When your youngest takes your camera

He has captured the moment in the most unique way.  In a way I think as an adult I have forgotten to capture.  There is just so much that happens around us.  My son, Zayden, a few months shy of three, captured a few days ago on my digital camera while we kept company with my cousin and her youngest son.  Flashes flying... now this isnt a cheap camera and my warning signals went off that perhaps this is not the best idea, but I was interested to see in how he would capture the next moments in our livingroom..what would be important to him???



 

Turns out the things that are important to him are very similar to the things that are important to us :) 

His Grace.

My daughter picks up knitting again and again, trying to knit something, anything.  Her gauge much too wide, then much to tight.  Tears flow and she feels like she is the worst knitter in the world.  She is reminded that she isnt the worst, but learning, and even the best most accomplished knitters in the world started off just like that.  I remind her of the beautiful yarn she spun only a week ago, beautiful colours, the weight of the yarn, wispy then worsted, fingering to bulky.  She asks if that is okay.  It is okay because it is her expression of how that roving should spin.  People pay loads of money for yarn that is purposefully made to be a bit crazy... It doesnt have to be streamlined perfect.  Its art yarn!  Shifting our view of what she created to a different perspective from it being a bunch of mistakes to something beautiful. 

Its been warm, the kids run outside in t-shirts on the 8th November day (although a sweater would probably be better). Still tempted to run outside barefoot while laughing histarically at eachothers ideas and excitement.  Our two year old outside in winter boots, a t-shirt and a diaper...so Canadian.  These kids love to be outside. My son cries because he didnt win the one race, and there has to be a discussion on what the importance is of playing with friends. Its not about winning or loosing, its about fun and love. teamwork.  They continue on playing and for now, there has been no more tears.


Watching my chidren as they have challenges come against them reminds me more and more of how fragile our minds and hearts are... how fragile and full of pride my mind and heart can be and is a lot more than it should be.  Even when we know we are loved deeply and fully by Jesus, how His love covers all our hurts, we still get worked up and at times fall apart.  Anger can sink in and there is that "not good enough" feeling that creeps in.  Even though God's amazing Grace covers us and fills in those holes that we feel we have created. 

We are doing a book study in Life Group at our Church, by  Francis Frangipane called "Holiness, Truth and the Presence of God".   As we dig into Part Two:  The Spirit of Grace, the first paragraph on the page of Chaper Five spoke to me loud

"If you hear a teaching and feel as though it were unattainable in your condition, you have only heard half the message. you missed the grace that is always resident in the heart of God's truth.  Truth without grace is only half true.  Remember this always:  grace and truth are realized in Jesus Christ (John 1:17-For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.)  What God's truth demands, His grace will provide."

I think the past few weeks I have really been forgetting that God is full of Grace.  Loaded to the brim with it.  I have felt definatly less than worthy of God's goodness and to be in His Kingdom.  When I feel like this I feel like hiding from God.  Kinda hard when He is in my heart! I have felt inadequate and very discourraged because I have forgotten about God's Grace...I have said it again and again, and heard it but time and time again latley I never really thought it.  Really sat and reflected on it.  He is a good God and He loves me.  He provides the grace and forgiveness.  I belong to Him and I need to drawn nearer and nearer to Him when I feel inadequate because He is the only one who can make me feel adequate.  His Grace is enough. 

My fitness partner

So no Vibrams today.  :( 
The rain was coming down too hard when I was contemplating a run... and not a 7 km one like the last one (oops!), but my usual.  So I decided that I would use the YourShape-Fitness Evolved program for our XBox Kinect. I have used it quite a bit for weight training, but never really for cardio.  Im telling ya, I was sweating by the end of it.  Did 13 minutes of cardio then did our weights and then a cool down Zen class.  Took about a bit over a half hour. 

But my older children were upstairs playing and my youngest has been a bit clingy the past few days (teeth Im certain), so he was being a bit of an obstacle.  So he did it with me.  I nabbed my camera and took this pic of him and I on the menu on the game LOL.  If you could only had seen him trying to do the aerobics... he looks way better doing them than I do

Have a terrific blessed weekend everyone!

Yes snow..you can go

We are not sure how long this will last, but the kids enjoyed the puddles yesterday... but we all know that the snow will probably hit again. 

applying the paint

The kids really love to paint and what better way to pass the time than to make a big colourful mess in the kitchen. 
I love watching them paint.  They all have very different styles of painting, all very unique and I just embrace their uniqueness so much. They have all been created so differently from eachother.  There personalities, their brush strokes are all so their own. 

Tayven is just shy of 4 and has a very whimsical way of painting sometimes, very light and airy sometimes, then he can get very excited and paint fast and crazy.  His drawings can be so simple but he puts a lot of thought into them

Alexis is 6 and has a very good grasp of how to make things look the way they should the best she can.  She gets an idea in her head and she goes for it. She doesnt worry if she messes something up, she just looks for ways to improve it, or says she will remember it for next time.  Sometimes the mistakes we make end up being the reason something works so well.

Zayden who is 2, has a very thick way of painting, the more the better. Layers upon layers upon LAYERS of paint. 

It makes me smile because this is how I think God created each of us.  Very unique, different ways of "applying the paint".   In some places in our spirits we get it thick, and other parts of our personalities we just just a splash of.  

When he began to create the earth, the trees, the water, the dinosaurs, the birds, everything He created He took great joy in and made it all good.

Psalm 139
 ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand—
   when I awake, I am still with you.

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)

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!!!!