Gratituesday Archives | Page 9 of 20

Gratituesday: The Thirteen Year Old “Manly Trip”

February 18, 2013 by Laura 24 Comments

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Our second son, Justus, turned 13 last Friday. As he did with Asa two years ago on his 13th birthday, Matt took Justus on an out of town day trip to spend some one-on-one time with him.

What did they do on this trip? They spent a lot of time having great conversations. Road trips are good for that. :) Before the trip, Matt had talked to three godly men that Justus respects. While on the road, each of the guys called and gave some words of wisdom to Justus. We are so blessed to have these men (and so many more!) in our lives to enourage our sons.

Once they reached their destination, Matt and Justus stopped at a park and kicked around a soccer ball. They went to Cabela’s. They ate a manly meal of BBQ meat. Then, they got to do what Justus was so excited about – they went to a Tim Hawkins show!

Ever seen Tim Hawkin’s Chick Fil a clip? So fun!

I am so thankful to have another awesome teenager in our house. And I’m so grateful that Matt is so diligent about training our sons to be godly.

Oh, and while they were having their fun day away, the other three boys and I got to go to a Mother-Son banquet put on by our church. A great day all around for our sons!

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Gratituesday: Godly Mentors

February 11, 2013 by Laura 27 Comments

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I’ve spent many of my 15,840+ days on this earth having no clue what to do, making mistakes, and learning as I go.

As a teenager, I muddled my way through each day, trying to figure out who in the world I was. (Thank you, God, that I never have to be a seventh grader again.)

I began college with vigor, only to be met with the shocking realization that as a young adult, I needed to claim my own faith, keep up with my own laundry, study my heart out, and make my own doctor appointments.

When I first got married, I excitedly poured my heart into making a home, while serving my new husband many burnt grilled cheese sandwiches and underdone, doughy pancakes.

When our oldest son was born, I found myself totally in love with my newborn who quickly turned into a toddler. But I wore a “deer in the headlights” look for much of the time. Changing a diaper was easy enough, but where was the handbook on how to properly get a stubborn three year old to obey without having a melt-down in the middle of aisle nine? (Take your pick on who was having the melt-down…me or the three year old.)

In a few short years, three more baby boys were added to our family. I now had to learn to manage sibling squabbles, synchronize nap schedules, and deal with having too few hands to keep up with active little boys who didn’t care to sit quietly in a church pew.

There were wiggly teeth and ER visits for stitches. There were illnesses. There was death. There was pain and grieving. There were job changes. There was confusion. There were new adventures. There was more blessing than we could have ever dreamed or imagined.

And now? Now there are teenagers and preteens and a closet full of soccer cleats, work gloves, and basketballs. There are savings accounts, algebra lessons, odd jobs, hobbies, overloaded schedules, learner’s permits, and cute girls. Right around the corner there will be transcripts, scholarship applications, senior pictures, and ACT scores.

Somehow I did make it through those uncertain baby and preschool years. This gives me hope that somehow, I will also make it through these deep voice changing, independent, cut-the-apron-string years too, even though I often feel utterly incompetent.

As unprepared as I sometimes feel, I take comfort knowing that I’ve never had to do any of this alone. Obviously God has been my ultimate guide, and Matt is a solid rock of a teammate. But what I’ve appreciated more than words can express are the women God has put in my life to walk me through each stage. Women who have “been there, done that”. Women who care. Women who don’t mind that I ask thirteen to three hundred questions. Women who love me for who I am and empower me to be what God has called me to be.

I’m not alone. And neither are you. There’s nothing new under the sun, and nothing you or I are going through hasn’t already been dealt with by someone else. Thank you, God, for wise mentors and for friends who offer encouragement.

Now if I can just refrain from purposely giving my boys bad hair cuts in an effort to ward off the cute girls. I kid. (I think.)

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Gratituesday: All the Seasons

February 4, 2013 by Laura 24 Comments

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This afternoon, leaving my fifteen year old and almost thirteen year old at home to finish school work, I packed up my eleven year old and eight year old, and we headed over to visit our friend who has a three year old, a two year old, and a newborn. The hope was that while my boys played with her little ones and I held the baby, our friend could get a few things done, or maybe just put her feet up for a while!

This really was an “everyone wins” situation. It was great for my boys to play the “big kid” role. The two and three year olds had fun playing with the big kids. In between feeding times, their mama cleaned out her freezer, got caught up on phone calls and paper work, and did a variety of other tasks that were on “the list”. And I think it goes without saying that I loved having a chance to snuggle a newborn for a good long while. ;)

Back in the day when all my boys were tiny, we had a family friend who would invite me to drop my boys off at her house every so often, just so that I could go to the store (or go home and take a nap) by myself. She insisted that someone had done that for her when her kids were little, and that the way I could repay her was to do the same for others when my kids were older and I had a chance. I’ve never forgotten the blessing that friend was to me during that season.

I could say all kinds of goo-goo stuff about how I miss those days of little bitty ones because truly, some days I do. There is something so precious about silly two year old lingo, sticky kisses, and the “I do it myself!” phase. And there is something equally precious about having an eleven year old who can entertain a two year old well enough to produce belly laughs for a good fifteen minutes. (I should have recorded it.)

Every stage has beauty of its own. Every season is a blessing. And no day is perfect – no matter what season you’re in. I don’t miss everything about having babies and toddlers, nor do I love everything about having independent big kids. But I relish the memories and I embrace the day to day. That’s a whole lot better than living with an “if only”, or “I wish”, or the “I can’t wait until” mentality.

Give thanks for today – no matter what season you are in! And if your season will allow it, go let the mama of little ones take a nap or to do something that doesn’t require wiping a nose or a bottom. If you are that tired mama of little ones, ask a friend for some help. I promise – everyone wins! (Spoken by someone who got a wonderful, squishy baby fix today.) :)

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Gratituesday: Food is Fun!

January 28, 2013 by Laura 41 Comments

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I decided to let my Gratituesday post become my “here’s what we ate on Monday post”. Why? Because feeding my family is fun for me. Because I think it’s important to be grateful for all of the “little” things in life – like food – that we don’t typically give much thought to each day. And because I’m thankful for all of the variety God has provided. (Let’s all give a big hooray for the fact that we don’t have to eat a diet exclusively of manna and quail for 40 years straight, eh?) So here we go:

I was the first one awake this morning (as is typical) and was ready to get started making blueberry pancakes when Elias, usually the first boy of the house to wake up, joined me in the kitchen. He had received a “Snacks on a Stick Maker” for Christmas, which has been so much fun to play with. Since we hadn’t tried pancakes on a stick yet, he asked if we could try it this morning. Sure? Why not. ;) (By the way, I didn’t have any fresh blueberries so decided to use freeze dried berries that I’d bought from Vitacost. These worked great!)

Well, the “pancakes on a stick” turned out to be a big hit with the whole family. However, making breakfast this morning took approximately two hundred hours. The machine only makes six at a time, and the boys could all eat about that many per minute. I cranked them out as fast as I could, while reading Bible to the boys and getting them started on their other assignments for the morning.

Check out our mis-matched drinking glasses. Being the same would be so boring, don’t you think?

I thought the blueberry pancakes on a stick turned out especially pretty.

After a morning filled with world history, math, laundry, and answering a few emails – I started making our lunch of Chicken and Noodles with carrots. While it was cooking, I mixed up the Bbq meatballs which were to be our dinner. I was also planning to take dinner to our friends who just had a baby! Four pounds of hamburger later, our meatballs were put into the fridge, ready to bake at dinner time. (My meatball recipe is in this ebook.)

I finished up our lunch, “cheating” just a little bit by using purchased whole wheat fettuccini noodles. Ya can’t make noodles without eggs – and I had used the last of mine in the meatballs. :) I also rewarmed some homemade cabbage rolls (recipe coming to you soon) to help make the soup stretch a little farther.

To help clean out the fridge, and to add more nutrients, I threw some leftover peas into my soup. Yum!

Not surprisingly, we still needed to stretch our lunch to fill the boys. A jar of this summer’s applesauce to the rescue!

After lunch I got out a few frozen cookie dough balls I had made a while ago and baked them to take to our friends tonight.

Apparently this move was a little bit cruel since I only made enough cookies to take to our friends, and didn’t make enough for our kids. (The poor little dears had to settle for the leftover fudge brownies I had made a few days ago.)

Sometime mid-afternoon as the boys were wrapping up their school work for the day, I had them head into the kitchen to take turns scrubbing potatoes for dinner. Elias and I left to pick up a few things at the store – including jeans for his ever-growing long legs.

In the meantime, Matt got the meatballs and potatoes into the oven to bake for dinner. When we got home, all the boys unloaded the van while I made green beans and packed up the food to deliver to our friends. I was blessed to have a wonderful visit with them while I held their new baby. Bliss!

When I got home, we sat down to eat our own dinner. Not only had Matt baked the potatoes and meatballs for me, he had put a spaghetti squash into the oven. What a great addition to our meal!

And there you have it. I mostly followed my meal plan, with several additions and adaptations to round everything out and to fill up the boys. Plus, why make pancakes when you can make pancakes on a stick (and kill two hundred hours of your morning)?! :)

God is good. Food is fun. Thanks for letting me share!

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Gratituesday: Ping Pong

January 14, 2013 by Laura 16 Comments

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Even though, for months, the boys had been talking about wanting one – they were not expecting to get a Ping-Pong Table for Christmas. That’s why it was so much fun to surprise them with it this year!

(Santa gets great deals on used items at Craig’s List sometimes…) :)

This has been so much fun for all of us. I hadn’t played ping-pong since I was a teenager at camp…or maybe since hanging out in the college “student center” as a freshman. Still though, I’m happy to report that I can still hold my own with some of my boys. I haven’t taken on Matt yet however…

Oh, and it’s probably not a good idea to ask me a question (such as, “Mom, what’s for breakfast tomorrow?”) when I’m in the middle of a match. I’m not good enough yet to simultaneously get my paddle on the ball while saying the word “muffins”. Maybe I’ll be that good eventually. :)

ping_pong

We put our new table up in our “game room” – the room that was built above what used to be a garage sometime during the 100+ year lifetime of this house. That room is perfect for our boys and their friends to play and make a mess. Now that we have the ping-pong table, that room is seeing even more traffic!

In just a short time, we are already seeing the blessings of having a ping-pong table. Yay God for giving us great deals and even better ways to spend time together!

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Gratituesday: Oranges!

January 7, 2013 by Laura 15 Comments

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We just got back from a long, long drive to and from California to visit Matt’s family. One of the best parts of the trip (besides seeing loved ones, obviously!) is that we got to bring home two big sacks full of fresh oranges from Matt’s uncle’s tree.

oranges

Wow, they taste good. I see a lot of Creamy Orange Coolers in our future, as well as simply lots and lots of sliced up oranges with our meals and snacks.

It is amazing how much better these oranges taste compared to store bought oranges. And, because they were given to us by beloved family members, we remember to pray for them each time we eat one. Such a tasty reminder! :)

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Gratituesday: Still Here to Hug

December 17, 2012 by Laura 24 Comments

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I find it a challenge to write this post.

How can I put into words how overcome I am with gratitude for the simple fact that everything about my life at this point is carrying on with a great deal of normalcy? Normal is good. Normal is safe. Normal is busy, and dirty, and silly, and perfect. Normal is what I usually take for granted.

I’ve never been more grateful that my kids are losing teeth and making up jokes that may or may not be funny. How precious it is that we are still eating three (to seven) meals a day, tripping over dirty socks in the hallway, wasting time looking for our lost pencils, and trying to remember whose turn it is to clean out the dishwasher.

Nothing about watching my kids rinse their dishes or convert a decimal to a fraction is generally very breath taking. I certainly don’t typically feel a surge of joy when I see a dirty sock lingering on the floor.

Yet, because all of life got turned upside down for so many families in Connecticut just a few days ago – all I can think of is how much I deeply appreciate my “normal”. And how life for those grieving and hurting families will never be “normal” again – until the time when, by God’s grace and through His amazing power to offer healing and hope, they will settle into a “new normal”.

So I will gladly take the moments of chaos when all of the boys are trying to talk to me at once and I really can’t hear a word any of them are saying. I’ll take hearing, “Mom, I’m hungry” thirty-eight times every afternoon. I’ll take the never ending leaves that get tracked into our house by our kids and their friends. I’ll take my couch that regularly gets shoved across the living room and lands in the middle of the floor so that a game of Nerf soccer can take place. And the “Oops, sorry Mom” I’ll hear when that Nerf soccer ball gets kicked too hard and knocks yet another ornament off the Christmas tree. I’ll take the unnoticed yogurt drippings all over the front of a sweatshirt that later becomes crusty.

And yes, I’ll even take the dirty socks in the hallway. (Although I will also take the opportunity to remind the owner of the sock to quickly take responsibility for said sock…)

As simple as it may sound, all I can think of is that I’m thankful that my kids are doing their school work, or building Lego’s, or rinsing their dishes, or coming in to tell me about their latest music project.

So thank you God for my “normal”. All is right in my world, simply because my husband and kids are still here to hug.

For all of you who are hurting and grieving, I pray that you will lean on our God who is stronger and bigger than any pain we can experience on this earth. He hurts with us, cares for us, and holds us. He is faithful.

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Gratituesday: Beyond Blessed

December 3, 2012 by Laura 12 Comments

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It has occurred to me recently, as I’ve talked about making Gingerbread Houses, creating Gifts in a Jar, and especially doing much of my shopping online to find special gifts on sale through Amazon…

We are beyond blessed.

I have been reflecting about this anyway during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, but I was especially “pricked in the heart” as I was looking into Trades of Hope and learning more about the women in those countries. These families are doing everything they can just to protect themselves, put food on the table, and educate their children. And here I am, in my very comfortable home with plenty of food – and not just the beans and rice kind of food, but treat kinds of food like Hot Cocoa and Muffins. We have shelves and shelves of books to read and learn from. We have too many toys to play with, which is evident by how they are spilling out onto the floor where they don’t belong.

And I’m sitting at my nice computer shopping for presents???

Sure, I am being practical as I choose our gifts. Sure, I am being responsible with our spending, even using more gift cards I’ve earned through Swagbucks than actual money for our purchases and finding good deals and discounted prices. But the very fact that we are able to buy our kids (and extended family) gifts that they need or want – I cannot take that for granted.

Need I feel guilty that we have so much when others have so little? No. But I do feel called to be responsible, to be generous, and to continue to pray for wisdom as we make decisions each day about how to spend our money, energy, and time.

I’ll just say it again. We are beyond blessed. And I am so, so grateful.

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Gratituesday: Weekend of Blessings

November 19, 2012 by Laura 12 Comments

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It all happened unexpectedly.

My cousin Kristin sent me a message a few weeks ago saying, “So….I have this really cute, but EMPTY, vanilla bottle here…If I recycle and send it back to you, can you refill and send it back????” To which I answered, “Sounds like you need to make a trip to Nebraska so I can refill it for you.” ;)

And on the conversation went until can you believe it, last weekend, she made the trip! And she brought her two little boys and one of my favorite aunts! (The aunt who made my very special Disney quilt.)

I can’t even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed their visit. The boys played and played. We gals chatted and cooked and caught up on everything going on.

I loved every minute of it. We’re going to definitely need to think of more excuses for them to come in the future!

Oh, and it wasn’t until it was time for them to load up and go home that Kristin realized that she’d actually forgotten to bring along her vanilla bottle for me to refill. Ha! Figures, doesn’t it? No problem though. It just so happens that I was able to find a little jar I could fill with homemade vanilla and send home with her. ;)

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Gratituesday: A Change in Seasons

October 29, 2012 by Laura 12 Comments

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Now that soccer season is over, our family should now have all kinds of free time on our hands.

Haha, that may be one of the funniest sentences I’ve ever written.

But compared to the busyness of soccer season – now that Matt isn’t scheduling his life around college practices, games, and road trips – and now that our days aren’t dictated by which boy has a game to play or referee at what time – I find myself taking a relaxed sigh of relief.

Some of the projects that have taken a back seat to the soccer schedule can now be pulled out and worked on. Some of the ministries we have felt called to do can now be executed. The people we have wanted to have over and spend time with? We might be able to fit that in a little more easily now.

Soccer season is fantastic – and because of our involvement with soccer in the community and at our local Christian college – we feel that soccer in and of itself is a ministry that our family is blessed to be a part of. We love being able to be around so many families and college students. Matt’s ability to coach young kids and young adults alike is quite a gift. (I love watching him coach.)

But today Matt was able to help an elderly friend pack his home to move – and since he didn’t have to be back in time for soccer practice – he could stay until the job was finished. Tonight we got to go to the college to support our men and women’s opening basketball games – just because we wanted to. This Sunday, we get to start hosting High School Huddle again.

I love how different seasons provide different opportunities. And I love how the changes bring refreshment. Are we going to be less busy now? Probably not. But our involvement with people will be a little different than it has been during the past few months, and I find myself looking forward to it.

And maybe, just maybe, I am just a little bit relieved not to have to make any more trips out to the soccer complex to drop off, pick up, or cheer on a team…until the spring season starts. Then I’ll be all over it!

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