Answering in Love

Today I'm up to something new.
Today I have a post titled "Answering in Love" up over at Cowgirl Clippings.
It's not Breakfast at Emily's, I ran out of breakfast ideas. I hit a wall and in the scramble of trying to find new breakfast ideas I forgot to make the old ones for my family. Silly, I know.
So now, every once in awhile I will be guest posting over at Cowgirl Clippings on a variety of things.
I hope you stop by.

Rain Gutter Shelves and Maps

A friend walked into our house the other day and was admiring our "remodel" when she remarked, "There are too many white walls for an Emily house."

And I would tend to agree, I like color and the warmth that color can bring but when we had everything redone because of the flooding I wanted a blank slate for the living/dining room areas, because we have a lot of color we apply to the walls in the forms of art and maps and things.

A few weeks ago I found the idea for Rain Gutter bookshelves on a blog called Raising Olives.
I fell in love immediately.
It was the answer to my book storage problem.
Namely, my kid-book storage problem.
Kid books come in all shapes and sizes and they don't "shelve" well so they end up stacked on a shelf and I end up reading the same few stories over and over again because the kids always grab the books on top.

BUT...

Now all the books are visible and they look nice and the kids can easily put them away!


Yes, those are rain gutters. Real, regular rain gutters hung on the wall.


And not only do I have those really cool book shelves but my husband also trimmed my wall maps with the extra trim we had lying around. (He also got our new shower rod put up yesterday, which makes three projects finished in one day after he passed his First Responder test yesterday morning! Yep, he's pretty much amazing.)

The walls are still white but I don't think we're lacking for color by any means.

Find a Tree

Clayton is potty trained!
Marilyn is reverting, but she's not yet two.
I'm not worried.

Clayton's only accidents lately are when he's playing outside in the backyard and tries to make it into the house and take his boots off...he usually doesn't make it.

So we told him it was okay to pee on a tree when he's out in the backyard.

The other day he came running in full of excitement, "I didn't go potty in my pants, I went on a tree! I didn't go in my pants!"

I told him good job and he went out to play and the older two kiddos and I went back to schoolwork.

About 5 minutes later Clayton comes running in again, "Marilyn took off her clothes!"

And I stepped outside to find one slightly nekkid and very disappointed little girl.


It's doesn't quite work the same with little girls.

The Story of Gomer

"The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "Jealous" "play-acting", "acting out", "coward" or "dissembling".^[2] The word hypocrite is from the Greek word ὑποκρίτης (hypokrites), the agentive noun associated with υποκρίνομαι (hypokrinomaiκρίση, "judgement" »κριτική (kritiki), "critics") presumably because the performance of a dramatic text by an actor was to involve a degree of interpretation, or assessment, of that text.

Whereas hypokrisis applied to any sort of public performance (including the art of rhetoric), hypokrites was a technical term for a stage actor and was not considered an appropriate role for a public figure. In Athens in the 4th century BC, for example, the great orator Demosthenes ridiculed his rival Aeschines, who had been a successful actor before taking up politics, as a hypokrites whose skill at impersonating characters on stage made him an untrustworthy politician. This negative view of the hypokrites, perhaps combined with the Roman disdain for actors, later shaded into the originally neutral hypokrisis. It is this later sense of hypokrisis as "play-acting", i.e., the assumption of a counterfeit persona, that gives the modern word hypocrisy its negative connotation."

- Wikipedia

Why did I start with a really long quote from wikipedia on hypocrisy?

There have been many times in my life, none that I am proud of, that I have played the hypocrite. I have said one thing and done another. And in my hatred of all things hypocritical I have questioned many times my love of acting, of being on stage; struggling to find the reasons I love it so much since the word hypocrisy is rooted in "play-acting". Why is it that I love pretending to be something I'm not?

Is it the glory of performance, the applause afterward?
I have cried out often, Lord, why this? What am I suppose to do with it?!

And then one day in passing someone mentioned, "You know, Jesus loved to tell stories."

And it hit me. I love acting because I love to tell stories. I love to tell stories that are worth telling.

So I've been praying that God would lead me to stories that are worth telling. Two years ago I saw a story written and performed by Geri Campbell called "The Story of Gomer." I e-mailed her at that time wondering if I could perform it. At that time she wasn't ready to let anyone else perform it but I kept the e-mail.

I think God was waiting for my heart to be right with him. He was waiting for me to say, "Lord, I want to tell this story because it's important to you and not because I think I could do a good job. I want to tell it because people need to hear it, not because I have a need to perform."

And a few months ago I e-mailed again.

On the evening of Sunday, February 27, 2011 at Calvary Bible Church I will perform "The Story of Gomer" and I am so excited.

Well, nervous excited. I still have a bit to get ready before that time.

The Story of Gomer is based out of the book of Hosea, when God tells Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. And Hosea did; living out painfully and dramatically how God loves Israel even when Israel turned their backs on Him and chased after other gods. Time and time again God takes his people back just as time and time again Hosea took Gomer back, forgiving and loving her. But it's not just the story of Hosea and Gomer, or God and Israel, but also the story of God and each of us. God loves us with an incredible, redeeming, transforming love. He has bought us with the blood of his son Jesus and there is nothing we can do to earn it or lose it.

It is a story worth telling over and over again because so many need to hear it. Please pray with me that God would use the performing of this story and that he would prepare the hearts of those who see it. ... And that my memory wouldn't fail me and that I would perform it well.

Hair Cut

Nope.
Not one of the kids.
Me.
It's not drastic but it's a trim and there was quite a bit of hair on the floor.
I must say I love having a sister and a sister-in-law that both cut hair.
They're both amazing at what they do too.
This hair cut is courtesy of my sister-in-law Ashley. She's married to Erik's brother BJ and they have an adorable little girl just two months younger than Miss Moddy. (That's them behind Clayton, Moddy is in the pink.)


Both are very active and it's hard to get a picture of them together.

Anyway...

This weekend while Erik attended his First Responder class I took the kids to the zoo and then to Grammy and Grandpa's house to visit. Saturday Ashley came over and was kind enough to cut my hair and just for fun I thought I'd attempt a few self portraits and show you the before and after.

Before:
(This is, I need to take a shower and put in my contacts "before picture". I thought it might give you a little better contrast).



After:
(Not a huge change, I wanted to keep most of the length and there's just not that much you can do with long hair. So basically more layers, a few more, shorter bangs.)


I like it.
Anyone else try and walk by as many mirrors as possible after they get their hair cut, just to see it?

M.I.A.

Hi.
It's been awhile.
I'm sorry.
I missed you.
Did you miss me?
Life has been happening.
It does that you know.

I've been feeling a little off lately, so I started a 21 day Chaparral Cleanse.
And discontinued my morning cup of coffee.
All at the same time.
Not a good idea.
I thought that there was something seriously wrong with me.
I now think it was some serious detox symptoms.
I'm still going to see a great ND in the near future though, just to make sure my assumptions are right.
I'm feeling much better this week.

I've been reading a lot to my kiddos.
They like it.
I LOVE it.
We just finished Little House in the Big Woods and started Little House on the Prairie. It makes me so happy to read these stories to my kiddos.
And we're getting a little more serious about our other curricular studies. We've been doing great with phonics and learning to read but falling a little behind in oh, math. But we're on track now.

And these are all my excuses for why I haven't been here for you lately.
I'll try to do better.

Clayton has been drawing me pictures.


And Ivan plays horse to Marilyn's cowgirl.


And Hannah continues to fill sheet after sheet of paper with pictures and words.


Lately Hannah and Ivan have become partners in a money making scheme. Hannah has been decorating sheets of paper and Ivan folds them into paper airplanes. (He's pretty good, they fly better than any of mine ever have). They have a whole box and they plan on selling them. My favorite so far is the orange and purple plaid one. I might have to raid my wallet.

It's that time again though.
Time to say goodbye.
I'll see you later.
I've got to go make dinner.
It happens every day and yet still manages to take me by surprise sometimes.

I'll leave you with this darling quote from my darling Clayton, age 3:

"Can I help you make dinner? 'Cause I'm a good man that makes dinner, like Christmas dinner."

Stuff and Things

Does anyone else find it funny just how much stores capitalize on New Year's Resolutions?
We walked into a store on New Year's Day and the "seasonal section" of the store was filled with exercise equipment. And right next to that, storage containers.
Yep, it's the season for storing things we bought but don't have room for, or for storing all the new "Holiday" decorations we want to save for next year but then will discover next year that they are out of style and will want a whole new style.
I'm sorry that I'm sarcastic this morning.
I'm finding more and more that "stuff" is getting to me. Not stuff in the general term of things of life, but stuff, junk, clutter, more junk.
I'm truly loving getting rid of un-needed things. The kids got quite a few toys and things for Christmas so we went through their old and packed up those that we didn't need anymore. And even though we took a u-haul load to Goodwill just a month and half ago or so I already have at least two good sized boxes to take again.
Life runs a little smoother when it's not cluttered with stuff.
It runs smoother because I have time and space to play with my kiddos. I don't have to constantly be pushing aside the stuff to just breathe.
I didn't mean for this to become a rant on stuff this morning.

I was going to tell you that despite a unwilling start, Clayton is now potty trained and waking up with a dry diaper most mornings. Marilyn on the other hand refuses to wear a diaper but is having more trouble going potty on the toilet. She climbed into the bathtub yesterday to take care of business. And the other day she had an accident in her underwear and I accidentally flushed her underwear down the toilet when I was trying to rinse everything out. I'm still hoping they went through okay, we haven't had any back up problems yet.

Marilyn has also been climbing out of her crib. She's gotten quite speedy. Yesterday she refused to stay down for a nap. She had her pants and diaper off and was out of her crib having a tea party with Hannah's tea set within 45 secs. to a minute after I laid her down and shut the door. So I figured if she could be out that quickly I would make it easier for her to crawl back in. I set up the toddler bed and she slept in a big girl bed last night. She got out once right after we laid her down and then slept soundly the rest of the night. She looked so sweet with her little head resting peacefully on her little pillow and her quilts tucked up around her. I would have taken a picture but I didn't want to run the chance of waking her up. She's growing up, the little turkey.

I'm off to wash dishes now. I'm not a big fan of dishes. I mean I like eating off of them, they serve a very important purpose, but our family goes through a lot of them and I still haven't cultivated the discipline to keep up with them.

May your New Year be filled with less stuff and more of what's important!