A Visit From Georgia

Last week we had a visit from my parents. They came up from Georgia to spend a few days with their Virginia grandkids. We had a fun-filled, busy week. The bigger kids were excited to show off their school work to Mimi and Mac. We all went out to eat together several times and shopped at Sam's and Target. We had beautiful weather while they were here and were able to enjoy some time outside as well.

Mimi and Mac with the kids on the swing in the backyard.

We went to a duck pond one day. Here is Calvin feeding the swans.



Calvin Mac and Mac

Coleman and Emmie decided to brave the big birds... (see story below)

Coleman and Emmie were excited about going to the duck pond until we actually got there and saw the huge swans. They were having flashbacks to a few years ago. When Calvin was a baby, we all went and met Brian at work. We had picked up lunch and went to eat at a table by the lake. While we were eating, a huge flock of geese saw we had food. They started coming our way ... then they started honking and running towards us, intent on getting to our food no matter what. It's a little scary when 25 large geese come running towards you so we grabbed the kids and the food and ran to the safety of the van!

Apparently Emmie and Coleman remember that and weren't too sure about the big birds at the duck pond last week. But after they saw that the rest of us had remained unharmed, they gathered up the courage to come and join us as we fed the birds! Turned out to be lots of fun!

Respectable Sins

Lately I have been reading "Respectable Sins" by Jerry Bridges. It's been a slow read for me, although it's not necessarily a hard book to read. It is taking me some time because I keep re-reading parts, hoping that the repetition will help me retain many of the truths shared in the book. (Tim Challies has a thorough review of the book here.)

Bridges shares in the Preface that "the motivation for this book stems from a growing conviction that those of us whom I call conservative evangelicals may have become so preoccupied with some of the major sins of society around us that we have lost sight of the need to deal with our own more 'refined' or subtle sins."

It is easy to try and classify sins while trying to minimize my own, often thinking my sin isn't as dreadful as the sins of others. Yet I still need to focus on the Gospel as I seek the power of Christ in dealing with the many 'respectable sins' in my life.

Bridges doesn't get into the discussion of specific 'respectable sins' until Chapter 7. By that point I was ready to read about them and know how to conquer certain ones in my life, thinking there may be only 1 or 2 that I would need to study. Because I'm not that sinful right?

Oh - so wrong! Each chapter brought more awareness of the subtleness of the sin in my heart. As I kept reading each chapter I would think "surely I can't just sit back, relax, and read the next chapter without any conviction"... But not the case. Each chapter has brought to light areas in my life that I need to be on my knees about. Although I have finished the book, I am going to review several chapters again for deeper study.

One of the things I love about Bridges in this book is that it is centered on the truth of God's Word while sharing practical ways to deal with these sins. He writes with humility and grace. There is hope in the Gospel - and for that I am thankful!

Read it when you get the chance!

Updates

Wow! It's been a while since I've posted. Life has just been ... well, life! I got strep throat a couple of weeks ago and that knocked me out for about 3 days. That means that everything got behind a little and well, you know how that goes.

I had to take it easy that week with running but I got back to the grind last week. A couple of weeks ago I ran my first 5-mile run! I can't believe that. This past Saturday I tried another 5-miler (on a flat route) and I completed it just a couple of minutes behind my husband! But I will have to say that the last mile seemed harder. I'm at the point that I feel pretty good after my 4-mile runs, but after the 5 miles ones I feel a little nauseous!

The 10-K is in about 4 weeks! Should be exciting!

Oh yeah! Kim wants some of us to run a 10-miler in the fall and I agreed before I really thought about it. I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into...

What Happen When You've Been Sick for 2 Days...

and you try to cook supper for your family? Well, I cooked a sippy cup instead of the chicken!


I was in the other room, thinking "hmmm... something must be on that eye burner," so I walk in the kitchen to check the chicken and lo and behold I had turned on the wrong eye! Smoke, toxic smoke, from the toxic plastic has already filled the kitchen. I turn off that eye and open the windows and back door in the kitchen. My throat is sensitive since I've had strep this week and I have to get a cloth to cover my mouth.

The kids are amazed that there's 'fire' in the house but want to make sure that the 'fire' stays in the kitchen. After all the smoke clears and things start to calm down Emmie asked me why I burned the cup and I told her that I didn't mean to. A few minutes later she came up to me and asked me if I was mad at the cup!

Time Management

Time Management. We all have the same amount of time during the day but there are some days that I feel that maybe I only had about 22 (or even 12) hours that day. Know what I mean?

I already posted earlier about Ellerie being almost a year old. I am so glad that she was 4 months old when we started school last September because I usually start to feel normal again when the newborn is around 4 months old (it has been that way every time). Starting school forced me into a loose and flexible schedule which was good for us, making sure that we accomplished all of the necessary 'schooling' for each child. But I still had a small baby that had to be fed, as well as others that liked to eat too. So I noticed that the housework was the thing that always took a back seat.

In the last few months, I've realized how I would like to be more 'organized' in the area of house cleaning/house work. I love organization and I love to be organized but sometimes it takes extra time to get organized and that can be hard to come by.

Christina recently wrote a post about laundry that made me say 'yes'! She shared how it has helped her to do at least 1 load of laundry a day instead of waiting and trying to do it all at once. I have found that when I do at least 1 load a day, it is harder for me to get behind on the laundry too (unless Momma gets sick, like I have been for the past 2 days). I don't have a real laundry room, just a laundry closet so that place can get pretty cluttered if I get behind. So in my attempt to become more organized around the home I have decided to stick to this plan of doing a little bit of laundry each day.

Interestingly enough, Jessica has also been posting her tips on how to get things done in the home. Read through her entries about that. The one that stuck out the most to me was having a certain day of the week for certain chores. I used to have a system like this, but I don't know what happened... oh yeah... Ellerie happened! With 4 little ones around, the likelihood of cleaning everything in one day is 'not very likely'. It is much more 'doable' to only have 1 or 2 chores that need to be done on a given day. So now I am going to work on my weekly chore chart and try to get that going as well.

I like learning and being reminded of all of these good tips from you wives and mothers who 'have been there' and who 'are there'! Keep 'em coming!

9 months old already

Well, by the time I have gotten around to posting this, she's really almost 10 months old. In just 2 short months, we will be having her first birthday. Wow! This year has flown by so fast.

Running Update

The running is still going good. I have been consistently running 4 miles about 3 times a week. (Trust me, I'm not saying this to brag ... just to say that miracles still happen!) Twice a week I am doing some cardio on the elliptical and some strength training. It has been encouraging to do this with Brian, knowing there is a goal in site (the 10K in April). The hard part is getting up at 5:45 am 4 days a week (I try to do one of my runs on Saturday so I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn).

A funny thing happened on my run this past Saturday. I was getting close to my 1-mile marker and I saw an old man/woman (not sure at this point) up ahead with a big stick in their hand. For some reason this person seemed a little suspicious, maybe it was the stick, or the fact that they were messing with the utility pole beside the street (plus I watch too much Dateline and have an active imagination). So I figured that since this person seemed pretty small, and I wasn't totally exhausted at this point in the run, that I could "take 'em" if they tried anything fishy.

As I approached the person and began to pass, I said "hey". They old woman jumped, screamed and almost knocked my head off with that big stick of hers! The first thought that ran through my mind was "young mother of 4 killed by old woman with stick." But the stick didn't hit me and the old woman apologized for being so jumpy! I told her that was fine, I understood, no problem - (just be careful with that stick)! Needless to say, that got my adrenaline going and I had a little more pep in my step for the rest of the run.

I was telling Brian this story when I got home and Emmie (my 5-year old) was listening (as she always does) to every detail. After I finished she said, "Mommy, an old lady was going to knock your head off with a stick?" Before I could try to explain to her that it was a 'figure of speech', she said "Well, that's wierd!"

The Inheritance of the Children of God

"If there were no afflictions and difficulties and troubles and pain, our fallen hearts would fall ever more deeply in love with the comforts and securities and pleasures of this world instead of falling more deeply in love with our inheritance beyond this world, namely, God himself. Suffering is appointed for us in this life as a great mercy to keep us from loving this world more than we should and to make us rely on God ..." (Piper)

Read the rest of the sermon here.