Four Hillbillies and a Tinkerbell...

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun time this year on Halloween... we decided to carry on the tradition of all dressing alike except that I had Hal's tinker bell costume from when she was a baby and I couldn't help but put it on Skyler... So the final product was four hillbillies and a tinker bell!!!


Siah had billy bob teeth but he didn't really like to wear them but both kids let us dress them up so it was fun!
Joey looked flat out disgusting... in a good way of course :)
Every time I look at this picture I burst into laughter!!!!!!
Hillbillies or not their still the cutest little rascals I think I've ever seen!!!! Joey put a flask in Josiah's front pocket. Then Joey and my dad would ask him, "What's in your pocket buddy?" Then Siah would shout, "Moon Shine!!!!!" Hal had a dolly that had a shirt on it that said, "I love Arkansas!!" She also loved her "Christmas necklace." It had a candy cane on it that lit up. (There's that country song, "Red Neck Woman," and in the song she says something about keeping her Christmas lights on her front porch all year long. So whenever I would look at Hal's necklace I would think of that song.)
We went to a party at Jim and Monique's house... it has kinda become a tradition for us... We meet up with a few families before the party starts and take the kids trick or treating ... When Siah and Hal walked to each door, they would say, "trick or treaty" over and over but when the door would open they would both go silent. Hal tried to walk into a few people's houses.
The Barons were John MCcain and Sarah Palin... Little Wyatt was bob the builder and Delaney was the cutest little sheep I have ever seen!!!!

Shauna and Ryan were straight up from the 50's! And the little one... "Ryder the Firefighter!" (and Kellen was himself inside Shauna's tummy!! Can't wait to meet you in a few months little buddy!!!)
Sweet Mindy and her man, Jason, were High school sweet hearts, a cheer leader and a football player. :) Aunt Mindy took care of little Skyler most of the night it was a nice little treat for Mommy!
Jason and Joey

It really was a blast! Not Surprisingly the kids can't stop talking about trick or treating. We found one of their little friends Jackson laying on the floor in the kitchen with some starbursts in his hand. When his Mommy asked him what he was doing he put the candy in his mouth and said, "I think my tummy hurts!" Hmmm, maybe he a little to much candy :) It was hilarious!!
Anyways, Happy halloween!!!! From The Clark Clan

A Broken Mommy Heart...

I don't even know this family... But for some reason my heart is just aching beyond understanding for the Martin's. I first heard about them at a women's study that I go to at a church near my house on Tuesdays. The pastor there announced that last friday the martin's found their 5 year old daughter in the bath tub face down and not breathing... they gave her CPR and got her breathing but by the time they got her to the ER she was already brain dead. It turned out that she had a rare virus of some sort. She was on life support until yesterday. Last night at church the pastor announced that Mia Martin had gone home to be with her sweet Savior.

And here I am in my home with my three healthy children and I just can't seem to cherish them enough. I can't seem to stop the tears from falling out of my eyes for the Martin family. I was sitting on our couch feeding Skyler while watching Joey and the kids playing cars on the floor and I couldn't even fathom not having one of them in my life. Mia is not even my daughter and my heart is having such a hard time carrying the weight of such a loss. I seriously cannot wrap my mind around the fact that Jesus carries the weight (the pain, the suffering, the sin, the loss) of the whole world and he somehow manages to do it with unexplainable grace. How is that even possible???? I just keep praying that the Lord fills Michelle and Mike (Mia's Mommy and Daddy) with this unexplainable peace. I can just picture them crawling up into The Father's lap and letting Him hold them while they weep and weep over the loss of their little girl.

I recieved this email yesterday...

Hi wonderful families and friends,

Thank you all for your many prayers for Mia and her family. While in the hospital on Monday, Mia's mom (Michele) said that someday she wants to set up a website or something and have everyone that has prayed for Mia sign up on the page. Then she wants to figure out how far our line would stretch if we all joined hands. There might be enough of us to stretch across the United States or beyond!!

So many of you have been touched by sweet Mia or her family. Keeping Michele's idea in mind, I thought it would be really cool for each person, whether you know the family closely or have prayed only recently for them, to send an encouraging card in the mail. I hope that their mailbox will be flooded with prayers, encouragement and support. Maybe this will help Michele get a count of the many, many people lifting her up in prayer! The Lord is faithful and good, and is holding the Martin's up with His righteous right hand and in His arms of love, comfort and strength.

Please forward this to the groups and churches that have been faithfully praying for the Martin family.

Cards may be sent to:
Michael and Michele Martin
4885 Caminito Exquisito
San Diego, CA 92130

Thank you!
Much Love,
Lindsay

I don't know this family... But I thought what an incredible way to bless this sweet family in their time of tremendous loss. There is ABSOLUTELY no obligation here by any means. I was just thinking what a small but powerful way for us to come together with our children and our spouses and really love on this broken hearted family. You are welcome to send them a little note if you'd like. I have no doubt that it would bless their socks off to know that people all over the country were talking to the Lord on their behalf. I wanted to put this on our family blog because I figured that even if just one person sends a note to the Martins, that's one more note that they wouldn't have had otherwise.

Anyways, I hope that tonight as we go to bed we just talk with our sweet Savior about the Martins. I pray that we cherish each moment with our children and genuinely soak up those seemingly silly memories that will be the things that we will always carry around in our hearts no matter how many years we get to spend with our children.

My goal for today... soak up my children and love on em like crazy!!!!!!!

Thanks for reading some thoughts from my "mommy heart".

How's Home School?????

How's home school going? Well that's a good question... Some days it's really, really great... other days it's kind of a doosie.... In some areas Siah is learning super fast, like letters and sounds, colors and shapes... It seems like he picked that stuff up within a few days of me showing him stuff.

But writting on the other hand is going VERY,VERY slowly... He has trouble drawing any thing really... If I ask him to draw a line or a circle, I get all sorts of things, but rarely do I get a line or a circle. The other day we were learning about the number zero. I showed him several times how to draw a zero... he traced it several times and then I tried to have him draw a zero on his own next to the fish bowl that has zero fish in it. In the picture above Siah's "zero" is the giant circle looking thing around the fish bowl that has three fish in it. :) He cracks me up!!! I know that he'll totally get there one of these days... But in the meantime all I'm choosing to do is smile... come on... you have to admit it's kinda funny :)

Below are some of my favorite things that we've done...


I told my friend Milly about Josiah's writing "skills" and she gave me some ideas of things that we could do to make learning lines a
little more fun and not so monotonous. We put shaving cream all
over a cookie sheet and then I do some directed drawing with the
kids... today we did a person and a snowman.


I draw a little circle, then I have the
kids copy my circle. Then I draw
a bigger circle and so on...







It's kinda messy but nothing that a
sponge and some 409 can't fix :)



Here's our people...
We also practice "writting" on
the fence in the backyard with
some chalk. Siah has gotten really good
at drawing the letter "H" on the fence.

The kids love to practice their numbers... They line up behind the couch and take turns... First time around they count to 2, then jump... then 3 and jump... 4, 5, etc. Nobody really counts that well yet... But we're just getting started and we're having some fun along the way. We all still have a lot to learn (including Mommy :)

Elizabeth gets to do school with us a couple days a week too:)
I sure do love this girl!!!

She Inspires Me...

Josiah joined this "Awana's" program at a church near our house... he goes once a week and learns about God's Word, memorizes verses, play games, and other stuff... So throughout the week we practice his memory verse with him at every meal... and while we practice with him, Halee totally picks up on all that Josiah is learning.

A few days ago we went to the grocery store. Halee was repeating Siah's memory verse over and over again to herself the whole ride there. Then I started unloading all the kids from the car and the lady in the car next to us was getting out at the same time. She bent down and started telling Halee that she was a cute little girl and Halee responded boldly. "JESUS GREW IN WISDOM!" You can't always understand Hal when she talks but this time she was as clear as day! And the lady stood up and was kinda taken aback... She was looking right at me but was at a total loss for words. So she finally just said, "Ok dear, have a nice day."

And now I know why Jesus said "Come to me like little children." Hal had no reserve. It never even crossed her mind that the lady might not want to hear what she had to say. She wasn't afraid of offending or over steping her boundaries. There wasn't an ounce of intimidation in her body. I doubt she questioned wether or not what she was saying was really true. In one little sentence she modeled so many of the qualities about her that I absolutely love... boldness, faith ( I think a lot of children have tremendous faith cuz their world hasn't been rocked by an abundance of bad experiences to cause them to think otherwise :); sweet, genuine joy... this girl is beaming from ear to ear 90% of everyday.

She's two years old... but she inspires me in my faith more than I ever imagined she could or would.

What's A Mermaid

Josiah has been asking me about mermaids lately... In fact he asks me everyday, "What a mermaid?" I've told him, "It's a half man, half fish." Or sometimes I say, "It's half woman, half fish." But this morning I said, "It's a fish on the bottom and a person on the top."

He looked confused then said, "No Mommy, it's a fish-girl".

Then it just went on and on...

M_"A girl is a person."
S_ "No, a mermaid no person, it a boy on top and fish too."
M_ "yeah buddy, a person describes a girl and a boy. A boy can be a person, and a girl can be a person. A mermaid can be a girl or a boy on top, so it's a person on top and a fish on the bottom."
S_ "No... it's a fish... girl... boy.... it's a fish boy that gets wet."
M_ "What? Do you understand what a person is?"
S_ "Yeah... It's a mermaid!"

Oh my goodness!!! Not exactly but i guess we'll go with that! :) It's so crazy how much we as adults "just know" without even thinking about it. A mermaid is a mermaid, right? It just is what it is...

So what's a person anyway? I looked it up in the dictionary... it's a "a human being as distinguished from an animal or a thing." So what's a human being? It's a person!!!!! Now we're back to square one!!!

There is so much to teach... and there is so much to learn!!!!!!!!

He Calls Her Sweetheart...

We have been having a lot of talk about KINDNESS around here... "How could you have said that in a more kind way?"... "Is that kindness?"... How could you ask me more kindly?"... I can hear these phrases in my sleep...

Two years ago I heard a woman speaking at a mom's group that I was going to, about different things that she did to train her kids and why she did them... She said a lot of things, but the one thing that I remember from her talk was that she used the word "kind" instead of "nice" when she was talking to her kids about the way that they were treating each other. She said that she said "kind" instead, because kindness is one of the fruits of the Spirit and she felt that by using biblical terminology she could get more to the heart of the conflict. Then she quoted 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

At the time my kids were very small and I felt like the message wasn't really applicable... But throughout the past year it has seemed COMPLETELY APPLICABLE!!!! I think that kindness might be one of the MAIN topics in our home right now... It amazes me that my kids know how to be so nasty to each other without any training but we are constantly talking, learning, practicing kindness and it sinks in oh-so-slowly.

But the reason that I am making note of all this kindness talk is because there have been those windows of success that remind me of why we put so much time into the topic of kindness...

I think that Siah has been doing it for awhile but for some reason today I just noticed it more... SEVERAL times today I have had to ask Siah, "How could you have spoken more kindly to your sister?" And once I ask the question it is like a light goes off in his heart and his voice changes and gets softer and he lays his hand on Halee's back and begins his request of Halee with the sweetest little voice, "Sweetheart, could you please..." When I hear those tender words come out of his mouth towards his sister I think to myself, "God you are so faithful!" Faithful even in the little things, like kindness coming out of the heart of my little boy and into his sister, who mimics everything that her brother does. She mimics his nasty voice, yes... but she mimics his kindness just the same... And I LOVE SEEING KINDNESS come to fruition in our home.

Thank you Lord that he calls her sweetheart...

Carving Pumpkins

We finally got a chance to carve our pumpkins tonight... It has been a busy week so it was nice to have some time together tonight... I think the kids are still a little to young to really get into the whole thing... but each year they are able to do a little bit more than the year before...
Here are the kids two years ago when we were carving pumpkins...

Hal was just a few months older than what Skylee is now... She had SOO much hair!!! Poor Skylee is super bald. :) And tonight our little Skylee is sick with a yucky cold so she didn't really get to do much pumpkin carving this year...


We had the kids draw "faces" on the pumpkins before we started carving... I like Hal's drawing on the right... She drew one giant red nose...


Hal helped Papa take the seeds out of his pumpkin...

Siah tried to use the spoon to scrape out the seeds... but...

He didn't like the slimy feeling so he started crying and asking us to "wipe off the wet"...

Hal couldn't figure out how to use the spoon so she started crying too...

So Papa took over and finished carving by himself while the kids played in their jeep in the front yard... Soo... these are our pumpkins!!! Siah wanted Pap to carve a "happy" face and Hal wanted Papa to carve a "sad" face on her pumpkin... :)

Cute kids, Crazy pumpkins...

The kids say "cheese" now, every time that we take a picture... I LOVE their "cheese faces!!!!"

Happy Halloween!!!

Three Strands Of Wisdom...

I found three strands of wisdom in the most peculiar place this morning.... While I was getting ready for church, I looked in the mirror... then leaned in a little closer... and low and behold there were three shiny grey hairs right on top of my head...

I know that many have said that the stress of little ones brings about this lovely life change but I would like to throw out a slightly different take on these three hairs on the top of my head...
I would like to think that each shiny strand is a representation of tid bits of wisdom that I might have gained over the last three years with my little ones around... Never have I craved wisdom as deeply as I have during this season in my life... I by no means claim to "be wise," but I like to think that my journey towards wisdom has begun...

These three things I know for sure..
1. "That the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Psalm 111:10

2. "Know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul; if you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off." Proverbs 24:14

3. " If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:10

My prayer is that by the time I am old I will have a whole head of grey hairs... each strand a representation of the tid bits of wisdom that I might have gained throughout my life.

Thank you Lord for my three strands of wisdom that I found this morning while I was looking in the mirror. :)

Nates Butt Farm... I Mean... Bates Nut Farm

Our precious friend Mo took a family photo for us....


This weekend has been an extra special treat... Gramma and Grandpa Jim came down to visit... Last night we went to Hernandez Hideaway together which is always a sweet time for me cuz that's where my Joey asked me to marry him and as you might have guessed I said, "Hec YES!!!!!!!!!!!" :)
Anyways... then today we got to go to "Nates Butt Farm" with the whole fam and some wonderful friends... We started this tradition when Halee was born... The farm is huge and has so many things to do with the kids... We like picking out our pumpkins and I love taking pictures of the kids every year running in the pumpkin patch and crawling over all the pumpkins... Unfortunately they are NOT as excited about the pictures as I am... but that's ok with me... when i let go of all my picture expectations we all have a lot more fun and we always get some good ones of the kids just doing their thing, which means i actually get to capture the real memories instead of just having a bunch of unhappy, posed pics...

It was hotter than hot this year... I keep seeing photos of friends who live in the midwest with sweatshirts and beanies and scarfs on... It was so stinkin hot here that we were all wishing that we had nothing but our speedos on !!! (Fortunately for the sake of everyone's eyes we did have more than our speedos on :) Ok, enough about that...

We picked out some pretty lovely pumpkins and gracious Grandpa Jim pulled them around in the wagon for a few hours while we saw some farm animals... Llamas and ostriches, wild turkeys... ok, as I'm writing this I'm realizing that these aren't really farm animals at all... :)... In fact it was just a big mish mash of odd animals ;)... Hal fed some goats (with Gramma's help) and so did her little friend Avela...

We finished the day with the kids sliding down the giant slides... My dad and I got some iced tea and kettle corn and parked ourselves on a bale of hay in the shade... It was really a lovely day :)

Siah & Hal sitting on the giant pumpkins...

Little Skylee... Above
And Little Hal... Below... Two years ago when she was Skylee's age...
They have the same hat on... :)

Gramma so sweetly voluteered to try and hold Skylee on the pumpkin so that we could get a picture of the three kids together... this is the best picture we got of all three :)... Hey it was worth a try :)

I love the love these two have for each other...

If you zoom in on the picture you can see Hal's face as she went down the slide...

Zoom in on this one too :) SOO funny...

Gramma and Skylee in the pumpkin patch

This year the kids were strong enough to pick up their own pumpkins...
Siah above,
Hal below...

Kiddos in the pumpkin piles...
Siah up,
Hal down...

It was a really nice weekend with Gramma and Grandpa Jim..
Thank you Gramma for our Halloween shirts and new toys...
Thank you for playing with us and lovin on us...
We love you...

Joey left around five tonight to take Siah to Awanas... Hal laid down in the middle of the living room and just passed out... She must have been tuckered out from her super-cala-fraja-listic day!!!!

Maybe we'll carve our pumpkins tomorrow... so keep and eye out :)

PS I also posted some pictures of our camping trip on the "Simple but Extravagant" entry below....

Missing The Mission Field

This week I have been missing the mission field... My heart for the world never really seems to go away even though this is a season where we are clearly supposed to be where we are... i have my own small "mission field" in our little home in Encinitas, CA...

I have four incredible people that live in my home who daily draw me into the Lord's presence... I love learning how I can love them better each day... usually through a lot of trial and error... Just like the mission field, some days are more successful than others... sometimes it seems like weeks go by and despite my passion, there is very little fruit... But then there are those days that remind me why I am doing what I am doing...

Today was one of those days with my kiddos... We have a precious little girl that we sponsor... Her name is Keneuwe and she lives in South Africa... We picked her specifically because we genuinely hope that one day we will be able to take our children there, and possibly have an opportunity to meet Keneuwe in person... So today we learned about South Africa... I printed out a world map that I found online and showed Siah, and Hal and Elizabeth where we lived and where Keneuwe lives... Siah was fascinated by the map... He asked me where Papaw' s house was on the map...

Then we decided that we would put a package together to send to Keneuwe to encourage her and let her know how much we love her and pray for her even though she lives so far away!!!

We drew with chalk on the fence in our backyard and Siah wanted me to trace all of them so that Keneuwe would know "how big us's is." I thought that was a GREAT idea... so here they are!

It was really sunny so everyone NEEDED their sunglasses....
These are the things that we put in our little package... I cut up some card stock and made a picture card for each of the kids and one for Joey and I... then i printed out the pictures that we had taken earlier today and made a little card for Keneuwe...
These were the cards before the kids decorated them when they woke up from their naps today...
Now they're fully decorated...
We wrote on the back of the cards some fun facts about each of the kids...
And this is the final package... I wrapped up all our cards and the map that I had printed our earlier so that Keneuwe could see where we live. And I put in some stickers as a fun little treat for Keneuwe... What little girl doesn't like stickers??? :)

It was such a blessing putting this package together with my children... It reminded me of how important it is to me to teach them about ALL the nations of the world and it reminded me to continually pray that as they grow the Lord would give them a heart for the nations... to pray that they would continualy learn to think about others above themselves and... to pray that they would find great joy in blessing others in whatever ways the Lord brings to mind...

Thanks for my "mission field" Lord... I think that our Encinitas home just might be one of my favorite places that you have ever called me to :)

Today, I was looking for a picture of Joey and I from when we were in Panama
but those pictures are so old that they are no longer on our computer
so this is the oldest one that I could find of our world adventures...
This is us at the top of the Swiss Alps...
It's crazy that this was already five years ago..
It was just the two of us back then...
Now we are five strong and still passionately pursuing our sweet Savior!!!!