Holy buckets...I think I have been avoiding my blog! I have some time on my hands today (I know scary) so I decided why not give a little life update.

So how did 7 end you ask? It ended let's just say that...the last few experiments were challenging and not as successful as the first few. However..I learned a lot about myself and I care a lot more about others and I learned a lot about wants vs needs...so in my book it was worth it! Thank you Jen Hatmaker...I read your blog often and I am in love with you!

So what have we been up to? it's summer time people! Our June was filled with baseball (when it wasn't raining) and other "stuff" that made us "busy". I was so excited because July was promising our calendar was open, it was going to be a good month...and then it rained the last week of June and we got flooded. I have to say we are very lucky..many people near us had much worse situations then we did..for us it was just annoying and it interfered with our FUN month. But we are working through the mess, back to work on our "projects" and in a couple of short days we leave for a much needed week of Family Camp at Village Creek Bible Camp...I am so ready to love on my man and my kids for 5 days and 5 nights! I am praying for God to work some magic for our family, help us to slow down, step back and enjoy each moment. I am also praying for connections..within our T6 Unit (Troyna 6 family) and connections with new friends.

What else...I am reading 2 books by Lysa Terkeurst "Unglued" (which I plan to finish while on vacay next week) and "Made to Crave" in a Bible Study version with a friend...I am pretty sure this women has a direct link to my brain and knows my every thought..I love how real she is and how much I can relate to both books. This has been good for me this summer...keeping me in the Word. She shared in the "Unglued" book to begin each day with God (something I need work on). She says "Do not check in with the craziness of this world until you've exchanged whispers with God"...so I have challenged myself to read through a chapter of the Bible each morning and pray before I begin my day...I started with Proverbs and am now going through Psalms..it's a just a couple minutes each morning, but is sure makes a difference in my day...this is something easy and quick that anyone can do.

We also created a family "bucket list" for the summer. The kids have had fun making stepping stones, visiting the Grundy Pool, fires with friends and a few other fun things on our list...we have several things to do yet, but we still have a good month of summer before school starts...we'll get there!

So that's about it....not very exciting..but enough to keep us on the move. I will TRY to be more regular about my blogging. I will leave today with a quote that has been on my mind this week..my husband shared it with me from his Sunday School class it goes "If you need something done, find someone who is busy" How true is that...most days I am stressed out because I am so busy...but I am also learning through each day that God created me for this very reason because I thrive on being busy..I love the adventure of a new task or opportunity. This is not an invitation for you to call me and ask me to get something done for you...more a way for me to help all you friends out there understand the crazy person that I am...Thank you God for yet again showing me something about myself that I kind of knew all along but needed to hear it from you! Have a great weekend everyone...can't wait to share about all the fun we have at Family Camp!

Media fast is over....hmmm! Here is what I didn't like about the media fast.....its stupid really...but I just plain missed my mindless tv time and social media stalking....could I do it again and live without those 2 things if necessary..ABSOLUTELY! Here is what I LOVED about the fast...our kids did not complain once, they just found other things to do. Lots of coloring, reading, imaginative play, lego building and laughing took place....it was beautiful. I managed to stay on top of things around the house, keep up (actually work ahead) on my Bible study lessons, read a book and just enjoy the peace. We have had the media back for about 2 days now and honestly we've hardly turned the tv on except for later evening when we are ready to relax. I think this was good for us, I think we realized that we don't need or want all of the distractions. Will we eliminate them all completely...ever.....not likely...but I do think we will use all of them less for sure! So media fast all in all was a success.
Moving on...WASTE....from now until April 13th (and hopefully beyond) we are finding 7 ways to reduce/reuse/recycle and eliminate some waste. Here is my 7.....
1. Save water....my plan: use recycled milk cartons to place "extra" water (by extra I mean what we don't drink from a glass, pasta water drained, leftover coffee...etc.) and use this saved water to feed my garden and plants later this spring and summer.
2. Utilize natural light...my play: shut off lights when room not in use, open curtains,etc.
3. Less driving....my plan: try to combine trips, use 1 vehicle as much as possible, walk more!
4. Reusable grocery bags...enough said.
5. Reuse containers....my plan: stop buying ziplock baggies and reuse butter tubs, tupperware, etc.
6. Recycle Bins...my plan: we already initiated this but we haven't always been the best recyclers so we now have bins for paper, plastic, cardboard and aluminum and we will be recycling much more!
7. Compost...my plan: make a homemade compost bin out of a plastic tub....all excess food goes there with dirt/water for my garden.
 I am kind of ashamed that I haven't already been doing a lot of these things....I have been treating our planet poorly and wasting money in so many ways....this one is going to be fun...I can't wait to see the fruits of this experiment!

We are finishing up our 2 weeks of giving away 7 possession each day for our "7" project. Up next is Media. Starting Sunday, March 17th through Saturday, March 30th our family is going on a TOTAL MEDIA FAST. We will be unplugging the TV, computer, radio/ipod, DS, Kindle etc, etc....we are going to embark on a journey of discovering what it's like to actually spend time together!! So there will be no posts after this one until March 31st....I can't wait to share with you this experience and also about our Fast/Pray day on March 29th...so many things going on right now! God is really working in our lives.

In addition to the Media fast our family is kind of taking a BAD CHOICES fast....we are going to (as a family) try to eliminate eating foods that are bad for our bodies. The kids have been challenged to become more active and to lose some weight...if they do so by Christmas they each get a Kindle Fire....boy are they motivated....for now! But this will need prayer...this will be a lifestyle change for our ENTIRE family. I hope that we do lose weight, but more than that I hope that we become less dependent on electronic entertainment and more active, more interested in positive, good of the mind and body activities.

So pray for us, the next two weeks will be a good hard jump start and it will take an act of God for us to be successful in these endeavors...but as Phil 4:13 says "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength". We will put our focus on God and our faith in Him an

Just have to share a few proud mama moments I've had over the last couple of weeks.... A few Thursday nights ago (yes I know I am very delayed at posting pictures)...Carly had her first band concert...see picture below...she plays the flute. I am so proud of her for how well she and the rest of the 5th graders and all of the other grades for that matter performed...it was a very nice evening and we are looking forward to many more!!

Next...Carly entered a car into the AWANA Grand Prix at our church...she won 3rd place in the design category..it was an adorable Hershey bar car...she worked hard on it....so proud again!

And then this past weekend Carson's indoor soccer team took home first place at a tournament in Hudson. They played undefeated in their first U-8 indoor soccer season...way to go boys!

We just finished 2 weeks of the clothes expirement with 7. From February 17th to March 2nd I wore 7...okay 8 articles of clothing (not including undergarments). My choices included 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of black lounge pants, a brown sweater, another brown sweater with a purple undershirt (the 8th item), a grey A-P shirt, 1 pair of tennis shoes and 1 pair of brown dress shoes, no jewelry, nothing else. The positives of this expirement definietly out weighed the negatives. My daily dressing time was so easy (already the first day after the experiment ended I spent 20 minutes changing outfits before church....seriously!!), my laundry was minimal, I found that I enjoy wearing tennis shoes, I was much less concerned with my appearance (this might be a negative too), I became very thankful for the abundance of clothes in my closet, I became more mindful of future purchase of clothing and determining if they are a want or a need. The negatives...well basically they were just sinful...I do care what I look like each day so this was a bit of a struggle for me and the inconvenience of having to wash these few clothes more regularly was kind of annoying. But overall I do feel like I learned something. God taught me that I have plenty, more than I need and I am thankful for that. I had a moment when it snowed and I couldn't wear snowboots and another moment when I was just chilled, I couldn't add more clothes, but I could add a blanket and I wondered how would I feel if I were homeless and the clothes on my back were all I had?? I learned that I really do have a desire to help others get things like clothes and shoes and blankets that are so abudant to me and this is something I can actually do....just in time for the next experiment POSSESSIONS!
On Sunday we began our 2 weeks of Possessions. From March 3 to March 16th we are to give away 7 things each day. Not go out and buy 7 things to give away...go through our personal belongings and find 7 things to give to someone in need. Here is where I am with this....On Sunday I started with plastic bags and food. Conveniently for me our church is currently doing a plastic bag drive for a hunger awareness group at Wartburg College and we always collect food for the local food pantry on the first Sunday of each month. So I started my expirement giving well over 7 plastic grocery bags and I rummaged through the pantry to find 7 useful things to donate to the food pantry. The rest of this time I have combined into one large donation opportunity. I calculated out that to give 7 things away per day I would need to give away 98 things total. So I cleaned out closets (mine and the kids) and came up with a large tote filled with 86 articles of clothing. In another large tote I gathered 5 sheet sets, 3 full bedding sets, 1 comforter and 7 blankets, and from our coat closet I gathered 6 spring jackets that are 2nd's for my kids or too small. So this comes to a grand total of 108 items (I counted the sheet and bedding sets as 1 each). First of all I am pretty sickened with myself because all of this is EXTRA stuff we have...none of it will really be missed...how sad and sinful! But what brings me peace is to know that next Monday i will be dropping all of this off at the Clothes Closet, a local mission in the basement of the Parkersburg Library that provides free clothes and necessities to local families in need. For the next 7 days until I deliver these items I will be praying over them and asking God to use them to help someone. I will be praying for the families that get these items that they will bring them joy even if their current situation is not ideal. I will also pray for other opportunities...I may have already met my "expirement goal"...but that does not mean that I am not open to God using something I have to help someone yet...not just for the next 2 weeks, but for the rest of my life I want everything I have to used by Him, I want to treat everything I own as what it really is...just gifts from God that I can pass on here on earth...because not one of these things will be going to heaven with me!
Please pray for me and my girlfriends as we journey through this part of the expirement, please continue to pray for us that we can be used by God to reach others in anyway possible!

Why is it that after a big event you find yourself just exhausted? This weekend we hosted The Art of Marriage at our church. It was an amazing weekend. The weather cooperated! We had 25 couples attend. Many marriages were enlightened. At least one person was saved. And I cried...in Cory's book that is a success alone! It was wonderful, God was present no doubt. But now 2 days after I am still exhausted. I haven't yet been able to wrap my mind around everything I learned and took in over the weekend, not sure what the next steps are for our marriage, if any...I guess we just keep on keepin on.
My prayer today is that God will refresh my spirit. Guide me to know what is next. I am still working on the 7 project, still wearing just 7 articles of clothing and learning each day the challenges and spiritual rewards associated with that endeavor. So other than continuing 7 and keeping up with the kids and life, what is next? What does God have in store for us, where is he leading us? This is my prayer today, that God will reveal to me what he has for me next and that I will be open to hear his call!

In three short days, Cory and I will have the privaledge of hosting an event called "The Art of Marriage". We attended this event a couple of years ago ourselves and it is has been a passion of ours to bring it to our home church, First Congregational Church in Parkersburg. Well the time is finally here, this Friday and Saturday we will host the 6-sesssion video event. We have 26 couples registered to attend, 15 children to be cared for by our 12 childcare workers, food, praise and worship, and amazing experiences planned....it is truly going to be an amazing weekend for everyone there.  We have been praying for this for a long time now and I keep getting asked what specifically can be prayed for in regards to this event. I keep telling people to just pray for a good weekend and that couples will be blessed, but today I feel like I know what we really need to pray for. We need to pray that the master of lies is defeated! We need to pray that marriages are uplifted, encouraged, healed, mended and that divorce is eliminated. I don't know that anyone attending the event is actually having a marriage related issue and that's ok, my hope is that there aren't any. But if there is someone coming that might be struggling, I want them to know that I am praying specifically that whatever hold satan has on their marraige will be severed. I pray that they will be bound to Christ and that he will strengthen them and get them through whatever it is they suffer from. I also pray for those that might have thriving marriages, but struggle with the small things each day. We all too often get hung up on the small things and wouldn't it be wonderful if we could learn some amazing tips on how to overcome the least of our issues. I pray that couples will know they are not alone no matter what season they are going through in their marriage. Hope, healing, and happiness are always possible, it just takes effort and by being there this weekend they are putting in the effort. And finally, I pray that the forecasters are wrong and the snowstorm will just move on away from us. I don't want a little snow to be a hinder to what God has in store!

Well I wish I could say that I made it through the first 2 weeks of 7 without a flaw, but I am  a sinner, I am full of flaws and I didn't quite make it through the entire 14 days without cheating once (or twice). But I did learn a few lessons. First, I learned that I am able to sacrifice if I put my mind and heart to it. Second, I learned that I actually like eating healthier, it's a definite challenge, but does have it's rewards. I dropped 5 lbs, I feel better and I GAVE UP COFFEE...I am on day two of the next focus group and I haven't desired for coffee yet. I hope that I have outgrown that crutch...please continue to pray for strength in this area. Finally, I learned that I am not all that inspired by food. I do hurt for the children everywhere that go hungry everyday. I wish I could do more to help them. I feel kind of helpless really. I don't have the resources I wish I did to give in the ways they need. What I do have is a more thankful heart for the fact that my own children don't have to go hungry. While I may not be able to provide for other children around the world, God has blessed us enough to take care of our own family right here. So am I broken in this area, maybe not...but I am certainly blessed and thankful.
As I said, we started the Clothes mission on Sunday. We will, for the next 14 days, wear just 7 articles of clothing, including shoes, but not including undergarments and socks. I'll be honest it was a difficult process for me to pick just 7 things. I definitely have sin in this area. I'm and just 2 days in and I've already realized how much effort and focus I put into what I wear each day, I am almos t ashamed. My closet may get significantly reduced after these 2 weeks. I may be disgusted in myself but I have a feeling that God is going to start my breaking process with this challenge....keep praying!!
Thank goodness for Christian music! I have been listening to Matthew West lately, there is a song on his new CD called "Do Something"....this is my new theme song. I have decided that whenever I get sidetracked with my sin on this journey, I will first pray and second...pull out the Matthew West CD...I hope it inspires you as much as it has inspired me!

The other day I wrote about how things had been kind of peaceful around here lately. Cory is working a lot, kids activities are winding down and we are just going about our day to day activities with not much excitement just waiting for spring. I can't help but chuckle right now at how one day we can be just blah and the next BAM! Let me explain....The first half of our week was very peaceful, normal, boring....then Valentine's Day hit...it must be a thing about holidays, they induce stress and crabiness. Anyway, our Valentine's day started out much like normal, Cory (my AMAZING husband) left me a note beside my bed and a deck of cards that had 52 reasons why he loves me on them....no flowers or anything else necessary, he knew exactly what would make me love him and that was it....if I haven't said it before I LOVE THIS MAN!! We proceeded through our day, gathered for our annual family Valentine Spaghetti dinner complete with chocolate milk served in wine glasses, our best dishes, a yummy supper and dessert (which is a special treat at our house since usually making supper is difficult enough for me, not to mention dessert). Then later in the evening Cory and I were talking about our days and the spiral began...downward...our conversation turned into an argument and before we knew it he was in bed angry and I was on the couch angry....Happy Freaking Valentines Day right! Well the spiral continued because of course I was grumpy the next morning (yesterday) so I got into a tiff with child #4 who to her defense has not been feeling well all week, but I was not in a feeling sorry for her mood so I flew off the handle about something rediculous (unfortuantely I have this problem)...so my Friday was not off to a good start and I don't know about you, but for me I tend to let one bad moment ruin most of my day..I have a hard time refocusing.

So the spiral continued...my sister called with some disturbing news and a misunderstanding turns into a knock down drag out fight among a couple of girlfriends...I am still trying to figure out at what time I stepped into the tme machine and redeposited myself back in 2nd grade....so the sprial continued, UNTIL JESUS STEPPED IN. At one point during my day yesterday I had an idea that maybe if I prayed about this rotten day, just maybe Jesus would do something and it would get better. So I took a few minutes while folding bulletins at church and I poured my heart and my rotten day out to God. And just as I had expected things started to change after that....I started to change. Suddenly I realized that I was the problem with almost all of the issues I was facing during the last 12 hours...I need to step down from my crabby throne of selfishness and repent. Amazingly after a while my day did get better, things simmered with Cory and I, apologies were given and we returned to our much happier, loving state of mind. I remembered that my little girl was sick and so I offered my affection and snuggles to her, and the girlfriend situation...well lets just say it changed...not immediately.....some things are still getting worked out today, but it will get there, because in the end we are all Christians and we all know what is right and we will get there, we always do.

What I learned in the last 24 hours is that once again...I am the reason for most of the conflict in my life. Just when I think I have it all under control and nothing could go wrong (you know I get up on my high horse), Jesus steps in and says "wait just a minute young lady" and throws me a curve ball or in this case a tunnel to hurl myself spiraling down! He reminds me that HE is King of my life NOT me and everything I say or do needs to be run through Him first, not through selfish me! He reminds me in Philippans 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves."  and in Matthew 6:33 "Seek ye first HIS kingdom and HIS righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Father, forgive me for persuing my selfish ambitions for being stuck on ME, for judging others, unrighteously. Forgive me for not seeking you FIRST. Father I ask that you step into my life and continue to remind me when I am getting ahead of myself or in my own way. Father help me to seek YOU first and YOUR righteousness and to value all others (especially my husband, children and close friends) above myself. I am yours Lord, thank you for reminding me that once again, it's not all about me! AMEN

I am thankful right now that we, by we I mean the kids and I,  are in a season of quietness and rest with nothing very dramatic going on, while it makes for long winter days and evenings, it does help prepare us for what is to come (hopefully very soon), SPRING! However, this time of year is absolutely insane for my poor husband....he works 50 hours a week at his "day job" and then works another 20 or so at his "other job", plus bless his heart he helps keep up on laundry and dishes and even gives me a night off every Monday so I can go to Ladies' Bible Study and Volleyball. I might be the organized one with the calendars and the schedules, I might run after the kids a lot, I might be home with them more, but he is the one who keeps the wheels on this thing. Without my husbands amazing leadership over our family we would be a sad mess. While he is away this evening working so that we can have more than we deserve, I GET to be home with our 4 remarkable children. I GET to help them with their homework , I GET to read them stories and tuck them in to bed. I GET to do all that. As much as I wish he was here with me to help me, I am thankful that I am able to serve him in this way. To keep our home a place of peace and joy that he can come home to after a long day of working 2 jobs. There are many single mothers out there and many wives that have "absent" husbands. My prayer for you tonight is to know that all of the things you do for their families are not for nothing. God is watchiing over you and smiling on you for serving your family. I know it is easy to complain and be angry or depressed by the situation you are in....trust me I a KNOW....I all too often forget what a blessing my man is. And although it might take effort to put a smile on your face or set aside something that is a priority to you, your family will notice, they need you to be there for them and support them.
I am thankful that I have a husband who loves me and our children so much that he is willing to work 2 jobs to support us. I am thankful for his widsom, his patience, his leadership, his loving words, his broad shoulders (so he can be my pack mule of course), his sense of humor, and mostly his incredible ability to forgive and love unconditionally. I am thankful that on June 2, 2001 I was joined forever with the one man God created just for me!