Could I ask you to pray for my family and me? We’ve got a lot on our combined plates these next two weeks.

Mackenzie left for North Carolina on Sunday to stay with my friend Marybeth and her family for a few days until the She Speaks conference and to check out a few cosmetology schools in the area. Mitch got on the bus to Camp Barakel this morning and I fly out bright and early tomorrow to join Kenzie at the conference. After returning home Sunday, we pick Mitch up from camp Monday and then Tuesday, it is back on a plane for me. This time to record at Focus on the Family.

Although I am excited to see friends at the conference, help women who feel called to be writers and speakers and am waaaay pumped about being on Focus on the Family again, I am feeling a bit frazzled. If God brings me to mind, would you pray for me? And for all that needs to happen both at home and away for things to run smoothly? I’d love it if you left a short comment letting me know you will.

I’ll try to hop on and post in the next few days, if I have access to the Internet. Otherwise, stay tuned. I have some more summertime give-aways and interviews planned for August.

Happy “so-glad-I-have-praying-cyber-friends” blessings,

Okay…..so we are pretty new to our subdivision having only moved in last July. And we noticed something right off the bat.

People in this development care deeply about their yards; their lawns, flower beds, landscaping, etc…   They take great pride in pruning and weeding and watering and fertilizing. Oh yeah, and several of them apparently have leftover money in their budget to pay the True Green man to do it for them!!!

Well, while we are not usually to into “keeping up with the Joneses” (evident by our rusting minivan, dinosaur computer and hand-me-down-from-Craig’s List furnishings), we have tried to keep up with the whole lovely lawn game. We landscaped before Kenzie’s open house in May with many perennial cuttings from friends and a few purchased plants from a local nursery. And for Father’s Day, we got Todd one of those little tractor sprinklers that move on their own around the lawn while you water. We chuckle when we see it chug-chug-chuggin’ away in our yard in the midst of the other neighbors and their under ground sprinkler systems.

So, imagine our horror when Spence decided to have a Slip and Slide party with a few neighborhood boys which resulted in a not-so-nice lawn problem. Ever the resourceful and creative type, he got out a huge tarp, some dish soap and a water hose. Voila!!! Our front yard (which is a slight hill) became the subdivision’s water-park attraction. They only trouble was that Mr. Fun and Games doesn’t always think through things logically.

When the water was turned off, he left the tarp on the lawn. For several hours. The result? A perfect patch of rectangular brown. You could see for yourself if…...ahem……a certain person, in their attempts to free up some space on MY memory card, hadn’t deleted the picture I took of it!! The unnamed person did, however, in an attempt to avoid  sleeping on the couch tonight, find a picture on the Internet that looks very similar to the turf in question. Only it was much, much bigger.  Here it is:

Suffice it to say, it was pretty bad. Brown, burnt, ugly bad. And with our home being on a slight hill, all who drive by can see its awful ugliness.

But I decided NOT to over-react. Grass grows back. Kid’s wounded feelings…not so much. I had to look for the good in my creative, inclusive, fun-loving son and remember back to my own days growing up. And I had to listen to his reasoning for leaving it out so long. He wanted to let it dry out before folding and putting the tarp away in the pole barn, so it wouldn’t mold.

So, I decided to say nothing. I only asked him kindly in the future to let it dry out on our driveway.

Then I gave him a kiss and a grape Popsicle.

Sooooooo much better than I have reacted before. Thanks God for prompting me to pause and ponder before I pounced. I need to do that as a mom more often.

After all…..we’re raising kids…..not grass, right ladies?

So please send out this bulletin to the folks in my quaint development:

Sorry sweet neighbors. We had a little mishap that may detract from the flowing green scheme of lawns in the neighborhood. But not to worry! We’ll get that little tractor chugging up and down that bare patch and it’ll be back to green velvet before you know it. Pinky promise.

Love, The Hillbilly Ehmans

Kid-raising Blessings,

If you’ve joined us via the Spiking a Temp devotion that is running at Proverbs 31 and Crosswalk, welcome! If you haven’t read the devotion yet, click here to do so.

I know at times in my walk with God I have felt completely lukewarm. During those periods, I am indifferent to reading the Bible. I make excuses for not spending time connecting with God. My passion for spiritual things wanes. I have no desire to talk to others about God or what He is doing in my life. Yep, lukewarm is a perfect word to describe my attitude at such times.

I’ve heard it said often that if you feel far away from God, you need only to ask yourself, “Who moved”; Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He doesn’t move. We wander away.

So, what is your current spiritual temperature? Take the short quiz below to find out.

Spiritual Temperature Test

1. I would describe my current relationship with God as:

a. Extremely close   b. fairly intimate    c. mediocre   d. distant

2. My attitude and actions toward reading the Bible each day are:

a. eager and consistent   b. interested and mostly regular   c. complacent and hit-or-miss   d. Bible? Can’t remember where I last put my Bible.

3. When I think of talking to others about God I:

a. get excited   b. think it is interesting– sometimes   c. am reluctant   d. would rather have a root canal!!!

4. As far as scripture memory goes, I:

a. have entire chapters and chunks memorized  b. have several verses I have worked on lately   c. can recall a few portions of scripture, but don’t know the references   d. Can recite John 3:16 in the King James Version. Does that count?

5. When I think of having a personal retreat all alone with God, I’d like to do that:

a. a couple times a year, I LOVE it!   b.  maybe once a year, for refreshment   c. I think I did that once and was bored   d. What? Are you kidding? No Internet or other people? Count me out!

6. I would honestly describe my prayer life as:

a. as close to “praying without ceasing” as I can get   b. I pray everyday at least once   c. I remember to pray a few times a week   d. I pray faithfully–in situations of stress or danger. Other than that, God knows where to find me.

7. When I ponder my spiritual life overall, I would say I am:

a. content with my progress and usually growing      b. somewhat satisfied but long to be closer to God       c. complacent with occasional spurts of growth      d. my spiritual life is a source of disappointment to me

Now, if you answered mostly “a”: You are totally sizzling; mostly “b”: Your spiritual fire is stoked and steady; mostly “c”: your fire has died down somewhat, but the embers are still glowing; mostly “d”: YIKES!!!! You are dangling dangerously near the dreaded LUKEWARM!! Time to take action!

I have found that when my fire dies down for God, it is time to take a break from the regular routine. Maybe you would benefit from doing the same. Here’s how: Grab a Bible, a notebook, an Ipod or MP3 with some good praise music on it and a classic book on prayer or the spiritual disciplines (my favs are Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, A Woman After God’s Own Heart by Elizabeth George and Lord, I Want to Know You by Kay Arthur.)

Then, run, don’t walk, to a place to be alone. Pick a park. Discover an out-of-the-way coffee shop. Swap houses with a friend. Spring for a hotel room or night at a bed and breakfast if you can. The point is to rekindle your fire for God. Spend some time talking honestly with Him about your relationship. Don’t sugar coat things. He knows your thoughts already. Read. Ponder. Listen. Write. Sing. Walk. Rest. Repeat. Do it until you feel you are ready to go back to the daily days of your life.

Then, ask God to guide you to a friend who will keep you accountable. Beg Him to lead you to a sound Bible study group that will keep you consistent. Each morning, pour your heart out to Him about your lukewarmness and how much you desire NOT to be so.

Thankfully, our God’s mercies are new every morning. He never leaves, forsakes or moves. He is not fickle, as we humans are. He is waiting to meet with us each day.  If we will stop long enough to connect with Him.

If you desire to hit the restart button spiritually in your life, no matter where your spiritual temp is on the thermometer right now, you can. You won’t regret it. Leave us a comment letting us know your desire.

Praying for you and me both to leave lukewarm behind,

We had our last ballgame yesterday. The last of 63 this year, folks. With both boys on a city rec team and the town’s traveling team for their age, that is how many nights we’ve had a game since the season began in early May.

That’s a lot of cheering and clappin’; bottles of Gatorade and hours in a lawn chair. My backside just may be permanently striped from the weave of my chair. Good thing baseball is my absolute favorite sport. Seriously, when I am an old lady and heading to the store at night, I know I’ll be the kind who stops off at the town’s ball fields just to watch for an inning or two and cheer on the batter, “Pick a good one and give it a ride, son!” 

It’ll keep them guessin’, “Whose Grandma is that hootin’ and hollerin’ behind homeplate?”

Everyone’s boys. Everyone’s.

After coaching last night, Todd headed down to take care of his mom who just had foot surgery. So Spence and I had to catch a ride back with another family. It was an hour drive and it gave us a good time to visit.

The mom who took us home is a former cheerleader from the days when I was  a substitutete teacher and cheerleading coach up at the high school. She lives in our development and her oldest is my youngest’s age. They played ball on the travel team together and have become fast friends, both loving sports, stupid jokes and all things X-box.

We caught up on the last 20 years (and it made me feel REALLY old when I realized it had been 20 years since my public school teaching/coaching days.) She too, married her school-days sweetheart. She also has three kids. Like me, one boy and two girls. 

On the ride home, her youngest piped up from the backseat and asked for a McDonald’s burger and fries. We stopped to eat supper and she helped him with his meal. Her daughter, ever the artist, colored pictures all the way home. At one point, she asked, “Mrs. Ehman? What is your favorite color?”. When we arrived home, I was presented with a lovely portrait of Piglet. He was holding a peach butterfly. Yep. Peach is my current favorite color.

After arriving home, her oldest rode his bike down and he and Spence had a homerun derby. Let’s just say I was glad dad wasn’t home as they pelted tennis balls from the front yard over the roof into the back yard. Most of them made it. Some nearly shattered the front window!

While getting the laundry folded before nightfall, I couldn’t help but feel that I was watching my life in rewind. This mom is about 7 years behind me in parenting and watching her interact with her kids flooded my mind with memories.

It has been so long since I had to help anyone with food at a restaurant. No one colors sweet pictures for me anymore. My concern this fall isn’t for my oldest heading off to middle school. My oldest is heading off to LIFE!!! There was a bit of sadness in my heart as I realized I cannot rewind. I must go forward.

So, imagine my delight when a bit later, Spencer came to me on the sly. “When Brendan asks if he can spend the night, tell him not tonight but maybe later this week, okay mom?”  I was puzzled, but obliged. A few minutes later, when his buddy left, I questioned Spence. “What was that all about, bud?” His answer was one of those little kisses from God.

“Well mom. I really love having friends spend the night, but then I remembered everyone is gone tonight but you and me. So I was thinking we could make a snack, get on our jammies and snuggle up in your bed and watch tv ’til it was really late. Like way-past-midnight late.  I love it when just you and me hang out. It is way better than hanging with a friend. Can we mom?”

So snack and snuggle and veg out in front of the tv we did.

It was almost like a rewind. Thanks God.

Oh, and thanks to the good folks at Nick at Nite. The weekend-long Sponge Bob marathon was over by the time we flipped on the tv. 

I cannot tolerate that singing, squared-pantsed sponge. Steve Urkel, I adore. But y’all can keep the sponge!

On second thought, if it meant I’d get to rewind for an evening, I guess one night of the absorbent, yellow, porous dude wouldn’t kill me!

Happy Monday! 

Sweet Blessings, (The rewind kind )

We just picked our youngest up from the Camp Barakel bus. He was the portrait of summer camp……sun-kissed cheeks, wrinkled shirt–probably worn for several days in a row–, ball cap askew, unspent camp store money clutched tightly in his fist and a reluctant kiss for mom coupled with an “I’m hungry” after the hours-long bus ride from the beautiful northern part of the southern peninsula of Michigan. (You poor folks with only one peninsula will have to think on that for a moment.)

 

 

When he left, Spence’s suitcase was the picture of perfection. Tightly folded tees and shorts; rolled socks and Bible, note cards and notebook lined up and neat. He was so proud…we snapped a picture.

Now, however, his suitcase leaves a tad bit to be desired; wadded clothes, crumpled, half-finished “cause-the-guys-wanted-to-play-cards” letters home and to grandpa and grandma; trash bag for dirty clothes never touched but still folded neatly in his zipper compartment, funky looking (and smelling) assorted boy garments. Whew!!!!

But he is home.

And, although his suitcase is messy, his heart underwent a good cleaning at camp. Ever the fidgetter, we sometimes wonder if he absorbs anything he hears. Well, this year we know he did.

He recounted stories of challenge by the speaker encouraging the kids to stand up for God even when it isn’t popular. He chatted for hours to us yesterday, recounting all the examples and voicing his desire to be someone who does the same.

What stuck out most to him was a simple admonition. His speaker at chapel drilled three points home for the kids to live by:

• Read God’s Word
• Do What it Says
• Keep Jesus First

Simple. But a needed reminder, even for grown-ups.

I’ll take a messy suitcase lugged home by a cleaned-up kid anytime.

Un-packing the Blessings,

I know, I know…..people everywhere are getting sick of hearing/seeing/reading about Michael Jackson’s sudden death. I am one of them. However, my mind has for the past few days been pondering many aspects of his life and death. 

I didn’t plan to watch his memorial. I was busy unpacking from our Fourth of July camping trip and cleaning up the kitchen after turning two flats of freshly picked Michigan strawberries into 40 pints of my kids’ favorite jam. But the house was quiet. (Spencer is at church camp and Mackenzie is counseling at another camp and Mitch was across the street helping a neighbor.) So I turned on the tv to help make the clean-up time pass faster. Of course, almost every channel was airing the memorial live.

My mind was taken back to my own memories of the “King of Pop”. Like most kids of the 70′s, I played the Jackson 5′s vinyl record album over and over again in my room, taping a penny on the arm of the record player to keep it from skipping where the album was scratched.

In college, I did routines to his music, the most memorable one to “Beat It”. My best friend Kelly was the captain of the cheerleading squad and I was captain of the dance team. We collaborated on that famous number, each of our squads forming a “gang”, just like in the video. It makes me chuckle to think of it now. And of course, I remember my friends and I trying to do the Moonwalk in our college dorm–in our stocking feet of course, to make it easier.

As my own kids have wondered about this man in his later years, I have steered them away from his more bizarre behaviour as he grew older. In fact, at the time of his death, my kids really didn’t know much about him beyond his early years with the Jackson Five. Sometimes at Christmas we play their rendition of I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. And they’ve viewed tape of a very young Michael on the Ed Sullivan Show, singing in his classic style, talented beyond his years.

As I watched the memorial, I couldn’t help but cry. Cry for the loss of innocence of a young boy from the Midwest. Cry for the God-given talent that turned into a sad story of exploitation and often worldliness. And I cried for the message that was subtly given to the entire world at the service.

Yes, Mr. Jackson gave a lot of money to charity during the course of his life. In fact, he holds the record in the Guinness Book of World Records for giving more to charity than any other entertainer–past or present. That is to be commended. But just living a “good life” and giving money to worthy causes, does not gain anyone a place in heaven.

My heart broke as I thought about this youngster turned superstar and the journey his life took him on. Although God only knows if Michael made peace with Him before he died and was ushered into the presence of Jesus at death (And I certainly pray he did), I wanted to shout at the TV!! I wanted to tell everyone in attendance there that just striving to be a “good person” will not grant them entrance into heaven.

We need to tell the world the simple story all over again. The story of God sending His only son to die for our sins. The story of God’s grace and mercy given to us while we were still sinners. We can’t sugar coat life and the consequences of of choices. We must be honest about how to get to heaven. We must speak the truth in love. In Michael’s own words….”You and I must make a pact….We must bring salvation back…..”

In the days to come, Michael’s children will be in my prayers as well as the newest young singing sensation Shaheen Jafargholi, whom has been called the next Michael Jackson. Shaheen was scheduled to tour with Michael soon on his This Is It tour and he also sang at the memorial. I pray that he will be surrounded by wise mentors who will steer his life in a direction that glorifies God and uses his amazing talent for good.

And I pray for the rest of us. All who, young or old, have ever longed for fame or recognition or talent or glory; whether in sports or academics or even if just in our dreams, locked in our 1980′s bedrooms, singing into a hairbrush and doing a mean moonwalk. May we long for nothing more than to “bring salvation back”, painting an accurate picture of eternity for those we may meet in this life.

For, as the opening song of the memorial poignantly declared, “Soon and very soon….we are going to see the King”

No, not the King of Pop.

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

May everyone reading this be ready.

Blessings,

              

Fireworks and hot dogs and s’mores…..oh my! One of my kids’ favorite things is the s’mores over the fire on the fourth of July. Here is a simple and less expensive way to make them. Especially good for a crowd.

Just purchase some packaged fudge-striped cookies at the store. Toast your marshmallow as usual. (Or burn it like my son Spencer prefers!!!) Then place it between two cookies. Voila! A tasty and cost-effective s’more!!! The shortbread cookie covered with chocolate is perfect and there is less mess and no fighting over the last square of Hersheys!

Also….for you coconut lovers: try toasted coconut marshmallows in place of the regular ones. Delicious!!!!

Happy fourth everyone!

For two weeks, I dropped out of my cyber-circle of friends and read no blogs, wrote no posts and didn’t surf the Net.

It was glorious.

While at first, I missed the contact. I grew to love the time it freed up for me. Not that I am usually on the computer for a great amount of time each day. It really was less than an hour or so total. It was just the brain space it took up processing all of the info flying at me:

“So-and-so is blogging about this. So-and-so is posting about that. Look what the _______ family is doing this week. See what is on sale at my favorite sites this week. Oh, and look at the news points…..divorce, custody, controversy.”

It was enough to clog my brain, grinding it to a screeching halt.

You see, I have learned that my mommy brain was only meant to absorb so much. I need to drink deep of the ways of the Lord. That means saturating myself with the Word of God. I need to take into account my family’s needs. I must keep up with my extended family, work on my writing and speaking. Clean my house; get my groceries; feed my clan.

I need to live my life.

Now, I am NOT totally knocking the Internet. It can be a valuable tool in accomplishing the above tasks. I love Bible Gateway to help me study the Bible. I get spiritual encouragement from several blogs like our President Lysa TerKeurst at Proverbs 31 and Beth Moore’s Living Proof Ministry. I get great ideas for homemaking from my fellow P31 speaker Marybeth Whalen and at The Urban Homemaker  website. And there is nothing wrong with reading these resources.

And by all means, I have a blog!!! My little fasting experiment has taught me to be even more intentional in making my blog point others to God, not to me. And I want it to offer encouragement, ideas and resources to help women live their lives and love God. Oh, and those of you who have been around awhile know I also like to give away freebies.

I also know using Facebook and the like as a resource to stay connected with far away family and friends is a great idea. And using it to know what to add to our prayer list is and even better one. I will continue that practice.

I have discovered that it all comes down to boundaries. Within reason, reading blogs and surfing the next can be helpful.I intend on still doing it at times. Without parameters, however, it can be detrimental to our lives. In a couple ways–

It can suck our time away; time we should be using to live and serve.

And it can make us discontent, as I spoke of in my last blog post.

But worst of all, it can breed deep within us a sort of soap-opera-like-yet-acceptable-in-Christian-circles type of addiction.

You know, your feet hit the ground in the morning and you can’t wait to see what is happening in so-and-so’s life. So you hop on over to her blog and live her exciting life with her. 

Or you can’t get enough of a certain headline news story and its’ happenings. So you click, click, click your day away.

My eleven year old son Spencer made a profound comment the other day when he heard some of us discussing reality shows and blogs. He said, “How boring. Why sit around and watch other people live their lives on tv or read about their lives on the computer? That is stupid. I’d rather go have fun and live my own.”

I think I’ll let him have the final word.

Happy Living-Your-Life-And-Loving-It,