Our Family Circus

I just saw the date of my last post...how embarrassing!   Truth is, all kinds of blog worthy stuff is going on but since life is so busy, I just have to keep on living it! It is baseball season for Billy.   Things did not quite work out as we had hoped with his team but I see now how divine the arrangements are.   I have been keeping stats for Billy's team and hanging out in the dug out for crowd control (along with Dolly, Miss B., a bag of coloring books and Kirsten books from the American Girl series.)   Since   so many other distractions present themselves, I sometimes miss stuff in the game. A young man on our team named Blake has decided to be my assistant and help me keep a count.   He is a cute little thing, Billy enjoys his company, and he is a pretty good ball player!  Blake will seek me out in the dug out and hang close.   He also has a sense of humor which is essential if you are going to spend any time...

Miss B. improvising on a set of roller skates! Billy decided he wanted to wait until Saturday to finish some school work. A great plan, until Saturday and friends showed up in the back yard. So this is, Saturday School! Dolly is dog sitting this week. Not this sweet little pup but another. This is Candy and we share her with our neighbors. We buy dog treats and play with her and they get dog food, grooming, vet bills and such. Like her flower? This dog will tolerate Dolly for a while. She knows Dolly will save the bones from meat, treats and even slip her some cheese or lunch meet on occasion. Just one little bark at the door and her mere exsistance is rewarded!

With the warm temperatures, it was time to switch out the winter for the summer clothes! It is like Christmas as the children are reunited with favorites or find new favorites to wear. This outfit was the top pick for Dolly! And this outfit (or should I say her brother's hand me down pjs) was Miss B's top pick. I heard My Dear instruct her to put shoes on as she walked outside in her " outfit." She got a bit upset and said, "But I am a firetruck and firetrucks don't wear shoes!" Then the voice of wisdom said, "then you need tires!" Apparently, she likes white walls! Our Dolly had a date planned with My Dear and eagerly awaited her time to go! My Dear works hard to maintain time with the children despite his work schedule. Even an oil change becomes an opportunity to talk.

Billy is all ready for March Madness! Check out his new accessory! Way to go Billy! GO CATS!!!

A few years ago, I was challenged by a radio station to choose one word as a goal for my year. The one word would sum up what I was to work on over the year like a New Year's resolution. That year, I chose the word LESS. LESS selfishness, LESS stuff in my house, LESS baggage in my life, LESS debt, LESS orphans in the world, LESS physical weight on me, and LESS thought about me and more about the Savior. I had no idea what God had planned for me that year, only to choose that word. At the end of that year, I assessed the year and I indeed had gotten rid of many material possessions and refrained from purchasing others. We had paid some debt down. I had maintained my physical weight. I took a mission trip to aid the orphan and had began to deal with some baggage. Pretty good huh! Well, not good enough as God called me to the same word the following year. THEN he showed me how to do it! He called me to LESS than the LESS I had already presented. The baggage continued to be laid down, ...

Every Christmas my mom blesses the children and I with a new ornament. She loves Christmas ornaments and is a Hallmark Queen! I had told her last year that it was no longer necessary that she give me an ornament, but she is my mom and well, she disagreed! My Dear has been putting the tree up with the children as a surprise for me while I was away at our church's annual Christmas Tea. They did not have the tea last year so I simply sat on the couch, uninvolved. I received the new ornament in the mail and kinda tossed it into the storage tub in no mood to unwrap it or the other ornaments dating to 1995! I was going through a private battle in my life and could see little beyond it. Frankly, the only reason we even had a Christmas tree was because My Dear put it up and the children begged him to do it! This Christmas I was in a much better place-MUCH! My Dear put the tree up and I opened the storage tub and enjoyed trying to create the Norman Rockwell Christmas. Th...

Repost from 2008-you can check out other ideas there as well. Another fun way to keep Christ the JOY of Christmas. Shepherds Point of View Here is another option to allow your children the THRILL OF CHRIST in Christmas! Last year, after opening presents, we read the Christmas story in Luke 2. We listened how the shepherds were told about Jesus birth and went to find Him. Here is what to do: Place angels in different rooms of your home like a scavenger hunt. I referred to the children as Shepherd Dolly (age 3) and Shepherd Billy (age 6) and we went on the hunt for Baby Jesus. The angels should be visible from one room to the other so they can spot them. Ours were more like a straight path with angels along the way to reinforce them. The end of the hunt lead us to our unfinished basement-damp and cold, probably like a stable. There, hanging from the ceiling, would be the final angel and under it was the Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. That year, behind the figures, we chose to cover and re...