The anticipation of popcorn

 Gosh this boy is just too cute!!!! This was my son Zayden last night watching our popcorn popper.

What a  little turkey

(can you tell he is feeling MUCH better)

"The disease called perfection". - A must read link!

I found this on another blog I subscribe too and it really touched my heart. 
I have struggled daily with this disease called perfection, not to the extreeme but enough that I would consider it a problem... I post this right after I spent 3 hours scrubbing my house top to bottom just incase anyone shows up..heaven forbid they see that a house of three children, two adults and a cat and a husky can get a tad bit unorganized.  Im not like this all the time, but there are times where the urge to have a perfect home is SO THERE, or to make sure that I look a certain way, etc  that its all a person can think about...thank God that no one can see inside my hall closets! Because when my house looks THAT clean, its all shoved somewhere LOL

This blog post is so important to read I think because NO ONE is perfect, even if we seem to think there are people that are.  We are all human, and we all struggle daily with something that is something we really shouldnt.  God thinks we are beautiful, loves us for who we ARE and not who we want to be. 

http://www.danoah.com/2010/09/disease-called-perfection.html

I add this, if we want to be like someone, we should be trying to be like Christ, because he was perfect, the only person who ever was, and the only person who ever will be. 

God bless and have a terrific weekend everyone!!!!!!!

Jesus our comforter

This past week our household has been loaded with sickness. Today our boys are finally starting to sit up, colour, sing, and EAT even just the littlest amounts! Whatever flu bug was romping around looks like for them, its on its way out. Last night I started to feel a bit under the weather and was thanking God for not letting me be sick while they were at their worst! Today, Im feeling still a bit not quite 100%, and I hope that God will just protect me from the illness because theres just so much a Mom has to do!!!!


Yesterday I was giving one of the boys a bath and as I sat there watching him just so tired and weak I was thinking of how Jesus takes care of us in this way. He is our comforter! Just as parents are there for a sick child, to bathe them and hug them and nurse them back to health, Jesus is there for us through our sickness when we call to Him for help.  I just think its so amazing! I have seen Him do this so many times in my household alone, He is just so awesome it makes me smile ear to ear! 


In the NLT version of the Bible, 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 says

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Lay 'em Down

My middle child just loves this song by Need to Breathe and makes me play it for him all the time.  I must admit its a really awesome song! And its meaning is so fantastic!  We can bring out troubles to God and give them to Him without worry! I just wish I could bring these gazillion loads of towels and sheets I have to God! ;)   Zayden passed his germs to him and now Tayven is sick.  I thought I would post this to our blog so he could watch it later when he wakes up.  The poor dude.  I just pray that they get well soon, its too quiet here!!! (wow I cant believe I just wrote that! LOL) 

When a princess asks questions...

She is so young, and yet so wise in ways that blow me away. She has such a simple approach to Jesus. She knows she is a Princess, she is a child of the King! She knows He loves her more than anyone else can and she knows she can go to Him with anything! And she is only six years old.

Over the past few weeks my daughter has really gotten a hunger for God. She is always ready to do a Bible study in the evening or spend a long time just reflecting on Gods love. I always see peices of paper with hearts that say "God" or "Jesus" on the inside and I know it must just make Jesus smile ear to ear!

Along with her love growing for God, her knowledge of how God works and such is growing as well. She is begining to ask questions about those around her who do not have Jesus as their saviour, or to those who believe that all walks of faith lead to God. I have asked all these questions myself in my walk with God, and thankfully due to studying scripture had a few responces for her questions. But I think because Im a "grown up" now I can tend to make things more complicated than they really are.

The one thing I knew was that these questions she had needed to be talked about. There were moments where it almost seemed she wanted to hide away from all those who could hurt her faith. Wow, I have had that feeling many times. She would show fear when I told her that not everyone believes in Jesus, even some people very close to her. But I also talked to her about prayer and how prayer can change things and to also never hide her faith from people when they ask her about it because it may be her that brings them to Christ! I also encourage her to read her Bible, and that together we could find scripture that would help her with her questions. Making sure that she understood that just because one of the people in her life doesnt believe in God doesnt mean we should avoid them! I think thats the last thing we should do! We may be the only Christian in their life. It says in John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."  No matter what! 

We know a lot of angry people.  Even we get angry.  Our world is angry, and a lot of people want to blame all their problems on God.  They curse His name and figure they can do it all on their own because He has never been there for them.  My daughter made an awesome point, God can not really be there for us when we are so angry and blaming Him for everything, God is love!  He fixes our problems, He doesn't create them but He will make them work out for our good if we just trust Him!  Its so simple! 

Jesus says in Luke 18 in verse 16-17 “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”


 

Family Day Weekend

Today marks the end of a long weekend for us here as we celebrated Family Day. Our youngest was very sick this weekend with some sort of stomach bug, unfortunatly, so a lot of time was spent on washing laundry- sheets, clothes, towels etc. While my two older children somewhat understood that some of our plans couldnt go forth because of the wee boy being sick, they were a little dissapointed. I think that happens a lot when things dont go our way, we get upset or frustrated, just plain "bummed out". I know Im guilty of it! There was a lot of complaining Sunday morning because we could not attend church even by me, praying that he would get better right before we would have to leave, and also that we could not go out anywhere as a family because Zayden just couldnt stop being sick today, and there was no way I was going to wrap my son up on my back in a carrier and have him throw up all down my back... not my cup of tea LOL. In the end the kids finally gave up sulking and said "what can I do to make this situation very wonderful and fun?" And fun they did make it!

Sunday while it was colder than it has been the past week, they decided to go outside and bike, only to find out that it was mud that was in the agenda. My middle child who is very wise and sneaky asked me for a cup of water for outside so he could "drink it" and while I did watch him have a sip, the next time I checked on them they were COVERED head to toe in mud!!! the ground might have been slightly frozen and the mud not quite mud, but he found a way to make it as muddy as possible!

Today we decided to keep the mess inside and limited to

the kitchen and made some goopy stuff with cornstarch and water... The kids had a BLAST and made quite the mess in the process but it kept them occupied while we tended to our youngest. The kids found it to be "the funniest stuff ever". My husband and I even played with the goop for a moment laughing at its craziness.

As I watched them play with such amazement with something so simple to make I wondered if God giggled when He decided that adding water to cornstarch would make such a fun mess? "Boy they are going to get a kick out of this!"

Psalm 127:3 says that "Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him." (NLT)

There is such truth to that! This weekend was such a celebration of just how much of a blessing our children have been in our life! Even if it began with a rough start, it worked out so beautifully. It was such a simple and fun weekend! And I thank God for the laughs we shared! (And the mess)

Hungry for the word of God???

Okay... I know I have said I want my children to be hungry for the word of God... but seriously, I didnt mean it like this!!!!!!

This is my youngest son, Zayden-William Thomas, who is two. He's quite the character and even at his young age I understand how important to share with him what I know about God and what the Bible says. We do daily devotions that are geared towards children and are easy and fun to understand. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 22:6 ~ Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.(NIV)~

But I keep telling him, "if you eat your Bible... we wont be able to read it!"...maybe thats another good reason for memorizing scripture!!!!

Gods Love

I have to add this email I sent to my family and friends yesterday into this blog because it really was part of the inspiration to make this blog (how can a person NOT share the love that God shows us even in the most strangest ways!) and it fits so wonderfully with Valentines Day that just passed, for those of you reading who didn't have a "valentine", or is just not feeling any kind of love in their life, know that Jesus loves you so much and wants to be your "valentine", your friend, and have a wonderful relationship with you.
Sometimes we get angry, frustrated, stressed and down right vulgar in our lives and its easy to forget about God in these moments. But know that He hasnt forgotten you!!!

"Mornings in my house are nothing but a bunch of chaos these days getting my daughter ready for school and having a three year old and two year old boy, usually playing police cars and a bunch of siren sounds at octives only dogs should here coming from their mouths. I was getting very impaitient this morning and trying to keep my cool. The boys were also playing with my camera and out of frustration I grabbed it and took it with me to take my daughter to the bus stop so they couldnt touch it with it around my neck.

I was feeling not too much love this morning and as I was walking down the one side of our street and this is what I saw.

It made me giggle and I had to take a picture. It reminded me of God's love and how easy it can be for me to forget about it in times of stress!

Psalm 139:7-10 (NIV)
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast. "

The first post

I cant come up with a name for this blog post so "the first post" will have to do. For those who know me, know Im never really at a loss for words so I promise the next titles will be much better.

I am a mother of four children, one has already gone home to be with God. I have three very creative, amazing children in my prescence - a girl who is 6, and two boys ages 3 (almost four, one more month!) and 2. I am married to a wonderful man, Dylan, who I have been with for almost 8 years!! Can you believe it!

Im a "Crunchy" mamma, I love nature, every tree, every carpet of moss underneath my toes. I am just so amazed at God's handywork. He has made the most amazing things!

This blog is to post about raising my children in a society that has much forgotten about Jesus, or closed the door on that, about teaching my children about Christ and about what He said in the Bible, about what its really all about. I have found over the years, its very easy to get guided down the wrong path, I have been guided down the wrong path many times in my life. I want my children to be prepared for if a fork in the road appears, they know without a doubt which way to go.

This blog is also to post about other fun things we as a family have discovered. It wont be an everyday post blog, maybe once a week or once every few weeks. I have struggled with being on the computer for long amounts of time, taking away from my family, friends and Lord and I dont want this blog to take away from these things, and if I ever find it does, you can bet your booties it will be removed :)

I also just have a hunger to share what the Lord places on my heart to anyone who wants to hear it! As long as they dont mind the occasional blog about an interesting flower or tree I just HAD to hug :)

So on that note, I welcome you readers to Barefoot Christian and Crunchy and I hope you enjoy your visit! :)