Posts

Pretty...

Image
Hello There! There is something that has bothered me for years. I have begun to do better, and encouraged others to change their ways. This is it... Why do people almost always compliment little girls on their appearance first? Little girls are held to a higher standard in regard to their appearance and little boys are held to a very low standard regarding their behavior. This baffles me. I know you've heard it, probably even done it.  What's the first thing most people say to a little girl? "You're so pretty!" "Your dress is so pretty!" Why not compliment how compassionate & respectful she is because you just witnessed her let an older person get on the elevator first? Brave because you see the band-aid on her arm from a doctor visit? Smart...maybe she has a book in her hand! Funny...did she just tell the best joke you've heard all week? Creative...does she have an ornate hairstyle?  Or an outfit you would have never

Train Up A Child... Christmas edition

Image
Many have asked how we teach our children about Jesus and still participate in the fun of Santa, Elf on the Shelf, etc... I say it simply, they know that Jesus is the true reason for Christmas.  I have had a motto for many years, " If all we put into their little hearts & minds is JESUS, then He is all that will come out!"   Here are some things we do: We GO to church.  We do not go out of habit or obligation, we go because we want to worship corporately every chance we get.  Our children have all attended Sunday school since they were very young.  I was the Mom bringing my baby to church at 9 days old, 4 days old, two weeks old...  As soon as I was able to get myself dressed by church time, we were there. Since our children were all very young, we have had nightly devotion time as a family.  Sometimes, this has been a simple prayer together after a long day.  More recently, we actually read from a children's devotional book.  The children often read it then D

Christmas! How I Do It...

Image
I have never really considered myself an organized person.  HOWEVER, a lot of people think I am.  When we started having children like rapid fire I QUICKLY realized that I had to get it together. Unless I wanted to be a mess all the time. No, Thank you. So, I came up with a system for pretty much everything.  Chores, who sits in the front, the seating arrangement for dinner, etc... Due to the unfortunate event that I gave my sweet sister-in-law a turkey pan two Christmases in a row (I'm still really sorry about this...) I made a huge decision to WRITE DOWN the gifts we give. {And I keep the list for a few years so I know what I gave in years past.} This is really not hard.  I just had to: a.) not lose my list; and b.) not let my emergent readers find it. So, This is how I do it. I bought a book called Simplify Your Holidays .  It has a wealth of information and reproducible worksheets that are very valuable to me.  I've been using this ever since. This

First Day of School 2014

Image
A few weeks ago school started here in FullerTown. We didn't have much homework that first week. Yay!!  Then last week, we didn't have ANY due to an evening event at the church that sponsors the school.   We were really excited!  A long weekend made us feel like we were on vacation.  This week, the homework has hit us full-force. We are on the midst of learning new spelling words, Bible verses, etc...  We are also collecting insects and bark rubbings for two different projects.  May this be our best school year yet!!!

Roma testimony

Image
This past Thursday evening I had the privilege of speaking at one of our NC Baptists on Mission Celebration Rallies.  I was to share a brief, 4-minute testimony about my mission trip to Eastern Europe last summer.  It was difficult to relate a 10-day trip into four minutes but I did it.  Here is what I shared: I believe that if each one of us will reach one person for Jesus; and teach them to reach another we will reach the whole world for Christ sooner rather than later.  For this reason, I joined a team of people from all over our state with a goal of reaching one more for Christ.  We met as a team, prayed together, planned, shared a few meals, prayed more, planned more, then packed our bags and boarded a plane together.  Our purpose was to minister to the Roma people of Eastern Europe.  Honestly, I was really nervous about not having my hot rollers, not even a curling iron.  I was scared to leave my husband & four babies for ten days. We would work primarily in Romania and H

Real Life

Image
These days most everyone takes the majority of any pictures with their phone, tablet, or iPod.  I do have a very nice camera that I pull out for special occasions but mostly, I take pictures with my iPhone.  Here are a few from recently... Paul at a Gymnastic birthday party.  Needless to say, he had a BLAST! Sarah Belle was so happy to see her besties on the first day of school. Our Daddy completed his first triathlon this past weekend.  We are SO PROUD of him. This kid...he thinks he's AWESOME.  And, I do too!  My 'skirt girl' wanted me to make her a dress for school.  She likes it!

Inside My Head...

Oftentimes, I have thoughts (some good, others not so good) that I do not have the opportunity to share.  Some are simple, some are complex.  Some take days, or even weeks, to be fully articulated.  This is one of the latter. I LOVE being a Pastor's wife.  I grew up in a bi-vocational Pastor's home.  This has been my life all of my life.  I've always lived in the Pastor's home.  I have always loved it. Lately, my thoughts of being a ministry wife have been somewhat muddled in my head.  Let me explain... I recently lost the hope that I would have two different opportunities that I long for.  I felt rejected.  After several days, I chose to see this as God's protection on my life.  He has a better plan... One of the joys of being a ministry wife is loving on a new believer.  I have the joy and honor of getting to know each one then connecting them with people that I think they would be good friends with.  This is really fun for me.  I love connecting people a