He is Greater.....John 3:30 says He must become greater, I must become less"

Did you know that if a child decides to open the sun roof of the expedition (after it sat on the driveway in a snowstorm), snow dumps into the front seat of the car.....all over mom's work stuff?  Yep.  Oh, oh, oh.....and the sun roof won't close again either, until mom drives to dad's work in a huff and gets his help scraping the top of the car. Fun times. Did you know that a 3 year old can call his teen brother a chicken and a girl....and mom will always take his side anyway?  Yep.  In a nerf gun war....the 3 year old will always, always win.  Mom's make sure of it. 

Yesterday, Isaac asked for meatloaf and mashed potatoes.....so today, I made a plan and a trip to the store to make that happen.  I guess I love with food.  I also welcome any dinner requests.  I got the stuff I needed and throughout my work day, got things prepped for dinner. I have a young client who is a teen mama.  She lives with her mom and sisters and some cousins/friends who all contribute to the rent every month.  She has asked me for 2 months, to help find them a bigger home.  They are not US citizens, so its not easy to find homes to rent.  People take advantage.....they have been living in a sub-standard home for awhile.  One reason I like this girl so much is because she KNOWS it it sub-standard.  A series of Christmas events flushed out a home that would be available for rent in January.  I have spent some time this holiday trying to figure out if it was a good fit for my teen mom and her family. Today, at the time of day I am usually at home getting dinner ready and

I just re-read my post from last evening and I marvel at how quickly a mood can change.  Precious came raging in like a tsunami, crashing in on my peaceful reverie......and was totally out of sorts.  We call this dysregulation in our fancy world.....basically she was going berserk and nothing anyone said or did was helping.  Not food, not snuggles, not lavender oil or ipad.......she was just inside out and upside down and I was not prepared for the switch.  I did what any distraught, exhausted mom would do at the end of the holiday week.......I texted my friend who sells essential oils.   RENITA!!!!!!!!!!!! Within minutes, she had whipped up a magic concoction into a pretty little roll-on tube (we call that a roller ball in our fancy world)  She called it "Special Girl roller" and its in a shiney pink tube and includes:  ylang ylang, valor, cedarwood, orange and joy in jojoba oil.  It smells awesome and guess what else.....after 2 applications on her wrists and neck and

I'm sitting  alone in my room after finishing our last Christmas party for 2015.  I am an introvert by nature, so being with lots of people isn't the way I fill my cup.  I enjoy people, and parties, but always feel drained until I can come home and turn down the lights and noise and activity and just settle in peacefully.  As I do this, I can reflect on this amazing holiday season.  God has been so good to me, again and again.  When I think of all the people who gave and received blessings to make this holiday better, I smile.  When I think of how much fun we had shopping and planning and wrapping gifts, doing our special elf game, having the secret santa happen for the school kids......I smile.  When I look back on all of the good food, meaningful time spent together and memories made, I smile.  Jesus' birthday was recounted, and told, and remembered and celebrated and lived out this year, and it makes me smile.  I cried some tears this season as well, and that's ok,

Has anyone else out there had their seasonal temper tantrum/holiday meltdown/falling a part moment yet for Christmas 2015?  Mine came this morning.  I have a feeling I'm mostly talking to all the females out there who are directly involved, if not completely in charge, of all of the holiday festivities.  Everything about the season of Advent and Christmas is wonderful.  I choose how much to do, and can easily choose to do less.  Sometimes I do....less.  As the family grows, there are parts of Christmas that Roger and the children all want to focus on.  It mostly still requires mom to help plan, shop, wrap, prepare things....and with six children in the home this year, my math had to count to 6 for everything.  6 sets of gifts, 6 stockings, etc. ( Grace isn't just here as our foreign exchange student.  She is now in our family.)   My job involves working with families so at Christmas-time, that means more work, not less....delivering packages that generous friends purchase

Here it is......my Christmas song gift from God for 2015.  How do I know this is it?  I will tell you.  For weeks now, I've been feeling like God was nudging me to the song The First Noel.  I hear it often and I get a sense He wants me to listen in.....so I do.  I've even read through the lyrics, wondering what the message is.....I looked up the word Noel and where it came from and what it meant.  I've spent quite a bit of my Advent season considering.....The First Noel. The song is really simple and not very profound.  The first Noel, the angel did say, was to certain poor shephards in fields where they lay......and so it goes, and the jist of it is that It was the first Christmas.  I wondered if God would have me focus on it because of its simplicity, urging me to simplify, and listen, and understand the certainty of the truth of the first Noel......that Jesus came to Earth for us. Today, I was scrolling down facebook, relaxing instead of doing laundry or charting or

It's Friday.  A week away from Christmas.  Folks are starting to freak out.....what's left on the list?  Will the gift arrive in time?  Will the weather cooperate with travellers?  Will the church programs be all we hope?  Will the Christmas cards arrive in the mail?  And so it goes.... In America, especially, we have made this season into something really extravagant.  Mostly, that's not good.  Mostly, its too much and yet we unapologetically do it every year.  For me.......its kinda fun!  I love thinking about how to bless people for Christmas.  Worthy people....needy people....all people.  I stood in my garage today shivering as I watched the poor UPS guy struggle to pull a heavy box out and drag it to our door.  (It wasn't even a gift, folks.  It was about 80 lbs of dog food!  The spendy kind that Roger insists on that we cannot buy in town!".  I thought to myself, "I really wish I had a Christmas gift for this UPS guy.  He's been coming for years..

My Family....

Today, I wondered why we can't either do Christmas Season.....or do "life" as usual.  I think it's unfair to try to do both.  At least for me.  We have teens who are stressed about exams, and tweeners who are busy with ball tournaments and homework, and littles who need to practice reading, and work on wearing pants instead of shorts....and eat healthy food......and a set of parents who have JOBS.....and then we have...... Christmas programs, secret santa gifts that need to be purchased, work Christmas parties, Christmas work schedule for teen, shopping and helping the kids with gifts....and the stocking stuffers.....oh....my.  ( Roger and I tried to eat clean and healthy and failed/dive bombed the exercise part this month...) We get some money from parents for Christmas and I was thinking out loud...., "maybe I'll use my Christmas gift money to have Violetta clean every week instead of twice a month for awhile"....and Roger said, "or.....you

Every year.......I love Christmas.  Fresh and new.....every single year.  I love that Jesus lets us do this big climax of a season, leading up to the designated, if not actual, day of His Birth.  Christian and non-Christian alike.....we all get to do this crazy season every single year.  Trees, lights, food, parties, gifts, music, and everything in between.....every year!  Without the "season" and without the worldly flair, I wonder if I would remember, reverantly, the birth of Christ every year.  I almost think that I would not re-exam it as much.  Thank you, worldly Christmas, for turning my eyes to my Savior ever single Christmas. Every year......I love Christmas spirit.  The festivity, the mercy, the generosity.  Every single year I am blown away by how many people long to help and bless others at Christmas.  I get texts and face book messages and emails, I get stopped in the store and on the street, with inquiries like, "our family wants to bless/adopt/help/s

This was my dinner tonight.  I followed most of my rules for the healthy eating plan I am on:  brown rice, lots of  veggies and fish.  I'm eating it now and it is YUMMY!  It's an eating plan that will hopefully help me lose weight, and also learn portion control, and eat "cleaner".  Here in the Midwest, its hard to eat "clean" and "organic"....since our ground is frozen for a few months every year.....and we have no access to fresh seafood.  My Dutch heritage dictates that most meals have cream soups, cheese, bread......ok.  You get the point.  I'm trying hard.  Roger and I both are!  We just want to eat better....and move more....and be healthier. Can I just say that  the process to that goal is abso-lutely-freakin'-miserable?  I'm busy in my day of driving around the county visiting moms and babies and I'm stinkin/ hungry....and I really want to go to the convenience store for a slice of hot, greasy pizza....and instead I open

Violetta came today.  It's always a good day when she comes.  I told Roger tonight that Violetta wasn't a woman, I might leave him for her......I was kidding of course, but being able to come home from a long day of work to a clean, fresh, and welcoming home is super-awesome.  She only comes every 2 or 3 weeks.....and if I could afford to, I would have her come every week.  Its not just the dusting, and vacuuming and bathroom cleaning.....its the little things that no one here addresses.  Emptied garbage cans.  Dusting under the fire-burning stove and tidying up the wood box.....cleaning out the microwave......picking up all the nerf bullets and dog bones and scraps of paper and broken pencils.......and leaves.....and popped balloon pieces......that exhaust and drain me every single day.  A couple times a month, Violetta does it.  For me.  She even changes the vacuum bag.  Regularly. It takes my full cleaning budget for her to do the main living spaces and bathroom so she do

Today I was remembering my Christmas programs as a child.  Every year, we would sing our Sunday School songs in the church basement.  It was musty and had poor lighting and a badly tuned piano....but we sang on carpet squares every week.  Then we dismissed to our classrooms for our lesson.  Every year, we assembled in the old community center Gym that had once been the high school gym.....and there were rows and rows of folding chairs and a big old wooden stage.....and the smell of chocolate and peanuts.  After the program, the classes dismissed to the outside of the gym and there the teacher had bags of paper bags full of chocolates and peanuts.  Tonight, I am remembering the smell of chocolate, nuts, a dusty gym and my own nerves. All of my life I have loved Christmas.  My parents, even when things were hard, made sure Christmas was good.  I love that....I cherish it.  It matters now that I am a mom myself. Next week is the program at my church for Precious.  The building is dif

Where are the fathers? Yesterday, I scrolled through the Heart Gallery of waiting children in Foster Care.  Many/Most are minorities....and lots of them are older.  The older kids break my heart.  They smile.....and yet I wonder if they are thinking......who would ever choose me?  Breaks.  My.  Heart.  I can't take these kids.  At least, not now.  I have young children still....and that's not safe.  I'm left wondering.....where are their fathers?  Their fathers should have them and care for them and raise them up. Every year, I get a dozen or more requests from young mamas, asking for help to provide "Christmas" for their little ones.  I have very generous and good friends.  Sometimes, my friends' list even super-cedes my "needs" lists....how great is that!  The families who ask for help for Christmas are humble.  Defeated.  Longing for.....special.  Where are the fathers?  They are not there. The fathers are somewhere......somewhere empty and

Ho ho....ba-hum-bug.  It's December 4.   The "ba-humbug" is NOT mine!  But my family....well....maybe. Last weekend, after Thanksgiving, of course, we ventured out to chop down the annual Kredit Christmas tree.  We had fun....but the trees were't great.  They were all smaller than we like.  We finally agreed on one and took it home.  I had purchased a new pre-lit tree for Claire, so once home, that Sunday, in our warm house, she and her friend started decorating hers.  We let the fresh one sit a bit.  Then Roger and I put the lights on.  I took up a box of ornaments and they sat on the coffee table.  For 5 days. Claire and her friend started to decorate hers....and then stopped.  Hers is still sitting in the family room downstairs....undone.  Today, I was finally home after a crazy week of nothing billable.....and alone....I put all the ornaments on the fresh tree upstairs, then set up this artificial one in the basement for the kids.  I asked,  but no one wanted