Sweet Life in the City

I first want to thank all of you that have been praying for us! We can sense the prayers and we can see the difference. I have to be honest that I have been beating myself up a little bit about sharing such a personal experience. I have been second guessing myself for being so raw and sharing something so personal. I have had a few people reach out to me being very encouraging because they know exactly where we are coming from and has experienced or are experiencing the same battles, but I cannot help but think that some think maybe I should not have shared my last post. I just know that the likelihood of me calling someone or talking face to face with someone about this struggle is very slim, but in my blog I can express my feelings so much better and not let them consume me. Maybe so many problems today is a direct result from not talking through them. Anyway, there has been a laundry list of reasons piling up of why public schools are becoming harmful to our children. Since we...

This past week has not been the easiest. Friday afternoon my body started to revolt against me and I would enter what is called a Fibro flare. It basically means that the pain you feel every day is amplified by about 100 times and it could last a few days or a few weeks. They are different for each person that has these, but I would describe the feeling as if someone has dipped my whole body in concrete and I am now required to walk around and function in society. Every thing in my body feels heavy and every inch of me hurts to the point that the clothes on my body are causing a degree of pain. It hurts to stand up but it also hurts to lay down. Your chest feels tight and heavy and you wonder every few hours if maybe you need to go to the ER but you  feel like you might be dying. Sleeping is almost none existent, so it just makes everything else worse. I have become pretty good at figuring our what brings on this flare and I have them at much fewer intervals the last year and a hal...

Hear, my son, your father's instruction,      and forsake not your mother's teaching, Proverbs 1:8   For  you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.   3  For this is the will of God,  your sanctification: [ b ]   that you abstain from sexual immorality;   4  that each one of you know how to control his own  body [ c ]  in holiness and  honor, 7  For  God has not called us for  impurity, but in holiness. I Thessalonians 4:3-4; 7 My son is no longer Baby Sammers. He is no longer a baby, toddler, little boy, but he is growing into a young man. I have already mentioned how much he has grown this past year and it has become clear that his body and emotions are changing and discussions will start to be happening in our household. I had a friend encourage me when my kids were young to not weep when each stage of their life ends, but to enjoy the new stage because each stage offer...

“His sovereign rule lasts and lasts,      his kingdom never declines and falls. Life on this earth doesn’t add up to much,      but God’s heavenly army keeps everything going. No one can interrupt his work,      no one can call his rule into question.  Daniel 4:35 There are many things in the world that I do not understand. You do not have to look too far to see or hear the injustices and the deep sorrow that plagues our world. Trouble, fear, devastation, injustice, murder, corruption, brokenness, sickness, loneliness, lying, cheating, abuse, and the list could go on forever. Many of these troubles I see them through eyes of our broken world. They are present because sin is present. God has not restored this world to His Glory yet, so these troubles are part of our sin against a Holy God. There are some things that I see in this world and I think, "God, why do you let this continue? You have the power to stop it comple...

January 16th is a day that has not been the easiest on our family over the last 11 years. Today marks the day that my Grandma was born into this world and it is a reminder that for the last 11 years she has been gone. It is a day of sadness as we miss her so very much, but it is also a day of celebration and thankfulness that this amazing woman lived on this earth and left us a legacy to continue. I cannot let this day go by without acknowledging that we love you and miss you and are really trying to live our life in the way you taught our parents and taught us. Grandma went Home to live with Jesus 12 years ago this coming May, but her love and memory live on because we live on. Her love lives on as we go through difficult times and remember her courage of living through difficult days, her love of nature lives on as we see roses bloom, birds out our window, and the butterfly that lands near us, her love to laugh lives on as we retell her stories and tell our own family stories, her lo...

Yesterday I celebrated my 38th year on this earth. I am not sure how that it is possible that I am only two years away from 40, but that is where I find myself. Every birthday I cannot help but spend most of the day reflecting on all of the good things that God has filled my life with over the previous years. When I think about birthdays I always think about the friends that I have been in my life. Every year the Monday after my birthday is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. I could not remember what year the tradition started, but I believe it was 4th or 5th grade, I would have a huge slumber party on the Sunday night before the holiday. This tradition continued until my senior year of high school. Our house would be packed with girls from school and church. We would have my mom's famous homemade pizza, cake, ice cream, and anything else my mom thought someone might want. The night would be filled with silly games in the hallway, making cheer pyramids in the kitchen, staying up a...

Have I mentioned that Tuesday mornings are tough around here? Yeah, I am pretty sure I have. Well, add 3+ inches of snow over night and a real feel of -15 degrees ( yes, that is a negative sign) and getting three kids and this momma out the door is a real battle. I am still sore and really bruised, so it was tough to drag myself out of bed. I got the girls moving and getting dressed and just like every morning I wake Samuel up and lay his clothes on the bed and leave the room to give him a few minutes to wake up. The girls and I continued to get ready and I went outside to scrap the ice and snow off the car and get it warmed up. I come back inside and expect to see Samuel upstairs getting ready to go, but that boy had fallen back to sleep! I finally got him up and ready and we were out the door. Thankfully this book club only lasts a few more weeks. One of the goals I am working on the rest of this school year is making our morning routine run a little bit more smoothly. Speaking of ...

Since the last time I posted we got some very troubling news about our dear friend and mentor, Mr. Tom McCullough. He has been diagnose with pancreatic cancer and needs prayers desperately. I was going to post more about this amazing man of God, but I am still processing my thoughts and will post another time, but I ask you to please pray for this precious friend. We all made it through the first week back from break. Three worn out kids were picked up Friday afternoon. When Chloe came out of school Friday she seemed a little off, as in she was hiding something, but I couldn't figure it out and I decided it was just because she was tired. On Friday's when we get home the kids take everything to their room and basically have free time before supper, so I did not see much of Chloe because she chose to play in her room. We had some chili left over from the night before, so I decided to make a pot of chicken noodle soup and we would just have soup and sandwiches for super. I knew...

*Part of this blog is from a post I wrote in 2013 if it sounds familiar. Also, I am now in the correct year from yesterday's post :)*  On January 7, 1948 a son was born to Ivan and Lois Douglas in a small house on the Douglas property. Kelly Paris Douglas would join a family already made up of two boys. One of the brothers was only 11 months old and Kelly and Lowell have been called "the twins" sometimes. The family would later add four more boys and a baby sister to the family. The Douglas clan lived on 160 acres of land that was owned by the Douglas family. It was a small community of farmers and country folk and the Douglas brothers made quite an impact on the area around Grovesprings, MO. I love to hear the stories and wonderful memories my father has of his boyhood. My father learned to be a hard worker and became a man of prayer at an early age. I am not sure how old my dad was, but there was a time in his life that he feared the government would get rid of all t...

Have you ever noticed all the phrases and cliches, movies, and songs there are about the concept of time?  An issue with time has to be the top excuse we give, "I ran out of time", "I didn't get up in time", "It took a long time to get here", "I don't have time", "I just need more time!", and the list could go on.Time flies when you are having fun, but the truth is time flies by even when you are not having fun. There might be only a few times when time seem to slow down, at the end of expecting your baby through birth or those last few weeks of adoption and those last few weeks before Summer break ends and you have no concept of time and have exhausted all efforts to keep your kids entertained :). Time seems to go the quickest when you are looking forward to something exciting and when you decide to lose a certain amount of weight for a certain event. I mean really, you decide to lose some weight for an event several months awa...