Wondering

This morning I read the 11th Chapter of First Corinthians. This is the very first verse:

"Be ye followers of me,even as I also am of Christ."

This is Paul speaking to the Corinthians. I've heard and read this verse a lot of times; but this morning it hit me. Do I have the confidence to say this? Can I tell other people "watch me because I'm doing all the right things!"? In some ways you don't want to be puffed up, but it would be nice to know that you are trying your best and if other people followed your example they would be doing pretty good. I'm afraid I am all too aware of my faults and shortcomings to tell people to follow my example; but here's the scary part: There may be people (such as my children) who are following my example that may not be a completely good one. I do not want anyone to go the wrong way or do the wrong things simply because they were following my example. My motivation today is to give people a good example to follow.

Here's some more scripture in that chapter that has always mystified me. If any of you have an idea what it means I would love to know:

"For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man.
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the Angels."

What I don't understand is the last verse there. I guess it's the "because of the Angels" part. Really it's one of those things that we don't really need to understand; we just need to follow what the scripture is saying; but I've always wondered what it meant.

One time I asked Sis. Cindy FlanderMeyer about it. She said she didn't really understand what it meant, but one time she was flying with Doug when he was little. I guess Doug was really being bad and disrupting the other passengers. Sis. Cindy said she said a little prayer. It went something like this: "Lord the Bible says that we have power on our heads, can I use that power somehow to calm Doug down." She said that after that Doug was good for the rest of the trip.

Anyway, if any of you have insight on this I would love to hear it.

Thanksgiving

I thought I would be able to post some pictures of our Thanksgiving, but my camera is so dead I can't even load pictures onto my computer, and there's not enough money to buy a new battery yet; so I will write my blog without pictures.

We went to Brian and Michelle's house for Thanksgiving. (I'll let her post the pictures, I guess) It was nice to get together with everyone. We hadn't been to their house in quite awhile. They've gotten a lot done since we'd been there last. They still have a lot to do before they're done. It was nice to relax with family and lots of good food! Bro. Dale and Sis. Chantel came over and brought their company. It was nice to get to visit with all of them.

The day after Thanksgiving Matt and I took the kids to Seneca (which is a 3 hour drive from Michelle's). Their Grandpa Mike McManus lives there and they had never met him before. He's not really living a very good lifestyle, but he is their grandpa; so we decided to make the effort for them to see each other. Most of the time when we are out that way there's only enough time to visit with Brian and Michelle. This time we had a few more days than normal; so we decided to take the time to go see him.

I was pretty nervous. For one thing, I didn't know if he would be sober or not; and I didn't know if he even cared to meet our kids since he had never made the effort to see them before. We only spent a few hours there since it was a fairly long drive and the roads were pretty icy (we didn't want to be out very late) I really prayed about our meeting with him and I thought it went pretty well. He was sober; and he seemed to had made an effort to look and act nice for our kids. Since they hadn't ever met before the kids were a little shy around him; but he interacted with them some. He even had his camera, and we both took pictures. We took the kids to a playground and they enjoyed that. He got to watch them play and he helped them to reach the high toys and stuff. I felt like it went really well. I'm very thankful for that. We may not get to see him very often, but I would like to make more of an effort to keep him informed with the children's lives.

Saturday Matt spent the day helping Brian put some new flooring in their kitchen. They didn't quite finish it, but it's looking very nice! Michell, Linda and I went to town for a little while. We went to this neat little shop and I found some cute things for Christmas presents; and they were really cheap! That evening we had a wienie roast at the church. I stayed inside the whole time because Garrison had poked my eye and it was really sore and irritated. I was afraid the fire smoke would make it hurt worse. By the end of the night I could actually open my eye; and by morning it didn't hurt anymore. I was thankful for that. I really enjoyed visiting with the brethren there and the others visiting for Thanksgiving.

I have to admit that church wasn't real lively; but Bro. Bill got up and made a real good talk that got me thinking. Hopefully I do more than think! Let me see if I can remember what he said that really got me... He was reading about Faith and the works of Faith. He said something about how God would give us what we need to have these works, and that we would be rewarded. So many times it seems easier to do what I want to do, instead of what I know is right. He reminded me that God will help me make my life what it should be; and my life will be better for it. We didn't stay long after church. There was a church dinner, and we got to visit for a little while, but left pretty soon because we didn't want to be caught on bad roads. We had a pretty good trip. We made fairly good time and God protected us. There were a lot of accidents we came across.

We had a pretty good weekend. There's something about getting away for awhile that helps you to be more motivated to get back into the daily grind. Speaking of daily grind... I have dishes to do, laundry to wash, kids to put to work and dinner to make. I hope you all had a blessed and thankful Thanksgiving!

Onion breath

The other night Matt and I were laying in bed, getting ready to go to sleep when I noticed he had onion breath. When I told him he had onion breath he said something like "that means one good thing." I couldn't figure out what the good thing was until he told me that it meant my nose wasn't stuffed up anymore. I had been suffering from a pretty bad cold; and of course was very aware of this fact. When he brought it to my attention that my cold was gone it made me realize that I hadn't even noticed when it had gotten better. This got me to thinking about how it seems like it's easier to notice bad things (like onion breath), than the many small blessings we have in life (like not having a stuffy nose anymore!). God wants us to give thanks in everything; even the bad things. And it seems like that even through trials there is always an upside and someway to be thankful for that very trial.

I've never watched the old movie Pollyanna until recently. In it Pollyanna was always playing a "game" where when something bad happened she thought of someway to be glad about it. I would like to be more like that. In honor of Thanksgiving I would like to make this list of things I am thankful for. I'm sure there's more than what I can come up with here, but here goes...

1. I'm thankful for my husband's onion breath, because that means I can smell.

2. I'm thankful for all my dirty dishes because that means we have food to eat.

3. I'm thankful for the times my children keep me up at night because that means I have children.

4. I'm thankful for all the laundry because that means we have plenty of clothes to wear.

5. I'm thankful for the tears I cry because God is always there to dry them up again.

6. I'm thankful for the times I feel lonely because God reminds me that I am never alone.

7. I'm thankful for the concrete dust in my bathroom, in the laundry room, on the floors, bed etc because that means my husband has a job.

8. I'm thankful for the messy diapers because that means my children are healthy!

9. I'm thankful when my children misbehave in church because that means we are free to assembly ourselves together.

10. I'm thankful for the times our vehicles require maintenance because that means we have vehicles to take us where we need to go.

11. I'm thankful for the house work I have to do because that means we have a roof over our heads.

12. I'm thankful for the many trips up and down the stairs I have to make each day because that means I can walk.

13. I'm thankful for the daily routine of clothing, feeding, and picking up after my family because that means I have the health and strength to do these never ending tasks.

14. I'm thankful for my trials because God and the brethren are always there to help me through.

There is so much more I'm thankful for that's not necessarily connected to a bad thing, but my point is I would like to look past the discouragements, frustrations and the mundane aspects of life and see the joy and blessings that are always there to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I will be very busy the rest of this week; so you probably won't hear from me. Hopefully I can look beyond the stressfulness and see that there is so much to be thankful for that I have no reason to be stressed out!

After re-reading my blog I have uplifted myself somehow!! Now on to the messy house, noisy children, and the never ending to-do list!!

Wedding Vows

"Do you, Bro. Matt, take Sis. Tisha, To be thy wedded wife?

To Love and to cherish,

For better or for worse,

For richer or for poorer,

In Sickness and in health;

To comfort and honor,

Provide for her and keep her;

Cleaving only unto her,

As long as you both shall live?"

"I Do."

"Do you, Sis. Tisha, Take Bro. Matt, to be thy wedded husband?

to love and to cherish,

For better or for worse,

For richer or for poorer,

In sickness and in health;

To comfort and honor,

Obey and keep him;

Forsaking all others,

And from this day forward,

Keeping thyself only unto him,

As long as you both shall live?"

"I Do."

When we were engaged to be married we asked Bro. Dean Higgins to be our minister. He had never done a wedding before; so in some ways he was a new as us to it all. I couldn't find anybody who had a copy of wedding vows for the ceremony. I went online and searched it, but the only ones I found didn't seem to have everything that I thought needed to be there. So I decided to get my Bible out and research what the Bible said a husband and wife ought to do. That along with the basic vows I found online helped me to come up with the vows we made on our wedding day.

The reason I have been thinking about wedding vows is because yesterday Christian asked me how people got married. I explained to him that we had a piece of paper that we had to sign so that people could tell we were married; but I told him that most importantly we made vows (which I explained to him were like promises) before God and to each other that said we would treat each other good and stay married.

Our children have a way of keeping us on our toes and keeping us humble.

Soon after we were married I typed up our wedding vows and framed them. After speaking to Christian I got to thinking about what those wedding vows said. Now I've always been faithful to Matt, and I've always loved him, but if I'm completely honest I don't always cherish him like I should, or honor him like I should. How many times do I comfort him when he really needs it. Sometimes I might even be so caught up in myself that I don't see the times that he needs comfort from me. I've stuck with him through the hard times (and we haven't really had REAL bad times); but have I actually been a help to him during those hard times?

Now I know Matt pretty well, I could really pick him apart if I wanted to. He's human just like me. Most of the time I think I'm more faulty than him though. Sometimes I don't like the way he does things, or I just take for granted the many good things that he does for me and our family. Where is the cherishing and honoring in that? Fulfilling my wedding vows is a lot more than just continuing to live together as husband and wife. I'm glad for the little reminder from my 5 year old that I need to try harder to follow my wedding vows. A vow before God is a very serious thing after all.

Haircut weekend

All the menfolk in my family were getting pretty shaggy looking (except they baby who's curls are too cute to cut still!(:). So we decided that haircuts would be on the top of our list of things to do this weekend. I cut Matt and Christian's hair, I'm not a perfect stylist, but they look acceptable. Matt did Anthony's hair because we were just going to buzz it. Anthony's hair tends to stick up; so it's easier to just keep it extra short. Matt took him out to the garage and Anthony came back looking like this:

I've never thought I would give my kids a Mohawk. I've always thought they looked funny, but somehow I like this. Am I weird? Somehow I think it looks right on him. Maybe it's because he's my wild child! Christian's been bugging me about giving him a Mohawk. I won' do it. He got a boring regular haircut. I just think it would look funny on him. Of course maybe it looks funny on Anthony, and somehow I'm blinded to the fact! Matt says it'll only be for a few days. I guess we'll have to see how long it lasts. Let me know what you think of Anthony's new do. I won't be upset if you don't agree with me!

Halloween, Finally!

I'm finally getting around to posting about our Halloween. We were actually very boring and just went trick or treating in our neighborhood. It's actually the first time I remember doing this with the kids. Usually it's so cold and/or rainy that we just take the kids to a mall; but this year the weather was really nice. We still thought about taking the kids somewhere, but this was easier and I thought they would enjoy it just as well. It was fun. They were all pretty hyped up. At first when we would go to the doors Ruby would ask for more candy. We had to tell her that one piece was enough and you don't ask for more. So after that at almost every house she would tell them "One is enough, we only need one." I don't know what makes my kids, especially Ruby, blurt out absurd things to strangers. One guy opens up his door and Ruby says "My Papa can't see, he has ears that don't let him see." We all laughed about that! Well, here are my pictures. They are proof that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. I was busy, and asked Matt to take a picture of each of the kids by themselves, and one of all of them together. The one of Christian I didn't even put it on here because he wasn't done putting his costume on; so you couldn't even tell it was a Halloween picture. Next year I'll make sure to take the pictures myself.

The Deed is Done!

Well last night I went down to Brownsville and signed a lease option to buy with a couple! It feels nice to get that done. It seemed like getting our house taken care of has dragged out, but we never missed a payment; so God really provided for us there. We figured we would only be able to make it to August or September, but every month that came we seemed to have just enough money to keep the payment paid on time. I'm thankful for that. I'm going to try not to worry about if these people don't pay rent. It really does no good to worry about things before they happen. That's what I'm trying to tell myself anyway....

Garrison & Kylee's Birthday

I finally got the pictures of Garrison's Birthday onto my computer. It was fun having a double First Birthday party. For those of you who don't know Garrison and Kylee were born 17 hours apart (18 if you count the hour lost that night during the time change). Sis. Cindy FlanderMeyer delivered both babies. They are first cousin's by the way, I think I forgot to mention that. Anyway, we had a good time, it's always fun watching a first Birthday party. Ok, now I'll quit rambling so you can see the pictures...

No, this isn't Kylee or Garrison, but this picture of my sister Alicia's baby Carrina is soooo cute I had to put it on here!

What he wanted more than the cake was that candle. I'd get his mouth real close while I held his hands and he just kept trying to bite the candle, flame and all!

Here they are together. Trina, these pictures are reminding me that I need to give you your chair back.

Eating the cake.

Kylee made quite a mess with her cake! It was fun to watch!

There's the Birthday boy.

Isn't she cute???

Chistian's First Tooth!

Ok, it's really late, but I finally got my pictures onto my computer today and I have a lot of posts I want to get up here; so... here goes...

Christian lost his first tooth the other day. I was loose for a few days. I was a little bit squeamish about having to pull it. I wasn't worried about the blood or anything; I was just worried about the battle it would be. I can remember put my parents through some fits when they tried to pull my teeth. Anyway, I put off the tooth pulling long enough that it came out on it's own! Yah! Christian just kept wiggling it around and it finally just fell out. It didn't bleed at all. It was a very nice first tooth experience for him. Here he is with his new gap.


Matt and I don't teach our kids that Santa is real. We just feel like that's lieing to them. I'm not sure if we ever discussed the tooth fairy. We didn't tell Christian anything about what usually happens when you lose a tooth (maybe we were hoping to save some money!) A couple of days after he lost it he told us that if you put the tooth under your pillow the moon will change the tooth into a dollar. He heard it somewhere, and we let him believe it. So he put the tooth under his pillow. We had quite a search for it. It had been in a plastic baggie; and for some reason he took it out. We almost couldn't find it. Anyway, we put the dollar there and he woke up amazed that his tooth had magically turned into a dollar.

I was debating within myself about whether we should allow him to believe the lie. I hadn't discussed it with Matt still, but he eventually sat Christian down and told him the truth. It just doesn't seem right to lie to your kids about things, even if it's something fun like this. I want my kids to always believe me and not wonder when I'm telling them the truth. Someone once told me that someday when your kids learn that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy etc. are not real, will they wonder if all those great Bible stories are made up too? Anyway, just to set the record straight, I don't think it's a great sin if you let your child believe these things, but we have chose not to.