By Kait (aka The Kid)

I’m starting, or actually have already started, a weekly prayer thingie. Every week I will post a subject to pray about. For example, I have done these so far. Contentment, peace, submission, passion.
I’m going to start writing down the results I get from these weekly prayer thingie. I also encourage you to join me in my 52 weeks fo prayer. Every night and every morning when you saying your prayers, ask God for the specific thing for that week. I’ll be a step ahead of you, so you’ll be able to see my results. Hopefully that will encourage you to follow me along! Here’s the first week.

Week 1 – Contentment  

This weeks prayer request is for contentment.

Contentment: The state of being contented; satisfaction; ease of mind.

How did the Lord answer my prayer? 
That week, my ingenious parents decided to start hanging up all of our clothes on a clothes line under the blaring hot Florida sun instead of tossing them into the dryer.  “We really must be desperate if my mom is going to hang up all of those clothes in this summer heat”, I thought to myself.  Then I found out that we’re not desperate enough for my mom to do it, just desperete enough for me to.  Oh, these are my mom’s words on the matter. “Kait, if you don’t feel like hanging them up one day, or ever, just come tell me ‘Mom, I don’t feel like hanging them up.  I left them out there for you to do it.’”  What kind of a mother-loving-daughter would sat that to her mom?  I think she did that on purpose, because she knew I’d never say it.  But anyway, as my loving mother watched me walk to the clothes line through the kitchen window, I walked out there and started hanging up all of our clothes.  When I was done I waited there for a second, quite certain my dear mother was going to come out and tell me I did it wrong, and that if I had had just moved them a 1/8 of an inch closer to each other it would have been right. She never did, to my relief. (That was a joke by the way. My mom loves me way more than that, she would have just…I don’t know.  Something else that’s not that.) But anyway, the next time I was out there, I felt like I was melting from the heat.  But, it was that time, as I stood there turning to liquid Kait, I decided to be content with it.  Immediately my perspective changed. It was no longer annoying laundry that I was being forced to hang up, against my will.  It was now a gracious gift from God, clothes for our backs.  Oh my goodness, not only did my perspective change on the laundry situation, but now I was happy to eat beans!  Yes, I did say beans.  I do not like beans at all.  They are so…blahh.  But, now I am grateful that we have food to fill our bellies.
My mom very often does the laundry with me, so she’s not that evil.  I just had to joke with her up there.  My mom is very sweet and generous and kind, but sometimes I just have to mess with her. 

I am content.

was our first day of school. 

We are members of a homeschooling co-op in our area and one day a week throughout the traditional school year the group gets together to share teaching talents. This year we have a bunch of great classes including Spanish and Church History (among a host of others).

My kids love co-op. They waited all summer for the weekly meetings to start back up again. Kait likes the classes but has been really blessed by the social aspect.  The boys also enjoy the good friendships they’ve made there.  They talk and talk and talk in their unintelligible nonsense. 

I don’t like co-op. Gasp!  Shriek!
I know.

I was talking complaining to a friend last night about how much I don’t like it and how I was not looking forward to it starting back up again.  She asked why and I gave her some really great reasons. 

Well,  they made sense to me at the time. 

She must have been praying for me. 
I made the decision last night before I went to bed that I was going to change my attitude.  I had to.  Not a moment later my reasons for not liking co-op day started to seem really silly and I started to feel like a whiny baby.  It’s not like I was magically zapped with co-op enjoyment, I just decided that if I was going to go, and I was, that I was going to have to do it with a smile.  
This is the same lesson I try to teach my kids all the time.  “If you’re gonna do something, do it with a smile.  Don’t grumble because nothing good can come from it.”  Yet, I was being an example of the exact opposite – exactly what not to do.  But, to be the best parent I can be I have to start living what I teach.

We started hanging out our clothes on the line.  Kait doesn’t like doing it but when I asked her about it, because she seemed to be enjoying it, she said, “I’ve just decided to be content in hanging out the clothes, but I can’t honestly say that I like it”.
How is it that my children, doing well in how I’ve instructed them, all to often put me to shame? 

I think it’s more fitting to say that I put myself to shame. 

1 Corinthians 10:31 
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

I stand corrected.

Ben on tomatoes…

It’s a professor of archaeology!

Ben came out of his bedroom and said, and I quote, “Look!  I’m Tiara Jones!”
After Ryan snorted a piece of bologna out his nose he corrected him by asking, “Do you mean, Indiana Jones?”
“Yes”, Ben said.  “India Jones”.

I shot a few picture of India Jones in the front yard, secretly.  Secretly is important if you just want to take a couple of  quick shots of one of my kids.  My children are hams and love to be directly in front of the camera.  This is good and bad, I guess.

We don’t have a bunch of costumes for the kids.  Not because we think they’re wrong or anything, we just don’t have much.  It doesn’t stop them from creating their own ‘looks’, as you can plainly see here.  I don’t know if he wore the ripped pants on purpose but it does add a nice ‘wrestled an alligator’ feel to the whole ensemble.  I don’t know what the belt slung around him is for but the belt hung over his shoulder is a whip. 

He showed me how he ‘whipped’.
He’s so proud of his getup.

We didn’t bother to tell him that Indy would never wear his boots on the wrong feet.

Update -

Not long after finishing this post I went outside to look at a bug Gabe had found.  On the front porch I found this:

It appears India Jones has melted right on my doormat.

I guess he looked at the ark.

That not all of these posts are mine.  Some are my daughters – from months or years past.  She’s moving some of her old posts over.  Hers will say “The Kid”.  Joe’s will say “Just Joe” at the top.  Ryan’s say “dad” and Gabe’s will say “Bebo”.

Just so you know that I’m not the only poster here.  Though, I do post about 95% of what you read.

Just so you know.

Originally posted by Kait on her blog, June 15, 2009

Yup. That’s me. In, but not of. It’s my motto. The thing that defines me. What does it mean? Let me tell you.

In, but not of is a saying which means that I am in this world, but refusing to be part of this world. About 4 months ago, a friend of mine, and the rest of her family, gave me a different perspective on life after telling me that saying.
The world is evil and I, being a Christian, should do my best to push away the evil. I figured that I don’t have much of a choice about being in this world, but I most certainly do have a choice about whether or not I will be a part of the world. Don’t agree with me? Here’s another reason. – I want my light to shine. I want to be able to walk down the street and for people to just look at me and know that I am different, not normal. Here are a couple of ways I do that.

I refrain from being of this world by wearing skirts most of the time, not participating in many online social networks, and being very specific about the fact that I will not date casually, but will be courted. 

There are a lot more ways that I refrain from this world, those are just the main ones. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you should throw every pair of jeans you have into the trash, it’s just my way of saying “Hey, I’m different.”.

Shine
Make ‘em wonder what you’ve got 
Make ‘em wish that they were not
On the outside looking bored
Shine
Let it shine before all men
Let ‘em see good works and then
Let ‘em glorify the Lord.
-Newsboys

 

Kait

It appears we have a few funny people in my family.  First, there’s my husband with his thought provocing humor here.  Then my daughter thought she’d have a little fun at her brother’s expense here.

Yes, they are funny aren’t they.

Today was fun. After I finished putting my Polly Pockets away, I decided it was that time again – My nails needed to be trimmed and polished.  That took almost 2 hours! After that my arms were sore, so I decided to just relax and read a Nancy Drew mystery, you don’t get better than that!  Then I…

I just did the dishes without catching my evil sister writing this wacky post about me.  Maybe some day I’ll catch it.  Or perhaps this post will be on here forever. We’ll  just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings…

Joe

Fence.  Think about it.

Dad

At what age does tying a blanket around your shoulders become inappropriate?  When does wearing red pajamas and blue underwear (yes, I know it’s backwards) become an act of insanity?

My boys are still so young.  Ben(4) and Matthew(6) have a few more years of being ridiculous.  I know they’ll eventually grow out of it, but why? 

There comes a time when we all put those childlike ways behind us.  We grow up, become adults, talk about politics and weather.  We worry what our neighbor thinks of us.  We do a great many things because of the expectations of society.  We get stressed, we get migraines, and suffer depression.  Then we get some pills.

But nothing really changes.

We remember what it was to be a kid.  To run free within our set confines.  To laugh with wild abandon no matter the state of the world. “Oh, back in the day…”
We reminisce but would we ever actually attempt to really take ourselves back?  Find our inner child and remember how to really live?
Maybe we should take more lessons from our superheros. Ahem, our children.

I think I’m gonna tie one on today.  A blanket, I mean.