Our Future Rockette!

We spent the morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Anne was mesmerized by all the Broadway stuff in the beginning and absolutely LOVED the Rockettes! She had to get up and show us her stuff. Just thought I would share........What a cutie!!!!!

Thanksgiving

Our family has always joined extended family for our Thanksgiving dinner. This is nice, except that Russ and I have not been able to implement any of our own traditions with the kids. This year, I decided to be intentional about doing that. So, I got up this morning and cooked our own Thanksgiving dinner today. Mostly just my favorites that we will not have tomorrow with Russell's family. They have a traditional Southern meal, whereas I grew up on "Northern" stuff.

Anyway, the kids helped by working on a center piece for the table. That was Russell's idea. Jarod knew immediately what he wanted to do. He took the last of my paper towels so he could have the holder in the center and he made a tree. He and Anne then talked about things they were thankful for and he wrote those things on leaves and attached them to the tree and also laid them all around the table. It is after all, Fall. I was quite impressed with his immediate creativity and excitement, especially because of the project I had for us during dinner.

When I was growing up, my mom had taken Indian Corn and pulled all the kernels off of it. She kept them in the freezer in a plastic bag and brought them out each Thanksgiving. When we sat down to eat, there would be a bowl of colorful corn at the table, along with a handful of them by each plate. After the prayer and while we were eating, we would go around the table and put a piece of corn back in the bowl and tell about what we were thankful for. We would continue until the meal was over. If you ran out of corn, you just grabbed more from the bowl.

We have been having devotionals and special Bible Study times every night during dinner and I didn't want Thanksgiving to go by and us not have a special time to thank God for our year since we would be sharing it away from home. The kids loved it! How wonderful it was to hear my children be thankful for everything from Salvation and the gift of Jesus Christ to Mickey Mouse and the Princesses. But also, they named their friends, their teachers, their family and the way the Lord has provided for us this year. They talked about Oregon and Anne thanked God for her horse. They had so very much to be thankful for that they didn't want it to end.

How easy it is to get caught up in the holidays. We get so caught up in all the work, the gatherings, the busyness and then we forget the real reason for it all. I always want to be intentional in enhancing God's reputation. It may take extra work, but in the long run - it's most important. All the other will just fade away. It's temporal. Enhancing God's reputation is eternal. And besides, we have so much to be thankful for!

On a side note....Russell's time in Midian may be over soon. (See older post) There is a church looking at him seriously for a Full-time Associate Pastor Position - emphasis on Students and Education. We have visited once and are to return for a long weekend full of interviews and such on the weekend of Dec. 5th. The church is in Orlando. I know, I know - you are chuckling! How awesome would that be for me! But, honestly, I haven't focussed on that so much as the fact that this is a major life change for us. We have lived here for 7 years. This is home. Our family is here and we have roots. Orlando is not far so that is a plus, but there are many things to consider. Please just pray that God will give us wisdom, discernment and crystal clear direction! We will keep you posted, as always!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Franklin's!

Russell Started It!

This is the kind of spontaneous craziness that my husband starts at our house! I left the room for a few moments to take a phone call only to find everyone laughing because Russ decided to put this clothes pen on his lip and sing Deck the Halls!!!!

It then began a series on crazy clothes pen photos!!!!


Life in our house is never dull........

Out of the Mouths of Babes......

Russell prayed for a little girl who would look like me and act like him. The acting like him part is scary and all who know my husband and his crazy spontaneity understand that. As far as looking like me - well, if you could see my baby pictures you would see that God answered that prayer. As far as the other, Anne continues to prove herself more and more fun and care free like her daddy. We never know what will come out of her mouth next. A friend of mine finally nailed it today when she said, "She is a 30 year old trapped in a 3 year old body!" That is more true than I can explain. Like her name sake, Anne of Green Gables, Anne just says it like it is. I thought I would share of couple of instances with you. And these have only happened in the past two days......

Monday night, Anne woke up not feeling well. She was having some pain so I took her to the Dr. yesterday to see if she had a possible bladder infection. I always try and explain to my kids what is going to happen so they aren't left wondering. So, while we were getting ready to go to the Dr., I told her how they were going to listen to her heart, look in her ears, take her temperature, and put that thing on her arm that will squeeze it. She stopped me in the middle of my sentence and was horrified. She said, "I don't want them to put that thing on my arm and squeeze it, my arm is small enough already!" Hee! Hee!

Once in the Dr.'s office, after asking several questions, he decides that he wants to look at her just to make sure. He is a wonderful Christian man and he asked me to help him. So, I went over to Anne, who was laying on the table and told her that I was going to take her pants off so that the Dr. could look at her bottom. She didn't miss a beat and said to me quietly, under her breath, "Oh, this is so not going to be good!" Of course, I explained that all would be okay, but it was very hard to do so without chuckling! How often I have thought that very thing myself when I have had to go to the Dr.!

Last but not least, today at BSF she got into a confrontation with a little boy in her class. The little boy took her toy from her and when the teacher turned around they were toe to toe with their fists up. The teacher took both of their wrists and said, "Oh, I don't think so!" To which Anne quickly commented, "Oh, I think so!" Of course the teachers got a big kick out of it! All I can do is trust that the Lord is going to use this feisty personality of hers in a might way later in life. Until then, HELP!!!!

I will tell you that the Dr. did not find anything wrong - so that is a relief. He thinks it might have just been a bladder spasm. We will continue to watch and see if it happens again. And, of course, the teacher went on to lovingly correct her on how God doesn't like it when we treat our friends that way. Thank you Lord for surrounding her with loving people that know and love you as well!

My Mouth Will Speak in Praise of the Lord

"The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. The Lord is near to all who call on him; he hears their cry and saves them. The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever." Psalm 145:17-21

The past few weeks at BSF we have been studying about how God continually rescued the Israelites in spite of all of their groaning and complaining. Ouch! How I can relate to those Israelites. So often we think that grumbling is okay and we disguise it with catch words like "venting." But in reality, we are complaining about God. Every situation in our lives, from someone cutting us off in traffic to the death of a loved one, is allowed by him for a purpose and to complain about it is sin. We are saying that God's plan for our lives isn't good enough. That we know better than Him. We are feeling inconvenienced because things didn't go the way we thought they should. He never promised us that things would be easy - only that he would be with us when they got hard.

This week has been hard for me. The death of my G-ma triggered other events in my life that I'm not quite ready to share yet. I have found myself complaining. Part of that has been a mourning of ideas and expectations that I had about a situation, which is natural and healthy. But, there has been another part of me that has been complaining and even pouty about how "it's not supposed to be like this." Who am I to say that? Obviously, because God has allowed it, it is supposed to be like this. Nothing surprises Him! I have to learn that God has allowed it for a reason. I don't know what that is just yet, I don't know exactly what the outcome will be, but I do know that God is with me and is proving to be faithful in my pain. And proving to love and provide for me in spite of my complaining. Just like the Israelites.

This entire situation has been brought on by another persons sin. I am suffering the consequences of that. It does not seem to be fair but that is not the point. The point is, what am I going to do with the situation now that it has affected my life? How can I deal with this in such a way that it enhances the reputation of Christ?

The other thing that we have been studying is how Jethro came to visit Moses in the desert. (Jethro was Moses' father-in-law who came after hearing all that God had done.) Moses sat down with him and told him everything! Like the plaques, the Passover, freeing the Israelites from slavery, the parting of the Red Sea, turning bitter water sweet, providing water from a rock when there was none, leading 2 million plus people by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night, the quail and the manna, and I could go on and on. Jethro listened and was amazed. When they were all finished, Jethro said, "Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods." (Exodus 18:11)

When we begin to complain, we quickly forget all the wonderful and amazing things God has done in our lives! We focus so much on what we think is negative, that we can't see God. I can honestly say that the things in my life that I thought were so negative, truly turned out to be the most positive blessings ever. One thing that I need to always be reminded of is that when things get difficult, we need to look back and focus on all the positive things God has done for us in the past and rely on the fact that He will do that again! He will take the negative and make it a blessing. ("For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28) He will grow us and strengthen us through the difficult times. And then, we are to share those things with others, like Moses did with Jethro, so that they will see that the Lord is greater than anything else out there that they are putting their trust in. That's enhancing God's reputation!

I look forward to one day being able to share with you all that God is going to do in my current situation. I can't know that yet, and to share at this time would just be complaining. But pray that God will heal the situation in His way and in His time and that I can truly let go and let Him do it. (I'm such a fixer!) Ultimately, I want to grow in this and bring God the greatest amount of glory possible. That is, after all, why I am still here. God will heal it - His reputation is at stake and He cannot fail. He has a plan and it will come to be. In the meantime, I'm going to deal with it by focusing on all the positive and I'm going to be thankful........

G-ma

My Aunt called me today to let me know that my Grandma passed away last night. They found her sitting on her couch this morning. They think she had a heart attack last night. Thankfully, I had just spoken to her last week after they had to put her 16 year old Toy Poodle, Daisy, to sleep. G-ma had sent me an email just a few days ago. She had finally gotten her computer up and running again and was able to read both this and my Oregon blog. She was excited to see pictures of the kids.

Grandma was 82 and lived in Tremont, Illinois. She had 8 children and my mom was one of them. Seems my mind is flooded tonight with memories. My parents moved to Illinois from Guam when I was 8 months old. They tell me I loved G-ma immediately. Went right to her as if I'd known her the whole time. I loved going to G-ma's house. The only time I ever asked for my mom was when I had a 104 temperature. Everyone wants their mom then.

My uncle died in a construction accident when I was 3. I was at her house after the funeral. G-ma cried and cried. I remember climbing up on her bed and saying, "Be happy, G-ma. Be happy." G-ma never forgot that. She reminisced about it not too long ago during one of our phone conversations. She sent me a plaque with that saying on it when I was little. It hung in my bedroom for years. I'm sure it's around here somewhere.

I got angry with my mom once when I was about 4 and I packed my little play suitcase, put my coat on over my pj's and went to the front door. When my mom asked where I was going, I firmly announced that I was "going to G-ma's to stay 2 weeks."

We moved to California and had flown to see G-ma for a visit. The night before we were supposed to fly back home, I came down with the chicken pox. Dad had to fly home without us, but I was excited because I got to stay another week!

I remember G-ma coming to stay with us for a few months when we lived in Hawaii. Mom was having surgery and G-ma came to help out. We were cleaning the upstairs bathroom and came across an ugly Cane Spider. They are furry and as big as your hands but absolutely harmless. Except to give you a fright. G-ma and I both screamed and ran like little girls. What a sight!

She was there when I graduated from high school. She came to Florida and we all went down to spend an entire month at my Uncle's condo in Naples. G-ma and I would go to the pool and lay in the sun together and just talk.

I remember going through old black and white photos at her house after Grandpa died and telling stories. I remember laughing until we cried. We did that a lot. G-ma was so funny! We always had so much fun together.

I remember a big chunk of our family going to Disney at Christmas time. There were 18 of us. We stayed together the entire day and would take up entire rides. I think we all fit in a Small World boat, and a huge section of Thunder Mountain Railroad. But I can not ride Space Mountain to this day without thinking of her. She was 70 years old and got on Space Mountain for the first time. She rode the car in front of us with Marc and my cousin. Russ and I were in the car right after them. When we rounded the corner to where you get off the ride, G-ma was on the floor. My heart sank as I just knew she was having a heart attack. Come to find out, she was laughing so hard that she fell on the floor when she got out! She was perfectly fine!!! We all laughed until we cried.

She was at my wedding. She worked so hard making homemade mints for the reception. They didn't work out because of the humidity here in Florida so she went out and bought a bunch of Fannie Mae's instead.

She met Jarod about 5 years ago. That was the last time we were up there. It was shortly after my mom died and we were traveling to Colorado for a Campus Crusade Retreat.

All families have their "stuff" and ours is no exception. But no matter what has happened, I've always known that G-ma loved me. Even though we lived far away, she is a vibrant person who played a big role in my childhood. I am so very thankful to have had her in my life. She will be greatly missed.