Are You A Peacemaker?

Matt. 5:9

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

So this coming year I have decided that each month I would give my family a challenge to grow a little closer to the Lord. This month is going to be becoming a peacemaker.

I have struggled this last year on how to get everyone to control their tone of voices and yelling. It has become habit to slip into - even when we do not mean to. We love each other - we have fun together - and no one ever acts like that outside the home EVER! SO why do we do it? There is no need. So I gave them the challenge on Sunday. Monday afternoon it was a little rough for a bit - but since then it has been great! I put signs up around the house - big one in the kitchen - small one in the corner of the TV - front door - back door - mirrors in bathrooms. All say either - I am a peacemaker, or Am I being a peacemaker? I realize it is only been a few days - but all I have to say now when someone is about to have a meltdown is "Are you being a peacemaker?" or "Who is being a peacemaker, you?"

I will update once in awhile how this is still going. But for now it is great! I cannot express my excitement I feel so far in words here on this blog.

I have to figure out what each month is going to be here on out. But peacemaker is not going away - just added to each month. It will fun and interesting to see what we have done over the year and how our family is then.

Christmas was lovely! Each child received one thing they wanted and then we had family gifts - board games - matching hats for all the guys and matching bracelets for us girls. The best gift we received outside of our family - was from my sister and brother-in-law. They gave us a Wii Fit. I LOVE IT! I am obsessed with the boxing. I love to box. I know some would be shocked by this - but I do! My arms are killing me - but that is good.

My favorite thing about Christmas is Christmas Eve. We always have stories, and lots of lots of music. Children and adults participate. This year we had saxophone, piano, and cello along with a lot of singing. i hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas too.

The Blessing of Children

So I do some joking about my kids - even venting when necessary =) on here - but my kids are everything to me! I own a business and it has been 5 yrs of growing it. It totally could be a HUGE company by now if I was willing to give more time and travel to it. But my kids come first. I figure the Lord directed me to start the company - if I keep my priorities straight He will bless the company to grow the way it needs to, when it needs to. I mention all this because of what our neighbors have gone through this last week.

I need to put good thoughts out there for this neighbor and her family. They are a young couple with a 2 year old daughter - Taylee. They just found out last week she has a cancerous tumor on a kidney. Their family is in Seattle - so this little family immediately flew up there to a Children's Hospital. The last we heard Taylee was going to have her kidney removed and would start chemo there until after the first of the year and then come back here to finish it up. 2 years old! Surgery - removal of a kidney - chemo. They said it is totally curable with these steps - but what HUGE steps for a 2 year old. As a mother my heart aches - for all involved.

It also makes me want to draw my children close and hug them a little tighter. It makes me appreciate that all the health issues we have faced this year in our family have been doable.

The way things unfolded with Taylee and her parents and her diagnosis (which I will not get into detail here) - are a definite testimony that the Lord knows each of us. That He truly lays groundwork for us to be angels in each other's lives. That proves that there are no coincides. That even though we have our free agency - if we are willing to open our hearts to the Lord He will use us on a daily basis to bless others.

So let us all get on our kness - thank the Lord for the blessings we have - and ask that our hearts may be opened to Him so we may be a tool for Him to use today for good.

Merry Christmas - and may God Bless each of us with a peace in our hearts that allows us to love our neighbor truly as ourselves!

SNOW!

We have SNOW! I love it when it snows. For a girl that grew up in Vegas - I feel like a little kid every time it snows. I love having EVERY season here in Idaho.

There is something so peaceful and feels like home when I wake up to a fresh snow fall in the morning. The peace of no traffic, or footprints in the snow. I think that stillness must be a little like heaven. That my spirit must remember a little and that is why I long to just sit and enjoy that feeling as long as possible.

It feels like a Christmas time Finally!

Merry Christmas!

Parenting

As a parent I have found myself in an area I never thought I would have to face....the 14 1/2 yr old daughter zone!!!! (Be afraid - Be very Afraid!) And realize you WILL get more grey hair - in the last three weeks I have had 10 hairs pop up. I have named them after my daughter. I say I never thought I would be here - because my teenage daughter has always been one I can talk to - we have our disagreements - but we always seem to work through things. She is also good about trying to see where her Dad and I are coming from. Not any more. She is still a great girl - but she will argue her point to the day she dies if I let her. And when we do see her side it is never enough for her.

Example - we have a rule that there is no night time school dances until she is 16 and can go on dates. After school dances are fine. We also have a rule that she can go out with friends or do an activity like a dance, once a week. After all she is 14 years old. When she is 15 or 16 that will probably change. Each year she gets a few more privileges. So she was allowed to go see a play with a friend this Thursday. It was a school night and she was not going to be home until after 10:30pm, but her friend did not have anyone to go with and she had not been able to do anything with this friend for quite some time. So we felt as long as she did not complain the next morning about being tired we would let her go. She then tells us the next day she would like to go to the Winter dance next Friday night. We tell her she knows our rule about night time dances. She then pleads her cause - which we always allow. She explains it is the only night time dance - there is only access to the gym and bathroom and there are always lots of teachers. Also that this is the only 9th grader only dance of the year. It is the one dance all the 9th graders look forward too. They get to wear nice clothes - but not formals.

We hear her out and decide we would allow this one exception. But instead of being grateful - she then also says she wants to go to the movies tonight (well this all was last night) with her friends. We remind her that she already went to the play this week and she is going to the dance next week. If she would like to give up her dance next week - we will allow her an extra activity for this week. She says she does not understand why we won't let her do extra chores or something to earn the movie night. We try to explain to her that we already went and agreed to the exception to the rule on the dance - and it is about choices - life is full of them. IF she would like to give up the dance she can go to the movies. It is her choice. After a very long argument from her I finally says "What are going to choose?" She states that if she HAD to choose she would choose the dance - then starts her argument again. I cut her ff by saying, "Wonderful. You have made a choice - the dance it is. Thank you for talking with me and explaining your point of view. But we have gone over EVERY point we need to from both our sides and we have come to a conclusion. Love ya." And I get up to leave. Because I know if I stay there she will argue her point another 1 1/2 hrs.

My point is as a parent I am thankful we still talk - argue - whatever. But it drives me crazy that she is not thankful for what we try to let her do. That we truly try and see why things are important to her and be flexible when needed. I also know from working with youth that girls go through this stage. Mouthy - defiant - argumentative - and moody. It hits just before 14 1/2 and stays usually until just after 15 1/2. Then just before they turn 16 they return to their usual helpful and understanding child. I just hope I can survive this coming year. And that I don't get any more grey hair! ;)

With all this said - I have to say I AM blessed to have a daughter that is a good girl - and we are not facing more SERIOUS problems that many parents of teenagers face.