I lost my marbles... then found them again.

If you keep up on my amazingly interesting life (not), then you may remember a post a while back about a hard time we were having with Avery and I came up with a solution that worked almost like magic. The marbles. I had a happy jar full of marbles and a sad jar that started out empty each day. Any rude speech to sister or disrespectful speech to parents made her have to move a marble to the sad jar. Then she had consequences for so many marbles moved. It worked literally overnight. I don't think she actually ever had to have consequences for marbles moved. She only ever had to move one or two a day, three at the most.

So fast-forward a month. I had put the jars away because we hadn't used them for a few weeks. Things started getting ugly. I mean U-G-L-Y. I got to the point again where I knew I was way too emotionally involved in my kids' rude behavior. We are a house full of girls (until Dad gets home) and we are very verbal and expressive. Many times those qualities manifest themselves in very positive ways... and other times it's very negative.

I didn't know what to do. I was beyond discouraged. I prayed, but my heart was feeling pretty stubborn and not very yielding to the Spirit. I justified my complaining spirit. My daughters wouldn't stop fighting - both with each other and me!

Then, in His timing, when I was finally willing to listen, He reminded me of THE MARBLES. Now, Avery is not the only one stirring up the pot in our house. However, she has a lot to do with the direction of the mood of the house. If she's watching her mouth and practicing discipline over her attitude, Allie is more than happy to get along, usually. And if the girls are getting along, I'm most likely to be very content. So the next day we brought out the marbles, with a few more raised standards: any complaining or arguing will now be cause to move a marble, in addition to the previously mentioned offenses; and there will levels of consequences with each marble moved.

Guess how many marbles she moved the first day? NONE. She's only moved one marble since was started a few days ago. This kid needs to a visual reminder, a tangible way to see the effect of her behavior. I really don't think it's even a fear of the consequences that's driving her, it's simply a better way to call it to her attention than mom lecturing again about her rude speech. It's hard to admit my words weren't being heard, but I think all of us moms can relate. I really do have a bad habit of turning my words into a way to punish my child - make them listen to me get my frustration out. Wow, what a great example of tempered speech, mom... ouch...

Anyway, I'm SO thankful for God's goodness and His faithfulness to me, His child, as I continue to attempt to point my children toward Him. And to somehow create a home where "self" is not served, but Christ.

Spring Soccer

First of all, I think we decided against spring soccer for the next few years. The weather is so unpredictable here in Oregon in the springtime. Plus, I think we're just busier in the spring. So it was harder to be committed this season. If it was bad weather, we just stayed home! We did have a wonderful day a couple of weeks ago, and I caught some shots of Avery in action.

Gotta love that face!

Here she is heading for a goal!

This is just to prove she's not all buttercups and sunshine. :) I'm not sure why, but this is definitely a sulk.

I absolutely love to watch her play soccer. We're going to try out gymnastics this summer, and I'm sure we'll pursue a few other sports along the way, but she's got the makings of great soccer girl!

Today was a doozie...

I have several reasons why today was kind of a bad day. None of them really matter, though. My husband, in a gentle, but sarcastic way, always seems to bring me back to reality. Nothing that I face in my every day life is really that terrible. I fed my family well (not that they ate it willingly), my children were healthy enough to fight with each other vigorously, my husband was a little late coming home from a good job, and I happened to feel a bit under-the-weather, which is quite rare. But, for whatever reason, today got me down. Finally taking a shower at 3 in the afternoon helped tremendously. Praying in the shower helped even more. I told the Lord that I needed to remember that I can only control how I respond - both to Him and to others around me. I can't make my children quit being selfish and I can't stop the words and actions that come from them. I can't even control my own passions on my own. All I can do is submit to His Spirit and let Him work on my heart.

I'm working on a study on God's sanctifying work in our lives. He truly desires me to be holy, as He is holy. Do I desire that? Do I really think that possible? Am I willing to let Him work on my kids in His timing? I have to, or I'm going to go crazy! I don't know how many calm "talks" I had with the kids today, trying to gently explain how awful they were being to one another. I'm not sure why today happened, actually, since they have really seemed to move into a good phase of being very good friends. But these days happen. But my words were just floating out in the air, not even going into their heads, much less their hearts.

Then I sit down to do my study and read Philippians 2:13 "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." And once again I'm reminded that He is the one who does the sanctifying work in my children, not me. And I so badly need Him to be working that out in my own life, if I ever hope to be the example I want to be to my daughters.

Grandparent Love

I was just reminded recently of what a blessing it is to have grandparents around for our kids. Not just any grandparents, though. Our family is so blessed to have grandparents who really love our kids and genuinely love to spend time with them. Thank you, Nana and Papa and Gramma Ginny and Grandpa for being such a blessing in our lives!

Gramma Ginny (Rich's mom) was our "veterinarian" for Avery's "doggie party" birthday.

Papa (my dad) and Allie's birthdays are just 6 days apart, so they always get to share a cake!

Avery sat with Grandpa (Rich's dad) on a carriage ride through the town they live in.

Nana (my mom) and Allie have matching dimples!

I love that our parents have such a distinct role in my daughters' lives. Each grandparent brings something unique into their lives. I am truly thankful for each of you!

Spider-swinging gals

I have a couple of really silly, fun-loving girls. And I'm so glad I have a swing set.

Sometimes all it takes is to open your mouth...

I just finished a year-long study in the book of John and decided to move on to Acts. I have read John many times before and I was especially struck this time with a better understanding of the disciples' experience. Their world was turned upside-down and the whole time they were following Jesus, they really didn't have a clue of what was going on. Then He tells them He's going to die and go away. The next thing they know, He is brutally killed in front of them. Um... this man was supposed to become king and overthrow Rome and give them a place of importance. These uneducated fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots had left their commonplace lives and followed Him for three years and then it was over (in their minds). So they hid in fear. However, it truly was only the beginning. He appeared to them and proved that He had overcome death.

Then it all started coming back to them... all the things He had said. They slowly started seeing just how big was the picture Christ was painting. Then, in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes. It was the Helper that Christ had promised. Suddenly, they are bold and full of amazing words, even words in many different languages for all of the thousands of people in their audience. Peter gets up and speaks in a way I'm sure he never thought he'd be capable of. Wow, the Holy Spirit took men who just days before were hiding, scared, and doubting, and turned them into courageous men willing to risk everything to preach Christ resurected.

I am especially struck with a certain phrase I've found a few times in Acts. In chapter 9, verse 35, Phillip is led to witness to an Ethiopian eunich. He walks up to the Ethiopian and sees that he is reading from Isaiah, but doesn't understand what he's reading. So when the Ethiopian asks who the prophecy is speaking of, it says, "Then Phillip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him."

Later, in chapter 10, Peter is brought to the house of Cornelius, a God-fearing centurion, and is asked to share what God has commanded Peter to speak. Then, in verse 34, it says, "Then Peter opened his mouth and said..." and he went on to share that the message of Christ was for all people, not just the Jews.

Earlier, at Pentacost, all Peter had to do was "raise his voice" (vs. 2:14) and about 3,000 people came to Christ. I just love the obvious power of the Holy Spirit. We, as believers, just need to open our mouths and the Holy Spirit does the rest.

Are you willing to open your mouth? Do you look for opportunities to share the Gospel? It doesn't take all the right words or a whole lot of knowledge, it just takes a willing spirit and faith in His Spirit.

Awesome 3000!

I sincerely apologize if you've already heard my outrageously proud description of Avery's race this past weekend. I had to post these pics and brag at least once more! This past Saturday, Avery ran in the Awesome 3000 in Salem. It's sponsored by the Salem-Keizer Educational Foundation and any kid in the Salem district can participate. This was Avery's first year. She's been looking forward to it for a while and kept asking me over the past month or so if she could go running with me to train for her race. When I saw her out on the soccer field completely winded after a few plays, I figured I needed to help her get in shape a bit. Don't get me wrong, she's VERY active, but it's been raining and cold for the past 6 months and she just didn't have a lot of endurance. I was a bit worried, though, since it was a 1.5k, which ends up being just under a mile. And there was a HUGE crowd of people there! I really second-guessed myself just letting her go into a big crowd and do a race all by herself. It was very well-organized, though, and several measures were taken to make sure kids were kept safe.

This is Avery and her good buddy, Blake. Blake is in kindergarten, also, but they were split up by gender, so they didn't get to run together.

Avery is somewhere in that giant crowd of kindergarten girls with the volunteers all in blue. They were getting ready to start and I was nervous!

Ok, so the pictures of the start of the race are just a mess of girls running. After about 8 1/2 minutes, a few girls come back into the field. That's right, they didn't just run on a track. The course took them through the park and ended up back in front of the crowd. I was SHOCKED when I saw Avery enter in the very front of the crowd! She's in the middle area of the picture with the volunteer pointing her toward the finish line. She's all alone! I found out later that a big reason she was alone was that the girls all got stopped right after she entered the track because the boys had started their race a bit late and needed to get through. That was really disappointing for them, I'm sure. I don't know if anyone would have passed Avery before she finished, but her time was accurate.

Here she comes rounding the corner to the finish line!! Needless to say, I was screaming and jumping wildly!!

And she finished! She was 8th place out of 163 kindergarten girls! I am still so amazed at her! She said she wanted to stop and was tired, but I don't think it even occurred to her to actually stop when she was so close to the finish. Her time was 9min, 18 sec.

Did I make my point that I'm SO PROUD of my girl???????????