Berklee's 4! A Look Back

The BIG 4 My Little Pony Princess!

And now I can swing by MYSELF!

Huge accomplishment for the Berkster.

Berklee and Parker giving each other licks

of icing. Reminds me of the wedding cake feed

with the interlacing arms. Cute.

Now for a stroll down memory lane.

Ahhhh.

Here is Berklee at 3 playing in the snow

with her great aunt Mary.

She is like her daddy in so many ways.

One of her attributes is an adventurous

spirit.

Here is Berklee at about age

2 1/2 with her Grams soakin'

up the love.

Berklee at age 2 with Nana.

Florida is a well know location on any

map of ours.

Berklee and her new friend.

This picture is from when they first

started to really play together.

No greater joy than to see them have fun together.

(And this may have been the first day I

started to think positively about having

2 babies so close together.) :)

Berklee with her Gigi around

18 months old.

Need more pics of Gigi.

She is always taking the awesome pics!

She's still in shock over his arrival.

Actually, we all were and I was

more than a lot sleep deprived.

See? I didn't even have the energy to

dress them on this day.

Berk was 17 1/2 months when her

baby brother rocked her world.

Rowin was her partner in crime before

Hayden came along. Here she is

feeding the patient pup cheerios

one by one. Call me crazy but I

know this dog loves his Berklee.

Our angel decided not to walk until she was

14 months old, so here I am still carrying

her around while pretty prego with

#2. It kept me in better shape this time

around though. ;)

Berklee around 8 months old with her

Great Grandpa. Precious moments.

She was not a shy or timid baby.

I loved this about her and still do.

She is like her daddy in that she never

meets a stranger and can always make a friend.

Can you tell by the cheesy smile that

he is the proudest daddy in the world?

This picture makes me smile.

It reminds me that we used to fight over

our daughter. We would literally race

and push and shove each other

down the hallway to

be the first to get her out of bed when

we heard her crying.

Oh, the first child. :)

Berklee was an angel baby and

still is so very easy and and kissable!

Berk's first Christmas and the only pic I could

find at the moment with all my siblings together.

Papa was sort of a Berklee hog.

I noticed this as I was searching through

a gazillion pictures today.

I guess everyone else was always

busy taking pictures of the baby

to actually hold the baby.

And an unrelated photo that I came across while

browsing for the photo above.

Can you tell photo-taking is in our blood?

It is all that grey-haired woman on the left's

fault. I'll save her for another wild woman

post. :)

Berklee and her Papa at just a few days

old. Makes me wanna do the whole

miserable pumpkin in the belly thing again.

------------------------------

Well, maybe not today.

I love you Berklee Kay!

I am so glad God choose your daddy and

I to be a part of your story and I

although I am fond of the first four chapters

I am also so excited about the next.

Filters

We all have filters. They are the different qualities that make up

who we are: our personalities, gender, race, nationality, parents,

experiences, education, religion, etc....

A sermon at church has been replaying in my mind and so I thought I

would share a bit of the thoughts it stirred up in me.

When you read the Bible do you use your filters to "filter" out what

God is actually saying or do you read a passage or chapter and really

think about (in context of course) what the point was.

This week I've tried to completely change my "filters." I guess

a little experiment if you will. What if I was an abused woman from

a muslim third-world country living in a hut with 3 small children and no

food for tomorrow. What would the scriptures mean to me from that

angle? Something totally different right? For example the word blessing

in scripture might mean a meal tomorrow for my children instead of

a car. Or the word persecuted would mean that if my husband found out

about my faith he would most likely kill me instead of thinking someone

might think I'm weird because I do or don't do certain things.

Just something to think about. Filters. Next time you read the Bible

try to get them all out of the way. Don't use your filters to excuse

yourself from what Jesus was really saying. He didn't just talk, he

actually meant every word.

Just a thought this week on this journey.

Oh, and one more thing that I need to say.

Please stop and think right now about this.

You and I will live roughly 75 years on this earth.

Some of you may be halfway there already.

If you believe that eternity comes next then

you will spend more than

50,000,000,000,000,000,000 years

there.

God said that we shouldn't store up treasures in this world

because, well you do the math. Are you living for this world

or the next?

In Christ,

Tanda

Nugget

The Lord opens our eyes to different things at different times in life.

Let me back up.

If you are pursuing a relationship with God there will be seasons of

dessert life, when all you can do is know that God is faithful.

Because we all know that faith is believing in what we can't see or

know at the moment.

BUT, there are always those times on the journey with God that he

will reveal parts of himself clearly and loudly. These times are the

best. When God lets you get a glimpse of who he is and what

he is doing.

I'm trying to say something here but not quite sure how to get it out.

Let's try an analogy.

These times of revelation(when God reveals truth to you)

are so sweet and exciting yet they can be

burdensome too. The burden is that you feel like you have been given

this amazing little gold nugget of truth that has transformed you and

you know without a doubt that it would transform others. So you

put your beautiful golden nugget in this beautiful little box and you

take it to your friend next door. You act like an excited 4 year old

building up the excitement and anticipation about what is in this box.

Then you open the box with a smile that starts in your heart and

spreads to your face and then the other person looks at you with blank

eyes and says, "I don't see anything."

A wise woman once told me that the hardest thing about receiving a

revelation from God is that only God can reveal it to someone else,

not you.

To Me

I am writing this post to my future self.

I am hoping that it will bring me back to the mornings

of being a mother of two young children.

I hope that I will recall their chubby little faces, their laughter

and giggles, and their silly expressions. And even the messes.

Although frustration is experienced on almost a daily basis

I have bouts of fear every now and again that I will not be able to remember

these days. Because I know at some point in my life they will be

the precious memories that I will want to look back on often.

The following letter from me to me took place before 8:45am

one September morning in 2010:

To:

Me

This morning was challenging.

And of course you didn't wake up early like

you had planned and it wasn't necessarily a fun morning

but I really think you will get a kick out of it in about

2020 or so.

You went to switch the laundry after the coffee was brewing

and cereal had been poured and here is what you found.

You actually should have taken a better picture instead of an artsy fartsy one

with your phone. But yep, what you are seeing is a diaper and crayons.

You washed a load of laundry with them! Yay!
The clothes smelled of urine but you thanked God that the
crayons hadn't ruined the whole load.

Next, as you were walking back into the kitchen you saw the biggest mess of

cheerios and milk but what struck your attention immediately was

that Hayden was trying to eat with his left hand. (Like his big sister).

You couldn't really get mad but you were slightly annoyed by the

sticky table, chair, floor, and boy.

You then proceeded to, for some reason, notice that Nemo ,the pet

fish, was mouthing that he hadn't been fed in a week or so.

The discussion/argument with Hayden about the fact that he is NOT left-handed

was still ongoing and you might have been slightly distracted when you sprinkled

the fish food into your coffee!!!

See red flakes in coffee below.

Obviously if you are reading this letter to you from me then you

survived the mothering of tots.

I'm sure you are giggling and trying to remember the size of Berklee and

Hayden's little hands, the feel of their soft puffy cheeks, and the sounds

of their little voices. I want to remind you that they were tiny, oh so soft,

and their sweet little voices are what pushed you through the most challenging

of days.

From:

Me

A Good Day

The theme for this year of my life, I've decided, will be Proverbs 31. I've never had a theme before but thought it was fitting since I will be 31 for the next year. (I'm being funny but kinda serious too.)

So here are my thoughts tonight.......

There is something psychologically wrong with me when it comes to my birth day. It never feels like a big deal. I don't really get hyped up about it and it doesn't really bother me to be getting older, at this point in my life.

It's just another day.

Don't make a big fuss kinda thing.

But I've started noticing a pattern over the years. I have terrible birthdays! I'm usually in a bad mood or pick a fight with my husband and crazy stuff like that. They weren't ever really good before I got married either. They just always ended up letting me down. So, oddly enough, I usually just like to be left alone. Maybe so I don't get hurt or disappointed.....I haven't pinpointed exactly why I'm off my rocker in this way.

So this year was turning out to be the exact same as every other. Bless Shawn's heart, he has really tried in the past but I guess he has figured out the pattern too. I told him again this year that I didn't really want to do anything and even told him he could go fishing in the morning. Can you guess what happened when I woke up and he had actually went fishing?

Yep. I got mad.

But I knew the Lord expects better of me then acting like a 3 year old so in order to stop the insane cycle of this predictable day I pretty much accepted an invitation to spend the day with some friends at Red Rock Canyon like 30 minutes before they were leaving. (that my friends, is a run on sentence) Shawn was home by 8am, thankfully for him, and we set off. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we had so much fun.

My mom kept the kids that night and Shawn and I ate at Red Rock on Lake Hefner and then watched a glorious sunset. And because I am true to my home-body nature I drove us to the nearest Red Box and picked out the chickiest chick flick I could find. I just realized we went to RED Box. How ironic? Scary? Weird? I'm laughing at myself.

Anyway, it is much better to celebrate a day then to waste it. I can get the hang of actually having a great birthday.

And by the way, I have some very amazing friends. My mom used to tell me growing up, you know when I would get all upset about cat fights with my girlfriends over ridiculous stuff, "Tanda, if you die with 5 good friends you will be a lucky woman." Now I know what she means but I have to say I'm doing even better than 5! I guess it depends on how old you are when you die......?

I got some really terrific and thoughtful gifts from friends and family, including these beautiful flowers.

Here are the pictures for the grandparents. :)

This one is from Friday afternoon at the zoo when mom got attacked by the birds.

Berklee and Hayden thought this was hilarious. It was pretty funny.

And here is Berklee coloring in the tent on Monday. We drove ourselves to Lake Hefner, popped up our tent and did some coloring and such. It was great and we didn't even get blown away!

There you have it.

And the moral of the post is:

Your days are what you make you them to be. :)

Random Post Wednesday on Thursday!

One of the things I love about our choice for me

to stay home and homeschool is that the summer

doesn't have to end!

We had the pool all to ourselves!

One of my favorite Apps on my iPhone is "ShakeItPhoto"

which I took all of these pictures with.

You actually shake your phone to develop the "film."

I can barely remember those cameras

but I love the look of these pictures.

Berklee accomplished underwater swimming this year.

Our "fall/back to school" routine is pretty loose around here but there

are certain things that I do my best to fit into

every day. Our days seem to go by pretty fast

so I have to stay on top of things!

Everything but #1 are in no particular order:

1. Quiet time with God.

This is probably the one thing Shawn and I are

most consistent on and very passionate about

teaching our kids the value of this time. They

choose their Bible(we have several)

and they can either go out to the back porch

swing or stay in the living room but they know there

is no talking and this is what we do first thing in the morning.

It is amazing to see the fruitfulness of consistency.

Thanks to my hubby.

2. Outside play time.(backyard)

This is on their own while I make and clean up breakfast,

check email, and get their school work ready.

3. School Time.

My goal is not to get a lot accomplished and

right now it only lasts for about 30 minutes but

my goal is to get them in the routine of sitting

still and listening to their "teacher."

4. Music Time.

I play fun music and we dance silly, classical music and

we do ballet or gymnastics and we call the Skillet CD

our exercise music!

5. Reading Time.

I let them choose a couple of books and then I choose

a couple to make sure we are getting a variety and

not reading the same books every day. (For my sanity.)

6. Imaginary Play.

This is really their daddy's job and he is extremely good at it.

This consists of anything from Transformers to Bible stories

and everything imaginable in between.

That's about it. Not really structured around the clock but

this is what seems to be working for me

and for the kids at this age.

And a couple more

pictures for the grandparents!

In Christ,

Tanda