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| The view from the living room window of our new house |
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| Grady is 2 months old now! |
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| The house has no bathtub so we bathe the girls in totes...Norah is also a ham! |
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| She loves her baby brother |
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| The girls decided our pumpkin needed makeup |
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| He is definitely our most smiley baby! |
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| Norah plays at Grammie's house with our new kitty...his name is either Rajah or Plum, depending on who you ask |
Hello after a 2-month break! (An unintentional one, of course...)
Fall has come and gone up here at Victory and now we are waiting on winter to show up. It's been a very mild fall (usually we have snow on the ground by now) that seems to be imitating our higher-than-average summer temperatures. I am personally just fine with no snow yet...because when it does come it stays much longer than you want it to!
We moved into a new house on September 24th. It is far bigger than the 700-ish square foot house we had been living in, so we are very thankful for more space so our growing family can spread out! We have space for a schoolroom as well so that has made school much easier & less stressful when we can leave projects out and have a defined space to do schoolwork.
Evie is loving Kindergarten and is eager to learn every day (she is bummed on Sundays and Mondays because they're not a school day!). She is learning in her ballet/tap class as well and is excited for the several recitals she'll have throughout the school year. We like being in the IDEA program. The only tough thing about school is fitting it into our shaky new routine with now a school-age child, an active toddler, and a newborn!
We are now going in to town once a week (Evie has dance on Mondays, Justin's day off) instead of twice a month, which means more trips in the car, more appointments and shopping trips all crammed into one day, and more general busyness!
Norah is going to be 3 in just a few months and she is always looking to Evie as her example, which can be both good and bad! She has been kept very busy the past few days with the new kitty that has joined our home. She likes to spend lots of time playing with the kitty but has also unintentionally nearly murdered him a couple of times...he will grow up to be a tough cat and hopefully a good mouser!
Grady got to meet my family (those who hadn't yet seen him) when we visited Kenai last week. It was fun to introduce him to my dad and watch him smile & coo at his Papa, whom I think Grady resembles greatly when he smiles! We were also able to have Pastor Phil Reemtsma, at our sending church in Kenai, do Grady's baby dedication. It is special to us because now all 3 of our children have been dedicated by the same dear friend & pastor in the same church.
Camp has been very busy over the last couple of months. To take from a fellow camp wife's blog:
Here comes a huge stretch of groups coming to Victory. We have a secular competition choir, a mission organization bringing in all of their field families, 2 air force groups, a pastor's retreat of local pastors, a group that has been coming for the last 30 years, 3 large youth groups, and a men's group that helps men battle addiction and struggles in their lives. And that's just October. What an awesome opportunity to show the love of God by serving these groups. Please be praying for their retreats and our interactions with them.
Justin got to enjoy a Halo party yesterday evening with some of the other men on staff (and one good friend who drove up from Palmer just to play!). They were out till midnight. :) I love that our coworkers here are also our friends; we are blessed to live in a community that is also our family!
I am adjusting being a mommy of 3 and the constant prioritizing that comes with it. I am constantly tempted to get frustrated because I tend toward needing to be in control of my surroundings...and with a family like ours that is simply not possible! There are so many voices (and not necessarily bad ones) in the world that tell you that to be a successful wife & mother you need to have an organized home, well behaved children, a hot meal on the table 3 times a day, and a creative hobby on the side that you are good at...and while these are all great things, they are very hard to achieve at the same time! I struggle with being frustrated when I don't see myself measuring up to that standard. But I read a blog posting the other day that was very encouraging to me; here's a snippet:
Our
pastor was pointing us to the Scriptures and encouraging us to minister
to our children, reminding us of our call to disciple them through
instruction, discipline, and relationship. I think being reminded of
all of the good we can do in our children’s lives might be what caused the Spirit to prick my heart at that moment with this thought:
I process my life through the lens of failure. I have trouble seeing the good and focus only on what I’m not doing or can’t do.
Like a camera with an improperly focused lens, my perspective was blurring what should have been in crisp focus and drawing my eye to what belonged in the fuzzy background.
- See more at: http://www.itakejoy.com/is-your-lens-properly-focused-mine-wasnt/#sthash.zenNHfVR.dUATyZc1.dpuf
I process my life through the lens of failure. I have trouble seeing the good and focus only on what I’m not doing or can’t do.
Like a camera with an improperly focused lens, my perspective was blurring what should have been in crisp focus and drawing my eye to what belonged in the fuzzy background.
- See more at: http://www.itakejoy.com/is-your-lens-properly-focused-mine-wasnt/#sthash.zenNHfVR.dUATyZc1.dpuf
Our
pastor was pointing us to the Scriptures and encouraging us to minister
to our children, reminding us of our call to disciple them through
instruction, discipline, and relationship. I think being reminded of
all of the good we can do in our children’s lives might be what caused the Spirit to prick my heart at that moment with this thought:
I process my life through the lens of failure. I have trouble seeing the good and focus only on what I’m not doing or can’t do.
Like a camera with an improperly focused lens, my perspective was blurring what should have been in crisp focus and drawing my eye to what belonged in the fuzzy background.
- See more at: http://www.itakejoy.com/is-your-lens-properly-focused-mine-wasnt/#sthash.zenNHfVR.dUATyZc1.dpuf
I process my life through the lens of failure. I have trouble seeing the good and focus only on what I’m not doing or can’t do.
Like a camera with an improperly focused lens, my perspective was blurring what should have been in crisp focus and drawing my eye to what belonged in the fuzzy background.
- See more at: http://www.itakejoy.com/is-your-lens-properly-focused-mine-wasnt/#sthash.zenNHfVR.dUATyZc1.dpuf
Our
pastor was pointing us to the Scriptures and encouraging us to minister
to our children, reminding us of our call to disciple them through
instruction, discipline, and relationship. I think being reminded of
all of the good we can do in our children’s lives might be what caused the Spirit to prick my heart at that moment with this thought:
I process my life through the lens of failure. I have trouble seeing the good and focus only on what I’m not doing or can’t do.
Like a camera with an improperly focused lens, my perspective was blurring what should have been in crisp focus and drawing my eye to what belonged in the fuzzy background.
- See more at: http://www.itakejoy.com/is-your-lens-properly-focused-mine-wasnt/#sthash.zenNHfVR.dUATyZc1.dpuf
I process my life through the lens of failure. I have trouble seeing the good and focus only on what I’m not doing or can’t do.
Like a camera with an improperly focused lens, my perspective was blurring what should have been in crisp focus and drawing my eye to what belonged in the fuzzy background.
- See more at: http://www.itakejoy.com/is-your-lens-properly-focused-mine-wasnt/#sthash.zenNHfVR.dUATyZc1.dpuf
"I process my life through the lens of failure. I have trouble seeing the good and focus only on what I'm not doing or can't do. Like a camera with an improperly focused lens, my perspective was blurring what should have been in crisp focus and drawing my eye to what belonged in the fuzzy background....
You have had a unique life during which you have had experiences and training that make you who you are as a person and a mom.
...So, stop feeling bad that you're not doing life with your kids someone else's way, and do it your way. That's the way the Lord would have you do it. After all, he did give your kids to you! And I have a strong feeling that there are wonderful things happening in your home simply because of who you are as mama to your little ones."
(From itakejoy.com)
You are “Just Right”: You
have a unique life during which you have had experiences and training
that make you who you are as a person and a mom. I think that’s pretty
stinkin’ cool! You may be a crafter extraordinaire. If you are, craft
it up with your kids. Share with them what makes your heart sing. Or,
you may be useless in all things domestic but love the great outdoors. So, stop feeling bad that you’re not doing life with your kids someone else’s way, and do it your way.
THAT’s the way the Lord would have you do it. After all, He did give
your kids to you! And I have strong feeling that there are some
wonderful things happening in your home simply because of who you are as
mama to your little ones. (Don’t believe me? Ask an outsider for
their perspective!) - See more at:
http://www.itakejoy.com/is-your-lens-properly-focused-mine-wasnt/#sthash.zenNHfVR.dUATyZc1.dpuf
And it's true! While I may struggle with keeping the laundry caught up (...ok, it's NEVER caught up) or the dishwasher loaded, it is very easy for me to spend the whole afternoon reading with my girls or taking them outside to explore the yard & woods around our house. As my super wise, super experienced mom told me when we visited last week, "It's OK to lower the bar a little bit!"...So if my husband comes home tonight to find the house a wreck, one of the girls up to her elbows in peanut butter, the other girl with a whole bowl of cheez-its dumped out all over the floor (that actually happened yesterday), the baby screaming, and me happily reading a book, I'll tell him it's OK because I'm lowering the bar just a bit. Alright, just joking, but really, it is comforting to know that I simply need to love my children and I'm already doing the only job that I TRULY need to do!
So here are some ways you can be praying right now:
-For the groups that are coming through Victory in the month of November to be ministered to by the staff here, to feel the love of Christ and see the beauty of God's awesome creation in their time here.
-For Justin in his daily job of seeing to details and dealing with individuals in the workplace, that he can do everything as though for Christ
-And the same for me in my job as wife, mommy, homemaker, and schoolteacher, and for a consistent routine to begin to take shape in the midst of our busy life
-On a side note, please pray for my brother Luke and his wife Holly in Kenai. The heavy rains that covered much of the state this past weekend caused there to be flooding in the area of Kenai that they live in. They are currently faced with the choice of trying to save their apartment or abandon it...the state is going through the measures of declaring disaster and sending relief but in the meantime there isn't a lot of help for them.
