Recap from Sunday...

Our sermon this morning at the Village was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. Matt spoke on the difference between religion and the gospel. I have heard this before, maybe even from him, but it never fails to impact me. His scripture reference was Luke 11:37-12:11, when Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees, and they basically accused Jesus of being unrighteous because He didn't ceremonially clean Himself before eating. Jesus told them that they made a big deal about being clean on the outside but inside they were still dirty and pretending that they weren't. Isn't that just what we do? We want people to think that we are good and moral people because of how we act, but inside we are broken and we don't ever want anyone to know it- they might think less of us- and it's "all about us" isn't it?
Matt broke it down pretty clear when he talked about relativism and religion. Our our country used to promote universal lessons to moral dilemas that were true for everyone (like drinking under age is not ok) but now relativism rules the day and people can make choices for themselves and no one can make these decisions for them. Or people use their religion to make decisions for them. Religion says "I obey my god's rules and therefore he accepts me." Christianity, on the other hand, says "I am accepted by God because of Christ and therefore I obey my God out of thankfulness." Religion motivates out of fear and insecurity- if I dont obey god, he will be angry with me. The gospel motivates me because I want to know more of God.
A religious person inherently thinks of themselves as a good person, where their sense of value comes from how moral they are or how hard they work at being good. "I must be successful, otherwise people wont believe in my religion- my failures show my religion to be false- I must keep up appearances." A person whose life centers around the gospel knows that they are inherently a sinner, who can't "be good" on their own- they need Christ and His power. Knowing yourself to be a sinner results in not finding your value in your morality- my value isn't in me, but Jesus. "I'm broken but God loves me anyway, and my failures are because of my sinful nature, and not because my faith is flawed." Christians believe that everything we have- our faith, our salvation and our hope comes from God- I may fail, but God will not. There is such freedom in that . Romans 8:1 says "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus..." Ever since I heard that verse several years ago, it has resonated with me. I keep praying that I would truly, deep in my soul, believe it- because if I did, it would transform me. My religious past, my obsession with ME and what others think of me would fall away. I would understand that religion and sin destroy what I really want- a deep relationship with Christ and to share Him with everyone I meet.

A "minor" meeting...

Last week, I asked Jacob's new vice-principal Mrs. Brown, if I could come take pictures of the school and make a little 'This is my school' album to help orient Jake to Kindergarten. She agreed and we chatted a little about him while we toured the school. All the teachers that were there let me take a photo and get a look at the rooms. She said she would like to meet again before school so we could meet some of the other staff and do a 'mini-ARD'. ARD's are school meetings for kids with special needs where staff and parents discuss goals, plans, etc. So, Thursday morning our entire family traipsed down to Hawk Elementary and were met in the conference room by: the Vice Principal, Diagnostician, Speech Therapist, Inclusion teacher, Inclusion paraprofessional, Psychologist, and his new Kindergarten teacher. This was a little overwhelming. We discovered that Jacob has not undergone a true Autism Evaluation (we suspected but weren't sure) but will by the first 6 weeks, and that he will be getting some pretty amazing services. I felt like we overwhelmed his Kinder teacher, but everyone else seem very excited about working with Jacob. I wouldnt call myself an anxious person, but I couldn't sleep very well last week and I think I have been dealing with the entire situation by ignoring/not thinking much about it. I've been praying about it all, but this is really a 'I dont have one iota of control' type situation and I'm not sure how these all go down. All I do know is that all of the staff we met were so professional and kind to us and to Jacob. You can't ask for much more than that.

Potty Training

Well... we started potty training Luke this week. Day 1 was pretty uneventful- a few minor accidents. Day 2 I decided to force drink Luke, giving him lots and lots of juice to ensure he got the hang of it. Mistake #1. He is a camel and can hold his pee for inordinately long periods of time. So, me taking him to the bathroom every 30 minutes was very frustrating for us both. Then he would have an accident after about 4 hours of no peeing. Tuesday morning at our house looked like "Hades- the Musical," with me starring as Satan and Luke as a little imp. After a long crying jag by Luke, yelling by me and a long nap. We all awoke in a better frame of reference. Since then, it could not have been easier. I removed myself and my ideas about how hard this should be and "How to potty train a boy" rules and just listened to my son. He tells me when he needs to go and is happy to do it. Yet again, experience does not equal wisdom on my part. The Bible says that man's ways are not God's ways and my wisdom is not God's wisdom. Another life lesson from the Lord via my 3 year old son and a potty.

Bootcamp results are in!

Well, the results are in. Today was the last day of bootcamp for me. 5 weeks of torture and foot pain has resulted in some very interesting numbers. I didn't lose a single pound (insert 4 day Sea World trip one week before weigh-in here) but I am still a loser.
I lost 3% body fat. I was able to do 27 pushups on the wall in a minute when I started, and 37 on my knees when I finished. And the greatest part was I lost 10.75 inches off by body! That tells me two important things. One, I may not have lost any weight but I now have a lot more muscle taking up space where the fat used to be. Two, that I had next to no muscle before I started. My poor body couldnt lose any weight, because I needed to make some muscle.
How was I even walking around before? So... anyone want to do it with me? It starts again on the 18th...

Birthday Boy turns 3!

Luke turned 3 this past Sunday and I had to share some cute photos and stories about this adorable boy. He and Jacob were in our hotel room and Luke decided to share one of his new birthday toys with his older sibling. I told Jacob, 'Your brother just shared something special with you- tell him he's awesome and thank him.' Jacob responds and adds the awesome part for good measure. What was Luke's reply? 'Yes, I am awesome.' Such a humble boy we have on our hands.

Check out those ultra big shades he's sporting at the poolside table. Tre' chic no? And what about the future James Bond? Green castle hats are all the range in San Antonio right now!

Putting the 'fun' in dysfunctional... or Our trip to SeaWorld

There is nothing like getting away from it all, to put things into perspective. On our SeaWorld trip, our hotel had movies outside at night, up on the wall. Like a drive in, only with mosquitos and smores. Anyway, the showed the classic Bruce Willis homage "Over the Hedge," in which he plays a deceitful raccoon. The other main character Hammie is a turtle. At the end of the movie, they are discussing how they are all a family and sharing how families operate; what they do and dont do well. Hammie tells RJ that he would have helped him in his quest to repay a killer bear if he had only asked him beforehand. To which RJ replies, 'I wish you would have told me that sooner,' and Hammie essentially says communicating is another thing families don't do well.

What does this have to do with our SeaWorld trip you ask? Well, my dear, it has everything to do with it. We drove 5 hours to be reminded that communication is the key to any healthy relationship, whether it is husband and wife, parent and child or brother to brother. In hindsight, we probably looked like the 4 stooges- constantly miscommunicating where to meet, where to eat, what to do and where the truck keys are and no one answering their phone- shoot, even knowing where our phones were! But, dont get me wrong. We had a great time and I have the pictures to prove it to you!

The boys at the Waggin' Tales animal show. They loved seeing cats, dogs, ducks, skunks, pigs and ponies doing tricks.

And this is how close we got to the dolphins. No photo cropping required to get this close. All you need are some stinky fish and they come right up to you.

The boys after face tattoos of Dolly the dolphin and Shamu the Killer Whale. Great times!

The Soccer Champion Blizzards

Here they are in all their soccer glory- the 2008 summer indoor champs with their purple trophies in hand. To commemerate the occasion, we bought Jacob a t-shirt in the color of his choice (purple) and an iron-on that has a soccer ball with the word "GOAL" on it. Very snazzy this shirt. How did I end up with 2 boys whose favorite colors are purple and pink? Maybe its because they never see these colors and are therefore novel to them? Lets hope so- for a solid month Luke begged for a 'pink birthday.' Without any intervention or slamming of pink, he changed his mind and requested a 'blue Shamu' birthday in honor of our SeaWorld birthday/family vacation trip to San Antonio.