Fargo Flood Fight 2009

Can You See A Difference??

Here are pictures from today...they raised the crest level AGAIN...started at 39, then 40, 41 and now it is up to 42+. If you look at my previous post you can see the difference...

A silver lining in all of this...

1. I pray that this will draw many people into a relationship with Christ.
2. Everyone emptied their basement...this flood is a forced spring cleaning.
3. I'd take a flood over a tornado, hurricane or earthquake any day...it could be worse.
4. People are still in good spirits, hopeful and helpful even after hours in the cold sandbagging.

God promised He would not cover the whole earth in a flood ever again...I think we should have asked Him about ND! :)

Changes...

Here is what can happen in a short period of time....
The drain protecting our house yesterday....

and today...

our house 1 week ago exactly....
and our house today...

It's raining...

When it's raining outside and a flood is coming, what's a girl to do....get her boots and Dora umbrella and play in the rain!We've had a lot of people ask how we're doing as far as the flood is concerned...that's a million dollar question! We're praying the predictions are wrong...if they aren't...it will be a HORRIBLE mess for everyone. They are building dikes and sandbagging as fast as they can, but will it be fast enough? Dan is going to sandbag tonight, they are asking for 24 hour a day volunteers to help...we even have Sandbag Central. If this truly is a 500 year flood...I'm glad I won't be around 500 years from now to experience it again!

The Perfect Club

Last night was Wednesday which equals Family Time in this house. Our verse for this week was

"Now is the time to come to Jesus" 2 Corinthians 6:2

After dancing and verse memorization, we shared the gospel with J and A and talked to them about it. They have both already made a decision to receive Christ, but last night we wanted to focus on the importance of telling others because "NOW is the time to come to Jesus". We talked about how they could share the gospel with their friends and other people that they know. We used the analogy of The Perfect Club. We talked about whether or not we would be allowed into God's Perfect Club - Heaven (only those who are perfect may enter). The answer..."No". We are not perfect. Then we talked about how God made a way for us to be invited into the Perfect Club and that was by asking Jesus to be perfect for us. J shared about friends at school that he could share the gospel with and we talked about how he can pray that God would give him the right moment and the right words to share with those friends. The kids asked lots of questions and they always enjoy talking about people that are already in Heaven to greet them someday. We didn't have an activity this week because family time was condensed down to a 1/2 hour due to homework and the fact that we needed to practice for the play that J is in next weekend. It was a shorter Family Time, but the gospel is always powerful and we want to make sure the kids understand it well enough to share it with others. Will you be allowed into the Perfect Club?

After bath time, A and S listened to mommy and J practice the songs for the play. Precious!

What do you do with lots of snow???

Make a snowman of course! He's kind of like a snowman skyscraper though. The weather has been above freezing making the snow finally sticky enough to make a snowman. I wanted you to be able to understand just how tall he is...that's why it's not a closer picture of the snowman. The snowman had a great, yet short life. Later that afternoon he melted just enough to fall over a litte...when you're that high up and you fall over, you break into many pieces. Kind of like Humpty Dumpty, we weren't able to put him back together again.

Check It Out!!

A friend of mine has her own business making cute clips, head scarfs and nursing shawls. She started the business in order to help fund their adoption of two children. All proceeds go towards those expenses. I recently purchased clips for Alayna and a head scarf for myself. I LOVE the hair clips! We are growing out Alayna's bangs...pony tails are cute, but break her hair...I asked Angel to put foam in the clips and they stay in GREAT! Take a minute, check out her site and if you could use anything consider placing an order, or if you know someone who could use any of the great products she sells, pass along the website.

http://www.adoptionwings.blogspot.com/

Alayna was so excited a couple weeks ago when we got the package in the mail that she put nearly ALL the clips in her hair (plus we already had pony tails in that day!).

The Letter "M"

This week's family time verse started with the letter M.

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they know me." John 10:27

We enjoyed our dancing and verse memorization. We recited the verse fast, sssslllllooooowww, like robots, all 'm' sounds, and then like robots again. Then J and A each said the verse all by themselves. A has really improved her memorization skills.

Next, we played a version of hide-n-seek. Mom went upstairs into a hiding spot. Instead of sitting quietly, she softly said words that describe God. J and A searched for awhile before remembering that if they would just listen to hear her voice it would be easy to find her. Dad provided some distraction with annoying singing to drive home the point that we need to listen and avoid distractions if we want to hear the still small voice. J and A each had a turn to hide and speak softly also. Dad went last and by then J and A had the system down. They got to the top of the stairs and stopped to listen right away. When mom was talking, they knew right away that she needed to be quiet in order to hear Dad's voice. It was easy after that.

The whole family went back to the basement to debrief and review the activity. J has a school play coming up that makes him quite nervous. Dad asked him, "Can you run faster than a car?, jump up to an airplane?, shovel all the snow off the whole yard?" Of course each was answered with a strong NO. The final question was, "Can you stand in front of a group of people and sing?" Of course he answered, "NO," again. Then we read the story of Jesus and Peter walking on the water. In that story, Peter does the impossible because he listened to Jesus. Dad then asked J if he might be able to sing in the play with God's help. He smiled and nodded.

Hopefully Josiah will not become over confident in his own abilities but a spirit of fear is also not honoring to the Lord. We pray he develops humble confidence in the ounce of ability God has given him and the power of God to take care of the result. Peter had the ability to walk but Jesus took Peter's unimpressive ability and made it a miraculous reality. Could He do the same with all of us? today?

** Dan has lovingly been writing about our Family Time's each week while the kids and I color about what we talked about that night.

Blizzard 2009

My husband has been a teacher at West Fargo High School for over 7 years now...we have had more snow days this year alone than all the other years combined. It's been a crazy, memorable winter! Here are some pictures of what the blizzard looked like at our house...enjoy!

Our front door yesterday during the blizzard

Where's Josiah? Nearly blocked because the snow drift is getting higher, and higher and higher...

Our mailboxes were buried...it was worse, but Dan had just started clearing them out...what craziness!

The front of our house...yep, there's a lot of snow! Thankfully we have great neighbors that once again brought their big snow blower over to our house and told us to we could use it.

A great book for us moms!

I just finished reading a great book. It's a book about mothering and it follows the journey of 2 different moms raising 2 different girls. I would encourage you to read this book...it shares the purpose in persevering as a mom, being consistent and most importantly following God's truth in raising your children. It also shares the consequences of taking the other road. Anyway, it was an encouragement to me and if you enjoy reading Christian Fiction like I do...this would be a great book for you to enjoy too! Happy Reading!

**I'd like to add that Roxanne Henke is a great Christian author from ND. She has other books also and I'd recommend that you read them too! :)

My Little Rascal Can Be Helpful Too!!!

He has plenty of rascally moments, but he is still too darn cute to resist! He LOVES helping us set the table. This is a great treat for Josiah and Alayna who get out of doing one of their jobs for now. :) Anyway, I figured I needed to balance out my blogs about how rascally he is with ones that show just how precious he is too!

Where's Our Big Brother???

It's an exciting time when Josiah comes home from school...he gets a heroes welcome everyday!

The Letter "L"

This week for the letter "L," we took Ephesians 4:29 from the LHT version of the Bible. That is the Loose Holder's Translation.

"Let no bad words come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for others."

After our dancing and verse memorization, we got out the mega blocks. We went around the circle saying nice things to each other trying to make the other towers taller. So, when Josiah said something nice to Alayna, then Alayna got a block on her tower and so on. We went around the circle a couple times so that each person had about 6 blocks in their tower. Then we told the kids we were going to play some basketball on the hoop in the basement. As we played, we listened carefully to what the kids said. When Josiah said to Alayna, "That shot is sooooo simple," he lost a block because he was not being helpful to her. He did not like that. When Alayna said, "Daddy's losing!" She lost a block and did not like that. After a few minutes of gaining a block for each "good job!" and losing a block for bad words, they began searching for chances to say "Good Job!" It didn't take long for encouraging words to fly around the room. After this went on for awhile we all huddled together and talked about how much better it was to say and hear good words. To end our time, Josiah prayed.

A Powerful Song...

This has become one of my new favorite songs, it's so powerful. Just today I watched the video created with the song...even though the video portrays the sin of adultery, the "Slow Fade" in your/my life can be so many other things that you/I allow into your/my home or life that causes a "Slow Fade" away from a passionate relationship with Jesus. I've been asking the Lord to show me what things in my life could cause a "Slow Fade"....I challenge you to ask the same question...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-8SYA6rfbs

What a Rascal!

You know it's your 3rd child when you take a picture before getting them off of the tall stool. He has realized that the stools and chairs are great tools in helping him get things he can't reach...the fridge, the sink, things on the counter...so far the sink is his favorite (just like the other 2 kids), but there are great treasures in the fridge and so this may soon change. He keeps me on my toes!

**a little side note about my favorite rascal...no biting incidents at MOPS or in nursery this past week...it has gotten MUCH better...I LOVE vinegar!! (thankfully Seth doesn't!!)

Friday Funnies!

Dear friends came to visit on Friday afternoon. The day before we had a few inches of snow ...again! Anyway, my dear hubby cleared the driveway the night before...however, on Friday, there was some snow at the end of the driveway that you needed to 'gun it' to get through due to the wonderful snow plows. Anyway, Heather made it through with no problems and she and I were chatting while the kids played...then I got a phone call from Amy..."Michelle, I'm stuck at the end of your driveway"...thankfully Heather and I are strong :) and we were ready to come to her rescue. We got bundled up and out we went, ready to rescue her. We got in position to give her a good push...she put it in reverse...1, 2, 3.... PUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHH...nothing happened...not even an inch (although we were laughing quite hard!)...try again 1, 2, 3.... PUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHH...nothing (laughing even harder now!)...we tried to shovel out her tire...we laid out sand because her tire was on snow (I'm sure we were quite the sight!!), we were feeling quite smart, but having NO success moving the van even a tiny inch. We realized...we needed man power...thankfully, my neighbor was there to rescue us. He came ready to help...got down on his belly, shoveled out all the snow from under her bumper with his arm/hand and then he alone gave it a push when Amy put it in reverse...she backed right out...no problems! Good laughs were had by all...and when we went into the house all 6 kids were still in one piece and doing well!

We were able to celebrate Gavin's 5th Birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Gav!
Only 363 sleeps until you turn 6! :)Pretty girls all dressed up!