Lego Creations

I believe that Gwangi wants to self publish a Lego Idea Book.

He's got a pretty good start if you look below.

 These are just pictures from the last two weeks.

I'm not kidding, he comes to me everyday to take pictures of a new creation.

The boy has no end to his building and imagination.

Enjoy!

He'll be a famous Lego Architect someday, and you can say you knew him...way back when!

The Underground Base

The Contraption

Home Base

A house

Inside of the house

Watching instructions on how to build Mario and Luigi

A completed Mario

Ships fighting

The Cruiser

The Sonic Ship

The Flying Battleship

A completed Goomba

An outside "world" set up for Luigi, Mario, and the Goomba.

Amazing N's Fortress

Amazing N's Landing Pad

The People and Places in our Lives, Part I

I've had many people ask me about the people and places in our life.

So, here are some pictures to share with you.

This is Abdul, he works at our local "green grocer," where we get our fresh produce once or twice a week.

A view of what he has to offer.

Sissi is my helper.  We always stop here on Sunday on our way home from church.  If we need to, we'll swing by on Thursday or Friday to get us through again until Sunday.

Helping to pick out some oranges...yes, they aren't orange here :)

He is so sweet to Sissi, always giving her little things for free...a piece of passion fruit or a banana.

The sign outside of the green grocer

Next door is a duka, or little shop, where you can buy basic groceries like milk, yogurt, oats, and toilet paper.

Photogenic Kids

Testing out new settings and lighting on the camera....
Got some great shots, but of course it helps when you have such photogenic children. ;-)

My Amazing Gwangi!

Our dog, Smokey.

Outside, in the garden.

Making faces at her Mommy.

In the tree.

Laughing at herself.

Thinking pose.

Love her...not the shadow though, not sure how to get those all gone without buying an external flash.

My big boy, Krypto.

Laying in the big tree.

Can I just say that I love all of my kiddos expressive, big, blue eyes?!

This was my bed on Saturday morning, before I signed them up for Lego club and the interest turned from a Playmobil Dino Island to building Mario characters.

The Day After...

Have you ever had one of those moments where you feel like you really "got" something, and then not more  than 24 hours later you are tested in that very same area and come up lacking?

Oh yes, whether or not you can relate, this seems to happen to me all the time.

I am such a fallen creature.

Today was the 5th Sunday of the month, and so we were trying to make things easier in Children's Ministry and do a movie, so no one had to prepare for teaching.

I think the kids would have done better with a lesson this morning.

About 60 of our 70 kids had to go to the bathroom, and not all at the same time.

I had kids come to me complaining about neighbors spitting on them, pinching them, kicking their chairs, and sitting on them.

I had kids rolling in the aisles, jumping and dancing down the steps (my youngest was doing some of the jumping and dancing)

We ran out of snacks and didn't have cups (someone had to go out and buy some...oh, and water, too)

I found myself getting irritable, impatient, and by the time the 50th child was asking me to go to the bathroom I was more than a little merciless and asking them, "Do you really need to go to the bathroom?  Can't you wait for 10 minutes.  Why didn't you go before you came in to Children's Church?"

What was my problem?

I think it was my level of expectation.

I was thinking it was a much needed "down week."  We would get the kids set up with a snack and then watch a movie...a sit down and relax event in my house.  Of course, I have just THREE kids.

It wasn't a relaxing event at all.

Now that I know that, I won't go in next time expecting something that isn't going to happen :) and I won't feel so let down.

But, why can't I be more flexible and "go with the flow."

Why does change and the unexpected get me riled up so that I forget what I just read about in James 2 days ago and wrote about yesterday.  Where was my patience, where was my mercy, where was my ability to turn the kids' complaining into a character lesson and have them learn from it rather than me just getting a bit angry?

I'm still working on this, I'm still trying so hard to meet up to the standard, and I'm still thankful that God is merciful, slow to anger, and patient with me!  There is still so much to learn!

What I've Learned and Where My Allegiance Lies

For the past thirty days our church has been reading through the New Testament.  Officially, I should have finished up a few days ago.  I'm on track though to finish on Monday, the 36th day.

What have I learned this month?  I seriously can't express it all. I honestly should have kept a journal.  It would have been quite a book by now and full of all kinds of thoughts, prayers, frustrations, and desires that I've expressed openly and quietly in my heart over the past month.

I can tell you though that I have a new found love for the book of James.  It's just 5 chapters, it takes up just 2 pages in my Bible.  You should read it all to get the context, but let me list a few things that stuck out to me.  Things I have known most of my life; but, I needed to hear them again, as a reminder.

- When our faith is tested, it produces endurance. (1:3)
- If I lack wisdom, I just need to ask God for it, and He will give it to me. (1:5)
- When I allow doubt to creep in, it's like I'm being tossed about on the sea (1:6)  I can certainly attest to the feeling of being "tossed about" in my doubt.
- When I have a trial or a temptation, it isn't coming from God. (1:13)
- Every good thing that I have is from God. (1:17)
- I need to slow down, listen more, speak less, and be slow to get angry. (1:19)
- God's Word, read and implanted in my soul, is what saves us. (1:21)
- You can't just hear or read the Word, you have to do something about it as well. (1:23)
- To show others God's love, I need to not just speak about it, but show some action by taking care of those in distress and need. (1:26-27)
- I need to love my neighbor as myself. (2:8)
- If in the end I want to have mercy, then I need to show others mercy. (2:13)
- I can say I have faith in God; but, if there is no action, no works, then my faith is dead and means nothing. (2:17)
- The tongue is a restless evil.  No one can tame it by themselves.  It will injure those we love if we aren't careful. (3:8)
- Why do we say one thing and then do another?  Can we have both blessing and cursing come out of our mouth and maintain our likeness in God? No. (3:9-12)
- The wisdom that the world has to offer isn't really what we want.  The wisdom from God is pure, peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, etc, etc... (3:17)
- We need to show our submission to God, resist evil, and then the devil will flee from us. (4:7)
- We shouldn't speak against our fellow believers. (4:11)
- We should be patient (5:8) and we shouldn't complain (5:9).
- God is full of mercy and compassion (5:11)
- If I say "Yes," I should mean "Yes."  I should keep my word. (5:12)
- We should pray, in faith, for those that are ill. (5:15)
- We should talk to other believers about our sins and pray with them, so that together we can be healed. (5:16)

So MANY good things, all packed into one letter.  I think I'll be re-reading this letter over and over again in the course of my life.  Revisiting the many underlined verses that have spoken to me, that have reminded me of who my God is, how very BIG He is.  How full of mercy and love and justice He is.  I find myself feeling a surging sense of loyalty, or allegiance if you will, to One so full of wonder.  The epitome of what we all really want is right there, in front of us.  He is the great I Am.  I cannot put my allegiance in a more secure place than with God.  I owe Him my life, He has saved me from all the ugliness that is present here on Earth. I cannot be more thankful that I belong to Him.

The letter from James to the twelve tribes certainly gives you an earful.  It's full of life giving advice.  If I can just re-read this list, on a regular basis, and follow through on these things...how much more peaceful my life would be.  Wouldn't all of our lives be more peaceful if we tried to implement the advice from James?

Last weekend's double birthday party

Sissi got invited to another PRINCESS PARTY!

Imagine that, girls this age really do like to be a Princess!

Thanks for the invite, the fun, and the food.  We had a great time.

Happy birthday to two very special little girls :)

Coloring our princess pictures.  Dan actually drew these!

 Super talented Daddy!

All dressed up!

One of the beautiful birthday girls!

Adding ribbons to our cone shaped princess hats.

Decorating our own cupcakes.

More decorating fun.

Oh yes, this does taste good.

The other special birthday girl, 2 years old!

Finger lickin' good.

One of the favorite activities...how many sprinkles can I get on my cupcake.

All but one of the girls made it into this shot.

What a fun and laid back party.

Thanks Jennifer and Stacy!

It was one of those days

Monday was just one of those days.  You know what I mean?  I'm sure you do.

I had a crying 9 year old.  He was literally weeping over his spelling list....

differing
differences
conferring
inferring
transferring
etc.

Then, he was crying over his typing.  He kept using his "F" finger to hit the "C" key.  I kept trying to correct him and show him to use the "D" finger, to no avail.  He just got more and more frustrated with me.

My 7 year old was a bit defiant over something that I can't even remember now :), that's good, right?

AND, my 5 year got upset when she didn't eat her lunch and then she didn't receive an afternoon snack.  She said she understood at the time, that when we make a choice to not eat our meal, that we don't get snacks.  She said she understood that she would have to wait until the next meal.  Well, when the actual event occurred at 3pm, and pumpkin bread was the afternoon snack option....oh my, she got so mad she ran to her room while yelling at me, threw her princess castle and broke it.  She was hysterical.  It was not pretty!

What to do, what to do.  Well, I prayed and I kept my cool, but, I'll tell you what, when Daddy got home, he knew I was exhausted.  They had worn me down.  I sat at the kitchen table and made a cup of tea and just "vented" about my day and my shock at how things had gone down hill so quickly and I really didn't see why.  I wondered why my kids felt that they could get away with showing me so little respect.  Hadn't our lesson on Sunday at church JUST been about showing proper respect to everyone (1 Peter 2:17.)  Don't I from the time they are 2 years old have them memorize Proverbs 12:18, that "reckless words pierce like a sword, but kind words bring healing."

They know it's not ok to yell and scream at people, they know it hurts them.  They know you can't take those words back.  Like Harry said to Sally, "They're out there."

They all of course sincerely apologized and said I was the "best mommy ever," but, it got me wondering, have I done them a disservice in that they seem to think it's ok to treat people that way and an apology will make it all better?  I talked to them about other adult leaders in their lives...would they talk to other teachers or coaches that way, we talked about who would be their teachers if they were attending at HOPAC...would they treat them that way?  They all agreed, no!  But, I'm your MOM...why treat me this way?  Your teacher at school will only have you for a year, you'll have me the rest of your life!

Ahhh!  I think they understood, I really hope and pray they did get it. My heart wants to believe it.  If actions speak louder than words, then they did.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were stellar days.  They have been fun to be around, we've enjoyed school, they've played well with each other and several times they have caught themselves getting angry and paused and done a deep breath or two.  Krypto has even talked himself down a time or two.  I hear him muttering, "I'm not going to get angry, I'm not going to get angry..."

I've told him, it's not that it's not alright to get angry.  Let me get that clear.  I'm not advocating penting it all up inside and being unhealthy.  I'm just saying son, that we can be angry, but sin not (Ephesians 4:26.)  We can be angry, we can talk about it, we can come up with a solution.  What we can't do is yell, say hurtful things like "I hate you," hit people, purposefully do things to agitate or upset someone, etc.

Are my kids perfect?  I hope you can see that is a no!  Am I perfect?  OH, NO!  What I did see today though was a wonderful conclusion to a disagreement between two brothers.  Krypto likes to set up imaginary games that are sure to allow him to win.  Gwangi can't stand to lose, really, who does?  It happened again this afternoon.  Krypto had come up with a game where whatever Gwangi did, Krypto had a way to counter him and pretty much make himself invincible.  Well, Gwangi got mad and hit him.  Ugh!  So, we have the discussion again, that they are both in error.  Krypto knowingly set up a game that his brother couldn't win, knowing that he can't stand that.  Gwangi got mad and hit, that's unacceptable.  I understand wanting to win, I understand getting mad when you feel like you've been thwarted.  They both admitted they were wrong and apologized and as they walked out of the house, they were coming up with a solution together.

As an aside, I told Gwangi....if it happens again, you take a deep breath and you look right at Krypto and tell him, "You know I don't like when you set up games that are impossible to win.  I don't want to play that way," and then walk away.  Krypto wants so badly to play that he'll get the point, he'll change the game.  He knows that relationships are worth far more than winning.  I pray he holds that truth close to his heart his whole life.

So, even though we had a rough start to our week, I think we learned some valuable lessons.  I'll be honest though, being a mom is hard work, it is tiring, and at times I just want to be the little kid that gets to mess up and throw a temper tantrum when I don't get my own way...I mean really, why do we always have to hold it together and set the example?  You know I'm kidding, right?!  I love those kids and I hope and pray that these childhood lessons will set a pattern for their adulthood that will serve them well as they serve our Lord.