Gifts Given to Me...

Remember when I used to do Count Your Blessings Sunday? You don't? Oh well, at one point I did because I was trying to help a dear friend focus on her blessings instead of what she didn't have. She and I did it for a while and then, well, it just kind of fell by the wayside. Then I read this book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, and oh my! If you haven't read it, it's a MUST READ! Seriously, everyone I have directed towards this book has said what an incredible blessing it has become in their life. It was when I read it that I started counting my gifts, my daily blessings again with a passion. But again, it fell to the wayside and I think when I stopped I ended up finding 182 in one month. I never made it to one thousand.

Fast forward to now and my dear bloggy friend Kate has picked up the book and been blessed. She subtly has challenged me to begin again. So here I am, recording the gifts God has sent, watching for opportunities to be thankful. I must admit, I haven't been consistent this week, but what I have found I have treasured. Here's mine:

1. early morning snuggles with my Bethany

2. the delightful voices of my children playing together and getting along

3. spending one on one time just Yohn and I every day at our lunch break

4. my lifegroup

5. watching growth in others

6. feeling God's nudging and knowing that I need to spend time just He and I

7. my little boy's faith

8. my precious daughter's giving spirit

9. throwing away stuff and being okay with it

10. freecycle

11. my son's basketball coach who is instilling in the boys to push themselves and do their very best, always

12. being able to go right to God in the stressful moments of the day and admitting I can't do it on my own

13. praying for others

14. my husband's sweet letter he sent via e-mail, encouraging me and loving me

Next week, I'm gonna try to log them in daily as remembering really only comes from writing them down and appreciation flows when you can really see what's been done just for you. A gift, each and every one.

I encourage you to hop on over to my friend Kate's blog and leave her some encouragement this week. Also, Ann Voskamp will be posting her Gifts tomorrow for Multitude Monday. If you haven't read her book you could still check out her blog and see why I say READ THE BOOK!

Veterinarian's Day

Here's another funny story out of the mouths of my children that happened just yesterday. I thought I'd add it in too:

Elisha and his friend have been trying to plan a sleepover all week. "Mom, A just has to ask his mom again today to see if it's alright if I stay the night."

"Elisha, it's already Friday. I doubt they are going to say 'yes' now." I answer.

"No, I mean he's planning for Veterinarian's Day, you know, when we have no school."

Yohn and I both laughed. "It's not Veterinarian's Day, E, Veteran's Day. The day we honor those who have gone to war to defend our freedom."

"Oh yeah, that day!"

Bethany was laughing and giggling that her brother had messed up so much. Yohn tells her, "What are you laughing about? You probably don't even know what a veterinarian is."

"Yes I do! A veterinarian is someone who only eats plants and not meat!"

Oy! Guess we need to work on some vocab words or something! :)

Randomness

While driving home after dark the other day we saw a raccoon go into the sewer (ya know the rain drainage thingy) at the side of the road. We all thought his big ole body wasn't going to fit but he squeezed right in.

During our evening prayer Elisha prayed we would remember to mail our Christmas cards to our sponsored children (through Compassion International). Bethany thought he said car and made a point of telling us afterwards. Then, because she had just been talking about it turned around and prayed we could send a car to those little kids. We all snickered while trying to remain serious. :)

I was reading the other day some things I had written down to put on my blog later and never got around to it. Some of these are a few years old and made me smile:

Bethany helped daddy cook Cornish game hens in the rotisserie. When one was finished he asked her if she wanted to give out samples to me and Elisha. She thought that was great and said, “I’m just like one of the ladies at Sam’s Club!”

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When we were at Baskin Robbins a song came on Yohn and I were not fond of. Elisha heard it and commented that it was not a nice song. We agreed and were thankful we were leaving anyway. Then I heard Elisha go “Blah blah blah.” He smiled and said, "Mommy I went blah blah blah to that song."

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Bethany decided to join in while I was practicing measurements with Elisha. When I asked how many inches are in a yard she jumped and yelled, “Oh I’ll go check,” and she grabbed a tape measure. Not understanding what she was doing I asked her, “Bethany where are you going? It’s dark outside.” She looked and me and said, “To check the yard.” It took me a moment to figure out that she was going outside to see just how many inches were in our yard.

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Bethany: "Mommy, you are so beautiful. You look just like a pumpkin, a beautiful pumpkin."

Cuz’ you know, apparently Bethany thinks pumpkins are beautiful.

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9/2/09 Elisha walked up to me with his arms open wide and said Mamma I haven’t hugged you all day and I need one.

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9/28/09 Elisha was reading his homework and the story was about Adam and Eve. It said As Adam slept God took a rib from Adam’s side and with it made Adam a wife.” Elisha paused looked at me and then exclaimed with the most confused look on his face, “He made Adam a wife?!” It took a second to understand that he thought God had used that rib to turn Adam into a wife.

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"Mama, Elisha wants me to be paralyzed because he wants to squish me on his birthday!"

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We were watching a Akeelah and the Bee with the kids. It was the first time the kids had seen it but not Yohn and I. Yohn was quoting the part where Akeelah says not she should not be afraid of herself. Bethany asked, “hey, how did she hear you?”

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We were at the store and Bethany tells the girl bagging our groceries that we bought Orioles. Yohn laughed and corrected her that we bought Oreos and that Orioles were the name of her team and they are a bird. She then told the girl bagging our groceries that birds fly but bears don’t fly and we played the cubs a few weeks ago and they couldn’t fly so they lost.

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Bethany was listening to her MP3 player and was singing (at the top of her lungs) better is one day on your horse, better is one day in your house, better is one day on your horse than thousands elsewhere. Which translates to better is one day in your courts, better is one day in your house, better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere.

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How to make applesauce Bethany-style: Peel your apples and take out the core. Then put it in the microwave until it melts. Then stick it in the fridge to cool it down and eat it!

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Bethany, referring to her recent tooth removal, said, “You can’t have grain without pain!”

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I saw that True Story Tuesday had made a comeback, and since I was gonna post this today anyways, I thought I'd just link up. I know it's more that one story, but some of them are giggle-worthy!

Bethany, Jewell, Elisha

First of all, thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers for our girl. She's doing well! She has to go back for some more not so fun stuff regarding her teeth, but the most pressing issue has been resolved yay! And because they used stitches when they removed her teeth the dentist said she healed up really nicely. She can use a straw again!

She surprised me with how quickly she really did bounce back. I guess she shouldn't have, because she's so full of energy that you really can't keep her down for long.

Her and Lynx have a love/hate relationship. She loves him and he hates that she won't leave him alone!

Our little niece Jewell has had her own teeth troubles. Seems like her and Bethany like to compete in this area. She "wins" this time...
Yep, she ended up in the hospital because of infection. She was having a hard time breathing because her face and neck were so swollen. Poor baby. Elisha and Bethany came and cheered her up encouraging her to walk around and take her medicine. Oh how she hates the medicine. Her aversion to medicine is what got her there in the first place and is what kept her there a little longer than she should have been. But she's home now and would love your prayers as her big, bad tooth is scheduled to be removed on the 17th.

Since we had to go to SF to see Jewell we were able to see the Blue Angels perform while we were stuck in traffic. The fact that they were in the city made all the difference in the traffic. Jewell, if you ever read this, know that we love you because two hours of traffic to see you and one and half on the way home is not my idea of a great time, Blue Angels or not.

Elisha recently performed at Back to School Night. He did a great job and loved every minute of it. Speaking of Elisha....

Do you remember this story? Yeah well, I guess he hasn't changed much. Seems that seeing loved ones in the hospital doesn't agree with him much. On our recent visit to see Jewell he and I were joking about him fainting. Then when we got in the room, he started telling me he was having a hard time getting his pullover off and could I help him. The next thing I know he has a panicked look on his face and says he's getting dizzy. Then down he went. Yohn was out of the room going to the bathroom, so I had to ask Gene to help me set him down. I lifted up his shirt to cool him a bit and he came back. The nurse was questioning me and wondering what was up. I had to nicely explain that he doesn't do hospitals too well and we had been down this road before. It's funny cuz' I guess he's just so young the nurse-dude didn't really look like he believed me but after questioning Elisha and getting him something cold to drink he left it alone. But I did see him watching him a lot whilst waiting for our dear Ms. Jewell to take her meds.

So now we have learned Elisha must remove all jackets/sweatshirts before entering the patients room in the hospital. Upon entering the room he must sit down immediately. Hopefully this will prevent future fainting spells. But hey, at least he warned me this time!