Christian Momma

So last week we had quite a bit of excitement around here!

On Monday, the tornado sirens were going off.  The storm moved through, but no tornado, just a lot of high winds.

Then on Wednesday night, we had tornado sirens going off again around 6 pm.  We have group at our house at 7 pm, so we were a bit worried, but watching the news stations, we saw that the storm moved to the North of us.  After group was over, I watched the news and saw that another line of storms were heading this way, so I went ahead and stayed up to watch the news.

As I was laying there, around 12:30 am, the newscaster stated that “the chance of a tornado is minimal”.  So I started to get comfortable in bed.  Just then, we heard this HORRIFIC noise and Kevin shot straight up out of bed…we went running up stairs to get the boys into the basement.  Once we finally got down there, we waited for Kevin to finally get the dog to go down.  He had peeked out the window before heading downstairs and told me that our table outside (that has 4 big tiles in it) was flipped over.

After the storm had died down, we sent the kids back up to their bedroom, Kevin and I headed outside to take a look at the damage.  Our grill had been flipped, our table flipped, chairs scattered all over, out front, we saw the news crew driving through, ambulances coming into the development, and some siding in our front yard.

The next morning, Kevin called to let me know our chair was across the street and we should go get it.  Here are some photos of what I saw once the sun was up!

Our Grill

Our Table

Our Neighbor’s play set with a gutter wrapped around it

Can’t see it well, but there’s a lot of debris over by the fence

The street near us.many trees down, lots of damage

A neighbor’s damaged roof

Another neighbor who had damage and people out fixing it

A flipped over car

Same debris that I tried to show you from my yard…it’s from the next photo’s house!

House lost most of the 2nd story!

The national weather service decided that a F1 tornado had hit our neighborhood.  Now why they didn’t sound the sirens during this storm, we have no idea.  Had this storm hit at a different spot, we could have lost so much.  All 4 of our boys were upstairs sleeping when this hit.  I just Thank God for our protection during this storm that came out of nowhere!

My life is a combination of many different interruptions!

When I was 16, I knew EVERYTHING! I was grounded for something (and for the life of me, I cannot remember why…we won’t say it’s because I’ll be 37 next week), but I wanted to go out anyway. So I took off and went out with a friend of mine. It was a Sunday night, so my curfew was 9 pm on a school night. I knew that even though I was out and my parents knew where I was, they weren’t happy since I was grounded. I was on my way home from dropping off my friend (who, consequently is now my sister-in-law), I knew I would be home before my curfew, so my parents wouldn’t be any madder at me. As I approached our town limits (that sounds funny, but village limits sounds even funnier even if it is what I lived in), I saw a car heading out of town. But what was so significant about this car is that it was in my lane…I pulled over as far as I could without hitting the parked cars on the side of the road and BAM!! The car hit me…head on (more on the passenger side than the driver’s though). And at that moment my life would NEVER be the same.

I was 16 years old, in a hospital bed, with a broken femur, being told I was lucky to be alive since my bone was resting on the main artery in my leg while I was in the car…only to be told that I may never be able to have children because of my injuries! What a devastating blow that was! As a young girl, I had always dreamed of being a mommy…always had baby dolls and stuffed animals that I “mommied” growing up. My life in that moment was interrupted!!
When I met my husband a few years later, we had talked about how I may never have any children. Being the person I am, I kept telling myself it was fine, but deep down, it wasn’t. After being ministered to in our church by a minister who only spoke Spanish (I don’t know any Spanish…I can only speak English), he prayed for me and in that moment, I knew God had moved in my life. A few months after that, I became pregnant with my 1st son.

When my son was 1, my husband got a new job…it was a great opportunity, I would be able to be a stay at home mom. The problem…we had to move from Ohio to Colorado. I didn’t know anyone in Colorado (except for a cousin that was estranged from our family). I was a shy person by nature, so this sort of freaked me out…A LOT!!! We moved, things worked out just fine, I met friends, and the best thing about those 2 years in Colorado…my husband and I grew so much closer to the Lord. And we were pregnant with our 2nd child (another boy).

2 weeks after our 2nd child was born, we were moving again…from Colorado to Minnesota. Again, there wasn’t anyone in Minnesota that I knew, and I was 2 weeks postpartum! We enjoyed the 4 years we lived out in Colorado. God taught me how to open up more and not to be so shy. Again, our marriage grew stronger.

In 2004, we were so excited to find out that we would be moving back to Ohio…an hour from family, but what’s an hour when you lived 20 hours away? Our family was complete, 2 boys, back in Ohio, what more could we want? My oldest was in 2nd grade, my youngest was 4, he’d be in Kindergarten the next couple of years, and I was looking forward to the time that I would have while the boys were in school…all the scrapbooking I would get done, how I would be able to volunteer in the schools, etc. In a moment, that all changed…with a positive pregnancy test staring me in the face! How could this be? I was 30 years old, I was done having children, we just moved closer to family, we sold all our baby items before we moved to Ohio…it took a month or so for me to accept that I was actually pregnant. 18 weeks later, I had invited my mom to come to the ultrasound to see our baby (something she’s never seen before). I laid on the table, the ultrasound tech came in and turned on the machine, took 1 swipe across my stomach and said, “Yep, there are 2 in there”. As if just being pregnant wasn’t interruption enough, now I’m having twins!! Instead of having to buy 1 of everything, we would now need 2 of everything…and both were boys! How could that be? Well, I only had 13 weeks to process the idea of having twins before I was being told that my body wasn’t handling the pregnancy well and that I had what is called HELLP syndrome…my liver wasn’t working properly and if it stopped working, the rest of my organs would stop working. 2 days later, I was standing in the NICU staring at my 2 – 2pound babies in their beds! Processing the fact that I was now a mother of 4 boys, I had almost died having them was a lot to comprehend. I went through a lot of emotions. God was there, he brought us through their 4 weeks in the NICU and they just celebrated their 6th birthday yesterday…both are healthy boys!

As I said earlier, my life is one big interruption after another!! But with each interruption, I’ve grown closer to God and have seen the blessings multiply in each time. To go from not being able to have children, to having 4 boys…my life has been altered drastically and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world!

**Note: This is the comment I posted on http://www.goingbeyond.com/blog/altered-plans

The weather in my neck of the woods:

COLD!!!  Currently 15 degrees…but if you factor in the Wind-chill, it’s 1 degree!!  And there are flurries!  The high is supposed to reach something like 23 degrees!

Things that make me happy:

This weekend spending time with family and watching all 4 of my boys in the Christmas program!  Michael had a reading part (narrator), Daniel and Andrew sang a Duet, and Noah had a solo!  My boys did a great job!

Book(s) I’m reading:

Besides the Bible…not sure.  I just finished my last book (Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis)…not sure what I’ll read next!

What I’m enjoying on TV:

Right now…nothing!  I have a quiet house…all the boys are in class, so I’m keeping it quiet!

New Recipe I tried or want to try soon:

Still haven’t tried any Truffles…want to do that soon.  I’m getting the itch to start making desserts/candies for Christmas, so we’ll see!

On the Menu for dinner:

Thinking Chicken Legs (they were on sale at the store this weekend), but I’m not quite sure how I’ll prepare them yet.  I usually grill them with BBQ sauce, but I’m not going to stand outside in this cold weather trying to do that!!

On my To Do List:

Preparation for Friday’s 31:30 meeting (31:30 is our Women’s Ministry name…it’s from Proverbs 31:30)

In the Craft Basket:

I have some things I need to make for Christmas…not going to say for fear those people will be reading this! LOL

Looking forward to this week:

Get together for our Tuesday Night Bible Study…our Wednesday Night Bible Study here at the house…and the 31:30 meeting on Friday!

Tips and Tricks:

Hmmm…not sure I have any this week!

My favorite blog post this week (Mine or other):

Nothing this week

Blog Hopping (A new discovered blog you would like to share with other readers)”:

Haven’t been reading much blogs lately

No words needed (favorite picture, yours or others you want to share):

Lesson learned the past few days:

Never walk through the living room when Kevin and the dog are playing…that dog about took me out!! LOL

On my Prayer list/things on my mind:

Mom and her job…they’ve been laying off a lot of her friends from work.  And my niece Kierstin who has been sick.

Devotionals, scripture reading, key verses:

¹⁰ Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 54:10

From: Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  Be safe if you are traveling!!

Oh and for those of you shopping tomorrow, stay warm…and apparently dry (at least around here).  We will be out and about on Black Friday shopping!!

I was taking photos of my Christmas decorations and thought I would share some of my photos here, along with my favorite ornaments on my tree!  But first, let me show you my decorations!

Our Fireplace

There are a lot of stockings here…The red ones are for my boys (4), me, and my mom since she visits for Christmas.  The Soccer one is my husband’s stocking.  We just got the Wreath this past weekend.  When we first put it up, we had some different things on the Mantle, but the wreath came crashing to the ground taking out everything (except 1 thing) out on it’s way down.  What survived, you asked?  Let me show you!

Our “Nativity”  It’s really just a statue of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus

This is the only thing that stayed put on the mantle…everything else came crashing down.  Kevin and I thought it was neat that the statue of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus stayed put!!

This is our Mini Tree

The Tree is a Fiber Optics type (you can’t really see in the light), and my one and only “Coke” village house.  It also has lights in it, but it’s too bright to see them.

Yes, that’s hand sanitizer you see there…this table is sitting right next to the front door!! LOL

This is my Christmas Tree

We have one of those pre-lit trees…this is one thing that I’ll never go back to a tree that you have to put your own lights on.  It takes too long! LOL

Our Angel

Sorry this is such a bad photo, I’m almost embarrassed to show it.  I took it from my cell phone! She’s a Fiber Optic Angel, she’s broke too.  My twins decided that playing with all the ornaments and the Angel (before I had a chance to put the decorations on the tree) would be a good thing.  So we’ll be looking for a new one…after Christmas.

My “Mom to Be” Ornament

Kevin bought me this ornament when I was pregnant with Michael back in 1996.  Isn’t it cute!!  I think this might be my favorite ornament!!

Baby’s First Christmas

This is Michael’s Ornament that he got as a baby!  It’s a cute boat with animals in it.

Baby’s First Christmas

This is Noah’s first Ornament for Christmas.  On the left you see a photo of Noah (in a Taz outfit…one of our favorite), on the left it’s a Nativity scene.

Baby’s First Christmas (x2)

This is the ornament that Daniel & Andrew each got (we got 2 of them) on their first Christmas.  On the back side of the ornament, we put their name.

Colorado

Kevin and I bought this ornament to remind us of or time in Colorado.  It was bought our first year out there.  We used to get 1 ornament every year to remind us of what our year had been like.

Our First Home

My sister bought us this ornament in 2002 after Kevin and I bought our 1st home together.  It was in Minnesota, so I thought it was appropriate that it looked like there was snow all over the windows (that’s how it came, I didn’t add any snow to it).

Cross

My sister bought me this ornament just last year…isn’t it pretty??

Icicle (x5)

This is a set of ornaments.  My Aunt made these for my mom, my other Aunt, and each of the Grandchildren (mom’s side).  The icicle was originally part of a chandelier that used to hang in my grandma and grandpa’s house.  We (as kids) used to play with the pieces of the chandelier!  My Aunt converted the pieces to icicles and gave them to us for Christmas one year!

I hope you enjoyed seeing a few of my decorations!!

My life is in no where what I thought it would be.  As a young girl, I remember playing “school” with my stuffed animals and dolls because I wanted to become a teacher.  As I grew older, I wanted to be an accountant (that was until I attempted accounting in college…decided that I couldn’t deal with all those numbers!!).  A slight change in my classes and I got my degree in computers.  I enjoy working on computers!

One thing that I had always wanted to be as a young child was a mother.  I had all my dolls…most of which were girls…and played with them all the time.  I even remember one year my parents buying me a doll that was the size of a 6 month old baby (even wore 6 month old baby clothes).  I took that doll everywhere…we even went garage saleing for clothes for this doll!  I put it into the bath (not a good idea to do with a cloth doll) and dried it off with the hair dryer (again…not such a good idea with a cloth doll), which resulted in a hole in the belly of my baby…just a slight burn!  What a great mom!  LOL  Nothing that a onsie put onto my baby (permanently) wouldn’t fix…didn’t want to lose all that stuffing!  I played with that doll a lot!!  (well, until her head popped off…then I had to throw her away)

So here I am today…I’m not a teacher or an accountant.  And that degree in computers?  I’ve never had a job that I could use that degree in…and since computers have changed so much since I graduated from college, my degree isn’t worth much!!  I am a mother…but of boys!  And I don’t work…well, outside of my house for money.

Not quite what I had thought my life would be, but that’s ok, God knows what he’s doing.  I couldn’t imagine what my life would even look like if it were my decision on what it would be.

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² In those days when you pray, I will listen. ¹³ If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
Jeremiah 29:11-13

I’m forever changed…in more ways than one. I’m ok with that!

We don’t go on vacation every year, we haven’t went since 2006…other than camping here or there…that being said, our vacation is coming up…the boys are so excited!

As a child I went on vacation a lot.  I don’t remember much from our vacations (mom always says that the car accident I was in has affected my memory…it’s either that, or I have a horrible memory!!)

My vacations as a child…I remember going to Disney World, I was about 7ish years old.  However, I don’t remember anything but the electric parade, but I’m not sure if I remember that because I’ve seen photos or if I actually remember that.  I do remember staying at my Uncle’s house and his son’s pet taranchula got out…is that where my arachnophobia stems from?

We went to the Wisconsin Dells…I have no idea how old I was.  What I can remember from that is the boats that could drive on land as well as in the water (Duck Boats, I think they are called).  This was a pit stop of a trip on our way to South Dakota (we were driving my Uncle’s boat out to him).  What I remember most about that trip…sitting on the side of interstate for 5ish hours with the boat…just my mom, my sister, my grandmother and myself…while the guys (my dad, my grandpa, and my cousin) went to get a part for the boat.  This is something you can’t do in this day and age!  As far as South Dakota, I remember some little shops at the Black Hills and seeing a Prairie Dog for the first time…unfortunately, not much else!

I know we went to Niagara Falls when I was younger, but I don’t remember much of that, I do remember going with my youth group on a ski trip to New York and going over to the Canada side of Niagara Falls before heading home.  Let’s just say, some of those guys in my youth group should have stuck to the US age limit!!

I’m so glad there are photos that I can look at to help me remember things that we’ve done and/or seen that I can’t remember.

Anyway…as I was saying, we are going on vacation as a family.  We are bringing my mom along.  This vacation is so much different than any vacation I’ve ever been on…Why?  Well, my mom and I are making all the plans.  Neither of us have ever done that!  There’s always been someone telling us what we were doing or where we were going, so this is going to be interesting.  Kevin said he was going on vacation, but not planning it…so mom and I are doing all that.  We are going to Michigan to do some things and then heading over to Cleveland to do some stuff before coming home.

Wow, I haven’t been updating like I said I would.  Sorry about that!

I have finally started going back to the gym, which I’m so glad…Kevin is too (he pays for it).

This past weekend I went and visited with my dad at the hospital.  He had a clot that ran from his groin to his ankle.  His leg was swollen up and he has been put on blood thinners.  He’s not allowed out of the hospital until he gets rid of this blood clot.  They have him on a heart monitor the whole time, so, even though I’m really worried about him, I’m glad he’s being taken care of at the hospital.  He is up there cracking jokes and talking about different memories.  I’m really glad I got to go see him, even if I did have to leave my husband with 4 sick boys at home.

I have so much things running through my head…the biggest one is VBS right now.  I have to figure out where I need help and schedule a meeting with the Elder who is going to be helping me and lay out a plan with him before scheduling a meeting with the board to discuss how things are going and any changes that have been made since the last meeting.

I have been working harder on getting into the word daily.  I’m not where I should be yet, but I am heading in the right direction.  I sometimes struggle with actually reading something…I have done little things to remind me… I use my outlook to remind me to read devotions daily, I have a “Verse of the Day” on my desk top (Window’s Gadgets), I have a Verse of the Day (2 of them actually) on my Facebook, I have a bible on my phone and a bible in various rooms of my house, I have an email sent to me via Proverbs 31 Ministries each day.  You would think with all those things I it would be easy, but for some reason there’s a sort of disconnect somewhere, but I am truely trying to reconnect.  I would appreciate any prayer covering, so if you feel led to pray for me, please do.

We are house searching right now, which is really exciting!  I haven’t been letting myself get too excited about that, I just don’t want to have my hopes up too high.  I have been praying for this for years though…could this really be an answer to prayers?  The timing…it has to be a God thing for us to move forward.

I hang out on Facebook with so many friends now, I decided to set up my blog on the blog networks on facebook.  We’ll see how that goes.  I know it doesn’t matter how you bring people to your blog, it’s going to take me actually updating to keep people coming.  I’m hoping that I can get into some sort of routine.

Anyway, if you stop by, thank you, I’d love to hear from you.  I do appreciate you reading and following!

I came home from work to Kevin and Michael playing in the living room.  It was a Friday in the Spring of 1998.  As with every Friday, Kevin picked Michael up from the babysitter on his way home from work.  He got home earlier than I did on Fridays and since the babysitter was on his way, he picked Michael up.

As I came in the door, Kevin tells me that someone else got laid off from work.  I voiced my concerns about him getting laid off.  He said it didn’t look like it, but he thought it was time to get his resume together just in case.

That weekend we spent some time on the computer getting his resume putting his resume together and submitting it out to a few different places.

As I packed for our usual weekend up at my parent’s house, we begain talking again about where we would like to be in a few years from now.  How we both would love it if I were a stay at home mom instead of a working mom.  We began praying that God would guide our steps.

As the weeks went by, Kevin would tell me about a place he sent his resume to.  What state it was in and asked me to pray about it…Michigan, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana…etc.  With each state, I prayed and shared the information with my mom.  She would also begin to pray.  My mom would tell me things like, I don’t know if this is it, I would miss you if you move, etc.

Then came the Colorado one.  My heart jumped.  That was clear across the country from my family.  We currently lived in Ohio.  I prayed, and as I prayed, my excitement about moving there increased, unlike the other places where my heart sank.  As I prayed, a peace about moving away from family came.

I told my mom.  She had a peace about me moving…she said it’s the farthest place we’ve mentioned, yet this is the only place I feel more at peace about you moving to.

Soon it became clear that the company in Colorado was interested in Kevin, so much so that they were going to fly not only him, but also me out to Colorado for an interview.  We left Michael with my parents for the weekend and flew out to Colorado in July (shortly after Michael’s 1st birthday).

Within in a month, we were planning a move across country following where God was telling us we were to go.  There wasn’t any family out there, we would be completely on our own.

Looking back at that period of time in our lives (we lived in Colorado for 2 years before Kevin got transferred to Minnesota).  We learned to lean on each other for support.  Our marriage was strengthened.  Our faith grew by Leaps and Bounds!  I did become a stay at home mom, so the transition was a huge one from not only across country, but to a place with no friends, no family and me staying home with our son.  It change me quite a bit.  From a shy person to more of an outgoing person.  When thrown in a situation like that, its either curl up and go into a shell and never meet anyone else or change and become the person God wants you to be.  I chose to follow God’s leading.  Those are changes I couldn’t have done on my own.

Thank you for stoppy by and reading my More of Him Monday.  Please stop by Heather’s Not a DIY Life for more More of Him Monday posts!

2008 has come and gone already.  It sure seemed to go by quickly…sometimes a little too quickly!

January

The year started out with me beginning to work on Power Lab VBS (Ah Ha!).  I was also homeschooling Michael.  We were pretty on top of our schooling and things were going pretty smoothly at the time.  I was also beginning to work in the K-1 Sunday School class room at church.  That, wasn’t going as smoothly as I had wished.

February

VBS started to consume my thoughts.  I was having dreams about not being ready, and just an overwhelming sense that I’ve bitten off more than I could chew.  AKA…I wasn’t relying on God to help me, I was relying on my own strength to do it.

February also brought about Daniel & Andrew’s 3rd birthday as well as my 34th birthday.

Michael entered his first Science Fair and ended up with a Superior rating!  I was proud, but knew full well that if he had applied himself earlier in the month, but he decided to wait until the last minute to do it.  Then we hit a rough patch in our homeschooling…a bad one.  Causing me to question my ability to teach him not to mention my basic parenting skills.  But, through the Grace of God we got through it with help from some friends in our church.

March

March brought in a lot of saddness.  My grandmother’s health begain to fail drastically.  And a friend of mine lost her child in a horrible accident. My heart ached in ways I never knew it would.  Things in me shined trhough as well.  I didn’t realize how “in tune” I was to other’s saddness.  Michael had a meeting with the staff from his online school and things turned out so much better than I had originally anticipated.

April

In April, I took a blogging break…school slipped behind and I had to push Michael to get as much done as possible a day!  Spring seemed to bring out the worst in his schooling abilities and slowly we fell behind.

May

I won this Word Press blog…I’m ever so greatful to Lisa for hosting the giveaway that allowed me to win! The final push to get VBS was upon us.  VBS was scheduled for the 2nd week of June.  My grandmother passed away that month as well.

June

VBS week came and went without too much problems.  Yes, there were a few bumps in the road, but overall things turned out GREAT!  I was elated that things went as well as they did and relieved that it was all over with as well.

July

We celebrated Michael’s 11th birthday in July along with Kevin and I’s 14th wedding anniversary.  In between those 2 events, we threw my mom and dad a 60th Birthday/40th Wedding Anniversary party.  We were very impressed that we were able to pull it off!  Mom and dad had only suspected that we were planning on all going out to eat together, not that we would have all of their friends and family at a hall waiting for their arrival!  We even got one of their friends from High School to travel from Chicago to Ohio to celebrate with them as well!

We also got to see Extreme Makeover Home Edition in our town.  My mother drove down the night before to stay overnight and we headed out to the new house to watch the bus move.  That is a day that was HOT, but I wouldn’t have missed for the world.  To see something like that is a once in a lifetime thing.  Michael still claims to have High-Fived Ty!

August

We went for our 1 and only camping trip of the year.  We had so much fun, and would love to go back to the Michigan Dunes again.  Our church also had a Worship Night.  Something changed in me that night and I have been forever changed!

September

School started right after Labor Day!  We decided to send Michael back to public school since things weren’t working out the best for us at home.  We are happy to report that he is doing wonderful in the public school!

We celebrated Noah’s 8th birthday in September.  We also found out that an eight year old child, when given $20 in cash and not watched very closely at the grocery store (because mom and dad were busy ringing/bagging groceries), will spend the whole $20 on lottery tickets!  And before you ask…YES it’s illegal for him to purchase them, but when they have a “vending machine” of lottery tickets just sitting over by the bubble gum machines, it’s just calling for a child to play with it!  And he only wond $2!

October

In October, Kevin and I started going to a new Bible Study.  I was elated that Kevin wanted to go to one since he has never really showed any interest in going before.

We also walked, for the first time, in the JDRF Walk for a Cure for my Niece.  We were so proud of her, she ended up getting 2 awards…one for the amount of money raised and the other for the T-Shirt design!

November

We celebrated Kevin’s 38th birthday.  How?  Well, I went to a Arbone party and he watched football…now that’s love!

We had our traditional weekend after Thanksgiving shopping adventure.  My parents’ took Michael, Noah, Daniel, & Andrew for the weekend (it ended up my parents had Daniel & Andrew and my sister had Michael & Noah).  We always enjoy that weekend away from the boys.  It’s nice to pretend we are childless…even if it’s just for the weekend!  But we are always so excited when they return.

December

We spent most of the month either running from Christmas Program to Christmas Program or from Christmas to Christmas.  However this year it seemed to be a little less travel than usual.  We only spent 1 night up at my parent’s house and we actually had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home for the first time in a long time!

For 2009, I’m sure there will be new things that God shows us along the way, new challenges to overcome and new friends to meet, but I trust that God will be joining us along this journey and we will rest in the knowledge of Him.