A Smooth Guy Is Turning ONE!!

I cannot believe Judah will be one year old on Tuesday!!  His first birthday party is tomorrow.  Before I know it he will be 16 ready to drive... Lord help me!

This year has been filled with so many happy times for us.  I am so overwhelmed by God's love when I look at my son.  I can't fathom how anyone could love somebody more than I love Judah and yet I know that God loves me a million times more.  In the words of the midget white guy from the Princess Bride... "Inconceivable!"

I am more in love with my Savior today because of my son.  So... thank you Judah for coming into my life and flooding me with so many thoughts and feelings I never knew I could have.  You are the best gift I've ever known and you are so loved by Daddy and me.

Here is his invitation to the big celebration if you want to come!!

A New Friend Is Born!!

Today our good friends Diane and Tony who live in Belfast, N. Ireland had a baby boy.  I am not sure what they decided to name him  yet.  They were some of the few people I know who didn't ever find out what they were having until the moment of truth came upon them!  I do not have that kind of patience!

So today in honor of his new Irish "cousin" Judah wore the soccer uniform that Diane and Tony brought him on their last visit to the US. 

The American "Woman"

Okay, so about once a year I get on my soap box over one particular issue or another.  I thought I'd get it out of my system early this time around! 

I love our nation.  I love that we have such freedom.  I, however, think we have turned freedom into fury when it comes to certain issues.  I have been forever reading a book called "Created to be His Helpmeet" by Debi Pearl.  It is a book about a woman's TRUE place in our ever-changing world.  I love this book because it is a direct challenge to the God-forsaken feminist movement (which, in my opinion, should be called the masculine movement).  It has taken us away from the very thing that is attractive and divine about us as women.  If we want to be just like men then we can forget being desirable TO one! 

In my younger 20's I was consumed with this movement and I didn't even notice that it was taking place.  "I don't need no man to make me happy!"  "Why do I have to stay home barefoot and pregnant when I have gifts and talents, too?"  "I am worth more than just some cooking, cleaning, mothering housewife!"  

The very things I looked down upon were my very own destiny to master and take dominion over... THE HOME!  In today's twisted view of family and community we have lost the importance of the HOME.  The moral standards, world views, talents and traits I possess today, be they good or bad, were not shaped in a classroom or a sanctuary.  They were shaped by the time I spent with my mother and father at or away from the dinner table.  They were formed by the discipline (or lack thereof) that I received on a daily basis in the home.  They were formed by helping my mother make cookies and learning to sweep, mop and do my OWN laundry at the age of 10. 

I see this new wave and this new generation of "entitlement" sweeping across most of the young women I meet today.  It sickens me to the core.  There are 25-year-old women who live in filth because they expect someone else to clean up their messes for them.  Not just in their kitchen, bathroom or bedroom but in their lives that have wandered off course, as well.  They don't know how to make food that doesn't come from a box.  They don't feel that they are responsible to learn because "they don't have a family yet".  There are little girls trapped in the bodies of beautiful women that are yearning for acceptance that they never got in the HOME.  They are perpetuating the cycle of selfishness because in their search for acceptance they are getting pregnant and raising the next generation of entitled, affection hungry, spoiled children.  When will this end?

Women that live lives instilled with values that promote family and character are pushed to the side and disrespected by this generation.  We are deemed completely irrelevant because we are "JUST" housewives or stay-at-home moms with no lives.  We can't possibly understand what happens in the "real world".  Yet we are raising the very children that will be leading the kids of these young ladies in ethics, academics, and moral standards.  Hitler, Obama, Bush, Gahndi, Jesus, Bin Laden... they all made a mark on history - good or bad - and they all had one thing in common.  They had a MOTHER or FATHER (present or not).  The job their parents was reflected in the way they turned out as men.  Why do you think people worship The Virgin Mary to this day?  All she did was raise a son (obviously he was part God's but we'll ignore that fact for a moment since few in her day acknowledged it).  In today's society she would be turned down for lunch by every self-absorbed, over worked, over sexed young lady with a college degree!  Our schools and our work places are filled with these ladies.  Our daycare facilities, adoption agencies and abortion clinic waste baskets are filled with their children.  Forgive me for being so blunt.  It has to be said.  

On a more positive note... there is so much hope, but we as the virtuous single women, wives and mothers that give a hoot have got to start doing something to set the standard that is desirable to these women.  What will it take?  What kind of commitment do we have to show to them to prove that we mean business?  What will open their eyes that are no longer able to see truth or care about the difference between right or wrong?  

Our first responsibility is to train up the young men and women in our very own homes.  Our little ones.  I sometimes lose sight of how important my job is.  The other day I told Micah "I don't feel like I'm changing the world when I spend 2 hours a day swatting my son's hand for playing in the dogs' food and water!"  He responded with much wisdom.  He said "you are teaching him boundaries.  One day he will want to touch a woman that is not his wife with every fiber of his being and somewhere deep in the recesses of his character and mind he will feel a 'swat' that tells him his consequences will not be worth the momentary pleasure".   Wow.  

That is how we spare the next generation from this disease of self-indulgence.  At least, that's how we START.  Our children will lead very soon.  They will teach the children of the single moms what real love is.  Our husbands can be the replacement dad's to their sons and daughters.  We are the SALT of the earth according to Christ.  Salt adds a flavor that you didn't have before.  It also makes you so thirsty for only what can truly quench you.  He is the only answer to this dilemma, this plague.  We must live lives that are centered around Him, no matter how foolish it seems in this day and age.  The truth is, the self-seeking, self-absorbed ones are also the ones who hate themselves and cannot look in the mirror and be happy.  They know there's a thirst for more in their souls and we do have the only WATER that will quench it.  THERE IS HOPE.  It is not found in the government or behind any bedroom door.  It is found in the ONE who is in us.  Let us be the answer to the prayer prayed for us thousands of years ago. 

Please pass this on to any woman you love.  

I found some great quotes on parenting today.  Just thought I'd pass them along.

Parenthood:  That state of being better chaperoned than you were before marriage.  ~Marcelene Cox

Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.  ~John Wilmot

To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.  ~Josh Billings
 

Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.  ~Roger Lewin

No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I'm not talking about the kids.  ~Bill Cosby, Fatherhood, 1986 

The trouble with having a stubbornness contest with your kids is that they have your stubbornness gene.  ~Robert Brault 

Human beings are the only creatures on earth that allow their children to come back home.  ~Bill Cosby, Fatherhood, 1986 

You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once.  ~Polish Proverb 

2010... Ready for "Phase 2"

Phase one (up until now):
-Transition
-Confusion
-Uncertainty
-Learning Curves (to say the LEAST!)
-Laying Foundations
-Sowing in a time of famine

Phase two (starts now):
-Building
-Earning
-Reaping
-Breakthroughs being manifested, not just hoped for or promised
-Winning over opposition, not just fighting all the time
-Finally benefitting from all we learned in phase one!

I am very excited that my phase 2 has begun! 

Merry Christmas Today Becuase You Know I Won't Post Before Then.... LOL

So I want to seriously wish all my friends a wonderful Christmas.  Not filled with stress and last-minute "oh shoot I forgot so-and-so's gift..." shopping.  Just remembering that, truly, Jesus is the ONLY reason for this wonderful time and looking around in amazement at all the incredible people He's planted in your life as a representation of how much he dearly loves you.

Update:  Judah is FINALLY crawling!!  Praise the Lord above.  I thought this day would never come.  Now that it is here I am kind-of wondering why I was in such a hurry.  He has eaten an array of what can only be called "rubbish" from our floor.  I have never swept and vacuumed so much in all my days!

So, I am making green bean casserole for Christmas dinner.  I am a bit nervous because it is my Aunt Marinell's recipe.  It includes worshteshire sauce, velveeta cheese and lots of butter!!  I think it sounds like an absolute treat!  Oh!!  It also has WHOLE button mushrooms.... YUUUMMM~~ I am SO pregnant.  Oh dear, no one is going to eat my food.  Eh.. more for me!

And I have 2 weddings to do hair for in one morning tomorrow.... I still have not figured out the inner workings of my own brain and why I booked both of them, but my glorious friend Abby is going to help me and I know it will all work out!!!  (That is complete blind faith talking!)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good... rest of the month... uh, yeah!

Love,
Mary

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, there are many reasons I have been unable to blog for the month of November...
The main one is that Judah was a sick little man for most of the month.  I kept having to go to the doctor and get him on all kinds of antibiotics.  Finally I took him in and they tested him for RSV and we found out that was what kept causing him to get sick so frequently!  I was partially relieved and partially terrified!  He had to do treatments every few hours for a week and finally those are over! Yay!!

Needless to say I didn't sleep and neither did he... for pretty much the whole month!  I am so excited to become a part of society again.  I get to go to church tomorrow and everything.  So much to be thankful for. 

We had the privilege of doing Thanksgiving at our house again this year.  I will have pictures very soon.  It was so much fun :-)  We had about 15 people here and about 150 lbs of food or more!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love that you get to enjoy family and friends with no pressure of gift-giving and all that.  I love to give and I love to receive, but I feel sometimes that Christmas has just gotten out of hand.  I think we will start doing things to teach our kids that it is truly all about Christ coming in to the world and show them how they can bring Him into the lives of people that need Him.  Of course I want to bless my kids every year, but I feel the biggest blessing I can give them is to teach them how to reach out.  Just my opinion... not preaching here! 

Next week you may not hear from me.  I am taking Judah to see his Papaw and we are attending the funeral of my Great Aunt Midgie.  You may remember her from the pictures I posted back in July.  She was 92 years old and lived a full, wonderful life.  She got to meet Judah and for that I am grateful.  Her funeral is Wednesday and she will be greatly missed by all.