Julie for Sheriff

Wow! It's been so long since I've posted!! Well, I'll have to back track as I find the time but for now I wanted to share our fun day at the Elkhart County 4-H fair. We all wore matching shirts supporting our favorite candidate for Elkhart County Sheriff, Julie Dijkstra. Jesse walked in the parade w/Julie and we collected him at the Grandstand.

Here's Emma with her "vote for Julie smile"!

First we went to Young McDonald's Farm. Emma made a friend.

Stopped by the Goshen Noon Food Booth to say Hi to Dad & Joan. (We passed on a hug - sorry Woo Woo!)


After a bite to eat, we headed to the Grandstand.

Here's another campaign picture!

The next part was just funny. But the kind of funny that you just had to be there. We stuck it out through the rain. I haven't laughed that hard for that long in quite awhile!

Jesse may have a future in politics. Here's his best "VOTE FOR JULIE"!

Sophie was in the parade too. She won the little Sweetheart Princess for the Wakarusa Maple Syrup Festival.


Bought a lemon shake-up from our youth group.

And now for some rides!

Finally . . . . . .Emma gets a turn!

Time to crash!

Since I don't have time to blog . . . I thought I would post a link to one of my first blogs "The Apple". I thought it was fitting since we are again one of the prayer families this week. I just hope it's slightly different and I won't have to kill a . . . well, you'll just have to read to find out!

Have a great week !!

Who owns your child's heart?

We just attended our 3rd Battle Cry / Aquire the Fire event this past Saturday. Our youth director has been arranging yearly trips for 10 years now - Thanks Matt! (and Trish! ) It’s like a Promise Keepers or Women of Faith event only for kids, well, more for teens. But, I think the adults get just as much out of it!

Through music, speakers and drama thousands of teens heard about Christ’s life, love, and interaction with his disciples; Christ’s sacrifice and what it demands of their lives; how to maintain pure relationships (split gender specific session); how to make God’s word a lifeline for their own life; how to live their faith with conviction and love; what it really means to honor their parents.

This year they also had a separate session for parents. Very informative! Ron Luce, founder of Teen Mania Ministries, asked us questions - Are you parenting by convience? Do you have a culture dashboard for your home? Who owns your child's heart? He also talked a bit about one of his books, Re-Create. “The purpose of Re-Create is to equip parents on how to build a culture in their home so strong and defining that it pulls the hearts of the kids toward the family and keeps them safe from a culture bent on deception.”

We are extremely busy hear at the Odiorne household so, I won’t get on my soapbox yet but it’s coming . . . . . I just want to leave you with a bit of information . . .

Check out the lyrics for the song “Candy Shop“ by 50 cent. "Candy Shop" performed well in the United States, becoming 50 Cent's third number one single. When writing the song, 50 Cent stated: "I attempted to be as sexual as possible, from a male perspective, without being vulgar or obscene". When I was looking up info for this, I found that Madonna also has a song about candy - lucky us!

Just recently, a 23yr. old young man decapitated his 5yr. old sister after stabbing his 17yr. old sister to death.

The following is from Planned Parenthood's website: Abortion is a safe and legal way for women to choose to end pregnancy. There are two kinds of abortion in the U.S. — in-clinic abortion and the abortion pill. Abortions are very common. In fact, more than 1 out of 3 women in the U.S. have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old. If you are trying to decide if abortion is the right choice for you, you probably have many things to think about. Learning the facts about abortion may help you in making your decision. You may also want to learn more about parenting and adoption.

This information may not be surprising to some of you. I know that many of you support great causes that deal with these issues and more. And I thank you and greatly appreciate you!

My cause in writing this is children. Not just my children but all children. For some time, our family has been moving away from “the world” and what “the world” says we need and what “the world” says is cool and so on. I just took some time today to check in on “the world” and what we’re missing - nothing.

So, who owns your child’s heart? That’s who they will go to for advice. Whoever owns your child's heart has the most influence over them. Is it you? Is it their friends? Is it music? You can and should set limits, you can and should be taking them to church but the key is having that right relationship with them so they value and understand what you are teaching them and why.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6

MEALTIME MINISTRIES . . . . spread the word!

MEALTIME MINISTRIES

A free weekly meal for unemployed and underemployed
individuals and their families in the Wa-nee community.

Every Tuesday (starting 3-10-09)
Supper will be served at 5:30pm

Location is at the:

First Presbyterian Church
(in the Family Life Center)
1155 N Main St
Nappanee, IN
773-3773

Spread the word to those that have lost their jobs or have had their hours cut. This is a great opportunity for our community to work together and help each other. You can help by donations of money and food or volunteer! There are time slots for cooking, serving and clean up. (Volunteers get to eat too!)

Matthew 25:35 "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,"

Hodge Podge

I need to blog but I haven’t got any one particular subject to blog about! So here you go . . . .

Emma’s Perfect Timing - As I am cleaning up Lily, our puppy, Derek came over. He said “I want to ask you something, . . . just tell me the truth . . . Aren’t you just a little bit regretting getting another dog?”

Before I could even answer, my sidekick (Emma) says “Get ober it . . . .” (Get over it)
We both crack up and think how did she know?? She’s 2!!

Of course our laughing encouraged her to continue to say “Get ober it Daddy! Get ober it!”
(Derek was against getting Lily. Apparently Emma picked up on this! )

God’s Perfect Timing - One of my prayer requests for this week was grace and wisdom when dealing with discipline issues - w/my kids and those I teach. Well, the woman who prayed for me added patience. I almost elbowed her! (Sorry Heidi) I normally do not pray for patience or kindness. I’ve learned that when you do God WILL give you a time in the near future to practice!! But I am thankful for the prayer because I did need lots of patience Monday and I was prepared. God knew and that’s why He prompted her to pray for me!!

Now today, I am thinking about what I can organize. At lecture today, one of the principles was that God is a God of organization. He is not a God of Chaos. We’ve been studying the book of Numbers. All I can say is Wow! He took care of EVERY detail - who went where, who did what, how to communicate - even a cloud to follow - for 2-4 million people!!!

Michelle pointed out that you see it today when you look at the sunrise and sunset each day. You see it with the seasons and in the details of the seasons. You see it in the different species - ants, birds. God is organized and if we are to be like Him, we need to be organized too! We were challenged to apply this to our own lives. What one thing could we organize this week? A messy room. A meal together. Our schedule and making sure we spend time with God on a regular basis? How we plan and prepare to serve God?

Oh and God even told Aaron how to bless the Israelites. He thinks of everything!

“The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
The LORD turn His face toward you
and give you peace.”

NUMBERS 6:24-26

Happy Sledding, Happy Birthday and Where's my socks?

Finally, little Emma got to go sledding, well more like tubing. Cousin Darin brought a couple tubes loaded up with this new "non-choleric silicon base kitchen lubricant that's 500x’s more slippery than cooking oil". I wished I would have video taped this. (Yes, I'm old, I know there is no tape!) Anyways, Emma was giggling SO LOUD and yelled "THAT WAS FUN!!" as soon as she stopped. Thank you Jesse for helping her back up the hill!!



We also got to celebrate Grandma Stickel's birthday on Sunday! (It's very hard to get a picture where everyone is looking. Surprisingly, Jesse is actually listening and looking at me!)


And now the socks . . . Jesse came into our room this morning to let me know he had NO socks. He "turned them in" but has not gotten any back! I assured him that HE DID have socks in his drawer. But to avoid a morning clash Derek took him in and got him a pair of his to wear. Derek told me I could dump his socks out for him to look through - so I DID! He was specifically looking for the socks with a gold toe which you see in the top right hand corner. I think the top middle bunch may truly be too small but as you can see - HE DID have socks in his drawer!! Please tell me this is normal! Have they confirmed that a "temporary sock blindness" can occur in children? Because this isn't the first time.

Cheerleader or Obnoxious Fan

As I left the house Monday, I kept going over the morning’s events. Monday’s are hard - especially the Monday after Suberbowl. Every year we go to Grandma & Grandpa Stickel’s for Superbowl - a tradition they’ve hosted every year since the very first one. (Except for the one year we had to go to Aunt Carolynn & Uncle Jerry’s because it was on a channel that didn’t come in at their house.)

We (the kids and I) don’t really watch the game. It’s more of a family gathering - lots of food, cousins to play with, etc. Derek watches so we’re there till the end. That’s okay, it’s really the only pro-football game he insists on watching.

It's always nice when there’s a delay on Monday but not this week! I knew it would be a rough start! As I drove to my bible study class, I regretted the yelling I did and thought . . . . . . I started out as a cheer leader - repeating phrases to encourage the player (child) to get ready but then I turned into an obnoxious fan or at least that’s what I felt like.

When watching the different sports Jesse’s been involved in I am a big advocate of parents and fans keeping their mouths shut - unless it’s encouraging. My standard comment is “They’re all volunteers!” After running the soccer league for so long, I know how hard it is to get those volunteer coaches and refs. Obnoxious fans are a big hindrance in that task. Yes, maybe they missed something, made a wrong call, coach differently but at least they are trying and willing to help out. So before I get off this soapbox I challenge each of you - parent or fan - to only shout out encouraging words and remember that most sports, at least in our community are run by volunteers! (This does not include school sports but you still shouldn't be obnoxious!)

Back to my original thought . . . I do not want to be an obnoxious fan, shouting out not so nice things at my children. Immediately I went back to being a cheerleader. I’m sure like most little girls, I wanted to be a cheerleader and after realizing that would not be possible due to lack of coordination and other things I became an anti-cheerleader! So could this be? At age 35 I’m now a cheerleader??? Could I be totally upbeat and continue encouraging my children with happy, repetitive phrases each morning or whenever applicable?

Let’s take a minute and look at my choices so far. The definition of obnoxious is: offensive, repulsive. Some Synonyms are: annoying, awful, beastly, big mouth, detestable, disagreeable, dislikable, displeasing, foul, hateable, nauseating, pain in the neck, sickening, stinking, unpleasant. (These are just some.)

The definition of cheer is: happiness. Some synonyms are: gladness, glee, joy, buoyancy, comfort, delight, encouragement. (Again, these are just some.)

I definitely want to steer clear of being obnoxious!! But can I only be positive? Cheering only happy thoughts? Lets be realistic!! What if I take off the cheer? Then I have leader (one who guides) which is similar to the coach (one who instructs). Yes, that’s it! This I can do. I know I can and I even know how. It’s funny how God leads you on a trail of thoughts that ultimately lead you right back to Him and what He’s already taught you in His word.

He has taught me that He will help me parent my children. He has taught me what to teach my children. He has taught me where to teach my children. He reminds me that my children watch me and that I need to set an example and not be a stumbling block. He has taught me that I will make mistakes but He still loves me and will continue to show me His ways. Wow, I could go on and on and on. I am thankful that I not only have a perfect example to follow but I forever have His Help!

Proverbs 2
The Benefits of Wisdom

1 My child, listen to what I say,
and treasure my commands.
2 Tune your ears to wisdom,
and concentrate on understanding.
3 Cry out for insight,
and ask for understanding.
4 Search for them as you would for silver;
seek them like hidden treasures.
5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
and you will gain knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord grants wisdom!
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.
He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
8 He guards the paths of the just
and protects those who are faithful to him.
9 Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair,
and you will find the right way to go.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
and knowledge will fill you with joy.
11 Wise choices will watch over you.
Understanding will keep you safe.