Friday, November 27, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness, Come before Him with joyful singing!
Know that the Lord, He is God.
It is He that has made us and not we ourselves.
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful unto Him and bless His Name.
For the Lord is good; His loving kindness is everlasting.
And His faithfulness endures to ALL generations."
PSALM 100

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Busy hands

When I was young -- maybe around ten or so -- I became fascinated by my mom's ease at making afghans. She crocheted so fast -- the needle and yarn zipping through her fingers. I asked her to help me learn and through MUCH PAIN and EXTREME PATIENCE, I was able to make my first afghan. It was pink. Those of you who really know me are probably chuckling at that. I can't believe I actually picked out that color, but I did. It must have been a moment of much persuasion or I could have been getting sick. :)


Through the years I have made a few other blankets, using "granny squares", but this Christmas I wanted to make at least one blanket to give as a gift... it may become a tradition. Mom always got these blankets started for me, so this time I had to go online and see a video of it being done. (Isn't the internet great!) I decided to do a different pattern in my blanket. Here are pictures of my handiwork.... I still have a long way to go!


I love the color... I think it is turning out great. It is now 6 feet by 2 1/2 feet. I am getting really attached to it. Will I have the strength to give it away?

Friday, November 20, 2009

MOPS Crafts

Our monthly MOPS meeting was Wednesday. I love seeing the ladies at MOPS and getting to spend a whole 2 hours with other ladies. The time in the Word is great as we learn how to be better moms and wives. This month we learned about how to make our homes an honoring place for our husbands. We shared ideas of how to honor them and give them the place that they deserve in our homes. One of the areas that I am going to work on is making sure that the house is picked up more when he arrives. I know approximately when he is going to be home, so having a clean up time in the late afternoon will honor him so he doesn't need to feel the stress of the toys everywhere (even though they will just get taken out again when he plays with the girls!).

I was in charge of the crafts for the month, so the steering team asked me to make TP Pumpkins and fall luminaries. I had a large budget, but because of the generosity of my Nana, I came in WAY under! She gave me fabric and ALL of the canning jars for the luminaries! YEAH! I love that! Here are the pictures of what we made:


Amazing!

It is just amazing to me how awesome our Creator is! I was just thinking about how this time last year I was pregnant with Hannah and now she is crawling everywhere, pulling herself up on the furniture and saying things -- like dada, mama, nana (for Hannah)! In one year she has just transformed before our eyes! She has grown up... from milk to food. And boy does she LOVE food!

All of this growth is amazing, but I wonder if I am growing spiritually like that! I want to grow like a weed, to be so hungry for the Word that I just have to have it and have it NOW!!!! I am thankful that even though my kids are still young they seem to teach me things about God all the time!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Soccer finals

This school year has been very different for the Lightners. We are used to having Calvary up and running, but God had other plans for CCS this year. It has been a hard adjustment for all of the teens and for us. It has been really weird not seeing a lot of them every day and keeping up with all that is going on in their lives. That is why it has been even more important this year to make it to as many games of the teens as possible. We went to MANY soccer games, field hockey games, one volleyball game and even a football game. It was a lot of fun -- when the weather was nice.

On Saturday we went to the state class S girls finals. One of our teens -- our favorite baby sitter -- was playing for Derryfield. The game was at SNHU. We bundled up the girls in their snow suits and went to the bleachers. We were armed with lots of books and snacks. In this household that is all you need for a good time with friends -- maybe a puzzle or two some times.
We sat with the Durants and JD. I was so glad that we were all bundled up. (Notice that there were no pictures of my cute outfit!) After a full game tied 0-0, we went into overtime! I didn't get to see any of it because Hannah was starving. I went into the students' center to feed her baby food. When I came out the sudden death overtime was over and DS won! YEAH! (It is really weird to cheer for DS because in HS they were the enemy! We hated playing against them!) We were really pleased for Kelsey -- winning a championship your senior year is really special!


CONGRATS, Kelsey (aka KAKA)! We love you, babe!


Costumes

Our family doesn't celebrate Halloween, but since Grace LOVES dressing up in costumes, we usually get her a little something from the thrift store and dress her up. She has been a duck and a tiger and now she was a lamb. She was a great lamb, especially with special sound effects to go along with it. I think she was the most ferocious lamb you have ever seen!
As you can see we dressed Hannah in the duck costume that Grace had at this age. She was really cute with her round cheeks sticking right out! When she bent her head down you could really see the duck head -- it made me laugh every time.



After taking a few pictures, we took the kids to our neighbors' house. They don't know Jesus yet, so we take every opportunity to go over and share our lives with them. They loved seeing the girls in their costumes, and they distinctly remembered that we DIDN'T see them last year! OUCH! So I am VERY glad that we went this year. They gave Grace a ton of chocolate (she had no idea why they did this!) which melted all over her white costume on the way to the Illian's house! Oh well! She wasn't a spotless lamb anymore -- good thing, right? We spent a little time with the Illians and got to see Sadie in her ladybug costume! So cute!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Long time; no write

Sorry, that it has been so long since I have posted something on this blog. I will have to post a few things tonight to get you up to date on what is happening with the Lightners.
"The world needs Christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives."

The youth group has been going through the study of Francis Chan's Crazy Love. The quote above was taken from that book. OUCH! Danny read it a while ago and thought it was a MUST for the kids. They are doing the whole program with the video series as well. I just finished with it this morning in my devotional time! WOW! What a lot of thinking and changing there must be in my own heart! Basically he challenges us with the idea that God has a crazy love for us and we must reciprocate with that same kind of love. BUT most of us don't. We live in the luke- warm which is disgusting to Him. With all that He has done for us, we can't even live on fire for Him. Our God deserves our radical, obsessed, crazy love! I challenge you to read it as well. LIFE CHANGING STUFF HERE!!


"Christians are like manure: spread them out and they help everything grow, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly."