What do I do with Blessings?

I'm studying the Life of Moses this year in BSF. Those Israelites. In 40 years, they just haven't learned. They keep wandering and complaining. Usually about the food.

I get it...40 years of eating nothing but manna. I suppose if I ate nothing but sushi for 40 years, I might get tired of it. I'd probably complain, too. But this manna...it was a perfect gift provided by God in a miraculous way. Day after day. It was nutritionally complete, and I'll be it tasted exquisite. After all, "Every good and perfect gift comes from above."

But the blessing of manna had become commonplace. They found fault with it. They grumbled and nagged and complained.

So the question was asked of me, "what blessing has become commonplace in your life that you take for granted?"

Ouch. You mean God's perfect gift for me? The one I see day after day?

Praying I never stop viewing this man as a blessing, and that he never becomes so commonplace to me that I don't appreciate him.

Words to Live By

This has been on my Facebook profile for awhile now, but I love the reminder it gives me that no matter what my circumstances may be, God still expects me to sing.

Good Gravy

Family legend has it that I was once caught after dinner sitting in the middle of the table, drinking the gravy straight from the bowl.

Apparently we still have some theological truths to teach in this home. Annie was belting out "Holy, Holy Holy" at the grocery store earlier this week and has changed they lyrics. Today, I bring you "Gravy, Gravy, Gravy."

As we say in the Wilson home, "Could it be genetic?"

While the Parents are Away

My dear friend Tina took the girls this weekend while we were at the Marriage Conference. From Easter Egg hunts to homemade play dough to making slime...I'm sure she was exhausted at the end of the weekend. I think the girls had a great time, though!

Reflections

One of my big takeaways from the Weekend to Remember conference had to do with my purpose in Christ.

God created us, man and woman, in His image. We are to be a reflection of God.

Check out this amazing visual:

This is Mount Hood reflected in Mirror Lake. I suspect the picture was taken early in the morning, when things were calm. I can't get over what an incredible reflection is captured in the water. This is what God intended when He created us. It's what He still desires.

I can't even imagine my life being such a perfect reflection of my Creator.

But more often than not, my reflection looks a little more like this:

Not quite so perfect. Those ripples - sin. Pride. Selfishness. Impatience. Allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the winds and storms of life.

The reflection is still there, but other factors have marred the perfect reflection God created.

I am so glad I have a perfect Savior who has already done the work so that I can stand blameless before God. And I am reminded that:

Signs of Spring

Our first really spring-like day happened to be my late Aunt Sharon's birthday. One memory I have of Aunt Sharon was that she always hung her clothes out on the clothesline. So in honor of Aunt Sharon, her birthday, the beginning of spring, and her namesake (Anne Rose was named after Sharon Rose), I bring you this beautiful sign of spring.

4th Grade Spring Concert

This is Dayna's last year with her fabulous music teacher, Mrs. Bebout. Starting in fifth grade, she'll transition to the next music teacher who is at the middle school and high school. While great things lie ahead for Dayna musically, it was bittersweet to attend this final concert.

With Mrs. Bebout

Fancy hair

4th/5th grade chorus

4th graders

4th/5th grade finale

Weekend to Remember

It's been 15 years coming, but Dan and I were able to escape last weekend to the Family Life Conference "Weekend to Remember." When we were first married, the pastor who performed our wedding did so only on the condition that we attend this conference our first year of marriage.

Needless to say, a lot has happened since we attended as newlyweds. For Christmas this year, I got Dan (really us) a gift certificate to attend the conference of his choice. It happened that one of the speakers in Lincoln this year was Bob Maddox. Bob was the director of Student Venture (part of Campus Crusade) in Gresham when I was in high school. He also later went on to be a pastor at the church I attended. It's been over 20 years, but it was a lot of fun to see and hear Bob speak again.

Dan and I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to just get away, recharge, eat really yummy food (sushi date night!) and focus on us, without the distractions of work, kids, housework, honey-do lists....

If you're getting married, you're just married, or you've been married 80 years, I highly recommend this weekend.

Weekend to Remember

2 Years Later

A lot can happen in 2 years.  It seems like just yesterday, we were meeting our sweet Annie for the first time. It has been a wild ride (to say the least), but we can't imagine our lives without this silly girl.

A new (welcome!) change to the post-placement rules for Chinese adoptions is that every post-placement report starting at 2 years can be self reported. This means we no longer have to pay for a social worker's time, mileage, etc. We don't need to frantically clean our house. We can just be us and reminisce on what the last year has brought us.

One of the questions asked us about Annie's fine and gross motor skills. We opted to delicately share that she is fascinated by scissors and leave out the picture of her self-inflicted mullet (3 days after we "fixed" her hair from the first haircut.)

These are the pictures we included for her report. It sure puts a smile on our faces to see how well she's doing.

I Do NOT Need a Nap!

...or so she tries to convince me.