Brevity

Just in case some of you don't know...SATAN is attacking us more and more every day! I have had one of those weeks! You know, the kind of week where it seems like you are being hit with something from every direction. Today seemed to top it all. After getting the kids sent to NaNas for the day and planning to clean the house, I still found myself roaming in circles with a cluttered mind of things to do. I have been frustrated, angry, upset, sad, you name the emotion, and I have experienced it today. I felt that there just isn't enough time for me to do everything that I want to do, and being a perfectionist, letting things go is difficult for me, although I do let them go out of necessity. Just a minute ago, God and I had a talk about my attitude and He reminded me that Satan will use us if we let him. So, after an apology to God, I decided to finish up the cleaning and enjoy a few quiet moments with God before the kids came home. I went to my room to get my Bible and picked up a devotion book we got for mother's day. I had started reading it, but you know how that goes, something else always takes priority, so I have not been faithful to it. So I open it up and take a guess that day 4 will be a good place to start back. This is what is said:

Brevity: the quality of being brief, shortness of time

"I sat curled up in my favority chair, sipping a cup of tea. The early morning light stremed through the family room windows as I enjoyed a few moments of "me" time. I slowly turned through the pages of our family photo album, pondering my daughter's childhood.

"......I thought of the hectic pace of running her around for school and church activities, piano lessons, dance classes, ......What happened? The brevity of that sweet season in our lives together flew by. How soon it was gone!

"As I reminsied, I thought. Had I taken even a single day for granted? Had I at times allowed life to get so busy, hurried, or stressed that I missed our on what was really important?
"The apostle James notes,"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is you life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14) How true! God gives eash of us the same 24 hours each day. He lets us spend them in whatever ways we choose. Will we waste those hours? Or will we fill them with balance and appreciation, seizing and making the most of each and every moment?

"Today, I thank Jesus for enduring the agony of the cross, for dying in my place to earn the forgiveness I need. I know my days on earth are brief. May God help me to make the most of them, even as I look forward to spending eternity in heaven with my Savior.

NOW, even though I left some out, I just had to post this. To me, it is worth reading. I pray that is will make someone elses day the way it did mine. God knows exactly what we need and when we need it IF we are willing to listen. Now, to continue in my time with God....

Kids say the best things...

This one may top all of Aiden's funnies through the years!!!!

A brief history...we were having a silent auction at church which was made of baskets from each sunday school class to raise money for our youth. Each of my children being in a different class, I lost track of who was to bring what. I purchased Aidens donation, but forgot about Allee and Evan's and decided to give $5 each. As a reminder, I had written "$10 - Allee/Evan" on the dry erase board on the frig. It has been there about 2 weeks. So, Aiden was very sleepily eating his breakfast at the table yesterday as I was filling out school paperwork when I heard him reading the dry erase board out loud. He read that part about Allee/Evan twice before looking up at me with the strangest, terrified look on his face and questioned..."Mommy, are we getting rid of them?" Oh, my...what I had to do to keep from bursting into laughter. "Why would you say that Aiden?" " Well, it says up there Allee and Evan are for $10. Are we selling them?" I had to explain it to him, which was a big relief to the big brother!

Allee and Aiden get married!

Rick was checking in on the kids as they were playing in Allee's bedroom yesterday. He walked in on a wedding ceremony. It went something like this:

"Daddy, when do the rings come in the wedding?"

"Well, they usually come at the end after the vows."

Aiden: "Bows? What is a bow?"

"A VOW is a promise you make to someone and God."

They exchanged their rings."
"Now it is time for the vows."
Aiden: "Oh, okay...(looks at Allee) Allee, are you ready?"

Allee: "Yeah"

They both looked at each other and "bowed" like in a dance.

Daddy: "I now pronounce you brother and sister. Now go and be sweet to each other." To which Allee responded..."Yeah! Now we can go eat cake and dance!"

Is that not the cutest?

Are you nervous?

Allee is in an Easter pageant at school tomorrow, her first pageant ever. As we were saying our prayers tonight, Rick said during his prayer..."Lord, please help Allee tomorrow night during her pageant not to be nervous." When he finished praying, Allee said in the sweetest little voice, "Daddy, I'm not gonna be nervous, so you don't have to pray for me." Awwww. Of course he told her how he wanted to pray for her anyway and all the time. There is just something about hearing a little girl say "Daddy" that will melt your heart! Mine anyway!

Don't you wish as adults we could think like children. I mean, she is excited about the pageant, and will probably be a little timid in front of the people, but nervous....not so much. When I asked her about what nervous means, she said "It means that you feel really bad." I think God gives us our children for joy, but also to teach us many life lessons! We can learn a lot from our children if we choose to really listen to them!

Spring Break

Hope all of you have had a wonderful spring break. I am ready for some sunshine. All of my plans were for weather that we could at least get out and jump on the trampoline in. But, we have still had a blessed time. Aiden asked if we had to go to school tomorrow and when I said no, he yelled....WoooHoooo!

My little Evan has gotten a sassy mouth on him lately. Don't know where that came from! LOL! We actually had pull the car over and get him out of the car seat to spank him today for screaming at one of us AND a sibling! We need prayer! The other night, he had taken a late nap and refused to go to sleep. We were all tired and I could not get him to sleep. I finally put him in his bed, turned a movie on and in a very aggravated, last straw and elevated tone of voice, very sternly began to lecture him on what I felt his behavior should be for the remainder of the night. (My lecture is funny afterwards, but in the heat of the moment, it was important that he knew what I was thinking...LOL). After the last "and you had better not get up again and I mean it" throught the gritting of my teeth, he looked at me and yelled, "Mama, you be ugy a me!" To which I replied, "yes I am because you are being ugly to me by not going to sleep....NOW GO TO SLEEEP!" Then I left and laughed under my breath! He is so cute....but I still have to discipline! Ya'll all know how that is!

Allee's Boyfriend

Tonight at church, Allison came had dropped Jackson off in class with Allee. She told me that one of the other students was talking about Allee and Jackson being boyfriend and girlfriend. Allison said, "I thought you already had a boyfriend." She said Allee cut her eyes and said, "I know, my mama already talked to me about that."

You see, about 2 weeks ago, Allee was sitting at the kitchen table and said, "Mama, I've got something to tell you. I have a boyfriend and his name is Skyler Cole." Aiden started teasing her about it. I explained to her that she didn't need a boyfriend and that we should only have boyfriend and girlfriends when we were planning to get married. She told me very matter of factly that they were planning to get married, just like Aiden and Karley. So, needless to say, we had a long talk about relationships. From her comment to Allison, I guess maybe she actaully listened. However, she did end her statement to Allison with, "but I still have a boyfriend."

Marriage

I just want to give a little plug for marriage! Marriage is a wonderful thing. The Lord put woman on this earth to be a help meet for man. Marriage was meant to be beautiful, fun, enjoyable, and happy, among other things. Rick and I have been attending a marriage class for the last 6 weeks and we are loving it. I just wanted to say how happy I am to be married to my husband and how wonderful he is. He is not wonderful because he is perfect, but he is wonderful in spite of not being perfect. Together, we are able to work through our differences to come to a solution that meets both of our needs. A good marriage must have God as the foundation, but also, a good marriage is made of two people who are determined to make each other HAPPY not miserable. So often in talking with people, I find that we are a selfish people. We would much rather have ourselves be happy than others. We will never find true happiness in this attitude. Think of the joy at Christmas time when you are giving to others. The same is true in your relationships. When we give of ourselves, it makes it a lot easier to recieve. Rick always says in his sermons, that as a Christian, you are never sitting still. We are either moving forward, or growing closer to God, or we are falling behind. The same is true in marriage. We cannot afford to let our marriages sit idle. If you are not working daily on improving your marriage, then you are letting your relationship with your spouse fall away. So, I encourage you, if you do not already, to spend some quality time getting to know your spouse all over again. I think you will be suprised what you find out! May God bless you and your home, especially your marriage that the devil is determined to destroy! Love to you all!

Aiden is my star

At Aiden's school, they have a "Rock star student of the week" each week. They get to bring things to class, etc. Aiden has not gotten this reward all year and he and I have talked a good bit about the behavior that it takes to earn this award. Friday, he brought home the bag and was grinning from ear to ear. He was so excited. He told his daddy that he thought I would scream when I found out he got it. We were on our way to the park on Sat and he asked us if we knew why he was so happy to be the Rock star student. When I asked him why he said, "Because I knew that if I got this you and daddy would be so happy and I want to make you happy." Okay, I really almost cried! How precious. Of course Rick had to explain that we are always happy with him, no matter what, but still, it was adorable and I really think he meant it. He is such a tender hearted child and loves family time. He ask for family time all the time. We were able to enjoy a family day at the park on Sat and it was amazing. We are going to make a point to do that more often.

My little MaMa

For those of you who know Aiden well....

Last night, Rick had a deacons meeting and the kids and I were home alone. They had found their boxes of board games that I had stored under the bed and had managed to get every piece from every game box and spread all over the living room and bedroom. Usually, they can't stand clean up time, but they both wanted to play a "family game" together so badly, they agreed almost too quickly, to work together and clean up so that we could play. I was in the kitchen fixing supper as I watched them work to clean up the huge mess. Allee is a little chore person. Give her a chore and she takes pride in it. Aiden, on the other hand, could care less. However, he was giving it his best shot. Well, in the midst of the frantic clean up, Aiden got side tracked (imagine that) and began to play with a game piece and paused his clean up. Allee was as busy as she could be. Suddenly, she realized that Aiden had paused. She stopped what she was doing and said, "Aiden, we gotta clean up." He kept playing. "Aiden, momma said, we gotta clean up or we don't get game time." He kept playing. "AIDEN, CONCENTRATE, FOCUS....we have to clean up." Finally, he snapped to and helped. This is words out of my mouth everyday of my life to him. I guess she listens to somethings I say!

A few good Taylor Kid stories

When I logged in, I can't believe it has been that long since I have updated! It has been a difficult month!

On the lighter side:
Evan has been such a joy lately. He is really talking up a storm and can be so sweet. We watch movies a good bit and one of the kids favorites is "Angel Wars." It is a Christian superhero show. Evan has gotten really fond of this series and asks for it frequently. Well, his little two year old language doesn't allow correct pronunciation of words. We attended an event at Allee's preschool last week and Evan went running to his Sunday school teacher, Ms. Sherry and blurted out: "Hey Ms. Sherry. I watch Angel Hors." His W makes the H sounds. Say it out loud! Yeah. Not so good huh? We were getting ready for bed the other night and he said it again, so I tried to correct him. I made the "W" sound and he repeated the "H" sound. Allee laughed and said, "He said Angel Hors." He screamed, "Allee, NO I NOT say Angel HORS, I say ANGEL HORS!" He could not understand why we were laughing so hard. It was too cute! So, any of you who hear my child ask to watch Angel Hors, please note that we are NOT promoting bad movies, we just need to work on enunciation.

Clean Teeth?

My story begins with my 2 year old. You all know how funny Evan is and most of you who have multiples know how intense getting ready to go anywhere can be. Well, imagine that times 10 with me getting three under the age of 5 ready for church alone! (Rick leaves early because of early church). I try to let Aiden be independent, until I catch him slow-poking. And, I usually fix all three tooth brushed, lay them on the sink, and as each one gets dressed I say, "now go and brush your teeth and you will be all ready." This morning was no different. We were running, "right on time" as usual and Evan was the first to get ready. So off he goes to brush his "teeff". When it was Allee's turn, she came whining into the living room, "Mama, my toothbrush is empty." I went to discover that Evan had brushed (or at least sucked toothpaste off of) with all three brushes. Hey, at least his teeth were clean!

The second part to this story deals with the crazy parents. A few weeks ago when I was cleaning the toothbrush holder, I broke it and haven't had time to replace it. So, Rick and I have been placing our brushes in the medicine cabinet above the sink. Tonight, I noticed a new tooth brush in a package and decided to throw mine away because it seemed really worn. When Rick came to get ready for bed he said, "Hey, why did you throw my toothbrush away?" I had NO IDEA I had been using his lately and can't tell you when I started. Oh, well. We share everything else, but I will be getting new toothbrushes for the whole family tomorrow!!!!!!!

Fashion Girl

As most of you know, Allee has gotten to be a real dress up maniac. Lately, she strips down and runs around in swimsuits, "beauty pageant", gymnastics leotards, or princess dresses. She will run in a room, hide behind a door and say "announce me mama!" I guess all kids love getting to hear their name called out.

The other day, she was wearing her new robe that Santa brought and she ran into the living room after being "announced" and began dancing around and stripped her robe right off. When we asked her what she was doing, she said, "Daddy, all FASHION GIRLS do that." To which daddy replied, "Not any fashion girls I know."

She also could not take her eyes off of the life size poster of some beer advertisement girl in Jalepenos the other day on the way to the restroom. I was so embarrassed. I mean, she was literally trying to climb the wall to see "that girl" again! What am I going to do with her.

My toes are SORE!

Long story short, the missionary tonight is a friend of ours, and it was AWESOME! He is so funny and tells the best stories, but I was also very convicted of our duties as Christians. We have it "made" pretty much here in the Bible belt. All Jesus asks us to do is live for him, serve him, serve others, spread His word...simple right? But, how many of us are selfish? How many of us have too little time for others, but plenty of time for ourselves? How many of us look at being stuck in a long line with strangers when we are in a hurry as an opportunity to share Jesus with someone, or look at meeting new people at school, work, ballgames, as Jesus giving you an opportunity to form a relationship that may lead to a church prospect?

Bro. Lancaster reminded us tonight that God is in control. No matter how many times we think we can "fix" it, God knows what is best and He is in control. We must be faithful to His word and His works! It is all about Him and NONE about US! When we (I) can get that in our heads, life will be so much better for everyone! There are lots of things that need "fixing" right now. Let's be careful to put those things in God's hands and LEAVE IT THERE! You all know the old song..."take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there!" He also reminded us of the verse that says..."the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". He illustrated that we (Christians) can "charge" the gates of hell with the power that Jesus gives us. (pretty much) We should not be afraid to witness for Jesus, but rather we should be bold. Guys, we know who wins. Bro. Jamie used a great illustration that I guess I hadn't really thought about, yet it is so simple. He said that the devil saw that he couldn't win. He knows that God is in control. But what he can do is take everyone with him that he can so that he won't have to suffer hell alone. He wants to break families apart, take our children, make us angry with friends and co-workers, and even make us doubt our government. GOD IS IN CONTROL. Do we not think that He knows what all is going on down here? Come on guys! Let's give Him a little credit....

Sleepless in Samantha---Part 2

Okay, it has been a while, but most of you will remember, sleepless in Samantha, with Allee and the night terrors. Evan, now 2 as well, has began a similar pattern. The beginning of Dec he stated cutting all 4 molars and was having some pretty restless nights that you could tell were brought on by pain. From that, we got runny nose, etc, ear drainage, more loss of sleep. I finally got antibiotic this last week. But, for going on 2 weeks now, he is waking in the middle of the night, sometimes he waits until around 5 am or so, screaming bloody murder. He is a big mama's baby, but when he is like this, nothing calms him. It's like he is half asleep, half awake. Sunday morning when Rick left, he screamed for 2 straight hours until he finally drifted back off to sleep. Last night, he got up at 1:45, and at 4:30, I couldn't take anymore, so I left Rick to discipline and went to the other room. He is still sleeping now! These fits seem a little different from Allee. She would act like she was confused, and once fully awake, the crying stopped and she would resume sleep. He is more alert. Almost like he is just being stubborn. He will ask you to hold him, but then he says "stand up mommy. I watch tb (TV) mommy." When you say NO, it's night night, he falls apart all over again. He asks for juice and when you give it to him he has a fit. He kicks his feet and flips and flops. Rick finally spanked him (that's why I left) and I think he went to sleep relatively soon afterward. However, I can spank him with no result! (imagine that).

Please pray for our situation, once again. I really don't know what my lesson is in all of this, but I know God has a plan for sending 3 sleepless children to the Taylor home! And I know the lesson is for the parents! LOL! But, Rick and I are leaving on a youth trip Friday and will not return until Mon. Evan will be staying with NaNa's and I don't want them to have to deal with this. Please , please, PRAY that he will be good for them! We are seriously considering one of us staying behind after last night...

Where is your mission field?

As most of you know, we are in the beginning of our Mission revival. I love this time of year because it was during a missions revival at Sulphur Springs that I first felt God tugging at my heart to do something more for Him, and He has never ceased to continue to tug at my heart during this same revival every year.

Rick started us out Sunday night preaching to our church about our committments: spiritually, financially, our faithfulness, etc. Tonight we had two men who are planning to plant a church in Arizona. I love when people come to share their hearts. There is always a situation where you may be thinking, "There are starving people in Africa and we wanta start a church in the US?" And then men like those tonight come and preach their heart! WOW!

We serve an amazing God! I am blessed that I live in a state where the majority of the people I come in contact with (even at Wal-Mart) at least know who Jesus is. They probably even attend a church. If they don't attend, they probably know someone who does. For those of us reading who live in the Bible belt...Do we realize how blessed we are to live among believers? Do we take advantage of our opportunities? Do we build up or tear down the cause of Christ? I don't think I thank God enough for calling me to Northport, AL...Sulphur Springs...Samantha.

Part of Rick's message was, let's do our part to support our missionaries this week, but let's not lose sight of our own mission field! Our community is our personal church mission field. If we can't reach our community, then we probably can't reach people in Africa, or France or Uraguay! Your mission field may be your family, your friends, your children! Let's all make a personal goal this year to find our mission field, then act on it! It is time to get busy for the cause of Christ! Pray for your opportunities, and pray for me as I try to find mine!

Please join us for a wonderful time in Christ this week at Sulphur Springs...7 PM thru Thursday!

You're Pushin Me!

Have you ever been "pushed" to your boiling point? After snow on Thursday, school on Friday, and Upward BK all day Saturday, Rick and I were to attend our annual Missions Banquet to kick off the revival this week. The kids were staying with NaNa Jan. So the short of it is, we had a long weekend, and a long night, picking kids up late and very tired. We got home at 10:00, so by the tme we had everyone situated, it was getting late. Aiden had found his leapster on the way home and was playing intensely. I had told him to put it away at least 3 times (2 times too many). My patience was growing thin and I was trying to keep from spanking the cute little boy I had just picked up who was very tired and needing to go to bed. If you all know my Aiden, you know his biggest issue is his mouth(don't know where he gets that. LOL). He likes to "argue...talk back" whatever you want to call it...I call it disrespect! The one sure way to get my blood pressure up too! I had heard, "But Mama" one too many times. Finally, when I was just about to lose control, I said, "Aiden, you had better get in that bed right now. You have pushed me and pushed me and pushed me until you are about to make me angry." (I was a "little" loud..LOL). He looked at me with his little tear filled eyes, stopped crying and whining in mid sentence and said very matter of factly...."Now Mama, I did not PUSH you!" Ha Ha! Going back to a previous post....persepective!

Another week gone by...

Can you believe it? Another week gone by! The old saying goes that life passes by much quicker the older you get and I would echo that! As most of you, we were out for the 2010 snow storm yesterday LOL! I am so off schedule. I have felt completely lazy and winter bluesy (is that a word) for the last couple of weeks. I think the cold air and lack of sunshine and Vit D is getting to me! Is is called, Cabin fever?

We heard that NaNa T was getting snow yesterday a.m and we weren't, so off we went! We had a blast. The kids love Abbi and DJ and Evan even made a new friend in Zach! Thanks for playing! Mr. David had fixed a "sled" that they pulled behind a 4-wheeler. How red-neck can we be? Even better, there was no snow on the ground, just wet, but boy did that sled fly! They had a ball. My boys dared the danger (going slow and straight, of course). Evan loved it and did not want to get off. I left it to NaNa T to pull him from the bitter cold and force him inside.

The game was great afterward! What a day!

Now, it's Friday! WOW! We have another day of Upward. All of you please pray for me and my attitude (LOL), our devotion times, our participants and their parents, our workers, and especially for all of the unsaved who may be attending!

Catch up

Okay, now that last few months run down....

Evan has been cutting 2 year molars for over a month (hence, no sleep for us, no blog for you).
Finally has 2 bottom ones in. Turned two on Christmas. Celebrated with b'day party on 18th - CARS.

Allee has successfully learned to write her name, pretty well too. She is starting to get a little sick and continues to be a true girl.

Aiden is playing Upward bk for the first time. He is the youngest of the group, but is having a ball. He is doing really good in school.

They all had a great Christmas! Trampoline from Santa! No injuries yet, but they beg to jump everyday...don't understand cold weather!

Church is going great, just busy as usual. Always more to do that what I feel like we can get done. Our Christmas play went very well!

My niece is home from Hawaii for a while. The babies are gorgeous. We are so excited to have them all here with us!

It's All Perception

Long time huh? Sorry guys, you all know how it is. Kids, holidays, birthday party...the list goes on and on and my busy schedule uses all of my energy. I can only blog or facebook after bedtime and that has been crazy lately. I have chosen sleep (little of it anyway).

Lots to catch up on, but I want to post my thoughts first. We began our first day of the 2010 Upward season at Sulphur Springs today. It went well. Rick and I, as well as others, play a huge role in the process of organization and such for the league. For those of you who know me, you know that I stress of the small stuff (hey, I read the book...it didn't help. LOL). Even when I try not to, I am detail oriented and it matters to me! Of course, God would see otherwise. But, I didn't consult with Him immediately. Long story short, my lesson learned or reminded of this last week has been..."It's all about Perception." It took my son to really drive this in. After stressing of getting three kids out of bed, ready, preparing all of my duties, camera ready, etc., I was pretty wired. When we finally sat down to watch Aiden's first game, I had Allee crying for a pop tart (which I brought) Evan crying for Daddy and Aiden, (who were on the game bench) and I was trying to get the video ready, while answering questions about the flow of game day and eating my sausage biscuit and Mt. Dew. It was starting out wonderfully! Well, because of the busy sch., I haven't been to any practices. Rick had warned me that Aiden may not do great. I had already decided that I wasn't going to push him to perfection on this, as long as he was having fun. However, when my son was "dancing" around his opponent and had no clue that the game was even going on, I admit, frustration set in. Sadly, I will probably be ashamed of myself when I re-watch the video. Let's just say, I wasn't encouraging enough. I called Aiden over at half time and said, "Son, can you stop "dancing" around the players and try to get to the ball?" So innocently, he looked up at me and said, "Mom, I'm not dancing, I'm showing them my moves." I relaxed then and realized, it's all about perception. Later, when it was time for the "star presentation", Aiden was presented his star last, but he received the only white star issued- Christlike. His little fist went up in the air as he mouthed "YES!" Afterward, he told me his favorite part was when he scored the goal (he never shot the ball--LOL). I finally got the nerve to ask him what goal was he talking about, and he was talking about when someone passed him the ball and he passed it on!

Now, if that doesn't put things into perspective, I don't know what will. It brought me down a notch! He had a ball and didn't even notice anything negative. I pray that I would put my negativity aside so that my children and others can always find the positive. For those of you who always find the postitive, pat yourself on the back. You deserve it! For those of you who don't, let's make a new year's resolution to do better.