Friday, March 26, 2010

Thursday, March 25, 2010

A Day at the Beach

Dee Rowell of DJRowell Photography took pictures of the kids and I this morning. I thought I'd share a sampling (especially since I am currently camera-less). Eventually copies of these will be up for sale on her site if you want to purchase these or others. I'll put a link up when the pictures are available for viewing.

In the meantime, here's 6! (Clickable pics)



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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Princess and the Frog

I'm listening to it in the background while the kids watch it intensely. This is our second time through it, so I know what they're seeing at least.

Through all the darkness that can be found in it, there's a story that I find to be very compelling. It's the story of the lies that Satan tells. The prince is drawn into half-truths and makes a deal for his life based on such lies. Throughout the story the Shadow Man has to make more and more bargains with his "friends on the other side" in order to keep his scheme going. In the end, his scheming fails and he has to pay the ultimate price for his promises.

You know, Satan promises us things all the time if we'd only go along with his plans for us. But he only tells us the part he wants us to hear, or he is vague enough to keep us distracted and focused on what we want to hear, or he flat out lies about what would happen. Some part of us is hesitant, but many times we are so excited about what we want to hear, what we want to believe, that we just go along with it. That does not make us any less responsible, but it's good to recognize the way Satan works.

And in the end, when we make a deal with Satan in order to get what we want, there is a price to pay. It's called consequences of actions. It's not always our death, but there is a price to pay for our sin. Whether it's that someone doesn't trust you any more, or you ruin a dream you had for yourself, or it's that you have to face the earthly consequence of it ... there is always a price that has to be paid. And if you promise your soul to Satan, you have to know that one day he will call on that promise. Only Christ' grace can save you from that.


There are other good lessons throughout the film, but that is the one that speaks to my soul right now so I wanted to share it.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

New Location

Due to circumstances in my family I am currently having to make some changes.

I plan on continuing to use this blog for pictures, some stories, and even the occasional family rant. However, I can no longer continue to write here on a regular basis because when I can't talk about what is on my heart right now -- it feels like a lie.

If you would like access to the new blog, please email me and I'll send you the new address.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Writer's Guilt

I have writer's guilt. It is similar to writer's block, in that I find myself unable to write, but different in that I have plenty to say. My problem is every time I start to blog, I start thinking about all the things I SHOULD be doing instead of wasting my time at the computer, so I stop writing. That doesn't mean that I've been productive housework wise. It just means that I've allowed my guilt to keep me from writing. I suppose if I actually got the house clean, I wouldn't feel so guilty anymore and could blog to my heart's content, but what's the fun in that, right? ;)


To make up for it, I'm going to post a bunch of randoms from the past few days.




Last night both kids were playing upstairs. I thought that they were in Alex's room. But suddenly Kairi started screaming that Alex had my pretzels -- that means that he was in my bathroom. (Doesn't everyone keep pretzel sticks in their bathroom? No? Oh, well I do.) I hollered up the stairs that he needed to bring them to me immediately, and that Kairi needed to close my door.

Slowly the boy trudged down the stairs. Bag of pretzel sticks in one hand, other hand in a fist behind his back. He tried looking repentant, but there was a glimmer of a smirk on his face -- a tiny twitch at the corner of his mouth that screamed he was trying to not laugh at his own cleverness. He drug his feet to me, handed me the bag, and said "Sorry Mommy. Go pay now." and took off running for the stairs. I grabbed his arm right before he took off, leaving his little legs running as fast as they could w/ him going absolutely no where.

I told him to hand over whatever was in his other hand -- the one he kept hiding from me. The smirk was gone. He was devastated for about 8 seconds as he started to hand me the handful of pretzels he thought he was hiding so well. Just before they reached my hand, he took a bite off, dropped them, and started to run again. Let's just say that he was completely devastated when I made him spit out his bite.

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My house is veeeeeeery slowly coming together again. I have cleaned out the kids' closets. Put up 2 out of 3 new bookcases. Moved another bookcase. Bought a new tv that needs to be mounted on the wall. Found a table for the kids, but can't put it up until the old tv is moved upstairs so that there is room for it. I know that one day my house will look the way I want my home to look, but so far it's not there yet. Let's hope it is by the end of the week at least, though. :)

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My weight loss is moving right along. I'm so very proud of myself. :) I have lost nearly 15 pounds since I started in January and am so excited about needing to put some of my clothes in the back of closet because they're getting to be too big.

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Alex knows not just that the PS3 plays movies, but how to take the old movies out and put new ones in. He can also operate the cd/dvd drive on the computer.

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Kairi has become quite the stickler for the rules recently. She's constantly correcting Alex, telling him that Mommy says the rule is xyz and he needs to obey. Of course, if the rule is to speak respectfully to your mommy, then it can be ignored...... right?

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Kairi cut her hair for me the other day. I still have to get it to someone to have it repaired, but for now it's not notice-able if I style it just right. She's having a hard time with "cut only paper" thing. She'll obey it (now that she's been in trouble for cutting her hair), but if she could talk me into letting her cut something else she'd be thrilled.




That's all I have time for tonight. Hope everyone is doing well! I promise to try to comment on blogs soon.... :)

And I should be back by Monday to tell the latest in our Naval adventures.