Our Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas! I hope this finds you all having a wonderful and peace-filled holiday! We have had quite a year and can’t wait to spend a few weeks reflecting on it and enjoying all our blessings.

Jack started our year off with a bang by making his grand entrance into the world three and a half weeks early and catching his mommy quite unprepared. I guess I’ve just gotten so used to being late with everything:) He’s such a sweetheart, though, that we just can’t imagined how we ever got by without him.

Brenna is our little princess. I am loving all the hair bows, playing dress up, and baby dolls that go along with having a little girl who is two and a half. She is such a little doll herself, although being a princess does come with a certain amount of attitude. We’re working on that!

Levi turns five this month. One day this fall he reached up in church and put his hand on my shoulder - he’s really turning into quite a little man. He played weeball this year and had such a great time. Actually we all had a great time. It must be the Warnock in us!

We started home(pre)schooling this fall. Lots of field trips like this one to the pumpkin patch. So far we’re having a great time and learning a lot! I can’t tell y’all how much I have loved being at home this year!

Casey is still working hard, but he always makes time to hang out with us and he’s teaching a Sunday School class that he really enjoys. He and the kids especially love wrestling before bedtime!

I hope you’re all enjoying the holidays with your family and counting all your blessings! Merry Christmas!

Focusing Christmas

The kids and I are having a great time using our Adornaments this Christmas. They were a Christmas gift last year from my Uncle Curtis - and an answer to prayer. We all know how crazy Christmas can get and last year I was desperate for a way to stop all that. I wanted to teach my kids what Christmas (and Easter!) is really about and I had no idea how to do that. But my Father has spent all year answering that prayer and, though I imagine this is a lesson I'll be learning for a long time, this Christmas is already so much more meaningful than last year.
One thing I'm doing with the kids is hanging one adornament each day and reading the story that goes along with it. These are little cardboard "book" ornaments that each tell one of the Names of Christ. The kids love them and I love that we have a time everyday to stop and focus on Christ at Christmas. These are really pretty and come in a boardbook that looks very nice out on a table next to the tree displaying the ornaments to come and storing them neatly(big-time important at my house!) :) And Amazon has a new set for around $10 including shipping. A great deal if you ask me!

My boy is FIVE!

He's grown so much from just a year ago!


How can he be five already? It's going by to fast:(

A must read

This article is so disturbing, but such a must read for moms and dads. Thanks to Amy and Holly for pointing it out.
As I was reading it I couldn't help but flash back to movies that Casey and I watched a few years ago (back when I could still reason to myself that they were "just movies"). Many of the horrific "trends" that the author mentions were in movies just a few years ago. It seems pretty obvious to me that life certainly does imitate "art" (though I hate to use that word in relation to the filth that's out there these days) instead of simply reflecting what's already out there as the media claims. Just another reason why children need shelter.

Levi's Legos

My future architect. His main complaint in life is I need more of this shape! How many legos is enough?

Brenna napping...

Coming in from the grocery store yesterday just proved too much for Brenna. I did go down and carry her up to nap on the couch after I took the picture - it was just too cute to resist:)

Really Beautiful Children's Books

Today was library day and, as always, I let the kids pick out a few books a piece in addition to the ones I had on my list for them. And then I saw a few new books that our wonderful Mrs. Moore was putting out. The artwork on the cover was just beautiful. So beautiful in fact that I picked up the whole stack of them:) The Library, The Gardener, The Friend, The Journey...all lovely. I'd never read anything by Sarah Stewart or seen illustration by her husband David Small, but after spending an hour curled up on the couch with my kiddies, I am sold. I loved these books. The stories are so sweet. It was especially wonderful to read them after finding that I couldn't read the book I brought home about Thanksgiving. I was looking for something that told the story of the first Thanksgiving. I assumed I would have to add to the story to tell about God's Provision. I just wanted a nice basic story. But I was in a hurry at the library and didn't look carefully at what I was picking up. This book, called The First Thanksgiving, looked good. Hmm, maybe I do judge a book by its cover. It begins by talking about Plymouth Rock being a "wandering pilgram" and leaving "its home in Africa two hundred million years ago." It goes on to talk about the Englishmen killing and enslaving the Indians, the great European plague, how the Pilgrams called the Indians savages, and on and on. Now I'm not one to sugarcoat history, but for cryin' out loud. So. Anybody have a suggestion for me about a good First Thanksgiving book? This one is going right back to the library.

Amy on the SImple Life

Go here and read this. Amy writes what I would think if I were getting enough sleep to put two thoughts together:)

Chapter 10 No Ordinary Home

Dawn sent us all some coffee to enjoy this morning while we chat about chapter 10. Isn't she the sweetest:)? I really needed some caffeine to get me moving this morning!
Speaking of my adopted big sis Dawn:), she wrote a great summary for us of this chapter. While you're checking that out, check out what she wrote about weight-training. Very motivational (and just what I needed this morning), but then hop on back over here because this chapter is chock-full of stuff to talk about.
First let me tell y'all that last Easter for me was so so similar to the Easter that Carol describes at the beginning of the chapter. We had a new baby and I was just starting to settle in to a new routine. Many family members and church family members were having health problems or one type of crisis or another. It just seemed like no one was in a worship sort of mood. And that went for me too. The night before Easter I was at Walmart (I despise going to walmart the night before anything - although it is a family tradition!) buying Easter clothes because it's always been our tradition to wear new clothes on Easter. But do you think I was enjoying myself? Do you think I was focused on the reason for those new clothes? Celebrating that we are born anew in Him? Not hardly. We made it through the next day - church service, sing all the Easter hymns, hurry home to finish making dessert and rush over to my sil's for dinner and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. When Carol writes "Today was another mad dash to get hats and gloves, diaper bags and Easter baskets. Once there, the music was stirring, the sermon impressive. But my spirit was flat. I feel flat...fat and flat," well that was me! I prayed and prayed over the next few weeks that God would never let me experience another Easter with so little attention to Him, so little praise, so little appreciation. I asked Him to show me how to worship Him and how to teach my children to worship Him. Reading this book has been one of His many answers to that prayer.
An idea that Carol heard from her friend Wendy (so glad that I'm not the only one with brilliant friends who don't mind sharing their great ideas!) was making an Easter tree. When I lived in Germany as a little girl, they had Easter trees - beautiful spring blooming branches tied with intricately painted hallow eggs and little wooden figures of bunnies and birds. Very beautiful, but not exactly what this Easter tree is all about. This Easter tree is a wonderful way to focus on God's covenant with His people throughout the season of Lent. Let me let her explain it.
"She would trace His promise, beginning with creation and ending at the empty tomb. She would trace His faithfulness and His children's unfaithfulness. Each night John and she would teach the children the biblical story, and then they would put an ornament on the tree to represent the story. She would begin the tree on Ash Wednesday and finish it the Monday after Easter."
This idea just really grabbed me. I was so excited when I read it - something we could do! I could just picture all of us gathered around, Casey reading the Biblical account, the kids solemnly taking turns hanging the ornament on the tree...Then I came back to reality and remembered that my kids are little! And we're all lazy! And no one around here ever takes turns! So perhaps my vision needed some tweaking. So I went to the Father and asked Him what to do about Easter (and about Christmas while I was at it:) ) and He's still telling me. If I took anything away from this chapter I hope it's forever chiseled in my brain to go to Him first and not just start making my own plans about how to worship Him or serve Him or even live for Him. So often I assume I know what He wants for me without even asking...
So let's talk some about how we can spend the time leading up to Easter focusing on Him and preparing our hearts for Him. Maybe for some of us, making an Easter tree is going to be a definite possibility - if so, how do you think you'll go about it? Or if not, what other things will you do? What kinds of Easter traditions do you already have that may need to be refocused? And, most importantly, what is our Father leading you to do to worship Him?

Baby Jack

Look at the eyelashes on this kid!

Haircut Day

My friend Debbie and I got haircuts together last night! We donated a long ponytail apiece to Locks for Love. And got a night out with no kids! Aren't we cute?

For all our Presbyterian friends

The other day in the grocery store a nice older lady stopped Levi to ask about the bat he had painted on his cheek. He told her all about Trunk or Treat at church and had a nice conversation with her while I tried to decide which flavor of yogurt to buy. Then my little missionary-in-the-grocery-store said "ma'am, do you go to church?" She smiled and said yes, she went to First Presbyterian and where did he go to church? "Oh. (looking kind of sad for her) Well, we just go to a regular church."

Katrina's Big Idea

Katrina at Callapidder Days had a great idea and, as usual, I'm quite a bit behind on joining in. The idea is to actually plan what we're going to read this fall so that we can accomplish something. Now that will be a big deal for me:) I'm always reading, but it seems I never get to really process what I've read. I hurry and get it back to the library on time (yeah, sure I do) or I hurry through so I can start something else. But all the great books in the world aren't going to do me any good if I don't remember what they said. So my goals for this fall are to read these books and either write a review for here (if I think y'all might be interested) or at least make some notes for myself). All these before January1st!
1. Seeking Him: Experiencing the Joy of Personal Revival
My ladies' group at church is going to use this one for our next study. It's supposed to be a twelve week study but we're going to stretch it out over the next year because we only meet once a month. I really (REALLY!) wish we could meet once a week, but that's just not happening right now. I'll definitely be reading ahead though:)
2. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
I just finished this one (and no it's not cheating to add books I already read if I read them this fall, cut me some slack people!) and it was great. I expected it to reinforce our determination to homeschool, but it was full of insight about how education could be handled for all our nation's children. Really got me motivated to think a little more about what we need to do for all children and not just what I want for my own kids.
3. Teaching the trivium: Christian homeschooling in a classical style
I'm working on this one and it is a BIG book:) I've done a lot of reading on homeschooling and educational theories and all that jazz. After reading The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home shortly after we decided to teach our own kids, we had settled on the Trivium or Classical approach to use as the backbone for our homeschool. I knew I would be pretty eclectic, but I really liked having the Trivium as sort of a guide to go by. Teaching the Trivium is great because it really makes the distinction between teaching something because it will make our kids well-educated and teaching them because it will help them in the Christian walk. A side note - after reading the chapter on languages, I told Casey I really thought I'd like to make Greek the first foreign language we work on (possibly the only depending on how much affinity any of us show for languages). He said "I thought we decided that a long time ago." Apparently he'd decided a long time ago and just hadn't mentioned it!
4. Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends
This book is written by an actual brother and his sisters and I just have to check it out. It is so so so important to me for our kids to be friends. My brother and I were grown before we really became close - we fought like cats and dogs most of the time growing up (although I loved him back then; I just couldn't have admitted it!). I hate to think of all that time we wasted and how close we came to killing each other...
5. Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers,
I actually already read this one, too:) It was quite good. I enjoyed knowing that there are enough people out there who are living out values similar to mine to warrant writing a book about us:) I certainly didn't agree with everything the author had to say (differences over religious ideas come to mind) but I would still really recommend it. It's so great to hear Christians calling other Christians to think through what they believe and then Live.That.Way.
6. How to Be a Budget Fashionista: The Ultimate Guide to Looking Fabulous for Less
Lest y'all think I never read anything fun:) I'm slowly (but surely! but did I mention slowly:() losing weight and I have to start dressing better. I'm sick of jeans and a t-shirt or jeans and a sweater 6 days a week and the same old dresses or skirts on Sunday. really I just can't take it any more!
7. The Fat Flush Plan
Barbara Curtis has had such fabulous success using this that I can't wait to read up on it. I'm not officially dieting just yet, but Jack will be a year old soon and I think by then I may be ready to wean him either entirely (sniff, sniff) or enough so that my dieting won't be an issue.
8. Small Beginnings
Speaking of Barbara, I love her writing style, especially when she writes straight to moms. I think this one will be a big hit with me.
9.Girl Talk Mother-Daughter Conversations on Biblical Womanhood
Brenna is only two, but I figure it can't hurt to go ahead and start thinking about these kinds of conversations. And there are lots of other young women in my life that I'd like to positively influence. I've heard a lot of good buzz about this one - I think I'll enjoy it.

Well, that's it for the fall. I know I'll probably read a lot of other stuff this fall. I usually have a couple of books going at a time. But these are the books I'm committed to really delving into. And making this list has been such a blast (yay nap time!) that I might do it every season:) Thanks, Katrina!

Do you ever just feel ....?

I am not even sure what word to put there. The last two weeks have been (in no particular order) scary and devastating and empty and chaotic and unproductive and busy and stressful and... and nothing even really happened. How is that for twisted? Nothing particularly out of the ordinary has happened at my house and I've been right here, plodding along. But all around me there is stress and heartbreak and just a steady stream of negativity. And I've been very yucky feeling (for lack of any real way to explain it). I love my husband, I love my kids, I love my church, my family, my friends and I love my God. But I feel cold and drained and unattached. Everything on the outside is going so smoothly (well, almost everything) but on the inside I feel like I'm watching someone else's life. Does that make any sense at all? And I know this is just a temporary thing and that I'll get through it, I'm just not sure how I go about getting through it. Anyone out there with a good swift kick in the pants for me? I 'd appreciate it:)

MOnday check in on Wednesday

It has been a pretty busy week, but I thought I'd post a check-in anyway. Better late than never, right? This last week and a half has been...rough. And of course I know why - I've been busy and let that squeeze out my time with Him. Knowing I need it, knowing I can't do this without His constant help. SO I'm not surprised that it's been hard to give up reading while I eat. I mean this is a lifelong habit, literally, and it's something that part of me does not WANT to give up. I know I need to and I know that the reward will far out-weigh the loss, but part of me is still as stubborn little girl stomping my foot and howling "I DON"T WANT TO!" My Father is teaching me self-control - I just wish I was a faster learner.

Kids are funny:)

Levi is in the kitchen crunching on chips without asking. So I calmly say "Levi what are you doing?"
He says "Oh nothing. Just a little ingestment."
I say "what?"
"Just a little ingestment - I'm trying to test what happens when the food you chew goes down the long pipe into your ingestines. First I have to chew it into tiny pieces. I'm using these chips."
I think he's figured out that I'm a sucker for anything that sounds like he's learning:)

Monday check in

I sit here in awe at the power of my Father. Something that seemed like an impossible goal last week, by His strength, was a breeze. An absolute breeze! I have a real hard time not turning to food for stress relief. An especially big problem was that quiet time when the kids are in bed and Casey's just left for work. Every night as soon as it got quiet, I'd think "now I can grab a book and sit down and eat something!" The bigger the stress or better the book, the longer I'd want to stay at the table reading and eating. And then I'd go to bed. So that ain't healthy. Last Sunday night I really prayed about this and through the whole week I didn't eat after supper even once. I'll admit to being tempted a time or two, but it was amazingly easy to say "I don't eat after supper any more" and walk away. As if...the food didn't have any hold over me any more! Now the day time was still chaotic and I didn't really pay much attention to what I ate then (beyond making sure I wasn't eating between mealtimes). But I couldn't believe how much of a difference praying about this (and the prayers of lots of others, THANK YOU!) made this last week. It's really reaffirmed for me that God does really desire for me to do this, and that He really is willing to actively help me. He isn't just up there handing me assignments and then leaving me to my own devices to accomplish them. And since I know He will help me, I'm feeling brave enough to tackle what I think will be the toughest challenge of this whole thing. This is a behaviour that is absolutley ingrained in me - I've been doing this for as long as I can remember and I'll admit I love it. I don't really even like the idea of giving it up, but I know I need to. And I know I'll need a lot of prayer to be able to! This week, starting now, I'm no longer going to read while I eat. Whoo. I'm going to be real honest here. The idea of eating without reading holds no appeal for me. I can't even imagine just sitting down and eating something without anything else to do. The only time I ever don't read while I eat is when we're all at supper. At breakfast and lunch I usually talk to the kids while they eat and then when they're done, I grab a book and whatever I'm going to eat. SO this is going to be a large shift in how I do things. Please pray for me if you feel led to. I sure would appreciate it!

Works For Me Wednesday - The Classic Edition

The other Shannon over at Rocks in My Dryer hosts this great event so go check out all the fabulous ideas. Everyone is re-running their favorite tip today so there should be some oldies-but-goodies! Here's mine!


I haven't had time to read all the entries today, so I hope this isn't a repeat.I make fajita kits for nights when we're really busy. Frozen peppers and onions in one ziploc bag, frozen (fully cooked, seasoned and sliced) chicken in another bag, tortillas in another bag, and shredded cheese and taco sauce in smaller ziploc bags. Then I put all of that in a BIG bag and stick it in the freezer. I can grab one out, heat everything up and have dinner ready in less than 20 minutes

Monday - Health goals check in

It's been a few weeks since I checked in and that's because...(big surprise) I fell off the wagon. Being sick and having sick kids and a few other stresses were just perfect excuses to soothe myself with food (and, if you've eaten a bag of pizza rolls and drank a couple of cokes, why bother exercising, right?). But I have renewed my committment and the fight goes on:) I have spent a lot of time praying about this especially over the last few days and it's finally sunk in to me that I'm addicted to eating. Not to food - to eating.
See I was thinking about why I don't drink alcohol. It's not because I think it's a sin - I don't. If Christ drank wine, that's good enough for me. I do believe drunkeness is a sin, but that's a whole other topic. Anyway. The reason I just don't drink is that I have a family history of alcoholism and I've always wanted to avoid even the possibility of being addicted to alcohol. And, by His grace alone, I have. But I seem to have replaced drinking alcohol with eating. When I've had a stressful day, I literally can't wait to sit down and "snack." If I'm out of something I want to eat, I'll make a special trip. That's right, for a coke and chips I will load up three kids and face the grocery store. Now if that's not addiction, I don't know what is!
So once again I'll have to call on my Father. I just. can't. do. this. by. myself. I need the strength to turn away from the temptation. I need the peace only He gives when my day has been long. I need to rest in Him, not at the dinner table.

My Word Cloud - funny, huh?