Christmas ~ A new understanding!

Over the last few years I have been trying to write my testimony and as I have reflected on my life and what God has done for me it has given me a greater understanding of the Old Testament law and the coming of Jesus. For I once tried to live by a law but now I live by the power of God. Following is a very condensed version of my testimony.

For years I misunderstood the plan of Salvation and the power of God. I said a prayer when I was 4 and thought that made me a Christian but it was years before I began to really understand the change that God wants to make in our lives as His children; that we would be a reflection of Christ.

I knew certain things about how you should live and tried to do them but I kept failing so I would just give up. Looking back it was actually a law I was trying to follow because I didn’t have the power of God working in me.

When I was 23 God began to speak to my heart that it did matter how I lived and that He would be my guide if I would humble myself and follow Him. That began my journey to peace and joy and the power to overcome sin. I am not perfect, I still make mistakes, but I have the Holy Spirit as my guide and He shows me my sin that I may confess it, make it right if needed and overcome it in the future.

So what made the difference?

I laid my entire life at Jesus feet and allowed Him to transform my life according to His will. I asked the Lord to show me sin in my life so I would recognize it and I counseled with the elder at my church and confessed my sin. I found that bringing forth sin and confessing it out loud to someone broke the power of Satan in my life and would be a big step in helping me to be an overcomer. I asked forgiveness of those I had wronged. And most of all, I began to read the Word of God daily, asking God to show me how to live and to continue to show me things in my life that did not line up with the Bible.

It has been 14 years and I am still being formed to be more like Christ. God has brought me a long way and as I reflect on my past and what Christ has done for me it has given me a better understanding of the Israelites, the Law, the promise of the Messiah, and the coming of Jesus. For as many years I believed in God and wanted to follow Him, I did not have the power of God in my life. I was like the Israelites trying to follow the law that God had given them. The law was their school master to show them their need for a Saviour. We can not live a holy life of our own accord.

May you know the power of God in your life this Christmas and always. If you are where I once was I pray that you will seek wisdom from above and begin today to allow the Word of God to transform your life.

Merry Christmas!

I Love You!

This is a video of my talented cousin Andy playing the spoons and singing a song for my Grandma. I kept the video short in hopes of uploading it to my blog. Javan and I have learned to clap plastic spoons together so they sound decent, but we have a long way to go to sound like Andy.

How do you get a 4 year old to fold laundry?

At our house we started sorting laundry out of the dryer into baskets for each person.  Everyone from Jubilee up is responsible for folding their own laundry.  I do Chad’s and mine, and it varies who does the littlest ones.

We have been doing the high five thing which doesn’t always work.  Tonight I told Jubilee that for every article of clothing she folded diligently, after she gave me my high five she could add a piece of clothing out of her pile to mine.  I didn’t have to remind her to keep busy!

So what incentives do you use to keep your children going?

Cheese Anyone?

 

We slept in a bit this morning and so breakfast is late.  I was in my room with Jonas and he said with delight “cheese Mommy!”  And low and behold he had a piece of cheese in his hand.  I responded “where did you get the cheese?”  He pointed to his pocket and said “in here!” right before he took another bite and it was then that I heard it crunch ~ just like a potato chip! 

He must have put the cheese in his pocket last time he wore the shirt.  The shirt was still clean and hanging in his room when I dressed him.  I’m not sure how long it had been there, but long enough to dry into cheese chips!

Better go feed him! ;)

Another one of "those days"

Here we go again! I was looking forward to a day to get everything back in order and school plans made up for next week. I started off my day on Kohls.com to take advantage of their sale since I decided to stay home today. Before 1030 rolled around Jonas came inside crying. I assumed from the cold. When I picked him up he had an obvious fever. So I have spent a good part of my day cuddling my sweet little boy. Jesse was also on the couch with a low grade temperature but he entertained himself with books. Jared came to me at supper not feeling good. Johanna already has a cold and Jubilee has some type of infection although she is not noticeably sick. Anyone want to come help me clean??? HaHa! Looks like it will be Chad, Javan, and Jolene in church tomorrow.

Every once in awhile Jonas would feel well enough to play for awhile or sit on the counter to watch daddy outside cutting wood or take a nap; later I let the children watch some family videos before supper to give them a little entertainment so I could keep busy.

The extent of my accomplishments so far is dishes washed and about 6 loads of laundry washed and sorted into baskets for the children to fold and put away. I have done some other misc. but not a lot to show for it.

Now Jonas has fallen asleep on me, I am going to attempt to put him down ~ didn't work! Now I am nursing Johanna, typing one handed, and Jonas is wanting me; he is a momma's boy when he doesn't feel good. Thankfully, my sweet husband is cleaning up from supper. It seems like Jonas may be back asleep, so maybe I can get a little done before he wakes up.

This could be a long night if he doesn't sleep well and wants me. Maybe we'll just take advantage of our king size bed!

Jared wanted to eat but he wanted to lay down while he did it. Chad told him he could lay down on the floor to eat so the mess would not be on the couch. He ate his brat and some applesauce and then fell asleep on his little nest he made. I even swept around him awhile ago without him noticing.

I did get to do some more work this evening so now things are in much better order though I still have much to do.

May you each have a blessed Lord's day.

I Love You

Character training 101

We had a nice weekend in Ohio for Thanksgiving. Got back around 10:30 Sunday evening. Yesterday afternoon I took a walk to try to walk off the extra calories I ate at Thanksgiving (it's gonna take a LOT of walking!!!) Later I helped the children clean out the van. Some things got put away, a lot of things got brought in to be finished today.

Taking a trip always takes it's toll on our home. Today I was hoping to get the rest of the trip things put away, make a couple lasagnas for the freezer with meat that needs used up, make some badly needed bread, have the house tidied up and school completed in time to leave for a vision appointment this afternoon. I know, not likely to happen, but high goals are better than low goals.

So now it has been "one of those days." I had a sweet little helper grinding wheat for me to make bread, the filter was forgotten, so flour was pouring out where the filter belongs. I was upstairs when this happened and my sweet little helper just kept grinding!!! 8~( So now I have a white dusting over just about everything!!! My kitchen floor was white, the counters are white, the dishwasher was opened because other little helpers hadn't finished putting away the CLEAN dishes, so they are dusted with white, book shelf dusted with white ~ you're catching on aren't you!

Well, I am thankful to have sweet little girls to help me and to occasionally make a bigger mess than was already here. Did I mention the laughs that we are making for years to come? I'm sure I will laugh someday, though I am not laughing right now!

You are probably wondering ~ why in the world are you blogging when you have sooooo much work to do? Easy, I am trying not to eat so much so I can lose those extra calories I ate over the weekend, not to mention the weight I needed to lose before the feast! So I am at the table surrounded by my children, I ate my share and stopped, now I am on my laptop eyeing the food that is being left in the dishes and trying to convince myself that I have had ENOUGH!

You know, there may be some people reading this that would think, why don't you stop having children, send them off to school, and then have a clean house and some "ME" time! There is nothing I would rather do than have my children with me 24-7. Having the privilege of helping them with school, guiding them through character issues, and spending loads of time with them is such a blessing! And these "days" that happen occasionally, well, they are character training for me!

I Love being a Mom!

One BLESSED Mommy!

I was sitting on the couch and my loveable 8 year old came up to me and said...

"Do you like your parents? I like my parents!"

I couldn't be more blessed!

To God be the Glory ~ Great things He has done.

I LIKE You too Jared!

Fall Camp Out

Waiting!

Hiking!

My

View!

 

 

 

  November 6th we camped out at Jubilee State Park in Brimfield IL.  The park is near Princeville and just across the road from where Chad grew up.  He decided we should stay local since we only had one night.  We hiked after we got set up then had a wiener roast complete with s’mores.  Played a couple rounds of Phase 10 in the camper and had an early lights out.  I think Jesse and Javan may have read books for awhile but the rest of us had no trouble going to sleep.  In the AM we went for a bike ride before Chad’s family joined us for a picnic.  After that we packed up and the children roller bladed with Chad for a bit before it was time to head home.  I am thankful we had the chance for a good camp out before the weather turns cold for good!  It is a “new to us” pop up, but I forgot to take pictures to share of the inside.  It is a luxury pop up, plenty of counter space and floor space and a slide out eating area.  A total of four beds which left plenty of room for us to sleep comfortably!  We have usually slept in tents, borrowed a couple campers but I was of the opinion that if we didn’t have room to move it wasn’t worth purchasing a camper.  I am SOOOO thankful for what we got!  Most of my pictures are from the backside of the hikers.  The one I got from the front I had to run ahead.  Usually I am in the rear making sure the stragglers don’t get left behind.

 

 

Pyromaniacs?

 

 

 

 

 

I was playing with my camera trying to get a good shot of the sunset.  I have a lot to learn!  Chad told me they had posed long enough!

 

 

 

Mom and Dad Plattner and Uncle Kyle met us for lunch and brought a surprise for the girls ~ Chelby and Emily were visiting from Indiana so they were the surprise.

Jesse and Chelby playing Battleship.

I don’t have any other good shots from their visit.

 

 

 

 

Jolene caring for Johanna.

The view

 

 

 

 

 

 

Naptime

Cutie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We purchased 5 pair of roller blades at a garage sale and the children enjoyed using them on a cement pad at the campground.  They don’t all fit, but they did well enough that we hope to purchase some blades that “fit” for some safer fun!

 

 

 

 

 

  

We parked pretty close to the playground which was pretty nice to be able to allow the children to go play and keep an eye on them from a short distance. 

 

 

Johanna’s ride!

Javan captured a grasshopper.

 

 

 

How many Plattners does it take to direct the driver for a smooth connection?

We had beautiful weather and a great time together.

Benefit Garage Sale a success!

I copied this from the Horsemeister blog about the benefit garage sale for Haiti. Thank you Judy for keeping us updated.

Yesterday in the mail, Joan received a special book all the way from Haiti. One of her friends from Haiti, took pictures she had taken of Gabriel and made them into a book. Joan brought the book to the garage sale to show the rest of the family. The book is so touching that anyone that looks at it automatically starts tearing up. Beth was looking at the book during one of the very busy times when a man came up with some fishing equipment and asked Beth if she would take a $1.00 for it. There was 2 lines of people behind him waiting to check out. Beth showed him the book with the picture of Gabriel and told him that all the proceeds go to the school in Haiti that Gabriel attended and she would go down. All of a sudden Beth started sobbing, mom loudly lost it, Joan starts sobbing, then Karin seeing them all crying broke out sobbing. The man was so flustered he opened his wallet and told Beth, just take it ALL! The ladies at the front of the line all start to cry sympathy tears. Then one of the ladies in the back of the line asked "What Happened?" She was told "that man at the front of the line just asked down!" So the word went out, What ever you do, DON'T ask down!
Once we realized how that looked and sounded it was cause for laughter.
The garage sale is now over and yes, we would call it a success, over $7000.00 was raised for Gabriel's school but how we wish that the last 3 weeks could be erased.

Jonas

The other morning Jared came into my bed when Chad was already up and fell back to sleep.  When Chad got Jesse and Javan up to start school Jonas woke up so Chad put him in our bed beside Jared.  Chad went to take his shower and when he came out Jonas was giggling at Jared; he snores!  Chad saw Jonas get in his face trying to imitate the noises he was hearing; he must have thought Jared was playing!

Yard Sale

There will be a HUGE garage (barn) sale on Friday Nov 6th from 8-3 and Saturday Nov 7th from 8-1. All proceeds will go to Apostolic Christian World Relief Haiti.

They are located on the West side of Rt 91 just outside of Peoria (North of The Shoppes at Grand Prarie). The drive just North of Howard and MaryAnn Herrmann's old place. Pass the lake and the sale is in the gray barn straight ahead.

I dropped off a bunch of stuff today and they already had a huge amount of items there. I hadn't planned on going to the sale, just donating, but there is sooo much stuff I am reconsidering my intentions.

I copied the following message from The Horsemeister blog.

Below is an email from Michelle Kellenberger:

we are planning a big garage sale at the Herman's barn on November 6th and 7th with all the proceeds going to Haiti.
anyone interested in helping can contact Beth Herman at 309-303-4740.
anyone who has items to donate can drop them off at the barn anytime starting on Tuesday the 3rd.
this is only a week and a half away so lets get going!!
we need your help and your old stuff!

------------------
As a side note. The Herman's are trying to sell their house. It is a big house and the barn is geared for activities, not farming. So if you know anyone interested in buying a house in the Peoria area let them know.

A sampling from the Plattners, October 2009

We had a luncheon with some local home schoolers.  The girls helped with the meal and the boys helped with the tables and chairs.  The children enjoyed playing games together while the ladies visited.  We enjoyed a couple out of town families that joined us for the day.

My parents and brother, Mark, stopped by on the way to my cousins wedding.  My pictures aren’t very good, so I am just posting a couple.  Here Uncle Mark is showing some videos on his laptop.  Next is Jolene giving Aunt Lori a hug.  She’s a “GREAT” aunt in more than one way to my children! :)

 

CUTE!

 

 

 

 

Math with manipulatives

 

 

 

 

Breakfast

 

 

 

 

As I was playing with the settings on my camera I just happened to catch the steam rising out of the toaster!

 

 

 

 

Good friends

 

 

 

 

Testing paper airplanes ~ I don’t have a picture of me dodging them!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Typing Instructor

 

 

 

 

Babysitter!

We are working on her bed, she’s a tough one!

 

 

A science project ~ Using a magnifying glass at different angles to see how it effects pieces of chocolate.  After Javan watched this experiment he wished he was in Astronomy, or at least get to help with cleanup!

 

Ready for morning devotions???  Actually it looks dark outside, so this may have been evening, but it’s the same view as some of our mornings!  Our children definitely have the Brinker gene for sleeping!

 

 

 

 

Playing around for the camera

 

 

 

 

??????????

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family Fun Night ~ I started blog update while the children watched an exciting video about Mining Trucks!!!  WooHoo ~ I guess it’s a guy thing!  I joined them for Dutch Blitz as Jared’s partner.  Can’t wait till they can pull their own and we can have some energy flowing into the game!

Well, that is a sampling of our pictures from this month!  Johanna is calling me so I guess it’s time to sign off! 

Good Night!!!