lavish

Today we made fruit pizza to surprise Kevin... shhhh... he's still not home yet from itinerating this weekend. It's a good surprise since it's his favorite. Well, when I made it, I couldn't find the recipe but I've made it enough that I could wing it. It's not that hard, really. In the end, I decided to look up the recipe for the cream cheese frosting in a book my good friend, Emily, gave me when we got married. (At the bottom of that page she wrote *Em's favorite!) As it turns out, that recipe was probably bigger than the one I usually use. So we ended up with LOTS of frosting.

As I plopped it on the sugar dough crust (or sugar do, as Hannie called it), I thought back to the book I'm reading with another good friend of mine, Lisa! The book is She's Gonna Blow by Julie Ann Barnhill. In this book, she just talked about the frosting her grandma would make. When she would plop it on the cake, the cake would shake from the weight of the frosting. She said her grandma would LAVISH the cake with frosting.

God says he lavishes two things on us. Love and Grace. I've always thought that was cool. Of all the things he chooses to lavish on is it's His love and His grace.

So I did as Julie Ann Barnhill suggested and called the kids back over for an object lesson with frosting. Just as we're lavishing this crust with frosting, that's how God lavishes His love and grace on us. (Ruth and Elijah got into a disagreement over something in the middle of the lesson but I think the kids still caught it!)

When we were done admiring the frosting, of course, they got out spoons and ended up using fingers and whole hands to clean out the mixing bowl!

Lavish love and grace. Accept it and do it!

be a rainbow

As I thought about our new suncatcher, I realized a couple things. Being in the light has always sounded good to me. (LOVE the DC Talk song, "I wanna be in the light, as Your are in the light...") Now I know that if I was a clear piece of glass with Christ shinning through me, that'd be cool. But when I looked at the suncatcher, which is a piece of glass that's got several different cuts in it... it got me thinking about trials and suffering. The Bible talks about Christ's suffering and our suffering and how they are or can be for our benefit and His glory. I thought, maybe in the light of suffering, we reflect more rainbows instead of just white light. More detail of the light. More character of Christ.

In the face of suffering, be a rainbow.

rainbow day

We got a suncatcher! So we hung it in our dinning room window that faces the south. Now all day we watch the rainbows move around our dinning room/living room/kitchen. We LOVE it. How exciting to find a rainbow on your toe or on your chair!

The other morning when we got up Ruth saw the sunshine and said, "Oh! It's a rainbow day!" She figured Hannie would be excited to see the rainbows when she came from kindergarten. She was.

miss out

The other day was Spring Break. All four kiddos were home and playing with matchbox cars. When it came around to nap time, everyone went to bed but Hannie decided that today she did not want to go to her room for any quiet time! She wanted to stay up and play... and besides, everyone else already took the "good" toys to their rooms! She was getting all worked up and crying. I told her I might be able to work something out just for today since it was Spring Break and Benjamin was home. But she would have to get herself under control first. She did not even try to get herself under control because life was too hard and everyone had it better than her... She got more and more worked up and said a couple thing to her mother that were inappropriate. At that point, I told her she would have to take a nap in her own room with her own toys. When I told her that I was going to let her play in Benjamin's room with him and the cars... she went crazy! She screamed and threw an even bigger fit! A few minutes later I went back to her room. She was quiet and resting now. I told her that she could be playing with Benjamin but because of her big fit she, she missed out. She missed out on something better just because she couldn't calm down and wait...

That's when I realized that God used Hannie to talk to me.

The Lord likes to do that. A child will lead them. And I have four right here! We are so learning patience and trust as we continue to itinerate and raise our budget for missions. One day I even had a fleeting thought that it would be good to just get over there , even though I know that He's got a good plan that will work out best. I would just like to be THERE sometimes! So it was right around then that I said those words to Hannie. Like the Lord was saying to me, "Don't throw a fit and miss out on something better. Calm down and wait!"

cute kids

Just gotta share some cute kid stories every once in a while... :)

Kev's folks were here last weekend and his brother, Scott, flew up to meet up with all of us, too. So we had to pack up and head to Fargo to pick him up at the airport. While Grandma Sharon and I were telling the girls about out trip to Fargo, Ruth wondered where that was. Hannie quickly replied, "That's two Veggies away!"

Saturdays, we try to have "Saturday Snuggle Day" when all our family hangs out in the morning, we make pancakes or go to Uncle Blake's for waffles. We also like to make funky pancakes. Our typical is vanilla flax seed pancakes. Recently, Daddy made some kind of banana pancake. Then the kids love to top them with different things. So as Benjamin looked at all the different toppings on the table, he decided to add them all to his pancake. After a mix of butter, peanut butter, syrup, powdered sugar... He looked down at his creation and said, "Look, it's an extravaganza!" (He wants a dictionary for his birthday...)

Ruth turned four years old on March 5th. She had her first friends party and was allowed to invite four friends for her fourth birthday. She was so pumped. All day long whenever I would say her name, she'd correct me and say, "Call me 'Birthday Girl!'" Then when Crystal stopped by to visit, she asked Ruth who was coming to her party in the afternoon. Ruth's reply was, "Oh, my best friends!" When Crystal asked which friends, Ruth just shrugged! Ha. Best friends when you're four are apparently the ones who will run and play with you, whoever that may be! She did have her friends over and had a lovely "Sally" party! (From the Cars movie...)

Elijah is just cute, cute. Let me think of what he's done today... Heh. His latest word is, "Funny!" He says that all the time with a little throw back of his head and a big laugh. "Funny, Mommy!" Kevin taught him to say, "What'd you say?" And he says it really quick and cute. My favorite is when he says, "luf oo, too!" after we tell him we love him. If you ask him if he'd like to do something that he would like to do, he'll reply with a, "Yup!" He also can tell you what his name is if you ask, "What is your name?" He'll reply something like, "Zisha!" (Lijah.)

Our children.