Just Getting By

Yesterday we had a pretty good meeting (and had a nice time afterwards at Bro. Sean & Sis. Marisela's). Bro. Lee preached about not holding back and giving your all to living the Faith. Bro. Bill got up and talked about partaking of the Lord's supper and how we should be partaking of the Lord's body and blood everyday. Bro. Sean got up got real blunt with all of us. I'm glad he did too. I know that at least for me it was something that I needed to hear put that bluntly.

He said he remembered when he lived here before and the young kids spent a lot of time together. They were always looking for reasons to spend time together. He said they didn't get to spend everyday together, but they always wanted to. He said how the brethren here really don't spend a lot of time together. We all go about our own lives. It's really easy to just stay home and relax. He was basically saying that we needed to have such a desire to be together that we would find ways to make it happen.

I know that Matt and I fail in this also. We do have people over for dinner fairly often (though we've only just recently picked back up on that). And most Sunday's we spend with the brethren, but it's been a looooong time since we've just decided to go visit somebody some evening.

Another thing that was mentioned a couple times was fasting. It's been quite awhile since I've fasted. Sometimes I see how I struggle in certain areas and think about how I ought to fast about it, but I don't do it. I really want to try to fast more often.

I've also been examining myself and today I've really looked in the mirror and seen one especially glaring fault. I do what I have to do to get by. I don't put all my effort into living the faith or even taking care of my family. I was visiting with the brethren yesterday and told them how my sister Wenona is a really especially good mother, and Alicia is a really hard worker and I'm just mediocre at both things. I know I could do better at living the faith, keeping my house clean, taking care of my children, being a wife; really at everything, but mostly I just do what I feel like I need to do so that I can just squeak by with the minimal amount of effort, so that people will still think well of me. I know some of you may be thinking that this can't possible be that bad, but it really is and I need prayers that I can put my best effort forth. I can remember in school I wasn't very popular with the kids; so I liked to be on the good side of the teachers. I did well enough at school so that my teachers would think well of me, but I didn't work my hardest. I really think I could have gotten straight A's if I'd tried my best, but I didn't. Today I have really seen how this is how I live my whole life. It's just horrible! I really need prayers that I can overcome my slothful nature and do my best at all I do. I know that my life and that of my family and those around me would be better if I put forth more of an effort.

Before Bro. Lee and Sis. Cherrie moved here he received a prophesy. Even though it was for him I believe it was something the whole assembly here needed to hear. I don't remember all of it, but I do remember that it said that the truth would be preached in this part and we would be a haven for the brethren. I think this is a wonderful promise, but I can see where if we don't all put forth our best efforts God's plan for this assembly could fail. I really, really, really want to do my part, and not Just Get By; because really just getting by is really not getting by at all.

Real or not?

A few weeks ago we took the kids to the Saturday Market in downtown Portland. We road the Max, which the kids think is really cool! Even though we didn't have much money to spend it was nice to browse around at all the different booths, and also see all the interesting people. There was a point when it was getting to be nap time and Garrison started throwing a screaming fit, but other than that it was an enjoyable outing.

At one point we were taking a bathroom break, and way up on the edge of building Christian saw an owl. I zoomed the camera as far as I could and took a picture, and then when I got the picture on our computer I cropped it even more. While we were watching it we did see it move. I guess it never occurred to me to wonder why an owl was out and moving in broad daylight. After I cropped it on my computer I thought it looked like it was fake. Maybe it's some kind of surveillance camera or something.

What do you guys think? Is it fake, or not? The more I look at it, the more I think it's probably fake.

Feeding the Ducks

Earlier this summer, Matt's mom came and spent a few days with us. The kids really enjoyed having their Grandma around! One of the things we did while she was here is take the kids to feed some ducks. The kids really enjoyed it and it was cheap entertainment! There's a library next door; so we went to the library too. I'm thinking about taking them again soon.


I had them all sit down and throw the bread so the ducks would come closer.

There were a couple of geese there that would actually eat out of your hand, but Christian was the only one of my kids brave enough to do it.

Poor Baby

This is what happens when your older siblings wake you up too early in the morning:

I went to get Garrison out of his highchair this morning and this is what I found. Anthony got up pretty early this morning and decided to wake everyone else up too.

Here he is in another similar situation awhile back. I came in to clean up from breakfast and found my baby laying on the counter with every one's cereal spoons clutched in his hands fast asleep. I, of course, had to snap a picture while laughing quietly to myself. I quietly cleaned up around him while watching him closely to make sure he didn't roll off the bar. It wasn't very long and he woke up and went about his day.

Here's a cute picture of my baby I just wanted to add for the fun of it. He won't be my baby much longer! He's already showing signs of wanting to be potty trained, but I'm not very excited about it. It would be nice if he were potty trained when this baby came though, but none of my other kids were done that early.

I hope he keeps those beautiful blue eyes and that curly hair. It's time for another hair cut too, but I love his curls so much it's hard! Christian and Ruby's eyes are changing to green like mine did. I like the green eyes too, but I hope at least one of my children keep their daddy's blue eyes.

THE FAITH

There is something that I've been really thinking about lately and Bro. Lee got up yesterday and talked along the same lines. I've been thinking about how we call our walk as brethren living the Faith. Most of the time when we say that, it's more of a title than anything else; but lately I've been thinking about the definition of Faith. This is what Bro. Lee talked about. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Basically when we are living the Faith we are providing the evidence of things not seen. The love of the brethren, the wonderful works we've seen done that only God could work out; the spirit that we feel bringing forth the wonderful things that we have the opportunity to experience. It's all the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. I've just never quite thought of it along those lines before.

Also when I was finally taking time out today to read my Bible I came across a verse. It's one of those verses that I think get overlooked a lot. I've read it lots of times, but never really thought about what it means before. It's the second to the last verse of Galatians; so I guess I've just thought of it as a closing verse, without any real in dept meaning. Anyway, here it is:

"From henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus."

All of us who have the Spirit in us have the marks of the Lord Jesus; so we really have no reason to be troubled by anything that man could throw at us. I just thought this was an interesting verse worth sharing. It's in the 6th chapter of Galatians. That chapter is full of a lot of good things, but this verse really stuck out for me this time. Maybe God was sending me a message to not let myself be troubled or worried about the things of this world. If God be for us who can be against us.

WhooHoo

No, I am not advertising for Washington Mutual. I just wanted to let everyone know that I found the missing book! Yahhh! Actually Christian found it. I guess he found it under my bed. I had looked under there, but I guess not good enough. I wonder if this is a hint that I ought to clean under there? Hmmm.

The Holcomb Sisters

Just before we moved to this house I had found my Holcomb Sisters CD. For some reason I couldn't find it for the longest time. I put it aside because I wanted to be able to listen to it. Somehow during the move I lost it again and hadn't been able to find it. I've really been wanting to listen to it too.

Well, I got a notice from the library that I had some overdue books. I quickly renewed them so they wouldn't rack up more of a debt; and then I went searching for them. I found all of them but one. As I was looking for this missing book I found my Holcomb Sister's CD! For some reason it was in a drawer of a table that we've only had since we moved to this house. Someone else must have found it a put it there without me knowing it. Anyway I'm glad I found it and I finally got to listen to it again!

Sadly, I still have not found the missing library book. I'm really running out of places to look. I can only renew it so many times before it just starts racking up dues. I really hope we find it before them. The ironic thing is that I got it for Christian to read and he never got to read it! I sure hope it turns up before then.

Christian's t-ball and Kindergarten Graduation

Since it seems like I've been doing blogs about my different children I decided to dedicate this blog to Christian. As I was looking through my many pictures that I have yet to post about I came across the ones of of Christian's t-ball and Kindergarten graduation. I decided to put a picture of Christian on his first day of school. You guys can tell me if you think he looks older now. It seems to me he's grown a lot, but I'm not sure if you can really tell from the pictures or not. I do know that we've had to go buy him a whole new set of pants a couple of times this year because he's outgrown the ones he had. He's 6 and wears a size 8. Anyway, here he is on his first day of school (notice Anthony and Ruby with her beloved elephant).

Christian had such a nice teacher. She really did a good job. I tried to help out in the classroom fairly often; though towards the end of the year I didn't because of our move. It amazes me how a teacher can get that many children together that really don't know much and actually manage to teach them something! Christian knew the basics, like his ABC's, some letter sounds and how to write his name; and of course colors and shapes. Now he is really reading and knows all his letters sounds and can even write. At this stage they don't worry about spelling. The kids just write how they think the words sound. Anyway, I know that this is all normal Kindergarten stuff, but it still amazes me that she managed it! I can't imagine keeping a room full of almost 20 5 & 6 year olds under control, not to mention teaching them to read.

I didn't get very good pictures of his graduation, because I was kind of towards the back, and didn't want to leave my 3 other children to get a good picture, but here is one that turned out pretty good.

Here's Christian with his medal and Certificate from t-ball. He really likes his medal. I think they even had it personalized and each child has their own name on it.

Here's Christian playing outfield. This is one of the days when he forgot to bring his Mitt. There weren't very many kids that actually hit the ball this far; so Christian got pretty bored out there. I would try to remind him to pay attention so he could know what was going on. I took quite a few pictures of him messing around in the outfield.

Here he is playing catcher. It was his first time ever and I thought he did a pretty good job.

This was Christian's first year doing any kind of sport; so he really had no idea what he was doing when he started. He really showed improvement I thought. Towards the end of the season most of the time he could hit the ball coach pitch. The coach would give them 3 pitches and if they didn't hit it then they would use the t. He also started out not knowing at all how baseball was played, but he figured out the basics. They didn't score or anything so he didn't learn about outs, but I think it was a good first year. He seemed to enjoy it too, which is the main thing.

To me the whole reason to play sports is to enjoy it, learn team work and the positive interaction with your peers. I don't really like it when people take winning too seriously. I do believe you should try your best, but I know that people can get carried away. I hope that when we put our children in sports it is a positive influence in their lives. If it begins to have more of a bad affect on them, or if we get too carried away with it I hope the Lord will show us it is time to quit. Or maybe some of my fellow sisters will nicely point it out to me (hint, hint)

The Coast on the 4th

Since Matt had the 4th of July off, and it happened to be on a Friday and we got a check in the mail that made it possible;we decided to spend the weekend at the Coast. It was a last minute decision. I called close to 20 Motels, most of them were full, or they were WAY beyond our price range. I actually managed to find one that was a reasonable price; so I jumped on it. We decided to pack up on Thursday and head to the coast right after church. We got to our Motel around 11; which wasn't too bad. For the price we got it for (especially it being 4th of July weekend) it was actually nicer than I expected. There were 2 queen beds in a separate room and then a hide-a-bed, dining area and kitchenette in another room. It was kind of old, and the bed wasn't real comfortable, but I was pretty pleased with what we got for the price. It was a nice enough place to call home for a couple of days. The kids did amazingly well settling down and we all slept pretty good. After having breakfast at a really nice restaurant (where we couldn't even finish all the food we ordered) we stopped at a toy store to get some sand toys and then headed to the beach.

These pictures are backwards. I always forget that you have to put them on your page in the opposite order of how you want them on your page. Well these pictures are of us making sandcastles after getting good and wet; so we are getting good and dirty! Christian wanted to make his castle with no help from anyone or any castle molds. Ruby had help from me. The reason their eyes are squinty is because the wind was blowing pretty hard and they kept getting sand in their faces. Spellcheck is telling me that squinty is not a word, but I'm going to use it anyway!

We were all so dirty after playing in the water and sand that we didn't want to sit in a restaurant; so we ordered pizza and all took showers and then tried to take a nap. That didn't go over too well. It's hard for kids to sleep in that close of quarters; especially when its still daylight outside. I guess we got to rest anyway.

This is the only picture I have of Matt. Isn't that awful! I guess he was taking most of the other pictures.

Christian and Ruby in their soaking wet clothes. I wasn't going to let them get that wet. Just wade around a little, but the water was amazingly warm for the Oregon Coast and they fell in a few times; so I gave up.

Even though Garrison fell a few times and got a little scared; he always got back up and ran with a huge grin on his face to meet the next wave!

Here's Anthony having fun.

Here's me with all the kids except Garrison.


After our showers and resting time we went to a Chinese restaurant. Our kids actually really like Chinese food, mostly the sweet and sour. There were going to be fireworks on the beach about 3 miles from where we were. We were told we could see them from the beach at the town we were at rather than going to the really crowded beach 3 miles away; so we took the sand toys down to the beach again and let the kids play until fireworks time. This time I didn't let them play in the water; so they wouldn't get quite so dirty. There were a lot of people setting off their own fireworks; so we got to see them. A lot of them looked like illegal fireworks. Their were quite a few people on the beach, but not nearly as crowded as the other beach would have been. there were a lot of bonfires on the beach. Some people even shared theirs with us. That was nice. The bad thing about the fires is it was still windy; so if you were downwind from any of them (which we were) it was very smoky. The big fireworks show was disappointing because we could just barely see it. I don't even know if the kids even really noticed it. But they had fun playing in the sand and watching everyone Else's fireworks; so it wasn't a huge disappointment. We had bought some sparklers, but it was just too windy on the beach. we did those a couple of nights later at home.

The kids were so worn out that they went to sleep pretty easy. The next morning we worked on packing up. There was a watermelon that we had cut into the day before and we ate that for breakfast. We had intended to buy breakfast, but it was so late by the time we got out of the Motel it was so late that we just got lunch. Since you have to eat seafood at least once when you go to the coast that's what we had for lunch. We walked around in the shops for a little while. We bought the kids each a silly hat, but sorry, no pictures! There was a carousel in one of the shopping centers; so we all rode on it. It was fun. The kids threw such fits when we had to get off that we figured they were tuckered out and it was time to go home.

Looking back I see that I have rambled on a lot, but now you have all the details of our fun weekend. It was nice to get away and have fun as a family.

Good bye Elephant

When Neena brought to my attention that my sidebar needed to be updated I noticed the picture of Ruby with her elephant. I've been meaning to post about this, but never had.

Here is the story of Ruby and her elephant:

Ruby was probably our worst baby ever. This is probably a horrible thing to say; but it's very true. Maybe she was colicky; I don't know, but she cried a lot. I had a hard time calming her down when she got upset. She did not like to be cuddled; so I couldn't rock her to sleep. Sometimes I literally spent hours trying to get her to go to sleep. Then there were nights she would wake up screaming and it didn't seem like there was anything I could do for her.

One evening we were doing our grocery shopping at Winco and Ruby was starting in on one of her screaming fits and we still hadn't finisher our shopping yet. We passed the stuffed animal section and I snatched a soft and comfy looking elephant. It was grey with a ribbon around it's neck and tusks and had that mixture of loose stuffing and beans. At the time it was probably about as big as her. I think she was somewhere around 10 months at the time. When I gave her the elephant she stopped her fit and was good for the rest of our shopping experience. It was love at first sight! From then on she slept with her elephant every night and she took it everywhere with her.

As a baby she would suck on the tusks when she was sleepy. When she got too old for that she would just rub the tusks with her hands; sometimes I would catch her making a sucking movement with her mouth as she did this. Through the years, the many trips it took, the washings it got and from much loving it became very wore out. She still loved it though. It reminded me of the velveteen rabbit. It's ribbon got lost somewhere along the way; and it's fur wasn't its original silky softness, but she loved it all the same.

There were times she would leave it somewhere and we would have to turn around and go get it. There were a few times as she got older that she would leave it and wouldn't miss it for awhile; but most of the time she took it everywhere with her.

Well, we took it with us to go to Brewster camp out this year. We made a lot of stops along the way, of course. The last stop we made was in Omak to get groceries for the weekend. We really couldn't quite remember if that was the last place we saw the elephant or not; but we were pretty sure Ruby took it in with her. Sometimes we remembered to tell her to leave her elephant in the van so she wouldn't lose it; this time we forgot. It was pretty late and we were quite a ways out of Omak when Ruby realized she didn't have her elephant. This time we didn't turn around (I almost wish we had). We weren't even definitely sure she had it in Wal-Mart and we were already going to be getting in so late. We did call Wal-Mart, but they hadn't found it yet. When we got to the camp out we looked in the van really good, but no elephant. We stopped at Wal-Mart on our way home, but it had not been found. We stopped at a few other places that we remembered stopping at, but nobody had seen Ruby's elephant. It was so tattered and worn that someone who found it might have just thrown it out, not knowing that it was such a special thing to a little 4 year old girl.

I realize it was probably getting to be time to ween Ruby of her elephant; but she loved it so much that I wanted to be able to keep it for her to have when she had children of her own. I really feel sad that she lost it. This may seem kind of silly, but I even have a small hope that somehow God will allow us to find it so that Ruby can keep her beloved elephant. It wasn't even a toy to her. She very rarely played with it. Sometimes she would say that elephant was hungry or tired; but most of the time elephant was just a comforting companion for her.

She's doing fine without elephant, but she still sometimes tells me that she wishes she had elephant. We really do miss that poor old elephant. I'm going to post some pictures that I have of Ruby with her elephant. Most of the time we made her put the elephant down, but we have a few. Now I wish I would have taken more of her with it as a baby.

Elephant at Uncle Brian and Aunt Michelle's house

Elephant at Dennis and Trina's house

Elephant at the pumkin patch

Elephant at the airport.

Anthony, my 3 year old organizer

I finally got all my pictures edited! Yah! And because of my near scare with Anthony yesterday I decided to make my first picture post of him. Anthony has this little quirk. I'm not sure what it means, but I'm sure he's destined for great things because of it! He likes to take things such as crackers, chips, sticks; anything really, and organize them into shapes and patterns. When we give him fruit snacks in church he does eventually eat them, but first he puts them out in a line and makes different shapes and patterns with them as he eats them one by one.

This first picture is just a funny picture he wanted me to take.

The other day Matt gave Anthony a handful of trail mix. Here he is lining his p-nuts out in rows. You can see the raisins off to the side waiting for their turn. It just amazes me how he always does this. I haven't figured out yet what he's destined to be, but I know with a tendency like this there's some wonderful thing he will grow up to be!

I didn't get a picture of it, but just a day or two after these pictures were taken I had given him a back of carrot sticks. He had them fanned out like a flower on the bar stool. He told me that it was fire. I just wanted to share with you about my special boy!

Looking for the One

I had quite a scare yesterday...

There's a park here in town that has activities for kids and then free lunches. I try to take the kids every once in awhile. It's also right by a library. Yesterday I took the kids to the library and then I let them play on the playground until lunch time. There are, of course tons of kids milling around.

When it was getting time to round up the kids for lunch I could not find Anthony. I looked all over the playground, and then I went to the area where they were doing activities and couldn't find him. Then I thought that maybe he had saw all the people starting to line up for lunch and decided to join them. I looked over there and still no Anthony. At this point I was really starting to worry. At this point I decided to get some help; so I talked to the lady who was in charge of the activities and lunch. I gave her a description of Anthony and she announced it on a bullhorn she has. It just so happened that today there were some Firemen there to help pass out the lunches and I talked to them and they all fanned out looking for him. I was really getting upset. It was a horrible feeling! I was afraid that someone saw him wander off and taken him. It wasn't too long and they found him at the craft shelter making a craft (I had looked there, but either I hadn't seen him in all the other kids, or he had shown up after I looked). I was so relieved to have him found that I lifted him up in my arms and cried. I was so thankful! You can believe that I will be keeping a closer eye on all my kids next time I go to the park with them.

There are two things that I really thought about through this. I thought about all the other people who have went through losing their child. Only there are so many who never find them. I only got a small taste of what they have to go through. It really made me more aware of what they go through.

Another thing that happened was I had told the kids that I was gathering them up to get in line for lunch, but when I couldn't find Anthony I told them we weren't eating lunch until he was found (of course!). In their little minds they just knew that they were hungry. I told them that finding Anthony was the most important thing right then. Ruby told me that when I said that, it made her feel like maybe she wasn't important. I told her that if she was missing then finding her would be the most important thing.

It wasn't until later when the excitement had died down for me that I thought of the parable about the one sheep that was lost and how the Shepherd left the ninety-nine to go and look for it. That was how I felt. It wasn't like I didn't care about my other children, but I knew they were safe; so all my focus was on looking for the one. I didn't leave my other children, of course, but the message is the same. It really made me think about how the Lord feels when we are lost. He must be devastated. I know when we hear or know brethren that have strayed and we are sad about it; but that cannot compare to how the Lord feels. Also, if they never come back we begin to forget about them, or at least only think about them every once in awhile. If I had not found Anthony I can't imagine that I would ever stop thinking about him and hoping and wishing that we could find him again.

I then thought about if one of my siblings got lost and was never found I would still want to find them; and would keep trying to get them back. It wouldn't be the same as what a Mother or Father would feel, but I would still be working to get them back. I think in the Faith too many times I look at those who have strayed as hopeless, or that I really can't do anything. Or sometimes I think that if they really wanted to come back they know where to find us, they could come back on their own. That's not to say I don't feel sad and wished that those I know would come back to the Faith. What I'm trying to say is I really don't do anything to try to help them find their way again. The brethren are my family. They are all my Sisters, Brothers, Mothers, Fathers. If they are lost I should be looking for ways to help them come back; because that's what I would do for my real Sisters, Brothers, Mothers and Fathers.

I'm not glad that I lost Anthony for that small amount of time, but I'm glad for the lessons to be learned through the experience. I know this was a really small thing, and the bad part didn't really last that long; but so many times when we go through bad things it seems like there are important messages that God wants us to learn. I only hope I truly learn them and follow them; so I don't have to go through a similar experience again.