More Spring Break Fun

Last night we met Christy, Lincoln, Nate and Noah out at the Pizza King station for dinner. I thought it would be another fun thing to do while the girls are on Spring Break. I don't think Charlotte had ever been before, and she really enjoyed the little train that brought the drinks. Chloe and Sophie enjoyed having their own "kids' booth" and watching TV during dinner. After dinner, Chloe and Sophie slept over at the Plowman's house, while Charlotte, Jason and I went home to watch Tangled.

Our Spring Break treat for today was a trip to the church playland and then lunch with Daddy. Charlotte and I get to do both of those things quite often, but it is a rarity for Chloe and Sophie.

It would be nice to be somewhere warm and sunny (especially considering it SNOWED here today!!!), but I hope the girls are enjoying their time away from school and the little "treats" we are trying to work in.

Roller Skating

Today, a friend of mine decided to take her kids roller skating, so we met them out at the rink. Chloe and Sophie skated. Charlotte and I watched... and ate snack bar food! Charlotte told me, "Next time, I will skate and you can hold my hand. That's a great idea!" (I love how she thinks all of her ideas are great.) It was a good opportunity to let the kids burn off some energy and also a nice (cheap) little Spring Break treat. In the car on the way home, Sophie thanked me for taking them. I was so proud since we still usually have to prompt her to say "thank you."

Doing Something

My mom and dad started sponsoring a child several months ago. My mom has mentioned it several times, but I never thought too seriously about it. Last month, I was shopping in the Family Christian Store and there was a large display set up for Compassion International. I looked at the faces of the precious children, but didn't sign up. Then, I was sitting in my Thursday morning Bible study a few weeks ago when the topic of adoption came up. Several of my friends have a heart for adoption (as do Jason and I). One friend in particular shared that at this time in their lives, she and her husband know that it is not God's plan for them to adopt, however, she wanted to do something. She and her husband decided that since adoption is not currently an option, they would invest in a child's life in another way, so they decided to sponsor a child. That really made an impression on me! No, we are not in a position to adopt right now, but that doesn't mean we can't do something. And as I reflected back, I felt like God had been trying to bring sponsorship to my attention for a while. So, I waited until Jason's next payday, and we picked out a child to sponsor monthly. I am so excited! We chose a 7-year-old boy from Guatemala named Herod (Jason was sold when he saw that he was wearing a Spiderman t-shirt). I pray that this little boy will grow up to be a man who loves the Lord with all his heart, mind, soul and strength!

Making the Most of Our Membership

Charlotte asks almost daily to go to the "useum." So, I decided to take her for a couple hours on Friday afternoon. I had forgotten that it was Spring Break for a lot of other schools (ours is next week), or I would not have told her we could go! Jason met us there at noon. It was very busy, but it wasn't too bad to navigate with just one child. We went to ride the carousel first (Charlotte's request), then ScienceWorks (where we saw a large frog), Dora & Diego (a boy waiting for the slide hit Charlotte and she cried), Dinosphere (always a favorite), ate the lunch I packed (pb&j all around), and walked through Incredible Costumes (Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Captain Kirk, Indiana Jones... what's not to like?) before heading out around 2:30. Jay went back to work, and I had to pick up the kids from school. Here are a few pictures of our short little visit:

Daddy and daughter bonding time... so sweet.

Charlotte really wanted to ride the lion!

She was getting the bronze silly putty ready to put on the dinosaur head.

Bumblebee from Transformers... it's huge!

Rainbow

While I was at church last night (enjoying Beth Moore's Daniel study but not the scary hail storm), Jason and the girls were enjoying a double rainbow! He was kind enough to take some pictures for me.


"And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

Genesis 9:12-13

Daniel, Week Four

Rather than breaking down my highlights by day, I'm just going to list them all out together from now on. Here are some of my favorite things from week four:

Session Four: Farewell Lessons From Nebuchadnezzar

• "A testimony is a powerful way to make God famous in our sphere of influence."
• "...we can confuse the pursuit of life with the pursuit of luxury. We develop a taste for it quickly; and when it's withheld, we cry foul."
• "O God, we pray that You would prosper our loved ones with an abundance of You... O Lord, make us courageous enough to pray that no earthly luxury would ever cheat us of true prosperity."
• "Repetition and the deliberate practice of recollection are vital if we want God's Word to abide and remain a storehouse of riches in us long after we conclude our study."
• "Like Daniel, we are also powerless to force spiritual understanding on another person. We can encourage, teach, and urge, but we can't make them 'get it.'"
• "As believers in Jesus Christ, our identity is wrapped up in our God. Praise God it's not wrapped up in this Babylonian-type culture that surrounds us."
• "Beloved, sometimes a prolonged rebellion and resisted warning can result in a drastic chastisement, but God's desire, particularly toward His beloved child, is neither to destroy nor condemn. It is to re-grow us free of the fruit-rotting parasite of pride. God is not trying to destroy us. He's trying to keep us from destroying ourselves."
• "Sometimes we don't recognize ourselves until we judge another and hear the Holy Spirit resound within our hearts, 'You are that person!'"
• "I have learned the hard way that some things don't need to be moderated. They need to be stopped. Broken off. Ended."
• "Some things don't need to be cut back. They need to be cut off."

We won't be meeting again for our Beth Moore study until April 13!

St. Patrick's Day Dinner

The girls liked the pink Valentine's Day dinner so much that I promised we would do green for St. Patrick's Day. Plus, I'll take any excuse to have breakfast for dinner! Here are the results:

green scrambled eggs

green pancakes

green milk

Daniel, Week Three

Session Three, Daniel 3: No Smell of Fire

• Daniel 3 covers the story of King Nebuchadnezzar's 90-foot golden statue. He required that everyone bow down before the statue, but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused. The punishment for their refusal was to be thrown into a fiery furnace. If you're familiar with the story, then you know that God sent a fourth man into the furnace and delivered them from their fiery trial. It's quite possible that the fourth man was the "preincarnate appearance of Christ."
• "Consider three different scenarios when people of God face a fiery trial: Scenario A: We can be delivered from the fire. Dividend? Our faith is built. Scenario B: We can be delivered from the fire. Dividend? Our faith is refined. Scenario C: We can be delivered by the fire into His arms. Dividend? Our faith is perfected."
• 1 Peter 1:6-7 "In this you greatly rejoice, though for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
• James 1:2-3 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."
• This story is the last mention in scripture of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego... What a way to be remembered!!!

Day One: Taller When Others Bow

• "The inspiration for building an image doesn't come from the Spirit... for us, image building is any way we intentionally make ourselves seem different - and usually more - than we really are."
• "We don't want to confuse image building with an honest attempt to look or do our best, but I won't kid you. A fine line separates the two."
• "We've learned from the beginning to view Babylon as more that a place. Babylon represents a philosophy. A mentality."
  
• "Having the people bow down to the image was tantamount to having them bow down to him. Babylonian thinkers need others to bow in order to feel tall. Nebuchadnezzar didn't bother bending the knees of ordinary people. Babylonian-size egos need bigger strokes than that. They need the strokes of VIPs."

Day Two: Another Side of Self-Absorption

• "Nursing inferiority can be just as self-consuming as seeking superiority. We talked about image building. Bowing down to a poor self-image can be equally unhealthy."
• "Beloved, let's let this one sink in deeply: constantly thinking little of ourselves is still thinking constantly of ourselves."
• "Rest assured, Satan wrote all Babylonian doctrine. If he cannot get people to worship him outright, he'll convince people to worship themselves. Anything to insult the Great I Am."

Day Three: The Apple of His Eye

• "Death is not the last word. A sovereign, powerful God sits upon His throne, and nothing misses His gaze. He will right all wrongs. I do not know how, but I know Who."
• "Nothing bites you without Him feeling it. He sees. He knows. He acts. And, best of all, He heals."

Day Four: The Heart of Loyalty

• "For people with true convictions, certain decisions have already been made."
• "...loyal is not something we suddenly are at the flash-moment of testing. It's something we already were that surfaces in the test."

Day Five: If He Does Not

• "God always abides with us, but we are wise to remember that His ultimate goal is for us to abide with Him. Literally... At some point, Beloved, you and I are going home. He alone knows how."
• "Our God is able to deliver us, Beloved. Every time! And how often He does!... Trust Him to the death. Trust Him through the death. In the blink of an eye, we'll understand."
  

18 Week Ultrasound

I had another ultrasound this morning. I was measuring right on track: 18 weeks 1 day, due August 14. Baby currently weighs 8oz. and is 13cm. crown to rump. The heart-rate was 149bpm. As I said before, we don't want to know the baby's gender, so it remains a mystery until his or her birthday! Here are some current photos of our little darling:

Baby's profile: I love this one!

Sucking his/her thumb

Baby's spine (head and neck on the left)

Baby's feet

Happy Anniversary!

Sunday, March 13, Jason and I marked 12 years of marriage! I love him more now than the day I married him, and I'm sure I'll love him more tomorrow than I do today.

Happy Anniversary, Jason! Thanks for being a wonderful husband to me and a fantastic daddy to our daughters.

The End of the 2011 Basketball Season

Saturday was the last day of basketball games for the girls. Sophie played at 11:15am, Chloe played at 1:45pm, Sophie's award ceremony was at 4:30pm, and Chloe's ceremony was at 6:30pm. We basically spent the whole day going back and forth to the church! It was a great season and the girls' improved so much since the start of it.

Sophie receiving her award

Chloe receiving her award

Nate, Chloe, Elizabeth and Sophie with their medals.

Chloe and me (photo by Sophie)

Sophie and me (photo by Christy)

SPCS Silent Auction

Friday night we went to the annual silent auction at the girls' school. I didn't realize that I had my camera with me until the very end of the night! The items for auction were in the worship center, and the gym was set up with carnival games, face painting, balloon animals, etc. There was also a bake sale and used toys sale in other parts of the building. A man named Snakehead Ed came to the gym at the end of the evening after the games were taken down. He is a retired science teacher who now does "snake shows." The gym was very noisy, and he didn't have a microphone. It was hard to hear all of the information, but the snakes looked pretty neat! Here are some pictures I took after Jason reminded me I had my camera (the yellow snake was 15-ft. long and weighed 95 lbs.):

Elizabeth, Chloe, Sophie, Rachel, Charlotte

One-Minute Devotions

Our sweet little Sophie is not always so sweet. In fact, when we have to wake her up in the morning she can be quite a bear... not the cute, cuddly kind either! It has been a daily battle since she started first grade (I put her in afternoon Kindergarten to save myself the hassle as long as possible). This year we tried a reward system. Every day that she was able to get up without complaining or arguing and be kind to her family through the morning, she earned a scoop of popcorn kernels to put in a jar. When the jar was full, she earned a prize. This system worked great for quite a while, but as we head toward the end of the school year, the novelty is wearing off just a bit. Recently, I decided to start doing a quick devotion (pictured above) and prayer time with the girls first thing in the morning. Their alarm goes off, I come in, and (usually) before they are even out of their beds, I sit on the edge and read the devotion then pray over their day. This has had an effect that I wasn't even counting on. Taking this time to glean some wisdom from the Word and praying with the girls has made such a difference. It sets the whole tone for our morning. I'm not saying that Sophie is magically perfect, but she gets up with a much better attitude and outlook, and I am able to respond to her with more patience and grace. I wish I would've started doing this a long time ago!

Signs of the End of the Age

"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains."

--Matthew 24:6-8

Hebrews

My Thursday morning Bible study just finished doing the Life Lessons study of Hebrews by Max Lucado. It was a very easy study with lots of tidbits of wisdom. If you feel like you don't have a lot of extra time to commit to a study, these Life Lessons are perfect! The back of the book says:

"Jewish believers were torn between their new faith in Jesus and their old ways rooted in Old Testament routines and rituals. And they were tempted to go back to their familiar life that seemed good enough. But Hebrews shows us that salvation through Jesus is better. So the writer of Hebrews compared the old ways and the new faith. This comparison focuses on Jesus, his effective ministry, and his ultimate sacrifice. Hebrews shows us that nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to our incomparable Christ."

How often are we tempted to backslide into old ways because they seem "good enough"? Yet, time and time again walking with Christ has proved to be so much better!

Daniel, Week Two

I was supposed to post this Wednesday, but I guess it's better late than never!

Session Two, Daniel 2 (the video): A Dream and a Kingdom

Beth covered Necuchadnezzar's prophetic dream, Daniel's interpretation, and how most of the prophecy has already been fulfilled throughout history. Nebuchadnezzar's dream was of a large statue made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and iron and clay. Each portion of the statue represented a world empire. Gold represented the Babylonian Empire, silver represented the Medo-Persian Empire, bronze represented the Grecian Empire, and iron represented the Roman Empire. The iron and clay toes may represent a ten-nation confederacy yet to come (and also foretold in Revelation).

Day One: A Royally Troubled Mind

• "Carefully consider Nebuchadnezzar's demand. He wanted his servants to recite the actual content of the dream before they interpreted it. Either Nebuchadnezzar demanded proof of their supernatural ability by requiring the content, or he had forgotten some of the dream. Both explanations are viable." I had never considered the latter possibility!
  
• "Beloved, God knows your details... 'Don't be afraid' (Luke 12:7) You are invaluable to your king."
• Exodus 25:8 "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them."
• John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us..."
• "Our God will dwell with us until we dwell with him."

Day Two: Urgent Tact, Urgent Prayer

• "A tactful approach doesn't cast a vote of approval. Tact is wisdom, not flattery."
• Leaving a bad taste for Christianity in their [those still lost and searching] mouths is deadly."

Day Three: Praise to the God of Heaven

• "Rule for victorious living: when the stakes are high, bow down low."
• "Trusting someone else's relationship with God to the degree that you'd receive a vital message through him is challenging."
• "The answer to urgent prayer calls for urgent praise!"
• "Dear One, nothing is more appropriate than jumping up and down for joy over answered prayer. Sometimes we confuse humility with timidity. When God comes through for us, a timid and tentative thanks is not only out of place; it's anticlimactic."
• "If we became intentional about noting every single answer to prayer, we'd be astonished by God's attentive faithfulness. Beloved, He answers you affirmatively so much more than you probably realize."

Day Four: From "He" to "You"

• "God's sovereignty means that He has supremacy over all things and does whatever He desires with whomever or whatever He pleases."
• "God's providence is intentional and purposeful."
• "God's Word is eternal. Unaffected by time. Scripture was inspired to be as fresh each passing day as it was the first."
• Daniel 2:20-23 "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king."

Day Five: Daniel's Interpretation

• This day was a lot of review over the information that she covered during the video in session two (the dream, the interpretation, the statue, etc.).
• Daniel 2:27-28 "Daniel replied, 'No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come..."
  

17 Week Appointment

I had my regularly scheduled doctor's appointment yesterday. There isn't a lot to report. However, she ordered another ultrasound, so I should be posting updated pictures soon!

Weight gain: about 6 or 7 pounds thus far
Blood pressure: 122/80 (still good but higher than it has been)
Baby's heart rate: 150 bpm

I told the doctor that we have decided to wait until the baby is born to find out the gender. She was so excited! She said that none of her patients ever wait to find out anymore, and she is happy to be the one to announce whether it's a boy or girl.

Also, she guessed boy. :-)

Celebration of Discipline

I finally finished it! I can't tell you how long I've been reading this book (I started sometime last year), but last Thursday I finally finished it. It's not that is was a bad book, in fact it was really good. It was just a lot of information to take in. The writing is easy to understand, but the topics covered are quite deep. Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster walks through the classic disciplines of the Christian faith: Inward Disciplines (meditation, prayer, fasting, study), Outward Disciplines (simplicity, solitude, submission, service), and Corporate Disciplines (confession, worship, guidance, celebration).

Here is a little snippet from the first chapter:
"Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people... The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths... We must not be led to believe that the Disciplines are only for spiritual giants and hence beyond our reach... God intends the Disciplines of the spiritual life to be for ordinary human beings."

I recommend it for anyone who wants to explore practical ways to grow deeper in their faith.

Kids Night at Chick-fil-A

Every Tuesday night is Kids Night at Chick-fil-A. You can get a free kids meal when you purchase an adult meal, they have a free face painter, and this week there was a sundae bar. We decided to head over there after Chloe's basketball practice for dinner. It's usually a zoo on Kids Night and this week was no exception! These are the animals (and a princess) that we brought home:

Basketball

Chloe and Sophie have been playing basketball at Southport Presbyterian Church. Jason is coaching Sophie's team, and Uncle Lincoln is an assistant coach for Chloe's team (Nate is on her team as well). Chloe has practice on Tuesday evening, Sophie has practice on Thursday evening, and they both play at different times on Saturday. It has been quite fun to keep up with! :-) This is the third year that Chloe has played basketball, and she has come such a long way in three years. I am so proud every time I watch her play! She is athletic, competitive, and genuinely enjoys playing. This is Sophie's first year to play. We have had to spend a lot of time reminding her that Chloe is older, bigger and has played longer, so she should not compare herself to Chloe! Sophie has learned a lot and grown so much since the beginning of the season. We are so proud of her! I think she has enjoyed playing and will probably opt to do it again next year. I never played sports... never really even liked watching sports (other than tennis), but I love to watch our girls play! Here are a few pictures from their games last Saturday:

Sophie's Game:

Chloe's Game:

The cheering section: