Hitting the Wall

After an exciting, crazy, busy month of preparing for the launch of LIFE Ministries next Monday (oh my word, next Monday!!), caring for a 4 month old and making some transitions in his feeding, taking care of a very active 4 1/2 year old, and walking through all of the complexities of being an almost 8 year old in a not so nice world, I am EXHAUSTED! Let me say it again... EXHAUSTED!!! So tired this morning that I feel like I can barely put one foot in front of the other. So, I'm trying to slow it down today. Maybe no shower. I might not even brush my teeth... at least for a little while. I know...gross...but it would take so much effort right now. :-) I've got to take care of a sick little Brennan. And walk through the joys and confusion of figuring out what is making little Asher's world turn today. My to-do list would fill up a legal pad right now, but I gotta take a day and just chill a little bit. I am pooped! Praying for God to restore me physically. Praying for my mind to rest. Praying for my body to relax. I'm so excited about the new beginning that next week brings for me and Randy. We will continue doing much of the same work we've been doing, but there are also new ideas and new plans that God is bringing to us. So, even though I feel like I might not make it up the stairs in my house today without needing to lay down at the top, my mind and spirit are filled with joy and anticipation about what God is up to.

On another note, my sweet husband is blogging again after a 3 month break. Randy has a gift with sharing his heart and God's heart in him through writing. His new blog address is www.lifeministriesnow.blogspot.com. Check it out!

Things I'm learning

Well, a mild stomach bug has been making its way through our home over the last week, and I'm the current recipient of the bug. I had planned to make it to church this morning, but when I wasn't sure I was going to keep my breakfast down, I decided that was a bad idea... for me and for everybody there. So, I spent some time in the word courtesy of my Breaking Free Session 7 video with Beth Moore. These are a few things God spoke to me today through the study, that might be for someone else along with me...

Our passion will be birthed from our pain. As much as I hate the truth of that...because that means I will go through pain that I don't want to go through...I know it's true. I am passionate for things that I never would have been without the pain that I've experienced.

Self-protection is the #1 way we can work ourselves out of our callings. Whoa! I have a deep appreciation for self-protection. Have I missed part of my calling because I've protected myself from the very thing it would have been birthed from? This statement will have me thinking for days to come.

In our culture, irritation has been redefined as tribulation. How true... how many things consume my mind and emotions and feel so huge that are actually just irritations of living on this planet, with broken human beings. I can't let the irritating things that we all face on a daily basis steal away my joy or my focus to serve Christ... isn't that exactly what Satan wants?

God wants to clean the impurities that are deep within me... the unhealthy, impure, immature, handicapped places...He will allow me to go through things that will draw those impurities to the surface, so He can deal with them, free me from them, and make me healthier and more whole. Praise God that He is always at work within me to continue to clean, heal, restore, and make me more into His image. The very things I struggle through are the situations He's using to make me more like Christ. Embrace them. He's not done with me!!! Hallelujah!

I was led to listen to some Steven Curtis Chapman songs following my Bible study time, and I ran across this song... the lyrics to the chorus of "Much of You" are my prayer today...

I want to make much of You Jesus
I want to make much of Your love
I want to live today to give You the praise
That You alone are so worthy of
I want to make much of Your mercy
I want to make much of Your cross
I give You my life
Take it and let it be used
To make much of You

I am grateful that God is working in me every single day even through circumstances that seem to have no good to come from them... to make me into His reflection. He has a long way to go and His work is cut out for Him, but thankfully He knows that, and He's not giving up! I want to make much of Him today....and every day...


BTW, breakfast stayed down... Yea!

Frustration.... and some Pictures!

Well, after hours of trying to get videos loaded onto here, to no avail, I have given up on that for now and I am putting up some pictures to enjoy. I hope to figure out the video thing, but after hours of my computer sitting and doing nothing but saying it was doing something with no results, I have given up. So, here are the Hempboys!

Caleb at school last week in PE - Square Dancing!!!















Caleb & his dance partner, Sally, getting their groove on at the square dance.















My 3 sons... how sweet. This picture was taken on the first Sunday that Asher went to church.















Caleb & Brennan being goobers.














Brennan rocking his tobaggan!




















Asher...just being cute!




















Asher sitting in his Bumbo seat for the first time.




















Asher playing in the Megasaucer for the first time... oh the memories of C & B in that thing! Check out his hair - it all stands straight up every day!














February 6th - Asher's 4 month birthday




















I so wish I could include the videos... Caleb dancing, Brennan singing at his school's Muffins for Moms program, and Asher "talking" to Brennan one day. I think my files just may be too big, so maybe I'll figure out something else with them.

We had some snow today... it was fun, but sadly, the snow has stopped and now the yard is just a mess. But the boys got some playtime and Asher went out for a few minutes for pictures... but that was after I downloaded all of the others, so those pics will come soon. I can only handle so much at one time...

Well, I'm missing Opening Ceremonies so I have got to get back to that. This post only took half of my day... and there's not that much to show for it. Must be why I don't blog more!

LIFE

Where to begin? When you have a couple of weeks away from blogging, it feels a little overwhelming when you return to it to know where to start. Mine and Randy's lives have taken a major turn in January, and there's been so many things going on, that I've just not had the time to even sit down and write about any of it. Even though my to-do list is a mile long, I'm taking a few minutes to sit down here and try to start getting caught up. Besides the major life transitions, there's some things related to the boys I want to share too. So, guess I'll be doing a lot of posts (hopefully) to get caught up to present day life!

The major transition that God blew us away with in January is that we are starting a brand new ministry of our own called LIFE Ministries. We have been serving with dear friends over the last 2 1/2 years with a ministry called Encounter, but God decided it was time to shake us up a bit, and push us out of our comfortable boat and into the water on our own. We are super excited as we begin to plan and dream and follow God in this journey. We will be doing very similar ministry to what we have been doing with marriages, men, and women, but this also will open up new opportunities for us that we haven't even begun to dream about. We will taking the month of February to transition and prepare, and we will launch LIFE on March 1st. To say the we have a few things to do would be a major understatement. But even the parts of this that seem overwhelming are things we are enjoying because we feel such peace as we are moving forward. As a friend said to us a few days ago, "God must be all over this, because this is just crazy!" We agree! It is pretty nuts, but God has been all over it from the beginning, so we're stepping out in faith and obedience, and letting Him show us what's next. We could not do this without the prayers and support of our friends and families and we are so grateful to not be doing this all alone. We can't wait to see what God wants to do with this. I'll update as we take the next steps.

I hope to get back on here in the next day or so to share new pictures of Asher at 4 months - which he turns today, and some video of Caleb square dancing at school - so sweet! And I'll throw in some of Brennan just being himself, which is funny enough!

One more thing... if you read this blog, click the "follow" button over there on the right. I'd love to know who is following our life and ministry. Thanks!

Jesus is LIFE!