A Word from Hosea

In my Bible Study right now we are reading Hosea, which I've never really studied before.  I've known the simple version that God told a man, Hosea, to marry a prostitute and to love her.  One of my favorite books is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and she does a great job of telling this story.  Because the real picture is God taking for himself a people who are completely and unashamedly "cheating on him".  They are blatantly unfaithful to Him and are serving other gods.  The thing that gets me is that they still offered up sacrifices to Him, basically spitting in His face.  

"We don't really like you and we don't really think you are worth serving, but we are going to be somewhat 'obedient' and offer up sacrifices because that is what you tell us to do in your law." 

Isn't that what we do?  We claim to be 'Christians', but in truth we know we aren't faithful to Him.  We don't really want Him.  What do we want?  Why bother?  Do we want acceptance?  Do we want to be called good?  Do we want to do the right thing?  Is it just what we've always done?

The most crushing part is when God says, "I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue".  This is talking about the judgment Israel will receive because of their unfaithfulness.  The part that hit me was that the Rescuer won't even rescue.  What an awful place to be!  God gave them SO MANY CHANCES, and they didn't turn back to him. But He still LOVES them!

Today I read this and it just encouraged me!  Hosea 10:12 says, "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, that he many come and rain righteousness upon you."  I love anytime it talks about raining or pouring upon me I love it!  The fact that I, me, Katie, do not deserve any part of righteousness, since I along with the rest of the human race, was separated from God because of our wretched stink called sin.   And the fact that He would send me a Savior to rescue me out of a life destined for eternal death and instead bestow upon me not just getting to be in heaven, but he would place the righteousness of Christ upon me!  What?!  

So why, I ask you, would I wander back and try and offer him a half heart? 

Why would I think that pleases Him?

Why would I think I can do the least bit to get by and it somehow be a sweet aroma to Him?

Instead this morning, it is time to seek the Lord, yes because He loves me still, but also because He rescued me and is WORTH it!

Consumer Reports - Katie Edition

This week has been a frustrating week for us.  The last couple of weeks we have noticed some things not going well with our 6 year refrigerator.  It stopped making ice, which we decided we could live without.  But then I noticed my stuff in the freezer starting to defrost.  We figured it may not be good since we had work done on it a year ago.  That man basically said, we'll try to replace this one thing but it may be the compressor.  For those of you who are illiterate when it comes to refrigerators (like me!), when the compressor goes out that is about a $700-$1000 fix.  So you might as well get a new fridge!  At least we got a year out of it before we had problems again.

So Mr. Handyman came Monday to look at it, and can I just say that man was the largest man that I have ever seen!  And I mean not obese, but like really tall and huge arms!  Not who I was expecting to walk through my door!  Anyway, he opened the freezer, unscrewed the back cover, and said, "I'm afraid its not good."  He showed me the coils that should have been covered with ice/frost and it was bare!  So there goes our fridge. $79 later, I now knew we needed to buy a BRAND. NEW. FRIDGE.  Sweet!  Exactly how we wanted to spend our money!

Important note:  I was currently campaigning to get myself a macbook.  I had made some progress with my husband who likes to make sure I know that we need no such thing.  He finally admitted he was being hard on me.  So I felt like I was closer than I had ever been to a little ole laptop for me!  So you can see how I am SO VERY THANKFUL(sarcasm) to my Frigidaire side by side stainless steel 6 year old refrigerator that was purchased by the previous owners that decided to fail on me just in time to prevent me from enjoying a much wanted splurge on mommy!  With all this whining, I do realize the difference between a want and a need, which is why we went to buy our first refrigerator.

Here's the consumer reports part:  Don't buy Frigidaire!  All our appliances in the kitchen are Frigidaire that were bought by previous owners when they redid our very nice and much appreciated kitchen.  We just had to buy a new dishwasher, which was not a Frigidaire but was very old and ready to die.  So we did our research and I asked Mr. Handyman and Lowe's man (who is now our best friend!) and they both said the same thing about Frigidaire.  "I wouldn't recommend it."  They both in turn recommended either the Whirlpool or Kitchen Aid which are the same company.  Mr. Handyman also said he fixes GEs all the time, so that one was out too.

So in December we did buy a Kitchen Aid dishwasher and we did bargain and we did pay cash and we did win the battle (thanks Dave Ramsey!) and we did still end up with a "friend" named Jared (Lowe's man) that we bought our fridge from as well!  And we have loved our Kitchen Aid!  So when we knew we had to look for a fridge we knew probably a Whirlpool since K.A. is more expensive.  My goodness, do you know how much refrigerators cost?!  It's crazy!  

Anyway, we get our new fridge tomorrow!  We have lived without a fridge this week and it has been pretty miserable.  Our fridge side is dying and so we can use it as a "cooler" but it won't keep foods very long.  So this has been one week of very unhealthy foods, lots of eating out, and I'm just dying for a well-rounded nutritious diet.  Which is perfect because I already think I know what I will be giving up for lent, and by I, I mean Ed and I!  

P.S. Speaking of lent, if you haven't heard, my friend Tasha Via's book is out!  And we are SO excited to use it this year for the season of lent.  Its a little book with 7 weeks of little activities and lessons to do with your family in preparation for Easter.  Buy it!  It's great and the money goes to support their adoption!  

What's New

This time of year is actually kind of slow for us, well, I guess as slow as slow can be for people involved in ministry!  So we have been enjoying some extra family time and getting some things done that we usually don't have time for!

I am really trying to flesh out my theme for this year - SIMPLE!  When I started doing resolutions for the new year I kept coming back to the same thing, I needed to simplify things.  There are SO many great and worthy things that I can latch on to, but I have realized that it makes me a crazy person.   So I've been fine tuning my "simple" plan for all things homemaking, mothering, etc.


Micah is getting ready for his t-ball season and is preparing by playing catch with Daddy.  Ed is completely amazed that he is actually playing catch with his son!  Micah is very gifted when it comes to baseball so it will be interesting how that plays out on the field.  Here's some pics from throwing the other day...

Ed loves his form...he keeps telling me to look at it!  I'm not sure if I know what I'm looking for!

Caleb (and Micah) just got haircuts.  Micah has had a buzz before, but this is Caleb's first and we think its a keeper.  He looks so ADORABLE!  I could just eat him up!  He actually let me take pictures of him the other day before "Bible Dudy (study)".  He is really thriving on one on one time and plays so well with both his brother and sister.  But he does best when he plays with one person.  That's when you really see his personality come out!

Haleigh just keeps growing and changing!  Its too fast!  I LOVE the stage she is in though.  She picks up more and more words like "get down", "more", "baby", and "ni-night".  She loves to laugh, and yell, and yes even wrestle!  She will hold her own against the boys, but is also a very sensitive girl.  She cries every time you tell her no and is frightened of every person who walks in our door because she thinks they are taking her!  We have recently added the pigtails to her hairstyles and I think its SO CUTE! 

This One's for the Grandparents!

A Weekend Away

Superbowl weekend we spent the weekend with the Dowdys at Wintergreen.  We literally closed ourselves up in a very spacious house and only left once the whole weekend for a short walk on the golf course.  After a busy month in January with the Youth Retreat, we were glad to get away and just be with our family and close friends.  The basement was glorious for the boys!  They had their own basketball set-up, the Wii, a make-shift soccer goal, and a football practice field!  Leave it to Chris and Ed to incorporate all of the sports.  And we even had a Wii 3 Point shoot out competition between the two eldest boys, as well as a Dance Off with all the adults!  Emily and I even got to scrapbook a bit and watch Mama Mia!