Homing Pigeon?

Last night I needed to get something out of my van . . . and when I opened the door to our garage, this is what I saw. I may have let out some sort of "Ahh!" thinking it may fly directly into my house and then quickly shut the door. I called Mike and the girls to the door to take a look, and they had the same reaction.

I thought it was a mourning dove . . . but Mike saw the bands on it's ankle and informed me that we had a homing pigeon!

We went online to try to find some information or leads on where it came from, but came up empty handed! So, Mike and the girls put together a make shift cage, got some water and rice for it to eat, and it stayed in our house last night. Faith has affectionately named it pijjy.

I made some calls this morning, and what I found was that most people who own homing pigeons, don't want the lost ones returned because they went off course and, therefore, are useless. I was told I could keep it if I want . . .

So, Mike and I are working on training it to deliver mail, so we don't have to buy stamps anymore. If you end up seeing a really cute pigeon by your door with a letter attached to it's ankle . . . it's from us. Just make sure you send it home after you've received your note.

Do I have eyes in my heart?

Last night as we were getting the girls ready for bed, the radio was on. The song was, "Open The Eyes Of My Heart". I wasn't even really paying attention until Faith asked, "Do we have eyes in our hearts, Mom?"

Isn't it amazing the verbage we take for granted as adults? There are so many confusing things that we say in regards to our faith, it's a wonder our kids ever get it! Here's jus a couple of confusing things I've talked about with Faith - in a bulleted list - in honor of Dana.

• Have you asked Jesus into your heart? - I can see that this could be a bit confusing . . .
• Open the eyes of my heart - how do you explain that one to a 4-year-old?
• Washed in the blood of Jesus - doesn't this sound disgusting?
• How can God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all be the same person? - I've always tried to explain this one by saying that I'm a mom, a sister and a daughter . . . but I'm the same person. I have different roles, but still am 1 person.
• Our souls go to heaven, but not our bodies . . . until Jesus comes back, and then our bodies will be raised and be new . . . confusing for adults, much less children. "What about the babies that died in your tummy? They didn't have bodies yet?"

I can see why the statistics out there point to the fact that 80% of the people who come to Christ, do so as children between the ages of 5-12 . . . beyond that, I think people need to rationalize their faith - they need to have specific answers to unanswerable quesitons before they'll commit. Kids don't need to rationalize . . . they just believe it!

Isn't childlike faith amazing?

What crazy questions have your kids asked?

Accountability

When we make goals for ourselves . . . why is it so often so hard to acheive them?

I've talked a lot about New Year's resolutions lately . . . but how many of us have actually stuck to them in year's past? In my last post, I talked about just making the goals "doable" - not so difficult that you can't realistically acheive them. But in addition to that, I think we need to be able to admit that we can't very easily make positive change in our lives without the help of others.

Why is it that we have the mentality that we have to do these things on our own? I've proved time and time again that without accountability, there's very little I will accomplish on my own.

• My house wouldn't be nearly so clean if my husband didn't come home each night. He loves a clean house, and he's calm and peaceful when the house is clean. Knowing he'll be home at 5:30 each night assures that my house will be a peaceful, clean place by then.
• It would be easy to procrastinate doing things for work if I didn't have Sunday roll around every 7 days. Sundays are going to come whether I'm ready or not . . . so I'm accountable for being ready! (I also have terrific teams of organized people who keep me accountable).
• My kids wouldn't be ready to go out the door by 8:30 in the morning if I didn't have to have Faith to school by 9:00 - Accountability.

I just want to give a big "shout out" to my accountability girls!

It's so cool how God works sometimes, isn't it? Through a random series of conversations and blogsphere interactions with some of the girls in my area, we have decided to keep each other accountable for our common goal of reading the New Testament in a year. We met this morning to work out the details of this endeavor, and a cool thing happened! After chatting for just a brief time, we got into talking about the role of motherhood and the many challenges we face in that regard . . . so in addition to keeping each other accountable for the Bible reading - I think we will be a great encouragement to each other in the realm of motherhood too!

What's even cooler to me, is that this group is not made up of people that I usually "hang" with. No offense to those of you that I normally hang with - but I am truly looking forward to some fresh perspectives and insights on things. AND, I am truly looking forward to getting to know these girls better.

So, accountability girls . . . thank you for your friendship, and the accountability! I look forward to building great relationships over the next year! AND, I look forward to actually accomplishing our goals together!

A Compromise for 2007

So sorry I haven't posted and entry in a while! I've been so busy fulfilling my compromised 2007 resolutions that I haven't had time to post!

That's right, I compromised . . . I re-resolved . . . I called a do-over.

The getting up early thing is just too hard for me. Call me a slacker, call me a quitter, call me lazy, call me what you will . . . but I decided that if I'm truly going to keep my New Year's Resolution, it has to be realistic.

RESOLUTION 1 - BE AN EARLY RISER
Instead of getting up a full hour earlier than my girls, I have compromised at somewhere between 15 minutes and a half of an hour. This is working for me! Even though it doesn't seem like a whole lot of extra time, it's still 15-30 minutes more "me time" than I had been getting. It allows me to shower - or NOT shower - and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee as I do my devotions. This goal certainly doesn't give me the status of the Proverbs 31 woman . . . but I'm closer than I was - that's saying something, isn't it?

RESOLUTION 2 - DO DEVOTIONS CONSISTANTLY
I have committed to reading the New Testament all the way through this year! Now I know that it isn't as cool of an accomplishment as reading the entire Bible in a year, but, like my first resolution, it is doable. If I happen to skip a day or two, it is much easier to make up the one chapter a day than the 5 chapters a day. That's what did me in last year when I tried to do the whole Bible! Plus, now I have the weekends off (which is what I skipped most last year, and it put me like 10 books behind - not chapters - BOOKS). In addition to the simplicity of this task, I now have a stellar group of girls that have the same goal, and will work to keep me accountable (and hopefully I'll keep them accountable too! - Thanks girls!)

RESOLUTION 3 - GET OFF MY LAZY BUTT AND EXERCISE
Ok, I'm one of those fortunate women that has a pretty good metabolism. I can eat pretty much anything I want, not exercise, and still maintain my size 8 status. However, I am a flabby, tired size 8.

My husband has lost 20 lbs since October just as a result of running, watching his portion sizes and drinking lots of water . . . the transformation is amazing (hubba hubba). Since October, I've been sitting on the couch eating my ice cream, banket, and other sweet treats as I wish him farwell on his runs. "Have fun on your run honey! I'll just sit here and eat!"

Well, he has inspired me to greatness yet again. I have purchased the running shoes and sports bra and have been running every day except Sundays. I'm amazed at how much better I feel already! Hopefully I'll be a firm, six-packed size 8 by the time my sister's wedding rolls around in June.

Anyway, so far so good! I am holding strong to the revised plan, and I hope you all will hold me accountable to it! How are you doing on your resolutions?

0 for 2

Ok, I'm really sucking up this New Year's Resolution thing . . .

The alarm went off at the appropriate times for the last two mornings . . . but I just can't help but hit snooze - like 3 times!

I'm reviewing the January lessons for our Sunday school program, and the entire month is focused on the virtue of Discipline - Doing what you need to do even when you don't feel like it. The verse for the month is: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men." Colossians 3:23

So . . . I committed to this getting up early thing . . . but am I working at it with all my heart? I think not. Would I be up at 6:30a if Jesus himself was in my kitchen to greet me? Absolutely!

Is He not there to greet me each morning? Yes! So, what's my problem? The problem is I don't feel like it. But discipline is doing what you need to do even when you don't feel like it.

Thank goodness every morning is a new chance to do the right thing! Here's to tomorrow!

New Year's Resolutions

Ok, it's that time of year again where we get all pumped up to make positive changes in our day to day lives. Well, if you're anything like me, these changes occur with quite a bit of frequency in January, are pretty well kept up with in February, but by the end of March, they're caput! My sister-in-law Chelle, said it well here.

So how is it that we are supposed to actually uphold our end of the deal - how do we make sure that we can be successful in what we set out to acheive.

The experts say to pick one thing you can really put your heart and soul into, and go for it! They say you're more likely to succeed if you do one thing, and do it to the full! They also say to get some accountability.

So, here's the deal . . . the one thing I need to work on is discipline. Unfortunately, I need discipline in a LOT of different areas: finances, food, exercise, devotions, not procrastinating . . .
I realize though that the one thing that would make a difference in most of these areas is getting my behind out of bed early.

I HATE getting out of bed . . . I really really hate it! I LOVE sleeping, I love just laying in my bed. I'm an adult now, so there's no-one to tell me to get out of bed - no-one to yank off my covers and turn on the lights - no-one to pull on my big toes until I get up (remember doing that, Dad?). And, it's soooooo easy to hit the snooze 5 or 6 times . . . I do have Mike, but he learned early on not to mess with me in the morning, so he has gracefully bowed out of waking me up - EVER!

So my one resolution (which I've tried to do several different times to no avail) is to get up at least an hour before my girls need to get up. That means 6:30a on M, W, F and 7:00 any other day. I will permit myself Saturdays to "sleep in" until the girls wake up.

I know doing this one thing will help me be more chipper and calm when the girls wake up, it will give me time to exercise, do devotions and shower before they're awake, and it will lessen the mornings we have to rush around to try to make it to wherever we're going on time.

I realize this one thing will help in so many areas of my life, so why is it so hard?

My friend Michelle is struggling to do the same thing . . . check out her comments.

So, for the accountability . . . Mike refuses to help . . . so, who can I count on to help me?

A Great Start to the New Year!

It has truly been a great day! Here's why:

1. The kids let us sleep in til almost 9:00! (That was good since we were up until 2:00AM)
2. We had a terrific breakfast of french toast and OJ (Made by Daddy, which makes it taste so much better than usual)
3. Daddy suggested we go to the local Children's Museum
4. We got to play with bubbles, magnets, paints, markers, penguins, bees, shopping carts, AND did I mention bubbles?
5. We got to go out to lunch
6. We got to eat left-over pumpkin pie, with whipped cream (or wooped cream as Faith refers to it)
7. We took a midnight (at least it seemed like midnight) walk to our mailbox (at 6:30PM) in the light of the full moon (that we could actually see - it wasn't covered by clouds!) and Faith was riding her bike! (on January 1st - who would've thunk?)
8. We had only one discipline issue with Faith - A MIRACLE now-a-days
9. We got to spend the whole day with our entire family doing nothing but hanging out and having a BLAST!

Here are some cool pics from our great day!

Wa-la! Sweet Bubble!

So many Bellas! Which one is really her?

The Bubble Master

More bubble fun!