Galveston

We spent a long weekend in Galveston with our dear friends the Shipley's and the Otto's last weekend. It was the kids' first time on the beach and let me tell you, they fell in love. From the time they set foot on the beach, they were smitten.

The first day was my favorite. I had the two older kids with me the first day and then Allen brought Easton the next day. I loved having my husband and baby there, don't get me wrong, but the first day was so relaxing. I never would have thought it, but having two preschool-age children was very restful. Plus, I loved spending more intentional time with Taylor Joy and Beckett that is harder when taking care of the baby.

The kids were having the time of their lives jumping waves, running back and forth pretending like the waves were "chasing" them and riding the waves. I felt refreshed and thankful just watching them laugh and play.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our trip. I love documenting our life together. I love that I have all of this written down and posted for us to look back on. Enjoy the pics!

Dutyisms

Taylor Joyisms:

(books fell off the shelf) "Well that was intense!"

(her answer to "what does it mean to die?") "it means you just lay there forever."

"Daddy you forgot to cut off my toes!" (referring to her toenails that needed to be clipped)

"Wow! that boy on the radio station is really rockin' it!" (about I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me - not really a "rockin'" song...)

During bathtime as I was washing her hair she said, "This is kinda like baptism except with lots of soap."

Beckett-isms:


"I am da way, da spook and da wife. No one comes to da fodder except for me." (reciting John 14:6, the exclusive, Beckett version)

(after pooping and seeing it in the potty) "It's like a double peppy pizza!" (Double peppy pizza is an episode on Boz. Boz fans, face it...it really doesn't look very appetizing in the show. )

"Holy Poly" instead of Roly Poly

"W" stroller instead of double stroller

He refers to getting stung by a bee as when the "bug poked me."

(getting out of the bath) "I just keen (clean) and squeaky!"

(when asked about going to the pool) "It was nice and awesome!"

Pine Cove

We returned from Pine Cove family camp this weekend. We spent a week there. I don't like to spend a week anywhere. I'm always ready to come home about the 5th or 6th day. I'm quite positive I could have spent longer at Crier Creek. I miss it already.

Having been a Pine Cove counselor, I know the heart of Pine Cove is the counselors. Being on the other side of the equation makes this stand out even more to me. Camp would not be what it is if not for the counselors. Crier Creek is just a fun place. Filled up with God-loving, Christ-centered counselors, it is a ministry.



I LOVED the counselors. I loved the way they blessed us by loving on our kids so we could invest in our marriage. I loved that they had no other agenda besides us. When we were late picking up our kids from activities, they didn't hand us our kids and rush out the door, they talked with us and wanted to us to know exactly where our children were a blessing or where they struggled. They asked lots of questions about our family and about what the Lord was teaching us. They were genuinely interested in our life.

These counselors were diligent about doing the little things: feeding Easton, tending to his needs, cutting up Taylor and Beckett's food, holding Beckett when he fell asleep everyday at lunch, staying with younger children while we did special things with the older kids, asking specifics for prayer for our children...in short, blessing us immensely!

I am so thankful for the intentionality of our vacation. We spent intentional time with our kids, letting Pine Cove plan everything and we were just able to go have fun doing things like swimming in the lagoon and pool, doing the big slide and zip line, making jewelry with Taylor Joy, taking her on a guided nature walk, morning trail ride and breakfast with Allen, frisbee golf, paddleboating, picnic dinner for two date night, swing dancing, craft time with Taylor, and so much more.

We laughed together lots and spent a beautiful week with our family. I can't imagine that another vacation would measure up to this. I am so thankful to God for giving us this wonderful vacation.

Dutyisms

A prayer for Allen while he was in Guatemala (after we had heard about his car accident):

I pray Daddy has a great great great time in Guatemala. I pray that he doesn't crash anymore crashes. And that the school bus will just MOOOOVE out of the road so that they don't have to bump into it anymore. In Jesus' name, Amen.

After helping me bake a cake and giving her a beater with batter on it to lick, she runs into the kitchen saying,

I'm all done with my licker!

When we had our butterfly habitat, Taylor Joy would go over to the butterflies and blow on them, saying:

They need fresh air!

When feeding Cheerios to Easton one day, she stopped feeding him saying,

We don't want to full up his tummy!

Allen asked Taylor Joy one day if she was Ariel (the Disney princess). This is what she said:

Yeah! Not the one who swims. The one who stands. With the shoes.

One day this is the conversation I heard between Taylor Joy and Beckett:

Taylor Joy - we love Daddy and Mommy and they love us.

Beckett - Yeah! And they keep us safe from bugs.

When I go into Beckett's room after his nap and smell poop, I say, "Buddy, did you poop? And he says:

No, I just tooted. Vewy vewy bad.

or he's been known to say,

I thirsty. Vewy vewy bad.

Since Beckett has transitioned to his big boy bed (a toddler bed from a crib), he has been staying up a little later at night, rambling to himself. Here are some quotes I have written down,

If I knock over the basketball hoop and hit sissy wif it, I get spankin' and that would make me sad.

Aww! that kitty's so cute! Aww! (about a picture of a kitten on his wall)

I want get out and play with mommy and dadd. No. He's a curch (church).

He also loves to talk about his new "bi-boy bed" and his old "cib".

They are such funny kids. I love them.

Dearest Taylor,

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

4 years on this Earth and unnumerable blessings you have brought to me, Daddy, Beckett, Easton and basically everyone you encounter.

Your helpful spirit blesses me so much and when you are loving and caring towards your brothers, it brings so much joy to my heart.

Your thoughtfulness towards me is such a reminder of God's grace and His kindness toward me.

Your curiosity about everything is inspiring and causes me to seek out answers and learn with you.

Your insightfulness reaches far beyond four years. I pray that God gifts you with insight into His word as He draws you and as you seek to know Him.

You catch on so quickly to most things that we teach you. I pray that we will always teach you according to God's word, in the way you should go, and that as you grow and age, you won't depart from His ways. I pray for grace as we teach you. Grace for you to learn and grace for us as we seek to teach and shepherd you well.

God entrusted us with a treasure when He gave us you and we fear God and want to steward you well.

We love you and we will always love you, more and more each day. I hope today is a blessing to your heart, sweet Taylor Joy.

Love,
Mommy

(I can't believe my baby girl is 4! She's such a little grown-up and I love her so dearly! And...I'm SO glad she wanted to have a tea party for her birthday this year! It was so much fun to plan and put together and the girls had a blast.)



We read books about tea parties and hats...


We decorated hats and made necklaces...


Ate petit-fours...


and enjoyed our dainties together...

Come Thou Fount

Music time at the Duty home! Check out the little peeping tom in the background!

Guatemala

I have wanted to write about Guatemala for awhile now, but I have been a little preoccupied with my husband. Let me explain.

He was gone the week before last at a Pastor's conference called Together for the Gospel. He came home for ONE day. Then he left for Guatemala for an entire week. He's been home for a week now and I still can't get enough. I think all of that being gone can really spice up a marriage. We've been so intentional about spending time together this week and it has been so bonding and refreshing.

While Allen was gone we became socialites. Allen will tell you (and if you know me well), it takes him prodding me to pursue activities outside the house. I generally love to be home and doing stuff with the kids around the home and in the home. If we have a free night, I like to spend it with my kids and my husband. So it takes him to encourage me toward calling up friends and inviting them to do something or hanging out. It's not natural for me.

This past week was opposite. I needed to stay busy so that I wasn't dwelling on my missing him so much. We had stuff planned every day and every night that he was gone. As I was worshipping at church one night (alone with the kids in the back of the church), God overwhelmed me with thankfulness for our body of believers. I'm not exaggerating when I say that at least half of the people had either offered to help with the kids, hang out, bring a meal or pray for me while Allen was gone. I felt so cared for and loved by our body.

Meanwhile, Allen was persevering through trial after trial in Guatemala. From the get go, he and Nathan got lost from the group at the airport and the other part of the group (from Redeemer) was looking for them for 4-5 hours. They found each other while Rebekah (Nathan's wife) and I were on the phone with the team. What a great start to the trip! Phew! Later in the week they got in a car accident and several of the team members sustained minor injuries, a complete miracle of the Lord that no one had anything major happen to them! And yet, others trials along the way (such as their ride not showing up to take them to the airport on the way back), learning how to trust God all over again. And back home, God teaching me how to entrust Allen to Him even more. So, the theme of this trip: TRUST IN GOD. So thankful that God, in His mercy, is teaching us this.

Here are some pictures (many thanks to Brittany for the amazing pictures!):

Oh my! How did he not smuggle one of these cuties in his suitcase? I am smitten with these little ones!

Gigi, God's Little Princess DVD Review

I saw that Gigi, God's Little Princess DVD was available to review and immediately snatched it up for Taylor Joy. She has a Gigi book that she likes and she is the biggest lover of pink (besides myself) that I know. She loves to dance, loves being a ballerina and has said that she wants to be a ballerina when she grows up. I thought this would be right up her alley.

When we got the DVD in the mail, I made a big deal of it and showed it to her.

Not interested.

So we waited several weeks and introduced it again. Interested this time...such a girl, so temperamental. We turned it on and both Taylor Joy (4) and Beckett (2) were interested. They watched the whole thing and asked to watch it again. So, on the kid front, total hit.

From my perspective, it was a cute DVD with a great focus. While Gigi was trying to do several things such as, make an announcement to her best friend Frances, making sure everything was perfect and, in the second episode, learning to dance like a ballerina to make God proud, she came to the realization that God doesn't expect perfection from her and she cannot earn her way to God. She must not rest on her own strength, but trust in God's strength.

There was no explicit mention of Jesus, by whom we have access to the Father and by whom we find our strength, but I still thought it to be a good message that I could talk to Taylor Joy more about later, pointing out that we don't need to be perfect because Jesus Christ lived a perfect and sinless life and died in our place. I could expand on the message that was already there and let her know that when we place our trust in the finished work of Jesus, it is in His life and the grace that He offers us that we find strength.

So, the message was a good starting off point for talking to my children and I appreciated that. I would recommend this DVD for little girly girls around the age of 4 or 5. It was cute, funny and conveyed a God-centered message.

 (Disclaimer: I received this DVD free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as a result of reviewing it on my blog. They only require honesty, so this is my honest evaluation of the DVD. 4 stars out of 5.)

Dutyisms

I have a few Dutyism's that I have written down in the past week that need to be blogged. Taylor Joy is always hilarious, but lately Beckett has been saying some things that are just insanely funny. It doesn't help that the way he says them is like a little German boy. Seriously, from the moment he started talking it was, "Dah!", "Yah!" and we knew that those German roots were coming through for him.

Here is the latest from Taylor Joy:

Taylor Joy: "Mommy, do bugs poop?"
Mommy: "They sure do."
Taylor Joy: "Yeah...I know. Everybody poops.
                     I poop.
                     Bugs poop.
                     Flowers poop....
                     (GASP!) Flowers don't poop! (hahaha...uproarious laughter)

Since we have been growing caterpillars and watching our butterfly habitat, she has been intensely interested in bugs. I never would have thought I would have bugs in our house, but I console myself with the fact that they will become beautiful butterflies! My all-time favorite. I love them.

This is a conversation I had with Beckett today (although it has happened before):

(imagine that he did or said something funny...I can't remember exactly what)

 Mommy: "Buddy, you're a silly boy!"
Beckett: "I a boy! Daddy a boy!"
Mommy: "Yeah, you're right. Is Mommy a boy?" ( I really wanted to hear him say girl, which he says like, "geee ull", it's adorable. But, no such luck. As if I believe in that sorta thing.)
Beckett: "No, you not boy. You Cin-way-wah!" (Cinderella)

Thanks, Buddy. After all, that is my favorite Disney Princess if I had to be one. ;)

Some Favorites...

Easter Recipes, Ideas, Crafts

Last year I posted this about the things that we were implementing during the Lent season, especially the Easter weekend. Perhaps that may be helpful to you as you decide what to do with your kids on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We want to always evaluate the things we are doing or desire to do with our kids to make sure they are age-appropriate and such, but after thinking it through have continued to do similar activities for our Easter traditions with a now almost 4 year old, 2 year old and 8 month old.

We will continue to do the Easter Playdough Mountain this year. Directions below:

Playdough Mountain:

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1719_tell_the_easter_story_with_a_playdough_mountain/







We will also bake our Resurrection Rolls on Sunday morning, with this recipe, telling this story as we make it:

Resurrection Rolls Recipe: (the author of the recipe and story is unknown)

*Tip: Because I have heard of several whose marshmallow didn't totally disappear, I would suggest using a small one to ensure that it melts and there isn't confusion*

Resurrection Rolls

Here's a new twist on the Resurrection Cookie idea for Easter, both are recipes you can do with your kids/grand kids in order for them to understand the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This fun recipe uses Crescent rolls and a disappearing marshmallow!

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
Crescent rolls
Melted butter
Large marshmallows
Cinnamon
Sugar

Give each child a triangle of crescent rolls. The crescent roll represents the cloth that Jesus was wrapped in.

Read Matthew 27:57-61

1. Give each child a marshmallow. This represents Jesus.
2. Have him/her dip the marshmallow in melted butter. This represents the oils of embalming.
3. Now dip the buttered marshmallow in the cinnamon and sugar which represents the spices used to anoint the body.
4. Then wrap up the coated marshmallow tightly in the crescent roll (not like a typical crescent roll up, but bring the sides up and seal the marshmallow inside.) This represents the wrapping of Jesus' body after death.
5. Place in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. (The oven represents the tomb - pretend like it was three days!)
6. Let the rolls cool slightly. The children can open their rolls (cloth) and discover that Jesus is no longer there, HE IS RISEN!!!! (The marshmallow melts and the crescent roll is puffed up, but empty.)

Now read Matthew 28:5-8

Explain: At the tomb, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary saw an angel, who told them not to be afraid. No one had taken Jesus' body, but He Had risen from the dead! The angel told the women to go and tell the disciples what they had seen, that Jesus had risen from the dead. They were so excited, they ran all the way home to tell the disciples the good news! He is risen from the dead! Alleluia!

After that Jesus appeared in person to Peter, then to the 12 disciples and after that, to more than 500 people. Jesus' appearance to eyewitnesses, those who saw Him with their own eyes, would give support and prove that Jesus rose from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).

By rising from the dead, Jesus proved once and for all that He was the Messiah, the Savior of the World, the Chosen One, and the Lamb of God. By dying on the cross and rising from the dead, Jesus did what no other had ever done before. As both God and man, He overcame sin, death, and hell. And now because of what Jesus has done, these things no longer have any power over those who believe in Jesus and allow His Spirit to lead and direct them. Rather than being slaves to sin and death, Christians ( those who love and believe in Jesus) are free to obey God and do good ( Romans 6:17-18). The Bible says in John 8:36, "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."

However, we will only obey God if we listen to the Holy Spirit our helper. He enables believers in Jesus to do the right thing. It is important that we read the Bible (God's Word) because one of the ways the Holy Spirit helps us obey God is by reminding us of what He says to us in His Word. God's Spirit will never go against his Word. In fact, when we read God's Word, we are listening to the Holy Spirit. Of course, you won't always do the right thing; the Bible says this ) 1 John 1:5-10). But that is why we need to continue to confess our sins knowing that God forgives us, based on what Jesus did on the cross. This is also a reason we need to spend time with other believers in Christ so they can encourage us in our faith.

May you have a blessed and meaningful Easter!

- Author Unknown -

Easter Crafting:

We also made some Easter treats to hand out to our neighbors this year. I actually got the idea from a Family Fun magazine, but they were making something similar to this just in the form of fun snacks. It's trail mix in the shape of a butterfly since we cinched the middle with a decorated clothespin and attached a pipe cleaner as antennas. I made a little tag in Photoshop and let the kids go to town. They had a blast making them, and I'm sure the big fun will be handing out their artwork to our neighbors and telling them about Jesus. We're also inviting them to watch the Passion with us at our house tonight.

As we were making these Taylor Joy said, "I'm just sad that Jesus is dead."  I explained to her that yes, it is sad, but the story doesn't end there. Jesus showed his power over death when he rose from the dead after 3 days in tomb. He is risen and that should make us very excited! He is faithful to do what he said he would do! She said, "But what if Jesus is dead in our hearts?" Blown away by her insightfulness and depth of thought, I told her that unless we realize that we need Jesus and He gives us faith in Him, He is dead in our hearts. He has to give us new hearts and make us new creations and we went on to talk about this verse that we used on the little cards we are going to hand out with the treats:

I am so thankful for the opportunity to be with my children all day and share Christ with them as we spend the day together, as we walk along the way, as we do crafts together, as we sit down for a meal and as I tuck them in bed. What an incredible blessing that is!

 (just had to slip in a picture of this cutie!)

It's Official!

Check out Allen's Church Planter Profile: The Duty Family

We are now full members of the Acts 29 Network! This is exciting because we weren't supposed to become full members until this summer, and now have many opportunities open to us to that we will be able to participate in this summer.

So far, this network has been such a blessing to Allen and I. Allen has been to several conferences that have challenged, encouraged and trained him as a church planter and pastor and I went to an Acts 29 Pastor's Wives' Retreat this week in NC. I can't put into words the renewal and rest that I was afforded at this retreat. I can't explain the safe haven that it was and the ministry that took place in the quiet moments of the day, eating great food (of course!), over coffee, in the hot tub, on the couch, on somebody's bed, during craft time or during our guided prayer times.

I am thankful for a network that sees the importance of the family in church planting. It's been a blessing to turn to others who are ahead of us and able to walk us through many questions that we have had along the journey.