Where have you been all my life?

I love makeup.  Seriously, the other day Caris told me I should buy one makeup per day because it makes me so happy.  If I could I sure would!!

I also love learning about makeup.  I watch youtube videos about it, read magazine articles, whatever.  In my makeup meanderings, I kept coming across cream blush.  I always ignored anything to do with any sort of cream makeup, because I cannot STAND the feeling of something sticky or slimy on my face.  I just kept imagining cream blush feeling like a thick lotion on my skin, and the thought - gross!

But.  Maybelline Dream Mousse Blush (no, I am NOT being paid to say this ROFL) kept coming up so many times.  And the final straw was a video that showed a girl putting on her cream blush with a regular makeup brush.  Seriously?  I don't have to put it on with my fingers?  I always thought cream blush definitely had to be applied with fingers.

So I caved.  And I went straight home, reapplied my powder, and brushed on my new cream blush. 

:::beautiful harmonious Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh::::::::::

I love it!!  It does NOT feel thick or greasy or anything like that.  In fact, it feels just like powder once it's on.  And it blends so pretty and natural and looks so dewy and fresh, even on my 35-year-old skin, and I looove you cream blush!!

Bible in 90 Days

Just my weekly check-in: I'm all up to date on my reading!  Praise be to God! 

And I'm sooooo happy to have moved from Leviticus and Numbers into Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel - ohhh the stories are so rich!  Our God is so compassionate and awesome and wow - the Word is just so alive!

 Join in!

Bible in 90 Days

You're Invited!

Who: Anyone!  Whether you've read through the Bible many times before or have never opened one in your life.

What:  Read through the Bible, word by word, in its entirety, in 90 days.

When:  I thought it would be a challenge to fit in the reading, but I have found ways to work it in to my day.  Some days I read right when I wake up, especially if I'm awake before the rest of my clan.  Right now I read during my kids' swim lessons, and despite the interruptions I do get quite a bit read during that time.  I read during my kids' quiet time, here and there during the afternoon, and if I haven't finished before bedtime I'll read in bed.

Where:  I think taking my Bible with me and reading it when I'm out and about could be a great springboard for discussion.  Plus, it makes me conscious of how I am carrying myself.  Am I smiling at people?  Talking gently to my children?  Being polite to others?  Good things to be thinking about always but with a Bible in my hand, I feel extra compelled to be a loving person.

How:  Start here.  This site has great information, support and encouragement (not to mention personal mentors!).

This is the first time I'm posting a check-in post.  I started four days late and I have to tell you, catching up was a bear.  I really wanted to be at the same place as the others on the blog I posted above, so I did want to catch up.  Now that I'm caught up, the daily reading is really manageable.  I certainly have to be intentional about it, but I don't feel overwhelmed by it.

So far the biggest theme for me has been that we serve a mighty and powerful God.  A lot of what I'm reading right now - Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy - is repetitive, full of customs and laws and numbers and well, to be honest it's just plain hard to read some of it.  I have been keeping two things in mind as I read through this part of the Bible.  First, that I think it will be so cool when I am in Heaven and I can actually talk to the people I've been reading about.  Some names are only mentioned a few times, but I bet bet BET their stories are SO compelling!  Like what about the 5 sisters asking for land so their father's name didn't die out?  Can't wait to talk to THEM!  There's just only so much in the Bible about each person, each family, and it will be awesome to see it all fleshed out and know the full story.  Second, I was thinking about my kids' sports.  If I listened to someone tell the story of a game, it would be mostly boring with some exciting highlights.  But would I rather they just say, "We won 5 to 4."  Heck no, I want to know every detail!  It might take a while to hear it all, and I might get bored or aggravated during some parts of the story, but at the end of the day I'd rather know the details than just the bottom line.  It's kind of like that in these parts of the Bible.  I NEED to know the names, the genealogies, the numbers, the laws.  It all paints a picture of who God is, who we are as His people, and the path we traveled to meet our Savior.  It might be tedious to get through, but I want to know it anyway.

See you next Monday, Bible in 90 Days friends!

VBS 2010

VBS is intense.  I always help in the music room, so there are months of preparation, which really boil down to mad cramming the night before from Sunday through Thursday nights.  Each day we teach the kids 1-3 new songs and each song has motions, so it's just a lot to learn.  And a lot to DO all week.  It's very taxing physically.

But oh, friends.  There is no bigger blessing.  The music is all designed to cement God's Word in little hearts, to reinforce the lessons they are learning in story time, memory verse, all the various stations they rotate through during the morning.  And there is just nothing sweeter than children's voices singing God's Word, proclaiming their love for Him.  I am not even kidding when I say that I tear up every single day of VBS.  Sometimes many times during the day.  I am so incredibly thankful for the opportunity to minister to our little ones, but even more thankful for the way they minister to ME.  It's a spiritual refilling every time.

It was Canaan's 1st year being in a real, full-blown group that cycled full-time through all the stations.  He did great and loved every bit of it!  Graham's going into 5th grade, so he only has one more year as a VBS student after this year.  Caris is smack-dab in the middle of things as a 2nd grader.  And Malachi, my awesome 7th-grader, was a small group leader for the first time.  He said, "they are really fun.  And really tiring."  Indeed, he napped several days that week.  Those leaders work hard!

On Friday evening we have a program so the kids' families can all come and watch them sing their songs, say their verses, recap the stories they learned - it's such a sweet thing!

My camera has a crazy psycho flash so Canaan looks horrified, but he LOVED his leaders Grace and Christian.

This is not Graham being bored.  It's Graham being uncomfortable.  But even still, he sang and did the motions, when is a HUGE leap from just a couple years ago!

Daddy's Special Touch

When I put omelets on the menu for our Sunday morning breakfast, I feel a little guilty.  Because you know what actually happens? 

1) I make ugly omelets that fall apart and just don't look right at all
2) I give up on omelets and just make an egg scramble
or, most commonly,
3) Alif takes over for me

He has a cute, funny, OCD way of doing things:

 But his omelets are delicious.  And gorgeous.

When I make the omelets, or the I-gave-up-egg-scrambles, we all eat them and enjoy them and it's fine.  But a beautiful omelet no one can resist.

So it had to be documented, even if Alif thinks I'm a little goofy for doing so.

Tooth Trauma

Saturday night was girls' night at Lynette's, and I looked forward to it all week.  I packed up my crafts and started to get ready to go.  The kids asked if they could walk across the street (to my in-laws', where Daddy was waiting for them to come eat dinner) and I said that they sure could.  

A few minutes later Alif knocked at the bathroom door and said, "Your son smashed his mouth.  Can you come help him?"  I rolled my eyes and said, "I'm in the bathroom, Alif.  Can you help him?"  I gathered a wet washcloth and headed out to the dining room to see what was going on, expecting to see a bunch of blood trailing from a busted lip.  I'm very experienced in busted lips.  They hardly even faze me.

But there was no blood.  There was Malachi, sitting calmly in a dining room chair with his hand covering his mouth.  Alif was sitting in another chair, facing Malachi directly.  He said, "Show your Mom your mouth."  Oh dear, please not his teeth.  Please not his . . . oh.  Oh no.

Ohhhh NO.  Thankfully, I kept myself calm.  I asked if it hurt and he said it hurt a little bit.  I told him I'd put a call in to the dentist and then give him some medicine.  I reached the dentist's office's answering service, gave them our information, and they said a dentist would be calling me shortly.  I gave Malachi some Motrin and suggested he put on a movie to keep his mind off things while we waited for the dentist to call back.  I texted Lynette to tell her what was going on, and marveled that Malachi wasn't crying.  Meanwhile, Alif gathered the tooth fragments and put them in milk.

In the next hour and a half, there was a lot of telephone and Facebook drama, but it basically boiled down to:
~my own dentist was completely unwilling to do anything except send us to the ER and/or call in a prescription.  Fury ensued.
~friends recommended a local pediatric dentist
~talked to said dentist.  Personally.  Immediately, the first time I called.
~told the dentist what had happened to the tooth, and also that Malachi was scheduled to leave for camp the next morning.
~Mr. Wonderful agreed to meet us at his office in 20 minutes

Dr. S was absolutely amazing.  He knew exactly how to relate to Malachi.  He understood the importance of a 7th grader's church camp experience and how sucky-suckfest it would be to go to camp with a tooth broken half off.  He *fixed the tooth*.  Because the root was showing, he had to do a pulpotomy, and because Daddy was a genius, he was able to use part of Malachi's tooth fragments to fix the tooth. 

It doesn't look perfect, but look!  He has both front teeth!  He wasn't in pain at all on Sunday morning and was so happy to be able to go to camp withOUT a broken front tooth.  Of course there were explicit instructions to not bite into anything hard, which I basically translated as just don't bite into anything.  I told him to cut things up and eat them that way rather than risk something happening to that tooth while he's at camp.

So.  Broken teeth are a huge bummer, awesome dentists are a huge blessing, and I am one thankful Mommy - that it wasn't worse than it was and that in the end he received some really great care.  By the way, Dr. S's office called first thing to check on Malachi.  My own dentist's office?  Not so much. 

The Fear of Not Finishing

I've always been a great starter.  If you need an idea, a kick-start, I'm your gal. 

I've *never* been a good finisher.  I gogogogogo and then STOP HARD.

You can only imagine the bunches of arenas this causes problems in . . .
my weight
my homemaking
homeschooling
etc.

I am seriously gung-ho when it comes to all of these things.  I have tables, lists, books, websites, notes, any manner of preparation and planning down  100%.  I am really good at follow-through for a length of time.  An hour, a day, a month - but eventually, I peter out.

What is the remedy?  Seeking my all-knowing God and asking Him to guide my steps?  Settling for less than my best and doing things just ok?  Giving up altogether and living a mediocre life?  Hmm.  Thoughts welcome, especially from you Finishers!