Little Women

Recently we went to see a high school production of a book that our family really enjoys, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  We’ve read the book, watched the movie, and even listened to the radio theater production in the van while traveling.  Our family is very familiar with the story.  It’s a very precious story of a family with 4 girls.  The dad has to leave for some time and writes a letter to his “Little Women.”  I have been able to see how my husband is investing in his “little women,” and I’m so thankful for his time and thoughtfulness. 

He has been out of town for over a week and he did something so very special while he was gone. He took a book with him.  You may say, well, he’s traveling so he took a book to read….yes, I’m sure he took a book to read on the plane or in the hotel, but on this trip he specifically took a chapter book with him  that he had been reading to the girls each evening with the intention of reading it to them while he was gone.  We connected via SKYPE each night before bed, and he read a chapter to the girls.  

The girls looked forward to seeing daddy on the computer and talking with him, but they couldn’t wait for him to read what was going to happen next to the little heroine in their story!   He has 3 little women that he’s nurturing even when he’s far away, and I admire him for taking the time to do that.   He’s such a good daddy.  

He also made a “book on CD” before he left and gave it to B. We listened to it in the van the other day and the look on their faces was precious.  They had no idea that HE recorded his own voice, so when they heard it it surprised them.  G said “Mommy, I can hear daddy in da’ van!  Tha’s cool!”   Thank you, precious husband, for investing in our girls.  You are making an impact on your “little women” that  we may never see this side of heaven!  

He takes TIME to invest in their lives.  He watches countless hours of “plays” they do for us and is so patient and polite.  What am I investing my time in? What are you investing your TIME in?   Our children want our PRESENCE more than our presents!   Think about it.

Toilet Paper Fun

Last weekend a black stretch limo pulled up in front of the house across the street from us.   Pretty amazing to see one of those in our neighborhood, so it was neat for our kids to see.  

What surprised me was that I looked out the window and saw about 10-12 little girls (about 10-11 years old) get out of the limo with toilet paper in hand and start rolling our neighbor’s yard.    After the initial shock and wanting to go stop it…….I saw that there was an adult who appeared to be one of the girls’ mother in the front seat supervising it all.  When they were finished, they got back in the black stretch limo and drove off.

The next day I was talking to the dad at the house that got rolled, and he just laughed and said, “Yeah, I bet they had fun!  I made my sons come clean it up.”   He knew who did it and thought it was funny.    I could go on and on, but I don’t see anything humorous about this. 

Needless to say, we had a long talk about why this is not acceptable behavior for our family.   (And for those of you reading who are wondering…….NO, I never rolled anyone’s yard when I was a teenager.  I wanted to, but never did.  However, we did get rolled once and it rained…so I can speak first hand how awful it is to have to clean up that mess!)  Let’s keep the toilet paper in the bathroom!

One Way

The church of Oprah exposed.  Christians open your eyes and be aware of what is going on.   Do not be deceived.   She is powerful and leading many astray.  

Hebrews 3:12-13 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 

 

El Shaddai: God Almighty

This name has special meaning for me today.  God is all powerful and all knowing and He will cause all things to work together for his glory.  God has bigger and better plans than we can ever imagine.  What are his plans for the Rangel family?  

Got this as part of an email today. I’ll cut and paste part of the post:

“El Shaddhai, is actually Shadwhich means “breast.”  We translate it most often as “the all-sufficient One.” And as any mother who has nursed a child will tell you, a mother is her child’s all in all. You are an infant’s complete source for everything—food, drink, movement, and comfort.”

This morning G curled up in bed with me all snuggled against my chest and said “Mommy, I’m gettin’ all your love.”  I told her to be sure and save some for B and I and she said “No.”  Then B chimed in “Mommies always have enough love for their kids.”  TRUE TRUE TRUE!   Children are so wise sometimes!  Oh to have faith, as a child!  May I always come to God with a child-like faith.

Another quote from the email I received:

“And at that very moment I really understood the great truth hidden in the words El Shaddhai. Now I really know, as my son Cole pointed out, that a child’s natural habitat is truly with its mother. Children really do need mothers to comfort them just as we as adults need the great heavenly Comforter.”

 

Oringinal blog post I copied quotes from:

http://www.familylifemomblog.com/2008/11/gods-mothering.html

 

Tuesday Tunes: “O Holy Night” Nov. 18

Yes, I’m entering the Christmas season a bit early this year  This is one my of favorite Christmas songs and it’s really taken on new meaning to me this year.   I desire to be on my knees more and more as I spend time in God’s word and spend time praying to him.  God has me at such a tender place right now.    

Verse 2 has really spoken to me as never before.  

“Truly He has taught us to love one another. His law is love and his Gospel is peace.” —Regardless of what happens to me or what others say to me, God wants me to love others and to keep peace.   How do you keep peace with someone who won’t speak with you?   What does that look like?   For me, that means making every effort to to love that person and reach out to her and to forgive in my heart and try to make amends personally.  If she refuses that effort, then I have made every attempt to make peace.  

“Chains shall break for the slave is our brother.” —  We attend a church that is working on racial reconciliation here in the heart of Memphis.  The air is so thick with prejudices here.  Myself included.   God has taught me through baby steps to remove the scales from my eyes and retrain my thoughts.  I learned to think a certain way because of my upbringing, but that doesn’t make what I think “right” especially in God’s eyes.  I need to break the chains of prejudices and look beyond skin color…..if he/she loves Jesus then we are brothers and sisters!  This is also applying to me as we consider adoption.   We feel that God has called us to adopt a child of another race and overwhelmingly, we feel like our child (or children) will be African American.   I’m Ok with this until I think about my family’s reaction SO I’m on my knees right now praying for the right time and the right child to be brought into our lives.   

“And in his name all oppression shall cease….let all within us praise his holy name” —-I want to praise him!  His name is powerful, and one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that JESUS is Lord.

Here are the words:

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining, 
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth. 
Long lay the world in sin and error pining. 
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth. 
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, 
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. 
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices! 
O night divine, the night when Christ was born; 
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine! 
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine! 

Truly He taught us to love one another, 
His law is love and His gospel is peace. 
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother. 
And in his name all oppression shall cease. 
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, 
Let all within us we praise His holy name. 
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we, 
Noel!  Noel!  O holy night.

The end of a season

”There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…” Today I’m mourning what could soon be the end of a season for me.  I don’t have all the details right now, but I have a growth in my body that needs to be removed.  In order to do that, my uterus will have to be removed.  Considering what I’ve been through this past year, this surgery will solve a lot of problems I’ve been having; however, this will be the end of a season of childbearing years for me.   This will mean that I will  not be able to have any more biological children.   This makes me sad.  

We wish to add to our family and plan to do that through adoption, but today I’m grieving that some difficult decisions lay ahead and that I might not be able to have any more biological children.  I love being pregnant.  And it sounds crazy, but I love the miracle of giving birth.  Yet, even in this grieving, I am rejoicing that I have been able to give birth to 3 beautiful babies. That each pregnancy has been healthy and without complications.  I rejoice that I have been able to participate in this “right of passage” to motherhood that women have been part of since Eve gave birth to Cain.  But I also mourn. Pray for me.  Pray for wisdom. Pray for strength.  Thank you.

Ecclesiastes 3  ”There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven….a time to mourn and a time to dance” I’m looking forward to dancing!

 

Pumpkin Math

I enjoy fall time so much. One of my favorite activities to do with my kids involves using a pumpkin for math.  We make a chart and each person guesses or makes an estimation of many things about our pumpkin.  Makes for a fun morning of math activities! 

For example:  Will it sink or float?  How many lines does it have?  (you don’t get to count…just make a guess) How big around is it? (everyone gets to cut a piece of yarn the length they think will go around the pumpkin)  

How much does it weigh?  

What face do we draw on it? (each person draws the face they want before we start)

And my favorite, how many seeds does it have? (you’ll be surprised!)

Then we actually put it in the tub to see if it sinks or floats.  We get a marker and mark off and count the lines.  We measure our strings around the pumpkin to see whose string is the closest to the actual size.  We weigh it.   Then we cut it open and pull out the seeds!! Lots of yucky stuff, but oh so fun.   We have another large piece of paper near by  and we put the seeds in groups of 10 so it makes it easier to count them.  

Whoever got the most guesses correct or closest to the correct answer, gets to choose the face for the pumpkin!  

 

After we count the seeds, we roast them in the oven and eat them!  (just wash them off, sprinkle them with salt and bake 10 minutes or so on 350 then turn them over and bake another 5-10 minutes) YUM YUM!   Then I usually make a pumpkin pie (using canned pumpkin, but each year they think I use some of the real pumpkin we just cut open!!!).     We have so much fun doing this each year.   My 3 year old said “Can we do it again?” right after we finished!  I said, “We could, but I think we’ll wait until next year!   Hey, let’s go eat some seeds and pie!”

 

Our final product!  What a fun way to celebrate fall and learn some math in the process!   We usually sing “This Little Light of Mine” as we put the light inside the pumpkin, and we talk about letting our light shine for others to see.  We also talk about how Jesus’ love can shine on our faces just like this light is shining through the face of the pumpkin.   

 

We save a few seeds each year in the hopes of trying to grow our own in the backyard.  Our pumpkins we grow never get big enough, but we still try each year!

Armor of God

We’ve just finished reading Little Pilgrim’s Progress.  It’s truly an amazing book that gives illustrations of what our life is like when we decide to follow Jesus.  We become pilgrims on a journey and meet all kinds of things on that journey.  The road is narrow and can be difficult at times.   The King sends his helpers to help in times of difficulty but we must also be prepared and have our armor on.   Today, I’m thinking about my armor.  I’ve been “wounded” recently many times.   Why?  I think it’s just part of the attack of the enemy, but I also believe it’s because I wasn’t “dressed” for the battle ahead. I’ve been a bit lazy lately with my “sword” and and my “shield”.  My faith has been weak and my time in God’s word just hasn’t been happening.  I’m taking it one day at a time, and TODAY, I’m putting on my armor.

 

How to Pray on the Armor  (from Ephesians 6:10-17)

The Belt of Truth:  Around my waist I put the belt of truth.  Father, I commit myself to Jesus as the foundation of my life today.  With your strength Lord, I will resist the temptation to stand on any worldly foundation.  Jesus, you alone are my foundation for any situation that will arise today.  (John 14:16)

The Breastplate of Righteousness:  On my heart I put the breastplate of righteousness.  I can fight any battle today because of the righteousness of Jesus, not my own!  Jesus I declare that you are my righteousness and that through the victory of the cross I can stand victorious against temptation, sin, and the attacks of the enemy.  (2 Corinthians 5:12)

 The Shoes of Readiness and Peace:  On my feet I put the shoes of the gospel.  Father, prepare me by helping me know Jesus in a deeper way.  Let your word become the guiding light for every step I take today and let the knowledge of the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection be my source of peace.  (Romans 5:1)

 The Shield of Faith:  In my hand I take up the shield of faith.  Father, my faith, connect me to the power of Jesus.  My desire is to trust in you and your strength alone.  Protect me from the arrows of the enemy today as I rely on your power.  Give me faith so I may go forward doing your will.  (Hebrews 11:33-34)

 The Helmet of Salvation: On my head, I receive the helmet of salvation.  Jesus, you are my salvation.  You are my deliverance.  Deliver me from all sins and weaknesses – spiritual, physical, emotional.  Cover me with strength, peace and anointing and bring me to complete wholeness in you (1 Thessalonians 5:8-9)

 The Sword of the Spirit:  In my hand, I take up the sword of the Spirit, the powerful word of God.  Jesus, you are the living version of God’s word.  May God’s word give me wisdom to apply the word to life’s situations and today’s troubles.  Remind me to spend time in your word each day.  (Hebrews 4:12)

 

 

Ephesians 6:10-17

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 

The Woman Who Willed a Miracle

We watched a movie today about a pretty amazing thing a mom did for a child.  It’s called The Woman who Willed a Miracle. I highly recommend this movie.  We rented it from a local church.  You can’t get it at Blockbuster.  It’s so worth it!  The boy,  was severely retarded and blind.  She worked with him for 16 years when he finally started to walk, then play the piano, then talk.

I must never underestimate the influence I have in my children’s lives!  16 years!  I pray that I would have this kind of endurance should I be presented with a special challenge some day!   

Global awareness

 

We watched a movie today about a pretty amazing child.  I searched for this child on youtube and watched a few other things about amazing kids.  This video was posted in response to the contestant from South Caroline in the Miss Teen USA pageant.  Her answer to why some Americans cannot locate the US on a map is pretty sad.

This is a little 2 year old girl and she can find most countries when her parents ask her where they are.  I was in awe. I thought it was just going to be a few large countries, but she knows the smaller ones too! ENJOY!