A prayer for All Saints Day, or my son's 9th birthday, so I changed it up a bit as a blessing on his life:



God surround him by cloud:

Faithful witnesses who have gone before--

Those who have loved where he would have hated

Those who have healed where he would have hurt

Those who have spoken out when he would have remained silent

God may he walk in their footsteps

Learning courage from their sacrifice

May he learn to give so that others may receive

May he learn to love so that others may be set free

May he learn to die so that others might live

God may he join that cloud of faithful witnesses

Treading paths of loving obedience

Leaving footprints that others desire to walk in

God may he, too, lead a kingdom life.

Amen


He is such a good boy. I am so, so lucky!!

Pumpkin Carving 101


Step 1--roll pumpkin across lawn to pumpkin carving area.




Step 2--celebrate getting the pumpkin across the lawn!




Step 3--Get a knife.




Step 4--tops off, guts out, 'accidentally' fling guts on your neighbor after 'sneezing'. Laugh. Laugh hard! Fling more.




**practical insert**
You can also use the pumpkin "guts" for a home-spa beauty treatment!






Step 5--carve personality into the pumpkin...









Happy Halloween!!

this weekend i...


cried for time.
wept, and celebrated with mothers.
longed for a community of 'me's'.
wondered if i was depressed.
wished the rain would stop, and keep falling all the same.

thought about a boy at the kids' school who's father died unexpectedly.
thought about girls changing before my eyes into young ladies.
thought about a five year old who died from swine flu.
thought about how vulnerable it is to be a mother, if i choose to be vulnerable to love.

thought about creating.

created a gift.
created time.
created thoughts and let poetry swirl in my head.
painted with pastels, until i knew to stop...

acknowledged that i was depressed, and went for my remedy.
played with my children, laughed with my baby.

am choosing to love, as much as possible--
and letting God make the changes...

it is autumn, after all.




so, i will fall into Him for now.

Hilarious. I have to do this one day.

HELLOOOO!

Ok, well, I, um, officially "STINK" at blogging regularly...

and strangely, I am ok with it! :P

SOOOOOO. A deal!! I have made a deal to make some racket for a friend-of-a-friend's jewelry shop--which I checked out and loved--and am happy to announce is in alignment with our 'handmade Christmas' gift-giving, which we are striving for more and more each year! So, ladies, please head over to Shelane's Etsy Shop and check out her handwork!!

AND...THANK YOU to Natalie...one of the shiniest, craftiest, funniest people I know for drawing my name outta the pencil holder!! If you are NOT reading her blog, you should be.

I feel like the luckiest pea in the pod today. :)

More later! Gotta get Mr. Snots in he car and wrangle up some kids from school.

Love, Kelly

Dusty, dusty blog. :P

Today is an AMAZING DAY!



Today is the birthday of my littlest gift...who's not so little when you are lugging him around the grocery store, Target or through registration at school... LOL!!



This morning after dropping off my older kids at their new school, and trying to soak it all in... pulling tags off their crisp un-uniforms, lacing up new shoes, my tween straightening her already straight hair, loading up the car, getting to and through (successfully in the right direction, thank you) the school drop off line, sighing with relief and yet still a smidge of fear in letting them walk into something new without me.........

my little one and I came home to a quiet house, snuggled in bed and I had a good cry about how wonderful God is. How wonderful these children are. How wonderful my husband is for getting a vasectomy reversal so we could know this person. How AMAZING my labor and delivery was...how we could cuddle in the same spot he was born, and lay and remember that feeling of us being one, then becoming two.

Love
is
rich.

I am overflowing! Then, I get this song off someone else's post on facebook. God is good to reach down to me, to each of us...

Here is my little priest praying for dinner. He melts me!

return, Word,
bring, too, the air of life
unforgotten
by this quill
uncertain
of what is noteworthy
to ink
under the guise of creation
where i
flick syllables left and right
searching for the ones
you anointed for this time
of true repentance
of guided healing.

I confess my broken heart, Lord.
I confess my longing to be held.
I confess my heart is yours.
I confess my life is yours.
I confess my time is yours to give and take.
I confess my thoughts are misguided at best.
I confess YOU are Eternal, Vast, Mysterious & Majestic.
I confess YOU are full of Wisdom, Grace & Love.
I confess YOU have saved me from all evil.
I confess I forget these things from time to time…although I don’t mean to.
I confess I don’t speak up as often as you prompt me because I am afraid of humans.
(I am trying to get better about it.)
I confess it is harder for me to change than I let on, that letting go and trusting is harder than I pretend.
I confess to being hurt, and not seeking to reconcile it properly, and holding bitterness within my heart…separating US from one another in my heart…but not in reality…as Jesus has mended all things.
I confess that because of these things, it is hard to know how to handle myself. And, because I don’t trust YOU enough, or myself, I have a hard time trusting others.

Dear God, may I continue to step towards YOU, even when I am afraid.

I feel a bit lost today.

I am tired. Maybe going to bed before 12.20 am is a good start to feeling better. This has been a tough weekend. Mark and I are trying to decide if we should put our house on the market and move, or if we should stay here and make renovations. There are several hard factors in this equation.

Reasons to stay...
1.) The kids have developed friendships in our neighborhood...
2.) We are close to many things we've begun to enjoy: Ecclesia The Woodlands, and Class Act Productions for starters.
3.) This is a great neighborhood, safe and friendly, and we love it!
4.) Our house is a huge blessing, with more than enough room to share!
5.) Levi was born here! Of course, he was born in the bed...and the bed will go with us!

Reasons to leave...
1.) The renovations to this house are not so much the issue, as that we would LOVE to have a pool...and that renovation is costly.
2.) It would be nice to be closer to our family since we are no longer needing to be near The Woodlands for school.
3.) There are families in the Willowbrook area that attend ETW! We could start a small group out there and have community.
4.) We would still be close to Trinity, their school if we only moved 15 minutes into Spring.
5.) We are still not in 'that house' that we want to be in forever.
6.) I would like a bigger laundry room...or one that allows laundry not to occupy the breakfast room floor three to four days per week.

I am conflicted, because some of these reasons (ok, maybe all) seem shallow and not really, really good reasons to move. I am glad the kids' school is not an issue, because they have always been in private, and are starting a new school this fall...their friends are sort of scattered about anyway and doing different things.

Please pray for us as we sort out what this means for our family. It looks like come January, we may be on the market!

Peace, K