.:: Reflections on Life::.

          A horribly tragic thing happened early this morning to one of our church families. They lost their youngest son in a freak car accident. I have been grieving for and with them all day long. It is an awesome thing to be a part of a family that can come up and surround each other in times of mourning. I am in awe of the amount of love and support one receives when they go through a difficult time. I don’t know what we would do if we didn’t have our Christian brothers and sisters to lean on and to talk to. I am reminded of the old Swedish Proverb: “Shared joy is double joy. Shared sorrow is half the sorrow.” It’s such an awesome thing to see the family of God come together to support those who are hurting and in pain.

            God reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 that there is a time and a purpose for everything. He reminds us that nothing that happens in this universe happens by chance, but for a specific reason that our feeble minds cannot and will not comprehend until we reach Heaven. The good news is that we serve an amazing God; A God that does not make mistakes. We serve a God that we can trust with our lives, our children’s lives, and in every situation that we will ever encounter. Even though we do not always see the big picture and cannot understand his motives in things, we can trust that God has a plan in this situation and in every situation. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has plans for our welfare and not for harm, plans for a future and hope. Even though tragic things happen, we can trust that God is in control. He knows what he is doing.

            Knowing that these things happen, it makes me want to shelter my boys; to not let them out of my sight, to protect them from all of the evils that the world has coming at them. But by doing that, I would be telling God that He is not enough. That He doesn’t have the best in store for their lives, and that I can protect them better than He can. One of the ultimate insults to the God that created the universe and within that, created life, is to assume that He doesn’t know what He is doing, and that you can do it (whatever that ‘it’ is for you, whether it is protecting your children, providing for your family, making plans for the future, etc.) better than He can. The worst thing that could ever happen is for you to deny God’s power to the point that He gives you the freedom to experience what would happen if you really did do things for yourself. Not only would you fail at whatever you were trying to accomplish, but without God in the midst of your life, your whole world would begin to unravel. Slowly, inch by inch, moment by moment, day by day.

            So to you, Clark Family, my hope and prayer is that through this horrific accident, through this dark moment in your life, that you would not focus on the darkness, but that you would be surrounded by God’s people and see God’s light shining through others. That the love of God pouring out through your family, friends, neighbors, and church family would fill your heart with so much love that you can rejoice with the Angels that Connor is Home. Let us not forget that in all things, in all situations, God calls us to praise Him (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  

             The song 'Praise You In This Storm' by Casting Crowns has gotten me through some rough times, and reminded me to Praise God through the storms so that I could Praise Him when times are good. It also reminded me that God sees each tear that we cry. He shares our pain. He knows exactly what you are going through because he, too, has lost a Son. But in the midst of our pain, He is there, waiting to carry us through the storms and trials of life, if only we let him. Such a powerful song for those who are hurting. My thoughts, tears, and prayers are with you, Clark Family, in this difficult time.

.::Five things I swore I'd never do as a Mom::.

5 Things I swore that I’d never do as a mom…

1. Spit-clean my kid’s faces. When my boys were younger, I carried baby wipes. I used those for everything. Wiping butts, cleaning sticky hands, wiping filthy faces, wiping gunk off of tables, etc. Now that the boys are older and not in diapers, I don’t carry baby wipes with me everywhere. It makes it really inconvenient to clean their faces when there is nothing around to do it with. But something I always carry with me… Mom spit. It has healing powers.  It can clean faces, boo-boos, sanitize candies and binkies that were dropped on the floor and has many more uses. They should bottle it and sell it in stores. Maybe not. That’s kind of gross, but you get the point.

   

2. Buy them character tees / shoes / light up shoes. I swore I would NOT be that mom who buys their child character tees, light up shoes, etc. It just reminds me of the thrift store clothing, those kids whose hair is always a mess, with layers of dirt on their face (their mom is obviously in need of some major mom spit). It’s hard to resist buying them those things, though. Why do kids have to be SO DARN CUTE?!?!? It’s hard to say no to those faces, especially when we know that the blinky shoes will make them run like Dash from The Incredibles, and that shirt with Phineas and Ferb’s face on it will make them the envy of their entire class at school. Oh, the ideals we sacrifice for our children.

  

3. Binkies. My children would never use a Binky. And I would never call them Binkies. Those things are more addictive than cocaine…. I’ve heard. I always pictured those 5 year olds you see walking around with a binky and a bottle. But then I had Christopher. He was a colic-y baby. He screamed all the time. I got no sleep unless I was holding him. It was as if he was a mind reader. As soon as I even thought about putting him down, he would wake up screaming. Enter the binky. Put that magic device in his mouth, and….. *hear that??* Silence!! It’s a mute button for babies. I will never again judge someone for giving their child a binky. Well, maybe only if the child is 5 years old… Then they’ve got bigger fish to fry than their 5 year old with a binky.  

4. Guns. I didn’t want to be the mom whose kids are constantly shooting guns. But they’re boys. Isn’t that what boys are supposed to do? And think back to the good old days when we played cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers and superheroes. Enter Nerf guns. They can’t hurt anything, right? Then enter a step-dad who shoots guns…. Then we get conversations like this between Christopher and a girl in his class at school. She was sad because they had baby chicks, but rats got to them and killed them. Christopher’s response to this poor girl? “What am I supposed to do about it? I can’t do anything. But maybe Eric can. He’s got guns. He can shoot the rats.” *Sigh* I think I’ve lost this battle.

5. Be the enforcer.  I was never going to be THAT MOM that would discipline other people’s children. After all, that was their job, right? But then I became a mom. That changed everything. After all, the safety of my kids is at stake when other people’s children misbehave, right? Ugh. The other day as I was picking Christopher up from school there were some boys that were messing with a bush full of wasps. Of course, I watched for a little bit, not saying anything. Looking to my right, I see a mom with a young child in a stroller standing on the other side of the bush. Then it kicks in. The Enforcer. To the rescue. Walking over, in my meanest teacher voice, I told them that wasps are dangerous and there are other people around that could get hurt because of their stupidity and they needed to get away from that bush NOW. Well, maybe I didn’t put it exactly like that. I know that kids do stupid things, it’s because their pre-frontal cortex isn’t developed enough yet (sorry, masters class vomit) but the least us moms can do is to keep our kids… and whoever else is in listening range… from doing anything life threatening.

.::Baptism::.

"We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." Romans 6:4


Eric was baptized on May 1, 2011. It was such a special day for him. I am so proud of him and the fact that he wants to be a leader, not only for the boys, but also in our marriage. He wants to be a Godly example to our family, and I am SO happy that God has placed him in our lives. We are looking forward to seeing where God leads us in the future.



What a great day! We are so proud of Eric, and all that he has done for our family.





.::Easter::.

We had an awesome Easter celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. This year, the boys are getting old enough that we really tried to focus more on the real meaning of Easter and less on the Easter Bunny. It was awesome to do things like tell the Easter Story through objects in plastic Easter eggs, and making resurrection rolls for breakfast Sunday morning. It was a memorable Easter for sure, and I look forward to seeing how these new family traditions take root and impact the boys as they get older. With that, here is a photo journey of our Easter.



Well, this is is not part of OUR Easter, but it is good to remember the reason that we celebrate this holiday.

What a great Easter. It was definitely memorable and probably one of my favorite Easters ever. We had a blast celebrating with our family.



.::Monster Trucks and Memories::.

It was about one year ago that it happened. Eric and I met, we started dating, and we became a family. The boys took to Eric like a women having PMS takes to chocolate. Um... maybe that wasn't the best example, but you get the idea. Anyway, our first "date" as a family was to take the boys to see the Monster Trucks at the Save Mart Center in Fresno. The boys had a blast. It was definately a special day that we will always remember. To celebrate our one year anniversary as a family, we decided to suprise the boys again and take them to see the monster trucks again. We had so much fun, and are looking forward to spending many more years together. Here are some pictures of our day.

So as I was posting these pictures, I realized that something happened to the picture that I took of the boys before the show... We suprised them with Monster Truck toys. I'm really bummed that I lost that picture, but we will always have the memories, right?!?

.::God's Artwork::.

Took this picture a couple weeks ago. I love sunsets. They always remind me how great our God is. It amazes me that people can see things like this and still not believe in God. How awesome is our God that he creates masterpieces in the sky for us each and every night? What a wonderful and powerful God we serve. I am constantly in awe of Him and His creation. It takes my breath away that God created the entire universe -- beyond anything the human eye has ever seen or imagined, yet he loves ME (and you) enough to sacrifice his own Son for. Wow. I am not so worthy. Yet He believes that I am. Amazing.  

.::MOPS Outing::.

I am so lucky to be able to be home this year so that I can spend some time with Caiden. I get to go to Women's bible study, and MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). It has been a great year, one that I will always look back on with fondness. I am so lucky to have had this time, and am enjoying every day until I have to go back to work. My MOPS group went to a fire station where one of the Ladies husband, Curtis Mueller, works. We had a great time, and I look forward to doing more things with these ladies.

Mr. Mueller talking about parts of the firetruck right before....

They got a call!! They got 3 calls during the time that we were there, and had to leave.

One of the only fire poles left in Visalia

Caiden was being a turd and didn't want to smile for the camera.

                                                            Caiden playing with Emily and Jake

Such a handsome boy!

So this started out... "So do you guys like to do arts and crafts with paper and scissors? This is our version of arts and crafts. This can cut a car in half !!" So funny!

In full garb

Talking to the kiddos telling them not to be scared if firemen come to their door.



 Caiden got to drive the firetruck!



Thanks to the people at the Visalia Fire Department for letting us come and learn about fire safety!