My Triad

Back before we rang in 2012, my dear loving husband told me - I mean downright insisted - that I take a few hours to myself to write down personal goals for this year and up to 5 years down the road. That sounded a lot overwhelming to me and not really a task I wanted to do. If I was given a few hours to myself I could definitely come up with a lot more interesting things to do (i.e., massage, pedicure, read a book, sleep). But because he asked so nicely (insisted so nicely), and because he equipped me with some nifty tools, this girl could not resist. The tools came in the form of a 1-hour long podcast, 5 printed pages of questions, and a spreadsheet. That was one of the most romantic things he has ever done! Really though, it showed me he still loves me a bunch and desires to hear my every thought and dream.

I took one afternoon to oblige my sweet Dearie. And amazingly I soon realized that I have some awesomely cool ideas for our family's future! I'm not trying to brag, but the ideas were cool to me because I didn't even realize they were trapped inside my head until I was commanded to go and think and ponder and record my thoughts. Wow! I still have thoughts in there, which proves I still have some brain cells after 4 consecutive pregnancies in a relatively short period of time.

Maybe one day I will share my ideas here, but I'm still a little shy about sharing them all. I have this weird fear of writing things down, or voicing them, if there is a slight chance they may not come true. It's this weird thought that I won't experience failure if I live in denial. I bet Freud would've loved to pick my brain! And, not to mention, my brother told me this past weekend that he could “virtually hear my brain shut out thoughts that were not black and white - there's no gray with you, is there Emily?!" Well, haha! Jokes on you because I have a daughter whose middle name is Gray! I like gray. I wear a lot of gray. I'm wearing it right now by the way. It's a great neutral color, but it's not a good color for thoughts most of the time.

Back to what I was saying...I completed my soul-searching, goal-setting homework assigned by my husband. One of the tasks was to fill in a spreadsheet schedule that was Sunday through Saturday, and broken into hourly increments for the full 24-hour day. Turns out my spreadsheet was completely full every day between the hours of 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. I allocated at least 9 hours for sleep, which rarely happens in succession. I soon realized that I really and truly have time for 3 main things in my life: husband, children, and Jesus. In order to put anything else on my spreadsheet would mean one of those three relationships would have to be compromised. I’m not cool with that. Hence, the Triad was born! Now, I screen things through my Triad. Do specific obligations help, or hinder, me being able to meet the responsibilities of my Triad? I only need to be devoted to three things: my husband, my kids, and my Jesus.

I appreciate my husband making me put it all into perspective. For now, I have a simpler way of screening what items should appear on my to-do lists. So next time someone requests my assistance, I will ask myself, “does it fit into my Triad?”

7 Years Old

Lily Bug, Happy 7th Birthday! This post comes a little late - 5 days late to be exact. I'm sorry you and the whole family have been so sick this past week. Definitely not a fun way to celebrate your big day. You are a beautiful young lady and we are so blessed by your fun creative spirit.

One Year!

Happy 1st Birthday, Little Miss Charlotte Gray!!! Today is your big day, sweet precious girl!

I am blessed beyond measure and revel in the abundant grace of God because He chose to place you in our care. I have the pleasure of kissing your sweet chubby cheeks each day. My heart overflows with joy when I hear your funny little giggle when your big brothers and sister act out something silly just for you. You do these funny arm flaps when you are excited, or when you see food. You love music and try to imitate it with a sweet sound - "da da dadada..." (it resembles the Darth Vader song. LOL). You love attention! You tilt your fuzzy little noggin to the side and give a sweet sideways grin at anyone who is watching. It's a definite attention-grabber no matter where we go. I love your dark hair, which is getting quite long now, and your expressive dark brown eyes. You study things closely and intently trying to figure out the world around you. You light up when Daddy comes home and gives you kisses. I love how you and your sister melt Daddy's heart.

Today, we all celebrated your birthday with dinner at Silver Spoon Cafe. You loved the bread with butter. Daddy couldn't shovel it into your mouth fast enough. You enjoyed a sampling of spaghetti and french fries. We topped it off with a peanut butter ice cream pie. And then, the most special thing happened! After I took you, Lily, Griffin and Schaeffer to the van while Daddy was waiting for our server to bring the check, a very kind-hearted lady stopped by to talk to Daddy. She said you and your brothers and sister were perfectly sweet together, well-behaved, and interacted so kindly toward one another. Daddy testified to God's grace and blessings in our lives. And when our server brought the check to our table, he explained that someone had paid for our entire meal because they said our children were so precious. Perhaps it was the lady who shared the encouraging words, or perhaps it was someone else. But we will always remember the kindness expressed on your very special day!

I pray that you grow into a lovely woman who loves, fears, and serves the Lord all the days of your life!

The Mystery of History

I have finally found it! I believe I have found a homeschool curriculum guide for leading classical, chronological, complete Christian world history lessons called The Mystery of History. So many curriculum guides in this area are tedious, complicated, and time-absorbing leaving little time for other things such as phonics and math...and being a kid. So what's cool about this curriculum guide is that it gives simply laid-out history lessons with suggested activities for varying age levels. For the younger students, the suggested activities are very hands-on and fun. We all can get excited about that! We have the flexibility to pause and further explore a time period and/or culture with library books and Scripture. At this point I'm probably way more pumped about these lessons than Lily and Schaeffer. I get to learn history in its proper perspective for the first time in my life (no thanks to my public school education). The best way to teach HIS-story is by telling it as the story of God and man so that kids have an understanding of why we are here. It only makes sense to tell the story from the perspective of the Sovereignty of God and His providence in our lives. And to top of this really great find, I happened upon it at a used curriculum sale. God is still in the business of showering down blessings!

Get Biblical in 2012

Wondering how your role as a woman or man lines up with God's glorious plan? Check out the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW) for some no-fluff articles and resources. I could spend hours on this website.

One of my favorite articles from CBMW is A Call To Family Worship. Grab a cup of coffee before you dive in because this one is very long but very well worth reading. Grab a notepad too because I promise you there are many take-aways from this article that'll you want to jot down.

The article mentioned above actually led BJ and me to Sojourn Kids and the family worship resources they make available there. The Sojourn Kids Family Worship Guide has done an excellent job of compiling a list of books and ideas for leading children's devotion/Bible time at home.

Now that our month-long Christmas celebration has come to an end, BJ is gearing up to launch a new study series to teach Lily and Schaeffer (and Griffin and Charlotte if they are willing to stick around) the basic doctrines of the Christian faith starting with "How do we know God is real when we can't see him?" I'm excited to learn along with them!

Daughters, A Must-Read!

If you are a daughter, have a daughter, know a daughter, have a son who will marry a daughter then you must read this amazing article about modesty. The readers' comments below the article are enlightening as well. Many of us have probably missed the mark on this issue with ourselves and with teaching our daughters (and sons).

I used to believe modesty was a balance somewhere between pride and shame. I thought you should find a happy medium, a point where you aren't focusing so much on your appearance that it becomes pride (trying to earn favor with God through dress). But also not being motivated by fear of my femininity and trying to cover it up out of shame. I've probably spent a great deal of my days contemplating the midpoint on the modesty continuum. If on the modesty axis Pride is point X and Shame is point Y, then we are not even on the right axis. Turns out, modesty is not about finding a happy medium between those two points of sin, because it's not a point at all. But rather, it's the whole graph - it's about the glory of God! The aim in modesty should be to minimize our own glory, and direct focus on the Glory of God who is in all things, above all things, and creator of all things. Should it surprise me that it's about the glory of God? No. But sometimes we all get our motives off course and need a friendly nudge to get back on course.

Christmas Traditions

Traditions are such a neat concept. As a parents we hope to kick off some worthy traditions in our homes. But, what and how things end up sticking around is such a mystery. It's hard to say what we'll be doing 5 years from now...or even in 2 years. So for now we are test-driving some possible new Christmas traditions for our family.

It all began with my hope that we could celebrate Christmas all month long! Our family loves to celebrate birthdays, and who better to celebrate than Santa?! I'm joking of course! I lucked up when I found a downloadable advent calendar geared for young kids. I love finding resources where all the planning is already done for me (and free is a huge bonus). We haven't done all the activities listed on the calendar, but we have done quite few and we've tailored it to our family. The daily scriptures have been awesome in guiding our devotion time. BJ is heading up this time for the kids in the evening since they have to hear me talk all day. I didn't want this to fall into the category of "just another homeschool lesson lead by Mom." We want it to be (more) special. Not to mention, my brain is fried crispy by the end of the day and BJ can step in with a fresh new zeal (that word doesn't get used enough these days).

We are also making an advent paper chain. I can't remember where I saw this idea, but I loved it! Each night, after we read the scripture passage, Lily and Schaeffer decorate a strip of paper to be added to a paper chain (2 kids x 25 nights = 50 chain links). My addition to this activity: Box up the paper chain after Christmas and break it out next Dec 1 to begin adding to it again. Griffin will probably be old enough to participate next year (3 kids x 25 nights = 75 chain links). In 18 years we will have quite the paper chain - possible entry into the Guinness Book of World Records! Nonetheless, it'll be fun getting the paper chain out each year and looking at the links with their drawings and writings on each one.

Who says all the Christmas fun has to be focused on Santa? Jesus is the most awesome, exciting man who ever walked on earth! I cannot think of a better way to celebrate this magical season than to make it all about HIM!