St. Michael

I had a very interesting conversation with my sister. It was a conversation about those who have faith and those who reject it. In this conversation, she revealed that she had a personal encounter with a friend who not only rejects religion of any form, but also rejects God. When my sister was sharing her story, at first I just felt a profound sadness for her non believing friend. As the story went on, I at one point stopped my sister and told her she should rejoice that she was being tested. However, as my sister went on with her story I quickly came to understand why she was so affected by it. What started out as a simple exchange between the two, somehow turned into something that was disturbing. In this conversation my sister came to see first hand the hatred of our Lord. Don't get me wrong, I am not so naive that I don't think there are those who don't. But, When my sister revealed to me the contents of her encounter with someone who I think is beyond atheist I was in such shock. This person was just downright hateful. I had never heard before the spewing of such malice towards another human being simply because they spoke of God.
It made me realize that we are in battle.

St. Michael the archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray. And do thou O' Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God , cast into Hell, Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

Kids say the darndest things...

This post will be a work in progress. I am just thinking back on a few things that our kids have said over the years that were totally unique to our family. You know, the names they give things that a person outside of our circle of friends/family would have no clue as to what the kids were talking about.

Some examples are:
Emma has a care bear spoon. It has been washed so many times that all you can really see on it are some clouds that were once part of the picture. She has named it her "Michigan" spoon. I don't know why. I have no idea where the name evolved from. But everyone who has made themselves at home here knows that when Em asks for her Michigan spoon, it is the faded one in the drawer.


Jack eats a silly sandwich. A silly sandwich is something he invented at about three years old. It is a piece of bread, a slice of bologna and a dill pickle. He then curls the bread and bologna around the pickle (kind of like a make shift hot dog) and eats it. Ouila! Silly sandwich.

Olivia had her Num nee. This was her pacifier. She also called Noodles, NOONIES. This name stuck even to today. What's even funnier is that all of our neices and nephews now call them noonies. She used to call Hannah "Honey" and Jack "Guy". She would never say her own name. She was simply "Me".

Hannah spoke complete sentences at 15 months old so I cannot recall too much that she came up with. I will have to repost as I search the baby books.

I also find it funny that all of my kids have said "Callapitter" instead of caterpillar and aminal instead of animal.

Another treat in our house is orange juice mixed with 7UP or Sprite. I had a 2 liter of 7UP about to go flat and a little bit of OJ left so I mixed the two to make enough for everyone. They asked what the drink was called. So I said, "Juicy Spritz". Somehow that morphed into Itsy Spritz. I can only guess that it was because we were singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song and it just kind of garbled all together. But years later, it has stuck...even with my 11 year old who will sometimes ask if we have 7UP to mix with his OJ and can he make an itsy spritz.

This next one probably could use it's own post because it's a bit long. But it has alot to do with mispronouncing words. On Thanksgiving of this year, Matt took his grandma home after dinner. I had eaten too much (who does that on Thanksgiving right?) and laid on the couch. We have Netflix so we had the instant movie going. I picked PeeWee's Big adventure. Well, there's the part where Pee Wee is in the truck with Large Marge. Those who have seen the movie know where I am going with this. Well, when Large Marge shows her "true colors" all four kids jumped on me screaming. The kids were traumatized but I never laughed so hard in my life. I had forgotten about that part but I will never forget it now. Anyways, Emma started talking about the movie (which ended with that part by the way) and called it "Peege Weege". I think she blended PeeWee and Large Marge.

I will update this post as more come to mind.
Other words the kids said:
My ties unshoed (my shoe is untied)
Scoof it (excuse me)
Meenas (bananas)
Mow lawner (lawn mower)
Poders (spiders)
Weeva (Olivia)

Jesus take the wheel...

I recently had a situation arise where I wanted to handle a family matter one way, and it turned out that the Lord steered me in another direction. I had an issue on my mind so I thought I would write a letter about it to vent it out. This letter was about certain issues going on in our extended family. We (Matt and I) felt the issues needed to be addressed.
The feelings put in that letter weren't uncharitable. In fact, I felt quite justified in what these feelings were. These were addressing issues that really needed to be brought up. Being that we all live far apart a letter seemed an appropriate forum to use.
It never ceases to amaze me that once you give your life over to God how he will steer you. (and it is a constant discipline that I am not always good at. It's kind of like air breaking from the passenger seat...instead of just trusting that the driver has things under control, you think you can take over by pumping the imaginary break).
So, I started writing the letter and it morphed into this totally different entity that I had no intention of it being. Many of my letters never get sent. They are for therapeutic purposes only. But this new letter was sent with Matt's approval for it had been on his heart too. I had no feedback to see how it was received. That is until a few days ago. Then the Lord let me see the fruits of my letting Him "drive" from a source that was unexpected. There were several recipients of this letter. The feedback was not only positive, it was full of thanksgiving to the point where I was a bit uncomfortable in saying, "your welcome". This source of thanksgiving isn't one to dole out compliments on a regular basis, let alone on a subject as serious as this one. I have to say that I was taken by surprise at the gratitude (I think falling off the seat was a better description). I felt guilt at not explaining myself to this source about the process of this letter and taking all of the kudos for it. I handled it the way I usually do...talking incessantly until the person starts to glaze over. Lots of hand motions and lots of going on and on about the same thing I just said in the letter. I think it's a coping mechanism...I don't know.
Maybe my goal for this week should be to repeat over and over....I must decrease so that He may increase.