Praying for Your Kids Monday
A Servant Heart

I love going to Hearts at Home on Thursdays and seeing moms serving other moms with their kids in tow. One mother, whom I admire deeply, is in charge of the childcare on Thursday mornings and so she has to be there early to line up rooms, teachers, subs, snacks etc. She is always there with a smile and her little 4 year old is right behind her learning a wonderful lesson--serving others is like serving Jesus Himself.

This particular mom could talk and talk and talk to her son about service and ministry and he may never understand but because he is watching her, week after week, and doing it along side her while she serves with a cheerful heart rather than grumbling, he is learning that service is what we do and "with a cheerful heart" is how we do it.

Ephesians 6:7 reminds us to "serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men". I know if I were to take meals, help a neighbor, volunteer in the nursery, babysit for a friend in need like I was doing these things for Jesus Himself I probably wouldn't have the audacity to feel put out. My small gesture would be a only a start to saying thank you for the sacrifice He made for me.

Dearest Father, I confess I don't always serve others with a cheerful heart. I pray You would mold me and make me to have a servant's heart so that I would be a good example for __________. I bless him with a servant's heart that desires to serve others not so that he may boast but so that he can be obedient to Your Word. Amen.

Tinker Bell Cake and Dead Sexy Straight Hair



I'm giving this post a "cakes" label but don't be fooled...its just a way for me to show off my dead sexy straight hair.

This picture is post straightening but pre Posh Spice cut and color, which I got today. And yes, if you're doing the math, it was my precious mother's last day here and I did leave for 3 hours to go get my hair done by Salon Sara. Don't judge me until you see it!

I would promise you a picture of my Posh Spice haircut for tomorrow's post but you actually hold me to it and I can't handle the disappointment in your comments (Jen Roth) when I don't actually get the pictures up so I'm just going to tell you I'll get it up soon.

Oh, and for the label's sake: this is Roo's 2nd birthday cake. Tinker Bell themed but pretty lame in my book. I used a Demarle flower mold, colored the frosting purple and topped it with some Tink figurines I found at Walmart for 6 bucks. I used colored sugar for the pixie dust only to have Hot Jeff remind me that pixie dust is yellow and not green. Dude, I am not lying.

Bug, my cake decorating sensei said she is not disappointed but I really can't believe her because how can she NOT be disappointed, the thing is LAME! Oh well, Roo loved it and hasn't stopped playing with the figurines (who unfortunately have frosting in places that no lady should have frosting).

Here's a little picture of Roo with her parents on her 2nd birthday. I think she looks so sad because she knows only disappointment lies ahead of her with her lame-o Tinker Bell cake. Poor baby. Just more photographic proof for her to someday use in her argument that we liked Samuel better than her.

Praying for Your Kids Monday
A Desire for Truth

Mama Della's last night is tonight so instead of putting a whole lot of effort into PYKM I am going to copy a prayer from a favorite book of mine and go play Pinochle! Suh-weet!

"If you love Me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14: 15-17).

Lord, I pray that ________ will have a heart that loves Truth. May any lies in his heart come to light so they can be confessed to You as sin. I pray that he not be blinded or deceived, but always be able to clearly discern and follow Your Truth.

Help me to effectively discipline him when he tests that principle. Your Word says that "when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all Truth". Please guide __________ in the way of Truth always. Amen.

excerpt taken from "Prayers and Promises for My Little Girl" by Stormie Omartian

If It Sounds To Good To Be True...

It probably is. Ugh. I am so glad my husband doesn't read this blog very often because I'm about to tell a very embarrassing story about myself and if he knew I did this (which he never will because you will NOT tell him when you see him, right) he would just laugh and laugh and then make fun of me for a good week. And I probably would get a lecture out of it. Hot Jeff is a lecturer. Ask Samuel.

So Hot Jeff went to a basketball game tonight leaving me home alone with the kiddos during dinner and evening insanity. So to make it a little more fun (for myself) I made them baloney sandwiches and myself a rockin' chicken stir fry.

While I was fryin' up my stir fry I was listening to the radio. It was set to a Christian radio station so when I heard the following commercial I figured it had to be legit. Right?? Mmm, no.

The commercial said call this toll free number and get $1000 worth of grocery vouchers. You can spend it on any kind of food, any brand at any store. I know, right? You'd think I would know better. The commercial said they were doing "market research" and if you call and answer a couple of questions you then get your vouchers. Sweet.

I sprinted to the phone. No lie. Sprinted.

Because I was born yesterday.

The conversation starts out as expected. He asks my first name. Then asks how much I spend on groceries per week and where is my favorite grocery store to shop. Then he asked for my address so he could mail my $1000 worth of grocery vouchers out.

Before I gave him my address I asked sheepishly, "So I'm sure you get this a lot but what is the catch?" "No catch Ma'am". I push a little harder, "There has to be a catch. Why would you be giving out $1000 in grocery vouchers?"

At this point he got super testy with me! He says all snippy like, "As the ad said, its market research". Long pause... "Now, I'm going to need your credit card number to pay for the $4.95 shipping cost".

Yep. If something sounds too good to be true it probably is.

I say in a totally sincere tone, "I am so sorry I have wasted you time; I'm not willing to give you my credit card number".

His tone goes from snippy to rude and he asks, "How did you expect to have the vouchers sent to you?" To which I tell him, "I don't know, I guess I didn't think about it".

I would like to tell you there was further conversation but all I heard on the other end was silence. He had hung up on me!! Can you believe that? Not only was he a scammer but he was a rude scammer!

Ok, its true. I have no proof this is a scam. I have no proof that guy is a lying sack of crap who beats his wife. I do however have really good instincts.

Sometimes they just take a few minutes and some stranger asking me for my credit card number to kick in.

Dang it. I hate it when that happens.

Don't tell Hot Jeff.

Fatal Error

So it would seem I have made a terrible blogging mistake...I promised pictures of my straight hair and didn't put them up when I said I would. And guess what? I still don't have any pictures. Yesterday I spent the majority of the day doing some deep cleaning and today I've been gone all day. And while my hair looked way too sexy to be scrubbing toilets I scrubbed them anyway. Nothing says thanks for letting me go have a 5 hour hair appointment than scrubbing a man's shower.

Its Roo's birthday weekend this weekend so there will be plenty of picture taking and I'll get them up and you can all "fawn" (nice comment Roth) over my hair. It will be fun.

Until then, for those of you didn't see it at church this morning, I am going to paint a mental picture. My new straight hair is Kelly Ripa meets Katie Holmes meets Celebrity Fit Club. Translation: straight meets brown meets could stand to drop a few pounds. I think that will really help you get a good idea of what my hair looks like.

So what we've learned here is this: I won't make blogging promises I can't keep and you don't believe a thing I say about posting pictures. Deal?

Um, ladies you will ABSOLUTELY DIE WHEN YOU SEE MY NEW STRAIGHT HAIR. Seriously though, 4 hours turned in to 5 because my hair is that nappy and I didn't get home until after 9:00 so you're just gonna have to wait until Wednesday afternoon for pictures and the dish.

I will tell you this though, its dead sexy. And... it ain't nappy!

p.s. PUBIC HAIR
(that's for you Jessica!)