The Inside Out

There is always an adventure in everything…and sometimes you have to search for it a little! Today Columbia, SC was hit with some serious snow. For those of you that don’t know, if the weather man says that there is a 10% chance of a dusting in South Carolina the entire state shuts down…so when they said 5-6 inches, we all almost died! Well, except the Mooney family. We packed up as much as we could fit in the car and drove north! Yes, north! We knew the snow was actually coming from the south and we knew if we didn’t get out before it all hit we wouldn’t make it to…

Monster Jam.

Yes, I did say that out loud.

Once a year we go to the red-neck event that is known as Monster Jam. And we love it. My son and I wear our Grave Digger shirts, our protective ear muffs and we scream at the top of our lungs with all the fans! We love it…I mean L.O.V.E. it! But this year we decided to drive to Charlotte to see the festivities because the trucks coming to Columbia weren’t our favorites. So here we are in a hotel in Charlotte because we had to come up early. And run from the snow.

But what an adventure!

We packed in like 2.5 seconds (and haven’t noticed of we forgot anything yet!), drove in TONS of snow and have had a total blast so far! And yes you can totally have a romantic dinner with your precious children at the table with you. I watched my children stare out the window at the beautiful snow and enjoy the “romantic,” acoustic guitar ambiance with us tonight and I was so impressed. They were perfectly well behaved, enjoyed every minute and were the most amazing children in the world. A Valentine’s dinner can be wonderful if you’re with your favorite people in the world. It was perfect!

I’m so glad we took on this adventure…and the real fun will be tomorrow!

We are on Week 7 of Beth Moore’s Daniel study this week and had a wonderful time last night at my ladies’ Bible study! I can never get enough of this group of women God has assembled. We are so diverse and yet so connected! Only God could have made this group what it is! And I don’t know what I’d do without it!

Last night Beth made a joke about how parents can catch their children do things and the kids always look so shocked! Like when they really think they are going to get away with something and we notice that little look on their faces, or hear a sound we know wasn’t supposed to be heard. Sometimes they really think we have eyes in the back of our heads! Then the parent will look at the kids and say “Well, I wasn’t born last night, you know!” My dad used to say, “I was born at night, but not last night!” And then Beth made the point…God knows what we’ve done and He says “I wasn’t even born!” That’s such a huge point for us to realize…HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN. He has always KNOWN. And He isn’t going to miss anything. He doesn’t need a little look from us to know we’re about to make a mess of things. He doesn’t have to hear a little noise in the other room to know we’re about to make a bad decision! HE ALREADY KNOWS! It’s such a comfort to know He knows and it’s all a part of His plan for us. He is going to use it to better us. The other day as I was reading twitters (in a hurried moment!) and one caught my eye. It said something about how if God can’t even control His own children then how are we going to control ours? (Sorry I don’t know who tweeted that but like I said I was in a hurry…plus I’m about to say what an awful thing it was to say so maybe I’m glad I don’t know who said it!). GOD IS ALWAYS IN CONTROL. I am sure that He has all this in His master plan and I pray each and every day He has complete control over me! God can not only control His children but He can control the rest of them who don’t even know they are His children. That being said, if we can’t control our children then I’m not sure we’re doing this parenting thing like He has taught us. We’ve got to teach our children how to behave just like God is teaching us to (if you don’t think He’s teaching you in every situation you’re not really growing right?). Yes, we were actually born and we don’t know everything like He does but I think we can use what He’s taught us by being the ultimate perfect parent to us and apply it to our lives and our children’s lives. If I could do that, I think I could raise amazingly awesome kids (they are already awesome but I’m never going to stop trying to improve what I can for their sakes). Studying God’s example as a parent is going to be my goal so that I can be as close as possible to that for my kids. Don’t worry, I’m VERY aware I’m not God…but I am also aware that I can use mistakes just like God, I can teach through trials just like God, and I can be he warm, caring, safe place for my kids to come whenever they need me…just like God.

Today we have had an absolute blast with a VERY great idea for kids…or any family’s looking to be more thankful for this Thanksgiving season. For the full instructions go here: http://www.incourage.me/2009/11/give-thanks-a-family-project.html Each little pocket holds a page to write what each of us was thankful for each day that we count down till thanksgiving. My kids are so excited! I told them that they could pick one thing to be thankful for each day and we should try to not pick the same thing. Then, just like two adults they discussed who would get to pick Jesus today and who get to pick God (Noah did say he would have picked me, but God should come first.).

This is the finished project! The kids did so much of the work on this which makes it such a great project! They painted the board, decorated the whole thing with leaves and glued everything down! All I did was make the cards to fit in each pouch and cut out the letters on my wishblade! And all of it was under $16! All the fall stuff is on sale for almost 75% off at Michaels if you live in the Columbia area. I got the extra thick cardboard for $6 and that was the most expensive part. The little card holders are actually tiny gift bags that come 16 to a pack (so if you wanted just one color it would have been cheaper!). Seriously cheap fun and my kids are already beginning to think about what they are really thankful for…what could be better?