Jesse Hijacked the blog again :)

This is a picture of me in a Barong Tagalog. A formal atire for men in the Philippines. They told me to wear a white tee shirt with it. I am not sure that this is what they meant. Also got hooked on coconut juice over there. Of course I got to drink it out of the coconut itself.
I will be wearing this shirt Resurrection Sunday and hopefully I can convince Elijah it is a good idea to wear the one I bought for JohnPaul. That is right I bought 3 but got the wrong sizes so maybe next year me and the boys can all match, but not this year. Don't worry (because I know you are) I will keep you posted on the out come of this event.

What I Should Be Doing

I have to apologize for the sorry state of the last two blog posts. The one with a title only is a post that I attempted to write last night. I managed to type the title and accidentally post it. When I went to fix the problem, either by removing the post or by actually writing some text, John Paul woke up. He has an uncanny ability to know when I need him to sleep and immediately wake up. So, I nursed him back to sleep and then went to bed myself. The post with only two pictures and no title or text was posted by Jesse. He was waiting for the pictures to load and fell asleep. That post was up for a week before I saw it.

I had a lovely playdate with my friend Kim yesterday. After coming home, I had a lovely phone conversation with my friend Trische (who doesn't have a blog, but should). By the end of the day, I was very encouraged and uplifted. *sigh* We all need days like this. Days where we are surrounded by people who love us and encourage us to press forward, to seek God's will, and to rest in his love. In short, they encouraged me to do what I should be doing.

I spent awhile last night praying about my priorities and time constraints. My desire is to spend my time doing what God wants me to be doing. There is simply not enough time to waste not seeking his will. I feel very encouraged and at peace that God really has equipped me to do all that he is calling me to do.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

John Paul

Turned Around

We have moved into a new house. It's awesome and we love it. I would love to post some pictures but I can't find the camera cord. It's in a box. I guess. I would also love to post some pics of the kids but, well that would require the afore mentioned camera cord. That's why I haven't posted in so long. I hate to post without pics and I can't post pics. I'm a little turned around. My goal is to get my house unpacked and organized sometime before the new year.

So, like I said we've moved into a new house. The girls are 4 and 5 and they know their way around our little town very well. They can navigate me around town to the grocery store, the church, Walgreens, CVS, Chick-fil-A, the pizza place, and to many of our friends homes. At least, they could before we moved. Although we only moved 3 miles, they are completely turned around. We use some different roads. When we use our old main roads, we enter them at a different intersection then before. We still go to all of our old places but the children cannot figure out where we are going. They typically do not even recognize which road we are on.
This has led to a lot of frustration on their part. They accuse me of being lost or of not knowing my way around. They even accuse me of lying about our destination. We have had frequent discipline problems our this issue. A few days ago, we were on our way to a friend's house. I took a different way then we did before we moved. The girls flipped out. I assured them, "We are just going the backwards way. It's okay. No,I am sure. I can get us there." Seriously, Hannah was sobbing, "We're lost. We'll never get to Miss April's house. I know this isn't the way. I know how to get there and you don't." And then! There we were! At Miss April's house. Just like I promised. We took a different way. But we arrived all the same. I pulled into the driveway and prayed, "I'm sorry God. I'm sorry that I do not know my way around my own life. I'm sorry I accuse you of forgetting me or leading my astray. I think I know the best way to get where I am going in my life but really, I'm just a turned around little girl and you are an awesome God. Help me to walk in the way you would have me to go. Help me to walk in love and trust, without fear. Thank you for my children who illuminate your goodness to me. And help me not to yell at them. Really. Please, help me not to yell at them. And thank you for not yelling at me, even though I obviously deserve it. Amen.

Water-Logged

A few weeks ago, Jesse and I decided that we would take a family outing to our neighborhood pool. We had a blast. We packed snacks, got our suits on, found everyone a towel, filled several water bottles, covered outselves in sunscreen, took a last minute stop at Walgreens to pick up more floaties, and we finally made it into the pool and eventually coaxed everyone into the water. About ten minutes later, the skies opened in a torrential downpour. Here are my children: sitting on the covered patio happily eating a snack. Such good kids! They didn't complain about it. When the rain let up a bit, we loaded everyone back into the van and went home. It stormed for the rest of the day.

At home, I put them all in a warm bath. The warm bath is more fun then a cold, big pool anyway. They splashed most of the water onto the floor and I washed the bathroom rugs, again.