I am in love with this gadget, particularly the Pinterest app and Instagram.

Imagine my delight in finding a bloggy link-up for sharing your photos from the week {cause I take a ridiculous amount of photos with my phone}.

Here is my week in photos:

all my kids sitting in one spot without bickering, a photo worthy moment indeed 12/31/11

Sweet Pea plunking on the piano to keep the residents of the nursing home entertained! 1/2/12

Jared, my uber cool 15 year old who will still take photos with mama 12/31/11

Mike and I saying goodbye to our soldier, Jason, for 3 more months of training. 1/3/12

crazy game night {Partini, anyone?} on New Year’s Eve at casa del Smallwood 12/31/11

Spent much of the week like this since Sweet Pea is sick 1/5/12

YoungLives Team 3 represent!  One of us {not me} ate a booger, we collectively chewed the biggest wad of gum, I learned how to Dougie and we still lost the stinkin’ scavenger hunt by 6 points   #i’mstillbitter!

What a fun way to look back on the week!

And, as a follow up to this post I wanted to let you know how I am doing with the Chronological One Year Bible plan.

Ahem, in one word: not-so-good.

I could make excuses {see picture of sick baby above} but I won’t.  I will say that I am two days behind and it is only January 6th.  yikes!  But, I am determined and enjoying this reading plan.  I am taking copious notes because the reading sections are bite sized enough for in depth study.  I love that!  I will update you next week as well {if for no other reason than to hold myself accountable}.

Hope everyone has a blessed weekend!!

Knitted together by God.

• Shayla became ours when she was 18 and blessed us with the gift of having Sweet Pea in our lives {she is a rowdy and adorable 15 month old right now}
• Jason was Mike’s son from his first marriage but because of abuse and neglect came to live with us in 1999 when he was six years old and I adopted him in 2000.
• I was pregnant with Jared when Mike and I met.  He was in the delivery room when Jared was born and legally adopted him.
• Matt was unplanned {never take birth control and antibiotics at the same time} and is the only one that has both my and Mike’s blood running through his veins {which we frequently use as the excuse for his stubborn personality}

I tell you all of this because I truly believe what the Bible says in Psalm 68:6, God sets the lonely in families.  God designed each one of these unique and amazing kids to be mine.

Through the years, our family has had the privilege of opening our home to those in need.  Right now, one of my dear friends and her daughter are staying with us as they get back on their feet.

And, I need to brag on my boys.

Matt playing with a straw

Shayla is away at school and Jason is away at basic training.

Jared {15} and Matt {14} are  home {along with Sweet Pea}.

To be honest, I am usually the mom that notices the irritating things, the wrong choices, the negative.  I have been praying for God to open my eyes to see my boys in a different light as we navigate these teen years.

Jared and I at a concert {with Shayla being silly in background}

Having our friends here has done just that.  My boys are patient.  They have big hearts.  They are generous, caring and loving.  They put others needs before their own.  They don’t judge.  They share and give and love.  They show genuine concern.

Jared was worried because I had to take him to school early on the first day that our friend’s daughter was going to ride the bus.  He felt bad because he wouldn’t be there to help her.

And, I realized that God was answering my prayer.

I have good boys, growing up to be good men.

I am thankful for both of them and they make me proud.

My water broke in the car on the way to the hospital and he was born in the hallway as I was wheeled off the elevator to the labor and delivery floor.

Matthew was coming, whether I was ready or not. {He had been trying to come since 26 weeks but praise God, we made it to 38!}

At home was his sixteen month old brother and in Iowa was his four year old brother, waiting for us to come and rescue him.

I was about to become a mama to three boys under the age of five, ready or not.

Now, Matt is fourteen.  It is a privilege to watch him become a smart, inquisitive, witty, compassionate, unique, creative young man.

Ready or not, my boy is growing up.

Cuddling with Chloe

Happy birthday, Matt!  I love being your mama!

and the counting of gifts continues {#341-350}

~  getting gussied up for my childhood best friend’s wedding reception

~  seeing my hubby all gussied up, he is so handsome

~  singing the B-I-B-L-E with Sweet Pea {her favorite song}

~  antibiotics for a nasty urinary tract infection

~  hot tea with lemon and honey for a nasty head cold

~  feeling better before a new week starts

~  straight talk with our teenagers

~  going through James with fellow believers online and in “real” life

~  unexpected circumstances that draw me straight to His feet

~  the comforting words of Isaiah 26:3 {thanks, Jill}

What are you thankful for?

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s culture and society has lost sight of the seriousness of the covenant of marriage and the role of sex. Sex is symbolic of a covenant between a married man and his wife. A covenant that we will be held accountable to one day.
In a culture where sex is viewed casually and more than half of marriages end in divorce, we as moms need to teach our boys about covenant….

You can read the rest of this post at The M.O.B Society, where I write the monthly column, Tackling “the talk”.

Image via Wikipedia

We are back in the groove, the school groove that is.

Our mornings look something like this:

• Smack at the alarm clock at 5:30.  As I come out of the room, Jared is getting in the shower and Matt is still snoring in his bed.
• Take Chloe {the dog} or Sweet Pea {the baby} and put them on Matt’s bed to wake him from his slumber.
• Cook breakfast for hungry boys while nursing my first cup of coffee.
• Pray over boys as they eat their breakfast.
• Make sure they haven’t forgotten anything {to no avail!  Most mornings I discover something they forgot after they have left.  This morning it was Matt’s Spanish II notebook}
• Hug goodbye as they leave for the bus at 6:25.
• On a good day, I fill my second cup of coffee and get started on my day.  On a real day, I crawl back under the covers and re-set the alarm for 8am.

Matt said his first day went “ok”.  He is on the golf team, which requires a 3 hour practice twice a week.  He had practice last night and that, combine with homework in two of his classes, he was not a happy camper that bedtime rolled around before he touched a video game {I was secretly pleased}.  Jared enjoys school {he is such an extrovert}.  He is going out for the wrestling team this year {although he can’t condition right now because of his finger injury}.

Jason is leaving for MEPS today and will be gone until tomorrow evening.  In about a week, we should know the dates for his basic and AIT training. We signed Miss S. up for her college classes that will begin October 4th.  And, Sweet Pea will be a year old on September 1st.

Life is spinning so fast, I am in a bit of a daze.  I am attempting to embrace each moment as I know life is about to change in big ways.

Embracing Ecclesiastes 3:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,  a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.  ~Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

Have your kids started their school year yet?

this post is linked to Titus Tuesdays

Nothing prepared me for Saturday.

Jared had been out riding his bike.  He doesn’t have his cell phone because he is on restriction.  A strange number called my phone and my boy was on the other end.  Obviously crying, upset and in pain.  “Mommy, I chopped my finger off.”

He hasn’t called me “mommy” since the double digit birthday in 2006.  This was serious.

He said he was down by the apartments {there are two sets of apartments in our expansive neighborhood}.

I was in the living room. I can’t drive. I wasn’t sure where everyone else in the house was.

So, I did what any rational human being would do. I screamed like a woman possessed and headed out to the van {forgetting my knee brace} to wait for whoever got there to take me to my baby.

My hubby and Miss S. came running….Miss S. even forgot her shoes.  We sped to the first set of apartments {darn speed bumps slowed us down} and thankfully I saw him.  Holding his hand with blood soaked paper towels {provided by the guy who had let him use his phone and stayed with him until we got there}, I could tell he was going in to shock.  He was white as a sheet, sweating profusely and vomiting all over the place {including on Miss S. on our way to the hospital}.

Miss S. had her wits about her enough to ask where the severed fingertip was.  I gave her napkins out of the glove compartment, while Mike helped Jared into the van and God love her…she picked up the bloody thing and brought it with us. {As a matter of fact, it was next to me in my cup holder the whole ride to the hospital…a fact it is good I did not know until we arrived at the ER and Mike retrieved it.}

I can only imagine what we looked like as we entered the ER….me hobbling along with my walker, Jared was scissor walking as he was about to pass out and Miss S. all bare footed and screaming for help.  The orderly got Jared a wheelchair and took us right back to a trauma room.

They took off the paper towels and this mama would have hit the floor if the nurse had not caught me and guided me into a wheelchair.  When they asked for my own son’s birthday, I just looked up and burst into hysterical tears and threw up in a trashcan {I wasn’t handling all this very well, in case you couldn’t tell}

My hubby appeared having found a parking space a football field away.  They took the napkin with the fingertip and placed it in a bag with ice.

I called Jason {who had taken his girlfriend on a dinner date} and told him I needed him to get my knee brace and some shoes for Miss S from home and come to the ER.

They numbed Jared’s finger and after a while, he was cracking jokes and back to his charming self.

He even had Jason’s girlfriend take pictures for Facebook {I sure wasn’t going to be the photographer!}

All was well until it was time for the re-attachment.  Just at the thought, my knees buckled. The doctor said I needed to leave and wait in the waiting room because they didn’t need another patient.

Mike and Miss. S were there for Jared while Jason and his girlfriend wheeled me out to the waiting room.

And, that is where I became thankful for Facebook.

I was a blubbering mess.  I felt bad for not being there for my boy, overwhelmed and where else, other than Facebook can you just put out the prayer request and have immediate response.  Reading everyone’s responses and promises of prayer kept me distracted and engaged until they came out and said he was okay.

I am thankful today that I live in the age of social media.

And, that my boy is going to be okay.

Fingertip reattached, headed home

And the counting of gifts continues:

~ a family that comes together in a crisis

~ skilled surgeon

~ patient nurses

~ pain pills for my patient

~ smartphones

~ prayers from friends

~ a calm hubby, no matter the circumstance

~ finger splints

~ a good long nap

~ knowing God is in control

What are you thankful for?

My two oldest sons did something not so smart over the weekend.

I was disappointed in their behavior.  I was angry at their deception and I was livid that they included a visiting friend in their shenanigans.

Thankfully, I refrained from yelling and screaming like my flesh wanted to.  After making sure everyone was safe, I called the mom of the visiting friend and sent him home with Miss S. as the driver and I sent the other two off to bed.

I laid in bed {I let the hubby sleep through this because he gets up at 3:30am to drive 1 1/2 hours to work} getting angrier and angrier. Then, I turned to my Father and said, Lord, what do you do with these kids and their mistakes?

I had to get out my journal and write down the thoughts He gave me.

• You love them.  Never in our angriest moment should our children doubt that we love them, no matter what mistake they make. I Peter 4:8 tells us to “love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins“.
• You extend grace to them.  Memories of mistakes I made at 15 {much bigger than this mistake!} ran through my mind.  My boys know what they did was wrong.  They are aware of the consequences. They know I am entitled to hold it over their head for awhile, but what good does that really do?  Grace isn’t something you earn, it is a gift.  And, what better way to learn of this gift than from your parents?  “And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace”. ~ Romans 11:6
• You correct them.  Mistakes do have consequences and my boys will be facing those over the next two weeks.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t even have to ask for them to relinquish certain privileges.  Jared brought me his cell phone.  They knew what they were risking when they made the choice they made.  “Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one that heeds correction gains understanding”. ~ Proverbs 15:32
• You move on with them.  We aren’t going to get stuck at the site of a mistake.  We will take the lessons learned and move on.  My kids are good kids with a sin nature, just like their dad and I.  If we focus only on the mistakes, rather than the lessons and the living, than we are missing the point.“For in Him we live and move and have our being”. ~ Acts 17:28a

I am prepared for them to make more mistakes.  Mistakes are the stepping stones of character building. I am just thankful that God reminded me of all of this before the hubby and I sat down with the kids…or much more of my flesh would have shown up!

How do you handle disobedience?

God designed the relationship between a man and a woman to be a life long commitment.  In our home, we do not believe that the culture of serial dating reflects God’s plan for marriage and sex.

You can read the rest of my thoughts on this subject at the M.O.B Society today.

Miss S. graduated last week, yesterday was Jared and Matt’s last day of school for the year and Jason finishes up on June 15th.

I will have four teenagers and a nine month old Sweet Pea to entertain this summer and the concept was daunting to me.

I was inspired by Amy from The Finer Things in Life to tweak her concept of “The Summer List of Fun” for my kids and their ages {19, 18, 15 and 13}.  When I broke out the markers and poster board this weekend, they looked at me a little funny but soon the ideas started flowing.  Now, we have a pretty good idea of the things we want to do this summer.  Here are a few highlights:

• go swimming at the lake
• biking on the C & O Canal
• see a movie together {with popcorn from the theater, a special request from Matt}
• plant an herb garden
• decorate the game room with yard sale finds {which will require going to yard sales, another fun summer activity}
• make homemade ice cream
• go strawberry picking
• take water bottles to the homeless on a sweltering day

You get the idea!  It was fun just to sit and watch the kids come up with things they would like to do *with their mama* this summer.

We came up with more than 40 ideas and we will continue to add to the list as the summer goes on.  Combine the list of summer fun with our two week vacation to Florida to celebrate Miss S and Jason graduating high school, their jobs, the two younger boys staying in Florida to visit my family for an extra two weeks and I think summer will go by quicker than we want it to!

What do you plan to do with your kids this summer?

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The van door opens and a sweaty, smiling, stinky boy climbs in.  I prompt him to put on his seatbelt as he excitedly tells me about his evening.

“My legs are numb, I think I dislocated my thumb and I have a headache from my head hitting the mat…man, wrestling is awesome!”

Huh??

One of the things I have come to realize about parenting boys is that I will never understand the way their minds work.  However, I do know that boys, especially teenage ones, need an outlet for all their pent-up energy and hormones.  It is important for us mama’s to remember that whether we “get it” or not, we need to provide opportunities for our son’s to be engaged in physical activity, competition and fun~ even if, for the love of all that is holy, we can’t see what is fun about physical pain!

Are there things about your children that you just don’t get?