Random morning comment

On the way to school this morning, Isaac exclaimed:

"If I lived to be 102, I would be alive in a part of 3 different centuries!!!"

Twelve years old?!?

Dear Isaac,

Can it be that you are a big 12-year-old young man today? Wow! It sure seems like just a little while ago that we were rushing to the hospital at 2 o'clock on a Saturday morning with A-Gong. We weren't expecting you to come for another couple of weeks, although we were all packed and ready for you :). Ms. Debbie was your nurse that welcomed you into this world at 3:47am! Grandpa & Grandma, Aunt Bethany, Aunt Rebekah, and Uncle Kevan (not yet uncle at that time!) all came out in the middle of the night to see you! As you've been told by Daddy, you came out looking all around, trying to take in and learn as much about this new world as you can... similar to what you still do today :).

Isaac, Daddy and I are so proud of how God is molding and shaping you. You are an amazing young man and I am grateful that God is teaching to develop a heart to be excellent in all that you do. I love that you have learned to manage your time over the last few years; you are diligent in learning how to see your week as a whole and scheduling out your to not be surprised with any tests or homework that is due. I am thankful for your thoughtfulness in asking to help with groceries and running to get my door when we go places :). I have noticed that you have been very intentional about controlling your attitude and being quick in admitting fault. I am grateful to see challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone to develop your leadership skills in running for class rep the last couple of years. Thank you for trying hard to help your sibling with their homework and be a good example to them... I know that is a hard job! Isaac, I am most impressed and challenged by your desire to know God's Word more. I am convicted by you when I see you curled up on the coach or floor first thing in the morning... pouring over your Bible!

You are precious to me, my smart and handsome first-born! I thank God for letting me borrow you for this appointed time. I love watching you play baseball and football with Daddy and Seth. It's so much fun for me to watch you and Seth and Abby play board games and other made-up games for hours. Even though it is a bit foreign to me, I even love how you boys will discuss all sorts of stats of players and team for hours. I'm glad you and Daddy got to run away for the day yesterday, just Father and Son. I know that Daddy had fun biking, kayaking, and miniature golfing with you. Only Daddy will let you get away with having an Olaf for lunch... although the homemade waffle cup, ice cream, whipped cream, and cherry sounded like an amazing treat!!! It was very cute that Ezekiel was so excited about how you got to see "sea creature" on your kayak :).

Kayaking next to Catalina Island... is this before or after the seal greeted you???

Sitting in the front seat of the helicopter on the flight back to main land :)

Hey, thanks for still liking to do stuff with your dear old mom :). I enjoyed stealing you for a quick lunch date last Friday. Don't forget, pomegranate sorbet is our favorite flavor at Yogurt Town! I like hearing your thoughts about school and what you are learning. Your Bible knowledge and insight is beyond your years. I'm glad that you like your class this year... you certainly have quite a few friends that you've been with since you were in kindergarten. I'm glad Miss Meek allowed your classmate to sing "happy birthday" to you all soft and loud and crazy before you passed out your brownie treat. I think you have a sweet class... even if some of them are a bit chatty :).

This is a big year for you. You will be going to Rawhide Ranch with your school and Hume Lake with church! This is your last elementary year. Yikes! Next year, you will officially be a Jr. Higher... with a locker, electives, sports and running from class to class!!!

Your Klondike Kake :D

Hurry Dad... don't melt the ice cream!!!

Could this be better??? I submit not :)

My heart is glad that you take your responsibility as the oldest child (and cousin). You play that role well. I'm thankful for where the Lord has placed you in our family. You have enriched our lives these last 12 years. We await with great anticipation to see where Jesus will lead you in the future. Son, know that Dad and Mom are praying for you always. We are praying that you will continue to grow in your faith and love for our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you would seek to follow Him with all that you do, and that you would treasure Him as your utmost!

We love you! Happy Birthday, Buddy!!! Be circumspect and make wise choices!!!

Thank you, Grandpa & Grandma, for squeezing in a b-day lunch and for the great new shirts! Congratulations on winning the Best Truck Award at the car show... but we already knew that it was the BEST TRUCK :)

Great job, Grandma! Perfect fit!!!

O-B-E-D-IENCE

It has been forever since Mrs. Hunt (the 1st grade teacher that each of our kids have had) at FCS wrote the Obedience Song for her class. Throughout the years, she has taught this song to each of her classes. This song has spilled over to all the other 1st graders in recent years and has grown into a standing tradition for the FCS Chapel on the week that the character trait of "obedience" is focused on. About the 3 week of school, the entire FCS student body sing at the top of their lungs the Obedience Song that they learned as a 1st grader :). I applaud Mrs. Hunt for the concepts behind the song, as well as how it helps the kids learn how to spell a long (but very important) word! Side note: obedience was a spelling word for one of the kids last week. I am pretty sure I heard humming while homework was being completed!

*** This was 2 years ago, when Abby was in 1st grade. My last video of this song :) ***

This week was "obedience week" :). Abby was chosen as Student of Week for this character trait! This is the second time (out of 3) that her teachers have identified this character trait in Abby's life. We are thankful that FCS chooses to use so many ways to positively reinforce good behavior. I know that my children respond very well to being singled out as someone that is doing right! I'm grateful for the "village" (family, school, and church) that God has surrounded me to support me in this parenting endeavor. It is absolutely an essential life skill for my children to learn to respect and honor authorities and to be obedient. I love that my kids are learning this skill when the stakes and consequences are lower (that they are not learning it for the first time as an adult, when they get fired from their job because they were disrespectful or insuborndinate to their employer!).

Good job being obedient at school, Abby :)! We are proud of you!!!

Super Hero

School started this Tuesday. How can it be so amazingly hot and humid in CA?!? It's topped 100 in the last few days. We are all looking forward to the "cooling trend" that is suppose to happen this weekend (especially without air conditioning!) We are so very spoiled... I know!

So, Isaac's assignment tonight is to write a Super Hero paragraph. Isaac is to self evaluate and pick a super hero that exhibits similar character traits as him. On the way home, Isaac complained:

Mom, since you won't let us watch TV, I don't know any super heroes. How am I suppose to figure out which super hero I am like...

I suppose it could be worse :D.

Abraham Lincoln

Abby has been working hard at getting her room decluttered and clean out (including the closet and under the bed!!!) before school starts. While I was helping her purge her stuff and looking at some of her mountains of papers with "little writings" on them (it's HARD for me to purge... especially my kid's work.), here is what I found:

AbrHAm is on a Penee And a five Dolr Bille

ABrHAM Livd on a farm cold mawt Brnin

AbrHAm was onist And Loved to reed the Bible

AbrHAM Linclin Liket to rite

no

Judging from the writing, Abby was 5 when she wrote this. She was most likely preparing for an oral presentation (or "share") for her Kindergarten class :). I love that her school allows her ample opportunities to speak in front of the class (and sometimes the entire school!). I'm thankful that she saved this little paper... just for me to find today and to savor motherhood and to remember to treasure even this time that my daughter still needs me to help her clean her room :).

Cousins

Haven't had much time to get on my blog... maybe after school starts :D. This summer has been one big blur. More about that later, I'm sure.

We were at our annual camping trip just a couple of weeks ago and were able to have a few days where all the "cousins" (our kids' cousins) together. They LOVE their cousins!!!

This week, with Matthew in Cambodia, we attempted to spend some focused time (baby steps!) thinking about school starting back up in a few weeks. Of course that means cleaning and purging closets and drawers, etc... definitely much less fun than water skiing at Almanor or hiking in Yosemite... but very necessary :).

While we were "knee deep" in outgrown or stained clothes, the kids were calling to each other using their "Ezekiel names":

Seth: Igitz, where do you want me to put this?

Isaac: Sephie, you may have that shirt if you want it. It's too small for me...

Seth: Oh! Thanks, Igitz! Abby, are you going to give away that pony?

Isaac: Abby... sorry you don't have a special name...

Abby: Yeah... Ezekiel only calls me "Abby". Sad...

It warms my heart that they love their "Ezekiel names". I love that they are constantly talking about the funny things that their little cousins do and say. They even make observations about how one of their cousins make the poutiest face they've ever seen :D. When I take the time to listen to their constant chatter... I would probably log over 50% cousin material (maybe only 2nd to Adventures in Odyssey :)!!!).

Car Trouble

Yesterday, on the way out to Music Practice, our car stopped working on the freeway. After successfully coasting over to the shoulder and calling for a tow and Matthew (because the tow truck would not be able to accomodate me, Seth and Abby). I suggested for us to pray:

Me: Ok, kids we should pray.

Seth: Ok, what should we pray for?

Me: We should thank God for keeping us safe when we were pulling over, that we have a cell phone to call for help, that Daddy was in town to come get us, and that other drivers were paying attenting so they didn't hit us...

Seth: Yes! We should also pray that nobody drove by really fast to take off my arm!!! (We had no signals, so I had Seth stick his arm out the window...)

Me: ... yes, Seth, you may thank God for your arm :D.

I love that there are so many things we can thank God for...

Love's final Letter to her husband

O may I have faith as deep as Mary's, on the night of her husband's execution for his faith and stand for our precious Lord Jesus Christ:

My Dear Heart,—Before I write a word further, I beseech thee, think not that it is thy wife, but a friend now that writes to thee. I hope thou hast freely given up thy wife and children to that God, who hath said, in Jeremiah 49:11, ‘Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widow trust in me.’ Thy Maker will be my husband, and a father to thy children. O that the Lord would keep thee from having one troubled thought for thy relations! I desire freely to give thee up into thy Father’s hands, and not only look upon it as a crown of glory for thee to die for Christ, but as an honour to me, that I should have an husband to leave for Christ. I dare not speak to thee, nor have a thought within my own heart, of my unspeakable loss, but wholly keep my eye fixed upon thy inexpressible and inconceivable gain. Thou leavest but a sinful, mortal wife, to be everlastingly married to the Lord of glory: thou leavest but children, brothers and sisters, to go to the Lord Jesus, thy eldest brother: thou leavest friends on earth to go to the enjoyment of saints and angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect in glory: thou dost but leave earth for heaven, and changest a prison for a palace. And if natural affections should begin to arise, I hope that spirit of grace that is within thee will quell them; knowing that all things here below are but dung and dross in comparison of those things that are above. I know thou keepest thine eye fixed on the hope of glory, which makes thy feet trample on the loss of earth.

My dear, I know God hath not only prepared glory for thee, and thee for it; but I am persuaded he will sweeten the way for thee to come to the enjoyment of it. When thou art putting on thy clothes that morning, O think, I am now putting on my wedding garments, to go to be everlastingly married to my Redeemer! And when the messenger of death comes to thee, let him not seem dreadful to thee; but look on him as a messenger that brings thee tidings of eternal life. When thou goest up the scaffold, think (as thou saidst to me) it is but thy fiery chariot, to carry thee up to thy Father’s house. And when thou layest down thy precious head to receive thy father’s stroke, remember what thou saidst to me, though thy head were severed from thy body, yet in a moment thy soul should be united to thy head, the Lord Jesus, in heaven. And though it may seem something bitter, that by the hands of men we are parted a little sooner than otherwise we might have been; yet let us consider, it is the decree and will of our Father; and it will not be long ere we shall enjoy one another in heaven again. Let us comfort one another with these sayings. Be comforted, my dear heart, it is but a little stroke, and thou shalt be there where the weary shall be at rest, and where the wicked shall cease from troubling. Remember, though thou mayst eat thy dinner with bitter herbs, yet thou shalt have a sweet supper with Christ that night. My dear, by what I write unto thee, I do not hereby undertake to teach thee; for these comforts I have received from the Lord by thee. I will write no more, nor trouble thee any further, but commit thee into the arms of that God with whom, ere long, thou and I shall be. Farewell, my dear, I shall never see thy face more, till we both behold the face of the Lord Jesus at the great day.

Mary Love, July 14, 1651.

Alone

Last night, this was a part of Abby's prayer:

"... thank you, God, that Great Grandpa and Great Uncle Jack could be in heaven with you, and pray that Great Grandma and Great Aunt Ginny are getting used to living by themseleves..."

I echo your sweet thoughts, Abby!

Dear Family, may the Lord continue to show Himself faithful to reveal the truth of Heaven and His soothing grace to each hurting one. May His providential hand be evident in your lives... in work, at home, in health, through private struggles, at school, in the community, and even in the mundane daily chores.

Sending you a BIG HUG!

Perfect Timing

When I was 10, without much warning, my family packed up and moved from Taiwan to California. Upon starting High School, I started attending various churches regularly. Shortly after I was 18, I acknowledged Jesus as my God and Savior. At 22, I was devastated that I wasn’t finished yet at UCLA and had to stay another year...

God’s sovereign hand… perfect timing

Without being brought here to the United States, I would not have been introduced to Jesus. Without accepting Christ as my Savior and Lord, I would not have been involved in the Grace On Campus Bible Study at UCLA that transformed my heart and life. Without staying that 5^th year at UCLA, I would not have met Matthew, God's gift and tool to "hold on" to me. Without my husband, I would not have been linked to the amazing Holbrook family and Grace Church family...

God’s sovereign hand… perfect timing

This morning at about 6:30, the phone rang. It was Mom, calling for Matthew. Dad was gone on a business trip and she needed her first born son. Grandpa Norris has gone to sleep last night and woke up in heaven! He must be so excited to be able to ditch his Parkinsons ravaged body, the wheelchair, aprons, and all them handkerchiefs! I picture him prancing and darting from one place to another, on the streets of gold, eating and drinking all sorts of delights without waiting for things to be "mechanical soft" or thickened! As Aaron said, he is probably fixing everything in heaven and saving all the parts J. But here below, I am thankful that Mom was able to have Matthew and Aaron (who just happened to be in town for the week) with her and Grandma.

God’s sovereign hand… perfect timing

After some final good-byes, the mortuary took Grandpa’s body. Everyone reconvened at Mom’s house. Through the tears, we celebrated Grandpa’s full life. Mom told us that a decision was made yesterday that due to Grandpa’s need for additional care, Grandpa and Grandma were not going to be able to live in the same unit anymore. Mom woke up in the early praying for wisdom and peace. Then, her phone rang…

God’s sovereign hand… perfect timing

Thank You, Lord, for Your perfect timing. Thank You for allowing us to see and recognize your mighty hand upon the details… in hindsight. Thank You for shielding and protecting our eyes and understanding when knowing would be too overwhelming for us to bear. Thank You Lord, for teaching us to trust You in our steps and to challenge us to live a life of no regrets. I praise You for Your good and faithful servant… Grandpa Norris.

I miss you already, Grandpa! Love you, see you soon!

New Toy

Just got a new camera with a bigger zoom for all these fun sporting events for my children :). It also has some cool functions to make pictures "artsy"! Sometimes, technology makes me giddy :D

"Fish eye" effect :)

Didn't get a picture of "sleeping Isaac" :( He woke up and asked me what I was doing!!! Can't believe it! Nex time...

Christian Character

While answering questions on the application for student representative for his class this afternoon:

Isaac: Mom, do I have "a good Christian character"?

Me: Well... what do you think?

Isaac: (pause) Well, if I don't, I need to go get one...

If only everything is that easy :)

Happy Birthddy, Seth!!!

Caramel Chocolate Wow cake!!!

My most favorite middle child is a 9-year-old!!!

I can still remember 9 years ago on this day, getting out of bed at 2:30am and jumping in the shower... and how your daddy thought I was just a crazy pregnant girl :). By the time we left for the hospital, I was all clean (with nicely curled hair and just a touch of make-up so not to get lipstick on you when you came out!). You were born on a Sunday morning, about 6 am. You did make Daddy late for 1st service, but not too late to teach Sunday School and attend 2nd service! How considerate! A-ma was with us when you come out. A-gon stayed home to watch Isaac. I think Daddy took my camera to church to show you off to Grandpa and Grandma and the rest of our family and church family! When Daddy brought Isaac and A-gon to see you, Isaac was so sweet and gentle with you. He was such a proud big brother... welcoming his little baby brother with all sorts of soft little kisses on your head! It still makes my eyes well up remembering how my boys met :). When Daddy came back from church, he brought a little red rose from the top of the piano... I think Mr. Gronewold clipped it for you to show our church family that a new baby was born. We used to do that at our church. I'm not sure why we don't any more.

Mrs. Steiger's special birthday pencil jar :)

Grandma's getting some "sugar"!

Well, my sweet Sethy, you are not 7 pounds and 21 inches anymore. I am so grateful to be your mama... even if you tell me that I have bigger thighs than your dad :). I love that you always want hugs (and tells me that "Hugs are what keeps you alive!"), even when you are at school. You make me laugh with all your little antics and sayings. Even yesterday when we were enjoying your birthday lunch of Western Bacon Cheese Burger without barbecue sauce, you told me that Amanda (the girl that you sit next to) is the one with the bananna colored hair :D. How descriptive!!! I don't think I've ever thought of anyone with bananna colored hair! I love your goofy sense of humor and how you and your brother so enjoy each other's company. You two are the perfect roommates. I am thankful that God has given you a spirit that desires the best for others. It makes my heart glad when you genuinely celebrate with Isaac or Abby when they have a victory or do well in something. I am thankful for your tender heart that desires to pray for those who do not know Jesus yet. I love that you are so kind and patient with your little cousins. I think you will be a great daddy one day!

Trying out the new Ripstick

New pet... Jerry Sea Swisher

This last year was an import one for you, you were given permission to take Communion for the first time in December, and the three fold communion just a couple of weeks ago. Daddy and Mommy are glad to give you this privilege because that you have shown a clear understanding of your sin, of repentance, and of the Cross. I'm grateful that God is working and will continue to finish the work He has begun in your life!

Happy birthday my Monkey Boy! I thank God for loaning you to our family. I pray that Mommy and Daddy will stand before God one day and hear "Well done, good and faithful servants. You have been wise and diligent in guarding over My precious treasures in Isaac, Seth, and Abigail..." We desire to teach you and ground you in the Word of God. I am thankful that we see a desire in you to know Jesus more and to follow Him. I love you, buddy! May God continue to grow you into a God-fearing young man!

Choices

Choosing gratitude means choosing joy. But that choice doesn't come without effort and intentionality. It's a choice that requires constantly renewing my mind with the truth of God's Word, setting my heart to savor God and His gifts, and disciplining my tongue to speak words that reflect His goodness and grace -- until a grateful spirit becomes my reflexive response to all of life.

--- Nancy Leigh DeMoss in Choosing Gratitude

I pray that in 2011, my response to discouragement be that of Dr. Wayne Grudem's:

"Honestly, I don't often become discouraged. I continue to see evidence of God's work in my life and the lives of those around me, and I am simply overwhelmed with thankfulness to Him."