Imitator of Christ

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:1

God laid this passage of Scripture on my heart this morning. The question that kept coming to mind was, "can people act/think/live the way I do and be glorifying Jesus with their lives?"

Often times I think we forget as Christians, that we are to be leading others down the path of righteousness. Paul would be the first to say that he was not perfect, as none of us are perfect. But Paul faithfully sought to live his life for the cause of Christ, Galatians 2:20.

The question then is: am I an imitator of Christ? I pray that I will live a life worthy to be reproduced in others. The question is not whether we will reproduce our lives in others, because we ALL impact those around us. The question is: "is what we are reproducing, bringing glory to God?"

If we desire to impact the generations for Christ, we must be passing down a lifestyle that produces Christ-likeness. God's word is always true...we will reap what we sow. As the body of Christ (church)...we will do just that in the generations to come.

His life, His glory!

~Jason

Walking and Bike Riding

I have suddenly been more motivated to start walking. I started this past Monday. Since that day none of the kids were in school, I decided to take their bikes and let them ride while I walked.

The boys really enjoyed it, but after we got all of about 30 feet from the car Lily started saying her legs hurt. So we ended up going back to trade her bike for the stroller. Anyway, I have walked every day this week. I am thinking this is what suddenly motivated me....

I'M PREGNANT!!! That's right! We are having baby #4!! Whoo hoo! We found out on Sunday, and since this is will be my 4th baby, I figured I should get a head start on trying NOT to show before I am 2 months. :) However, it is awefully hard to get a good walk in when we are stopping every 5 seconds to "check out" (as Daniel kept saying) these old train tracks that run alongside part of the walking track.

They were so funny. We haven't taken the bikes every day (one day I had all 3 kids in the double stroller...that was a pretty breathy walk), but it's a good way to change it up every now and then. I hope I'll be able to keep up the walking all through this pregnancy. Oh, and by the way, Lily has already told us that if the baby is a boy, she will not be helping us or holding him or loving him. She really wants a sister. Yay for babies!! (And walking and biking).

Our Dresser

Ok, so I've been wanting to post this for some time, but just have never gotten around to it. When we moved into our apartment and put our cream-colored dresser next to our very khaki walls, I thought...I want to paint this. Let me first say, that I think I have had this dresser since I was maybe 5-ish. When I was a teenager we updated the color to the solid cream (I can't really describe what it used to be, but it was very 80's/little girl-ish). Anyway, so when we moved into the apartment it was winter.....not ideal for painting. So finally a couple of weeks ago, I had a free day, and decided to paint it. I forgot to get a good "before" picture...so here's one of the drawers.

When we lived in our old house in Brighton, I took some oil-based black paint, broke all the rules of painting, and painted it straight onto our bathroom cabinet (no scraping or sanding). I loved it. So I decided to do the same with our dresser. I don't know why, but I love black painted furniture. After I was finished, Daniel helped me put the hardware back on. He did a great job!

And here you have it...the finished product!

For the most part, I am very pleased. One thing I did forget to do was wipe down the drawers good before I painted...I remembered the top of the dresser, but forgot the drawers. In person, I can tell, but I'm also pretty picky. Anyway....the black definitely looks way better next to the walls! Plus...I feel like I have a new dresser, but only paid $5 for the can of paint to paint it with!! Gotta love that! My next project is Lily's dresser....we are thinking purple. We'll see...that is for another day!

Kindergarten!!!

Well, the time has come for our oldest child to start Kindergarten. I cannot believe it! I can't help but remember the many talks we have had over the years concerning school...Will we homeschool? Will we try and send them to private schools? Will we send them to public schools? Which school district do we need to try to live in?....I don't know how many discussions we've had over the subject in the last 5 years, but I remember the days like they were yesterday when our conclusion would be..."Oh, we've got plenty of time for that." And here we are! I'm still just amazed. Anyway...the schools here in Dayton are great; so Monday, August 8th we went to Dayton City School to meet Daniel's teacher. I felt like it was my first day of school. I was nervous and choking back the tears. But also so excited for him...he felt like such a big boy! The following Wednesday was his first whole day of school. If you can believe it, I completely forgot to take a picture of him before school! I was so mad at myself. But I made up for it after school! Here his class is walking to where we pick him up.

He told me to take a picture of him with his backpack like this so I could see his face and his backpack (which has Superman, Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern). Totally cool.

Here's the first note his teacher sent home. It may have been a little crazy to include this, but what can I say...I'm a proud momma!

He came home very talkative about everything they did and all about his day. It's probably wishful thinking to say I hope he always does....but what's wrong with wishful thinking? :) I think he had a lot of fun!

So far he has just been phasing in. So, he's only been a total of 2 full days and one half day for the last 2 weeks. But Monday starts full force. He will go every day from 7:50 - 2:00! I'm so excited for him, but still am simply amazed at how fast the time has gone by! I am sad to see him go (I keep hearing once school starts the time really flies), but I can't wait to see all the wonderful things he is going to learn this year and how much he is going to mature. Welcome to the school years sweet Daniel!

Mother's Day Out!

Well, the time has come. My little Lily girl is 4, and it's her year to start pre-school....well technically; Mother's Day Out. Our church has a MDO program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They sing, learn Bible stories, do lots of activities, and learn lots of fine motor skills. It's been the perfect balance to me as far as...them learning what they need to learn before Kindergarten and me not having to send them away all day every day a year before I have too. :) Anyway...yesterday was Lily's first day; and let me say...she was THRILLED! She told me the night before that she was SOOO excited!

She loved the backpack we found for her. It has 5 princesses on it...and Rapunzel is one of them (as she says). And, for those of you out there that don't know, it's not easy to find things with Rapunzel and some of the other Disney princesses on it...you usually get one or the other. So this was a big find!

Here she is in her class. They played with playdough as all the kids were arriving.

Anyway....when we picked her up yesterday afternoon; she was not ready to leave. She can't wait til she goes back tomorrow! She's so cute!!! Well, today is Daniel's first whole day of school, so hopefully I can have some pictures of that up before too long!

Catch-up!

I realize it's been quite awhile since I've blogged. Part of that is because last week my sister came in town with her 2 kids! I was quite excited that she actually made it in. Every time thusfar, that she has planned to come for a visit something would happen in the last minute (usually her or a child would get sick). Well, as expected, we had a blast! I love my sisters. Anyway...her last day here our church was taking their last trip of the summer to Lake Winnipesaukee (Lake Winnie for short). It's basically an amusement park for kids....kinda like a supersized carnival. They do have one wooden roller coaster and a 150 foot free fall, but that's about it as far as really big rides. They have the motorcycles....

the swings....

the little bumblebees....

the ladybugs....

...and quite a few other rides like those for the little kids. Jordan, Austin, and Ashlynn especially loved those things. Daniel and Lily also had fun on those things, but there were quite a few other rides that were a step up from those that they could ride by themselves...(the kiddie roller coaster, the elephants that go pretty high, the gi-normous slide...you know...things I couldn't get a good picture of b/c they're too high up). They felt very big. Here is one ride only Daniel was tall enough for. It was like a mini-freefall. He really liked that.

Those are his little feet dangling up there. Jason and I also took all the kids on the boat schute. That ride was a big hit for the kids. And my sister sat around and watched...since she's 7 months pregnant. She had a lot of fun in the 100 degree weather. After we had done everything once, we let the kids pick out the things they wanted to do again. I think Austin may have rode the motorcycles 5 times in a row.

Little Ashlynn's pigtails didn't quite make it the whole day.

Anyway...the kids had an absolute blast even though it was miserably hot. And we had such a fun time having all of them in town. This week we've started school.....that's right SCHOOL!!!!! My baby boy is in Kindergarten this year. I absolutely cannot believe it. I will be posting about that next.

Oh, and p.s. Can I PLEASE just say that I HATE potty-training? Ok, thanks. :)

Consider God's Ways ~ Psalm 119:57-64

I considered my ways and turned my feet to Your testimonies.

Psalm 119:59

How often do we watch where we are going? We are careful to watch our steps when we hike, walk through a parking lot, dodge people at the mall or when we march up the stadium on a Friday night. The question is are we watching our steps when it comes to our morality?

How we live, act and respond to life affects the people around us. But more so, are you considering how your lifestyle is affecting your relationship with God? That is the ultimate question. We are created to be God worshippers...but how can we truly worship God while living contrary to His word? The answer is we can't.

Consider what you are doing and adjust your ways to God's Word.

HIS life, HIS glory!

~Jason