Discouragement Comes

This morning as I woke to my mess that I created yesterday during my creative processes, I quickly saw all that was undone and needed my attention.  The amount of energy that must be expended to maintain my family and my household is often daunting and sometimes discouraging.  Today began as one of those days.  As I began my discouraging self-talk and felt myself sinking, I suddenly had a new thought.  I thought to myself, "I will text my friend and ask her to pray for me today."  There is nothing wrong with that thought and I know my sweet friend would have prayed earnestly for my day; however, the "shocking" thought then occurred to me that I was capable of taking my concern to my God who is always bigger than my problem and most capable of cleaning up my messes.  As I turned my thoughts upward, my mood also followed.  During this time I searched my mind for a song that would fit my moment...my mind could not find a common song, but it led me to a poem my mother passed on to me a year or so ago written my her grandmother.


The Small Duty
written by Mrs. C. L. Conaway


Through all my life I've wished to make
Some little song or poem;
but all that I could ever do was wash and iron 
and bake and stew
to keep things daily going.


I've bathed wee baby hands and faces
and stitched on little frocks,
Lo- even have I done this thing
I've darned my husband's socks.


Yet Lord, if it should be thy wish
I do the trivial thing
Please grant me strength to do it right 
and let some other sing.


Perchance, who knows when life is done,
my record bad or good,
may read thus on the Book of Life - 
"She hath done what she could."


Dear Great-Grandma - Thank you for your words so real. I echo your request of ages past...please Lord, grant me strength to do it right.


~Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.  Colossians 3:23

Happy Birthday, Rockstar!

In May of 2005, we were excited to find out that we were expecting our second child.  Baby #2 was due January 26th, 2006.  We elected not to find out the gender of Baby #2 just as we had with our firstborn.  I was nearly certain that Baby#2 must be a boy since he/she was so much different than Haley.  January 26th came and went and no baby yet.  Saturday morning, January 28th, I woke up early around 5:30 unable to sleep well.  I was having some contractions, not yet severe.  We had made a "false-alarm" trip to the hospital two weeks earlier and I certainly didn't want to do that again.  After a while of sitting in the living room, Cale got up to check on me.  I showered.  Cale got Haley up and going and called our friends for the expected need for childcare.  We left home sometime between 8 and 8:30, dropped Haley off to our friends and headed to the hospital 45 minutes away.  We arrived in the OB department sometime around 9:15 a.m.  It seemed the nurses wanted to make certain I was actually in labor, so I was placed in this tiny room where they placed me on a monitor and bp cuff and the first nurse attempted multiple times to check my progress - unsuccessfully I might add.  She went for another more experienced nurse who returned to my tiny little room and she quickly assessed that I was indeed well into labor at a "good" 6 cm dilated.  They made arrangements to move me to a labor and delivery room across the hall.  As the nurse was prepping my IV's and pushing the antibiotics that I needed prior to delivery, I informed her that my water had broken.  Once again, she checked my progress and discovered I was at 9 cm quickly nearing 10 cm and almost ready to deliver. At this point the room got a little busy with the hustle and bustle of several nurses.  The younger nurse I started with yelled from my room door down the hall to the desk to call the Doctor STAT.  While the other nurse calmly explained to my husband that it is very possible the doctor will not make it in time to deliver the baby.  She tried to comfort us by letting us know that this is not a first time for such occurrence and that they are capable of seeing us through the delivery until the doctor arrived.  At approximately 10 a.m. I was given a dose of 30 minute pain medication to ease the pain of my contractions.  My doctor did arrive in plenty of time to deliver our precious baby girl at 10:45 a.m.  Aspen Mackenzie weighed in equal to her big sister at 8 pounds 14 ounces.  We then called our parents, who did not know we were at the hospital, to announce the arrival of their newest grand-daughter.  

Since her arrival in our lives, Aspen has provided much energy, excitement and joy to our family.  She loves to sing and dance.  She frequently makes up new songs of great content and sound to sing to us.  As we were driving to school one day, she asked me if she could be a rockstar when she grew up.  I told her that I thought she could be a rockstar, as long as she sang about Jesus.  Content with my response, she determines at this young age to aspire to become a rockstar when she grows up.  Thus the nickname, Rockstar.   Regardless of her chosen occupation in the years to come, she will always be a rockstar in the eyes of her parents.

My sweet Rockstar, may you continue to nurture your sweet spirit and kind heart.  I pray you continue to grow in wisdom and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  May you be filled with love for the Lord and serve Him with your whole heart, soul and mind that you might be a Rockstar for Jesus all the days of your life.  I pray that I will be willing to commit you to God's loving care and control and release you to serve Him wherever He may lead you across this great globe.


Happy Birthday, Rockstar!  I love you!

Praying for Prince Charming

Last week I made out my new prayer "rolodex" using my 4x6 inch index cards and a small 4x6 inch photo album.  This idea came from a book I am currently reading, "The Mentoring Mom" by Jackie Kendall.  I'm so excited about having my prayer requests at my fingertips to flip through and keep in prayerful thoughts throughout my day.  As I made each of my girls a card of their own, I wrote the things most Christian mothers want for their children: a relationship with God, good friends, good health and so on...then I found myself writing down prayer for their future husbands.  WHOA!  One of them isn't out of diapers yet!

Recently Crazy Horse and Rockstar have been pretending to be adult moms with wonderful husbands who work multiple jobs to buy them fancy clothes and pay for their life in a hotel with maid-service and constant dinners out.  In addition, these wonderful husbands have time to care for their 18 children (YIKES) while they operate an animal clinic and do a handful of other things as well.  These wonderful husbands buy them jewelry and clothes and spend quality time with them.  Talk about some high expectations!  The other night, Preacherman and I were downstairs.  Crazy Horse arrived in a new outfit that "Justin" had bought for her and wanted our opinion.  We looked at her and I asked, "How often do you see your dad buy clothes for me?"  Crazy Horse quickly replied, "Dad doesn't even buy his own clothes!"  The only way to respond to that statement of truth was to break out in hysterical laughter.

The truth is, if my girls find a husband as great as their dad, they will be blessed.  I recently read an article about the lack of boys who grow into men in today's society and I realized that unless we as parents set out to change that trend, the number of good men available to marry my girls (and your girls) will be few.  This past week I have sensed a great need to be in prayer for something that is more than a decade away.  So as I pray for my girls to grow in their knowledge, love and service to God and to live lives of purity, I pray that they will be blessed to find the prince charming of their dreams.