The sink

Yesterday I was doing my dishes. A thing which I seem to do an awful lot. Hmmmm. I was almost done putting them in my dishwasher when I got this feeling of joy that washed over me. Seeing the bottom of my nineteen fifty's white ceramic sink gave was an inspiration! I was about to go to bed and the thought came to me that I like to wake up to a dish less sink. A clean scrubbed sink with nothing in it. I don't think we realize it but that is what we have every day when we walk with God. Everyday is like a clean dish less sink. It can be whatever we want it to be. Most of the time I feel like I have figurative dishes in my sink before I get out of bed but it is my choice how I choose to react to the day. Hang in there. Every day you get to start fresh. Everyday is new "with no mistakes in it." To quote Miss Stacey from Anne of Green Gables. Everyday is like a gleaming white sink with no dishes in it. May your faucets shine and sparkle and may your dishes be few.

Reality Hurts

Miss Sunshine

Handsome

Ok. Here are my two older children. Today they came home and told me that they had both forgotten their homework folder. Ouch! Their father and I had told them a couple of weeks ago that there would be major consequences if they forgot them again. My boy also forgot his on a day where he had a test review. Double ouch! So the parental units sit down, after sending the children to their rooms to contemplate their doom, to talk about what kind of punishments to dole out. It took us forever with Miss Sunshine. Rarely does she have a bad day. If we sit her in the corner she will usually end up playing a game with her fingers. We thought about taking her books because she absolutely loves to read but , again, has the imagination to make up any story she wants to so...no. I told Husband that whatever we did it had to hurt. The one thing that she loves is food. So for forgetting to bring her homework folder home for the millionth time, she went to bed with no dinner. It hurt me horribly to send her to bed with no dinner and what hurt even worse was that she was so sweet about it. She took it like Miss Sunshine would take things. hopefully she will remember this one. I know it sounds awful but if there is never a consequence what will she do someday if she just keeps forgetting to pay her bills? Oh, she also had to go early to school with Daddy to do homework. She has to be responsible for what is required of her.

Older one got an even steeper punishment. He forgets his folder all the time. First, he still had to do an hour and a half review with Dad. Then he got grounded off of TV and Xbox for a week and also lost the privilege of playing the XBOX during the week. Now until summer, he is only allowed to play video games on the weekend. I was a sad night for all of us but hopefully being consistent will help them become the responsible adults that God created them to be. I just wish they knew that it hurt me more than it hurts them. I cried. It says in the Word that we train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it. It never says that the training will be easy. It is easier to just overlook things, do things for them and enable. But, I have seen the results of that kind of upbringing in some adults that I know and I do not want that for my kids. I felt like a bad mom last night but this morning my little boy came over to me and wrapped his arms around me and told me he loved me. My daughter laid her head on my lap and told me how much she loved me. I think they got the message.Hang in there mom's and dad's! Be strong! You are raising up mighty men and women of God!

Did You Know?

Did you know that if you have a family of five and you wait an entire week to do laundry that you have an actual mountain on the inside of your house? Something to think about...Notice in the picture above that both of my daughters are wearing dress clothes. Note: we did not go anywhere that night that was all of the clean clothing that they had. We stayed home and watched a movie. Also notice that my seven year old Blondie is wearing an outfit that is at least two sizes too small for her. This is what happens when you are sick the entire Christmas vacation. All you do is lay around and watch every movie that you have not gone to see in theatres. Your house goes to pot. Maybe God allowed us to become ill so that we would actually rest. We definitely did. These are all of the amazing illnesses of 2010, all contracted within a two week period: The stomach Flu, Somewierdfevercoughthingythatneverseemstoleaveus ( I do think that that is the actual scientific name of this illness), Walking Pneumonia, and Strep! It was super fun!

Hey, the way I look at it. We got them all out of the way so that we do not have to get anything else. My house has been Cloroxed and, thankfully, every single person in the house is now well. We had a lot of together time though. I did very much enjoy being with my family and having my SH (Sweet Husband) home almost the whole time. Perk of having a teacher for a husband. Anyhoo, God is still good and we are sooooooo excite about 2011!

Now back to Mount Laundry!

Happy New Year!!!!!

Wow! It's another year with no mistakes in it. All clean and sweet. I love it! Just get to start all over and do things differently. I love it. God is so good! We have that life in Him. When He is in us, we get to start fresh everyday or every moment. Depends on the kind of day we are having. In Ephesians 2:4 it says,"But God, who is abundant in mercy, because of the great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. "I don't know about you but I tend to "trespass" a lot. Not necessarily trying to "trespass" but I do lose my temper. I might have a bad thought here and there and , well, I don't need to go and put a list of my current "trespasses" here on my blog. Just know that I am a lover of the mercy of God because I know it so well. In this New Year enjoy the Lover of your soul because while we were dead in our trespasses He laid it all down for us so that we could live. I mean glory-filled, streets of gold, everlasting life kind of live! Woooooooohooooooo! I love You Jesus!

The picture above is of the school Christmas play that had me frazzled out because I felt we did not have enough time to get it all done. Those kids worked so hard and really did a great job. Got to love all those kiddos!