Party, Party, Party

With this being birthday season at our house and special birthday's at that, we have been having some fun themed parties.  Danika became a teenager and chose a nautical theme.  Sierra chose a sweet sixteen theme, complete with more sweets than poor little Cassie girl could handle.  Both parties turned out so cute and I enjoy blessing my girls with fun parties.

Parties can be so fun.  I enjoy seeing pictures of kids celebrating their birthday's.  Isabella does not really enjoy being the center of attention so we have never had a kids birthday party for her.  When we have family birthday parties for her she gets very restless.  We try to have her open presents but she will try to escape and prefers to go sit with someone else and watch.  She doesn't verbally communicate so she doesn't really have relationships with other kids except to give hugs.  It can be hard as her parent to see other children her age doing things I wish she could do, like having parties.  I saw some photos of a child Isabella's age having a fun party and playing with friends.  For some strange reason it hit a sore spot in me, not that Isabella wasn't invited, but that she isn't experiencing these life events.  I don't feel upset with the family at all, but I just experienced another moment of "why."  Isabella is totally happy and doesn't seem to have any idea she is missing anything, so why should I experience these feelings.  A friend of mine once explained it to as moments of morning what we wanted for our child... to live a normal life, free of health problems, full of friends and special times.  I think it is ok for me to have moments like these, they are real.  Isabella is not where I wish and pray she would be, but that is ok.  God is in control and I will continue to put her in his hands and trust that He will complete the good work He has begun in Isabella.  We have been having to take her to several doctors appointments lately and she has a lot of testing coming up. I pray God will direct us and the doctors in the areas we need to go.  Maybe some day Isabella will get invited to a party and will have the time of her life, but if not I know she is happy and that is important.

Latisha's friend is getting married soon and the most recent party we got to host was her shower.  Latisha has literally spent months planning this shower and did an amazing job.  The weather outlook was very scary and as the day approached I began to feel a little concern we might have to move the party indoors.  The party was to be at our home and we were expecting around 50 people.  That would be a little snug in our house.  The night before the shower we had a rather large rainfall complete with wind, thunder and lightning.  So we did what we could inside and hoped it would all be fine in the morning.  Well, it was and what a beautiful morning it was.  We had a brunch, so there wasn't a lot of time to get everything ready but we pulled it off beautifully.

So now for some fun pictures.  Have a blessed day.
Alicia

Danika's cute very yummy cake

Danika and Sierra made a boat, there were other cute decorations,
but unfortunately we didn't get them photographed

Isabella giving one of her famous hugs to Latisha

The girls family party, Sierra got tea items and girlie things and
Danika really wanted a bow and arrows and other girlie stuff

Butterfinger cake, one of our favorites

Sierra made her own cake, it turned out so cute

lot's of fun decorations

The sweet table

we tried to have some healthy food with fruit sticks, carrots,
Spaghetti a la Carbonara, and bread stick

The bride to be and her future husband have been on
missions trips so the theme for the bridal shower was
traveling.

such cute decorations and great food from different countries.
We had quiche (France), Danishes (Denmark?), Citrus muffins (tropical),
German Apple pancake, Fruit salad (based off a recipe from the bride to be
Africa mission), scones (England) and an absolutely amazing
 Chocolate/raspberry compote/ganache cake totally USA.  

Such great weather and a beautiful day

Weeds and Gardens

 I have planted my garden and I am now spending time taking out the weeds so the little plants can grow into big healthy plants that produce and feed our family.  The weeds are never totally under control but if I keep up with things, they are manageable.  I used to sprinkle grass clippings on my garden to keep down the weeds.  The kids complained how it smelled.  So for the past few years I have just fought the battle of the weeds.  Really, the smell was only temporary but the weeding was dramatically decreased.  Since I stopped putting the clippings on the garden I have spent hours, and hours out there weeding.  This year I have started back with the grass clippings and wow what a difference my weeding time is.  The grass clippings smother most of those nasty little weeds and I have more time to enjoy my family and maybe even write a little blog post.

To me this is how the word of God (Bible) and prayer is in our life.  If we can spend a little time every day spreading the word of God in our hearts and seek God first then we can smoother the weeds that try to root and grow in our life.   It is important to do the same with our children.  We make decisions daily on what and who they can spend their time with.  Trying our best to smother the weeds we see taking root and growing in their lives and protecting them so that they can grow into the person God has desired them to be.

I have found that certain plants have weeds that grow next to them that sometimes resemble them. It can be hard to tell the difference between the plant and the weed at first.  That is similar to us.  Unfortunately some of the special characteristics that God has created in us have weeds that look like our characteristics.  If we continue to allow these similar in appearance weeds to grow next to us they will smoother and kill our Christian walk and testimony. An example would be someone who is aggressive and has no problem speaking the "truth", can justify their actions of rudeness by saying that God created them this way, when in actuality God created them to speak boldly His truth to those who are in desperate need.  The weed in that person's life would be to go about wounding and distancing those around them, boldly speaking the way they see things and not using wisdom.  Someone who is quiet and meek can hide themselves in a lifestyle that has no contact with others and withdraw into their own home, forsaking time with other Christians like the one in the above example who offends them and this quite and meek person can decide that God no longer cares about them.  The opposite is true, God gave them that quite spirit to reach those the loud aggressive person could never reach.

We were all created for God's good purpose.  If a person feels they were created in a way that is actually sin according to Gods holy word, then they are deceived and have allowed the weed that looks similar to them, to grow next to them and choke out the plan that God actually created for them.  God had a purpose for that individual to use their temperament for his Glory not for evil to abound.  Let's us not forget the other enemy of our lives/gardens, those pesky bugs who come to destroy.  People can be bugs in our lives that encourage us in sin and away from God's truth.  God have mercy on our nation and help us to call sin - sin and good - good.  God did not create you for sin but for his glory.  I wish people would stop using the excuse that God created me this way to justify sin.  We were not created to live in the sinful nature but in the Spirit.  Galatians 5:16-26 says:

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,[a] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders,[b] drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And here is the important part...

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who areChrist’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

As Christians we must read the word of the Lord and follow God's leading in our life so that we know right from wrong.  If Jesus is your Lord, don't you want to follow his instructions.  After all God has saved us from sin not so we can continue there but that we might grow and flourish in the life he has planned for us.   From the time of Adam and Eve sin has been passed down.  We all have inherited this trait.  Your sin temptations may be different from mine but through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we are all overcomes.  Sin is sin, no matter how big or small and without the covering of Jesus Christ through faith we are all on the wrong road.  I know the sinful traps in my life and I must work hard at pulling them out, but when I immerse myself in the Word of God (Bible), and seek God through prayer, then the traps in my life don't have a chance.  I have a dear friend who I find great encouragement.  I have told her at different times struggles in my life and she always directs me back to how she finds things so much better when she spends time in daily Bible reading and in prayer.  This truly helps.  So may I encourage you, seek the Lord with all your heart, talk to him daily, and read your Bible.  It is so important that we know what we are saying when we claim to be Christians (Christ Like), it means to be a follower of Christ and there is no other better person to be.  Have a blessed day.

Alicia

Wanted to add a little photo of our little love

Watching my garden grow

and grow

and grow

And the Adventure Continues

As I have stated before life is an adventure, some of life's adventures are ones we look forward to and some are ones we would like to avoid, and some times they are both.  Things don't always go as we hope or plan.  In an ideal life we would have everything happy and joyous full of perfect people who never say or do things that offend us, and we all just get along, and there are no good byes, or tears, or frustrations.  hum.  But that I hope is heaven, and this is here.  Here we get on each others nerves, we find out the people we think are amazing turn out to have flaws, to get to the joyous time we have to go through some tears, and good byes can be painful.  I guess these things help us grow and become who God wants us to be if we allow him to work in our lives.

So, I am going through growing pains again.  :)  It feels like we have been saying good by to our son for the past four years.  First it was his high school graduation, a joyous time but also a time of letting go as God directed Alex's path.  Not too bad as he stayed in town to go to school.  Then Alex decided God was leading him to a college over 1500 miles away.  Those good byes were a little harder and our family, being a bit on the emotional side, always shared a bit of tears.  Once again we were happy for the adventure Alexander was embarking on but we hated to see one of our own leave.  Then there was the wedding and releasing him to be the leader of his own family and no longer just my baby boy, but a man of God that was now a husband.  Well today we said another good by.  Once again another good by that is both something we have looked forward to and prayed for but also a bit painful.  The newlyweds and families loaded up their belongings and off they go to their next adventure.   This is the opening of the dream that God placed in Alex's heart many years ago.  I watch in awe as God opens petal by petal the plans he has for Alex.  This is his first paid position as a youth pastor and music pastor.  Two of the passions of Alex's heart.  It is so exciting as he embarks on this new chapter of his life.  Will God keep them there for the next little while or will they be there for the rest of their lives?  We shall see.  Yes, I had tears as he said his good byes, but they are both happy and sad tears.  Tears that say I am so excited for your new adventure, I wish it could be a bit closer, but God knows what is best for Alex and Ivy, and I rejoice in all God has in store for them.

Well, here are some more picture of the last week and of Latisha's progress.  Latisha's and Brent's baby will be here soon and we are so excited.  We are so blessed that we haven't had to have good byes with Brent and Latisha, but you never know what God has in store for them.  Have a blessed day,
Alicia

Cars packed, Uhaul trailer already on the road, and now off they go.

Danika and Aidric waving good by

Cassandra waving good by 

Sierra and Isabella saying good by

Just before they left we took a little camping trip, here my daddy
is teaching Aidric the correct way to make and eat smores.

Quite the fire pit

My mom and Aidric

The newly weds headed off down a path

Sierra and Isabella enjoying a little time by the river

Isn't she just glowing!

Planting and Harvesting

Here we go again.  Another garden tilled, planted and watered.  Now we could just sit around and let it grow and do nothing else, but that wouldn't be gardening and would not produce a good harvest.  Most of the plants would die, a few would grow a bit and maybe one or two would produce fruit.  That would be a waist of a garden.  I do my best to get out there and pull the weeds and make sure it is getting the food and water it needs.  I know I make a lot of analogies of gardening and parenting but isn't it the truth.  We don't just have children to let someone else raise them or let them just grow with the weeds.  We must continue to make sure they have the food spiritually and physically they need.  We must take time to pull out the weeds that threaten to choke or stunt our children's lives.  We must see that they are planted where they are getting the rays of the Son of God in their life.  But we cannot smother them to the point that they aren't getting the oxygen they need.  And now it is a family that helps out.  I love it when the kids get out and help me remove the weeds from our garden and I also like it when they encourage each other to remove weeds from their lives and to make good choices.  It is important to be careful when removing weeds that we don't remove a plant.  There is a fine line between encouraging and criticizing, that is where we can pray for wisdom.  We will work on being the gardners/parents that God wants us to be and look forward to a harvest that will last all eternity.  Have a wonderful day and God Bless.

Here is the garden planted and ready to grow

Alicia

Finally a picture of our family

Look at him grow, the hat is still too big but cute

I just love kissing my babies, you can see how Aidric loves it too :)

I just love it when he smiles

Happy boy

Alexander spending some valuable time with Cassandra

The Right Time

There are three things I love to talk to people about.; one is their salvation story, two, their love story, and three, their baby story/stories.  I believe it is because they are all miracles.  They are personal stories that people are passionate about and all are different.   It is funny to me that the world will tell us to wait until the right time for all of the above.  What does that mean?  For us, had we waited until we were sinless we would be without God.  Had we waited until we had finished college or had the perfect jobs we would have not got married for several years past the time we married.  Had we waited to have kids until we had enough money and patience for them, I don't know when that would have been.  The right time in my opinion is very relative.

Children are such miracles.  The "older" I get the more of a reality this miracle is.  I do not take for granted the children God has given to us.   David was in his senior year of college and I was still a ways out from graduating when we had Alex.   We have absolutely no regrets for having Alex when we did.  Were we in the best of finical situations, no.  Were we real mature, patient and selfless, no.  But we were willing to bring life into this world and the blessings we received from our decission is far above what we had ever expected.  God has grown us in all those areas and I'm blessed to have had all my children, even exceeding the "normal" family size.

Our family

Marriage, Marriage, Marriage, what can I say about that.  I went to a concert the other day.  Warren Barfield, the writer of the song"Love is not a Fight," from Fireproof  shared his love story.  I wish you could all hear it but the abbreviated version was: he was young and not in a stable job but was in love and certain that this woman was the one God had for him.  He talked to his mom about this and told her how obviously this was not "the right time."  His mom encouraged him to marry this girl.  They got married and now have two wonderful children and God has been their provider.  Many times marriage is thought of as something we wait for until we have done this or that and are ready to be "tied down."  I really hate that analogy of marriage as a negative thing.  God instituted marriage in the beginning.  He saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone.  He knew that Adam needed a partner.  Could God have been that, maybe, but that was not his plan.  God blessed Adam with a wife, his helper.  This is the great mystery (Ephesians chapter 6) .   Marriage is a calling, a sacred union, a mystery to show the World Christ and the church.  Two are better than one because their return is better.  We more than double what we can do when we have a Christian spouse (Leviticus 26:8, Deut 32:30).  Marriage is not to be entered into lightly and I don't want to encourage anyone into a marriage that is not what God has for them.  I pray that marriage would be seen as a blessing and not an end of the fun, a beginning and not an ending.  My advise is that you seek God and the advice of those around you who love you before you enter into the union of marriage.  Your ministry should only increase when you marry.  Marriage is a blessing, a good thing.  The party is not over but just begun.  I am so glad that I am the wife of David's youth.  We have shared our whole adult life together.   The trips we took, were trips we took together.  The first home we bought was one we bought together.  Our adult struggles and accomplishments we shared together.  I guess what I am trying to say is that Marriage is a blessing and when God tells you it is the right time then be blessed until death do you part.   You can listen to Warrens song he wrote by googling "Warren Barfield the right time."  It is a great song.

our wedding as we were both 19

Our first trip together, our honeymoon

after splash mountain

our first, puppy, house and Christmas

Ok so I have saved the best for last.  The best is God loves you and gave His son for you.  Today is the day of salvation.  We have no guarantee of tomorrow.  Choose you this day who you will serve.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  I have heard people say that they just aren't ready to serve the Lord.  They want to play in the world some more first.  That is just what Satan wants you to do, consume you with the things of this world so that the things of God have no value to you.  God loves you and this world has nothing to offer you that is good.  Only God is good.  Once God is first in your life and is your Lord, your life is better, your marriage is better and your children will be blessed.  Every day I have lived with Jesus is truly better then any day without.   I am not trying to say that being a Christian, a spouse, or a parent is easy but they all come with a blessing when we follow God's word and honor him with what we do and say.   May God bless you and I pray that you all know him as your Savior.  God bless and have a great day.

Isabella's baby dedication as we commit our children to the Lord

Our pastor praying over us and our children

Alicia 

Family Friendly

Good morning.  I hope this day finds you all well and happy.  I had a great recharge weekend.   Our church had a ladies retreat in a lovely mountain setting.  The Word and worship was great and I enjoyed time with women.  The camp we went to was one I have gone to many times.  The first time being when I was a camper, probably around 10 years old.  I was reliving past moments and looking for familiar spots.  Saturday I took a peaceful walk.  It had been snowing off and on and I asked a couple ladies if they would like to go with me, they looked at me as if I were crazy.  So, off I went by myself all bundled up and found animal prints, the forest coming back to life in spite of the falling snow, and fun obstacle course that had been modified from when I was there as a child.  I came back feeling all wonderful and shared my findings with a couple other women who decided to go with me and check it out.  We also spent time at the lake and it was so peaceful.  I wish I had pictures to show.  It was nice.

Last week we had a joint birthday party for Sierra and Danika.  The local Wahoo's had a new bowling alley.  Being a "family fun center."  David and I thought it would be a great idea to take the kids there for a party with friends.  Ok, so you should always check things out before you go places but I assumed it would be fine.  I must say I was a bit taken back when I got there.  Oh, it was so loud, which is normal for kids places, but there were big screen tv's all around, show casing things I do not find family friendly.  They had a food bar with televisions showing this fighting wrestling thing that was not family friendly.  This is not a sports bar.  Then in front of the girls as they bowled were huge screens playing music videos.  I voiced my concern to another mom, we thought, well the girls won't pay attention.  But as I looked they were all standing there mouths open, staring at what was being flashed in front of them.  What they were showing was not g rating.  They were women flaunting their bodies, guys dressed creepily and other ungodly things that saddened me.  I felt bad that I had taken the girls there and sad that a place claiming to be family fun was not family friendly.  While on our cruise we noticed all these Disney tv shows aimed at children that made fun of the family unit and focused on selfishness and boy/girl relationships.  We don't have cable and watch very little tv and I was reminded why.  "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,"  Proverbs 14:12.  I could go on for a long time on my soap box of what is wrong with our society but that is not what I will do today.  Today I just want to send out a warning to parents, check things out before you trust what is meant by family friendly.  We are told to protect our children and raise them in the fear of the Lord.   We came back to our home and the girls had a wonderful time but next time I will be more cautious of what is meant by the misused idea of family fun.  I pray the girls were not scarred and maybe if enough of us voice our opinion family fun places will truly be family safe.

God bless have a great day.

Alicia