Moved!

We moved Wednesday and Thursday.  Exhausted.  Excited.  I hope the new family in our old house is as blessed as we were to live there.  Our new(30yr old) home is awesome, complete with big trees, a huge mini-rose bush, and lots of fun remodel projects.  Will be posting pics at some point and hoping a brilliant person out there will give some tips(my sis Melody already offered a few).  Back to my research paper. We still have no internet hookup at the new house so I'm in Mike's office working.

PINK Impact recap

This will be a short recap of PINK Impact conference for women at Gateway Church.  I'm drowning in moving "to do" lists and have about 20 peer-reviewed journal articles to read for my paper due Sunday(can you say Great Timing?).
Above is a short video clip I took with my phone of the closing song.  Cody Carnes and Kari Jobe was magnificent worship leaders--as always!
The first night was Perry Noble(pastor of NewSpring Church).  He talked about the struggles common to all women and was stinkin' hilarious!  My favorite quote was "Pinterest is porn for women because you are looking at something you can never have".  So true---the beautiful kitchens and yards get me depressed when I look at them on Pinterest. I couldn't attend Tuesday's sessions.  Wednesday morning was what I've been waiting for all year__CHRISTINE CAINE baby!  Oh, she is magnificent!  I wrote down every word she said, which is super hard because she is surely ADHD and speaks a zillion words a minute.  What a story, what a miracle God has and is doing in her life, what a testimony, what a sister who can preach it girl. You can read about her ministry to end human trafficking HERE
Some of her quotes:
    When He's ready to do a miracle, Jesus starts with YOU.  Some of us need a "but-ectomy"  We keep saying "but God..." to what he wants to do
Talking about the story of feeding the 5000 men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish
Jesus didn't ask what they didn't have(as in how much money, how many resources etc)--he asked what they had already.  Jesus is unable to multiply what you don't recognize--in other words, he could multiply the boy's 5 loaves and 2 fish because the boy presented the little he had to Jesus(I LOVE that point!)
We devalue what we DO have already...if you don't sow the seed, you end up aborting the potential of what you do have.  Guess what,?  The 5 loaves and 2 fish was never going to be enough.  Jesus blessed what was never going to be enough.  Do we sometimes curse our "not-enoughs"  Personal side note here:  I hear people do this all the time as in, I can't adopt, I don't have enough money..room in my house...room in my schedule...  
It was the little boy, who wasn't even counted in the census of the 5000 men, that was used by Jesus to do the miracle
Guess who packed that boy's lunch?  A mother. The seemingly insignificant, boring tasks you do everyday--all the small things add up!
Most of the things we ask God a miracle for are really mismanagement issues:  stop eating Krispy Kremes and get on a treadmill, stop spending more than you make!
The strength to feed the multitude doesn't come form our gifts and talents, but in the broken pieces of what we have...The miracle of multiplication was in the breaking
The very thing the enemy has been using to keep you down is the thing God will use to bring life and freedom to others
40,000 kids die every day from preventable diseases...do we REALLY need another cookbook on how to cook chicken? 
THE SAME GOD WHO TOOK THE "NOT ENOUGH" IS THE SAME GOD WHO MAKES IT "MORE THAN ENOUGH"  
So, who's with me next year??

the 3 R's

Earth Day is Monday so this is a post in honor of Earth Day. There is a cute song about the 3R's "Reduce Reuse Recycle" by the phenomenal Jack Johnson(one of Carter's musical heroes).  It makes me smile when I hear it. I'm an earth momma wanna be.  No really, I was into recycling before it was cool.  As a senior in highschool, I tried to get my boss to start recycling.  Of course, we lived in a small town in Texas--ain't gonna fly!  My parents were always near-hippies(you can read their blog about their new adventure www.nottoooldforanewadventure.blogspot.com) and we reworked everything, never buying new! We sewed, shopped resale, dad used veggie cans as pain containers, ate whole wheat banana pancakes in the early 80's, and other such nonsense :)


Fast forward 23 years and I'm still into being a little crunchy granola.We currently recycle.  Our little suburb is shameful and has no recycle program incoorporated with the trash pick up.  We have a bin in the garage for recyclable items and every 3 weeks I take it to the center(my little boys enjoy going to the "cycle center").  Personally, taking care of the treasures God created is something a Christian should do.  God made this beautiful creation and we should be caretakers--not ravishly consume and spit out trash.
As Mike and I get ready to move, we are looking at what we can re-purpose for the "new" house.  Abby's nightstand is actually the one my sister and I grew up with.  It has been every color under the sun.  I spray painted it last week.  And Mike found an antique mirror frame(sans the mirror) at a cool shop in his hometown.  He painted it the same color as the nightstand and then painted in the board with chalkboard paint.

Know what else I'm so pumped about??? No HOA rules and 1 acre with trees.  I am going to have a laundry line!  Cannot wait to smell fresh clothes flapping in the wind ;)  And, next spring...a garden.  My friend Jenny has a lovely raised-bed garden and I want one also. 
Okay, I'm off to see Christine Caine speak at Gateway Church this morning.  LOVE me some Chris Caine.  I'll give a recap of what she says in a few days.  In the meantime, remember the 3 "R"s

Big time stuff happening around here

Big weekend around here!  Last night was a Take the Mic performance at the downtown eatery.  Carter and his friend Nick totally KILLED it!  Above is a video of him and Nick playing a song Carter wrote. The crowd loved them.  Hard for a momma to watch and be humble and gracious.  I want to stand up and say "That's MY son..the one that is the best in the west!".  Certainly, we realize his gift is from the Lord Jesus and we had not one thing to do with this.
Then, today was Jr/Sr Banquet, our school's equivalent to a prom.  I don't have permission from the girl's parents, so I won't show her on the blog.  But, here is Carter dudded up in his tux--complete with tails, pocketwatch, and Mickey Mouse vest/bowtie.  That boy marches to the beat of his own drummer.

Last week, a friend gave Mike 2 tickets to the Ranger's game.  He took the princess of the fam and she had a ball.  Nellie Cruz is her fav (the rest of us love David Murphy--AND--his walk out song is Kings and Queens by Audio Adrenaline "boys will be kings, girls will be queens, wrapped in  Your majesty, when we love, when we love the least of these"--he is a man of integrity!). Mike and Abby splurged and ate a boatload of nachos out of a pink baseball helmet.  Good times!

Today was the first time I got to watch Hudson play soccer(thanks to my lame work schedule lately).

He tried really hard.  Let's just say, physical exertion is not his cup of tea ;)

Oh, we MOVE April 25th.  Finally, that sweet older home with trees and space will be ours.  If anyone has tips on updating a 30yr old home on a shoestring budget, pass them along please.

Pray for the North

I've taken all the crazy rhetoric from North Korea's new(and very young) leader in stride.  They've been blowing smoke for years! But, I'm worried now.  Please pray for peace and a solution.  You may not realize this, but technically, North and South Korea are still lat war and have been for over 50 years.  That peninsula holds a  huge piece of me.  3 of our 4 babies were born there.  I've been there 4 times.  Mike, Abby, and I have stood at the DMZ looking into North Korea through binoculars. War will be devastating to millions.  Please join me in prayer!

Elisha's eyes

I want to have eyes like Elisha.  Have you ever read the book in the Bible of 2 Kings?  Miracle after crazy miracle! It is so cool because 1 Kings focuses on BOO-COD (the anacronym our former Sunday School teacher used for the Biblical concept of "Blessings of obedience--Consequences of disobedience).
I use a "read the Bible through in a year" program and the past several days I've been reading through 2Kings.  Blows me away with the stories of how God takes care of Elijah and Elisha(Scripture calls them the men of God).  One of my fav stories is when a troop of men from a neighboring country have come for Elisha.  They are ticked at him because he receives words from the Lord that help Isreal defeat Aram.  Elisha's servant opens the door of their home and freaks out when he sees the large troop of soldiers coming for them.  Elisha says this:

So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

The horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha were God's protection.  Elisha saw with spiritual eyes.  His servant only saw with physical eyes.  His servant was focusing on the huge feat that he and his master could never overcome on their own.  He was scared silly!  Elisha could see beyond the physical circumstances and knew God would take care of them.

When Mike and I face circumstances that appear impossible to our natural eyes(we have many times before and will many times in our future), I pray the Holy Spirit will open my eyes to see things the way Elisha saw them.