To Train a Child

Prov 22:6
6 Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.
This post is not about how to rear children, because I am right in the midst of that learning process. Maybe, hopefully, when I'm older I will have some fruit of these years, and can share some successes. But for now, I'm just holding onto the Lord daily, praying fervently, begging for wisdom everywhere I turn, wanting what's best for my kiddos, just like all of you (with children.) But I want to share with you what God is teaching us. One thing I have been mindful of a lot lately is what we are training our children in. They are all students, sitting in our classroom, soaking up what we are teaching, whether we mean to be or not. Incredibly frightening, isn't it? If parenting doesn't scare the crud out of you, what does?
The Bible says to train a child in the way he should go, and then he won't depart from it.
What is the way he should go?
Deut 6:4-9
4 "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. 8 Tie them to your hands as a reminder, and wear them on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Matt 22:37-40

37 Jesus replied, " 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."
So far, if you are a Christian parent like me, you know these verses. This is all very 'Duh.'
But how is this lived out?
Recently, our worship leader, Aaron, wrote in our church newsletter about worship. He wrote about how worship is not just what we do at church. It's not something we try to fit into our lives.
We ARE worshipping all the time.
But what are we worshipping?
And what are we teaching our children to worship?
How do we define worship?
One of dictionary.com's definitions is "to regard with ardent or adoring esteem or devotion."
So what do we show our kids is important to us?
We have all trained our kids in something. Some of them can show adoring esteem to your alma mater on command at the age of 2.
Some of them know more about nutrition than I do, and are trained well in what to eat.
Some of them have been trained in politeness and manners so they don't embarrass us or act like punks. (Who wants punk kids? Not me!)
Some of them are trained that education is everything. They are trained and on the path to the right college.
Some of them are in training to become professional athletes. They know sports is what gets the ardent devotion. It trumps everything else.
Some are trained to please themselves. Do what makes you happy. We've never taught them to step outside of themselves to care for the needy. In fact, they don't know that the needy exist. (I remember when our kids thought all of Mexico was the resorts we had visited. They didn't understand why Daddy needed to go there and do mission work? Those people were living the good life! Ouch.)
Over the past few years, Rusty and I have been asking ourselves, what are we training our kids in?
What do we give ardent devotion to in the everyday. Does God just get our weekend? Or is He woven into everything we do?
Have we built our lives and are trying to fit God into in somewhere, or are we building our lives ON HIM, and only doing what He is asking of us?
Our kids are sponges. They learn quickly, and they are not hard to train.
But Rusty and I have had to take steps back and realize that sometimes we have trained them in the wrong things, or with the wrong attitudes.
For example, in our earlier years of parenting, we were teaching obedience and good behavior, but not for the glory of God and obedience to His Word. Just to have good kids. We had to backtrack.
Also, we have been re-evaluating our time in front of the TV. Aaron wrote a great post on that recently that I will be writing more about soon. But as Heather wrote, I also let my first child watch WAY too much TV. We had it on all the time. I shudder just thinking about how foolish that was. When we moved here in 2003 it seemed a good time to turn over a new leaf, and my children quickly became accustomed to no TV during the day. It's never on during the day. That's just a general rule around here. We never let them watch live TV. I can't predict what's going to happen not only during a show, but during the commercial break. We turned off the TV, and started having family meals at the table in silence. That was five years ago. (We've since allowed some bad night time TV habits creep in, but I'll write about that later in the week.) I was teaching my kids to be slothful and that mindless activity is all good. It's not.
In our earlier parenting years, I cared more about what clothes they wore. They had more GAP and Gymboree clothing. As God grew us, we realized these things are NOT important. Not even close. We weren't going to teach our kids and spend our money foolishly just to impress our friends at church or keep up with the Jones', whoever they are. I avoid Gymboree like the plague, no matter what deals they offer, and when the kids need clothes, they are the cheapies.
I could go on. God has stopped us in our tracks, over and over, and re-taught us how to submit everything to Him.
If we want our kids to know that Bible Study and prayer are important, we have to not only let them wake-up every morning to us in the Word, but we have to teach and equip them to do it themselves on a daily basis. It's not going to happen magically when they get older. I want them to see prayer and Bible Study as the most normal part of their day. Like breakfast.
But it's too easy to train them in the world's ways. I don't want that. That means we have to talk with them more. If I want them to connect to the Body of Christ, then I have to treat their role in the church as importantly as I do mine and Rusty's.
While I'm driving to church on Saturday nights, trying to shake off the craziness of getting four kids dressed, fed, and off on time, I pray and ask God to prepare my heart for worship and see opportunities to meet visitors or someone who needs a word or a smile from me.
I became convicted that I needed to do the same for my kids. So I also am asking them to pray on the way to church, asking God the same things. One of the first times we did that, we pulled up to church and Emma befriended a little girl visiting and asked her if she wanted to sit with us. The guys who brought her were so relieved and told us it was an answer to prayer for Emma to take care of her. It was her first time, and they weren't planning on bringing her. Her Mom just sent her with them. And it was her birthday!!!!! Can you imagine? So Emma got to see the immediate fruit of that prayer. What a blessing!
I also was recently convicted that I haven't been sending their Bibles with them to church. They use them daily at home, but I was afraid they would lose them at children's church in the mass of children, games, and moving rooms. But it's important to have your Bible ready to read in worship for us, and it is for them also. So I sent their Bibles with them last night. They didn't lose them, and they got to practice using them during their story time.
I would love it if any of you would share how God is challenging you in this area as well. I want Him to open my eyes to every part of our lives where we are worshiping someone or something else, and in turn, training my children to do the same.
What gets our attention?
What do we get excited about?
When do our children see us beaming with pride at them?
What is a priority in time spent as a family?
We can say God is first, but are we trying to squeeze God in, or letting everything in our lives overflow from a love relationship with Him?
What is getting our ardent or adoring esteem or devotion?

Bindi the Jungle Girl

My Emma LOVES this show!
It comes on Discovery Kids at 7:30am. (At least that's when we DVR it I think.)
If Bindi says it, to Emma, it's the gospel truth.
She is often saying "Well,Bindi says, yada, yada, yada".
This little girl is pretty cute. Sometimes overly articulate children can be annoying. But her show is informative, and so interesting to my Emma, I just can't be annoyed.
Bindi even signs songs about animals, and has videos of them, like where a fan is blowing her always crimped pony tails. Those are pretty funny.
Why the crimping? Does anyone still have a crimping iron? I haven't seen mine since 1988. Is this an Australian thing?
Emma wants to live Bindi's life.
When they show Bindi's baby brother sitting all giggly with some monster snake that could eat us all alive, it tends to freak me out. But that is the greatest heaven Emma can imagine.
Emma lives, breathes, and eats animal life. Raise your hand if you've been to my house and Emma has tried to race you on all fours, barked at you, jumped in your lap like an animal, or asked you to play the animal game? Let's take a head count...it's everyone we know.
I know this is not normal for a seven-year-old, but this is pure Emma, at the core, she loves animals. Jane Goodall probably wasn't normal either though, right? It might be a sign of greatness! Emma was obsessed with animals before she could talk. She seriously had a major obsession with elephants at age 18 months. She couldn't say much, but she said the word "efelun" about 100 times a day. She only received elephants for her 2nd birthday, and her party was animal themed. She rode an elephant at the circus at age 2. The dinosaur phase came after that, followed by the horse phase (which stuck because she's been riding horses for years now and is going to be in her first horse show in April!!! Woo-hoo!) It's just built into her DNA, passed on by her father, of course.
So if you have an extreme animal lover, or a child who also likes overly articulate children, check out Bindi.
Also, FYI, I heard there's an A&M Vet School Open House this Saturday from 9am to 4pm. It's supposed to be pretty amazing, with exotic animals, trick pets, and things to examine under a microscope. It's basically an event designed for my kids. So Rusty will be taking the big ones.

Creativity (super creative title, hu?)

The kids and I were lying on the trampoline earlier tonight playing the cloud game. You know, where you look at the clouds and say what you see.
(You meteorologists are thinking something totally different than the rest of us.)
Jax immediately said he saw a battle, and a giant alligator.
The rest of them spouted something off as well.
What did I see? I didn't know...I kept looking...and looking...why didn't I see anything?
It took me a while, but I saw something as well. I saw an eye.
Kids are so creative! They're born with creativity just waiting to bust out!
This morning, we had the opportunity to go to the church my brother Chris pastors, and my brother Robbie leads worship there. We saw Chris' oldest, Hanna, be baptized and take her first communion. It was special and wonderful.
Ecclesia is in the heart of Houston on Taft Street. It is a hub of creativity.
Art lines the wall. Creativity is seeping through the rustic, cracked interior of the building.
At Ecclesia, they actually have a table to paint at during worship. They see art as a form of worship. And why not? Now granted, that wouldn't fly at every church. It fits at Ecclesia. It would fit at some churches in our conservative military university town almost as well as Democrats. But my kids were all over it.
They were in Easter clothes, which weren't new or fancy, but the looked cute. Emma was even wearing a little white sweater over her dress. When they asked to paint and I voted yes, Rusty looked at me like "what?" However, he got on board quickly because Rusty is an artist at heart and one of the most creative people I know. Pretty remarkable since he's also a science nerd too.
We explained to them that it was a form and act of worship to do so. Emma was on it! She painted passionately for a good part of the service. The boys dabbled in it as well. Rusty and I both wanted them to have the unique experience of worship through art like this, despite the mess. Now today, there were mostly minors seated at the painting table, but I know that's not true all of the time, because amazing art lines the walls of the sanctuary. Art is highly valued in their community. Expressive and explosive paintings are everywhere, and many are painted by an artist in their church that we've known for years. (My brothers are lucky enough to have her art in their homes as well.)
I'm not proposing that we set up an art center at all of our churches. That works in Montrose, but not everywhere. But where is our creativity, grown-ups? Why do kids look at clouds and see a million things, and we have to study them?
Why do we overflow with creativity when we're young, and are deplete of it when we're grown?
Where does it go?
How are we allowing our creativity to be sucked out of us?
And what's it for? IT'S FOR GOD.
Every good gift He's given us is meant to bring Him glory, to make Him famous.
But our creative button is broke, so I'm learning that my kids know a lot better how to worship God than I do.
We think worship is an hour on Sunday morning, from 11-12. Or we think it's just the music segment of our service.
Where did we get that idea? Is God insulted that we have narrowed the concept of worship to that, or what?
Worship is a lifestyle. As our worship leader has recently reminded us, we are all worshipping something or someone all of the time. I'm afraid too much of the time, I am worshipping my own pleasure and convenience, and not God's greatness and glory.
My kids grasp this more easily.
When we dance, it can be worship. When we run, when we draw, when we learn, when we clean...it can all be in a spirit of worship.
If I tell my kids we are going to paint as a form of worship today, they're on it.
We're going to journal about our Bible verses, they're all for it.
They don't blink or look at me quizzically. They just do it, and they so often do it unto the Lord.
I'm afraid I am using my gifts and the remnant of creativity for my own purposes.
For those of us who love to teach little ones, we still long to be creative.
We teach Kindergarten just so we can read books, write books, color, paint, and mold things out of Play-Doh.
What would happen if we stirred up and revived from the dead all of our creative juices and poured them into worship and adoration of God?
I wonder what it would look like.
I'm going to be working on that.
There are many creative desires I've had for years that I've allowed fear to contain.
I want to play the drums, I want to play the piano more, I want to make more cute bookmarks with my awesome colored pens (thanks Amanda!) and my super cool laminator (thanks Shelby!)
Even more importantly, I want to protect the creative inclinations in my children and teach them that every one of them is for the glory of God. It is not meant to be squashed and stamped out, suffocated by "maturity" and replaced with cool, new aloof grown-up attitudes. It makes me want to cry just thinking of my kids giving up all their creative endeavors in the name of growing up.
So everyone, grown-ups, break out your markers, instruments, dancin' shoes, pencils and paper, and get to work. You may have to sit there for a while before a creative idea hits you, but just like me and the clouds, it will come. And maybe the more we practice that, the easier and easier it will come.
I want to try. I'm going to watch my kids for ideas.
You watch yours, if you have them or are around them, just mimic them for a while. They don't need ANY help in being creative.

Jax's Salvation & Baptism

This is Jax's baptism last Sunday night. What a special night for us! Look at my sweet little boy! I took his hand to walk him to the front when Butch called his name, and he looked at me and said "I can go by myself, Mom." Those moments kill me! He did. He went on his own, and climbed in that baptistry without fear.
I have to testify as to what God has done in his heart. When Emma was baptized, he freaked out! It appeared to be the most terrifying thing to him! He would tell us ALL the time, "I don't want to be baptized!" Emma would try to talk to him about being saved, and he would just say "But I don't want to be baptized!"
In his own time, he began asking lots of questions, and he discovered that we had something he didn't have. Salvation. He grew in his understanding of his sinful state, and what Jesus did for him. He developed a faith, even at five-years-old, in what it meant to trust Jesus. We talked about salvation just about everyday through his AWANAS verses, and our family Bible study and prayer. When he realized "hey, this is for me! This applies to me!" we couldn't hold him back. He was just five, and in my flesh, I wanted to give it more time. But last December, he was ready, and he basically told me on a Sunday at home he was praying to ask Jesus in his heart right then. I could join him or not, but he was praying! Wow! His eagerness to be a child of God was intense! He did pray, and he told everyone that very day that he was a "son of the King!" The Holy Spirit came and filled my son that day. The scripture says He will. I could see it immediately. All the fear he had about baptism evaporated. He never flinched in his desire to follow through with baptism, and even being a grown-up doubter, I thought some of that fear might re-surface as it came closer. It did not. He was excited about it. This was just God, because he is not my child that wants to be the center of attention or upfront. I have a few of those, but that's not Jax. He would rather hide behind Emma. But you can see him in this picture, brave and excited. He was also so excited to take his first Lord's Supper that night.

This picture looks scary, like they're holding him under. They're not, I promise.
We baptize by immersion, because that's exactly as Jesus did it and told us to do it.
It does not save us. It is a command in scripture, and he says to do it following your conversion, but it is an outward testimony to what has happenned in your heart. I am realizing more and more that it's not enough to experience the power of God in your life and keep it to yourself. We're supposed to proclaim it to everyone! We're supposed to publicly proclaim His faithfulness! Baptism does that.
Jax has gone from death to life. Just as Jesus taught Nicodemus in John 3, he's been born again. I gave birth to him, and it was one of the greatest days of my life. But the joy of seeing true salvation in my children is unparalleled. Jax has a hunger for the Lord. He loves God's Word. He loves to pray. These are fruits of his salvation and the child-like faith that Jesus tells us to have. I do see a pure and untainted faith in my children that I myself long for. There's no greater blessing than to see that in your children! Walking and living their whole lives for Jesus is their only hope! If we are making ANYTHING...education, sports, healthy lifestyles, whatever, more important than this, we are MISSING IT! There are many good things to teach our kids, but this is PARAMOUNT!
Here are some verses I am praying over Jax.

Ps 101:1-4
I will sing of your love and justice.
I will praise you, LORD, with songs.
2 I will be careful to live a blameless life —
when will you come to my aid?
I will lead a life of integrity
in my own home.
3 I will refuse to look at
anything vile and vulgar.
I hate all crooked dealings;
I will have nothing to do with them.
4 I will reject perverse ideas
and stay away from every evil.


Ps 86:11-13
1 Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.
13 For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.

I am asking God to help him live a blameless life. I want him to serve the Lord with an undivided heart. I am overwhelmed that He has delivered my child from the depths of the grave. I am asking God for big things for my children. Not big worldly successes, but I'm not going to concede that my children must make a string of foolish decisions or rebel against us and the Lord later in life as a normal part of growing up. NO! I want him to walk in the path of righteousness and NOT depart from it. He will make mistakes. He will sin. But I want him to live in the abundant life promised to all of us who are believers. I want him to be a mighty worker in God's kingdom.
God has saved our Jax. Our hearts are full of gratitude to the Lord, and we take our job of teaching and discipling him very seriously. Praise God that I don't have to do that in my own strength. Praise God that that responsibility doesn't rest on me alone as a Mom, but that my husband leads us in that. I can only humbly pray that God would become more famous and glorified through our lives as a family.
That's what it's all about.

HOPE

There is so much to cover in scripture on hope.
I am overwhelmed by it.
God has been speaking so clearly to me the last few days about hope.
There is one verse He has gifted me with that I have to share.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Romans 15:13

We serve the GOD OF HOPE. There is no hope to be found anywhere else! But our God is the author and source of all hope!
So who are we to ever feel hopeless if we know Him?
I was feeling hopeless in a situation with one of my little ones. I felt discouraged and defeated.
That was wrong and sinful.
There's no place for hoplessness in our lives as believers! Not even a smidge of it!
We so easily forget, like foolish, ridiculous Israelites, we serve the GOD OF HOPE.
And in the midst of something horrendous, He can fill you with all joy and peace.
JOY AND PEACE.
That's something I haven't had lately in this trial.
I can not only be filled with hope to overflowing, but I can also have joy and peace in the midst of it.
Can I have any of this on my own?
No way Jose.
"...by the power of the Holy Spirit." Only by the powerful God living in us as believers can this happen. If God can raise the dead, He can give me hope, joy, and peace. In fact, He can produce all of the fruit of the Spirit in me. (Gal. 5:22 "And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self control.")
Without the Holy Spirit, we are unkind. We are impatient. We lack joy and peace. We are not good. We are certainly not faithful. We are not gentle, and we cannot control ourselves.
Praise God that He decided to come live inside of us when we accepted Him.
Without Him, there is no hope.
With him, there is ALL HOPE!
This sounds simple, elementary. But how many of us are living with hopelessness hidden in our hearts?
Hopeless that things will change.
That our loved ones will come to know God.
That our circumstances will change.
That God will move.
We envision God to be about as powerful as we are. He's not.
We envision Him to be as faithful as we are. He's definitely not.
We think we know what love is aside from Him. We don't.
So take heart. Be filled with overflowing hope today.
Memorize and meditate on this verse as I am. He's faithful and good. He keeps all of His promises.
Praise God today that we serve the God of hope.
And if you don't know Him, today is the day! Enter into a forever union with true love and hope in Him.
To read some good scripture and insight into putting your hope in God alone, read my friend Tamra's blog about this. It's great!

"New Day" on TV tonight!!!!

Hey, I don't know if anyone reads blogs on Sundays. Do you? Are there specifications in scripture about blogging on the Sabbath? Probably not.
Just in case, I wanted to put the exciting word out that Rob's song "New Day" will be on Oprah's Big Give show tonight. Set your DVR if you have one. We will be at church...in fact, my whole family, including Rob and Liz are going to be at Living Hope tonight for Jax's baptism!!!!!!!! More on that later...but we are all going to come back here and watch it together.
My sweet little boy is going to be baptized tonight!!! I'll have to share about that when my house does not need me to clean it.
Set your DVR's!

Make your own free t-shirt!!!

A friend e-mailed me this awesome deal! You can get on Vista Print and make a custom t-shirt, and it's free! You only need to pay for shipping. (Lowest is less than $5)
Think of all the awesome things you can put on a t-shirt!
I've got too many in my head to choose from right now...I need more sleep to make this decision.
Let me know if you make one!
www.vistaprint.com
(More real posts will come after Spring Break.)

Read this...

Ross King wrote a great post about what everyone needs to know about adoption...about talking to adopted kids or parents of them.
Plus you get to see pics of his adorable boys!!! Go there, quick! It will only take a minute.

Lily 7 & my Bible Study

I know I've mentioned before that I write for a website called Lily 7. There are seven of us writers, and we "discuss" topics on the blog.
But I am excited to say they are also posting my Bible Studies under their resources. I have a new one up there, "Citizens of Heaven" and you can download the pdf version easily if you are interested. I know that's easier than printing it out from a blog, like I have linked below.
Just go to the Lily 7 site (to the right under our ministries), click on resources, and choose Bible Studies. It is at the top.
Just a little FYI.

Stinky McStink Face!

This commercial happenned to sneak into our DVR viewing last night, and I watched it five times, while I laughed so hard I cried!!!
My favorite part: "What the French, Toast?" I can't get enough of that part!
I like the way they're all chewing gum the whole time too.

Who are you callin' a cootie queen, you lint licker!

Are you smarter than a 1st grader?

I am not, I confess.
I wrote on my blog last year about what I was learning teaching the kids Kindergarten.
1st grade has been even more enlightening.
Now, before you write me off as a total moron, let me throw out a few of the kids' test questions from this year.
(You can decide I'm a moron after that.)

What is a shaduf? (hint: used in early civilization farming)
Locate and color the mesopatamia on a map.
Label all the continents, oceans, and define island and peninsula.
What are the three kinds of rocks?
Identify rocks into these three categories. (We actually did this with buckets of rocks and a Geology Professor in the A&M Geology building. I love this town!!)
What is a sun spot? solar flare?
What is the largest planet?
The hottest planet?
Which ones have rings? (hint: not just Saturn)
Who was Sir Walter Raleigh?
Who was Pocahontas, and what did she do? (hint: Don't go to Disney for accurate historical info.)
Who was Paul Revere's vitally helpful friend on the night of his famous ride?
What did he do?
How many bones are in the body?
Label atleast 10 correctly.
Explain the process of digestion.
How much saliva do we produce each day? (This grossed me out.)
Name 5 different types of animal habitats.
Map out a food chain for each kind of habitat.
What is an animal called that eats both animals and plants?

Did any of them stump you? Maybe 1 or 2?
More than a couple for me. Science was NOT of interest to me as a kid. Obviously it was to my husband, and my kids are very much like him.
But it has been my pure joy to learn everything again, or for the first time even, and teach it to my kids.
Weirdo Homeschool Legalist Disclaimer: Let me remind you, I don't think homeschooling is for everyone, or the only way, or GOD'S WAY, or whatever.
But it is a blast for us! We are having fun studying food chains this week.
I don't think I learned all this stuff!!! This is awesome!
I wish I could show you the picture Rusty drew on the board for me of a food chain. It's awesome. Having a brainy husband with good artistic skills is super helpful!
Emma and Jax are so excited to learn something new, so teaching them is a bright spot in my day every day.
Emma is what Rusty affectionately calls a "nerd", which he is as well, so he's very proud. But ask Emma any question about one of these topics, and you'll get her going. Especially if it pertains to animals. She'll talk your ear off. And you might learn something! I usually do, because the girl stores away additional animal info. from her Zoobooks magazines, library books, and anything Bindi says!
I included a few pics of our schooling lately.
Emma was working on "Solving for the Unknown" or what we called "Solving the mystery" in math. It's really like early algebra. X + 7=16
So when we started this section of her math, she immediately went and dressed up like a Sherlock Holmes type of detective. Notice the pipe in her mouth. She cracks me up!
She also made a robot one day.
And finally, my favorite, was our MLK day activity of eating the Great Divide ice cream. (1/2 vanilla and 1/2 chocolate.) This was their idea when we studied Civil Rights and desegregation before MLK day. We mixed them up some for symbolism sake. How funny are they?
I'm really not saying my kids are especially smart or are learning any more than everyone else's kids. Not at all. But they love learning, and I super love teaching them!!! I am learning so much from them, and learning to love knowledge, especially of God's creation, all from 1st grade.
Hopefully, I am getting smarter than a 1st grader.

Robbie Seay Band- comin' to town!!!

Guess what? My little brother will be here with his rockin' band on Thursday.
And they are playing where I always wanted him to...The Palace Theater!
It's in downtown Bryan. It's the coolest.
8pm! His openers are Colin Bates and Jill Paquette.
Everyone, including Robbie, raves about them.
It is going to be so great!
tickets are $10. Be there!!!

Vaseline what?

Post marathon pic. Can you believe I could hold this big baby? Mother's can find super strength at times, I tell you.

This is us in our awesome self-made marathon t-shirts. They had our names on the front, and mine said Mom 04, (like, 4 kids) and Rusty's said CALL 911. We thought we were cute.

The wonderful girls who made this all possible. Everyone who saw us at the race said "Where are your kids?" Like we just left them home alone? No, we had wonderful Amanda and my cousin Bailey who spent the night so they could go on duty with my kiddos at 6:45. How great are they? Love you girls!

So, I did it.
I ran 13.1 miles. Without dying.
I realized around mile 12 I had never gone that far before.
I was really nervous, pre-race, and though I slept pretty well, I had a lot of nervous peeing going on. I have bladder issues.
We got to the race. There were LOTS of people, and I wasn't sure what we were supposed to do...stand around and stretch, or what?
We got our cool numbers. I liked that. We got a tag to attach to our shoe which was supposed to calculate our race time.
We gathered in a huddle of people and we saw some people we knew...friends from church, patients of Rusty's, etc.
Jenn C. asked me if I had vaselined my hiney. What? She had heard you should vaseline your butt cheeks for friction. Someone else mentioned vaselining your toes. What?
No one, not ONE person mentioned to me vaselining (is that a verb) body parts prior to the moment we are standing at the starting line.
How could this be? I felt a moment of panic. What else did you veteran marathoners not tell me? Did I eat the right breakfast? What was carb-loading all about? I ate tacos the night before. I didn't have any of the energy goo people talked about.
But here I was, a virgin marathoner, and I was hopeful none of that mattered too much.
A local minister prayed before we took off, and I truly asked the Lord to somehow get glory from this. I have learned by now that He can get the most glory from the things we would least expect. This whole idea has been very spiritual to me. The Bible likens our faith to a race many times. God reveals himself to me when I'm pushing myself, against the wind, through pain, when I'm enduring, and really, when I'm doing something I never thought I would be capable of.
That's the biggest thing for me. God is accomplishing things that I can't even dream of.
Eph 3:20-21
20 Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. 21 May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.
Amen.
My dreams are too small. Could I have even imagined Rusty? No way.
Not so many years ago, when I couldn't even run 1/8 of a mile, could I have dreamed that I would run a half marathon?
Emphatically no.
God has been growing me, changing me, molding me, changing the way I think, over time, and He has taught me a great deal about spiritual discipline.
I was once spiritually undisciplined.
As God grew me in this, I feel like that has spilled over into other areas of my life. I think the more spiritually disciplined I became, the more physically disciplined I became.
Is that true for everyone? No, not necessarily.
But that's what my journey has looked like, and running this race meant something to me.
So the horn blew.
Yes, a horn, not a gun. Very disappointing.
A mass of people starting running in place, trying to take off together.
This was very weird and awkward. I just kept saying "This is weird."
But the super fast people took off.
And the people who thought they were super but we passed later took off.
And we settled into a jogging pattern.
David Colvin, veteran marathoner and accountability partner to Rusty, decided THAT MORNING to run with us.
Did that compute?
He just ran the Houston marathon. He hasn't really run much since then because of a sore knee, but last minute, on a whim, did 13 miles with us.
This was really cool, and it livened up our conversation as we ran.
We kept a 10 minute mile most of the way.
Around mile 4 I put on Kirk Franklin and "put my hands up" and picked up my pace.
We trucked along, seeing David's family, whom we dearly love, along the way around mile 9. That was cool. (There weren't many cheer-ers in this race. Hardly any really. That stunk. Except for Manny Martinez, there to cheer a co-worker on, and he was our one-man cheering section. So cool.)
We saw our kids, Amanda, and Bailey around mile 10. I was so looking forward to that!
But about that time, what we could only describe as a "brutal wind" hit us.
Something to do with weather or something. Rusty could tell you.
So the last three miles, difficult anyway, were made REALLY difficult by this wind.
It felt like spinning your wheels against it.
This is where we walked for a few minutes.
But then we turned that corner, from the feeder of Hwy. 6 onto Harvey, basically our last mile. My ipod was playing "My Redeemer Lives" by Shane and Shane.
This wasn't the pick-me-up music I was listening to earlier in the race. It was my spiritual moment of the race.
I picked up the pace.
As I was running in, I heard "Run Baby Run" by Sheryl Crow.
We were fighting for the lead with a 70 year old man. That will motivate you.
As we crossed the finish line, people didn't cheer for us.
Why? There were a few half-hearted claps, but they didn't mean it.
Just as I suspected, there was no press conference.
I could deal with that.
But what I couldn't deal with was there was NO GATORADE.
They cut my tag off of my shoe.
Then some lady started asking me to vote for my favorite water stop or something.
I was disoriented.
I JUST WANTED SOME GATORADE. I started crying and pleading with people for Gatorade.
We found some calorie free flavored water.
Calorie free? Are you kidding?
All I wanted was my BERRY GATORADE.
And my kids weren't there.
We saw them driving away just before we reached the finish line.
By NO FAULT of Amanda and Bailey's, they couldn't reach us because there was no parking.
Heather tried to come cheer for me at the finish line too, like the sweet, sweet friend she is! But she couldn't get to me either.
No babies.
No Gatorade.
That made the finish line a little disappointing.
We met up with the kids along the road on Harvey, and headed home.
But we had done it!!!! We ran about a 10 1/2 min. mile we think.
2 hours and 15 minutes.
I feel proud of that.
I feel proud of doing it.
I felt lousy all day.
I was fine when we got home.
About an hour later, I felt like the flu hit me with a vengeance.
I wanted to seriously throw up.
Rusty, on the other hand, is SUPER HUMAN.
He felt fine.
He went to the hospital to admit a patient.
He then took the kids to the park.
Then...wait, you won't believe this...he played in a soccer game!!!!!
What is wrong with him?
Or maybe something is wrong with me, because I felt like death.
After my nap, I was better than before, went to church, sported a t-shirt that I will love DESPITE the armadillo on it, and came home for our Sunday night Wings n' more ritual.
I never enjoyed it more.
OH, and there was no need for vaseline for me. No friction issues, FYI.
That's all of it.
The good, bad, and the ugly.
I don't know if I'll do it again. I am betting it's like giving birth. After time passes, you forget how it really felt. You only remember the euphoric parts.
And I can tell that races are somewhat addictive.
So who knows? But it won't be anytime soon.
I am perfectly content with this achievement.
Yay!!! We did it!!!!

I'm Alive

Just wanted to say I survived today.
In fact, I feel like we did really well.
I will have a full update tomorrow morning, after I've had coffee, and don't feel so hungry and flu-like. Seriously.
My knees could explode tonight if I don't go get some frozen bags of peas to plant on them.
Tomorrow, I'll give you the full story.
Including, did you know you're supposed to vaseline parts of your bodies for these things?
More tomorrow!

Marathon Update

It's tomorrow.
I'm so nervous.
We are running the Armadillo Dash (I have so many issues with this name still) tomorrow morning.
I just woke up, Saturday morning, and had countless dreams about the race. I missed the start. Rusty had to go on without me. I was devastated! Amanda forgot to come watch my kids, so we had to push them in strollers, but I knew in the dream that was against the rules. That's far-fetched! Amanda would never forget to come watch my kids! In fact, she's spending the night here tonight, along with my cousin Bailey, so they're here early and they are going to bring the kids to the finish line. How sweet is that! Another one was that I had to go give blood for someone before the race, and then another one was that my Mom told me I couldn't go. I finally just got out of bed, because of this restless dream-filled sleep. What will it be like tonight, the night before the race???
In truth, Rusty and I are both nervous. But I think, if I live, this may be one of the biggest accomplishments of my life. That may sound silly. But this race represents to me that I can do something I never in a MILLION CAJILLION years would have though I could years ago.
That God has made me, in so many ways, into someone I could never have been.
He has faithfully grown me, disciplined me, changed me to look more like him over the last 10 years. I feel almost unrecognizable to myself sometimes from the girl I once was. That sounds so dramatic. I haven't been saved from a life of IV drug use or anything. And believe me!!!! I have so much more growing and changing to do!!!! I haven't arrived, and never will. But He is accomplishing in me things I couldn't have imagined, and running this race is a tangible representation of that.
Me. The girl who never played sports and athletic was the very LAST word you would have used to describe me. I'm running a half marathon. It's exciting.
Okay, so don't ask me about my time afterward. It's not going to be anything to brag about.
If you see me at church on Sunday night, I may be packing ice packs for my knees, because they've been unbelievably sore the days of my long runs, and I still have not run quite the 13.1 miles. I'm preparing myself for the pain.
And I will be drinking my new favorite thing ever...Berry-flavored Gatorade!
I was never before a legitimate Gatorade drinker! No, not this girl, who dreaded gym class, and was sure that I had a stomachache when we had to play volley ball in fear the ball would come my way.
Gatorade was for real athletes. I saw people drink it. They were in an entirely different class than me. I was in the musical class. I don't know what we drink. But it wasn't Gatorade.
So when we started training, I was legit. I needed some of that stuff. I didn't know if I was going to like it, but the Berry Flavored kind...I swear to you, when I'm running, it's the best thing I have EVER TASTED!!! I could be dragging, and then I get a Berry Gatorade break, and I'm picking up speed! It's magic! I love it! I think about it a lot while I'm running.
I am already thinking about having it at the finish line.
I also have been picturing a press conference at the finish line.
For me.
Like Rusty and I step up to the microphones, all sweaty and out of breath, and thank the people who made this possible.
I have to remind myself that probably isn't going to happen. But maybe I'll do it here on my blog instead.
Like last week, when Rusty and I finished our longest run ever in my parents' neighborhood, we were coming to our "finish line" and right there was a woman in her robe taking out her trash. I totally expected her to cheer for me, there in her robe at her trash can.
She did not.
I don't know why.
I had just run nearly 12 miles.
I'll get back to you after the race and let you know how it goes, that is, if it doesn't hurt to type.

I love the Gruners!

As you may have read, we love going to the Nursing Home.
Going to Crestview has become one of our highlights for the week.
I love it, and the kids really love it too!!!
We have made so many friends there. They love my kids! They light up when they see them! Some of them have amazing stories to tell. Some were teachers for 50 years.
I want to sit and listen for hours about that.
Many fought in World War II.
They have lived through poverty that our generation can't imagine.
They have pictures in their rooms that look like they're straight out of "The Notebook."
Some were parents of 9 kids.
Some were Sunday school teachers for 50+ years.
It's just an untapped reservoir of knowledge, experience, and life over there.
They will tell you they feel useless and are living without purpose.
But they are such a blessing to us! We started going to bless them, but they undoubtedly bless us more.
James 1:26-27
27 Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.
I realized a while back that Rusty and I were obviously involved in caring for orphans. You can read all about that on this blog. But what was I doing for the widow? Or the elderly who had been cast aside by our culture?
So we made time to start hanging out with the old folks...and voila! I met...

The Gruners! Ken and Joyce. They are the bomb.
I adore these people! Seriously! I want to be them when Rusty and I get old. They are still so in love, and I told Mrs. Gruner that I wanted to have hair like her's when I'm old. She doesn't have the blue-hair-permed-do, ya know? I really want to avoid that!
We have been visiting them regularly for months now, and have enjoyed them so much!
They take delight in my children, let them crawl up on the bed with her, mess up their room, and tell them they love them all the time.
Have you noticed this about old people? They are quick to tell you they love you, and are a little more honest. I guess you realize by the end of your life that those things are important.
Mr. Gruner tells us what it was like in World War II. Mrs. Gruner tells me what it was like when she was left behind with a baby and had to go to work. No one could get gas for their cars, so she had to go to work each day on a bike, with her baby in the basket on the front!!! Can you imagine?
They rented a garage apartment for $20/month.
They tell me things like "Whatever you do, don't invite the whole first grade class over for a birthday party! We learned that the hard way!"
or "I would have had a yard full of them (kids) if I could have afforded them!"
For Martin Luther King Day, we interviewed them about what it was like as Christians to live through the days when racism and discrimination was at it's height. They were very honest, heart-broken, and sober.
I so look forward to these talks with them!
Yesterday was Mrs. Gruner's birthday. She turned 85. We have had it marked on our calendar for over a month.
So we took a party to her! She hasn't been able to get out of bed for months. She has MS, but is really debilitated by bed sores. However, she rarely complains. She loves the Lord, and she is such a shining example of joy despite her circumstances.
She lives on the Nursing floor, but Mr. Gruner has to live in the assisted living area. So they are in separate rooms. They've been married for 68 years, but can no longer sleep in the same room! So sad!
However, he spends every waking moment in her room, no exaggeration.
He cares for her night and day. He refers to he always as his beautiful bride, or "my Joycey." They are so cute together!
We brought pizza, ice cream, a birthday banner, birthday napkins, and a pack of cards. The kids crawled up on her bed and played UNO with her. How fun is that? She was totally into it.

They said it was a birthday they would never forget. Me neither.
The Gruners already know and love the Lord. They're super worn and torn Bible is always nearby. But there are many people there who don't know the Lord.
As Rusty says "It's final exam time" for them.
My heart is fixed on sharing Jesus with them. They need to know Him before it's too late! The kids and I pray for opportunities to be bold and share Christ with them. I think most importantly, we have built a repore with the residents there in that we keep coming back. There are many drop-in one time visitors, especially around the holidays, but the residents just go on and on, like when we delivered valentines to all of them last week, about what it means to be thought of and remembered. They appreciate it so much!
If anyone is interested in visiting with us, let me know. We have more people to visit than we can possibly do each week. They each deserve more one-on-one time with someone. I would like to bring a birthday party to all of them!
And you can come by and meet the Gruners. Did I mention I love them!?

We Love, We Love God's Word!

I love this video! Jax had to learn all the books of the New Testament for AWANA's, and so we sang it to the tune of "We Will Rock You" by Queen, circa 1975. I actually wrote that in his Sparks book, but I'm not sure if his listeners appreciated it. Could he be any cuter? My Mom made this into a fun movie, because that's the kind of Nana she is. Enjoy.

Valentine's Day- A God-Holiday?

This week in school we are studying LOVE.
Don't worry folks, if you are concerned for our homeschooling education, we do academics out the wa-zoo. We finished a month studying the human body, and my kids are now ready to take the MCAT.
Our project for this week was to make 88 valentines for our friends at the nursing home. Good thing we recruited wonderful friends to help us. That would have been a lot of glitter flying in this house.
We had already decided Valentine's day would be our unit study, in addition to our math and reading, etc. We love holidays!
The kids know that there is a difference in certain holidays...some are God-holidays. We stop working and take time to worship, like at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter. But some days are remembering days, like Veteran's Day, President's Day, or some are silly days, like Halloween, and National talk like a pirate day.
Emma asked me on Sunday night on the way home from church "Mom, is Valentine's Day a God-holiday."
I explained to her that the world does not think of it as a God-holiday, but it truly is! I was saved as a little girl on Valentine's day, which has always been a sweet reminder of my love relationship with the Lord. But the Bible says God IS love. Without God, there is no love.
As we were talking about this in the car, I felt impressed by the Holy Spirit that we would study Biblical love this week.
The world has already begun telling my kids what love is. I want them to know what God says love is.
I decided we would wipe the white board of our minds clean on love, and write only what God says about it in Sharpie.
Wouldn't that be cool if our minds really had a white board?
Rusty's would have more on his than mine. He stores a lot of info. When you have a job that requires you to be awakened up from a dead sleep and do complicated math, you have a lot of math on your whiteboard.
Good thing I'm only awakened to tend to children and stuff.
So I started on Monday morning copying all the verses I could find and write in my journal about love.
Monday, we learned the greatest commandment (we talked about in church this past weekend.)
Mark 12:30-31
30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.'
We should be THE MOST PASSIONATE about loving God, and everything else in our life should come as an overflow of that.

Tuesday we learned the second greatest commandment.
Mark 12:31
31 The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these."

But what does it mean to love others? What does that look like?
John 13:34-35
34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

So how did Jesus love?
1 John 3:16
16 We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters.

John 15:12-14
12 I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. 13 And here is how to measure it — the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends.

We have more ground to cover on God's love this week. How does the Bible describe God's love? How does that compare to the way we love each other?
There's so much. So much to erase. So much to Sharpie.
But it's been so good!

Hiding the Word in their Hearts

I just love this picture!
I think all kids should have plenty of time to make tents in their living room, don't you? Even if they collapse on you because your baby brother pushes the chairs down on top of everyone.
But this post is not about tents, it's about teaching our kids to study the Word.
This has been an evolving process. We have done different things, and as they are getting older, hopefully we are adapting to their abilities.
Last year, I did the Bible story, memory verses, and prayer time with them all together in the morning. It was a wonderful way to start our day! But Treston got louder at the breakfast table, and Justus more demanding, and this became very stressful.
In addition to that, Rusty was not apart of their daily Bible teaching, and he really wanted to lead out in that.
So we moved to this school year, me doing their AWANA verses with them over breakfast, and praying, and Daddy teaching the Bible Story and discussion at night.
And while that has worked well, I have always felt there was something missing in the morning for them.
So lately, I have asked Emma and Jax to go find a quiet spot in the house and take a Bible story book with them. I told them to look at a story (maybe the one we studied the night before) and then spend some time praying.
I have been amazed! When they come back, I ask them "what did God teach you this morning?"
One morning, Emma said "God taught me today that I shouldn't build myself up, I should only build God up." AMEN!!!!! She read the story of the tower of Babel. So we expounded on that, and it was good!
The next morning, I asked her again, and she said "God taught me that I shouldn't worship idols." AMEN!!!! So we talked about, what could be potential idols in her life that could become more important than God, and how God and pleasing Him has to stay #1. It was awesome!!!
I thought, how many grown-ups got that much out of their Bible Study time this morning?
I want to equip them to follow God for life.
If Rusty and I get up early to spend time alone in the Word and prayer, I want to teach them how to do the same. I want them to wake up every day of their life, and find personal time in the Word the most natural thing in the world to do. Like breakfast.
At ages 5 and 7, they are more than ready. It blows me away! We under estimate their relationships with God sometimes. They are insightful, and they hear His voice. Maybe clearer than we do sometimes.
I cling to these verses, as I ask God to show me how to teach them how to follow hard after God.

Prov 22:6
6 Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.
NIV

Ps 119:9-11
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
NIV

If you guys have other things that your parents taught you, or that you are teaching your kids about the Word, I'd love to hear about it.
And now, I'm off to run 10 miles. What? That's crazy! I hope I live to read your comments.

NEHEMIAH!

I have just started studying the book of Nehemiah, and I LOVE it!
It's so good!
Because I studied Jeremiah for so long, I learned a lot about what led up to the exile period. (Where the Jews were exiled from the Promise Land because of their continual rebellion to God.)
Now I am understanding God's fulfillment of his promises to rebuild them through a remnant of faithful people.
Nehemiah and Ezra led the physical and spiritual rebuilding of God's people.
But it's how they responded to God's Word that is blowing me away.
They hadn't heard God's Word for generations.
Once they rebuilt the walls and begun the rebuilding of the Temple, getting settled in, they called an enormous meeting...
Neh 8:1-3
8:1 all the people assembled together as one person at the square just inside the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had given for Israel to obey.
2 So on October 8 Ezra the priest brought the scroll of the law before the assembly, which included the men and women and all the children old enough to understand. 3 He faced the square just inside the Water Gate from early morning until noon and read aloud to everyone who could understand. All the people paid close attention to the Book of the Law...

6 Then Ezra praised the LORD, the great God, and all the people chanted, "Amen! Amen!" as they lifted their hands toward heaven. Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
NLT

Upon hearing the Law, they fell face down, worshiped God, and after that it says the people were all weeping aloud! They were grieved that they had been living in direct disobedience to God. Their response was to immediately obey! They changed everything about their lives so that it would line up with the Law! It is such a moving book.
I want to be like them!
I want to be so moved when I read the Word and feel conviction, that it moves me immediately! I want to be humble enough to recognize when I am living for my ways, rather than His. I don't want to argue with God, debate it internally, try to rationalize...I just want to MOVE to obedience!
I always say that I have found that we, including ME, like to campaign for our sin and the world's way. When someone challenges the way we think and live, we start painting our signs, picketing, calling out to anyone who will listen "I want to date like everybody else!!" or "I want to wear whatever I want!!" Our signs are eye-catching, appealling, colorful, made with big fat markers that smell really good, and what we are shouting makes most people nod in agreement, and give us a thumbs-up. The sinful people of Israel were just following their culture, their ways of the world, doing what all the normal people do! But when it doesn't line up with God's Word, WHO CARES?
I am definitely not done learning from this book. I'm just beginning. There's so much. Like Nehemiah's ability to lead, his burden for God's people and persistent and desperate prayers for them, and the way he refused to tolerate compromise to God's Word. Yep, I'm just getting started. It's good. Really good.

Training Update

For those of you wonderful encouraging people who read my post last week, here's an update.
I did register for the half marathon, so I'm locked in. Scary. I was frightened to register, but I did it. I've paid my $35.
Secondly, I did another long run today. I ran 9 miles!!!
AND IT WAS AWESOME!
I didn't die.
I didn't think about dying.
I didn't even walk.
We jogged the whole time.
I went with Jenn Crouse (super star!) and we talked and had a great time.
We stopped only for an emergency bathroom break at the Colvin's house. Wow! I love those people even more now.
We stopped for Gatorade and the occasional stretch. But we just kept going! It was amazing! My time was much improved this week, and I went a mile further.
I feel encouraged.
Maybe I can actually do this.
Rusty ran early this morning, same route, with David Colvin, who is a veteran marathoner, and they did ridiculously well. His time was stunning. I love my man. I just told him, it's a good thing he can't sing, because otherwise we would all have to hate him. He would officially be good at everything.
Now, does anyone have any song suggestions for the ipod, and long-distance running? When I run by myself I need some motivating music, you know?
I like Kirk Franklin, Robbie Seay, of course...
anyone have any brilliant song ideas to add to my ipod?
Thanks!

10 Years Ago...I Said Yes!

10 Years Ago...that's how old people start sentences.
Weird.
January 31, 1998 was a good day.
A day I had dreamed of.
Rusty and I were doing a youth group retreat. Rusty was in charge of the whole deal, and my roommates and I were helping.
On the last night, as we were entrenched in junior high kids, we had a prayer service. There was a cross in the middle of the room with candles all around it.
He did a walk to the cross kind of led prayer service. It was awesome!
Afterward, he asked me to stick around so we could pray together. I did.
My roommates were ushering a thousand junior high kids out the door.
That's when I suspected.
We did pray together. And Rusty read this from Ephesians 5.

25 And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God's word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.

Rusty washed my feet after he read this. He did some other nice things, like played a sweet song, gave me a ring, two dozen white roses, and said "will you marry me?"
But this passage from Ephesians 5 was an appropriate start to our life together.
How grateful am I that I married a man who has taken this passage seriously? It was not just something to read when he proposed. He has set out to, learning as we've gone, wash me clean with the Word and present me holy.
Tonight we will teach in Countdown about God's Purpose for marriage. How appropriate?
Our purpose as married people is to mirror Christ and his love for his bride, the Church. We are to be a living representation of Jesus' love for us!!!
I hope that in 10 years our marriage has pointed others to the King, our Bridegroom, the One who loves us without limits.
I hope we can continue to do that for at least 50 years more!
I don't know why he asked ME, but I am so glad to look back on this day, that changed my life forever! Thanks for asking Rusty. I love you!

Half Marathon Training

I'm training for a half marathon...I think.
I have always found that God speaks to me while I'm running, and I think I'm already learning a lot about myself through this.
This picture above is from the Boston marathon. That is NOT what I'm training for, obviously. I'm talking about doing the HALF marathon: Armadillo Dash here in College Station, despite the name.
Armadillo? What a heinous animal! It's roadkill really, one of the ugliest creatures indigenous to Texas. I detest this imagine in my mind. I might re-name this thing in my head just so I can go through with this.
We just decided to do this last weekend, and we only have 5 weeks total (4 more weekends) to train. First question: Are we crazy???
I did my long run yesterday. I ran 8 miles!!! 8 FREAKING MILES!!!
This is something Jenn Seay, circa 1990's, would not have believe about Jenn Bacak of the future if you had told me. No way. My motto was to only run if someone was chasing you with a deadly weapon. I didn't start jogging until after giving birth to Jax, and it was really only to keep up with my husband. Now my husband is running this thing with me to keep up with me!!! Seriously, who am I?
Here are some of the things I thought about during that 1 and 1/2 hour run. (Nope, I'm not going for speed. Just trying to survive so that I don't drop dead on Wellborn Rd. where the vultures find me and pick me to death.)

1. Let me tell you, the only race I've ever done was a 5K. I've never even done a 10K. What makes me think I can go from running 3 miles to 13 miles in 5 weeks? Who do I think I am? An American Gladiator Mom? Around mile 5 or 6 yesterday, I decided I should just do a 10K. I mean, should I really skip that crucial step? But the Armadillo Dash doesn't offer a 10K and that means I'd have to travel somewhere to do it. Yuk. But it was very clear to me at mile 6. However, isn't that like making a decision to get your husband a vasectomy when you're delivering a baby, or when you're post-partum and delusional from lack of sleep? I don't know.

2. I ran around A&M campus twice, and I have to tell you, I was a little disappointed. I've always heard that everyone is so friendly on campus, with the Howdys and all. But I don't think I got a single Howdy!!! NO! I was even dishing them out on my first lap, before I neared death, being the good foreigner, non-Aggie I am, living in Aggieland. But I nearly got run off the sidewalk by a punk kid on a bicycle, who seemed to find it amusing, and did not receive Howdys. Very disappointing. I have always been fond of you Aggies, so what's up? Can y'all call a cult meeting and re-visit your friendliness policies please? I did get a honk from a car full of guys, but I don't think that counts. I laughed to myself thinking if I could only tell them that they just jeered at a 32 year old Mom of four! How stupid would they feel? But thanks anyway, guys.

3. As I was running and listening to my ipod, Shane & Shane and some Robbie Seay, a song spoke to me about dying to self and bringing glory only to God. What was my motive in doing this? To boast in me? How can I when He alone created me and gives me the ability to do ALL things! No talent, ability, or crazy in the head endeavor can be achieved because of ME. Even in a silly race, shouldn't I be glorifying Him alone? Yes! I admit, I am going into this for the feeling of personal achievement, but I am reminded that it should only teach me how to cling to Him and be thankful for all good things that come from Him.

4. Doing something like this is a battle of the mind. I am constantly trying to figure out if I can do this. I honestly don't know. I thought for a while I might die yesterday. And then sometimes I think "Yes!" But let me tell you, I felt kind of sick yesterday after running, and my knees were killing me. So it's hard for me to admit, I don't know if I can pull this off. BUT I REALLY WANT TO!!!!! It's a dream of mine. I want to accomplish something that I formerly thought only superhumans could. I'm scared to fail...scared my knees will explode...scared I will finish dead last and I'll get a pity clap from the people who stayed around to clean up after the race.
Scared.
If you have run a race like this, I'll take any advice I can get.
I'll keep you updated on our progress.
The race is Feb. 24th.

Smell my clothes

Seriously, our clothes smell so good.
I lie in bed at night and try to sniff my sheets.
I keep telling my kids to smell their clothes.
Little kids don't really know how to smell things on command.
They just blow air out of their nose, instead of in. So I don't know that they really appreciate it. It smells so good!!!
I think I need Febreze everywhere.
Especially in my van, where a new Bacak family rule has been firmly established.
No milk cups.
I blame their father.
It's so foul. I want my van to go take a bath in Febreze and then come back to me.
I picture it like in the movie "Cars", shaking off like a dog. Wouldn't that be great?
We don't buy expensive detergent with as much laundry as we do, but this little kick of Febreze sure makes us smell good.
Smell us.

The Great Debaters and MLK day

Really, there are just not many movies worth my $7.
This one is!
I am always compelled to see a true story. Especially an inspiring true story.
Anyone can write a fictional, inspirational tale.
But when history, or rather the Author of all history Himself writes it, I'm there.
This is a true story that takes place in 1935 in Marshall, TX.
It gives you a very real picture of what it was like to be black in the South in 1935. The fear...the oppression...the hopelessness.
The desperation for change to take place, and equality to prevail.
You feel it, as they weave a beautiful tapestry with words in this movie.
But that change didn't come for a long time. It was some 30 years later before schools became integrated. Before black people were even offered a fair education in this country. That was not very long ago! When our nation, especially in the South, was set on fire by racial hatred and division.
I don't think our generation can even grasp what that was like.
We need to. White and black culture today is greatly impacted by our past.
Racism still lives today, in a somewhat more sophisticated manner, but there are embers of it still burning all around us. Every now and then I catch a whiff of it, and it stinks, and makes me a little sick.
Praise God, change has come, and all people have the same rights under our government. But it was slow. Generations of people who ached for that change never saw it in their lifetime.
Do we even appreciate it?
I don't think so.
Most people were out of school today for MLK day, or off work. But did you give a second thought to why? Did you teach your kids about it today?
We have been talking about it for a while, and the kids, Erin, and I went to the Freedom March in Bryan. It was so cool! It made me wonder what it might have been like to be apart of that famous march on Washington where Dr. King gave his "I have a dream" speech.
I am thankful that I don't have to fear for my children like the people in this movie did. We don't see or hear very often of violent racial acts today. But no matter what our behavior, our hearts must be right before the Lord. That's what He sees and cares about. Is there anything in our hearts, hiding, lurking, that shouldn't be conerning other races? I find that if often rises to the surface when talking about interracial relationships or trans-racial adoption. Would you feel 100% at peace if your child wants to marry a black person someday? Can you think of any reason in the world that you would exclude the option of adopting a black baby if you were going to adopt?
If there is hesitation on those questions, would you examine why?
Rusty and I obviously did much soul searching and asked God to clean the yuck out of us before we started the adoption process with Justus. He did. You know what, sin is passed down generation to generation, and many of us have inherited racism because we haven't let the Holy Spirit come in and do the work. Convicting us of sin, calling it sin, repenting with much sorrow and grief, and letting Him make us new.
I will post pics soon from our MLK Freedom March.
Happy MLK day, and run, super fast, to the movies before this movie is gone and see it! It's FANTASTIC!!!!!

Lynsey Kramer Rocks!

Lynsey Kramer is a seriously talented woman.
She's a good friend from church, and you can't help but like this girl! She's so fun! But I have a new appreciation for her talent.
She made my family look good! And you should try taking pictures of my kids! I think she put it nicely on her photography blog, saying something like "the Bacak kids are a big ball of adrenaline" or "energetic" or something, but really...they're crazy! My kids are all over the place! Those of you who have shy, calm, sedate children...I wish I understood that. But I don't! I have four very different, and super energetic kids, who love to be kids! One is always running around on fours like an animal, one is looking for mischief 24/7 and finding ways to teach his brother to help him, and the other is just an intense wrestle/sword fight/ jump on you kind of boy! But they are so fun, and I couldn't imagine anything else in this house. I think Lynsey did an amazing job capturing our family, despite the very difficult nature of a Bacak photo shoot, and I am in awe of her.
Thanks Lyns! Y'all check out my link to her farm blog and then go to her photography blog to see more.
Enjoy the slideshow. It takes a long time to put up!

Finding God's Will

Kids are funny.
They want to play with other kids, but when they're little, they don't quite know how yet. If you watch 2-3 year-olds play together, they do what we call parallel play. They play alongside one another, and if they're boys, they may not talk that much to each other. They might make some noises, or sword fight every now and then, but the best they can do is just play "near" each other, and try not to totally melt down over sharing toys.
But when they get older, they want to really play together, doing shared activities.
We have a group of kids on our street that all play in the same driveway. They usually play some sort of game together. Emma and Jax join in easily, but Justus is not sure how sometimes.
One problem is, he wants to go play there, but he wants them to all stop what they're doing, and play what he wants to play. For instance, they're all riding scooters in the driveway, and he desperately wants to go with them, but he wants them to all stop and go to the backyard and jump on the trampoline. Or sometimes kids will all be playing a real game with rules, and a little kid will say "NO! Let's play my game!" and make up some game that totally doesn't make sense or have rules at all.
As I was trying to reason with Justus, telling him if he wanted to play with them, he had to join in with what they were already playing, I thought...
We are just like this!
It's very much like what we learned in Experiencing God. Instead of asking "what's your will for my life?" all the time, we need to change our question. "What is your will, God?" We need to learn to recognize where God is working, and join in. It's like asking God to give me a ministry, while college students flood my town and home, and still asking..."But God, where's my ministry?"
It's not that God is never going to start a new thing in us, but most of the time, we are just too self-absorbed to notice that God is already working, and all we have to do is join in. We want to start our own game, with our own rules, and then we want God to put his name on it.
Our study of Romans 12 at our church, which is one of my all-time favorte chapters, has spurred this thinking in me. It starts off by saying...

12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Only AFTER we have offered our whole selves up to God, giving Him everything we've got, holding nothing back, can we even begin to look for God's will.
That's step 1. (Kind of a big one.) This means that we drop all of our pre-supposed ideas of what we want for ourselves, and just ask "What do you want of me, God?"
Then...
we stop conforming to the pattern of this world and our culture. Easier said than done! I am constantly finding another corner of my life where my thinking has been molded by this world and not God's Word. The renewing of our mind takes filling up with scripture, asking God to change us, resisting thinking and acting in ways that may seem natural or normal because of the world we live in. Sin comes way too naturally for me! This world and our culture will lead me astray every time. This is what James says about our friendship with the world...

James 4:4-6
4 You adulterers! Don't you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can't be a friend of God. 5 What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, jealously longs for us to be faithful?

So only after we have offered our bodies as living sacrifices, and then stopped following the patterns of this world and renewed our minds can we even begin to test and approve what God's will is.
Oh, and His will...it's good, pleasing, and perfect!
Our plan, that we keep asking God to stamp His approval on, it's flawed, empty, and foolish.

So where is God working around you?
How has He gifted you? (See Romans 12)
How can you be apart of what He is doing?
I have to ask myself daily, am I completely on the altar before the Lord today?
And Lord please, please, please show me how I am still following the world and it's ways rather than you!!!
I want God's good, pleasing and perfect will!

Starbucks' skinny latte

One of my new favorite things...
The skinny latte.
I'm always afraid to try new things at Starbucks, because if you're paying $5 for coffee, you better like it!
But I do like this...It's sugar-free, non-fat, and I got the caramel mocha. (You can get sugar-free mocha powder.) All of that comes to 90 calories for a tall.
I think a regular mocha would be like 600 calories.
That's pretty cool.
It's not quite as good as what I would regularly get, but almost!
(Rusty didn't like it, but he would never like something that had skinny in the title.)
It's even better when I get to sit in Starbucks with my husband and drink it on a date. Nothing better.

Treston's Godparents

Treston has two couples that are his godparents.
Nope, we couldnt' decide. They are best friends, and equally amazing, so who couldn't use FOUR prayer warriors instead of two?
So for Christmas, those Mosier people made him this t-shirt! How cute is this?
It says "The Mosiers are my favorite".
The Vanns, his other godparents, came to visit and saw this shirt. They challenged it to be un-true of course.
I love the t-shirt idea! I can think of about 100 hundred things I'd like to put on a t-shirt to wear.
Like: Yes, these are all MY children. (Seeing the four of them together confuses people.)
Hey! Let's have a t-shirt making party, like when we used to make paint splatter shirts when I was in Jr. High! Yay!

My American Gladiators

We watched the New American Gladiators.
Rusty has been so excited. This is a testosterone overflow, oozing out of your TV, even from the women.
Rusty liked this new-do, except he felt like everyone should have had a mullet. You know, like the good ol' days.
The disturbing part was that after the show, my sweet little girl started playing Gladiator with her brothers and Daddy, and then announces that she wants a Gladiator birthday party. Yes, my only little girl, petite as she may be, wants to take on other little girls on the monkey bars. (Her words!)
Do we have parents sign waivers for this party?
Does this child have any of my DNA?
I have to admit, these women are scary, but quite impressive.
The one named Crush looks like a Spice girl on steroids.
The Gladiator wrestling after the show brought back WWF flashbacks from my house as a kid. I know way more about wrestling circa 1980's than you may realize.
Don't worry, I think I can rent a monkey or something to get her off this theme idea.
That, or Rusty may be installing a moving platform over the neighborhood pool for our kids to wrestle each other on. That might be against neighborhood regulations though.

My American Idol Bro

This commercial is way better than the first one I showed! This is pretty exciting for our family!
Check it out!

How did I live without it?

I have mentioned before that Rusty is an amazing gift giver.
He changes my life with gifts.
He has done it again.
First, he gave me a Chi. I don't have to live off of college girls who live with us anymore for straight, smooth hair. I have this amazing, illegal in Canada, could burn my face off, miracle of my own! Go Rusty!
But also...
THE AMAZING DUST BUSTER!!!!
We're not supposed to love the things of this world, so you can pray for me, because I LOVE this thing!
I think it could suck up one of my children if I wanted it to.
It has truly made life easier.
When one of my children decides to eat their gingerbread house in their bed...no problem. Have no fear! The Dust Buster is here!
When Treston eats anything, anywhere...it's okay!
When Treston and Justus break into the pantry and spill fritos all over the floor and then dance on them...I don't have to break down.
I mean seriously, how did I live without this thing before?
I've even dust busted my children's bodies, and that works too!
I've decided this should be on people's baby registeries. If you have children, your home would be greatly benefitted by this!
I gave it to Justus the other day (he LOVES to clean) and he used it all around the house until it went dead. Awesome!
Love this thing!