The winner of Warrior Prayers Ebook is......

Congratulations Abbie Swartzentruber!!  Your name was drawn randomly to receive the extra Ebook, Warrior Prayers!  I will email you,  your copy!   Abby K., Chelsa K., Ashley G.,  and anyone else that may be interested you can still purchase your copy for yourselves by going to this link 21 Days of Prayer for Sons  just scroll down to the section that is titled How does it work?  Make sure to scrool and read entire post especially the section titled Some things to know… that section gives details of where to check in and be a part of the book club forum.  The 21 day Challenge Starts May 1-22, 2012.   This is new to me too, but I am excited to learn to incorporate prayer into social media.  I participated awhile back in a 30 day prayer challenge for our children via facebook and was truly blessed! 

Isaiah 40:11

New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.

You all know I have just the one son, Griffin, and two daughters, Megan & Natalie, at first I thought, is this selfish praying so intently and specifically for Griffin for 21 days? Then the Lord placed it on my heart as I pray for Griffin, some place in this vast universe there  are two other sons, who will some day be my daughter's husbands, so I will be covering these unknown boys in Warrior Prayers as well.  

Let’s get ready to pray passionately and purposefully for the hearts of our sons in the next 21 Days of Prayer for Sons challenge!  May 1-22, 2012

Change the world. Pray for your sons.

21 Days of Prayer for Sons

I'm linking up to participate in 21 days of prayer for sons.   In doing so I receive a free book,  Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need It Most!” for myself and one for one of my blog readers.   Leave me a comment and I will randomly draw a winner!!  See links for details.  Starts May 1st - May 21st. 

You know the Big Handsome, let me introduce you to the Little Handsome!

Griffin has fell in love with IU Basketball thanks to the original Big Handsome, Cody Zeller.   Griffin loves wearing his candy stripe pants and his #40 jersey,  I told him I was going to call him my Little Handsome. 

The Big Daddy (Les) surprised the kids with a basketball goal in the hayloft over the weekend!

So now the kids have their own indoor training facility….

Not quite as fancy as Cook Hall but still good for some shooting practice!

And we even encourage Academics in our facility.   Read a couple of pages and then take a basketball shot. 

And Big Sis was there to play some defense!    I love our life on the farm and hubby for taking time to make a fun place for the kids to play basketball!

Griffin enjoying November outside

  This past Saturday, Griffin spent the day helping Grandma put up her Christmas tree and help do some things outside like cleaning the gutters!  I think this is his new favorite fall chore…He decided when he got home that he needed to clean out our gutters too!  I love the look of determination on his face in the above picture!  And below,  yes indeed, there were a bunch of leaves in the down spout!

Good thing he got those gutters cleaned out to make way for the beautiful SNOW we got yesterday!! 

The Big sisters didn’t want to come out and play in the snow.   And I had piles of laundry, dishes, mail/bills, etc…that needed to be done but I let it all sit and headed out with my little man, as I know he isn’t going to stay little long.

Funny thing he said when he came in looking for me, he kept hollering MOM!  (I was upstairs and he couldn’t hear me answering him)   When I came down stairs, he said “When someone says MOM you need to answer me!”  LOL.   I said Ok, did you need something?  I need help making a snowman.  So off we went!

We made Mommy & Griffy Snowmen! 

 

Here we are making poses just like our snowmen!

 

I helped with Kids for Christ at school yesterday, when the 2nd graders came outside, it was still snowing and fresh snow everywhere,  the kids were so excited, and Griffin got caught with snow in his hand and the Principle, probably assuming he was going to throw the snow,  said Griffin put the snow down! Which he did do.   I think he was a bit embarrassed but shame on me,  I thought it was a bit funny, of course it’s my kid with the snow in his hands,  He gets it honest.  I love playing in the snow!  I told him I had already threw 3 snowballs at his daddy, earlier!   He told me he was just going to taste it.  I told him no touching snow at school but you can taste all the snow you want when you get home.

So I caught a picture of him eating his snow!  

Megan's homework curriculum.

You know we have a teenager in the house now.  Can't say I was more than thrilled to see this laying in front of my computer, left there by my firstborn,  with her handwritting below the article saying "Read this All" with an arrow pointing to the article.  Seriously,  Annoying Things Parents Do?  As if the curriculum needs to affirm that and empower them that she is correct in thinking her parents are annoying?  and the subtitle isn't much better,  "How to keep your cool when dealing with parental behavior"...really?  Dealing with Parental Behavior?   Last I checked "Parenting"  is our responsibility and God said  in  

Ephesians 6

¹ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ² “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— ³ “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”^[a]
4 Fathers,^[b] do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

The Bible commands children to "Honor" your father and mother, not "Deal with their parental behavior".   While I appreciate that the article was trying to get children to communicate with their parents about how they feel,  the article did mention that the parents were correct in their "behavior" if the child chose to continue poor choices.   The title was very disrespectful to parents as a whole.  In this world where far too many parents are pitching their parental duties aside,  those that are parenting their children to be disciplined and respect authority and walk with the Lord,  that is now called "annoying parental behavior".  Seriously,  no wonder there is a lack of respect for authority in this country.

I'm not upset with my firstborn, as I feel she was trying to communicate her feelings.   If she thinks our parenting is annoying to her, I'm OK with that too, because I'm not sure she really knows the definition of annoying, I mean I only spent 28 1/2 hours in labor with her, let me just say that was a little bit annoying!  (Just joking)  It was worth every minute.  She has a beautiful spirit and heart and love for the Lord.  I know it's not her desire to disobey.  My heartaches for all my children as they grow up in this world, but especially for her as she has entered these teenage years, it's as if she is stepped into the battlefield of all that the teenage years bring with it.  My prayer is that we have and continue to instill into her God's words and wisdom to help her shoot arrows at all that is being thrown at her and she will be able to stand firm and discern right from wrong.   It truly is a battlefield when so many are not being brought up with Bible guided discipline and if by world values that is considered Annoying well you can betcha I'm going to continue to be the most annoying parent around. 

Below is an online article that breaks down Esphesians 6:1-4 and recommend to all parents. 

http://bible-truth.org/msg184.html

Harvest Time!

When You see this big red machine

And this tractor and grain wagon coming through the field….

You know It’s going to make some little boys very happy!

My nephew, Alton, spent the day with  me yesterday, and couldn’t have been more thrilled that the combine was in the field by the house.  All day he said “let’s go see the farmers”.  My kitchen was out of commission due to some cabinet repairs being made, so I called Carrie and her little guy, Leo, (who happens to be just 1 day older than Alton) to meet us for lunch @ DQ,  followed by a combine ride!  Leo wasn’t quite sure about riding by himself so Carrie got to ride with Leo and Alton!  Check out Alton’s face, smiling from ear to ear!  Alton proudly sits on the cooler and chatted the entire time he was in the combine.   I’m sure he is an official “farmer” now.

Then it was time for the little boys to do some of their own farming.


Alton test driving tractors

He opted for the John Deere.  I’m sure his daddy is proud!

I should have done some cropping/editing  to this photo, but I’m lucky to even get photos on the blog.  But I must say,  I love the shadows on the concrete of these sweet boys on their tractors.  Not much of a nap time today for these boys, there was too much farming to be done.   You know the saying “A Farmer’s work is never done!” 

Indiana Middle School Cross Country Championship

Natalie (6th grade)  with team mate Emily S. (7th grade) before the varsity race began.

The Shoes that lead them to being honored as….

Indiana “All-State”  Runners!!  Natalie finished 7th and Emily 18th out of 239 runners!

Congratulations girls!!

*Also proud of my, niece, Kaelyn ~ 9 ~4th grader…..

ran her little heart out all the way to the finish line  for the very first time at state championships this year!  She’s the little girl in black uniform, off to the left side of the pack of runners,  she’s passing them all the way to the finish!  80th out of 108 Way to go KK! 

*Can’t forget Mr. Awesome, himself, my nephew, Connor ~ age 9~ 4th grader (no KK and Connor not twins, just blessed with niece and nephew from both sides of the family)  ……..

Finished 2nd placed out of 116 runners!!  He was awesome!!

Our family Loves us some XC!!