Completing Him Challenge-Week 3

I'm participating in the Completing Him Challenge from Courtney's Women Living Well blog.

This week the challenge is to pray more for our husbands…to pray for them daily.

She suggests using Stormie Omartian’s "Power of a Praying Wife" to use as a guide.

I must admit that I have this book & I’ve read parts of it in the past and then quit reading and actually praying for Eric like I should. I guess sometimes I get frustrated that the prayers don’t work quickly enough, but in reality the problem is usually me. So this week I’ve committed to seeing this book through to the end and then reading it again and again. It is divided into 30 little chapters—different areas to pray for our husbands. Here are a few of them:

1. His Wife -what a good place to start

2. His Work

3. His Finances

4. His Affections

5. His Temptations

6. His Mind

7. His Fears

8. His Purpose

9. His Choices

10. His Health

11. His Protection

12. His Integrity

13. His Reputation

14. His Priorities

15. His Relationships

16. His Fatherhood

17. His Attitude

18. His Emotions

19. His Walk

20. His Faith

Since we July starts tomorrow, I thought it would be perfect to read a chapter a day during the month of July and pray for those specific areas of his life each day.

Courtney also suggested that we ask our husbands each morning how we can pray for them that day. I started this a few days ago, and I think it will help us communicate better and help him to know that I care about what he’s doing at work each day.

Finally, she suggested that we say a short prayer for our husbands every time we see our wedding ring. I love that idea. I’ve been trying to be more conscious of that as well.

So you’ll have to keep me accountable and check up on me throughout the month of July to see if I’m keeping up with my commitments!

Becoming more like HIM!
Kim

Our Wedding Day

I'm participating in the Completing Him Challenge from Courtney's Women Living Well blog. I seem to be a week behind on each challenge (VBS last week...does that explain it?), but at least I'm trying to work on it, right? She asked us to tell our Wedding Story this week, so here it is.

The Date: Saturday, May 27, 1995 (just 2 days after we finished teaching school for the year)

The Place: Rose Hill Baptist Church, Texarkana, Texas

The Time: 3:30 pm

We had a wonderful day and everything went great! I loved having all of my relatives from Illinois and Eric's family from Florida with us and a bunch of my life-long friends from high school & college.

I remember my friend, Ashli, coming and offering to get us all some lunch since we were hungry & stuck at the church getting ready. She's so sweet!

One of my favorite things was all of the music we had in our wedding. I LOVED having the handbells play one of my favorite songs, Pachelbel's Canon. It was special to us because we were both in the handbell choir. I also loved having some of our friends singing "Seekers of Your Heart."

I love this picture of us lighting the unity candle & holding hands. I don't know why the picture is so tiny though. :(

Here we are sharing our vows. I was so nervous...I still do NOT like being in front of people...makes me VERY nervous! My goal for the day was to make it through without crying.

Our wedding party...

Bridesmaids: Rosemary (friend from college & taught together...helped get us together), Deena (OBU college roommate), Pam (friend from high school), Allison (friend from Memphis while I was in graduate school), Jeni (my cousin from Illinois), and junior bridesmaid was Sondra, flower girls were my niece, Mauri, and a friend's daughter, Christiana

Groomsmen: Eric's friends from college, Gart & Rick, my brother, Kevin, my brother-in-law, David, and our friend, James Henry (Rosemary's husband that helped set us up), and ring bearer, Ethan

Here are my relatives from my mom's side of the family...most of them from Illinois

OK, this is a little page out of my scrapbook that I just had to show...Eric getting the garter off of my leg...SOOOO embarrassing once again. And then little sweet Mauri telling me goodbye...I can't believe she's 18 now! How times flies!

We had a lovely reception at the church & then got ready to leave. Eric's friends decided to "pay him back" for his little pranks at their weddings. They created a yarn web across the steps of the church leading out to the car, so we had to cut our way out!

Remember, my goal was to NOT cry! Well, I made it UNTIL Eric dragged me down the stairs & I FELL! Right there in front of EVERYONE as they were throwing the bird seed & he was cutting the yarn! I was SOOOOO embarrassed & all of those pinned-up emotions just fell out when I hit the steps! All I wanted to do was GET IN THE CAR & GET OUT OF THERE! You could have heard a pin drop when I fell! Right after, I was asking if anyone got it on tape because I just knew we could win $10,000 on AFV! But of course no one got it on video. :(

And do you see Deena walking behind us with MY purse on HER shoulder? In all of the confusion from the fall, she still had my purse when we drove off (and this was BEFORE cell phones). We realized it when we stopped at a car wash on the other side of town. So we turned around & went back to the church. In the mean time, she took off down the interstate looking for us. Then, we had to go back to my house & finally caught back up with her. It was ok because we got to tell everyone good bye again. Those are always the funny stories to remember anyway. :)

So there are a few memories from our wedding day...what a special day to always remember! What a blessing God gave me with my very best friend! I just love him so much!

A Tale of Two Teachers

I'm participating in the Completing Him Challenge from Courtney's Women Living Well blog. She asked us to tell our Dating Story this week, so here it is.

There once was a girl who dreamed of meeting her “million dollar man.” She thought she might meet him in high school but that did not happen. She thought she might meet him in college but that didn’t happen either. She thought she might meet him in graduate school but that didn’t happen either.

But she didn’t give up dreaming and praying because God promised her in Ephesians 3:20 that “He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us!” (She actually made a “million dollar man” wish list for her future husband during a Bible study in college.) So she prayed and waited and prayed and waited.

While she waited for God’s perfect timing, she became a high school math teacher at Liberty-Eylau High School in Texarkana. She didn’t realize that God was working in a young man’s life at the University of Arkansas. It wouldn’t be long before the two would meet.

The day finally came in August of 1994. As Kim was sitting in the library with her friends for the first day of teacher in-service, she noticed a really cute guy walk into the room. She soon found out that he was the new assistant band director, Eric.

Kim’s friend, Rosemary, and her principal, Mr. Rader, also noticed the young man and began scheming a plan. First, Mr. Rader called Kim & Rosemary into his office and discussed how they needed a male sponsor for the upcoming Student Council lock-in. And he knew just the right person! So Mr. Rader picked up the phone (and put it on speaker) and dialed the band hall. He asked Eric if he could possibly help out with this Student Council event a

nd told him how this would be a good way for him to get to know the students and some of the teachers. (Little did Mr. Eric know that Kim & Rosemary were listening to the entire conversation.)


















Then, soon after, Mrs. Rosemary concocted another plan to get Eric & Kim together. She invited them over for a fajita dinner with her and her husband. And she just happened to pick Kim up so that Eric would have to take her home. That was at the end of August.

Mr. Eric soon visited church with Kim and then met her family and ate Sunday dinner with them. At dinner that day, he mentioned that “he could get used to this.” Although he was probably talking about Kim’s mom’s cooking, Kim’s heart fluttered. She began wondering if this could possibly be her “million dollar man.”

Although Eric was determined that he was only going to be a band director for a few years and then go to a big city to be a symphony tuba player, God had different plans for him. He didn’t realize that he would be captivated by this young girl’s red hair. J In just a few month’s time, the two of them knew that God had brought them to Liberty-Eylau to meet each other!



















On December 22, Eric asked Kim to marry him. The conversation went something like this.

Eric got down on one knee and said: “If you say yes, I promise to love you forever.”
Kim: “You didn’t ask me anything yet.” (I think he was a little nervous.)

So they spent the spring semester teaching, getting teased by students, and getting ready for a wedding only two days after school was out on May 27, 1995. They were so in love!

Cooking Creations

Have I told you lately how much I love to cook? I love trying new recipes, and I love making those “tried & true” recipes. The last few days, I’ve been enjoying baking some sweets.

First, I had to bake a cake for session #2 of my Wilton Cake Decorating class at Michael’s. Here’s the finished product. It was SOOO much fun to decorate!















Then, I got up WAY too early on Tuesday morning to pick blueberries with Glenda & Sharon, two of my early bird friends from church. Sharon was honking her horn at my house at 6:45 AM that morning! But we each picked this many blueberries! My bag weighed 13.2 lbs!
















And I turned some of those blueberries into a YUMMY (if I do say so myself) blueberry pie for my Daddy & my husband for their Father’s Day dessert tonight. (We had to celebrate early in Texarkana, so Eric could get back to lead worship in Malakoff tomorrow morning.) Thank you, Glenda, for the excellent recipe. This will definitely go in my “tried & true” section of my recipe collection.

Birthday Cake Fun

Life as Mom (http://lifeasmom.com/2010/06/birthday-cake-round-up-to-infinity-and-beyond.html) is hosting a "Birthday Cake Round Up," so I thought I'd link up and show a few birthday cakes that I've made for the boys this past year.

I LOVE creating my boys' birthday cakes, but until just last week, I had never had a cake decorating class! I just learned from my mom over the years. She took a Wilton class years ago at JC Penney and then started a little home business, making birthday cakes and wedding cakes. She did an awesome job! I guess I've decided to follow in her footsteps as I'm taking the Wilton classes at Michael's this summer. Last week was just an introduction, but tonight we decorate our first real cake! I'm so excited! Maybe I'll become as good as my mom and drum up a little business for myself. :)

Here's what I've done this year...

Ethan LOVES anything Little Einsteins, so for his 3rd birthday, I decided to create the Little Einsteins Rocket Ship. I had never used fondant before but found that it was pretty easy to use.

Evan is very into gaming systems & this year it's all about the Wii, so I tried to make a Wii cake for him. He was pretty excited about that!

And just a few weeks ago, I decided to make cupcakes for my niece's 18th birthday/graduation. We made blue one for the birthday & chocolate for graduation. We made way too many, but she and her friends enjoyed eating them!

Memory Verse #12

I am still working on memorizing "The Love Chapter" (1 Corinthians 13).

It seems difficult for me to get each attribute in the correct order for some reason. Although I find it easier to memorize the attribute than to actually live it out in my life constantly (especially that "patient" one and the one about "not being easily angered"). How many times do I let things like traffic or weather or slow internet get me "easily angered?"

So this week I'm adding verses 6-7 to my memory bank. For practice and consistency, I'm going to write all 7 verses here.

(verses 1-3)

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the falmes, but have not love, I gain nothing.

(verses 4-5)

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

(verses 6-7)

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

What verse are you committing to memory this month? I'd love to hear it!

A Hard Pill To Swallow

A few weeks ago, we were talking with our friends Kristi & Nathan, and for some reason Eric started talking about swallowing pills. Kristi is a speech pathologist and taught us something I’ve never heard before! She said that you are NOT supposed to throw your head back to swallow a pill. This action actually closes up your throat!

Wow! I never knew that! I always throw my head back thinking it will help. But when I started thinking about it, I never can get it to go down that way. Learning to swallow a pill was a very difficult task for me as a child & I don’t think I really learned until I was a young teenager. It was HARD and SCARY to me!

So, Kristi said that you are actually supposed to tilt your head forward & your throat will open up more & it will go down easily. This seems very counter-intuitive but it actually works. I’ve now been trying to quit my 30-year habit & trying to change as I swallow my vitamins every morning now.

It was funny that we had this long conversation about swallowing a pill, but then I started thinking about how God’s word is also a hard pill to swallow at times. It’s easy for me to read the stories of old like Noah & Joseph & David. I love reading about the life of Jesus and how He loves me so much. It’s also easy to read about some of the wicked people in the Bible like Jezebel & start thinking how proud I am that I am NOT like that!

But then there are some of those commands that are just plain “hard to swallow.”

Here are just a few:

Philippians 2:14-15
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe.

OK, sometimes I just want to complain about everything that is going on in my life, but God is telling me that is not good! Hard pill to swallow.

Ephesians 4:29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

So I shouldn’t yell at my boys to hurry up & get in the car when we’re running late for church? Another hard pill to swallow.

Philippians 2:3-4
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Romans 12:3
For by the grace given me I say to everyone of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

Sometimes I’d like things to go MY way instead of what everyone else wants. Sometimes I wish my family would take care of the cooking and laundry, but that’s putting my interests ahead of them. Yet another hard pill to swallow.

Psalm 141:3-4
Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds by men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies.

When I read this verse, I visualize a big lock on my mouth…I wish I actually had one sometimes! A hard pill to swallow.

Colossians 4:6
Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may not how to answer everyone.

Again, my conversation is not so “full of grace” when I’m yelling at my dog because he’s jumping up to the table to eat Ethan’s leftover food when I’m trying to clean the kitchen! A hard pill to swallow.

Colossians 3:13-14
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Sometimes it’s easier to hold a grudge than to actually forgive someone one. Another hard pill to swallow.

I bet you get the picture. As I am trying to mature in my faith, I need to learn to swallow these “horse” pills as well as the “gel” pills. It just takes a double-portion of the “fruit of the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22)

Ouachita Bound

My niece, Mauri, graduated from Queen City High School at the top of her class on her 18th birthday last Friday. We're so proud of her. We have enjoyed watching her grow up and turn into a wonderful Christian young lady. And I'm especially excited that she is planning to attend my alma mater in the fall--Ouachita Baptist University!

Here are a few pictures from graduation.

Well, the first picture if from her birthday party the night before...look at that cupcake tree! :) YUMMY!

Mauri with Grammy, PawPaw, & MawMaw.

Ethan wanted to sit by the bulldog...this was in the old gym before the ceremony.

Ethan was not happy that we made him come down from the bulldog.

Mauri with PROUD Dad & Mom.

With a closet full of clothes, what are the chances that my dad and my husband would dress exactly alike?

The official program...

Do you see her name??? Wow! And her best friends were in the top ten too...Caleb, Jessica, and Paige.

There she is...giving her fabulous speech. I should get her to copy that here.

Proud Daddy got to hug her right after she graduated.

She got this nice plaque for being valedictorian.

I haven't known a whole lot of valedictorians, but this year we seem to be surrounded by them...Mauri,

Sarah (my cousin's stepdaughter from Paris, Illinois),

Lindsey (our "cousin" from Redwater High School...she's the only Barnhart that I didn't get to teach but she & Mauri were in the same kindergarten class. I know Mrs. Kelly is sooo proud.),

and Ryan (from our Nash FBC family...Our youth minister's son...valedictorian from Arkansas High School in Texarkana, AR).

We're proud of each of you and pray that God will bless your next season of life as much as He has already!

Completing Him Challenge

I LOVE reading Courtney's Women Living Well. blog! Today she started a summer challenge on becoming the woman your man needs. Each week we'll have a challenge to work on to make our marriage stronger. I'm looking forward to it! Would you like to join too?

3-Year Old Talent

How did my 3-year old learn how to do this?

We think it's quite a talent!








Wait for it....














Wait for it....











Here it comes...











And we can't help but laugh our heads off when he starts doing it!




And here's the sweet & silly duo!

Just another way of entertaining ourselves during Sunday dinner...

Have a wonderful day & remember to laugh a little more today...just think of Ethan crossing his eyes...it will bring a smile to your face.

Our Anniversary Celebrations

Last Thursday, May 27, marked our 15 year anniversary! We actually got to celebrate in 3 different ways this year...

First, we had dinner with our boys & the Parker family on Thursday evening at The Shed in Edom. Eric & Kim also got married on May 27...just 6 years earlier...So they celebrated 21 years of marriage!


Then, on Saturday night, we actually had a date with just the two sets of Kims & Erics...our kids all stayed together & got along just fine. That was fun for us & for the kids! We ate at one of our most favorite restaurants...RED LOBSTER!

The two sets of "Eric & Kim" (It kinda reminds me of that song, the Two Sets of Joneses...)

Our 3rd celebration was going to Jefferson, TX, to stay at a Bed & Breakfast. We have said we should do this for years...it's only an hour from Texarkana & we never went there the entire time we lived there. We had a great time staying at the Delta Street Inn & going to the shops downtown. We especially likes the old General Store & the Blackburn Jelly Outlet store!

The Delta Street Inn was great! The breakfast was fabulous...one of Eric's favorites...Eggs Benedict.

What a blessing God has given me with my wonderful husband, Eric. I just love him so much!