In The Garden

Yesterday I had a chance to capture some of the beautiful flowers in my mother-in-law's garden. Despite the lack of good weather this month, the flowers have been blooming. We are all wondering where summer is.
I am looking forward to taking pictures of the flora in Madagascar next year!

2011 New Years Resolution, Dare I?

Ok..... so my new year's resolution for 2011 is not going to be to blog everyday, but part of it does have to do with blogging more regularly!

Lately, I have found my personal time with God to be too personal for me to want to blog about, however, I do want to be 'realer' (if that can be classified as a word) on this blog this year. I have enjoyed hiding behind my blog at times. I have to say, it's nice to reveal the good things and keep the bad (or not so nice) behind closed doors. I have found that by blogging I have been able to portray someone who may not really be me! Perhaps as a fellow blogger you can relate?

Maybe I can sum up my New Year's resolution in two words:


Simply Real

Taking a Break

I will be taking a break from this mommy blog for a while and instead posting to our Family Blog. I invite you to check out the updates there and to change your bookmark to mafbarbers.blogspot.com.

See you there!






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Out of Africa

The link to the blog below is one that my sister-in-law has set up to share their story about adopting from Zambia. They are headed to Africa to foster a set of twin baby girls this Spring and also help with a building project at Seeds of Hope Children's Orphanage.

thejourneytoourkids.blogspot.com

Check it out!





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Drink Up

As a busy mom, almost always wishing I had an extra pair of arms on me, I always forget to drink water! And I’m not the carry-the-water-bottle-around-wherever-you-go type of a person. Actually I don't even really like drinking water. Recently, I read online a great tip for making sure I am drinking a good amount of water each day.

There seems to be a controversy around how much a person needs to drink each day. Is it 8-10 glasses per day? Is it actually only 4? Does it matter if you’re breastfeeding or not? Is the answer different depending on whether you are male or female? I’ll leave that for you to figure out for yourself.

The tip is a great one, I think, especially if you rather drink water that’s not freezing cold from the tap or your fridge. Simply fill with water the number of glasses you wish to consume the next day before you go to bed. Leave them on your counter overnight. I find by doing this any background chlorine taste your water may have has evaporated by the next day. Setting the glasses of water on my counter is a constant reminder to drink up! Every time I come into the kitchen I can visually see how much I’ve had and what I have yet to drink.


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Long Winter - Cabin Fever Anyone?

February has now arrived and, if you are at all familiar with West Coast weather in BC, this is about the time when moms with young children are suffering from cabin fever. You wake up to gray skies. The sun has become a distant memory. You go to bed to the sound of rain... more drizzle. We accept the fact that the television is going to be on a little more than usual.


When the thermometer reads barely 10 degrees or above, you decide it must be warm enough to venture out with no coat. Come on, it's practically summer!


Fresh air floating in through an open window never smelled so good after months of being trapped indoors. Being indoors actually starts to feel like a prison... I am exaggerating, of course. But Autumn and Winter seem to run together as one season in these parts. And it makes me yearn even more for Spring and Summer. Long ago were the days where my flip-flops were all I wore on my feet. Long ago were the days where flowy skirts and tank-tops summed up my daily wardrobe.

It is gray outside today. Surprise!

Anything in particular you do to combate the winter blues? (Besides taking a trip to Mexico or Hawaii.) I would love to hear about it.


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Haiti

Since the disaster in Haiti on Tuesday, it has been difficult to bury fears about going overseas! Of course, we are no less susceptible to natural disasters right here, but somehow the thought of being in a foreign country, a very poor country, and away from family makes it a little scarier sounding.

We have been following a blog by an MAF family from Chilliwack assigned in Haiti for a while now. It was through blog, early Wednesday morning, that I first heard about what was happening there.

http://mafkrul.blogspot.com
http://picasaweb.google.ca/jwkrul/LifeInHaiti2010

Summer Break? New Blog Design!

Finally my desktop computer is up and running! For the past two weeks we have been waiting for a part to arrive in the mail becuase our CPU was over-heating and making the computer shut down.

I have been working on different layouts for this blog; tired of borrowing pre-made templates and background designs from others. Now, I think I have my own design, complete without any borrowed images.

In the next few days I hope to start blogging as normal. There have been exciting things happening around our household: school curriculum has arrived (my very first EVER), and I have MAF updates to write about.

For now, life goes on.... and we hope to have summer return! The clouds have settled upon us for the last few days and we're beginning to wonder where the summer weather went!

How is your summer going?

What Is God's Will

This post is to follow up on one that I wrote a few months ago, Let God Decide How Many Children We Have?

I received a comment from a reader who asks “Hi, interesting topic... I was wondering if you could elaborate on what you mean by this? "Did you know that we aren't actually re-populating the earth at a healthy rate right now? I'm talking about caucasian people, specifically." I was wondering why Caucasian people specifically? For example, by law Chinese citizens are only allowed to have one child... I'm not trying to be difficult, I just want to understand! Thanks!”

I appreciate this reader’s comment and also found it interesting because I recently had a discussion with another friend who asked a similar question referring to China and their family planning laws.

Without going into too much detail about China’s family planning laws, I will say that according to the research I’ve done China’s social system is feeling repercussions from holding to these laws for the past 40 years. Because of this, they make exceptions for the 1-child per family law.

In my original post, I was blogging about attitudes our culture seems to be adopting about children. I mentioned “Caucasion” in the post and probably should have used different wording: western culture. Caucasion came to mind because it appears to me, in Canada where I live and how multi-cultural we are as a nation, that there are cultures within Canada that still hold more traditional views when it comes to family and children, ei. Muslims. Going back to the purpose of my original post, the challenge I wanted to throw out there was this: let us re-evaluate what we base our decision about family size on. As Christians, it should look different than the world. God’s Word is clear when it says children are of the greatest blessing God can give to a married couple. (Psalm 127:3-5) This decision is going to look different for every Christian couple.

I hope this helps to clarify. As an end note, I encourage all Christian women to get into the Word of God, nurture their relationship with their heavenly Father and ask Him to put His will for their lives into their hearts.

Another Related Post: Follow Up – Let God Determine the Size of Our Family?

Today In History - God IS on the Throne!

April 20, 1999: Ten years ago today marks the anniversary of an event that shook the United States and Canada. The shootings at Columbine High School took place and 12 students plus one teacher lost their lives to these troubled shooters, who also ended their own lives after the crime. It's during events such as these people wonder where God is and ask questions such as: How could He allow such horrific and terrifying things to happen? Why did my son/daughter have to lose their life in such a meaningless and horrible way? Is there a God out there anyway?

(An aerial view shows students being led from the high school)

I can only trust that God is right where He says He is: "God reigns over the nations; He is seated on his holy throne." (niv) Psalm 48:7. This does not mean He is uninvolved and just sitting there. He is in control, orchestrating these events for His glory, believe it or not! Throughout history God has used man's sinfulness to bring people to Himself. As traumatizing as these events are, the only way to cope with them is turn to God Himself and trust in His plan, to submit to His authority.

Hear my cry, O God;
Give heed to my prayer.
From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For You have been a refuge for me,
A tower of strength against the enemy.
Psalm 61:1-3 (nasb)

A Sobering Thought For Me (A Young Parent)

"What parents tolerate in moderation, their children will excuse in excess."

In my ladies' Bible study this week we were grappling with a question, "Why do you think so many children grow up in Christian homes, schools, and churches without ever developing a real heart for God?"

There are two extremes to consider here. One, there are parents that would take 100% of the responsibility for their children walking away from the Lord. And two, the parents who take 0% of the responsibility for it. The Bible is clear that we as parents have huge impact on our children and are responsible to teach them truth, to instill in them an appetite for truth.

Our ultimate calling as godly parents is to raise a godly seed. How well are we doing on that? Are we throwing our elementary kids into the public school system to be taught that God is dead and how to have an alternative sexual lifestyle? Or perhaps its more subtle than that. What television programs are we feeding ourselves? What appetite are we feeding?

It's a sobering thought. Scary, actually. Remember the quote I started with, "What parents tolerate in moderation, their children will excuse in excess." It's only by the grace of God and His strength that we can be the parents He wants. Praying for our children's souls is our strongest weapon. Let's not forget to use the tools God has already given to us!

Let God Decide How Many Children We Have?

Well, I have come to one of the more controversial topics in my ladies Bible Study. I am grappling with it... that's for sure, not to mention trying to talk about some of these biblical concepts with my husband.

This lie satan sows goes something like this: "It's up to you to decide the size of your family"

I can hear the gasps across the internet already. If submission to our husbands isn't difficult enough... check this one out. We, as women, have been indoctrinated by our world and culture. We actually think we have the right to limit life and reproduction. Did you know that we aren't actually re-populating the earth at a healthy rate right now? I'm talking about caucasian people, specifically. There aren't actually enough people out there to enter the work force at the same rate as people retiring from their careers. School registration is down. People are having one and two children, if any, these days.

Now, I would definitely agree that God has a different family size in mind for everyone. Not every woman is destined to bear a dozen or so children. Putting the world aside for a moment, what do we as Christian women think about this topic?

Some of the reasons which most people, even Christian families, determine their family size is often based on fear, selfishness, and natural or human reasoning. Consider the following reasons people base this decision on (taken from Lies Women Believe):

• "How will we ever provide for more children? We're barely making ends meet, as it is. What about college tuition?
• "I can't physically handle more children. I'm exhausted trying to take care of the two I already have.
• "I just don't have the patience to handle a lot of children."
• "If we have more children, we won't have enough time for us as a couple."
• "My friends (or parents) will think we're crazy if we have more kids. They already think we have too many."
• "If we were to let the Lord decide how many children we should have, we'd have two dozen kids!"

The world says children are a burden. But God's Word clearly indicates children are of the greatest blessings He can give to married couples. (Psalm 127:3-5)

I am still working through some of these truths and trying to understand how they look in my family's life. But I will challenge you, dear reader, with this. What have you based this aspect of your life on? Fear? Convenience? Understand this, God promises wisdom to those who ask for it, and the joy of the Lord WILL be your STRENGTH.

Amen, thank you Jesus!

See Follow-Up to this post

First Day of Spring

Today marks another 'first day of Spring.' The long anticipated season is upon me, and it looks as dreary as ever out there! Fifteen millimeters of rain has been forcasted for today. Doesn't look like our poor doggy will get out for a walk today afterall. BUT, tomorrow's forcast looks a lot more promising with mostly sunny weather for me to enjoy and a high temperature of ten degrees! I'm afraid the long-term forcast isn't as wonderful... I see snow is being predicted for later on. Anyhow, enough lamenting about our weather situation.

Today is library day! Usually I take the children to the library on Fridays. For no particular reason, except our books end up being due on Friday's. I have ordered the book The Very Hungry Caterpiller by Eric Carle. If you've never heard of him, (as I hadn't) go to Google's website and read about him. They have honored him, with a special Google logo, as a children's book author and illustrator to commemorate this year's first day of Spring.

Being the first day of Spring, I am also reminded that I should be starting to get serious about a vegetable garden... I have to say I have never felt less motivated! If someone would volunteer to come over and set it up for me, I would be so thankful and I would gladly maintain it and look after it. Somehow planning these sorts of things is so overwhelming, and I feel not worth tackling this year... but I don't want to say, 'maybe next year,' because that's what I have said every year since living at this house with my smallish yard. I have always found something to 'come up' and get in the way. In the meantime, I will continue sprouting. I am very satisfied by these little sprouts that take mere days to produce, without too much effort either. Perhaps I am not cut out for gardening?

Spring IS Coming

You may be wondering, "What's with the toilet on the porch?" We are still in reno mode... going on year #4, and my dear husband bought us a new toilet this week! This is old one; my guess is it's waiting for the dump. This old toilet uses 13 litres per flush, and our NEW one only uses 4.5 per flush, which is significant when your home uses a septic system.

Anyhow, enough about toilets.

As I type this, my DS is in my lap with fingers on the keyboard. Makes it a little difficult to type correctly. this morningwheniwok eup, i was so pleased to see the sun! even at 6:15 am it was starting to rise. I love this time of year when the days begin to get longer. I kissed my husband off to work and tried to convince my 3 year old DD that it was 'mommy's quiet time.' She cuddled under a blanket on the couch in the living room and waited for it to be 'morning.'

By accident I met a friend on facebook. She is in Africa right now serving at an orphanage/boarding school. We have had several people from our church go over to Africa and Burma in the last months, and with facebook and the limited access they have to it while they're over there, it just doesn't seem so far away now. To have up to date information about what's happening with them is so precious, and i'm sure their families appreciate it even more!

Lord, we pray for those dear children. They have access to your word and to your gospel message. May your Spirit move in their hearts and draw them to Yourself. Become real to them, and help them realize their very real need for You in their lives. Also for those ministering to them, remind them to lean on You for their strength. Blessed is the man who depends on You for his strength, who puts his confidence in You. He is like a tree planted by the water and sends out its roots to the streams. It does not fear when the heat comes, it does not worry in a year of drought. Its leaves are always green, and it never fails to bear fruit.

One Forgotten Onion

This afternoon I went to grab an onion out of the bottom of my pantry and to my surprise, it had a nice LONG sprout growing out its top! Instead of throwing this beauty out, it found its place on my window sill.

Even with my other sprouting projects on the go, I am desperate for Spring! And this greenery on my sill is so gorgeous and a reminder that Spring is only around the corner. It's nearly March and it dumped about eight inches of snow today! Unbelievable.

So, what to use this new found plant for? I plan on trimming the greens and using them in future salads, and perhaps egg-drop soup one of these cold days, if the weather keeps up!