Glory in NYC!

I was blessed to be a part of a 30 person three night, intense, whirlwind trip with very little sleep and a whole lot of sharing God's love through meeting tangible needs for the homeless and providing a day of pampering and gifts for a large New York City shelter. Along with a dozen other churches we lavished the women at a number of shelters throughout the city with manicures, pedicures, haircuts, make up, massages and very nice free clothes and accessories. Looking back, it was really amazing how God orchestrated all of the items that were needed, funds that were needed for people's trips and each individual that came - many, many God stories.

We weren't able to take a lot of pictures at the shelter that we served in due to confidentiality, so most of the pictures below are of our team and our day of tourist fun the day before we left. Highlights:

1. Meeting a homeless veteran and singing him happy birthday. My heart broke for him and for all that he didn't have even after protecting our country. He is 32 - my age.

2. Hearing from the shelter coordinator that our simple gifts of love brought such peace to the shelter when normally there is a lot of turmoil and fighting between residents.

3. Experiencing all of this with some of my closest friends and being able to see one of my favorite people from college who lives in New York City, Faith. What a treat!

Creative Discipline

Around our house, we sometimes use chores, timeout and extra schoolwork for discipline, but sometimes we have to get creative. Let's face it, being a parent is really hard. Geoff is well known in Leila's circle of teachers for making her do jumping jacks when she guesses on her homework because she just wants to get it done. Her teachers love this because they experience her guessing, too. Jumping jacks wake her up and help her focus. Occasionally, other football exercises are attempted. I really should video those. They make us all laugh, including Leila! She will often get asked by her teacher when she gets to school, "How many jumping jacks last night, Leila?"

We had an issue with not wanting to share her too–small clothes with Mary Michael, even though she had many new clothes to replace them that would fit properly (I thought maybe she was worried about not having enough since she didn't have any of her own clothes in the orphanage). We had been having trouble with an ungrateful spirit, and this was the last straw. Somehow the idea of wearing the same outfit every day for a week came up, and she said that was fine and that she didn't care. So after several attempts to make sure she understood, we agreed that's what she would do. She wore the same outfit for SEVEN days. She hand-washed it in the sink, which she thought was pretty cool until about halfway through the week. We let her teachers know ahead of time, so that they wouldn't think we were crazy (they already think that!)! By day four, Leila started to care that she was wearing the same clothes. She got it with this punishment! She's been doing just fine with clothes sharing since then. And she's had no interest in wearing that outfit she wore for seven days straight...I wonder why!

One night last week as with many nights before, we had our continuing struggle between the two girls. They are often so critical of one another and both try to play mom. Daily, I shake their hand and introduce myself as the mom. We know there's a bigger issue here of both girls figuring out their new role in our family, and we are addressing that in other way (i.e. Desperate prayer and individual quality time) but it's no excuse for constantly tearing each other down. 

So, Daddy moved the two of them to the other end of the table and told them they needed to learn how to care for and serve one another like they would want to be treated. They had to feed each other dinner, which included drinks and wiping each other's faces. They were not allowed to touch their own food, utensils, drinks or napkins. They had to ask with kind words and good manners because that's how they would want someone to ask them. Not only was this humbling for the both of them, but it brought a lot of laughter, which is so much better then harsh words and tones. However, I don't think either wants to have to do this again because at the mention of it, they both straighten up. 

Welcome to our crazy house!

Running Fun

I'm not exactly coordinated, which means when it comes to sports, I run. No catching, no kicking, few rules. Simple. 

We enjoyed (or at least I did!) a family morning of running together this past Saturday at the Ashland Railroad run. Together, the five of us ran in a 1 mile race, and I took a short break before completing a 10K. Along with my lack of coordination comes a hardly existent competitive spirit (Geoff and I are complete opposites!) but for some reason I was ready to go this past Saturday. I chose a young man to attempt to keep up with and was determined in the last quarter-mile of the race to not let a more seasoned and wiser (and grayer) man beat me. I was thrilled to find out I ran in average of eight minutes and 30 seconds per mile, and that I didn't let him pass me. I'm pretty sure I haven't run this fast since college and may never again, and I paid for it the next day. It was fun nonetheless!

Oh, and have no fear, the kids have been training. The last few weeks, when we get to the end of her driveway after school pick up, they get out and run all the way to the house. It's about .4 miles. Country style training!

Frazier in the red. Leila is in the orange in the distance looking back and wondering why she started off so fast. She was hurting!

So fun to see friends there!

Mom, you're dragging me.

 Don't ever make me do this again, mom.

Loved having the kids run with me the last 50 yards of my race. So sweet! They may never enjoy running like I do, but they make great cheerleaders!

Spring Break Park Overload

I could not wait to have all of the kids together for spring break, and no rushing off to school...I was a happy mama. We spent the week "parking it" around Virginia. So fun!

Watch out Busch Gardens!

We had 2 mamas and six kids trekking around Busch Gardens for the day.

Leila, Avery and Frazier loving the ride they couldn't wait to get on - tea cups!

Leila and Addison being brave on the Grover roller coaster.

We met about 10 moms from my MUMS group and double the amount of kids at Maymont Park on Tuesday.

This was Leila's first trip to Maymont.

What a treat that we were going to Maymont the same day as my aunt, cousin and her kiddos. Blair is my cousin but also one of my dearest friends, and her youngest son, Caleb, is battling cancer. Please pray for this sweet boy and his amazing family.

On Wednesday, my dad (aka Poppy), took us to the new ARC park across the street from his work at the Richmond technical center.

It was an awesome park for kids of all ages and abilities!

Shooting hoops.

On Wednesday afternoon, we headed to Pocahontas State Park with the camper for three days of fun with three other families from church.

I love that the kids entertain themselves for hours outside.

I was not thinking when I decided to bathe the kids before the pictures below happened.

Mud and streams and more mud!

Hours of fun in the mud make happy kids.

We finished the week with a trip to Northern Virginia where I ran in the Cherry Blossom 10 miler with Kam's girlfriend, Hailey. We ran through Potomac Park...see, a park every day! It was COLD with 50 mph wind gusts, but we finished!

Easter Days!

We enjoyed a very special Easter week celebrating our risen Savior. Mary-Michael had scarlet fever, which is a form of strep, on Good Friday, so that changed our original plans of doing the cross raising at sunrise and remembrance walk at church. But that was OK, because we still made it special and meaningful. I found some very thorough plans and instructions on how to do a kid friendly Messianic Passover Seder meal (http://jenniferdukeslee.com/a-messianic-passover-seder-for-families-with-children/), which was a huge success with the kids. We ate food that Jesus and his disciples would have eaten, washed each other's feet and drink and celebrated the four different cups of drink (grape juice) that are traditionally given during a passover. We wanted them to experience what it may have been like for Jesus on the night before he died, and they have talked about it several times in the last few days. They really connected with the evening, and it was one of those rare moments where Geoff and I said "Yes, they got it! Success!"

We ate on tinfoil plates, had dried fruit and nuts, hard-boiled eggs, bitter herbs and salt water to represent the tears of the Jewish people. I also made matzoh and lamb meatballs, which were only enjoyed by Frazier.

Very precious and humbling washing each other's feet.

And since we couldn't go to the cross raising, that gave daddy the push to finally put a cross up at the front of our farm, which the kids have been asking him to do for a few years.

Our resident digger!

Praise Jesus!

Our Easter finest with their cool shades. 

With a joint effort we pulled together a great Easter lunch with 2 of our favorite families (the Senters and Rivas) and my mom and stepdad. It was really lovely!

And remember, while Easter may be over, Christ is still risen! We pray that truth has captured your heart and your life! His power and grace are truly transformational. Love from the farm!

School Events

It's been a full, "what did I forget today?", "which class needed the pineapple and who needed stuffed eggs or was supposed to wear green?" kind of week. My agenda was a hot mess of reminders and plans. After a weekend in Northern VA meeting our new nephew, Maxwell Lawrence Hedges, Frazier and I took a last-minute trip with Kelly, Charlotte and Carter to Busch Gardens on Monday. I probably should have been catching up on life or preparing for the full week ahead, but we sure enjoyed the fun and fellowship. The lines were virtually nonexistent!

After our day of fun, the real fun began. Both dogs got sick and had to go the vet on the same day we had a livestock vet come out to the house to check on our goats (we recently had stillborn triplets and lost a 1 year old goat). This week I have spent a minimum of 5 hours either cleaning up poo or discussing poo. And I have no one in diapers! Let's just say I am over bodily fluids and vowed we would not get any more animals that couldn't take care of their own bathroom issues or really any animals at all. Period. The End. I spoke too soon. Our farming partner showed up yesterday with 2 ducklings that needed a home. The word is out that we run an animal rescue - it's not true, people!

We managed to laugh at the insanity of it all and enjoyed many fun school events this week and some very special family moments as we prepared our hearts for Easter. Here are some pictures. I'll postseparately  on Easter - so special.

Geoff sharing at Leila's Career Day. Each student took home a plant and Geoff took home a lot of sweet thank you notes from the kids. I heard he did a great job!

Frazier enjoyed his Easter celebration at preschool of songs, treats and egg hunting.

Frazier and I joined Mary-Michael for her non-competitive field day (I still don't agree with that; it's ok to learn about winning and losing and great lessons can come from it when delivered appropriately). Regardless, she enjoyed it and the day was beautiful. They even let Frazier join in.

On Thursday night, we enjoyed celebrating the completion of reading Nim's Island (a school wide campaign) by watching the movie in the cafeteria at Leila's school. 

Mary-Michael woke up in the middle of the night on Thursday with a high fever, so our day shifted on Friday. Daddy had taken the day off to be a "watchdog" at her school, but we had to postpone that because she was out sick. Sweet girl also had to miss her spring party, but I was able to get to Leila's and help with her celebration. I am so grateful we can be involved in the schools to get a pulse on how things are going and how our kids are doing. 

One of the highlights of the week: a neighbor we've been reaching out to for years came over and had coffee. We had wonderful conversation and even a time of prayer at the end. It was so special.

My prayer focus this week was for God to fill me with His Holy Spirit so that I would not parent apart from Him. I knew the likelihood of me "losing it" increased tenfold every time I looked at my agenda, so this prayer was purposeful and necessary. However, I had no major "mom crazy" moments and noticeably more joy. Man, I am thankful for His continued Grace and Holy Spirit. And wow, I am so grateful for Easter and that beautiful way He uses my messes for His glory. I pray the true joy and power of Easter transforms you, too.

Happy Spring Break!!