Weekly "I AM"

 "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold." -Proverbs 22:1

Outside my window...   It's unseasonably warm. I mean it is flat out incredible! This time last year, everyone was rushing to get food and planning to hunker down in their house because a blizzard was on the way. Boy did it hit. We were on lock down for a week! It was crazy. Then a week later another one hit! So to have the doors open, wear short sleeve shirts and flip flops when it's almost February is wonderful!

I am thinking... We have lots of work to do to get our house ready for sale. We have a goal to have it on the market by mid-March. I hope it doesn't stay on the market for long but we honestly believe if it's gonna sale it will sale.

I am planning to cook... I'm planning on two 'different' recipes this week. I'm kind of excited. One is a ground chicken meatball recipe. I LOVE ground chicken, so this is going to be fun. Another is a parmesan crusted tilapia. Matt loves fish. I will only eat it when the stars are aligned, but I'm going to try it this week. Plus it makes Matt happy. :)


I am reading... Hubs got me a Kindle Fire for Christmas. LOVE THAT THING! Reading two or more books at once is so much easier. I'm in two book club things. One group is reading "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." The other group is reading "Loving Our Kids On Purpose." Then I'm reading "Always The Baker Never The Bride." I just finished "Chasing Rainbows." It was good, happy sad, but good.


I am hearing... "The People's Court" because I LOVE that show. Mainly I love the judge. Does anyone want to be sued so we can go on that show?


I am learning... One thing I'm really focusing on lately is parenting Chloe. Her love language is words of affirmation and gifts. She isn't a touch person but I'm trying to hug her more even if she doesn't want a hug. Sounds simple for touchy people, which I am not, but I'm learning and it is making such a difference.


I am praying... Moving. My health. Some other things.

Fast 2012

I say it all the time, but finding good quality blogging time is like finding a needle in the proverbial haystack. The best blog posts come to me when I'm alone in the car, radio blasting and driving down the highway, usually to Owasso. By the time I get back home the inspiration I had has disappeared under the desire to take a nap.

But I am determined to get this post posted.

On January 2, Matt and I began fasting for 21 days. We did the Daniel Fast which means eating only fruit, nuts, veggies, whole grains, all spices, water and 100% juice. I gave up coffee and tea for 21 days and if you know me this is really something. Matt did this fast last year. I tried back then but just couldn't do it all the way. I had to have my coffee. In my defense, Colbie was just a few months old and my staying awake during the day was kind of an essential part of parenting her and the other kids.

This year was different. I knew I could, I knew I needed to, and I knew I had to.

During these days, I read Jentezen Franklin's book titled "Fasting." Such a wonderful book that really gave me the foundation I needed and direction I should go for my fast. Franklin talks about 'fasting for something.' I guess I didn't really go into it seeking something specifically but yet seeking just Him. I wanted to spend more time in prayer, listening and just obeying Him and his commands by simply denying myself.

"The three duties of every Christian are giving, praying and fasting." -Franklin

He takes this from Matthew 6.

Matthew 6:2 "So when you give to the needy....."
Matthew 6:5 "And when you pray...."
Matthew 6:16 "When you fast...."

"A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." -Ecc. 4:12b

I never before thought about fasting being on the same 'playing field of importance' as tithing and praying. I see it now.

So did I hear from God or see a miracle? No, not that I'm aware of. This time, I felt, was purely worship. My goal is to do mini fasts through out the year for more specific requests.

When Matt and I tithe, it is the very first thing we do and by very first I mean we don't go to the store before we have tithed. Are we perfect in this? No. Could this be considered legalism? Maybe to some. To us it's just the way we choose to do with what we have been given twice a month. Point is, tithing is just as common to us as breathing. We don't think about it, we just do it. Praying, we pray all the time. Fasting was something I was lacking.

I'm excited for our family this year. I can tell it's going to be an insane crazy fun year, but I gave the first part of it to Him and I trust Him with it all.

God In My Cup

Colbie has become one of those "Occupy" folks. They protest, I don't even know what they really protest. The comments I've heard were so outlandish I changed the channel. Colbie has decided to become one of them. I'm not sure where her 'left sided-ness' comes from but it's starting to get rather annoying. All this demanding and 'give me' is becoming old.

The reason she is about to lose her protesting rights? She voices her opinions between the hours of 11:00pm and 5:00am. Those are quiet hours in a lot of cities including this one; Knox-ville.

With her late night antics, I have become rather tired in the morning. My normal routine would be make a big pot of coffee and drink every last bit through-out the day in order to function.

I've been coffee free for 8 days, 14 hours and 8 minutes. This is huge!!

This morning, I was tired, I was so tired I felt sick and I wanted a huge pot of coffee in order to make it. As I was wallowing in my lack of coffee misery, I was hit in the head with something.  My ability to have a cup of coffee in the morning had become my way of defining my mood. It became habit to make my coffee and not thank the Lord. I looked into my cup for happy feelings instead of God. Will I go back to coffee? YES! But I need to keep my happiness in God and not in my cup.

So I will 'rejoice in the Lord always' even when I don't get coffee and my kid becomes a Toddler-crat.

Cooper The Passionate

I live in the middle of no-where. Yes, it's a town, a class 6A school, lots of big business, but it's still in the middle of nothing. We are something close to nothing. Don't get me wrong, I live in one of the prettiest ares of Oklahoma; tall grass prairies, beautiful hills, trees lots of ponds, wildlife. It's probably one of the only places in the world with flat land prairies and hills all in the same acreage.

Being in the middle of no-where means we have to drive every time we want to get somewhere, especially shopping, restaurants and our church. All this to say, when we hop in our buggy and head to town, Matt and I have time to chat, in between us telling the older two to keep their hands in their laps and stop screaming.

While driving to Grapevine, the subject of Cooper came up. Yes, the boy is a subject of his own; Cooper Talk.  Coop just woke up from a long nap in the car and if we talk to him and he's not ready he flips out. Then if you bug him he really flips out and goes to his high pitched screaming voice, "AAAHHHHHHH!!!" It's really a priceless moment, us making him mad.

Matt and I were describing Cooper. We were trying to come up with a book cover that describes him. You know how book covers give a brief synopsis of the contents of the book? We were doing that only Cooper is the subject. We were having a hard time, but then it hit me.

PASSIONATE.

When he's happy, he's passionately happy. When he's mad, he is passionately mad. Everything he does, he goes beyond the norm. Instead of a regular fist bump, he has to blow it up.

When I say, "Smile Cooper!" He smiles with his whole body. And he does that with PASSION.

Great Wolf Lodge Pictures

 The family.

 Love them. This was the last day and the kids were checked out. ha

 So there is a bell that Dings when the bucket is fixing to dump. I'm not sure if Chloe heard it but I wanted a picture of her when the bucket dumped.

 She jumped. haha

 View of the lobby from the fourth floor.

 The fireplace in the lobby. It's massive! That's Cooper at the bottom right.

 I'm raising three fish.

Most of the lobby

Christmas at Woolaroc 2011

The town I live was built around oil. Without going into the history of Bartlesville, mainly because I don't know that much, I'll just say this: There was a man named Frank Phillips (I don't even know how to spell his name, one L or two LL's.) He found Philips 66; an oil company. It is now known as Conoco Phillips. Good ol' Frank made a very hefty living on oil. He also had a passion for collecting really cool things. Back in his day goods were traded for other goods. Some of the "goods" he got were Indian blankets. Well, when you collect as much stuff as Frank did, you need a place to put it; Woolaroc. AND when you are as wealthy as Frank, you need a ranch to take your other wealthy friends; Woolaroc. AND when you hunt wild game like zebra, giraffes, deer, elephants... you need a place to put them; Woolaroc. AND when someone gives you these...

.... fancy, legit, shrunken heads, you need a place to put them; Woolaroc.

Christmas time is such a wonderful time but Woolaroc does a fantastic job. The decorate the grounds with tons of Christmas lights, offer tractor rides, hot chocolate, cookies and you can walk through the museum. It was hard to see all the amazing paintings and learn of their history, our history, because of the kids but the little time I did get to read I learned a lot..

Colbie doesn't care much for Santa or apparently Woolaroc for that matter.

This picture was taken in pitch black. The man on the other side of the trailer couldn't see a thing. I told him just click and we'll take what we get. haha This is about right for our family. haha

I took a ton of pictures of paintings but I knew I wouldn't be able to say exactly what I learned or read on the plaques so I opted not to post them so I didn't misspeak. I'm pretty sure this is Sitting Bull. If you have not visited Woolaroc, I highly highly recommend. It is a true gem of a place.

Great Wolf Lodge

This is a view of part of the water park. I took it standing in the lobby which is on the second floor. The bucket at the top dumps tons of gallons of water below. There's a glare from the Christmas lights that were hanging above me against the window.

The last time we stayed, Chloe and Cooper were just too little and unsure in the water to play on this. It has slides that once you've climbed to the top you can slide down. Both kids this year ate this thing up. Cooper would go down the slide, climb out and 'high five' the lifeguard on duty. He did this every. single. time. That lifeguard was so awesome with Cooper.

 Matt said he saw a kid get de-pants-ed (how do you spell that word?) when the bucket dumped.  

 This was in the lobby the day we arrived. There was a huge Christmas tree behind them and to the right of the picture is the window I took the above pictures from. You can see all the hanging lights. 

I have more pictures, so I'll post those later.