Fall Fun

Sorry once again for the long time in between posts. I always have such good intentions with my blog, but once again I get so involved in reading other blogs that I have failed in keeping up with my own. Just so you know, I am about 7 years behind in my scrapbooking...hopefully I can do better here!
I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of what we did on Halloween and the few days leading up to the big night. Here are my kids at the pumpkin patch. We have gone here every year since Caden was about 2 years old, so it has become a favorite tradition for our family. They have a fun hayride there, a hay maze and even a big corn maze that we attempted last year. Needless, to say it was not the best experience... so upon mention of the corn maze my daughter said "I am so not going back in there, we'll never be able to get out!" (Just to fill you in ~ we went into the maze much later than we wanted to due to afternoon naps and such, so even though it was light at the time, it got dark very quickly. We had flashlights and the kids were having a good time, but it was starting to get chilly. We had fun finding the stations (10 out of 12) but after about an hour in the maze everyone was cold and hungry for dinner so we decided to exit the maze before finding the last two stations. That is where things went wrong. Neither my husband or I have a good sense of direction, so we got totally twisted around and could not find our way out. All of our kids were in tears and we were laughing trying to lighten the mood. They were sure we were stuck for good. After about 30 minutes of wandering around we finally emerged from the maze. We all cheered at the sight of pumpkins like we had been trapped in the corn for weeks. It was a good feeling to finally get out, and once we did no one wanted to go back in!) We did not do the maze this year. But we did have fun!
*I really wanted to upload pictures of Halloween for all of you, but it is not working. I will come back later to try to post them. I guess this is all for now!
In Him ~ Kristin

The Answer was in the Word

Last Sunday my husband and I took a trip about 45 north of us to get a gift card at a sporting goods store for our good friend's birthday - he was turning the big 40. He had made a special request for some hunting gear from there, and my husband really wanted to get him what he wanted. Now normally when we travel there we make a day of it, or at least a half-day for some good shopping and eating that we can't do as well in our small town. This day though, our time was very limited and we only had about an hour to spend before turning around and coming home. We went and accomplished our one goal (oh and my hubby got some new cycling shoes) and we came home. Mission accomplished, right? Well, our week was busy and on Saturday evening my husband says to me..."have you seen Troy's gift card. I laid it here on the counter so we would remember to take it to him?"
"Yes, I saw it and I put in right here in this drawer so it wouldn't get lost." (opening drawer...only it wasn't there.)
"Um, I thought I put it in here are you sure it's not over there?" I asked.
"No, it's not over here."
So with frustration we both began to look through everything in the kitchen. Now I have four children, so between school, Sunday school, Wed. night church, soccer, piano, etc. I have about a thousand pieces of paper that come through my house each week to rest on my kitchen counter (I can't find a better place) until I see fit to throw them away. So, I'm thinking (and then saying) that is such a bad place to put something if you truly want to keep track of it...we have so much paper come through our house to land on our kitchen counter. Not to mention, that we have two three-year-olds in the house that have full access to that counter. And he's thinking, but not saying, (only I can read his mind cause I have E.S.P. and all) that I should know where I put it if I did indeed move it, or it would be where he left it. Sounds fun, huh? Anyway after spending about an hour clearing off every single thing from my counter and going through every drawer in the kitchen, I still don't find the gift card. (But my kitchen does look really good!!) My husband even went out to the trash can and went through every single trash bag to no avail. No card! We were frustrated. Not only had we made a special drive just to get the card, but we had spent more than usual because it was a special birthday, and now we had nothing to show for it. We were going to work on our couple's Bible Study questions together, but in our frustration I spent the rest of the evening in our room working on the computer and he chose to stay in the living room and watch T.V. We were frustrated with the situation and that turned into being frustrated with each other. Needless to say we went to bed that night without opening God's word together like we had planned before the whole gift card fiasco. I prayed that God would lead us to where it was and I would find out later that my hubby prayed the same thing, too (only we didn't do it together cause we were still mad). We did apologize to each other (in case your wondering) and we didn't talk about it anymore and enjoyed our Sunday together. Late that afternoon while the kids were playing at grandma and papa's house we finally took out the Bible Study questions that we planned to work on the night before. I had stopped thinking about the gift card knowing that it must have just gotten thrown away by accident early in the week and we would not be seeing it again. When we were almost done with our questions we had to look up a passage in 1 Timothy (the other questions had us in the old testament) and I started flipping through the Bible to the back when all of a sudden, there in Romans chapter eight was our gift card! I gasped and looked at my husband. "I prayed God would lead us to this card, and here it was in His word the whole time." Then I remembered I had looked up Romans 8:28 the day before, but I still had no idea how the card got in the Bible. "I prayed that, too," he said, and then we had a good time praising God for His faithfulness to us. We also had a good laugh about how Holy the card was, and that it just needed time in God's word, and maybe if it spent more time there the amount written on the front would actually grow...(we find ourselves really hilarious at times!) I also had to think about how we missed out on this blessing the night before because in our frustration over the situation we didn't go to God's word together. "If only we had done our Bible study last night like we planned we would have found it even sooner," I said. It was just such a tangible lesson on how God delights in blessing us, but we keep Him from doing that when we get too caught up in our focus on ourselves. We should have run to Him first in prayer together, He was just waiting with a smile to show off for us. He is so faithful... if only I can learn to keep the focus off me and let Him have His way in my life each day. He delights in blessing me in the most unexpected ways!
Thank you God for your unfailing faithfulness to me even in my failings with you! I do love you so!

"For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does."
Psalm 33:4

Praising Him for ALL of the blessings found in His word and His faithfulness in my life ~ Kristin

Out of the Mouths of Babes

O.K. So I started this blog thing and then I kinda disappeared for awhile. You ladies are just so precious that I spend all my time reading your blogs and I have none left over to work on my own. :) Even so, I thought it was time I say something again so as not to lose the few friends that God has allowed me to make so far.
I actually have a funny story to share with all of you about my sweet six-year-old daughter and her dog. Here is a picture of them together to help your mind watch this unfold. Now you'll have to use your imagination a little since this picture was taken when we first got Sadie and she is bigger now (I would post a recent pic, but this dog needs to go to the groomer so bad and I'm too embarrassed to show you her current state.) Sadie is our first real pet and so I'm new to a lot of things. Well Sadie went into heat back in August. Now keep in mind she is an inside dog and so this was not what I wanted to deal with. My children didn't understand why Sadie was bleeding...you know blood to a child = owie = pain, right! So we reassured them all that Sadie was not hurt and this was natural for a dog. Our neighbors dog had just had puppies about a month before so we told them that was a way God made for Sadie to have puppies if He wanted her to have them. We said it was called being in "heat". We didn't give any other details beyond that, and they seemed satisfied with that explanation and didn't ask anymore questions. Now you know how as adults we know the full explanation for things, and so we assume that our kids will understand as well, but that doesn't always happen. Sit tight now, here is the funny part. Sadie kept bleeding for over two weeks. We had to keep her in diapers in the house because it was such a mess and this was no easy task! As the days wore on and on we were all a little frustrated. I thought my children knew that we weren't concerned only frustrated, but one morning while I was doing Lexi's hair she asks me, "Mommy how long has Sadie been bleeding?" I said "Well it's been over two weeks, honey." And then with the utmost concern in her voice she calls to her brother "Caden, Sadie has been OVERHEATED for more than two weeks." I almost died laughing. Apparently our explanation of Sadie being in "heat" had gotten a little mixed up in her mind and our dog had reached her boiling point. For over two weeks! It was August afterall!

Have a blessed day ~ Kristin

My First Ever Post

Welcome to my first ever blogger post! I feel like I need to say something profound to keep it interesting, but really this blog is all about the everyday and ordinary things that are truly a gift from God, but are quickly forgotten or even overlooked altogether. The funny things my kids say or do, the new discoveries they make, their complete excitement for ordinary things that I take for granted, even the hard moments of my day with them are what I want to capture here. I am thankful for my job as a mommy. It is truly the hardest job ever, but it is the only thing I was ever sure I wanted to be when I grew up.

I also wanted to have a place where I could make new friends! I have come across so many wonderful people in this blog world and I didn't want to be a lurker any longer, so thought I would get in on the action!

My favorite kid quote of the day...

Our good friends had their 3rd baby this morning. I told my twin girls (age 3) that Miss Jen had her new baby today and her name is baby Sophie! Emily says to me "what's the other baby's name mommy?" Too sweet that she thinks all babies come in two's!

Have a great day ~ Kristin