Random

Just felt like I should post because I haven't in a while. Last weekend was Valentine's Day. We had a nice evening at home. Will and I don't care for all the expectation around this particular holiday, but I do like the pink and red and hearts and all, so I like to decorate and make a special dinner for the family. Our dinner conversation was focused on God's love and about ways we can show eachother love.

One of Aiana's favorite dinners is spinach wraps, and I thought it was appropriate for the night. I also made some chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate is always a bit hit around here. I made some that I could eat as well with allergy free chocolate, which is yummy, but doesn't melt too well. So they weren't very smooth, but again, still yummy.

Spinach Wraps
Large spinach leaves
Finely chopped red onion, ginger, peanuts, shrimp, lime, cilantro (all in separate bowls)
Peanut satay sauce, and plum sauce. (I made a sauce for me, since I can't have the soy, that was sunbutter mixed with agave syrup that was a wonderful alternative!) Yum!

Anika has been really into dressing up lately and wanting to wear tutus over her outfits. She wore this red tutu all day.

Experiencing God

My dear uncle has struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol almost all of his life. It has been a challenge to watch him go in and out of his addictions, and numerous near death experiences. In the last few years, my faith has grown weak. It's like I get tired of feeling hopeful for his recovery only to find him fall again. It's hard to watch someone you care about be captive to such destruction. My mom's faith has remained strong for her brother. Though this last time my uncle slipped, my mom decided to trust God and to release her hands on this situation. That she was not the one who could control this. No matter how much she offered help, which was all in love, ultimately she realized she needed to trust God's plan. And as hard as it was, she did. Abandoning desire to show my uncle the way for healing and recovery, and also all desire to know the outcome. She let it go. and wow! We received an amazing phone call from a friend of ours this afternoon, we still don't know what lies ahead, but we did get a glimpse of God at work here. Which strengthens our hope and trust of the One who is really in control.

This is what my mom wrote:
Remember when I told you that I last saw my brother Glenn on January 24... He was looking very broken, drinking again, and with a heavy heart, I released him... I told him I loved him, that he must love himself enough... he belongs to God and I am stepping off to the sidelines.
that I would continue to pray for him but that I was not going to see him. To call me from rehab if he chooses that.

I wanted so badly to take my friend, Jon's card to him.. Jon is a drug and alcholol councilor at St. Vincent de Paul's center. I kept thinking... if only he could get from El Cajon to downtown and talk to Jon he would be ok.

I resisited involving myself in Glenn's life even to that extent. No more would I interfer with whatever he was going to do with his life except that I continued to pray along with many other's who have joined me in that prayer.
It was up to he and God now.
I finally got that Glenn must be the one to make every move.
So I did not see him again to tell him about Jon.

I knew he would not have anywhere to live after Jan 31... and I whispered prayers throughout the rainy days that followed.
I have not heard anything since I saw him Jan 24th.
But I have had a true peace and a knowing that he is not alone... that God is with him whereever he is.

Today... my friend Jon called...
He just told me that he stepped out of his building downtown and saw a client of his across the way. The man next to him looked familiar. Jon called out "Glenn!" and he answered, "JON!"

Jon told me he looked like a million bucks and not a drop of alcholol on him.
Jon is going to meet with him tomorrow and try to get him in at St. Vincent's...

Glenn was so broken the last time I saw him he could barely walk... How did he ever make it from El Cajon to downtown? How did he ever make it to St. Vincent's... of all the places he could have gone in this city ... How did he ever make it to find Jon in all of that?

Once again, I am humbled by the power of God and what can happen when I step aside, allow Him to work and rest in faith and love.

That is all Know for now.. that is enough!

My favorite joke

So Caylin has a favorite knock knock joke that goes like this:
"knock knock"
"who's there"
"boo"
"boo who"
"ahhhh dont cry, it's just a joke"

Since she's sayin this all the time, little sis has picked it up and here is her rendition:

Oh my heart

Anika has a very bad habit of running from me when it is time to get changed. She has never liked getting dressed or changed, but is now just running from me and it drives me nuts. So today when changing her diaper she started kicking me with her legs and I gave her a little swat on the behind. She started crying and say "owwwww". Then gave me a sincere look, right into my eyes and said "mamma mad?" then began stroking my arm "nice touch", then looked in my eyes again and said "be friends?". Oh my heart just melted, completely melted. I just wanted to eat her up!

Hugs and silly faces

These girls are silly!

We went to a friends baby shower a couple weeks ago, and I think Caylin and her little buddy had one too many cupcakes. After the party they could not stop making the funniest faces! Anika just sat and watched these crazy kids.

We had a special playdate with our friend before she moved. I'm glad they are not moving too far, but we will miss them being so close!

Making yummy 'lemon juice'

These little faces make me so happy...there's another face that makes me very happy too, but she is a busy bee these days...and hard to catch for a photo. I can only imagine how busy she's going to be once high school begins!

2010!

I think I'm finally in the mood for updating my blog! After Christmas and our Big Bear trip, I was wiped! And in a funk, just not excited about the new year. No motivation to think of new year's resolutions, just blah. I'm really looking forward to my girls getaway coming up next weekend. I'm in much need to spend a weekend not only with girlfriend but reconnecting to God. I think part of my funk was being on break from our small groups and bible study. Plus I wasn't making time for my much needed quiet time. So I am really praying that next weekend will get me back into motion!

Our New Year's Eve was quiet. I did find a super yummy treat for Anika and I...ice cream! Anika had her first bite of ice cream! and she LOVED it! After the girls went to bed, Will and I stayed cozy by the fire and watched a movie. Aiana spend the night down the street with her girlfriend. New Year's day was beautiful. Aiana was pooped from being up all night, so Will and I took the little girls down to Balboa Park and walked around. The girls loved dancing around the fountain and chasing birds. I delighted in their uninhibitedness.

So in thinking of my resolutions for the year, I want to focus on increasing my capacity for Joy! I keep getting that true joy comes from fully putting my trust in the Lord, and joy will come no matter what the circumstance. I also want to become a more loving person. So I'm opening myself up to invite God to teach me what real love is.

National Lampoon's Barley's Big Bear Vacation

You never know what's gonna happen when the Barley's hit the road! This year Will found a great deal through a co-worker for a cabin in Big Bear. We booked it! We haven't been to the snow in years, not since Caylin had been born. Before that we went to Mammoth every year in January. Since we've had Caylin and Anika, traveling hasn't been the easiest thing for us, but we continue to try because we do love to travel. Caylin is old enough to be entertained by a movie in the car now and sleeps fine. Anika is pretty laid back, and Aiana has always been a great traveler.

So we packed up (way too much stuff, but gotta be prepared!). Thank goodness my mom drove too. Aiana brought a friend, so there were 7 of us and one car would have been very uncomfortable. All the girls rode with my mom, except Anika. She did great in the car. The drive was smooth and uneventful, but beautiful. We all got a little anxious to get out once we started to see snow. Big Bear was packed! Traffic was slow. We were all ready to get out and stretch our legs! Finally we arrived at our cabin....and there was a car parked in the driveway! WTH! Will got out and walked in to find two guys sleeping on the couch. As it turns out, we were double booked!! All hotels and lodges nearby had no vacancy, however, there was hope. My mom has a friend who lives in Big Bear and happens to live in a huge, gorgeous log cabin. We just caught her right before she walked into a movie and humbly asked if we could all spend the night. She said yes, she'd be happy to have us. We each had our own room, the teens had the whole bottom floor complete with ping pong table, darts, and Foosball. They were happy. We had a nice dinner, and breakfast in the morning. There were lots of sledding hills on her property. As we were packing up, I found that the girls broke the towel rack when hanging a towel. Oh so humbling. Then outside the girls sled right into their fence making a huge dent. I knew it was time to go before anymore damage was done!

There was a sweet sledding spot just up the hill. This area used to be a small ski slope years ago, so there were awesome clear hills for sledding now. We stayed here until we knew our cabin would be vacant.

Round two heading to the cabin. We arrived again to find an empty and cleaned cabin. Ahhh, we could unpack and get comfy. My mom and I unpacked while the girls played outside in the snow. It was decent and there was enough room, however it was hard to go from the updated spacious cabin to the 80's decor more then half the size cabin. We were kind of glad to be only staying now one night here.

My mom and I made dinner. Just as I finished the salad I noticed water was pouring out from the ceiling, splattering all over the place and into our salad. Then I heard Aiana "MOM the toilet is broken!!!!" Yeah, the toilet was overflowing upstairs and was now flowing down into the kitchen sink!!! I grabbed a bowl and had her hold it to catch the water, grabbed a towel and ran upstairs to soak up the water. Finally it stopped. Salad was ruined. But we were all able to laugh about it.

We relaxed the rest of the evening, played games, read, watched movies. At about midnight, Anika woke up....and stayed awake....and would not go back to sleep! Her nose was stuffy and she couldn't get comfy. She was begging to get up. Then begging for a banana. About 5 hours later she finally fell back to sleep.

The next day was the day we were going to head home. The day before had been gorgeous blue skies, today, it was gray and snowing. I was happy that we all got to see it snow before we left, but this snow wasn't letting up. We contemplated back and forth whether to leave or stay. But we couldn't see staying one more night. We took our chances. Will took the girls out sledding while my mom and I packed up. It ended up taking us about 3 hours to get down the mountain because we had to stop and put chains on. It was snowing, foggy, and COLD!!! But there really wasn't any need for chains. In fact my mom didn't even put hers on because, as it turned out, they didn't fit her tires.

The rest of the drive home was peaceful. I unpacked and took a nice hot bath. It was so nice to be home and warm. I sat down with my hot tea, ready to check my email when Aiana tapped me on the shoulder to inform me that she just puked all over the carpet! Ahhh, yes, the life of a mother!

This trip was full of craziness, but it was awesome. I was in awe of the peace that God gave all of us. I feel like we were given little opportunities to practice patience and faith, and in the end we all had a good time.