Julie Brooks

Final Score

Flu 5 Brooks 0
Mason was the last to go down. He fought a good fight, but in the end the flu won!
After being out of commision for 6 days Brian has pulled through the worst sickness he has ever had. He is still holding onto the cough, but he says he can deal with that!
Garrett is slowly coming back.
Mason, Carson and I are still down
The picture below was taken from my iPhone. It displays the scene from my livingroom aka the medical room.

Flu vs Brooks Update

And then there was one! Mason is the last one standing.
Flu 4
Brooks 1
Please pray for fast recovery. We have never had fever this long nor have we ever been this sick.

Flu vs Brooks

Standings so far:
Flu 3 Brooks 2
As you can see the flu is winning this battle!
Down: Brian, Julie & Garrett
Which leaves Mason and Carson roaming around the house learning how to cook for themselves. (which means cookies, ice cream, chips and other fun things mom would not approve of for an entire day worth of meals)
Stay tuned for the final score!

Momma said there would be days like this........

Yesterday was a HARD day at The Brooks Academy! A day I'm sure all homeschooling mom's have at one time or another. The principal AKA Dad was called home! Pretty convenient since we live across the street from the church and if that's not enough we can also look out the window in our school room and see straight into the church office! Beautiful!!  After a few tears and a few luxuries taken away for a week today went AMAZING! I told Brian that today was our BEST and most productive school day ever! :) I think we all needed an attitude adjustment (myself included) and some serious prayer time!

Last night I pulled out my Mission Of Motherhood book because I needed the encouragement!! Sally Clarkson has put into words feelings and thoughts we as Mom's  have felt as well as things that we I need to hear.  If you haven't read this book......GET IT NOW! ;)  Each time I read Sally's book this statement hits me hard.

She writes:

"And the fundamental mission of motherhood now is the same as it always was: to nurture, protect, and instruct children, to create a home environment that enables them to learn and grow, to help them develop a heart for God and his purposes, and to send them out into the world prepared to live both fully and meaningfully.  It's up to us to embrace that mission as our own, trusting God to walk us through the details and to use our willing mothers hands as instruments of his blessing." Sally Clarkson from The Mission of Motherhood

After much prayer we started our school day today. I  changed our schedule up a bit for some variety. Today was WONDERFUL! For the most part our days usually go great, but lets face it everybody has "off days" even the teacher! (mom) I just hope those days are far and few.

Brian and I decided to take away ALL video games for the week.  It was such a wonderful decision. The boys played board games together, built with Lego's and colored after school time. :) Gee there is life outside of video games. I'm going to cherish the rest of the week with out games systems being played. The sight of all 3 boys playing together and exploring their creativity warms my heart! Tomorrow it all starts again and I come before the Lord saying I can't do it without you! Thank you Lord for the awesome responsibility you have given me to be a mother of 3!

 

Writing in Hieroglyphics for a History project.


 

 

Trying to keep little hands busy and quiet during Mason's spelling test.

This picture is from last Saturday. Upward Basketball has started!!

Book Club

If you are looking for a Woman's book club BLOOM is the place to be! The forum can be found HERE. You might recognize Angie from her blog Bring The Rain. The Bloom Book Club blog is such a warm fun place to share the love of reading with other sisters in Christ. The first book we read through was Crazy Love. (although it took me a bit longer. (shhh) WARNING: CRAZY LOVE WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE! :)

The next and current book we are reading through together is Same Kind Of Different As Me. My mother in law sent me this book several months ago, but I had not picked it up until Friday night!! I could NOT put it down. This book will have such and impact on your life and your testimony. I ENCOURAGE you all to pick up a copy and join us over at BLOOM to discuss it. Don't worry about being behind you will catch up fast.....trust me! 

The main thing that struck me out of the first 20 chapters was the example of Deborah........She had a heart to serve and to care for the poor! Numerous times in scripture we are told to care for and love the poor. If you have read my blog before you know I love COMPASSION and what better time than now to sponsor a child! Also, Haiti is crying out for help. My heart breaks as I see the images on t.v. It's unimaginable to me what they are going through. I felt so much guilt as I was grocery shopping last night.....what they would give for a simple slice of bread! A drink of water to some is like finding gold here in America. We really have NO IDEA.  Pray about how you can give. Pray about how you can serve those around you. Just a simple act of kindness goes a long way! You don't have to go out of the country to serve the poor we are all surrounded by those in need. One of the most eye opening experiences I have ever had was volunteering for a day at the Dallas Life Foundation. Talk about God breaking my heart for the poor and needy. Oh. Man. He. Did! 

How is God wanting to use me/you today?

Rainbow cake

I'm just a tad behind in posting these pictures. Brian's birthday was ahem....Dec 10th! Told ya I was behind. Ha! Better late than never.....right? I had to show you pictures of the fabulous cake my sister made for Brian. Robin had seen someone make this cake on a blog and was looking for the perfect excuse to try it out. Brian just happen to have the next birthday so he scored the YUMMY cake. Is this not the coolest looking cake you have ever seen???? What is so neat about this cake is watching everyone as you cut into it. Take this cake to your next get together or birthday party and WOW everyone.

Rainbow Cake

You'll need:

(for the cake)

2 boxes of white cake mix

food coloring (we used neon food coloring.....had to have that TCU purple)


for the frosting......

4 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese

1 cup butter

5-6 cups powdered sugar

1 T vanilla

Click HERE for directions for baking the cake.

Eklektos

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

Chosen. I am chosen. You are chosen. We are chosen! 

Eklektos is the greek word for chosen.

This past weekend was Disciple Now at our church and we spent the weekend studying what it mean to be a chosen people. 

We spent time looking at the lives of chosen people in the bible and how we can model our life after them. I really enjoyed the session on Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement). Everyone needs a Barnabas in their life.  Acts 9, you have the account of Saul's conversion.  Who is this Saul?  Many know him today as Paul, the author of many books in the New Testament.  However, the early days were not easy for Paul, but when you killed and persecuted Christians for a living it was going to take time to overcome those events of the past.  That's why we need Barnabas' in our live and we need to be Barnabas' to those around us.  Barnabas was willing to take a chance and risk when others were not.  Barnabas didn't allow fears or personal feelings to get into the way of what God wanted to accomplish through the life of Saul/Paul.  I look back into my spiritual journey and I see a lot of Barnabas' in my life.   Angie Brackeen Moss, who was a DNOW leader, when I was in the 8th grade.  She encouraged us to memorize scripture, talked about what it meant to be pure, encouraged our spiritual journey, and more importantly she just spent time with us girls.  The giving of time is so easy, but today we make it so difficult because we claim to be so busy with the activities we want to do.  Lord, I want to strive to be a Barnabas to someone in need.

CHURCH ... WE ARE A CHOSEN PEOPLE!  ITS ABOUT TIME WE START ACTING LIKE IT!

Help Haiti

I'm assuming you've heard about the earthquake that has devastated Haiti. (although last night when I posted, "praying for Haiti" as my facebook status one of our youth responded with "what happened")
It's just horrific the images that are be shown on t.v. The first thing that came to mind was Compassion International because we have heard and seen success stories from Compassion kids from Haiti. Not long after that thought "tweets" started coming through on Twitter from Compassion. Below is an email that I received from Compassion this morning.

This message was originally sent out to the generous network of Compassion Bloggers. To join that Compassion blogging network and be the first to act in future times of need, visit http://compassionbloggers.com/get-involved

PLEASE DO NOT SKIM. URGENT REQUEST.

ASSIGNMENT:

Use your on-line voice to generate prayers and donations to rebuild the lives of Haitian children and their families affected by recent earthquake.

SYNOPSIS:

The catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12 has resulted in unfathomable chaos and devastation for hundreds of thousands of children and families.

Compassion sponsors and donors serve more than 65,000 children in Haiti. At least a third of them live in the areas that were hardest hit.

I am asking you to please send a generous gift today to help precious children and their families, and to encourage others to give to Compassion International through your blog, Facebook and Myspace pages, Twitter account and e-mail. Please utilize every on-line tool you have access to. The people of Haiti desperately need our help and hope.

Compassion International is working rapidly to assess the situation and determine the full extent of damage:

• Sadly, we anticipate there will be many deaths.
• We anticipate thousands of children and families will have lost everything.
• We anticipate many of our church-based child development centers will have been destroyed.

Without a doubt, the children we serve in Haiti are in shock and face immediate needs for food, water, medical care, shelter and counseling. We have teams prepared to respond, and we are deeply committed to helping each child.

We need your help immediately. Please reach out in the name of Jesus to bring relief, comfort, love and restoration to precious children and families whose lives have been devastated by this crisis.

Below I have compiled information and tools to help you help Haiti on-line. If you need anything else from Compassion please get in touch with me at shaun@compassionbloggers.com or 1-888-435-3336.

Please do not distribute any information about this crisis, especially as it pertains to the safety of our children and staff, unless that information comes from me or an official Compassion International information channel such as Compassion’s blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts.

WHY GIVE TO COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL:

FINANCIAL INTEGRITY: The FBI is warning of several Haiti charity scams that have popped up in the wake of this earthquake. http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/01/13/haiti.charity.scams/

They are suggesting that donations only be made to organizations monitored and rated by CharityNavigator.org and The American Institute of Philanthropy. Both organizations have given Compassion International their highest approval ranking. Compassion International is the only non-profit in it’s category to receive eight consecutive years of four star rating from CharityNavigator.org.

Links regarding Compassion International’s financial integrity:

• http://www.compassion.com/about/financial/default.htm
• http://www.compassion.com/press/currentnews/charity-navigator-awards-compassion-highest-rating-8th-year-in-row.htm

FIRST RESPONDER: In this disaster it is crucial that first responders receive support quickly. Because Compassion International ministers through local churches to meet the needs of that church’s neighbors, and because these church partners are respected aid workers in their communities, Compassion is uniquely positioned to assess and meet the needs of it’s sponsored children quickly. This is an advantage of our church-based model in practice for more than 50 years.

IN JESUS’ NAME: Compassion International does not accept government funds which could at times restrict our ability to meet the physical and spiritual needs of children in Jesus’ name. Because of this Compassion International’s primary financial support comes from individual donors.

WHERE TO GIVE:

Please ONLY use one of the following URLs when linking to Compassion’s Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief donation page. This will allow us to track how much is given by you and your fellow bloggers and report that back to you at a later date.

https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/haitiearthquake.htm?referer=105120SocialSponsorshipBlitz
OR
http://bit.ly/HelpHaitiCI

HOW DONATIONS WILL BE USED:

All funds raised in response to the Haiti earthquake will be used immediately to provide for Compassion-assisted children and families affected by this crisis. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts.

You can provide immediate relief today.

• $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
• $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
• $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
• $210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
• $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
• $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
• $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
• $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.

Due to the high number of responses it may take longer than normal to process your transaction.

IMPORTANT SPECIAL REQUEST:

In order to help people find Compassion International more easily when searching for “Haiti earthquake”, please link the words “Haiti earthquake” to Compassion’s donation page somewhere in your post if at all possible. This will help Compassion’s donation page climb to the top of search results on Google quickly and generate thousands more donations.

Here’s that donation page link again:

https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/haitiearthquake.htm?referer=105120SocialSponsorshipBlitz
OR
http://bit.ly/HelpHaitiCI

Thank you for helping Compassion International help Haiti.

Shaun Groves
Blogger Manager
CompassionBloggers.com
Compassion.com
1-888-435-3336

Updates can be found at the following

• Updates from Twitter: http://twitter.com/compassion
• Compassion blog: http://blog.compassion.org
• Compassion on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/compassionintl
• Crisis Update Page: http://www.compassion.com/sponsordonor/crisisupdates/crisis-advisory-earthquake-hits-haiti.htm

Playing catch up!

Over the next few days I will be playing "catch up" here on my blog. Since I hardly blogged at all during November and December I want to go back a do a recap. I use my blog as somewhat of a scrapbook and it will drive me nuts if I have 2 months missing. It would have been much easier to blog back when these events happened, but we all know how that goes. One of my goals for 2010 is to SLOW down. Take time to enjoy the moment!

I will start with our beloved Horned Frogs. :) By now you know they did NOT win the bowl game. :( Major sadness in our house! I really wanted them to end with a PERFECT season, but nothing is ever really perfect is it?

In November, Brian and I went to the TCU vs New Mexico game. This was Brian's first game to attend since he played for the FROGS (last game Dec 28, 1994)! He was THRILLED to be back in Fort Worth and at Amon G. Carter Stadium. With Brian being on church staff and us NEVER living close enough to Fort Worth it hasn't allowed for us to go to games......games on Saturday and church on Sunday just don't work for ministers.......no time for travel! BUT we were home for Thanksgiving and Brian took the following Sunday off....Score! The highlight for Brian was the pre-game letterman's tail gate party. He was able to reconnect with old team mates....fun times! There were several times during the game I thought he was going to jump on the field and tackle someone. Ha! He says he has a few good hits left in him. :) He restrained himself and stayed seated! Lol!  We had such a fun time and REALLY hope we can go to more games next season. 

 

 

Brian and Royal they played side by side on the defensive line for 4 years!

 

  

 

This picture is for our friend Bryant! Check out that South Carolina score!! :)

Can you say Mountain West Champions??

Look who made it onto the field!

Those feet played many games on that field!

For all my Arkansas friends.....this is a HORNED FROG!

 

Let the blogging begin....

2009

I am back! I have so much to blog about, but not enough time! We are still in Texas and will be until Sat. It worked out that Brian's next class for school was this week. :) So that means a longer visit!! We have been here since Dec 23rd!! I am going to have to start mentally preparing to go home tomorrow. It's so hard to leave family. :( I told my sister today that I'm going to be in a bad state of mind next week.....being around family from wake to sleep has been awesome and for three weeks I have developed family habits and come Sat. I will be home alone from adults but will have 3 rowdy, energetic and loving boys probably going through family withdraw.  I love Crossett and we have a wonderful church, but after being with family for 3 weeks it will take me a few days to jump back into my routine.

 
Christmas was lots of fun this year with all the kids. My three boys plus my sisters each have a little girl so there was lots of action Christmas morning. We would have it no other way. Special memories were made and lots of picture were taken.

 

We also had our first white Christmas here in Texas!!! The boys were thrilled when it started snowing Christmas Eve. There is something so peaceful about a white blanket of snow. For me it was a reminder that God makes all things new and fresh each day! It was also a sign to me that a new year and a fresh clean start is ahead. I can hardly believe that 2010 is among us. I have so many things I want to accomplish this year. Maybe I will share more about that in the days to come. From the song of Chris Tomlin........ I believe that greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in my life and the life of my family. Brian and I shared together New Years Day some of the things we would like to accomplish in the coming year and with the Lord and a little discipline on our part we can make it happen. I love that my man 1st loves the Lord and wants to serve him faithfully and then he loves me and the boys! I'm thankful that I am on this journey of life and ministry with him.