AT CAMP

Just a quick note to let you know I'm at camp this week. Helping out at Quartz Mountain Christian Camp.

Have a great day and I'll be blogging again next week!

Forever Friends

For the past month I've been really excited!  My best friends from Kindergarten through 12th grade were planning to get together after almost 20 years!

One of the friends, Gwen, lives in Alaska, so she is not able to come to Oklahoma too often.  We all made plans to meet together some time during this week.  The other two friends and I live within 30-40 minutes from each other, but planning a time to actually get together was really hard.  We had to work around our families' schedules - and with 11 children between the four of us, that's pretty hard to do!

We actually thought it had been 24 years since we had all four been together, but when I found this picture, I realized it hadn't been quite that long. It had been 19 years, though....still way too long! This picture is in 1992.  We were asked (probably by my mom!) to sing at the Junior/Senior banquet that year. Three of us had siblings in those classes, so that's most likely why they thought of us.  We were part of a group that was called the "Teardrops".  We didn't lots of singing during our junior high and high school years!

After our Senior graduation we went to Orlando, Florida.  Walt Disney World was so much fun for us.  Eldorado (at that time) had about 800 people so it didn't take much to excite us! This picture is at our hotel lobby.

This is three of us at our graduation.  Gwen is missing.  She has a picture where someone else is missing.  It was sometimes difficult to get everyone for pictures, so we have several "3 people" pictures!

This is our Freshman Graduation.  Aren't we pretty???! :)

This is one of our many, many slumber parties.  Molly isn't in this picture, but I'm pretty sure she was there somewhere.  Most slumber parties were at her house, but this one was at another friend's house.  This is about the time "Jello Jigglers" were new and very popular.  Kind of an odd memory!

This is my 6th birthday.  I think Pam is to the right of me.  See her elbow??  I really wish that this picture had all of us.  We would have been in Kindergarten at this time.

I found this little note in a memory book tonight.  Such special friends!

It says:  "Molly, Pam, Gwen & I are all best friends.  We always have a great time together."

I'm pretty sure it was written in junior high.

Sitting here thinking about this post made be realize some neat things about our friendship:

All of us lived in the country for almost all of our growing-up years.  Gwen and I were less than a quarter of a mile from each other.

All of our dads were farmers for most all of our growing-up years.

All of our dads graduated from Eldorado - just like we did.  None of our moms did, but all of our moms were from Oklahoma.

All of our dad's parents lived in Eldorado for our growing up years and until they passed away.

Two of us went to church camp together for many years.  Two others went to Germany together for an exchange trip.

All three of them went to OSU after high school.  I stayed at home, went to a junior college and married the next summer.

We have so many fun memories and so many funny memories.  Getting together for those few hours was just like we had never been apart.  That's what it means to be "Forever Friends".  I'm thankful for my "Forever Friends".  Can't wait to get together again! I love you all!

I thank my God every time I remember you. Philippians 1:3

Brotherly Love

Some of the saddest stories in the Bible have to do with brothers.  Sibling rivalry reared its ugly head early on after the creation of man and woman.  Sin entered the world and hatred and jealousy quickly became rampant within the family.  Genesis 4 tells the story of two brothers, Cain and Abel.  Cain became jealous of Abel.  He became angry and because of that anger, he killed his brother, Abel.  Other stories throughout the scriptures tell the same kinds of stories.

I didn't grow up with boys.  I had just one sister - six years younger than me.  I thought it would have been wonderful to have a brother!  I often teased my sister that I wanted her to be a boy (even after she was older!)  So, for me, watching my boys from birth to now has been a totally new and fun experience!

I want my boys, and my one girl, to love each other.  I want them to care for each other and care about each other.  I want them to be friends now, but to also grow up and remain friends.  That's why pictures like these showing our children working together are so special to me.  It also helps to realize that there really are these special times, if it's a day when they seem like they are all aggravating each other!

As I sat and watched Tyler (9) and Zachary (almost 15) water the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago, I was so thankful I had grabbed my camera!  Tyler would let Zachary show him exactly how to water and then he would do it himself.  Zachary was being patient with Tyler....on that particular day, anyway!

When the Lord asked Cain where Abel was, Cain replied, "Am I my brother's keeper?"  The the Lord pointed out Cain's sin of killing his brother.

In a Christian family - both a physical family and a spiritual family - we are our brother's keeper.  We're our sister's keeper.  We watch out for one another.  We help one another.  We serve one another.  We love one another. 

Brotherly love between my boys makes me smile.  It makes my heart melt. It makes me happy.  The brotherly love we are to have with our brothers and sisters in Christ makes God smile. It's showing the love to others that Jesus showed by His example.  Brotherly love glorifies God.

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Romans 12:10-11 (NIV)

Let brotherly love continue.

Hebrews 13:1 (NKJV)

The Chronicles of Biscuit - "Y'all Talk Too Much"

The Chronicles of Biscuit:  True stories about our youngest son, Tyler, whose nickname is Biscuit.

Last evening my husband was preaching at a congregation about an hour away.  Biscuit decided to go with him.  My husband preached a sermon that he had actually preached here at Tipton last week, so Biscuit had heard it before, but apparently wasn't listening last week.

This morning Biscuit said, "Mom, Dad said last night that women speak 27,000 words a day and men speak 15,000.  I asked, "What do you think that means?"  He said, "That y'all need to be quiet??"  I said, "Okay....then I won't talk to you the rest of the day, okay???" 

Biscuit didn't like that!  He is the only one of our children home this week, so I guess he decided he needed someone to talk to, but he did go on to remind inform me that I am usually one of the last ones to leave the church building after services and that I had probably already spoken 300 words at that time of the day! 

I told my husband about my morning conversation with Biscuit.  He said that as soon as they got in the car last night after worship Biscuit asked him about it.  He told Biscuit that women spoke more words because they are just more verbal.  They just are made that way.  Biscuit asked him, "So what do we do?"  My husband said, "We just give the 'man nod' ",  and gave him a nod with his head.  :)  From then on they worked on the 'man head nod'.  At lunch today, they still worked on it.  Biscuit's got some work to do on the man "head nod"!

The statistic my husband quoted is right.  I've seen other numbers quoted, but it's always the same ratio:  men speak a lot less that women do.  I don't think that's a statistic we women could ever dispute.  We pretty much know that we talk more than men....although some of actually speak more than others.  I'd like to think I don't talk as much as I used to, but my family would beg to differ I'm sure.  (Hey, maybe writing this blog has helped me!  Maybe I really don't talk as much as I used to.  Now I type more words :) !! )

What is important about use women and our words is what words we actually say.  Do we use our words to help or hurt?  Do we use our words to uplift and encourage or to put down and discourage?  Do we use our words to pray to God about others, or do we use our words to speak gossip about others to others?  Do we use our words to glorify God and to praise His name, or do we use our words in a profane way and misuse and disrespect His name?

On this Gratituesday, I am grateful to God for giving us the ability to speak.  I am grateful that women do have the gift of gab, but I pray that our gift of gab is always used to the glory of God.  I pray that our words will be used in wise ways.

Now back to Biscuit......

I think by the end of the afternoon, Biscuit was really wishing I would keep quiet.  He was straightening up his room - the room he shares with his two brothers.  And, he was having to pick up quite a bit since they're at camp this week. I had to keep him on track from time to time!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
   be pleasing in your sight,
   LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Psalm 19:14

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Matthew 12:36

Packing for Camp

June and early July are filled with weeks of camps for our family.  This week our three oldest are at two different camps.  Many years ago, even the youngest and I spent a week helping at camp, so packing for five for a week in a camp setting was sometimes difficult.

Remembering to pack everything needed was difficult, but I tried to find tips for making it better.  My favorite tip of all was from Family Fun magazine.  There was a reader who suggested putting children's clothing in one gallon plastic storage bags (such as Ziplock).  This system has remained part of our camp packing every year for many, many years.

Now, I can't promise that it will ensure that your child will wear clean clothes every day, but it is more probable that he/she will when they are packed in this way! :)  I say this because one of my middle boys could and has recently worn the same clothes for a few days without bothering to change....much to our dismay!! (He was at his grandparents and they didn't realize he hadn't changed.  He forgot that he had taken more clothes. (And just how does that happen, I wonder????!!!!)

When my children were younger, I would have them tell me which days they wanted to wear each set of clothes.  I would write on the outside of the bag each day of the week they would be at camp and then put their picked clothing into that bag.  Now the oldest packs by herself (still in the bags) and the two middle boys I help.  As a special thing, I also hide a little note in each bag.  I even do this for the older ones when I have the opportunity.   

For each child, as they went to camp for the very first time, I would get an inexpensive pillow case and write on it with markers. The oldest two have kind of grown out of it, but Jacob still wanted his this year.  It would be fun to do a different one each year and have other campers sign it - as a memento from camp.

One more camp packing tip is a Japanese style of folding shirts.  Go to YouTube and search for the phrase Japanese shirt folding.  Watch one of the videos and you'll be amazed!!  I did this a few years, but then forgot and just didn't take the time to re-learn the technique.  It is really neat and efficient, though, and definitely keeps shirts from getting very wrinkled.

What ideas/tips do you have for camp or vacation packing?  Let me know!  I'll be packing all of us pretty soon!

Have a great week, everyone!