Fulfilling My Purpose

It was a big birthday week here!

January 30, 2010–We had an ice storm on Kevin’s birthday! This didn’t bother Kevin one bit, but I was disappointed because we weren’t able to go out to dinner as we had planned.

January 31, 2010–Twice a year I sell clothes, books, toys, and kids’ stuff at a large consignment sale. I sell about 125 items at each sale, and I typically earn about $300 at each sale. This Sunday I spent a couple hours organizing and pricing the items.

February 1, 2010–About five years ago our church did 40 Days of Purpose, based on Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life. Now we’re getting ready to start 40 Days of Community. I thoroughly enjoyed 40 Days of Purpose, so I’m excited about what we will learn and experience from 40 Days of Community.

February 2, 2010–I’m thinking of changing the name of my blog to Never-ending Christmas. Not really. I’m starting to realize that celebrating Christmas year-round is actually a blessing. We should be celebrating Jesus every day anyway. Chelsea found this What God Wants for Christmas activity mixed in with our board games. We forgot to take it out this past Christmas, so I was happy to get it out. Each nativity figure is wrapped in a gift box, and there is a short story to read about each person. When you get to the last box, you find out what God wants for Christmas. It’s a great advent activity!

February 3, 2010–Chelsea’s Special Day. At first she requested cereal for dinner, and then she changed her request to a breakfast cereal bar. To say she is a picky eater is a serious understatement. The girl could live on Goldfish and water and be perfectly content. Caleb made a bookmark for Chelsea, and he wrote in her card, “Thanks for being my sister.”

February 4, 2010–Caleb’s 7th birthday! He had a blast playing his new Wii games.

February 5, 2010–The picture I actually took today was a picture of Caleb doing a head stand at his school gymnastic program. But the picture was all blurry, so I decided to show this one instead. This is a journal I received several years ago from a cousin. I love the quote from Helen Keller: “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” I’m learning when I keep my heart and mind focussed on God, life is truly a grand adventure in which I get to be part of God’s miraculous work in peoples’ lives.

Have a super weekend everybody!

Before I start with the daily pics, I want to share this:

My word, where have the last four years gone? When Chelsea was 8 months old, I introduced her to Elmo, and she fell wildly in love with him. I think her first word was Elmo. After about a year her fascination with Elmo faded, and Elmo was buried behind a toy bin, rarely to be seen again. TODAY, Chelsea asked me to get Elmo. (Maybe it was because she saw this picture of Elmo and baby Chelsea yesterday.) She danced and giggled and jumped in amazement of Elmo. It was very cute. Then after five minutes, she banished him to the dark corner again. How I miss those sweet baby days. Chelsea’s first year seemed to go by so much faster than Caleb’s.

January 23, 2010–Caleb’s birthday wish came true early, well…sort of. He really wanted a DS, but we discouraged that because we thought it would keep him from playing with Chelsea. We opted for the Wii so the whole family could play, although Chelsea hasn’t quite figured out the controller yet.

January 24, 2010–Christmas continues at our house. When I removed the small trees from the kids’ rooms, Caleb said his room was too dark, and he asked me to put the Christmas lights back up. As usual, Chelsea mimicked Caleb and asked for her lights too. Out of the closet they came.

January 25, 2010–Ballet day! Last week Chelsea said, “When I grow up I want to be a ballerina, then a cheerleader, then a mommy, and then a school teacher.”

January 26, 2010–The 100th day of school! I can’t believe there are only 80 days left. Yay!

January 27, 2010–Caleb’s Special Day. He requested Arthur mac and cheese and his favorite veggie: broccoli. Disclaimer: We DO NOT watch the Arthur show. I cannot stand it. But we do eat Arthur organic mac and cheese!

January 28, 2010–Does this happen at your house? Don’t lie. This drives Kevin crazy. Don’t bother giving me organizing tips. I won’t use them. I’ve tried lots of different de-cluttering strategies. I haven’t stuck with any of them. Basically, I let all the junk accumulate, and then when I can’t stand it anymore or when people are coming over, I sort, throw away, and hide the left-overs until company leaves.

January 29, 2010–First page of Project Life 2010 Scrapbook. I slipped the pics into the page protector, wrote a few words on each note card, and popped them into the page protector. Easy, peasy, shampoo-squeezy (quote stolen from Caleb). Today is also a very special day: it is the second anniversary of the day Caleb became a Christian. Click here to read the story.

Have a great weekend friends and strangers!

Just couldn’t resist this one. Have a great weekend, everybody!

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Whew. Finally caught up. Thanks to my friend Beverly for letting me know about the distorted pics in the previous posts. She would probably tell me if I had broccoli stuck in my teeth too. I appreciate friends like her.

The pics were BIG before, but they never looked distorted on my computer. I had to reduce the size to overcome the problem. Feel free to go back and admire all the pics again now that we don’t look like people in fun-house mirrors.

And thanks for stopping by. I have had a ton of fun keeping in contact with you through my blog.

January 2, 2010–We’ve had some unusually cold weather here. Good reason to snuggle up with a warm blanket.

January 3, 2010–Two people I love very much.

January 4, 2010–Grown-ups need to play too! I had fun playing with Caleb’s Treetop Connectagons from Hearthsong. I used all 242 pieces, and it took me about an hour to build.

January 5, 2010–Changing the window clings from Nativity to snowmen.

January 6, 2010–It was a book Christmas (for the most part). If you think we are nerds for giving each other books for Christmas, so be it. I’m proud to be a book nerd!

January 7, 2010–This playdate was a gift from God. Chelsea and her friend played for two straight hours with no bickering, arguing, fighting, or tears. I was so thankful for the quiet time for me!

January 8, 2010–My little artist girl.