Family Pictures

For the benefit of my non-Facebook blogger friends (miss you Mrs. Bish!) here's a collage that I made of our family pictures that we recently had taken. The sitting fee and CD with full copyright of all the photos was a Mother's Day gift from my thoughtful husband (& kids!). Our pictures are courtesy of Kristin Wood Photography!

Oh, here's a few others just for fun!

This Week...

I've done great with my fast. I'm amazed at how much willpower I can have. Even leaving the room when Mike's watching TV and turning to the Bible instead of the computer. I'm REALLY enjoying the Bible.
The rest of the week, though, Satan's worked extra hard at me. I'd planned on feeling serene, peaceful, and all put together when the fast was over...
Instead, every time I turn around I'm being tested with a new challenge & God's watching my reaction while Satan jests me further to get me to respond with anger or sarcasm. SIGH
So, the blog that I thought was going to be about how I could live radically--adoption, homeschooling, perhaps using my gift to homeschool adopted special needs kiddos (whew, did I just say that out loud!?)...is instead about how every.time.I.turn.around. Satan's whispering in my ear that I can't even handle living NORMALLY with 2 children, so HOWINTHEWORLD could I ever live radically with more?
But I'll keep praying, reading, studying, praying, talking, praying and going forward....
But in the meantime I've gathered myself enough to face the children that are in this house now...
the 2 year old who peed her panties while I was downstairs changing laundry...
and the 1 year old who had enough gall to sit in the puddle and splash!

:) These are the moments...I'll miss someday!

Conviction

I've been convicted lately of spending too much time on "worldly" things. Not "bad" things, just time wasters. I feel like I'm not being a good steward of my time. As a result I'm taking a 7 day fast from TV and Facebook. That might not sound like a lot to you but it is to me. A sacrifice. And I wanted to be sure I didn't substitute those 2 things with something equally as worldly, so I've decide to start a 90 day Bible reading program that should help fill those empty minutes that I'm not spending with my little darlings (I mean, I could clean but....). :) A friend is doing a 90 day reading program with online accountability, but I chose not to do that for 2 reasons: (1) when I get on the internet (which you are required to do weekly) I get sidetracked--coupon searching, swap shop looking, etc and (2) while I want to be held accountable I don't want to get myself discouraged, which I have a tendency of doing--if I get off track I'm going to try to get back on...that simple (I pray). I printed this schedule off and am praying my way along. I read a book (more about it later--thanks Shonya) about wanting your children to thirst for the Scripture, God's word, and realized that, I myself, first need to (1) have deeper knowledge of the Scripture and (2) thirst deeply for it myself!
So, please be an encourager, hold me accountable, lift me in prayer, and, if you dare, join the journey...