Why Won't God Give Me A Rice Krispie Treat?

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called, according to HIS purpose. Romans 5:8

I know, I know, what a goofy name for a Blog post, but you know me...I like catchy titles.

Our lives have changed so much in the last few months with Molly going off to Pre-K! We have all missed her so much, but I especially have missed her! Today I decided I'd get her out of school before lunch and she could spend extra time with me today. Before school started, her teacher referred to this as "Mommy Time" which was okay because she's in Pre-K.

I decided today would be the day. She came home and we ate lunch. After Andy finished his work, Molly and I headed to Champaign. In my mind I thought this was going to be great, but I also forgot what my friend Kristina told me. She warned me that Fridays were especially whiney. The kids are little and it's been a long week and Friday is usually the day they are just plain worn out. Molly was excited to go, but a little whiny and grumpy. She wasn't particularly pleased with anything I wanted to take her to do and she especially wasn't pleased that I wasn't taking her to Steak and Shake, her favorite restaurant. I know she was tired and she can't possibly understand that we just could not do it. I HAD to feed Katie at noon and therefore, we had to be at home at lunchtime. We went and she seemed to get better as the afternoon went on.

When we got home, Andy had more work to do before I made supper so I fed Katie and Molly and Ryan played. I am almost certain they got into 4,325,908 fights, yelled at each other double that many times and got in trouble at least 40 times. All that in about an hour and fifteen minutes.

At dinner, we had Molly's favorite! Breakfast! Cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs and bacon (for the rest of us who will actually eat meat). We all enjoyed it and quickly after finishing decided we should make Rice Krispie Treats. Molly and Ryan LOVE to help in the kitchen. They help me with almost any bread or dessert I make. While they were helping, they weren't really listening, getting too close to the stove, fighting, trying to eat all the stuff while I was trying to get it in the bowl, climbing on chairs, climbing on the countertops, etc. I told them that was enough and they could go find something to do while I cleaned up. They decided they'd watch a little of their favorite cartoon, Tom and Jerry! They kicked each other, wrested around and yelled at each other and Andy told them and told them and told them to stop. And then it happened! He walked over to them, told them to go to the bathroom and get ready for their baths. He told them they'd have a bath and go to bed. No RICE KRISPIE TREATS! Oh my goodness, they wailed and whined and thought the world was ending! How were they going to make it til tomorrow without a Rice Krispie Treat?

Shortly after that, while Andy was giving the kids a bath, Katie was really fussy so I wrapped her up in a blanket and took her outside to rock on the porch. It was such a beautiful night. Quiet, cool, a few stars in the sky and I was holding a sleeping baby! How peaceful. I started thinking about the Rice Krispie Treats. I started thinking about Andy being a father. I started thinking about how those two things strangely enough go together.

God doesn't always give us a Rice Krispie Treat when we want it. So many times in our lives, God doesn't give us what we want. We don't get everything when we want when we want it. Andy knew that giving the kids a Rice Krispie Treat was not in their best interest. If they were already having a hard time listening to him and already had been in trouble, then why would he give them a sugary treat to make them even more likely to fuss and whine? I realized instantly that that is how God is! GOD is a perfect Father! So many times we think we know what is best for us. We think we know what we want and how wonderful it's going to be when we get it. However, God knows the big picture. He knows what is going to benefit us and what is not. He knows that giving us everything we WANT could cause us to mess up later or cause us heartache so He doesn't give it to us. As children, we don't understand and get mad and whine to God or gripe to our friends or say God doesn't care what we want! The truth is that God knows what we NEED and that's more important than what we want! Aren't you thankful for a Heavenly Father that loves us that much? He doesn't give in to our every command. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent (as we discussed in Sunday school last week). He is perfect and His plan is perfect...from the beginning of time to the end of the world.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 5:8

It should make us, as Believers, thrilled to know that every time we don't get the Rice Krispie Treat that we ask our Father for that He's not just being mean to us. He knows what's best for us and our lives! Remember that the next time you don't get your Rice Krispie Treat. I've been reminded of it a lot lately and am thankful for God and his PERFECT goodness!

Johnny Appleseed Never Said It Better!

Today, I went shopping! And when I say shopping, I mean SHOPPING!!! I went to Menard's, Toys R Us, CVS, Dollar Tree, Schnuck's, Wal-Mart and IGA. Yep, seriously, we went to 7 stores today and it was worth it. I used to always say to only shop at Wal-Mart because they price match everything. Now I'm learning more and more about the way other stores work and boy, I feel like I've won the lottery! Today I spent $120 and saved $165! Seriously, I saved way more than I spent! I bought enough diapers for 2 months, Christmas cards, a birthday gift, groceries, etc, etc, etc. TONS of things. Why in this world if you could, wouldn't you do this? I know that I have more time than some people do. So, if you're a working mom and you drive a long way to work and don't get that much time with your kids, then I understand. But for those of us who are sitting at home, why not?

I started thinking about stewardship. Stewardship, in the sense of being a good steward with what the Lord has given you. In my accurate (because the Bible says it's so), but humble opinion, EVERYTHING is God's. He made it, He gives it to us, He supplies our needs according to HIS riches in glory. So, there you have it. Everything is God's. Everything we have been given is because He chose to give it to us. He does tell us to be good stewards with what he has entrusted us with. I know that some people probably think I'm a hobo who lives in a car and I have to scrape pennies to live. That is not the case. I'm just trying to be a good steward with what the Lord has given me.

Yesterday in Sunday school, we were discussing the perfect Goodness of God. He is perfect and His love is perfect. That means his provision for His children is perfect! He gives me what I need, day by day in order to live and glorify Him. And He's so good that he even provides me things I enjoy, not just my needs. Plus, a wonderful husband and 3 great kids!

So, to sum it all up, here are the lyrics to a good old Johnny Appleseed song. He said it better than I could!

Oh, the Lord's been good to me.
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need:
The sun, the rain and the appleseed;
Oh, the Lord's been good to me.

I'm thankful the Lord's given me all I need. He is so good!

Molly the Model!

Do you remember getting your school pictures taken? I personally remember loving those days. In the first grade, I had Mrs. Dickens as a teacher. When it was time to get the class picture taken, we'd all been outside running around on a nice warm day. When the group gathered, most everyone looked like sweaty little kids. But not me.... there I was... lavendar polo shirt, plaid skirt, dress shoes and Farrah Fawcet hair. Yes, I said it...Farrah Fawcet hair. And I was proud of it.

I remember my cousin Brooke getting her first school picture taken. She forgot to wash the conditioner out of her hair. She was a little girl, so you can't blame her, but oh my! It was quite a picture. As a matter of fact, if I had a copy of it, I would post it right now. It's that good! Especially if you know how beautiful she is without conditioner in her hair!

Well, today is the day for Molly's first school picture! You know by now if you read my blog that Molly is SHY!!! She doesn't like being taken to school, she doesn't like the playground and she doesn't like anything that's new unless it's a toy. She says she is NOT getting the pictures taken. I payed for them, I picked out the blue background, got her a cute little outfit with puppy dogs on the skirt and socks, fixed her hair so cute with a big bow and she still says she isn't getting her picture taken! As a matter of fact, she has told me since Monday afternoon that she would not be getting it taken. I asked her last night why she didn't want to and she quickly told me that she didn't think she'd like the backdrop! Okay. She hasn't even seen the backdrop, but she thought that would be an easy way to get out of it. I talked to her teacher yesterday who told me not to worry about it. She said there are makeup pictures in November, maybe she'll want to take them then. As a last ditch effort, I offered to bring her lunch and have lunch with her at school if she'd get her picture taken. She said, "No, maybe some other time!" That's where I said, "Okay". Obviously she is scared to death about it if the "Mommy will come to school" card won't work. So, since my daughter will not be getting pictures taken, I took some at home this morning. The child that will not have her picture taken at school took these pictures this morning. I didn't tell her to pose, I didn't tell her to smile, this is just what she came up with! She is so funny - acting all "Tyra Banks" on us! Posing like she's in the next issue of Highlights Magazine (LOL)! I don't understand her shyness or her reasoning for not wanting her school pictures taken, so I'm just learning to go with it. At least I got some good ones at home!

I hope next year she'll see Ryan taking pictures and want to get some done herself. Now I'm sure that will be an interesting blog post...Ryan getting school pictures taken. It will probably include Ryan with nicely combed hair, a tongue sticking out, eyes crossed, and a camera man chasing him. I can't wait.

Wow, God makes kids so differently, but I am so thankful for them all. Molly "the shy one", Ryan "the wild one" and Katie "the screaming one". Hopefully Katie will grow out of hers. I love my kids and everything about them! And I know, soon they'll be taking Senior Pictures and this will be a distant memory.

I Feel Like I'm Falling for Fall....

In the voice of Nick Jr's Moose A. Moose, I have to say, "I feel like I'm falling for fall"! What a fun song! We've been continuing our fall decorating and activites around here and have been working on a new one that I wanted to share with you.

It's the Fall/Thanksgiving Tree! I'm calling it this because it's really a fall tree, but the tree will lose a leaf each day until Thanksgiving. After that, the branches will be bare and it will be time to start a Christmas tree. Last week I gave my kids brown, yellow and orange construction paper and gave them paint in red, orange, green, brown and yellow. I let the paint as much or as little as they wanted on each piece of paper. My kids love to paint and more importantly, love to make messes, so this was fun for them. We used all kinds of paint brushes. Some were round sponges, some small, some large. After a few days of drying, I cut pages into leaf shapes. We used brown construction paper to make a tree trunk and the branches. Used a crayon to make knots on the tree. And of course, tape to make the leaves stick. Now, on our tree, we added apples. The apples are a WHOLE different thing at our house. Apples are the way we handle discipline at our house, but that's a different post at a different time. We just thought the apples would look nice on our tree. Nonetheless, the kids enjoyed making it, it looks cute in the living room and for me, it's a countdown to getting out the Christmas decorations! Yep, Christmas is another post for another time too!

I hope you're having a fun fall (even though it's not even technically fall yet).

You're invited....Why not come?

Have you ever been somewhere or experienced something so incredibly awesome that you had to tell people about it? I mean, you just couldn't stop talking about it?

This week, I've really been thinking about God. About His goodness. About His provision. About His church. About His love. About Him giving Jesus because of my sin and your sin.

I've been thinking a lot about HIS CHURCH. A few weeks ago, we were out of town for Brooke's wedding and our pastor preached a sermon called "The 20/20 Vision". It's about the future of our church in the next 10 years! In recent days, the First Baptist Church of Atwood has experienced exciting growth, new families, lots of babies being born, more people attending Sunday school...and the list goes on. God is moving in HIS church. However, I am not satisfied unless you all know that you are invited too. I'm not inviting you because I want 500 people to come to our church. (We currently have about 150 on Sunday mornings). I'm inviting you because I experience something every week that most people don't ever get to experience! I get to experience church, God's way!

Now, this isn't your typical "me telling you about Jesus" posting. I am really just wondering here... and you're free to respond to me via this blog, facebook or my email:aplby2@yahoo.com.

First of all, I go to the First Baptist Church of Atwood in Atwood, Illinois. Check out our website: www.firstbaptistatwood.org First Baptist Church has this motto "Committed to becoming and bringing others to be fully devoted followers of Christ". That pretty much sums it up. That's who we are and what we do. We are committed to Christ and committed to bringing others to know Him. Why in the world would we care? We care because we care about you and your soul in eternity. If you don't come to church because no one cares, then come to our church.

What do we offer? First of all, our pastor, Lanny Faulkner, preaches the Word of God. It is not watered down, sugar coated or a feel good bunch of mush. I can say that He preaches what God lays on his heart and what the BIBLE says. He heeds the Holy Spirit! He encourages us, leads us, teaches us and prepares us to make it through another week and make it through the rest of our lives. He teaches us God's Word, all of it, and does it all according to the Scriptures! We don't preach what the world wants to hear. We don't skip things we're uncomfortable with. If you want that, go to a different church :) We preach exactly what the Bible says! If you're not going because you're not really hearing the true Word of God, then come to our church!

Next, we love people. I mean that with all sincerity. When we moved to central Illinois in 2001, we looked for over a YEAR for a church home. We looked every Sunday morning and nearly every Sunday night. We visited churches that were big, small and in between. We never felt like any of them were where God wanted us. We went to many church services where no one spoke to us. They didn't even acknowledge we were there. Have you ever experienced this? Gone to a church and no one even spoke to you? That's hurtful and wrong. The day we walked into the First Baptist Church of Atwood, Ron Eagan and Kenny Collins were at the door greeting us. They were so glad we were there. They introduced us to lots of people right away. We walked into the sanctuary and I'm not kidding, I KNEW we were home. Everyone was excited that we were there and made us feel welcome. The music started and so did my tears! We found what we were looking for! It's been 8 years since we've joined FBC and they have always been our family. If you're not coming to church because you don't feel welcome, come to our church! We will welcome you.

Maybe you don't go to church because there's nothing there for your kids to do. When we started going to FBC, we didn't have kids and were not even thinking about having kids. Quickly after joining, we started teaching highschool Sunday school. We soon realized that this was a church that loved kids! My goodness, anything the youth needed, someone in the church was willing to help with. As we grew up (Andy and I) and had a family of our own, we realized that it wasn't just the youth, it was all children! We have a nursery for infants AND toddlers that are fully staffed! You don't have to sit in the nursery every week and listen to a box with the Pastor's voice coming through while you also listen to your child scream and play. We take turns in the nursery so we can all sit and enjoy worshipping together! We have Sunday school for all ages and Sunday school for moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, young adults, etc, etc, etc. We have children's church for 4 year olds through 3rd grade on Sunday mornings. We have youth group on Sunday evenings. We have AWANAs on Wednesday nights. We're getting ready to start Bible Drills on Sunday nights. We go to church camp, have VBS and do just about everything we can for kids! If you're not going to church because there's nothing for your kids to do, then come to our church!

Now, if you don't come to church because you've been burned or because you think Christians are hypocrites, then I don't know what to tell you other than that we are all sinners. We're all hypocrites and we've all dissappointed people. Every day, if you are a Christian, you have to get up and fight the devil and try to live like Christ. It doesn't always work. Sometimes we fail. I sin all the time, even though I try not to. I am human and so is everyone else in every other church in America. Hopefully you find a church where we are saved sinners, who want to truly live for Christ. If you're not going to church because you've been burned or because churches are full of hypocrites, come to our church. We're all sinners, but we love Jesus and are constantly trying to live more like Christ!

I don't know what your reasoning is for not visiting our church. Maybe you've always gone to a certain church, maybe your family goes there, maybe you just don't go at all. I'm not suggesting you leave your church to come to ours if you already attend a wonderful church. I am suggesting that if you're looking for a home church, visit us! We're excited about Jesus! We're excited that He's coming again. We're excited to do HIS WORK in HIS CHURCH!

So, why don't you come to our church? I'm inviting you. Will you come? I promise you, it's worth the drive, no matter where you live. We don't want you to come because we want to fill the church and count people. I want you to come to experience Christ. Maybe you don't know who HE is. We want to lead you to Him. I want you to experience fellowship the way God intended it to be. I want you to expereince the fellowship our church has to offer. I want your children to be a part of the next generation of Believers who carry on the Great Commission. Whatever your reason, I hope you'll consider visiting. I want you to experience what I expereince EVERY week. I'll be there. Usually in the 3rd row on the left. Andy will be there. Katie in the baby nursery, Ryan in the toddler nursery and Molly in children's church. Come and join us. Be our guest. You are invited and you're welcome to come!

As our pastor says, "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!" Be in prayer about it. Call us if you need a ride. Experience what we experience.

Fall Kickoff Day

Today at our house was Fall Kickoff Day.

Okay, I don't know about you, but I certainly have a favorite time of the year! I'm certain that my most favorite time of the year starts with September 1st! I know, you're thinking, "What's up with September 1st?" It's not my birthday, or my anniversary or any special occasion in the life of my family.

If you know me well, you know I despise summer. I hate to be hot, I hate to sweat and I detest the humidity. Summer and I have NEVER gotten along. EVER. Period. I was the girl who would sit under a shade tree and think I was dying if I was forced to be outside. You might say, "Why were you forced to be outside?" The answer is because I would never go outside unless someone made me! I didn't play ball, I didn't like the park and I just didn't like the heat. I also loved school! Of course, summer means No School, so I didn't enjoy it. After hearing these rants, I'm sure you can imagine that I LOVE the fall!!!

Crisp air, cool nights, sweaters, jackets, weenie roasts and s'mores, crunchy leaves, pumpkins and pumpkin patches, apple cider, Halloween and Thanksgiving! Oh, the bliss of it all!!!

A few years ago, before I had kids, I declared that September 1st was my favorite day of the year. You see, on September 1st (in my mind), you can start getting out your fall and harvest decorations. Soon thereafter come the Halloween decorations and right on into Thanksgiving. NOT TO MENTION Christmas!!! (Christmas is another post that would take you 5 years to read: One year for each of the trees in my house!) I LOVE the holidays! I love everything about them! So, each year, on September 1st, if I can, I start decorating and enjoy myself!

This year, September 1st was on a Wednesday that happened to be our first night back to AWANAs after summer break. As the AWANA Commander, I have tons of work to do before AWANAs can start. So this year, I waited until Friday, September 3rd to start the excitement.

Molly got out of school today for a school improvement afternoon so I picked her up and we all loaded up in the van to start the Kickoff!

First, we went to Tuscola to get supplies at IGA for the cookies we were going to make. Next, we went to the park. Tuscola has an awesome park. If you haven't been, you should go! This summer, every Friday, we took a picnic lunch and visited a different park in central IL. Today was our last stop on the Friday Park Tour. We enjoyed playing there for about an hour and a half. Next, we came home and made Corny Cookies from the Family Fun website. http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/corny-cookies-685173/ They were so cute to make, plus, they tasted great. I didn't use their cookie or frosting recipe because I have an awesome recipe, but they were still the same concept. Unfortunately, as you can see in the picture, mine didn't look near as cute, but they were fun! For dinner, we had chili. Our first pot of the year. Chili is easily one of Andy's favorite foods so he was happy! After that, we dug out our fall decorations and Molly and Ryan helped me unpack them and set them up. They were so cute, trying to give me major input on where each thing should go throughout the house! I loved it!

Next we have to get to our porch! That's my favorite thing to decorate! Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere! And a few mums thrown in too! Hopefully we'll get to that next weekend!

I hope you all have a fantastic fall and enjoy the crisp air, cool nights, sweaters, jackets, weenie roasts and s'mores, crunchy leaves, pumpkins and pumpkin patches, apple cider, Halloween and Thanksgiving as much as I do!

Applebyisms of Summer 2010

Okay, so most of you know that I am the mommy to 3 kids; Molly, who is 4, Ryan, who is 3 and Katie who is 3 months. As you can imagine, I hear lots of funny things. Great stories, mispronunciation of words, etc. After sharing some of my stories on Facebook, someone told me that I needed to write all these things down so I could remember them forever. So, without hesitation, I'm going to share some of my favorite "Applebyisms" of the summer of 2010 with you.

• Today, we went to the park and Ryan and Molly both wanted to bring stuffed animals with them. Molly's stuffed animal usually makes a lot of noise and gets in trouble when she rides in the car with us. They begged and begged to bring stuffed animals today so I said, "Only if they behave in the car" to which Ryan replied, "I will Be a Have!".
• Another story from today... I told Molly and Ryan that we would do something fun after Molly got out of school this afternoon. On the way to school, Molly asked me if we were going to go on a train ride, to which I said no. Then she enthusiastically asked me if we could dig through a dumpster! REALLY?!?! I am the queen of clean and I don't even know where she'd get such an idea, but she thought it was funny.
• August 31, 2010: Laugh for the day - I just told Ryan we had to go to the Crematory and he said, "Oh good!". "I was wanting some icecream!"
• August 25, 2010: Last night Molly wrote and performed a new song for us. It goes "Love your family, spin around, rock and roll Jesus, rock and roll". I'm pretty sure it's not going to make it into the next edition of the Baptist Hymnal!
• August 16, 2010: For Pre-K, Molly needed a backpack, paper towels, kleenex and napkins. On Molly's school supply list (which she made up) was a notebook that had a schedule in it (which she's sure Mrs. Harbaugh will want to use), 2 flash drives and a calculator! That's my girl...always prepared! And she's got her outfits picked out for the rest of the week!
• July 30, 2010: Yesterday we were in the car and Molly told Ryan that she was excited for Preschool, but she's never going to Kindergarten and I asked why and she said, "Because I heard when you get to Kindergarten, your teeth start falling out." She didn't realize that you were supposed to lose teeth!!!
• July 2010: Molly, thinking she is the smartest child to ever live, asked Ryan this: "Do you have Jesus' heart?" Ryan said, "NO!" She said, "You better get it! If you don't, you're going to go to a real place called Hell and there's a lake of fire!" Seriously, she asks me random questions every now and then about the Bible and I don't lie to her. She just put them together and came up with the best thing she could. I love it that she asked him if he had Jesus' heart!
• June 16, 2010: I was just in the van with Molly and Ryan on the way home from the library. Ryan said that someone hit him and Molly's response was: "It's okay, we're all sinners!" LOL!
• And, the best story of the summer is this: If you ask Ryan what Katie's favorite food is, he says "Boooosom!" So, earlier this summer we were at Wal-Mart and Katie was crying and the checker was trying to talk sweet to her and Ryan said, "It's okay, it's just Booosom Time!"

I hope you got a good laugh out of some of these stories! I know they make me laugh everyday. Having children is always stressful, but at least God lets us have fun with them! If I didn't laugh sometimes, I'd cry. I'm so thankful for the laughter!