Just call me "Mom"

2009-03-18T07:22:00.002-04:00

Lately in our families, it seems that there have been a multitude of hardships. My sister-in-law's parents are both having major health issues. Her mom has brain cancer and her dad just had to have a liver transplant. My sister and her husband are trying to adopt their nephew and have come across all kinds of obstacles. My dad is having some health issues as well. He has some real sinus issues that have been causing loss of sleep as well as having problems with his back that puts him in horrible pain at times.
My immediate family is no exception to these hard times. I have been struggling with health issues for the past year. We recently found out that a house that we own in NC had been dumped by our property manager and we had squatters living in there trashing the place. Even our dog joined in the fun by getting pregnant, losing the puppies and then needing to be spayed to prevent any further complications from a mass they found on her stomach.
I am writing these things not to bring on a pity party for myself or to conjure up sympathy from anyone that may be reading this. I am simply trying to create a picture of what the lives of so many people look like who live on the earth in this present day and age. I know that so many others out there can relate to our difficult times. It often seems like trouble never comes alone - it always brings company with it. As the saying goes. "When it rains it pours."
Lately however, the Lord has been bringing to mind that His blessings also come in showers. When I think about all the good things that I have in my life and all the different ways that God has seen fit to bless me, suddenly all these problems don't seem to make such a big pile. They are still there, but they don't seem so impossible to handle. Satan would try and use these troubling times to bring doubt and discouragement to my family and me, but the Lord would have us lean all the more heavily on Him as He showers us with His grace, His strength and His peace.

This brings to mind the words of a great hymn written by Daniel Whittle.

There shall be showers of blessing: this is the promise of love;
There shall be sesons refreshing, sent from the Savior above.
There shall be showers of blessing, precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys, sound of abundance of rain.
There shall be showers of blessing: send them upon us O Lord;
Grant to us now a refreshing, come and now honor Thy Word.
There shall be showers of blessing: Oh, that today they might fall,
Now as to God we're confessing, Now as on Jesus we call!
Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need:
Mercy drops round me are falling, but for the showers we plead.

Thanks be to God that we can receive His abundant blessing in the midst of trials and pain! His grace is truly sufficient for us.

"My grace is sufficient for you. For My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Youth Advance

2009-03-09T14:36:00.002-04:00

Dave, Julia and Jim had the privilege of attending Youth Advance 09 this past weekend. They had a wonderful time. I was so happy to hear that they not only had a fun time but they all came back having been either encouraged or convicted by the great teachings that they heard.
I am very thankful that there are people that desire to invest their time in building up our youth and drawing them closer to our Heavenly Father.

Retreat

2009-03-03T13:37:00.002-05:00

This past weekend I had the luxury of joining the ladies in my care group for a time of retreat. A lovely couple in our church graciously opened up their guest house for us to stay in and even provided a map of their farm so that we could roam around and get alone with God.
What a refreshing time it was! We heard some great teachings from Carolyn Mahaney and were able to have several times of worship thanks to Amanda and Kjirstin. We even had a session of working out with Cheryl Wood. I learned a lot about exercise and a lot about the muscles that I didn't know existed! I had trouble getting in and out of chairs and up and down the steps for the next 24 hours!
Best of all, though, was the awesome time alone that I got to have with the Lord. As you can imagine, in a house full of kids the quiet moments are few and far between other that the early morning hours that I have set aside for my quiet times. To actually be able to spend several hours at a time talking to and hearing from God was simply amazing.
It was a beautiful thing to be able to pray with and for the dear friends that I have made in our care group. They are wonderful sisters in Christ whom I have grown close to over the last few years and will cherish their friendship for eternity.
I am so thankful for my husband being willing to release me to take this much needed break and also for my kids for letting mom go for a whole weekend!

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!"

Blog challenge

2009-02-26T14:51:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago I posted that I was "blog challenged" since I only posted a total of 12 times in 2008. So far, it looks like I am improving since this will be post #13 this year!
So, today I am thankful that I have the freedom to write down the things that God is teaching me so that I can share them with others. I may not have the gift of writing that some have, but the Bible says that we should be "living epistles" and I want to be faithful to share the wonderful truths that He is revealing to me through His Word and through the many life lessons taught simply by living out the life that He has called me to.

A good book

2009-02-25T11:39:00.002-05:00

I love a good book! As long as I can remember I have loved to read. Many times I remember my parents either laughing at me or getting frustrated with me because I would totally tune out everything and everyone when I had my nose in a book.
Some of my favorite books growing up were the Bobbsey Twins series and the Mandie books. I liked those so much, that a few years ago, my mom gave me the last 15 books in the Mandie series for Christmas so that I could pass them on to my girls to read - after I got to read them of course!
Now my girls love to read as much as I do and it brings me great pleasure to see them curled up with a good book. I have a hard time keeping enough books around to satisfy their hunger for a good story!
The problem I face now is not tuning people out while I read, but finding enough time to satisfy my own cravings for a good book! I have two places that I find time to get into a good book. Sometimes I'll take a book with me when I relax in the tub. I use this time to preview a shorter book that one of the kids wants to read. Most of the time I find myself reading in my bed after all the kids are tucked in for the night.
I get a lot of my material passed on to me from my mom who I inherited my love for reading from. Together we have found some amazing Christian authors that I hope keep writing for a long time. Among those authors are Lynn Austin, Lori Wick, Beverly Lewis and Gilbert Morris.
I'm always looking for new authors to get into, so if you have any to pass on, I would love to hear your suggestions!

2009-02-24T14:20:00.002-05:00

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfathomable (inscrutable, unsearchable) are His judgments (His decisions)! And how untraceable (mysterious, undiscoverable) are His ways (His methods, His paths)!
For who has known the mind of the Lord and who has understood His thoughts, or who has [ever] been His counselor?
Or who has first given God anything that he might be paid back or that he could claim a recompense?
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. [For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him.] To Him be glory forever! Amen (so be it).
Romans 11:33-36 (amplified version)

2009-02-23T15:36:00.003-05:00

Today I am reminded that I am to set an example for my children not just by my actions, but by the words that I speak to them and how I say those words. How easily a child's spirit is crushed by words of criticism spoken too often or by shaming them into feeling guilty! Each and every minute that I spend with my children or that they spend observing me in my daily life is one more minute spent in developing their character that will determine who they are for the rest of their life. If I am so intent on them always getting things right and being critical of the things that they haven't mastered yet, then I will probably be causing them to develop critical spirits. Instead, I should be praising them for the things that they do well so that they will learn to appreciate others. I should be encouraging them and building them up so that one day they will turn into someone that is full of confidence. I need to portray patience in all I do so that they will learn to be tolerant of others. I need to practice fairness so that my kids will learn to be just. I need to live out 1Corinthians 13 so that they will learn to portray love in all that they do.
I need to cherish each day that I have with my kids. I don't want to be regretting precious moments lost when they've all grown up and left home. I want them to look back at these growing up years with fondness and have wonderful memories of the good times that we had together. I pray that they will be able to look back and see how God was shaping them and molding them into exactly what He wanted them to be. I want them to grow up to be Godly men and women that one day will be faithful to pass on the Godly heritage that I am striving to pass on to them. It is only by God's wonderful grace that I can achieve such an impossible goal.

Jehovah-Jireh

2009-02-21T09:09:00.002-05:00

Today I am thankful that God is our provider. Time and time again I have seen His hand provide in miraculous ways. As I was growing up at Beachmont, my parents were faithful to teach me that what we ask for in faith we will receive. Beachmont has always had a policy of living absolutely debt free. The camp has had to wait for different projects to be completed because they were waiting for the money to come in, but for as long as I can remember, the money always came in. I watched my parents faithfully pray for whatever the need was and time and time again the money would come in and the need would be met.
This lesson often hit home for our family personally because my parents are on the payroll at Beachmont. I remember one time specifically that our family's needs were met. We really needed a second car and my parents asked us kids to join them in praying that God would provide one for them. I remember asking my mom if it was okay to ask God for a blue car because that was my mom's favorite color. She said that she thought it was fine because nothing is too hard for our Heavenly Father. Within a few weeks (maybe less) someone delivered a Plymouth Horizon to the camp with my parents name on the title and handed them the keys. When I went out to see the car I was excited to see that it was indeed blue! That was one of many cars that people gave to my parents - always just when they needed one.
Now that I have a family of my own, I have seen God's faithful hand at work once more always providing just what we need, just when we need it. How fitting it is that one of the many names of our great God is Jehovah-Jireh which means "God will provide."
Although the economy is looking rather bleak, we can rest assured that what we ask for in faith we will receive because our God is a faithful provider. Hallelujah!

New Life

2009-02-19T14:32:00.002-05:00

I love spring! I know that we still have over a month until spring is officially here, but I am already beginning to see the signs of the coming season. In my front yard I have daffodils starting to push out of the ground. They are only about 2 inches long, but to me that is God's promise that the seasons will change again just as He designed at the beginning of creation.
I can't wait for the tree buds to start forming, the flowers to bloom, the Robins to hop around my yard and for the baby animals to start arriving. Spring is such a beautiful picture of the new life that we can have in Jesus and I am excited to walk through yet another season filled with the beauty of new life!

Grace

2009-02-18T15:07:00.002-05:00

Today I am thankful for the gift of God's grace. No matter what the circumstances of my life may look like, I know that God will give me the grace to walk through each day with Him by my side. I may be having a great day with my kids or maybe I am really struggling to keep up. Whether or not I feel like I can handle life on any given day, I know that by God's grace and with His help I can be the best mom/wife/person that He wants me to be.
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults,in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak then I am strong.
Yes, I love this gift of grace, but I know that God's grace is not given only when I feel like I am not strong enough physically to walk through the day, but more importantly when I am not feeling strong enough spiritually and when I am tempted to give in to sin. Whether I am battling with impatience, discontentment or pride, God has promised grace to help me run away from sin.
"Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way." Cornelius Plantinga
Thank God for His gift of stubborn grace.

Matthew

2009-02-17T14:17:00.003-05:00

Today I am especially thankful for my 6 year old son, Matthew. Yesterday I had the privilege of praying with Matthew as he asked Jesus into his heart. I posted just a few days ago that I was praying for the salvation of my younger 4 children and God has begun to answer those prayers. All the praise and glory goes to Him!

Homeschooling

2009-02-16T15:04:00.004-05:00

Today I am thankful for the freedom to home school my kids. What a blessing it is to know that the teaching they are getting is grounded in the Word of God and that it will not compromise the important things that Dave and I are trying to teach them. I love being able to watch the kids excel not only academically but in character and in their walks with God.

I am very blessed to have my mom come along side of me in teaching the kids. They love the time spent over at "Grammy's" and I can tell that they are benefiting greatly from the schooling they receive there as well as the spiritual input that comes from both my mom and my dad.

Last week we took a field trip to Lancaster to learn more about the Amish people. We learned about their history and about the way that they live and why they live such simple lives. The Amish are very hard working people who seek to serve the Lord in all that they do. I think that we all could learn a lot from them.

Here are some highlights from our trip. (We took my two nephews along with us.)

Amish sleigh.

They had the cutest little lambs!

Beautiful rooster.

Enjoying the playground.

Milking the cow.

One room schoolhouse.

The kids go "Amish".

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T15:29:00.002-05:00

Today I am thankful for my wonderful husband of almost 16 years. The only man I ever dated, the only man I ever wanted to marry, my best friend, my companion, and my one true love here on earth. The husband of my dreams, the father of our children and the one that I want to grow old with. I thank God for the precious gift of marriage and for blessing me with such a loving husband.

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight for the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use in my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose with my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made. Our times are in his hand who saith, 'A whole I planned, youth shows but half; Trust God: See all, nor be afraid!'”
Robert Browning

My Kids

2009-02-13T10:27:00.002-05:00

Today (and every day) I am so very grateful for my wonderful children. God has blessed me so very much with eight beautiful healthy children. Each and every one of them are very different and very special.
Julia is 14 and turning into a godly young woman. Every day I see her character becoming more like Christ and I see God cultivating in her the gentle quiet spirit of a Proverbs 31 woman. She will always be my daughter but more and more she is becoming my friend.
Jim is 13 and becoming quite a young man. He is very sensitive to my needs and loves to serve me any way he can. Over this past year I have seen God working in different areas of Jim's life and I am excited to see what God has for Jim's future.
Christiana is 11 and loves to have fun. She has a heart for God and loves to be a big sister to her younger siblings. I see God teaching her many things as she begins to change from a little girl into a young woman.
Mark is almost 10 and has been working on becoming more like Christ. He is the oldest at home on school days and is showing responsibility as the big brother.
Nathan is 8 and is a very quiet boy. He doesn't get into much trouble and he is very sensitive. While I do see evidences of grace in His life, I pray daily for his salvation.
Matthew is 6 and very passionate about everything. He likes to play with his siblings and spend time with his friends. he is very sociable. I also pray daily for his salvation.
Amanda is our love bug. She is 5 and loves to cuddle. She loves to hang out with the girls and do "girly" things. She talks about Jesus and loves to go to Sunday School, but I know that she needs salvation.
Alyssa is 3 and loves to learn. She is quite gifted musically and loves to sing. She also loves to read stories. (She has memorized the entire Dr. Seuss book Gerald McBoing Boing) I pray that she will learn to love Jesus just like her older siblings.
I love my children so much and am privileged to be raising up an army for God. I pray daily for the grace and the strength to be a Godly mother to them.
I am also looking forward to meeting my three children that are no longer with me . I know that I can rest in the knowledge that they are in the hands of our loving Heavenly Father. Soli Deo Gloria!

"Children are a blessing from the Lord...like arrows in the hands of a warrior...blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."

A Sound Mind

2009-02-12T15:19:00.002-05:00

Today I had to go shopping for a Valentine's dinner that I am hosting for our care group. So, I packed up my five younger kids and headed to Walmart. I had my list in my hand writing down some last minute items that had to be added and then put it in the pocket of my hoodie as I braced myself against the huge gust of wind that hit me when I opened the door of the van.
I successfully navigated the parking lot with kids in tow and we all trekked back to the photo center to get some pictures developed while we shopped. Once the order for the pictures was placed I reached into my pocket to get out my carefully planned list to shop from when to my dismay I found that it was missing! What in the world was I going to do? It must have blown away when that gust of wind hit me out in the parking lot. Now I would have to rely completely on my memory which as of late has left something to be desired. ;)
Anyway, a long story short - I actually managed to get everything that was on my list without going completely crazy. So, today I am thankful that God gave me a sound mind and the ability to remember all the things that I needed.

"God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, of love, and of a sound mind."

Blog challenge

2009-02-11T14:13:00.002-05:00

So apparently I am "blog challenged". Either that or its a challenge to find the time to blog! You can pick either one, but I personally think that its both. I think I had a total of maybe 9 posts last year??!! Anyway, I've been challenged by my cousin (whether she knows it or not) to be more consistent with my blog.
I started blogging so that I could sort of journal what I've been learning - be it through quiet times or just general life lessons. Maybe I can get back on track with this blog by just posting one simple thing each time I get onto the computer. It probably won't be everyday but I will try.
I think the very best place for anyone to start sharing about anything is with expressing thanks to our Heavenly Father. Have you ever sat down and tried to list every single thing that you are thankful for? I started to but I soon ran out of both paper and time! It was definitely a good lesson in how blessed I am.
So....my first official post of 2009 is this:

I am thankful for the beautiful gift of salvation that is given to us at the high cost of Jesus' precious blood.

Our Summer: Part 3

2008-09-17T15:46:00.009-04:00

In between all of our summer birthdays, we managed to find time for some great summer fun.

At the beginning of August we all went to the Harford County Farm Fair. We can usually find something there for everyone. The little kids like the tent with all the kid's games along with the moon bounce area. All of the kids enjoyed getting their faces or hands painted. They also have a lot of fun looking at all the different animals and getting a chance to pet the ducklings and get a look at all of the other baby animals.

One thing that the kids especially like is the watermelon eating contest!

These are our contestants this year. Nathan and Mark each placed second for their age group and Chrissy ate her way to a blue ribbon.

After the whole contest was over, Chrissy walked away with her blue ribbon, a reserved champion ribbon and this huge watermelon!

Even Dave got in on the fun at the fair. Besides being involved at the political tent campaigning for Andy Harris, he also took a shot at dunking the current sheriff.

Before we left the farm fair, we were hit by a huge rain storm. We all huddled inside the political tent while the wind blew and the rain poured. We even got a few minutes of hail

One of the kids' favorite paces to hang out in the summer is the little pond behind my parent's house. This pond is spring fed so it's temperature stays pretty constant around 65 degrees. There is a rope swing attached to a huge tree limb above the pond and the kids swing out over the pond and drop into the water. I had hours and hours of fun in this pond growing up!

All in all it was a great summer for our family. God blessed us in so many ways throughout the summer. We are so grateful to Him for His goodness and His mercies which are new every morning!

Our Summer Part 2: Lots of Birthdays

2008-08-28T17:09:00.009-04:00

After our vacation we jumped right into the camp season at Beachmont. I hosted a picnic for the summer staff during training week. We served about 50 people that evening under the outdoor pavilion. Except for a huge thunder storm, everything went very smooth.

The kids went to camp for three of the nine weeks of camp. I got to spend a lot of time with Alyssa who wasn't old enough for camp and got to see her grow up quite a bit during that time. The theme this year for camp was the Beatitudes. The kids learned all of Matthew 5: 1-10. They all also got to improve their swimming skills with extra lessons on Monday nights. Even Alyssa got in on the swimming lessons. She actually got to be quite a fish!

In the midst of all the activities of the summer, our family got to celebrate 4 birthdays! First, Matthew turned 6 in July. He was very excited to get his own Lego set!

The next birthday was for Alyssa. She turned three in the beginning of August. She was very excited about her new scooter, but I think the candy came in with a close 2nd!

Julia was next with her 14th birthday. She was absolutely thrilled to receive her own digital camera and has been busy taking pictures ever since! Julia also started her first summer job. She worked for my mom in the snowball stand after camp each day. Unlike a typical snowball stand, they are only open for about 2 hours each day, but within that time they sell hundreds of snowballs to the campers and their families when camp lets out for the day. Like her sister Alyssa, Julia loves candy - especially dark chocolate!

Our last summer birthday was for Jim. He turned 13 this month. Jim loves legos and was thrilled to get his first "big" set. He built this ship in about 3 hours.

We decided that since he was turning 13 he was too old for party hats, so we went for the "party tattoos" instead!

Our Summer Part 1: Our Vacation

2008-08-19T10:20:00.009-04:00

We have had such a wonderful but busy summer! So much has been going on that it would be hard to write it all down so....I'll have to do it in several parts!

Our summers are usually pretty hectic with being involved with the ministry at Beachmont but we did manage to go on our annual family vacation to the Outer Banks. We had a very relaxing time spending over a week together. We started out at Busch Gardens and Water Country in Williamsburg and then on to the ocean!

We spent hours and hours on the beach. The kids played with Dave, my Dad and each other while my mom and I sat and talked or just relaxed in the sun.

Dave and the kids entered the sand sculpting contest again this year and they won!

On the way home we decided to take the ferry across to Virginia beach. Most of the kids enjoyed this experience. Unfortunately, Jim was feeling a little sea sick!

We had a great time and came home ready to face our busy summer!

Do Hard Things

2008-07-30T19:57:00.003-04:00

Dave and I took our three older kids to the "Do Hard Things" conference this past Saturday. What an amazing time! Brett and Alex Harris have really been inspired to challenge young people to overcome the low expectancies that others have for this generation. I was so blessed to see the amount of teens there ready to be challenged and walking away changed.
It was really cool to see that this tour was completely a family effort by the Harris family. The entire family was present in Gaithersburg and all of them had a part in the conference whether it was on stage or behind the scenes. Kind of makes me wonder what MY family could be doing in a few years...
I look forward to seeing what God has in store for this generation. If the other conferences on the tour were as packed out at the one we went to, then God is gathering up an army to Himself all across America, and I am excited that it is made up of inspired young people ready to totally mow over the expectancy that they are going to fail in life and instead are going to show the world that they can Do Hard Things for the glory of God.

Random thoughts...

2008-04-25T19:12:00.002-04:00

1.) Our T.V. fast went by really quickly. No complaints at all. It really helped that God gave us beautiful weather most of the two weeks and the kids played outside a whole lot.
The favorite things to do during the fast besides playing outside was to play in the dark with light sticks (Walmart has some great ones in at least 6 different colors!) and read lots of books. Jim finished the complete Lord of the Rings series and the little boys all got into the Star Wars books. In the evenings I would real out loud from one of Brian Jacques books.

2.) School is almost over! We are winding down to the last lessons in our books and the kids are battling spring fever! (okay yeah, so am I!) We are looking forward to our "schools out" trip to O.C.!

3.) The kids have a home school co-op presentation night coming up on Friday, May 23rd at Grace Community Church in Kingsville. There will be an open house from 6-7 where you can view their Art and Science projects for the year and then at 7 they will start their musical presentations. All the children from ages 2 through the 8th grade will be performing.

4.) OBX here we come! Once we are finished with school we are headed to the Outer Banks with my parents again for our family vacation. I'll be sure and take lots of pictures!

T.V. Fast Take 2

2008-04-03T13:44:00.002-04:00

Its time once again for the Tritt family T.V. fast. We decided that we benefited so much from the last fast that it was something that we should do on a regular basis. So... this Monday begins another 2 week fast from watching any television, going to the movies or playing any video games.
If anyone is interested in joining our family in our fast I'd love to hear about it!

Our Easter Celebration

2008-03-26T20:17:00.008-04:00

Dying Easter eggs is a tradition that all the kids love!

It took 4 dozen eggs this year!

We all went to the Easter Sunrise service at Beachmont.

It was sooooo cold!

Easter morning before the sun came up...

Easter morning after the sunrise!

Hallelujah, He is risen!

The start of our annual easter egg hunt.

Road Trip Part 2

2008-03-17T15:23:00.004-04:00

Our weekend adventure continued Sunday morning with an unexpected trip to K-Mart. I was feeling really on top of things and was getting all the girls ready to go ever and get breakfast before heading to the park when uh....my pants ripped.

You gotta understand something about my pants. They are really old. I have this problem with buying clothes for myself. I buy them for everyone else in the family, but for some reason I always put off buying them for myself. Just last weekend I told Dave that I needed to pick up some new jeans for myself before I got in an embarrassing situation with my old ones wearing out to the point that they just start falling apart. I really did intend to get some when I went to Walmart, but they only had the low rise kind in my size and I refuse to wear those stupid things! Why anyone would want to wear a pair of jeans that sits that low is beyond me. They feel like you always need to pull them up because your rear end is hanging out! Anyway...I ended up not getting the jeans and sure enough, I found myself in an embarrassing situation! I sat down on the bed to change Alyssa, and the jeans ripped from seam to seam right across the back of my thigh. UGH! Now I HAD to by myself some new jeans.

So, off to the local K-Mart I went (with my jacket tied around my waist to cover up the lovely gaping hole in my pants leg) and wouldn't you know, they just happened to be having a 25% off sale on their jeans! I bought 2 pairs for myself and headed back to the hotel to pick up the gang and head to the park.

Once we got there we met my parents and then headed out to hit the rides and enjoy the park. We had a great time hanging out with my mom and dad and enjoyed watching the kids have so much fun.

Jim had the unique privilege of working alongside of Italy's master sculptor Antonio Accietto. This man's flowers are amazing, and he invited Jim (who loves art of any kind but especially modeling/sculpting) to try and duplicate one of his flowers. He gave him a lump of porcelain clay and showed him what to do and then when Jim was all done Mr. Accietto let him keep his creation. It looked pretty good, too! Maybe Jim has a future in flower sculpting?

We ate lunch in Germany's Oktoberfest while watching their Festhaus show and then took the kids to the section of the park just for little guys. Each of our older kids took a younger kid and we set them loose for about half an hour while Dave and I got to sit and chat with my parents. Ahhh...I love having older kids!

After having them spend time in "Land of the Dragons" with the little guys riding ladybugs and little dragons with loud irritating noises, we knew it was time for some real rides! So after riding the bumper cars and the big swings, Dave and the 3 older kids headed to the roller coaster "Alpengeist" while I took everyone else on the carousel. Then we switched and everyone rode the train back to the entrance while I got to take the older 3 on the "Griffon" - the park's newest roller coaster. This thing hangs you at a 90 degree angle above the park for what seems like forever and then sends you plummeting towards the ground only to pull you right back up into twists and turns before another 90 degree drop! It is so much fun!

After saying goodbye to my folks and slapping together some sandwiches for supper, we headed out of the park and back on the road to MD! Most of the kids fell asleep on the way home, so it was a pretty uneventful trip.

What a refreshing weekend! Now I am ready to get back to schooling and get on with Spring! We have some great field trips coming up and before you know it school will be over and it will be time for summer vacation!

Road Trip!!

2008-03-17T14:28:00.002-04:00

Every year Busch Gardens in VA hosts a "passport holders only" day sometime in March. This year it fell on Palm Sunday and we decided that we would make a weekend of it with the family. We thought it would be fun to surprise the kids and just take off and go Saturday after breakfast. We packed the car the night before and tried to act as laid back as possible Saturday morning letting the kids sleep in and letting them hang out in their pj's for awhile before sending them out to play. The two older kids figured out what was going on awhile ago, but they had fun keeping our secret safe!
We ate lunch and drove down through Washington. Dave took us right by the front of the capitol building, the Washington Monument, tons of museums and right by the Pentagon. He often works in D.C. so he is pretty familiar with all of the "important" places.
Once we got through Washington I put on a movie for the kids and we actually got all the way to Williamsburg before the kids figured out what was going on! It was great watching their faces when we pulled into the hotel and told them that we were going to the park the next day. They were very excited!
Since our family exceeds the fire hazard limit for a hotel room, we had to split up for the night. The girls in one room and the guys in the room next door. I couldn't tell you what went on in the guys' room - I'm not sure I would want to know - but the conversation in the girls room was pretty amusing! I'll leave out who said what, but if you picture our room with me (the mom), a teenager, a 10 year old, a 4 year old and a 2 year old, you can probably figure it out. :o)

"Can we watch Disney Channel?"
"Sure."
"Alyssa, get out of the fridge."
"Hey, move your head. I can't see."
"Alyssa, close the fridge."
"I'm hungry."
"Have some chex mix."
"Alyssa, don't jump off the bed!"
"Move your head, please."
"Move over. You are in my personal space."
"Mom, Alyssa is in the fridge again."
"I don't really care if she opens the fridge."
"Mandie, lay down."
"Alyssa, want to snuggle?"
"Hey! My personal space just got cut in half!"
"Can I have a juice box?"
"Your head is in my way again."
"Alyssa, don't put that in the fridge."
"You are taking all my covers!"
"No, I wasn't. I was just rolling over."
"Alyssa! Get out of the fridge!"
"Alyssa, come get in bed."
"When are we going to Busch Gardens?"
"Can you please roll over? You are in my personal space again."
"Well, you have all the covers!"
"Did you all brush your teeth?"
"No, Alyssa, don't eat the ice out of the freezer."
"Is anyone tired yet?"
"I don't want to sleep."
"Can we get a cot?"
"Alyssa, come away from the fridge."
"What time is it? 9? Okay. Turn off the TV. We are going to sleep."
"Alyssa, out of the fridge and into the bed right now."
"Move over away from my space."
"Can you all PLEASE be quiet?"

Well, it went something like that! We prayed and eventually everyone fell asleep. It's not something I would want to do every night, but I would definitely do it again if it meant spending time with my girls!

More Cleaning

2008-02-08T14:47:00.000-05:00

I decided to answer the comment on my last post with another post!

The question basically was, "What can little ones do to help with the chore load?"

In my house, everyone has to do their share of helping to keep the house clean. Everyone down to the youngest kid that can walk is responsible for their own dishes each meal. Even a toddler can put dirty dishes in the dishwasher or the sink! Alyssa loves to put the silverware away. I get a stool or chair and pull it up next to the drawer and let her stand there and work on that while I put the other dishes away. Of course, I remove any sharp knives first!

As far as sweeping, we have a small wisk broom and dustpan set that I keep under the sink. Amanda is getting to be pretty handy with that! You could even get a couple of these and let your kids work together on this project - get it done faster!

Instead of wiping the table myself after every meal, sometimes I will give one of the younger kids a wet sponge and let them wipe off the table while I put the food stuff away. It may not get perfectly clean, but it will get most of the visible stuff off for the next meal! I usually wipe the table after dinner and make sure that it gets a good cleaning at least once a day or let one of the older kids do it.

Most of my younger kids like to dust. I either spray for them and then let them wipe everything dry, or if I am trying to get something else done, I get a pack of dust wipes - the ones that are pre-moistened - then tell them where to work and then let them go to work. There isn't a whole lot that the kids could actually ruin with those wipes so it's ok if they accidentally clean something else! I also like the Mr. Clean wipes - the kids can do the front of the stove, dishwasher and refigerator. Just make sure that they are old enough to know not to eat them or wipe their face with them!

If you have a vaccuum with a hose attatchment, the kids can clean the stairs and around the baseboards and in the corners.

Everyone except Alyssa - who is 2 - is perfectly capable of making their bed. It may not be perfect but hey, it's made and I didn't have to do it!

It's amazing how much fun kids can have while cleaning! Little people love to play with sponges and rags and see how much dirt they can wash away, so I say take advantage of it and give them something to clean!

Hooray for Clean!

2008-02-07T17:04:00.000-05:00

My schedule has relaxed a bit this year with my wonderful mother helping me out by schooling our three older children. That leaves me with 3rd, 2nd and 1st grade as well as some preschooling. I have found that I have more time for household projects and keeping my house clean in general.
However, I tend to look at my disorganized mess of a house and not know where to start and I end up cleaning the same messes over and over again while the rest of the house disappears in piles of toys, books, and the whirlwinds that often frequent our address. (We like to call them Amanda and Alyssa!)

Quite a while ago, my mom gave me a book by Emilie Barnes called "More Hours in My Day". When I first got the book, I was excited to see what great organizational skills I would acquire from reading it. She is a good author and I have been inspired by some of her other works.

Anyway, as it happens with many kids and a busy schedule, the book got put aside for quite some time and I sort of forgot for a while that it was sitting on my book shelf!

Well, during our TV fast (which, by the way, went extremely well) I rediscovered this book. In it, it has some wonderful tips for scheduling your household chores. I have since adopted some of her scheduling tecniques and believe it or not (I'm not sure I believe it!) my house is beginning to resemble a smooth running and (most of the time) clean place to hang out!

In this book, Emilie suggests making lists for your various jobs to be done. She lists them daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually. I decided that for now, I would work on daily, weekly and monthly. My schedule sort of looks like this:
DAILY -
wash dishes
bathrooms
kitchen/dining room counters and sweep floors
tidy my bedroom
WEEKLY -
Mon. - laundry
Tues. - water plant and do girls' bedding
Wed. - scrub floors and do boys' bedding
Thurs. - water plants (this is a light day due to co-op)
Fri. - scrub the microwave
Sat. - do windows and pay bills
MONTHLY-
Week 1 - refrigerator
Week 2 - walls and baseboards (our walls get pretty yucky cause of all the little fingers!)
Week 3 - cupboards (clean and/or organize)
Week 4 - Oven
Week 5 - basement (will it ever be clean?)

For the monthly planning, she says to take 15 minutes a day to work on that week's project. Don't try to do it all at once. By the end of the week it looks really nice!

We also have the kids doing more of their share of the cleaning. We have chore cards that they have to take each day, and so that frees me up to do my scheduled cleaning. This is working out really well. We talked about this in our family counsel and so there isn't ever any complaining about doing chores...so far!

I am very excited to be putting this schedule into practice. I have a sense of accomplishment at the end of each day and am happy that Dave can come home to a cleaner than usual house.

"She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness she will not eat." Proverbs 31:27

Our two week challenge

2008-01-17T16:23:00.000-05:00

Almost two weeks ago Dave and I sat down with the kids for a "family counsel" meeting. This is where we talk to the kids about some things in our family routine that need to change or problem areas that we need to work on. Usually we have to remind them to do their share with the chores around the house or maybe give out new chores with the changing of ages. Sometimes we talk about incorporating new things into our routine. Last year Dave and I started alternating weeks taking out the kids one on one. It can be easy to lump them all together sometimes and we wanted them to feel like they were special individually. This has been great for all of us.

That brings us to this year's big change. Even though our family probably doesn't watch a lot of TV comparitively , we felt like the kids were often choosing their electronic companion over each other and we felt like they had become disinterested in finding constructive things to do with each other. Perhaps we discovered an idol?

So....we have been abstaining from any and all TV for almost 2 weeks! That means no TV, no movies (on TV or in the theaters) and no Nintendo. The kids took the announcement pretty well - especially when we told them that Dave and I would be included in this TV "fast".

The kids have rediscovered how fun playing with each other can be as opposed to playing against each other in Nintendo! They found out that Play-doh, puzzles, Legos and coloring are just as entertaining as watching a movie.

I thought that it would be a lot harder to do this, especially during school hours when I can put on Leap Frog movies for the little girls and have some quiet time to school the boys, but they have been really good about sitting and coloring or doing puzzles together and it hasn't been very hard at all.

This has been really good for Dave and I as well. We have been getting to bed earlier which makes getting up for quiet times easier and have even gotten in a game or two of cards!

I have been so blessed to see my kids becoming better friends and our family drawing closer through this time and I know that it has been glorifying to God. We have been so blessed by this that we plan to take a 2 week TV fast every 3 months - that would mean that for 8 weeks out of the year we won't be sitting in front of the TV at all!

If you feel like the television has become somewhat of an idol in your home, I would challenge you to take a TV fast - it might just bless you!

Another Update

2007-12-20T16:53:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, December 8th, the Amish community held a benefit auction for Diane Goslin. They began their day at 7 am and stayed until about 3 pm. There were an unbelievable amount of items being auctioned. Everything ranging from toys to tools to the famous Amish made quilts.

My family attended for a couple of hours, and while we didn't actually do any bidding, we consumed mass quantities of the delicious home made food that was being prepared right at the auction site. We had barbecued chicken, hot dogs, hot pretzels, donuts and apple dumplings. The donuts that they made were so incredible that we brought home several dozen to eat for breakfasts!

The community was able to raise $21,000.00 to contribute towards Diane's legal fees through this event. I know that this must have been an incredible blessing to her and her family.

Thanks for all your prayers and please...keep praying!

Crazy Mom!

2007-11-03T11:01:00.000-04:00

My days have been incredibly busy lately! Besides the daily schooling and general mothering, we have been involved in a homeschool co-op, fitness at Beachmont, serving at Beachmont Round-ups, taking Julia back and forth to soccer, Tuesday Teen Bible study, and practicing for our church's Christmas cantata!
Sometimes I feel like I am running a marathon at times. There are days that I wish I could remember what it feels like to sit down let alone have an uninterrupted night of sleep! Still, I wouldn't trade these days of raising our kids for anything. I absolutely love the walk of life that God has put me in!
There are times, however, that I think I get ahead of myself and don't take enough time to pause and make sure that my life is in order. A perfect example of this happened just this morning! I was being my usual busy self and thought I would be a good Proverbs 31 woman and get up while it is still dark and go to Walmart to do our monthly grocery shopping. (Hey - it sure helped me make this decision when I realized I could shop solo and not take the chance of having a 3 ring circus in the aisles of Walmart!)
Anyway, I got up and dressed in the quietness of a sleeping household, kissed Dave and was on my way to a early yet peaceful shopping trip. On my way home, Dave called and asked me to pick up donuts for Nathan's birthday breakfast, so I made a slight detour to the Wawa and then came home and unloaded the car, put the mountain of groceries away and then decided that I could finally take off my shoes and relax for a little bit before going to Julia's tournament game. (Her team is undefeated at the moment - yay!)
When I went to take off my shoes, I was suddenly horrified, mortified and highly amused all at the same time when I realized that when I put my shoes on in the peaceful dark hours of the morning, I had put on one of my shoes and one of Dave's! I had flaunted my new style of footwear for over an hour at Walmart and then again to the gazillion people that flood the Wawa on Saturday mornings!
For the first few seconds of realizing my mistake I was embarrased and then I burst into hysterical laughter! Here I thought I would go and act like a totally sane mother for an hour or two and actually get my shopping done without multiple potty breaks and "clean up in isle # whatever" but nooooooo, I had to go dressed like some crazy woman who can't even match her shoes!
The saying usually goes "You can dress them up but you can't take them out", but in my case..."You can take them out but you can't dress yourself".

Update on Midwife

2007-11-03T10:53:00.000-04:00

Some of you have asked what has been happening with Diane Goslin.
According to PA news, the fine of $11,000.00 has been waived...for now. She is in the midst of an appeal, but the judge who waived her fee has given her very little hope for continuing her practice.
Her legal fees have surpassed $40,000.00 and later this month the Amish community will have a fund raising rally for her. Whether or not she is able to practice midwifery will not change the way that the Plain People have their children. If she is unable to attend their births, they will have their babies unattended which of course raises the risk of complications.
Please continue to pray for the judge to rule in favor of allowing Diane to continue her ministry.

Please Pray

2007-09-29T18:50:00.000-04:00

I am asking for prayer for the woman who assisted me in the birth of our daughter Alyssa. Some of you know that she was taken to court because she attends home births without being a licensed nurse. She is licensed in midwifery and has attended over 5000 births in the 25 years that she has practiced.
A few days ago, she was ordered to cease and desist all practice and was fined $11,000.00. Her lawyer has appealed the decision, but until further notice she can no longer practice.
Diane is a wonderful godly woman whom God has blessed with a special gift. She has quite a ministry to those whom she serves and I believe that she should be allowed to continue her practice.
You can check out more info on Diane at this sight:
http://www.savehomebirth.com/news_and_views

Thanks for praying with me!

A Mom's Life in Less Than 3 Minutes

2007-09-28T10:39:00.000-04:00

If you are a Mom, you gotta check out this clip!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w_oc1j5NakY

Another Field Trip!

2007-09-25T16:42:00.000-04:00

Our family took advantage of some free time this weekend and headed down to Williamsburg, VA for a field trip/mini vacation!

We started out on Saturday morning by meeting my parents at the Jamestown Settlement where the kids were able to see life sized replicas of the Powhatan Indian village, Jamestown Fort, and the Susan Constant and the Discovery. (The Godspeed was docked somewhere else for the weekend so they had a similar sized ship named the Elizabeth.)

Jim & Mark in a Powhatan Hut.

Julia & Alyssa grinding corn.

Mark & Matt with Gramps on the Susan Constant.

The boys trying on the armor at James Fort.

My Dad in the Jamestown Church.

Learing how to do laundry in 1607.

On Sunday we had a wonderful time visting Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. The kids had a blast riding all the rides, and Matt and Nathan got to ride their first roller coaster. They both loved The Big Bad Wolf!

Alyssa riding the bugs!

All the kids in The Land of the Dragons.

On Monday, we visited Historic Jamestown. This is the original sight where the settlers built Jamestown. We got to watch archeologists dig in the actual ruins and see some of the artifacts they have uncovered. We also got to watch some men working in the glass houses. It is amazing to see these men take a hunk of glowing goo and tranform it into a lovely piece of art! They actually blow into a long pipe with the hot glass at the end and as they shape it, it grows into a pitcher, vase or some other useful container.

Posing with Pocahontas.

Making a glass pitcher.

Blowing the glass.

We had such a wonderful time together! The Lord gave us beautiful weather and it was great to be able to see the kids enjoying learning about the start of our nation.

Couldn't resist this pose!

A Slew of Birthdays!

2007-09-07T15:46:00.000-04:00

Since I didn't post over the summer, I missed a whole bunch of birthdays. Four of them - in less than 5 weeks!

Matthew turned 5 in July. He is so full of life. Passionate about everything and anything, there is never a dull moment with Matt (or Spike as we call him) around. He loves to read, talk, play Nintendo and swim. He told me that he wants to be a life guard when he grows up!

Alyssa turned 2 in August. We put all of the kids in camp except her this summer, and having that time with Mommy all to herself did wonders! She began talking in complete sentences and over came her shyness around other kids. Now we can't get her to stop talking! She loves Tinkerbell, Dora and Polly's and loves to sing with her brothers and sisters.

Julia turned 13 in August. Dave and I decided a long time ago that we would give our kids purity rings when they reached the appropriate age. We gave Julia her ring on the day that she turned 13. It was a wonderful (and yes- emotional) time. What a precious thing to see her making this commitment not only to keep herself pure but to pursue Godliness in all areas of her life! Julia loves to read - in fact I can't keep enough books around to satisfy her! She also loves to play soccer and has her first game tomorrow!

Jim turned 12 in August. He loves to build with Legos and likes to read Redwall and Star Wars books. His favorite gift that we got him was his hamsters. (This was a personal sacrifice for myself because I have a "thing" about rodents!) He named them Jack and Barbosa. He is excited because he gets to start attending the teen Bible study at camp this fall.

Well, now that July and August are over, we get a break from the birthdays until November and December!

More pictures

2007-09-06T15:14:00.000-04:00

Thought I would post a few more pictures of our 1st day of school ~ enjoy!
Swimming in the surf.

Collecting Sea Nettles

Alyssa can be brave if she holds Julia's hand!

Spike is always a ham!

Sisters...is it my imagination or does Amanda's grin look evil??!

One last look at the ocean.

First Day of School!

2007-09-05T09:04:00.000-04:00

If you have followed my blog in the past, you know that our family always starts school with a trip to Ocean City. We learn things in the car along the way to make it educational, and then we feast on Thrasher's french fries for lunch and enjoy the afternoon at the beach.

This year on the way down, my mom gave a talk on sea life and we learned many new things about sharks. (Did you know that the Sand Tiger Shark has 2 uterus, and that there are many babies inside each one? The strongest baby in each uterus eats all the others before they are born. Puts a new twist to sibling rivalry, huh?)

We also learned about the life of Beethoven and got to listen to many of his works, including the Moonlight Sonata and the 9th Symphony. What a gifted man!

Anyway...we had a blast yesterday! The fries were great and the water was warm. The kids had fun swimming with their Gramps and playing in the sand with Grammy.

On the way home, we got to visit with my Aunt and Uncle who live in a little town called Trappe. This is the town that my Mom grew up in. The older kids got to go to Uncle Jimmy's farm and watch the combines work while I stayed with the little girls and watched them play in the very playhouse that my mom played in when she was young.

What a great way to kick off our school year!

Look Mom, No Teeth!

2007-09-03T21:27:00.000-04:00

I love it when my kids lose both of their front teeth at the same time! Nathan lost his just a few weeks ago, so we are still getting a good laugh every time he tries to say something with an "S" in it.

I couldn't resist posting a few shots of our cute little "snaggletooth"! Enjoy!

New Beginnings

2007-08-30T18:47:00.000-04:00

What a summer! I can't believe my last post was in April. A lot has been going on - I guess enough to keep me too busy to blog.

If you know anything about our family, you would know that we practically live over at Beachmont in the summer! Our kids go to camp there of course, but along with that, some of them were helping out with various skits and Bible stories, all of them were taking swimming lessons every Monday night, our two oldest kids went to Teen Night every Tuesday and if that weren't enough I helped to run the concession stand for Friday Family nights!

Although it was a busy summer, it was a wonderful break from our regular routine (I use the word routine very loosely) and we are all ready for the begininning of a new school year.

Okay, so I am ready, along with 2 or 3 of the kids. Some of them are not too thrilled about things like pre-algebra, literature and waking up early every morning!

But - ready or not here they come! Want them or not, like them or not, changes are right around the corner! Here are some of the new beginnings that are headed our way.

~New school year. (We are adding a pre-schooler to the mix of 8th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st)

~New school activity. (We joined our church's Homeschool Co-op and are looking forward to the fellowship each week.)

~New Teenager. (We could look at it one of two ways - either Julia is our first teen at 13, or Jim is our second teen at 12 - either way...HELP!!!)

~New schedule. (Gone are the care free summer days when waking up is somewhat optional!)

~New job. (Sort of - Julia is on a soccer team this year so I am joining the ranks of Mom's taxi services!)

~New quiet times. (I confess that I have slipped back into a lazy quiet time schedule - back to early mornings!)

~New mercies. (Thank God they come every morning!)

... may God be the Force behind me, the Goal before me, the Protection around me and the Life within me!

Steps of Faith

2007-04-16T14:39:00.000-04:00

"The Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you'."

Genesis 12:1

Abram was called by God to "go to the land I will show you". He was supposed to pack up his family, his possessions and all of his servants and go to somewhere. He was not given any more specifics than this. No maps, no points of interest along the way and no final destination.

Can you imagine (especially those of you with children) loading up all of your household goods into a moving van, getting your family loaded up into the car, saying by to your dearest friends and family and just taking off down the road without a destination in mind?

This is exactly what Abram did. God spoke to him and he obeyed. I am sure that he must have had doubts about this journey God was telling him to make, but he had faith in this great God who said that he would lead him to a land and would make him a great nation. Abram had nothing to go on but the promises of God - but oh what wonderful promises they were!

~ That he would become a great nation

~ That God would bless him

~ That God would make his name great

~ That he would be a blessing

~ That God would bless those that blessed him

~ That God would curse those who cursed him

~ That all people would be blessed through him

Can you imagine the great anticipation that Abram must have had? He was being led by GOD, and if he had faith enough to follow, all these blessings would be his!

Now, so many years later, we can't help but see all the people that have been impacted by the simple obedient faith of this one great man. He has indeed become a great nation and all have been blessed through him.

Well, I'm sure that most of you have heard this familiar story from Genesis. I have another story that is very similar about someone who is very dear to me.

There was a young man in the early 1970's who had a vision to begin a certain ministry for young people. He knew that God was calling him to this ministry, but he wasn't sure how it was to become a reality. At the time he was working as a youth pastor within a local church.

One day, this young man got a call that the great aunt of a friend wished to meet and talk with him and his wife about their ministry with young people. He agreed and went to the farm where this elderly lady lived. Her name was Mrs. Foard.

Once this young couple was seated at her home, Mrs. Foard jumped right into the conversation by asking them a very pointed question. "What does God want you to do?" I am sure that the young man was quite surprised by this direct question from a complete stranger, but with the strong call of God in his heart he readily answered, "God has called me to develop a Christian camping ministry for young people".

Mrs. Foard's response to his answer surprised him even more than the original question. She said, "Young man, I have been praying for you for 6 years! I would like to give you the gift of 21 acres of my property to begin making this vision that God has given you a reality!"

Can you imagine how taken aback this young couple must have been? Here they had felt that God was leading them in a definite direction, yet they could not see how to get there. Now, they had arrived at this place and through this woman's generosity, God was GIVING them the very land that they needed to begin the ministry He had called them to! They must have felt somewhat like Abram when he arrived in Canaan and the Lord said to him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you...Go walk through the length and breadth of the land for I am giving it to you."

Even though they now had the property to begin their ministry on, this couple had many more obstacle to overcome in order to get their ministry up and running. They would have to work long and hard and they would have to take some major steps of faith before they could see the fruits of their labors paying off.

For starters, they would have to give up their current job at the local church. Then of course, they would be without health insurance or their pension plan. To make matters worse, their family was not very supporting...especially the young man's father-in-law! He thought that this young man was following a dream and he was taking his daughter with him. How in the world could he possibly support a wife with the money from a dream?

Then, there was the problem of finding a place to live. When they saw the house that they would be able to live in, it was almost to much for the young man's wife, but this young man had such a vision that he could see what it could be not what it was.

He excitedly walked around the property and pointed out the places where they planned to build different things. A baseball diamond, cabins, a pond, etc. He was living out the vision that God had given him so long ago!

Like Abram, this man had nothing to go on but the promises of God - and it was more than enough! Just like Abram, the simple step of faith that this young man took has impacted hundreds of lives over the last 30 years.

I am sure that most of you are familiar with the ministry that this young man started. When it first started, it was called Beachmont Christian Camp. The first year that they were able to run a camping program, they only had 50 campers. Over the years, this number has grown to over 1500 and Beachmont has become much more that just a Christian camp. The aspects of their ministry are too many to list as are the scores of people that have been reached through God's work there. The name has been changed to Beachmont Christian Ministries and the original 21 acres have grown to about 50 acres all being used for the glory of God.

The young man in the story is my father, Paul Twining. I know that he is a very humble man and would say that the glory all belongs to the Lord. This is very true, but if the Holy Word of God can recognize Abram for his act faith in "following a dream" than I think it fitting to recognize my father as a man who took a step of faith and "followed a dream".

I don't need to know all the details as long as there is Someone I can trust to lead me.

The Twining "Home sweet home"!

(I like the KEEP OUT sign on the door!)

The trailer that our family lived in during the remodeling of our home.

The finished product in the later 70's.

(The house has had a great room and a sun porch added on since then.)

FAITH

2007-04-12T14:45:00.001-04:00

The definition of faith according to Webster is Unquestioning belief that doesn't require proof or evidence. According to Webster, we don't need proof to have faith, but we as Christians are blessed with evidence of the great God that we place our faith in. We have the Bible. 66 wonderful books by 40 authors who were inspired by God Himself. This Book took 1600 years to complete!

The definition of faith according to Hebrews 11 is a bit different than Webster's definition. "Faith is the substance, (the assurance, reality, confirmation, title deed) of things hoped for, the evidence (conviction, proof, conviction of their reality) of things not seen."

According to the Bible, we are saved through faith, live by faith, receive righteousness through faith, are justified by faith, have access to God's grace by faith, receive the promise of the Spirit by faith, do God's work by faith, and wait for His return in faith. Faith is vital to the life of a Christian.

Faith affects our lives in different ways everyday. We have faith that when we get into our cars we will arrive at our destination. We have faith that the food that we buy at the grocery store which is grown by absolute strangers is not going to be harmful to us. We have faith that our doctors are competent and therefore place our health in their hands. Without faith our lives would be very difficult!

Hebrews offers us many examples of how faith affected the people of God. We read about Abel. His sacrifice was pleasing to God and by faith he was commended as a righteous man. It talks about Enoch whose faith caused him to please God so that God took him from the earth and he did not experience death. His faith delivered him from death! Noah's faith manifested itself in works. As James says, "Faith without works is dead". Noah's act of building the ark came completely from his faith in God.
There are many more examples of faith in Hebrews. By faith Abraham... by faith Isaac... by faith Jacob... by faith Joseph... by faith Moses... by faith Rahab... James even goes on to tell us that he doesn't have time to talk about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets!
Faith is so important in the life of the Christian. Faith is when we please God, admit our dependence upon Him, and continually seek to rely upon Him and His grace.

Our faith in God should affect our attitude towards this world. True faith produces conviction not preference and convictions are non-negotiable. No matter what trials and temptations this world may bring, the convictions that come through our faith in God must stand firm. We cannot afford to conform to the patterns of the world and jeopardize the affect that our faith may have on others. Just as James speaks of those from the past whose faith is an example to us now, so our faith may now and in the future be commendable enough to be listed alongside of these great heroes of faith from the past.

"...Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

The "After Shock" of the Ladies Retreat

2007-03-18T10:20:00.000-04:00

I had the privilege of attending our church's Ladies Retreat over the past few days. This was the first time that I had joined the ladies of our church at Black Rock, and I must say it was a very refreshing time! The Holy Spirit's presence was so evident throughout the entire time and was moving greatly among us.
All of the teachings on grace, the worship times, small group discussions, personal solitude, and even the skit were clearly anointed by God and many walked away changed for the better.
The last teaching we had that was given by Laurie was very timely for me as a mom. She spoke about having grace for the ordinary days. Those of you who are moms can relate to those "ordinary days" where you wonder if you will ever do anything other than feed you family, wash their clothes, clean the house, put away dishes, reprimand the kids, feed babies, change babies, wash babies, and take care of anything and everything else that needs attending to with in the bounds of motherhood! (Of course being a mom has many brights spots such as watching your baby give their first smile, all the snuggle time from your favorite little people and seeing your kids understanding the father heart of God.) It was so refreshing to be reminded that God indeed will pour out sufficient grace not only during the trials we may face but on all those ordinary days that we face so often.
I was excited to be getting back home to my ordinary life with my family after the retreat, but all of us that rode up together decided that we should take advantage of the fact that we were childless and we went to BB's right after lunch on our way home. After filling our car with all of our bargains, we were ready to head home through the ice and snow!
Our first stop was Crystal's house. Her house is at the top of a very steep driveway. This very steep driveway was not plowed. Amy, who was driving, wasn't phased in the least. "Oh, I have four wheel drive", she says as she turns into the very steep, very slippery driveway. We were spinning wheels before we even got halfway up the driveway.
Now, anyone who has ever driven in the snow knows that if you don't make it up a hill the only way to get off the hill is to go backwards down the hill. As we were slipping and sliding backwards down that driveway, Amy was praying out loud that God would help her down the hill and the other three of us were jamming our feet on our invisible brake pedals praying that we would stay on the driveway and not fall off the steep inclines on the side of the driveway!
Thank the Lord we did make it back down the driveway and Crystal's husband jumped into his truck and picked up Crystal and her groceries and of course made it back up their driveway on his first try. Must be a guy thing.
I was supposed to call Dave when we left Crystal's house , but he had called when we were transferring the groceries to their truck. He left a message wondering where I was. Our original plan was for him to pick me up at Amy's but I wasn't sure now what he wanted to do, so I called him back. No answer. I tried his cell phone. No answer. I call our home number again and left a message and then left a message on his cell phone.
We had to make a decision since I had lots of frozen items from BBs so we decided that Amy should just take me home so that I could put the food away. I finally got a hold of Dave after I got home. He had been shoveling some one's driveway for them and didn't feel his phone vibrating through his heavy coat. So I came home to an empty house.
It wasn't empty for long since they were just in town, so I got to hug my husband and all the little people that I missed so much and then sat down in the rocker with Alyssa. Dave said that she wasn't feeling to well, so I thought maybe a little "mommy time" would help her to feel better. It wasn't long before she was asleep and I was nodding off shortly after, trying to partake in the conversations that my family was having. (Not much sleep at the retreat!) About 45 minutes later Alyssa woke up and I found out why she wasn't feeling too well. She had a major case of "loose bowels" and when I changed her it literally spilled out all over my lap. Not fun. We cleaned up from that and decided it was time to eat. Nothing fancy. Just sandwiches and chips. Easy to make, easy to clean up. Except when your baby eats a bigger piece of Dorito than she should, chokes on it and then proceeds to throw up all over herself. Again - not fun.
Well, at this point I have come to the decision that God has decided to give me a lesson in "Grace for the Ordinary Days" the minute I arrived at home, except that this wasn't quite the "ordinary" I had in mind when Laurie was speaking. This was more like one of those "extraordinary" days that come every so often to remind us how blessed our "ordinary" lives can be - and it wasn't over yet. Nope - not yet.
I decided that I needed to take a bath and get cleaned up from... ummm...Alyssa. So I got cleaned up and decided that it would be nice to get the book I am reading to the kids and read them a chapter. They were excited and I settled down in my rocker with my feet up to read only to hear Dave say, "Have you seen the dog?"
We had let Roxie out just before dinner to relieve herself and then when Alyssa threw up she was forgotten for a little while. Well, she must have taken offense to having been forgotten and decided that she would go for a little tour around the neighborhood. Dave and several of the kids hop in the van and go to look for her, while I stayed home with the other kids in case she showed up.
About 45 minutes later, she "appeared" on our door step covered with dirty, icy snow. Back to the bathtub, this time with a yucky dog who hates getting a bath. Of course after bathing a dirty dog in a human bathtub, the tub needs to be thoroughly scrubbed! I got all that done and decided that wet dog smell mixed with Comet was not quite what I wanted to smell like and headed up to the bathroom to take yet another shower!
Dave came back and we prayed with the kids and put them to bed. We watched the ending of a movie we had started several days ago and the went to bed ourselves. I was so tired I could barely stay awake to pray with Dave. Ah - sweet slumber!
As I look back at all the events of yesterday, I see that throughout all of these things God was indeed pouring out His grace upon me. I was able to take it all in stride and even managed to be singing one of the songs that we learned on the retreat. The words from the chorus say, "I come running to You when I fear when I'm tried. I come running to You - to Your blood to Your side. There my soul finds rest."
So, here I sit on Sunday morning with Alyssa sleeping on my lap - unable to go to church but more than able to rejoice in the day that the Lord has made because His grace is more than enough to get me through the ordinary days and the days that turn out to be not so ordinary!

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens."
Psalm 68:19

Bubbles!!!

2007-03-02T09:25:00.000-05:00

Remember how fun it was as a kid to pop the strips of packing bubbles? Well, Dave often has large machines shipped to him for the company that he works for and they are packed with huge strips of "mega bubbles"! These are way bigger than the bubbles I used to pop! Anyway this morning he brought in a whole box full of bubble strips and the kids had a blast jumping up and down on these and popping all the bubbles. Just thought I'd share the fun!

Excellence acquired is to be required

2007-01-29T14:56:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday I was able to spend a lot of time with my mom. I picked her up in the morning and we drove up to BB's to do some shopping.
After shopping we went to Lapp's Family Restaurant which is just a mile or two from BB's and had lunch together. I had such a wonderful time talking about many things with my mom. She has such a wonderful way of sharing insight that God has given her while she watches Dave and I raise our children. She offers suggestions and often has the answer to difficult situations that I may be having with my children or with myself!
After spending all this time with my mom, I was able to see some areas in our family that sorely needed improvement. She in no way implied that we were having problems, but through me sharing with her and with the insight she gave, God revealed many things to me.
Most of these things I found needed to be approached with me first taken the initiative to set a better example. I realized that my quiet times had been weak and shallow and I really need to get back to getting adequate nourishment for my family. I need to be diligent in my physical exercising so that I am able to keep up with my kids better. I need to require better manners of my children. I need to be more consistent in the correction of my children - especially with the younger ones who are going through "tantrum phases"! I need to approach schooling my kids as a privilege, not a burden, and I need to do it as unto the Lord. I need to have the kids pull their share of the chore load around the house and make sure that they finish these chores before they are released to play for the rest of the day. Most importantly, I need to require my kids to spend time daily in the Word on their own - not with Dave or I reading a passage of Scripture to them, but finding for themselves what a joy it is to learn from God's Word with a daily quiet time.
In short, I need to require excellence in living first of my self, and then of my children. The Bible says, "Be EXCELLENT at what is good..." My calling in life right now is to be the best mom that I can be. I am to diligently seek the Lord to give me wisdom in raising these future warriors for Him. If I fail, it is only because I was not striving to be excellent at what I have been called to do. If I fail, then all these years of training will have been for nothing. When my kids are grown up and raising children of their own, I want them to be able to look back and see that they ended up where they are because their mom required excellence not only in their life, but in her own.

"There is nothing I desire to live for but to do some small service for my children, that as I've brought them into the world, I may, if it please God, be an instrument of doing good to their souls."
Susanna Wesley

Being Pious

2007-01-21T17:05:00.000-05:00

Having a flexible schedule was always a must growing up in the ministry. It was something I learned at a young age and have carried it with me into my marriage and have been very thankful to be able to apply it in raising my children. Raising this crew requires much flexibility!
Having a daily schedule or routine is a wonderful way to keep your sanity, but sometimes life will throw things at you that require you to alter that routine. Things like children getting sick and needing to go to the doctor in the middle of your school day, running out of milk, or needing to pick up or drop off kids for soccer practice. Sometimes making school more fun for the kids requires changing your daily routine. Sometimes I will wake up to a warm sunny day in the spring or the fall and decide that it is a perfect day to go to the zoo. Having a flexible schedule is a wonderful thing!
I have found, however, that flexibility is not something to be used when trying to have a daily quiet time. For me, it must come early in the morning, first in my schedule, and top priority, no matter how flexible I am willing or able to be. There is no squeezing it in elsewhere in my day. At no other time in my daily routine will I have more freedom, more quiet or less interruptions than in the early hours of the day.
So, how I can I achieve being pious in this area? More often than not I feel like I could be pious later in the day when I've had more sleep. After all, wouldn't I function better as a mother if I had more sleep? Can I trust that I will find that block of time where I can be uninterrupted long enough to have a productive and meaningful quiet time? Not likely!
The only way that I can ensure that I will indeed keep this most important time of learning and hearing from the Lord, is that I put aside my need for flexibility and maintain order in my schedule even if it is only long enough to have this precious time with Jesus.
Susanna Wesley was a woman who thrived off of having an orderly day. She would get her husband up at the same time every day, had meals at the same time every day, and had prayers and devotions at the same time every single day. It was said that even as she measured her hours, so she measured the porridge that she gave her husband every morning!
I have been reading a biography of Susanna's life written by Sandy Dengler. When Susanna's husband Samuel questioned her about her need to be so pious about everything, she gave this reply ~
"A regular and orderly day provides that nothing will be neglected.You might well feel more pious later, but keeping to a strict order ensures that you'll be pious, whether you feel like it at the moment or not. One must never trust whim and feeling."

A Wonderfully Busy Holiday

2007-01-08T16:28:00.000-05:00

This holiday season seems like it was more busy than in past years. Our family seemed to cram more events into our schedule than possible! So much has happened in the month of December that if I posted about it all, you would probably get bored reading it!
I thought maybe I would post some pictures that would highlight our holidays.

These are our two December birthday girls. Christiana turned 9 on the 10th, and Amanda turned 3 on the 11th. One of Amanda's favorite gifts was a princess dress up set given to her by Dave's parents. She turns into a princess almost every day as soon as breakfast is over!
Christmas day was wonderful! We started the morning at our house with just our family. We did the "present thing" before breakfast and then we had our traditional Christmas breakfast of French toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, and scrapple! MMMMM!!!!
After cleaning up from breakfast we headed over to Dave's parent's house for a few hours to visit with Dave's whole family, and then headed over to my parent's house for a while to visit with my family and to eat steamed shrimp!

We had the wonderful privilege of having my entire family at home for the holidays. My brother Todd is a pastor at Metro Life Community Church near Orlando, and so it's not often that He is able to be home for Christmas. This year he and his family were not only home for Christmas, they were able to stay through the New Year as well.

One of my favorite gifts this holiday season was being able to visit with my dear friend Amy and her husband. They were up visiting her grandparents in West Virginia over the New Year, and we were able to meet half way in Frederick for several hours of much needed fellowship with each other! I have known Amy since we were 15, and we have been through thick and thin together! She got married two years ago, and this is the first time that we have seen each other since her wedding.

All in all it was a wonderful holiday! We had wonderful times with our families and were able to truly enjoy celebrating the birth of our Savior.

Laundry Magic

2006-12-05T16:52:00.000-05:00

My mom introduced me to a wonderful stain remover. Its called GOOP. Dave has been using this hand cleaner for a long time to clean up after working on the car. I never realized how wonderful it works on other things as well! We've gotten marker off of our new couches with it and I have removed tons of stains from the kids clothes. Everything from spaghetti sauce to blood.

BEFORE

AFTER

I think that I may have missed a few spots on the bottom, but if you look at the collar you can see a big difference. (There is a gold design that runs through the pink - its not dirt.)

The way that I use it is to rub a little GOOP into the stain with a toothbrush then let it set for 10 or 15 minutes before throwing it in the washer with the rest of the laundry. I have been keeping a watch out for something to take out stains the kids' clothes and I think I have finally found it!

Advent Time!

2006-12-04T16:37:00.000-05:00

Every year since I was a kid my family has made an advent wreath. My siblings and I would go out and cut evergreens and we would wrap them around a wire form to create the wreath, and then we would decorate it with berries and miniature gifts.
My mom was so creative in her preparation of the advent season! Each of the four candles would have a different name, and she would have a short devotional and and several verses to go along with whatever the candle's name was. We each had our own advent "book" that she had put together. It was filled with all sorts of Christmas songs and was covered by some sort of Christmas themed picture that we all sat around and colored on the first Sunday of the advent season.
My family has always been somewhat musical, so the songs in the book included the lyrics and the music so that we could all follow along and sing in four part harmony. We sang the traditional carols like Angels We Have Heard on High, Joy to The World, and We Three Kings as well as some songs that are probably not so familiar. Songs like Infant Lowly, Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella, and Pat-a-Pan. We had so much fun singing these songs together! It was a wonderful time of "togetherness" for our family, and is a memory that we all cherish.
We have continued the tradition of the advent wreath with our own children. A few things are different due to the ages of the kids like cutting live greens and singing in four part harmony, but as they get older I hope to incorporate these parts of my own memories into our tradition.
For now, we have fun learning the names of all of the candles and singing the songs that all of the kids know by memory. We still have advent books that we all sit around and color together and the kids that can read (that would be 6 of them) enjoy looking through the songs and finding their favorite ones.
One of the reasons that I like this tradition is that it gives us an excuse during the busy holiday season to sit around the table together and enjoy just being a family.
Here are some pictures of this years first Advent Sunday.

Another Field Trip

2006-11-21T17:58:00.000-05:00

We took another field trip this week. We went to Washington D.C. and visited the Museum of Natural History. They post a lot of evolution, but the exhibits themselves are a wonderful reminder of the awesome power of our Creator.

Chrissy and Mark have been studying birds

in Science with my Mom.

Of course the boys loved the dinosaurs!

All the kids enjoyed the elephant in the

center of the museum.

My personal favorite was the mammal exhibit. As you

can see, they are very creative in the way that they display

the animals!

My little princess

2006-11-13T16:14:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I took Amanda and Alyssa to a "princess tea party" given in honor of one of Amanda's friends. What a fun time! There was a room full of little girls all dressed up as princesses and all feeling the part! They got to use real make up, decorate crowns and little wands, make necklaces and bracelets and of course drink tea! I had such a great time watching my girls make memories with their friends and acting all "grown up"!

Daddy's Little Girl!

Birthday time again

2006-11-09T15:25:00.000-05:00

In our family, no matter what time of year it is, there is usually a birthday looming just around the corner! We have birthdays within our immediate family 7 months out of the 12 and 11 out of 12 months in our extended family. The fun never ends!
This month we celebrated Nathan's 6th birthday. Due to my health, we had to do things a bit differently, but had a wonderful celebration none the less! We spent the day at my mom's house so that she could help out with the kids and so that she could join in the fun. My job was to watch everyone have fun and to take pictures, and Dave took care of picking up the presents, the decorations (Nathan chose Chicken Little) and the ice cream cake.
In the morning when we got to my parent's house, we found that my dad had raked up a ton of leaves into a huge pile. If you have ever been to Beachmont you can imagine the amount of leaves! The kids had a great time jumping in the leaves before lunch and then after lunch the 6 older kids spent a couple of hours taking part in the home school fitness program.
Dinner was one of Nathan's favorites - pineapple pizza! After dinner we went into the living room to watch Nathan open his presents. The kids helped him put together some of his gifts and they played for a little while before we went back to the kitchen to have birthday cake. After cake we were all ready to go home and go to bed!
A bit about Nathan - he loves to play with transformers, trains and turtles. He enjoys jumping on the trampoline, riding his bike and has discovered a new favorite thing to do - playing baseball with Gramps! He is getting ready to lose his second and third teeth. Nathan loves to worship during our family prayer time.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!

My rose

2006-11-06T15:48:00.000-05:00

It is so wonderful to watch my kids blossoming slowly into who they will one day fully be as adults. They still have a loooong way to go, but it is still heart warming (and sometimes amusing) to watch them growing up into who God wants them to be.
This week I have watched my children serving myself as well as each other very unselfishly. It is a quality that I hope each one will develop and have as one of the stronger qualities in their lives. I have also watched them learn how to show compassion to others as well as showing their love in tangible ways.
Earlier last week on the day that I was to come home from the hospital my oldest son Jim was out and about with my dad. He asked my dad if they could stop at the store so that he could buy something for me. He used his very own money and bought me a single rose. It was one of the most beautiful roses that I have ever received - not just because of its natural beauty, but because it was chosen with great care by my son in order that he could show the great love that he has for me.
I am certain that girls are the farthest thing from his mind right now - but if he is already buying flowers for the one woman in his life at the age of eleven, then one day, he's going to sweep some fortunate girl off her feet! What a lucky girl!

Glimpses of Heaven

2006-11-02T19:14:00.000-05:00

Many times throughout the Bible we read the accounts of different people getting glimpses of what the "perfect" world will be like. Glimpses of what life will be like after the return of our glorious Savior. Little glimpses of heaven: For example, when Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit at the sound of Mary's voice and she felt her baby leap with in her for the first time. I'm sure that Mary must have had a glimpse of heaven when she looked into the face of her little baby and realized that she was touching the face of God. Those who were present when John baptized Jesus and the heavens opened and the dove descended must have been amazed at their little glimpse of what was to come! I can imagine that those who were healed by Jesus - especially the blind - were certain that they were seeing a glimpse of heaven when they could see for the first time, hear their first noises, take their first steps.
I can think of many times over the course of my life that I am sure that I have had a little glimpse of what heaven must be like. Some things we see with our eyes, like watching the sunrise or the sunset with its many array of colors; or seeing the flowers blooming in the spring or the leaves changing colors in the fall.
Other things you not only see with your eyes, but you can feel in your heart that you have just gotten a glimpse of the beauty of heaven. Knowing in your heart for the first time that you are really truly in love; being awakened in the morning by your husband's kiss; feeling your baby move within you for the first time; sweet kisses from your children; heart felt prayers coming from the lips of your children.
This past week, I miscarried our 9th child. This past week, I also was given more glimpses of what heaven must be like than I have had in a life time. Seeing the compassion my children had for each other and the comforting glances and hugs that they gave to each other; being served unselfishly by my husband as well as my children and parents; being served by our church family in our time of need; experiencing God's grace in a greater way than ever before; knowing God's mercies are new every morning; seeing the incredible gift of creation as I held our son for the first and last time. Truly I have been blessed by these wonderful glimpses into what heaven must surely be like!
As I anticipate the glorious coming of our King and the home that He is now preparing for His children, I am now even more excited because I know that He will continually give me these glimpses of how wonderful heaven is going to be and that until He is ready for us, these glimpses that He is giving me are really a bit of heaven here on earth.

An Important Part of Homeschooling

2006-10-24T15:51:00.000-04:00

I love all the many benefits that there are in home schooling! For instance, the flexible schedule that you can have, working at your kids pace instead of trying to keep up or having to go a slower pace than needed. You can focus on your child's weak points and spend one on one time working out specific problems.
One of my favorite benefits of home schooling would definitely be the field trips! Ever since we started schooling our kids at home, we have visited some wonderful places. This year has been no exception.
For the past few years, we have started out our school year with a bang by taking a trip to ocean city with my parents. We find some neat places along the way where we can learn a bit about the history of our state and then we hit Thrashers French Fries for a yummy lunch, play on the beach for a little while and then head home.
This year was no exception. We had to go on our trip a little later than usual since my parents were gone for 5 weeks touring America coast to coast for their 40th anniversary, but we still got to start our year off with a bang! (Boy those fries are good!)
While we were waiting for my parents to return from their trip across the country, we managed to take a trip to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. We went during the public school systems second week in school. This early in the year, they weren't scheduling any field trips so we basically had the zoo all to ourselves!
Last week we took a trip to two different places. The first place was definitely geared toward my younger children. Clark's Elioak Farm is a neat little place that originally started out as a children's petting zoo, featuring farm animals. It now has a new attraction. Do any of you remember The Enchanted Forest? It was a children's park that was based around Mother Goose's nursery rhymes. I went there as a child and have many wonderful memories there. Unfortunately, back in 1989 I think, there was a huge fire at the park and they never reopened after that. This little farm has managed to collect the remnants from the Enchanted Forest and are restoring them and placing them around their farm. I was able to watch my kids enjoy some of the same memories I had as a child.
After a picnic lunch at Centennial Park, we headed out to Washington Monument National Park. This is where the first monument ever built to George Washington is still located. You can take a small hike up the mountain and actually go up inside the monument and see a fantastic view of Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia from the top.
I am looking forward to our field trips throughout this year and encourage all you home school moms to take advantage of the benefits of schooling at home and take those field trips! Not only is it educational, it gives you a wonderful break from the daily routine and time to make some memories with your kids!

Starting off our year at Ocean City, MD

The kids had their first camel rides at the MD Zoo.

Clark's Elioak Farm brought memories from The Enchanted Forest.

Washington Monument State Park

Back to the Blog...

2006-10-23T15:11:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted a blog! This year has been unusual for our family to say the least! The changes that came along with having a husband that was running for sheriff as well as the busy schedule that we hold in the summer made it necessary to put blogging on the back burner for awhile! I have managed to keep up with reading other blogs and have been encouraged with some of the writing that has been going on!

Since it has been so long since I have posted, I thought I would list some of the changes that have taken place in our family over the past year.

1. Instead of playing house and other "normal" make believe games, my kids now hold fundraisers and mock elections.
2. Before the primary election, at least one of the kids needed to be wearing a "Tritt for Sheriff" t-shirt when we left the house for any errands.
3. My husband's t-shirt drawer is packed to overflowing with political shirts - not just his own!
4. Most of my kids know more about who is running for what in this coming election than I do!
5. On a more serious note - Julia, our oldest, turned 12 years old in August. She now attends Teen Bible Study at Beachmont and has a job with a friend of ours as a "mother's helper".
6. Two of our kids, Jim and Christiana, were baptized this summer.
7. We are back to a regular school schedule again. (Thank goodness!)

My baby is 1 today!

2006-08-02T21:29:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that it's already been a year since I gave birth to our beautiful baby girl, Alyssa. Tonight we had our traditional first birthday party that begins with hot dogs and macaroni (A Tritt staple) and ended with a birthday cake all for Alyssa! We had a great time celebrating together and thanking God for this little blessing!
Since I have already posted a blog about Alyssa a while ago, I'll just post some pictures of her party.

Psalms 22

2006-06-22T07:35:00.000-04:00

I was reading in Psalms 22 this morning. After reading this verse, God brought to my mind all of the many pregnant ladies within our church as well as those who have recently given birth.
"You are He Who took me out of the womb; You made me hope and trust when I was on my mother's breasts. I was cast upon You from my very birth; from my mother's womb You are my God." (Amplified Version)
What a glorious verse to claim for our little ones! How wonderful it is to know that even as they are laying in our arms feeding, they are learning to trust and hope in our wonderful Saviour! Our prayers for our children's salvation should never stop, but I am so thankful that God has seen fit to begin a work in our children's hearts even before they can understand the things we are saying to them. What a loving Father we have!

Two special people

2006-06-14T09:18:00.000-04:00

I wanted to post a blog about two very special people. These two people have touched so many lives by the way that they live their lives. The steadfast commitment that they have toward God and to each other is an incredible testimony to anyone that has the privilege of knowing them.
The man is one who could be compared to David - a man after God's own heart. He unselfishly gives of himself over and over. He is one of the most humble servants that I know. He constantly looks for ways to bless others in his actions, his speech and in his prayers.
The woman is one of those Titus 2 "older godly women" that every younger woman longs to have mentor them. She lives out the role model of Proverbs 31 and is truly worth much more than rubies! Her love for the Lord and for her husband is manifested in the way that she so willingly serves all who come to their home no matter what her own circumstance may be.
This couple is very special to me, because they have not only helped me to grow in my walk with the Lord, but they have shaped me into the person that I am today. These two people are my parents.
What a blessing to have such a godly heritage to pass on to my children! The help that I have received from them spiritually as well as physically is priceless. They have supported our desire for a big family from the start and have always been faithful to come along side us in training our children in the things of the Lord.
Last week my parents celebrated 40 years of marriage. All 4 of their children were able to be with them and take them out to their favorite restaurant - Steak & Ale. We had a wonderful time together and I know that I speak for all of my siblings when I say that we are very grateful to my parents for being faithful to raise and train us in the way we should go.
Thanks Dad & Mom! I love you both!

Wonderful Vacation

2006-06-07T06:49:00.000-04:00

Our family just got back from a much needed vacation to Outer Banks, NC. The week could not have been more beautiful. It was warm and sunny every day until the day we left. We spent hours at the beach swimming, hunting ghost crabs, digging in the sand and looking for shells. We also had access to a swimming pool and play ground where the staff had organized games throughout the week. (Julia won a medal by playing soccer!)
We celebrated my birthday while we were down there, and Dave gave me a certificate to visit the nearby day spa. Wow! What a treat! That was a first for me. I felt quite pampered!
I must say that one of favorite things down there was my quiet times. I had a hammock style porch swing just outside of my bedroom where I could see the ocean. This is where I sat to spend time with the Lord.
We are so grateful for this time away together. We had such a wonderful time!

Trying out the boogie boards!

Digging in the sand. (I think Dave had the most fun here!)

My Cuties!

Mending and commending

2006-05-26T07:35:00.000-04:00

It is so easy to find Scriptures in the Bible to tell us how important it is to correct our children.

"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction will drive it far from him."
"He who spare the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him."
"Discipline your son, for in that there is hope;"
"The rod of correction imparts wisdom;"

These are just a few of the verses in Proverbs that encourage us to discipline our children. There are many more that talk about children being foolish to despise correction and children being wise to heed their parents instruction.
We get so caught up in "mending the ways" of our children, that I think we sometimes forget the importance of commending the ways of our children. Proverbs 3:27 says, "Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act."
Our children need to be encouraged when they do something right! How good do we feel when someone commends us for something that we did? Maybe our husbands came home and commented on the clean house. I love it when my kids comment on the supper I've made or when they thank me for something that I did for them.
We should be quick to do the same for our children. I had the chance to do that for Julia this week. Ever since Christmas, she has been sleeping on a cot mattress. She has a bed, but we've not been able to get the mattress yet. We have actually gone out several times to pick one up, but each time, something happened to prevent us from bringing one home. She has never once complained! I am so proud of the way she has responded to each of these times. She will just smile and say, "Don't worry about it, Mom. We'll get one later."
Yesterday I told her how proud I was of her Godly response. I could tell by the look on her face that it meant a lot to her for me to say that.
When we have corrected our kids over and over again for some particular attitude or action and it seems like they will never get it right, we should make sure that we commend them when they do get it right, and even more importantly, we need to commend them for other positive traits that we see in their lives.
If children always hear correction and never hear commendation, they will grow up being depressed and feeling like a failure! I want to encourage them to live their lives as unto the Lord, knowing that He is working in their lives to create a beautiful work of art!

So God We Trust In You

2006-05-23T19:23:00.000-04:00

This is a letter that was sent out to our friends and family concerning my brother Russ.

I wanted to give you all an update on Russ. Some of you may not be aware, but he had surgery on his thyroid yesterday (Monday). He had a biopsy done on his thyroid and a nodule on his thyroid a couple of weeks ago and the doctor said there were suspicious cells and that at least half of his thyroid would have to be removed. The doctor also said that while he was under he would do a better biopsy to find out more information. Well - yesterday the biopsy showed that he had malignant cancer and he'd have to remove the entire thyroid. At this point, it appears as though he was able to remove the cancerous part but Russ will have to go through radiation therapy in 4-6 weeks (which falls right about during Mini Session/Session 1). From now on, he will have to always take thyroid "replacement" medication.

I am so astounded by the goodness of the Lord. A few weeks ago, before we were aware he had this problem, Russ was rushed to the hospital with what was believed to be meningitis. As it turns out, he did not have meningitis, but as a result of all the tests he went through at that time, the doctors found the nodule on his thyroid. Had he not gone into the hospital thinking he had meningitis, the doctor let us know yesterday that by the time Russ had symptoms of this cancer, it would have spread and would not be as easy to remove.

He's not exactly out of the woods yet. Because it was malignant, there's always gonna be a chance it could reappear somewhere in his body - therefore, he'll have to get regular bloodwork/tests done to see if there's any evidence of cancer. This morning tests show that his calcium levels are pretty low and they are working on regulating that.
Please keep Russ in your prayers. More important than anything is that God is exalted and honored and this is Russ's prayer. Notes/emails of encouragement to him and my parents would be cool.

This was written by my sister, but is what our whole family is feeling right now. Over the last 6 months, we have had several people who have been close to our family pass away or have been diagnosed with cancer. We don't understand the ways of our God, but we do know that "He who promised is FAITHFUL."

In times like these, all we can do is get on our knees and praise the Lord for His goodness.

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform:
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour:
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own Interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

So God, we trust in You!
O God we trust in You.
When tears are great
and comforts few
we hope in mercies ever new
we trust in you!

From Worship God Live
Words by William Cowper
Additional words and music by Bob Kauflin

Marks of love

2006-05-20T14:52:00.000-04:00

On Friday, my three year old son Matthew came to me with a little magic marker that his fitness teachers had given him. He said, "Mommy, I love you!" Of course I quickly replied, "I love you too, Matt!"
He then asked, "Mommy, since I love you, can I mark you with my new marker? I want to mark everyone that I love!"
Today, I still bear his mark of love.
I am reminded of another's Son, who, because He loved us so much, He wanted to "leave His mark" on us. The mark of Christ lasts far longer than any marker, for it marks us deep below the skin - to our very souls!
Today and forever I will bear His mark of love!

Who's helping who?

2006-05-03T17:32:00.000-04:00

I had an incredible thought. God is not here to help me train my children. It's really the other way around! I am here to help God. This is a Master/Apprentice relationship. Although He is in control and I am here to assist Him, I still need His help to fumble through the task that He has assigned to me.
When situations arise that I've never dealt with before or have tried to handle and failed, He is there to offer me His hand. All I have to do is take hold and He will guide me through this life giving me the knowledge that He possesses.
Something that I have always seemed to struggle with is having patience. I remember that as a senior counselor at camp we would fill out an end of the year questionnaires. One of the questions was what do you think God has been teaching you this summer? My answer was always patience!
I Timothy 1:16 says "I was shown mercy so that in me...Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life."
Oh that I might have unlimited patience! That seems so hard to come by when your kids keep doing the same thing over and over again, or when you just put the finishing touches on your recently cleaned house only to turn around for two seconds and it's once again resembling the aftermath of a tornado! This is just one of those areas that I will have to rely on the Masters teachings and trust that He will perfect this work in me that He started.
So, the next time I start to cry out to God for His help, maybe instead I should try asking Him what I can do to help Him raise my unruly bunch of warriors in training!

My Personal Retreat

2006-05-01T06:44:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my weekend get away!
I have felt God impressing upon my heart for some time now that I needed to have a personal retreat.
I will confess to you that my quiet times have not been what they should be and I knew that I needed to get alone with God and find out what He would have for me.
For all you moms of nursing babies, you know what a struggle those early mornings can be after being up several times to feed a hungry baby! This, along with Amanda having trouble staying in her own bed at night, seemed to give me a valid excuse for not rising early enough to get my time alone with the Lord.
I would try to snatch little moments throughout the day with the Lord, and was successful to some degree, but 10 minutes doesn't go very far when I think of all that God has called me to do as a wife and a mother!
So, all that being said, my husband was gracious enough to give me a full 24 hours away from the business of life to get alone with the Lord. What a blessing it was! Not only did I spend hours worshipping, seeking God, confessing, and listening to the Spirit, I got a good night's sleep as well! (Come to find out, Alyssa slept through the night while I was gone - that had to be God!)
God revealed many things to me during this time. He showed me areas of my life that I had failed my children, yet was faithful to show me how I could improve in those areas. He showed me ways to approach problem areas in my children's' hearts that I had previously been struggling with.
He also showed me that my quiet times are precious to Him and that if I would submit my tiredness to Him and be faithful to meet with Him, that He would bless this area of my life. That doesn't mean that the kids will always sleep through the night or that it would always be easy to jump right out of bed every morning, it simply means that He will be faithful to meet me every morning and that His grace will always be sufficient to get me through the day.
I really struggled with this. Not only was God prompting me to wake up before the kids, I knew that He wanted me to wake up even before my husband. Proverbs 31 says that the virtuous woman rises while it is still dark to get food for her household. Note that this does not just say for her children. The household definitely includes the husband!
So last night, in obedience to my Lord, I set my alarm to go off at 5:00 a.m. This morning, Alyssa woke up at 4:49 to be fed. The first time all night. God is so faithful!

Into his court she humbly came
fearful in knowing this could be her last hour.
For when she called out his name
her very life would be in his power.

Honor and admiration filled her heart.
This was the one who could bring her life!
This king had loved her from the start
and had proudly called her his wife.

Slowly she approached his throne in awe.
Trembling in fear her heart began to race.
Thirty days had passed since her name he did call.
Would he welcome her or from her turn his face?

As she humbly stepped into the inner court
the love and joy on his face he did not hide.
She had found favor with the one she adored!
The rod was lifted and she was welcome to be at his side!

Into Your courts I humbly come,
resting in the peace that You have given.
I call out Your name and to You I run
for to You my heart has been driven.

Honor and admiration fills my heart.
You have given me the gift of life!
You, my King, loved me from the start
and have accepted me, a mortal, as your wife!

I approach the throne of grace in awe.
The joy I find in You causes my heart to race.
For day by day my name You will call
and from me You will never turn Your face.

As I step into Your inner court,
the quiet place where only You and I abide,
I find favor with the One I Adore
and I am gladly drawn to Your side!

Like Queen Esther of long ago, I desire the presence of a powerful King. The difference is that I can approach my King with confidence, knowing that He will always be waiting with open arms.
The Bible says that Esther hadn't been called into the king's presence for 30 days! What a privilege to not only be called into God's presence daily, but I have the joy of continual communion with Him throughout the day!

The End is Near!

2006-04-22T11:30:00.000-04:00

The end of school, that is! Yep, the Tritts are almost finished. We have just about 4 weeks left until we are finished with this year's schooling. This is a bit earlier than usual, but we didn't take our usual October vacation in 2005. We are planning to go away right after we finish school this year.
For the past several years, we have ended our school year at O.C. Maryland - sort of an end of the school year celebration. Since we are going elsewhere after school, we decided to take our O.C. trip a bit early. We turned it into a field trip - Mark and Chrissy are studying Maryland history, so we visited several counties in Maryland throughout the day.
We left last Thursday morning at 6:00 along with my parents and headed down to the beach! I thought I would share a few of our pictures from our day.

Seeing wild ponies at Assateague Island.

Enjoying the very cold water!

Building sand castle with Dad.

Beautiful Beach Babies!

Visiting my mom's childhood home.

Pretending to be a sloth at the Salisbury Zoo.

Your only as old as you feel!

2006-04-11T16:32:00.000-04:00

The other day I was talking to my kids about being old and they were quick to inform me that you're not old until you are 72. Why 72? I have no idea, but at least I have a ways to go before they dub me "old"!
Our conversation after that went something like this:
Me: I guess if you're not old until you turn 72, then Grammy and Gramps aren't old yet, are they?!
Julia: Nope - not yet.
Me: But they look older than me right? Do you think that Grammy looks older than me?
Jim: Just a little bit.
Me: What about Gramps?
Julia: He looks older most of the time.
Me: What about Aunt Dyan? (Dave's older sister)
Julia: She looks younger.
Me: Aunt Debbie? (Dave's younger sister)
Jim: She looks a lot younger!
(I am going to leave out the next few questions in order to protect myself from those parties who might get offended!)
Me: What about Dad? Does he look older? (we are about 6 months apart in age)
Jim: Well, sometimes Daddy looks older..... But he never acts like it!

I guess I should take that as a compliment!
Despite what it may look like by the way this conversation went, I really have no problem growing old - as long as my husband grows old along with me!

Reasons to Have a Big Family

2006-03-28T13:33:00.000-05:00

20. Counter global depopulation.
19. Never worry about who will take care of you when you get old.
18. More hands to help.
17. Never a dull moment.
16. Built in baby sitters.
15. No leftovers.
14. You can use all your favorite baby names.
13. Always somebody there to blame it on.
12. Wholesale shopping.
11. You always have someone to talk to.
10. No matter the size, it'll fit somebody.
9. Never fear insanity from too much quiet.
8. Lots of tax deductions.
7. Birthday parties all year long.
6. Have your own sports team.
5. Have your own cheering squad.
4. Group rates.
3. You can always find your car in a parking lot.
2. Get your own row at church.

The # 1 reason to have a big family....

"CHILDREN ARE A BLESSING FROM THE LORD ...BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE QUIVER IS FULL..."

Between many our are sorrows divided and our joys multiplied.

Precious Gift

2006-03-23T17:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had the privilege of going to the hospital to meet the first born son of some friends. What a joy it was to see the love so evident in these parents' eyes as they gazed down at their precious little one!
As I talked to the mom about the whole labor experience, I was amazed anew at what a wonderful gift we mothers have. God has blessed us as women with the gift of bringing life into this world. I know that ultimately God is the giver of life, but He has chosen our mortal bodies to be a sanctuary for these new little lives that He is growing.
True, it does not come without sacrifice. We must endure the months of morning sickness (some worse than others), the agonizing pain of stepping on the scale each month, the swelling of not only our tummies, but often other body parts as well, hot flashes, struggling to find a comfy position to sleep in the last few weeks, and of course all the pains that come along with labor and delivery!
But ~ what about the many joys that we experience while carrying our children? Remember when you realized for the first time that you were pregnant? What about telling your husband that he was going to be a father or your parents that they were going to be grandparents? How about the first time that you heard your babies heart beating or the first time that you felt them move? The bond that grows between a mother and a baby for those 9 months are so strong, that we are willing to go through the pains of delivering our baby just so that we can see them face to face, hold them close and to tell them how much we love them!
We face many trials along the long road of motherhood. Pretty soon our little "angels" begin to grow and on some days they seem a little bit more like demons and we realize that being a mom means facing sanctification everyday! We have to endure potty training, terrible twos, embarrassing moments in public before your kids learn what tact is, sibling rivalry, and let's not even get into the whole adolescent/puberty thing!
Oh Lord, let us not grow weary in the work that God has called us to! The daily process of sanctification is yet another way that God blesses us as mothers. We must go through the Refiner's fire in order to come forth as pure gold! What better way to become a refined piece of pure gold than by being a mother! Not only do we get to enjoy bringing a new life in to this world, we get to watch this little life flourish and grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus!

Stronger Unity

2006-03-15T21:01:00.000-05:00

In this day and age, it is easy to lose sight of those things which are so important to living a Godly life. When Dave and I got married, I would always get up with him and we would pray together before he left for work. He was in the USAF at the time, so his hours were pretty random. Sometimes he would have to leave the house as early as 4 am, and other times he would be at home until noon! Either way, I was faithful in getting up and spending time with him before he left. (This was really not that hard to do. I usually went back to bed after he was gone! Ahhh, the easy life before kids!)
After a while, those times started getting fewer and fewer. I think it had something to do with having more and more kids. Whatever the reason, we got out of the habit of our mornings spent together before God.
We still had our own personal quiet times, we began having family worship and Bible times, and have always been faithful to pray with the kids before bed, but times spent with God as a couple were not as frequent as they should have been.
A few weeks ago, I was talking to a very Godly woman, and she told me about something that she and her husband have been doing for years. Each night before bed, they spend time praying together. Not necessarily a long time every night, but they are faithful to end their day together in communion with their Heavenly Father. Even if her husband is out of town or knows that he will be home late, he calls her and they pray over the phone before she goes to bed. She said that this has had a wonderful impact on their marriage.
At our last care group ladies meeting, I felt that God would have me challenge the ladies of our group to begin to pray each night with their husbands, ending their day together before God. Up until then, I had not been practicing this myself, and I knew that in order to not become a hypocrite, I would also need to take up the challenge!
So far, we have not missed a night praying together. I will confess that I am not always 100% alert for these times, but Dave has been faithful in leading us, and I feel like we are on our way to making the unity of our marriage even stronger!
The Bible says that we are not to let the sun go down on our anger. I think that it is so easy to fail here particularly within a marriage. I know that Dave and I don't like to have disagreements in front of the kids, so we usually save our complaints until after they are asleep. This puts us at a risk of being upset at each other just as we are getting ready to go to bed. You know, it's almost impossible to go to sleep angry with the person that you are praying with just before you go to sleep!
So...I want to issue a challenge to all the wives reading this. Begin to pray each night with your husbands before you go to bed. This is a wonderful way to build up the unity between you and your husband. I would love to hear from those who are willing to take me up on this challenge!
"A threefold cord is not quickly broken".

New Mercies Everyday

2006-03-02T11:43:00.000-05:00

I have discovered this week that I most definitely was not called to be a nurse! Every member of my family (excepting myself) has been struck down with the flu this week. I feel like Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy from Uncle Wiggly! I've been running back and forth between the bedrooms and the couches taking temperatures, giving out medicine, covering cold bodies up and giving out endless cups of juice!
Our house has turned into a regular infirmary! I have all my medicine charts laid out along with all the labeled medicine cups and drinks. I move from person to person checking their condition and asking them if they need anything.

Each morning I wake up expecting to feel rotten. I tell myself, "I just know I'm next on the list!" Not so! God has been faithful in showing me that His mercies are truly new every morning. So far, I have woken up fairly refreshed and ready for another day of nursing my family back to health. My energy level is nothing short of a miracle! After several nights of getting up to tend the "sickies" at all hours, what else could explain this but an extraordinary God working an "ordinary" miracle?
I believe that God has given something special to those He has called to motherhood. Call it what you will, but it's made up of patience, endurance, an extra reserve of energy, discernment, and a huge dose of grace! If you think back to when Jesus was dying on the cross, even in one of His weakest moments He was looking out for His own mother. He saw her distress and even before she asked for His help, He told John to take care of her. (John 19:26-27)
We mothers can take this picture from long ago and apply it to our own lives. We can be confident that even before we ask for His help, Jesus will be looking out for our well being and give us what ever it is that we need to make it through every single day, whether it be strength, patience, energy, grace or His mercies which are new every single day!

Another cutie!

2006-02-26T19:03:00.000-05:00

Time for another brag fest! (Brace yourselves...Remember I have 6 more to go!)

This is my 7 month old daughter Alyssa. We are so blessed to have such a contented baby. This makes schooling and all the other things a mom has to do quite a bit easier to accomplish!

Each one of her sisters and brothers absolutely adore this little cutie and can't seem to get enough of her! In this picture, my oldest daughter Julia decided to play dress up with Alyssa!

Alyssa loves to roll around the floor and has almost mastered the "army crawl". She is mobile enough to reach whatever object she finds interesting that happens to be laying on the floor ~ even the family dog!

This next picture is actually Alyssa's second time to use the potty.
I have never had a baby this young going on the toilet! Hopefully
this won't be just a passing fancy! Now if I could just get her sister interested in this activity!

Alyssa's wonderful, toothless smile is quite infectious and her sweet little laugh will brighten anyone's day! We pray that her sweet spirit will one day radiate from an inner beauty created by her love for our Lord Jesus Christ!

Purity from Titus 2

2006-02-21T13:49:00.000-05:00

Titus 2:5 says that a Godly woman should be pure. If something is pure gold, it means that it is 100% gold. There is no part of it that is not gold. If something is pure chocolate, there is no part of it that is not chocolate. The Bible says that we are to be pure. What does this mean for us?
In order for a person to be pure, they must be free from impure things. It is just as much a sin to think about impure things as it is to partake in them. We should not allow our minds to wallow in evil and be fed impurities.
In this day and age, the list of impure things can tend to be a mile long! Here are a few examples of ways that we can be fed impurities.
Things that we hear and see on T.V. or movies such as bad language, immodesty and immorality. This is such a problem with Christians today. They feel that as long as they aren't using the language or they aren't physically involved in the immorality, it's okay to view these things by means of the media. Have you ever heard someone say, "That was such a good movie! It only had a couple of bad words." Think about it this way - if each bad word you heard counted as a percent of your purity, that would mean that if a movie only had 2 bad words, you would be 98% pure. Is that pure enough for a Holy God? Here's a thought for you parents - are the movies that you are watching after your kids are in bed something that you would want them to watch with you? Why or why not?
How about today's music industry? The catchy little tunes that we hear on the radio or playing in malls and restaurants that we find ourselves easily singing along to, are usually not songs that bring glory to our Heavenly Father.
One more example would be having wrong thoughts about others. This is something that I struggle with on a daily basis. Especially when I am driving! When someone pulls out in front of me or I see someone tail gating me, my thoughts are often something like "You idiot! Where did you learn to drive?" or "I can't believe the stupidity of some people!" These are people I don't even know! There are times when I have wrong thoughts about people I do know as well. Most of this probably stems from my own pride. In either case, these wrong thoughts cause me to become impure.
If we are to be pure, we must learn what Leviticus 10:10 says - "You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean."
We need to keep all impurities from our minds if we are to be pure. Knowing Jesus as our Savior should affect the way that we live, act and even think. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says that we should not just resist impure things, we are to flee or run away from them!
My prayer for myself and for my family is that we would be 100% pure before our Holy Father God!
"I will be careful to lead a blameless life - when will you come to me?
I will walk in my house with blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing.
The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.
Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.
My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he whose walk is blameless will minister to me.
Psalm 101:2-6

One of my Cuties

2006-02-17T13:29:00.000-05:00

Okay - time for a little brag session!
This is my 2 year old Amanda. What a blessing she is! She is quickly becoming "Mommy's little helper." She loves to help empty the dishwasher, "fold" laundry (okay, so that's maybe not quite so helpful!) and clean up her toys. She is our resident parrot copying everything anyone says.
One of the things about Amanda that blesses Dave and I is her love to worship. During our family prayer time before bed, she dances and sings with all of her heart. Her favorite songs right now are "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord" and "Jesus, Thank You." What joy it brings us to hear her singing at the top of her lungs, " The Faver's wraff compweetwy satified, Jesus sank You" and "My hot will choose to say Lord, bwessed be Your name!"
At night when I tuck her into bed I always sing her two bedtime songs. "Baby's Boat", which is a lullaby that I learned from my mom, and "Prince of Peace" - a song that my brother and Laurie wrote. (Great song Todd and Laurie!) When I sing the line, For Your Spirit I am a dwelling place, she always asks me, "I a dwelling place, Mommy?" My prayer for this little angel is that one day she will be a dwelling place!

Individual Bents

2006-02-08T13:54:00.000-05:00

For as long as I can remember, the verse from Proverbs, "Train up a child in the way he should go..." Has been a part of my life. It was often one of the reasons that my parents would give me for disciplining me. (Yes, I needed discipline!) It was also one of the memory verses that I learned as a child. I learned all about the necessity of one day training my own children to follow after God, and now I am practicing the wisdom of this verse in my daily life as a mother.
Before I was married, one of the gifts that I received from my parents was an amplified version of the Bible. I have sat under many teachings given by my mother, and she would often turn to this version to help us get a better, more in depth understanding of what God is trying to show us.
Proverbs 22:6 is a perfect example of using the amplified Bible to get a better perspective on a verse that holds wonderful truths for parents who are seeking to raise Godly children. In the NIV, the verse says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." What a wonderful promise this is! Now read what it says in the Amplified version. "Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it."
Our children are each so different! They like different foods, different colors, different activities and different songs. They each have different areas in their lives that they excel in and different areas that they need to work on. They each have individual gifts or "bents".
This is something that we need to consider when we are "training" our children. One way of discipline may be a good thing for one of your children while it may actually be a hindrance to the training of a different child. For example: One of my children has a very stubborn spirit, while another one of my children has a very sensitive spirit. If I were to reprimand the stubborn child in the same manner that I did the sensitive child, they would basically ignore me and most likely laugh instead of cry, and I would have no effect on the will of this child. Likewise, if I were to reprimand the sensitive one as I would the stubborn, I could very likely break their spirit instead of their will.
Our children have been gifted with their own individual personalities, and it is our job as parents to discover what each child's gifting is. When we have discovered these, then we need to ask God to give us wisdom in helping our children develop these giftings to use for His glory.
While some of these giftings may seem more like a curse at the moment, be assured that God will develop it into a wonderful gift that He will use.
My son Mark has a tendency to be stubborn and his will is not easily broken. At first, it was a struggle to see how God could possibly use this stubbornness for His glory, but as Mark has gotten older, I see this stubbornness developing into perseverance! (It's a slow process, but I definitely see a difference!)
Another example is my daughter Christiana. Is there such a thing as a spirit of goofiness? If she were to attend a "regular" school, I am sure that she would quickly become the class clown! She is capable of turning any situation into a comedy and has a generally fun loving personality. I can see her using this gifting to bring joy to many people, including a 91 year old woman who lives near my parents and is very lonely.
I could tell you about each of my children's giftings (perhaps one day I will) but these are two extremes that I thought would make a good point of "individual bents." I would love to hear about the bents that you have discovered in your own children!

More Titus

2006-02-07T13:42:00.000-05:00

Do you ever find yourself caught in one of those moments where you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that if you didn't have the help of the Holy Spirit, you would absolutely explode in anger? Like, when your three year old grabs the new super size ketchup out of the pantry (even though the old one isn't empty) and then proceeds to drop it on the floor because its too heavy and ketchup begins to quickly seep out of the giant crack in the bottle? Or maybe your kids have emptied all the toy bins in the basement just a day after you've brought order to that particular hurricane zone. Oh yeah, let's not forget the bleach incident - "Mom, I think I spilled a little bleach while I was doing the laundry, but don't worry, it was just over my light wash." Okay, let me ask you what I asked him, are jeans really considered lights? Well, now his are!
I must admit that even with the help of the Holy Spirit, I don't usually react in a completely calm way, but neither do I explode like I know I am thoroughly capable of doing!
In Titus 2, another one of those seven characteristics of a godly woman is to be self controlled. The only way that I know of for a mother to be self controlled is to rely on the Holy Spirit to help her! I know I can't do it by myself.
Being self controlled involves much more that just controlling your anger though. What about over indulging when you feel overwhelmed with all that being a mom involves? "It's been such a hard day. I deserve a pint of Ben and Jerry's." Or what about controlling our shopping habits? "I can pay off that new outfit I bought in just a few weeks. I needed to feel good about the way I look." How about giving in to P.M.S. or other emotional downfalls caused by hormones? Are we not supposed to be filled with the Spirit at all times?
We as women tend to blame our wrong attitudes or our irrational display of emotions on being women. How come we try and excuse these things instead of crying out to God to help us overcome them? If we have given our lives to Jesus, then we need to allow Him to work in our lives to help us to continually live out the "gentle and quiet spirit" that He desires us to have.
Elisabeth Elliot once said, "We cannot give ourselves to God, and keep our bodies for ourselves."
How true this is! Our bodies are the dwelling place of God Almighty. How I long to make it a desirable place for Him to be!

Godly Women

2006-02-01T13:52:00.000-05:00

Titus talks about 7 things that we as godly women are to learn.
The first thing that we should learn is to love our husbands. Thanks to my mom's teachings on the godly woman, I've picked up a bit of Greek. The Greek found here are the words phileo (beloved friend) and andros (man).
We should encourage our husbands without being critical or judgmental. We should be willing to pray with him and for him. We must come along side him in whatever place God calls him to and be helpful to him in whatever way we can.

Next, we are to learn to love our children. There are many things that we can do to put this into practice. -Attentive listening
- Enthusiastic encouragement
- Physical affection
- Verbal commendation on character qualities
- Spending time with them and giving them undivided attention
- Faithful intercession for our children
Remember, we are training our kids to be warriors for Christ!
These are only two of the seven things that we as women are to be working on in our lives, but already I feel convicted in both of these areas. I need to pray more for my husband and my children. I need to be faithful in showing my love for them both physically and spiritually.

Living Verses

2006-01-25T13:33:00.000-05:00

I think that when teaching our children Bible verses, we parents tend to go for the verses that will benefit us more than our children. For example, one of the first verses that most kids learn is Ephesians 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Or maybe its the next verse in Ephesians that says, "Honor your father and mother..."
We teach our kids the verses about being thankful, trusting in God, doing everything without complaining and arguing, and to do everything as unto the Lord.
These are great verses to teach our children, and I think we should teach them these things. However, what about the verses that we as parents should learn that would benefit our children?
Here's a few verses that I think we as parents should have memorized and that we should be living out daily for and to our children.
"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."
"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." (particularly our kids!)
"Be joyful always."
"Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness..."
"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord."
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
"Father's, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."

These are just a handful of the Scriptures that we as parents should be putting to daily use. We are the example that our children have to look up to. Most of the bad habits or behaviors that our children pick up in their earlier years are from watching their parents fail in those same areas.
So many times I have started to rebuke one of my kids for a wrong attitude or action and then realized that this was the very thing that I had said or done, or that they are reacting in the same way or with the same attitude that I had portrayed. We cannot take the responsibility of parenting lightly!
Neither should we, however, throw our hands up in despair as we face this job of raising kids for the glory of God. He has seen fit to give us this responsibility, therefore, He has made us capable of carrying out this God given task.
I think that some times I can get caught up in wanting my children to always make the right choices. I have to keep reminding myself that my kids are in training so they probably will make mistakes and will make them often! That's why God has me training them! I need to be careful not to get frustrated with them, but to patiently correct them over and over again. I also need to remember that they are constantly watching my example and I need to make sure that my life is a living example of what I pray that one day they will become.
Here is one more verse that I think we should have memorized. This is in the amplified version. Colossians 3:21 "Fathers, Do not provoke or irritate or fret your children - do not be hard on them or harass them; lest they become discouraged and sullen and morose and feel inferior and frustrated; do not break their spirit."

Puzzles

2006-01-19T13:37:00.000-05:00

The other day my daughter, Julia and I started a 500 piece puzzle. We have a rectangular piece of plywood that we work on so that we can put the puzzle away from little hands while we are not working on it.
This particular puzzle was of a farm, complete with a beautiful barn, silo, fence and even a herd of scattered cows. We had completed the outline of the puzzle and then gotten the barn, fence and cows done. All that was left was the sky. Most definitely the hardest part of the puzzle since all the pieces were the same cloudy blue color!
We had put the puzzle on the counter in our dining room during quiet time with the hope of finishing it later that afternoon. Everyone was in there rooms and I was engrossed in a book that my mom had passed on. Matt came down and asked if he could get a drink. I said ok, barely lifting my eyes from the page. (I tend to get my nose in a book and become somewhat less than attentive to the world around me!)
After quiet time was over, I heard Julia exclaim, "Oh no! What happened to our puzzle?" Immediately I knew what had happened. Matt must have gotten more that just a drink of water earlier. He has a knack for getting into things, and I guess that he couldn't stand just seeing that puzzle just sitting there!
I told Julia that I was sorry and that I would speak to Matt when he woke up. Then I tried to persuade her to just put the puzzle away. After all we did finish most of it, right? Her response keeps coming back to me over and over again. "But Mom, we didn't get to see the whole picture yet! It's so pretty when you get to see it all finished."
How many times have I been content to only see most of the picture? I feel like I am content sometimes to get a glimpse of the finished project without waiting to fill in those missing pieces that will make it complete.
How often do I do this with my family? Sometimes the things are unimportant such as not cleaning up all the way after dinner - hey, I cooked it didn't I? - or not putting the clean clothes away when they are finished - hey, I washed and folded them, right?
What about the important things? Do I leave them unfinished? Am I content to not take action every single time that one of my kids is out of line? Will this really effect the "main picture" of their lives? Am I content to just listen to my husband pray for the family or am I joining with him in praying for the souls of our precious children?
Those few handfuls of missing pieces could be the very pieces that make my life or the lives of my husband or children complete! Sometimes the things that we see as unimportant are the very things that God intends to use to further His kingdom! These could seem like small things like taking one of your kids shopping with you even though you can do it faster by yourself, just so you can have a chance to talk one on one with that particular child or choosing to play a game with your kids instead of watching TV or reading a book.
Don't get me wrong - time invested in your children is not a small thing! I am just trying to look at it like the pieces of a puzzle. Each piece is so small, yet, without those little pieces, the picture is not complete!
I don't want to get the puzzle most of the way done, only to stop at the hard part - when all the pieces are the same color. I want to persevere until I can see the beauty of the finished work of art. After all, are our lives not a work of art created by our wonderful, loving Savior?
God, help me not to be content to just get a glimpse of Your finished work before seeing the completed picture!

Why All the Arrows??

2006-01-13T13:58:00.000-05:00

Some of you that don't know me very well probably have wondered at some point or another why my husband and I have so many children. It is a question that we often have to answer since, by the world's standards, we have a few more children than the average family.
I have always wanted a big family. I remember playing with my sister, and we would "play" our life as we dreamed it would one day be. I always had 8 - 10 kids, named them all and even had a plan for a set of twins somewhere along the line!
I met Dave when we were both 15 and were married by the age of 19 after Dave joined the USAF. We moved to NC and within a couple of months were pregnant with our first child. She was, I must say, a little bit of a surprise, but very welcome! We were so excited! I was the first in my family to be married and this would be the first grandchild on either side. Everyone was ecstatic. Julia was born a month before our first anniversary, and by the time she was 4 months old, we were hoping for a second child.
God blessed us right away and ten days after Julia turned 1, James was born. Again, we were thrilled to have another child and marveled at the goodness of God in our lives.
When Jim was a few months old, we got the awful news that Dave would have to spend his final year of duty in Korea. This would be an unaccompanied tour which basically meant that he had to leave his family behind. Let me tell you, this rocked our world! Here we are with two children under two, we own a house in North Carolina, our families live in Maryland, and Dave has to leave for an entire year!
My parents were gracious and asked the kids and I to come and live with them while Dave was gone. We put our house on the market and packed our things and moved back to Maryland before Dave had to leave.
While Dave was gone, he missed Julia's 2nd birthday, Jim's first words, first steps and first birthday. We didn't get to talk on the phone very much, but there were a constant flow of e-mails back and forth between us.
This was a trying time to say the least, but we look back on it now and can see how God used this situation for His glory in both of our lives. The kids and I even got to spend 3 months in Korea! We were able to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas and celebrate with Dave on his birthday before having to come home. These are wonderful memories.
Dave was able to walk out of the USAF and into a wonderful job in which he is still employed today. Now that Dave had a good job and we had a place to live, we were ready for another child. Nine months after returning from Korea, we gave birth to our 3rd child. We named her Christiana.
Up until this time we had pretty much taken the "ordering of our children" into our own hands. While we have never liked the idea of birth control pills, there are other means out there to "control" pregnancies, and we felt free to use them. So whenever we felt ready for another child, we simply stopped using contraception.
Sometime after Christiana was born, however, God made us both aware of the fact that we were not trusting Him to order our lives. Sure, we trusted Him with our lives and trusted Him to provide for our needs, but we were not trusting Him to provide us with the blessings that He wanted to give us.
In the Bible, God makes it clear that He opens and closes the womb. Who then are we to try and "close" our wombs? The argument here might be, "If God wants me pregnant, then won't he just cause the contraception to not work?" I don' t think so. I think that when you say, "I am not ready to have a child, therefore I am going to take every precaution not to get pregnant," you are basically refusing the blessing that God wants to give you.
Let me ask you something. If someone were to offer you a check for any amount of money simply because they felt compelled to bless you in that way, would you refuse it? I don't think so! First of all, you would not like to offend them by refusing their gift, and secondly, who doesn't like to receive gifts from other people?
Well, I believe that children are a gift directly from the hand of God. In Psalm 127 it says that children are a blessing from the Lord. Who are we to refuse His blessings?
It also says in Psalm 127 that children are "like arrows in the hand of a warrior. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." We are all involved in a spiritual battle. What warrior would go out to battle without making sure he had as much ammunition (in this case, as many arrows) as he could carry?
I am not saying that everyone should have a dozen kids. Some of you may have a smaller "quiver" than others. I am simply saying that God has given us the opportunity to receive these "arrows" directly from His hand. How can we say no to this gift that He has offered us?
After realizing all these things, Dave and I have given this area completely over to the will of God, and rejoice with every new blessing He sees fit to give us. What an awesome responsibility He as entrusted us with! We are raising the next generation of warriors for Christ! May God grant us wisdom in doing so!
"Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."
Psalm 127:3-5

Refreshing Friendships

2006-01-11T13:51:00.000-05:00

As a full time wife and home schooling mom, I find that I have very little time to get bored with the trivial things of a "normal" lifestyle. Things like keeping a clean house, cooking wholesome meals, (by the way, have they decided whether ketchup is a vegetable yet or not?) making sure the dog gets fed, and going grocery shopping just to name a few!
A n ideal day at my house goes somewhat as follows:
Everyone out of bed at 7 am and do your morning chores before coming down to breakfast at 7:15. (morning chores include making your bed, putting toys, books, etc. Away, and making sure there are no clothes on the floor) Mom fixes everyone breakfast - usually a bagel or cereal - then we sit down and eat with Dave before he leaves for work. After eating, we have our family devotions and prayer, then everyone kisses Daddy goodbye and gets dressed before starting school.
We have our math lessons first, since, as the day progresses, the minds seems to get duller! While the older kids are doing this, the younger kids get to watch an educational DVD. Our latest find is the Leapfrog series. The first one is The Letter Factory and the second is The Talking Words Factory. (Anyone with preschool age children looking for good teaching movies - this is a must! Matthew, my 3 year old, has mastered beginning sounds, knows his vowels, and is already learning to spell small words!)
After math is Spelling and Art or Typing (depending on the day) followed by English. After English, the older kids go practice their instruments and I have school with the two little boys before fixing everyone's lunch.
After lunch, everyone has to take a "quiet time". The younger kids nap, and the older kids either read quietly or they may listen to music with their headphones on, so as not to disturb anyone else. This is my quiet time as well! Time where I can sit and get alone with God as well as checking my e-mail and of course blogging!
After quiet time the older kids finish up their schooling with History. Once we are finished with the History book, this will be our time for Science. After History, the kids have to complete their chores before they are allowed any computer time. I am usually working on whatever cleaning project I have to get done as well as making preparations for dinner.
Have you noticed that I didn't mention laundry in our schedule anywhere? I guess that is one of those normal things that I forgot about! I do manage to wash our clothes somewhere in the midst of our busy schedule! (Actually, the older kids are doing their share of laundry these days! I am now responsible for washing the clothes of only 5 people!)
After dinner is cleaned up, I am either bathing children, finishing laundry or some other project I am working on while the kids enjoy the rest of their evening playing together. If there is enough time before family worship and prayer, I read a chapter out loud from the series of books called The Archives of Anthropos. These are great books that I enjoyed reading with my family growing up. We are currently reading the 3rd book in the series. This is a great alternative to sitting in front of the television!
Also, throughout my day, I am tending to the various needs of my two year old and my 5 month old. Feeding every 3 hours or so, changing diapers, fixing bottles, etc.
Before putting the kids in bed, we have a time of singing and prayer together. We try and learn a new song every couple of weeks, and usually sing this one every night for at least a week so that the kids can learn the words. It is such a blessing to have our kids singing with us in church as opposed to standing there listening to us!
You are probably wondering why I am bothering to bore you with the details of a day in the life of the Tritts, right? I assure you, this is not to serve as a reminder of the similar lives most of you reading this probably live! Rather, this is to serve as a reminder that we as wives and mothers need to have a break from our very busy lives every once in a while!
This last Saturday, my husband gave me a wonderful treat. He sent me out with my friends and told me to enjoy the day however I wanted! I was able to have uninterrupted conversation with my friends while eating a bowl of fried jalapenos, shared more wholesome conversation over a cup of tea at Starbucks, and then proceeded to go to several stores where I could look at breakable objects without the fear of someone knocking them off the shelf! I was gone the entire afternoon - all the way up until dinner time! I felt sooo refreshed after spending this time with my friends. They were such an encouragement to me and I felt totally ready to come back to my life of "serene chaos" as the Dugger Family calls their family life.
I am confident of my calling to be a wife and a mother of many, but I believe that in the midst of our callings, God gives us these times of refreshing so that we may approach our callings with renewed vigor and anticipation of what God can do in and through us as we serve Him.
So, the next time you feel the need to be refreshed, call up a friend or two and go spend some time being renewed and refreshed so that you can serve God more effectively in whatever calling He has for your life!

Heroes

2006-01-06T13:35:00.000-05:00

Long ago, heroes were thought of as those who died for something that they believed in, or someone who was a great warrior and brought peace to many nations. For instance, look at the life of Alexander the Great.
After inheriting his father's kingdom at the age of 20, his goal was to expand his empire as far east as possible. He immediately began conquering the nations starting with the city of Tyre. He then pushed through Palestine, Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan. He also conquered Egypt (or, depending on your perspective, "liberated" Egypt from the Persians). Battle after battle was fought until all of Persia and most of the known lands belonged to Alexander.
Another example of heroes long ago would be the Christians that were martyred during the reign of Nero. Nero hated the Christians because they refused to worship the Roman rulers who were often regarded by their nations as gods. This horrible ruler made it a crime to be a Christian, and anyone who would not renounce their faith would be executed. These executions were often made into a sport or an entertainment that thousands of people would watch. Many heroes of the faith gave their lives for their belief in the one true God.
(I found it interesting that Constantine, the man who became ruler after Nero, declared it a crime NOT to be a Christian. Maybe he became a hero to the Christians living during his reign, but this was the beginning of a weakening in the Christian faith. Think about it. Either claim Christ as Lord or be persecuted. It would stand to reason that those who really didn't believe would claim to be a Christian to avoid being persecuted or possibly killed. This led to weak faith and false teachings. No wonder there is such a need for revival.)
Through the years the term of hero has kept it's status as an object of extreme admiration and devotion, but it seems like the heroes of our time our heroes of our imagination or heroes that are just ordinary people with high ideals and important titles.
Take the heroes of our children today. Instead of admiring people like Abraham or the Apostle Paul, our sons sit in front of the television hoping to be able to imitate the actions of Spider Man or Batman. Maybe they dream of becoming a Ninja like Michelangelo or Donatello, or be able to crash through buildings like Mr. Incredible. Our daughters dream of being as beautiful as Cinderella or Barbie. Maybe one day they will be able to sing and dance on stage like Brittany Spears. (I'm not really up on the modern entertainment...Is she still around??)
What about the people that the adults of today look up to? Just as Nero had the coliseum to enjoy watching the gladiators so long ago, so we have stadiums to enjoy watching our "heroes" perform today. We have concerts where various artists perform amidst the roar of the crowds. (Dare I mention the mosh pits present even within the so called "Christian" concerts?) What about the sports industry? Football, baseball, soccer - each one filled with athletes that so many look up to.
Do I think that having a hero is wrong? No. Not by any means. Having the right hero is the problem we face today. Are the heroes that we allow our children to imitate supporting our desire for them to imitate Christ in all things? Our the heroes that our children dream of one day being just like condoning sinful behavior in any way?
I like watching movies with my kids like Spider Man and Star Wars, but if we let them watch these movies over and over again to the point that their minds are filled with the passion to be just like these ""heroes", has it become anything less than idol worship?
I think that the kind of heroes I want for my children are not those beings with supernatural abilities, but normal human beings with an ambition to follow a supernatural God. Is there anything wrong with hoping that your kids see their dad or mom as a hero? Absolutely not! I can only hope and pray that my children see me as enough of a "hero" that they want to follow in my footsteps. I must continually pray that my life will be an example of godliness for my kids to imitate.
Speaking of her own daughter, Beverly LaHaye writes in her book Understanding Your Child's temperament, "I knew it was my responsibility to protect her from following other role models that would be contrary to what God wanted her to be, because children will look for heroes."

Happy New Year

2006-01-03T13:52:00.000-05:00

I must say that as January 1st was approaching I was both anticipating and dreading the coming of a new year. I admit that I was not really looking forward to starting school up again. I love teaching my kids, but I have been enjoying the break from our daily routine. It's a funny thing though - now that we have started up again, I am thrilled to get the kids back on their normal schedule! I am having a hard time putting my finger on just exactly what I needed a break from! Life is so much easier when your kids have a normal daily routine.
Far more than dreading the new year, I was excited about it for a multitude of reasons, among them was the anticipation of seeing what God would have for our family throughout this year. As most of you know, my husband Dave is running for Harford County Sheriff this year. You can visit his websight at www.trittforsheriff.com I am sure that this will bring many changes for our family, whether he wins the election or not. Dave will be extremely busy trying to run a campaign as well as continuing his full time job. We covet your prayers throughout this time. We both believe that God has lead Dave into this and that He will prove Himself faithful, however, we know it will be a struggle to maintain a healthy family life in the midst of everything else he must do.
While Dave is determined to include his family as much as possible in his campaigning, we know that there will be events that will not be appropriate for children to attend, as well as business dealings that Dave will have to take care of without us. Our family will also be forced into the "public lime-light" so to speak. I imagine that this will bring some negative repercussions along with it. Our desire throughout the whole thing is that God will be glorified and that His will will be done for our family. Thank you in advance for your prayers!
As Dave and I approached the New Year, we decided to address each of our children and give them a character quality to work on throughout 2006. I found a really great websight that lists a bunch of qualities as well as their definitions: www.characterqualities.com We prayed about each one and chose a different quality for each child according to his or her individual needs, then we sat down with each child on January 1st, and presented this quality to them, explained what exactly it means, and then prayed over them asking God to help them develop this particular quality. We are in the process now of printing out each quality and it's definition so that our kids can have these hanging up in their rooms as a constant reminder. We are excited to see how God will work in each of our children's lives.
We pray that God will bless you all as this New Year begins, and that you will keep Him the center of your lives, your marriages, and your families.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Our Tree Adventure

2005-12-31T22:18:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's already New Year's Eve! This year seemed to fly by.
I was taking down all of our Christmas decorations today (much to the disappointment of my husband who doesn't want to take down anything until WAY after the new year) and I began to remenisce about this year's "Christmas Tree Adventure". Maybe you would like to hear it!
About six or seven years ago we started the tradition of going to a tree farm with the kids the day after Thanksgiving, picking out a tree and chopping it down. This year was not going to be any different. So we thought!
Our little adventure began as soon as we got the the farm. For the last two years we bought a Canaan Fir - very hardy - but this year they didn't have any over three feet tall. We were looking for something a bit bigger, so we decided to go with the Douglas Fir, also very hardy. We walked through the rows of trees looking carefully at each one. Some were too tall, others not tall enough. Some to fat, some too skinny. We finally narrowed it down to two trees...each on the opposite side of the farm! We must have walked back and forth between the two trees at least four or five times! Some of the kids liked the teardrop shaped tree and some liked the one that was really full. Which one would we get?
Have you ever tried to make a fair decision between two things with eight kids all voting different ways? I think maybe we uncovered some heart issues on this particular day...but that's a different story! Anyway, we decided to flip a coin. The "full" tree wins! Let's chop it down and go home!
After Dave cuts our prize tree down, we all trapse back to the "shed" to make our purchase. Now to load up our tree. We have a 15 passenger van, and last year with the back seat taken out we could fit the tree inside the van. Ummm...yeah, this tree seems a bit bigger than last year. It doesn't fit in the van.
Good thing we came prepared! We stuck a blanket in the back just in case something like this happened! Let's put the tree on top of the van and get going! The only thing the farm had for fastening the trees on was some old baling twine. This is the kind of rope that is made up of little strings all twisted together to form one thicker string. Oh well, I guess you gotta work with what you have, right? Dave tied the tree down and fastened the twine to anything he could find inside the van that was secure enough. The bottom of seats, seat belts, etc. Twice during this process the twine snapped. Not good.
The tree was finally fastened to the roof and we were on our way! As we pulled out of the driveway, Dave asked me to check the tree occasionally to make sure it wasn't slipping. No problem! I could handle this job. No sooner had he made the request than we heard strings snapping. Not the entire twine, but the little strings that made up the twine. "Uh, honey, the tree is sliding."
The tree was still attatched, but Dave decided that we had better play it safe and take all the back roads so that we could go slow enough that the wind wouldn't lift the tree off the roof. Good idea! We manage to make it about a mile from home when Julia cries out, "Daddy, Daddy! You are going to run over our Christmas Tree!"
Sure enough, the tree had slid off of the roof and was hanging on the side of the van...barely! The only thing that was holding it up was one solitary piece of twine that had managed somehow not to break. Dave said for me to cut the twine as he lifted the tree to give me some slack. That would have been fine except the only thing I had to cut it with was my set of keys!
I finally got the twine cut, but now we had another problem. There wasn't enough twine left to refasten the tree to the roof.
Dave opens the back of the van, shoves the tree in trunk first, and proceeds to stradle the tree. He tied the doors as far shut as they would go and then asks me to drive the rest of the way home with him riding our Christmas tree!
Some story, huh? But wait - it's not over! When it was time to take the tree inside and set it up, we came across another "little" problem. We couldn't get it in the door! You are probably thinking that we bought this enormous tree, right? Well, it wasn't any taller than our tree last year, it just was really, really "full" Okay, so it was a big, fat tree!
You know those little netting gizmos they have at tree places that they shove the trees through to put nets on them before you take them home? Well, this is the method that Dave used to get our tree through our front door. He turned the tree around and shoved it through the door trunk first. (I think maybe our tree lost a bit of that "full" look after coming in the doorway so abruptly!)
Our tree managed to dominate our living room for the rest of the Christmas season. Filled with lights and trimmed with all the kids decorations, it was quite a sight to behold. Very...festive. It will be nice to get some of the space back in our living room once it's gone, but for all the trouble our tree gave us, I'm kind of going to miss it.

Wearing Masks

2005-12-18T22:33:00.000-05:00

The other night I was doing some last minute preparations for company that we were having over. Dinner was coming along nicely and the house was looking pretty good. The tree lights were plugged in, the candles turned on in the windows and the kids were all playing nicely together.
Then it happened. A door slammed and I heard a blood curdling scream. Someone had gotten hurt. Nathan was crying, "My ear! My ear!"
I was in the bathroom wiping off the sink and told Nathan to come in so I could see what happened. He was still crying and there was blood pouring from his ear. I hollered, "What happened?" No response. I hollered louder, "Somebody tell me what happened, and somebody else get me some paper towels. Nathan is bleeding!" I heard a few, "I don't knows" and then I tried one more time. "Does anyone know what happened??? Paper towels!!!! Come on guys!"
Well, finally someone came up with the answer. "We were playing in the dark, so we don't know what happened...We couldn't see anything."
We finally concluded that Nathan had slipped and fallen into the closet door, neatly slicing the bottom of his ear lobe. I took him to Patient First and they said he would be okay without stitches. Hurray!
Meanwhile, Julia gets an A+ for getting dinner on that night! I had already put meat balls and spaghetti sauce in the crock pot, but she had to take care of cooking the noodles and the garlic bread. She managed very nicely with a little help from Dad! Way to go Julia!
I've been thinking about that incident quite a bit lately. If that had happened somewhere other than inside my home, or if our company had already arrived, would I have reacted differently? I think I would have.
I often find that I keep my reactions to my children in check when I know that others are watching. I am sure that if I were elsewhere when Nathan got hurt, my reaction would have been more like this. "Hey, kids! Could someone please tell me what happened to Nathan?" (this would, of course, be spoken in a nice calm voice) "Are you sure no one knows? Okay, well, I need some paper towels because Nathan is bleeding pretty badly. Thank you!"
When I told Dave about what I had been pondering, he came up with this response. "Doesn't hypocrite mean mask? I'm not saying that you are, of course!" Well Dave, if the shoe fits!
How many other times have I reacted in such an ungodly manner towards my kids? This is just a continuation of my other thought about pleasing men and pleasing God, I guess. I truly believe that my children are a blessing and a precious gift that Dave and I have received directly from God's hands. Why then do I so often treat them as anything less than precious?
I believe that the person you are in your home is the person that God sees when He looks at your heart. Remember, man looks at the outward appearance, which I believe many of us attempt to cover up by reacting differently than we would at home.
I'm not saying you should lose your temper at your kids outside the home as well as in your homes! I am encouraging you as well as myself to work on having loving responses towards your kids inside your home even when no one is watching! This is what is going to make a positive impression on your kids. When you act differently when you are being observed, your kids will see you as a hypocrite - definitely not a positive impression! We are to be living examples of Christ to our kids in our everyday lives... Not just when others are watching!
My word to moms: Take off our masks and throw them away!

Grocery shopping with...eight?

2005-12-09T21:19:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that's right. I decided to make a Giant run with all the kids. Mom said I should go home and leave a couple with my Dad who, at the time was painting Christiana's new bedroom. I had spent the afternoon at my mom's house helping her with her Christmas tree and listening to my kids practice for the Live Nativity at Beachmont next weekend. I realized that I really needed to pick up a couple of things at Giant because we were having friends over for dinner. I also needed the ingredients for a birthday cake for Chrissy and Amanda. I should have listened to Mom!
With the up coming snow storm, I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to go out in the morning before Dave left for work, and I was too tired to go home and then go back out again! It was also nearing dinner time and I needed to be able to feed the kids when we got to the house.
I must have made an interesting picture to those unfortunate enough to witness this little fiasco. I realize that it's a scene all by itself to see me go into the store with all 8 kids. I mean, who in their right mind would attempt that?
The first major problem arose when they didn't have any of those special "big carts". You know, the ones that look like trucks and you can seat at least 3 kids in them? I love those carts! It makes shopping so much easier! Anyway, they didn't have one, so I was trying to make it with a regular cart.
As soon as we made it to the doorway, Matt decided he didn't want to ride on the end of the cart and without any warning jumps off of the cart. Totally unprepared for this little ejection, I begin to run over him! Oops! I tell him to get back on, and certain that he had obeyed quickly, I begin walking, only to run over him again! This happened 2 or 3 more times, and then once we finally got our act together, Nathan walked in front of the cart and I knocked him down as well!
All this took place in the doorway, and the poor soul behind us finally had enough and decided to squeeze around us.
Well, we made it inside the store, and to my joy we found a cart extension! In case you don't know what that is, it's basically a bench on wheels that you can hook to a regular shopping cart by placing the back wheels into holders on the front of the extension. This would give me two extra seats! Hurray! It seems as if my troubles had been solved! Yeah, right! No such luck. Once I was able to get the thing hooked up, I found, to my dismay, that the thing didn't work. Well, back to the regular shopping cart!
I told Jim to grab a basket, since Alyssa was in the back of the cart and Amanda was in the front. He could easily carry the few things that we needed. Naturally, everyone else wanted a basket too, and before I knew it, my kids had pretty much emptied the supply of baskets that were set out. They weren't too thrilled when I told them that they had to put them all back!
We managed to make it down the first isle without incident. Whew! Things were looking up! HA! Think again. Matt couldn't hold on to the end of the cart any more, so he switched places with Nathan. That was okay, except he walked around the store with his head turned around! He must have bumped into three or four people and then he managed to walk right into a stand holding a at least 30 DVDs!
Yep....The stand fell spilling DVDs everywhere. Not only did the stand fall, it almost hit this poor old unsuspecting man! The guy jumped as the stand crashed inches from him, turned around and looks, and then mutters, "What a mess" and walks away.
By this point, I was beyond embarrassment. Me and my little "troop" was center stage amidst the frenzied shopping of those worried about the upcoming storm. All the way through the rest of the store I could hear the whispered comments of those who were watching. Not the comments that are usually made to my face such as, "Are those all your kids?" or, "Wow! Do you run a day care?" No, these were the comments that you aren't supposed to hear, but they were spoken just loud enough to reach my ears. "Man, look at that troop of kids!" "Man, that's a lot of kids!" "Oh, my word!" etc. etc. etc.
If they have cameras throughout Giant like they do in most stores, I imagine the employees might be watching the "Shopping With Eight" re-run for weeks to come. I hope they get more of a laugh out of it than I did!
We did finally make it to the check out, and besides Matt spilling most of the contents of the basket, we headed out of the store with out any more incidents. My comment to the kids when we got to the van, amongst other things was, "This is not going to happen again for a very long time!"
I sure hope I'm right!!!

Men Pleaser - God Pleaser

2005-12-03T06:58:00.000-05:00

"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of God." Galatians 1:10
This verse made me step back and really examine my life. How many areas of my life am I really trying to please men? Am I serving God in all areas of my life, or are there areas that I am really seeking the approval of men?
For instance, is the way I dress totally about pleasing God, or do I dress with the thought of "this is so unfashionable - I wouldn't want my friends to see me in this!" or maybe "this outfit is so cute! I can't wait for my friends to see it!". Instead, my thoughts should be something like this. "Am I drawing attention away from my face at all? My countenance is what reflects what's inside, therefore I need to not wear anything that would draw attention to my body. Is my shirt to tight, short, low etc.? Is my skirt to short? Is anything I have on too revealing?"
Another area that I need to make sure I am not trying to please men is in the way I spend my time. First of all, am I faithfully spending time daily with my heavenly Father? Am I doing it privately, with in my "prayer closet", or am I having quiet time surrounded by men so that they can see how Spiritual I am, therefore, pleasing men?
How about the way I spend my free time? Do I entertain myself with movies or TV shows that are wholesome and pleasing to God, or do I watch things because my friends recommended it? "You should see this movie! It was sooo funny! It only had a few bad words in it." Does God really want us to subject ourselves to hearing even just a few bad words, especially if they are words that degrade His person in any way or take His precious name in vain? How about the music and book industry? Do I sing along with all the secular songs, or do I fill my mind with music that is praising to God? Do the books I read make me dwell on spiritual things or help me to better my walk with Christ?
These are some of the more obvious areas that constantly need checking on, but what about some of the not so obvious areas? Is the way I respond to my husband a way that I can please man? I think it is. When you are entertaining guests in your home, do you find yourself trying to present the relationship with your spouse in a different light than it really is? For example, when your husband does or says something in front of your guests that just the other day you responded in anger to him or complained to him about, do you respond differently- even lovingly- because people are watching?
When you are without your husband and some of your friends start talking about the problems that they have with their husbands and the things they do that are so annoying, do you join in and gossip with them about your husband? This is not pleasing to God! This is another way that we can please men. God wants wives to honor and respect their husbands even when our husbands aren't around!
How about the area of raising my kids? Do I seek to please men in any way in this area? Am I more patient in public with my children than I am in private, giving men a false representation of myself so that they will think more highly of me? Do I lower any of the standards that I have set for them just so they can have fun with their friends? Do I let them watch things that fill their minds with things that would draw them away from God in any way?
I am sure that if I spent more time dwelling on this I could come up with even more not so obvious areas of my life that need examining. I desire to be a servant of God. I need to examine every aspect of my life - the obvious and not so obvious - and make sure that I am not trying to please men in any way!

Being Thankful

2005-11-23T22:43:00.001-05:00

During our bedtime prayers with the kids tonight, we were talking about being thankful. Instead of the usual routine of each one praying, we decided to be thankful in a different way. We went through the alphabet and each person had to say something that he was thankful for or thank God for one of His attributes.
I thought I would share what our kids found to be thankful for.
God is Almighty. God is Beautiful. God is our Creator. God is Divine. God is Eternal. Thankful for Food. Thankful for Gramps and Grammy. Thankful for our Home. God is Independent. Thankful for Jesus. God is the King of Kings. He is Lord. God is Magnificent. Thankful for Nathan. God is Omnipotent. God is Powerful. God is Quick to hear our prayers. God is Righteous. Thankful for His Steadfast love. Thankful for the Truth. God is Understanding. God is Victorious. Thankful for Water. EXceeding great and precious promises. (yeah, mom and dad helped with that one) Thankful for the Yellow sun. Thankful for the Zoo where we can see God's creatures.
The holiday we celebrate called Thanksgiving, should not simply be a day filled with traditions, feasting, and spending time with loved ones. This day is a wonderful time to be thankful for the many blessings God has given us. But why should we only be thankful one day of the year? We should begin each day with a time of thanksgiving. Isn't our every breath a gift from God? Then shouldn't every breath we take be filled with prayers of thanksgiving?
I want to share a tradition with you that my family had when I was growing up, and still practices today. Usually when we think of the first Thanksgiving, we think of the pilgrims and Indians and all the food they shared. We like to remember the year before that time. A year where food was so scarce that the food had to be rationed out. Only 5 kernels of corn per person. When our family gathers around the table to eat, we first pass out 5 kernels of corn to each person, and then we pass a basket around to collect the corn, one kernel at a time. Each time the basket passes by, you drop one kernel in and say something that you are thankful for. The basket is passed around until each person has used up all of their kernels.
These time have been so rich for our family! Tears are shed as we realize just how much we have to be thankful for! I would encourage you to try this in your own homes. Don't just have one person be thankful right before you eat. Let each person be thankful again and again!

Here is just a small list of the many things I have to be thankful for:
My salvation. My husband. My 8 children. My extended family. My health. My home. My heritage. My needs met above and beyond what is necessary for living. The gift of music. God's Word. Many wonderful friends.

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations."
Psalm 100:4-5

An Interesting Twist to Pizza Night

2005-11-21T17:07:00.000-05:00

If you like pizza, you might just like this recipe for Pizza Meatloaf.

Ingredients:
8 oz. (2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 jar (14 oz) pizza sauce
2 lbs. ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 375.
Reserve 1/2 cup of cheese and 1/2 cup of pizza sauce.
In large bowl mix all ingredients except reserved cheese and sauce.
In 13x9 pan shape meat mixture into 9x5 loaf. Bake for 30 minutes.
Pour reserved sauce over loaf and cook for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle reserved cheese over loaf and cook 10 more minutes.
Serve hot or cold.
(makes 8 servings)

Simplicity

2005-11-15T17:01:00.000-05:00

I have thought in the past that I lived a fairly simple life. Lately I have started to realize that this is far from true! My life is anything but simple.
People have such a tendency to hold on to things. We save everything from old magazines and expired coupons to clothing that has a sentimental value. (And probably doesn't fit anymore!)We find birthday cards from people we don't see or hear from anymore stuck in the back of the desk. How about books that have pages missing or puzzles and games whose pieces have been missing for several months or maybe even years? Did I mention the endless supply of happy meal toys? Life becomes so complex, not to mention messy, when we hold on to so many worthless things.
Ever since I moved to this house almost 5 years ago, I have been throwing away things. I started by having all of our boxes put in the garage. (except for the necessary items we needed for living such as clothes, dishes etc.) I went through the boxes one by one purposing to throw away or give away at least half of what was in the box. For the past two Novembers, I have gone through the toy room and given away at least 1/3 of the toys. (The kids have so many that they never play with!) I also have been going through our clothes. Anything that doesn't get worn, no matter how nice it is, gets sent to Good Will. Now I am going through each room with 3 bags. One for trash, one for Good Will, and one to be put away in its proper place.
I have a long way to go still, but slowly I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My goal is to have a peaceful house without a lot of clutter. I want my family to be able to enjoy living here instead of trying to ignore the mess that rears it's head so often.
Something I need to remind my family and myself of time and time again is that We can't take it with us! The only things that we need to hold onto are those things that hold eternal value! Things like building relationships within our family. Cutting out the movies to play a game with our spouse instead. Or building our knowledge by reading God's Word and other wholesome books.
I want to lead a simple life. A life that has one purpose ~ To glorify God in all that I do.

A word about cleaning

2005-11-04T07:34:00.000-05:00

I have a magnet on my refrigerator that says, "I cleaned my house yesterday...You should have seen it!" This fits my description perfectly! I will work really hard to clean certain rooms in our house, and several hours later it's trashed again!
If we are having friends over, I get all the kids to help and we rush around picking up toys and putting cushions back on the couch. (My boys are always taking them off to build houses and forts) I'll tell them, "Make sure everything is off the floor so that I can vacuum". I'll come back in and everything will be off the floor...and on the couch! After having them put the toys in their proper place, one of us will run the vacuum through and then we will move on to the next room.
The problem with this is that after the room is clean, one of the younger kids will walk into the room and think, "Wow! Look at all this space that I can play with my turtles on!" I'll walk in behind them and inevitably there are Ninja Turtles everywhere! All over my nice clean room!
Yeah, I know, welcome to the world of parenting, right? It's been this way ever since I started having kids who were old enough to walk. The more kids we have the worse it gets. I may has well get used to the fact that my house is never really going to be clean until the kids are gone!
Our lives are so much like my house! The Lord is constantly helping us to clean the temples of our hearts where His Holy Spirit lives. He uncovers the dirt and grime of sin areas we may have and helps us to get rid of them. As soon as we have gotten rid of one sin in our lives, we start to have problems somewhere else! We should be grateful that God has such patience with us.
My kids are no different. Their hearts are full of sin area that need to be "cleaned up" by the Holy Spirit. I need to be careful to not be so focused on the external clean up jobs such as my house that will never really be clean. I need to be more concerned about the spiritual condition of my kids hearts. I need to be concerned about their character. While a clean house is a nice thing to have, I would much rather have kids with clean hearts. I need to encourage them to memorize Bible verses. I need to spend time with them individually learning about the things that are going on in their lives. I need to spend quality time praying for each of them and their different struggles.
I know that I can't live my kids lives for them. I can't make the decision to have them follow God, but I can speak into their lives while they are young and point them in the right direction. I can live my life as an example to them of what a godly person should be like. Sure, I'll make mistakes in my life, but I can use those mistakes to teach my kids valuable lessons about God's mercy and forgiveness.
It makes a big impression on your kids when they see their mom or their dad humble themselves in front of them and ask forgiveness for something that they did wrong. They probably think that they are the ones always messing up. They are the ones that are constantly being corrected. We need to show them that we as parents do mess up and that just as we "correct" areas in their lives, God is constantly correcting sin areas in our lives. What a humbling experience it is to go to your kids and ask them to forgive you for not setting a godly example!
So, I need to get my priorities straight! I need to realize what is more important. Working to clean a house that will never really be clean, or working to point my kids in the right direction which will have eternal value?

My Brother

2005-10-31T21:27:00.000-05:00

I was thinking a lot about my brother today. While millions of people are out celebrating halloween, my family has a different reason to celebrate. 21 years ago today, my brother Russ was adopted into our family.
His is an interesting story. It would take forever for me to write it down, but I can try and make a long story short.
22 years ago, a young woman tried 4 times to have her baby aborted. 4 times something or someone stood in her way. God intervened each time she attempted to end her child's life. This child was my brother.
Russ came to live with us along with his biological mother and sisters. His birth mother realized that she couldn't handle a third child, and asked if my parents would consider adopting Russ. After much prayer and talking with my 2 other sibling and myself, they said that they would love to keep him.
Over the years, Russ developed a love and a wonderful talent for music, particularly singing. We always knew when he was nearby, because we could hear him singing at the top of his lungs. (That hasn't changed over the years!) His favorite songs to sing used to be those written by Keith Green. Now he writes his own songs.
Russ always knew he was adopted. He knew that he was supposed to have been aborted and that God spared his life. He was always willing to share his testimony with anyone that wanted to listen. He knew that God had a special calling on his life. He eventually even learned who gave him birth. This information didn't change his feeling about our parents. They were his parents - no one else. It didn't matter who gave birth to him, what mattered was the love that my family gave to him. WE were his family.
Russ' story is such a perfect picture of how we are adopted into God's family. It doesn't matter who was a part of our past, once we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, He is our family. He is our Father and we are His children.
I thank God that my parents said yes to that young woman who wanted them to raise her baby. Russ is a special part of our family and I have no doubt that God is going to use him greatly to further His kingdom.

Faith for What I Can't See

2005-10-31T13:36:00.000-05:00

My husband and I have been married for 12 years and have been raising children for 11 of those years. Within those 11 years, we have had 8 children, making them all under the age of 11.
Some would think that having so many children would make a house full of chaos. Others would say that we are just one big, happy family and that we all get along all the time! Well, neither opinion would be accurate.
Our house is usually fairly peaceful. On the other hand, our family is not without its problems!We have our share of disagreements, arguments and struggles just like any other family. Dave and I are committed to raising and training our kids for the glory of God, and therefore must constantly be addressing certain problems that our kids may have.
For instance, when one of children is approaching the "terrible twos", we need to address the problem of throwing tantrums and learning to obey the first time. Or when one our kids begins to show problems in the area of selfishness, we need to deal with that. Often it takes weeks or months to overcome certain "problem areas".
Since the kids are all so close in age (11, 10, almost 8, 6, 5, 3, almost 2, and 3 months), it seems like just as we finish going through some "phase" with one child, another one is just coming into the same "phase". (I use that word lightly - a phase is really just a certain sin surfacing within one of my children) Rarely do I have two children going through the same "phase" at the same time, but all of them seem have some sort of problem that we need to deal with! However, lately it seems like my kids are all having the same problem! The more we deal with it, the worse it seems to get. Some days it seems like we'll never get through this!
Today I read the verse in Hebrew 11 that says "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." I have read this verse many times, but today it took new meaning for me. This is not only referring to having faith in God whom we cannot see, but also to those things that you trust God to help you with...like raising your kids! I can have faith that God will get my kids through this latest "phase". He has commanded parents to raise and train their children in the way they should go, so I can have faith that He will help us to get through whatever hardship we may be facing in this area. I may not be able to see the end result right away, but I can be certain of what I can't see because I have faith that it will happen!

The Insane Mother

2005-10-26T13:36:00.000-04:00

I am convinced that all mothers must be insane! No one could possibly do all the things that we mothers do and still be sane! First of all, we don't ever get enough sleep. Especially when you have little ones. The sleep that we do get is often interrupted by kids having to use the bathroom, kids having bad dreams, kids wetting the bed, or kids getting sick!
And then there is Mom's Cafe. Are we running a restaurant or what? Not only are we expected to make 3 meals a day, we have to clean up from those meals. I won't even bother mentioning the many requests for snacks!
And then there is the laundry. Load after load after load. I have news for you: IT NEVER EVER ENDS! As soon as you think you've gotten to the bottom of the hamper there is another pile of dirty duds to replace the one you just washed.
A far as keeping the house clean, well, you may as well hire a maid! Oh yeah - we are the maid! If you have any kids under the age of 5 or so, you will notice that they follow you around the house as you clean. As soon as you pick up one mess and move on to the next, their right behind you making the mess you just cleaned up even messier than it was in the first place!
Okay, so far I've made us out to be sleepless maids who do laundry, cook and clean as well as being full time babysitters. Have I mentioned getting the family ready to go somewhere? Not only do you have to get yourself ready, you have to get all your kids and your husband ready as well as getting out the door and to wherever you are going to on time!
Do you feel like a failure yet? So often I feel so inadequate! I've heard it said that the wife sets the tone of the home. Do I really want the tone of my home to be that of insanity? I don't think so! How can I possibly set the tone of my home to be that of peace and soundness of mind? I CAN"T. It is impossible for me to do this. Only with God's help can I have peace in my home and in my family. If I start off my day spending time with God, I find that my day runs smoothly. I may still have some problems - that comes with raising kids. If they never had problems, then God wouldn't have given us the job of training them!
In Proverbs 31, it says that the godly woman gets enough spiritual food for herself and her house. If I don't start my day getting spiritual nourishment, then I won't have anything to give to my family. If I don't ask God for help before I start my day, then won't have the energy to run my house efficiently. God is my strength! If I rely on Him, then He will help me to accomplish great things - even something as great as being a mother.

Beautiful Pearls

2005-10-25T13:13:00.000-04:00

The other day my parents went to Pennsylvania to do some shopping and to get away and spend some time together. While they were out they went to this neat little family restaurant in Quarryville called C.R. Lapp's.
My dad loves oysters. At Thanksgiving one of his favorite things to eat is oyster stuffing. At this restaurant he discovered some of the best oyster chowder. (You'll have to take his word for it - I can't stand oysters!) While enjoying his chowder he found a pearl. Not a very big one, but it was a genuine pearl that came from one of the misfortunate oysters that ended up in his chowder.
My mom was telling my daughter Christiana about this incident, and I began to see a wonderful example to pass on to my children. The neat thing about pearls is how they come to be beautiful. An oyster gets a tiny foreign object like a grain of sand inside of it's shell. This sand is a constant irritation to the oyster but instead of getting rid of the it, the oyster begins to coat it with the substance that makes this grain of sand into a pearl. The oyster learns to except this sand for what it is and makes it into a valuable asset to itself. A beautiful pearl!
My kids have a little trouble getting along with each other. They are constantly irritating each other and looking for ways to annoy one another. They need to learn to see each other as an oyster sees a grain of sand. They need to learn to accept each other for who they are. The very thing that annoys them now, may one day turn into a beautiful quality in that person. For example: stubbornness may one day turn into perseverance. A bossy sibling may turn into a good leader.
This is a good lesson for us moms. We shouldn't always be correcting our kids for the things they do wrong. We need to look for the good qualities that we see in them and encourage them in these areas. One day they might just be a beautiful pearl!

Unknown children

2005-10-20T12:47:00.000-04:00

Just recently I was reminded of some children that I should be praying for. No one asked me to pray for these children. I was prompted by the prayer of someone else who was praying for my daughter Alyssa.
I don't know where these children are. I don't know who these children are. I don't know how old they are. I don't know their parents. I don't know even know their names!
The only thing I do know about these children is that I need to be faithful in praying for them because one day they will be married to my own children!

Individual Kids

2005-10-18T13:30:00.000-04:00

I discovered something today about my son Nathan who is almost 5. He appears to be left-handed. You would think that as his mother I would already know this, but I didn't.
Last year my mom was helping me out by teaching Nathan some preschool basics. At the beginning of the year she asked me what hand he wrote with and I told her I thought it was probably his right hand, since that was the one he seemed to do everything with. After making sure he knew all of his letters, mom began to teach him to write the letters. This is when the complications started. Nathan couldn't seem to hold his pencil correctly. He would grasp it in his fist instead of his fingers. Mom even purchased special finger grip guides that would help him to know where to place his fingers. It only helped a little. Finally, she made some headway by letting him write on the big wipe board.
This year I am teaching Nathan kindergarten. He is doing very well. However, he still struggles with his writing. Today we had to cut some pictures out and choose which ones started with the letter "c" and glue them in his book. Nathan's right hand (the one he was cutting with) began to get tired so he switched to his left hand. He was cutting straighter than he did with his right hand! I then decided to do a quick experiment with him. I had him write his name with his left hand. It came out just as well as when he would write it with his right hand. I tried the same thing with his numbers. Again, he did very well!
This whole time I had believed that Nathan was right handed. Was it because I had just assumed that because both Dave and I as well as all of his siblings so far were right handed? Was it because I wanted him to be right handed because it was easier to teach something that I already knew how to do?
Then this thought struck me. Am I molding my kids in a certain way because it's easier to do everything the same way with each child? Am I missing out on important abilities or needs that each child has as an individual? How can I better serve my children and meet their individual needs? It is only by grace that I will be able to do this. Thank God that His grace is sufficient for me and that His power is made perfect in my weakness!
I know this won't be the last mistake like this that I make, but I pray that I will be diligent to seek out the needs of each of my child individually. Each one is such a precious gift from God!

A Mother's Tears

2005-10-17T13:08:00.000-04:00

When the knowledge of my little one's presence first awakened in me a mother's heart,
The tears that fell were just the first of many that would fall from a mother's eyes.
Though most of the tears that fell were tears of joy and gladness,
Some were tears of wonder that God would choose me for such a noble calling!

When the time had come for my little one to enter this world,
The tears that fell were not the last that would fall from this mother's eyes.
These were the tears of pain and of anguish that only a mother can bear.
For these pains were to bring new life into this world and into my awaiting arms!

When I first saw your little hands, your little feet, and your face so fair,
The tears I cried were tears of joy that I at last could hold you close in my arms!
My tears were tears of thankfulness that God had brought you to me.
These were also the tears of a mother asking humbly for God's help to raise this little child.

When you would awaken me with cries of hunger in the wee hours of the morning,
Sometimes tears of frustration would fall from these mother's eyes.
I could not see how I would ever feel rested again. Would you never learn to sleep all night?
Then I would remember how patient God is with me and would cry out for His mercy.

While you are learning the many lessons that life has to offer,
The tears that fall from these mother's eyes will number many!
I will cry out continually to my God to save your little soul!
Surely He will not fail to see the tears that fall from this mother's eyes!

Outcastes

2005-10-13T13:19:00.000-04:00

I home school my children, and we have been studying the country of India in Old World History. We learned about the Aryans and the Dravidians, the people who occupied ancient India. The Aryans looked down on the Dravidian people, and did not care to associate with them. They felt that they were better than them.
This is when they developed the "caste system". This was a system meant to keep people apart from each other. There were four main castes. The highest cast was for the Brahmin, or priests. The second caste was for princes and warriors. The third caste was for merchants and landowners. The last and lowest caste was for farmers, laborers, and servants.
The way this system worked, was that once you were born into a caste, you could never move up to another caste. For instance, if you were the son of a farmer, you could never become a merchant or landowner, you had to be a farmer for your whole life, and your sons and grandsons had to be farmers as well. (This is one of the reasons that Hinduism was so widely accepted. Hindus believe in reincarnation. If you lived your life well, in your next life you could be born into a higher caste.)
If you dishonored your caste in some way you were excluded from your caste forever...An outcaste. No one could associate with the outcastes or "untouchables". They were looked down upon, even by the lowest caste members. These outcastes were the most eager of the Indian people to receive the Gospel. It brought hope to the hopeless!
In reading about these outcastes, I was reminded of how we are much like these ancient Indian people. We often see ourselves as better than those who have not received Christ. We see ourselves as children of the King, and anyone who hasn't received the gift of salvation is just an outcaste. They are not worth associating with.
This is not being Christ minded. As children of God, we need to remember, that "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us", and that He "did not come to call the righteous, but sinners". We need to pray for those who have not found Christ. For it is His desire that none should perish, but that everyone would come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
Here is a sobering thought for the mother. Until our children come to know Christ as their personal Savior, they are the same as the "outcastes" we so often look down upon. The difference is, that we spend most of our daily lives pouring ourselves into "training them in the way they should go". We are called by God to do this. Yes, but we are also called by God to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel"!
God, give us a love for those who are lost!

A Noble Crown

2005-10-12T06:38:00.000-04:00

"A wife of noble character is her husband's crown..." Proverbs 12:4
I looked up the word noble, and it means a : possessing very high or excellent qualities or properties b : very good or excellent. God wants me to be excellent in all that I do. Everything I do as a wife should be excellent. Everything that I do as a mom should be excellent. Everything that I do as a person should be excellent. This does not mean that I can be adequate, acceptable, or just satisfactory, I need to go above and beyond the expectations of the world and even of my husband. Just because we have been married for 12 years doesn't mean that he should just except me as I am with all my faults. My desire should be to love, honor and obey him, just like I vowed to do on our wedding day..."til death do us part".
God has brought the two of us together. We were made for each other! What an exciting thought! I was made just for Dave, and he was made for me. I am glad to say that not only is he my husband, but he is also my friend.
I may love being a mother, but I need to remember that first I was a wife, and before I know it, my kids will be married and once again it will be just Dave and I. I must constantly be working on making my marriage the best that it can be.
God wants me to be a crown for my husband. All the crowns that I have seen have made the wearer of the crown look regal and important. I want this for my husband! I want him to prosper in all that he does. What better way than to be a crown for him?

The Master's Hands

2005-10-11T06:54:00.000-04:00

THE WORKROOM
Before long He asked, "Do you have a workroom in your house?"
Out in the garage of the home of my heart I had a workbench and some equipment, but I was not doing much with it. Once in a while I would play around at making a few little gadgets, but I wasn't producing anything substantial.
I took Him out there.
He looked over the workbench and the few talents and skill that I had. He said, "This is fairly well furnished. What are you producing with your life for the kingdom of God?" He looked at one or two of the little toys that I had thrown together on the bench and He held one up to me. ? "Is this the sort of thing you are doing for others in your Christian life?"
I felt terrible! "Lord, that's the best I can do. I know it isn't much. I'm ashamed to say that with my awkwardness and limited ability, I don't think I'll ever do much more."
"Would you like to do better?" He asked.
"You know I would!" I replied.
"Well, first remember what I taught you: 'Apart from Me you can do nothing' (Jn 15:5).
"Come, relax in me and let my Spirit work through you. I know you are unskilled, clumsy and awkward, but the Spirit is the Master-worker. If He controls your heart and your hands, He will work through you. Now turn around." Then putting His great strong arms under mine He picked up the tools and began to work through me. "Relax. You are still too tense. Let go - let Me do the work!"
It amazes me what His skilled hands can do through mine if I only trust Him and let Him have His way. I am far from satisfied with the product that is being turned out. I still get in His way at times. There's much more that I need to learn. But I do know that whatever has been produced for God has been through Him and the power of His Spirit in me.
Don't be discouraged because you cannot do much for God. It's not our ability but our availability that's important. Give what you are to Christ. Be sensitive and responsive to what He wants to do. Trust Him. He will surprise you with what He can do through you!
Excerpt from "My Heart - Christ's Home
Robert Boyd Munger