To Celebrate

To get my birthday month off to a great start I am offering you a give-a-way to celebrate with me! This will be for a $25.00 gift certificate for my shop. You can keep it for yourself, or give it to someone for Christmas. Maybe it will help you get that gift for that hard to please person, or be something special just for you :) My SHOP a Rafflecopter giveaway

Things to bring a Smile

Even if I don't buy them just seeing them available when they NEVER were before brought a smile to my face. 

Kids in Church

Someone shared this article today and it was just what I needed to hear.

If you are a parent of small kids this is a special read.

To  You Who Bring Small Children. . .

Grandma Answers- From 1940

Looking through some old newspapers from Latvia in 1940 was so interesting today. I really liked the column "Grandma Answers"- which seemed to be a column on relational advice. It  pleased me how "right on" the answers were and makes me wish time didn't change values so much. 

I will share a translated version of the stories.

Situation: I love a young  man who is 10 years older than me. I am 21, and my parents keep trying to persuade me to part with him since we are both from different confessions (the word faiths) was used. I don't want to change my confession (faith). I sometimes also feel doubtful. Besides that anther young man loves me. My parents like him, he is only 25, and he is better off financially. I respect him, but I could never love him. What should I do? 

Answer: Neither of you want to change your confession. You are doubtful and cautious in your view of others. What kind of love is that! I think you marriage ship would have too many holes in it to even begin to try to sail across the wide sea of life. Wait until you find a captain with a stronger hand, whom you have no doubts about and for whom you would gladly sacrifice greater things without difficulty.

So my readers, what do you say of this advice brought to you from March 15, 1940? 

My Children - Part 1

Each of these little lives God has entrusted to me are full of such unique character and amazing differences.

And as I watch them grow and wonder at their individuality I see over and again that God has blessed me with these three little people to grow me, and teach me about HIMSELF. IF I will only let Him work in my stubborn, selfish heart.

Our firstborn is now 5 and half. He is tender hearted, emotional and creative. He made me a mother and was the first one to test my patience and faith. And now as I see myself raising him , I realize that I expect a lot of this little man.

I have always expected perfection of myself- even though I know I will never be perfect. I have always tried to play by the rules and do the right thing.

And I see as my teach my boy at home, and go with him to school preparation, and train him that I expect perfection of him as well.

Lately, God has been reminding me through all kinds of circumstances and lessons that I MUST accept my son for who HE is and that he IS perfect as he is without attaining perfection in behavior, academicsor anything else.

This boy of mine is the tool God uses to teach me that perfection is not required, of me or of him. 

Gone Again

The last weeks in my home have been a flurry of guests, baking and wedding preparations. And as the long awaited grandparents came with suitcases full of gifts and foods from home we all were blessed and surprised.

Then came the wedding cake preparation with 2 solid days of baking and decorating for my brother and his bride (our nanny).

The wedding came and went and the couple vanished into thin air, as all newly married couple do.

We had a few down days with my parents, the kids had time to get sick and then they too were gone.

And as I tidied up today and slipped back into the ho-hum of everyday life as a Mom of three I felt amazed it was all past.

It is hard to believe that having waited so long to see my parents they have already been here and are gone again- who knows when we will meet again. Rather sad, really.

And yet the hours spent pouring over gifts they got, and playing together and laughing together has made memories and brought us closer and refreshed the idea of grandparents in the mind's of my children.

And so we are thankful for this little snippet of time spent together in the vast days of a year gone by and look forward to seeing you again when God deems best. 

Wedding Cake

This is my latest masterpiece. A wedding cake for my brother.

Homeschool Blindspots

Thinking of homeschooling? Were you homeschooled yourself? 

I was homeschooled, and am considering it now. This article hit home on a lot of things, I highly recommend reading it. 

Homeschool Blindspots- Joshua Harris

In the Present

I have this problem with living in time that isn't mine. 

Expecting and waiting for people coming. 

Longing for days that were long waited for. 

Tomorrow my parents arrive from the states. It has been a year since they saw their 3 grandkids.Sad. 

I rejoice knowing we will enjoy this time. 

Yet, I grieve knowing that it will be gone in a breath. 

9 short days are so little when we know not when we will see them again. 

I have lived here since 2005, and it only gets harder being so far. 

But thank goodness for a God, and faith and One who reminds me that I must treasure THIS moment. The future isn't given to us, but each new day is a blessing from our great God and how I need his help living in the present. 

 

Silence

As Autumn blows the cold winds from the north, turning the leave golden so change blows our way. 

My brother has arrived to carry away his bride. 

And even though we are expected to rejoice my heart mourns. 

These blowing winds are too hard, these changes are too big. 

This dear girl who has cared for and mothered and loved on my kids for 3 years is leaving. 

Change and wind, leaves and time all are blowing together in a wild storm. 

I hate change. 

I hate saying goodbye. 

And the truth is that deep down the wind, and changes of a life moved and transplanted far too many times aches.

I don't want to lose any more people, my people are all too far away. 

I hate this blowing wind that shoves us about like the colored leaves to all the corners of the earth. 

And I know my perspective is bleak. 

But this is my life. 

In the silence of a my tired brain, with the wind blowing confusion over me.