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Happy birthday Asher!

Asher,

Mommy loves you so much! Just like Leah in Genesis 30:13, I can say "happy am I! ...So she called his name Asher."

You are such a happy little guy. You have a great smile and a contagious laugh. You have to do everything your big brothers do. You walk you, you climb, and you play with so much happiness it is a joy to watch you. You love to make others laugh.

God said to Abram in Genesis 12:2, "I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." Asher I pray that as you bring joy to others you will know that you are greatly blessed by God. 

Daddy and I chose the name Asher which means happy or blessed in hopes that God would use you to bless others and that you yourself would be blessed. I pray that Psalm 1 will give you a picture of what it looks like to be blessed or happy: 

"Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

 He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
 The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish."

We chose to give you the name David as your middle name. David in honor of your Pops, David. And David after the David in the Bible about whom God says in Acts 13:22, "I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will." It is my prayer for you that you would become a man after God's own heart and do his will. 

I love you so much baby, happy birthday!

Garden Boxes

Gardening is turning out to be quite a good bit of work. Yesterday we built some raised beds. It sounds simple and I suppose it was but it was a lot of work. 

Plants need a couple of things to grow: soil, sun and water. In our yard the most sunny place is the side of the house, evidence for this is the best grass in our yard. But to place the beds the grass had to go. We didn't want to waste the grass though so I dug it up and transplanted it to sections in the yard that were lacking grass. I am so sore :) added to digging and carrying grass I also helped carry the 40lb bags of soil from the truck to the back yard. Did I mention I'm sore?

Chad built the beds and we placed them in the area I dug up grass and we filled them with soil. We have 3 4'x4' boxes but intended to build one more. I figure if we are going to garden might as well go full out :)

Soon I will be planting my seedlings in their new home!!!

Chocolate on the side

We eat clean around our house and so avoid added sugar. One thing we switched to was plain ful fat Greek yogurt instead of your normal full of sugar variety. Though it's not quite as yummy to kids so I entice them to eat by sprinkling the yogurt with a couple of chocolate chips. Funny things said as a result of our choice:

One day I bought some flavored Greek yogurt that was on clearance -
Jude: "can I have some more of that good yogurt, the one with sugar that's not good for me?"

This morning:
Shiloh: "is there chocolate?"
Me: "yes."
Shiloh: "is there yogurt?"
Me: "yes."
Shiloh: "can I have my chocolate in the side?"

Bwhahhahaha! No he can not have chocolate on the side the whole point of the chocolate is to entice him to eat the yogurt.

Ninja Green

Last night Jude tested for his Ninja Green belt, and if I must say he did Awesome!!! Way to go Jude!

Ready for his test. Notice that sharp uniform - it's even been ironed!

Push up position. Jude got a 10 out of 10 on his fitness portion!

Little guy was working hard, sit ups are not so easy when you are 4.

Horse stance.

Chambering for a block.

High block and a nice loud yell.

Side kick.

Punch (though he looked like he was doing palm strikes...we gotta toughen up those knuckles). 

Aunt Charity awarding Jude his new green belt (Charity and Instructor Abraham fought over who got to give him his belt).

Asher wanted to test too.

Poor Jude, not the happiest face as he wouldn't stand still and I threatened him and Aunt Charity saying they could not watch Big Hero 6 together on Saturday if they didn't behave and take a good picture.

Kitchen DIY Makeover

Sometime in February our dishwasher broke. When this happened we discovered a leak and more damage to the cabinets than we realized was there. We thought heck lets make an insure claim and see if we get anything. We got way more than we anticipated and thus began Chad's envisioning of a kitchen makeover. We can do it ourselves. The more I contemplated the work ahead the more misgivings I had. Lets just fix the cabinet and leave everything else, I said. But alas Chad had grand plans so we began. And as most DIY projects go we hit obstacle after obstacle and we barely finished (ok we aren't finished but close enough) before Chad's spring break ended. Some tears may have been shed (probably due to not sleeping and sheer exhaustion) and it is imperfect but I love it!

 Before.

Another angle of before.

Sink cabinet repair.

All three boys watching the sink cabinet repair.

It may not be the most pretty thing in the world but it is functional and much cheaper than a new cabinet.

The boys loved the demo.

Demo of the counters and back splash. Bye bye white laminate.

No counters. And a very tore up sheet rock where the back splash was. Our idea of paint was not going to happen.

So we bought panel board for the backsplash. Chad was at the store and asked what I thought of wood back splash. I freaked out for a few minutes envisioning the 70's but I said ok I trust you. And then he brought home beautiful panelling! Well done Chad.

Jude and Shiloh built monster trucks. With real hammers...

Decorating their monster trucks.

Job mostly completed. With our new appliances we got for an excellent price! 

Another view of our kitchen!

If you ever want to redo your kitchen - don't call us - pay someone :)

Planting Seeds!

We are going to have a vegetable garden this year! I am determined. For the past 5 years I have wanted to plant one. And every year "something" happens and I never do. But not this year (I mean Chad already spent 11 days in the hospital and our dishwasher broke and we got insurance money to fix the kitchen issues - not sure when we will do it, hopefully soon, but thats another story for another day) so I already have my "somethings" that have happened and probably there will be more but I really want a garden so the boys and I planted seeds!

Of course when I think of planting seeds I think of Jesus' teachings on what the kingdom of God is like (See Mark 4 and other places :). I'm excited to use this opportunity of planting vegetables and watching them grow to teach the boys about God - so it is a complete win - yummy veggies and a better understanding of God! And in Jude's words, "we planted REAL food, God's food." Hmmm may we remember to plant seeds of God's word in our hearts and share them with those around us - for God's seeds are REAL and God's REAL Food will fill us up!

Preparing egg cartons for our seeds. Such concentration as Jude pokes holes to allow water to escape.

Jude and Shiloh filling their egg cartons with soil.

Burying seeds in the holes. I intended to put 1-2 seeds in each space. However, Jude felt 3 was the perfect number (and Theologically speaking We do serve a Triune God - 3 in 1 - The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit) and he put 3 in each space. Meanwhile Shiloh felt the more the merrier and was dumping 5-10 seeds in each space (useless for me to try and pick all the seeds out) - he must have taken to heart the part in the parable about "scattering seeds" everywhere. So It will be fun to see what grows!

Failure to think through my project logically, keeping in mind the messiness of the boys resulted in soil all over my house, thankfully Granny's cleaning lady was coming in two days and I just swept.

My little seedlings.

Deactivation...

Sooooo....


I'm going to deactivate my Facebook and Instagram accounts. It has come to my attention that I may be slightly addicted to said social media accounts. I've known for a while that this is an area that I struggle with but I can come up with numerous reason that sound good as to why I should remain active in social media BUT enough is enough and for me I have come to the personal conviction for myself that I "know the right thing to do and failing to to it, for me it is sin (See James 4:17)."

Last night I came across this article on desiringgod.org and it was the last straw in my debate on whether to keep my accounts or not.

I have chosen Facebook and Instagram over God. Often. I am bored. Get on Facebook. I need connection with someone or something. Get on Instagram. I mess up. Get on Facebook. I need distraction. Get on Instagram.

My desires run deep but I've allowed my desires to lead me into temptation. James 1:14-15 says, "each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed. Then when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death." And 1 Peter 4:3, "You have already wasted enough time living like those outsiders in the society around you: losing yourselves in sex, in addictions and desires, in drinking and lawless idolatry, in giving your time and allegiance to things that are not godly."

Instead of turning to God, I have sought to satisfy my desires with social media. I am robbing myself and leading myself into death. I have deep longing for something more and I have a God who can fill to overflowing that desire but I continually chose something other than him - which is SIN. No more. I want to desire God and be full of him.

In the Old Testament the people of God sought idols and high places instead of God and in order to destroy that hold on them they had to tear down those places. I need to tear down the places that hold me captive - social media. 


Like the song "Give Us Clean Hands" based of Psalm 24:

We bow our Hearts
We bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols

So give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands
Give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another


And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob
And God let us be
A generation that seeks
That seeks your face
Oh God of Jacob

So Goodbye Facebook and Instagram. I cast you down. You will not be my idol. I will not lift my soul to you anymore. I will Seek the Face of My God, the Living God!

I will continue to blog. I love sharing stories with our friends and family who live far or who travel often. So if you want to stay connected in that way that would be awesome - but don't count on links from Facebook because there will not be any from me. I also have a phone and love to talk to people. And there is e-mail too.