Michelle Wegner

Bringing the Fun Inside

 

When summer is but a memory, and it’s too cold to go outside and play, we bring the fun inside.  Belle is a highly creative, energetic 6 year old that literally bounces off the walls if I don’t give her something to do to help get her energy out, or mind focused on something creative.

Here are some of the things we’ve been doing:

a) bringing snow inside to play with.  b)riding bikes inside on the hard wood floors c) mattress surfing.

What fun stuff do you do inside when it’s too cold to go out to play? 

For those living in warm states, you can send your sympathies and compassion in Disney Dollars and ocean side condo points.  Thanks.

Prima Ballerina

   

Isabelle had her first real ballet recital last weekend.  It was the first time the big girls were in the audience, and Belle was the one to get all fancy and show off her serious dancing skills.   

She asked me if she was the prettiest girl in the room, and I told her, “Yes, of course.”  Humility lessons come later in life I guess. 

Whose Kids Are Amazing?

    Mine are!  Thanks for noticing.  They had a blast working on the  4th/5th grade Snow White Play at their school.  Their hard work paid off, and they put on a fabulous show for the school and all the parents and friends who came to watch.  I’m so proud of my girls.  It’s so good to see them perform and succeed at something so fun and positive.

 

   

Dear Mom,

It’s been a tough parenting week.  Little people around my house are growing up so fast, and their friends parents are stepping up the pace by allowing their kids to do things my kids are not allowed to do.  (boo-hiss). This makes for awkward and uncomfortable conversations between me and my girls I really wish we didn’t have to have yet.

I found this sweet letter one of my girls wrote me awhile back.  I think I will leave it up here and hope the sweet little munchkin still means it.

Canvas

(…continued from yesterday.  If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, back up and start there.)

 

One thing I am so very thankful for is the different circles God has allowed me to skirt the edges of .  Some prestigious, some fabulous, some fancy, some heart rending, some eye-opening, most ordinary.

Just for fun, on the extraordinary side of things,

• Rob and I got to eat a picnic lunch with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter at his boyhood home
• I got to sit in Rick and Kay Warren’s living room and tell them about how God shaped me from the time I was young to love the people groups of the world.  Rick genuinely liked me, I think.
• I sat next to President Mousevi’s wife in Uganda and got to tell her I believed in her and the work God wanted to do through her to stop AIDS among their nations youth

and some heart rending, eye-opening…

• I walked down the streets of Calcutta holding Rob’s hand, choking on black air, stale with poverty and pollution, trying to see with more than my eyes the hope that might be waiting for the destitute and dying
• I sat in a room with Sangeetha’s Mom in Erode, India.  I asked her where her son was, and she told me he was with Jesus.  She tenderly cared for my kids in our short visit with her, and locked eyes with me, Mom to Mom.
• My kids danced with the kids from Kalavai, worlds colliding, eye-opening for sure.

and some ordinary…

• I get to brush my daughters hair every day.
• I get to match socks.
• I get to make dinner for my amazing family every night, and let my dogs lick their plates.

We learn from all the circles God puts us in.  My mistake would be to think that because I sat at the same lunch table as Jimmy Carter, and got Rosaylnn more chicken when she was hungry, I was “In” with the President.

Or, that because I walked on the streets of Calcutta, or because my name is on a plaque on a wall of a  house in Kalavai, that I am the coolest missionary ever, and I have the whole mission-field thing figured out…

Or, that every day when my kids won’t brush their own hair, or my dog throws up on my shoe, or homework goes on and on and on, that my life revolved around those mundane things.

Those would be mistakes indeed.  I am starting to learn that these self-imposed circles we sometimes call identity, aren’t really identity, but components of a bigger picture that God is painting into the canvas called our lives. 

It kind of takes the pressure of the whole circle mindset off of it for me when I think about it this way.  God is just painting, and painting, making a masterpiece of this thing He calls my life.  I’m enjoying it as I watch His beauty unfold.

Circles

Everyone lives in a circle.  Their circle is their world.

Isabelle’s circle is her family.  Her preschool.  Her world.

Ellie the dog’s circle is her food.  Her toys.  Her treats.

There are these Circles around me. I find myself wandering around the outside edges, kicking the lines, trying to get out, while trying equally hard to be in the middle, a self-imposed tug-of-war that I am never quite comfortable with.

There’s the Granger Community Church Circle, the Christian blogging circle, the Mom Blogger circle, the Christian celebrity circle, the Blogger Celebrity circle, the Educated circle, the Missional circle, the Pastor’s Wife circle, and then the closer to home, Family, City, School circle, the Neighborhood circle…you get the idea.

Circles are fine.  Everyone has a circle. 

But what if your circle never touches another person’s circle?  What if you don’t even know anything about that person’s circle, or that it even exists?

I’m not saying that it’s all bad, but it’s definitely not all good.

I think understanding other people’s circles help us understand the place we hold in our own.

I think if we don’t understand other people’s circles, we start to honestly believe we are the center of our own, and that our circle is the only one that’s really important.

As I said, there is a never-ending tug-of-war inside of me about this, but I try to do stuff outside of my circle frequently to keep perspective.  I’ll be writing more about that later this week.

How about you?  What circle are you in?  What do you do to keep perspective?

Caleb’s New Toy

If you have 2 or more children you probably giggle at these pictures.  If you don’t, just avert your eyes and go do something else. 

Lillian is the 4th in her family, the youngest of 13 Grandchildren on our side of the family.  I have a feeling she will be one tough cookie.  I love the sinister look in Caleb’s eyes.

She’s Almost Home…

Our friends Marty and Kathy decided to adopt a girl from Russia in 2004. They flew over there, met a round-faced, sweet little blue-eyed blonde baby girl, and fell in love with Anya. They began tackling the mountain of paper work like any other adoptive parent. Speed things up to today, and know that they have been through the most trying time of their lives trying to get this little girl home.

Anya calls Kathy and Marty Mommy and Daddy. She loves them. They love her. They have an inexplicable bond, but various circumstances, not by anyone's choice have kept them apart for almost 6 years. They have gone to visit her every single year since this process has begun, and the bond between them has grown and grown. Watch this video/song Marty put together of all their times together, if you have a minute.

 

 

 

Marty and Kathy are in Russia right now, in the final days of the adoption process. Kathy said that when Anya saw them for the first time this week, she ran as fast as she could down the hallway, and she could feel her heart beating through her dress when she held her. If you pray, pray for this family, that they will finally get to be together.

Marty and Kathy's love and devotion to this little girl reminds me a bit of my Heavenly Father's love for me.

Snowquake

Imagine my surprise to be shaken awake around 5am.  I was expecting the garbage truck to wake me up like every Wednesday morning around then, but I knew this was different.  My bed was shaking, my windows, my whole house.  On top of that, the sub-zero wind was howling outside my window with the expectation of a few feet of snow.

I fell back asleep, expecting to get a text from the school any minute for the long awaited Snow Day.  It finally came, and when I checked Twitter on my iPhone, there was a string of people mentioning an earthquake in the Chicagoland area.  We are about 100 miles from Chicago, yet the earthquake shook us all the way in Granger, Indiana.  I was glad to realize I was not completely crazy.  Then I read this on Facebook status:

       

  God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. For He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth'; Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength. From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, And cold from the scattering winds of the north. By the 7breath of God ice is given, And the broad waters are frozen." ~ Job 37:5-6, 9-10

I think God pops days like this on us every now and then just so we are left in wonder.  Wonder of His majesty and creation.  Wonder at who He is and what He is up to.  I will have a lot of time to wonder today locked up in this house full of squealing girls and all their friends.  I’m glad for this crazy snowquake of a day.

Fun or Service?

We live within 4 miles of 2 McDonalds restaurants, one either direction from our house.  One has a play area with horrible service, the other no play area with great service.

Having 3 young kids, the bad service McDonalds with the play area usually wins out.  We go there expecting to receive some sort of food, but know ahead of time that our order will not be right.

Here is what I’m talking about:

*Once when we were going through the drive thru, we saw 3 of the younger employees jumping over the counter, gross, icky gym shoes stomping all over it on their way over.

* Just last week I ordered one Big Mac Meal, One Kids Chicken Nuggets meal.  I got two Big Macs.  I couldn't possibly eat both, so I returned one.  The worker looked at me like I just shot his dog, horrified that I would catch him in a mistake.  I was trying to be nice..sheesh.

*The week before, the server gave me a large orange drink instead of a small kids orange drink.  A 6 year old could never drink it.  I tried to explain this to the worker, he looked at me like he was about to cry.  (different employee than before)

*Once an employee at the drive-thru asked me for my pin # for my debit card, and I gave it to her out loud without thinking.  She didn't empty my bank account.  I was glad.

*My girls expect this McD's to get their order wrong every time, they know the drill.  No ketchup, honey for their Nuggets, or enough straws. 

*It was approximately 50 degrees in said play area last time I was there with Belle.  Another Mom nicely asked an employee if they could please turn off the ceiling fans and turn up the heat.  Our cheeseburgers were freezing.  The worker said with passion, "It is a health regulation."  We can NEVER turn off the fans. Then, "Can you please turn up the heat?  Please?"  The worker grumbled something to the manager and he grumbled something back. No heat for the play area.

If this McDonalds did not have a play area, I would never go again.  But my kids like to play there.

And then there is the other McDonalds…they get my order right, they smile.  They ask me if I want free coffee.

There is always the debate.  Fun or service?  Which do you prefer?

Thin Places

In the past year and a half, I have become a huge Mary DeMuth fan.  She has a gift for writing prose that brings color and life to any story she is telling.  I admire her deeply as a writer, and after this past book I’ve read of hers, I admire her as a spiritual leader.

In her moving spiritual memoir, Mary DeMuth reflects on the “thin places” of her life—places where she was acutely aware of God’s presence.

What is so strikingly profound about Mary’s story is how she charges headlong into the dark places of her past, and sees now that they are really Thin Places, places where she can now see God reaching down to her, calling out to her, letting her know that He was there all along.  The verse comes to mind:

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

I would recommend this book to anyone who has anything but a perfect past.  Instead of shaking our finger at God and asking Him "Where were you?” This book will challenge you to your core to really seek God and find that He was there all along. He was walking with you through the pain of your story, redeeming moments, and calling you His own, turning your pain into a cause, revealing Himself to you now in those Thin places.

“Thin places are snatches of holy ground, tucked into the corners of our world, where we might just catch a glimpse of eternity. They are aha moments, beautiful realizations, when the Son of God bursts through the hazy fog of our monotony and shines on us afresh. He has come near to my life. I will tell you how.” –Mary DeMuth

You can buy Thin Places here…Or borrow my copy if you’d like!  You can also download the 1st book in a trilogy series called Daisy Chain for a few more days if you have a Kindle, or Kindle app for your iPhone or home computer.  It’s also a really great read.

Lydia Update

A few weeks ago, I told you about our friends John and Angela Keim, whose baby Lydia made her very early appearance at 30 weeks. Our family decided to hang the sweet little pink shoes we bought for her from our lights in our kitchen as a reminder to pray for her.  I saw Luanna, Lydia’s Grandma last night, and she showed me these amazing pictures of Lydia:

She’s up to a little over 4lbs, and obviously getting stronger…notice how she is holding her own bottle in the second photo. 

The other day when Belle and I were cleaning out her drawers, we came across a baby dress that she wore at about 6 months old.  “I’ll be right back”, she charged out of the room, and returned a few minutes later.  I didn’t give it a second thought until I came downstairs awhile later, and found this:

The dress definitely adds emphasis to the shoe-prayer reminder.  I think Lydia is getting lots of extra prayers because of Belle’s concern for her. Belle emphasized that the dress should be Lydia’s now, once she gets big enough to fit into it.  Keep growing strong Lydia!  Lots of people are praying and cheering you on.

One Prayer

A few years ago Craig Groschel from LifeChurch.TV started a movement called One Prayer. The intention of creating this movement was simply to unite a few churches for prayer under one cause.   The movement quickly went viral, with thousands of churches wanting to participate.  One of the churches is our very own Granger Community Church.  We have been responsible for finding and equipping Church Planters with the money raised through One Prayer.  Jack Magruder and Gene Ort went on location this fall and brought back some amazing video updates.  Sit back and enjoy the show! (s)

Tale of Two Kingdoms - Part 1 from Gene Ort on Vimeo.

Part 2

 

Tale of Two Kingdoms Part 2 from Gene Ort on Vimeo.

 

 

A Tale of Two Kingdoms Part 3 An Eternal Kingdom from Gene Ort on Vimeo.

Brooke Meets Lillian Grace

 

I posted a picture of my new niece Lillian Grace last week.  She had to spend some extra time in the hospital, and the hospital didn’t allow Brooke, or her brothers Joel and Caleb up to see her since it’s cold/flu season. 

Brooke called us very sad this weekend because she has been waiting so long for this baby to come, and now that she finally came, she couldn’t meet her.  Last night Brooke finally got to meet Lillian.  It sure looks to me like Lillian is smiling at her big sis in this photo.

I can not to meet this beautiful baby, my youngest brother’s youngest child.  It is amazing how much love I have in my heart for this baby, as well as all my nieces and nephews.  It never gets old.  Children are truly a blessing from the Lord.

Family is sure a funny thing.  Lillian is Maddie’s twin.  She looked exactly the same when she was born.  More reason to love her!

Cute Doggies Need A Home

These 2 beautiful labs need a home! Their. Owner Rick is marrying our dear friend Maribeth THIS WEEKEND, and can not take the doggies with him. They are 4 yrs. old (last October)--brother and sister--both big at 115# each. Jordis (female) is like a bobble dog in the car window-she is very affectionate and needs attention. Jackson is more aloof and can be aggressive with other dogs. They are both awesome with adults and kids of any size. If you are interested, or know someone who might be, leave me a comment or zip me an email and I'll get you in touch with Rick.

What Lies Beneath

While we were gone last week, we thought we would take advantage of the opportunity of an empty house to have some much needed home repairs completed.  Our bedroom floor carpet was a favorite “spot” for the cats that lived here before us, which quickly became our dog’s favorite “spot”.  Ick.  On top of all that, it was worn out, dusty, tread worn, etc.  Our bathtub and bathroom were equally disgusting, as well as our kitchen floor.  We decided to dive headlong, take the plunge, and get ‘er done all at once,  since we are very close to done paying off our van and another small loan.

While we were in Florida, we got some surprising images sent to us of “what lies beneath” our bathtub and bathroom floor.  Can you say mold?  As in mold everywhere?  Completely gross and disgusting. Needless to say, it took them longer than expected, but the guys got it taken care of, covered up and clean by the time we got home.

It really got me to thinking…what else is lying around that I don’t know about?  Not so much around the house, but under the surface of me?  What is living beneath the surface that is easier not to deal with… slowly and silently spreading?  You can’t see it, but it’s there.  Anger.  Jealousy.  Fear.  Lots of stuff that needs to be cleaned up.  Thank God for Jesus who makes it all possible.

It’s funny how these normal life incidences can really make you think.  How about you?  What lies beneath your walls?

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 1 Peter 1:5-9

Delightful Day

Better Than Disney World

Meet Lillian Grace, my new niece.  She is more beautiful than any princess at Disney World, and looking at her sweet little face fills my heart with inexplicable joy.

Welcome to the world Lillian Grace.  You are perfectly loved, and beautiful beyond words.

Speechless

It’s not too often that I am speechless and literally do not know what to say.  This vacation has been amazing beyond words.  We have:

1. Learned to surf
2. Stayed at a hotel way above our economy class – typical style
3. Swam in the biggest pool in the U.S.
4. Lounged in the sun
5. Saw a dead Alligator on the side of the road
6. Snorkeled at Discovery Cove
7. Got pulled by a dolphin
8. Lazed on the Lazy River
9. Blubbered through the whole performance of “Believe”, the Shamu show
10. Got shook around on countless spinney rides.
11. and last night we found out WE ARE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!

I have been nickel and diming Disney Reward dollars for 2 years, but only had enough for 3 tickets.  We were going to go spend them at Downtown Disney on random stuffed animals and tourist t-shirts.  Fun, but not the real deal.  Last night, Our very good friends Paul and Susie Wirth met us at Ft. Wilderness Lodge (where they are staying) and told us that they got us 2 free tickets!  Needless to say, we are unbelievably excited, and speechless.  God is so, so good.  He’s good in the good times like these, and He’s good in the bad times.  He’s always good.

We’re off to enjoy the day at the Magic Kingdom.  More updates later!

Dolphins

 

We’re in Florida and get to go see some dolphins tomorrow at Sea World.  I loved Isabelle’s impression of them so much that I thought I’d share it with you.  I love how our little 6 year old views the world.  While she was drawing this today, she asked me so sweetly, “Mom, do dolphins have feet?”  I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!