Today is a Day that the Lord hath made

I must rejoice and be glad in it. It can be hard at times to make yourself to be a humble and joyous person when you really want to scream out injustice. Well, injustice would be an over statement... it wasn't really that bad. We had a beautiful day here on the farm, and I could have spent it getting things done but instead I went over 100 miles to drive to a photoshoot with Invierno.

We left messages before leaving to inform the customer that we were coming and after 1 1/2 hours of waiting for the person and leaving messages for her, she finally texted. She found out that she had to work, and that she would be done at 7pm. Obviously there is NO light at 7pm, and we surely were not waiting in a far off land for 4 hours when the shoot was scheduled at 3pm. Seriously, can't people cancel ahead of time? Even if she called 5 minutes before we left, we could have spared this gorgeous day of now waste.

We wasted not only the day but gas money and food money by needing to eat before our trek back home. When we ate, I prayed. Please Lord, make me humble and when things like this happen, make me like you and forgiving. Not just forgiving but also loving when all I really feel humanly is to vent at the persons.

God gave me the answer..... blogspot - - - now on to being loving.

An Undivided Heart

We become more like Christ on the inside…when we want God to be glorified in every aspect of our lives, instead of compartmentalizing our faith.

Multimedia Collage by Gillian Ross

An Undivided Heart

Whatever our lives look like from the outside, God looks on our hearts. Herein is determined our purity - or lack of it! So the 'heart' (in the painting) represents our hearts - our mind, will, emotions - the very 'fabric' of our lives, in all its multi-layered, multi-textured compartments. It is this heart that God longs to make pure, clean, undivided. This happens first through the 'washing by the blood' of Christ, signified here by the deep red, washing through every area of life, and continues throughout our lives as Christians as we are sanctified. As we allow God into each area of our lives, the compartments become less distinct, and our hearts become more unified. The gold signifies the purification process, which is God's work… impurities are purged through the Refiner's fire. As our hearts are transformed like this we can draw closer to Him: One day we will see Him as he is, and we do see Him now at work in our lives. The natural result of 'seeing God' is to worship Him - hence the figure in white in a posture of praise to God.

"Teach me your ways O Lord,
And I will walk in your path.
Give me an undivided heart,
And I will fear your name.
I will praise you,
O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever."
Psalm 86:11-1

Gillian Ross

It's been too long!

I have come to realize that I need to blog more. I finally logged into my account and found that it is has been over a full year of not blogging. Once I started Facebook I thought that my posts and picture sharing would serve for me to print the memories or comments but my printing habits didn't do justice to my reasoning. I will now go back to my blogging habit to share about our daily (maybe monthly) lives. ha
Maybe this can also double as my homeschool portfolio if I can keep up with our progress via the wonderful web world.
So, what is new in the Big C household? Dan still works as the manager of a Ford dealership and also is taking college classes in business just to keep up with the trends in his industry and his position. I homeschool the six children who are left at home, and I also take classes in psychology.

My oldest 2 are out on their own and learning more about life. Yes, they are doing quite well at that learning. I am thankful that God's hand is in their lives now that I cannot help God (ha) in their directions. We must....

"Let go and let God have His wonderful way,
Let go and let God have His way!
He'll fill with His Spirit and keep day by day.
Let go and let God have His way!"

Adam is now in Menominee working and his girlfriend Amanda, while working part time went back to school. If you are wondering if 2011 is the year for them to tie the knot.... we will all see. Our friends and family might not be surprised if they are invited to a wedding with a month's notice. I will let you know when I get my months notice.

Chey Baby is doing just that and is letting God have His way. She is working at YWAM Northwoods and though it might not be her desirable work plan, it is God's work plan for the time. She now has a Luke in her life. He is a great guy who loves His Lord before himself or Chey and always puts others needs and wants before his own. Dan happens to get another Viking fan in the family other than Uncle J. That is OK because Dan is happy to have someone to come over each week to watch football with him. Dan has no prejudiced to those men who wear purple. We Clarks are open minded in some areas you know.



Invierno (ha), is now heavy into her photography business. Check out her work at her website or on Facebook. http://www.inviernophotography.com/ For being this young she has learned more than most people in the later twenty's or more. She is being taught that a sixteen year old CAN pay IN taxes! lol

Jo loves her homework and ALL of it. Strange child, I know. She is exactly like her father and can understand anything about science. She also loves math and is now in my dreaded Algebra subject. Ewww, thankfully I have a very nice math teacher on disk.

Gabs is still into anything that is of pink color. She will never give up her alliance to that, ever! She is doing very well in school as well and her favorite subject is math. She might think this but that is what mom can see is her favorite because she is doing so well at it. Alright, I just asked her, and she did say math. I guess she knows where her giftings are ;)

Yes, I know... I need to add pics of J & G but this computer is not willing to produce any for me at this time. Another computer however will be much more willing.

JDog, he is the boy that gives us adventure each day. This kid never ceases to amaze me, and he is also exactly like his father, even the
weird quirks that make me roll my eyes. While I roll my eyes his father hides his chuckle. Men, hump-ft


E&J just turned 5! I sometimes sit and stare at them wondering if there was a way that I could keep each year of their life bottled up to save for my memories. Isn't there always something new to invent? Be watching for posts with their art work, videos of song & dance and maybe their sometimes backwards spelling.


Til we meet again my trusty blogsite ;) You are so faithful to remain here waiting for me.

Sneak Peek for G - The Best American - Columbian Wedding Ever!

G and Carrie at the reception

_snicker_

Ella

Spring!

Can you say, bad blogger?

Yes, that is me. The bad blogger. I have passed by the posting of holidays, family events, turmoil and defeats. This blog was dead and now needs to be resurrected.

Hallelujah! We are alive. Speaking of alive.....

I have no fear of falling dead from a pig virus. I stopped eating pork long ago. We also spray Thieves Oil, a little up the nostrils and some behind the ears will prevent a virus' catching on. I wash our hands with it daily. Thieves oil was the antidote that the thieves used to steal from people, alive or dead, when they had the bubonic plague. I trust their recipe, since we didn't come down with the strep throat that was being passed around in the past few months.

We endured!

Other than that we survived a trip to mall of America again. This time with another family with seven plus one kids. That added up to 15 kids! That was a fun time! :::: eyes roll :::: or was I just in a stupor after riding that roller coaster?

We have also outlived another year of homeschooling. Though I don't ever stop schooling because we still have math, science, reading and spelling in the summer. I am not a stickler about the summer studying, I merely want them to do a little each day to keep the reinforcement of what they had previously learned. I don't have to force the kids read. They do that on their own! Each of my oldest girls picks up books from the library every two days. I am trying to reduce that because it is a lot of running.
Wynter reads a book a day! I can't keep up with that, so she needs to start requesting 14 books at one time. Oh...... the book "Roots" did take her more than a day to read!

I will end with showing some goodies we have ordered for the 2009-2010 school year.

We ordered all of our curriculum through our public virtual school program. They gave us a whopping $9500.00 this year to spend on materials! I spent that fast. That was fun! Can we say $ Discount School Supplies? That is one of my favorite places to shop. We love art!

Here are more of my latest order spots .....

TaeKwonDo

Tae Kwon Do Class

Apple Orchard Homeschool Field Trip

Apple Orchard Homeschool Field Trip - Oct 1st 2008

Pumpkin Patch Homeschool Field Trip - Sept 29th

Love, Intentionally Speaking - 40 days of Lovin!

So this has been a subject everywhere lately. Love. You would imagine it to be everywhere, right? No so. Not really. We in all actuality do NOT love as much as we think we do. Especially if it is with intention. Do I love intentional? Gosh, this love thing has been all around me. I just can't shake it. Church has been preaching on it, devotions, websites I randomly delve into, bible studies and Friday night worship. It wouldn't be strange if it weren't all the same subject and even verses. Crazy things never cease to amaze me. Speaking on the worship night now, it was a crazy thing and is still a crazy thing. What goes on there. Wild party? No, snicker. Just God.

I can close my eyes and listen to praises and See God, hear God and feel the harshness but gentleness at the same time of His love. Why does it hurt? It makes my heart so heavy. I have never felt my heart so heavy. It hurts so much because when I feel His love I feel what He did for us. That makes me hurt and cry. It makes me love Him even more.

Well if that isn't enough to rock me out of my seat it just had to happen again this past week. It was on how we treat people. Intentional kindness. Not only how we treat the stranger but how we treat our brother. Are we INTENTIONAL? Realness. Heartfelt intentional? Do we just do what we need to do, of what is expected of us. Or do we go out of our "self" and find God's love (His love) to come out of us? If we had Gods love come out of us you know the person would FEEL it!
Just as I felt Gods love I wish I could love others that way! Why can't I? Because I am human and I was a sinner, but at times I fall into sin. Selfishness is my sin.
Not having enough time to do more talking to my brother who isn't my friend in daily living, not having time to just stop and tell someone that I like her dress (cause it happens ya know... we see that gorgeous girl in the store aisle and love the dress she is wearing... why can't we stop and tell her how pretty she looked in it.

lol, my husband can refrain from that intentional kindness though... hehehehe

How does the stranger see us as Christians? As political activists? As judgmental people? How do they see us treat our brother? Do they see us extend love and compassion? At Friday worship there were many words of familiarity to me as of late. One that grabbed me was annoy. People who annoy you or have sinned you.

I have been annoyed lately. A person annoyed me. A brother annoyed me. God was speaking at me. I loved it.

I wanted to cry out how much I appreciate God slapping me by words. If the said person who annoyed me offended me I could be justified to take offense. We are to take offense of sin. We are to call sin sin. But, we are to love. To be unified with our brother. The proximity doesn't need to be close. Just enough to stay a healthy relationship. We are to though, to take that offense and throw it away. Forgive and throw. At that minute, when he talked about how we are annoyed with what our brother does to us, I smiled and felt peace. Forgiveness and love. Unified. Why? Why not still be mad at the issue? Because it is baggage. I sure don't want my offensive actions to be my brothers baggage. I have much too much to carry. Would I want my brother to carry my sins? Golly, no! I would get God to take those off of his hands because I am barely able to lift them.

So fast-forward to today. Church. Church and the word love. The number 40! How unreal is the number 40 to me. The 40 day fast starts next Wed. Want to join me? I want to give up myself to my Lord and fast for our nation. It lasts until election day. Also is a new movie coming out called Fireproof. It is about how a man finds 40 FORTY!!!!!!!!!! ways to show love to his wife the love she was lacking. Do we lack at showing love? Let's find 40 ways to love people while we fast for 40 days!

Intentional. Jesus freak love. Are we still Jesus freaks? Did the song die out so we stopped being freaky? I felt stagnant. I really felt stagnant yesterday. My family was in line for a child's golfing game booth at a fall festival. The line was long. All of a sudden 6 or so kids butted in front of us. I said "Hey hey kid" pointing at the first boy and his posse to get back at the end. He replied with a confused look that she, (pointing at my friend in back of me) told them to. I looked at her with a strange look saying "You did?" She said "Yes, sometimes I just want to be nice like that". Great! That INTENTIONAL love of God was in her and I just made those kids confused by acting like the "other" friend wouldn't have been that nice. I was NOT intentional! Pssssshhhh! I felt like a loser.

There was also a high media news case on my mind where I felt judgmental without love. It is a news story that the media had played out. I am not sure what it is at now but it is about a young mother in Florida who has a missing child. I read the news reports and I judged. I think rightfully so, imo. Who knows how it ends. The point here is: if you have heard about that story, how do you feel about that mother? Stop and think. How are you feeling?

Is it Gods love for her? Some of us may not be showing her the love we should be. Are we at her door with picket signs shouting? Are we trying to grab her hand in the crowd to pray for her? If she could feel my hand right now, I would pray, pray hard. No matter what I feel is right I would want to show her love. Gods love. He created her. He created us in His gorgeous image. So if she is in the image of Christ shouldn't we show so much love that satan gets AWAY from her? Satan wants us to be mad, satan wants us to hate, satan wants the stranger to NOT see our love.

Though I didn't state my views about this case to a stranger, I did state them to my older daughters. I didn't scream to stone the mother but my views did show as a strong hatred. I wish now that they could have seen a difference. A hatred toward the sin that may have occurred but a love for the mother. I don't think I showed that difference.

Do we show differences when we talk about things that we dislike? I must start. These are MY daughters that I need to must bring up with love in mind, fully and foremost.

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be in time
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

Monsters in your bed?

Why Oh Why have I not heard of Protect-A-Bed? http://myprotectabed.com
I found this over @ http://metropolitanmama.net/2008/06/sail-away-to-a-good-nights-sleep-contest/
It could have saved me many bottle leaks and the never ending potty training dangers. With co-sleeping with twins as well as another kiddo jumping in the bed in the middle of the night there has always been strain on "our" bed. Wait, is it really our bed? lol
For anyone who is just starting off I shout out a big shout to http://myprotectabed.com You will be saved. Salvation from the hidden monsters that creep into your bed at night.

Summertime Fun

I saw a link to the blog 5 Minutes For Mom on a friends blog. They're having a photo contest that ends at 3 p.m. tomorrow Wednesday, August 13th

"Summertime fun" is the topic. Twin sisters in white dresses, rock collecting on a sandy beach. What could be more fun?

Lessons in Sharing

Summer 2008

I thought I would share some pictures since I haven't blogged in forever and a day. Other than our medical trips we try to stay sane at home. I am thankful for Gods blessings through this summer. We are ahead in school so we took a few weeks off this summer! I have been battling my garden but a friend has been here to help me through the hard times. Dan is busy at his newest job but has made time to help with my garden battles and to host cook outs at his

favorite spot, the campfire. We also found him a friend who doesn't use a grill! The kids have had great times going to birthday parties this summer. I think it is neat to see different party ideas and party favors they make. Their summer has been fun though we have
had trials. Each day they beg to go to the river with friends to swim and find leeches. They love playing flag football. Jed's buddies have been teaching him how to be a man and how to use tools and weapons "safely and responsibly". Gabby has been having fun with her girl friends. Wynter has finally found her long lost twin who can talk just as much as she can. Cheyenne has been making more memories with the other 2 parts of her 3 Musketeer gang and took off to Bolivia for a couple of weeks. Josey, has finally met someone who shares her building, carving, fort making, Lego designing, rock throwing interests. - who says she can't be best buddies with a boy? Last but not least, the twins have been having fun just trying to keep up with us all!

Kids and History

This is what my kids did yesterday after history class. Drama makes it even more fun :)

This music gets me SO happy

Glenda SCRAPPED me!

and she scrapped me good too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

take a peek. How cool is this chick anyway? I don't think anyone could get any more cool.

I have now deemed tea tree oil ineffective...

at least for treating the flu, it is! Or at least it was for me.
Actually, this is Cheyenne, Karen's daughter. I am posting for her, after just getting off the telephone with her. These are her words, possibly embellished upon, but I get that embellishing gift from her anyways...

Ahem.

So. The Tea tree oil didn't work. I have been down with the flu for the past few days. Sick sick sick! Jed had it at the same time as me, then it went through everyone else. *except Cheyenne because she is just that cool*
Anyways, it was misery. Took off AWANA tonight, keeping the kids quarantined at home. No catching, no carrying here. Then tonight, when I am finally feeling better, I have a horrific allergic reaction to something in our home. Probably because of all of the construction and such going on. Something did not agree with me. I would have died if Dan hadn't gotten me to the hospital in time. I could not breathe, and my eyes were swelled shut. It was frightening. Right now my face is still so swelled up, I look like Herman Munster *her words exactly*! Ugh. It is horrible. Dan was very scared too. Running red lights to get to the ER in time. The doctors said my lungs were the worst part. It must have been something I breathed in. Now to find out what that was and stay far far away from it! Keep my and my family in your prayers so this doesn't reoccur. Quite the adventure of the night. And one I could have done without. God wiling, it won't happen again. I can't wait for all of this to be done. :)
~Karen

Our House Project