summer coming to and end.... school about to begin

Well we have had a very long, but good eventful summer. Mario and Maya went to summer camp with our church. They had a blast! They've been to the Aquarium, Children's Museum, Space Center, and lots of swimmimg. Most of this provided through our church called Adventure Days. The cost is more reasonable with a group. Anyway, lots of fun but I have felt like we have not stopped to take a breath at all in the past 3 months. Now school is about to start again. More busy, busy days. As you know we are homeschoolers, this year I have dedcided to put my 4 year old in pre-k. I feel I can only do so much, and he is very demanding of my time. He will love the play time at school. So we will pretty much follow the schools schedule so when he's home they are off that day also. He will more than likely only go this year, but we'll see maybe kinder also. Depends on how things are working all together. So now that he's registered time to work on school supplies and glasses. He has really bad eye sight so he will need them. My older children are very excited about their currriculum this year, they were ready to start monday. Another year and more busy, busy, busy days.

Falling in Love

RecentlyI read the 'Redeeming Love' by Francine Rivers and absolutely loved it. Its been about 3 weeks now since I finished and I still think about it. But not just because how wonderful the story is, but more because God has been dealing with my heart. At first it really stood out to me that the character Michael Hosea heard God so clearly, he could be plowing a field, or sitting quiet in his home, he heard the Lord when he spoke. So, this played in mind a lot. I feel as though I am so distracted by all the noise around me and the things I have to do on a daily basis, that I'm never quiet enough to hear Him the way I would like to. So that was the first thing that arose in my heart. For all of you that don't know, Redeeming love is based on the book of Hosea in the bible, when God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute. He wanted to show Israel how they had been treating God. God had rescued them time and time again, they would still run back to things that in the end destroy them. Thats exactly what this woman did, her husband loved and lavished good gifts on her and she would run back to prostitution. Obviously it was not that she loved that way of life, but that she was afraid and didn't know what to do with the love she was being given. She didn't feel she deserved it with the past she had. So at some point the character in the book that represents Hosea is breaking through some of her walls, and she wants to truly love him back, she wants to fall in love and truly trust him.
It took me a couple of weeks to realize I was so much like the woman in this story. I'm afraid of intimacy, getting alone and quiet freaks me out to a certain degree, but I know that great things come out of that. So Sunday morning at church God was dealing with my heart again, I started telling Him I love him, but how much? I want to fall in love and trust him 100% with every area of my life. So that night I shared with Mario what had happened and he said "you do love him its just like a marriage", when he said that the Lord opened my eyes and I knew what the Lord was telling me. When we get married we love the person we are saying are vows to. They captured our hearts and captivated us with their love, so we decide to give them our hearts and walk this journey called life with them. But we did love them then the way we love them now. Today 10 years later I am IN LOVE with my husband. We've made it through some really difficult times and have grown together so much. We have gotten to know one anothers heart and trust each other fully. It is the same with God. When we got saved he had captured our hearts and we were captivted by His love, but it takes years of walking beside Him and being quiet and alone with Him to truly love Him and trust Him. One of the greatest things I have learned about Him, is he is a gentleman he will not force you into place you are not ready to go. He calls for you to come sit and get to know his heart, His plans are always good, and his love is tener and healing for all the hurts that have been done to us and that we have done to others. I'm so glad he is patient. He has all the time in the world and wants nothing more than to walk this life with us. I hope this encourages all who read this. God is not mad or disappointed he knows us better than we will ever know ourselves. If we will just come He will do the rest.

"THE TALK" part 2

So, I sat down with Mario and had that heart to heart. For all you wondering why didn't Mario handle this one, he really wanted to but little mario wouldn't let him. He has always talked to me and he wanted me to do this. I did let him know when he has questions about his body changing and other things like that, he needs to go to dad. Anyway, so we had the talk, and it went really well, I was very brief and g-rated about the initial act, and spent a little more time on him respecting other girls. I told him that each girl is a gift to the man God has for her, and the the same for the man, he is a gift to her. If she is not the one God is giving him he does not touch for she is a special jewel for someone else. He also is a rare jewel for his wife one day, and the girls should have the same respect. I also pointed out that this is why homosexuality is wrong, they don't fit the way God intended, like puzzle pieces, Kelly helped me with that one. She had a lot of good advice. I love when there are people that have gone before you, so they can encourage and give pointers where you may be a little confused. So, all in all it went really well. He accepted it well, he really didn't have any questions....yet. He seemed like he was a little relieved to know, I think his mind was working overtime to figure this out. One down, 5 more to tell...eventually.

"THE TALK"

I know its been awhile since I've updated my blog, we didn't have internet for about a month. So I decided to fill everyone in with the newest thing going on in our lives, or mine more specifically. My oldest child Mario, who is 9 is ready for the, "the talk". You know the infamous talk you know is one day coming. Now I'm cool with doing this, but I'm also very sad. Its another milestone telling me he's growing up and becoming a young man and I only have a little longer to have him all to myself. I am glad that I get to tell him things the way God has intended so he doesn't get a peverted picture of how things are. I pray he carries inoncense as he grows, that he is a gentleman and respects women and treats them like jewels. I remember when he was born and I was amazed by his beauty and fragilness, and I thought one day he's going to know how this world really works. That bummed me out on many levels. Not that this is a horrible thing, because its not, its just i know that this is just the beginning, he will grow and learn a lot more. I pray protection over his heart, that he lets God show him how things are, and are meant to be.
Well, I've rambled on about this, its time to cross anopther bridge.

Mario's Re-birthday

My oldest Mario just recently got saved! It was an awsome day, so I wanted to share this with all of you. About a month ago Mario was starting to ask me a lot of questions, deep questions. He was very concerned about eternity and spiritualality. We would sit and talk for a long while about scripture what the word says, mine and his father's beliefs. When we were done he would say he wasn't ready he was still thinking it over. At first this bothered me on many levels. Why wasn't he just accepting it like most kids? Why was he in such deep thought? But then the Holy Spirit remimded me he's like his father he has to mull things over for awhile before he makes a sure decision. it was then I knew when he makes his decision it would 100% wholeheartedly. So this continued for a few weeks more questions more deep thinking, then one day I was vaccuming and he came up to me and said he was ready to ask Jesus to come into his life and give his heart to Him. At first I was in shock because it was an odd time, but then I snapped out of it and dropped everything! This was an awsome time. So we went in my room and sat down and prayed. It was such an amazing time. I sat there and watched him pour out his heart and repent. He started to cry and then started to laugh, he said 'he had never cried happy tears before.' He absolutely accepted the Holy Spirit and I will tell you how I know that. My Mario is a very timid shy kid. He is not bold by any means. But when he accepted Christ he ran out and started jumping up and down excitedly telling his dad what had happened. Usually he wants me to tell him for him. When Tray and Kelly got here later on he met them at the door shouting, "I gave my heart to Jesus!" Everyone kept saying he is glowing! It was such an awsome day! I'll never forget it. All the work we do as mothers all the stuff that wears us down and makes us feel like is this all there is? When we have something like that happen it seems as though everything stops just for a minute and you realize why you do what you do, day in and day out. I would never want to trade with anyone my "job" The days may be tough and tiring, but the joy is unspeakable! Mario's Re- birtday May 15, 2009.

Elijah and the toad

Elijah is definately my, 'he is ALL boy' kid. He plays in the mud,if there's not mud he'll make some. He climbs anything he can find, only to jump off of it, and he brings all kinds of critters in my house. A couple of days ago, my kids and thier cousins were all playing outside in the sprinkler making mud and finding bugs, and Elijah found this big ugly toad. He brings her inside, he swore it was a girl, and is begging me to keep her. I kept telling him, no she likes it better outside. "But, mommy I love her, she's my toad, I love her, she loves me she wants to live in my room. " This went on for a good while, which ended up in tears as he set the taod free. A good 20 min later he was okay and playing again. Later on all the kids are completely filthy and need showers, so we bring them one or two at a time depending on their age to get them cleaned up. When everyone is done I go into the bathroom to see the damage, it wasn't a pretty picture, so I decided to scoop up everything and throw it into the wash, when I did a toad fell out on my foot. I was pretty sure Elijah just put her in his pocket and forgot. I made sure she was alive and calmly called Elijah to take her back outside. So then it starst all over again. "I love her she needs me, I love her, she wantsto live in my room." "no, Elijah take her outside." Which led to more crying, but he finally set her free. Little boys they are so cute!

One sick week

Our family has been going through a stomach bug. most of my kids got it for a day or two and then they were fine. A typical stomach bug. Kalin on the other hand got super sick. she started throwing up on Tuesday. Every hour or sooner she was puking or having some nasty diaherra. She also had headaches and fevers as high as 104. Even on fever reducer it would only come down to a 101. so Wed. night I took her to St. Lukes because at this point I knew she was dehydrated. She also had not eaten anything but half a banana and was throwing up like she had full meals. So they gave her some zofran [nausea medicine] and gatorade and sent us home. So the next day she was on zofran and very little gatorade and got much worse. She was violently throwing up,her diaherra got much worse and she was becoming really weak and lathargic. So i took her to her doctor friday morning, basically we ruled it was one vicious tummy bug and she would eventully start to feel better. She prescribed her some fenergan, which is also nausea medicine, but will make you sleepy. So we came home and gave her the meds. She perked up a little and ate some dry kix. Well about an hour later she started throwing up so bad she couldn't breath. So, by this point I was getting really worried it was more than a virus so I took her to Conroe hospital. They took her back right away and ran some test. They of course admitted us and put us in a room. They gave her an IV. Well 24 hours later she only threw up once but looked much worse. She wouldn't even sit up in the bed. She had only had one wet diaper all day, not good when your being pumped with fluids. So they kept us another night. At this point they ruled out all bad things it could have been, it was truly a virus and she just was really, really sick. So they uped her fluids and gave her more zofran. About 10 min. after them changing her fluids she was smiling and pushing the buttons on the bed to make it go up and down. It made a huge difference she went from looking like she was on her death bed to looking a little sick. So the next day the sent us home, whih was yersterday. She's still getting better, but a least now she can keep stuff down so she can get completely well. I've never seen a tummy bug make someone that sick. I'm glad its allmost over. I am so hoping I don't get sick after all that.