Well, it's been 20 days since my last entry! Wow - how that time thing does fly! (I used to hate it when my parents said that!) I posted pictures of our hot air balloon, but I thought I should put some info down about it. I kept hearing a strange intermittent noise one morning and when I went outside the front door to check it out, I caught a glimpse of the basket of a hot air balloon RIGHT over the top of our house!! I thought it was just passing over, so I yelled for the kids to come outside. I was trying to get them to hurry and yelling so excitedly that Steph started crying thinking there was some tragedy transpiring! When we finally got out the front door, there was the hot air balloon just landing across the street from us! All the neighbors had to come out to see, so it was a little block party (the first in the two years we've been here!) out there by the balloon. They were switching out passengers, so after a few minutes, they took off again and drifted up, up, up into the blue sky right over our heads. It was a gorgeous fall day - clear and 70 degrees. We hadn't had our first frost yet, so all the colors were in full splendor. If I ever go hot air ballooning, I will go in the fall. It must have been quite a spectacular trip! The balloon was the WWJD balloon around here. The chase car gave out cards with the picture of the ballon on the front and the gospel message on the back. They said WWJD meant "Walk With Jesus Daily." Another side of the balloon says WDJD for "What Did Jesus Do?" Referring to salvation, I presume. Anyway, it was a fun experience for us all.

 

I've had my nose buried in a book almost constantly recently (one of the benefits of nursing - plenty of sit-down time!). Reminds me of wendy's comments when we were little, "Kerrie, you're too stuck in a book to even READ!" She's always been funny about her sayings! Anyway, the two that have consumed my time are "Family driven Faith" and "The Most Important Place on Earth." Wow, are they ever great. Maybe it's just that they are exactly what I needed right now in my life, but I'd rate them as two of the best books I've ever read!! (Barring those inspired by the Holy Spirit!) So down to earth and back-to-basics. I am inspired with tons of ideas on how to build a Christian home around these precious kids. One of the authors instructed the reader to pick from the book as you would pick from a cafeteria style restaurant - you can't take it all - just take what looks good. My tray is heaped WAY too high - in fact, I think I took a little of EVERYTHING! And now I'm wondering how in the world I will ever be able to eat (do) it all! Just one thing at a time. They both really impressed upon me the value of each day. Time is truly flying, and I can't afford to waste one minute of it. The negative voices in my head are telling me I've wasted too much time already - that it's too late; but I really need to just be thankful that God brought this all to my attention NOW, before my children were even older! Speaking of being thankful, I'll let you in on what one author calls the "Family Vitamins" - things your family must say every day to stay healthy (or recover from serious illness!). 1) "I love you." 2) "I need your love" (it's healthy to ask for what you need " I need  a hug" "Can we talk?") 3)"I'm sorry. I was wrong. Will you forgive me?" 4) "May I help?" (That is my particular favorite! - I could listen to that one all day!) and 5) "Thank you." Take them daily and serve them liberally and you can't go wrong. There's lots more in those books - that's just a snippet. I recommend them to every Christian parent! I flew through both books so fast - now I am going back and journaling through the study guides. Now the kicker is to put it all into practice, not just leave it as notes in my journal. Please help me, Lord!

 

to be continued...

Ok, so two blog entries in one day - what will my fans say?! Just thought you might like to hear a Gage"ism". His "Aunt" Leah loaned the kids a Muppets music CD. They love it. As they were listening to it yesterday (and my overly protective, sheltering mother's mind was dissecting the lyrics and contemplating the morality and godliness of the messages of each song - the Miss Piggy and Kermit wedding song themed "I know he'll make me happy!" - my poor children!), Gage came to me and said, "Mom, I like Miss Piggy; she sings great!!" Or in Gage's case "gweat"! His unfeigned admiration and adoration were equally hilarious and sweet to me! Josh didn't seem amused when I told him, but it had me chuckling for hours. THis morning he informed me that if he were an animal, he would marry Miss Piggy! Perhaps we do need to limit this exposure!

Well, we finally have resolved our car issues. We received a check Monday from the insurance company for our smashed "burb", and we were able to go get our "new" suburban tonight.  God is so good. After the insurance company paid off our loan on the old rig, we were able to get the new suburban without going back into debt. It's actually four years newer than ours and has 5,000 less miles than ours did. It also has a load capacity of 9 instead of 8 (no, we aren't pregnant!). We wondered where God was taking us in all this. It really has turned out to be a blessing. No one was hurt (in our family - we aren't sure what the long term injuries on the other vehicle's occupants), and we were able to get out of debt, and our new rig is just as nice (if not nicer) than our old one. Oh, and we get better gas mileage now with a smaller engine and no four-wheel drive. How come God is so good to us? Thanks be to Him!!

The kids wanted to name our new rig. The old one was  "The Blue Sharkburban". One of the kids seemed to think it looked like a shark. It was also known as the Chamburban. We decided this one would be the C-burban. The C is for Chamberlain,  a twist on "su"burbuan, and Miles thought the color was blue like the sea, so that works too! Come see us and we'll take you for a drive!

Kerrie