The Joy of Family

Last night we spent the evening with my side of the family doing what in the the past felt very normal just hanging out!   For some reason Ben and I have had to missed several Sunday evening dinners and not until last night did I remember just how sweet and wonderful the time with my parents, brothers and wives is.  I am fortunate to be a part of a family where we hold the same values and are able to share our common bond of Christ with one another.  I feel so encouraged when the night is over and I can recount many positive conversations.  I count it a great joy to raise my children alongside such wonderful family and friends.  I look forward to many more years of time with my family!

Time to wrap up

We've had a full couple of days!  We finished the last couple of days of our challenge.  Friday night we had beans and rice which we all happen to love, so not much of a sacrifice :)   I think they all licked there plates that night.  We are all certainly feeling a greater thankfulness for normal meals and groceries in the house.  Saturday is my grocery day all the kids put in their request of what they missed, Jack-bagels, Kate-Cheetos and little Lucy -big apples.  Sunday we packed up the boxes and took them with us to church, dropping them off was such a fun experience. 

There is a drop off line so that it moves faster and people don't have to get out of their cars, there was music playing, people running around in turkey costumes, funny little signs while you wait.  It was such a fun experience!  I hope my kids will walk away feeling the excitement of giving and participating in what God is doing in Cincinnati.

  As we move forward and talk about the last week with the kids I want to be sure that we all understand that we did our best to give a taste of others experience or feel in this world but we always knew that life wouldn't be like that forever. I pray that God will use this in my family's hearts, mine included to give us a heart for God's people and to not ignore what the Lord was passionate about.   

Baptisms across the city 

I was aware of at least three churches yesterday doing baptisms, which happen to be one of my favorite things to participate in as a Christ follower...I love it!

My morning started off watching a friend from Grace be baptised...and later with many other believers across the city. 

I have such a joy watching people come up out of the water, it's such a incredible picture of God washing us clean of our sins and new life!  I heard several stories of people who have known Christ for a long time and now deciding to follow through on his command and others who surrendered to Christ that morning.  Several times I was moved to tears to see people's faces as they came up out of the water.  Faith in Christ is simple in that he prompts you and all you have to do is respond. 

A few stories that I don't want to forget.

There was a gentleman who was at the 8:30 service who ignored the prompting to go and be baptised and got in his car and left after service, as he drove away he felt the Lord tugging at his heart to go back he turned the car around and went.  He was then baptised at the next service!

There was a girl who looked about 9 who told us she was baptised last year and she was here to now baptize her younger sister.

There was a young couple engaged to be married and she shared that she knew that she needed to surrender to Christ and be baptised because next year she would need to be able to do this in a marriage with her husband.

I was baptized in a hot tub at a summer camp by Ben a couple of years ago and I can't imagine anyone else that would've been more appropriate to do it.  I love that we serve a God who gives his people his power to do his work.  Ben and I have baptized several people who came to know Christ through his power in us and I hope that we get the privilege to do many more baptisms in our lifetime!

Great conversations with my children.

Lucy shared what she learned about Mary Magdalene yesterday at church.

"Mom...she poured perfume on Jesus's head he thought it was nice, but it wasn't.  The girl followed Jesus where ever he went."  I love 3 year old versions of stories and what they catch.

Jack in the car told me this.  "If I become president, I'm just saying if, I think I will conquer the world in like 4 years.  

Me: "What would you do if you conquer the world?"

Jack"Well help the poor and all the kids without moms and dads"

It's neat to see the Lord working!

Day 3 and 4

Yesterday...on the menu was pizza, homemade no toppings just cheese (this is a sacrifice for my kids and us).  Ben came up with a fun way to further our little challenge.  Right before dinner without the kids knowing he turned off the water to the house.  We sat down for dinner and tried to fill their cups with water from the fridge but "oh no, no water!" Conversation goes as follows...Kids what are we going to do, we'll have nothing to drink tonight...Ben's mom who was over comments well don't kids in Africa have no water in their homes?...What do they do?....We then proceed to tell them that the kids who may receive our boxes have to walk a half day sometimes to get water and even then it's not clean.  Ben's suggestion... Jack, why don't you go down to the Golden village (our neighbor) and get water for the family and of course take off your shoes while you do it.  Kate jumped right in, Jack was a little more hesitant but went also.  This is how Kate came back from the neighbors.

Today day 4 was a different story we started the morning off really rough.  Jack and Kate both opted for oatmeal with chocolate chips and brown sugar.  Ben made it and they both threw the most royal fits.  Ben only put 4 chocolate chips in, not 5 and Kate refused to eat.  Jack tasted his and did the same.  I was honestly a little shocked they should be way past this throwing fits stage, right.  But I think what I would've done most mornings is appeased them and said fine here are more chocolate chips, but not today.  It was sad to me that I hadn't help instill a more thankful heart for the things in front of them.  Now in the midst of this I am reminded how sinful I am also I don't want to stop and take time to have character building conversations and to gently remind them of where they could grow and change.  So in the end of the morning it really wasn't about the oatmeal anymore but what was going on in their hearts.  This week is showing us as parents how we still need to grow and change also.

Dinner tonight I made a vegetable soup that was actually a winner in Kate's eyes, how about that?  The other kids weren't fans by any stretch.  We told the kids that we and aunt Kerry were going shopping for our boxes tonight, Jack was pretty excited and wanted to know if this would be the end to our simple meals, nope not till Saturday buddy.  We all packed up and headed to the store.  Let's just say Meijers and all their customers didn't know what hit them when our two families entered the store.  Boy are our kids loud!  Thanks Kerry for the pics.  

                                                 Dear Africa we got your oil for cooking- Lucy

After all was said and done we ended up spending what we normally spend on groceries for the week with my $23.00 we spent earlier in the week plus the cost of all our boxes.  That felt good that a small sacrifice will really mean a lot to others in this world :)  Hopefully they can see Christ's love in the hands that deliver it!

Day 2

Grocery day!  Well I went to Kroger and had $30.00 wow that can go fast.  I knew if I shopped ads and went to several stores I could've maybe made the money go further but I really wanted to shop where I normally shop and truly feel how little money this is.  I made a very specific list including ingredients and a few basics. After 20 minutes I had completed my shopping ,spending $23.00 and the extra $7.00 left I will act as if we already spent that since we have resources at home we are using.  I walked out with 4 bags it was a little sobering to know that we could choose to eat like this more often and give more, something for our family to reflect on. 

I picked up the kids from school and the first thing out of their mouths is can we get doughnuts?  I wanted to say yes so bad it was actually a great day to do it.  I reminded them that we are saving money to fill our boxes; Jack let me know he wished we weren't doing this.  I know that this can be hard but it's for a greater cause, in the end I think we'll grow as a family and choose to be more purposeful with money.

The biggest challenge for me is to plan meals that don't consist of lots of ingredients and are simple and cheap.  We just did a pasta bake and some bread.  Kate, poor thing lately can't seem to be satisfied with much of anything, was the first to complain.  But after a quick reminder of no complaints and to fill your bellies because we will not be having a snack later they actually ate their dinners.  I think normally I probably waiver when it comes to dinner and let them make excuses for the things they don't like.  It seems so much easier with this challenge in front of us to require them to eat all on their plate.

Overall I am encouraged and pray that God will show us what we can learn from this week.


Side note:  Sam is 18 months and seems to always be conquering the world through climbing and speech but he can't seem to hold his own cup (I think it's laziness, he wants mommy to tip it back for him).  I have decided to today will be the day to learn to do it himself.  It's such a crack up every time he brings me his cup I just help his little hands do it himself and then praise him like crazy.  One of the times I said good job he replied with thank you, it just made me smile.

The challenge...

We were at church and had an opportunity to take a box to fill it for a family on Thanksgiving, great check the box we can do that.  Well I felt like maybe this was a good opportunity to challenge our family further.  What if we take more than one box and use this week's grocery money to fill more boxes?  This is nice in theory but the family would have to be in on it since this would change what we eat for most of our meals.  Ben and I asked them after church what they thought, without much hesitation they said sure (I don't think they really got the reality of this).  We intended on taking one box for a local family and 1 box to send to Africa, this will stretch us a bit but I know that we can still be comfortable.  Well somehow we ended up walking out of there with 4 boxes for Africa and 1 for a local family and I could feel myself tense up a bit and feel the stress of this.  I knew immediately after the initial silent freak out that this is a great chance to serve other believers so that they can bless the people around them!

We kicked off our first night of the week ironically with takeout pizza to make a point to our children that you look at this as normal but this is a month worth of wages for a good part of the world.  We read them several facts about some of the African countries.

-There is a food famine in a area of Africa that includes Somolilia, Ethiopia and Kenya a child dies of hunger or poor nutrition on average every 6 minutes so by the time we finish our pizza that would mean 3 kids. 
-Nearly 29,000 children under 5 have died, and millions are at risk, kind of alarming.


(So I am not about just finding a really grafic image to display my point but it's a little disturbing to me that his took 3 seconds to find this with the google search Somolilia children)


These were shocking but I knew just as I often do they will probably just go right back to life and forget most of what we were telling them.

The plan:
-Spend $6.00 a day on food till Saturday, I'm shopping today so that = $30.00 for this weeks grocerys.
-Plan meals that either reflect a country that is in need such as beans and rice. Or keep all my meals simple with little to no meat and cheap ingrediants.
-Talk often of how God can use our family to affect those localy and those in other nations.

Day one...I was packing lunches and Kate was being extremely picky I told her sorry Kate I just don't have that many choices of things to put in your lunch today.  Jack quickly told her "Kate we are not going to be able to have a lot in our lunches this week, remember were feeding Africa".  It was such a good reminder that they were listening and God may use this, this week to impact our family.
At dinner:  Tonight I served a really simple bean soup and cornbread which was an extra.  Kate couldn't help but comment how boring the soup was and lacked flavor.  Ben quickly reminded her that this was part of the challenge to not use a lot of ingredients and keep things simple, we need to have appreciation for the food on our table.  It was very encouraging to see them eat their soup withour complaint after that.

We are all well aware that we are not going to fix a hunger crisis or we may not even save a life but I feel strongly that this is part of our calling as believers to care for and pray for other believers around the world.  Our goal this week is to help instill in our family a posture of sacrifice and giving to help others who are in greater need than us.


Welcome to our challenge this week!

Today is what appeared to be an ordinary and a regular Wednesday morning and I'm not sure fully what happened other than feeling discontent.  Talking to Ben I couldn't help but feel really emotional over this recent burden I have.  I have this serious desire to live real genuine life with people.  I want to raise my kids together and help my kids see the power of believers coming together to live life and minister.  The model of community I have always seen in church today is to come together once a week and be with one another for a time of encouragement, but I am starting to feel that it's not enough.  I want real life together, where you can't hide because your closest friends are your neighbors.  I want to share meals, things and lots of time as families together who want to love the people around them.  I pray that the Lord will show Ben and I what this looks like or if this is even possible at this point in our lives.  Just    some of my thoughts it feels good to write them down.  Now back to my 1 year old with a poop filled diaper and my daughter who has watched far to much t.v. today...ugh.

By Faith

I have wanted to write a post for awhile but have not felt very inspired or motivated lately to do it.
 A lot is brewing in the Davis household.  First we have added 2 new members, Morgan and Jess.  These are two girls who are college age and have come to live with us.  They are both YL leaders and are neat girls.  It's fun to have them around for lots of reasons, having extra hands in the house is never a bad thing!  The other day Jess took Kate into her room, I think Kate was asking a lot of questions like "who's is this?" and so on.  It was fun to see what came out of that Jess must of told her how they share everything, Kate seemed to love this idea that they share everything and would be willing to share it with her.  Anytime they are home Kate and Lucy try their hardest to spend time with them, I am thankful for Godly young women to be a part of my daughter's lives! I look forward to life together with these girls.

Lately I feel like there have been several things that God has asked us "by faith" to do or start thinking about.  We recently started to attend Crossroads and feel like that took a lot of faith to move forward and to not be concerned about what some might think or others perceptions of Crossroads.  I can't say it enough this was tough since all I have ever known was the church we had been attending but God has been incredibly faithful and confirmed it in every way possible that this was the right decision for our family.  I think the switch has taught me that all believers are apart of the same "church" the body of Christ.  I have always had this constant weird tension that my closest family and friends who were believers that we all needed to share the same church in order to share community with them.  I'm finding out that it's nice if it works out that way but the bigger thing is that we share Christ and we are willing to spur one another on to love and good deeds.  We love where God has placed us right now, we are growing and changing daily and look forward to being challenged even more.

Well the other "by faith" things that are on the table, homeschooling and adoption.  Homeschooling is something since my kids were school age people have asked will you home school and I always gave a very quick "no way".  I grew up in a family that home schooled, I was only home schooled for 1 1/2 years because my mom and I were at each others throats most days.  Now why would I want to go through that same misery I always thought.  But now that I am a little older I can see how incredible my brothers relationships are with each other and the positive benefits it can have on a family.  My kids are in a wonderful school that we are more than pleased with so it's difficult to even picture them not attending there in the future.  This is something we are going to the Lord in prayer about and asking for that direction and strength if this should be where He is directing our family.

Adoption is subject you might hear about often if you are around our family.  We often talk about it, we love the picture of God adopting us as his children knowing how incredibly unlovable we are.  The thought and picture is so moving to me I sit here now with chills, every time my heart dwells on this subject my heart stirs and I feel like I could cry.  As I spend time in the word I can't help but see God's heart through Old and New testament for orphans and widows and try to picture what does this look like to have a heart for these people.  We know that we want to adopt it's all the details that can be so difficult sometimes.  This is sometime that we will continue to work through as a family and with the Lord.  On a side note we asked the kids last night what they thought of adopting and what that would mean for them since they would have to help out more.  Jack's response was great he said "it's not a big deal I've done this 3 times before what's a fourth".  I love my kids excitement over the subject of adding to our family, I look at that as a gift from God.






http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2011/11/reckless-abandon.html

Good-bye Earthly Hello Heavenly

I have given myself exactly 10 minutes to write my thoughts...here we go.

This morning was hard and I am not sure really why.  Nothing has really changed lately.  Ben is definitely busier at work and the kids have their normal school routine.  But I felt sad and kinda sad for myself and I know that is never a good place to be.  But God did not let me stay there this morning, I knew deep in my heart that without going to the feet of his throne with a desperate cry I would have a day that could feel unbearable.  At the same time knowing that truth I still fight it, I guess that's natural to not want to give up what you hold onto.  In my case it was self (self pity, selfishness, bad attitude...).  This morning I read Colossians 3:12-15, I was quickly reminded what I was clothed in and it wasn't tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  I was not willing to make any allowance for Ben or any of his faults or to truly forgive him as God has forgiven me!  Then to continue I most definitely had not clothed myself with love.  I know that this is the only real thing that will hold a marriage and family together so why do I run from it?  I am so selfish at the root of it!  I decided I needed to read the chapter from the beginning since I was reading this out of context, so I went to 3:1 and started and there it was the reminder of why I aim to do anything in my life.  "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven"...I have been out of focus I had been setting my sights on earth and not the things of heaven.  I'd like to think, good you read some nice scripture this morning now I have it and I will have a great day, but I know that this is a battle of the mind and will.  I am ready and I know with prayer and reminding myself of truth I can live my day very differently than I have for the last month.  Lord you are the only thing that gives life, I aim to have a thankful heart today!

Wrapping up the summer

School has started and we have finally gotten used to the schedule and change.  I am really enjoying my time home with Lucy and Sam, it's easy for them to be neglected when the older ones are home.  It's funny after four kids and 9 years of marriage.  I feel like God is still teaching me so much about my role as a wife and mother. I think this next year will be a year of growth and time to reflect on what's next for our family.  Since I have taken very little time to document our summer I thought as always I will try to play catch up.

In June we celebrated Jack's 8th birthday.  His birthday marked a really sweet time full of great memories.  We watched a video Joel made of Jack's 1st year, it touched Jack to the point of tears to know that people love and care for him. It is one of our sweetest moments with Jack.

Ben created a surprise birthday scavenger hunt.  We had a outdoor movie and a fire, it was a great night.

After Jack's birthday Ben and I went to Bermuda together,  I really wanted to take time to write about that trip and some fun memories later.

On the 4th of July we attended the Forth Mitchell parade and celebrated my 31st birthday!

A soldier stop to give Jack one of his badges it was so touching.

Lucy covered her ears most of the time, those darn firetrucks.

Sam enjoyed all the candy thrown to him.

We ended the night at my parents house with fireworks.

Lemonade stands are usually the highlight of the summer but this year we only had one.  Lucy quickly got tired of the heat but Kate stayed out there for a long time.  Kate looked so darn cute. At one point she had a umbrella she was holding and a fan blowing on her, it was quite the setup. 

Sam and Jack became a tight little duo this summer, it's sweet to see the love they have for each other.

In August we went camping with Ben's side of the family, it was a wet night :)

 

August 21st 1st day of school!

Jack in 3rd grade.

Kate in 1st grade.

August 31st we celebrated our 9 year anniversary.  Ben came home with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, which he got a total deal on at the Secret Garden (I love that place).

We had a nice night out, we did pizza at Via Vite on the square, a wine tasting at Party source (very fun) and ended the night with Starbucks.  It was great to be together and just talk.

We ended our summer with a trip to Chicago over Labor Day weekend.  We attended a wedding for my cousin and stayed with my friend Nicole and her husband.  They babysat our kids, this was from their time with them.

Some other summer highlights include Joel and Kerry receiving their referral for a little girl from Ethiopia who is around Sam's age.  We are all looking forward to her coming home in the next year!

Dave and Meg having their second child Gordon.  He is so precious.

Micah and Andrea had their forth baby Paul.  Paul is currently still in Nicu.  We have spent a lot of time as a family praying for Paul, he is one very special guy and a true blessing to the family.

I look forward to this next year with so much anticipation to see God work in our lives and those around us!!

Smiles

Last week was a very difficult week due to several outside stresses and I know that had an effect on my children in the way I have chosen to interact with them.  Frankly I would not have wanted me for a mom last week if I were them. I knew this week had to be different!

 The Lord help me notice something today as I have was interacting with my children, the more I smiled as I spoke or gave direction the better they responded.  As I drove home today and I smiled at Sam in the rear view mirror and he smiled back I was thinking how a smile communicates so much about the way you care for someone.  I wonder sometimes what does my face look like to my kids as I get frustrated and angry with them or outside circumstances.  Do I look like I love them or enjoy them?  Do I show them Christ in my eyes and smile?  I think the Lord is all so graciously reminding me of my purpose and role as a mother and how I will be naturally one of their prime examples of Christ lived out in someones life.  This week I will be consciously purposing to love my family with smiles and loving eyes.  Thank you Lord for your gentle reminders in my life!

My morning with Sam

Sam is the subject today...all morning he has made me smile.

Sam starts his day with a warm bottle of milk that either Ben, Jack or I usually feed him.  Today was no different I warmed a bottle and gave it to Jack to feed Sam it, well Sam was not having it.  He then decided to walk around and cry to protest his bottle.  I was wrapped up in my morning reading routine, I've gotten pretty good at ignoring silly requests during that time.  This morning that included Sam.  Everything seemed to be upsetting Sam he walked around the house just ticked off about everything.  Sometimes when you know your kids are being ridiculous it all becomes laughable.  Several times while I was reading he brought me a bag of candy and when I told him "no" he went and put his hands against the wall, leaned his head on them and cried it was one of the cutest and funniest things I've seen in awhile.  When I would look at him he would just laugh, I think he knew he was being dramatic.  He non-stop kept coming over to me and want on my lap and then back off, I finally got the clue when I stopped and really watched his cues.  He wanted me to feed him the bottle.  I found his blanket which he calls "baby" we sat on the couch and he very contently drank his bottle.  I spent the next 10 minutes looking into his eyes sweetly  as he touched my face and sometimes hit my face but I'm pretty sure that was just the boy coming out in him.  It struck me that he misses the time we use to spend together breast feeding, it was one on one and it made him feel loved.  I often think I probably try encourage my kids to just grow up.  I wonder how many sweet moments like this morning I have missed out on because I felt they were maybe too old for a bottle or whatever it was I was trying to move them pass.  It's funny that it's taken four kids to finally see some things in my parenting that I would've done different to do over again. 

On another note we have bought a new trash can with a lock because Sam threw everything away.  I have found my cell phone, remote controls, lots of toys and I think Kate's new croc is gone forever.

He has become very frustrated with the lock system so he has decided today that he going to start just tipping the can over and look at me like victory is his.

This is Sam eating breakfast, each morning something always ends up in his food.  Today it was his toy car.  One more thing to make me laugh.

21 people, one house and lots of fun!

Every year we take a family vacation with my parents and most of my siblings, their wives and children.  Each year we have gone some place different.  This year we went to the Outer Banks N.C. . My mom is such a champ she spends far to many hours searching for just the right house for 21 people to fit comfortably.  This year she landed on a 7 bedroom, 4 story house with a pool and hot tub.  The time with everyone is invaluable.  We spent most of our days by the pool and relaxing while kids took naps.  The days were filled with laughs and meaningful conversations.  We didn't spend much time on the beach due to the giant dunes you had to cross to get there, not fun with kids.  Each night for dinner we took turns cooking meals so that the burden didn't fall on my mom alone.  Most of our evenings were filled with back deck talks and cigars, movies together in the theatre room or card games.  Being together for a week with so many people has it's moments but overall it's wonderful to be a part of a large family and be able to share our walks with Christ together.  

Random memories and highlights:

-family dinners, always full of chaos but entertaining

-Our entire family went to ice cream out, the things we ordered were not good the kids were a mess and Kate threw up in the car on the way home.  

-Ben, Sam and I took a walk one night along the road in search for a ice cream place that might be close.  We didn't find one so we bought frozen fruit bars from a camping convenient store.  We decided to walk home along the beach, it ended up being a long walk but a great evening together.

-Ben and I went jogging one day it was short but fun.

-Lots of time just lying on the air mattress with my sister in laws in the pool.

-Yummy margaritas by the pool, compliments of my mom :)

- HGTV in the mornings with Dave and Meg.

-Sweet time with the Lord.

-Kevin making orange juice using a funnel and a narrow mouth container, so entertaining.

 

We don't have many pictures, I think they are all from one day.  That's what happens with four kids.

Evening walk to the beach.

The camera work is terrible but this is a taste of a car ride with us.  This was such a long ride home.

By this time Sam has thrown up everywhere, it was terrible.  We have stopped 4 times in the first 2 hours, yikes!  We just finished breakfast and Lucy is now saying she has to throw up, which she says often but has never done in the car.

Florida Vacation

I am way behind in this blog thing.  When I started my goal and aim was to record memories and thoughts relating to my family.  I wanted a way to look back over all our family memories.  So were going to play catch up.

In April we went on our first vacation as a family since last summer.  We were all anticipating the beach and time as a family!  We went to Panama City beach with Ben's parents, sister, brother and his girlfriend Sarah.  We stayed in a 3 bedroom condo that was really nice and was a great reminder of the amount of space you really need in life.  The beach was very pretty, we had a balcony facing the ocean.  This ended up being a really wonderful trip, lots of good quality time with everyone.

Some quick highlights:

• A wonderful date with Ben we ate at Los Antojitos (which was AMAZING) and had a fun drive in Duane's convertible.  We had many laughs that night.
• We celebrated Lucy's 3rd birthday.

• Saw the condo that I grew up going in as a child with my family, this brought back very sweet memories.
• Took the kids for ice cream one afternoon.
• Jack loved flying the kite and he insisted on letting all the string out, it was flying higher than our 25 story condo.  He then let it go, after he wreaked havoc on the beach we caught the kite!!!
• The kids all took many turns pushing elevator buttons, Ben and I didn't touch one elevator button all week.
• Sam loved the beach for about 30 minutes then was done.
• We spent a lot of time in the pool, the favorite thing to do was to go in the pool then run to the hot tub and back in the pool.
• Lot's of great time with grandparents!
• Sam had some great backpack time with dad.

Kate and Joy

Sam and grandma

Ipad time in the morning.