2016: The Year In Smiles

As I reflect back on the last year, as always, God has done so much for our family and in our family! 2016 brought *another* move, just an hour down the road, but to a whole new community, which we are falling in love with more every week! So here are some smiles and memories from our family in 2016!

January: I'm so thankful that Georgia 'winters' allow for exploring outside pretty much all year long! But we did have a couple days of snowflakes, too!

 



February: In February, we found out we would be moving to Macon. The kids and I took a trip to Greenville to see Emily, Silas & Judah!





March: March was a BIG month!! Family vacation to Myrtle Beach, getting our Hampton house ready to sell, trip to Iowa to see the Harriss family and Grandma Cheatum for Easter, ETC!!













April: In April, we moved to Byron, GA and said goodbye to our Hampton friends.









May: In May, we started getting settled in Byron, and enjoyed some first field trips in the Macon area!







June: In June, we finished up our school and did a lot of fun stuff at the library and $1 movies, and water fun!





July: In July, we took the whole month off of school to do LOTS of fun things!! Zachary passed his swimming lessons! The kids and I even got to take a trip to NY for Zachary to go to youth camp, and David celebrated his 5th birthday while we were there, staying with his grandparents Hart!























August: We came back from NY in August, and then got to take a family trip to see the Harts in New Jersey!













September: In September, we went back to school full-force, did some field trips and joined a homeschool co-op in our area which we have LOVED!! We also really started to get involved in New City Church and our MC group, who have meant so much to our family, especially while getting settled here!















October: October brought more school and I got to take a trip by myself to see my niece Ava and the Harriss family in Iowa!! We celebrated Halloween with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Harriss!













November: In November, we had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Hart, then we settled in, doing school, and celebrated Thanksgiving!













December: December is a busy month with TWO birthdays and Christmas!! Zachary turned 9 and Natalie turned 7! We enjoyed some holiday fun with friends and a short break from co-op classes! We finished up by celebrating Jesus' birth with our New City family!























Happy 2017 to all!! Praying for another year of smiles, different than the last!

Driven by Fear

How many of our daily decisions are driven by fear? In my reading tonight, this verse stood out to me:

Ezra 8:22-23 - For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” 23 So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.

To recap, Ezra had told the king that he and his men would go rebuild God's temple, and that in this process, the GOD of the universe would protect him against their enemies. Because of this testimony, Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for a protective guard on their dangerous journey. Instead, he fasted and prayed - asking God to protect them - why? So that GOD's name might be glorified in the eyes of this pagan king and his entire kingdom.

This brings me back to my initial question - how many of our decisions are motivated by fear? Have you heard anyone say that they’re voting for a particular candidate because they’re afraid of what will happen if the opposing candidate makes it into office? How about fear of allowing 'the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free' to find refuge in a nation where many of us have plenty to share? (Skittles, anyone?) Not to mention the inherent and even, at times, unconscious fear, prejudice and mistrust of anyone who looks different than us that is tearing our nation apart one heartbreaking hashtag at a time.

What does this kind of attitude communicate to our neighbors about the power of our God? How does it portray Him to the people we talk to every day?

Do we actually still serve the same GOD who closed the lion's mouths? The same GOD who protected Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fiery furnace? Where do we find our protection, our refuge?


In the midst of a culture that is saturated with fear, stress, and anxiety, a firm faith and quiet peace despite the incredibly uncertain circumstances that surround us WILL stand out. God will be glorified in the eyes of the whole kingdom when we choose to fast and pray and then step out in faith to follow HIM rather than trusting in 'all the king's horses and all the king's men' to make America great again.

Kidlet Hilarity #23

This issue of Kidlet Hilarity is 90% brought to you by David - ha! He is quite the hilarious guy, and very aptly named (David Isaac means beloved laughter.) Enjoy!

David thought we were going to skip reading the Bible, so he said, "But then we will shrink, shrink, shrink!" Another day, he yelled at Daddy, "Do you want to shrink, shrink, shrink?" because he thought we were skipping our prayer time! I guess those lessons from our Preschool Choir songs did sink in after all!

David pronounces the words 'trees' and 'cheese' exactly the same. The other day, I repeated or figured out something he said, and he responded, "Ebaskaly." I finally figured out he was saying 'exactly'! :)

David went to sit in his Daddy's lap, "because I've known you a long time, Mama."

Zachary, talking about Doritos- "I can't believe they can make corn into something that tastes this good."

David loves to talk about "When I was widdle" and "When I was two year olds."

Zachary: "I'm so impatient for my birthday to be here. I want you to order it on Amazon Prime."
Natalie: "Okay, then it will be here in two days."

David was pretending to work for the king, making him mud pies, "so I won't get put in the 'Dungeon of De'pair'".

David: "Your pizza looks so handsome, Mommy."

David singing the blessing at mealtime: "Almond, Almond" instead of "Amen, Amen." He actually thought the blessing ended with the word Almond for some reason! :)

After the almond incident, Zachary prayed and said, "God, thank You that David is so funny."

David calls lasagna 'wawanza'.

David: "Zachary, close your ears with your hands like this" as he puts his hands on his ears. Apparently he didn't want Zachary to hear what he had to say. :)

Natalie: "I can't decide between being a lead singer when I grow up, or an artist."
David: "I can't decide between being an artist, a zombie, or a policeman. Or an artist who draws zombies."

David calls Publix 'Pugwix'.

David gets really excited when he's the only one of the kids that's obeying, and he dances and sings this little song that goes, "I'm obeying right now! I'm obeying right now!"

Zachary saw that our cashier at our Aldi store had a name tag that said Emmanuel, so Zachary asked him if he was Emmanuel Sanders (a Broncos player). He was sweet about it, laughed and said, "No, wouldn't that be nice?" :)

David likes to say, "No way, Hay-zay!" when he's asked to do something.

One night David and I were playing some kind of game against Natalie, Zachary and Daddy, Something happened where Natalie got a minor injury, and so I was hugging her. David objected, saying, "Don't pat her! Her is on the other team!"

One day when someone other than David was having a moment (or throwing a fit), David looked right at them and announced, "Satan is happy now." :)

David, referring to my favorite pajama pants that Joel gave me for Christmas, "Mama, why you wear dese pants every night? They need to be washed!" :) You can tell he's heard that about his clothes, can't you?

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I went on a walk around the neighborhood - Natalie and David were riding their bikes, and Zachary chose to walk and talk with me, so we were walking behind the two of them. Natalie and David crested a big hill in front of us, and as Zachary and I approached the top of the hill, David came back up to us, with tears in his eyes. "Oh, David, did you get hurt?" I asked him. "No," he cried, "but Natalie did. She fell down, and someone is taking her!" Poor Natalie had fallen over on her bike, and a sweet neighbor who owns a golf cart and a kind teenage neighbor had helped her up and taken her to give her a ride home, and poor David thought she was being kidnapped - he was so upset!! She ended up with a scraped up hand and a sore wrist, but she was fine! The fact of how concerned David was just brought me to tears, though - he was such a good helper to come back and tell us! :)

Kidlet Hilarity #22

Zachary, looking down on the West Virginia mountains: "Wow, it looks like Google Earth!"

David got some sunglasses at a local event, and a few days later, they broke apart. I was going to throw them away, and he said, "You could duct tape them."

When David got his four-year-old shots, he was freaking out and kept yelling, "Her is poking me! Her is poking me!" I had to hold him down, which was awful.

David, after listening to the ABC song for preschool: "I will never sing with you." The next day, he sang the ABC song with the word Bad mixed in all through out and called it his Bad ABCs. :)

David comes in wearing just shorts, no shirt. "I'm not going to wear a shirt today", he announces.

I notice an odor coming from Zachary's feet during devotions one night, so I quietly say to him, "Zachary, you should change your socks before you go to bed." Natalie, sitting next to us, overhears, and chimes in, "Yeah, they stink! Pee-yew!"

Natalie has been wearing a glove to keep her from sucking her thumb. Today, she was walking around sucking the glove!

David: "What kind of pasta are we having? Chicken Buffido?" (Alfredo). :)

David: "Can I have some garlic bread, please pitty?"

I was teaching David from a worksheet about things that start with B. I pointed to a picture of a baby bottle and said, "What do babies eat from?" He answered, "Um, their mommies?" Me: "Well, yes. That's true. And this is a bottle." :)

David calls the clothes hamper a "hampry".

The kids ate whole apples for breakfast, and now they're in the backyard planting apple trees. Their genius plan is to plant them right next to the swingset, so they can swing up so high and grab an apple and then eat it. :)

David; "Mommy, dere a pider in my room! A tawantuwa!"

Zachary's Poems: Things in September
There's Judah's birthday, and there's Labor Day.
And oh, don't forget Mom's birthday!
Oh, the wonderful things in September.

David, helping me with breakfast: "I'll get the toaster. No worries."

David, knocking things over, "I'm a boze-dozer!"

Zachary, describing BW3's Asian Zing wing sauce: "It's like you're walking through Candy Land and boom! Suddenly, it's on fire!"

David says 'gwage' for garage.

When David hurts his ankle, he often says, "I hurt my nickel!" or "I hurt my nakle!" :)

Me: "Natalie, what did you learn about in Sunday School this morning?" Natalie: "We learned about somebody. I think his name was Minimesemus?" Me: ...... "Onesimus?"

David pretending to cook: "Here are the ga-redients."

Zachary, watching paintball at camp: "This is less exciting than I imagined."

David calls chipmunks 'chickamunks'.

Kidlet Hilarity #21

Natalie: "I just made up a Bible verse. Here it is. 'Those who panic lead to death, but those who don't panic lead to life.' I told God, and he said he would add it to the Bible." Oh, dear. :)

Zachary: "Where is the remote? Oh, here it is on the dining room table, where I LEAST expected it!"

David was feeling sick in the middle of the night, so he and I were sitting on the bathroom floor, bleary-eyed, having a conversation about something. Zachary woke up, and came in to use the bathroom. When he heard that David was sick, he sat down on the hand-washing stool by the sink and told David he was sorry. I asked David to go back to his room so that Zachary could use the bathroom, and David stood up, looked at Zachary for a minute, and with his best little grumpy tired face, he said, "Could you move?" Zachary and I both burst out laughing! :) He also told me later in the night that his stomach could be hurting because he ate dirt in the backyard!! Well, yes, that could be it...

David can count to 13 now, but the rest of his counting goes like this, "13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 26, 82, 86, 89, 90, 92, 96... I counted to 96!!" :)

David still doesn't pronounce some of his words clearly, and he gets so frustrated when we can't 'unner-nand' him! He says, "You don't unner-nand me!" Nope, we don't! Yesterday, he was trying to say what he wanted on his birthday cake. I knew it was trucks, because he had showed me the specific trucks that he wanted, but Joel kept guessing, "Socks?" David said, "No, CHUCKS!" until I finally translated. :)

When David says the words 'special' and 'pretzel', they sound exactly the same. 'Special pretzel' comes out like "Pessel Pessel".

Natalie: "What if we were all born with only one leg, like, what if that's how God made people, with just one leg? It would be hard to walk."

David, while cleaning his room: "How am I supposed to pick up this many stuff? I don't have a million hands. Only two. Two hands!!" Me: "Well, you can pick up one thing at a time, then another thing." David: "No, I have two hands. I can pick up TWO things at a time. One for each hand." Me: "Yes, I guess you can."

I heard David come inside while I was vacuuming, all excited. He said, "Mommy, look what we found outside!" He was holding a little white moth by the wing or leg or some part. Me: "Oh, a moth. Is it dead?" David: "Noooooo." Me: "Okay! It's very nice! Take it back outside if it's alive, and please don't bring live bugs in the house!" :) He also brought some kind of a grub to show me while I was working on the computer this week, and he set it on my desk. I was like, "No, thank you!!"

Natalie: "Good night, Mommy. I love you. You are the bestest Mommy in the world. But you are NOT perfect." Oh, so true.

David wore a life jacket in the pool the other day, and he kept calling it his 'jet pack'. The next day he asked if he could wear his jet pack in the bathtub! :)

Zachary discussing why his forearms were covered with red paint after painting a Ninja Turtles picture: "I bet Leonardo DaVinci was dirty after he painted the Mona Lisa". :)

Natalie drew a silly face on David's birthday banner, and when she finished, she put her hand over her mouth and started giggling. "Wow, that turned out way more silly than I even imagined", she said.

David woke up in the middle of the night, crying and needing a drink. I brought him ice water in a sippy cup, and he drank about half of it in one sip. "Oh", he sputtered, "Dis is a cold ice. I am freezed into pieces." In his half-awake state, with eyes just half open, it was especially hilarious! :)

Streets of Gold

My grandparents with Zachary at 10 months - October 2008

My Grandma passed from death to everlasting life during the night. I can't feel sad for her. I'm picturing her running, dancing, and hugging Jesus. She's with her Savior today! Don't get me wrong, I'm grieving for those of us left here on this earth, and I miss her, but I'm so glad for her. My grandma loved the color gold - jewelry, purses, clothes, shoes. Once, she even had a pair of jeans with gold threads woven through them. It makes me smile to know that she is enjoying the streets of gold all around her today! 

Earlier this week, I was praying for her and for my Grandpa and my parents, and God brought to my mind a phone conversation that Zachary had with my grandma about two years ago when she was first diagnosed with cancer. I remembered writing (but never publishing) something about it, and after some searching, I was able to find it and thought I would finally share:

"My Grandma was recently diagnosed with cancer.  They caught it early, a little spot on her lung.  They only need to do some targeted radiation, no chemo yet.  But still, cancer is a scary word.  A scary thing.

I’ve been meaning to call her.  The phone rings, and I am able to sit and talk a minute, amongst kids playing.  She tells me the ‘plan’, and how God has brought her through this far, and she trusts that He will bring her through again.  I manage, barely, not to cry while we’re talking. 

 

The kids want to talk.  I hand the phone to Zachary.  He talks about the stomach flu we’ve had, and what toys he’s been playing with, and then they talk about the cancer.  I know it seems weird that a five-year-old would know about cancer, and truthfully, he has no clue, but he knows that when you have cancer, you are sick.  We pray for our friends and family with cancer.  

“You have cancer?” he asks. “Taylor has cancer, and she has to take medicine that makes her more sick for a while, and it makes her hair come out.”  He listens to what Great-Grandma has to say.  I can’t hear her side of the conversation, but I assume she’s explaining about her upcoming radiation treatments.  Soon he responds, “You’re not scared?”  He listens again while she shares the faith that her 80-some years walking with God have brought her to.  And I try not to let him see me crying.  

We are so blessed to have this heritage, passing down this faith from generation to generation.  Lord, let me not neglect the relationships between myself, my children, and the older generations in our family.  Remind me of their importance, not only to encourage those older relatives, but in passing that wisdom and deep-seated faith to me and my family in the process.  

This conversation hit me once again and I was teary-eyed while singing the song, “How Great is our God” (by Chris Tomlin) in church this morning, and I knew I had to write about it.  Here are the lyrics that spoke to my heart:

Age to age He stands

And time is in His hands

Beginning and the end

Beginning and the end

How great is our God, sing with me

How great is our God, and all will see

How great, how great, is our God."

Grandma and Natalie at 4 months - April 2010

After hearing this week that my Grandma was so close to passing away, God gave me this verse to encourage my heart: "In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You, Lord, alone make me dwell in safety and confident trust." - Psalm 4:8. I know without a shadow of a doubt that my Grandma laid down in peace this week, and slept in safety and confident trust, and woke up in Jesus' arms, whole, in her brand new body! That picture is such an encouragement to me! I'm praying strength and encouragement for my Grandpa during this difficult time, and also for my parents with all the arrangements that need to be made. I know we would all appreciate your prayers! 

Grandma and Davey at 5 months - December 2011

 **Friends, if you don't know without a doubt what would happen if you passed away today, I'd love to talk with you about it! Is there really anything else that matters more than this??**