sesame talent

Counting with Feist, counting to four.



1,2,3,4.

gather together

Each week we pick a night to worship together and read the Bible. The boys (and the daddy) play their guitars with me as we sing "Jesus Loves Me" (the ALL TIME favourite), and then they put down their instruments so that they can sing the remaining songs with me.

After a worship time we read out of the Bible, this year we are learning more about the fruits of the spirit. January is the Love month, we learn about how God loves, how we need to love and pray that God would help us love. Both B and I have felt God leading us to seek the fruits of the spirit much more seriously. The boys love learning about the fruits. These are sweet times we get to spend together.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against which there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23

family

The Chalupsky Residence is our home away from home. We go at least once a year (most years we spend 3 or 4 weekends there) and spend the night, us and several other young families. The other families are usually the daughters of the Chalupsky's, but everyone is welcome. They are family, they include people and love on you. I love Patty and Stu. And Jessica,( my maid of honour in my wedding and I her matron of honour in hers, the same summer!!!) she is one of the daughters and if I have ever had a best friend, she is it- no doubt.

I prayed for family away from family, since my parents are in Spain, my brother is married and in the military...they are the family that I prayed for in college. We met almost 10 years ago, and since day one it just worked, I was hooked. I started going there for New Year's about 9 years ago! It is one of the things I most look forward to about all our holiday celebrations.

I love all the sisters, their husbands too. I haven't ever been blessed quite like at the Chalupsky's, and when we are there it bursts out. A place of respite and love.

Check out the "thief confounding" mailbox it was made by the Chalupsky's, sweet!




Part of the delight is being in the middle of nowhere, no cell reception, no cable...just people time.

Patty has chickens!!! She is now a crazy chicken lady like me.



jessica and her youngest, Russell. She and Aren have two boys too!
the neighbors have llamas, they have dreads.

the jesse tree

creation (God)

Tree of good and evil (Adam and Eve and the fall of man)

I made the jesse tree ornaments, (I finished most of them...the rest I will do a little late) and we decided we wanted to hang them on our regular tree. I love the symbolism of each ornament and the boys really were able to sit through the selected readings really well. The jesse tree is intended to guide you through 25 days towards a deeper understanding of all that took place leading up to the birth of Christ through the old testament. B and I learned so much as well, we loved doing this this year, and look forward to doing it every year as a tradition of the true meaning of Christmas with our little bungarees.

lamb (passover and exodus of the Israelites),burning bush (Moses, God's Leadership), field of stars (Abraham's promise of descendants), the first king(the beginning of a kingdom), clay water pitcher (Gideon, an unlikely hero)

Ram (the offering of Isaac), Tablets of Torah (God giving the Commandments to his people), ladder ( assurance of the promise to Jacob), shepherd's crook ( David the Shepard of the people), trumpet ( Joshua and the fall of Jericho)


here are the different sites that have the ornaments and the meanings behind them:

The Jesse Tree: Celebration of Advent
Advent: Jesse Tree
The Remembering Tree: Using the Jesse Tree to prepare for Christs' Birth
Ornaments for Jesse Tree Patterns (PDF)

bungaree sing: twelve days of christmas

The boys love this song, LOVE it. J and O will ask me to sing it over and over. Today j volunteered to sing it for oliver (it is a little tiny book with the pictures) I guess something stuck from all the singing, but seriously it is HARD to get them straight! :)

Are you done?

"Are you done?" That question for a long time has been a loaded one here at the bungaree place. B looks at me, I smile and look at him and whoever is asking it is trying to figure out what exactly the inside joke is. Yes, I am referring to the question, " Are you done?" as in "are you done having children?". It has been one of controversy...but no more, at least not for now.

We have been praying about it, thinking about it, talking about it and up until several days ago it was still a debate when brought up. But then something changed, in both of us at the same time and yet separately God was working on us. I recently have been praying for a peace about NOT having more kids and I felt like God gave me that peace, so when it all changed I was a little surprised. The most surprising thing is not that he told me, but that he communicated it clearly to B, as he has been the one who was determined to not have more EVER.

I think it is so funny that whenever we say we will NEVER do that, or this....it almost seems like we have to swallow those words and do it to walk in obedience. I wonder if God uses that as a challenge? haha, I know he doesn't but that has happened so many times!

So what changed? Well we know for sure we are going to have one more, somehow I feel maybe two more....but we are taking this one step at a time! B and I sat on the couch to talk and so I expressed to him that I really just didn't feel right about not having any more, he smiled and admitted that God had been telling him the same. Okay, if you have been around B lately, you KNOW that is a miracle. We both agreed that we couldn't disobey, and that it would only be out of selfishness that we wouldn't have any more. Personally I don't feel thrilled about being pregnant again, or having to go to the doctor every two weeks and have them poke and touch me. I don't want to gain the 50 lbs that I gain with each pregnancy and I don't want my skin to be stretched out like that ever again. Beyond pregnancy I know what it is like to have babies, they cry, they go through teething, they fight sleep by keeping you up all night....but all those things are so selfish. And we are not called to walk in selfishness....ever.

That we can limit his blessing by what we allow into our lives, for us right now it is about kids but there are so many things that fit into this category, is a gift and a curse. We could do that so easily, by not listening and closing our eyes, but are we really done being blessed by God with children? We can ignore, but we'd be missing his best for us.


Disclaimer: This is for us, and only us. God has given this burden to our family and it does not mean it is wrong to have one, two, or ten...this is a personal thing that I wanted to share with you, not some conviction that I feel you should share too.