A Little Bit of Normalcy

For the first time in a looooong time, I feel like we had a "normal" day! We homeschooled, went to Walmart, played outside, went to gymnastics and taekwondo, and ate dinner together tonight. I even had a little time to sew on a gift for a friend. Yes, the house is still a wreck, but I have a plan! I made a beautiful little patio outside for us to go to when the remodeling gets to be too much. I repainted old porch furniture and an old trunk, bought new cushions and an outdoor rug. Why didn't I think of doing this a week ago! :0)

Today was parent watch day at Molly's gymnastics, so Memaw took Mason to taekwondo for me. I tried to watch Molly, but sweet Madelyn was climbing all over me, redoing my hair, taking pictures with my camera, dropping my phone, and saying over and over, "Why Molly do gymnastics and not me"? Finally I just had her pose for the camera and took about 30 pictures of her and only 2 of Molly :0( Oh well, maybe next month!

I think we are finished with 2 of the largest rooms, the living room and atrium, so we should be able to move to the entry hall and dining room tomorrow. A little progress every day!

The Ugliness Within

I love to be happy - I would love for you to think that I am joyful everyday and that nothing gets me down. But....the reality is that we all have the "inner man" within us that is part of our being from birth. I don't like that guy! I AM grateful for all that God has blessed me with, I DO feel joy when I look at the faces of those I love, I AM content to be at home doing simple things, but.....



Have you noticed that one little thing going wrong can snowball into a real hissy fit? I know everyone is tired of hearing me whine about our home remodel, but I had such a meltdown over it this week. I reached a point where the mess in my home connected with the ugliness in my heart, and it wasn't pretty :0) When I don't choose joy regardless of my situation, My heart begins to harden. I become angry over small things, I become critical of others, I lose my focus on what is really important and ugly selfishness sets in.



Fortunately, I have a Godly husband who loves me dearly even when I am not at my best. He patiently listened to my gripes and concerns and then came up with a plan to help me through these messy days. I watched him deal with an oven "issue" that took much longer than planned with such patience and grace. I saw Randy parent with compassion and true love. I felt the extra hugs and attention he gave to me when I needed it. How I love this guy!



I woke up this morning with a much lighter heart, ready to tackle painting and what ever else the day holds. I know that "inner man" is still there and always will be. How thankful I am for the love and grace that keep him in his place.



For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells within me....Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of death? (Romans 7:18-2o, 25)



Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! ...For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 7:25, Romans 8:2)



Have a blessed weekend!

A Beautiful Thing

I realized today that I am in one of those periods of life that is magical. I have three little ones to hug, kiss, bathe, school, etc. all day, and I have three wonderful grown children who make me happy every minute. What a blessing to look at your children and just feel joy! I am so proud of Michael, Matt, and Missy. In spite of our imperfect parenting, they have grown to be caring, responsible adults who try very hard to do what is right. I am even prouder of the fact that they love each other and still love to spend time together.

When we made out our wills several years ago, we made one of my sisters and her husband guardians of our children. Now keep in mind that we have 6 children and they have 5. We both prayed VERY hard for good health for each other :0) After our adoptions of Molly and Madelyn, our older three came to us and asked to be their guardians if anything happened to Randy and me. What a precious and unselfish request.

We live in such a fallen and dark world. Our love and intimacy with God, and our unselfish and forgiving love for family make this place beautiful in spite of what is swirling around us. Michael, Matt, and Missy - I love, love, love being your mom!

Thankfulness

I realized today that I haven't added to my thankfulness list in a couple of weeks - oops!













41. I have 6 beautiful and very healthy children






42. I learned several new ASL signs this week






43. I am surrounded by friends who forgive easily






44. Madelyn told me she loved me MANY times today :0)






45. I get to shower in my brand new shower tomorrow!






46. I talked to all 3 of my adult children today - they make my heart so happy






47. I see God changing my attitude and quieting my spirit






48. We had the most beautiful day here - the weather was perfect!






49. Our pear tree is blooming - Mason, Molly, and Madelyn brought me bouquets all day






50. My heart is filled with the anticipation of Spring

(I took this sweet picture last night after bathtime).

Remodeling Fun!

We are now into our 2nd month of our home remodel. What started with a slab leak in the kitchen kind of snowballed in an entire house remodel. When we bought this house 19 months ago, it had been on the market for over 2 years and vacant for 18 months. The outside of the house was completely overgrown with vines and ivy. The trees had not been trimmed in many years, and it was dangerous to walk through our yard - you would get poked with dead branches. It literally took 3 months of hard labor to cut down 8 trees and to trim and carry away all of the vines and branches. To make matters worse, we had a very large and ugly corner window on the front of the house, and the front door had a strange sunburst design on it. The neighbors had decided that the house was never going to sell :0)

We have bought, fixed up, and sold many houses, but this one was a little overwhelming. We just haven't had time to do anything with it since we adopted Mason in May. I'll admit that this remodel has been hard - there isn't a quiet, private place to go during the days that the crews are here. My house is covered in dust, 3 rooms of furniture are pushed together in the den, and we still can't use our master bathroom. But.....the end is in sight. The house will be wonderful when it is finished, and the men we have working on it are doing a fabulous job!

The master bath has probably undergone the biggest change. Randy ripped out the terrible fiberglass shower and took off the weird step that ran all the way around the tub. The wonderful craftsman who has done most of the structural work on the house, took 4 antique pillars and used them to rebuild our mirrors and the tub surround. The new shower is in, and the tile men will be back mid-April to tile around the tub and do the floors. Randy and I will paint the walls and trim, and then we will be finished and ready to move to the next room!

We only have one more ceiling to scrape, and the painter has started working on the living room ceiling and walls. My new front door went in today, the new front window will be in next week, and we are getting closer to a finished house everyday.

I am still wanting to find a smaller house in the country, but as this one looks better and better, it may be hard to leave!

Happy Easter!

I don't know about anyone else, but this early Easter has seemed different to me. I have had a much harder time feeling spiritually ready for this season. I don't know if it is the house situation, Easter in March, or what. This morning I realized that I am not supposed to "get ready" for Easter, I am to be ready all the time to celebrate what Jesus did for me on the cross. I am to be mindful every minute that I am the righteousness of Christ, not because of anything I have done, but just because I am loved by my Father.

I love to celebrate on Easter morning, but I am not more redeemed today, not more loved today, not more forgiven today than any other day of the year. Every day is a day to rejoice in my salvation!

On a totally secular note, I had absolutely no idea how to explain to Mason about the Easter bunny, so he woke up to a big surprise when he saw the basket this morning. We ate lunch at Randy's parents house, and then had an indoor egg hunt because of the weather. Our sweet Missy goes back to Oklahoma today :0( I wonder if it will always be so hard to see our children leave home.

Tomorrow I will post some house pictures. We literally had a corner off of our house on Saturday. We got it boarded up just in time for the cooler weather. Randy is scraping more ceilings, and the crews will be back in the morning. Here we go again!

Family Fun

All 6 of our darlin's are home for a few days - what a blessing! The older three will return to Dallas and Oklahoma later this week, and we will start counting the days until they can come home again. I love being Mom to all of them.

God has been so good to our family. We have 6 precious children who love us and absolutely adore each other. To the outside world, I suppose we look a little different from the "norm". We are a large, bi-racial family with biological and adopted children who range in age from 3 to 26. Now that seems perfectly normal to me :0) What is important is that God formed our family - every child was specifically chosen for us, and He knit us together.

No child, no family is a mistake or an accident. We might disagree or be disappointed in each other occasionally, but we are a family forever. I love that!

Squeaky Clean!

Our wonderful church meets on Saturday nights which leaves our Sundays blissfully free to play. The little ones stayed in their pajamas all day and were very sweet while their mom and dad worked on installing sinks and getting the bathrooms ready to paint. Tomorrow our 3 older children will be home for Spring break! We haven't all been together since Christmas, so I am a happy mom.

Here are pictures of 3 cutie-pies just out of the tub.

The View Outside My Bedroom Door

Scaffolding, wall mud, and lots and lots of sheetrock dust :0)

The View Inside My Bedroom Door

Saturday morning messy hair, donuts, and mom-selected cartoons in bed. We love Saturday mornings!

My Special Place

I don't hold things very tightly. I don't get attached to houses, don't like to shop, haven't been to the mall in years, etc., but.....I do love to quilt. For 28 years I sewed on the dining room table. I would get everything out, make a huge mess, and then have to quickly put everything back into my closet before friends came over.

A year ago we took a few pieces of furniture to a consignment shop, and they were sold within a couple of weeks. We waited to get a check in the mail - and we waited and waited. Apparently, the store was having "cash flow" problems and couldn't pay us for the sold furniture. Many frustrating weeks and phone calls later, we decided that the only way to recoup the loss would be to trade out for something in the store. I had seen this old post office desk there and thought it was wonderful. Poor Randy, he wanted to get rid of furniture and make some money. Instead, he had to pay more money and bring more furniture home :0)

For the first time ever I can leave my machine out and have everything I need in one place. It has 100 cubbies for thread and notions and fabric. I also just love to sit back and look at all the colors. I have my wool pincushions on top that I make and collect. My sweet friend, Claudie, made the little strawberry girl for my Christmas gift - I love her!!!!

It is a sweet blessing to have a place in your home that is special and just makes you feel good. Now you have seen mine.

Prayer Quilts

A month before we went to China to get Mason in May of 2007, my sweet friends had an adoption shower for us. Mason will not need clothes or toys for a looooong time! The big surprise of the shower was a prayer quilt that my friends secretly made. Everyone made a quilt block and then a couple of VERY sweet friends sewed all of the blocks together. At the shower, people would pray for Mason and our family and tie a knot on the quilt. Each and every little knot represents a prayer that was lifted up for us. It is one of my most treasured possessions.

Tomorrow is a "Sip and See" for the new grandson of one of my dearest friends, so this weekend I made a prayer quilt for little Bradley. I hope this quilt brings him as much joy as Mason's has to me. In good times and bad, having friends who will pray with you and for you are such huge blessings.

You Know It's Bad When....

You know your house has reached an all time low when your 6 year old son keeps walking by the sheetrock dust covered furniture and signing "dirty" and then signs "You need clean!" I am having a hard time convincing him that if I clean it, it will just be covered in more dust in 5 minutes. I think today I will give him a dust rag and let him have fun.

I though about titling this blog entry "Daylight Savings Time - Me No Likee!!!" but that really isn't true. I just don't like it in the morning when my alarm goes off. I love the extra time in the evenings to play outside, work in the yard, and take the little ones bike riding. Randy's parents live about three blocks from us - easily withing bike range, and they always have candy! Memaw and Granddaddy better stock up :0)

These are some pictures from last year's bike riding adventures.

The Big Five-O!

My sweet Randy is now 50 years old. He spent his "fun" birthday scraping the ceilings in our bathroom and in the atrium - woohoo! The kids and I stayed in our pajamas all day and played. I sewed a baby quilt that I will give as a surprise for a friend's grandbaby, and the little ones pretended to be ogres or "yogurts" as Madelyn calls them. I will be very sad when she pronounces everything correctly.

I just have to laugh when I look around our house. Nearly every room is torn up, there is sheetrock dust everywhere, sawdust on the floors - well, you get the picture. I think we are looking at another loooong 4 weeks of construction before life begins to return to normal. I have decided that I am going to look at the mess as a vacation from normal housecleaning. :0) There isn't much incentive to sweep, mop or dust with things as they are.

Molly and I snuggled in my bed tonight and read together. Isn't she a doll!

Lovely Toes!

We are blessed with sons and daughters - and we love them all! Such a difference though in how we tend to parent them. With your daughters, you are always in protection mode. You want them to grow up with a sweet spirit that loves the Lord, you cherish sweet cuddly times, you play beauty parlor and paint toenails. You love to watch them care for their baby dolls knowing that one day they will be wonderful, loving mothers.

With boys you are always in training mode. You want them to be loving husbands and providers for a future family. You want them to love the Lord so that they will be the Christian leadership in their homes. Play time consists more of wrestling with Dad, and everything is louder and rougher. No painted toenails, but a few repainted and repaired walls :0)

We are certainly not perfect parents, but we have very loving and forgiving children. We are blessed, blessed, blessed!

Beauty in God's Eyes

We are members of the most amazing "inner city" church. We literally have a brain surgeon sitting next to a homeless man almost every week. It is a place where all are welcome and where truth is spoken. We meet on Saturday nights, and instead of Sunday School we have homegroups that meet on Wednesday evenings.

Our homegroup is particularly unique in that most of the precious people who come have very broken past lives. Most have been in prison, most are recovering from drug or alcohol addiction, many of the women have children by several different men and are now raising these children alone, and we have some who are recovering from recent divorces. We love being a part of this group!

We serve a meal on Wednesday nights, and so it is not uncommon to have homeless people come to the church for food. Last night, a very inebriated and loud woman came in for a meal and stayed for our homegroup. I don't say it enough, but I have the most amazing husband (who is also the homegroup leader). This woman came to the door of our room barely able to stand, and Randy sweetly encouraged her to come in. At first she refused, but finally sat down by me.

I truly love people, but it is easier to love someone who looks, acts, and smells like you. This sweet woman had been on the streets for a long time, and her hair, skin, and clothing were filthy. She reeked of alcohol and cigarette smoke. I could just imagine God smiling at me saying, "What are you going to do with her?"

Because she was so drunk and disoriented, she was also very loud and disruptive. Randy was teaching and asking questions. Every time he asked a question, she would loudly respond with an inappropriate answer. My precious husband treated her with such love and respect. I sat there wondering how I could help Randy and minister to her at the same time.

As I prayed for her, I heard God say, "Isn't she beautiful?" I began to really look at her - past the dirty skin, greasy hair and filthy clothes. I began to see her, not as a drunken homeless person, but as a child of God - daughter of the King. I put my arm around her and hugged her for the rest of the hour. Every time she would start to get disruptive, I would hug her closer. She would calm down a little and visibly relax. I wonder how long it had been since anyone had hugged her or even touched her.

I learned a lot last night about true compassion and eternal beauty. How thankful I am that God sees us all as beautiful and worthy of His love. Did I mention that what Randy was teaching on was John 3:16? "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son - that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life." Pretty amazing!

Shhhh - It's a Secret!

My sweet Randy will be 50 years old on Sunday. (Have I mentioned lately that he is older than I am?) :0) As a surprise, I took the three youngest sweeties and had their photo made this morning. What a hard choice to pick one of so many cute pictures! Here is a picture of the picture. Not the best quality, but you can still see that they are pretty cute.

I am reading a great book by Dr. Henry Malone called Shadow Boxing. I have been a Christian for a long time, but I still have so much to learn. I think we can get very wrapped up in terminology that we don't even understand - such as the difference between righteousness and holiness. Here's a quote from the book: "Righteousness is a gift from God that is received by faith. Righteousness is an absolute. Holiness is a progression. I am working on my holiness. I am learning to be more holy. I am seeking to be more like Jesus in every action and thought. But I am absolutely righteous." Now, that's something to celebrate!

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday morning Randy was working out in the yard in a t-shirt. About 6 last night, this winter weather BLEW in - really BLEW in at about 50 miles per hour! Randy's parents took our family out to eat for my birthday and then sweetly kept our children so that we could go to a movie. After battling the cold, snow and wind, we decided to rent a movie and watch at home.

Thank you sweet grandparents for a wonderful evening - we love you!

Finishing What I Start

If there was a recovery group for disorganized crafters, I would be forced to join. "Hi...I'm Mary...I start a lot of projects that I don't finish." So the dilemma of the day is...do I finish knitting my first knitted scarf, try one more time to learn triple crochet, complete the really cute set of chicken towels, or......start a new apron, cut out summer clothes for the girls, start on my bag swap for April??????

What I really need to be doing is texturing walls, painting a bathroom, or organizing my homeschool books. Now tell me - do any of those sound very fun to you? :0) I think I will just do a little of everything today. I will finish my crocheted piece (it is very small), clean out my homeschooling stuff, and cut out my really cute new apron. I am happy now!

The Demolition Has Begun

You know your bathroom is pretty bad when it looks better after the demolition than before. One reason this house had been on the market for 2 years before we bought it is the master bathroom. The shower was made out of very cheap molded fiberglass, the tub looked like a Mayan altar, and the 20 plus year old carpet was filthy and wrinkled.



Today Randy tore out the old shower and found some very "unique" plumbing behind it. He also tore off the step that ran all the way around the tub. We have two men coming to work for a month to help us remodel this bath and to paint and texture the ceilings and walls in the rest of the house. Our goal is to have the house completely finished and on the market by June 1st. There is a lot of work to be done before then!



Michael, Matt, and Missy - we miss you bunches! Have a wonderful, relaxing and blessed weekend.