i had to ask

Kaylee is not her best self in the car! We struggle with getting her not to cry/whine in the car. Well, today *like many days* she was over the top so I said "Kaylee, Do you want mommy to stop the car and give you a spanking?" She pulled herself together and then said "No, I want you to pull the car over and give me some M&M's!"

best bday present ever

Yesterday I turned 26! My kids have been singing "happy birthday" to me all weekend, ever since Daniel's parents had me over for dinner on Saturday. I finally decided to get it on video. Kaylee is still patiently awaiting her December birthday. She has only been talking about it since we had nathan's bday in August. I know a day doesn't go by without her talking/asking about it. Even last night after celebrating my b-day all day, Kaylee excitedly told Daniel her pink birthday was next!

equal is not equal

Right beside hypocrites, I think legalist are two of the top reasons people don't like Christians or don't won't to go to church. Tonight, Dr. Brunson's message was out of 1 Cor 13; I wish I could as eloquently join this passage to the Fruit of the Spirit as he did. Something that he did say that I dwelled on and has stayed with me through out this evening is "Legalism is a sad, cheap imitation for the Fruit of the Spirit"

Up to this point, I have not really been comfortable with calling people legalistic or using the term. In the way most people use the word, I was raised with some degree of legalism in my life, along with many people I am close to. I used to excuse it by using the definition I understood; Legalism is only when someone thinks that following their list of religious rules brings salvation. I can not say that I or anyone I am close to has ever come across that extreme degree of legalism!

Back to the Sermon, Dr Brunson was preaching on the Church of Corinth, how they were so blessed with spiritual gifts but there was a lack of Spiritual maturity. I guess that is where the connection of legalism comes! *now I remember, The Fruit of the Spirit is how we can see the presence of God in someones life not by the rules they live by or cling to* He in no way spent the whole sermon on legalism, which I am glad for. I don't like bashing legalist because they are just misguided brothers/sisters in Christ and need to be approached with a great degree of love/patience.

Walking away from the message tonight, I really was able to expand my definition of legalism. (I know this is not in anyway new to most of you but I will continue bloggin.) Legalism is also when someone believes themselves to be spiritually mature because of the rules/convictions they follow and think that those that do not uphold their rules/convictions are not spiritual.

I know in my own life it is much easier to feel spiritually mature because i have checked off the list of things I do (all of which I usually find easy to do anyway) But, how is my relationship with Christ, do I have a pure heart? I don't think I have ever gone as far as to judge others spiritual life by my own set of rules but I do need to examine my personal legalism. Replace it with a deeper relationship with Jesus and not such a superficial spiritual life as the one produced by following rules.

I am still left hanging with how this effects the raising of my children. I want them to obey their authorities and the Word of God. I have outlined many rules I want them to follow now and already have worked out some of the dreaded list of rules I want them to follow in the years to come! I don't want to raise my kids in a legalistic home. I have seen in SO many people how legalism causes them to leave the church and disconnect from the family when they have their own freedoms. I sometimes find my self favoring legalism because myself and my husband turned out 'good' (by the legalistic view point) so it must have worked and saved us from public sins that so often destroy a person.

However, my ultimate prayer is that my children will discover the love God has for them and in return fall in love with Him. When you are in love with God you want to please him and you seek Him for the way you should live your life and not a set of rules. But, I want to cling to those rules until they find this out for themselves lol.

Someone needs to write or recommend me a book that really teaches me how to raise good kids without legalism because in many ways that is the model I have for raising good kids and I don't want to take the chance that my kids will turn out 'good' just like me or Daniel. I know, aside from daily prayer over my parenting life and seeking in the scripture there is no better way to learn how to raise a family but it would be nice to have some supplemental material. lol.

6 Quirks

tagged by allison

this should be fun, sleep deprived and writing about my quirks....I may edit this later!

1. When daniel gets up to take his shower in the morning I have to scoot over to his side of the bed, use my pillow and snooze on his side of the bed for about 10-15 min until it is my time to take a shower.....ahhhhh, maybe not so much - I don't know why I do it, just do. Sometimes I think it is my final way of taking the Whole Bed!

2. I can not stand when ladies scratch their legs when they have pantyhose on

3. I have terrible nightmares; at least once a week. I have thrown a pillow at the front of the bed, rolled on top of daniel and fallen off the other side of the bed onto the floor *there was a man standing beside my bed, staring at me lol*
I have gotten better by keeping the doors shut (bathroom and bedroom) I used to leave it open to hear the children but when I woke up one night turning on both kids lights and telling daniel to get kaylee while I get nathan because I saw a man in the bathroom, the doors had to be shut, it has gotten better.


4. When I don't make my husband's lunch, I will call him while he is at work just to hear where he ate out and what he had for lunch. I also find myself calling him even when I do make his lunch to see how he liked it or if he has ate it yet. lol


5. I am terrible with remembering important dates; birthdays, anniversaries, deaths. I don't remember dates, numbers well. I do however, buy random gifts for people when I see something I think they would like and give it to them then.


6. I don't like capital letters, especially 'A' I like my name better ashlee - I just think it looks more balanced,the four short lowercase letters on the end the two tall lowercase letters the middle. Ashlee doesn't look as nice, i don't like the pointy top of the "A'. Some capitals are ok but for a lot of things I don't use capital letters.

I bet I could come up with at least 6 more!! haha

I tag melissa...
--Link to the person who tagged you.
--Post the rules on your blog.
--Share six non important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
--Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
--Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Rambles

Happy Wednesday everyone. I am having a great day and I hope everyone else is too. Tonight will be Nathan's first night in 4 year old choir at FBC JAX. My parents joined the church when I was 4 and I have such great memeroies from my first year in Mrs. Bristow's Choir :) I am excited to have Nathan starting in this great children's music program. I can't wait to here him singing such sweet songs. I hope he will have the words in his heart forever just like I have.

Also, there are more great pictures from In His Image Photos of The String Group. Here is the link
http://orders.inhisimagephotos.biz/famain.asp?customerId=169&sKey=3MCMDFNY&cid=8&whichpage=1

kaylee is a kisser

Last Tuesday I was at the mall with my two little ones. On Nathan's first day of school I got a copy of Trinity's Dress Code with a check beside the haircut policy. This paper was politely telling me Nathan needed a hair cut; underlined in the code was "above the eyebrows" "above the ears" and "off the collar" While at the mall I decided to get Nathan's haircut; (which he hates) I told him that if he was good for the cut he could play at the mall playground.

When we finally made it to the playground Nathan and Kaylee made a friend with this cute little Indian boy. I decided to use the opportunity to talk to the boys mother. She was a kind mom and I enjoyed talking to her about her religion, time here in the states and future move back home to India.

As I kept an eye on the children I noticed Kaylee pushing the boy against the wall, I thought she was bothering him, well before I could say anything she had planted her lips on the boy's lips. The mom was tickled by it and shrugged it off. Kaylee didn't do it anymore so I decided not to make a big deal of it, sometimes that makes things worse.

Well, tonight when Daniel picked Kaylee up from the nursery he said he saw her kissin on two boys while he was in the line to pick her up. I had not felt any need to tell him about her incident in the mall but when he told me about it, I told him about the mall. He decided to tell Kaylee the only boys she should be kissing are her daddy, brother, buddy and papa! Daniel then said...."Looks like she is takin after her momma!"

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

here you go jobeth, lol. It really depends mostly on your face position in the picture, i don't look like any of these gals lol. Although, i would love to look as cute as Katie C. with a short hair cut...maybe one day!