Sweet Song by Eliza

This is a song that Eliza has been learning at preschool. She performed it during chapel at her school yesterday, and then did a solo performance for us last night before bed.

I've heard this song probably 100 times in the last few weeks and every time I love hearing it. It has such a deep meaning. Sometimes as a mother I think it's easy to forget that our ultimate goal is to raise our kids to be good and faithful human beings. It's easy to talk about all the things they should do or all the things they should say. We are quick to remind them of their manners and even quicker to correct bad behavior.

But what about OUR actions?

Children learn by the example they are given. This is especially obvious when they are young and learning things for the first time. They like to repeat what we've said, they like to mock our actions, and they like to follow us around and watch our every move. We are their first teachers, not only by what we say to them, but what we show them by our actions.

In this world we are surrounded by evil. Sin is everywhere we look. We can't even turn the news on without hearing about someone being kidnapped or shot. Our TV shows are full of what society calls "the new normal". Taking our children shopping, even just to the grocery store, can reveal the latest fashion trends that are less than modest. The culture of sex seems to surround us. Where is the goodness? Where are the values?

Those are up to us. WE must be the example for our children. Their little eyes see everything that we do. Their little ears hear the words that we say and how we say them. Their little hands repeat our own actions. The only way to reverse this culture of sin is to be the example that our children can mock. It's time we stop complaining about all the craziness out there and stand up and DO something.

Speak to your children with kind words, and know that they are listening when you speak to others. Do good deeds for others and encourage your children to help. Say prayers with your children and make sure your children see you praying on your own. We are the only ones who can make the future one of love, hope, and morality.

If my words don't touch your heart listen to Eliza sing that song again--and if she doesn't touch your heart I'm not sure what will.

Sometimes I Hate Oklahoma

I think it’s fair to say that I am just a little bit crazy. I don’t think you get into the mom profession without a little bit of craziness. Some days I feel a little crazier than others, and today just happened to be one of those days. The kids were being great this morning and I really needed to get to Target for a few things. If I didn’t, Gavin would be wearing one of Jackson’s diapers this afternoon. So I packed them all up and headed off to Target.

When I take all three kids out I have a pretty solid plan down. I put Gavin in the baby pack, Jackson in the cart, and Eliza walks holding onto the cart. It works pretty well. Today as I opened my car door I nearly fell over from the wind. I grabbed a cart, stuck Jackson in the front, had Eliza hold onto the side, and I put Gavin in the pack. We walked inside being blown sideways the entire way. My list wasn’t too long, so I proceeded to get everything, and because the kids were so good I decided to let them pick out Halloween baskets. They were in the dollar aisle so I figured it was a good bargain on my part. (Plus it's boss's day and I am kinda like their employee--haha) We checked out and headed back out in the wind “storm” to load everything in the car.

I think the wind was even stronger on our way out. I managed to get Eliza in the car, tossed Jackson in his seat and started tossing bags in the car. Poor little Gavin was holding on for dear life. I held his head under a blanket with one hand, held the cart with one foot, and tossed bags with the other hand. And of course the Halloween baskets go flying out of my cart. In that split second I had to decide if I was going to abandon my empty cart and run after the baskets with Gavin strapped to my front or if I would just watch where they go and attempt to get them after I put him in his seat. Luckily, I chose the saner option and decided to put him in his seat first. I thought chasing down rolling baskets in the Target parking lot with a baby strapped to my chest probably wasn’t the best idea. Anyway, I watched where the baskets rolled--they had to stop eventually right.

Then I saw what I thought was a good Samaritan, that must have seen my thoughts of running after the baskets, pull over and jump out of their car to grab the baskets. By this point the baskets are completely across the parking lot and stuck in a line of trees. They start driving back towards me. I figured they’d just pull up right beside me and hand me the baskets. Oh no. They parked a little ways away and hoped out like nothing was going on. I ran over to them, asked them about picking up the baskets, and they said they hadn’t picked them up and didn’t even see them. (So now I think I’m really crazy) I thought maybe they hadn’t picked them up and they were still stuck in the trees. A little frustratingly (b/c I knew they were just lying to me) I got in the car and drove across the parking lot keeping an eye out for the baskets. They weren’t there. I even drove across the street to see if they somehow blew threw the trees. They weren’t there. I guess a couple kids just get some free Halloween baskets. That part doesn’t bother me at all, the part that bothers me is that these people just lied to my face over $2 of baskets. Oh well. Sometimes I wonder why all this crazy stuff happens to me. I really can't make it up!

 As I look back in my head of how I managed to hold onto my cart and get my kids in the car while some of my purchase went flying in the air it just makes me laugh. Sometimes I really do hate Oklahoma--but at least the wind here is strong enough that as I made the split decision to not run after $1 baskets they were far enough away to help make up my mind.

Just an Update

It’s been a crazy week or so around here. Keeping up with this blog isn’t going as I hoped. I’ve had multiple topics I’ve thought about and hilarious stuff happen in the last week, the problem is I have no memory so if I don’t write them down immediately I just forget about them.

I’m going to try to get you up to date with this post and next week I’ll attempt to “get a little deeper” with my posts.

Gavin was baptized this past Sunday. It was wonderful. We had some family come in from out of town and Gavin was decked out in the hand-me-down baptismal gown that has been passed down from my oldest uncle on my dad’s side through 13 children, bunches of grandchildren, and now on to great-grandchildren. It’s pretty awesome to think about how many babies have been baptized in the same gown.

　

　

After everyone left Monday morning we attempted to get back to normal around here. I’ve decided that there isn’t really a normal though. We’ve begun to get ready for fall/winter which means cleaning out dressers and closets. It takes a lot of time to pack and unpack and organize everything. I think the hardest thing about it all is after the kids closets are nice and organized they just want to play with all the toys they see that they haven’t played with in a while. Half of me wants to be excited for me but most of me wants to say please don’t mess it all up, I just cleaned it all up. But kids will be kids and I’m trying to remember that.

Eliza had a class field trip to Orr Family Farm this week too. In case you don’t know Orr Family Farm is a fun little farm around Oklahoma city. The kids got to see animals, go on pony rides, ride the train, and pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Brian was able to go with Eliza and brought Jackson along too. They all had a wonderful time, and it gave me a chance to get a little shopping done. It felt very weird being out and about with only one kid.

Today it is pouring down rain--which helps motivate me to finish up the organizing. I know this post wasn’t all that interesting, but I guess that’s just real life. I’ll do my best to spice it up next week with the funny things my kids do on a daily basis. (As long as I remember to write them down.)


A few more pictures from the weekend:

                                                    Baba and the grandkids wrestling.
                                           There was a lot of wrestling over the weekend.
                                           

                                                               Eliza being silly.

                                                             Cousins Quinn and Eliza

 

                                                                   Lovely Eliza

                                                                 Sweet Jackson

                                                          Baba giving Eliza a horsey ride.

Cousins chillin after a long day of playing.

                                        Gavin sleeping through the craziness of the weekend.

                                                        Uncle Michael and Gavin

                                                              Yum...puppy chow!

                                     Poor Jackson was scared to death of a toad in this picture.

A Love Like Ours

“I love you.” Such a simple phrase with a huge meaning. I don’t know how you look at the phrase “I love you” but I’m a pretty selective “I love you” sayer. Honestly, I’ve only ever said “I love you” to my family and to my husband. It’s just a very serious thing to me. I never said it to any boyfriends either--except for Brian.

Our love story began with me saying I love you to him before we ever started dating. We had been best friends for years so he knew very well how big of a deal me saying that was. Brian had chased me for years and I always blew him off--for some reason it just never clicked for me. I guess all that needed to happen was for him to be taken away to college for me to realize my true feelings. I was only 17 at the time, but when I said I love you to Brian it was as if I said “I do.” I knew at that very moment that I would spend the rest of my life with him. It’s a crazy thing to know at 17, but I really did know. Now 10 or so years later we are together still with 3 beautiful children.

The word love is not very respected in our society. I feel like people don’t truly understand the meaning of love, and it wasn’t until I thought about it recently that I realized just how amazing the love between Brian and I is. I kept trying to figure out why. Why are we so “in love”? Why does our marriage work so well? Why does it seem like our love multiplies every single day? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it all has to do with our foundation. The foundation of our relationship has always been God. Even when we were just friends--our friendship was rooted in our faith. When we began dating God was always the center of our lives independently and together. We strived to follow God’s will through our dating relationship and we continue to strive to follow God’s will in our marriage.

We do it together. We have had some very hard times and some very good and happy times, but the one thing that remains the same through it all is our foundation in God that we follow together. We do some things in our marriage that very few couples do today, and quite frankly a lot of people probably think are just crazy. (more on that later) We do these things because we are faithful, not just to each other, but to God. The amazing thing about being faithful to God is that He will always provide. I don’t just mean financially but I mean in every way possible.

It seems like in today’s society marriage is just a next step. It’s not seen as a forever bond as man and wife, it’s seen as something to do and something that can be undone at any point. The crazy thing is that society really embraces this idea of undoing marriage. People are encouraged to separate and divorce all the time for all sorts of stupid reasons or no reason at all. It’s time that the faithful take over again. It’s time for marriage to be a serious thing again. It’s time that we start encouraging engaged couples to have a foundation in God. No one ever said marriage was easy--it’s time we tell young people that marriage isn’t easy, but it is worth it. It’s time that we stop taking the easy way out. Taking the right path is more often than not the hard path. It’s time to encourage morality in this ever-progressive world. It’s time to speak up and let the faithful be heard, because I don’t know about you but I’m not going down without a fight. I will continue to fight for a moral and decent world for my children to grow up in.

Love is an action not a feeling. Let’s start acting.