Tale of Two Thanksgivings

So I hope everyone had a very Thankful and tasteful Thanksgiving holiday. I had two totally different celebrations of one of my favorite holidays. On The actual day of Thanks I spent with some amazing people. Has anyone ever heard of the phrase 'friends are the family you choose'? Well that is pretty much my motto when it comes to friends and family. After reading this post you will understand better why I say that.

Spending Thanksgiving with Friends;

My girls and I were very blessed to be invited to the home of Dave and Rachele Smith. I met Rachele's mother Karin at Canyon Hills Church about three years ago and pretty much made her one of my new best friends from the moment I met her. The Smiths were very excited to be having their first major holiday in their beautiful new home in Temecula. The house was decorated straight out of a page of House Beautiful! All the special touches that showed such love and thoughtfulness were in every corner. The blessing given by Dave was so heartfelt it touched us all. As we all went around the table answering questions from the back of our place cards you could just feel Norman Rockwell in the background painting our picture for his next years calendar. The rest of the evening was filled with fun and laughter, pool and piggyback rides and silliness that we will remember forever. The night ended in a giant sleepover with hugs good-bye the next morning. What a great memory, can't wait for next year!

Spending Thanksgiving with Family;

The next celebration of this great holiday was on Saturday spent at my sisters' house in Riverside. This was also her first time hosting. Now I should probably give you a little background on the functionality of our dysfunctional family. I know, I know, every body's family is dysfunctional and I've always said some of us are just way off the charts! But without airing too much family laundry let's just say we're really messed up. My sisters home was nicely decorated with Christmas lights and sweet touches here and there. The food was very good with moms special potato salad that we all love and grew up with. And even though there was no blessing, no formal seating, no Norman Rockwell to be seen there was a lot of tolerance. There also was a lot of noise, a lot of bad TV and a lacking feel of family togetherness. I guess it's hard growing up in a home that was not allowed to ever celebrate holidays (my mom is a Jehovah's Witness) to set holiday traditions. However, we all try and we are all thankful and there is love there even though it's hidden deep down under bad memories, painful pasts and the huge void that fills us all since loosing our sister, Julie, in 2006. So it was this void that caused my immediate exit before dessert when I felt the tears just behind my eyes and knew it was time for me to go. I love my family very much and would do anything for any of them. I just have finally realized over the past few years that I can only account for my feelings and that just because we were all born to the same parents that is sometimes not a good enough reason for some of the family bonds that to some seem so natural.

I hope you were able feel Gods love and amazing grace throughout this week and can carry Him into the Christmas craziness that has started with a vengeance. I hope I don't loose sight of the great reason for the season, Christ, our Saviour in materialistic sensationalism, oh, wait....that's a whole other post!

ThanksGIVEing

So Thanksgiving is just days away and though I've always described this day as giving thanks for what we have I learned today that it also means to be thankful that we can GIVE to others. Not just of our money but of our time, our grace, our patience, our understanding, and most importantly our Love.

Please remember to hug a little longer, linger a little more, savor another moment and have another helping as you gather with loved ones throughout this week.

So.....I can't sleep

I can't believe it's been two years since my last post. I really didn't think I'd start this up again but here I am. I don't even know where I left off or where to begin again.

I guess I should begin with where I am right her, right now.....To look back over the past two years although informative to those few who might read this would be far to sad for me to re-live. Suffice to say God has seen me through alot, He has been transforming me when/where I let him and when I haven't He has shown me His Amazing Grace.

I attend two amazing churches for several different reasons. The main one is it just feels right.

My girls are all at different stages in their lives and amazingly beautiful and full of life. They still make me laugh and make me cry sometimes at the same time but I would do anything for them and will continue to show them just how much they mean to me every chance I get.

I've had some incredible people come and sadly go in and out of my life these past two years and each one has helped me grow in some way.

I don't know if it will be two days, months or another two years before I post again but I'm glad I'm posting this now and hope to hear back from you and what you've been up to.

'Bath'-tisms

Today was our church's day of baptims, many were from our Club House Kids ministry and it was so awesome to see kids that I used to care for in the 2-3 y/o room now taking the public plunge among friends and family.

It was also Olivia, my 6y/o's first time being at one where she had questions about it. Why are we here, what is it for, can I go in the pool? A few times she had come up to me to say she was bored and wanted to go home. Then she found some friends and the show was about start and she paid attention. Then she asked me if she could get 'bath'-tized.

Here is how our night-time prayers and snuggle time went;

Her prayer after attending a 'bath'tism, 'God, I love you and I want to be bath-tized becasue I've done wrong things, Amen!'

Here is her version of what happens at a batism;

1. You get to be with your friends
2. You get to put your feet in the water
3. You get to have treats, like cookies

Here is why she wants to get 'bath'-tized;

1. You get to go in the cool water
2. You get to show others that God is in your heart

Out of the mouths of babes! What a gift God has given me in Olivia, the chance to see a child grow in Christ since infancy is my most precious gift from Him. So when the time does come for Olivia to be 'bath-tized' I will pull out this post and show her and we will see if she reads the above when asked by Pastor John why she wants to get 'bath-tized'.

Where to Begin

Wow, I cannot believe that it has been 5 months since I last wrote anything on this page. I don't know where to start, it has been such an amazing summer filled with wonderful things and not so wonderful things. There has been many changes in my house, which is pretty much to be expected with 3 teens, a very articulate 6 year old and one extremely busy mother. But now with summer officially over it's back to the swing of things with KidsQuest, BreakOut, Life groups, and youth groups taking much of the week up.

So, what's different now from when I last wrote in May:

• I celebrated my first year back in the corporate world and I still love it
• We moved, AGAIN, to a much bigger house, I finally have my own room after sharing with Olivia for the past 2 and 1/2 years (no more toys in my room!)
• I've learned that I can't go very far on my own without calling on my Father for direction
• I've learned that I don't want to go anywhere on my own without calling on my Father for direction
• I've learned that I cannot tell my kids to pray, read the bible or how they should live their lives
• I have learned that I can only change myself and that I should 'practice what I preach'
• I've learned that grace is something that we cannot live without but it is the hardest thing to give to others (especially my kids)
• I've learned that trusting God completely is the only way to live
• I've also learned that trusting God completely is the hardest thing to do
• I've learned, with the help of my 6 year old, how to 'linger' and let moments happen to us rather then always trying to make the moments happen

But probably the biggest realization in these past months is how God shows His amazing and never-ending love for me through the people he has put in my life. Most all of this awesome people are in my church community of Canyon Hills. I can feel His arms stretching from heaven and holding me tight whether it is when people are helping me move or helping me pray or just by a smile. So to my family of CHC'ers, thank you for being in my life and showing God's love and grace to me and my family!

National Prayer Day

So, did you pray? And if you did, what did you pray for, what should we all pray for? The war to end, our kids to be healthy, the GB Packers to win the superbowl, the price of gas to go down?

What about praying for the people who haven't yet found their praying muscle? There are so many people in the puddle of the fountain and very few who send up prayers to bring God's glory to rain down on us with His blessing and grace. I'm glad that I took the time out with a couple of friends and marked this day of great importance in prayer for our community and for God to use us all in bringing others to Christ and into His family.

I pray that we all find our voice with God and make praying as normal as breathing. You don't forget to breath, why would you forget to pray. It doesn't take elegant words or rhyming phrases to reach him; the innocence of a child's prayer speaks more than any priests words. It just takes an open heart and a clear mind and an invitation to our Heavenly Father. For He is always there, whether we call on Him or not.

It's pretty sad that there has to be a day of prayer to get some people to pray but I guess we should be happy some activist group hasn't taken it off the calendar yet.

So just pretend your in the movie 'Groundhog Day' and re-live tomorrow as if it were National Prayer day all over again and JUST DO IT!

Teens

I remember when my first dauther turned into a teenage....almost everyone started giving me condolences, which I took offense to. How unfair to judge a person simply by their age without even meeting them. And why do they get such a bad rap? Why do we think that teens chose to be misunderstood. Who of us would want to even remember that part of our lives not to mention re-live them.We, as parents, give them the impression that they are 'mini-adults'. With phrases like 'you whould know better', 'you're older, try to be more patient' and 'I shouldn't have to tell you to clean your room anymore'. But when they try to exert some of that independence we reel them back in and try to remind them whose boss. And those are just some of the pressures within the family home. Can we even start to list the many influences that are thrust on teens from all angles? Now I'm not saying that we didn't have it rough in our day but with just the media alone they are exposed to so much more than we ever were. I have both a computer and a TV in my home but because I work outside the home I put parental controls on both. It's not to keep my daughters from tuning to channels or websites that are not appropriate for them but to keep what todays society deems appropriate for them. Teens are exposed to what adults are being exposed to without proper education and the maturity needed to filter the material they are hit with at a rapid-fire speed. And then there is SCHOOL! Oh my goodness, don't even get me started! When my oldest was finishing her freshman year she begged me to let her go to Silverado, a continuation school in the district. I told her kids don't aspire to go there, however, because of all the ridiculous, exagerated, dramatic behavior that she witnessed and the tempermental mood swings that happened around her that was all she wanted to do. I begged her to get into a club, which she did and had a pretty normal and, yes, happy finish. Then my second daughter entered high school. And not only have the commercials gotten more risque but with the technological advances she has to deal with Ipods and text messaging going on in the classroom. Well, let's just say that we've decided to do education in a different format then traditional schooling. Another big mistake I see that happens, especially with boys, is that parents think they no longer want to be bothered with 'family stuff' so when mom and dad and the younger ones are going to the mall to find shoes for little Timmy the teens are staying home. Or worse, allowed to go 'hang out' with no supervision. So what the teen now thinks is not only that mom and dad don't want them to be around but that they don't care anymore to monitor their comings and going. So if mom and dad don't care anymore why should they and their self value starts a decline. Well, I don't care how much they moan and groan about having to do 'family stuff' drag them anyway, you'll both be happier in the long run.So, I guess in closing what I'm trying to say is wherever you are, whatever you are doing stop, get on your knees and pray! Pray for the teens in your home, the ones at school, those who go to church and are still trying to figure out why and even for those teens you don't know. And the next time you run into a teen talk to them, try to chat with them. They might be shocked at first that an adult is talking to them and showing an interest and you'll probably just get a 1 to 3 word answer but maybe they'll remember that and think that someone actually does care and you'll eventually start having some pretty amazing conversations. But I caution you, no matter what they tell you, don't ever be shocked with what they say, they may never share anything else with you again.Oh, and one more thing, don't make the mistake that I did, those teens that you stop to talk with, start with the teens in your own home

I heard somebody say 'let's build a home'

Well, that's just what we did, 7 homes were built this weekend in a little area, not a town YET, in Colonial San Bernardo through Project Mexico. A small ministry, yeah right, started by our very own Jon Hall a long time ago, not sure on the exact date, sorry.

This was something I had been wanting to do ever since I heard about it but the first time I was able to go. I was very touched and blessed to have my three oldest girls join me, yes, all the teens in my house put aside their usual weekend activities to do this for their mom. For a family that is always going in 5 different directions this really meant alot to me. I had a ball, it was just like camp, I think, I've never been. What impressed me was the comfort level that 150 people had with each other and the joy that was shown even at 5am (I didn't even know there was a 5am). I had a ball doing a weekend with my favorite people and getting to know them more and meeting new friends all at once!

We were on the Kilburg/Sujishi team and even though Kevin kept saying the home building was not a contest, we finished first! Both Kevin and Tom gave Jessica the good driving award, she had to follow Tom out of TJ and even though he drives faster then me, she never lost him she even helped Tom change lanes by clearing the lanes for him so he could get over. It was a little hard for me to be the passenger; I closed my eyes alot.

What touched me the most was the obvious things most people get out of this; the key ceromony, the look of joy, gratitude and disbelief on the faces of the people receiving this amazing gift but what I didn't expect to find down there was this overwhelming feeling of pride and respect for my girls, Jess, Julia and Jackie. They shined down there, they rolled up there sleeves and did whatever was asked of them and more! And just when I thought I couldn't feel any more pride they went into their own wallets and pulled over $30 to put in the hat that was passed around as a gift to the family. This was after they went to the car and pulled whatever snacks we came with and handed them over before I could even utter a word. WOW, I hope they realize how much this touched their tough, old mom.

I can't wait to do it again and I hope my kids feel the same way, but if they don't that's OK, I will never forget what they did and how much love they showed to others and how much love I felt for them.