Some of the things I'm thankful for . . .

Thank you Edi!

Our wonderful friend, Edi has been such a blessing to us for many years. We used to work together in the Youth group with the High School kids and now we work together in Puggles. She was Rylie's Sunday School teacher for two years and watches my girls for Mops and Ladies Biblestudy. We are very thankful for her and her ministry to our family and our Church family. When she found out that Anna was having a clothing shortage, she went out and bought her (and Rylie) big bags full of clothes! (It was quite Providential that she gave them to me the day that she did, because Anna had a diaper blowout and I hadn't brought any change of clothes for her!)
Then, last week, she suprised me with another three bags of clothes, including underwear for Rylie, socks and tights for both girls. This was such a blessing because just that morning I was stretching Rylie's socks to make them fit her, as her feet have grown. Here is a picture of what she bought last week. She bought the girls adorable dresses as well!
Thank you Edi! We love you!

Thanksgiving Jar

I recently read an excellent book by Noel Piper, called Treasuring God in Our Traditions.

She talked about making traditions in the normal every day things of life, like always reading to them while they fold laundry, etc. There are also the important practices of teaching them to have their own daily quiet time with the Lord. Even before they could read, she would have her children sit down with a Bible story on CD and listen to that so they were trained to have that personal time with God. She stressed the importance of family meal time at the table and praying together, as a family and as a couple. One of the things she pointed out was that at Holidays we need to make sure that everything we are doing is pointing our children towards Christ. She encourages her readers to come up with some of their own family traditions.

I read about this online and thought I would try it since it's so simple. I took a canning jar and affixed some scrap booking paper to it. Then I cut out some small pieces of paper (which I'm storing in a little basket with a pen next to the jar). The idea is that we write down things we are thankful for all during the month and then on Thanksgiving we will read them. I'm toying with the idea of reading them once a week instead of all of them on Thanksgiving, but I haven't decided yet. It was so simple but I'm hoping this will help all of us focus on all of the things we have to be thankful for and most of all the God who deserves our thanks. Rylie is enjoying it so far and has already had me write several things she is thankful for (her various toys mostly).

If you come to our Mops group, we're going to make these at our next meeting.

(The pine cone turkey was a craft that Rylie made in Cubbies. Pam got the pine cones from the Redwood forest. Isn't it cute?!)

Awesome Verses

These verses from John 6 (35-37) are so packed full of Soteriology and are such a comfort!

"Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out."

Thank you Lord for giving me to the Son! Thank you for keeping me eternally! I don't deserve this at all, in fact I deserve quite the opposite! I know this is not based on anything I have (or will do)! That makes it all the more secure! I praise you Holy God for your perfect plans!

(Ryan's Mom is home and doing better, thank you for praying. They think she may have Diabetes now.)

Thankless Job?

So often motherhood is a thankless job. You do hundreds of mundane things a day that largely go unnoticed. But, sometimes you hear this:

"Mom, thanks for buying us more toilet paper and for putting some in my bathroom."

Gotta love this girl!

Gratitude

I am so thankful that my family extends beyond my biological family (who I love very much) into my church family. I am constantly blessed by them. As I write this, my friend Michelle has dropped Rylie off from spending the morning at her house, and is on her way to buy me some groceries! She already brought me lunch and prepared dinner for us for this evening. She is also going to help me with some dinners in the next couple of weeks. Thank you Dave and Michelle for what a huge blessing you are to our family in these and so many other ways!
I am thankful for the others in my church family that have helped by providing meals and play dates for Rylie and housecleaning! And of course I know that my own family is always here for me and has helped tremendously as well.
I am very grateful for the prayers for myself and my little Anna. I can't wait to introduce her to you all who have cared for her so much before she even knew you! What a visible illustration of Christ's love!
It has been hard for me to accept help because I don't want to be selfish and I don't want to be a burden on anyone, but I know some of this is also due to my pride and stubbornness. God is working on that with me! He is also working on my "poor me" attitude and my impatience. I have been pretty miserable this week with almost nonstop contractions and getting little sleep, but that is no excuse for me to wallow in it. Why is it when I need the Lord the most, instead I go to my corner and pout?! These last three days have been very hard so what do I do, I skip my devotions! I turn away from the source of my comfort, peace, strength, and joy.
I apologize to those of you to whom I've been complaining, whiny, and impatient with. I'm off to spend some much needed time with the Lord!