FullerTown

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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!!!

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. W...

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!

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 re...

Back in May, this happened: FINALLY! Then, we 'hit the road' for the coast!  We love that we get out of school before Memorial Day so we can have some glorious relaxing time to rest, & sleep late.  The beaches aren't crowded and we basically have several yards of beach to ourselves.  I would bet that we couldn't see 500 people any day that we were there. She loves the beach! Her favorite swimsuit! Working together to dig a big hole! Rinsing out his bucket Riding the skim board We had a wonderful time at the beach.  We had the busiest summer to date so it was good to have a week to rest before the craziness began.  Now, school is back in session, and life is settling back into a nice routine in FullerTown.

Hello FullerTown people! I have not posted anything here in a sweet forever.  Partly because I couldn't remember my password.  Life got really busy sending four children to school and working and I didn't post one week.  Then it turned into months and years... I finally remembered the password and I feel like kind of like the genie popping out of the lamp for the first time in years... I do partly blame Facebook and social media in general for my lack of posting here.  It's just so easy to post a picture or something cute the children have said there. But...lately I've had some musings in my head that require more space than social media allows. So, stay tuned...

Since I posted last, we have done a lot of things. We went on a little getaway. It had to be the funnest little getaway we have ever been on. We promised we would go back next year. We went to the beach for our family vacation. We even were able to meet up with a member of our family we don't see often while there. He let the little Fullers introduce him to the idea of being buried in the sand. We have done a little re-modeling project upstairs which required us to do this for about four nights. The three oldest little Fullers started school. Wow! As you can see, Luke Duke started third grade. Miss Anna Brooke started first grade. And, the baby girl Sarah Belle started Kindergarten. Everyone is having a good year so far. Today is the 22 nd day of school and we are getting back in our groove nicely. Finally, we celebrated a certain cutie's FOURTH birthday. He has never been happier to have a birthday party with his friends. Paul started Pre -K the day after his birthday. He is ...

Well. I don't know where to start. (I write as I make waffles for the little Fullers.) Except to say that we have been BUSY. BUSY. BUSY. Did I say we have been busy? Starting with the last week of school we have been GOING non-stop. In one span of eight days we drove 2000 miles! I am tired. We are finally all back home and happy to be here. Except that it is HOT. Like- 104 degrees HOT. [Back to the subject of {BUSY}]. We still have one more trip to make this summer and we are looking forward to it! Gotta go! The waffles are ready!

We have been re-visiting some basic housekeeping with the little Fullers lately. Shut the door after you come in or go out. Put your trash (aka p opsicle papers) in the garbage can, not on the floor or in the yard. Flush the toilet after you use it. (So sorry--just keeping it real here) Put your dirty clothes in the well-marked clothes hampers. Keep the water INSIDE the shower and/or tub. You get the picture. So, today, we are preparing for our second cook-out of the weekend. Patrick walks by the back doors and sees the broom on the patio. He asked, "Who put the broom on the patio and didn't bring it in?" Luke never missed a beat and said, "Daddy, It's OK to be different!" Needless to say, everyone burst into laughter. Including Daddy!

It's a wonder to me that anyone still reads this little blog! So much has happened since February, the last time I posted. There have been school award ceremonies. There was so much more--however, today is Opening Day of baseball and tee-ball. We are excited in FullerTown!! Come back for more pictures later!

Once again, our girls have enjoyed Upward Cheerleading! They learn the cutest cheers and make some new friends along the way. During halftime, they go out on the court and so a few cheers. Then they go to the other court and do some cheers. Sometimes, they turn around toward the parents and cheer. We love it when they do this! After the games, the girls earn a star for their efforts that day. Different colors mean different things. This game, Anna Brooke earned the blue Leadership star. And, Sarah Belle earned the white Christlike star. She was not feeling good, but cheered her best anyway. We are so thankful for this ministry. The little Fullers love it!

Last weekend, we made Valentine cookies. I spent most of Friday in the kitchen rolling out cookie dough. We made all sizes of heart cookies. Then, on Friday evening after dinner, we decorated them. To say that we had fun making a mess would be an understatement. We made icing in several colors and put some in decorating bags and thinner icing in squirt bottles. Paul was so cute making his cookies. He put some icing on top in no particular design. He had a very fun time. Sarah Belle tried her best to make beautiful cookies. She did really good making her cookies look so sweet, just like she is. Anna Brooke made her cookies extra fancy. She embellished every one with sprinkles or some fancy decorating skills. Luke made his all abour sports. Can you spot the basketball, football and basketball net?? he also made a tower of cookies. Then, I gave it my best shot at decorating. I tried several different tecniques and got pretty good at marbling. We had so much fun doing this. The l...

If you know anything about LifeWay VBS, you know that the music is always phenomenal. For 14 years now, a man named Jeff Slaughter has been contracting with LifeWay to write all of the music for VBS. When we were at the VBS Preview a few weeks ago, we were going down to the auditorium to see the VBS musical. The little Fullers were running down the ice-covered hill singing "Yes to VBS" as loud as they could. I noticed a man up ahead of us also walking to the auditorium. I yelled at the little Fullers, "Red Light!" The man turned around toward me and laughed at my signal for them to stop. I recognized his voice and turned to Patrick, "That is Jeff Slaughter!" We met at the bottom of the hill and talked for a quick minute. He expressed how proud he was to hear these little voices singing a song he wrote about Jesus. We reciprocated with praise for him using his gifts to write songs that children love to sing about Jesus. We met him the next day to have our p...

On Friday afternoon, we traveled to Charlotte, NC for the Spirit of Hope Cheerleading Competition. The girls are always excited about doing the routine. Except that it is 6:45 in the AM when we have to be ready! This is the first stunt that the team does. Then they divide and do two of these. Anna Brooke is on the bottom and Sarah Belle helps C stand up! Then, this is the dance portion of the routine. This is the very last stunt. Sarah Belle stands in the hands of Anna Brooke and K. She then waves at the judges. This is Day 2 of the competition. The girls are ready to go to the warm up room! The whole team on the stage waiting for the Awards Ceremony to begin. The girls were so happy to win 4th place. This was huge considering this was such a large competition. We are so proud of Anna Brooke and Sarah Belle!!!