Sunday, June 29, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Schedules, Scripture, Charts, and Children...
Well I wish I could say that we are incredibly consistent with ALL the things above, but I must confess it is up and down. At least the children are here all the time!! We will have seasons of being in healthy routines, choosing to do the first things first (like purposefully teaching our kids God's Word and really training them in non-confrontational times - not just putting out fires, etc) and then we will have seasons where it seems that not as many issues are presenting themselves, and then we will have seasons where we are just totally off track. Survival only seasons. How do I let things get to that point? Something will happen - maybe a busy season like Christmas, maybe a vacation, maybe stuff like moving and house remodelling, or sometimes I'll just get lazy... None of these are excuses, by the way, just the misguided reasons that I (key word) allow to take precedence over what is most important!
And then things hit the fan - bad attitudes are common, first time obedience is not! And of course these times coincide with times when I am not only being lazy about training my precious children but also when I am not seeking the Lord by spending regular time in the Word and praying like I need. Why such ups and downs? Why is it that I cannot just realize once - "Wow - life is much harder when I am not allowing myself to be filled with the Holy Spirit each day, when I am not being renewed by the truth and power of His Word on a regular basis."? No, I seem to have to relearn this lesson many times over!!! I can do nothing apart from Him!
John 15:5
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing"
I know this, I believe this - but yet I do not always act on this truth. Lord, thank You that Your mercies are new every morning and that Your grace is never failing.
So after being painfully aware of the fact that we needed a fresh start - again - well first I made a plan for myself to spend regular time in the word and began reading back through a Sally Clarkson book, MomWalk. I made a basic daily schedule with chores, pulled back out the training charts that we use from time to time, made a plan to work through an awesome devotion book that has been very valuable for us, Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson, and made little verse books with construction paper folded and stapled for each child. So now everyone is doing their chores, exciting about getting stars on their charts, knows what to expect each day, and learning scripture that is a far better teacher than I could ever be!
It has been fun too! And so amazing to see an almost overnight change in their behavior. It is like they were just bored and confused over what was expected. I was feeling much the same and everybody was grumping and arguing. This led into more criticism on my part for their behavior which of course did NOT result in a great desire from them to obey me!
Anyways, I am so thankful that God is gracious to me and that He is teaching me that when I fail I don't have to stay there and I don't have to beat myself up. I just have to call out to Him and seek His grace and mercy and power in my life. And I pray that I am more consistent - even (or especially) with the busy, exciting times we have just around the corner - moving AND adopting!
So, just wondering - what works for your family? What things that have helped you stay consistent and do the things you intend to do? I would love any insights you have in this area! Just click on comments below.
And then things hit the fan - bad attitudes are common, first time obedience is not! And of course these times coincide with times when I am not only being lazy about training my precious children but also when I am not seeking the Lord by spending regular time in the Word and praying like I need. Why such ups and downs? Why is it that I cannot just realize once - "Wow - life is much harder when I am not allowing myself to be filled with the Holy Spirit each day, when I am not being renewed by the truth and power of His Word on a regular basis."? No, I seem to have to relearn this lesson many times over!!! I can do nothing apart from Him!
John 15:5
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing"
I know this, I believe this - but yet I do not always act on this truth. Lord, thank You that Your mercies are new every morning and that Your grace is never failing.
So after being painfully aware of the fact that we needed a fresh start - again - well first I made a plan for myself to spend regular time in the word and began reading back through a Sally Clarkson book, MomWalk. I made a basic daily schedule with chores, pulled back out the training charts that we use from time to time, made a plan to work through an awesome devotion book that has been very valuable for us, Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson, and made little verse books with construction paper folded and stapled for each child. So now everyone is doing their chores, exciting about getting stars on their charts, knows what to expect each day, and learning scripture that is a far better teacher than I could ever be!
It has been fun too! And so amazing to see an almost overnight change in their behavior. It is like they were just bored and confused over what was expected. I was feeling much the same and everybody was grumping and arguing. This led into more criticism on my part for their behavior which of course did NOT result in a great desire from them to obey me!
Anyways, I am so thankful that God is gracious to me and that He is teaching me that when I fail I don't have to stay there and I don't have to beat myself up. I just have to call out to Him and seek His grace and mercy and power in my life. And I pray that I am more consistent - even (or especially) with the busy, exciting times we have just around the corner - moving AND adopting!
So, just wondering - what works for your family? What things that have helped you stay consistent and do the things you intend to do? I would love any insights you have in this area! Just click on comments below.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Out of the Box...Or Maybe In It
Well, I was in the process of putting together this great video with music and everything...it was so funny. In my mind it was a work of art. BUT, when I got to the adding music part it wouldn't work and then I saved the project to work on later. Well, when I reopened it, it was all messed up... So, a few pictures and descriptions will have to do!
As I already said - the Potts are moving. Not right away but fairly soon. Here's the deal. For really our entire marriage, we have dreamed of raising our children in the country where we could work together outdoors, raise animals, ride horses, and just enjoy nature...Some of you know we bought a few acres in College Station before realizing that God had different plans! We were sad to leave that land have been incredibly thankful that God did not allow us to build on it, because now it is so clear that this is where He intended us to be. So...to make a long story short, we looked and looked for land that was close by the New Braunfels/San Marcos area and affordable and enough land to do what we wanted. Oh, and it had to have nice trees and good dirt too.
It turned out that what we were looking for happened to be in the backyard! Well, not ours - my parents! My parents live on about 80 acres and have offered us about 8 acres on one end for quite awhile. We knew it would be a permanent decision and if you know us, we don't make decisions quickly - but after much prayer, lots of talks and various events, we realized that this was just where we needed to be. Some have wondered why we didn't realize why we didn't figure this out sooner :) We are incredibly grateful for this opportunity to live so close by our family and to have a gorgeous piece of land to build on, with even more land next door that we are able to enjoy with those we love dearly. At first it seemed a little bizarre - I mean my sister ives on the other end, my parents in the middle and now us too. Like a commune, right! :)
But you know what? We love these people and we enjoy the 'village effort' of living life together. We love the interactions and the way that we help each other's families and feel very blessed to have a family that we are so close to that we truly will love being next door neighbors!
So, that brings me to the next part of the news - the video clip (which was going to be put to the tune of Green Acres :) ) I was making was of last Monday when our house moved in. It had such great footage, with my very favorite cowboy :)
That's right we are moving...
The plan is to live in the mobile for a little while and then build our home in a year or so. The beauty of this plan is:
*We have an amazing view (pics soon)
*We will save LOTS of money for awhile
*We can move the home to one of Zach's properties after we are done living in it and actually make a small profit rather than losing years of rent money while we build
*SIMPLICITY (in more ways than I can begin to list for soooo many reasons)
It may be a little cramped, especially with very possibly soon being a family of SEVEN, but hey, great bonding times!!! And would you believe that it actually is about 2000 sq feet - that is really pretty big.
So, we are very excited and wanted to share!
As I already said - the Potts are moving. Not right away but fairly soon. Here's the deal. For really our entire marriage, we have dreamed of raising our children in the country where we could work together outdoors, raise animals, ride horses, and just enjoy nature...Some of you know we bought a few acres in College Station before realizing that God had different plans! We were sad to leave that land have been incredibly thankful that God did not allow us to build on it, because now it is so clear that this is where He intended us to be. So...to make a long story short, we looked and looked for land that was close by the New Braunfels/San Marcos area and affordable and enough land to do what we wanted. Oh, and it had to have nice trees and good dirt too.
It turned out that what we were looking for happened to be in the backyard! Well, not ours - my parents! My parents live on about 80 acres and have offered us about 8 acres on one end for quite awhile. We knew it would be a permanent decision and if you know us, we don't make decisions quickly - but after much prayer, lots of talks and various events, we realized that this was just where we needed to be. Some have wondered why we didn't realize why we didn't figure this out sooner :) We are incredibly grateful for this opportunity to live so close by our family and to have a gorgeous piece of land to build on, with even more land next door that we are able to enjoy with those we love dearly. At first it seemed a little bizarre - I mean my sister ives on the other end, my parents in the middle and now us too. Like a commune, right! :)
But you know what? We love these people and we enjoy the 'village effort' of living life together. We love the interactions and the way that we help each other's families and feel very blessed to have a family that we are so close to that we truly will love being next door neighbors!
So, that brings me to the next part of the news - the video clip (which was going to be put to the tune of Green Acres :) ) I was making was of last Monday when our house moved in. It had such great footage, with my very favorite cowboy :)
That's right we are moving...
From This...
To This!
The plan is to live in the mobile for a little while and then build our home in a year or so. The beauty of this plan is:
*We have an amazing view (pics soon)
*We will save LOTS of money for awhile
*We can move the home to one of Zach's properties after we are done living in it and actually make a small profit rather than losing years of rent money while we build
*SIMPLICITY (in more ways than I can begin to list for soooo many reasons)
It may be a little cramped, especially with very possibly soon being a family of SEVEN, but hey, great bonding times!!! And would you believe that it actually is about 2000 sq feet - that is really pretty big.
So, we are very excited and wanted to share!
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