good movie. Actually in the long line of Disney movies, it is fabulous. She identifies with Rapunzel because at the end she has short brown hair too. Just like Sophia.

The little boys really wore themselves out today in the backyard and reminded me how much I love living in Idaho. Where we actually have a backyard. And a swingset. And a fort. And grass and flowers and trees. We are so blessed. Gavin was adorable running around chasing Bennett,, and trying to play soccer with his two bigger brothers. It really made my heart sing.

I did mop 1/2 the kitchen floor and the living room floor. I also reassembled the knob on the boys under the bed drawer that fell off. Raked a few leaves. So I got a couple things off my to do list. But only a couple. All in all a sweet mellow day, the sequel to a sweet mellow yesterday. A weekend full with family and with fun.

A Lovely Day.....

Today was lovely. It is becoming spring before my eyes. Everywhere I look, green popping up.

A Faithful Man

"Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?" Proverbs 20:6

12 years ago tomorrow, I was late for an appointment. It was a VERY important appointment. I was 19 and sitting at a florist waiting for her to finish the wreath of sterling silver roses that would become my bridal veil. I was anxious, nervous, excited, elated. This was the day. The day I had pinned all my childhood hopes and dreams on. My wedding day.

Fast forward 12 years...we are still here. By God's grace and his alone. I am no longer 19. I have learned to appreciate being on time. I have 6 beautiful children. I live in a smallish and full home in Idaho. And I am married to one faithful man. My faithful man. Above all, God's faithful man. 12 years ago I was deluded by the notion that I wanted my husband to be wholly devoted to me. I was insecure, immature, naive. I was needy. I had issues. I feared abandonment. I craved attention.

In these years though, the Lord has given me a new truth. New to me that is, because it has been his truth for all time. And that truth is simply this....My husband must be wholly devoted to GOD. My husband loves me above most things, but not above all things. My husband loves his Lord more than he loves me. For me that means that my husband loves me more perfectly. It means that he will never stray from our marriage bed, not because I captivate him there, but because the Lord has captivated his heart. It means that he is willing to serve me, not because of his love for me, but because of his willingness to die to himself to excersise Christlikeness. It means that he toils away at a job that does not recognize his superiority in skill and ethics, because his sense of responsibility as a man who provides for his home as commanded by God, is more meaningful than high accolades. It means for me that my husband is faithful, not just to me, but to God.

In my husbands faith to his Lord, he fulfills in me a need for security, for being cherished, loved, adored. He has built his house upon a strong foundation. The foundation of God's word. He is a blessing to be married to, joined to forever, living out life alongside of. I am a woman much like the Shulamite maiden of Solomon; "I am my beloved's and his desire is for me" S.O.S. 7:10.

He too is like Solomon..." His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend. " My best friend. On whom I depend for so many temporal things. Steadfast and True.

12 years has gone by pretty fast. We have had trials and turmoil. We have had days of grace filled exuberence. The Lord has blessed me. He has chosen to bestow upon me a gift of rare value. I don't know why, I am utterly unworthy. I am not deserving of this gift. Yet, my Lord in his infinite grace and good pleasure has chose to give me this gift that many women do not have; a faithful man. A man of God. And I am so thankful and awed.

"What is desired in a man is steadfast love, and a poor man is better than a liar. The fear of the Lord leads to life and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm." Proverbs 19:22,23.

Choose this day whom you will serve.....Lord what is on my plate for today? I am realizing that I would love to do school, workout, come home for more school, mop my floor, do some laundry, have a sweet girl over to teach her how to cook, watch Lie to Me with Matt, and have a quiet time with the Lord, then sleep for 8 hrs.

My reality though is that it is snowing and we probably won't go to the gym in the snow.....oh well. The upside is that after the chaos of a flurry of children looking for lost snow things and beanies and gloves; and the hurry to get out into the snow before it melts, what I have left over is silence. Silence for but a few moments. However in my days of cherished moments, this one ranks fairly high. Just silence. And so I thank God who gives great gifts, for THIS gift of silence.

Lord, help me be you to my children today. Help me take advantage of each passing day and realize it may be my last with one or all of my kids. Let me Lord be a woman who is known to her family as one who traded wilingly her desires for today in order to live out the plans you have made. Ahhh....I hear crying. The silence is now over. On to the rest of my day.