Her first performance!

It was an event to remember and certainly a moment to share with friends and family! (If this were written up in a newspaper it might look something like this:) "Announcing Washingtons newest star, Atira, in her first performance playing the color "Red" in the musical performance of the "Color Factory". She plays the riveting character "Red" one of the three primary colors, without her so many other colors would just not be possible. In her flawless performance her character learns the importance of mixing with other colors (and of course black and white) to create all the beautiful colors God has created in the rainbow. She sang a solo part as well as really making the viewer feel joy, sadness, and really getting to know intimately the hum-drum life that a solid color can live. With her red hair and stunning red costume, she was born to play this part. Kudos Atira on a job well done! Be watching this little rising star as she is sure to make a mark in the lives of all who know her!" The audience included the following loved ones: Mom, Dad, Brother, Grandma Sheila, Grandpa Leo, Grandma Joan, Grandpa Curt, Honey, Teigan, Jacob, Kyla, Bailey, Ryan, Brianna, Jennifer, Crystal, Rachael, Denah. Thank you all for making this night unforgettable!

Blessed is the name....

While driving home today the kids and I were listening to Lenny & Varda Harris CD Torah is Life. They have a wonderful song "Blessed is the Name". Here is a sneak peek at a bit of the lyrics: "Blessed is the name, blessed is the name, blessed is the name of the Lord", then it repeats this in Hebrew "Baruch Shem, Baruch Shem, Baruch shem Adonai". We were singing and discussing the meaning of the phrase in Hebrew and after a few quiet moments Atira (my daughter) pipes up with this question:

"Is Blessed really God's name?".

Then came from me....."giggle giggle" You know, I just love a kids perspective on life. They see things so differently than we do it keeps things fresh. I am sure to her that song could have just as easily said "Atira is the name, Atira is the name, Atira is the name of my daughter". Kids crack me up.

A shining moment!

Well, what a wonderful evening, pride of accomplishment was in the air! I will start my little story back a few weeks ago....We signed our children up for swimming lessons, very important for children to learn to swim. Our daughter (who is 5) started in the beginning classes, no problems there. Our son (10) had to drop back 2 classes because he was unable to do a successful back glide, he can swim and do other things that are required of this class, but not hold that elusive back glide. Well, normally that would not be too bad, but we are attending swimming with our neighbors, whose son was one class ahead of Jordan, and he is only 5 years old. Ouch. It was a wonderful opportunity to show our son that things like this do not matter, but it hurt him to be behind his little neighbor buddy when he thought he would start out ahead. It was a humbling moment for him, but made for a wonderful life lesson. We would discuss it a lot, especially how we are all different, in our learning styles and succeses. He still struggled for the next few weeks until tonight, victory after patience! The tester came by and asked Jordan to do a few moves, the next thing we know he went from starting out in level 2 and bumped up to......LEVEL 4!!! Woo Hoo! He was a happy boy! And we were happy for him. Still having to guide him through humbling sharing his news with his little neighbor buddy so as not to hurt his feelings, he did a great job and enjoyed a well deserved reward for hard work and diligence.

Good boy Gunner!

Does anyone know how often I clean up urine? Well, A LOT! I should share that we recently acquired a darling little puppy, a black lab to be specific, we named him Gunner. He is really cute, and goes potty a lot. When he drinks, the kids sound the alarm that he is reloading and we have now extended his name to "Squirt Gunner". Anyway, while he is still learning when and where to go I clean up the large majority of potty around this house. Things have been getting much better around here, although we still have our share of daily accidents. It is a bit like potty training my kids, only they have both been out of diapers for years now, and we never swatted them with a rolled up newspaper for mistakes. Well....tonight was an interesting development. Little mister "Gunner" did all the appropriate signals that he wanted to go out to potty, GOOD BOY! So, being the dedicated mommy I am to both child and beast I hopped up, leashed him up and ran him outside all the while bathing him in praise for doing so well. After he finished both jobs (extra good boy this time!) we ran up the stairs and opened the door to quite the surprise, my 5 year old daughter was sitting on our lidded little garbage can in my laundry room with potty running down in a nice little stream. Oh the joy. I must say it is 11pm so she was really asleep and just looking for something that resembled a toilet, close call, wish the lid had been up for once though. Well, the dog was still a good boy, but I still ended up cleaning up the potty. It could have been worse, and I did get a nice giggle from the irony of it all.*****P.S. If you know me personally and have children, please don't let them read this, the little precious girly of this story would be very upset with me if she knew I posted this! THANKS!

Our last night of Hanukkah

This was certainly a moment to be in! We shared a wonderful, blessed evening with my mom and our family. The kids lit the nine candles last evening, and we did a hide and seek game with a present for each of them. We ate a wonderful mexican meal and played Uno Attack. It was very special evening sharing the light of Hanukkah with our family. 

In the moment...

Why in the moment? Well, living in the moment is something I work hard to do. I find myself worrying about the future or the past and not really living and loving my precious present moments. I am hoping by sharing some of my precious moments in my present life, it will help me to remember to stay there more often. Now, a bit about who I am....

My name is Tina and I am a wife, a mother to two beautiful children, full time homeschooling mom and a wannabe "flybabe" (If you don't know the Fly Lady, please go to www.flylady.com and check her out!). And by "wannabe" I mean, I am working on that, like so many things, and getting better a little at a time. Babysteps as the FlyLady says! I am also a friend, a daughter and a believer and follower of my Messiah Yeshua. My list could go on and on of who and what I do, but I will stop there for now, and let the who and what's unravel a bit at a time, so we can work on keeping in the moment. For right now, I am a mom, with two sleeping children and one sleeping husband who has a few quiet moments in front of her computer and a couple of chocolate peanut butter cups to keep her company....oh the beauty of being in a moment!

Thank you for coming by and visiting my first ever blog. Check in again...I hope to be posting again very soon.
Tina

By the way, the photograph here is of the Oregon coast, taken from our van parked on the side of the road overlooking this majestic scene of the lighthouse and the lighthouse keepers home. Enjoy!