A Happy Heart

      Being a stay at home mom and now homeschooling mom has been a challenge to say the least.  I have 5 "first born's" according to Dr. Kevin Lehman.  That is 5 first borns being raised by a "Baby" and a "Firstborn/Baby mix"!  So when we refer our bodacious crew as the (McPhail Family Circus), you can bet we know our stuff!!  

      Keeping a good attitude and cheerful spirit is my downfall lately.  It is my fault.  Lack of sleep, lack of structure, and laziness are just a few things I fight with daily.  When you add that piled on top of a teenager and 2 preteens, 5 year old diva, and 2 year old monkey, happy go lucky momma leaves the building.  Which leads to the guilt of not being a good mom.  Man, Satan knows how to set me up for what I perceive as failure.  

     This morning God let me read just the right scripture for my longing heart!

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 in The Message 

Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.

 That made me think of another verse, 

A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.  

Proverbs 15:13 

     It's amazing how the devil deceives us into unhappy hearts and is able to crush our spirits. God gives us each new day, free of yesterday's problems and guilt's, filled with His love and mercies!  My prayer is for my "Happy Heart" to be at the front of everything.  Every lesson, every discipline, every victory, and every failure.  Because as Madame Blueberry from Veggie Tales says, "a happy heart is a thankful heart".  

     So the challenge for today and everyday....Be so happy when that when others look at you they are happy to!  I want my kids to think happy first, not woe is me, and that begins in thankfulness!  May my face reflect the joy of God not the heartache of life.

 

Peace

Christmas time is here!

We are doing, making, seeing, giving, and loving even more than other times of the year.  I am a lover of Christmas music.  It usually starts mid November and goes until after the New Year.  I think it stems from my childhood and my wonderful Mom who helped make wonderful memories. One of my favorites was bedtime, yes as a child I enjoyed bedtime at least at Christmas, Mom would tuck us in and then head to the piano and fill our small home with wonderful Christmas music.  I am sure she played Silent Night just as a prayer for the rest of the evening, being a single mom of two.   We may not have had much, but we never knew it.  We decorated, sang, gave back to our neighbors and friends, and always enjoyed a candlelight service at church.  All the things I try to do with my kiddo's now!

While hurriedly finishing up some cookies the other day, music in the background, I found myself singing about words of peace and it started me thinking.  

When I looked up the word peace I  found these definitions:

*tranquillity: a calm and quiet state, free from disturbances or noise

*mental calm: a state of mental calm and serenity, with no anxiety

*harmony: freedom from conflict or disagreement among people or groups of people

I know that we all think of the first two when thinking of Christmas and how we want to feel and have our homes, but I have found that it is a totally unrealistic idea for our family of 5 kiddo's!

Don't get me wrong, we strive for peace in our home.  We teach kindness, gentleness, giving, loving, and being selfless but face it, they are kids and don't always get the quiet peace memo.

So what does peace look like in a busy home?  For me the 3rd definition is a better picture.  Harmony!  Maybe not quiet harmony, but laughing, playing, squeezing, hugging, loving harmony.  As I listened to the songs of peace I listened beyond to here the sweet words and precious laughter that was being shared by my kiddo's.  To me that is the best peace to possess.

My Jesus wanted us to live in Peace and share His Love with others.  So this year I will put off the notion of quiet peace and spread happy harmony to my fellow men!

Merry Christmas to you all!

My latest DIY

So some of my besties introduced me to a site called Pinterest!  It's kind of addictive for thoses of us who like to decorate, craft, sew, or just plain look and organize pretty things.  But the budget is not name brand around here....so enter the Do it Yourself zone......

I have been longing for a storage bench to go by the front door for shoes and such. I have found many pictures that I loved...but the price tags...not happening.  So I went to our local Restore Store(help others while finding treasures for myself) they support the Habitat for Humanity here in town.  What to my wandering eyes should appear......

They wanted $10 but it was a little bit wobbly, so $7 brought it home and and I grabbed a can of paint for $1!!!  Went to the hardware store and spent $3 more for some metal L brackets that strengthened the corners right up!

My helpers had fun helping and then we painted! and did a bit of a rub when the paint was dry! So for around $11 dollars I have my bench.  I will eventually find some great baskets to slide in and make a pillow top...so when I am done...it will have cost me $20 Woo hooo so much better than the one I found at pottery barn on sale for 399.00!

So get out there and yard sale and salvage your next home decorating want!

Independance Day 2011

Thank you Joplin for a wonderful Show!!!


Wow what a weekend!  So glad to have my mom here...had so much fun!!  So as a treat for Nana we had to have Cinnamon Rolls..but not just any would do.  It had to be the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls!!

Can you smell them????

You know you want one...or two...possibly three if you can avoid the sugar and butter coma!

So besides the outstanding sweets, we were able to go to the river and have some water fun.

Sooo Stinkin Cute....
This would be after he decided that the water would not kill him....he takes awhile to adjust to new things...silly boy!

Nana's are the bestest! We had a great time and followed it up with a picnic lunch.  The kids thought they had won the lottery...eating outside! We are a wild crowd! lol

But the best part of the weekend was just being together as a family and having fun!  Always nice to just have some ideas of things to do but not have an agenda to follow!  No time crunches, no one waiting on us! Just chillin' like villains...ha ha ha!

Family....it's the best place to be!

Good Clean Fun!!

 

Bubbles are awesome...

Mom I don't wanna take a bath....Can't I  just go play in the pool?  So what does any mom of 5 say?  OK!  Go get your suits on.  Then to the cheers of the crowd, a bottle of baby shampoo is added to the pool!  The results...good, clean fun!

 This looks like a shampoo commercial....

Why is it as mom's we sometimes forget to just let it be fun and worry about the other stuff later?  This is my goal for the rest of the year and my life...Don't sweat the small stuff...make it Fun stuff!!

 Who needs a hot tub, just add legs, bubbles, and 100 degree heat!

So my proposal to all my mommy friends and everyone else....Take the plunge and let's try to loosen up and enjoy our kids...the dishes will eventually get done...the laundry will wait,  and the floor will be swept tomorrow!  Let's party and make some fun memories!

Yes I am a ham!

Can I get an AMEN!  I can't hear you?????  God's love is Big....and He seems to have an awesome sense of humor...guess it's time we find ours!  All my love...............
Pinky

Joplin

Today I had to run errands, my trip took me through the path of destruction we Joplinites have come to know.  I was so amazed at the cleanup that has taken place.  I love seeing plots of grass and cleared pavement!  The best of all is how the trees are trying to come back.  Green puffs all up and down there trunks...life springing up out of devastation...such a tribute to God's Grace and Joplin's resilience!

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,  then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

  In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
 Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:1-11 NIV

Friends

Well this is my first blog post EVER!  After visiting with some great friends, they insisted that I to, needed a blog!  So here we go!  From photography to fostercare, gardening to roller derby, I have a few things to offer! I look forward to the fun that is called blogging!