Deep breath

I can finally breath again. What an amazing weekend. I don't even know where to begin..........72 women....Beth Moore.....God just kept giving me such overwhelming love for every woman I talked to, so crazy cause I usually am not that full of compassion, but man, this weekend I was overwhelmed with it. So, God totally showed up, I feel like this weekend was just a start to something so much bigger, there were connections, breakthroughs, healings, walls broken down, shopping, good food, MAFIA, games......everything went so great. I think we will do it again there next year, but with 100 women (but I don't even want to think about it till September)......

Here are some pics:

Me and my girls :0)

Henna in the Spirit

Amazing worship, Thank you Jenna!

Not So Simple Life Anymore......

We're back. I have mixed emotions about it. I loved living simply. No TV, no internet, no cell phone. I liked just being at night with Sean after the kids went to bed.....hanging out playing games, reading books, talking......not having to keep up with all the TV shows, blogging, emails, myspace, facebook......but all good things must come to an end. We have TV back and cable, and DVR now, which I must admit is crazy addicting and pretty nice......we got a camera, which was the biggest part for me, not having anything to record my family was pretty disturbing. And now Internet.....which I was totally fine before not having, but now that we do, its nice just being able to shoot someone an email, or look up a question I have on ask.com, or once again spend time browsing through craigslist looking for that perfect something that we don't need.......

Anyway, Life is pretty crazy right now.....I feel like all of a sudden my life has doubled now that Ryder is crawling. Up until a month ago it was pretty easy having three kids, Ryder is the worlds perfect baby, he would just sit or lay there playing for hours, never complaining...but now.....oh man.....he's constant.....into the trash, into the toilet, drawers, cupboards, books, vases, candles, trash again, back to toilet.......the boy never stops....so yes, i officially have three kids. So trying to keep on him, a sink full of dishes, toys scattered everywhere, spills, trash can being dumped over, mud being tracked in from the dog, a constant 10 loads of laundry, oh yah, and planning a womans retreat, I feel like i want to go crawl in a hole and sleep for days.......but then absolutely nothing would get accomplished........

Super stoked for the retreat though, its tomorrow......its going to be amazing. I have such an amazing team of women that have just been so amazing.....God has been preparing me and I know so many other women for so much connection and vulnerability this weekend. I can't wait to see how He works and I am so humble to be a part of it. The weekend is going to be about Loving Well....couldn't be a more perfect title for what He's been preparing in the hearts of so many women at the Stirring. So thats pretty much my life right now.....

Good to be back.......

here's some updated pics of the fam.....

SImple

So awesome on Sunday....We started a new series, Simple...so great. Came home, woke up Monday and canceled EVERYTHING. Cable, internet, cell phone (soon).......can't wait to find a rythm and balance and get out of everything always being so busy and so crazy......why does that have to be the norm? Its like if you aren't crazy and busy all the time, you are a loser......I am so sick of hearing those words. Getting into a simpler life is so exciting for Sean and I, its so freeing for me. I am learning what it looks like to live in a rythm of being more purposeful in my days, not getting so dissensitized (wow, biggest word i've ever used) by the TV every night, and getting out of the habit of the kids watching so much TV through the day.....I am so excited. I want my kids to see what it looks like to not be running around crazy all the time, to take time to take clothes to Foster kids who have nothing, to take soup to the hungry, to give what we have, not constantly seeing what THEY don't have and wanting more for themselves....consumerism.
The Stirring is moving in a direction. We are traveling together towards a goal.....to live like Jesus lived. I see this happening. I see us living life out together week after week. Not just on Sundays, but all week long. I love it. I love what God is doing through our Pastors and doing through our community......

p.s. thank goodness for Mom and Dads computer and the computers at the library :)

Electonically handicapped

Sean and I have some kind of negative energy flowing through us that whatever we have electronically.....it breaks. Always. Never fails. We get something new, breaks. Got a new camera 2 years ago....breaks, got another new one last Thanksgiving, a month ago, broke.....super random. Turned it on, it popped and that was it, no fixing it, have to buy a whole new one completely. So thats just Cameras. Had a laptop, water spilled on it, broke (I blogged about that one). Got a Mac computer from Patrick.....broke. Then TJ hooked us up with an amazing new lap-top....broke. We are just not electonic people.......I don't know whats going on......

Beautiful

Last weekend got away on the Staff Retreat, got some much needed rest, time with God, prayer, time with my friends, mafia, great food (thanks babe).....so so great!

Came home Saturday and rested some more, hung with Sean and the kids, made hot chocolate and popcorn and played games and watched movies in the crazy thunderstorm......great family night.

Sunday morning went to church and had a ginormous lump in my throat and tears in my eyes from Nates amazing message. My heart goes out to our women!! God wants you to know (women) that you are beautiful! The lies that Satan is feeding us are WRONG......Satan hates us. he sees our beauty, and he hates it. It makes me sick. It makes me sad. We, as women, are being lied to, we are buying the lie, and living it out. We are insicure, hating our bodies, our own skin.....doing anything to cover up and distort the body we have for what our society and media make beautiful out to be. But God is sick of it, He has had enough, He wants us to know that He is right here breathing Life and Beauty into our souls. Stop turning to men, to sex, the world, to get the approval we so desperately seek. God is waiting, arms stretched out and open, longing for us to turn to Him. "God, am I beautiful?", "Yes, my daughter, I created you, I made every pore, every shape, every curve...and YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL"

VIsion

Saturday night I went to bed....and layed there wide awake, a thousand things going through my head.....I got a clear vision of all us Moms surrouding all our kids and praying over them...and i was like, okay God, really? and He was like, Yep. So then I layed there trying to figure out how in the world that would work with 15 of us moms and 25 plus kids. Really happening. So Tuesday rolls around and we meet here at our house. 13 moms show up, and a ton of kids....we made it work, it ended up being so amazing. The verse that Nate used a couple weeks ago during the Sexy Elephant was really sticking out in my head from Deut. Loving the Lord our God with everything in us, having these commandments ON our hearts, "Impressing them on your children. Talk about them when you are sitting at home and when you are walking along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads...."
Anyway, it is so important for us as parents to not lose sight of this. To realize that these kids are our disciples, they are our priority right now. Its so easy to get caught up in looking out into the world to find our ministry, but the problem with that is that we miss whats going on right underneath our noses. I am speaking mainly to myself. I find myself getting so caught up in busyness of my life and going here and doing this and that that I don't take the time to mold my own kids. It makes me sick to my stomach. Its such a wake up call to me. Praying with all my friends the other day for their families and thier kids was so great for me. I loved that Caleb got to see what we were doing and all the kids got to see that we pray for them...not just before bed, or on the way to school, or when one of them has an owie or is sick or scared, but we do it together. We are molding our children. I can't wait to see our group and our children in 10, 15 years and see where we are and watch how our prayers for them has shaped them. I want to do this more. I want to surround our kids and pray. I know this is Gods heart for us. I am so excited as we build this foundation, for ourselves, and for our children.

Wallpaper

This has been me all day......removing the nasty old dirty wallpaper from our back bathroom......which at first I was like ugghhhh, it takes forever to soak it down strip off the paper, soak it again and peel off the glue.....but once i got into it, it was kinda fun. I LOVE picking things....anything...its kinda a gross fascination for me; picking pimples, dead skin, peeling skin, my kids' and seans pimples...i just can't handle it, once i see it I'm obsessed....its bad. Well peeling the glue off the walls was kinda like peeling sun-burnt skin......thus equalled me enjoying it.....i know i know, gross....but thats me.....Sean gets really annoyed with me constantly picking at him, so its been fun having something to funel my picking towards.....