Another Happy Mother's Day

                                                                                                                                                     Had another great Mother's Day! I remember my 'first' Mother's Day, I was just a couple of months pregnant with my first. Also got to go to a Mother's Day Tea that year at church. Sweet memories, but LOVE being where I am in motherhood. Sure, I do the pouty lip to John whenever the baby thing comes up, but I actually love the stage we are in. And my babies are awesome. :)

So, see my beautiful delightful breakfast pic above? Pretty, huh? (Thanks, hunny!) And my babies brought me breakfast and treasures in bed. They all sat on the bed with me and jostled for my attention to see what they had for me. Cards and made in school treasures. Then the tradition is to ask for bites from my tray, even though there is the same aplenty in the kitchen, as Daddy tries to tell them over and over again. "Don't eat Mommy's, there is more in the kitchen. Watch out! Don't spill Mommy's juice!" It's quite comical. Then we all got cleaned up and headed to Billings for the day. It was fun! We made an ice cream stop... Mmmmm. One rule in Billings, we don't eat anything we have in Miles City... which, believe me, doesn't narrow down the choices by much at all. HA!

And what I know, is that anything my sweet children love in me or think is lovely about me is only in the places and ways that Christ shines through me, all glory to Him alone. Thank You, my Beloved Savior. 

"I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:18,19)

"Mommy, I picked these for you!"

 

It has begun, the flowers (and weeds) are blooming and we have cups of them sitting on the counter and they are being refreshed almost every day. 

I LOVE that I get to be the mommy. My babies come to me with their treasures and almost every time they have been outside, they bring a handful of flowers... to me. To me! I get to be the recipient of the beauty they find. I love that. I love that I get to be these amazing creations of God's mommy. I also love that they don't know the flowers they bring are ...(shhh) weeds, and that Daddy is trying to kill them. Who decided to put a flower in the weed catagory anyway?! It is so sweet that they are so surprised a few hours later when the dandelions don't look so pretty anymore and are closed up. "Mommy, why are they dying?" Phoebe asked Daddy if she could plant hers in some dirt so they would live, and when he told her no because they don't have roots, next time she picked a little deeper and brought me flowers with roots! :) 

I think it has been a while since Jacob has brought me dandelions, but he did bring me the sprig laying in front of the jar, it has some beautiful, tiny, pink blossoms on it.  And, another step in the passage of time, (I will not interject the word 'sadly' in there, I refuse to let his growing up into the man God intends to be called a sad thing! *sniff*) Nate doesn't bring me flowers anymore, I don't know when he stopped, maybe this is the first year, or maybe I just finally realized. But that is just fine. He is so amazing, I adore him. And I get to be his mom. :) 

Did I mention that I love that?!

LIFE CHANGES AND GOD IS SO GOOD!!!

Bountifully....

Psalm 119:17 says, "Deal bountifully with Thy servant, that I may live and keep Thy word."

Bountifully~

In my quiet time this a.m., I was talking this bountiful scripture over with my sweet, bountiful Lord, and realizing how I can neither "live" nor "keep His word" without His bountiful dealings with me. And that He has. If bountiful didn't already mean:

liberal in bestowing gifts, favors, or bounties; munificent; generous. abundant; ample.

 (Don't you love it when you look up a word and then you have to look up a word in the definition of the first word that you looked up?! That does happen to other people besides just me, right? Humor me and tell me that has happened to you, please?! HA! I had to look up "munificent" and it means; extremely liberal in giving; very generous. characterized by great generosity: a munificent bequest ....Hm. Anyone know what 'bequest' means? Ah, well, this could go on and on... nevermind. Back to the point...)

You don't need to, nor can you, expand on 'bountiful!' I mean, come on, it is defined by 'munificent!' WOW!

So, further into my morning, His bountiful dealings are all that I can think about. Beautiful bounty all around me...

I pray that I will never lose sight of His bountiful dealings with me. And, Beloved, I pray that you are able to see how He has dealt bountifully with you! 

Love you!
XO

Have a beautiful, bountiful day!

Beauty~

I had forgotten....

Women are to bring beauty to our 'world'...

"Beauty is an essence that dwells in every woman. It was given to her by God. It was given to you. All beauty speaks of God. For God is nothing if not Beautiful. Simone Weil wrote: "The beauty of the world is almost the only way by which we can allow God to penetrate us... Beauty captivates the senses in order to obtain permission to pass straight through to the soul... The souls' inclination to love beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it."

God has given beauty to Eve, to every woman. Beauty is core to a woman- who she is and what she longs to be- and one of the most glorious ways we bear the image of God in a broken and often ugly world. How do you bring beauty to your world?

Beauty is the most essential and, yes, the most misunderstood of all the feminine qualities. We want you to hear clearly that it is an essense every woman carries from the moment of her creation. The only things standing in the way of our beauty are our doubts and fears and the hiding and striving we fall to as a result."

(~Captivating, Unvieling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul) 

SO...... how can I bring beauty to my world??? I don't want my children to remember me as the weary unlovely thing I feel... How will they remember me... I need to be what I want them to remember. Lovely, LOVE-ly, as in full of love. I had learned this one... but drifted into a somewhat dispassionate place. My sweet Lord gave me a reminder this a.m., and my husband confirmed when I said I want to remember to bring beauty to our world, he said, yes, that is what I miss. (Me: sad to realize he had noticed... duh, right? They DO notice) He said I had it, he remembered when I was practicing it and then just had it down, without trying. 

HOW DO WE LOSE THE THINGS WE LEARN??? GRRR! Isn't life and seeking to grow difficult enough without LOSING things?!!

It is a fight, isn't it. We are in a battle. This short journey on earth is a battle, but... One Day, one glorious Day, "that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to meditate in His temple." (Ps 27:4) Ahhhh, how sweet is my Lord. 

p.s. don't miss the part about our beauty NOT coming from our looks, our clothes, body, etc., our beauty is in our essense, it is about who we are, who we are still becoming. Thank you, Lord, for that one, too. 

Happy Birthday Daisy May-Flower! You are 3 years old! We love ya!

A precious glimpse...

                                                                                   Every once in a while, I catch a glimpse of my babies. On one hand it seems so long ago that they were babies... another lifetime. And my friends and family that are further along in life than I will laugh at me because I am, in all reality, only moments past the baby days. Things hit harder these days as my baby goes through her firsts that are our 'last firsts.' But, all is well. Life is good, I cannot and will not complain. There are things to enjoy and appreciate in each stage. The baby days are precious, but almighty tiring and mine were quite a challenge because I had a sight of growing up of my own to do! (My husband could testify, but he won't, because he is too sweet!) 

Life changes and just when you are in the new groove, it changes again! Often it is a good change, and when it isn't, it could be a great learning opportunity! 

So the pics above, if you couldn't tell, are Phoebe. This morning I fixed her hair in flashback style, I love it! What treasures God gave us in our children.... 

I get flashbacks of Nate when he gets animated and silly, all of the sudden he will do something that flies me back to when he was a little boy. 

And just the other night at dinner, Ellie said something in just the way she used to, and once again I found myself flying back in time to her as a two year old. Ahhhh, mmmmm.... it hurts so good. Sweet memories have a way of making you wish you were back there, don't they? But in all honesty, I do not want to go back. I love my life right where I am. Unless of course, the genie in the bottle says I can go back and re-do it all but as I am now, with the knowledge that I am getting to re-live life, so that I really soak it up and have my perspective straight, you know. I missed so much because I was out of focus. And I don't have to re-learn all those lessons the hard way again! HA!SNORT! So, I'll just enjoy the flashbacks as they come and thank God for them! I do love the idea that we might get to watch home movies with God and He can give us all of the behind-the-scenes. I am sure He has a big ol' bowl of the best popcorn and, of course, M&M's that never run out! (right, Mikey?!) 

Love y'all! XO

Live intentionally!
Life changes,

and GOD IS GOOD!

"Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.  For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Easter 2009

(*I am done struggling with the captions, the spacing is weird and they are a little out of order, but it was wiggin and I can't get it straightened out!*)

AND I forgot that the pics load backwards.... so in reverse order of the day.... 

Here is our Easter.... 

We went to our friends', the Bantas, with a few other families. Delicious food, fun, and lots of laughs! Thanks again Brady and Vicki for another holiday enjoyed with friends! We love you guys! Without friends like these we would drown in our sorrows, being So Far from our family.

 

Riley and her friend, Shelby, (pictured below) straightened Nate's hair again. (pictured above!)

                                             

  

  I grabbed a shot of sweet Vicki, she is usually taking pics and not in them. 

               Two of the Banta girls... Hallie, brunette in pink, is in the same grade as Jacob, and very sweet. Bailee, blond in blue, is in Ellie's class and they are precious friends.   

The family pictured above- the Oyens, Matt, Stacy and their boys. We go to church together and enjoy getting together for laughs as well.  

  

                   Phoebe and Easter egg hunt @ Bantas.
                     Here is Charlie Banta. Quite a charmer.
      I made mocha brownies with powdered sugar stencils for decoration and....
                              Tiramisu Brownie Trifle. :-)
                                Eggs dyed. Check!
 

Morning pics before church.