Meet Jireh

This is Jireh. 

Jireh is our new vehicle. We named him Jireh to always remind us that God Provides. In Genesis 22, Abraham named the place he had taken Isaac to be sacrificed "Yahweh Yireh" or "Jehovah Jireh," as we are more familiar with, because God had provided a ram to sacrifice in place of Isaac. Just as God provided for his people in the Bible he is still providing for his people to day! 

For a while now I have been asking God to provide us with a larger vehicle so that our family can grow (I am not pregnant - happy now) in time. In my mind I was thinking a suburban would be my choice. I'm not into minivans (though the storage capacity is incredible) so I thought suburban. But I didn't specify what type of vehicle - I just asked for something bigger. And Wow God is awesome because he provided us with a Chevy Tahoe. It is only 5 years old, has roughly 66k miles and is in great condition. And the best part is I didn't even ask one single person for it - or try in anyway to get it. My parents approached Chad and I and we worked out an agreement that included giving them my car (bye bye little old red ford escape - you served us well - you will kind of be missed). We thought this might take place over the summer the great vehicle exchange/agreement but then Christy told me last Thursday she would like us to have it Saturday and so on Saturday we cleaned out the escape and said hello to Jireh. 

Can I share something amazing? A timing issue that only God could arrange? Unbeknownst to Christy, Chad and I were in the beginning stages of planning to drive to Minnesota because his Grandmother (a very wonderful person!) passed away and Chad cannot fly due to his collapsed lung earlier this year. So when Christy told me she wanted to go ahead with the plan - I had to just pause and praise God for how great He is. I mean He knew we needed a vehicle and he knew we would need it this week and he moved in the hearts of his people to do something so great. We serve a great God!!!!!!!!

Thank you Dad and Christy for listening to God and allowing him to use you to bless us. We are so grateful. We know that He will always provide for us but I am so thankful that you allowed him to use you. 

Busy Days

Things seem to be awful busy lately...but I don't really have any great tales to tell...so here is a little update on each family member:

Chad - he's been busy repairing the fridge...I think he's had to fix it 3 times but it's been a whole week since it's had major issues so here is to hoping it will remain working until this weekend...poor guy does have one more fix on the fridge and he is not looking forward to the job...

Destiny - I have finally managed to arrange the kids into a schedule that gives me about an hour where I can get things done and I do not use this time for housework! I've been exercising and it feels great! Also I've discovered I love power yoga :)

Jude - has fallen in love with The Chronicles of Narnia (I'm so happy)! He listens to the Focus on the Family Radio Dramas of them every afternoon and he actually understands what's going on. He likes to quote the White Witch, "you fool!" He also quotes Hiccup (from How toTrain Your  Dragon 2), "unbelievable." He gets the pitch and everything correct. Oh and he's to clever. The other day he called a friend stupid and I asked if he knew what the word meant. He said no so I explained it is a mean word used to say someone isn't smart and he responded that the friend was doing something (I can't remember what) that wasn't smart so that was stupid. Hmm he still had to apologize. 

Shiloh - still s big helper. He loves to use his toy lawn mower and weed eater in the yard. You can hear him as he makes the noises for the machines. I always know which he is using: "moooooooow" "weeeeeeeeeeed."

Asher - is getting to be such a big guy. He points and grunts (just like adult men). He loves to eat. He takes a good solid 2 1/2 - 3 hour nap each afternoon. 

Life is good. 

Gotta have a sleeping in the high chair picture!

Easter!

We had a great time celebrating Easter! 

On a Good Friday we read the crucifixion story from the Jesus Storybook Bible and then we watched an animated bible story.

Saturday we celebrated with family at Granny's house, with an egg hunt, driving Grandaddys ford '55 pick up, fajitas and a cool visual of the empty tomb. 

Sunday we celebrated with a little egg hunt (don't tell but I used candy from the night before in the eggs). I tried to tell Chad we needed to hide the eggs harder but he said no and Jude asked me why they were out in the open and easy to see...Then we ate a special breakfast watched a animated redirection movie and then hunted resurrection eggs (which is 12 eggs each holding something that relates to the Easter story i.e. thorn for the crownbof thorns, etc. - which is why we were late for the gathering our church had at a park which was excellent despite the dreary weather. 

All in all we had a wonderful time celebrating Jesus!

The Last Supper

Last night, was the Thursday before the crucifixion of Jesus and as such it is traditionally referred to as Maundy Thursday and is celebrated as the night that Jesus instituted the Last Supper. The Last Supper would have taken place during the Passover Seder meal - so we had our own "Last Supper" last night in the form of a Passover Seder (and yes I do know that last night was not Passover). We loved it so much and we are definitely going to make it a yearly tradition.

I hear often from people when I mention the things we are doing to diligently teach our children about Jesus that what we are doing takes way to much effort but we don't think so. The world has time to decorate with bright colors, bunnies and eggs. They buy candy and baskets and presents. They take the time to be with family and enjoy food. They dress up and take pictures and sometimes they even go to church on Easter. Of all the times to be able to celebrate (and I love a good celebration!) Easter is definitely one to go all out to impress upon the hearts of my children why we celebrate. Last night we celebrated and it was wonderful. We celebrated and praised our God who redeemed his people from Egypt and we celebrated the even bigger rescue of his people from sin with the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus.

Tonight on Good Friday we will reflect on the Crucifixion. Then bring on the celebration of the Resurrection! Bring on the colors and my kids would say the eggs and candy (and why not?)! Bring on the time with family and the good food (can you say fajitas with Granny?)! We probably won't dress up with boys why bother - they'd just ruin their clothes. Bring on the celebration with the church gathering at a park (pray it doesn't rain)! We will celebrate and it will be bigger and better than the worlds celebration because we understand the reason we celebrate - it is because He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Passover Meal special elements (complete with frogs from the 10 plagues...).

Blessing to begin the meal.

Following Jesus' example of washing feet.

Reading the Passover story from Exodus.

My visuals for the 10 plagues.

 Plagues all over the table. 

 Flies, locust, frogs, hail, water to blood, death of livestock...

Poor Asher got boils.

Jude loved the lamb - this is before he knew it had to die.

Painting the doorframe with the Lambs blood.

Explaining the matzah.

A treat for finding the afikomen. 

Poor Asher still had boils.

Boys and the things they love

Boys are pretty great. They are easily and cheaply entertained (at least at this age). I think this has to do with the fact that most things boys love are free (with the exception of food, which can get pricy...Jude is only 4 and oftentimes I put as much food on his plate as Chad and he eats it all and sometimes wants more...). My boys can be entertained for hours with dirt and mud. Free though messy. Bugs and frogs, I mean "pets." Outside only please. Water. In spray bottles. In buckets. Out of the hose which helps make mud so it's a win win for the boys. 

So yesterday at granny's house the boys were very content because they got to do all the things they love.