It’s been an interesting month and a half so far. I’ve mentioned our renovations on the blog, but it seems life is far from normal.

Zach and I decided to leave home and forge our own journey during the renovations, to keep him away from the dust. We returned home to some stunning changes to our upstairs, including a beautiful new pantry and laundry closet, plus the removal of a wall we really didn’t like having in the first place.

The result was amazing- like it should have been the original design!

It was after that when our luck started to change. As Zach and I returned home, a spigot broke, causing a pipe to flood our basement. And I mean FLOOD it.

Power Dry came and dried it out. Then Rainbow came and stored our stuff. And then the process of contractors vs. insurance began.

There were, of course, good parts to our month.

Like a trip to Silver Dollar City for my grandmother’s birthday!

There were also rough days…

Like getting 8 teeth at once, to the point where we’re practically delirious from it.

We got our hands dirty…

…and we cleaned up our act.

Open Cup Qualifiers happened… and were WON!

….and cars broke down. Yes, cars. Two of them.

And our sunroom leaked.

And we worked to cleanup after all of the problems that were happening.

After a month and a half of ups and downs, things were starting to look up, maybe a little bit.

Then this happened this morning. And the company is being a real bear about fixing it.

 

At this point, I’m starting to wonder if it will ever end, and if our lives will ever get back to normal. Some days are good, some days are a real struggle. I worry about my erratic posting schedule, and I wonder if things will ever be repaired, put back together, everything in the place it should be.

And, maybe someday, it will be. Until then, I’ll see you when I see you! (Seriously, though, I’ll try to get some more yummy recipes and fun educational activities as soon as possible!)

Do any of you remember that old episode of the Brady Bunch? The one where they are going to record the song, but Peter starts going through puberty and they can’t record the song as planned (oh no!) Instead of panicking, in true Brady fashion, the kids decide to make lemons out of lemonade, and this lovely gem is the result:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyooALwfxO8]

Well, voices changing aside, my family has decided to take the song to heart, recognizing that it is time for a lot of changes.

You see, we’ve lived in this house for 22 years(!) and to be honest, it still hasn’t quite started looking like a home. From our shambled furniture assembled from this purchase and this gift, to the many layers of daycare-inspired paint choices, it just hadn’t shaped into our dream house.

For years, my mother and I have gone to every home tour that we possibly could, scouring through dozens of beautiful model homes and finding details in each one that we liked, and things we disliked. So, this year, it came time for us to make some serious decisions. We made a list of everything we wanted in our ultimate dream house. Then, we began visiting homes to see if we could find a house that fit our needs, in our budget. We also began considering what changes would need to be made to our current house to make it our dream house if we decided to stay.

After about a month of house hunting, we realized that every house in our budget was just as far away from being a dream home as our home was, so after a good amount of prayer and consideration, we decided to stay put.

 

Now, cue the Brady Song.

Just because we decided to stay, didn’t mean there weren’t still a whole flock of things we wanted out of a dream home that our home just didn’t have. It was time to start making those dreams a reality, going from room to room until everything was what it needed to be.

After dozens of contractors giving bids (some even walking away, saying “I can’t do it.”) we finally started making some serious decisions. Some rooms just needed a paint job and a decor change. Others needed entire renovation projects that would take a skilled contractor to complete. Each of them would take our house one step closer to being that home.

If my blog posts have seemed sporadic lately, it’s because they are. Many times, lately, there will be a contractor standing in my photoshoot area. I’d say half the time I am working from my second office (the coffee shop) instead of home. Bear with me, because you guys are going to witness some of the amazing home changes firsthand.

But honestly, everyone, it’s time to change.

 

Are you making some changes in your life? Tell me all about them below! Maybe you’re doing some spring cleaning? Starting a new hobby? Dropping an old habit? What is your big change of the moment?

Oh, and also comment below to let me know if you totally hate me or totally love me for getting those sha-na-na-nas stuck in your head!

Last night, my family sat around the television as a family. It seems a rare opportunity, anymore, for us to really sit together as a family to watch the same program, but this was important.

As many people know, a major television event came to the History Channel last night, and in case you didn’t know, I’m telling you now, because you have time still to catch the rest of the miniseries.

I’ll hush for a few minutes and let you watch this trailer…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcJcmm-SEK0]

It’s powerful. It really is, to see stories you see so many times on paper, brought to a really, incredibly visual medium. This five-week miniseries has a 2 hour long episode each week, which is really like making the stories of the Bible into 5 movies.

It’s been produced by Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, a husband and wife duo that are household names, at least in my family. Come on, who doesn’t love  a little Survivor every now and then? The final episodes set to air are on Easter Sunday… featuring the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Before I became a mother, I thought I understood the Bible. I thought the stories in the Bible resonated with me. I could understand how hard it was for Abraham to know God was asking him to sacrifice Isaac, and I understood how hard it was for Moses’ mother to put him in that basket, and even how hard it was for Pharaoh’s wife when he was gone. I knew, logically, the emotions these people must have felt, Abraham putting his trust in God, and everyone with their stories.

But it wasn’t until I had Zach that I emotionally understood the full grasp of these Biblical stories.

It wasn’t until I had my son Zach, and re-read the story of Abraham that I questioned if I had the faith to give my son as a sacrifice to God. Sure, I can say “God, I’m giving you my son, do your will with him,” and promise to teach him the Word. But could I do what Abraham did? Could I tie my son to that rock, lift my dagger in the air, knowing that if God didn’t send that lamb, my son would have to take his place?

I don’t know. Just thinking of it makes me well up with tears. Just feeling that story tug at my heart makes me feel weak and powerless.

But that isn’t what God intended. I believe that story is an amazing story that really helps us see the story of the Lamb of God, Jesus. Think about it… without him, we are destined to pay for the sins we’ve committed, and the sins that have been a part of our lives since the fall, alllllllllll the way back to the very first people. Without that, there’d be no sacrificial lamb. There would be nothing to take the place of that blood sacrifice. Every parent would essentially know that their child’s blood had to be spilled to pay that price, that on judgement day, they’d not have a pardon. But Jesus died. And if we accept that, if we ask him into our hearts, HE becomes that sacrifice. HE takes over for our sin. HE is that lamb that shows up, to take our place so we don’t have to. As a daughter, it makes me want to hug my mother, and say “Thank you for teaching me about God’s Word, so I could know, and understand how Jesus took MY place on that Cross.” As a mother, it is a personal challenge to me to teach my son about what Jesus did for us, how he DIED for us, to become that Lamb.

You all know that lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Christina Perri songs. I shared one on Valentine’s day, when I talked about how I felt that I had loved Zach for so much longer than just his lifetime, that I waited for him, every moment, waiting for that time when he would finally be mine, and that my love for him will never, ever fade.

But there’s another song that really resonates with me, one line from a song, specifically, called Arms. Christina, in that song, is talking about how she didn’t ever expect for this person to be a part of her life so much, but that she truly feels that this person is TRYING to reach her. And at one part she says the following:

I can’t look at a picture of Jesus on the cross, arms outstretched, without feeling this exact sentiment echoed through my mind.

God is wrapping his arms around us. CLEARLY.

Her line after the first chorus goes something like this:

“How many times will you let me change my mind and turn around? I can’t decide if I’ll let you save my life or if I’ll drown. I hope that you see right through my walls. I hope that you’ll catch me, because I’m already falling. I’ll never let our love get so close. You put your arms around me and I’m home.”

I feel like, even if Christina is talking about a lover here (and I don’t know if she is or not), this so resonates with how I feel about my walk with God. I feel like I run away… and come back. And run away… and come back. And I feel like, every single time, God is there to catch me. He’s right there. He could let me drown. Easily, he could just say “Forget it, babe. I’m done.” But he doesn’t. He’s consistently there to save me, to reach his hands out and say “Come here, child. Come here. Come home.”

Even when I try to never let him in, He is RIGHT THERE.

There’s this saying I’ve heard for ages. It says, “If you feel distant from God… who moved? Was it him, or was it YOU?” And that’s true. God is right there. If there’s distance, it’s because I’ve put it there.

I’ve strayed a lot from what I intended to say, but sometimes, in a post, I just have to go with what my heart is saying, rather than what my outline of my post says.

 

Here’s how I’m going to wrap this up:

1. God isn’t putting distance between you and He. He’s right there. He’s staying right there. He’s willing to put his arms around you… but you have to ACCEPT that, ACCEPT Him, and stop running away. (I’m speaking to myself on this one. If it happens to strike a chord with you, that’s a TOTAL bonus).

2. If you want a free 8×10 printable version of the quote/image I put above, you can download it from my 4shared account here. With it being an 8×10, it’s perfectly sized for framing if you’re wanting to keep it where you can easily remember.

3. WATCH The Bible Miniseries on History Channel, Sunday nights at 8pm Eastern Time. It is so worth your time. Please watch it. If you missed last night’s first two episodes (The Beginning and The Exodus), they are being rebroadcast TONIGHT on Lifetime and again on WEDNESDAY night on The History Channel. I urge you to check local listings to find the times for your area’s showing. Invite friends and family, and make it an event. Share it with people who may not know the Word of God, as well as those who do. It is an incredibly EXCITING film. I will warn that it is considered PG-13 viewing and parents should be cautioned accordingly.

4. Unable to watch it on Television? The History Channel will have DVDs of the series available on April 2nd.

5. Not sure about Roma Downey and Mark Burnett? Here’s a list of advisors to the project: Rick Warren, Erwin McManus, Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, Sam Rodriguez, Paul Eshleman, Bobby Gruenewald, Brad Lomenick, Leith Anderson, Frank Wright, Tom Peterson, Geoff Tunnicliffe, Gabe Lyons, Luis Palau, George Wood, Craig Groeschel, Denny Rydberg, and Andrew Benton. These are people literally from a wide range of denominations, backgrounds, and Christian faith perspectives.

 

It’s life changing, guys. It really is. Did you tune in last night? Share what you thought below! Planning to tune in? Let me know!

As the end of the week crept closer and closer, it seemed like each forecast would get more and more dramatic, more intense. Predictions of snow only a few inches deep swiftly started increasing, up to 15 inches possible for our viewing area.

You see, we don’t really get snow snow. I mean, we get snow, but… not like this. We’ll get an inch or two here, a few inches there. The most recent large snow I remember was considered a blizzard… and we totaled 6 inches.

But yesterday, with snow that wasn’t supposed to start until 9, 9:30 in the morning, we were looking to get a lot more. I think Zach sensed something was different about the day, since he woke up with a start before 9am. As we headed out of bed, towards windows, we saw the snow was already piling high, close to surpassing the totals of our last “blizzard” before it was even supposed to start.

It snowed. And snowed, and snowed, and snowed. Businesses closed early. People were stranded in their cars for hours.

Before 11, it was knee deep.

By the end of the day, snow totals ended up reaching 13 inches.

Schools preemptively closed for today, early in the evening yesterday.

But there was one request, after seeing the snowfall, that I knew we wouldn’t get through the day without.

Ice cream.

But not just any ice cream. SNOW ice cream.

I grew up on this recipe. My mother grew up on this recipe. A large snow never passes without at least a few servings of snow ice cream. After all, the ingredients are simple, and it’s all “to taste,” so anyone can make it.

You start with a large, very large, bowl of snow. Make sure there’s room to mix, and make sure you have more snow than you think you’ll need… it’ll melt down.

Add sugar and vanilla extract, then add milk until the snow packs. Taste it. When it tastes sweet and creamy, you’ve got the right amount of everything. Don’t worry if you add too much of the ingredients… just scoop up some more snow and you’ll be back on track.

The finished result will taste just like it should– like a light, creamy, airy version of ice cream. One that has a specific, very snowy flavor to it.

You can always drizzle it with chocolate, but even me, the chocoholic, wonders why anyone would ruin perfectly good snow ice cream by adding anything else to it.

Then, share.

Or don’t… 😉

I can barely remember a time in my life when I did not struggle with anxiety.

One of my earliest memories of my horrible anxiety was when I was younger, probably around the age of 10, when my mother was hospitalized due to problems with her gallbladder. Because of how close my mother and I’s relationship was, this was especially hard on me. To help get my mind off of things, my grandparents did what they thought would be the best thing to do, and that was to take me on a vacation to Wyoming. To this day, as much as I remember the fun things that I was able to do during that trip, and I have many hilarious memories from it, I still get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I recall making a phone call to my mother from a pay phone outside of Walmart during our trip. As the phone began to tell me that it would disconnect if I didn’t insert more money, I started to panic. My grandparents scrambled for change, trying to help me finish my call, but I remember yelling into the phone “I love you!” just after the phone had disconnected. I panicked, thinking “My mom didn’t hear my say I love her. What if the last words she ever hears from me weren’t ‘I love you?'” Even writing about this experience has me with tears in my eyes, and all I want to do is run to the other room and hug my mother.

Separation anxiety plagued me; it was physically traumatizing for me to be far from my family, and I would feel ill if I hung up the phone without an “I love you.” As time went on, I started to outgrow some of that anxiety, but when I got pregnant, a lot of my anxiety returned.

Another memory of my anxiety attacks showed up during my pregnancy. My then-fiance had taken me to a restaurant, and we were waiting to be seated. There were many people who were standing in the doorway waiting to be seated, and I began to get nervous. The exit was crowded with people; I felt surrounded, overwhelmed, like there was no escape from the room. I started to overheat, a combination of nerves, the heat of the restaurant, and the sheer number of people around me. At once, with no explanation, I bolted from the restaurant, running outside into the winter chill, and leaned against the hood of his car. I totally lost it; I dissolved into tears, got physically sick, and couldn’t bring myself to go back inside. I just felt horrible. My anxiety had gotten the best of me, again, and we weren’t even able to eat.

When my son was born, I had a pretty traumatizing situation with my heart, going into heart failure and cardiac arrest during childbirth. Without a skilled medical team, my mother’s insistence that the hospital continue to monitor me, and God on my side, I likely wouldn’t have survived my son’s birth. After his birth, my anxiety hit me like a ton of bricks, yet again. I couldn’t stand to be away from him. Because of my heart condition, I had to undergo extra tests, x-rays, and more, just to ensure that my heart would function suitably for my release, and to make sure that the fluid on my lungs was receding. This meant that every once in awhile, they would have to take me out of the room so I could get some tests done. Couple that with the fact that my son occasionally had to be taken to the nursery, just for his own immunizations, circumcision, and other baby-related things, and I was in full-fledged panic. Yes, after having a baby, some of this is normal, but it got to the point where I would shake uncontrollably from my anxiety. One time, as they wheeled me down to get x-rays, one of the x-ray technicians actually had to get an assistant to hold me still, just to ensure they could get the x-ray, because I was shaking so badly.

During these anxiety attacks, I couldn’t control my situation at all. My panic was deep-seated, and it was much more than I could handle on my own. I wished beyond all hope that my anxiety would fade, that I could get over it, the way so many people encouraged me to. After all, it was all in my head, these thoughts of panic and uncertainty. So why, then, were they so overwhelming? Why did I have such violent physical reactions to such “imaginary” issues?

To this day, I still don’t know exactly what caused such intense anxiety. I don’t know how my struggle with anxiety will be in the future. I do know that God is placing something very specific on my heart right now, though.

Every year, as one year comes to a close and I stand on the threshold of the year to come, just waiting for that door to swing open, I stop to consider what God is laying on my heart. The other day, when shopping with my mother and grandmother, I found a ring. This ring really impacted me on a very deep level, and I knew that it had to be the verse that would guide me through 2013. The ring was inscribed with a verse, Philippians 4:6.

God says not to be anxious. He says to cast all of those cares on him, to let him be in control of the situation. He says that, through prayer, we can be relieved of those things that are causing us to be anxious.

While I know that I will still struggle with my anxiety, I also know that focusing on Philippians 4:6 throughout 2013 will help me in my continued fight against my anxiety.

In order to remind myself of this verse, I designed the printable above to make sure that I could always have it in a visible place, so I could remember exactly what is weighing on my heart. But then, I realized that this verse may touch my readers, as well. It is designed to be printed to fit an 8×10 frame, and I’ve made it in four different versions: KJV, NIV, NLT, and The Message. If you click on the words below that say “Download this Printable,” you will be taken to a 4shared page where you can click download. From there, you can look in your downloads folder or wherever downloads appear on your computer, and located it. Right click on the file, and hit “Extract All” or something similar, and you’ll be able to extract them, select the version you want, and print it. Then, it’s ready for framing. You also have full permission to take the file and have it printed from a photo printer (or someplace like Walmart) if you desire a photo-quality print.

Download This Printable

 

Do you have a specific verse that is guiding you into 2013? I’d love to hear it, so please share below in the comments! And let me know what you think of the printable I designed above!

Last Friday, we got our first official snow of the season, just in time for getting us all into that Christmas spirit. We had been looking forward to snow, and when it finally arrived, we were thrilled! The day started out with the older kids sledding.

It was Nicolas’s first experience with snow, since Bolivia doesn’t get much of the powdery stuff. The fun part was that it was also his first snow day, but beyond that, it was his very last day of school! Since he’s only a semester student, he won’t be returning to school after Christmas break, which means that his very last chance to go to school here was foiled by the exciting event of his very first snow day!

They were out sledding and snowboarding until they could hardly feel their faces!

Our guest for a few days, Raisa, from Spain, had a blast in the snow, too!

Since the winter air was much too cold to take Zach out in, we decided to bring the snow inside to him!

I grabbed a plastic shoebox and put several scoops of the clean snow inside, then brought it indoors for Zach to explore. He was able to feel the cold snow, and pack it into a snowball. We talked about the snow using many descriptive words, saying that it’s very cold, that it’s white, and that it can be powdery. We talked about how snow was from outside, and it often came in the winter.

When his hands would get a little too cold, he’d wipe them on his pants, then walk away for awhile, but he kept coming back to play for awhile.

He would even carry the bin from room to room with him!

After the older kids had warmed up a little bit from their sledding in the morning, they headed back outside to jump on the trampoline.

Then, they all ran and jumped into the hot tub!

My photos got annoying, clearly, because they threatened to snowball me!

I was so thrilled that we were able to get that touch of snow before the Christmas holiday. Even though it’s all melted away now, it was nice while it lasted, and really helped to give me that last boost of Christmas spirit.

Because it’s Christmas, and I want to spend time celebrating Christ with my family, I’ll be away from the blog for a few days, but I’ll be back later on in the week. I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas and blessed holiday season, snow or no snow. Stay cozy!