the Octaranch

There was rides on grandpa’s riding mower

Grandpa taught Asher how to shoot a bow and arrow

Asher could swing for hours!

Learning how to shoot a bb gun!

Collecting rolly pollies (one of my favorite things to do as a child too!)

Rilyn

Going hiking on the land behind the house

grandpa and the kiddos

My parents land goes right up to the Brazos river!

James the mountain man?!?

Asher throwing rocks in the river (I was a little nervous watching this…James is on a slope!)

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend…grandpa leading Rilyn and Ella

through the forest

Walking back to the Octaranch (aka the tree house) with my sister and her dog

S’mores at dusk!

Rilyn and grandpa talking while the sun goes down. Questions included “What came first, dinosaurs, or Adam and Eve?” Rilyn could of talked to grandpa all night…

Rilyn

The kids had no trouble falling asleep Sunday night!

dreaming of their great day!

mom with her grandbabies!

One present from me and my sister was this:

I saw this on Pinterest first, and there is a website to go and print it from home (for $9)! These numbers represent my parents’ birthdays, their anniversary (in white), and then their kids’ birthdays. I saw one like this also that said on the top “What a difference a day makes”

my mom hugging on the girls

my mom hugging on Asher

I bought my mom some sparkler candles that were really fun to watch!  I also made her a word cloud from here.  To make it, I asked many of her friends/family to e-mail me 3 adjectives that describe my mom!

Word cloud on the left

The final gift was “60 memories of Norine”. Two months prior, I mailed out/facebooked/e-mailed as many of her friends/family as possible to send one memory of my mom-the more nostalgic the better! I bought her a trunk, and put all the cards in it that I had received! Rilyn and Ella made a scavenger hunt around her house, and she loved finding the trunk and reading all of the memories!

what’s inside?

Many memories made her cry!

I love you mom!

This is the last day of preschool for Asher.  We celebrated at school with a teddy bear lunch!  He had a great year, and is a super smart boy!  He did have a remark on his report card that said “easily distracted by friends” and we definitely know this to be true!  ;)  Next year, he will go to preschool everyday half-day!!

At Ella’s kindergarten awards, she received the “writing award”! She had an awesome year, with an awesome teacher! We are very proud of her!!

Rilyn had a wonderful year too in 2nd grade. Here she is at her awards ceremony!

Ella had a field trip to a bounce house to celebrate the end of school!

jumping in the foam pit!

Rilyn got 4th place out of 120 2nd grade students in the spelling bee! We were so proud of her! She got out on the word “fought”. She spelled it “faught”.

Rilyn in the middle of the pic, fist pumping

half of Rilyn’s face seen in the middle of the pic

Rilyn in the middle-curtain call!

Ella in the middle

Ella

Ella in the middle-curtain call!

After the recital, Asher presented Ella with roses and cousin Caden gave Rilyn roses!

proud of these two girls!!

family pic!

Thanks grandma and grandpa for coming!

Thanks aunt Becca, Caden, and Uncle Jeff for coming!

Asher and I went out on our first date together to Chick-fil-A’s Mother Son Date Knight.  The restaurant went all out in the medieval theme, and they even had questions at every table for things to talk about with your son.  One question I asked him was, “How can you protect me Asher?”  Asher told me he will protect me from cars.  ;)

first date

Asher being knighted by a 6’5″ cow

there were bounce houses in the parking lot!

For my birthday and Mother’s Day, James let me have a relaxful weekend, and took the kids for the weekend to Fort Worth/Dallas.  They spent time with family, and the kids went on their first camping trip! More pictures to come later, but for now:

James, the kids, wtih their aunt, future uncle, and Oma

On Mother’s Day, we met back up in Temple at my parents house, and the kids went swimming and had a barbeque. The water was still a little cold I guess!

Rilyn jumping in for the first time!  (I think I put the sunscreen on too heavy on her face!)

Asher was NOT HAPPY with the water temp.!

After they got used to it, they started smiling again!

Ella has a rule:  having no goggles means she uses floaties!

jumping for joy

She found some goggles!

my almost 8 year old!

It’s confession time before bed, and it’s just me and Ella in her room.  And when she tells me this, by the grace of God, I don’t take offense-at all.  Because we all think evil thoughts, and honestly that is where I sin the most-in my thoughts.  I looked at her and said, “Satan says ugly things to me too, and wants me to believe them as truth.  And yep, mommy sins against you, and so sometimes it might feel as if I’m being stupid to you.  But sometimes, you won’t understand the things that I am telling you to do because you are the child and not the parent.”  (Things like:  I tell her it’s shower night, and Ella complains because she took a shower 2 days ago.)  :)

In this moment, I was praising Jesus because Ella was being so honest with me, and she was recognizing sin that I am just now learning to recognize in my own life, and she wanted to confess it.  Not only to Jesus, but to the person she had wronged.  Wow.

One of the most tempting lies for every human being in this fallen world—is to believe that our greatest problems exist outside us rather than inside us.  Despite this, the Bible calls us to humbly confess that the greatest, deepest, most abiding problem each of us faces is inside of us, not outside. The Bible names that problem “sin.”  You know that you have been gifted with grace when you are able to say, “My greatest relationship problems are because of what’s inside of me not outside of me.”-The Grace of Confession.

Confession time- something we started a few months back with our children before bed.  A nightly ritual that we do one on one with our kids.  We each confess to each other a sin or sins that we did that day. The practice of a parent confessing to a child is humbling to say the least.  We confess sins that are age appropriate of course, but I’ve been stuck a night or two trying to think frantically of what I can say…and then reminded by my child of my anger earlier that day.  I’m a big sinner to be sure, but it’s in my mind where I struggle the most, and when you don’t have a “receipt” for your sin, (I was angry, so I hit my brother), it’s hard to think about.  So I realized along the way of life that I hardly ever have confessed sin to my Lord because I don’t necessarily think about it.  And then you get caught in the trap of thinking, “I’m not really sinning, it’s just who I am.”  But God calls us to confess our sins.

1 John 1:8-9  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Example:  I am not a loving person.  It doesn’t come natural to me to love on someone and think of their emotional and physical needs before mine.  So I might see/hear of someone who needs a  hug or a shoulder to cry on (super hard for me) and that would mean me giving up a night on my couch watching The Bachelorette so I can pray with them.  But I shove that thought out of my mind.  I deserve a night on the couch because I’ve had such a busy week.  Am I sinning because it’s not in my nature to love others well, so I choose to “forget” to ask my friend if they would like to go out for a walk?  Yes.  That is my sin.

I am just now learning to become more aware of these sins though because I am thinking throughout the day, “What will I confess to my daughter and to the Lord tonight?”  What a blessing.

And there’s more:  Repentence.  Restoration.  Redemption.  Hope.  Forgiveness.  Honesty.

After we confess our sins to each other we pray and ask God for forgiveness.  And the parent always brings it back to the Gospel message in their prayer.  We are forgiven and clean because of Jesus dying on the cross for your sin and mine.  There are consequences for sin, but shame and guilt?  No.  Jesus died for that.

James 5:16

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

From the Grace of Confession by Paul Tripp:

Confession shouldn’t be this scary thing we do our best to avoid. Sin, weakness, and failure shouldn’t be the constant elephant in the room that we all know is there but can’t (or won’t) talk about. Instead, confession is a wonderful gift that every relationship needs. It should be liberating, not understood as a moment of personal and relational loss. Our confession should be propelled by deep appreciation and gratitude toward God, who has made it possible for us to no longer fear being exposed.

Because of what Jesus has done for us, we do not have to hide or excuse our wrongs. We’re freed from posing as if we’re perfect. In our heart of hearts we know we’re not. We can stare our problems in the face with hope and courage because Christ has made possible real, lasting, personal, change in our relationships. 

Last month I had to address the issue of same sex marriage with Rilyn.  She brought it up because she knows some friends at school that have two mommies.  I took her out for a drink at Sonic, brought her Bible, and we had a great discussion together.  One of our old pastors in Houston wrote an excellent blog post about addressing same sex marriage with a gospel centered approach here.

This week I had to talk with Rilyn about why we didn’t vote for Obama and will not in November.  Isn’t parenting fun?!?  :)

A couple weeks ago Rilyn was learning Texas history in class and they learned about Rick Perry being the governor.  Her teacher stated that we all have our personal opinions about who to vote for and why and we should respect everyone’s decisions, but that he doesn’t like Rick Perry.  That caught Rilyn’s attention because she learned Rick Perry was an Aggie- Ha!  That lead to more discussion, and she learned her teacher likes Obama.  So Rilyn came up to me after school that day and asked if we voted for Obama.  I told her no we did not and will not in November and I would love to share the reason why, but I want to wait for daddy to talk with her too.  You could tell she wasn’t too happy with waiting.  Weeks passed unfortunately, and this Thursday as I was eating lunch with Rilyn in the cafeteria, she looked at me square in the eyes and said, “Now can we talk about why you didn’t vote for Obama?”  Wow, she had been stewing on this issue for weeks!  I was immediately convicted to address issues with her more quickly.

“Well Rilyn, your dad and I are one issue voters, meaning there is only one issue that we think is so important that this one issue will tell us who to vote for.”  Rilyn said, “I know what it is, if they are Christian or not!”  ”I can see why you would say that, but nope.  Many people say they are Christians, but aren’t reflecting Christ in the way they live, and what if both candidates aren’t Christians?  Then who would I vote for?  The one issue that we give our vote to is called the sanctity of life.   You will hear terms like pro-choice and pro-life…”

I then explained to her abortion…at 7 years old.  I’m sure I didn’t even know what that was until college.  But I trust that God had Rilyn ask me this question, (and then ask me again,) because it’s for His Glory for her to know NOW.

I told her that God created life, so why do humans have the right to tamper with human life?  Doesn’t this right belong to our Creator?  God created everything and therefore owns, or has authority over, everything.  Deuteronomy 10:14 “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.”

*If you have any doubt at all that abortion (even in the first trimester) is not killing a living human being, please see this website, abort73.com and watch this video especially.)

Last summer, I did a study called Abortion is About God and have volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center for the past few years.  God has placed me with a community of believers that all have the same heart for this issue, and together we have prayed in front of abortion clinics in Austin.  All this to say, the sanctity of life is something I think about on a daily basis and I pray my children will fight for this cause one day too.

As pastor John Piper puts it from his sermon, One Issue Politics, One Issue Marriage, and the Humane Society:

“So it is with politics. You have to decide what those issues are for you. What do you think disqualifies a person from holding public office? I believe that the endorsement of the right to kill unborn children disqualifies a person from any position of public office. It’s simply the same as saying that the endorsement of racism, fraud, or bribery would disqualify him—except that child-killing is more serious than those.

When we bought our dog at the Humane Society, I picked up a brochure on the laws of Minnesota concerning animals. Statute 343.2, subdivision 1 says, “No person shall . . . unjustifiably injure, maim, mutilate or kill any animal.” Subdivision 7 says, “No person shall willfully instigate or in any way further any act of cruelty to any animal.” The penalty: “A person who fails to comply with any provision of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor.”

Now this set me to pondering the rights of the unborn. An eight-week-old human fetus has a beating heart, an EKG, brain waves, thumb-sucking, pain sensitivity, finger-grasping, and genetic humanity, but under our present laws is not a human person with rights under the 14th Amendment, which says that “no state shall deprive any person of life . . . without due process of law.” Well, I wondered, if the unborn do not qualify as persons, it seems that they could at least qualify as animals, say a dog, or at least a cat. Could we not at least charge abortion clinics with cruelty to animals under Statute 343.2, subdivision 7? Why is it legal to “maim, mutilate and kill” a pain-sensitive unborn human being but not an animal?

These reflections have confirmed my conviction never to vote for a person who endorses such an evil—even if he could balance the budget tomorrow and end all taxation.”

And finally, in light of Mother’s Day tomorrow: I leave you with this excerpt from Piper’s sermon Motherhood is a Calling (And Where Children Rank) that has something to do with the sanctity of life:

“Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for.

Christian mothers carry their children in hostile territory. When you are in public with them, you are standing with, and defending, the objects of cultural dislike. You are publicly testifying that you value what God values, and that you refuse to value what the world values. You stand with the defenseless and in front of the needy. You represent everything that our culture hates, because you represent laying down your life for another—and laying down your life for another represents the gospel.

Our culture is simply afraid of death. Laying down your own life, in any way, is terrifying. Strangely, it is that fear that drives the abortion industry: fear that your dreams will die, that your future will die, that your freedom will die—and trying to escape that death by running into the arms of death.

But a Christian should have a different paradigm. We should run to to the cross. To death. So lay down your hopes. Lay down your future. Lay down your petty annoyances. Lay down your desire to be recognized. Lay down your fussiness at your children. Lay down your perfectly clean house. Lay down your grievances about the life you are living. Lay down the imaginary life you could have had by yourself. Let it go.

Death to yourself is not the end of the story. We, of all people, ought to know what follows death. The Christian life is resurrection life, life that cannot be contained by death, the kind of life that is only possible when you have been to the cross and back.”

Rilyn sees the damage.

And what happens next was crazy out of character for Rilyn, but she threw the biggest temper tantrum I have ever seen!  She was thrashing about on the floor, screaming at the top of her lungs, crying hysterically…Ella starts crying quietly because she was scared at what her big sister was doing!  Asher looked dumbfounded and kept staring at her. I took Ella and Asher to their rooms and told them “let’s pray for Rilyn.”

We leave her alone in the living room for a good 5 minutes. Ella looks at me in her room and says, “I think Rilyn loves Legos more than Jesus.”  (Thank you to my 6 year old for declaring to me what I needed to go address with Rilyn.)
When I hear Rilyn calming down, I leave Ella to watch Asher, and I walk to Rilyn. We talk about what happened and her behavior. “I worked SO HARD!!!” “He ruined everything!” “I’ll never be able to build it again, it will take too long!!”

I calmly respond with “Did you know God always knew that Asher would destroy your city today? Did you know He has a perfect plan for why this happened? Do you think He is trying to get your attention to something, maybe something that is going on inside your heart? When you act so outrageously because of Legos, that tells me your heart’s affections are not for Jesus. Based on your actions earlier, your heart’s affections seem to be for self worth in what you can do (build a cool Lego city), in how hard you work, and in what you deserve or don’t deserve (her city being destroyed). Jesus wants you to find your self worth in Him alone, not how good you are at building Legos. Jesus wants you to know that He gives you the strength to work hard, it’s not in your own strength. He gave you the talent to build like that.  And as for what you deserve… Jesus didn’t deserve to die on the cross-He was without sin!  So anything given to us is His grace, because we are full of sin, and deserve death, but Jesus died for us!  You don’t deserve to have your Lego city standing for all to see for all time.  It was grace that you even got to build something so cool, and show it to us for a little while.“

We prayed together, and Rilyn repented, and asked Jesus for forgiveness.  It really was a beautiful moment of redemption.

Rilyn age 21/2, building cities even then…