A decade, 10 years, it’s alot of time.  September 11th, 2001 marked a day in history we will never forget.  That day will forever be etched in my mind and heart but another day  is forever ingrained in my memory and heart that changed my life.  September 16, 2001.  Five days after our hearts broke for all those families affected by the World Trade Center attacks, my family was personally attacked.  That day, our very “normal” toddler had a life altering event that rocked our family.  Our daughter Natalie was 18 months old and pure joy, fun and love.  She had such a sweet personality. 

As you can see from the photo’s, life was good.  Well life went bad very quickly.  Natalie suffered a brain injury that has left her severly disabled.  Her disability is similar to CP.  She is in a wheelchair, can’t talk, eat by mouth, sit by herself, she is full care.  I don’t want to dwell on the past, but I can say that it has taken a long time, and I mean a long time to mend the brokeness in my heart.  I have processed the incident, trying to figure out how I could have changed the outcome, we tried to heal her by our own doings and research, fought with God,  pleaded with God and tried to make deals with God.  I asked why, which is a loaded question.  One that if you really new why you might not have wanted to ask it.    

I started this journey with my backpack packed wrong.  It was full of bitterness, fear, anger, pride, doing things in my own strength and many, many masks.  It was not one that I wanted to carry for a long time and it really didn’t help me anyways.  So I asked God to come, change me, help me  and he did!   He came and dumped out my backpack, refilling it so I could walk this journey with Jesus as my guide down the path.    Don’t get me wrong, life is tough, full of steep ledges and pits,  but I am confident that there is a plan.  I am confident that God has employed Natalie for HIS kingdom.  There is something about Natalie. Everyone that meets her falls in love with her.  It’s the twinkle in her eye, that side smile she does, her sweet spirit.  God is using her and has a purpose for her life.  I claim and hold onto His promises.   We might not know who her life is impacting or how her life is making an impact, but we do know that our God is faithful to complete a work in us. 

Phillipians 4:13  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Romans 8:31     What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Psalm 105:4   Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

Romans 8:28  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose

 I could write so much more.  Our zany life has encountered so many blessings and trials.  God has been so faithful, teaching, loving and guiding.  Natalie has endured her fair share of illness and pain, bouncing back with a power that is only of God.  She is a trooper and God’s hand has been all over her.  We are grateful for all the people we have met, friends we have made, prayer warriors who have lifted our family up and those who have stood in the gap for us when life get’s hard.  We are thankful for Natalie’s school, her assistants at school, her doctors, her therapists,  and all the help that has come into our home to help with her. 

Today I honor Natalie.  I am confident that God has a plan for her..his word says so! (Jerimiah 29:11)  She is an heiress with Christ, (Galations 3:28).  I love her, she is a blessing and she is my hero!!  One day sweet girl you will dance on the streets of gold, you will sing with all your might, you will praise Jesus with a beautiful voice and we will feast together.  I cannot wait for that day.  To see you whole, healed and with the KING.  May God be glorified in her life and we give Jesus all praises!!   Natalie I am proud to be your Mom!!!!

 

Privilege:  a right  granted as a peculiar benefit

Obligation:  something one is bound to do : duty or responsibility

This week, bible study has been intense.  I love it.  We are working through Max Lacado’s “Experienceing the Heart of Jesus”.  Terrific study if you are looking for one.  Prayer was the topic of the week.  I am totally convicted.  My prayer life needs improvement.  I have been in the habit of “popcorn prayers”.  You know, the ones you toss up to heaven quickly because you are so busy or have a to do list a mile long.  My prayers had become predictable and dull.  I was going about it the wrong way. 

When you walking with Christ, it is a huge privilege to be able to pray to God!  With privilege comes obligation.  It is our “duty” to pray.  We have the divine opportunity to go to the Holy throne of God with praises, confession, thankfulness and requests.  That is huge!!  When you are walking with Christ, there should be a desire to want to pray.  For yourself and for others.  But we have made it too difficult.  We want to sound eloquent and poised, and if we don’t sound that way than we just don’t pray.  Well..let me let you in on a secret…it ain’t about you or me!  It’s about GOD!  Don’t think about it too much, just do it. 

Jesus gave us the example of prayer in Matthew 6: 9-15.  He showed the way.  Jesus prayed all the time.  He wanted to be in communion with God.  It was an honor but also a privilege.  Max Lacado has a terrific book out that walks you through the Lords Prayer, ” The Great House of God“  I read it and would recommend it.  We need to be dwelling in our heavenly Father.  It is our obligation.  How do we expect to go out into a suffering world and do it alone.  We can’t!!  We need Jesus.. plain and simple. 

Be bold in your prayers.  This is my downfall.  I am a timid pray’er.  I want to become bold.  I attend a Moms in Touch group.  This is a great organization where you pray for you children and their schools.  You meet once a week for an hour and pray.  (I highly recommend finding a group).  The difference is that you pray scriptures over them.  Have you ever done that?  There is some big time power in it.  Try it.  Pick a scripture and place your name in it.  When our prayers line up with truth and God’s will he hears!  Another awesome thing is that when we don’t know how or what to pray the Holy Spirit intervenes on our behalf.  Praying for our children is a noble task.  Take it seriously and cover them in prayer.  Become a diligent ambassador for your family.  Prayer is essential.  It needs to be God centered not self centered.  His will be done. 

Here is a great model using A.C.T.S.

A:  adoration, praise God for who HE is

C:  confession

T: thanksgiving, thanking God for what he has don

S: supplication (intersession and requests)

There is so much more I have learned on prayer but I want to allow it to resonate in my spirit, I will be sharing soon!   

John 3:30  He must become greater; I must become less

It’s funny, you read someones blog and get a feeling you know them.  I have a few blogs I follow out there in bloggy world getting to peek into someones life, their adventures.  It’s fun, you get ideas, you laugh and sometimes you cry. 

I cried when I read the recent posts on The Simple Wife.  This gal is a mom, homeschooler, wife, friend, sister, daughter and sister in Christ.  Normal is the word that comes to my mind.  About a week ago her 12 year old daughter found her lying beside the treadmill, with it still running, seizing.  She was suffering  a stroke.  Click on the Praying for Joanne button to the right, to read the entire story.  You will need to scroll down to get to the beginning. 

This just broke my heart.  We are never guaranteed anything here on earth.  We live in real time, real world.  We go about our days, sometimes thinking things like this will never happen to us or our family.  Then, it does.  But, but, but…GOD!  God, if we cry out to  Him, reaches down from the heavens and brings people, tons of people to our lives, sometimes people that don’t even know us.  Prayers are lifted up, cards are sent, encouragement given, meals taken, childcare arranged…people are moved to act.   Please click on Joanne’s button and look around.  Pray that whatever God lays on your heart to do, you are obedient.  Don’t let the thinking that you don’t know her play out in your head.  She is a fellow sister in Christ.  Step up, step out and step into action.  

A girlfriend of mine recently started a tween group in her home.  These young gals meet, talk about life, Jesus and just have a good time.  Recently one of the gals, Bizzy, was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  Again, broken hearted for this young girl and her family.  Please pray for this 6th grader, yes I typed 6th grader.  Once again, no one is immune to catastrophes in life.  The one thing we are confident in is Christ,  his love for us, his provision for us and his grace.  I pray that Bizzy recovers completely and has a platform to tell others what Jesus did and continues to do in her life.  How awesome is that gonna be and just think of the numbers of young people she will influence for His kingdom. 

Lists, we all make them, we all check things off .  Well, I ask that you add these two prayer requests to your list and DON”T check them off.  Continue to cover them in prayer!

This terrific  idea is on this gals blog.   To see the photo’s click on the blog. 

BLESSING BUNTING TUTORIAL:

Materials: sewing machine, double-sided bias tape, scrapbook paper

Step 1: Type up messages on your computer…I divided my document in two columns and ran four scriptures per page. Make sure to allow room at the top of each flag to attach the bias tape.You can also have people hand write messages on the flags.

Step 2: Cut scrapbook paper into 8.5 x 11 inches. This way you can feed it normally through your printer. I varied how I printed the messages. Some I printed over the patterned side, some on the blank side.

Step 3: Cut out the flags.

Step 4: Arrange the flags in the order that you want them sewn. I alternated which side some of the messages appear. So that if we hung it up mid room, you could read things on both sides. Once you have them in the order that you like, stack them up and set them next the sewing machine.
 Step 5: Place your first flag in between the fold of the bias tape. Using zig-zag stitch, stitch across the flag. Immediately put the next flag in place and continue sewing. Repeat until the end.

You’re done! 

Thought this was a great way to make a cold hospital room more cheery.  You could also cut out material in the shape of flags (like a triangle), provide visitors pens and have them write scriptures, prayers and notes.  Some how sew or stitch-witch them together and there you go..TRUTH decorating and covering a room! 

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” – Colossians 4:2

“You cannot impart what you do not possess.”   

***author/speaker Susie Larson, Growing Grateful Kids  

Well, I had a fantastic weekend.  I attended the Hearts at Home conference.  It was a blast.  There in nothing like getting together with girlfriends for a fun filled weekend of food, fellowship, prayer, worship and praising to our awesome Jesus!  Hearts at Home puts on a great, reasonably priced conference.  The thing I love most is that you get the opportunity to meet Christian authors and musicians.  We always go up and chat with Jill Savage, the founder of Hearts at Home.  She is so sweet and loves women in all stages of life.  In the past we have met, Crimson Bridge, Go Fish, Julie Barnhill, Sandy Buake, Lysa TerKeurst, Mary Beth Whalen, and T. Susie Eller to name a few.  We stay at the same hotel, I think this is our 3rd year there.  Every year we have  eaten  dinner on the way home at good old Cracker Barrel, ah down home cooking, great traditions!

This year’s theme was “MOMS THE WORD”   It was about the words we say to our children and how they impact them.  Very deep, very real, spoke truth.  The worship was awesome this year.  Christy Nockels was the worship leader.  First, she is adorable, second, when you watch her worship you can tell that it is totally between her and God.  She was fun! 

I took great classes but my favorite speaker was Susie Larson.  Whoa, you talk about a passion for Christ.  This gal has it.  She was enthusiastic, fun, real and spoke TRUTH!  I bought two of her books and had some time to chat with her.  She shines for Jesus and is such a wonderful gal.    Nicole Johnson was also there with her comedic take on motherhood and her insight on having a “Fresh Brewed Life.” 

Needless to say we laughed, praised, laughed some more, cried and just has plain old good time fun!  We go a long time not seeing Carol, she moved to Indiana.  We communicate through emails or phone calls and when we get together it seems like we pick up where we left off.  Blessed!!  I am so thankful for the friends that I have and the realness of our relationships.  We always come away growing deeper in love with Jesus and desiring to know Him more. I know that I am itching to look over my notes, dig into some of the books I bought and pray about things God spoke to my heart this weekend.   Here are some pictures from the weekend.  If you can plan to attend next year’s Hearts at Home conference, you’ll be glad you did! 

Karla and Carol

Jennifer and Tricia

Jill Savage and Tricia

Christy Nockels and Tricia

Christy Nockels and Jennifer

L to R, Carol, Karla, Tricia and Jennifer

Carol, Tricia, Jill Savage, Karla and Jennifer

Susie Larson and Tricia

This week has been so much fun.  If you didn’t know, it was Read America week.  Many schools celebrated with Dr. Seuss activities.  Phoebe’s kindergarten teachers are so much fun.  They have such a heart for the kids and make learning special!  The entire week was Suess themed and they ended the week with a Dr. Seuss breakfast.  The kids got to dress up as Dr. Seuss characters, have a special breakfast and themed treats.  Parents volunteered to get supplies and go in to cook the food.  I went in to help with the festivities and can I just say that it was a grand time. 

Phoebe as a Whoville charater

The special for the day, whocakes, green eggs and hasbrowns

 

Seuss friends

 

Dr. Seuss Day 2010

 Can you tell they had fun.  Yes the whocakes had strawberry and blueberry glaze drizzled over them, with mini M&M’s sprinkled over top and a Dum-Dum sucker stuck in the middle.  We added green food coloring to the eggs and I have to say that the kids loved them.  The drink of the day was lemon lime flavored soft drink with cherry and blueberry jello cubes that had been frozen, dropped into it to make it fizzle.  I didn’t know that when you make jello and freeze it instead of refrigerating it, it turns into slush.  COOL!! 

 Thank you Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Ferguson for the great day!  The kids will remember it for many years to come. 

Have a blessed Monday!

Today I’d like to welcome Jill and Mark Savage. Jill and Mark’s newest book Living with Less so your Family has More just released and I’ve invited them to share a little bit about this great resource!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.

We have been married for 27 years…17 of them happily. After finding ourselves in a marriage counselor’s office around year 8 or so, we realized that we really didn’t know how to be married. We worked hard to turn things around and now we like to share that hope with other couples.

We have five children ranging from 13 to 25. Our oldest three are married. Anne (25) and her husband, Matt, live in Zion, IL, and are expecting our first grandchild in April. (We are very excited!) Evan (22) and his wife, Julie, have been married a year and a half and they live just a few miles from us. Erica (19) married her husband Kendall last September. They live in Augusta, GA, and wherever else the Army takes them.

We have two teenagers still at home. Kolya just turned 16. He’s learning to drive and we’ve nearly worn a hole in the carpet on the floor in the passenger seat trying to find that non-existent brake pedal. Kolya is the newest member of the Savage family. We adopted him at the age of nine from Russia.

Austin is 13 and in the 8th grade. He wants us to make sure and tell the world that this “living with less” life is a real bummer because he’s the ONLY kid in 8th grade who doesn’t have a cell phone.

Tell us about your newest book Living With Less So Your Family Has More?

The world screams the message that bigger is always better, but we have found that is not often true. When it comes to raising a family, less materially can actually result in more relationally. Children don’t need the best houses, the best lessons, the best cars, or the best clothes. What they really need is the best home life and the best family relationships we can give them.

Why did you want to write this book?

We didn’t start out with the “less is more” mindset. We started as a double income family wanting to have the “best” of everything. Then Mark decided to pursue ministry. We went from the “high life” to the “frugal life” very quickly as we moved to another state for him to go to Bible College full-time.

That experience introduced us to the concept that less is more. We definitely had less money, but we had more time. We had less stress and more peace. We had less activities and more fun.

Since that experience, we’ve continued to live primarily on one income for the past twenty years. We’ve had to battle cultural peer pressure and make different decisions for our family than many other families in our neighborhood have made. But we’ve never felt that we were materially depriving ourselves or our kids…instead we’ve focused on what we’ve actually been able to provide for them emotionally and relationally.

What do you hope your readers will gain from this book?

We hope the reader is encouraged to evaluate how they are living their life, spending their money, and thinking about family matters. Our goal is to introduce families to the “less is more” concept and then equip them with the attitudes and actions to actually make that happen.

For families that are already committed to less is more, we hope to bolster their resolve and help them stay focused on the long-term goal of providing relationally for their kids.

In today’s economy, there are many families being forced to live with less. We want to help them see the opportunity they have with this unexpected downsizing they’ve been forced to do.

And for those who have just been a little discontent with their life and saying things like, “I’m tired of the rat race of life,” or “Is there more to life than drive-thru meals for dinner?” we hope to help them see other choices they have and how they can lead their family in a different direction.

What unique elements will the reader find in Living With Less So Your Family Has More?

For couples who want to read the book together, we’ve included discussion questions at the end of every chapter. This helps move the readers to discussion and eventually actions. Even a single parent can use the discussion questions for personal evaluation.

Readers will find this book a practical guide to changing your attitude and your actions to live a successful “less is more” life. They’ll find our writing style to be a warm, casual, honest discussion where we not only share our victories but our mistakes along the way. We are an average couple living successfully on an average income who want to help others to see the possibilities before them.

This is a Hearts at Home book. What is Hearts at Home?

Hearts at Home is an organization that encourages, educates, and equips women in the profession of motherhood. Hearts at Home encourages moms through annual conferences, our extensive website (www.hearts-at-home.org), a free electronic newsletter, a radio program, and an entire line of books designed to meet the needs of moms all over the world!

Any closing thoughts?

It’s healthy for parents to occasionally pause and evaluate their vision for their family and the choices they are making. We hope this resource will help them do that together and that it will lead them to live a life of little regret.

Thank you to Mark and Jill!  I have had the privilege of meeting Jill and she  has a  passion for women in all stages of life to know Jesus.  Check out her blog. 

Have a blessed weekend,

Hi friends,

We are well into the new year, 2010, can you believe it.  Where did the decade go?  I follow a few blogs and Kelly over at Kelly’s Korner is doing this fun Show Us How You Live topic.  This months topic is New Year Resolutions or what I like to call “goals”.  So let’s share!  You can click on the link above to get to Kelly’s blog. 

Five goals for 2010:

1.  Regular date nights with my hubby.  We have let this go and life get’s ahead of us.  You can get so wrapped up in the day to day stuff and before you know it another month, year or decade is gone. 

2.  Develop a quiet time.  This is an ongoing goal of mine.  I really want to cut out time to fellowship, praise and dig into God’s word.  I want to grow patience allowing God to stretch me in adventures that I believe he has for me.  I desire to follow God’s lead in my life, doing his will, being a faithful follower.  Be and have kindness and gentleness reside in my heart so I can model to my daughters what it means to have compassion towards others and teach Phoebe self control.

3.  Work out three times a week.  I am a mom of young children and I don’t want to place un-necessary pressure on myself.  As long as I am eating healthy and getting in my 3 workouts I am good with that. 

4.  I want to read more.  I love to read.  I don’t get the chance often but I want to start a book club or something.  This allows me to slow down and take some time to myself.  Plus it helps your kids.  When they see you reading you can tell them to go and get a book.  Reading is food for your brain!

5.  I want to discover me.  This is the biggest one for me.  Jesus made me like he wanted me and I have lived in bondage thinking I don’t measure up.  This is such a lie and I want to break free.  I want to see what I like and what I enjoy and be the true me.  I believe many gals have these chains because let’s be real..we all want others to like us and think we are special.  The one that I want to impress by being who he created me to be is Christ.  There is something in each of us that only we possess and we need to discover it, unlock it and use it so that we can work for God’s kingdom. 

6.  Okay I said to list five but I have another one.  I want to be a better mom.  I want to take the time out of my busy life to truly disciple my children.  Who else will do it and who else would I want to do it?  Once again it boils down to being disciplined with TIME.  Making sure we are not allowing BUSYto get us. You know the acronym for BUSY is: being under Satan’s yoke.  The evil one keeps us busy so we can’t develop our quiet time, spend time with our husband,  deepening our marriage, disciple our children according to God’s truth and not of this world, build friendships and on and on.  He likes to isolate us or keep us running all the time and than her has our minds for a playground and boy does he have fun!  Be aware of his schemes.  Be on the lookout! 

So there is my list for 2010.  What do you have on your’s?