Haiti shirts fundraiser

We’ve sold them before, but maybe you missed it last year! Now’s your chance to get a HAITI SHIRT!!!

They are $20 and we’ll have sizes YM through adult XL (we can do bigger for $2 more per shirt)

They are printed on a navy Anvil shirt and they are super soft!

If you live out of town and need it shipped to you it’s $5 extra for shipping.

The money made on these shirts will go to our church for the Haiti trip that we just went on and future trips to Haiti with the Austin Stone Community Church.

Email me your orders: jamie@aaronivey.com

Here’s my whole family in our shirts:

Now she’s gone.

It is always an odd thing when you see something on Licia or Lori’s blog that you have seen with your own eyes.  Seeing the place they work and do ministry changes the way you view their blog, see their pictures and read their stories.  It is like you can truly imagine it in your mind because you’ve seen where they live and work.

This hit home today when I read it because when we were there I sat on a bench RIGHT NEXT to this woman as Lori attempted to look in her throat.  There I was in Haiti on a bench next to her and now she’s gone.  Looking back I wish I would have held her hand.  I wish I would have told her she was beautiful.  I wish I would have asked her if she knew Jesus.

Now she’s gone.

Go HERE to see how you can help her family bury her.

Good day for goals

MONDAY:

No cheese:  CHECK

Up early:  CHECK

workout:  NOPE

No fb,  blog, etc while kids awake:  CHECK

So today was good for me. I stuck by most of my goals.

Tomorrow will be a fabulous day – run in the morning (not up early since I’m still up at 1AM) and date day with Aaron!!!!

Adoption Update

We have no official update on our status, but to give you an understanding of where we are, here’s what one blog says:

Currently, there are about 350 files inside the downstairs MOI office. There are about 200 files in the upstairs (Office of Juritique) office.

About 30 files were having passport authorization letters typed up on Friday morning. Thus, there is movement. )

Thanks for the update on your blog Vera.  Please go HERE to read the whole information on files in MOI.  I have no idea where the MOJ part is in the whole process, but last I heard that’s where we are right now.

getting kids to pray

We have not always been the best at praying with our kids.  I know we’re very bad parents.  Aaron and I have never been big on praying before we eat our meals.  It seems so forced and we’ve kinda avoided it during our married life.  BUT now that we have kids I want them to see us praying more often.  I also want to have them praying more.  I also want them to see an ongoing conversation with God that we are able to have.  Praying with them at night is a good thing and I LOVE this time together.

So, all that to say we’ve been praying more around here.  We pray before our meals and just recently quit asking WHO would like to pray and instead just TELLING someone to pray.  That makes all the difference in the world.  We’ve been talking lots about how God hears us all the time and is ready to listen whenever we want to talk.

I have one child that wants to pray and one that hates it. Deacon says the sweetest prayers that could melt your heart.  He’s a heart breaker and his prayers are no different!  My favorite line that he prays all the time is “God thank you for letting us be thankful”.  Oh my goodness I smile every single time he says that.  It also never fails that when Aaron’s out of town he prays that God helps daddy to not fall off the stage.    How cute!  I don’t think Aaron’s ever fallen off the stage, and it could be merely by the prayers of his 3 year old!

Cayden does not like to pray.  He never wants to.  He just goes through the motions.  He acts like he doesn’t know what to thank God for.  It DRIVES ME INSANE.  On one hand I want to scream that he can’t think of anything to be thankful for, but on the other hand I don’t want to scar him for life with making him pray when he doesn’t want to.

I had an idea the other day and so far it is working fabulous for our kids and especially the one that doesn’t enjoy prayer time.  I got an index card box and some index cards and I wrote on them people we would like to pray for.  I have added family members, friends that are adopting, missionaries, the kids teachers and our church.  We’ll continue to add stuff to the box as things arise.  This is awesome for us and for me as well.  It keeps these requests close to our hearts and keeps them rotating often.  It also allows me to tell someone that YES we’ll pray for you and truly mean it.  We may not pray every night for that person, but at least a few times a month their name will pass through our prayer nights!

Each night the kids pick a card from the front of the box and that’s their card to pray for that night.  It gets them excited and they can’t wait to see what card they are going to get.  I hope that this doesn’t wear off or become boring.  Until then this is our new system and a few days into it the kids are loving it and it’s going well.  This has helped Cayden and given him some direction during our prayer times at night.

Any other ideas you have for cultivating a love for prayer with your kids?

What I learned this week

I gave myself permission to be a big slacker this week. I wanted to be lazy.  Sleep however long I wanted to, and basically do just about NOTHING!  While Fedna was here I didn’t sleep well and never got a full night’s sleep without interruptions, so I was taking a week to do whatever I wanted!

However I also want to try to be a better mom now that it’s just the boys.  I want to get a routine down so that when we have four kids I don’t lose it around here and can keep my act together when they come home.  *Note to readers – I know I’ll go crazy when we go from 2 to 4, but I’m just trying to get my feet planted on the ground before they arrive.*

So this week I decided I was going to try and get up BEFORE my kids get up each day and be ready to greet them when they got up.  You know that cheery, happy mom look.  I want that!    What usually happens is that the kids come in our room in the morning and we keep sending them back to their beds to read some more books until we’re ready to get up!  Then when I get up I’m usually racing to catch up, grouchy and not ahead of my kids.

From Monday through Sunday I got up before my kids THREE days … so 3 out of 7 – not too good, but it was the first week!  The days I did get up before them were AMAZING!  Yes I was tired when I got up initially, but it was SO MUCH BETTER.  I was showered and dressed.  I had prayed and read my bible and drank a cup of coffee before I even saw their sweet smiling faces.  I felt like I was more equipped for the day!

Another goal is to start running again.  You see what I normally do is train for a race and get in good shape, then run the race and then quit running.  It is so awful.  I can’t ever stay in shape.  I’m always getting back into shape!  This week I ran four times.  Two with kids and two without.  The times with kids kicked my tail. UGH.  Awful!  So hopefully I can keep up the running!

I learned something really awful about myself this week.  I learned that given the opportunity to do nothing and waste lots of time, I can do that very well.  I wasted lots and lots of time this week.  Nothing I can do about it now, and actually it was kinda nice to do nothing, but starting tomorrow a NEW day is dawning!!!  This week I will try to be a better steward of my time.  I will try to get up before the kids and be ready to start the day physically, emotionally and spiritually.  I will also NOT get on FB, bloglines, or twitter while my kids are awake.  It sucks me in and dries me out.  Before you know it you’ve been at the computer for 40 minutes while the kids are running crazy!  Not this week!

I’m also giving up cheese this week.  Sounds weird I know, but seriously I can’t tell you how many times a day I eat a string cheese.  Or at night I eat 2 or 3 slices of cheese while watching tv.  I know, I’m a weirdo.  So, this week NO CHEESE FOR SNACKS.

I think I’m trying to do LOTS this week.  Maybe too much.  I hope I don’t fail at all of them!

Here’s my goals for the week:

• NO cheese for snacks
• get up before the kids at least 4 times this week
• run at least 3 times this week
• NO fb, bloglines, twitter or meanless google searches while kids are awake!

wow lots of goals in one week!  if you see my on FB – call me out!!!!

Any of you working on any goals lately?

Malatya Film

If you live in Austin I encourage you to get your tickets to see this movie.  Malatya

I just bought Aaron tickets to this film.  GO HERE to get your tickets.  They even have childcare at one of the screenings, which comes in handy!!!

lipstick that never ends

I’m not a lipstick kinda girl. Chap stick is about all I need. Lately though I’ve been feeling as though I need a little more color on my face. I thought I should invest in some new lipstick even though I’m not always good at remembering to put it on. I hate how when you drink or eat it all comes off and you never know if you’ll actually still have it on or not. You see I’m just not that much of a lipstick girl.

Yesterday I was at CVS picking up a prescription and some flour tortillas, I know very random. When I spotted a lipstick claiming to stay on for a long time. In fact I think they even suggested all day long! Yeah right, I thought, but it’s worth a try.

So I purchased some N.Y.C Smooch Proof, Long-wearing Lip Color #488 for about $5. I was so anxious to get home and try it out. The test would be dinner. How would it fair through taco night?

Well before I went to bed it was still there. I tried to take it off so my white sheets would stay smooch free through the night. It wouldn’t budge off. I scrubbed it, and nothing happened, so I just went to bed.

I kid you not it is 8:30 AM and it is still on, and actually looks good. Here’s proof of the lipstick still being there and you can tell I just showered and it’s STILL there!

So this really is the PERFECT lipstick for me.  I can use it on Sunday and hopefully by Wed it will still be looking good!  This can’t be healthy, right?

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Aaron gets coupons every Monday from Redbox for us to get a free movie. What a great deal! I mean we have Netflix, but sometimes we don’t have a movie on Monday nights and did I mention it’s a free night! Well it never works that way for us. Tonight is Thursday and I just now watched our “free” movie, so this “free” movie just costs us $3 plus some change!

Anyhow … What a wonderful movie I watched tonight. I highly recommend THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS to you guys. There have been many great movies over the holocaust, and I have enjoyed lots of them, but this one was different. It is a movie through the eyes of an 8 year old German boy, whose father is an officer in the army. Wow it is so good. I only wish I would have read this book first, because I imagine it is fabulous!

Stuart Little

We FINALLY finished CHARLOTTE’S WEB last night.  Yes I cried.  The boys thought I was crazy.  Aaron thought I had lost it.  Charlotte died and it moved me.  I knew she would die.  The boys knew she would die.  Still I cried.

We ventured out to the library today and we are now reading STUART LITTLE that was also written by E.B. White.  I have a long list of books that people recommended lately and so we’ll slowly move through them.

Sometimes when I read to my kids I wonder if they’re really listening or not.  Cayden seems to enjoy it much more, which is no surprise to me.

So tonight we tackled three chapters in our new book …12 more to go!