A Mighty Warrior

Yesterday, October 4th, would have been my Grandma Wanda's birthday. I honestly don't know how old she would have been. She went to be with Jesus when I was still in High School. Grandma Wanda was not really my "grandma", that was her adopted name. When we lived in Benton Ridge Ohio, my brother, sister and I were very young. Somehow my parents began having Wanda come and stay with us and babysit at times. She got to be so close that she would travel on certain vacations with us just to help watch us kids. I'm not good with age, but I honestly think she was in her late 60 or early 70's during that time. Wanda was a lady who we loved to be around. She was just like a Grandma, only had no children of her own. Her husband had passed years before we met her and so we had each other. We loved to go to her house and I even remember getting to spend the night on occasion. She would always make hamburgers, french fries and chocolate pudding for us. We would play games together and I remember she would let me cheat at UNO by looking into her glasses at what cards she had. She thought that was the funniest! I also remember her coming to our house and we would play the Dukes of Hazard - she was always Boss Hog!

But Wanda was more than just a Grandma to us. She was a Prayer Warrior. Grandma Wanda loved Jesus with her whole heart. She would pray with us and read the Bible to us. She was a wonderful Godly women who I know is in Heaven today.

So throughout the day yesterday I thought of her. I wished that my husband and children could have known her. I wished that I could still go to her house for the chocolate pudding and UNO games. I thought throughout the day about her being in Heaven and how excited I am to see her again one day!

So today, as I remember Grandma Wanda, my prayer is that I will be a Godly Woman who loves Jesus with my whole heart and points all those around me to Jesus - even when I'm in my 70's!

Reflect His Glory

Today I have 5 kids (2 are mine and 3 are kids I babysit for). Monday's are usually a little rough. They have been away from each other all weekend and off the "normal" routine. So they were all fussy and at each other this morning and then I said, "let's listen to some music". I quickly put in the CD I had just gotten from the Come to the Fire Conference and they loved it. They started dancing and praising and it was so cool. They actually even made my CD skip in a couple of places.

The oldest little boy finished up his lunch and asked if he could listen to some more. Praise the Lord. They are hearing Jesus and loving it! I really wanted to find the CD so I could link it here, but I'm still looking for it. It's a great CD!

Come to the Fire

The past couple of days I had the opportunity to attend Come to the Fire, a Women's Conference that was held in Ft. Wayne. On Thursday night 7 other ladies came from Farmer UMC to join me at the conference. We were 8 of 1600 women who joined together for this conference.

It was a fantastic conference.
The 5 of us (my mom, good friend, Connie, me, Sue and Peg - both from Farmer) stayed the whole weekend and had a great time together.

But let me tell you a little more about this "Coming to the Fire". It is just what its' name says, an opportunity to Come to Jesus and into His Fire and be molded and shaped by His fire so that coming out on the other side I can Reflect His Glory. And be more like Jesus.

On Thursday night there were, as I mentioned, 7 other ladies from our Farmer Church who attended. I felt burdened for them and so badly wanted an opportunity to be the "good Pastor's Wife" and pray through things with them.

It was a wonderful time of Praise and an absolutely solid Biblical message given from my extended mother-in-law (OK, she's not really mine at all, but I feel connected because my sister married her son!). So Jesus used Ms. Bethie in a powerful way and many met him there.

Friday morning again was a time of wonderful praise and testimony and Jesus came again, but this hard hearted Pastor's Wife was too worried about those around me to hear Jesus.

Finally, Saturday afternoon the Holy Spirit got through to me. I waited until the end of the Healing Service, long after the invitation to come and then finally after many - "Jesus are you sure it's me you want?" I got up found a Godly lady that I knew Jesus put right behind me for a reason and went to the altar.

**Let me pause for just a minute**

Have you ever negotiated with Jesus? I sat in my seat for so long, tears rolling down my face, pleading with Jesus to show me, "is it me you want at the altar, are you sure it's not someone else?" Then, when He still wouldn't leave me alone (thankfully) I said, "well I don't want just anybody coming to the altar to pray with me." So he put that mother-in-law right behind me and my own mom right beside me. So I said, "well, Jesus, could they just tap me on the shoulder or something then I'll talk to them and go forward?"

I mean, really. Why don't they just go up and pray for me while they are at it!

But you know what Jesus did? He had my momma grab me around the shoulder and say, "are you OK, honey?"

I lied..."yeah (through tears), I'm OK." And Jesus said, what else do you want. How else can I prove to you that I want you to get out of your seat and come to me?

The tears came harder then and I realized the service was closing. The worship leaders were leading us in praise for all God had done, but I couldn't praise. I couldn't even begin to sing.

So I got up - FINALLY!

and walked to a beautiful lady who shines with Jesus, Stephanie, and ask her if she would pray with me at the altar.

Stephanie and I the next morning

and you know what...Jesus was there. He was there they whole time - He was waiting on me.

Through my tears I told Stephanie and Jesus that I simply wanted More of Him. I wanted Jesus to be Enough! I know in my head that He is, but I wanted Him to know that I wanted Him to Fill me from Head to Toe and be Enough and Fill me to Overflowing!

And He is and He Did!

Jesus is all I Need!

He's more than Enough!

Ephesians 3 gives Paul's prayer for the Ephesians. Where he prays that He may strengthen them with power through the Spirit, so that Christ my dwell in their hearts through faith. And that by being rooted and established in love, we may have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is. That we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

He is More than Enough for all that we will Face in this World and not only that He wants to be with us all the way, in order to show us all that His power can do in our lives.

So to Him be the Glory!

AMEN!

60 years!

On Friday, my Grandparents (Granny and Gramps) celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary! On Saturday a lot of the family got together and enjoyed a meal together before a reception in their honor. Here are just a few pictures of the time!

Eli, really enjoyed the meal

Time to talk

Eli was especially helpful when Granny and Gramps began greeting their guests. He walked around with Granny and wanted to shake every ones hand. We thought he might be getting annoying, but they all seemed to love it!

60 Years!

Congratulations Granny and Gramps! We are very proud of you. Ron and I began to think a little about even our 50th, which is actually 40 years away. He's not sure he'll make it (not the being married to me part but living that long :))

Anyway, we are blessed to have 2 people at the core of our family who love the Lord and each other and who the Lord has blessed in marriage for the past 60 years. Thanks for the wonderful example!

Books and Reading

Around here, we like our books.

Sometimes we just surround ourselves with books and read away.

We love it when Grandma reads to us.

Sometimes we read with a friend.

Sometimes we snuggle up close and read.

And sometimes we just sit quietly and read to ourselves!

No matter how we do it, we love to read!

Buckeye Birthday

Last night, as you know, we celebrated Nathaniel's 6th Birthday. He is getting so big. We have a few traditions that we do a birthday time around here. I always make a cake - so far the kids have picked what they want and it has worked okay. Then they get to pick the kind of ice cream too. Nathaniel wanted chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. When I said, "ok, I"ll get Neapolitan" his response was, "NO, I want chocolate, vanilla and strawberry." One last tradition is that the kids can pick their birthday meal!

I'll show you a little of this "Buckeye Birthday" in pictures.

being interviewed by daddy (on camera)

Nathaniel really wanted an IHOP supper. So we decided instead of taking all the time to go to Ft. Wayne we would bring IHOP to us. He had his eggs, sausage and the yummy pancakes with strawberries, bananas and even cool whip.

Then after a couple of little gifts we went outside for the...

Buckeye Bike


Then after many trips around the house on the new bike, we went back in for some Buckeye cake.

As Nathaniel climbed into bed he said that the bike was just wanted he had pictured and that he had a great birthday.

A Gift from GOD!

For those of you unfamiliar with Hebrew...Nathan means "a gift". But, Nathaniel means "a gift from God." Six years ago today Nathaniel came into this world and our family. Our beautiful 8.5lb baby boy was a wonderful baby. He was quiet and took a lot in with those big brown eyes. He loved to watch his big brother and learned so much from him.

Now that beautiful baby boy is becoming a little man. He's much louder but much more handsome as well. He's smarter and much more adorable. He's all boy and yet so sensitive too. He's a beautiful wonderful gift from God!

And he's 6

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATHANIEL!

WE LOVE YOU!

In Training

Here she is...our Mother in Training! I'm not exactly sure how the cell phone plays into all that, but we'll see!

O-H-I-O

A couple of weeks ago I was distraught. I love my buckeyes but it seemed we would be unable to watch their regular season play, check it out here. But what a difference 2 weeks can make. Ron decided that we could spurge a little and signed us up for a cable upgrade for a couple of months! Gotta love that husband of mine. I guess all the babysitting has come in handy! Whatever it was - I was pumped today.

TODAY, we watch the Buckeyes. OK, so they were only playing Ohio University and should totally blow them out of the water, but we finally get to watch it. YIPEE!!!!!!!!! We were all ready for the 12 noon kick off. The boys had their lunches on the Buckeye trays, it was perfect.

Maddie...well, she is still learning that PB&J is not nearly as important as the Buckeye game. She's got some time. I'm not sure I want her to react like her daddy does during games. Thankfully there was a flag on the the play he is distraught over in this picture and so he was quickly cheering again.
After the PB&J, Maddie thought she would get into the action. Thankfully Ronnie was kind of paying attention to her as she "tackled" while sitting beside him.

The commercials were filled with football plays in the living room. Not sure how they know it's back on, but I got this snapped just in time.

And of course we had to practice our O-H-I-O. Looks like we will need lots of practice this year before we can get these letters looking right and get the coach out of the picture. Come on kids...make us proud!

In case you couldn't tell we had a fun afternoon watching our favorite team. And yes, for those of you yet to purchase the Big Ten Network - they won!

Outside and Boys

This past Monday was a day off for Ronnie and Nathaniel. They were so excited to be able to play outside and have Brett here too. (Brett is the little 4 year old that I babysit for). I actually attempted to take all 7 kids outside. It last for about 45 minutes - I was pretty proud of myself. I didn't get all of them in pictures, but I got a few.

These first 2 seem pretty innocent:
Nathaniel posing...

4 calm boys with ornery looks on their faces.

Then comes the real story. The four of them played an played in this wagon with only 1 minor injury :)

They had a good time and Ronnie wanted to know, "when is our next day off when Brett will be here?"