So Sweet

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Creativity of Toys

I have conversations with my husband about how we used to make up games when we were little.  We didn't have much, but I just remember having so much fun growing up.  My brother, sister and I would make up games, inside or out, be creative with what we had, use our imagination.... you know, back in the day.  I sound so ancient.  I truly cannot believe the amount of toys that are out today.  And for absolutely everything.  There really is no need for children to use their vivid, fun and creative imagination these days.  They don't have to imagine, they just have....

I am in the mood to purge throughout our house.  I am looking at the mountains of toys they girls have and wondering what I can do away with.  So I start with the toys and the first thing I see are the instruments.  We are a music house, so I can't get rid of their instruments.  Or can I.....


When we were growing up, we used pots and pans for drums, wooden spoons for the sticks, our air instruments and mouths for the guitars, trumpets, saxophones, etc., and a hairbrush for a microphone.  Come on, dance and sing with me.  You know you did it too!  And it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!  I watched my 4-year old, who is very creative and imaginative, create an entire band in front of her using her garden tools, cups, play-dough shaper (we didn't have those either.. back in the day) and anything else she could find.  She had to work to put this together.  And all of her instruments were right upstairs.  She even lined up her animals and dolls behind her for "the rest of her band."   She then asked me for a mic stand... you know - since she had to sing AND play.  Did I mention we are pretty musical in our house?   So, following suit, I handed her an empty crayon box.  Tah-dah!  We have a mic stand!  And she was SO very excited.

Then my 2-year old wanted a microphone too.  I saw a tinker-toy stick on the floor in front of her and told her to pick it up and use that.  It was like a foreign thought to her.  She couldn't even see it, literally.  She didn't get it.  When she finally picked it up and held it in front of her, she deflated... as if to say, "I can't believe I have to settle for this."  She looked at me, I started to count off and she put it down.  She said, "Mommy, I want my microphone upstairs."  And off she went to get it.  Then I was deflated.  Have I totally zapped her from all of her creativity?  Imagination?  When she came down I told her that I used to use a hairbrush.  And still do sometimes.  It's just plain fun!   She totally didn't get it.  Abi, my 4-year old, thought it was great and told me to go get one to use, so that I could be in the band too.  Then when they were getting ready for a rest/quiet time, Abi lined up all the instruments for later:

So here is my thought for the day.  Do we REALLY need all of these toys?  Do you really need all of the toys in your house?  What if we packed up at least half and eve just put it away for a while.  Even just a week.  To see what might come out of it, how our children will grow in just one short week.  Kids are smart.  Kids are creative.  Kids are curious.  Kids are entertaining.  What would happen if we let them use all that creativity, imagination and energy?  And go rid of the crutches that make things so easy?  So unimaginative?  I say let them create!  Let them imagine!  And let them see the potential they have to think up new things.  Let them feel good about what they can do.


Let me know your thoughts and what you might like to put away for a while.  And how it goes.  And what your kids come up with!

Song for the Moment

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Roots by the Stream

Jeremiah 17:7-8 reads, "'But blessed is the mans who trusts in the Lords, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a dought and never fails to bear fruit.'"

This passage opened up this morning when I was flipping through my Bible at church during worship. We had yet another blow last night with the company and I have to admit, I was not excited about going to church this morning. I wanted to stay home and sulk. And continue to ask why this keeps happening over and over again. However, my spirit was stirring. And Abi REALLY wanted to go. Mark and Amanda have pink eye, so they were staying home anyway. I knew I needed to go, and I knew it was also not right to keep Abi from church just because of the state of my heart. So, I went upstairs and turned on some worship music while I got ready. I pulled up the music that the team was going to sing this morning as well as the set I will be singing next week. God is so good. The first song I clicked on was "You Are Holy (Prince of Peace)" by Michael W. Smith. "You are Lord of Lords, You are King of Kings, You are Mighty God, Lord of Everything. You're Emmanuel, You're the Great I AM, You're my Prince of Peace, Who is the Lamb. You're the Living God, You're my Saving Grace, You will reign forever, You are Ancient of Days. You are Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End. You're my Savior, Messiah, Redeemer and Friend. You're my Prince of Peace and I will live my life for you." As if that weren't enough to point be back in the right direction, here is the next song that I opened up: Todd Fields' "It is Well." We all know the verses well. Here is chorus, the part that stuck with me this morning, "It is well, it is well, through the storm I am held. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well, God has won, Christ prevailed. It is well, it is well with my soul." It is so easy to say those words when things are going really well. But when you are struck down again and again, it's not so easy to say them and mean it. To truly mean "it is well with my soul." This morning, I did not start out feeling like all was well with my soul. However, knowing that the Lord brought these words to me to speak to me personally in this storm, It was easier to choke them out through the tears.

As I headed to church with Abi, my soul was quiet. Rested. And I was ready for what the Lord was going to speak to me. When I got into service, I stayed in the back, sat down and opened up my Bible while the worship was going on. Worship is my pathway and I knew the Lord had something He wanted to say to me. Some words of encouragement for this moment in our journey. He fed me all kinds of encouraging scripture. And in the midst of it all the team began to sing "My Savior, My God." The chorus says this, "My Savior loves, my Savior lives, my Savior's always there for me. My God He was, my God He is, my God is always gonna be. " My Savior is always there for ME. As if this weren't enough to encourage me and to let me know He was in control and would take care of us, he brought me to Jeremiah 17:7-8 written above.

Now I hope my pastor isn't reading this because I have NO idea what his message was today. I was so tuned in to what the Lord was speaking to me that I didn't hear a word from the pulpit. However, I think he would be okay with that knowing I was listening to the sweet words of my Father. Here is how these 2 verses were broken down for me:

vs. 8 " He will be like a tree planted my the water that sends out roots by the stream." We are to plant ourselves by the stream of Living Water, to send our roots toward that stream. To spend time with God, reading His word, soaking it in, drawing His words up through our roots and through our branches so that we may continue to have green leaves and bear fruit. So that we can LIVE. HE is the source of our water, the source of our life. He will give us what we need to survive if we only trust and believe in Him. If we continue to seek Him in all we do and all we are.

The next part of vs. 8 reads, "It does not fear heat when it comes; its leaves are always green." If we continue to soak up the Living Water from the stream by which we are planted, we will never wither. We will remain green. We will continue to live. Because we have planted ourselves by the stream of water. Our roots have reached out to it and continue to drink from it. We have a constant source of life right beside us if we will only reach for it. We do not need to fear the heat, the struggles, the obstacles, the seemingly endless, dark tunnel. We need only reach for that source of Life.

The last part of vs 8 reads, "It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." No worries in a YEAR of drought. A year! We have so much water to drink from and stored up that we need not worry. He is our constant life support. HE provides everything we need to survive, if we only look to the Lord and soak up all that He is, all the He has promised and all that He has to offer. He will guide us and give us strength and life.

As much as I question, I turn to worship which always leads me to the Word. I praise through my tears, frustration, questions....because there is Joy in those moments. Answers in the tears. Direction in the midst of chaos. And if I praise through it all, the enemy will not be able to get a foothold. If I go straight to worship and the Scriptures, the voices of doubt, discouragement and hopelessness are gone. Even when I don't feel like it, I worship. Because I know I will hear Truth. I will be encouraged. I will not know all the answers, but I will be reminded that I am not alone. That there is a bigger picture, a bigger purpose and a God who loves me like no other. A god who will not ever let me down. Who will be my one constant Rock through it all. So I will swim in the waters of Life. Take a deep drink of the water by which I have been planted. Soak up the water through my roots and allow it to flow through the branches, that my leaves will continue to be green and that I may continue to bear fruit in the midst of this drought. The source of Life is always beside you. Stand firm and full of life where you are.

We moved into a rental home a couple of months ago. We are in a beautiful location.... right next to the water. It's a canal, and we are right at the "T". God knew when He gave us this home that I would need this physical picture of being planted right by the water. This was not by chance. It was ordained for moments just like this. My Lord knew what was coming and planned ahead, like He always does. Oh, how much He loves me. How much He loves all of us.

Just in case I didn't quite get how much He loves me, He had my 4-year old daughter take the picture at the start of the blog. I had to chuckle about this when I was thinking through the past couple of days. I was taking pictures of the gorgeous glass-like water reflecting the clouds above. My daughter happened to take a picture of the tree by the water. And she hit the button by accident. Or so I thought. It ended up being my favorite picture! And today I realized this. There are 4 fruit trees in our back yard. This particular one is the closest one to the water (by inches) and looks to be the only one that will bear fruit this season. Chance? No way. I truly believe that my Lord orchestrated all of this to speak to me so clearly in this very moment. To remind me that He has a plan, He knows the order, and if we follow and obey, standing firm and blossoming where we are planted, the He will take care of the rest. That I can have peace in knowing He is in control. So here is a picture of peace, the one He gave me yesterday. Find peace where you are, seek Him always, and reach for the Living Water. He will give you LIFE.

Discipline

I do not like to discipline. I know I have to and I do, but I can't say I enjoy it. And the repetitive nature of discipline is about to drive me batty. I do not enjoy watching the children cry and I do not enjoy how I feel when I allow myself to get so upset that my blood pressure shoots through the roof and I literally explode. That does NOT a happy house make.

As I sit here reflecting on the happenings of the morning, I am thankful that we are able to sit outside as we learn to write our letters and numbers. The weather is gorgeous, the sun is out and God has completely blessed us with the most beautiful view. It is really hard to be out on the patio and have a bad attitude. it is very healing. And now I feel like we have started our day over.

As I was speaking to my children this morning, specifically my 4 year old, I couldn't help but feel that the Lord was also speaking to me. As I was telling her for the umpeenth time not to talk back, to just obey, and sending her for time out once again, I felt my blood pressure rising, anger beginning to flow, yet the Lord calmly saying to me, "Just obey." Trying not to cry while in the midst of sending Abi to time out, I thought about how much the Lord has to discipline me. And then I thought about how often He must discipline me even when I don't know it. And yet how calm He always remains in the midst of it all. How quickly I lose my patience, but expect my children to remain calm and collected. How are they supposed to learn to take a breath and speak calmly if I am not able to give them that example. Saying it isn't enough. It has to be shown to them too. This is not new information for me, but today was just another reminder of how I need to start my day differently. I need to get back to starting my day with just myself and the Lord in order to have the focus that I personally need to have patience for what each day brings. This is not something I can do on my own. I am the queen of making my own agenda, only to be frustrated and upset when my plans fall apart. My focus is in the wrong place. Even now as I type, my focus is all jumbled. I am realizing that I need to find a specific time to blog as well! To blog while trying to "school" is not completely ideal, at least at this beginning stage.

So, off the computer and on to lunch. And then some quiet time to refocus my day on what the Lord has called me to today. So here is my personal reminder for myself - Each day should have focus. The question is this - where will your focus be?

I'm Back!

Well hello! I am sure you are thinking, "Wow! Those girls must be really poorly behaved and a handful! It has been 5 months since she tried to get them to sit through a meal and that is the last time we heard from her!" Well, they are a handful, but the break was for me. I found myself trying to do everything at once - figure out if I could homeschool, research homeschool programs, research preschools in case I was too intimidated to homeschool, trying to find some part-time work I could do from home, then moving during the holidays (which I am convinced is impossible with 2 small children - we are still in boxes!), trying to blog about gluten-free things, trying to make my posts as good as all the others I was reading, frustrated that I couldn't be as eloquent as others I was reading, frustrated that I did not have a focus for my blog.... I KNOW! I am dizzy just recapping! So, I needed to take some time to process, regroup, get enough settled into our new home to function, and figure out a better plan.

In taking time to process, I realized that I was trying to blog about what everyone else was blogging about. Trying to find a focus based on what others were focusing on. Trying to BE everyone else. As I took some time to randomly go through my posts from the past, I have found 2 things that I really love to write about. Inspirations from nature and my children, and all things gluten-free. However, they do not belong in the same blog. I am currently working on a new blog where I will begin posting all of my cooking and baking recipes, tidbits and mishaps. You know I have those! And here I will try to focus on inspirations from my family and nature. This feels good. I think I can now enjoy returning to the blogging world.... provided I can stick to my schedule. God has given each of us a voice for different things, talents for different things and abilities for different things. That is how we can all work together. He has given us words to speak in different ways. It is part of our story. So let your story be told in your own way. That's what makes it all so exciting!

Once my Gluten-Free site is up and running, I will post that as well!

Have a wonderful day!