Surprise!

His mom has the gift of giving... And I'm always afraid of the possibility of being cold and last night I just might have been the only girl in UGG boots on hot July afternoon in Cheyenne Wyoming.

She bought us tickets and I interrupted his staff meeting with a made up story of how my car was broken down, down the street and asked could he come and help me. As he walked across the parking lot to get into his old pickup truck and come and rescue me from absolutely nothing, I popped out from behind his truck and shouted a shy but joyful SURPRISE... he looked into me all confused. Handing him the tickets I stood there with my arms folded into one another, glowing.

"What? What is this? What?"

I pointed to the words all in capitals on the bottom of the page...

ZAC BROWN BAND

"We're going there tonight. You and I up in Wyoming. She got us tickets for your birthday, my parents are with the kids and we get the gift of time."

Still confused...

"But, but I'm in a staff meeting? And work?"

I talked to your boss way back when and they all know.

He smiled big!

"How'd you pull that one on me?"

I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders and we laughed.

**************

Cheyenne is a kaleidoscope of folks. My Joey and I, we have a time and half just people watching, him with a beer in his hand, me with steeply priced cup of water. As we leaned up against the back fence, I couldn't help but think of the times that him and I would go to the airport when we were dating, share a Cinnabun, and watch all the kinds of people that would travel those world terminals.

Their was a county fair going on while the band played. We devoured the most delicious funnel cake and chatted about life with the sweetest couple that sat across from us at that packed picnic table outside the concert walls.

A woman who might not quite have been herself was dancing a bit hilariously in front of us as the opening gig did their thing. He pulled me in close and we smiled wide at one another.

We didn't talk all that much most of the night but it is so nice being at a place where we both know that we don't have to to have a good time.

I slept the entire drive home.

As I slipped off my UGG boots and crawled into bed with my clothes still on, he slid his hand gently up my arm and whispered... "I had a great time with you."

Me TOO Babe! Me too. :)

Thanks Mom for such a fun gift!

To Be A Clark...

To be a Clark there are few standards...

One of which involves wearing WITH GREAT JOY, a made-with-love paper hat on your birthday!

And little Jed...

Well...

He didn't quite agree with the standard.....

And then I walked out of the room for ONE second...

And came back to this happy, happy boy...

Do you see it there in the background???

My beautiful masterpiece of a birthday hat....

ripped right in half!

And one very smiley boy, glad to be rid of it. :)

So much for standards? :)

Abiding Mom

Awhile back I came across this chart at this site...

It has given me such perspective, the kind that I long for and strive for, the kind that resonates and wants to linger, that kind that is welcome to get comfortable in our home.

Super Mom	Abiding Mom
Does	Is (Psalm 46:10)
Tries to impress others	Pleases the Lord (Eph. 5:10,Proverbs 29:25)
Is controlled by an agenda(curriculum, schedule, etc)	Is controlled by the Holy Spirit: (Gal. 5:22-26) (Uses curriculum & schedules as tools for orderliness so she’s more free to follow the spirit)
Her self worth is found in her accomplishments (clean house, perfect kids, the perfect bulletin boards, etc.)	Her self worth is found in an accurate view of who she is in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:10)
Her peace is found in the “perfect” environment	Her peace is found in Jesus in the midst of any storm (Is 26:3)
She is discouraged by failure	Failure reminds her that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9-10)
She expects perfection from herself and others	She practices grace with herself and others (Eph 4:32)
She teaches her kids to be good	She teaches her kids to be Godly (Proverbs 22:6)
She is frustrated with her lack of spiritual fruit	She abides in Christ and bears much fruit (John 15:5)
She does things with her children	She builds a relationship with her children (Deut 6:6-7)
Her perspective is based on what is seen	Her perspective is based on what is unseen (Col 3:2)
She chooses quantity of activities	She chooses the most excellent Way (I Cor 13)

A few that are encouraging my heart right now are the Abiding Mom who practices grace with herself and others... It is easy for me to practice grace with others, but not always easy to practice that same grace with myself.

And the second one making its home in this heart of mine is that the abiding mom chooses the most excellent way, verses a quantity of activities. My two oldest treasures are now school age and I am constantly questioning whether or not they need to be in ballet or soccer, or both, or what not. And I get wrapped up in the social talk of "socializing our kids" and giving them a plethora of opportunities.

But in that same breath I've been thinking about what I really want to give my kids. What do I hope them to think upon when they're grown. And I'm thinking at this stage in the game, for us, I'd like them to remember the days they spent in our back yard playing baseball with their siblings and the neighbors. I'd like them to remember the hours we spent reading books in the treehouse together. The afternoons of riding faster and faster down our long dirt driveway on their bikes. I'd like them to remember the calm Mom who wasn't in a hurry to get them from place to place but who actually spent her time spending time with them.

There is nothing wrong with activities, but there is much wisdom in not being in a hurry to follow suit with the world in training our treasures to be life long busy-bodies. There's something innocent and attractive about the natural simplicities that life offers without much effort on our part. The wonder of peppers grown in our own yard. The consistency of the the stars flooding the sky every evening after the sun goes down. The sense of healthy pride that overcomes a child when they finally learn to pedal that bike on their own. No money spent... just a willingness to wake up in wonder of Him and whatever He might have the day.

I'd like to learn the first one on the list above... I'd love to give my kids the gift of being a mom who is content simply being, rather than constantly feeling the need to do.

I was at a tupperware party the other night and I had the honor of talking with a woman whose children are fully grown. As we chatted about motherhood, she said something that I will never forget. She said that if she could do it all over again, she would care less about the ways of the world and more about the ways of God.

In this season of my life, my ears are perked up, listening intently for whatever godly wisdom He wants to send my way through older women who have walked before me.

Lord, could you, over the years, mold me into an abiding mom, one who abides in you and bears much fruit?

If you'd like a printable copy of this lovely chart you can get one here...

Oh, But You Did!

#'s 542-557

We prayed for this... this gift of squishy little boy cuteness... This gift of thick ankles stemming tall out of classic Vans shoes...

This gift of pudgy hands grabbing hold of life all around...

This gift of stellar smiles...

This gift of the small yet inquisitive...

The gift of see-through white mohawks,

The gift of him and the way his life draws me into You...

This gift of little boy laughter...

The gift of ocean blue eyes, looking into ours 365 days in a row...

The gift of health...

The gift of a hearty appetite....

The gift of reaching up to You...

The gift of crawling into Your arms...

The gift of innocent simplicity...

The gift of a year... a whole short year that You didn't have to give...

But You did!

Lord, thank you. Thank you for the privilege to love on one of your precious kids for a year full of days. Truly, truly, a gift!

Happy 1st Birthday sweet boy!

Loving you always, with our whole hearts!

Attitude Into Gratitude

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. It happens to the best of us Im certain. :)

The dishes were piled high. There were crumbs all over the floor that my darling six-year-old had assured me he had swept up before going to bed last night.

The crumbs were intertwined with pockets of mouse poop, utterly disgusting I know, but that's what happens when one forgets to sweep before bed.

Then while pouring milk over the breakfast cereal, the little poop culprit came creeping across the kitchen floor. I grabbed the BB gun and put five holes in the little rodent but it kept moving so I finished it off with my machete, swept it into the dust pan, and discarded it in the outside trash. SICK, I know... but it's the farm life and sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

At the breakfast table, three out of the four were melting down, the only one eating her cereal joyfully was sweet-tender Hal, and the scripture that I have been prayerfully striving to live out, (Be quick to listen and slow to become angry) was rapidly running for the door.

Welcome to the first fifteen minutes of another day in the farmhouse.

Sitting at the table I took a deep breath and closed my eyes... the two youngest were still screaming... and I whispered under my breath,

"What am I missing Lord? I got up early, I spent time in Your Word, You and I chatted for some time. Where did I go wrong? How am I going to make it through this entire day, when clearly I'm struggling to make it through the first fifteen minutes? Open my eyes to see what you see in this moment. Cuz right now, all I can manage to muster up is annoyance."

And then it comes. And I hear that still small voice in my head reminding me AGAIN (because I'm always forgetting, even though He's told me over and over again)...

"Gifts... it's all a gift. Every bit of it. Turn into all into thanks."

And it's awkward, but I try it anyways, and I say it out loud, over the screaming and the bickering...

"Thank you for these children Lord.

Thank you that I get to love on them continuously.

Thank you that I get trained by You as I live and learn to train them.

Thank you that we're all together this morning.

Thank you for the opportunity to learn to be quick to listen, and slow up my tendency to become angry.

Thank you that I have dishes to wash and warm, clean, soapy water to wash them in.

Thank you that I have children to dirty up those dishes.

Thank you for the three meals a day that you put in our fridge and allow me to put on the table.

Thank you for building up courage within me to deal with those rascally mice on my own.

Thank you for all these kids loaded with spunk and personality, opinions, and determination.

Thank you for the ones that are like me, emulating both my good parts and bad parts, they're the ones that I understand intimately.

Thank you for the ones that think like their Papa, I love their hearts, the way that I love their Papa's heart. :)

Thank you that we have each other to live this very loud, messy life with.

Thank you for helping me turn my attitude into gratitude today... Because we all know that it's You, it's your wild, unending grace that opens my flawed, old eyes.

As I speak it out loud, they calm. It's a mystery to me. I didn't do anything special. I simply turned my boiling frustration into all the thanks that I could muster up.

It's happened several times today.

I've breathed deep, over and over again.

My eyes have searched for the gifts, and my lips have spoken the gifts out loud.

And I've felt my heart soften and found hope for life under this farmhouse roof to be more than just making it through. I'm finding a way to soak up this life, to see Him in all of life, even in the messy parts.

He's here. He's always here. I just need eyes that see. :)

Counting the gifts.. #'s 527-541

Moments

Moments...

Dangling feet...

Boys with courage...

Little girls laughing in tree houses...

Helpers in the garden...

Tire swings in summer...

The wind blowing tall grass here on the farm...

Flames at sunset...

Summer picnics, just because...

Big yawns...

Reading away the summer afternoons...

Sisters thrusting one another into the sky...

Brothers...

Giggles on air...

Running down that same dirt path into childhood adventure day after day...

"I love you's" ...

Littlest girl munching on carrots while watching her Mama make dinner...

The bold, the brave...

Water, water, water...

Going in for a sloppy kiss...

Light!...

A Papa & a son...

THose arms reaching ....

Cowboys (and girls) in training...

An Anthropologie gift card and some wild flowers picked on the way home from town...

A year of tremendous joy...

Littlest boy helping joyfully with the laundry...

Light on wood...

Counting the never-ending ways that He loves...

#'s 499-526 of the endless gift list.

Why We Memorize

I LOVE memorizing scripture with my little ones. Truth be told, when it comes to memorizing scripture I completely lack creativity. But no need here, because our little treasures have this natural way of making all things fun.

Currently we are memorizing psalm 19 together as a family.

Psalm 19:5 goes like this..

"It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course..."

Reesie's version...

"It is like a bridegroom coming out of his cham-burger!" And the crowd roars with laughter.

Then Hal, leads us on,

"Like a champion rejoicing to run his horse."

The funny part to me is that they are just doing their best to talk and they have no idea why it's all so funny, but they laugh when I laugh.

Sometimes there are words that just sound funny to the kids and so they find themselves laughing through the words. And I love their joy so I just jump right into the laughter.

God's Word can sometimes have a reputation of being boring, but once you get into it, you'll find that it's impossible to ever again deem The Word Of God Boring. This past week alone we have read of a man who had a stake driven through his head, armies of 300 hundred defeating an army of tens of thousands, and a man who with his bare hands pulling together two giant pillars and knocking over a building that killed thousands of God's enemies all at once.

It's adventure to my boy, and kinda gross to the girls, but far from dull reading for everyone at the table.

I also wanted to share a resource that has been helping me tremendously as I fumble my way through memorizing...

On this sight you can pick any verse you'd like memorize and then takes you through three steps to help you remember and retain. I've been going using this little site each morning after I read the Word alone in my bedroom before the treasures wake up and I have been able to put to memory the first twelve verses of psalm 19 and three other random verses that I have been wanting to put to memory all in a month's time. This same site will also print out business size cards with each scripture and it's reference so that when you are not close to a computer you can have the Word with you. I have a little pocket size mead notebook that I glued the verses in and I take the little book with me when I water the plants or wash the dishes.

I've spent years convinced that memorizing God's Word was simply impossible for me. Recently I read this quote by Billy Graham, a man who most might describe as a saint.

"The greatest regret that I have is that I didn’t study more and read more,” he says.
I regret it, because now I feel at times I am empty of what I would like to have been.
I have friends that have memorized great portions of the Bible.
They can quote [so much], and that would mean a lot to me now.”

The thing is, that he DID know much of the Bible. He spent his life committing The Word to memory and he used what he studied to spread the gospel around the world. And yet his greatest regret in life is that he didn't have (even) more of God's Word written on his heart.

I wanna know God more than anything on this earth. And what better way to know someone's heart than to have Him write His love letter to me on my heart. I forget that ultimately He is the one that strengthens me to succeed in my endeavors. And if that's the case, then memorizing scripture must be His work within me. In my own ability, quite frankly I'm a mediocre memorizer. But when I purpose to be diligent in my efforts and I allow HIM to write His Words all over my life, it's amazing how things sink in... it's amazing how when they're rooted deep, they transform this soul of mine.

Our goal in our home is to speak to one another in His truth, the truth that only comes form the Word of GOd. A while back the kids got into this habit of arguing with one another about extremely STUPID things. I was flustered beyond myself and in need of some truth that we could go to that would help us all to change our words and our hearts. And low and behold I came across 2 Timothy 2:22-24

"Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments that lead to quarrels. For the Lord's servant must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful."

Yes, the Word of God uses the word stupid. My kids find it to be hilareous. We've had many a conversation about how God uses that word to make a a strong point and we are not to use that word to hurt others. But do you have any idea how wonderful this has been in our home??? The bickering starts to rise, a brother is purposing to provoke his sister over whether or not the blue stuffed dog is actually blue... and because we've memorized this lovely verse all I have to say is,

ME: "Don't have anything..."

And then they both finish it up for me...

THEM: "with foolish and stupid arguments."

ME: "Because why?"

THEM: "Because the Lord's servant must quarrel."

ME: "But must..."

THEM: "Be kind to everyone."

Then they make it right with one another, apologizing and asking forgiveness. The arguing has disappeared and all that was said was the Word of God. I'm quickly gaining a love for memorizing God's Word and I'm seeing daily the power it has to mold a family into HIS likeness! :)

And that's why we memorize...