most wonderful time of the year

Tomorrow begins my favorite time of the year. I look forward to Lent because I usually feel I need some spiritual renewal about now. I believe we all need a marker in our life, on our calendar, to stop and evaluate how things are going. A time to ask ourselves: what do I want my relationship to God, my family, and others to look like? If we wait for things to just happen, things will; but probably not the things we really want for our lives.
I've decided to give something up for Lent again this year. Last year, if you remember, I didn't give anything up, but planned to add things into my life. That didn't work out so well. So, this year I'm doing both. As a family we are going to unplug on Sundays (no TV or computers). I shared this with the kids and Spencer said, "Mom, why do you have to ruin everything!" I think they will be glad in the end because they will get more of our attention. Like, right now, Spencer really wants me to get off this computer and help him with something :)
Check out these family prayers and this Lent guide for some simple ideas.
Family Lent Ideas
Family Prayers for Lent

Join Me

I'm hosting a Not for Sale Book/Bible study starting Feb. 25, that lasts for 8 weeks. It will be at my house and go from 7:00-8:30p.m. Please let me know if you are interested in joining me. Here is more information about the study.
The Church and people of faith have a special role to play when it comes to the work
of abolition: freeing slaves and creating a world where survivors can thrive. Human
trafficking is a crime that exists on the fringes, in the darkness, making its full breath and depth challenging to fully comprehend. Victims and survivors are devastated physically,emotionally, mentally, and, often times, spiritually overlooked. It is for this reason that the Not For Sale Campaign presents “Set the Captives Free.” This eight-week study is a tool to enhance our Biblical understanding of human trafficking and our mandated response to fight for freedom and justice. The study utilizes two texts: the Bible and Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade & How We Can Fight It. Each week you will be reading a chapter from Not For Sale to provide the context for the discussion. You will then dig into God’s Word to learn His Truth. When we are confronted with evil, we must respond with Truth. It is essential that we are grounded in God’s Word and understand God’s heart. We desire the outcome of your eight- week study to equip and inspire you to advance the abolitionist movement in your church and community.
Each week is broken into seven distinct study periods: six you will complete individually before coming together as a group to discuss the week’s experience.
In addition to the Biblical underpinning provided through this study, we encourage you and/or your group to partake in some of the practical steps for action provided throughout the study. By bridging our spiritual growth with hands-on action, we will see freedom prevail in our world. The engagement opportunities should serve as guides to turn knowledge into action, but we encourage you to seek God’s instruction for innovative, creative ways to engage your community in the fight against slavery.
Welcome to the abolitionist movement.

rapunzel-a children's story?

There once was a women who loved radishes, who couldn't have children. She really fancied the radishes in her neighbor's yard, so she sent her husband out after them. Her neighbor was a witch. One day, while gathering the stolen radishes, the husband ran into the witch. The witch asked for the couple's first born child in exchange for the small, bitter veggies (my own commentary). The husband thought that was a fine deal, since they couldn't conceive. Well, they did. The witch named the baby Rapunzel and locked her up in a high tower to keep her away from the world. Rapunzel had a lovely voice, which attracted a young prince. The prince found a way to reach Rapunzel (you know...Rapunzel, let down your hair). Well, to make this story short. The witch cut Rapunzel's hair and banished her to a desert, the prince threw himself out of the tower and fell into thorns which "pierced his eyes", making him blind. He wandered the desert and heard Rapunzel's voice singing to two young children (his children apparently...oh, yeah, by the way children, Rapunzel and the Prince had special tower visits). Rapunzel's tears healed his eyes and they lived happily ever after in the Prince's kingdom. When the witch heard of their happiness she was so enraged that she exploded.
I checked this book out from the library and read it to myself last night because I forgot the story. I guess there are many strange tales I read when I was young that involved people giving their first born to witches (Sleeping Beauty) and trolls (Rumpelstiltskin), or children being enticed by goodies in order to be eaten (Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood). Ah, the classics!!

pants on fire

We all have hopes for our children's future. It seems Maegan has a future in design, invention, as an undercover agent, or a white collar criminal. (If she is going with crime, it might as well be white collar, right?!)
Maegan's deception abiblities are well thought out and without care. Some of you hear my stories and say, "Oh, Maegan is so smart." Hmmm, that is a nice way to look at it. So, we have many stories to give as examples, but here are just a few.
Maegan has apparently been pulling the wool over my eyes regarding Spencer's behavior. She would report, "Oh mom and dad, Spencer has scribbled on the wall downstairs. I'm so sorry! I told him not to, but he didn't listen. I guess you'll have to punish him." So, Doug and I put them in separate rooms and did a "shake down." This is when you use questions that trick them into telling the truth. When the shake down was done it was clear Spencer was lying and he got a spank. The next day Maegan confessed that she has been lying everyday to get Spencer in trouble and it was all her fault (she created the Spencer like scribbles on the wall.)
The other story involves Hannah and Maegan sneaking candies from the cubbard, after getting in trouble for sneaking them earlier. They hide the candy under Maegan's bed and then sent Hudson and Spencer to fetch them. Loree found Spencer and Hudson setting up a "candy picnic" (based on the girl's instructions.) So, when Loree asked who got the candy. The answer to the question was Hudson and Spencer, because technically they are the ones who got the candy from under Maegan's bed. Technicalities, right?!

my 2 new policies

Let me start by saying these policies are bound to fail, yet I've forged ahead with implementation.
First, the "reap what you sow" policy. I'm tired of hearing "He hit me! She hit me! Maegan called me poopie pants; Spencer said I'm stinky butt." I looked at them today and said, "Go ahead, beat each other up. Go ahead, let each other have it. Hit away!" They looked at me shocked and then declined; fearful of what the other might do when given license to unleash their fury. I hadn't really thought this policy out, but it seemed to work. I'm just not sure how this will play out later when they decide to start punishing each other again. (Oh, it just happened, Maegan hit Spencer. So, she sowed and I reaped...or she sowed and reaped...or she just paid the piper.)
Second new policy: the "keep it real" program. As most of you know Doug knows most everything (except his colors). This unending knowledge and skill set benefits most everybody. But, there are occasions when I want to be the final authority on a subject (which has been limited so far to music). So, I thought a "keep it real" program would be good to keep Doug humble (a quality we all really want). I'm just not sure how this policy is going to work because I need some ammunition, which means he needs to be wrong about something...I'll wait patiently and then pounce.

Vote Love 146

Vote to give money to Love 146. While you are there vote for the 6 other causes at the bottom.
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The Destroyer and the Knuckle Head

Ok, the destroyer in our house is a precious little 3 year old boy. I'm seriously looking for advice on how to preserve our belongings before we loose it all. Many of you know he broke the LCD a year ago. In the last week here is the list of damage (which usually happens when we have little friends over): several broken ceiling tiles in the basement, coloring on the basement wall in two places, ceiling tile grids taken down to serve as swords, busted fluorescent light, broken picture glass in picture frame, destroyed basket, many toys, and physical damage to his own body from stunts. Seriously, besides our many lectures about how daddy has to spend endless hours working to make money, then hours working on the house to just have him destroy everything....what are we supposed to do. I'm sure we could start taking away his stuff (and breaking it as Doug threatened yesterday), but I'm not sure that would really help him understand.
Just think, we have another boy coming up in the ranks of destruction and mayhem. I think we'll wait until they are all out of the house before we buy anything nice.
Oh, the knuckle head part. I'm the knuckle head. I bought Spencer a light saber and Nerf gun for Christmas. The light saber is going to be opened at the grandparents in Terre Haute. The grandparents who have thousands of dollars in antiques in the house. Oh dear!!