2019 Update

Wow! 2019 is almost over?! That was fast!

Let's do a quick update to catch up!

January: Luke turned 21 and Lottie turned 5. 

February: Brad and I probably went on a Valentines date.

March: Moriah turned 11 and Brad turned the corner towards his 50th. (I'm still 29)

April: Moriah was dancing in competitions with her AIMPAC Minis Team!

May: Grace finished her freshman year at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

June: We moved to Weatherford, Texas and Brad became the Worship Pastor at Northside Baptist Church!

July: I (Sally) worked from home for Shaw Insurance Agency as Commercial Account Manager, while the girls swam at the neighborhood pool with new friends and went to Cousins Camp to hang out with all our family in Kansas.

August: Lottie started Kindergarten at Mary Martin Elementary very close to our new house, and Moriah started 6th grade at Tison Middle School, as well as a new dance studio (Elite - Aledo).

September: Luke swore into the US Air Force. He is currently still waiting for the job he wants to open up, but expects to go to Basic Training in January. 

October: Mom, Dad, Moriah, and Lottie went to DisneyWorld!  Grace turned 19 and started infusions again for Crohn's, all while keeping up her grades as a sophomore and working PT at Hibbetts Sports.

November: Sally started working the same job, but part time at Wallace Insurance Agency in Weatherford.We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home and are looking forward to all that this season holds. 

Hugs and love to all our friends and family!

Thankful Project Day 8

D8 Children's MC Dallas Day 9 of Round 4 or Day 30 of 2013

Thankful for this day that tells me even in the darkest times of life, the light is coming....just hang on!
Thankful for my sweet friend Vickie.
Thankful for Grace's smiles.
Thankful for a beautiful prayer during a visit from Grace's 5th grade teacher & her daughter who has had Crohns since 7th grade. She's now a jr in college and still dealing with it but a precious heart for our Lord and such an encourager to Gracie.
Thankful for hope.
Thankful for more movies to choose from and crafts to do!
Thankful for our nurse, Callie.
Thankful that she got Grace an egg crate cushion for her bed since she has been waking up with a backache.
Thankful for our new friend, who is a sophomore at Luke's school and kicker on the Varsity football team. He came to cheer up Grace today and bring her balloons. What a great guy!
Thankful for lean cuisines and Oreos!
Thankful for walks with Moriah.
Thankful Grace gained weight today!
Thankful that for maybe the first holiday ever in 15yrs my husband bought all of our kid's Easter gifts! Way to go honey!
Thankful that a few weeks ago on a whim I decided to go ahead and buy Moriah's Easter outfit. #Godknew
Thankful that today was a better day!
Thankful for tomorrow's hallelujah!
And Moriah would tell you she's thankful for the new big girl Bible Daddy bought her today!

First Sunday of 2013

I love my church.
I'm thankful to be feeling better after 10 days of Christmas vacation flu.
I'm ready for Grace to be over whatever has been "bugging" her poor tummy.
I'm thankful for a loving husband that serves me even when I don't deserve it.
I'm blessed to know God loves me and will never leave me or forsake me.
I'm sad that there are some friendships in this life that don't last through everything.
I'm awful at keeping in touch.
I love my daughter's giggles.
I am proud of my son.
I can't believe he will be 15 this month.
I am not old enough to have a 15yo.
I am changing the subject.
I love my Hebron. (Friends)
I can't wait to get back to bsf.
I want to love like Jesus loves.
I wish people knew how much God loves them.
I am ready for summer.
I need cute new luggage for my next SPARK trip!
I'm turning 40 this May.
I just now almost threw up in my mouth.
I am thankful to be closer than ever to eternity with my Savior.
2013 will be another adventure walking with God.
Happy New Year!

2012 Christmas Card Rejects

Merry Christmas and lots of Love from the Martin family...

Grandma Littlefield

I was blessed to be her first grandchild.
I have her thick hair and forthright personality....unafraid to speak her mind.
I honor her for raising my daddy so well. I will remember her smile, the way she said my name, and the visits at her house in small town Kansas. In heaven I imagine her hugging Jesus, then my Grandpa Frank she hasn't seen since 1980, her youngest son Rodney...just 16 when he died, my baby sister and my 2 little angels I'll meet someday too. All of my grandparents are in heaven now. Thank you God for the blessed assurance we have in You.

...then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim My God How Great Thou Art!!!

Gull Lake Family Camp

In the summer of 2011 we found a treasure that I've been meaning to share with you.  We see it as such an amazing investment in our family that it will become a honored summer tradition for us and love it so much that we don't want to keep it to ourselves!  How many vacations can you go on and come home saying?....our family bonded, growing closer to Christ and to each other.  We had a blast and were so blessed with refreshment from the LORD, that even though now the drive will be even longer since we've moved to Texas, it is SO worth it to us, especially when we think about how fast our kids are growing and how few summers we have left with them.  The oldest 2 would rather go HERE than DisneyWorld!  This is serious, people.  We also know that going to DWorld or any place of the sort, would have us all separated with the wide ages of our children.  This is fun for our WHOLE family!  Our kids had amazing counselors that valued them, taught them, and exemplified for them the love of Jesus.  Even Moriah had a fun camp experience and loved being a "MONKEY" for the week! 

There are videos and more info HERE at the GULL LAKE CAMP website.

Research it like I did.  From the moment we arrived after that long drive, our family is served and blessed like royalty.  All of the belongings in our van were put in our hotel room (or cottage, if you choose) for us.  The hotel is very nice, NOT a camp-type place you'd imagine at all!  The food is yummy and some nights the meal is a date night and the kids eat with their counselor groups. (ahhh...)  I wondered if my oldest would make friends easily, knowing no one there, and he did immediately, even with the counselors!  We had family nights where we all dressed up and there were themes they told us about before we got there, so we brought clothes and fun stuff on our trip!  The mornings are spent in God's Word, memorizing verses and worshipping as families, then separately listening to amazing teaching from the week's speaker.  The afternoons are as relaxing as you want them to be, but you can sign up to do tons of things on or around the lake.... ride the pontoon boat, sailboat, water-rocketing behind a speed boat, swim, waterslide, water trampoline, or just sit by the lake building a sandcastle or reading a book (my favorite).

Here are just a few pictures of our trip last year...

Hope you will pray about it and experience the FUN with us in beautiful Michigan!!!

FAM BAM - PENGUIN STYLE

We got the idea from family camp to have a family night (aka FAM BAM) that revolves around a theme and go ALL OUT!!!

We gave them clues a few days before so they could start guessing what the theme would be.

Clue#1     BLACK & WHITE
Clue#2     DANCING
Clue#3     FISH
Clue #4     ANTARCTICA

By clue #4 which was given this morning, they had it!  :)

Crafting....

 Eating shrimp & sushi....

Watching Happy Feet & Mr. Popper's Penguins....

Making a snowflake cake....

Halloween 1983

Miss Pacman.....oh yeah baby.  Atari was huge at the time and going to the mall to play video games!  I loved this costume!  My Uncle Ed made this for me out of a box.  And see those shorts I'm wearing....I sewed them myself!  Oh yes.  I sewed.

Not sure what my sister is supposed to be but I remember that she wore that tutu thing for a talent show and did a gymnastics routine while singing "I Am a Promise".  That's funny just thinking about it.  "I am a great big bundle of po-ten-ti-al-i-ty-y!" Annnnd....cartwheel into the splits!  Ta-da!

Cookie Monster is my cousin, who is now a Children's pastor at a large church in my hometown of Wichita, KS.  His son who is now about that age, looks eXACTly like him!

The baby tiger is my baby brother, about a year old.  Awwwww......

My mom makes that same expression even today and hasn't aged a bit....well a little.  :)

Newletter: Summer Edition

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July 4th....a little late.

This scrapbook created with Smilebox

Martin Cafe Dinner Table

We have a nasty old dinner table that has seen better days.  One leg has been super-glued at least 20 times, and still has a bad slant.  The chairs were painted.....back in the day (of which I blogged) and so the paint is now chipping off.  The top has an entire paragraph written sharpie that smeared off during a science project, plus several other "artworks" permanently etched by the younger members of the house.

But I wouldn't trade it for the finest dining furniture money can buy.

It has memories.  It has 6 chairs, which say "there's always room for one more".  It's a casual place for conversation, and a desktop for education.  It welcomes friends and family, young and old.  It's so Martin-ish, which takes quite a uniqueness to say, trust me.

When my kids were little and they wanted to eat out....which they did quite often and the hope was always for McDonalds....bleck!....I would tell them we WERE eating out at a fancy-schmancy little cafe I'd heard about called "Le Cafe Martin".  It didn't take long for them to catch on.  Even today, when Moriah wants to go to "Ladonalds", Luke will tell her we're going to the Martin Cafe....which I love.  I love that our family has it's own place to call our own where we sit together and eat and talk about the things we think about......random mostly, because we Martins excel at random, but sometimes the random leads to the eternal and that's a really good place to sit.

I like what Ronald Reagan said....

All great change in America begins at the dinner table. 

Supportive

When I was in high school, I was in Wranglerettes, the jr/sr drill team.  If you didn't grow up in Texas, then you aren't impressed at all.  You may not know what a BIG DEAL drill team is and how hard it is to make the team and how drill competitions are as big as football games.  Okay not really.  Nothing in Texas is as big as football.  But drill teams make those football games' halftime so much more colorful and FABulous!

At the Senior Mother/Daughter banquet, it is customary for each senior drill member to stand up and thank her mom for all that she's done during her high school years.  You can probably gather that there are many tears and mushy moments....and you'd be right.  It's a mush fest.  I wasn't a big fan of mush.  (Since I married Mr. Mush himself, I think I may have changed just a bit....but not much.)  So the night before the banquet, I sat in my room (I can still remember this.) and wrote this poem for my mom...

A common thing in Wranglerettes is to create cheese
But common more in daily life is for our mom's to please
This ritual of finding words for seniors and their moms
became a bit annoying cuz our moms are just our moms
Get ready next year, juniors, cuz already I can see
that all your moms are supportive and don't take much to please
And Mama Schaaf is leaving cuz now she's mama for real
and it's important that she's there for them because they need to feel
the love that our moms gave to us from Ema and Ty's age up to now
She'll be a wonderful mommy cuz on all of us she learned how
I chose the word supportive and then I thought of....brassierre
cuz she's kinda like my bra in ways (now don't think I'm too weird)
Seriously, just think about it, it really is no lie
She works all day and rests at night just like this bra of mine
Now she does compare in most ways but there is on major exception
my bra is large as you can see, but she is sheer perfection
Just like my big brassiere she lets me know she's here
dancing, singing, acting, breathing...she always will be there
Supporting me and hugging me for everything I do
and when she's happy she bounces, just like these two

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Day 10....in honor of Sam

So....we got a puppy, a bichon-poo. His name is Sam. He's a precious little addition to our family. He pulled at my heart from the moment I saw him. I couldn't stop thinking about his sweet little face, so I told my husband to just go see him. He did. And he brought him home. It was election day and Sam Brownback became the governor of Kansas. He is also named after our belovedpastor and friend, Sam Dennis. The name has always been a favorite, so it's perfect.

We took him to the vet and he's in great shape at 3 months old. He's potty training with Moriah and they are both doing GREAT! We switched his dogfood, so I'm taking the leftovers from an almost full bag to the Humane Society today. #30daygive

RESPECT

I found an article from Focus on the Family, that I thought I'd share because it gives great points about how teaching respect is really biblical teaching, and how to apply it to everyday situations.

Here are few points I pulled from it:

"Disrespect is the primary root of disobedience. Looking through Scripture, Adam and Eve sinned because they did not respect God's command. Cain killed Abel because he did not respect his brother's life. Lying, stealing, vandalism, strife and disobedience stem from an attitude of disrespect toward someone or something.

When your toddler pulls the dog's tail or your teenager rolls her eyes, it's — you guessed it — disrespect....

When my kids were younger, they often heard me say, "You don't have to agree with me or like me right now, but you will be respectful." They know I'll accept nothing less from them, and they know that I will show them respect. When a situation is about others, my response is, "Our family treats people (or animals or possessions) with respect."

By using "we" language, you let your child know your correction isn't just about him and one infraction. Living respectfully is about holding to a standard that is good for everyone. You don't have to memorize a long list of rules. You don't have to sort through every incident to figure out which rule was broken so that you can decide what to do about it. By making respect your one non-negotiable standard, you lighten the load.

Emphasizing respect and honoring people are biblical concepts. Believers are told to respect the law (Proverbs 13:13), honor parents (Deuteronomy 5:16) and live lives worthy of respect (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). With respect woven throughout Scripture, it's no wonder that it makes for a strong foundation for family and offers meaningful reward.

When I set a standard of respect in my home, the reward was relationship. My children became people I liked to have around. They trusted me as someone who respected and believed in them. Peace reigned and communication flowed between us."

The key to respect is just like in marriage....give and take. You can't expect to get respect if you don't give it yourself. May your home be full of peace and harmony, and may God be the master of your house.

My Grandpa

I recently visited my grandma in Plains, Kansas. I took pics around her house of my grandpa, because I didn't get to know him very well. He died 30 years ago, at the young age of 56. Grandpa Frank was in the military. He was a very good looking man. My dad looks a lot like him, and so does my little brother.

My parents met when they were in junior high in Plains Kansas when my mom's family moved to town as Pastors of the Friends Church. My dad was immediately asking her to "go with" him but she wasn't easily persuaded....until later in high school.

The coolest thing to me is that my Grandpa Frank was saved in the church where my other Grandpa Hutson was the pastor. So thankful for and blessed by that.

The marriage certificate behind the pic says they were married in 1944.

This was the last picture taken of him.

I can't wait to see him again in heaven.

Summer Springs

The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Isa. 58:11

This might be my verse of the summer. It's been a long summer to me.

Last spring after finding out I was pregnant, Brad & I came to the decision that we should start the big kids in a Christian school down the street this fall. After I lost the baby, all future plans changed. It's been a summer of asking God for wisdom, guidance and making decisions for our family's future. We've been blessed with a great home where we can vacation in our backyard. The pool has been like that spring of water I needed to be refreshed in when I felt my soul in drought. I've felt God's hand continually guiding us, even though at times I didn't know the end result. In the end, we've decided to continue homeschooling.

Luke will begin an online education through the Andover schools. He is looking forward to receiving his laptop which they provide and heard great things about this from his CYT friend, Stephen. (Linus in Charlie Brown) Luke had a choice of electives, and he chose "Discovering Music" which includes a keyboard he will receive soon. (Yay!!) He has also decided to continue studying science (8th grade level) through Abeka, since it's a Christian based curriculum. On his Iowa Basic Skills test, he tested out of high school in science so he not only excels at it but loves science too, and this makes me so proud.

Grace will continue in her Abeka books, doing half 4th grade and half 5th grade curriculum. She's excited that she still gets to audition for all of the CYT shows and go to classes on Thursday nights, where Mom teaches the voice classes by the way. She also begins taking PIANO lessons next Tuesday. The teacher said she has a great ear and is eager to learn! (Yay!!)

Moriah has her own desk (Thanks Carter!) and will enjoy being a big kid using her very own Abeka books, learning letters and numbers. Here she is showing you all her crayons. She is ready!!!

Just like always, we pray for the strength and grace to continue on this journey He has called us to, and because He is the living water and His water is from the Spring that never fails, we can be assured that our little garden will grow as long as we're being refreshed in the waters of Him.

Outdoor Lunch

We had an hour today where we were all home at once and so we spent our lunchtime outdoors in this beautiful weather! I made/Brad grilled THESE awesome Onion Burgers, using my Grandmother's Sunday Roast Seasoning Pantry Staple. Soooo good. Of course, I always add TexJoy Steak Seasoning in place of salt & pepper as well. Yumm! Great day together dreaming of the summer cookouts we'll have, swimming and hanging out with friends! Can't wait to open the pool, most likely at the end of this month!

Our Christmas Card to You

I think there will be Christmas in heaven.

Of course there will be Christmas in heaven! Hello? Jesus! THERE at HIS Birthday party!! Dick's got nothin' on this Rockin' Eve. It will be amazing. So looking forward to the true peace that will be there, the true love that will give us all that we need there and the true gift of seeing Jesus face to face.

I also think there will be snickerdoodles in heaven. Well there should be.

We aren't sending Christmas cards this year. I guess we're going green, but really we just ran out of time and money. So please consider this our card. We are blessed and hope you are too, simply by knowing that you are held in Jesus' nail-scarred hands.

Merry Christmas 2009

Legacy of Lois

But from everlasting to everlasting

the LORD's love is with those who fear him,

and his righteousness with their children's children.

Psalm 103

I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice [or Charlene] :)

and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

2 Tim. 1:5