As my tag line says I can blog about anything that fits my fancy and today my frustration lies in the word intolerance.

I’ll start by saying I believe the Bible is the word of God from the front cover to the back cover.  I believe every single word in the Bible is truth.  I’m not someone who thinks this set of chapters or this or that book is truth or just stories.  Either it’s ALL the word of God and therefore truth or none of it is.  I believe the Bible is crystal clear on marriage and what God intended for marriage: one man and one woman.  PERIOD.

I get so tired being labeled as intolerant, homophobe, hateful, mean or any other label the LGBT community comes up with.  I believe our Lord designed marriage between one man and one woman and I will stand up for that truth.  I will teach my children what the Bible says on this topic.  HOWEVER, this does not mean I hate gay people, nor will I teach my children to hate gay people.

According to the Webster dictionary the definition of phobia is: an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.

I am not scared of nor have a fear of gay people.  I am not a homophobe.  When I worked outside the home I worked with many gay people and I guarantee if you asked any of them how I treated them they would answer the same as I treat anyone.  And, I would never teach my children to treat gay people with hate.

Test:  which of the following sentences are hate speech?

A) Your lifestyle is gross, disgusting and completely unnatural and I hope you burn in hell because of your sin.  All the gay people should be tortured and killed.

B) I believe the Bible is clear on marriage and God’s plan for marriage is one man and one woman.  I believe the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin.

Hmm… I would say A is hate speech and I have NEVER, let me repeat, NEVER said that to someone.  And, of all the Christians in our lives none of them have said hateful things either.  Are there those that treat people this way?  Of course, we are sinners.  People treat other people terribly for all kinds of reasons.

Why is it the left and the LGBT demand I be tolerant (not just tolerant but it’s rammed down our throats in so many aspects of life) of their belief yet they do not have to be tolerant of my belief?  Why is it when I stand up for what I believe is truth I get labeled a hater or a bigot yet those in support of homosexuals can say whatever they want and I have to keep my mouth shut.

We live in such a messed up world and I pray daily for our Lord’s return. In the mean time, I will stand up for truth and I will teach my children to stand up for truth.  We will do it in love but we will not waiver.

Gaylene

We’ve finally had our first measurable snowfall of this season!  It isn’t a huge amount but enough to play in and even though the temperature outside was only 3 degrees it didn’t seem to phase the kids any.   Jonathan had to wear his sisters snow boots that she grew out of because his were too small for him.    Hopefully, the kids will have lots of outdoor play time in the snow this winter.  It’s a really good thing their daddy doesn’t mind the cold, otherwise, they might not be outside except to go from the house to the van!  Daddy and the 2 oldest shoveled the snow into piles for fort making but I didn’t get pictures of the forts.

As I mentioned in an earlier post I’m not a fan of Halloween.  Last year we went to a play (The Princess and the Pauper) that several homeschool groups put on and opening night was on Halloween – YAY!  This year we weren’t as lucky to have a play to attend so I decided to throw our own little family party for Halloween.  I put up several strings of orange and purple lights around the basement.  I set up our long folding table with a pumpkin tablecloth and set up a station for each kiddo to make a popsicle stick scarecrow.  We will use these scarecrows as fall decorations next year.

Jonathan working on his scarecrow.

Popsicle Stick Scarecrows

After dinner we played bingo with homemade bingo cards and M&M as the tokens.  Whichever kid won they got to eat a couple tokens.

Playing Bingo!

Our pumpkin village watched the festivities 🙂

Pumpkin Village!

It was a fun evening and the kids are already looking forward to next year!

Below are just some random pictures I thought I’d share.

All Smiles!                                                   

Our littlest Bronco fan!

Our girls!

Thanks to my friend Jodi (who is a fabulous real estate agent if you ever need one! She will work hard for you!) a few of us spent a fun morning at the Remax Fall Festival.  I took Jonathan, Alex, Belle and Natasha to Clement Park to enjoy a pumpkin patch, balloon rides (we didn’t take a ballon ride… I’m hoping next year), face painting, pancake and sausage breakfast and funny shaped balloons.  It was a bit chilly at 8am but by 9:30 it warmed up quite a bit.

Natasha, Belle, Alex and Jonathan at Fall Festival

Many of you know that Halloween is my least favorite holiday.  If it was just 5 year olds dressing up as lady bugs and dinosaurs it would be no big deal.  But it’s such a dark holiday.  The decorations and the costumes are just…. terrible!  I don’t get the interest in death.  The heads chopped off and blood and cuts.  Why is that appealing to anyone?  Anyway, we don’t typically celebrate Halloween around here but we did decorate pumpkins.  I’m planning a special Halloween party for my family for that evening. Instead of trick or treating and coming home with a bunch of junk I have a couple special games planned and something fun to create!  Here are the kids pumpkins!  They are sitting on our front porch now enjoying the crisp fall weather.  Thanks to my mom for her desire to do the pumpkin thing with my kids.  If it wasn’t for her they wouldn’t know much about pumpkins other then eating them!

Alex’s pumpkin is decorated as a fairy!

Jonathan’s pumpkin is a pirate!

Belle made her pumpkin into a cat!

Natasha transformed her pumpkin into a mouse!

Happy Fall!

Anyone who knows me knows that I, generally speaking, don’t do well with change. But I also know that change can be good and, at times, necessary.

We’ve had a lot of change in our house over the last 6 weeks. The kind of change that requires physical energy, patience and a good nights sleep!

In an effort to give our four girls more room we decided to give them the master bedroom. Now, our house was built in 1952 and the bedrooms are not very big, not even the master bedroom. But, it gives them a bit more room. We sold our giant, solid wood furniture and bought a used platform bed to fit our CA King mattress (I love craigslist!). Then I painted the room a bright green and stenciled Joshua 1:9 on their closet door. I painted a few small trees, butterflies, lady bugs and flowers throughout the room. My mom made them new curtains. Then we got their bunk beds set up along with the crib for Katherine. One set of bunk beds does not have the bottom bunk set up (don’t need it yet!) so I made it a little play area for the girls.

Then in our new room, I painted it and my mom made us some new curtains. We got our new bed set up and then I set off to re-arrange the basement.

Both Phil and I were convicted that we have too much stuff… I mean WAY too much stuff and stuff that we didn’t need nor use. So I made my old office the girls dressing room. All of their dressers and hanging clothes are now down in this dressing room. The other half of the room is set up with all of our crafts and believe me when I say we know how to craft!

Then, Phil’s office was cleaned out and made into a game room. All of the toys and games that were in our big play room downstairs were cleaned out. Some thrown away and some donated. Then we re-organized all that was left and set it up in what is now the game room. As a side note, Jonathan had grown out of his toddler bed and was ready for a twin. Because of our very, VERY tight budget we really had no funds to buy him a new bed. So, my mom volunteered to take the double bed that used to be in Phil’s office and give her twin to Jonathan. It was a win win for all of us! Thanks Mom!

What’s left in the big play room? The 2 lego tables won’t fit in the game room so they stayed in the big room. Our piano and treadmill are also still in this room. We took our dark blue couch to the dump which left us with the small brown love seat. It just so happened that my aunt was having a garage sale the same weekend and was selling her couch. The couch was rarely sat on as it was kept in a bedroom and she sold it to us for very little. AND, it is a sleeper couch! I realize that it won’t be as comfortable as our previous guest bed but hey, it’s free to use!

So, the big room is now much less cluttered and a more relaxing place to watch TV. Well, we don’t have cable so we watch movies.

Now for a few cute pictures!

Katherine taking a nap outside in the shade.

They love when they get to go with daddy in the bike trailer!

Cousin Jacob here for a visit!

Jonathan loves to roll in the grass!

Titus 2:3-5 (NASB) Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands so that the word of God will not be dishonored.  

I was reading a blog post by Courtney over at Women Living Well about 5 radical qualities young women should pursue.   Courtney discusses what Paul is writing about in Titus 2.  She does a wonderful job breaking down each verse and the qualities that a young woman should try to acquire.  You should take a few moments and read her take on Titus 2

I am blessed to have 2 Titus 2 women in my life.  I have known my friend June for 14 years.  Through the years she has prayed for me and with me (and my family), encouraged me, challenged me and laughed with me.  She is usually the first person my husband calls when he sees that I need to get out of the house and be encouraged.   She is a wonderful example of a Godly wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend.

I’ve only known my friend Joan for a few years but she too has prayed for me, challenged me and we certainly laugh together… frequently!  She loves the Lord, her husband and her children.  She takes her role as a Titus 2 woman seriously and will lovingly mentor anyone.  Her passion is to help other women become a Titus 2 woman and to help them strengthen their relationships with the Lord, their husbands and their children.

I pray that one day I can serve others as my 2 friends have served me and my family.

Blessings,
Gaylene

ps – you really should check out Courtney’s blog.  She is a gifted writer and does not shy away from speaking the truth of the Bible.

Katherine is almost 4 months old.  I just had to post this picture of her.  She is such a sweet and happy baby!

Summer is my favorite season for many reasons.  One of our favorite activities in the summer is participating in the annual Bible Bee.  Each year The Shelby Kennedy Foundation puts together a nationwide Bible Bee.  They decide on a book of the bible to study all summer, choose many (not sure how many but a lot!) verses for memorization and create wonderful study workbooks based on various ages.  Our local bible bee club meets once a week throughout the summer where we play games and help each other with memory verses and bible questions.

This year the foundation choose to study the book of Jonah.  All summer long we will do an in-depth study of Jonah and memorize as many verses (assigned by the Foundation) as we can.  In late August, we will gather for our local Bible Bee Contest where the girls will take a written test based on Jonah and then will recite the verses they know in front of a judge.  The winners of the local bees get to go to Atlanta in late October to compete in the National Bible Bee.

Our kids absolutely love the Bible Bee and the Bible Bee club where we get to play and fellowship with several other families all while putting the words of our Lord on our hearts.

What a blessing!

Enjoy your summer!

Gaylene

I woke up just after midnight on Thursday, March 6th feeling a little odd.  At 9+ months pregnant, getting in and out of bed can be quite a chore but I managed to roll out of bed and started wobbling toward the bathroom when my water broke.  I went back to the bedroom, turned on the light and instantly Phil woke up.  You see, every Thursday we have a paper route job that starts at about 4:30 in the morning when Phil leaves to go pick up the papers from the warehouse.  As soon as I turned the light on Phil jumped up and asked if he was late getting up to get the papers.  I promptly told him that my water broke and Mr. Efficient had his clothes and coat on and was ready to whisk me off to the hospital.  Now, anyone who knows me knows that I really, REALLY dislike hospitals and since I was not having any consistent contractions I was really in no hurry to rush to the hospital for who knows how long until baby arrived.  I was able to put him off for almost an hour but he got me to the hospital about 1am.

We tried calling and texting my doctor but our new cell phone provider was not playing along that night and he didn’t know I went into labor until a couple hours after baby was born.  Fortunately, my doctor’s back up was at the hospital in no time and was quite good at helping me stay focused through the pain.

Anyway, Phil would say “and 4 pushes later” our 5th child was born.  Now, that kind of implies that not much happened before those 4 pushes and I honestly think it was more like 6 pushes but who’s counting!  At 5 hours this was the quickest labor.. thankfully!

Without any further rambling please meet Peanut, Buttercup or something else… haven’t settled on a nickname for her yet.  She was born at 5:09 am Thursday, March 6th weighing 8 pounds and was 20 1/4 inches long.  And yes I said HER!  We did not know ahead of time what God was going to bless us with and it was fun to hear ‘it’s a girl’ after all the hard work.

With big sister Pooh Bear!

With big sister Belle!

She’s beautiful and healthy and perfect for our family!

The nurses were shocked when by 7am that same morning I asked when I could go home.  Remember… I don’t like hospitals and unless there is a medical reason to keep me or baby I see absolutely no reason to stay.  Right about that time my OB walked in, looked me over and gave me the thumbs up to go home and all we needed was for the hospital pediatrician to give the OK for baby.   Originally, the hospital wanted me to take a parenting class before allowing me to be discharged but my nurse came in and told me I didn’t need to go to the class.  Around 1pm the pediatrician said baby was ok for us to take home (of course, that was after I got a lecture about how we should stay and be monitored for at least 24 hours, yada yada yada) and we were out the door by 2pm.  YAY!  Less then a 12 hour hospital stay!

Fast forward 2 weeks and baby gained 22 ounces (she lost 8 ounces the first day or two) and is a very calm and beautiful baby.  All the kids absolutely adore her and are big helps around the house.

We thank God for this amazing blessing!

I’ve never really been a big fan of Valentine’s Day.  For me it was just a marketing tool used to rake in thousands of dollars and convince millions of people to buy and eat large amounts of sugar…. commercialism at it’s best!

However, five years ago I started a new Valentine’s Day tradition with our family.  A special evening where we focus on God’s love for us and the love we have for each other.  I decorate our house with lots of hearts and bible verses that express God’s love for us.  I usually make chicken cordon bleu because the entire family really likes it and then I make a special dessert.  This year, dessert was VERY simple as being 37 weeks pregnant I’m low on energy!  I bought gluten free pretzels and put a Hershey’s kiss on each one and popped them into the oven at 170 for about 5 minutes.  Then I topped each one with a pink m&m.  They were a huge hit.

I also try to make something special for each family member.  This year I made each person a presentation of 10 things I love about each one.  Each night starting on Valentine’s Day everyone scratches a heart off to reveal one thing I love about them.  We have all really enjoyed this nightly activity.

Rather than give in to the commercial take on Valentine’s Day try making it a family devotional time and an opportunity to be a blessing to your family!