New Trainee

Did you hear that the O house has another Proverbs 31 woman in training???

And she is learning so quickly!!!

I Will Not Forget

Do you ever take pictures in your mind? Do you have those moments that are some how etched in like it was just yesterday? Maybe it's a smell, a song, or a picture that can take you to a moment in the past. I like to take pictures...in my mind. Over the years the Lord has led me to take pictures of some things and I have no idea why. But lately some of that is starting to make sense.

Many times the things the Lord has me take mental pictures of involves being a wife or a mother. I just had one of those experiences this past weekend. We were out of town. We had been in the car for about four hours with 90 minutes of that being parked while doing school in the van. The kids did well. There had been a couple of incidents but overall things were good. We decided to go out for dinner and after a 20 minute wait we were seated. We picked Mexican since we know never-ending chips from the get go is always great when dining with 3 hungry, tired kids. Once the food came H decided she wanted my meal and did not want her chips and the little bit of rice and beans I had given her. She continued to shriek at the top of her lungs and throw her chips on the floor. Now those of you who know H are probably thinking I'm lying right now since 95% of the time she is this cute little angel. Well she has definitely found her opinion and while she doesn't show it much, when she does you better watch out. I was trying to get her calmed down but at the same time had to discipline her. Across from me there was a woman who I'm guessing was out with her husband while all of her teenagers were at their activities for the night. She had such a look of annoyance on her face that I just wanted to crawl under the table. I finally picked up H and took her outside for a walk. The Lord had me take a picture.

I never want to forget what it is like. When all of my kids are grown and out of the house how am I going to encourage younger women if I have no recollection of life with small children? This is the Titus 2 calling.

Wisdom in the Place Where You Are

So I have already posted about our trip this past weekend but wanted to share another incident that happened. So J had a business meeting on Friday which meant that we HAD to leave the house at noon. Lately we have adopted an attitude about traveling that we will do our best but we aren't going to rush around and get all crazy to leave by a certain time when it really doesn't matter. OK so the going crazy part is mostly on my end but in the last few months I've really learned how to relax, slow down, and look to the Lord for Wisdom on how to get everything done. Well this trip was going to be different since we had something scheduled and the fact that it was business related put an even more urgent feeling on our departure time. Did I mention we decided to make this an overnight trip just the night before? I woke up early and went to work. At one point I really thought I was trying to accomplish the impossible but after a quick prayer and a little more work everything came together and I had all three kids in the car when J pulled in and we left less than 10 minutes later.

The trip went well and we reached the meeting 15 minutes early. While J went to his meeting I planned on doing school in the car with the kids. J thought the meeting would be about an hour and a half and while I knew this was going to be a stretch for all three kids I thought we could swing it. The first hour went well and we were very productive. During the next hour things turned a little hairy as the kids were tired and their allergies were going crazy since we were surrounded by blooming dogwood trees. At one point H was crying, L was whining because she was bored, B was not wanting to do his math, and I was using every fiber of my being to stay patient. I prayed, or more like pleaded with the Lord to help everyone calm down. H and L both fell asleep and B finished his math now that all was quiet. After B finished he read some books and L joined him when she woke up. Things started going south again so I started reading a book to them and prayed that J would come out before I finished. He was knocking on the window by page 3. Once J was back in the car I looked at the clock and we had made it through a 3 HOUR meeting!!! I couldn't have done it without the Lord!!! Lately I've been learning to lean on the Lord in the smallest of smallest things. God's wisdom isn't just for those huge decisions but also for the little things. He will always give you wisdom in the place where you are. Even in a Honda Odyssey with 3 kids for 3 hours.