Sorry folks....

No pictures yet. I will soon though. The kids haven't changed much from the last pics so all is good. Except Sydney got her ears pierced over the holidays and she looks like such a big girl. So I will post some pics as soon as I get a chance.

Just a quick update for you peoples that want to know:

We had a good Christmas. It was very busy, but good. We spent about a week in Dallas with my family. My parents are in the process of moving to KY to care for my mema. She is 86 and has alzheimer's and has been living alone. The situation was getting more and more dangerous for her to be alone, so my parents, after MUCH prayer and discussion, made the decision to move in with her rather than replant her in Dallas. My parents are tired of "big city" life anyway. So...my dad is there now. We missed him at Christmas, but still had a good time. My mom is totally out of her house and living with my brother and his family. She is finishing out the school year and will go to KY at the end of May. They are happy with their decision and I'm looking forward to spending more time at my Mema's house.

While in Dallas, Sydney was sick the whole time with some flu virus...and on our way to Lubbock, Todd and I caught it. We spent almost a week in Lubbock as well. It was good to see everyone, but not fun being sick. Sienna caught it at the end of our trip there, then Asher on the way back home. So the trip was not relaxing at all, but always good to see family and friends.

So we are back into the swing of things...kinda. School is starting for Todd this week. Asher and Sienna have been back for a couple of weeks now. Asher was "superstar" last week and enjoyed that. I'll post pics of that too later. He got to dress up and share pictures of family, and we took snacks that began with the letter "R". It's all a part of being in Kindergarten. It really has been a good year for him so far. He is reading now and enjoys his Gameboy he got from Grandma. Sienna was going to school all day three days a week, but I dropped her down to three half days. She will start Kinder next year. She is trying to read some short vowel words now, all on her own, and picking it up quickly. Sydney is just Ms. Independent. She enjoys playing with shapes and blocks and babies and dress up, of course. Todd is gearing up for his semester. I'd like to ask for you to remember him this next few months. This is going to be a taxing semester for him. It's been so great having him home, we are all going to have to adjust to his new schedule once again. It is nice to know it is temporary. But please, if you think about it, pray for Todd's endurance, patience, health, and safety on the road.

I've been thinking about some things lately. I won't go into much detail here, but want to share something very encouraging to me lately. The other day I had an opportunity to spend some very much needed time alone, and in that time, I asked God why do people suffer much? And the Holy Spirit, I believe, brought these verses to mind immediately:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are PROTECTED by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. IN THIS you GREATLY REJOICE, even though now for a little while, if NECESSARY, you have been distressed by various trials or temptations (NIV), SO THAT the proof of your faith, being MORE PRECIOUS than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to RESULT in PRAISE and GLORY and HONOR at the revelation of Jesus Christ;"
1 Peter 1:3-7

He goes on in that section to talk about loving Him even though we have not seen him and having joy that is beyond our ability to express.

I'm not a scholar and never have been. I don't know all the background to this letter right off the bat, but I know I could look it up in a book. But I didn't want to be distracted by that. I simply felt the peaceful whisper in my ear of why people suffer, I meant myself really. Mind you, I know all typical answers to this question, but this came straight to my soul from the H.S. If you don't believe that, don't say it here because I'm not trying to stir the pot, I am just sharing how God ministered to ME.

There is so much said in those few verses, I'm still chewing on it. But here's what I was reminded of : there is nothing in this world, no amount of money, greater than my faith. My faith is what sustains me daily, not money, not friends, not family, not "stuff", not anything. My bible says so that the "geuineness" of your faith may be found to result in praise in v. 7. As a daughter of the King, this empowers me to face my day head on, come what may, with a certain resolve. Sounds good on a blog, but living it is another deal. I've loved God all of my life, and I do not doubt that he has saved me, but there are still so many set backs in my life. See, I think Satan loves to whisper those lies to us...ALL of us........

"you are the only one who feels that way"
"you are a terrible wife, mother and friend"
"God doesn't love you, look at your life"
"you are the only one struggling like that"
"don't say anything to anybody, hide out, they'll think you're crazy"
"keep it to yourself, nobody wants to hear about your garbage"
"you're so stupid"

and on and on and on.........
but, we must replace those lies with truth. What truth? God has had great mercy on us, he caused us to be saved, we can obtain in inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away that is reserved in heaven for YOU! You are protected by the POWER of God through FAITH. You have something more valuable than any amount of riches on the earth.....FAITH. And what is the outcome of our faith? Salvation of our souls. God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of POWER, LOVE, and SOUND JUDGMENT! The testing of our faith produces ENDURANCE or steadfastness.
And on and on the truth goes. I am thankful today, for another chance to live better, more faithful, realizing that it's a good thing to be tested and challenged. God is working on me still and I'm very thankful for that.

I hope that you are being challenged as well.

Let me hear from you!

Happy New Year!

Hello to all and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Just wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive, and will soon create a proper post with pictures and all.

God is good...today and everyday.

Blessings...flee

I'm still here.....

Howdy hoo to all of you that read this silly old thing.

We've been a bit busy around my place and I took a bit of a sabbotical as well from blogging. I could spend hours reading blogs and posting, but don't really have that kind of time in the day to do that.

But just a quick update on the Patten's. We will be spending Thanksgiving with family and are looking forward to that. Halloween came and went so quickly. I tried posting some pics, but yet again, was unsuccessful! Ok so Rachel...let me know how you get all those pics on yours and then all the comments in between and all that fun stuff. I need some help.

Asher is doing great in school and so is Sienna. They both love it. Sienna says she's tired of Pre-K though, because they take long naps. That's funny because I know she heard Asher say the very same thing last year....he really never slept, but Sienna snoozes the entire nap time usually. She wants to go to Kindergarten though. We feel this is a good sign. She will probably do a half day Kinder next year.

Asher is really starting to take off reading on his own. His aunt and uncle bought him some "Magic Tree House" books and he LOVES them. I am so excited to see his love for books coming alive! He reads really well and is gaining more and more confidence in himself.

Sienna is always telling me that she's pretending to be a teenager.....yes, she's 4. I'm in for it, I know. Sienna LOVES to bake anything, especially in her EasyBake Oven. She LOVES makeup and jewelry and anything girly....but it's cool because she isn't so girly that she won't go make a good mud pie or wrestle with her brother. She is such a blessing though. Our family wouldn't be the same without her.

And Sydney...well, let's just say she is following suit!! She is as feisty as Sienna ever thought about being at 18 months old...and BUSY. I guess the girls can keep each other busy. Sydney loves to dance and throw in her two cents in whatever conversation is going on. She is also starting to dress up alot now, with high heels and all, a purse, necklace usually and a stroller with either a baby in it, or her sippy cup. Go figure! For the most part, she is happy. She says "apple, na-na, Ashoo (Asher), dada, mama, ook (look), bas (bath), shoe, so (sock), baw (ball), No, sta (stop), biboo (bible), sasha (sorry)" and a few other things I can't make out yet. She loves to talk.

Todd, well, he is one busy man. He's at the end of another semester trying to finish up classes. He's good though. He is a good teacher and a good student. He's an awesome dad and husband. He wears alot of different hats and still finds time to go fishing once in a while with Asher. We love him. I love him.

I'm good. Just feeling very thankful at this time of year. Hope you all are too.

God bless!

Be careful what you pray for....

I had an interesting afternoon yesterday. It had been cold and raining most of the day, so we, the girls, stayed in. We went to pick Asher up from school and got home to catch up on the day, get snacks, you know the usual after school routine.

Sometime around 4 pm, my doorbell rang. I went to answer it and it was a woman with her adolescent age daughter. (This same woman came to me in the drive way the other day asking for money, to buy her daughter something she needed. I had a few dollars on me and gave it to her and she went on her way. I was talking to my neighbor that evening about the woman and she told me that this same woman also asked her for money, but my neighbor was in another part of town when she was approached. The lady gave her the same story. I gave her more than enough money to buy what she needed. So I immediately became skeptical, naturally. So this is the background to this encounter yesterday.) Anwyay...I prayed that God would bring her back my way, because it really bothered me that she was using her daughter in the way it seemed she was. I wanted to give her a talking to!! Well she came back yesterday asking for a ride to some hotel up the street a bit. She said she didn't have any place to stay that night and was going to be staying at this hotel. I immediately became skeptical and didn't feel it the safest thing to take all of my kids in the car with her to this "hotel". I told her I couldn't right then and that I was sorry. She said ok and went on her way. When I closed the door, I felt so bad for doing that to her. More so for her daughter, because it was cold and rainy and it was a good bit of a walk. I started praying and pacing and became aggravated that I turned her away. After all, I did pray for her to come back. I called Todd and talked to him briefly about it and thought that maybe I should leave my kids with my neighbor and try to go find her. He told me to do what I thought best. So I called my neighbor and mulled it over with her a bit, and took the kids to her house. I quickly got in my car, and started looking for them. I looked and looked, even did a couple of trips down the path I thought they may have taken and never found them. I was praying in the car, and I didn't know if I was doing the right thing or not. When it seemed as though I wasn't going to find them, I called Todd back. When he answered, I immediately began to sob. I'm not afraid to write this on here. I need to deal with this. I cried hard. I cried because I had prejudices, because I was afraid, because I didn't seize the opportunity I had prayed for, I cried for her daughter. I don't know anything about this woman really. I have to think that she may be doing the best she knows how to do. I didn't trust her though. I believe that the H.S. gives us direction in many situations and I just didn't trust her. I sure didn't want to put my kids in a potential situation that could have been bad. They are my primary concern always. Even still, she came back. I'm praying she'll come back again and that God will give me the boldness and confidence to talk to her, really talk to her. You who are reading this may not know me well, but this is for sure, I want to be used by God, I want to be an instrument of peace. I want it so bad, it hurts sometimes. There is so much more in my heart that it's hard to articulate. So I'll end this post here. If you want to, pray for me to follow God through the doors he opens and to not get in his way.

I'll update this story as it unfolds.

All I know is, God is good and has blessed me so stinkin abundantly and I want to pay it forward....without fear or condition.

Love my girls...

This morning, I wasn't feeling too good and Sydney must have been able to sense it. She climbed up on the couch with me and laid on me, for a long time. She never does this since she always has so many other things to do that are important. She was kissing me over and over and talking to me. It was the first time she really did this on her own. She was rubbing my face and my head. It was so sweet. I love that about my kids. All of them, at different times, have ministered to me without trying to and this is such a humbling thing to me. Especially because I can be so hard on them. I'm thankful today that even when I mess up, they love me. Being a mom is the hardest thing I've ever had to do so far in my life. I love it!!! I'm so blessed. Just wanted to share.

Magic Erasers Rock!!!!

Tonight, I got the crazy urge to pull out my newly bought Magic Erasers. If you have never tried one, oh baby, you need to, especially if you have little hands that attract dirt, jelly, peanut butter, chocolate milk, and well, you get the idea. Todd came into the kitchen and said, "it looks like you painted in here." I actually felt really good hearing him say that. It does look like a new kitchen. This means only one thing: my cabinets were filthy! And they're white, so I'd clean one and then see how absolutely disgusting the next one was, so I couldn't stop until the whole kitchen and some walls had received some long overdue attention.

Would that we could have a "magic eraser" for the moments in life that we'd like to forget about and erase. That would be so great, wouldn't it? Well actually, we do. "We" being those in Christ. He erases our mistakes and aren't we so thankful for that. Those stains that go deep into our lives, he took them away. Praise God! Isn't that something we should want every person we know or don't know to have that knowledge? I mean, I wanted everyone to go out and buy a magic eraser. Because they work. Really. And Jesus' blood, really works. He really did take away the sins of man. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us....Hallelujah!!!! And we don't have to do the "scrubbing", we just receive the blessing and absolute freedom from "dirt". God is amazing. And since we already know this about him, we must share that with those that don't.

I'm curious, how is God using you lately to share the "good news" with others?

Blessings...

This is a test...

I'm testing my skills using Flickr...so bear with me. I'm trying to figure out how to put more than one photo on using this service because for some reason, I am not able to post multiple pics just using Blogger. Now...I know that some of you out there are way more computer savvy than me so phooey on you! I'm still learning. And I think I'm getting it!

Sydney is the sugar in my coffee...she just brightens everything up. Even when she climbs on the table and gives us a heart attack. She is such a happy baby for the most part, especially when she is stealing the show from her brother and sister. She loves to spin and hop and dance. I love to see when my kids are happy. It makes me happy. Even when I've had a bad day. It really makes me happy. I'm reminded of the innocence of childhood and how God sees us....innocent, forgiven, redeemed....so we have reason to spin, dance, sing, hop, do cartwheels, and whatever your heart desires. And God must be so happy when he sees us living out that joy as well. So....laugh, by yourself, with your kids, with a friend....do something out of the ordinary...heck, twirl if you so desire. Just enjoy life, your family, your friends, your heavenly Father will be smiling!