Fire Breathing Hospitality Monster

Me- "Boys hurry.... we have to vacuum, dust,clean the bathrooms, the kitchen, mop the floors, put all the laundry away, clean your room, and make dinner... oh my and we only have 2 hrs "
  Then you become a fly on the wall for the next 2 hrs and you see boys laughing and playing in the room they are supposed to be cleaning.. Kaitlyn pushing a chair over to the counter and pulling all the silverware out of the drawer and throwing them on the floor... Now we need to add washing all the silverware to the to-do list.... Me becoming a fire breathing hospitality monster for the next 2 hrs ready to blow fire at anyone one who disrupts my cleaning plan (heaven forbid a house that doesn't smell lemon fresh and laundry that isn't put away, an unmopped floor or a dusty TV when you have friends over!!!)
     Once the 2 hrs is over and  the door bell rings I open the door with a smile and our friends come pouring in with their very excited kiddos and the rest of the evening is completely opposite of what the previous 2 hrs were... Everyone is relaxed and laughing... no one cares about my unfolded laundry in the basket, or the dust on the TV. The kids have every toy in the room out and there isn't a floor insight (why did I make such a big deal about the room being clean again???)
     Sadly more often than not this is what hospitality looks like for me. Praise God for His forgiveness and His mercy that is new every morning!!
     God showed me this passage in 1 Peter 4: 7-11

But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious, and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

I was being hospitable but grumbling and I had been ministering to others ( not my family) but NOT with the ability from God!!! I have been trying to do it on my own, my own way!!!!  So it was time for soul searching, praying, repenting and  reevaluating my ways according to God's word. And as my faithful God has promised He been teaching this stubborn girl that His ways are soo much better than mine!!! Why don't I just get this but need to learn this over and over and over!!

 The past 2 weeks I have been able to put what I have been learning to the test !!!! The kids have been healthy and we have taken the opportunity to get together with many of our friends with whom we haven't been able to in what seems like such a long time. We have gone to friends houses for dinner and had friends over for dinner on every one of Mat's days off and I have even had friends over when he was at work!!! And it isn't stopping yet... we have 2 more things planned for this weekend.
 Things that have helped this fire breathing hospitality monster  become a woman who is learning to be calm, joyful, rested and ready to minister to other by hospitality are.....

~ Pray,Pray, and Pray while cleaning, cooking and preparing for company!!

~Plan what I am going to make before I do my weekly shopping to avoid last minute trips to the store that waste time and money!!!
~ Remember our families memory verses for the week " A fool gives full vent to his anger but a wise man keeps himself under controll!" Prov. 29:11

~Make the main portion of the meal the day before

~ Clean the night before. Once I put the kids in bed I turn on some music, set the timer for 1.5 hrs go to work cleaning
 ~It is not a clean house that makes fellowship sweet... It is a heart ready to love and laugh
~ Don't make new recipes you haven't tried yet... made this mistake this last week making lasagna which turned into lasagna soup ( I was completely embarrassed!!!) * I would love tips on how to make a perfect lasagna!!!
~ Don't mop the floor BEFORE company wait until after they leave
~Be thankful for my husband who tells me to stop and rest a bit and HE will clean the bathroom!!!
~ Don't feel like I need to be Wonder Woman  and do it all my self... Ask for help but in the right tone and more often than not help will be gladly given!!! What a wonderful time to teach my kiddos to joys of serving!!!
~ Realize that my kids are watching how I love and serve others whether I am having a willing, obedient heart or a grumbling and complaining one!!
~Hospitality is about giving, not impressing. 

~I want to make hospitality about eating, talking, and enjoying the fellowship.... The dishes can wait until after our friends leave or maybe even until morning!!

Through this we have been reminded how blessed we are with such wonderful friends. We get to laugh to the point of tears, encourage, pray for, share our struggles and what God is teaching us and just have sweet fellowship.

 Prov 18:24 "A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
Prov 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." 

Snap Shots of our weekend

While driving today I turned the radio down and had a wonderful conversation with my kiddos.. it began like this.... 

Zack- Mommy where is God ?

Mom- He is everywhere and He see all that you do and loves you still

Zack- He is invisible

Mom- Yes but you can see little bits of Him in His wonderful creation. God says  He made us in His image, like Him.

Jayden- But how can this be mom because we are not kind like Him, we are not loving and powerful like Him?

Mom- Yes that is so true God is God and when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden... sin entered the world and our heart are filled with sin now. But when God saves you and changes your heart God begins changing us to become more and more like him.

What a wonderful conversation I would have missed by just keeping the music on. The rest of the drive the boys were asking me what countries are friends with America. I was quite surprised with all the countries they knew :) Kaitlyn kept pointing out all the cows she saw by saying " mommy MOOOO.... mommy mooooo.... mommy mommy mooooo, mommy mommy tow :) "

This weekend went by so very fast! I will share a few snap shots from the fun we had!!!

Saturday we spent the morning at Lagoon Valley Park with our friends.... Our walk began with excitement of what we were going to see... I grabbed a water and left our picnic in car to enjoy afterward

It was pretty cold and very very foggy!!! We could see a small lake and decided it would be fun to walk around it. I didn't bring a stroller because Kaitlyn has been wanting to walk on her own.... but guess what.... not on SATURDAY!!! It was a bit muddy so maybe the was why she didn't want too :) So the walk began with the boys having a wonderful time running ahead pretending to be "army guys" charging ahead toward battle

We walked on and on... with me carrying my dear daughter the WHOLE time.... tummys were beginning to grumble and the " Are we almost there yet ?" began to flow :) Truth be told Bryn and I weren't too sure where  "there was" or how long it would take to get to "there" :) So we took a little stop and thankfully she brought along some apples and pretzels and was so kind to share with my kiddos!

 

 Now recharged we moved onward..... me still carrying Kaitlyn... when we finally asked someone in passing how long this walk was.... 2 Miles :)

I had to put Kaitlyn down but the only way she would walk was when her friend Aniah would hold her hand.....

Mommy pick me UP please :)

                                                                      A little pit stop

                                 They still had soo much fun and I was so proud or how far they walked!!!!!

 Kaitlyn wasn't too tired after the walk though... I wonder why :)

A bit of park time and then it was time to go to the car and enjoy our much deserved lunch!!!! What a wonderful way to spend the morning with good friends!!!

Fantastic.... Fun.... Full.... Friday!!!

Our morning started with daddy going to pick up this....












We were in the middle of our math lesson when Daddy walked in with this very loud package.... so the wonderful thing about homeschooling is that we were able to put what we were doing aside and........

And help daddy count and sort these.. and guess what... that was the rest of our MATH :)

Next Nana came and took the kids to the park to play in the beautiful warm sunshine ( PE :) While I got to go for a run with my sis- in- law....! 

The rest of the day was filled with reading labels at the store while grocery shopping (reading and health) and learning how to make lists and check them off :), Finishing our unit study on Ducks( science), and seeing a real $100 where Jayden recognized Benjamin Franklin ( we just studied him all week!!) and sitting on the couch reading a book to his little sister!!!

I love that I can make all those little lessons part of my children's academic studies... it is real life and not just textbook learning. Most of the time it is those lessons they remember the most anyways :) Not to mention all the wonderful memories we make and the other people we get to involve in our learning process too!!! 

  So right now I sit here so very thankful for the ability to be able to homeschool. Don't get me wrong there are many days I am ready to throw in the towel and say that's it I can't do this!!! 

Especially when I have 3 days worth of crumbs I am walking on to get to my son who needs help with his subtraction problem, a daughter who I know just took my dry erase marker in the other room ( but I am not going to get her because she is being quite for a minute!), a son who is yelling mommy from the top of his lungs from the bathroom because he is in need of my assistance, a husband who I need to get up for work and have dinner ready for by 3:30pm... oh no I just looked at the clock and it is 2:45??? I have to walk by that HUGE basket of unfolded laundry that might just stay there until I need that basket to put more clean laundry in a few days and I haven't showered in how many days???........ this is my yesterday... but then I  a wonderful day like today... and I see that all those yesterdays make today worth every minute of it!!!!

* Note the dry erase marker is all over her dresser  and wall in her bedroom!!! Not sure how we are going to get that out... but truly it was worth the moment of uninterrupted math instruction.

Lets Get Some Fresh Air

We got bundled up and headed on a walk to our park!!

Boys will make guns out of ANYTHING... here they were playing like they were American and English soldiers  fighting Germany :)

 

 

 

 She didn't put the lip gloss down ALL day!!!! Such a girl already :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the highlight of our day to get outside and enjoy God's creation!!

Sovergein Deliveries

I am so excited.... I found some of the books that have been on my to-do list to read at the library. I just finished this one yesterday!

 

What an answer to prayer this book was!!!!  

I have been really struggling with how to " Do it all and not be overwhelmed." I can do the "do it all" part but while doing it I am grumbling and complaining, angry, and  having a pity party..... "Ahhh I really have to vacuum again, I just put it away!" " I am so tried of having to read this same line in our bible story book because your sister keeps interrupting  (yes, I did say bible story book... you think I should listen to what I am reading eh??)." 

These are just a few things that go on in my head and often manifest themselves into the way to talk to my children and husband. The saying is so true " when mommy ain't happy, no one is happy". 

I then get discouraged when I hear the boys talking to each other unkindly or when I ask them to do something and they give me the " ahhh mom not now, do I really have too, or as Kaitlyn says "NO!"'

How can I expect them to have happy cheerful obedience when I am being the worst example of that. 

But praise God he is my wonderful, forgiving shepard, Savior, and King!!!

Most often my days look like that when I have not had time to sit still as His feet, to listen and worship Him. 

 Now I am committed to joining the 4:45am (AM!) club.... waking early to spend time in the word....

"When we seek God through His word and prayer, we glean wisdom for walking carefully. We obtain guidance for daily decisions. We find peace in the midst of life's whirlwind. We are infused with strength to complete our tasks."

John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do NOTHING!"

It is day 2 of my attendance and I can say that I am so thankful for this uninterrupted time in the wee hours of the morning! And I am more prepared for life to happen... for the kiddos to come bounding in with there many (what they think are) immediate needs, and to meet them with a smile, a hug, and a heart prepared to be serve and to serve with JOY!

 But about an hour later we begin to homeschool... this is where my JOY and patience gets put to the test!!!

I will close with a quote from the book where Carolyn quotes C.S Lewis

"The great thing is one can. is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's "own" or "real" life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life - the life God is sending one day by day: What one calls ones "real life" is a phantom of one's own imagination."

All the interruptions- they aren't interruptions after all. They are sovereign deliveries. the unpleasant things are God's perfect plan for our day. Ps. 118:24 "This is a day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

 

Plans :)

 

Kaitlyn's 

1st time helping make something with mommy.

I think she most enjoyed eating them :)

" Upon arriving at such besides after a late-night awakening, mothers have found anything from coughing mouths, to runny or bloody noses, to dirty daipers, to wet beds. to vomit-soaked sheets, to tear filled faces. This motherhood can be very messy business.....

Proverbs 14:4 "when no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of the ox." In a nutshell proverbs 14:4 teaches that enduring and worthwhile gain comes only at the cost of draining upheaval.... This proverb is not a plea for slovenliness, physical or moral, but for the readiness to accept upheaval, and a mess to clear up, as the price of growth.... Oh, I suppose a mother could keep things "neat as a pin" if her goal was to have just one of two "low maintenance" children of the "sheltered" variety to whom she selfishly communicated, "Just go to your room and don't bother us." But if a mother is bent on raising up mighty children, capable children, bold, brave, daring, adventuresome, God-fearing, dominion minded children who go out and turn the world upside down, MAKE MESSES. But the woman of dominion is willing to pay the price of domestic upheaval for the prospect of kingdom profit. There will be more corner cobwebs than you's like, because instead of obsessively cleaning, you'll be nursing, teaching to read and ride bikes, and telling bedtime stories." by Mark Chanski Womanly Dominion

Game Night

 This has been another week of sickness in the Petit household meaning lack of sleep, to-do lists not getting completed, schedules changed, and homeschooling interrupted. So basically not going as I had planned!!! After reading the above quote in Womanly Dominion I am reminded that it is the messes, the times of  stopping what your doing to give a hug of comfort, the fun game night that made such a mess of crumbs afterwards, the cooking with your 1 yr old and watching while she tries to put the flour in the bowl but ends up dumping the whole thing on the kitchen floor and the soping up of water after your husbands games with the boys leaves them laughting hysterically because daddy tricked them and put them in the bath with all their clothes on!!!! It is those things that makes my job so amazingly wonderful... 

So as I sit here a reflect on all that GOD had planned for me this week I can say thank you.. for changing my plans!!!

Yeah you never know what crazy thing us Petit's will do on any given day...  :)

 

Our Changless God

I wanted to share this devotion with you that I shared at my sister-in-laws bridal shower.....

I  can’t believe the TIME is so quickly approaching of your wedding day. A lot has changed since I first met you a little over a year ago. My family changed from 4 to 5, you have changed from a college student to a college graduate, and your relationship has changed from dating to soon to be husband and wife. After your wedding many things in your life will change. You will change into your role of helpmate.  Things in our life are always changing and always will change but there is one thing in your life that doesn’t change…. Our immutable, changeless  God.   Ps 102:25-27 “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands, They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But you are the same, And Your years will have no end.”

There were times in my first year of marriage where I asked myself “Who is this man I married?” I had no idea he liked staying up so late, liked chocolate on his toast, thought dirty clothes belonged on the floor rather than a basket :) I have changed realizing that I can stay up past 9pm, in the past 7 years our relationship and love has also changed I understand and love him soo much more today than I did on our wedding day.

God doesn’t change-

1.       He himself doesn’t change- Heb 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

2.       His plans and purposes don’t change- Since the beginning of the world God’s plan for salvation of His elect never changed Ps 33:11-12 “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.”   God is the same God to Adam, Moses, Ruth, David, Peter, Paul as He is too me!!

God is immutable and unchanging therefore-

1.        My salvation doesn’t change no matter what I do or don’t do or what I feel. Our sin cannot stop God’s saving work what hope this gives me that God is not like me and that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Heb 13:8

2.        I know that the gift of marriage is from Him “Every good and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” This is a good verse to remember in the mountains and valleys of your marriage that emotions and circumstances will change but your GOD WILL NOT!

3.       We can have confidence in the role that God has for us a wives and women of God- “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord”

4.       We can have confidence in our prayers- Heb 4:14-16 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore from boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.” So pray pray pray, and remember to always pray together!

Conclusion-

In sickness and health, in good times in and in bad, for richer or poorer you’re God and Savior Jesus Christ doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever

Whats Cookin

So one of my New Years resolutions is to cook more and eat out less. By the end of my homeschool day that last thing I want to do is cook dinner. I have found it so hard to be creative in the kitchen... But the time has come to pick myself up out of this rut and start cooking.... 

Baby steps.... 1st goal... go 1 week without eating out.

So the meat is out and defrosting and I am on the quest to plan a menu for the week. 

Looks like tonight we will be have grilled steak with a wine/mushroom reduction sauce  and grilled chicken for me....

A New Year and New Things!

2011 is here and with that my desire to begin a blog... Well actually I have had this desire for a long time but I just needed the motivation. The start of the new year brought the motivation I needed. So please bear with me as I learn the ropes of blogging :) I am a bit behind times I know! 

Ever since the birth of my 1st child Jayden, I have what you might call "mommy memory" which goes something like this.... " umm...... what was I supposed to remember???" And that was just with 1 child you can imagine how bad it is now that I have 3!!! My main reason for blogging therefore, is to have a written record of prayers answered, things learned, praises recorded, funny stories, the precious things my kids do and say (they grow so fast!) and just whatever else might find its way on these pages!!

I look forward to sharing glimpses of the crazy life of the Petits :)