A time apart...

Every now and again I take the kids down to my dad's for a few days to allow my husband some 'quiet time' at home.

The first time we did this, a couple of years ago, I dreaded the thought of being left alone with a 4 children under 5! But, it was something he needed, and as it ended up, something I needed as well!

In the past I have unintentionally depended on my husband way too much. He has been such an awesome help ever since number 1 entered the world. He does absolutely everything when it comes to babies and children (except clean up vomit!). I am so thankful for all that he does, I don't know how I would have coped without him!

But the balance between his work, family life, marriage, personal times etc. has been hard to work out and maintain, and this has overwhelmed us both at times. So our times away from each other have been so vital and necessary. Beneficial not only for us individually, but for the impact it has on our family.

The first time I left him at home alone, I had to depend totally and utterly on God to get me through. I wanted to give him that time alone, but I felt so inadequate and overwhelmed at the task of caring for our children all on my own.

But, thank God for weaknesses, as they cause me to run to Him, to depend upon Him, to find strength in Him alone, and at the end of the day, He ALWAYS hears me and pulls me through, victoriously and joyfully! Those few days ended up being so wonderful, and it was so freeing to know that I could do it on my own with His strength and grace. I really enjoyed the time with my kids and with my dad, it ended up being a wonderful time away.

So this week I am back here at my dad's enjoying a holiday away from my home! I actually have a project to complete while I am here, painting his office to accommodate more beds for when I invite all my friends over for sleepovers!

I am also enjoying time to spend with my kids, they are older now so I don't feel like I have to do as much for them. I cooked meals last night for us all, so I don't need to fuss about cooking, and it really doesn't matter if we spend the day in our pyjamas as we don't even really need to leave the house!

I love being at my dad's house, it brings back lots of wonderful memories. I love exploring in the garden, sitting by the pool, reading in the formal lounge, and the early nights!

I am looking forward to hearing all about the time my wonderful husband has spend on his own and with the Lord, and absence always makes the heart grow fonder!!

A donkey's back

This week we have decided to read portions of the Easter story to our children each night leading up to Easter and then have our children draw a picture of what happened in the reading. I hope to collect the drawings each night and put them together in a book with the readings alongside the pictures.

Tonight my husband read about Palm Sunday and Jesus' welcome into Jerusalem. As our children were busily drawing donkeys, my husband informed us that all donkeys have a cross on their back.

"Really?" I said, "Yes really, I will find you a picture on the Internet." He replied.

Well he found lots of pictures, none of which I can post here as they are copyright (so if you are interested google donkeys cross and check it out for yourself!).

I was completely shocked! I can't believe I have lived 33 years (almost 34!) without ever knowing donkeys have a cross on their back. I feel rather silly, because I guess that's the kind of information EVERYONE knows, but can I just say that it was such an amazing thing for me to learn about!

I still find it amazing every time I think about it. That an animal which led Jesus as a baby inside his mother's womb into Bethlehem and that led Him into Jerusalem, the City in which He would be crucified on a cross, had a cross on it's back!

After learning about this my children all put crosses on their donkey's backs!

God never ceases to amaze and wonder me!

An Incomprehensible vision of marriage

I have been reflecting upon two awesome pictures of marriage today. The first from Ephesians 5:22-32, the picture of marriage being like that of Christ and the church. Wives are to submit to their husbands, as to the Lord, as the church is subject to Christ. Husbands as the head of the wife are to love their wives and give themselves up for her as Christ have Himself up for the church.

The second picture I have been contemplating is the one found in Genesis 2:18-25, God makes a helper for the man, and the man says "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Verse 25 then says "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed".

I am trying to get my head around both these pictures of marriage, pictures that God has established and that He desires of marriage. In every day life what does it mean to submit to my husband as to the Lord, as the church submits to Christ, and what does it mean to become one flesh?

I love the word of God and I am excited about thrashing out these passages so much more so that I may have a better comprehension and understanding of God's desire for marriage.

These words from John Piper's book, This Momentary Marriage have also got me thinking.

"There has never been a generation whose general view of marriage is high enough. The chasm between biblical vision of marriage and the common human vision is now, and has always been, gargantuan......That was the case in Jesus' day as well. But ours is worse. When Jesus have a glimpse of the magnificent view of marriage that God willed for his people, the disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry" (Matt 19:10). In other words, Christ's vision of the meaning or marriage was so enormously different from the disciples', they could not even imagine it to be a good thing. That such a vision could be good news was simply outside their categories.

If that was the case then - in the sober, Jewish world in which they lived - how much more will the magnificence of marriage in the mind of God seem unintelligible in a modern Western culture, where the main idol is self; its main doctrine is autonomy; and its central act of worship is being entertained; and its three main shrines are the television, Internet and the cinema; and its most sacred genuflection is the uninhibited act of sexual intercourse. Such a culture will find the glory of marriage in the mind of Jesus virtually incomprehensible.

.....I mention this cultural distortion of marriage in the hopes that it might wake you up to consider a vision of marriage higher and deeper and stronger and more glorious than anything culture - or perhaps you yourself - ever imagined. The greatness and glory of marriage is beyond our ability to think or feel without divine revelation and without the illumining and awakening work of the Holy Spirit."

Two opportunities to share the gospel before 7am!

We get up early in our household, actually make that 5 out of 6 of us get up early!. By early I mean between 5 and 6 am. I am usually the first up, then the dog, then our youngest, and then the others start coming out anywhere from 6am onwards.

The other morning during my devotions I asked God to help me be patient, self controlled and unconditionally loving towards my family.

It didn't take long before He allowed an opportunity to answer my prayer! Before we got to the breakfast table (which is around 6:30am) I gave warnings to my son who was not responding to my answers with a 'happy heart!'. This attitude carried over to breakfast time and it wasn't long before he was sent to his room to think about how he was responding. During this time, I talked to him about his heart, in particular his selfishness, and I told how this was sin, and then reminded him why Jesus came and shared the gospel message with him.

In his book Shepherding a Child's heart Tedd Tripp writes,

You need to shepherd your children in the ways of God at all times. There is, however, no more powerful time to press the claims of the gospel than when your children are being confronted with their need of Christ's grace and power during discipline. When the wax is soft during discipline, the time is right to impress the glories of Christ's redemption.

The gospel message is so powerful and I need to recognise the many opportunities I have been given as a parent to present and impress this into the hearts of my children.

It was only minutes after I had spoken with my son that I had to take my 4 year old daughter into her room and talk to her about her disobedience, another opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ!

All this happened before 7am!

There is such joy in seeing selfish and disobedient hearts turned into ones that have been forgiven and restored.

Needless to say I was incredibly thankful to God for granting me the patience and self control I asked for!

Pumpkin soup and beef casserole

I love my slow cooker! I was thinking that today as I cut up some pumpkin to pop in my slow cooker for soup for tea tonight!

I don't know if anyone is interested but this is how I make pumpkin soup in my slow cooker.

1 butternut pumpkin
3-4 carrots (add more carrots if you want it sweeter)
1 onion
2-3 cups chicken stock

I just cut up the pumpkin, carrots and onions into cubes, and add around 2-3 cups of chicken stock, then put it on low and let it cook for the day. If you like chunky soup you can just mash it all up with a potato masher or if you like it smooth use a blender.

You can also put it on high for 3-4 hours, this always works well for us in Winter for Sunday lunch. I put it on around 8:30am Sunday morning and when we come back from church at around 12:30 its all cooked!

The other meal my husband in particular loves is a beef casserole.

500gms of diced beef
1 can tomato soup
Around cup beef stock

Put it all together in the slow cooker as is, no need to brown meat etc, and put it on low for the day. I was rather amazed at how much flavour the soup gave to the meat! You could eat this with rice, mashed potato or perhaps use the meat for a beef pie!

Scripture memory revived!

We have been rather neglectful with scripture memory in our household the past year. I'm not sure why I dropped it off, just got out of routine I think. But the past few weeks I have been resurrecting verses we have learned over the past few years, and I can't believe how awesome they have been.

I lent a chart called Wise Words for Moms by Ginger Plowman to a friend the other day. It identifies 22 behavior problems in children (such as disobeying, lying and tattling) and offers examples of Scripture passages that help address heart issues. I was going through it with my friend and I thought I hadn't used it very much, but upon review I realised how much I actually did use it in the past. A lot of what I say to my kids has come from suggestions from this chart. In particular we have learned a lot of the verses she refers to.

Seeing this again inspired me to get my kids back into scripture memory, not just so they can rattle off a bunch of verses to sound 'spiritual' but so that they can hide it in their heart and for it to help formulate their way of thinking about how they should respond to their day to day events.

I mostly did it with my older two kids who are 7 and 5 now and they remember parts of the verses, but the younger two never really got into it, they are 4 and 2 and 1/2 now. In the past I use to sit them down before going out in the morning and do a devotion and go over a memory verse together, but now I have just put them at the dinner table and try to integrate them into our conversation at the table. I try to pull the verse to bits and get them to really think about what it means and how they can apply it. I love being able to bring things back to the word of God.

We are reviewing Ephesians 4:29 at the moment,

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

This verse has been great because when they talk unkindly or rudely to each other, I remind them of this verse and ask if unwholesome talk is coming out of their mouth, and encourage them to think of words that are helpful and that will build the other one up.

It's a huge challenge for me as well, I love the power of scripture, it cuts so deep into the heart!

Mice......!

We have had mice trouble in our bin and pantry area, its been going on for a while now, but we have been too slack to put out traps to try and stop them. Our cat sits diligently in the kitchen every night awaiting a capture, but she has yet been successful!

The other night during dinner I opened the pantry door to get some ingredients for butterscotch pudding when I saw a grey flash, I asked my husband to come and see if it was a mouse. He pulled out everything and there it was trapped and staring at us! Not for long though, it suddenly dashed off and out of sight. We dragged everything out, but we couldn't find it. We set a trap that night, but he didn't fall for it!

Two days later on my husbands day off I did a small grocery shop. We had a nice morning, went for coffee, browsed around Big W and finally into Woolies. The checkout lady was scanning items and packing items into my reusable shopping bags. She opened one and she looked down and said in a very calm voice "Oh", I thought there might have been a spider in there, she said "It's a mouse!" The mouse then jumped out of the bag, ran under her checkout then under the checkout next door. That checkout lady said, "I think I stepped on it, someone come and take it away, I don't want to look!".

So I sent my husband over to have a look and get rid of the mess!

It all happened very quick and we were all a bit shocked by it all! I felt rather embarrassed that the mouse had come from my shopping bags but I was very glad that it was stepped on so it didn't 'freak out' any other shoppers or checkout ladies!

I am so thankful for a very calm checkout lady, she said she would have been more bothered by a spider than a mouse, I am so glad she didn't scream, and for my husband who got rid of the squished mouse!

Upon reflection I can't believe that I had spent the past 1 and 1/2 hours carrying those shopping bags around, for coffee and all around the shops, and I am glad we finally found where that mouse got to!

And just so you know we still haven't got rid of the mice, so far I know of two that have died, and there is still evidence of more in the house! My oldest wants to keep one as a pet.....maybe not!