The Big Thaw

As I walked outside today to check the mail (we are still waiting on Jacob's passport (Mine arrived way early on Sat!) I hear popping and cracking from every direction. It would have been alarming if I didn't also see the icicles and chunks falling from trees. See, this week, for those that don't know, the Midsouth among other areas, was hit with an ice storm. Thankfully, it was nothing like the ice storm of 1994, which anyone who lived here then can remember losing power for days or weeks for some. But I know for my family, this time, we specifically prayed it would not be as bad as forecast. It was icy, and in some parts so many trees were down that you couldn't leave your home. Some lost power for a few days, but for the most part, it seemed like we were able to survive largely unharmed. Praise the Lord. But the crackling and popping of the thawing ice reminded me of yet another lesson from Narnia.

Just a thing or two I've been learning...

God is awesome! Y'all I just have to say this, and some of you will chalk it up to "luck" (of which there is no such thing) or mere coincidence (also doesn't exist), and that's fine... but that will be on you. I believe that God reveals himself through works even still today giving us the opportunity to accept Him and His love, but we have become so jaded and cynical that we REFUSE to acknowledge his hand in them. He never stops trying, He never gives up on you, but always is working and moving in the big and small things. 

So, I would like to take this opportunity to give credit where credit is due. 

Since my husband and I started being obedient in our finances and giving from our first fruits (fancy way of saying that we give God back 10% of the money He gives to us in the first place. We acknowledge that every thing we have comes from Him, and because He asks for us to give of our money to keep the lights on in His house, we do. We didn't always obey him in this, but that is a story for another day. (Just ask me some time!) In Malachi 3:8-10, God's word challenges us to give in obedience 1/10 of what we have. It may not seem like much (or it might seem like a lot, depending on where you are financially) but that's what He asks for. His house has people who serve US and the community for a living, electric and water bills to pay just like we do, a building to pay for, and yet many of us are guilty of turning to the church for all it provides to US, without ever giving back. I would even go as far to say we need to stop being greedy with our money AND our time-actually, our whole selves should belong to God. This verse even calls us out-those of who aren't giving-and says that we have robbed God and therefore are cursed. Wow! That's harsh!!

So my husband and I took a hard look at our lives and the things in it that were keeping us from being obedient to Christ. Tithing was a big one. So we give. And it hurts sometimes, because honestly, we are very close to that line and were paycheck to paycheck even before we started tithing! It occurred to us, that we had been greedy with what God himself had given to us, and perhaps He was now withholding his financial blessings from us because of our disobedience. That is not easy for me to say. I'm actually a very private person, a very shy person, (again, that's a story for another day because I have learned I let that cause me to be disobedient too!) and sharing my private life is hard. 

But if you read that whole section, there's a promise in there too. It is something we are only beginning to understand, but God promises that if we give Him what is owed Him, He in turn will pour out blessings "beyond our wildest dreams." Another translation says: "if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it".    

A modern day Gideon (or two)

http://www.gofundme.com/Harrisons2Haiti

God has been working in my life, and in Jacob's life all these years, gently, lovingly, patiently pushing us to do more and go deeper. For whatever reason, we found ourselves in a position similar to Gideon where he wanted to both worship the one true God and "have it our way" worshiping the idols of the day right alongside Him. But God chose Gideon anyways. Flawed. Human. To break that cycle. To be the one to help lead his

people to receive the blessings of God's glorious promised land in it's full glory. And even when God called him loud and clear, Gideon doubted that God could use him, that it was possible. So God, in his wisdom, stripped down Gideon's army of 32,000 soldiers to a measly 300-to go up against 135,000 Midianites. Again he doubted that it was possible, but all through those times, God used those circumstances to prove his mightiness. If Gideon had a huge army, it would be easy for them to take credit for their own victory. Instead, God stripped his resources down to rightfully claim the victory himself. He wanted his people to be without excuse, to know without a doubt, that their help and victory came from the Lord, not from their own strength. We are learning that God will often give us the most difficult of circumstances, not only to show out  himself, but also to require our complete and total faith and trust in him. When he breaks us down to our weakest moments, the circumstances where we are FORCED to acknowledge that we cannot do it on our own, that is when everyone who knows about it can bear witness to the fact that he is a provider, a healer, a warrior... A Savior. He can use our circumstances to make himself known to others, as well as to grow us in our own relationship to others. It is truly a complex thing, the way God works. He's been teaching us, like Gideon, to trust him all this time. He's been using everything and every one in our path to confirm to us that we are acting in obedience with him.

 Just over a month ago, Jacob and I went to a marriage conference, thinking our marriage was "fine", but were rocked to our very core. The things I learned that weekend, thank God, will leave me forever changed, and I know Jacob feels the same. Our marriage was fine before. Just fine. But it turns out that we were missing out on so much, and now that we have tasted the sweetest blessings of an even closer marriage than we ever though possible, we really won't ever be able to go back to what I now know was mediocrity. We pray together, read God's word together, we're dreaming Big dreams, even parenting our children differently! One of the things the conference spurred was some deep discussions about our dreams and then, the Sunday of that weekend, Pastor Shannon O'dell rocked the whole church (I hear, quite literally, as they played guitar hero together as a church). Jacob and I served in the nursery, but as soon as we could, we watched the uploaded sermon on the CHC smartphone app. Yes, our church has an app. (So does Shannon's. It's "Brand New Church") They're both awesome, and if you have an xbox and a super smart phone, you can even link your devices and watch it on the Tv, but moving on... When we watched the sermon the following day, it was about none other than Dreaming big dreams. He challenged us to discover and pursue our dreams.

Lessons from Narnia

I have always heard that C.S. Lewis was a great author, but I can't say I've read his works until recently... and although I loved the first "Narnia" movie, and I never got around to reading any of the fiction books either. Until this year. I always meant to, wanted to. It was on that "to do" list of bucket list type things that you thought should be important, but most likely you'd never actually make time for. You just felt good thinking that you wanted to do said things. On my spiritual bucket list was just that-Read C.S. Lewis.

A 6000 year war

It's always been something lurking in the back burner of my mind. I have never doubted its existence, nor its effect on my life. However, it was never as fully realized until these last two weeks. Spiritual Warfare. I believe very strongly that not only is there a very real battle being fought for us on another level, but that we are in the last days of the battle. I believe very strongly that we are living in the end times. Just look around us. Look at the amount of murders every day that occur so often now that we are barely affected by them. In fact, I will go ahead and assume you are like me, and in America, the only murders and killings that are particular emotional are that of little children and mass murders. What has happened to us? We see so much of it we've become desensitized to it. What once seemed shocking is now not only not shocking, but it's just the day to day norm I get to see living in the Memphis area. We've got a government that thinks they can and should make the decisions that for all time parents and families have been able to decide for themselves. We've got a volatile situation internationally that could cause World War III at any moment. Syria. Iran. Iraq. Afghanistan. Russia....Need I go on? What about China and their one child policy and the government censorship. America's heading in that direction. America's abortion numbers are astronomical. These days its advocates have gotten so bold as to even promote it as birth control (back in line with Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger) for an "already too big and growing population" and justify abortion as the most humane loving thing a parent can do. What? Really? Really????  

Super Mega Sale at Kroger and Walgreens! Read ASAP!

Let me say this first: I am not the first person to post about these items being on sale. I am just one of many people out there who share deal scenarios, although I don't do it very often anymore. I just saw several diff deals from various bloggers, and noticed a few of my own, and am putting them all in one place. You guys know I don't buy very many processed foods any more. We try to buy as much fresh fruit and veggies, local if possible, and organic when possible. I LOVE shopping for produce at the farmer's market because that is good for our community and directly helps support families in our area. BUT, that's only possible with some balance. I shop on a very tight budget, so that means shopping for things and buying when the price goes lowest and stocking up to lock in on that price for as long as 1) I can have room to store it and it will keep (might freeze it) or 2)I can afford it. Even if it was $1 and it was a good price, I couldn't ever spend $100 on 100 of something, just because it was a good deal. I have a strict budget and have to keep it balanced on other things too.

Harry Potter wand how to :D

So it's no secret that in our house we are nerds. We are gamers, and lovers of sci fy, fantasy, and all around super cool nerdy stuffs. So we love Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Star Wars, and of course Harry Potter.

I know Hannah wanted to do Art camp this summer, but with my babysitting and having 1 car, we decided it would be more fun to do some big art projects for the whole family throughout the summer.

After we got back from Vacation, we started reading the first Harry Potter book, and Hannah and Josh have been very interested. Of course Jacob and I have already read it, but we've been enjoying the re-read. So about a year ago, I started 'pinterest'ing (see what I did there) things to get some ideas for a summer unit study. Because...of course...we school throughout the summer too.
One of the things I wanted to do was make our own Harry Potter wands. Well, we finally did it!!

Here's what you need:
Wooden dowels or chopsticks
acrylic paint and brushes
string, yarn, twine, pipe cleaners, or embroidery thread
white or wood glue
Hot glue gun and plenty of glue sticks (like, Plenty!!!)
scissors
fake gems, marbles, or beads for embellishment
paper plates and paper towels. Baby wipes are also helpful, as your fingers will get dirty.