She said yes!

   I don't know how to start this...

I've written it over and over in my head but when I sit down in front of the keys, my fingers disconnect from my brain. I've written this post so many different ways, so many different styles learned from those whose writing I admire. What I cannot get away from is that I want to be real. What is swirling around in my heart is real. I want to be real so that you know what you read here is the same me that lives in the real world too. 

My words are not often eloquent or perfect and all I can pray is that I am able to convey my heart in a way you can understand.

So...(deep breath!) on the drive to church on Sunday I turned on Christmas music. (It's December!) Mary Did You Know? came on the radio. I have heard this song many times and find it to be beautiful. This Sunday though the tears began rolling down my cheeks. I was trying very hard to not look like a complete sap! I felt the Lord impress on my heart "they are singing about her because she said yes, you know". I don't know how to explain it with words but the few short minutes of our drive to church became a holy moment for me. 

You have to understand. I believe in the supernatural. I believe in a God who walks with and speaks with his children today. He isn't distant to me, but always with me.  I have seen him do some pretty amazing things in the lives of others and I long for him to move in and through me. He began showing me in a very short time a few things I had not really completely understood before about the birth of Jesus. It completely undid me. I mean, by the time we got through worship at church I gave up and just started crying! I didn't know what to do with the sense of holy surrounding me!

In those moments of pondering Mary's "yes" and in the days since then, this is what has broken me. 

She said yes.

God sent an angel to Mary, who was probably a teenager, and told her she was going to be the mother of his son; who would be the savior of the world. 

Now understand, Mary was engaged, and from all accounts, her fiance was a really decent guy. In the time Mary lived the punishment for being pregnant out of wedlock was stoning. Her fiance would be fully within his rights to break the engagement and have her stoned.

Mary stood to lose everything. Her reputation, respect, her fiance, a future, her family and friends. But God saw something in her that drew him and he chose her to raise his son.

Mary could have said no. She could have argued and been justified in her fear. Justified in wanting to sit in the safe place life had put her. But she said yes to God without understanding it completely. She said yes, because she put her faith in the one doing the asking. 

From that moment, I don't think her life was anything like she expected. Her fiance, through angelic intervention, chose to believe the angel's message concerning Mary's baby and married her. (Side note! She surrendered EVERYTHING to God and he gave her back the very thing she knew she could lose by choosing God first! God is Good! He delights to give us the best!) 

In the condensed version, Mary and her husband Joseph had to flee for the life of God's son shortly after his birth. They spent several years away from everything they knew to protect Jesus' life. Many years later Mary and her successive children went to get Jesus because she thought he was out of his mind with what he was preaching and saying! Then she stood and watched Jesus crucified. I cannot fathom her agony. 

Mary held onto God's promise though, and God adjusted her understanding throughout her life. In the end, she was praying with the rest of the disciples for the Holy Spirit to come after the joyous announcement of Jesus' resurrection!

She saw Jesus perform more miracles than we can count. She saw the power of God firsthand. She had a front row seat for what God was doing and even she didn't always get it! Take hope in that! 

Mary paid a price and she didn't totally understand the cost or the price in the process. Oh what she would have missed if she had said no!

God still speaks today. He still wants to love on humanity the way that Jesus did when he walked this earth. Jesus came so that we could understand how great God's love is for us. 

All through history God has called to humanity and asked if we would do what he was asking. More often than not the majority find the cost too high. The fear too great. The excuses easy and justifiable in the name of common sense. 

The Bible is a history book full of His-story. Full of what he has done for people who choose to trust him fully with themselves. When we say yes, he writes our story into His-story. Big or small those yes' have impacted the course of history. 

Mary had so much to lose. I have never faced that type of a decision. Yet, daily, I battle the promptings in my heart to write a letter, call someone, look someone in the eyes and see them through the eyes of their Father. I have feared ridicule, I've feared what others would think of me. 

I have feared. 

God does not live in fear. He is perfect Love. When I obey his prompting to see with his eyes; speak from his heart; be real; and humble; and walking by grace alone? 

The world changes. 

Heaven comes to earth. 

He sees the future and knows far better than I, what a difference obedience to him will make. 

That's my challenge. Mary said yes, because she trusted God to know what he was doing. Will I say yes when he challenges my fear, my insecurity, my comfort? 

Mary got to kiss the face of God because she said yes. 

I have no idea what God will let me be a part of through every "yes" I give him. 

Do you?

It's Been a While...

It's been a while since I tapped any thoughts out on these keys. It's been a lot of living and learning and changing. I know somewhere a long way back I mentioned that change is hard for me. I often throw the word hate in with the word change. We don't get along, change and I. Or, at least we didn't. The Lord has pushed and pulled and humbled and convicted. I've faced a lot of my fear in regards to change during this blog hiatus. Some things I hope I can find the words to share in the days to come. 

Colorful Snowflakes

We've had lots of cold weather  but not a lot of snow this winter. We decided to try one of the Pinterest pins I've been holding onto for some time now. You can link to it here. 

 The kids were dying the snowflakes faster than I could dry them. They had such a great time making them!

 A few things we learned in the process...Lay them on cookie trays and use a hair dryer to dry them. It speeds up the process which is really helpful. Also, don't pick up the coffee filters until they are dry! This allows the snowflake to absorb all the dye making the colors more vivid and less washed out looking.

 
Chase figured out that if he dropped a few drops of dye onto the plate first and then laid the snowflake down he had more control over the concentration of the color and how they blended.

 We love how this guy (above) turned out but because it does not have center support we had to tape it up rather than hang it.

           The colors are just beautiful in the windows!

 Everyone of the snowflakes turned out with unique colors and designs.

 So, what are you waiting for? Get out the coffee filters and food dye and get started on your own blizzard!

Beauty

I can totally relate to this. I love who I am, as I am. I enjoy a little makeup to "enhance" my look but I thank God that I really deep down would not change the way he made me.

Click this link for the full story. You won't regret it.

Happy 4th!

We've been enjoying our summer. Warm days, lots of outdoor time, friends, family and swimming.

This little guy got to do sparklers for the first time that he remembers. We started out with a plastic cup until he was comfortable holding a sparkler on his own.

His expression after the sparkler went out the first time is priceless!

We had a family picnic, saw fireworks, took a family bike ride, played at home and enjoyed some water ice and spent an evening chasing fireflies in our pajamas! 

It's Swimsuit Season!

As the weather heats up and the swimsuits come out I thought this might be timely advice and encouragement for moms. This woman has the right perspective on life. Click here to read her note on bringing out your swimsuit.

Hopefully the Last Post About Old Man Winter!

The way the weather is turning I believe that Spring is indeed happening tomorrow!

I wanted to share a few last photos of this very memorable winter. The luge track was so exciting for these guys and I don't believe they will soon forget it.

This munchkin was all smiles and as fearless as they come!

 I love this photo. It is the embodiment of their time together.

This one only wanted to practice his skeleton skills and was usually face down on the track!

 Our little girl was fearless this winter. She was game to try anything with a sled.

 I love this picture! The blue of the sky and white of the snow together just make an ache in me that is good and happy and sad all at the same time. 

 The joining up sleds seemed to make the fun even better and made for a wilder ride. They had some great wrecks with this method!

Winter Olympics 2014

We are working our way through world history by studying different countries within each continent. It just so happened that the Sochi olympics coincided with our study of Russia. I jumped on the chance to incorporate the history of the winter olympics into our studies. Before I knew it, Howard and I had planned a night of winter games for our kids.

We kicked off the night with an olympic oath. The kids had to promise to be good competitors, win or lose and to try their best. 

From their we moved onto the torch relay. We began it by running around our bedroom and then passing the torch to each child in order of age, and having them run around their room (or country) before passing it to the next sibling.

We then all paraded down to the place we had designated as the place for the torch to be "lit" to begin the games.

We had a moguls event where the kids had to jump back and forth across the line from beginning to end.

We did every event at least twice but the kids could only medal in it once. :)

Each event was followed by a medals ceremony, where the kids took turns receiving the different place medals while Howard and I hummed very loudly the first few bars of our national anthem. 

On a side note disregard those terrible olympic rings. We were all trying to draw them from memory and what a terrible thing memory can be!

This was our version of the slalom. The kids had to slide between the cups as fast as they could without knocking them down.

Chase was in love with the skeleton events so we tried it out, but it didn't really work well on the floor...

We had a figure skating event. Each competitor had to spin on one leg one time and then sit down and spin (a sit-spin) and finally twirl around three times before completing their performance with a leap. 

Howard is showing his off here. :) Yes, mommy and daddy participated, we just didn't win any medals!

Tanner showing off his sit-spin.

Mommy's turn!

Our modified curling event.

Many nights prior to the family olympics, and a few after, the kids would spend the time at the beginning of the real olympics performing their versions of the different events. Here they are snowboarding. Alexa is locking in her boots and Chase is performing a jump.

The kids had a great time and we topped it all off with popcorn and the real olympics on TV. 

I used this woman's site for our medals and many of the ideas for our events. It was a really great night of laughter for us!

More snow, more fun!

The snowblower made us a nice luge track!

The kids were having fun yesterday, trying to get it packed down  and ready for today.

Alas, it is snowing again today and we have about 3" thus far. They are still trying to pack it down but we will have to be out again tonight to hopefully get it a little slicker.

Howard blew a walkway out of the track to the road below but it's a long walk uphill to get back to the start of the track so the kids are struggling to find ways to come directly back up!

Snow and more snow!

These first few pictures were taken a day or two before the big snowstorm we received yesterday.

We grabbed the shovels and dug a snow tunnel through all the plowed snow.

I had to carve steps into the snow so the kids could get back up and over to the other side. The ice coating was strong enough that they were sliding down the hill on the backside, and couldn't get up and out!

Another sign of great fun! We had tracks everywhere from the hours of snow play these crazy kids have been enjoying!

Yesterday, part way through the snow our upstairs window began to accumulate a bit of snow...

It has been a little hard for the kids to get around since this last batch of snow. 

If I fall through both layers of ice crust we have, the snow hits my mid thigh!

First snowman! The kids are standing on an ice crust or they wouldn't be there. It's the only way they can get around by staying on top of the snow.

This morning the window had been blown this deep but the sun is shining and it is beautiful!

This is supposed to be a sandmound...No one wants to walk out to it. You will have snow in your boots and up your pants!

On the flip side I do know a snowblower carved a path down our sledding hill and we are on our way out to make a luge track!

The Birthday Post

I decided to save all the birthday stuff for one big post this year. Here's a brief round up of the goings on in our neck of the woods!

Our big girl turned 5! This was a party year for her so she had quite a few friends over for a princess themed party. The girls all dressed up in their favorite princess outfits.

They played "Pin the Tiara on the Princess",

 We had a scavenger hunt with clues and a treasure (chocolate coins).

 I tried my hand at gumpaste and made a miniature "princess Alexa" for the cake. She loved it. :)

One of the fun party favors we gave out to her guests.

For some reason I don't have many pictures of Howard's birthday this year so I give you one of him blowing out his candles.

Chase is all about Batman right now and so his siblings dressed in their superhero outfits to show their support.

 He received a baseball bat from Nee Nee and Poppy that he is eager to use when the weather gets warmer.

Our family joined in supporting Chase on his special day. Somehow Billy and Renee escaped from the picture.

Chase had just family and his best friend over. No superhero birthday would be complete without a Batman cake.

My birthday came in the midst of snow and we had a great day of playing out in the it. It was perfect!

It's a Coldstone cake for me!

Tanner is the last of our crew to celebrate for this season. He was surrounded by family to celebrate.

Two of my three kids are not keen on blowing out their candles so we've taken to inviting their friends to help blow them out. His cousin was right there to get the job done! :)

It was cold out and the snow has melted and re-frozen around here so the girls were sliding down our hill after cake and ice cream.

We all took turns getting a few runs in down our very slick yard and across our swale which is full of frozen water.

Watching the kids making runs down the hill.

The kids playing in the snow fort we built on my birthday. Despite all the ice and quite a few falls amongst the kids, Peter and Howard came away with the biggest scrapes/cuts of everyone. Tanner got a busted lip and everyone has some good bruises. All marks of pride for the fun we were having!

Of course no birthday post would be complete without showing you the cakes for each of the kids this year.