State Fair of Texas 2012

The fair is extremely pricey for the Gautreaux household, seriously, our kids have never even been to the fair!  But this year Courtnie had a dance comp at the Cotton Bowl and we decided to have a garage sale to help with the cost of taking the family to the Fair.  Mom came home from work one day and someone had given her two kids fair tickets.  The next day someone called her and had two adult tickets.  Courtnie already had a ticket from her competition fees so this left us needing to pay for just one more adult ticket.  God was so good to us!  He even provided another free ticket to the fair while we were at the gate.  A-M-A-ZING!

We had a really good time!  The only fried food we attempted was fried bubble gum and it was absolutely disgusting.  Nothing else even looked appealing.  Some foods should just remain un-fried!

Rough Week for the Gautreaux's

This last week has been a doozy in the Gautreaux house.  It definitely goes down in our family history books as one of the HARDEST mother/daughter parenting weeks we've ever endured.  Unfortunately, the boys have also had their fair share of upsets this week as well.

I've learned that my kids are in fact not exempt from pain and heartache.  I've learned that I cannot always help them out of difficult situations they put themselves in.  I've learned that we can train them and prepare them but ultimately they make their own decisions.  I've seen my own children persecuted for their beliefs and their raising.  I've seen just how different my kids are from the "norm" today.  I've learned that while I desire to help my children through the bumps and dramas of friendships, not all parents care enough to do the same.

It's been a very.hard.week.  I've cried and prayed, prayed and cried, and cried and prayed some more.  To say that I cried for a period longer than 24 hours cannot be anymore true.  To say that I have been in constant prayer for the past 8 days is an understatement.  To say this family has held their tongues and let their tongues slip and that we've come together in comic relief cannot be anymore fitting.

My oldest has asked me to homeschool him.  While I find it very mature to ask to be taken away from the drama and out of school issues, I wonder if he's running away from problems versus learning to deal with them.  I wonder if he'll miss playing high school baseball and if we do pull him out of school if we are teaching him that when things don't go as planned, just walk away and try something else.  But then I put those thoughts aside and am so proud that he doesn't want to deal with the drama of psycho friends and overbearing girls and just wants to focus on what's important.  He's learned that even your closest friends will turn on you in an instant.

My daughter has learned that even when she hears things at school that may seem funny and/or odd at the time, they may be important enough that parents have to contact the school principal or other appropriate authorities.  She has learned that she may feel a close connection and share her life stories and struggles with a close group of friends and still not be invited to the birthday party.  (This friend has spent every Wednesday night with us having dinner and snacks and I have taken them to/from youth since August.  In addition, they all spent Friday night together at a preteen event only to find out the next day she was excluded from the birthday party and this group of friends.)  She's learning that having friends is hard and that sometimes friends gossip and turn on you.  She's learned that she cannot repay evil for evil and that her Momma will make her confront the situation appropriately and apologize face to face.  She's learning the true meaning of forgiveness and grace and that her Momma loves her sooo much that she wants to teach her how to be a good friend, even when it's hard.

Colton has learned that cutting his hair once gets this Mom mad.  He's learned that cutting his hair twice will result in a shaved head.  He's learned learning that school behavior is important and that he will continue to get in trouble EVERY.SINGLE.TIME he gets in trouble at school.  I wish I could say he's learned this but clearly this is a slow process at 7 years old.  He's about to learn that his things will get thrown away if he doesn't start picking them up!

Jason and I have learned that we are not professionals at this parenting gig and that raising a tantrum throwing toddler was much easier than raising teenagers.  We've learned how to truly listen to one another with our vastly different opinions and while we may have yet to come to some sort of conclusion, we both are relying on God to share with us the next steps.  We're learning that our children sometimes have to make their own choices, to praise them when they've made good choices, and how to parent through their bad and untimely choices.  We've learned that boy drama is MUCH easier than girl drama.  And we've learned to stay in constant prayer to raise these children correctly in a God-honoring way.  We've seen just how different our children are and that they're more grounded than most in the secular world.  I'm sad for them and this reality... and yet so very proud of them!

Things our family is currently working on....
forgiving others
allowing mistakes and extending grace to friends
being giving of our time and energy
letting God shine through us in ALL situations
relying on God's words and truths
listening to God for Him to guide us
leaning on and being there for each other

Prayer requests for our family.....
that we hear and know the direction to take in regards to Cameron's schooling
that Courtnie is forgiven for her words
that Colton gets his head on straight
that Jason and I continue to communicate constructively

Devotional Time

As you may know, I'm a sinner.  Sometimes I hear God tell me to do one thing and I share with Him why doing it my way may be better.  And what's worse?  I give my plans a try and my plans always fail.  As a matter of fact, I can't think of a single time when my plans ever succeeded.  I always run back to God for wisdom and ask Him to re-share His plans because this time I'm going to do just as He says.  Lucky for me God never mocks me for failing (James 1:5).

I've struggled for years (and by years I really do mean years, as in 11 years) knowing I should get up early and do my devotional BEFORE my day begins.  But at the start of any new season (new calendar year, my school year, new trial in life, etc) I always give it my best shot.  Problems is, not once did I ever make it out of bed early enough to actually attempt a devotional.  But I could manage to stay in bed and come up with ideas of WHY it would be better for me to get my full night's sleep and do my devotional at a different time of the day.  Funny thing is, I wasn't sleeping while telling Him my ideas either so why did I not just get up out of bed? (I literally just put this together while writing. Slow learner for sure!)

This has been really heavy on my heart for awhile now.  I started a weekly bible study three weeks ago and once again I hear God telling me it's time to get out of bed.  Because I am a slow learner, we go back through our conversation of why it would be better for me to get all my sleep and attempt this devotional time at a later hour in the day.  By week 1, I've failed.  Not once did I do a single devotional or open my bible study book.  Not only is God now speaking to me throughout my day, but I hear Him in Sunday School, at church, and through the words of a friend.  He's laying it on me right now!

So today is the day.  Today is the day I command myself out of bed and into His word.  At this point, I'm two weeks behind in our bible study.  No, really.  I got up when my alarm went off and opened my bible.  Now before you think I've finally figured it out, I did hit snooze 4 times.  And I checked my Facebook while going potty.  Baby steps.  But on Facebook a sweet friend of mine mentioned struggling with not getting sleep because she's suddenly wide awake in the middle of the night.  I struggled with this too about 2 months ago.  I told her that in order to fight Satan, it takes all of us praying around the clock and that it's just her season to do her part.  I fought this same issue and it felt so liberating to literally get out of bed and on my knees in prayer at 2am, which was always the time I woke up abruptly from a sound sleep.  Somebody was struggling somewhere and there I was praying for them.  I would only hope that if we were struggling with an issue in the middle of the night that someone made that same decision to get out of bed and pray for Christ's followers.

And then it dawns on me.... I'm preaching to myself.  Why am I so fixed on Brandie getting X amount of sleep when God is calling me to do the same?  When did I get so selfish with my time?  Is my faith that shaky that I don't trust God to sustain me through the day because I got up and prayed or I got up on time and did my devotional?  God doesn't put me on hold when I call on him in the wee hours of the night, why am I putting Him on hold?

So I excitedly dig into my devotional this morning totally pumped because I FINALLY GET IT!  I know God is up there rejoicing.  After all, He has been working on this issue with me for more than 11 years!!

And of course what is my devotional about this morning?  Asking God for wisdom and fully believing He will provide.  This translated for me "Ask God for strength and endurance and fully believe He will provide."  I can just see God shouting with praise that this child in Forney, TX has finally gotten it :)  The study was also about God testing our faith and that satan can only take our goods if we hand them over.  Testing produces perseverance (James 1:2-3).  Satan can only take away my endurance and energy if I hand them over.  The testing of my obedience to get out of bed will surely produce perseverance.

God never ceases to amaze me.  Here I am two weeks behind in this study and just when I decide to obey Him and get out of bed, of course the study confirms what I need to be doing.  The end of the days lesson says this, "Maybe today is a day for making up our minds in a personal area where we battle duplicity."

How long will we waiver between two opinions?  If the Lord is God, follow him. (1 Kings 18:21)

Today starts a new day for me.  I'm going to stop fighting with God about "MY" required amount of sleep and "MY" preferred plans and I'm going to rely on Him for perseverance.  I'm going to allow Him to push me and build my character.  He will provide for me with anything I ask, why not just obey Him and with my faith ask Him to provide the energy I need.  

WAAHHHH!

Someone please tell me they too give their child a vitamin and tell them it's going to help them stop whining and crying.  AHH!

Family Pics 2012

How precious are these?  These were super impromptu pics and not bad coordination since we all grabbed from our closets.  A fellow missionary, Ashlee, that Breanne met in Africa has moved down to Dallas so her husband can finish his degree at CFNI.  We had them over for dinner and Breanne wanted a few pics snapped of her and the kids before she left again for Africa on her second trip.  We decided to join in the fun too :)

Visit Ashlee Crowden photography....

Thanksgiving, Part 1

My sister heads back out to Africa later this week. Because she missed Thanksgiving last year and will again this year, we went ahead and celebrated early. There's something just not right about eating turkey when it's 96 degrees outside!

RHHS Homecoming 2012

Cameron went to his first Homecoming dance with a friend of his from the diaper years.  These two have literally been friends since Cam was 16 months old.  She goes to Rockwall-Heath High School so he went knowing only her and had a good time!  I cannot believe he is old enough to dress up so nice and be released into the world of girls and dancing.  You bet that kid got some good life lessons before he left our house!

There are tons and tons of pictures so these posted are only some of my favorites :)

White Girl

Jason and I are driving and he's telling me this REALLY interesting story about how some of his customers aren't being as formal with their greetings lately.  I'm trying to stay focused on this highly entertaining story but really I was just looking out my window wondering when the next cold front would come through.  To keep my self focused, I started to imitate these customers' greetings.

And thus comes the most profound statement from my loving husband....

Jason says, "Man you are white, white, white, white.  You got some ghetto in you but right not you are just white."

Eh?

Kari Jobe Concert

We heard Kari Jobe was coming to town and of course we wanted to go and get a good deal on tickets.  I mentioned to the youth about joining us and was really hoping to get at least 10 girls to go since we needed that number for group rates.  We ended up with 34 girls and moms from our church/youth!  Unbelievable night of worship and girl time.  If you've never seen her in concert, try to go next time she is in town.  What a powerful woman of God and song!

"It's always a good thing when we come to the end of ourselves and realize we are nothing without Him."  -Kari Jobe