Hitchhiker

Thursday Kevin came home and told me he had a hitchhiker in the van. Knowing Kevin as I do, I was not sure whether to believe him or not. Then he told me that the hitchhiker was a squirrel and he rode home in the engine of his van! I was starting to believe him...so I walked outside and saw his hood open on the van. At this point I had to take a look for myself (with my camera of course).


Having flashbacks of the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, I was a little hesitant to get too close, but for the sake of all my faithful readers, I knew I couldn't let you down. I crept closer and closer finally spotting the vermin. There he was tucked in the corner of the engine. Shocked that he hadn't died on the ride home (not do to extreme driving...but do to all the working parts and the heat).
He stayed in that position for hours. Later that evening when we sent all the neighbor kids home and shut the garage door, is when he finally decided it was safe to come out. What he didn't realize, was that it was probably safer in the engine than roaming the streets or our bird feeder. Squirrels around here usually are wearing bright colored paint spots...wonder how they get those??
This will be my last post for awhile (unless Kevin surprises us and posts). The Kids and I are leaving today, for two weeks of camping heaven. I am confident that this year we will not be battling the stomach flu like last year:-) When I get back I hope to have some new pictures of the kids to post. The only bad thing is...next Saturday is the day all the kids dress-up, at the campground, and go trick or treating... I will be gone shooting a wedding....my camera's will be with me, not Kevin (who will be doing this big day all on his own..pray for him). I am saddened at the thought that not only do I miss this day, I won't even get to relive it through pictures...

Until next time,
Blessings!

What should I say??

This week has been full of prayer for my Family....First with Tim and Melissa and now with my Dad. I have sent numerous emails out to my family, friends, and prayer warriors to bring my Family before the Thrown of God. It has been a humbling week for me.

My whole life I was taught to pray. But I never really felt much power in my own prayers. Before, I would let my parents use their prayer line on my behalf. I think we all know of someone who just seems to have an "IN" with God, well, that is my parents. So I never really developed my own line. I think I finally started to connect with God after having Micah. In recent years I really have found my own personal prayer line with God. It has been a huge blessing to me to really know that God IS hearing my prayers.

With all that has been happening the last few days I didn't take the time to read my Devotional yesterday. I was too busy..... Today I opened it up and read words that really touched me. So I thought that I would share it with you....

"Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and petitions." Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)

Devotion:My prayers used to feel kind of flat. I didn't know what to say so I stumbled over my words when I talked to God. I especially didn't know how to pray when I was struggling or when a friend was going through difficult times. I wanted to say the right things because I thought that if I prayed the right way, then God would listen and answer my prayers, the way I wanted Him to.

It took me a while, but I finally got up the courage to talk with a friend about my fears and struggles. She explained to me that prayer isn't about saying or asking the right things; it's about building a relationship with God by talking to Him, and listening. She taught me how to be still and listen for His still small voice in my spirit before I started praying. I found that if I waited for Him to lead the conversation, the Holy Spirit would guide my thoughts and my prayers.

Over time, I also learned the power of praying God's words written in the Bible. I read books and heard sermons that taught me that when we pray God's Word, we pray God's will. I loved that idea. It gave me a sense of confidence and direction when I didn't know what to say in my prayers.

I also wanted my prayers to be filled with power. I wanted to believe that God was able and willing to accomplish what I was praying for. The Bible says that scripture is "alive and active" so I knew that when I prayed in agreement with God's Words, I could expect those prayers to come alive in a situation and become active in the person's life that I was praying for.

Oftentimes when I pray now, verses that I've read in the Bible will come to mind. For instance, when I feel like my plans are spinning out of control, Jeremiah 29:11 will pop into my thoughts. On those days, I'll pray:

"Lord, you know the plans you have for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a future and a hope. You say that if I come to you and pray, you will listen and you will lead me. So, today I surrender my plans for Your plans. Please guide my decisions and thoughts to match Yours so that I can experience hope and not harm. Even though things aren't going so great today, I trust the plans You have for me."

I love knowing there isn't a certain way I have to pray to get God's attention. In fact, prayer has become one of my greatest passions and joys. I don't feel any pressure to say the right things anymore. Sometimes I just sit still and let Him whisper His promises into my thoughts and then I ask for their fulfillment with my prayers. Other times I simply pour out my thoughts to Him. And when I need a little direction, or I am not sure what to say, I open up the Bible to align my words with His Words -- knowing that I'm also aligning my heart and desires with His will.

Lord, I'm so glad I don't have to say that right things to get Your attention. Thank You for Your Spirit that lives in me and leads me -- in my daily activities and even in my prayers. I would love it if today You'd give me a verse to pray so that I can see Your Word come alive in my circumstances and become active in my life. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

I get these devotionals delivered to my computer everyday, some of my friends receive these same devotionals, we all have been blessed. If you would like to receive these also, click on the link below.
http://www.crosswalk.com/newsletters/

You have to check which newsletters you would like to receive. The one I receive is under the header DAILY DEVOTIONALS check the box next too ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY.

Pray and be blessed today!!

It's Official

The baby days are done in our house. The last link to infancy has left the building, our new chapter is starting...


My Friend and I have talked about how we wished we knew when the "lasts" were going to happen instead of the "firsts", we both feel like we would cherish the "lasts" more. Well, this time I knew this would be the "last" time one of my babies slept in the crib. The last time I would lean over the rail and kiss a sleeping head, the last time I would hear the creaking of the mattress as they found a comfortable position, or the last time I would hear either their head or feet hitting the sides of the crib as they sleep. Beautiful things for a mom. I knew this would be my last time I looked at the crib sitting in the room that Kev and I painted 6 years ago for our first baby. Nothing has changed really in 6 years, I loved the room so much just the way it was, that we never changed it for the other two babies we brought home, to the same room, the same crib.

Knowing this was the last night this crib gently held one of my babies, I had to take a picture. To be able to remember what it looked like having one of my angels sleeping in it. Thinking back to the day that Kevin and I went from store to store looking for the perfect crib while I was holding the first of our babies under my heart.

Then we have our "first". The First time Jilli slept in her own big girl bed. We didn't go from store to store looking for the perfect bed. This bed came to us as a gift. Jilli is now sleeping in the bed of Kevin's youth. What once held my growing husband is now holding my growing daughter. Once I heard..."JILLI'S AWAKE!!" to announce the waking of my youngest, now I hear "JILLI'S COMING!!" as she gets herself out of bed and heads down the stairs. How quickly they grow and change, especially her. She seems to be growing up at light breaking speeds.

One other last, I know the last day I bought diapers at Target. I thought to myself when I was paying for them..."wonder if this is the last time I buy these?" and it was. Jilli is now completely diaper free. No more diaper butts at the Peters' house! Her changing table is now gone too. For one who doesn't like change, a lot of changes has happened over here over the past month:-)

One of these days I will have to start thinking of repainting her bedroom from a nursery to a girls room, but for now, I have handled all the change I can, so I am going to hold on to one last thing from the past and Cherish everyday that I have, to look at the beautiful words that I hand painted on the wall. A Girl Can Only Take So Much Change!

Blessings!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

On one of my previous posts I mentioned this schedule I was following to clean my home. Well, it's been really great. Right now we are gearing up for the holidays. Getting rid of all the clutter that collects in the house. I am quickly realizing that I am not as bad off as I thought I was.

Each week we are given a different zone to "deep clean" on top of the regular cleaning schedule. This week we are in the master bedroom. Today I had to remove all the clutter from the top of my dresser and since there is nothing on my dresser that is clutter I moved to the next project which was cleaning out one drawer in the night stand. I keep books and things in my drawer, so I just started removing it all to clean the drawer and found my old journals. One of them dated back to when I was 12 yrs old.

It was really fun to read through the journals, watching myself grow-up through written word. Even my handwriting changed about 5 times during a 7 year span. It was interesting when I started writing about Kevin. There were times that I could feel the emotion dripping off the page. There was one entry on 2-16-94 that I was questioning God if this was the man He had planned for me. Little did I know that 8 yrs later, I would be laying in a hospital bed holding our first baby boy.

I turned the page and started to read an entry that was not in my handwriting. Kevin had taken my journal, read it (all the good and bad) and then wrote an entry in it. He signs it "Love you always and Forever Lynny"...how cute!

After reading through the journals, I could see why I hear so many Christians say how important it is to have a prayer journal. While reading, I could see God's hand on my life, gently guiding me. Taking all the good and bad of me, making me into the person I am today. Someone worth loving... always and forever.

Thanks for taking this short trip down memory lane with me. Blessings!

Computer Problem Solved...at least for right now.

I called Dell and I was on on the phone for only 67:13 minutes!! I think that is a record for me. Anyway, we figured out what is wrong. I need a new motherboard. Brand new computer and the motherboard is bad...hmmm. My computer has to be sent back to the company to replace the motherboard and make sure there aren't anymore problems. Ed (my Dell tech guy) assured me that the fix would only take 7-10 business days. The good news is that Kevin has a computer (what I am using right now), so was able to load some of my software on this and work from it. I was able to finish my job that I was working on when the computer started crashing and hopefully my computer will be back up and running before Oct 4th when I have a wedding to shoot. In the mean time I will try and post with Kev's computer (I will have to put some pictures on this thing).


And Just because I haven't posted with a picture in a while, I will post one from the senior I just finished (even though none of you know him). He reminded me so much of my brother Tim. In fact Jilli saw one of his pictures and yelled "UNCLE TIMMY!!" as loud as her little lungs could (which is ear piercingly loud).

Blessings!

A week gone by

It's been a week since my last posts. The update on my computer is.......still not working. After all the work my brother did, it is still crashing. So...I need to call Dell and figure out with them what to do. I am not looking forward to that phone call since it will more than likely take a few hours on the phone, with someone who doesn't speak English very well. I'll let you all know what comes of it. Hopefully we can figure out why the computer doesn't even want to turn on. I hope to soon start posting on things more exciting than my computer...I have so much to share!

Enjoy your Sunday.

Zumba

My neighbor and good friend, Leisa, talked me into taking a Zumba class with her this morning. WAY outside my comfort zone, but thought that since it was raining...why not?

It was really quite fun...although I looked like a fish out of water. Don't worry, there will be NO pictures for this posting **haha**. If you have never heard of Zumba exercises, it is a dance/aerobic exercise. Some of the movements were easy and I caught on quick, others were much more "involved". My dutch hips just weren't made to move the way they were supposed too (even though I have rhythm). There was belly dancing too!! Leisa and I kept looking at each other and laughing. If nothing else, I can chalk it up to another experience and experiences add spice to my life.

On a side note.. I still do not know the status of my computer. I am posting from Kevin's (another reason there isn't any pictures)....hopefully my brother found the cause to all my problems and can fix it.

Blessings!

Broken Record

Here I am again...writing about my computer. My NEW computer. I don't know when I will be able to post again. My computer is having problems again. I don't want to put ANYTHING on this thing including pictures in case it goes dead on me and I lose everything without a backup. My brother was here last night trying to figure out what is going on. The worst is that I have work I NEED to get done and I don't have a computer that is working. It literally will turn off and give me the "blue screen of death" without warning. This morning it wouldn't even boot up, it took me 10 min just to get it to my main screen, then everything went blue again. The frustrating thing is that I don't have time for this. I spend hours reloading all my needed software every time I need to wipe it clean. As it looks right now, I will need to wipe it all clean again. My brother says it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Thank Goodness I have him to trouble shoot with me! The only other thing I can say about all of this....by the time I am done, I could be hired to trouble shoot computers. I have learned a tremendous amount of info from Paul....all stuff I hope I NEVER have to use again! Can anyone say MAC???!!!

Goodbye for now, hopefully by the end of the weekend I will be straightened out....please pray...all my frustration is bubbling just below the surface and I am afraid that it is going to come crashing over the top.

Melissa is always on the lookout for good articles:-)

My Sister-in-law Melissa sent this article to me this morning. It is something that is very troubling and just another reason we have decided to homeschool.....schools are not made for boys and apparently girls are starting to struggle too!


When we made the decision to homeschool, Melissa was one of our biggest supporters (and still is). Thanks Melissa, for sending this article to me!! It again solidifies our decision to teach our little blessings AT HOME!

Check this article out!

http://www.newsweek.com/id/157898

Blessings!

Busy living life

I am heading off to bed, but wanted to quick put a post up because I know some of you will be checking this in the morning and will be disappointed to see no new posts.


We are two days into school and things are busy around here. I am now spending about three hours a day teaching. Isn't it amazing how much you can get done when you are one on one (or one on three as in my case). I can teach my three little ones in three hours what takes a teacher in a class all day to teach. I know, my BFF is a teacher! Anyway, I wish I could post a picture of them learning, but I haven't picked my camera up in days :-(


Today we had a busy morning with "baby food testing" (I take Jilli to taste food and I get Meijer gift cards..it's so nice), so the boys were at Ama's this morning. Then after a field trip to McDonalds (thanks Ama), we rushed home to get our school day in. The kids did great!

Micah is reading better and better everyday. The words he can read are getting bigger and bigger. I was just talking with Kevin's Aunt Voni (who was a professor at Calvin College for early education) last night about the joy of watching your children learn. I told her how amazing it is too see Micah sound out a word he has never read before and when he gets it, he starts to giggle because he thinks the word is funny. How many parents miss that? How many times do we do a project and I get to see the excitement on their faces as they make something or do an experiment. Sure, schooled kids are excited when they come home and tell their parents about it....but that is the afterburn, I got to see the real explosion! Can you tell I am excited about school this year? Micah is at such a transforming age, I don't want to miss a day!

Tyler is so excited about school this year that he opted to stay inside to do more school, while Micah went outside to play with their friend Brandon. He sat at the counter for 45min working on his workbook...then he decided that he wanted to cook supper so he took down a cookbook to find a recipe to make *haha* it was the cutest thing ever! Thank goodness I talked him out of that, who knows what creation that little boy would have made!

Jilli, she is all about keeping up with her brothers. I seriously wouldn't be shocked if she was ready to start reading by the end of this year....I am trying to pace her for Tyler's sake, but who knows what will happen.

Anyway, my quick blog took a little longer than expected...I guess my fingers can talk as much as my mouth can:-)



Blessings!

I am Understood!

I was on this website about how to keep your house/family organized and clean (because we all know I struggle with that) and this is what I read.....

My heart goes out to you! I know how you have been put down because of your imagination, creativity and sidetrackedness. We don’t fit the mold our family wants us to fit. God knows how hard we have tried to be what they wanted us to be. Everybody just wants to be loved. The problem is they don’t know how to love us and that is not their fault. Our imagination and creativity is our gift. That gift, most of the time gets us sidetracked and at that point we are criticized for not finishing what we started. We flit from flower to flower making the world a beautiful place like the butterflies we watch in the yard.

Here is the most exciting part of our imagination and creativity; we are very intelligent. So much so that it might even scare our family. We were not "Born Organized" but we can learn how to be organized. But this organization cannot be stuffed down our throats. As children we were told to go clean our rooms. Our brains are so busy with creating that we don’t know how to clean a room. Now here is the funny part. A "Born Organized" person does not know how to teach us to do this either. They don’t understand themselves how it is done because in the first place they have never allowed anything to get that messy. The other part of it is that they just do and don’t think about it. I have watched "Born Organized" People and they are constantly puttering around the house doing things. They flit around with a purpose to put things back into the order they have set up. We flit because we don’t know where to start and we are trying to do too many things at one time. We have been made to feel guilty because of our gift of imagination. Well I am here to tell you that our imagination if a powerful tool to help us out of our cocoon. If we can think it; we can do it. We can take our idea and turn it into whatever it is that we choose. We just need someone to teach us how to make this happen without the world falling apart around us.

Our homes are stifling our imagination. Our little creative minds have been stuffed into this cocoon because of the guilt that has been put on our little heads. We are blessed to have an imagination. We fight hard to keep from being stuffed into that cocoon. This is why we rebel against habits and routines. They look too much like the "Born Organized" people in our lives. They are a tool that helps us to emerge from our cocoon of guilt and suffocation to find our true joy in living....

Ahhh, someone understands me...I am not abnormal! I keep telling my Mom that I have ADD or something because I am always getting sidetracked and then forget where I am and she keeps telling me that I don't have ADD I am a MOM.

Anyway, I just had to share, it was so good to read that someone else has been where I am and has a program to help me go where I want to be. Organized and clean especially now that the school year is starting and my time will be directed at teaching my little ones. I pray that I can master this system and then teach my children (who seemed to miss out on the perfectionist Peters gene) this system (in time) so that they are not left feeling like I do...overwhelmed, stupid, not good enough.

If any of you could relate to the article from the website, and want to read more about the program, email me and I will send you a link (it's free).

Blessings!

Gettin Goin Again

Tonight I ran again and it felt sooooo good. I ran about 2 miles and could have gone another mile for sure if it hadn't been so late and getting dark.


I didn't realize how much I missed that time for myself. I am going to have to make sure I keep that as a priority as our school year starts.


For all your wondering minds...we are starting school (officially) on Monday. This past Tuesday Micah asked if we could start doing school again and of course I didn't turn him down, but Monday is when all the rules start applying, like....no computer, limited TV use... I am really looking forward to this year. I have the added bonus, this year, of all the neighborhood kids being in school too, so no little hands knocking on my door asking if the kids can play when we are trying to do school. Or doing projects outside and having an extra body wanting to do the projects too:-)

Here is a picture from July. This kind of explains what happens when the neighborhood kids are around and we are working on a project (the kids just come out of the woodwork!). This project just happens to be the banana bread that I promised my brother I would take to Tenn. There was one more child that was missing from this picture...she was pouting on the couch because I wouldn't let her crack the eggs (there is a limit, even for me, to the mess that I will tolerate).
Stay tuned for school stories...I am sure I will have lots of them!

Blessings!

Raindrops on Roses...

Some might think I am crazy.....but I LOVE rainy days. For some crazy reason I feel comfortable when it's raining. Some of my favorite memories are of camping on rainy days, listening to the "pinging" on the pop-up's roof. We would lay around (making sure NOTHING touched the edges) reading, playing games or sleeping. I guess maybe that is why I still like rainy days, they are lazy days, not filled with much...unless your a mom of three little ones,who homeschools...then the word "lazy" doesn't really fit into the description of any day.

Blessings!

PS...Just in case you were wondering...yes, I went out into the rain with my camera to capture this shot, rainy days really have such beautiful light, it's a moody light, I would take that over a sunny day any day.

intermission

I have received my new computer from Dell and I am overwhelmed with transferring all my files from one computer to the other...again. I loaded most of my programs last night and now I am working on all my pictures. I don't want to miss a thing, because this computer (the old one) gets shipped back and I want to make sure my hard drive is blank before it gets back to it's origin.


I will try and post tomorrow, but just wanted to let all my faithful readers know why it has been a few days:-) Just because I hate to post without a picture....enjoy this one of Kevin...he will love that I posted this:-)

Missing You Already

Well, today marks the end to an unexpected extended vacation with Kevin. Tomorrow he goes back to work after being off for 5 wks. It is a bitter sweet end.


When we left for our vacation in Tenn, Kevin had worked lined up with a few different builders for when we got back. When we arrived home and he called those builders to see where he was needed, they all told him that all of their work fell through and they didn't have any work for him. Kevin tried his best, but when there isn't any work, there isn't any work. So we handed our situation over to God and then thanked him for extra family time.



It has truly been a blessing having him home. I was able to do some extra work for my photographer friend Jen, we were able to help my parents set up camp and then camp with them for 2 nights, we spent 2 nights out at the cottage with Kevin's family, we have also been enjoying plain old family time together.



Waking up every morning knowing that your husband is still sleeping next to you, has been nice. The kids have loved having Daddy around everyday to play chess with, or hang around with. We have been spoiled having him around. Tonight I put the kids to bed reminding them that Daddy won't be here tomorrow, he is going back to work, it was kind of sad.



Even though we are sad to have Kevin go back to work, we are grateful that God has defiantly supplied our needs through this drought and now we are praying that He will open the flood gates and let the work pour in, continuously all the way through the winter months (please join us in this prayer).

Thank you Kevin for 5 wonderful weeks together as a family. There are many men who would not have handled this time off, with the grace you have. We will miss you as you begin working again. We Love You!