Mother, May I? - Setting the Record Straight

If you're reading this, then you probably read our last post written by Jill, my mother. https://lolinministry.blogspot.com/2019/03/mother-may-i.html   I would like to share my side of this story ... or these stories.

  My mom is a writer. A suspense writer. So, as you can imagine, the stories she made up for us when we were children were not your average "mommy stories".   Let me share one with you. When I was in high school, my mother taught at our school. So, we had to leave early every morning, and as we pulled out of our subdivision, there was always a bus parked near the entrance. The bus wasn't running,  it was just parked there and the driver was sitting inside.  And my mother,  being who she is,  would tell us that the driver had to stop there every morning to get rid of the dead bodies he had hidden on the bus.  She said that it was a good body dump spot because there was a drop off right there into a swampy area. I'm not a huge fan of buses to this day. 


As for scenarios of survival from dad. He is a krav maga instructor, plus he is also teaches concealed carry classes. So, when we were young teens and my parents were going to be gone for a whole day or something like that,  my dad would teach us where in the house to go and what to do first, and so forth; and then we would act it out. My dad would be "the intruder" and we would have to follow the plan. It was fun, but now, when I'm home alone and I hear all those "house noises" that sound like someone is coming to kill you,

I automatically think of those scenarios. He was a pretty good teacher, in those areas anyways. Teaching me to drive is another story. Let's just say, we went to an empty parking lot and it ended after five minutes when he told me to back the car up and then yelled, "boom, you just ran over a person and killed them"...  Mom did the rest of my driving lessons after that.

Now, on the flip side of things, we may or may not say things to our kids that they might bring up later. The other day we decided to play an impromptu game of hide and seek. It really only started because the kids had searched half the house for me and hadn't found me, so I decided to stay hidden for a while. They even looked in the room I was in, but they didn't check behind the door. So, my husband told them that I disappeared because they were too naughty. After he sent them my way two more times, and they still didn't find me, they were starting to panic. So, I jumped out and scared them. They screamed, laughed, but it was a half cry half laugh. My son said, " I thought you disappeared forever!". My daughter said, "Daddy said you were gone because we were naughty, but I told him 'Nuh-uh!!!!' ".  

I guess what goes around comes around. I wonder what they're gonna bring up when they're my age. 

Mother, May I?

There are times in life when your adult children question the way you raised them. Times when you find yourself having to explain the choices you made and the stands you took. Such a time (one of many) came for me last week and I thought I would share it with you. These times are never easy, but perhaps they can be a learning experience for all of us. Following is a text conversation between Stephanie and me this past Friday evening. It started out of the blue like this:

Stephanie:  I blame this on you.

Me:  You blame his scaring away axe murderers on me?

Stephanie:  No, I blame the fear on you.

Me:  I never told you axe murderers were trying to break in.

Stephanie:  I just saw it and it made me think of you. Because you're the one who told me weird stories all of my life ... and I guess dad too because he used to teach us scenarios of what to do if someone broke in the house while y'all were gone.

Me:  So we wanted y'all to be prepared. I think that makes us good parents. Have you been killed by an axe murderer? No? Then I guess we were successful.

Stephanie:  Lol

Me:  (A short time later because I felt like I should retaliate for her accusations) okay, I was looking up clown memes to send you, but I'm home alone and I ended up scaring myself.

Stephanie:  Hahaha

Stephanie:  (Half an hour later): This is something you would have said to us:

Me:  I only would have said that so that you would know there's no such thing as monsters.

Who would have guessed kids could grow up to be so sensitive and hold your sarcasm against you? So if you have adult children, what decisions/comments have you had to defend? If you're kids are still small, what's something you've said or done recently that you know you'll have to explain someday?

Babies and Belly Laughs

Do you ever wish you could remember all of the funny things you did or said when you were a kid? I personally don't remember a lot of things that I did as a young girl but I remember a few. I remember that my love for shoes started at a young age. I could never decide which pair I wanted to wear so I wore one shoe from each pair around the house. I also remember always needing more that one pacifier at a time. 

Well, when my kids get older and ask me what they used to do as a kid, I won't have to rack my brain trying to remember every single great thing because I get to document it here.

Over the last several weeks I've taken note of some fun things these girls have been saying and doing!

1. There's nothing like spending quality time with your sisters..especially in a really cool fort!

2. As you know, we are in the middle of potty training and it's going well. I told Livie let's try and go potty. She yelled from the other room, "Neverrrr!"

3. The girls were playing bandits, and I here, "Get on the ground, perp!"

4. These girls can be very sweet to each other, one particular moment, Livie told me. " I love my sweet, sweet Mila Shay!"

4. This week baby girl discovered a new skill!

5. I knew that in the coming years I would start getting some sass from my girls. I mean, it's dealt with when needed but if you belt out a laugh before you can say anything else...well, then.. what can ya' do? Here are a few of those moments...

Me: "Girls, it's time to get dressed!" 

Girl: "Would you calm down old woman?"

Me: "Stella, you are really cool!"

Stella: "Thanks, I was born that way."

Stella: Just call me Stella Mc-Gorg (gorgeous). I'm so glad she is humble!

6. There has been another popular phrase around the house lately, and I'm not sure where they picked this one up but, one girl said to the other, "Would you please be quiet you stuck up, snot!" At least she said please, right?

7. When Stella learns something new, she becomes very passionate about it and wants to share it with everyone she knows. I've blogged about her learning some Krav Maga moves. She told me after her first lesson, "I've never killed a person, but I'm really strong!"

One of those people she is teaching is her sister. In the video below, you'll find just how well that's going.

I hope everyone has a great week!

It's Fall Ya'll

Last week was the official start of fall here. That doesn't really mean much because the temperature hasn't really changed. It's still hot most days, but on days when it cools down because of the rain, we take advantage of the wardrobe opportunities.

It's really not even cold enough for the long sleeves, but my kids are adjusting to the brazilian weather and they think they're freezing to death. 🤷‍♀️

In other news, dinner time around here has become pretty interesting lately because this boy thinks it's the time to talk instead of eat. 

This was a "dad, let me tell you something"  moment. I'm all for dinner conversation, but Lil man does a lot more talking than eating. As you can see in this picture, his plate is still full  but the rest of us were done eating.

Well, I'm off to get stuff done on this "crisp fall morning". Bom fim de semana! (Have a good weekend!)  

A Night On the Town

With the new little one we're expecting this summer, our family count has gone up to nineteen. Even though five of the family are off serving in Brazil, that still leaves fourteen of us getting together for family night. Sometimes it's difficult to find something that pleases everyone, but last night was an easy one. We went to Texas de Brazil to celebrate Matt's thirtieth birthday.

We had a party atmosphere as we started out, although it was temporarily dampened by an accidental fist to a face. But hey, what can you expect from this crowd? There was another brief moment where one of the guys had to be told that his pleather coat was not welcome and he had to leave it on the bus, but he parted with it fairly easily.

The restaurant was a little more upscale than we're used to, but as far as the guys are concerned, you can never go wrong with a place where the waiters are continually bringing more cuts of meat to your table. In addition to the never-ending meat and the unique salad bar, the restaurant serves dishes of garlic mashed potatoes and fried bananas, called plantains. The plantains are for the purpose of cleansing your palate between meats, but the guys liked the banana so much they ate more than was strictly necessary for the "cleansing".

Sometimes little ones can be a tad picky, but this one was pleased to find all-you-can-eat rice at the salad bar.

Others were pleased with fresh mozzarella balls, olives and croutons with a steady side of attention from her uncles.

In fact, attention from the uncles and Papa was a big hit throughout the evening. Although I think the girls' mama might sometimes wish the uncles weren't quite so attentive. Like when they told the girls that this city was where Batman lived. 

I'm pretty sure that the guys all came close to eating their weight in meat, but that didn't stop them from topping off their meal with ice cream cones from the shop next door. The trip home was filled with llamas, songs, video messages for the Brazilian half of the family and "AAHHHHHHH's" as we went through tunnels (It's a Boyd thing).

There was a brief stop at Grand Traverse Pie Company because why not? Also a slight mishap that ended with ripped pants and a minor injury before most of us succumbed to meat comas for the remainder of the ride home. We're a hearty bunch though, and by the time we got back to the house, some were ready to finish up the evening with a little pie. 

What have we got planned for our next family night? Well, because we like variety, we're looking into a little thing called huntakiller.com. 

Why be normal?

Too Cool for Potty School

It’s that time again…Potty Training!

Ahh, yes. Those two words every young mother dreads.

Potty training is easily one of the least favorite things I’ve had to endure as a parent. When you do it for the first time you really don’t have a clue what you’re doing and then just because you find something that works for the first child doesn’t mean that is going to work for the ones to follow.

For a while now I have felt like Olivia has been ready, showing me different signs that she was ready. My goal was to have her trained and out of diapers before Amelia was born and after a series of excuses events it just hasn’t worked out. I have tried a few times since then to get her more familiar with it and ready but she just hasn’t seemed interested.

Last week I tried putting her on the potty again to try and get her excited for active training. I said, “ Livie, let’s try going potty.” She quickly replied, “No way.” then ran away down the hallway. 

I think I may have my work cut out for me with this one but it must be done. We’ve set a new goal and that is by her birthday which is just a few weeks away.

Anyway, today is the day we are actively training…May the odds ever be in my favor!

Electricity is My Friend

Last week I didn't post because we had a power outage. We've been having a lot of those lately. Most of the time they don't last very long, but the one last week went on for two days.

It started on Thursday. It wasn't a full power outage, but a brown out, which is when you don't have full power. Most of our lights still worked, but we couldn't have anything plugged in because that appliance or electronic could get burned out. So, no fridge, washer, computer, internet, television, even fans.

Thursday afternoon, we noticed when the kid's bedroom fan went from full power to just a whisper of a blow. So, we quickly went and unplugged things. We have our midweek service on Thursdays, so we were about to get ready for church, and we figured it would be back on by the time we got back. That was usually how it went.

When we got back, there was no such luck. The power was still down and our house alarm was going off nonstop because it's backup battery was dying. So we had a dinner of pantry items while my hubby tried to get the alarm to stop blaring, and then when it finally stopped, we all went to bed. Friday we were hoping that it would get fixed that morning, but again, it didn't happen.

All of this time, I was trying to avoid opening the fridge so that nothing would spoil, but you can only go so long without needing to get something out. I hadn't been to the grocery store in a while and there wasn't much in there, but finally for dinner on Friday I opened it and started pulling things out that I could cook before they went bad. We have a gas stove, so I was still able to use that.

Friday night we sat in the living room with the kids, my husband was playing his dulcimer and my kids were singing. We've had power outages here that we full power outage and we spent those evenings sitting in the dark trying to entertain three little kids. At least with this one we still had lights.

I started remembering back when I was a kid and we lived in Africa. I remembered the power being out pretty often, and there was no way to know when or if it would come back on. I remembered playing games in the living room with lanterns and candles everywhere. We played board games if we could see enough or we played games that my mom made up. I remembered my mom reading the Little House on the Prairie series to us. Mom, also reminded me of a time when we had a brown out and the only light that worked was in one hallway, so we all ended up sitting in that hallway reading books.

Back to our current situation, finally on Saturday afternoon the power came back on all the way. Praise the Lord, I never opened the freezer so nothing in there spoiled. Now, pray that it doesn't happen this week because we just did a big grocery shop and there's a lot in my fridge right now!

The Main Thing

In our ladies' Bible Study this week we were talking about priorities. The lesson teaches that the word prior comes from Latin and means first. Well that's obvious, isn't it? My priorities are what come first in my life. We were talking about the fact that sometimes we tend to believe the lie that we can thrive without regular time spent in God's Word and in prayer, and how, in today's society, things are so busy that it's easy to say I couldn't find time or I ran out of time for having my devotions today.

But then the question was asked, what's the first thing you do when you get up in the morning? Head to the coffee pot? Turn on the TV to catch the news? Pick up your phone and scroll through facebook? If those are first then those would be your priorities.

Ouch.

There's another area where priorities tend to get out of whack, and that's in the area of service. Many of you who read the blog are either in full time Christian service, or actively involved in your church. And that's as it should be. But it's very easy when you're busy in ministry to lose sight of your focus.

Sometimes you can be so busy serving the Lord that you forget to worship Him. It's easy, especially in a smaller church, for workers to take on more and more duties to the point where they are never actually sitting in a service under the preaching. Our church has a policy of making sure that no one is involved in that many ministries because we all need regular instruction from the man of God in addition to daily Bible reading and prayer. In fact, there have been a few occasions where my husband has temporarily removed someone from their particular ministry because they were only getting to church on days when they were scheduled to serve.

The other time our service priorities get out of order is when we start feeling unappreciated. I think this is an area where Satan manages to weaken the work of the church more than almost any other because when we start feeling unappreciated, then we start feeling neglected and then we started feeling resentful. Then we stop serving. Or even stop going to church at all. And suddenly Satan's won.

When we work hard, we like to be acknowledged. That's only natural. But we do need to remember two things: our service is for God, not for man. I Corinthians 10:31 says, Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. We also need to remember that Jesus warned us not to do things for the praise of man.  When talking about the Pharisees He said, For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. John 12:43

It is amazing how good things can be twisted so easily if we don't keep our focus on Jesus. So as you go out serving this week, remember to keep these main things in mind:

We were created for His pleasure. Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

We have a mandate to follow here on earth. Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Let Me Tell You About My Best Friend

He has a birthday tomorrow. This isn't just another birthday either, it's a big one! This guy turns Thirty, yes that's right..THIRTY!! 

To know Matt is to love him. He is Genuine, Creative, Kind, Smart, Loyal and Attractive (obviously!) His smile is infectious and that is one of the things I love most about him. He challenges me to be a better person, he encourages me and gives me just the right advise when I need it. He makes me laugh with his silly dad jokes sense of humor. 

He works hard and does so much to provide for our family. He is the best dad to our girls and the best husband, we are so blessed to have him!

 We love you!

Happy Birthday, Matt! 

Power Outage!

Stephanie can’t post today because they’re having problems with the electricity in their area right now. So no post for today, but we’ll be back on track Monday. See you then!

Clean Up on Aisle Three!

We had a Wild Game Dinner at our church this past Saturday. If you've ever worked on a special day or event like this, then you know that there's a tremendous amount of work involved in planning and setting up. There was a lot of planning and meal prep and cooking of course. And lots of decorating. As Kylee scatter empty shotgun shells along the camouflage table runners, she commented that this was not what she originally had in mind when we put her in charge of decorating for events.

There was also the planning of the program and the hours different people put into practicing music and creating and practicing skits. Apparently there's a whole deer blind etiquette to follow - who knew! There were also all the prizes to collect and competitions to organize. All that work definitely paid off because we doubled the amount of people that came to the dinner, and we had thirteen saved Saturday night.

One of the most difficult things about an event like this, though, is the clean up. We had people that signed up to help with clean up, and we had even more of our church folks stick around to help restore the building to Sunday morning readiness. There were people moving chairs and tables back into Sunday School rooms, people taking down decorations, people vacuuming, even people cleaning bathrooms.

It was going really well until about 10:00 that night when Kylee came in the office and asked who had signed up to clean the kitchen ... 

Apparently that was one gap we had on the sign-up sheet. By that time there were few people left at the church and most of them had been there for almost twelve hours. We trooped into the kitchen to look at food still out and dishes from serving 200 people still piled high. It would have been so easy to start complaining. To comment that we weren't doing this next year. In short, it would have been easy to let Satan snatch the victory from us. Instead, people who had finished their assigned work, gathered in the kitchen and rolled up their sleeves. By the time I turned out the lights in the church kitchen at 11:30, order had been restored.

I was reminded of the church conference my husband attended last fall when he had his heart attack. The day we headed home was the day after the conference ended, and we stopped by the church to thank the pastor and staff for the visits and prayers while my husband was in the hospital. One of the staff, the pastor's son, was dressed rather casually that day. When my husband asked him what he was going to do that day, he replied that he was going to be going over the property picking up garbage. He was very matter-of-fact about it. It wasn't exciting, but it was something that had to be done. 

No one really likes the clean up after a big event. It's not fun or glamorous. And it's not noticed unless it's not done. But it's still a necessary part of the work. Proverbs 14:4 says Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox. The man cleaning up garbage across multiple buildings after a conference had a part in the results of that conference just as much as the special music did. The people cleaning the kitchen Saturday night had a part in those thirteen souls getting saved just as much as the speaker did. 

So where am I going with this? You may not be the most visible part of your church, but your work is important. So do it and do it well. And don't let Satan keep you from your joy in serving.

Also, the next time you attend an event at your church, know that it didn't happen without a lot of effort. What can you do to help?

Innovative Minds

Do you remember when you were a kid playing things like, "cops and robbers" or "house"?

My husband told me about how he and his siblings would play "spies" and basically they would go around their house and gather different items and make it into spy equipment.

When I was younger I remember playing "restaurant". I would ride my bike in circles around my driveway.  We would lay down broom sticks as if they were "speed bumps", we used a notepad to take our orders and then we would use the meter on the side of the house as the "drive thru" window.

Nerdy, right? I thought it was pretty creative if I do say so myself.

My husband and I knew that when we had kids that we hoped they would be creative and have an imagination like we had as kids and they do! All of them are creative in their own ways and it's so neat to see different things that they come up with. Here are a few that we have captured!

Trains from boxes and chairs!

If you can't tell what this is, she made a carriage for her horse and the doll is the chauffeur.

They also do creative work: They were using their team work to take up Krav mats and stacked them to see how high they could make their "tower". (Yes, Talia is on a table and yes she was supervised the whole time.)

and when they get bored of working they use a broken table for a slide!

I'm thankful that these girls don't just need tablets to entertain them ( although sometimes we do) but they are imaginative!

Are you creative? What was your favorite "made up" thing to do as a kid?

Lights, Dirt, Party!

   I have been thinking about what I should write for my post today. Should I share how the power went out the other evening for about 4 and a half hours? I did dishes before the sun went down, then we played legos, then we ate a dinner from pantry items, then we sang some songs, then we told stories that were apparently too scary when told in the dark, and then we decided to go out to the store until bedtime. Then on the way home, my hubby told our daughter to ask God to turn our lights on, and when we got home, there were lights! And she was very excited to tell people how God turned our lights on and answered her prayer.

Well, that story was short... so maybe I should share how we got a flat tire on the way home from church Sunday morning.

Really not sure how it happened... And since we all had to get out of the car and wait while hubby changed it....

We had to be entertained on the side of a dirt road....

And so we had to have baths before lunch.

That story is also short. So, I guess I'll just share that this guy will be 29 on Saturday. 

He says he wants nothing for his birthday, but our 3 year old is planning quite the party. It involves balloons with string, cake wrapped in little bags, and presents. It should be quite the shindig. 

Well, that's my week in a nutshell. How was yours?