Rebuilding....

In 2005 our home was rebuilt after a fire that destroyed most of what we owned. It was devastating. The hardest part was NOT the rebuild but the demolition. We had to watch our home be destroyed so that it could be rebuilt.

In the same fashion, God is rebuilding our family right now. Our physical bodies. For years we have created a sinful lifestyle of overeating, gluttony, pride, shame/guilt, lack of exercise and self-discipline. November of this past year brought us to a breaking point. JT and I both began sensing that God was telling us to stop. So, we did and we prayed for wisdom and discernment in how to tackle this monumental task.

Behold, God sent a friend who just happen to tell us about an eating plan, the 17 day diet by Dr. Moreno, that seemed to fit our lives. When my friend Debra mentioned it, she commented, "I can do anything for 17 days." It struck a chord with me, and I bought the book. We slowly began reading it and adjusting our lives. We even stuck with it over the Christmas holidays.

Then we began an exercise program to learn how to run distances. That has been VERY hard. Our age and our lack of exercise has led us to a point where everything we do is a chore. We are reaping the consequences of our sin.

But, God has shown us so much about ourselves. Just today my friend Amanda M. mentioned that we are rebuilding our temples...that thought rang in my head. Yes! That's exactly what we are doing. We are allowing God to demolish all of the sin, the consequences, the shame/guilt and to rebuild what He desires in its place.

It is painful. It is shameful. But, it is glorious and it is good. For every bite of food I put in my mouth...for every step I take in exercise...may it be to His glory and His fame.

I dare not write any of this for public viewing as this will hold me even more accountable. But I NEED it people...please ask me what I'm eating, how I'm exercising...I NEED the Biblical community in this battle. The enemy keeps telling me to stop and that there is no need. But, God reminds me that He is greater and He has a greater plan.

Please join me in honoring God with our rebuilt temples.

It's been a year...

A year ago today we became a family of 7...it was clearly God's plan. He had orchestrated this crazy family before time began, and we just got to watch Him work it all out for His glory. I am still struggling to remember what life was like before Zeke and Elly became ours. It is a faint memory.

God has shown Himself to us as Provider, Healer, Savior, Shelter, Strong Tower, Faithful, and True so many times over the past year. We have seen Him take 2 little children who were left to their own devices and overlooked and neglected and turned them into snuggling, squealing, playing children in a forever family. We are amazed at God's goodness and His ways.

Zeke and Elly are truly amazing. They have taught us so much about ourselves and our relationship with the Heavenly Father. We have relied on Him relentlessly and pursued Him with every ounce of energy we have. He has sustained us.

Now, don't get me wrong. Our lives are far from glamorous. Just the other day I was scheduled to speak to a group of women and I had daydreams of what I would do beforehand....sit in a big leather chair reading my Bible, praying and sipping hot tea. Instead I had one child who got sick at 2 in the morning and had to sleep with me (JT went to the couch because a queen size bed couldn't hold that child and us...). The child was still sick the next morning and needed some added attention. I tried to read my Bible as 3 other littles climbed into my lap wanting to snuggle. Then, I called out spelling words to another child. It was not exactly the morning I had hoped for...but it is not about MY hopes and dreams. It is about the Lord's will and submitting to that. I am finding joy in following His plan and not mine.

Happy Gotcha Day Ezekiel Duke Turner and Ellyson Faith Turner. You are stuck with us and we are thankful.

What is Good?

What is good? Is there anything in me that is good? NO, ABOLUTELY NOT! The only good you see in me is Jesus Christ alone! Everything else you see in my life - impatience, anger, bitterness, hasty words, unkind words, resentment, etc. - they are the real me. I am tempted and give in to the temptation of the enemy every day. I am unworthy.

But, I know ONE who is worthy of all the praise and honor and glory forever! He lives within me, and any good you see in me is from HIM alone. Anytime God allows me to truly care for another person or to give Him honor or to serve someone else, it is HIM in me.

My flesh desires what is worldly, but His love is stronger than my flesh. He reminds me daily (minute by minute) that He is Sovereign and in charge. He is worthy of all that I have, all that I am, and all that I do.

Today I am reminded of the fact that He is faithful inspite of who I am. No matter what I have chosen, done or not done, He alone has directed my steps. When I have been faithless, He has shown Himself faithful EVERY time. Praise His name for His faithfulness!

How has God showed Himself faithful to you today?

Gotcha Day #4

Almost six years ago God confirmed His calling on our lives to adopt. We had looked and looked for days at a 8 x 10 picture that Jim and Donna Houston gave us. That photograph was of a precious little boy in Guatemala. We had NO intentions of adopting..it was NEVER on our radar. Our family was set. God's family was not. He set the lonely in our family just as He says He will do. And, we felt it...strongly. It would NOT go away. So, we followed God's calling and set out on a ride that would change our lives.

Fast forward 23 months to December of 2007 when we walked into Eagle's Nest orphanage in the mountains of Guatemala. Sitting on the floor was the same little boy with the biggest brown eyes. One of the nannies was tying his shoe, and my heart burst at the seams. Everything I had done (copies of birth certificates, phone calls, doctor's visits, recommendations, meetings, raising money, etc) and every second we had to wait (almost 2 years) came flooding back. God spoke to me clearly and said, "I have pursued you the same way you have pursued this child." My heart was full. I KNEW the Father's love for me, and I rested in in.

I do not post the following pic because it flatters me in ANY way...it does just the opposite. It shows the overwhelming love that God showed me that day. I was so overwhelmed with His love for me and the thought that He wanted me to love like that....Oh the joy and the responsibility!

That first year was hard, difficult and lonely. But, that was a previous blog....

Fast forward 4 years to the amazing Josiah Jett Turner who keeps us on our toes ALL the time. He is a precious gift from God. I do not remember the time before he was ours. He's our first son, and we adore him. Just this year he gave his life to Christ and is working through the discipleship material now to be baptized. About 6 weeks ago, he meandered up some stairs at Brook Hills and waited shyly outside of the office of Pastor Jim Houston. (Jim and Donna are the ones who first found Jett in Guatemala and were with us with we were united with our son.) In a way that only Jett can, he scooted into the office and gave Jim a big hug. Then, he said, "I have to ask you something." Jim said, "Of course, go ahead." And, with a huge smile on his face, Jett asked, "Since you found me in Guatemala, will you baptize me here?" It wasn't too hard to see the tears in Jim's eyes but they were a little blurry considering the tears in mine. Full circle had come...God was praised and honored...it is well with my soul.

School is out....

With 5 children we often get asked questions about how we handle various life circumstances. One of those is school. Five is not so different than three now that we prioritize what it is that God wants us to teach our children.

It is not a neat, clean-cut schedule that works every day. In fact, no two days during a week look alike. And, God is teaching me patience and flexibility. I'm not so good at either of those...technically, I stink at both of them. I like order. I like a plan. I like a schedule. Label makers, new pencils, math games and school/office supply stores simply make me giddy. I admit it..I am a school geek. And, I like it.

But, not all of my kids are wired that way. I have five VERY different children when it comes to learning. One is an independent worker and needs little guidance. Another loves to discuss everything and shoots for grades of A+ on everything. A different child struggles with just following directions and sitting still for longer than 3 seconds but has a passion and trap mind for science (not my forte, by the way). Still another loves to hear words of affirmation when he gets something right and does a little happy dance each time he hears, "I am so proud of you." And finally there is one who does not like to be wrong but takes great pride in pointing out letters to anyone and everyone who will listen (including during the sermon at church).

So, in taking all of that into consideration, we made a plan for school for this year. And, within one week, we were adjusting that. So, we all made another plan....adjustment again. Another plan...another adjustment. By adjustment, I do mean that we crumpled up the schedule and threw it in the garbage and went back to the drawing board. I would have burned it, but since our house burned down 6 years ago, no one here is fond of the smell of smoke. So, we are now operating on our 4th schedule for the year, and it has been working fine for the past 16 weeks.

JT and I get up fairly early but not before one of our children who is the earliest riser in the house (she wants to get her shower/quiet time, etc in before the littles get up). We exercise, peruse emails and have our quiet times before we ever hear anyone stirring. After breakfast and Bible time with Dad, school starts around 8:00 (please KNOW that we aim for 8:00 but lately, we haven't been hitting that mark either).

At 8:00 my oldest daughter reads to the 2 youngest children which has been a HUGE blessing to me. It gives me time to work with Jett on reading and phonics as well as explain his tasks for the day. We are still working on getting his independent work done INDEPENDENTLY.... In addition, my second daughter takes the littles for about 20 minutes to work on counting and math. I teach the littles their letters (one a week) and follow up with games and books especially ones that deal with colors, shapes, numbers or letters. We thought that our goal for this year was to teach them all of their ABC's, sounds of the alphabet, how to write letters, counting to 20, cutting with scissors, coloring, shapes, and basic colors. That will be a GREAT year for 2 people who spoke a different language one year ago.

For me, sitting down with my children to actively engage them in games is NOT easy. It does not come naturally to me. But, God has shown me so much through investing my time and energy into playing. They LOVE it, and now, I'm starting to look forward to it as well.

So, here's the schedule:

8:00

Zeke could hear affirmation all day long...it makes him smile (and me too).

Elly LOVES to get stickers when she does a great job. However, asking for stickers is not allowed.

Jett loves science and the more "hands-on" something is, the better.

Inevitably, someone has binoculars at some point during the day looking at deer in the backyard.

Where did the time go?

Kaitlyn, our resident photographer, takes a rare photo of herself. Hard to believe she's about to be 15!

Sweet Madison does a great job reading to her siblings. They adore her.

Sweet Elly loves to pick out her own clothes and show them off to everyone.

Zeke is still fighting for survival, but we are seeing regular glimpses of trust these days!


There are many decisions that we make daily that impact our family. For me one of those decisions is to blog or not. While I enjoy blogging, it is just not a priority with all of these people running around here. Even now I am surrounded by one child trying to convince me that she needs medicine ('cuz I'm still sick), one who is singing Jingle Bells while dancing, one who is peeling eggs for breakfast, another who is working through a math test, and the last one who is puny on the couch with a cold. They are my priority.

That is our/my life these days....making decisions that are best for all of us. We made so many mistakes when we brought Jett home even though we stayed home a lot. We still traveled too soon, had people over too soon, exposed him to too many new things right away, etc. We learned our lesson the hard way. And we have chosen, by God's grace and mercy, to walk the journey differently this time.

We have pretty much been homebodies with the exception of weekly excursions to church. While we have traveled for trips, we have severely limited that travel because of our children. We will fight for them to adjust and adjust well. We will sacrifice and give up and do whatever we need to do to make this a safe environment for them. We want them to trust us and to know that we have their best interests in mind.

Isn't that the same thing that God does for us? He advocates for our best..what is best for you and for me. Sometimes we don't like it or enjoy it or even understand it. But, we rest in knowing that He is Sovereign and He knows what is BEST...ALL the time! So I trust Him in this stage of life with the lonely, the isolation, the worry, the fears, the joys, the leaps of faith...all of it. And if I don't blog on a regular basis, no worries. My priorities are elsewhere.

Just a week ago I was asked to be part of a panel of homeschool moms to discuss time management. When thinking about how I use my time, one of the points I got the most questions about was "once a month cooking" (hereby known as OAMC because I just don't want to type it out over and over). JT and I started OAMC over 15 years ago when we were both working and just didn't have time to cook dinner every night. It was a constant discussion, "Where do you want to eat?" or "Should I just pick up something and bring it home?" We were tired of eating out and didn't need to spend the money anyway. Oh, if I could go back and have that money we so carelessly wasted!

I heard about OAMC on a morning talk show and immediately found the book they were referencing in a local Christian bookstore. We tried it and it worked for our family. This is KEY. It may not work for your family and/or you might have to tailor it to your family’s preferences and needs. Do what works best for your family’s schedule, dietary needs and what helps you the most!
We still manage to do OAMC about twice a year. Unlike the name suggests, it generally makes enough meals for 2 months for us. Sometimes, I can even go 3-4 months depending on how often I use the meals. We do NOT use them every night. We use them when we need them the most. When we have more time to cook, we do. When we don’t have much time, we pull out a OAMC meal.
Several people asked for my fabulous wisdom ingenious plan tips on how we do this, so here goes:
1. Cook with several other people or alone – this is the choice you must make first. If you choose to work with others, make sure you actually like one another and want to be around one another for extended periods of time first. This is truly critical as you will want this to be pleasant. We tend to cook with 2-3 other families that have somewhat similar family sizes.
2. Make a menu. Choose 8-12 items that freeze well. There are a ton of OAMC websites dedicated to recipes that you can use. Use recipes that you already have (spaghetti sauce, a chicken casserole, chili) and add some new ones that your family might enjoy.
3. Decide on freezer containers that you want to use. We personally prefer disposable aluminum pans that have a top that can be written on. We use two sizes of pans and label them on the top and side with contents.
4. Empty out your freezer. This is important as you’ll want to start with as much space as possible. On our cooking day last time, we actually rented another refrigerator/freezer because we had so much food (it was CHEAP)!!!
5. Be sure to designate an administrator for your group who will collect all the recipes and develop a shopping list. That person will send out a shopping list to each participant. Each person/family shops for their list only.
6. The day before “cooking day” is generally the day when each family pre-cooks whatever meat is necessary (e.g. cooking 20 lbs of ground beef for spaghetti or grilling 100 chicken breasts for sweet and sour chicken and chicken tetrazzini).
7. One person will need to print out labels for all of the dishes. This is simply a label with the title of the dish as well as the instructions on how to cook it. This step is an easy copy and paste job! Be sure to make 2 labels for each finished dish.
8. Recipes should be laminated so that they will not be easily torn or splattered during the process.
9. Each family brings the necessary baking dishes, utensils, etc for cooking day. I’ve heard of some families renting a local church for cooking day. We use my house as my kitchen is open and has plenty of room.
10. The kids are generally gone for the day. I’ve cooked with all of my children here, and I’ve cooked without them. Trust me….let Dad handle the little ones for the day, and you will finish faster! For us our older girls (12 and 14) stay and help with all of the cooking.
11. Since we host the cooking day, we prep our kitchen the day before. EVERYTHING is taken off the counters (phone, cookbooks, utensils, and even the coffee pot). We start with a blank surface.
12. We cover our table, buffet and small side table with large white table cloths). Then, we set out 4 garbage cans (these can just be large boxes lined with a garbage bag).
13. Stations are set up around our kitchen. The first is the sink area. We make sure that there are plenty of dishwashing supplies as there will be a ton of dishwashing to do (people rotate so this doesn’t get so overwhelming). Make sure there is plenty of dishwashing soap, a sponge, a scraper of some sort, a place to put wet dishes and towels for drying (lots of towels).
14. Our French doors that lead to our back deck serve as our menu station. We hang up all of the menus on the doors so that people can easily access them when they are ready. We place them all on one door in the beginning. As each dish is finished, it gets moved to the other door.
15. An ingredient station is made out of two benches we have sitting underneath a high counter. We place all of the dry goods here so that they are readily accessible.
16. Utensils and necessary kitchen items (measuring cups, baking sheets, cutting boards, mixing bowls) are placed on a buffet at the head of our dining area. This keeps everything organized so that we can find what we need when we need it!
17. Pots and pans are placed near the stove for another station!
18. Containers are located in chairs at the end of the table and include the 2 different sized aluminum dishes as well as larger freezer Ziploc bags.
19. The final station is the “office” area. We keep paper towels, Clorox wipes, labels, markers, pens, saran wrap, aluminum foil, tape and garbage bags here.
20. All cold items are either in the refrigerator or in coolers that families bring with them.
21. All families gather around 8 or 9 on cooking day (eat a good breakfast as you’ll be on your feet all day). We use a pre-printed “order of meals” format that is hanging around the kitchen in several places (to keep us on task).
22. We divide into teams of 2-3 and begin working on each meal. Some of the meals are assembly only (tater tot casserole, chicken teriyaki, flank steak in marinade) so they are fairly easy. Others require some cooking (sweet and sour chicken, meatballs) so those are the first priority.
23. As meals are completed, they are labeled and taken to the freezer/refrigerator. We note how many of each meal we have so that they can be easily divided at the end of the day.

There is a lot of work that goes into OAMC when you are first starting it. However, as time goes on, you can use menus you already have laminated, leftover labels, etc. and the process gets easier.

For our family, we are able to incorporate 4-5 of these meals into each week. We simply pull the meal out of the freezer in the morning and don’t have to think about dinner until 5:00. It’s a time-saver for us! An added bonus is that there are times when I need to take a meal to someone very last minute, and I can easily look into the freezer and grab several items! What a joy to be able to share with others in times of need.

So, give it a try and see if helps you…if not, toss it…if it does, try it again.