Mom's Overture

I am sure most mommies have seen this but if not, you need to. And if you need to laugh right now, watch it again. I got to see Anita Renfroe perform this live at the Women Of Faith Conference this last fall. She is hysterical!
So here is her Mom's Overture.... Everything a mom would say to her child in a 24 hour period sung to William Tell Overture.... done in just 2 minutes and 55 seconds :)

Giving some L-O-V-E

I've been inspired to spread some love by an incredible love spreader!
When you are going through hard times, be it physical, relational, spiritual, financial or otherwise you find out who in your life is really a true and faithful friend.
I am blessed with many incredible sisters that I can say this about but one in particular is on my heart today.

Maybe you'll recognize her beautiful face....



So, to embarrass, I mean BLESS her, I am going to make a top 10 list that will just scratch the surface of what I love about my beautiful friend, Laura Ashland.

1. She shares my first name so that in itself obviously qualifies her as way cool.

2. She is the most stylish chica I know. No seriously, she's a mom of three little kids who manages to almost always dress and accessorize to the T. Oh, and did I mention that she somehow pays like pennies on the dollar for all of her designer duds?!

3. She is one of the most generous people I have ever met with everything from her time to her money. She watches her friends' kiddos anytime, including mine, any time she's available and without hesitation. I know for a fact that some of these kids have had the stomach flu on her watch and she lovingly took great care of them. Um, WOW.
Here are two examples of her sweet generosity:
Knowing I'm sick today, she volunteered to bring our family dinner. I haven't decided whether or not we're going to take her up on it, but just the offer is SUCH a blessing to my heart.
On Thursday morning I was feeling exceptionally sad.
So the Lord sent me a little blessing. I was on the waiting list for the amazing Brittany Jenkins who had a random cancellation that afternoon (thank you Jesus!) and could get me in for a trim and some highlights. Laura watched the boys for me so I could at least have cute hair for a couple of hours :) Doesn't that always help a girl feel better?! And actually just hang'n for a little bit after I got back was the greater blessing.
Crowns in heaven my sweet friend!

4. She is an amazing listener and encourager. That's pretty self explanatory. She has blessed me so much lately with a listening ear and encouraging words. Thank you for that!

5. She is always up to pray for and with you. What a gift it is to have someone not only say they'll pray for you but do it right then and there. I definitely have been trying to pay that one forward.

6. She is not a complainer. In times of personal challenge, she draws nearer to the Lord and blesses His name.

7. She is a great story teller. I could listen to her all day easily!

8. She is FUN-ny!!! Hilarious in fact :) Just play Bunco with her sometime!

9. She's a great mommy and a great wife. She'll probably argue with me on this one but she truly blesses her home and family in multiple ways.

10. She's an amazing chef, a fantastic decorator and the best gift-giver. OK, so those are three separate things but I said I would stick to 10 :)

All that to say that I love you SO much Laura! You bless me beyond words and I am so grateful for our friendship. You are honestly one of the main reasons I cannot see our family moving far from Sherwood. I would miss you WAY too much!
Keep doing what you're doing for as Galatians tells us...

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

May the Lord pour out His countless blessings upon your family, and multiply back to you what you do for others in His gracious abundant ways!!

Josh's 5th birthday party pictures!

The lovely, amazing and immensely talented Mindy Strauss took Josh's 5th birthday party pictures. She is such a blessing in ways far beyond the magic she works with a camera!
We tried to "book" her almost a year ago for family pictures that we wanted taken outdoors. Outdoor shoots in Portland in the Spring are always a gamble. You never know what the weather will do and I think we tried to schedule three different dates and got rained out each time.
Then she had to go and have that adorable baby of hers! :) :) :)
Well, she sweetly worked us in her busy schedule a year later and we made sure the venue was indoors this go round.
Because our party got too large for the adorably painted standard party rooms at the Children's Museum, they put us in an exhibit area/private reception room that happened to be empty and available. There had been a wedding there (possibly between 7 year olds?) the night before and the room was decked out with some rather interesting decor, lol! Think hula hoops, animal pictures and pinata type things hanging from the ceiling! The area was great for crazy, energetic kids because it was huge! But it was also purple.... very purple, and red, blue, pink and maybe yellow? I am SO thankful for the black and white pics!!
Here are a few of our favorites. The rest can be found on our Picasa web album site
Just click here to check 'em out: http://picasaweb.google.com/blbodine

My poor little sickie

The reason I'm posting at 3:20am is because my sweet little Matthew is sick. Whenever he comes down with a cold/virus and it works its way into his little chest, it's bad news for him. He has asthma or at least reactive airway disease..... something along those lines. When he coughs it causes inflammation in his airways and his breathing gets labored. He just could not stop coughing long enough to sleep for more than an hour at a time tonight.
We went downstairs and cuddled on the couch. He now has a fever as well so I played doctor mom and gave him some Motrin and some cough medicine. He needed a breathing treatment and I didn't realize I was out of Albuterol. That's always a great thing to find out when it's 1:30am.
From his several past trips to the ER, I now know what to look for in distressed breathing. Thankfully the vapo patch I put on his chest was enough to at least calm the cough enough to put him back to bed after an hour. I tried to get him to sleep with me downstairs but he kept suggesting we watch a movie together instead :) He also wanted a "granana" (banana) because "my tummy's hungry, mom." I seriously could eat him up when he says things like that in his sweet little voice.
I am praying he is better by Sunday. Resurrection Sunday truly is the most special day of the whole year to me. I cherish and love this day far more than Christmas even. We don't want to miss out this year as we know it's going to be one of the most memorable services we Creekers have yet experienced. Please pray for our little sweetheart!

Streams In The Desert

It's midnight and although I know I am getting up in just five hours I cannot sleep. In fact I rarely can when I come home from my Monday night bible study.
The Lord is doing AMAZING things in our lives and it has much to do with what I take away and try my best to apply on these nights.

Confession time. I used to somewhat dread Sundays. Why? Because Sunday marked the end of a weekend and I knew I would be dealing with "real life" again Monday. Life without much of Brett. A lot of moms can relate I am sure. I simply love Fridays. I tell the boys all day on Friday that Daddy is coming home and gets to be with us for two whole days. Such exciting news for our little family!
And although I still am a big fan of Fridays, I can now say the best two days of the week for us are Sundays and Mondays. Sundays because we fill our entire day with the Lord and nothing but Him. So although we may walk into church on a Sunday morning dragging in just the general stress of life with us, we never walk out the same way. The Lord always meets us and fills us. Then we purpose to spend our afternoon as a family. We know either Sunday night celebration, home groups or just a night that we spend with the Lord and each other is what we have to look forward to later that night. Communion with the Lord and fellowship with other believers.... Does it get any better than that? Not as far as I'm concerned.

I have a love/hate relationship now with Mondays. After spending so much intimate and focused time with the Lord on Sunday, it doesn't take long for my flesh to rear its ugly head in all of its wretchedness. I totally am getting what Paul spoke of in 1 Timothy...

1 Timothy 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

Yep Paul, I hear ya.

I am prompted to write this entry based on an a baffling comment that I heard tonight from two women I greatly admire and respect. I was told that what they have seen transpire in me in the last several weeks has inspired them to spend more time in the Word and to purpose to rise early to spend time praying and reading alone and with their husbands. You have got to be kidding, right? My initial response. Those words blessed and encouraged me beyond belief. I don't think I have ever had anyone tell me that I inspired them to do anything Godly. And it's so cool that it has NOTHING to do with me. What these kind, amazing friends of mine did not know is that I spent one third of my day just trying to make it through today without displaying my emotions to my sweet boys.
What emotions? Geez, it depends on the hour really. This morning's emotions came from plowing through day 5 of my Wisdom for Mothers bible study, focusing this week on a wife's relationship with her husband. How am I doing? Poorly enough to make me hurt for the vast majority of the day. I honestly just never knew what exactly a Godly wife was to look like. It was never modeled to me growing up. And besides a book to refer to that someone once handed me by Elizabeth Elliot, I have never had someone to turn to for advice in that capacity. I love Elizabeth but I learn best by watching someone model to me as opposed to just reading words on a page. I need time with "older" Titus 2/Proverbs 31 women. I think a lot of young (ok, so I actually now fall on the older side of Athey demographics) women feel this need. I actually know so.

So I wanted to share that I had pretty much resolved to not go to my study tonight because my eyes were all puffy (heaven forbid!) from shedding some tears from the realization that I fall so short of the wife that the Lord wants me to be. Does He condemn me? Not a bit. Am I really as terrible as I think? Probably not. I just know that I have MUCH to learn.
These last couple of months have just marked the beginning of some major Spirit led renovations and restoration for me and don't think for a second that Spiritual work is ever easy. And I am really purposing to do anyway the things I know the Lord would have me do whether or not I feel like it.

Here's where I am going to let one of my most beloved devotionals currently, Streams In The Desert, do my speaking for me.

Let's start with the importance of waking early to spend time with the Lord. For me, this was a huge pivotal point in my life. The single sacrifice of my "precious" sleep has truly changed much.

Exodus 34:2-3 Be ready in the morning, and then come up...Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. No one is to come with you.

The morning is a critically important time of day. You must never face the day until you have faced God, nor look into the face of others until you have looked into His. You cannot expect to be victorious, if you begin your day in your own strength alone.
Begin the work of every day after having been influenced by a few reflective, quiet moments between your heart and God.
Do not meet with others, even the members of your own family, until you have first met with the great Guest and honored Companion of your life - Jesus Christ.
Meet with Him alone and regularly, having His Book of counsel open before you. Then face the ordinary, and the unique, responsibilities of each day with the renewed influence and control of His character over all your actions.
Those who have accomplished the most for God in this world are those who have been found on their knees early in the morning
Rising at say, 5:00 instead of 7:00 is the equivalent of adding ten work years to your life in the span of 40 years.

My commentary: Sounds convincing to me :)

The next thing I now know all to well is this:

Mark 9:26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out.

Evil never surrenders its grasp without a tremendous fight. We never arrive at any spiritual inheritance through the enjoyment of a picnic but always through the fierce conflicts of the battlefield. And it is the same in the deep recesses of the soul. Every human capacity that wins its spiritual freedom does so at the cost of blood. Satan is not put to flight by our courteous request. He completely blocks our way , and our progress must be recorded in blood and tears. We need to remember this....
When we are born again , it is not into a soft and protected nursery but into the open countryside , where we actually draw our strength from the distress of the storm.

Acts 14:22 We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.

My commentary? Yep.

Which leads me to this....

Hebrews 6:12 Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

The biblical heroes of faith call to us from the heights they have won, encouraging us that what man once did, man can do again.
They remind us not only on the necessity of faith but also of the patience required for faith's work to be perfected. May we fear attempting to remove ourselves from the hands of our heavenly Guide, or missing even one lesson of His loving discipline due to our discouragement or doubt.
And old village blacksmith once said, "There is only thing I fear: being thrown onto the scrap heap. You see, in order to strengthen a piece of steel, I must first temper it. I heat it, hammer it, and then quickly plunge it into a bucket of cold water. Very soon I know whether it will accept the tempering process or simply fall to pieces. If, after one or two tests, I see it will not allow itself to be tempered, I throw it onto the scrap heap, only to later sell it to the junkman for a few cents per pound. I realize the Lord tests me in the same way: through fire, water, and heavy blows of His hammer. If I am unwilling to withstand the test, or prove to be unfit for His tempering process, I am afraid He may throw me onto the scrap heap."
When the fire in your life is the hottest, stand still, for "later on...it produces a harvest" (Heb. 12:11) of blessings. Then we will be able to say with Job, "When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold" (Job 23:10)
Sainthood finds its source in suffering. Remember, it requires eleven tons of pressure on a piano's strings for it to be tuned. And God will tune you to perfect harmony with heaven's theme if you will withstand the strain.

My commentary there? To be called a saint, to one day be told "Enter in, thou good and faithful servant." So worth it.

I am so thankful for those of you that are standing by me, encouraging me, praying for me and loving me through these days of tempering and restoration. You know who you are and I am so grateful for my sisters in Christ. Please know that I am here to do the same for you.

The soup for the sick

Because a friend of mine and her family were ill a couple of weeks ago, I was motivated to create my own simple and healthy version of the classic chicken noodle soup to bless them with.
We have an epidemic of nasty cold/flu/bronchitis/pneumonia bugs circling Athey right now and I am always up to bless those I love with food. And although it was in the sixties a short time ago in P-town, it's now back in the rainy 40s. What is better when you're sick than hot soup on a cold rainy day?! OK, maybe a steaming cup of tea, a great book and a chance to curl up with your favorite blanket by the fire while enjoying your soup. And of course the children would be taken care of by Mary Poppins..... Proverbs 31 version :)

Anyway, back to the soup. I must preface this by saying I adore cooking, I've been doing it for as long as I can remember, I went to culinary school for a short season and still to this day am never quite satisfied with any recipe I produce. I am always seeking to make things better and this is a decent version of what I hope will eventually turn into a great soup.

So, for those that have requested the recipe, I will try and tell you what I did because I didn't follow a recipe. In fact I rarely do these days. I simply used my instincts and what happened to be on hand to save myself a trip out in the rain :)

Chicken Noodle Soup:
1 small onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
Note: cut your veggies according to your preference. Some people like chunky soup, some like finer textures.
1 quart Organic chicken stock (sold in cartons... I buy it in six packs at Costco or make my own. A good stock (not from a can) greatly changes the quality of whatever you cook.
1 quart water
12 ounces frozen chicken tenders (sold in a large bag in the Costco freezer section. And for the person that asked, no they aren't the breaded ones:) You can also sub regular chicken breasts. Just cut them up so they cook faster.
Seasoned salt
1 or 2 fresh or dried bay leafs
Pepper
Fresh or dried parsley
Note: seasonings and amounts are a matter of personal preference. You can add dill, oregano, thyme or garlic if you would like as well. Just watch the salt. You can always add more later but you can't take it away.
6 ounces Whole grain rotini noodles. Buy whatever shape you would like. They make whole grain pastas in a variety of shapes and sizes. This is a great way to sneak in some whole grains to your kiddos and they won't know the difference.

In a stock pot bring stock, water, veggies, tenders (just throw them in frozen as is) and seasonings to a boil. Lower heat, cover with a lid and simmer (keep at a low boil) for 30 minutes or so. If you forget to put the lid on your liquid will evaporate. If you can easily shred the chicken, it is cooked through. With a slotted spoon, remove the chicken and then shred or chop it into bite sized pieces. Remove the bay leaves at this point as well. Return meat to the pot and return to a boil and add pasta. Cook according to the directions on the box. Taste and adjust seasonings and enjoy. SO easy!
You can also do this in a crock pot just as easily. It freezes well and is great to keep on hand for the cold and flu season :)

I hope this helps and give me a call if you need some!
There's also a scrumptious homemade bread that I often pair this with. I will post that recipe later.

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Yesterday, March 13th, was our 9th wedding anniversary! I find that totally unbelievable. Brett and I have known each other for one third of our lives now!
I wanted to take some time telling Brett and the world (or our four or so blog readers) how much I adore and am thankful for my amazing husband.

When Brett and I met for the first time, I was a freshly caught, but far from clean fish. All of you Athey Creekers will get this reference. I had accepted the Lord about 3 months prior to us meeting. My husband was raised in a Catholic family and became born again at 14 so he truly lived a life set apart for the Lord from the beginning. Although he was attending college far from home, he never fell into the worldly trappings of college life. I am proud to say that my husband has never been intoxicated in his life and has never touched a drug. He also made and maintained close friendships with girls growing up yet purposed not to really date seriously knowing the Lord would someday make it clear to him who his future wife was to be.
Being the youngest (by 11 years) of 7 children, he lived to make not only his parents, but his older siblings proud. He excelled at everything he did. Academically he was always on top and finished his high school career as Valedictorian. Athletically, although I don't remember all of his stats, he was a GREAT football and baseball player.
Sadly, tragedy hit the Bodine family when Brett's father was diagnosed with and then eventually died from Leukemia at the end of Brett's freshman year of college. He remembers taking his finals the week of his dad's funeral.

Fast forward to April 10, 1998. The day the "tornado", the fiery red head, the "perfect storm" entered his world :) I won't go into all the details of our meeting for the sake of time so just ask me someday if you're interested.
The first words I said to him when he picked me up for our first date were "It's about time you got here!" I was ripping on him for daring to pick me up late :)
How true my words really were. It was definitely time for him to enter my life.
At the ripe age of 20 I was pretty wiped out emotionally and experientially. I certainly didn't have your typical childhood so my trust in people was certainly damaged. My mom had very tragically passed away when I was 16 and I had been living as a "grown up" since.
And although at that point saved, Brett was one of my first and most amazing proofs of God's existence and His great love for me. And to this day, he still very much is.
When the Lord put it on Brett's heart to marry me I am sure there were moments when he asked "are you sure, Lord?" You don't come from the kind of pain I had experienced at such a young age and not have your fair share of issues. More than anything, I just didn't trust or believe in his love for me.
And although I didn't set out consciously to do so, I was somehow certain that if I just pushed him hard enough and tested him enough that his love for me would crumble under pressure. I was wrong. He always remained steadfast, long suffering and faithful to me. I'm not writing this to say that our first year or so of marriage was all bad or to give the impression that I beat myself up for my many failures as a then 21 year old wife. I just am SO grateful that my husband faithfully loved me through those days and months that were not easy circumstantially or otherwise. Brett really was the first person in my life up to that point who demonstrated real love to me - agape love.

Brett and I have always been best friends. That was obvious from the get go. We are so polar opposite personality wise but it truly is a match made in heaven. I certainly add excitement to our lives. There are very few dull moments day to day... let's just put it that way :)
Brett on the other hand certainly adds stability and wisdom to my world.
I live entirely in the heart realm. Brett lives almost entirely in the head realm. When those two worlds come together it's a perfect combination. The Lord doesn't want us to be ruled by our emotions. Yet He also wants us to love greatly. For without love... well, here's the scripture that tells us what we're like without love:

I Corinthians 13:1-3 - If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

Another great thing in our marriage is humor! Both of us love to laugh and my husband is one of the funniest and wittiest people I know.
One of the things I most love about him is that he has enabled me to laugh at myself.
On one of our first dates we were enjoying lunch out. I was eating some sort of sandwich accompanied by a rather scrumptious dill pickle half. I innocently bit into the pickle and things began to not go so well. I, at this point in my life, was obsessed with both proper etiquette and my appearance. So as I tried to gracefully eat this pickle, it retaliated... or exploded - I am not sure which. All I know is that I had both pickle juice and bits of pickle flowing down my face. And as Brett busted into muffled hysterics, I for the first time ever, was able to laugh along with him. What an important lesson that was and still is for me :)

Let's see.... Let's go back to my husband's brilliant mind, shall we? He has his undergrad in Exercise Physiology and went on to get his Masters Degree at George Fox. If we hadn't have been in the midst of childbirth classes his final year of grad school, he would have completed his Masters with a 4.0.
Instead he got like a 3.9 :)
So he's a science and math guy who, are you ready for this?, happens to have a strange love of teenagers. This truly is one of life's greatest mysteries to me. He gets paid a modest salary to spend all day shaping and molding the hormonal and mysterious minds of our youth. He does this in a not so posh setting to say the least. Centennial High School is truly a battlefield. Some of the school's "accomplishments" to date:
*It has the highest student pregnancy rate in the state of Oregon.
*It has a large daycare facility on site for the student population.
*It has quite an active gay/straight alliance club which celebrates its "diversity" openly at student assemblies.
*There is an ever growing gang population.
*The district has one of the highest free and reduced lunch populations in the Portland metro area.
I could go on but you get the idea. Every school day for the last five years my husband has bravely gone straight into this battlefield and has done so with a tremendous amount of strength. He has proverbs covering his classroom walls in this public school. He has used his math classes on multiple occasions to speak the truth to students who are lied to in frightening ways each and every day. He fills them in on the truth of our national and world history, the sanctity of marriage and precious new life. He truly does love on these kids who desperately need it. But often does so while being called expletives and being openly disrespected with little to no administrative backing. And don't forget he's expected to teach quadratic equations to students who often can't add simple fractions. I am so proud of him for doing such truly noble work in order to support our family. Because a single teacher income is challenging to live on, Brett has given up the only daily prep period he has this year to teach an extra class. He also teaches night school every Tuesday night, does private tutoring after school and he teaches summer school for all but a week and a half of his summer break. He does this so I can stay home with our boys and he wouldn't think even for a moment of having it any other way.

To continue bragging on him, he has some other note worthy abilities. He can fix anything and everything. He is a techie genius. He is a fantastic artist. He is Brett the builder :) He taught himself to play the guitar and is really quite good at it. He is a master impressionist and has NY and Scottish accents mastered (so funny!). He is a lover of history and political science and keeps me informed on the important issues. He is the one is our home who can do more than stare blankly at our sewing machine. Most importantly, he makes the best chocolate chip cookies on earth.

He is an AMAZING father. Both Josh and Matthew run to the door and light up when I say the magic words... "Daddy's home!" He loves them with all of his heart and demonstrates so every day. He disciplines them in love and spends lots of time just being silly with them. He reads them the Word and does great reenactments of Bible stories using lincoln logs, legos and little people :)
He will proudly coach them in T-ball and soccer and I'm thinking his love of golf will eventually earn him two great golf buddies.

Brett is truly a man after God's own heart. He rises each morning at 5:15 to make sure he has enough time to read the Word with me and spend time in prayer before he heads off to work.
He loves to study the Bible and has a well worn bible or two to prove it. He is a great spiritual leader for me and our boys and I am so thankful for his fervent love of the Lord.

So Brett, you're probably the only one who took the time to read through my rather lengthy post :) But truly if I spent hours and days trying to name everything I love about you I would have time for little else.
You are such an incredible husband to me. Nine years ago on our wedding video, in our pre-wedding interview, I said that you make me want to be a better person. I know now that I will never be a "better" person this side of Heaven. I do however strive with each day to be a more Christ like wife, mom, friend and disciple of our Lord. My love of Jesus is the driving force behind all I do and my love of you not only is fantastic motivation, it also makes life so very rich and rewarding. Happy Anniversary! I love you with all my heart!